December 18th, 20200WASHINGTON D.C. — As the coronavirus pandemic roared to new record highs across the U.S., it lit a fire in the U.S. Congress, where Republicans and Democrats were scrambling to pass a new round of aid after months of partisan finger-pointing and inaction.
Even as they contemplated passing a third stopgap measure to give them a few...
December 17th, 20200Another COVID-19 vaccine appears ready in the pipeline, as an outside panel of advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) overwhelmingly endorsed Moderna’s vaccine on Thursday.
The committee of outside experts makes recommendations to the FDA, which it did for Pfizer’s vaccine just last week. The FDA generally goes...
December 14th, 20200MICHIGAN — Frontline health care workers at two Michigan hospitals today were the first people to receive the new COVID-19 vaccines. Marc McClelland, pulmonary and critical care physician, 46, of Ada, was among the first people to receive the vaccine in the state, at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital.
“To me this is a day of...
December 14th, 20200NEW YORK - On Monday, New York’s Sandra Lindsay, an intensive care unit nurse, who has treated some of the sickest COVID-19 cases for months, became the first person in the U.S. to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
“It didn’t feel any different from taking any other vaccine,” Lindsay said. “I feel hopeful today,...
December 13th, 20200MICHIGAN — A few days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized emergency use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, trucks carrying the vaccine left the company’s plant in Portage, Michigan on Sunday.
An estimated 2.9 million vaccines are expected to be delivered this week, with priority given to health care workers...
December 9th, 20200LONDON — Britain’s medicine regulator has advised that people with a history of significant allergies do not get the Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine after two people reported severe adverse reactions on the first day of rollout.
Starting with the elderly and frontline workers, Britain began mass vaccinating its population on...
December 2nd, 20200(REUTERS) — Britain approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin the most crucial mass inoculation program in history with a shot tested in wide-scale clinical trials.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson touted the green light from the U.K.’s medicine authority as a...
November 25th, 20200DETROIT – As two promising mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna move closer to approval, healthcare providers around the country are being challenged to receive, store and distribute these vaccines, both of which require storage at unusually low temperatures.
As the only hospital in Michigan chosen as a Phase 3 trial site...
November 25th, 20201LONDON — A peer-reviewed scientific study published on Wednesday says known mutations of the SARS-CoV-2, or coronavirus, do not increase virus transmissibility.
Researchers also say the mutations do not pose a threat to vaccine efficacy. Viruses mutate, or change, constantly and some, like the flu, mutate more than others. The...
November 24th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. officials said on Tuesday they plan to release 6.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses nationwide in an initial distribution after the first one is cleared by regulators for emergency use.
Officials from the government’s Operation Warp Speed program told reporters that states and other jurisdictions had been...
November 22nd, 20200The first Americans could receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as 24 hours after the FDA grants approval, which would kick off the largest inoculation campaign in U.S. history starting in mid-December.
“Within 24 hours from the approval, the vaccine will be moving and located in the areas where each state will have told us where they...
November 16th, 20200Moderna Inc’s experimental vaccine is 94.5 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial, the company said on Monday, becoming the second U.S. drugmaker to report results that far exceed expectations.
Together with Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, which is also more than 90 percent effective, and...
May 5th, 20200LANSING — The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has teamed up with the German biotech company BioTech in beginning a historic trial to test the BNT162 vaccine program to prevent COVID-19. The trial is part of a global development program and the dosing of the first testing group, or cohort, was completed last week in Germany. The first...
