By Paul A. Offit, M.D. In November 2019, a bat coronavirus made its debut in humans in Wuhan, China. Two months later, the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, called the Wuhan-1 or ancestral strain, was isolated and sequenced. It was now possible to make a vaccine. All the...
A Covid-19 Milestone Attained — A Correlate of Protection for Vaccines
By Peter B. Gilbert, Ph.D., et al. The rapid identification of a correlate of protection (CoP) for Covid-19 vaccines — on the basis of several harmonized randomized phase 3 trials using common validated assays — constitutes an important success in vaccinology. A CoP...
Efficacy of Antiviral Agents against Omicron Subvariants BQ.1.1 and XBB
Letter to the Editor from Masaki Imai, D.V.M., Ph.D., et al. Three sublineages of the B.1.1.529 (omicron) variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have serially transitioned into globally dominant forms — first BA.1, then BA.2, and then...
It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over…but It’s Never Over — Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases
By Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. As I prepare to step down from my dual positions at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), where I have been a physician-scientist for 54 years and the director for 38 years, a bit of reflection is inevitable. As I...
A Bivalent Omicron-Containing Booster Vaccine against Covid-19
By Spyros Chalkias, M.D., et al. Abstract BACKGROUND The safety and immunogenicity of the bivalent omicron-containing mRNA-1273.214 booster vaccine are not known. METHODS In this ongoing, phase 2–3 study, we compared the 50-μg bivalent vaccine mRNA-1273.214 (25 μg...
Time to Stop Using Ineffective Covid-19 Drugs
By Salim S. Abdool Karim, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D., and Nikita Devnarain, Ph.D. In practicing evidence-based medicine, physicians use the best evidence currently available on safety and efficacy in making decisions on treatment choices for their patients. During the...
Randomized Trial of Metformin, Ivermectin, and Fluvoxamine for Covid-19
By Carolyn T. Bramante, M.D., M.P.H., et al. Abstract BACKGROUND Early treatment to prevent severe coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is an important component of the comprehensive response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic....
Efficacy and Safety of a Recombinant Plant-Based Adjuvanted Covid-19 Vaccine
By Karen J. Hager, M.Sc., et al. Abstract BACKGROUND Coronavirus-like particles (CoVLP) that are produced in plants and display the prefusion spike glycoprotein of the original strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are combined with an...
Covid-19 Boosters — Where from Here?
By Paul A. Offit, M.D. On December 10, 2020, Pfizer presented results from a 36,000-person, two-dose, prospective, placebo-controlled trial of its Covid-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, BNT162b2, to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).1 The vaccine was 95%...
Effect of Early Treatment with Ivermectin among Patients with Covid-19
By Gilmar Reis, M.D., Ph.D., et al. Abstract BACKGROUND The efficacy of ivermectin in preventing hospitalization or extended observation in an emergency setting among outpatients with acutely symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the disease caused by...
Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections
By Laith J Abu-Raddad Originally Published on November 24, 2021 ~ New England Journal Of Medicine To the Editor: Qatar had a first wave of infections with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from March through June 2020, after which...
Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections
This letter was published on November 24, 2021, at NEJM.org. TO THE EDITOR: Qatar had a first wave of infections with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from March through June 2020, after which approximately 40% of the population had...