AbbVie for years delayed competition for its blockbuster drug Humira, at the expense of patients and taxpayers. The monopoly is about to end. By Rebecca Robbins In 2016, a blockbuster drug called Humira was poised to become a lot less valuable. The key patent on the...
Federal panel approves plans to safeguard lab-made virus research
By Sarah Owermohle A panel of federal advisers voted unanimously Friday to advance a set of proposals to bolster government oversight of pathogen research that could make viruses more transmissible. The advisers, a collection of biosecurity, ethics and infectious...
Timeline: The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2
By Emily Kopp Originally published November 29, 2022, Updated January 17, 2023 Introduction “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2” is one of the most influential scientific articles in history. In February 2020 — about a month before a pandemic had been...
F.D.A. Outlines a Plan for Annual Covid Boosters
In advance of a scientific meeting on Thursday, officials proposed offering new shots to Americans each fall, a strategy long employed against the flu. By Apoorva Mandavilli Americans may be offered a single dose of a Covid vaccine each fall, much as they are given...
Evolution of a Theory
Unredacted NIH emails show efforts to rule out lab origin of Covid By Jimmy Tobias AS COVID-19 WAS spreading fear and spurring lockdowns across the United States in early 2020, the scientific journal Nature Medicine published a paper on March 17 titled “The Proximal...
Bob Wachter, MD tweeted:
Covid (@UCSF) Chronicles, Day 1038 Some folks continue asking what I'm doing viz Covid behavior... Answer: I'm changing my behavior. In the Bay Area, I'm now OK with indoor dining & removing my mask for small group gatherings. I haven't changed, the risk has....
How your first brush with COVID warps your immunity
The immune system responds more strongly to the strain of a virus that it first met, weakening response to other strains. Can this ‘imprinting’ be overcome? By Rachel Brazil During the summer of 2022, with the Omicron coronavirus variant running rampant, friends and...
DeSantis proposes permanent COVID mandate ban in Florida
BY JULIA MUELLER Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday proposed a permanent ban on mandates related to COVID-19 in the state, from mask requirements in schools to the use of vaccine passports. DeSantis’s proposal, dubbed “Prescribe Freedom,” asks...
Republicans introduce ‘Pandemic Is Over’ act after Biden’s ‘unacceptable’ extension of COVID emergency
Biden said in September that COVID pandemic was 'over' By Peter Kasperowicz More than a dozen House Republicans introduced legislation declaring that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. The Pandemic Is Over Act, from Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., simply states that...
NEW EMAILS: Biden White House Behind Facebook Censorship of The BMJ’s Pfizer Investigation
Months before The BMJ released investigation, Facebook emailed the White House they would take action against “true content” on vaccines. By Paul D. Thacker Late 2021, I wrote a bombshell BMJ investigation that found data integrity problems in Pfizer’s...
Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations
by Hannah E. Davis, et al. Abstract Long COVID is an often debilitating illness that occurs in at least 10% of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. More than 200 symptoms have been identified with impacts on multiple organ systems....
Oral Antiviral Matches Paxlovid in High-Risk COVID
— Remdesivir analogue demonstrates non-inferiority, good safety in Chinese randomized trial by Ingrid Hein, published in MedPage Today on January 3, 2023 An oral remdesivir analogue (VV116) was just as good as nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) for the...
Bivalent Covid-19 Vaccines — A Cautionary Tale
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...
For most mild infections, long Covid symptoms clear after a year, large study finds
By Elizabeth Cooney Since long Covid emerged, how best to define it, predict it, and treat it has been up for debate, but perhaps the most urgent question for patients and providers alike has been how long it lasts. A new study analyzing nearly 2 million patient...
Dementia Risk Higher After Hospital Stay With Infection
by Dan McCue Being hospitalized with an infection raised the risk of patients’ subsequent dementia diagnosis, according to a new report. For the purpose of the study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, researchers followed the stories of nearly 16,000...