Articles related to VACCINES/IMMUNIZATION

The US is in the midst of another surge in COVID-19 infections heading into the summer. A GWU physician feels CDC are misserving the country by downplaying the surge and hiding the real data behind an “all green” map.

Although vaccinations to the arm can still prevent serious illness, their ability to ward off infection completely has been diminished. And part of the reason may be the location of the vaccines, which some scientists now want to change by delivering inoculations to the site where the virus first makes contact: the nose. Three separate nasal sprays, now in advanced trials, could trigger stronger immune responses in people who have COVID-19.

In a single-center study of 240 patients with lymphoid malignancies — 181 with CLL, 21 with WM, and 38 with other non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) – patients with CLL were significantly more likely to have an antibody response to the Moderna vaccine compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. This superior response was demonstrated in both treatment naïve and treated CLL populations in the study.

Two large scale studies featured in The British Medical Journal concluded that mRNA-based vaccines do not appear to be associated with an increased risk of neurological adverse events; and secondly, that risks of Guillain-Barré syndrome and Bell’s palsy are slightly increased after immunization. Overall, the findings of both studies are reassuring about the safety of the vaccines, particularly compared with the observed risks associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Given the high burden of shoulder conditions, clinicians should pay attention to any factors that may further increase risks. This study found a low incidence of shoulder issues following vaccination in the deltoid muscle but does delineate population at higher risk for developing these issues.

This Annals of Internal Medicine study reports an 82% decreased risk for reinfection for those previously infected and then vaccinated, versus those previously infected but who remained unvaccinated. Reinfection in both groups was relatively rare.