Articles related to VACCINES/IMMUNIZATION

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.

The 2022 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule for people over the age of 19 has been released by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The 2022 schedule has also been approved by the CDC and the American College of Physicians (ACP).

At the outset of the pandemic, biotechnology company Novavax was one of the frontrunners to bring a vaccine against COVID-19 to market. But nearly two years later, Novavax’s vaccine has yet to appear. In a compelling article, the BMJ details the repeated delays and setbacks that have torpedoed Novavax’s once-promising vaccine candidate and rendered it unnecessary now that other vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca flood the global marketplace.

A study published in Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) argues that immunosuppressed patients and people with compromised immune systems need more than two vaccine doses to achieve adequate protection against COVID-19. After two vaccine doses, immunocompromised patients saw 77% vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization, versus 90% for immunocompetent individuals.

This study involved 566 men and women between the ages of 28 and 97 years, who were patients in a preventive cardiology practice. The PULS Cardiac Test measures multiple protein biomarkers, including hepatocyte growth factor, soluble Fas, and IL-16, and uses the results to calculate a five-year risk score for new ACS. All factors more than doubled their prior above the norm level. The 5-year ACS PULS risk score more than doubled as a result.

A new study published in Pediatrics concludes that there is a quick clinical recovery and excellent short-term outcomes for adolescents who develop COVID-19-related vaccination-associated myocarditis (C-VAM). The average age in the study was 15, and close follow-up and further studies are needed to understand the long-term implications and mechanism of these myocardial tissue changes.