Articles related to VACCINES/IMMUNIZATION

The data was presented to the FDA, which reported 789 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis – predominantly in males – after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, most commonly after the second dose. Symptoms included chest pain, elevated cardiac enzymes, ST or T wave changes, dyspnea, and abnormal echocardiography/imaging for those ages 30 years and younger.

Since April 2021, there have been reports of myocarditis and/or pericarditis after receipt of an m-RNA COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) . Most cases have been among male adolescents and young adults ages 16 and older, typically occurring within several days after the second dose of m-RNA COVID-19 vaccine.

As millions of Americans get vaccinated, you may be being presented with many questions about what’s next and whether your patients – and you! – are going to need vaccine passports to begin traveling again. Educate yourself and your patients with these five pieces of knowledge on digital health and vaccine passport apps. Whether the interest is international or domestic travel, the information applies.

The research, taken from the CLARITY study and published in GUT, found that 865 people given the Pfizer/BioNTech or the Oxford/AZ COVID-19 vaccine and treated with infliximab (Remicade) had significantly lower concentrations of antibodies when compared to 428 people on an alternative treatment, vedolizumab (Entyvio). Infliximab is prescribed to around two million people worldwide.

This Research Article from Blood – available as a PDF – discusses two main points. First, antibody response to BNT162b2 mRNA COVID19 vaccine in CLL patients is markedly impaired and affected by disease activity and treatment. The second point shows that, in patients treated with either Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) or venetoclax ± anti-CD20 antibody, responses are relatively low.

This article from the American College of Physicians (ACP) provides a deeper dive into the pause of the J&J vaccine, which was recommended by the FDA and CDC on April 13, 2021, after six cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) among patients who had received the vaccine was reported. The pause is being done to determine whether the vaccine is associated with any other types of thrombosis and to develop more specific recommendations for its use, possibly based on age.