Articles related to VACCINES/IMMUNIZATION

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.

The data, concluded in a report posted to the preprint server medRxiv, support prioritization of cancer patients for an early (21-day) second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine, as barely one-quarter of patients with cancer obtained protection (28% immune efficacy rate, including 13% in patients with blood cancers) against COVID-19 after one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

In this podcast/article from KevinMD, the story of Dr. Hasan Gokal is examined, a Houston physician who was fired from his public health job and was subsequently faced with criminal charges for stealing a vial of the vaccine. His case was also brought to the Texas Medical Board. In a sea of regulations and protocols, were his actions well-intentioned and in the best interest of patient care and safety?

Without a centralized scheduling system and 50 states to consider, scheduling a COVID-19 vaccine appointment online isn’t so simple. Thankfully, others with scheduling savvy and a little patience have put together some advice. We invite you to share these tips with your patients struggling to get an appointment and how to handle the technology, processes, and preparation.

Anaphylaxis to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines is currently estimated to occur in 2.5 to 11.1 cases per million doses, largely in individuals with a history of allergy. In this JAMA “Research Letter”, the authors investigated acute allergic reaction incidence with more than 60,000 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine administrations at Mass General Brigham (MGB).

As of February 8, 2021, more than 31 million people in the U.S. had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with 36 cases of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System by the end of January. Is the onset of the condition related to the vaccines? The vaccines are considered safe overall, but what did the CDC and FDA have to say about it?