Tag: CDC

US CDC recommends boosters targeting Omicron

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday recommended Covid-19 booster shots from Pfizer and Moderna targeting the Omicron variant, clearing the way for the administration of the shots. This new generation of anti-Covid vaccines targets both the original strain of coronavirus and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages, the subvariants of Omicron that are causing the most cases in the United States. The Pfizer-BioNTech shot is […]

Covid-19 vaccines showed high efficacy against severe Omicron: US data

Covid-19 vaccines and boosters continued to have very high efficacy against severe outcomes during the Omicron wave of the virus, a large real-world study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed Friday. The paper evaluated data from more than 300,000 visits to emergency departments, urgent care clinics, and hospitalizations across 10 states from August 26, 2021 to January 5, 2022. During the period when the Delta variant was dominant, vaccine efficacy […]

US announces first Omicron case in traveler returning from S.Africa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReozzQiGDn0 WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant had been detected in California, in a fully vaccinated traveler who had recently returned from South Africa and was recovering from mild symptoms. Top health official Anthony Fauci said authorities “knew it was just a matter of time” before the strain was found in the country, reminding Americans that vaccination, boosters and masking in […]

Covid vaccines hold up against severe Delta: US data

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Fully vaccinated people were 11 times less likely to die of Covid and 10 times less likely to be hospitalized compared to the unvaccinated since highly contagious Delta became the most common variant, US health authorities said Friday. The data came from one of three new papers published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all of which underscored Covid vaccines’ ongoing effectiveness against severe outcomes. For reasons […]

Even fully vaccinated persons can get high viral load of Delta variant, infect others – US CDC

CDC cites study of COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts that found Delta variant infections among fully vaccinated individuals (Eagle News) – Even fully vaccinated people can transmit the Delta variant as significant high viral loads of this COVID-19 virus strain were found in fully vaccinated individuals who got infected with this variant, as well as those unvaccinated against COVID-19. This was according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, July 30, which […]

Vaccinated people in high Covid risk areas need to mask again: US

People vaccinated against Covid-19 in high-risk parts of the United States should resume wearing masks indoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday. The shift comes as the Delta variant of the coronavirus is driving a sharp surge in cases, with hotspots in regions that have lagged behind in vaccinations. “In areas with substantial and high transmission, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public indoor settings,” said CDC director Rochelle […]

President Duterte asks Congress to pass law creating CDC, Virology and Vaccine Institute in PHL

(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, July 26, called on Congress to pass a law creating the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, and the Virology and Vaccine Institute in the Philippines. The President made the call during his sixth and final State of the Nation Address made against the backdrop of a pandemic brought about by the COVID-19 virus first discovered in Wuhan, China only in 2019. Earlier, the Department of Health […]

New CDC study in health workers shows 94% efficacy of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines

https://youtu.be/VI3Ye2gcvak (Eagle News) — A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study on a group of health care workers showed that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are effective in protecting health care personnel (HCP) against COVID-19 by as much as 94 percent. In a release from the US CDC, it said that the mRNA vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna “reduced the risk of getting sick with COVID-19 by […]

US starts contact tracing the old-fashioned way, but ‘it’s late’

by Ivan Couronne Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON DC, United States (AFP) — Taiwan and South Korea have led the world in digital contact tracing for the COVID-19 pandemic — an example the US with its emphasis on personal privacy and decentralized system of government is unlikely to be able to follow. Instead, states and cities are opting to hire thousands of public health workers who will have to carry out the laborious task of phoning everyone with […]

#RacisimIsAVirus: Confronting racism and stigma in a time of crisis

  Eagle News — New York City is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Where over 37 percent of New Yorkers were born in another country, and more than 800 different languages are spoken. But even in “the Big Apple,” racism is still prevalent today. Especially with the COIVD-19 pandemic. With the virus believed to have originated from Wuhan province in China, Asian-Americans are being targeted. According to the CDC, “fear and […]

“United we stand, divided we fall” – Jack Ma offers 500,000 test kits, 1 million masks to US amid virus crisis

  (Eagle News) – “United we stand, divided we fall.” Noted Chinese billionaire and business magnate Jack Ma said this in a statement on Friday, March 13, as he offered to give half a million testing kits and a million face masks to the United States. This was after the US — where confirmed coronavirus cases hit more than 1,200 and 33 deaths due to the virus — reported a severe shortage of testing kits […]

HIV drugs touted as weapon in war on coronavirus

  BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — As doctors scramble to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus, a potent brew of anti-retroviral and flu drugs has emerged as a possible defence against the mysterious sickness that has killed hundreds. But the science is inconclusive on whether they are actually effective and experts say successful treatment could take years. Here is what we know — and don’t know — about the drugs deployed against the SARS-like virus. – Why anti-retrovirals? […]