Health minister Mark Butler says that although there are rising case numbers and a ‘soup of variants’, Atagi is not advising Australians to get a fifth covid vaccination dose. New booster recommendations will be made in early 2023 in preparation for the southern hemisphere winter, Butler says. The health minister said Atagi had watched a … Read more
Covid hospitalisations have increased by 11% in the past week, the federal health minister Mark Butler said, as he announced new vaccines have been approved to boost supply. However, a fifth vaccine dose has not been recommended by the Australian Technical Advisory Group of Immunisation [Atagi] for the general population at this time, Butler said. … Read more
A Sydney teacher sacked for not complying with New South Wales’s vaccination rules has been awarded ongoing workers’ compensation payments of $1,378 a week after she suffered “psychological injury” in the way the mandate was enforced. Her case has been described as a precedent by her lawyer, with dozens more former teachers already lining up … Read more
Health Canada has authorized Moderna’s bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine for those 18 years old and older after approving Pfizer’s in October. Moderna’s booster will also target the Omicron BA.4 and BA.4 subvariants of COVID-19. Health Canada deemed the “Spikevax” booster “safe and effective” after a “thorough and independent scientific review of the evidence.” “Clinical trial … Read more
Pfizer reported higher quarterly profits Tuesday as it lifted its full-year forecast for coronavirus vaccine sales and predicted Covid-19 would yield billions more in revenues for the foreseeable future. The big US drugmaker now expects 2022 sales of the Comirnaty Covid-19 vaccine of $34 billion, up $2 billion from the prior outlook. Pfizer maintained its … Read more
New research shows vaccinating pregnant women helped protect their newborns from the common but scary respiratory virus called RSV that fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall. The preliminary results buoy hope that after decades of failure and frustration, vaccines against RSV may finally be getting close. Pfizer announced Tuesday that a large international study … Read more
COVID-19 vaccines for children under five in Canada have been available for more than three months, but so far only a small fraction of eligible kids have received a pandemic shot, which is prompting doctors to sound the alarm as other viruses circulate and overwhelm children’s hospitals. Data compiled by the federal government from the … Read more
Vaccination and physical activity have both been considered helpful when it comes to lowering the risk of severe COVID-19 infections, and now, a new study has found that regular exercise could improve vaccine effectiveness. Compared to those who are vaccinated with low exercise levels, vaccinated individuals with moderate and high levels of physical activity had … Read more
The Chinese city of Shanghai started administering an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday in what appears to be a world first. The vaccine, a mist that is sucked in through the mouth, is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated people, according to an announcement on an official city social media … Read more
Hong Kong’s government broke the law when it invalidated thousands of certificates exempting people from coronavirus vaccinations, a court ruled Friday, in a rare rebuke of the city’s strict pandemic controls. Coronavirus jabs are not mandatory in Hong Kong, but the Chinese city uses a QR healthcode system that denies unvaccinated people access to many … Read more