Medicine

The Hill reports: Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, told OZY’s Carlos Watson that the work done on COVID-19 vaccines could help develop a vaccine for HIV. “I think the success that we’ve had with developing spectacularly successful COVID-19 vaccines might help us with the breakthrough of developing an HIV vaccine,” Fauci told Watson in response to a …

The Associated Press reports: COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have tumbled to an average of around 600 per day — the lowest level in 10 months — with the number of lives lost dropping to single digits in well over half the states and hitting zero on some days. Confirmed infections have fallen to about 38,000 per day on average, …

CNBC reports: The Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s request to allow their Covid-19 vaccine to be given to kids ages 12 to 15 on an emergency use basis, allowing states to get middle school students vaccinated before the fall. The U.S. agency granting use of the shot in adolescents will also accelerate the nation’s efforts to drive …

Reuters reports: The United States has fully vaccinated 110,874,920 people for COVID-19 as of Friday morning, accounting for 33.4% of the population, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. The country has administered 254,779,333 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and distributed 327,124,625 doses. The agency said 150,416,559 people had received at least one dose …

CNBC reports: Pfizer and partner BioNTech said they have started the process of seeking full approval for their Covid vaccine for use in people 16 and older in the U.S., making the companies the first in the nation to file for full regulatory approval. The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization of their Covid vaccine in late December. Since …

The New York Times reports: Nearly one million Americans have signed up for Affordable Care Act coverage during the first 10 weeks of a special open enrollment period the Biden administration began in February. A total of 940,000 people enrolled in Obamacare coverage between Feb. 15 and April 30, new data released Thursday by Health and Human Services shows. Of …

CNBC reports: The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it supports waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, as countries struggle to manufacture the life-saving doses. “This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the …

The Associated Press reports: Teams of experts are projecting COVID-19′s toll on the U.S. will fall sharply by the end of July, according to research released by the government Wednesday. But they also warn that a “substantial increase” in hospitalizations and deaths is possible if unvaccinated people do not follow basic precautions. The CDC is now reporting an average of …

The Hill reports: House Judiciary Republicans on Tuesday urged the U.S. trade representative to continue opposing a waiver to loosen patent and intellectual property protections on coronavirus vaccines. In a letter to Katherine Tai, the Republicans, led by Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Darrell Issa (Calif.), said the waiver would do little to improve public health. “The waiver would undermine …

The New York Times reports: In an important step toward medical approval, MDMA, the illegal drug popularly known as Ecstasy or Molly, was shown to bring relief to those suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder when paired with talk therapy. Of the 90 people who took part in the new study, which is expected to be published later this month …

NBC News reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is calling on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to grant a patent waiver allowing countries to manufacture generic versions of Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines. “There is something morally objectionable about rich countries being able to get that vaccine, and yet millions and billions of people in poor countries are unable to afford …

Axios reports: An oral antiviral drug to stop the virus that causes COVID-19 from replicating could be ready next year “if all goes right,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC on Tuesday, adding that the drug should work against all variants of the virus. Why it matters: Antiviral drugs can be a key pandemic-fighting tool, since not everyone will get …

The New York Times reports: More than five million people, or nearly 8 percent of those who got a first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, have missed their second doses, according to the most recent data from the CDC. That is more than double the rate among people who got inoculated in the first several weeks of the …

Courthouse News reports: An independent advisory panel for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Friday to recommend the continued use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine after the single-dose jab was put on pause over blood clotting concerns. Friday’s vote followed similar concerns in the Europe Union over both the J&J jab and the AstraZeneca vaccine, …

Bloomberg News reports: A decision on whether and how to resume vaccinating Americans with the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus shot will probably come by Friday, the top U.S. infectious diseases specialist said. It would be surprising “if we don’t have a resumption in some form by Friday,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said …

CBS News reports: COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna will make a third booster shot for its two-dose vaccine available to Americans by the fall, CEO Stéphane Bancel said this week. Moderna’s vaccine is more than 90% effective against the coronavirus six months after the second shot, studies show. What remains unclear is how long immunity from the virus lasts. The same …

Reuters reports: More than 60 former heads of state, including former leaders of Britain and France, and over 100 Nobel Prize winners called on U.S. President Joe Biden to back a waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines. A waiver would boost vaccine manufacturing and speed up the response to the pandemic in poorer countries which otherwise might have …

ABC News reports: Women seeking an abortion pill will not be required to visit a doctor’s office or clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials said Tuesday in the latest reversal in an ongoing legal battle over the medication. The Food and Drug Administration announced the policy change a day earlier in a letter to the American College of …

MarketWatch reports: Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Albert Bourla tweeted late Tuesday that the pharma company has “ramped up” production of its COVID-19 vaccine, and will be able to deliver 10% more doses to the U.S. by the end of May than a previously agreed total of 220 million doses, as well as supply “the full (300 million doses) agreed on …

The New York Times reports: Federal health agencies on Tuesday called for an immediate pause in use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine after six recipients in the United States developed a rare disorder involving blood clots within about two weeks of vaccination. All six recipients were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died and …