Health

After the success of the Covid vaccine developed jointly with Biontech, US pharma giant Pfizer wants to further expand its vaccine business - possibly even without its German partner. "We're happy to work with Biontech, but we don't have to work with Biontech," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told the Wall Street Journal.

The novel mRNA technology has "dramatic potential" and Pfizer is confident it can now develop mRNA vaccines on its own, Bourla said, according to the editorial version distributed on the newspaper's website. "We have developed our own expertise." The two companies would continue to cooperate on Covid-19 vaccines.

Spanish lawmakers on Thursday passed a law to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide for people with serious and incurable illnesses who want to end their life. The ruling passed the lower parliament house with 202 votes in favour and 141 against and 2 abstentions.

"Today we are a more humane, just and freer country. The euthanasia law, widely demanded by society, finally becomes a reality" Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Twitter.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday it was still reviewing safety concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine. Still, it recommended the continuation of its use based on the current benefit-risk assessment.

The jab suspension and an already sluggish inoculation campaign across the EU pose a threat to plans announced by the European Commission on Wednesday to launch a "green digital certificate" to collate vaccine information.

Jutta Paulus, a licensed pharmacist and a member of the European Parliament for the Green Party, said the "benefits of taking the AstraZeneca vaccine do outweigh the risks."

After her mother was vaccinated against Covid-19, a baby girl was born with antibodies that fight the coronavirus in Florida in the eastern United States.

The girl's mother was 36 weeks pregnant when she received the first dose of the antidote developed by the Moderna laboratory, to which she agreed because she was on the front line of the fight against the pandemic. The baby girl was born three weeks later, in late January.

"As far as we know, this is the world's first reported case of a baby born with covid-19 antibodies after her mother's vaccination," said Paul Gilbert, a pediatrician. Gilbert and Chad Rudnick, also a pediatrician, will publish a scientific paper on the matter, they said in an interview with Palm Beach television station WBPF.

The World Health Organization's vaccine safety experts were due to meet Tuesday to discuss the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, as more countries stopped vaccinations over blood clot concerns. WHO on Monday appealed to countries to keep vaccination campaigns going, saying there was no evidence the vaccine caused clotting issues.

But much of Europe has gone against that advice in recent days, temporarily halting AstraZeneca shots even as the continent confronts a third wave of the pandemic, spurred by variants of the virus, and faces criticism over sluggish vaccination campaigns.

In a statement on Sunday, the pharmaceutical giant said that of the 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the United Kingdom so far, blood clot incidents were "much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population."

A 40-year-old man from London is believed to have become the second person in the world to be cured of HIV.

Adam Castillejo remains free of the virus 30 months after he stopped anti-retroviral therapy, doctors said. A stem-cell treatment he underwent for cancer also cured him of HIV, according to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet.

Lead researcher Professor Ravindra Kumar Gupta of the University of Cambridge told BBC News: "This represents HIV cure with almost certainty. "Our findings show that the success of stem-cell transplantation as a cure for HIV, first reported nine years ago in the Berlin patient, can be replicated."

French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi announced Friday the launch of human trials of its second Covid-19 vaccine. Sanofi and the US-based company Translate Bio are developing the vaccine based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

Sanofi's Chief Executive Paul Hudson told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche last month that the vaccine "will not be ready this year."

The company's first vaccine, developed with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), is still in the testing phase. Both companies are attempting to revive their development after earlier tests showed in December, a low immune response in older adults.

There is no indication that the Covid-19 vaccine is linked to an increased risk of blood clots, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) says. It said the number of cases in vaccinated people was no higher than in the general population.

Some countries, including Denmark and Norway, suspended the jab's use after reports that a small number of people had developed clots after receiving the jab.

This is due to reports of possible side effects with blood clots after vaccinations, the Danish health administration announced. According to the Danish health authority in Copenhagen, it has received reports of "severe cases of blood clots" in vaccinated persons. Government chief Mette Frederiksen confirmed to reporters outside a hospital in Herlev, Denmark, that the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine would be paused.

"Currently, there is no indication of a causal connection with the vaccination," Austrian media ORF quotes BASG as saying. However, to be on the safe side, the affected vaccine batch would no longer be issued or vaccinated. In Austria, vaccination appointments were canceled at short notice this Sunday. About 6,000 vaccine doses were withdrawn. Of the affected batch, 37,000 doses have been vaccinated.

The new technique relies on plastic tubes with insecticide, inserted in holes on house walls. It has been tested over 2 years in 40 villages within Ivory Coast, in combination with bed nets.

Ghana received delivery of 600,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 jabs acquired through the Covax initiative. The initiative is an immunisation-sharing scheme designed to help developing countries in the vaccination effort.

The United Nations-backed initiative delivered Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India.

The World Health Organization director Dr Tedros Adhanom previously said that bilateral deals between rich nationals and vaccine manufacturers have made it more difficult for Covax to acquire jabs, leading Rwanda's President Paul Kagame to condemn "hypocrisy and double standards" in global distribution efforts.

Regular Covid-19 shots might be here to stay. Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson, told CNBC that mutations may lead to a need for annual Covid-19 shots similar to flu shots.

“Unfortunately, as (the virus) spreads it can also mutate,” he said in an interview. “Every time it mutates, it’s almost like another click of the dial so to speak where we can see another variant, another mutation that can have an impact on its ability to fend off antibodies or to have a different kind of response not only to a therapeutic but also to a vaccine.”

After visiting the Wuhan Institute of Virology, World Health Organization experts have closed the lid on a controversial theory that coronavirus came from a lab leak or was made by scientists.

Peter Ben Embarek, WHO lead investigator, said the next step would be to "look at the possible pathways of introduction of the virus into the human population," and for any evidence that it might have made that jump into humans earlier than currently known.

Following the employment of dogs at some airports around the world, dogs trained at the Hanover University of Veterinary Medicine have been specifically trained and studied to be 94% accurate in detecting the Corona virus.

Sweden has announced changes to its policy regarding coronavirus vaccines.

Updates include; expanding group criteria to more people, and creating a booking system that isn't reliant on having BankID or a personnummer.

There has been pressure on the Government to take action as Sweden has over 1 million foreign residents - of whom 100,000 have applied for residence/citizenship, with the majority still awaiting a decision, so are likely not to have a personnummer - are disproportionally affected by COVID-19.

An Oxford released a study shows that higher vaccine efficacy can be achieved with a longer interval between the first and second dose and that a single vaccine dose is highly effective in the first 90 days. The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, further showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine can cut transmission of the virus by two-thirds and prevented severe disease.

“That reduction in transmission, as well as the fact there is no hospitalizations, the combination of that is very good news. And it categorically supports the strategy we’ve been taking on having a 12-week gap between the doses,” Hancock told Sky News on Wednesday.

According to The Lancet results on Tuesday, the Russian Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19. Independent experts said the publishing allayed transparency concerns over the jab, that is already being used in Russia and Argentina.

The effectiveness calculation was based on the analysis of data of 19,866 volunteers. In volunteers aged above 60, the efficacy rate was 91.8 per cent. Among adverse events, 94 per cent were mild and included flu-like symptoms, reactions in the vaccine site, headache and asthenia. However, no serious adverse events were reported.

A research team from London now writes that apple cider vinegar can also eliminate antibiotic-resistant germs. The researchers have carried out tests with resistant staphylococci and e-coli bacteria. In the tests, the apple cider vinegar penetrated the bacterial cells and stopped the growth processes there. According to the researchers, the effect is comparable to that of certain antibiotics, which are no longer effective against these germs.

A trial conducted in the United Kingdom showed that Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine was 95.6% effective against the original Covid-19 strain and 85.6% effective against the new mutation B.1.1.7 that first was discovered in the UK. The vaccine however only showed a 60% efficacy against the mutation first identified in South Africa.

The company's vaccine, known as NVX-CoV2373, "is the first vaccine to demonstrate not only high clinical efficacy against COVID-19 but also significant clinical efficacy against both the rapidly emerging UK and South Africa variants," Stanley Erck, Novavax president and CEO, said in an announcement. "NVX-CoV2373 has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis," he said.

Access to legal cannabis stores is associated with a reduction in opioid-related deaths in the United States, particularly those linked to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, finds a study published by The BMJ.

It is estimated that an increase from one to two cannabis dispensaries in a county was associated with an estimated 17% reduction in all opioid-related mortality rates. An increase from two to three dispensaries was associated with a further 8.5% reduction in all opioid related mortality rates. Their findings are based on data for 812 counties within the 23 US states that allowed legal cannabis dispensaries to operate by the end of 2017.

The EMA has recommended conditional market approval for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine claiming the vaccine "was safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 in people from 18 years of age."

Germany's vaccine commission had said on Thursday that it could not recommend the use of the jabs on people aged 65 years and older because efficacy data for the group were lacking.

Fewer than 0.01% of people who received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine have contracted the virus more than a week after receiving the second dose, a leading Israeli healthcare provider said on Monday. The preliminary results shared by Israeli HMO Maccabi showed that only 20 people out of some 128,600 who received both shots have since been infected with the COVID-19 virus. Israel is a world leader with its rapid vaccine rollout, though the data also comes during a nationwide lockdown that has been helping to stem contagion. All patients experienced a mild illness with symptoms including headaches, cough, weakness or fatigue.

An international study also states that Englishmen and Scotsmen got seriously drunk most often in 2019.

With 33.8 times in a year, the Scots were slightly ahead of the English (33.7) on average, according to the Global Drug Survey. More than 90,000 people in more than 25 countries were surveyed at the end of 2019 for the survey, which was published Monday. Getting drunk was defined in the survey like this: So much alcohol was drunk that physical and mental abilities were massively impaired - including, for example, sense of balance or speech.

A 56-year-old woman has tested positive for Covid-19 in New Zealand, after being released from government managed isolation following two negative tests. The woman arrived in Auckland on 30 December after travelling in Spain and the Netherlands for four months.

The woman was released on 13 January and travelled around south Northland with her husband, visiting as many as 30 locations, including popular holiday spots, AirBnBs, and shops.

According to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, there is "some evidence" that the variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the UK may be more deadly than the previously prevalent one. Johnson made the announcement at a press conference at Downing Street, the seat of government in London.

Johnson's chief scientific adviser said this was indicated by data from people who tested positive and were not treated in hospital. According to the data, 10 out of 1000 people over the age of 60 die from the old variant and 13 out of 1000 from the new variant. This has not been found in hospital patients. However, the data situation is still uncertain at the moment, the consultant explained.

Researchers at the University of Pretoria in South Africa report that they have found substances that could prevent tmalaria ransmission. They write in the journal Nature Communications that two substances that have been studied for their effectiveness against tuberculosis and cancer can kill malaria parasites - even when it is infectious. For the past year, the WHO fears even more victims because many prevention measures could not be implemented due to the Corona pandemic.

Minutes after the first vaccine being approved for use in Brazil, the Coronavac Vaccine by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, the first person that has been vaccinated is a black woman, 54 years old, working in Sao Paulo's Emilio Ribas hospital, as ICU nurse.

A spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry told the Hindustan Times that it was "too early" to send the batches of the vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute in partnership with Oxford University and pharmacist AstraZeneca.

On 5 January, Brazil's Foreign Ministry confirmed the purchase of Oxford vaccine doses produced in India, despite the Indian government's announcement that the vaccine's export was banned. The statement also mentioned plans to distribute the vaccines to Brazilian states within a few days of authorization from the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and highlighted the successful acquisition of the doses with an example of the "excellent relations" between the two countries.

The Vatican confirmed on Thursday that Pope Francis, aged 84, and retired Pope Benedict, aged 93, have had their first doses of a coronavirus vaccine. The pontiff and his predecessor got the first half of their vaccinations as part of a campaign for Vatican City residents and employees launched on January 13th.

"You are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others," Francis said in a recent interview with Italian broadcaster Canale 5. He said "anti-vaxxers" were living in inexplicable "suicidal denial."

In December, the head of the Vatican's health service said the tiny city-state would roll out its vaccination program with the Pfizer medication.

Soumya Swaminathan, World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist, said Monday that despite the growing availability of vaccines herd immunity to the Covid-19 would not be achieved in 2021. . Until then, preventive measures such as masks will be necessary.

Swaminathan commended the "incredible progress" made by researchers to develop several safe and effective vaccines at unprecedented speed.

"We won't get back to normal quickly," Dale Fisher, chairman of the WHO's Outbreak Alert and Response Network, told a conference hosted by the Reuters news agency.