Moderna Is Scolded by a U.K. Trade Group for Offering Kids $2,000 to Participate in a Covid Trial + More
Moderna was scolded by a U.K. trade group over a WhatsApp message that offered children a hefty $2,000 for participating in a clinical trial of its COVID-19 booster vaccine.
The trial, which was called NextCOVE, recruited adults and children age 12 and older in a number of locations last year around the U.K., the U.S. and Canada.
A pediatrician, who worked at an unnamed hospital in the U.K., posted the message in hopes of soliciting participants, mentioned the amount of money involved, and closed by saying “We’d love to have you on board!”
This prompted the Children’s Covid Vaccines Advisory Council, an independent group of health professionals and scientists who challenge government advice on the benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccines for children, to investigate.
They learned the research ethics committee that reviewed and approved the study expressed concerns about the money offered, which could be seen as coercion.
Experts Await Serology Results from H5N1 Patient’s Close Contacts
In the absence of polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, testing, infectious disease experts and epidemiologists are anxiously awaiting serology results from the household contact and two healthcare workers who may have been infected with H5N1 bird flu by a patient in Missouri who tested positive for the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an announcement last week that Missouri health officials collected blood samples from the case and that person’s household contact, which are being sent to the CDC “for serologic testing to look for antibodies to avian influenza A(H5) virus, which would indicate a previous infection.”
The first healthcare worker who developed respiratory symptoms tested negative for influenza; it is unclear if this person will have serology testing.
However, CDC said the second healthcare worker, who was not tested for flu, “will be offered” serology testing.
“Not obtaining serology and immune testing at this point would be public health malpractice,” James Lawler, M.D., MPH, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security in Omaha, told MedPage Today. “We must investigate this potential cluster to the fullest extent possible.”
If H5N1 antibodies are detected on serology, “that essentially confirms that these were related H5N1 cases and very likely from human-to-human transmission,” Lawler said.
‘Alarming’: Severe Obesity Is Climbing in the US. See Who Is Most Affected
Obesity is high and holding steady in the U.S., but the proportion of those with severe obesity — especially women — has climbed since a decade ago, according to new government research.
The U.S. obesity rate is about 40%, according to a 2021-2023 survey of about 6,000 people. Nearly 1 in 10 of those surveyed reported severe obesity, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.
Women were nearly twice as likely as men to report severe obesity.
The overall obesity rate appeared to tick down vs. the 2017-2020 survey, but the change wasn’t considered statistically significant; the numbers are small enough that there’s a mathematical chance they didn’t truly decline.
That means it’s too soon to know whether new treatments for obesity, including blockbuster weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound, can help ease the epidemic of the chronic disease linked to a host of health problems, according to Dr. Samuel Emmerich, the CDC public health officer who led the latest study.
Novel Antiviral Appears Effective for Severe RSV in Infants, Toddlers
An investigational oral antiviral drug eased bronchiolitis and was safe for children two years and younger hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, according to a phase III trial in China.
No safety concerns were identified, according to the study authors, with adverse events occurring in 16% of the infants and young children randomized to ziresovir versus 13% of those allocated to placebo.
“These initial findings warrant further evaluation in an international, phase 3 trial of ziresovir treatment for RSV infection,” wrote Ni and co-authors.
A key caveat to the so-called AIRFLO trial, which involved children ages one to 24 months, is that the Wang bronchiolitis clinical score has not been fully validated for use in studies of RSV infection.
The question is whether improvement by this scale can be translated to clinical improvement, Edward Walsh, M.D., of the University of Rochester in New York, commented in an accompanying editorial.
CDC Urges Covid, Flu Shots, but Public Interest Is Flagging
Survey data shows few U.S. adults are concerned about respiratory viruses or interested in getting shots.
Federal health officials are urging Americans to get vaccinated ahead of the respiratory virus season as new survey data shows tepid interest in getting shots.
Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency anticipates 800,000 flu, covid and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) hospitalizations in the coming months, on par with last year.
“These vaccines can cut the risk of hospitalization in half,” Cohen said at a Wednesday news conference where she received a flu shot on camera.
But results released Wednesday from an annual National Foundation for Infectious Diseases survey reveals that relatively few U.S. adults are concerned about respiratory viruses (less than 1 in 5) or interested in getting shots.
The survey was conducted in early August.
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- 55% definitely or probably will get a flu shot, 34% definitely or probably will not.
- 40% definitely or probably will get the updated coronavirus vaccine, while 45% definitely or probably will not.
- 38% of eligible older adults definitely or probably will get an RSV vaccine, while 25% definitely or probably will not.
CDC Widens Mpox Vaccine Recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health advisory recommending that select travelers to countries where a certain strain of mpox is endemic should be fully vaccinated prior to going.
While the agency has already been advising vaccination for those traveling to countries where clade I mpox is endemic, the CDC’s guidance this issued week specifically advises that people who “anticipate certain sexual exposures” while in those countries should be fully vaccinated with two doses of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine.
The CDC guidance advised that travelers should speak to their providers about immunization if they are travelling to a country where clade I mpox is endemic and they anticipate sex with a new partner; sex at a commercial venue; sex in exchange for money or goods; and sex associated with a large public event.
Experimental Nasal Spray Might Ward off Multiple Viruses
A non-drug nasal spray could theoretically help stop the spread of respiratory viruses like the flu and COVID-19 better than wearing a mask, a new study suggests.
The spray uses ingredients that are medically inactive to trap germs in the nose before they can infect a person, researchers said.
“We developed a drug-free formulation using these compounds to block germs in three ways,” said co-senior study author Nitin Joshi, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The nasal spray “forms a gel-like matrix that traps respiratory droplets, immobilizes the germs, and effectively neutralizes them, preventing infection,” Joshi explained in a hospital news release.
Researchers call their discovery Pathogen Capture and Neutralizing Spray.
Popular Diabetes and Weight-Loss Drug Associated With Lower Opioid Overdose Risk
Since being deemed a public health emergency in 2017, opioids are responsible for 72% of drug overdose deaths in the United States, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics.
New research from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine identifies a potential new approach to address the opioid overdose epidemic — which has devastated families and communities nationally.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, suggests semaglutide is linked to lower opioid overdoses in people with opioid-use disorder and type 2 diabetes.
Pfizer to Pull Sickle Cell Drug From Market, Shut Down Trials
Pfizer is pulling the sickle cell disease drug Oxbryta off the market and ending clinical trials of the medicine around the world due to safety concerns.
Clinical data “now indicates that the overall benefit of Oxbryta no longer outweighs the risk,” Pfizer said Wednesday.
The company said data show an imbalance of deaths and vaso-occlusive crises, the excruciating episodes of pain that patients with sickle cell disease experience.
The company said it notified regulatory authorities of the results.
Pfizer’s decision came a day before European regulators met to review Oxbryta’ safety. The European Medicines Agency started its review because of data from two trials, one that had a higher-than-anticipated number of deaths and another that showed more deaths among patients taking Oxbryta compared with those on placebo.
On Thursday, the agency recommended Oxbryta’s clearance be suspended.
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“for serologic testing to look for antibodies to avian influenza A(H5) virus, which would indicate a previous infection.”
The antibody test is as invalid as the PCR and, in fact, worse. No valid test for virus-based illness can be developed as it requires a reference sample of the virus, which is unavailable. It is all fake and false—scientifically.
I just posted a short note on my blog that would be of interest in this regard. (https://bioanalyticx.com/rfk-jr-i-am-just-going-to-make-them-safer-for-everyone/)
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