Vaccines
We’re officially closer to finding a new COVID-19 vaccine. In the last two weeks, pharmaceutical companies Moderna and AstraZeneca released promising data on their vaccines — respectively named mRNA-1273 and AZD1222. There’s still more testing to be done, but we’re getting closer to finding a heavily vetted vaccine that may…
Today the House Oversight Committee will hold a briefing on the FDA’s process for approving a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. The Chair of the Oversight Committee, Carolyn Maloney, called to ask me to speak to the professional staff organizing the speakers and questions. I’ve been a member of the…
We need a vaccine and we need it fast. In May, President Trump announced Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership that aims to deliver 300 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. This sounds like a great plan, but rapidly testing and approving vaccines without having a complete…
There’s a COVID-19 vaccine on the way — or so the Wednesday headlines, which heralded positive results from Pfizer and BioNTech’s early-stage trial of a vaccine for COVID-19, would lead you to believe. A closer look at the data, and the adverse effects, however, reveals that it’s probably too early…
This week in health news: Why do we accept some risks and overly focus on others? Mothers and mothers-to-be are generally considered to be very protective of their children’s health, yet a lot of them take medicines that could (and some probably do) endanger their fetus’ health. Other mothers defy…
As we age, most of us develop health issues. Along the way we may visit a specialist to handle each of these issues: for example, a cardiologist to treat hypertension and a gastroenterologist to treat acid reflux. However, it has become increasingly clear that in today’s era of specialization, you need a…
In early September, while picking up a prescription refill at my local pharmacy, I noticed signs all over the store that flu shots were available and could be given without an appointment. Although the weather was still hot outside and flu season seemed many months away, I decided to get…
By the year 2000, measles was virtually eliminated from the United States, thanks to widespread vaccination. Now the disease, which once caused nearly 500 deaths annually and tens of thousands of cases of lingering brain damage, is back. In 2018, 17 measles outbreaks, affecting almost 400 individuals, were reported in…
As a measles outbreak continues to impact some states, a new study finds that getting the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine does not cause autism. Danish researchers conducted a cohort study that examined the medical records of more than 657,000 children born in the country. Compared to children who…
A new shingles vaccine that was approved last year is significantly more effective than a vaccine that has been available since 2006, but comes with one drawback: It has a greater risk of adverse effects at the injection site. Shingrix, the new vaccine, is 85% more effective in reducing cases…
Nearly 12 years after the FDA approved Zostavax, the first vaccine to prevent shingles in adults 60 and older, the vast majority of seniors still haven’t received it. Only 30.6% of adults age 60 and older reported getting the shingles vaccine, according to the latest CDC (Centers for Disease Control…
Actually, ex-doctor. That’s Andrew Wakefield, the doctor whose falsified research created the anti-vaxxer movement. Yes, I wanted to interview him. I received a welcome email the other day asking if I would like to interview the discredited, licensed-revoked, ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield. The doctor who was at the center of the…
Pregnant mothers who are given the Tdap vaccine do not face a higher risk of having offspring with an abnormally small head (microcephaly) or other birth defects. The Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) vaccine is typically taken by mothers who hope to pass on their immunity to their unborn child….
You have an 83x greater chance of being hit by lightning than having an adverse effect from a vaccine. So why are some parents so fearful? Everyone who is listening has already heard or read that the lone research paper linking autism to vaccines has been disproved. It was wrong….
I was born in 1950 and was home-schooled until the 6th grade. Thus, I missed exposure to several childhood illnesses that affected most of my generation. I never gave it much thought until, as a medical resident in North Carolina in 1979, I came down with a potentially life-threatening febrile…
Some parents thought that given an option between measles and vaccines, they could choose ‘neither.’ But now there’s an uptick in vaccination compliance What’s more frightening to a parent — measles which historically killed thousands of children each year before the MMR vaccination became available or the possibility of a…
By Denise Schipani Last week, when I took both my sons to the pediatrician for their annual check-ups, (I double ‘em up, since their birthdays are close together), I was faced with a choice: Should my younger son, 10, get his TDaP (Tetanus, Diptheria, Acellular Pertussis) booster? The only reason…
1. ‘We don’t perform trials over the course of 10 years to see what our [drug] decisions now mean for later.’— 1 Drug or 2? – Parents See Risk But Also Hope, New York Times, November 15, 2014 Why not? And if we haven’t until now, what is the excuse…
A new study has found that postponing childhood vaccinations may increase a (small) risk of seizures. The study revealed that giving the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine at 16 months doubled the incidence of seizures compared with giving it in the first year, and giving the measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine at 16 months increased the…