PITTSBURGH There has been some concern over possible side effects from the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
People previously on the fence about getting vaccinated are now more worried, as news of some people having adverse reactions to the shot came out over the past few days.
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Georgia became the third state in a week to temporarily shut down a vaccine clinic after eight people there had bad reactions to the shot. Last week, 18 people in North Carolina reported side effects -- while 11 people in Colorado had symptoms ranging from dizziness, nausea and fainting.
But one local doctor told Channel 11 the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is very safe -- and one that he highly recommends.
What these reactions appear to be are mainly fainting-type reactions, which is not an uncommon reaction to have after a vaccination, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University. These clinics and these batches of vaccines have already been investigated by the CDC and not found to be unsafe in any way.
Adalja said the side effect level is very low, and that is the reason people are made to sit 15-30 minutes after getting the shot -- to make sure they are okay.
Allegheny Health Network is still taking appointments for its vaccine clinic this week at Next Tier Connect in Monroeville. Everyone through Phase 1C is eligible to book an appointment.
By and large, everybody does fine with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and there is no link to what happened in these clinics and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Adalja said.
As of right now, most of those sites across the U.S. are back open and offering the J&J vaccine.
Scientists are experimenting with COVID-19 vaccine technology as a way to treat terminal illnesses like cancer and HIV, Inverse reported.
That's because the coronavirus pandemic pushed scientists to create a first-of-its-kind vaccine using mRNA, or a small piece of a coronavirus particle's spike protein, to create an immune system response that protects from infection.
It's an approach vaccine researchers have been studying for the past 25 years, Insider previously reported.
Following effective clinical trial results and millions of successful vaccinations with mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, researchers now are looking into how the discovery could make way for other coveted treatments.
Scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are preparing to study mRNA as a cancer treatment right now.
They believe mRNA could be used to prevent cancer recurrence, Dr. Van Morris, an oncologist heading the clinical trial, said in a recent article on the MD Anderson website.
The likelihood of cancer recurring varies based on the type of cancer, and is most common with ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, and glioblastoma. Recurrence happens when small amounts of cancer cells stay in the body after treatment, multiply, and in some cases move to other areas of the body.
In the trial, which is currently in its second phase, doctors test cancer patients who had tumors removed and went through chemotherapy. Once tests reveal cancer cells that are still circulating throughout their bodies, the researchers create individualized mRNA cocktails.
"We're hopeful that with the personalized vaccine, we're priming the immune system to go after the residual tumor cells, clear them out and cure the patient," said Morris.
Scientists at Scripps University in California are also looking at HIV, a sexually transmitted infection that affects 1.2 million people worldwide, as a candidate for an mRNA vaccine.
Similar to the way the COVID-19 vaccine attaches to spiky coronavirus proteins and kills them, the HIV vaccine could do the same with HIV particles, William Schief, an immunologist at Scripps Research who helped develop the HIV vaccine in a Phase 1 trial, said in a press release.
Now that Schief's team knows mRNA can be used to target and kill HIV, they'll use that technology in future studies in the hopes of soon creating an HIV vaccine.
Since the advent of the COVID-19 vaccine, researchers have also pivoted to diseases they anticipate will become greater threats in the coming years.
The Oxford University scientists who collaborated with AstraZeneca to develop their COVID-19 vaccine are now working on a vaccine to treat the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, Insider previously reported.
The footage is concerning, even alarming. In a number of videos posted online and already viewed millions of times on social media, two separate American women appear to experience bouts of tremors and involuntary body movements.
There is no direct connection between the women, except both had received COVID-19 vaccines shortly before their symptoms appeared, a fact some have linked to the appearance of these tremors.But scientists say there is another valid explanation for what we see in the footage.
While there's absolutely no suggestion that anyone is faking these symptoms, researchers think it's not the contents of the COVID-19 vaccines causing the shaking and convulsions.
Instead, it's possible that these viral videos depict a rare and little-understood medical condition called functional neurological disorder (FND) a neuropsychiatric disorder thought to be triggered by a range of stimuli, including physical or emotional events, injuries, medical procedures, and sometimes even the act of getting a needle injected.
"Some people with FND have a heightened awareness of their body and increased state of arousal and threat, which may hijack normal neural networks controlling voluntary movements," says neurologist David Perez from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
"FND teaches us quite a bit about the complexities of the human brain."
Functional neurological disorder, sometimes also known as conversion disorder, can't definitively be diagnosed from watching videos, but nonetheless the kinds of body control issues seen limb weakness, gait problems, jerky movements, tremor, and facial spasms are all symptoms of FND.
For that reason, the US-based FND Society issued a press release in January shortly after the videos began garnering attention on social media, observing that the clinical features of FND were a match for what appeared in the footage.
"We would expect FND to develop in some individuals after vaccination due to a combination of heightened stress owing to the pandemic, feelings of uncertainty about the vaccine and the normal transient physical symptoms, and discomfort after vaccination," the FND Society wrote.
Now, to make a similar kind of point and to help boost public understanding of FND, Perez and his co-authors have penned a new commentary in JAMA Neurology, observing that the videos do look like potential episodes of FND, which if true could have been triggered by the vaccine injections, but probably not by the vaccines themselves.
"Precipitating factors, while proximal to the development of the symptoms, are not directly caused by the substances in the vaccine in the same manner that, for example, Neisseria meningitidis is the cause of meningitis," the researchers explain.
"Instead, factors such as expectations, beliefs, heightened bodily attention, arousal, and threat/emotional processing play important mechanistic roles in the pathophysiology of FND."
It's a particularly important theme right now, the researchers urge, because videos like this sometimes attract thousands of views, and may also be shared by those who advocate for conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination beliefs.
In the face of a modern health crisis like COVID-19, it's important to get the word out on the strong possibility that these videos actually show rare instances of FND.
"The spread of these videos could fuel vaccine hesitancy by giving an overly simplistic impression of potential links between the vaccine and major neurological symptoms," says Perez.
"Instead, these are symptoms of a real, brain-based disorder that sits at the intersection of neurology and psychiatry."
So far, US federal health authorities such as the CDC haven't had much to say about FND's potential role in videos like this, mainly emphasizing that side effects to COVID-19 vaccinations tend to be "mild and moderate and go away quickly".
That's an important clarification the public needs to hear, but it doesn't go far enough in terms of educating people on what FND really is, the researchers say, especially when viral videos of scary-looking shaking symptoms are scoring millions of views uploaded by people who are claiming the vaccines are directly responsible.
"A lack of direct messaging may be falsely perceived by the public that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not properly surveilling adverse symptoms or, even worse, concealing them," the researchers explain.
"We must explain transparently and non-judgmentally the nature of FND, including that these symptoms are real but not the direct result of toxic vaccine effects."
The findings are reported in JAMA Neurology.
FILE PHOTO: Vials with a sticker reading, "COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only" and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed Johnson & Johnson logo in this illustration taken October 31, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece will get a first tranche of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine against COVID-19 on Wednesday and will start inoculating people with it next week, a senior health ministry official said on Monday.
The Greek statement came as the U.S. company began delivering its vaccine to countries across the EU, a few days later than initially planned due to production issues.
We will receive the first 33,600 doses of the single-dose vaccine by Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday, April 14, the countrys secretary general in charge of vaccinations, Marios Themistocleous, told a weekly briefing.
Greece has inoculated more than 2 million of its 11 million population with at least one shot of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines.
Along with new deliveries from those companies, Greece has said it expects 1.3 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by June.
The country has fared better than other EU countries in the first wave of the pandemic but has imposed strict restrictions since November to deal with a resurgence of infections and ramped up vaccinations only recently.
Last week, it began distributing hundreds of thousands of free home testing kits to senior high school students and their teachers before they resume in-class lessons on Monday.
Greece, which had emerged from a multi-year recession before the pandemic broke out, is keen to reopen its tourism and other key sectors of its economy before the summer season.
Authorities plan to offer free self-testing kits to some 900,000 workers in retail, restaurants, transport, banks and justice this week, government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said on Monday.
Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by David Holmes
City of Los Angeles expands COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to residents 16 and older
LOS ANGELES - Residents age 16 and over will be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as Tuesday at city-run sites in Los Angeles, officials said.
"Opening vaccine eligibility to all Angelenos who are 16 and older is a major milestone in our efforts to get more shots into more arms and defeat COVID-19 once and for all," Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday.
"We urge patience as we continue to ramp up our operations, obtain more doses, and enter this new phase of our campaign to end the pandemic. But our commitment remains clear: as soon as vaccines are available, we are ready to administer them swiftly and safely."
Appointments for the vaccines can be made online and are open to any Los Angeles County resident.
The city is expected to receive nearly 60,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine and 56,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week, and still has about 15,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in supply. The city vaccination sites will be able to administer more than 130,000 doses to Angelenos -- including approximately 60,000 first-dose appointments and 70,000 second doses - - across its nine permanent sites and its Mobile Outreach for Vaccine Equity program, officials said.
The city is also taking over operations from state officials at the Cal State Los Angeles vaccine center. The Los Angeles Fire Department will lead the team at Cal State LA, supported by staff from Community Organized Relief Effort, as well as those contracted locally for the site through FEMA.
RELATED:Application period opens to access funds from FEMA to reimburse COVID-19-related funeral expenses
In addition to Cal State LA, the city will deliver doses across its permanent locations at San Fernando Park, Hansen Dam, Crenshaw Christian Center, Lincoln Park, Pierce College, USC University Park, Los Angeles Southwest College and Dodger Stadium.
All sites will be open Tuesday through Saturday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Dodger Stadium will only be offering appointments until 1 p.m. this week from Tuesday through Thursday to accommodate home games, although the site will remain open until 4 p.m.
Also Sunday, Los Angeles County reported 546 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 additional deaths, although the lower number of deaths may reflect reporting delays over the weekend.
The number of coronavirus patients in county hospitals dropped from 492 Saturday to 470 Sunday according to state figures, which are generally a day ahead of numbers provided by the county. The number of COVID patients in intensive care dropped from 125 to 116.
Sunday's numbers brought the county's totals to 1,225,796 cases and 23,477 fatalities since the pandemic began, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
On Saturday, the department reported an additional 11 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
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The new cases of MIS-C brought that total to 169 cases in the county, including one child death. All 169 were hospitalized and 39% of the children were treated in the ICU. Of the children with MIS-C, 26% were under the age of 5 years old, 31% were between 5 and 9, 27% were between 10 and 14 and 16% were between 15 and 20. Latino/Latinx children account for 75% of the reported cases.
MIS-C is a serious inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19 that affects children under 21 years old. Symptoms include fever that does not go away and inflamed body parts, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Parents who believe their child is displaying MIS-C symptoms are urged to contact their primary care doctor or an urgent care provider.
"While we are making tremendous progress with the spread of COVID-19 in our county there is also still great sadness as well," Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Saturday. "... April is a critical month in our COVID-19 recovery journey. Over the last few weeks, businesses and public spaces have reopened, and many more people have been out and around others. With increased contact among non-household members, there are many more opportunities for transmission of COVID-19, particularly if public health directives are not followed. As we're seeing in many other states, if we can't find it in us to follow safety precautions, including wearing face coverings and distancing when around others, we jeopardize our ability to move forward on the recovery journey."
Los Angeles County will see a dip in its supply of doses this week due to what is expected to be a temporary shortfall in availability of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shots.
But while the decline in the county-controlled supply is concerning -- and poorly timed -- there are still expected to be about a half-million available doses in the county, thanks to other non-county or city providers who receive direct allocations from the state and federal governments.
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"Taken together, we estimate that well over 500,000 doses of vaccine will be allocated to vaccination sites across the county," said Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the county health department.
The county's allocation of vaccine for next week is expected to total 323,470, Simon said. That's a roughly 74,000-dose drop from last week, with the reduction due to a major drop in availability of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine. The county received about 97,000 doses of that vaccine last week, but will only receive about 20,000 this week.
Simon said the county's allocations of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will both increase, but not enough to make up for the Johnson & Johnson dropoff. He said he remains confident the Johnson & Johnson supply will rebound in coming weeks, and overall, the county is on track to get much of the adult population vaccinated by early summer.
"At the pace we're going, we will be able to get where we want to be by late June, as long as people continue to present for a vaccination," Simon said. "... But over a several week period as things open up -- and we've seen this in the past as other groups became newly eligible -- there is that rush over a period of a week or two, and there's just no getting around that.
"So I think we will be urging the public to be patient, but we are confident we will be able to serve everybody's needs over the coming weeks," he said.
Simon also noted that when everyone 16 and up becomes eligible, it creates a further challenge for people who have less access to online appointment sites, as a wider portion of the population with greater computer access crowds them out.
"We are quite concerned with this opening up of eligibility ... that those with less resources, less ability to navigate these online appointment systems or faced with waits on our call line will have more difficulty getting appointments," he said. "And that could have the unfortunate consequence of worsening these disparities. ... And so we are going to be working really, really hard to make sure we work with the community organizations that are serving these communities to make it at little bit easier for them to get appointments."
As of April 4, a total of 4,715,894 doses of vaccine have been administered in the county, including 1,652,149 second doses. Simon noted that number represented an increase of 702,000 over the previous nine days, meaning an average of about 78,000 doses administered daily during that span.
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The Pfizer vaccine is the only shot approved for youth ages 16 and 17, who are currently eligible in Wisconsin.
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Calumet County's COVID-19 vaccine clinic at St. Martin Lutheran Church,717 Memorial Dr., in Chilton has available appointments this week and next.
The clinic will operate April 14, 16 and 20, according to a release from the county, and will offer the Pfizer vaccine, the only vaccineapproved for people ages 16 and 17. Youth are required to have a guardian with them at the clinic.
Online registration begins Monday at 10 a.m. atcalumetcounty.org/873/COVID-19-Coronavirus. People with questions or those who do not speak English can call 920-849-1466.
Anyone 16 and older in Wisconsin is eligible for the vaccine. The shots are free, and health insurance is not needed at the clinic. Your appointment for your second dose will be scheduled at your first appointment.
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Contact reporter Madeline Heim at 920-996-7266 or mheim@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @madeline_heim.
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COLUMBUS (WCMH) The states COVID-19 vaccine rollout plans are expanding again this week.
Starting Monday, medical providers have some more option when it comes to who they can administer the shots.
Essentially, what this means is more vaccine is being made available specifically for Ohios college-aged community.
Now that theres, like, more vaccines and people are able to get it more accessible, I think its good students are getting them now, said Ohio State University student Hamzah Chaudhry.
Students have been eligible since the state opened up the vaccine to people 16 years and older, but starting this week, the Wexner Medical Center will be allocating more of its first dose supply for university students, faculty, and staff.
The medical center is doing this to follow the states vaccine distribution plans.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced that starting this week, there can be workplace vaccination clinics.
The state is also allowing vaccine providers to dedicate up to 25 percent of their supply to their employees or to partner with other businesses and employers.
According to the Ohio State University vaccine information page, a portion of appointments at the mass vaccination clinic at the Schottenstein Center will be specifically for students, faculty, or staff.
I think thats a huge deal, said Ohio State University student Ben Reimer. I think, hopefully, itll encourage a lot of people to get their vaccines in a hurry while, especially people who live in dorms, while its still convenient before they leave for the summer.
Reimer knows the importance of being vaccinated he nearly lost a family member to COVID-19.
Shes made a miraculous recovery, he said. It was really scary there for a while. We basically said good-bye to her over Facetime, which wasnt easy, but a lot of people actually had to say good-bye.
In November, Reimers mother was hospitalized with COVID-19 and was almost put on a ventilator before she started getting better. Shes part of the reason he got the vaccine as soon as he could.
It was very sad for us, he said. Its stuff you hear about happening to other people, but when it hits so close to home, it really, really makes a difference. So getting a vaccine wasnt even a question for us just avoid it happening to another family member or somebody else we dont even know.
Part of the stated goal with opening slots for students is to ensure they are fully vaccinated before returning home at the end of the semester.
So last month, it became one of the few countries to allow the private sector to import and sell vaccines.
Several centers sold out in days. Others that had initially allowed walk-ins switched to online sign-ups after being inundated with people. Many online booking systems have since been paused, as clinics slowly work through a backlog of inquiries.
The private vaccines, however, are open to everyone -- and many people, otherwise ineligible for the government's program, are now hoping to secure a slot in private clinics.
"It's good that it's available privately, I have no idea when our turn will come through the government," said Anushka Jatoi, 35, who got the vaccine with her family at a private hospital in the southern city of Karachi.
But the private sales have also raised concerns about pricing and accessibility, and highlighted the country's deep-rooted social inequality. Most private sales are in large cities, such as Karachi and Islamabad, and remain inaccessible to residents in more rural areas -- and the price remains beyond most of Pakistan's population.
The Sputnik vaccine currently costs 12,000 Pakistani rupees ($80) for two doses, according to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).
With long delays in the COVAX program, and vaccines arriving from Russia and China relatively slowly, Pakistan's government has allowed the private sector to step in. Companies and private hospitals must fill out an application to the country's regulator, DRAP, to receive a No Objection Certificate (NOC) -- the document which allows them to import and sell vaccines.
Leaders at AGP, the pharmaceutical company supplying the private Sputnik shots, have argued that Pakistanis are running out of time as the outbreak worsens. By sharing the burden between the state and the private sector, more people can get inoculated faster and get the economy back on track, they say.
Pakistan has recorded more than 721,000 cases and more than 15,000 related deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and is currently in the middle of a third wave.
"We were cognizant of the fact that with 113 million (adults) in Pakistan, vaccination by the public health care sector will be a huge challenge," said AGP CEO Nusrat Munshi. "Someone had to rise to the challenge."
Pakistan's decision to allow private sales has ignited a debate around the ethics of commercializing vaccines during a pandemic -- and a legal battle between the government and AGP over pricing.
Jatoi acknowledged her privilege, describing the private hospital where she got vaccinated as being "like a hotel," with complimentary snacks and croissants in the waiting area. "We're lucky to be be in this position," she said.
Transparency International Pakistan, the national branch of the international anti-corruption non-profit organization Transparency International, wrote to Prime Minister Imran Khan last month, urging the government to ban private imports and sales. The commercialization of vaccines would essentially allow the wealthy to cut the line and exacerbate existing inequality, said the letter.
"The selling of this vaccine is just unethical, and too bad for the community," said Dr. Tipu Sultan, former head of the Pakistan Medical Association. "Only few people who are moneyed are going to buy it. The bulk of the population cannot afford it."
Eventually, the government reversed its decision and DRAP announced it would set a price cap -- prompting AGP to take the government to court. Since 50,000 doses of Sputnik vaccine had already arrived, the company was granted an interim order allowing it to sell the vaccines at $80 for two doses until the final pricing is decided.
Munshi, the CEO, defended the cost of the vaccine. There are many additional fees included in the process, including the cost of international shipping, government taxes, border clearing charges, warehouse costs, national supply chains, and specialized storage to keep the vaccines at the required minus 18 degrees Celsius, she said.
The company had used DRAP's recommended pricing formula to reach their final, "plausible" price, she added. "At this point in time the availability of the vaccine is far more important than the price."
But critics say even the current price of $80 is too much, out of reach for much of the public.
"This should not be more than 1,000 rupees or 1,200 rupees ($6.6 or $7.9)," said Sultan. "It is the duty of the state to provide vaccination for every citizen. And if they start selling it, then obviously it will be costly."
Everyone in Pakistan is now waiting -- for more vaccines to arrive, for registration at private clinics, for the government to reach a decision on pricing.
But the process of getting a privately sold shot has numerous complications, even for those who can afford it.
"I'm super frustrated because I have to travel for work, and I'm unable to get my vaccine," said Maha Mussadaq, a content lead at Foodpanda Thailand, who has been stranded in Islamabad. She tried all week to sign up for the vaccine, but has not been able to confirm a time slot, she said. She went online to register, and was told she would receive a phone call with more details, but was given no indication of when it might come.
"There's no system in place, and there's no definition of a timeline," she said. All of her travel plans for work are dependent on whether she can get the first dose, but with news of the vaccine selling out, she is quickly losing hope of that happening.
And even those who got their first shots are worried. "I'm afraid there's no guarantee that we'll get the second dose, what if supplies run out?" said Jatoi. "There's a lot of uncertainty."
Meanwhile, authorities are bracing for the Ramadan events that will start on Tuesday. During the Muslim holy month, devotees typically observe fasts and gather in mosques for daily prayers. At the end of the holy month, called Eid al-Fitr, friends and families gather to celebrate with feasts, festivities, and special prayers.
It's one of Islam's biggest holidays -- and it poses a Covid-19 risk. Around this time last year, countries around the world were experiencing devastating first waves, and imposed lockdowns that saw at-home and virtual Ramadan events.
The government warned last week that if the outbreak worsens during Ramadan and cases surge, it could revise and tighten restrictions again.
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) Baystate Health is offering walk-in appointments Monday for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
The walk-in clinic located on 361 Whitney Ave. in Holyoke and is open to all Hampden County residents. Walk-ins will be allowed from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. However, limited supplies are available so it will be a first come, first serve basis. Eligible residents are asked to bring their license or proof of residency.
Vaccines will also be available at Gateway City Arts at 92 Race Street Monday. However, you must be a Holyoke resident who is currently eligible to receive a vaccine.
Currently, anyone 55 years or older are eligible to receive the vaccine in Massachusetts, as well as anyone who is 16 years or older with one certain medical condition.
