Analyzing data from the shingles vaccine, Brandyn Churchill, assistant professor of resource economics at UMass Amherst, and Laura E. Henkhaus, health economist and data scientist with Hill Physicians Medical Group, found that the number of people taking the vaccine nearly doubled after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) required private insurers to cover vaccinations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, as part of preventive care coverage.
Adults are very price sensitive when it comes to their vaccine decision making, Churchill says. Cost matters. Age-targeted vaccine recommendations alone dont appear to do a lot for vaccine take-up among adults if the cost is coming out of their wallet.
Churchill and Henkhaus show that prior to the ACA preventive care insurance mandate, adults aged 60 and over, who were recommended to receive the shingles vaccine, were no more likely than their 59-year-old counterparts to be vaccinated. After the ACA mandate took effect in 2010, shingles vaccination increased from 3.1 to 5.9 percentage points for people aged 60 and over.
The research finds a similar increase for people aged 50 to 59 after recommendations for the shingles vaccine were expanded to cover adults aged 50 and over, and private insurance was required to cover it beginning in 2019. This coincided with a more effective and more costly version of the vaccine. Currently, the recommended two doses cost about $200 each.
Churchill notes people with a college education and those who had more contact with the health care system were more likely to take the shingles vaccine after it was fully covered by insurance. This might say something about an awareness that they knew they were eligible to get it without patient cost sharing, he says.
Caused by a reactivation of the chickenpox virus, shingles is an infection that can produce a painful rash with fluid-filled blisters. It affects more than one million people in the U.S. each year.
While shingles is not a communicable disease and its mortality rate is very low, the studys findings provide important guidance for policies promoting vaccination against communicable diseases, such as influenza and COVID-19.
With the COVID vaccines, clearly cost is not the only factor at play, but anything that would increase the cost to adults would likely further reduce vaccine take-up among that group resulting in potentially serious public health effects, Churchill concludes. COVID vaccines continue to be available with no out-of-pocket cost for most Americans.
The full paper, The Roles of Cost and Recommendations in Driving Vaccine Take-Up, appears in the American Journal of Health Economics.
GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a global company advancing protein-based vaccines with its Matrix-M adjuvant,today announced that Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has granted full approval for Novavax's prototype COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid (NVX-CoV2373) for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 inindividuals aged 12 and older. The Singapore Ministry of Health has included Nuvaxovid in the National Vaccination Programme as a protein-based non-mRNA option for COVID-19 prevention.
"Today's full approval of our prototype vaccine will enable us to file for approval of our updated protein-basednon-mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks," said John C. Jacobs, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax. "We continue to work closely with HSA to ensure a protein-based vaccine is part of the portfolio for Singaporeans to protect themselves against COVID-19."
For the 2023-2024 vaccination season,Novavax has developed an updated COVID-19 vaccine which has been authorized for use in the U.S.The updated vaccine induces neutralizing antibody responses against currently circulating variants XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, XBB.2.3,BA.2.86, EG.5.1, FL.1.5.1 and XBB.1.16.6.Additional non-clinical data demonstrated that Novavax's vaccine induced CD4+ polyfunctional cellular (T-cell) responses against EG.5.1 and XBB.1.16.6. These data indicate Novavax's vaccine can stimulate both arms of the immune system and may induce a broad response against currently circulating variants.1,2
In clinical trials, the most common adverse reactions associated withNovavax's prototype COVID-19 vaccine (NVX-CoV2373) included headache, nausea or vomiting, muscle pain, joint pain, injection site tenderness, injection site pain, fatigue and malaise.
Trade Name UseThe trade name Nuvaxovid has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
AboutNuvaxovid (NVX-CoV2373)NVX-CoV2373 is a protein-based vaccine made by creating copies of the surface spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. With Novavax's unique recombinant nanoparticle technology, the non-infectious spike protein serves as the antigen that primes the immune system to recognize the virus, while Novavax's Matrix-M adjuvant enhances and broadens the immune response. The vaccine is packaged as a ready-to-use liquid formulation and is stored at 2 to 8C, enabling the use of existing vaccine supply and cold chain channels.
About the PREVENT-19 Phase 3 TrialThe PRE-fusion protein subunitVaccineEfficacyNovavaxTrial COVID-19 (PREVENT-19) was a randomized, placebo-controlled, observer-blinded Phase 3 trial conducted in the U.S. and Mexico to evaluate the efficacy and safety of NVX-CoV2373 as a primary series and as a booster in adults and adolescents to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. As a primary series, the primary endpoint was the first occurrence of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed symptomatic (mild, moderate, or severe) COVID-19 with onset at least seven days after the second dose in 29,960 adult participants aged 18 and older at baseline without protocol violations prior to illness. A secondary endpoint was the prevention of PCR-confirmed, symptomatic moderate or severe COVID-19. Full results of the trial were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
About Matrix-M AdjuvantWhen added to vaccines, Novavax's patented saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant enhances the immune system response, making it broader and more durable. The Matrix-M adjuvant stimulates the entry of antigen-presenting cells at the injection site and enhances antigen presentation in local lymph nodes.
AboutNovavaxNovavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX) promotes improved health by discovering, developing and commercializing innovative vaccines to help protect against serious infectious diseases. Novavax, a global company based in Gaithersburg, Md., U.S., offers a differentiated vaccine platform that combines a recombinant protein approach, innovative nanoparticle technology and Novavax's patented Matrix-M adjuvant to enhance the immune response. Focused on the world's most urgent health challenges, Novavax is currently evaluating vaccines for COVID-19, influenza and COVID-19 and influenza combined. Please visit novavax.com and LinkedIn for more information.
Forward-Looking StatementsStatements herein relating to the future of Novavax, its operating plans and prospects, the scope, timing and outcome of future regulatory filings and actions, including its coordination with HSA, are forward-looking statements. Novavax cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, challenges satisfying, alone or together with partners, various safety, efficacy, and product characterization requirements, including those related to process qualification and assay validation, necessary to satisfy applicable regulatory authorities; resource constraints, including human capital and manufacturing capacity, on the ability of Novavax to pursue planned regulatory pathways; challenges or delays in obtaining regulatory authorization for its product candidates, including its updated XBB version of its COVID-19 vaccine in time for the fall 2023 vaccination season or for future COVID-19 variant strain changes; challenges or delays in clinical trials; manufacturing, distribution or export delays or challenges; Novavax's exclusive dependence on Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. for co-formulation; and those other risk factors identified in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of Novavax's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this press release. You are encouraged to read our filings with the SEC, availableat www.sec.govand www.novavax.com, for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of the statements. Our business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors, and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties.
Contacts:InvestorsErika Schultz 240-268-2022 [emailprotected]
MediaAli Chartan 240-720-7804 [emailprotected]
References
SOURCE NOVAVAX, INC
Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.
All Rights Reserved.
Moderna shares were still down more than 6% in midday trading, making them the worst performers in the S&P 500.
The company said Monday it remains comfortable with its prediction of $6 billion to $8 billion in Covid-19 vaccine sales for 2023. Heres why:
Ending pandemics is a social decision, not scientific. Governments and organizations rely on social, cultural and political considerations to decide when to officially declare the end of a pandemic. Ideally, leaders try to minimize the social, economic and public health burden of removing emergency restrictions while maximizing potential benefits.
Vaccine policy is a particularly complicated part of pandemic decision-making, involving a variety of other complex and often contradicting interests and considerations. Although COVID-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives in the U.S., vaccine policymaking throughout the pandemic was often reactive and politicized.
A late November 2022 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that one-third of U.S. parents believed they should be able to decide not to vaccinate their children at all. The World Health Organization and the United Nations Childrens Fund reported that between 2019 and 2021, global childhood vaccination experienced its largest drop in the past 30 years.
The Biden administration formally removed federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements for federal employees and international travelers in May 2023. Soon after, the U.S. government officially ended the COVID-19 public health emergency. But COVID-19s burden on health systems continues globally.
I am a public health ethicist who has spent most of my academic career thinking about the ethics of vaccine policies. For as long as theyve been around, vaccines have been a classic case study in public health and bioethics. Vaccines highlight the tensions between personal autonomy and public good, and they show how the decision of an individual can have populationwide consequences.
COVID-19 is here to stay. Reflecting on the ethical considerations surrounding the rise and unfolding fall of COVID-19 vaccine mandates can help society better prepare for future disease outbreaks and pandemics.
Vaccine mandates are the most restrictive form of vaccine policy in terms of personal autonomy. Vaccine policies can be conceptualized as a spectrum, ranging from least restrictive, such as passive recommendations like informational advertisements, to most restrictive, such as a vaccine mandate that fines those who refuse to comply.
Each sort of vaccine policy also has different forms. Some recommendations offer incentives, perhaps in the form of a monetary benefit, while others are only a verbal recommendation. Some vaccine mandates are mandatory in name only, with no practical consequences, while others may trigger termination of employment upon noncompliance.
COVID-19 vaccine mandates took many forms throughout the pandemic, including but not limited to employer mandates, school mandates and vaccination certificates often referred to as vaccine passports or immunity passports required for travel and participation in public life.
Because of ethical considerations, vaccine mandates are typically not the first option policymakers use to maximize vaccine uptake. Vaccine mandates are paternalistic by nature because they limit freedom of choice and bodily autonomy. Additionally, because some people may see vaccine mandates as invasive, they could potentially create challenges in maintaining and garnering trust in public health. This is why mandates are usually the last resort.
However, vaccine mandates can be justified from a public health perspective on multiple grounds. Theyre a powerful and effective public health intervention.
Mandates can provide lasting protection against infectious diseases in various communities, including schools and health care settings. They can provide a public good by ensuring widespread vaccination to reduce the chance of outbreaks and disease transmission overall. Subsequently, an increase in community vaccine uptake due to mandates can protect immunocompromised and vulnerable people who are at higher risk of infection.
Early in the pandemic, arguments in favor of mandating COVID-19 vaccines for adults rested primarily on evidence that COVID-19 vaccination prevented disease transmission. In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 vaccines seemed to have a strong effect on reducing transmission, therefore justifying vaccine mandates.
COVID-19 also posed a disproportionate threat to vulnerable people, including the immunocompromised, older adults, people with chronic conditions and poorer communities. As a result, these groups would have significantly benefited from a reduction in COVID-19 outbreaks and hospitalization.
Many researchers found personal liberty and religious objections insufficient to prevent mandating COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, decision-makers in favor of mandates appealed to the COVID-19 vaccines ability to reduce disease severity and therefore hospitalization rates, alleviating the pressure on overwhelmed health care facilities.
However, the emergence of even more transmissible variants of the virus dramatically changed the decision-making landscape surrounding COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The public health intention (and ethicality) of original COVID-19 vaccine mandates became less relevant as the scientific community understood that achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 was probably impossible because of uneven vaccine uptake, and breakthrough infections among the vaccinated became more common. Many countries like England and various states in the U.S. started to roll back COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
With the rollback and removal of vaccine mandates, decision-makers are still left with important policy questions: Should vaccine mandates be dismissed, or is there still sufficient ethical and scientific justification to keep them in place?
Vaccines are lifesaving medicines that can help everyone eligible to receive them. But vaccine mandates are context-dependent tools that require considering the time, place and population they are deployed in.
Though COVID-19 vaccine mandates are less of a publicly pressing issue today, many other vaccine mandates, particularly in schools, are currently being challenged. I believe this is a reflection of decreased trust in public health authorities, institutions and researchers resulting in part from tumultuous decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Engaging in transparent and honest conversations surrounding vaccine mandates and other health policies can help rebuild and foster trust in public health institutions and interventions.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation has a variety of fascinating free newsletters.
It was written by: Rachel Gur-Arie, Arizona State University.
Read more:
Rachel Gur-Arie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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John Legend isn't taking chances when it comes to keeping his family healthy.
In an interview with "CBS Mornings"Wednesday, the singer and father of four, 44, shared why he thinks it's important to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
"I believe in making sure everyone in my family is protected," he said. "The thing about the virus is, it changes, it mutates, and so it's good to have vaccines that are updated."
Legend partnered with vaccine maker Pfizer earlier this year to promote booster shots against Omicron variants. Now, just a month after the FDA and CDC signed off on updated COVID vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, Legend is using his voice to encourage others to get the shots, which are retargeted for newer variants ahead of the fall virus season.
click to expand
"I think what's gonna happen in the future is we're gonna have updates every year, just like we get a flu shot every year," Legend added. "If you care about keeping your family healthy and keeping your family protected, I think getting the vaccine update is a great way to help do that."
The new shots are similar to previously approved formulas, but were updated to target the XBB variants of the virus, which became dominant last winter.
"Updated COVID booster shots still provide the best protection we have against the disease, especially the most severe forms of COVID," Emily Smith, a global health expert and author of "The Science of the Good Samaritan," told CBS News in an email last month. "Even though we continue to have new variants of COVID pop up, the good news is that the updated booster shots still work against the current variants circulating, including the newest variants."
The new COVID-19 shots come as health authorities are also promoting other new vaccinesnow available for RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, in addition to the annual seasonal flu vaccine.
Alexander Tin contributed reporting.
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The health department said this COVID vaccine distribution has gone about as smoothly as they could have hoped for, already giving out 400 vaccines with plenty more scheduled.
Wednesday, October 18th 2023, 10:36 am
The Tulsa Health Department says it has given out hundreds of COVID-19 vaccines since first getting the shots about two weeks ago.
The department has given out roughly 400 COVID-19 booster vaccines since first getting the shots about two weeks ago.
The health department said the distribution has gone about as smoothly as it could have hoped for, and appointments are filling up quickly.
The booster is available for everyone aged six months and older and is available at all the Tulsa Health Department locations. This version of the vaccine protects against new variants of COVID making the rounds this fall.
The health department said even though appointments are continuing to fill up, it is opening more time slots to keep up with the demand.
"We are scheduling appointments for all of our vaccines. Our appointments are filling up, but we keep opening more just as time goes by," Ellen Niemitalo, Interim Associate Director of Preventive Health Services at the Tulsa Health Department said.
So far, the health department has not heard of any negative side effects from this booster, and the reaction from the public has been pretty positive so far.
"The reaction of most people when they are coming in is just, this is one more thing that they can do routinely to protect them throughout this respiratory virus season against COVID and flu, and then help just protect themselves and their family. So it really has become more routine," Niemitalo said.
COVID vaccine appointments can be made online at the Tulsa Health Department's website. If all the appointments online are filled, the health department encourages you to give them a call to get your appointment scheduled.
CLICK HERE for information about making an appointment.
The St. Marys County Health Department (SMCHD) will be hosting free flu and COVID vaccine clinics for children ages six months 18 years.No appointments are necessary.
These clinics are being scheduled in lieu of the onsite school-based flu vaccine clinics normally provided by SMCHD with the St. Marys County Public Schools.
Clinics have been scheduled for the following dates and locations:
Vaccinations are an important part of preventing infection and serious illness from Flu and COVID-19, said Dr. Meena Brewster, St. Marys County Health Officer. We hope parents will take advantage of these convenient clinics to get their children vaccinated this fall. Local pharmacies and medical practices are also offering flu vaccine and the updated COVID-19 vaccine, though some may have age restrictions.
For more information about seasonal flu please visit:smchd.org/flu
For more information about COVID-19 please visit:smchd.org/covid-19
For questions about vaccinations, please call SMCHD at 301-475-4330.
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