Do Not Use Certain SD Biosensor Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Tests: FDA Safety Communication | FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers and health care providers to stop using and throw out certain lots of recalled SD Biosensor, Inc. Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Tests, distributed by Roche Diagnostics. The FDA has significant concerns of bacterial contamination in the Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Test liquid solution, provided in the test kit. Direct contact with the contaminated liquid solution may pose safety concerns and the bacterial contamination could impact the performanceContinue…

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Human Rights Commissioner troubled by end of mask mandates in healthcare settings – BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner

Vancouver B.C. – On April 12, 2023, B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender released the following statement on the recent announcement that universal mask mandates in healthcare settings would be eliminated. “As mask restrictions have been lifted in B.C., I have repeatedly expressed concerns about the human rights implications of these policy decisions: that the removal of mask mandates has a disproportionate impact on marginalized people, seniors, and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable. ThisContinue…

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The Potential and Challenges of Mucosal COVID-19 Vaccines | NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

In November 2022, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) co-hosted a virtual workshop on the importance and challenges of developing mucosal vaccines for SARS-COV-2. The highlights of this workshop have now been published as a report in npj Vaccines.Although vaccines currently available for COVID-19 are usually effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and death, researchers recognize the need for improvement. A vaccine more effective at preventing transmission or infection with SARS-CoV-2 couldContinue…

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Pragmatica-Lung Study opens for patient enrollment – NCI

The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has helped launch a phase 3 randomized clinical trial (NCT05633602) of a two-drug combination to treat patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Called the Pragmatica-Lung Study (or S2302), this is one of the first NCI-supported clinical trials to use a trial design that removes many of the barriers that prevent people from joining clinical trials. This “pragmatic” approach aims to increaseContinue…

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Risk of Protection Failure with Certain O&M Halyard Surgical N95 Respirators, Surgical Masks, and Pediatric Face Masks: FDA Safety Communication | FDA

Date Issued: April 12, 2023 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending consumers, health care providers, and facilities to not use certain surgical N95 respirators manufactured by O&M Halyard, and to use caution with certain surgical masks and pediatric face masks manufactured by O&M Halyard. The FDA is aware of laboratory test results that show certain models of O&M Halyard surgical N95 respirators, surgical masks, and pediatric face masks do not meet qualityContinue…

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This Questionable Study Caught Fire in Anti-Vaccine Circles. How Did It Get Through Peer Review?

Anti vaxxer study proven false

After two months of going viral, the study is set to be retracted by BMC Infectious Diseases, the author and the journal told The Chronicle. Three years into a pandemic that has killed more than 6.8 million people, the episode is the latest illustration of the pressure on scholarly journals to vet Covid research that may be built on falsehoods — a high-stakes job that they routinely botch, observers say. Source: This Questionable Study CaughtContinue…

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Kashyap Patel, MD, Sees Link Between COVID-19 and Cancer Progression, Calls for More Biomarker Testing

Kashyap Patel, MD, CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, sees something different in his practice since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—not just with cancer care, but with cancer itself. Since March 2020, the longtime community oncologist has seen multiple patients in his Rock Hill, South Carolina, based-clinic with cholangiocarcinoma, and these patients are developing the rare cancer 20 to 30 years earlier than the typical age at presentation, which is usually 65Continue…

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Sharing Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Between People and Pets… Is There a Concern? | Worms & Germs Blog

An abstract in the upcoming European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) has gotten a fair bit of press and led to a lot of questions because of some sensational headlines. I’ll hopefully be able to check out all the details at ECCMID (I’ll be there for the Global Leaders Group on AMR meeting), but let’s take a quick look at what we know so far… Source: Sharing Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Between People andContinue…

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Polio cases in Africa linked to new oral vaccine | Science | AAAS

Last week, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) reported seven children, six in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and one in neighboring Burundi, had recently been paralyzed by poliovirus strains derived from a vaccine meant to prevent the disease. Unfortunately, such cases are so common—786 were reported last year in Africa, Yemen, and elsewhere—that these seven might not have stood out against the noise. But there was a key difference, GPEI said inContinue…

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Unearthed genetic sequences from China market may point to animal origin of COVID-19

French scientist finds previously undisclosed data from Chinese research team. A scientific sleuth in France has identified previously undisclosed genetic data from a food market in Wuhan, China, that she and colleagues say support the theory that coronavirus-infected animals there triggered the COVID-19 pandemic. Several of the researchers presented their findings on Tuesday to the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), an expert group convened last year by the World HealthContinue…

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