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Study compares decline in effectiveness for Moderna, Pfizer, Janssen vaccines; and mortality consequences

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Why are there so many vaccinated people in hospital?

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Originally posted by wtg:

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Why are there so many vaccinated people in hospital?

https://cosmosmagazine.com/hea...-people-in-hospital/

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Singapore will no longer cover the medical costs of COVID-19 patients who are eligible to get vaccinated against the virus but choose not to, the country’s Health Ministry says.

“We will begin charging COVID-19 patients who are unvaccinated by choice,” starting Dec. 8, the ministry said in a statement Monday. Those who are not eligible for the shots will be exempt from the rule, it said, including children under 12 and people with certain medical conditions.

The announcement came as the number of severe cases, which have been mainly among unvaccinated people, has stabilized but remains high, the ministry said. Of about 280 intensive-care beds for COVID patients, 134 are occupied, and most are among those not vaccinated, a senior minister of state, Janil Puthucheary, said at a news conference.

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A pharmacy in Virginia incorrectly administered Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 shots to 112 children last week, according to the state Department of Health.

“The pharmacy attempted to provide a proper dose,” Loudoun County Health Department director Dr. David Goodfriend told CNBC on Thursday. He said it appears the pharmacy did administer about a third of the adult dose, which should be the correct amount. However, “a lower dose is possible if not all of the 0.1 ml was administered into muscle,” he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cleared Pfizer’s shots for kids ages 5 to 11 last week at a third of the dosage for older age groups. Although Pfizer makes special color-coded vials for younger children to ensure they get the right dosage, employees at a pharmacy in Aldie, Virginia — about 36 miles outside of Washington, D.C. — pulled the doses from the vials intended for anyone 12 and older.

Goodfriend alerted parents in a letter sent out Wednesday that Ted Pharmacy may have administered a lower dose than recommended. State and federal officials told the pharmacy to stop distributing shots altogether on Friday before seizing all of its Covid doses, a Virginia health department spokesperson said in a statement.

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Austria, like much of the world, is grappling with how to convince reluctant citizens to get vaccinated against Covid-19 so the rest of the country can return to daily life.

While its government prepares to impose a lockdown for the unvaccinated, one business has settled on an unlikely incentive.

FunPalast, a brothel in the capital Vienna, has opted to inject some enthusiasm — and Covid immunity — into its clientele by offering free access to anyone willing to get the jab on-site.

The brothel made international headlines this week after announcing it would be giving vouchers of 40 Euros (about $46) — the cost of entry — to anyone willing to get vaccinated at its pop-up clinic.

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Offit said that as antibodies wane, susceptibility to asymptomatic or milder infections increases. In a recent US study, the BNT162b2 vaccine was 93% effective against hospitalizations with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant after 6 months, but its effectiveness against Delta variant infections overall fell from 93% in the first month after full vaccination to 53% after 4 months. The authors attributed the reduction mainly to waning immunity rather than the variant’s escape from vaccine protection.

Offit acknowledged that any infection can be disruptive but pointed out the impracticality of using periodic boosters to keep neutralizing antibodies high. He said that’s akin to “rolling the stone up the hill only to have it come back again.”

And like Theel, he knows that some infections will still break through. “You can have a robust or high level of virus neutralizing antibodies in your circulation,” he said. “That’s not going to prevent the virus from attaching to your nose and beginning to reproduce itself. That’s an asymptomatic infection.”

Managing expectations for COVID-19 vaccines may be in order. “I think there was maybe an initial misunderstanding amongst the public that this would just halt all infections, and that’s just not the case,” Theel said. Ultimately, her advice for avoiding a SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first place comes down to a now-familiar combination of measures: “getting vaccinated, frequently washing your hands, wearing a mask, and avoiding high congregate in-door settings, particularly in areas that have high case rates.”

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New clues to the biology of long COVID are starting to emerge

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Austria will go into a national lockdown to contain a fourth wave of coronavirus cases, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday, as new COVID-19 infections hit a record high amid a pandemic surge across Europe.

The lockdown will start Monday and initially will last for 10 days, Schallenberg said.

And starting Feb. 1, the country will also make vaccinations mandatory.

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At a busy market in a poor township outside Harare this week, Nyasha Ndou kept his mask in his pocket, as hundreds of other people, mostly unmasked, jostled to buy and sell fruit and vegetables displayed on wooden tables and plastic sheets. As in much of Zimbabwe, here the coronavirus is quickly being relegated to the past, as political rallies, concerts and home gatherings have returned.

“COVID-19 is gone, when did you last hear of anyone who has died of COVID-19?” Ndou said. “The mask is to protect my pocket,” he said. “The police demand bribes so I lose money if I don’t move around with a mask.” Earlier this week, Zimbabwe recorded just 33 new COVID-19 cases and zero deaths, in line with a recent fall in the disease across the continent, where World Health Organization data show that infections have been dropping since July.