Health

The Food and Drug Administration will evaluate “as quickly as possible” Pfizer’s request to expand the emergency use authorization of the drug maker’s Covid-19 vaccine to include people ages 12-15 in the United States, FDA Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock said. Pfizer on Friday asked the FDA for the amendment. “While the FDA cannot predict how

Pfizer on Friday asked the FDA for an amendment to its emergency use authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine to expand its use in people ages 12-15 in the United States. “It’s highly likely” that the FDA will allow the expansion and could act “relatively quickly,” the acting chairman of an FDA vaccine advisory committee said.

Just as the Biden administration is moving up its deadline to make vaccine eligibility available to all adults by April 19, the supply of at least one of the vaccines, Johnson & Johnson’s, is slowing down, and with some of its manufacturing challenges at an independent plant that has had problems in the past, it’s

As more and more vaccinations are administered in the US, the Covid-19 story, which once was nothing more than a tale of enormous tragedy, now has a new plotline: how best to return to normal. A key element of this latter story arc is the poorly understood concept of “herd immunity.” The idea is straightforward:

Vaccine advisers to the federal government tell CNN they don’t foresee AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine being used in the United States, and even if it were offered, they personally wouldn’t take it, given the other available options. At one point, hopes had been high for AstraZeneca’s vaccine, with the US pledging to invest up to $1.2

As the US aims to ramp up inoculations to win the race against Covid-19 variants, more than 1 in 4 adults are now fully vaccinated. While more than 66 million people have received two doses, more than a third of Americans — or 112 million — have received at least one dose, according to data

Following weeks of speculation about whether Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine might be connected to dozens of cases of blood clots reported in the region, European drug regulators have now announced that there is a possible link. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) stopped short of changing its guidance on how the vaccine is used, maintaining that the

The number of new Covid-19 cases has plateaued at a “disturbingly high level,” and the US is at risk from a new surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Wednesday. While lower than the peak earlier this year, there were still more than 61,000 new cases reported on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Jessamyn Smyth hopes that two shots in the arm may be what finally delivers her from a year in which the lasting effects of Covid-19 wreaked chaos in her life. Smyth says that after coming down with an acute infection in March 2020, she continued experiencing a constellation of health issues. For months, she has

In my first year as a doctor, I’ve cared for many patients who eagerly wait their turn to get the Covid-19 vaccine. It should be coming soon. This week, President Joe Biden announced he’s moving up the deadline for states to make all American adults eligible for coronavirus vaccines, shifting the date from May 1

The pandemic has pushed millions of parents, largely women, to cut back on work, or leave their jobs altogether. This has resulted in many losses for those employees: wages, career plans and often, a sense of purpose beyond family life. The setbacks aren’t limited to the employee, though. Employers also stand to lose a lot

Children may be spreading Covid-19 through extracurricular activities like sports, health officials say. After-school activities are creating clusters where coronavirus can spread among children, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We know that these increases are due, in part, to more highly transmissible variants, which we are

European drug regulators have confirmed a link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 shot and rare blood clots, as UK authorities recommended that people under 30 should take alternative vaccines. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Wednesday that a particular combination of unusual blood clots with low blood platelet counts should be listed as a side effect

Just five states have accounted for about 43% of new coronavirus cases over the last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey had more than 196,400 of the country’s 453,360 cases reported in the last week, according to data available Wednesday morning. Those states are home

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he expected all states to open Covid-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults by April 19, and at the current pace of vaccination — about 3 million doses administered each day — every adult in the United States could be vaccinated by mid-summer. But not every American plans to be

At this point of the pandemic, the idea of visiting extended family again may be a bright spot after a dark year. Some people have been vaccinated against coronavirus, but the risks associated with spending time around others outside of your household haven’t been fully eradicated. “The tough part is that right now, I think