Category: America

American Coronavirus News

Vaccines: Pfizer CEO says fourth dose of vaccine may be needed sooner than expected

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Wednesday that people might need a fourth Covid-19 shot sooner than expected after preliminary research shows the new Omicron variant can undermine protective antibodies generated by the vaccine the company developed with BioNTech.  More...

Coronaheadsup.com Africa, America, Asia, Australasia, B.1.1.529, Coronavirus, Europe, Infection, Omicron, Pfizer/Biontech, Reinfection, Revaccination, Transmission, USA, Vaccine, Vaccine Breakthrough, Vaccine Waning

FFP2 masks more effective at preventing Covid infection than vaccines

Max Planck: “When both wear a surgical mask, while the infectious is speaking, the very conservative upper bound remains below 30% after 1h, but, when both wear a well-fitting FFP2 mask, it is 0.4%”

We find, for a typical SARS-CoV-2 viral load and infectious dose, that social distancing alone, even at 3m between two speaking individuals, leads to an upper bound of 90% for risk of infection after a few minutes.  More...

Coronaheadsup.com Africa, America, Asia, Australasia, Coronavirus, Europe, Facemasks, Health, Healthcare, Hospitalization, Infection, Transmission, Vaccine, Vaccine Breakthrough, Vaccine Waning

CDC: Addition of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 chimeric viruses to select agents and toxins list

Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins published an Interim Final Rule adding SARS-CoV/SARS-CoV-2 chimeric viruses resulting from any deliberate manipulation of SARS-CoV-2 to incorporate nucleic acids coding for SARS-CoV virulence factors to the list of HHS select agents and toxins.  More...

Coronaheadsup.com Coronavirus, Evolution, Recombination, Superspreader events, Transmission, USA