A growing body of research shows that nutrition, sleep, exercise and a host of other lifestyle choices can help optimize the immune system. But they are no substitute for life-saving vaccines.
Making vaccines in South Africa by building on the foundation that’s been laid is possible. But only if substantial and sustained investment in human resources and infrastructure becomes a reality.
Your body produces antibodies after an infection or vaccine, but these slowly decline over time. New Johnson & Johnson data sheds light on the duration of protection and the need for booster shots.
Fault lines between the FDA and CDC regulatory processes have been on full display in the decisions over which groups of Americans should receive the Pfizer booster shot.
There are a variety of reasons why people do or don’t want to be vaccinated. Depending on how they frame their messaging around vaccination, doctors can often be the deciding factor.
Although there is no evidence yet that it affects COVID-19 vaccines, schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease, has been associated with lower vaccine immunity for several vaccines.
President Biden outlined a six-point strategy to confront the pandemic. But two public health scholars believe it would work better with help from states.
Katelyn Jetelina, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
A lot has happened since the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. A portrait in data highlights trends in everything from case counts, to research publications, to variant spread.
When the coronavirus copies itself, there is a chance its RNA will mutate. But new variants must jump from one host to another, and the more infections there are, the better chance this will happen.
Michelle J. Groome, National Institute for Communicable Diseases; Adrian Puren, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and Harry Moultrie, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Communities with high vaccine coverage rates are likely to see lower case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths related to COVID-19 compared to those with poor vaccine coverage.
Thanks to the collaborative efforts of governments, funding agencies, academia, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, large-scale manufacturing of mRNA drug products is becoming a reality.
Archa Fox, The University of Western Australia and Charles Bond, The University of Western Australia
mRNA vaccines are the first synthetic vaccines, meaning they’re made outside of a living cell. But so are lots of things we consume every day, such as vitamin C pills and other dietary supplements.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand