Over a million Americans reside in Congregate Care Facilities (CCFs), which provide housing and some services for individuals who do not need skilled nursing care. CCFs include assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, and memory care units. While healthier than nursing home residents, CCF residents face substantial risk of excess death and morbidity from COVID-19. Many residents and staff in …
President Joseph R. Biden has unveiled a plan to jump-start the nation’s faltering COVID-19 vaccine effort that will include establishing mass vaccination sites and mobile vaccine clinics around the nation. The plan calls for a $20 billion investment in a national vaccination program. According to the CDC, 31 million COVID-19 doses have been distributed and 12.2 million have been administered …
Federal health officials in recent days have urged broadening vaccine eligibility to tens of millions of Americans to speed the national inoculation program rollout. Meanwhile, seniors at some long-term care facilities, who account for about 1% of the U.S. population but 40% of COVID-19 deaths and were supposed to be at the front of the line, continue to wait. State …
Anaphylaxis is a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction that occurs rarely after vaccination. Early safety monitoring of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has detected 21 cases of anaphylaxis after reported administration of 1,893,360 first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Most anaphylaxis cases had symptom onset within 30 minutes of vaccination and most persons with anaphylaxis had a history of allergies or allergic …
Now that vaccines are being administered around the country, we need to be alert to signs and symptoms post-vaccination. Per the CDC, distinguishing between systemic signs of COVID-19 vaccination symptoms of coronavirus infection will depend on many factors. Clinical judgment will be critical in determining COVID-19 symptoms versus post-vaccination symptoms, beginning with whether the healthcare provider had “unprotected exposure to …
Influenza outbreaks in nursing homes pose a threat to frail residents and occur even in vaccinated populations. A pragmatic cluster-randomized trial was performed comparing adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine (aTIV) versus trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV). Of 823 randomized nursing homes, 777 reported information on influenza outbreaks. The treatment group had similar characteristics at baseline except for race/ethnicity; homes assigned to TIV …
A skilled nursing center in Dayton, Ohio recently achieved an inspiring feat: a 100% vaccination rate against Covid-19 for residents and staff. Even more incredible is the fact that the facility, Grafton Oaks, had zero call-outs from staff due to side effects, and the residents were even less affected than the staff. However, this wasn’t as easy of a task …
As scientists are trying to track the spread of a new, more infectious coronavirus variant, it has been identified that the mutation identified in South Africa and Brazil, changes a part of the virus that your immune system’s antibodies get trained to recognize after you’ve been infected or vaccinated. What the lab studies have shown is that the antibodies we …
Vaccination against COVID-19 is critical for public safety and especially the safety of the most vulnerable among us. People living with multiple sclerosis (MS) are seeking peace of mind from the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines. In response, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society convened a group of expert researchers and medical professionals to review the available science and …
After several people had apparent allergic reactions at one California clinic, state health officials on Sunday told providers across the state to pause administering doses from one COVID-19 vaccine lot that arrived from Moderna. The move, made “out of an extreme abundance of caution” means that 330,000 doses distributed to 287 providers across the state can’t be used amid an …
