Animal Study Offers Mixed Results For Omicron-Specific Booster

Stat: Animal Study Suggests Omicron Boosters May Not Provide A Benefit 
A new study conducted in primates suggests there may not be a benefit from updating Covid-19 vaccines to target the Omicron variant at this time. The work, by scientists at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’s Vaccine Research Center, shows that animals boosted with the original vaccine had similar levels of protection against disease in the lungs as did primates that received an updated booster based on the Omicron strain. The work was done with Moderna’s licensed vaccine and a booster shot based on the Omicron variant. Study of blood from the animals showed that many of the measurable immune responses — rises in neutralizing antibody levels, for instance — were not substantially different, regardless of which booster shot they were given. (Branswell, 2/4)

USA Today: Omicron-Specific Booster May Not Be Needed Yet
A new pre-print study suggests that an omicron-specific COVID-19 booster may not be necessary at this point in time. The study, published Friday, found that an omicron-specific version of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine and a booster of the original vaccine generated similar immune responses in monkeys. Researchers vaccinated the primates with two shots of the Moderna vaccine, then boosted them either with the original vaccine or with an omicron-specific vaccine nine months later. The omicron-specific shot "provided no advantage" over the regular shot in producing antibodies, they found. (Tebor, 2/7)

In other news about vaccines —

Fox News: CDC Weighs Increasing Time Between Vaccine Doses To Lower Risk Of Heart Inflammation
U.S. health officials are considering new changes to vaccine guidance that would lengthen the amount of time between doses in order to lower the risk of heart inflammation for immunocompromised people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told a panel of outside advisers on Friday these proposed changes would apply to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Immunocompromised people, who generally don’t respond as well to vaccines, are the only population advised to get four vaccine jabs. (Betz, 2/6)

Axios: Kids' COVID Vaccines Create A New Dilemma For FDA, CDC 
Federal health regulators will soon face their next controversial vaccine decision: whether to authorize Pfizer's vaccine for children younger than 5, despite ongoing questions around dosing and effectiveness. Once again, the pandemic is forcing health officials to choose between unconventional vaccine approval methods and the human costs of abiding by more traditional — yet time-consuming — regulatory processes. (Owens, 2/7)

CIDRAP: Adults Living With HIV In New York Had Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake
COVID-19 vaccine uptake among adults living with HIV in New York was lower than that of the rest of the state's population as of October 2021, according to a study today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). New York public health agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studied COVID-19 vaccination rates among 101,205 state residents living with HIV as of October 24, 2021, using HIV surveillance and immunization registry data. (2/4)

Bangor Daily News: Cumberland County Outpaces Nearly Every US County In Vaccinating Children Against COVID-19
Cumberland County has more 5- to 11-year-olds fully vaccinated against COVID-19 than any county east of the Mississippi, a Bangor Daily News analysis of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. More than 60 percent of Cumberland County’s 21,000 residents aged 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, the data show. It’s a rate that is far higher than counties containing Boston, New York City and Los Angeles. The county ranks fourth in the nation for COVID-19 vaccinations in that age group. (Marino Jr., 2/7)

In updates on covid pills and treatments —

NBC News: Low-Income, Uninsured Face Hurdles To Obtain Covid Antivirals
When Regina Schearack and her 85-year-old father began to develop Covid symptoms last month, they went to get tested at a pharmacy in Midway, Georgia. After the tests came back positive, their pharmacist, Pete Nagel, said they had two options if they wanted treatment: Get a doctor to write a prescription and then return to the pharmacy for the newly authorized antiviral drugs or get four monoclonal antibody shots right away — two in the arms and two in the stomach. (McCausland, 2/6)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: COVID-19 At-Home Pills Hailed As 'Game-Changer' Slow To Leave Shelves
Some Wisconsin pharmacies have hundreds of courses of COVID-19 antiviral pills sitting in supply, amid a "surprising" lack of demand for the at-home pills hailed as a game-changer in treating COVID-19. Officials initially warned that supply of Paxlovid and molnupiravir, the two types of COVID-19 antiviral pills that became available in January, would be "extremely limited." But some pharmacies have hundreds of courses of the treatments in supply and have been filling few prescriptions for the treatments, even as COVID-19 cases surged. (Volpenhein, 2/5)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Montco Surgeon Fired For Allegedly Prescribing Bogus COVID-19 Drugs Through Italian Restaurant
A Montgomery County surgeon has been fired by Tower Health after allegations she prescribed two drugs for COVID-19 patients that the FDA has warned are ineffective and possibly dangerous. Edith D. Behr was terminated Thursday from her position at Pottstown Hospital, Tower announced Thursday. The allegations, which circulated over the past weeks on social media, contend that Behr had been working with a restaurateur in Lebanon County to prescribe the two drugs, which are not approved for treating COVID. (Affo, 2/4)