COVID-19 vaccine development: Public funding yielded private profits Decades before the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government invested at least $337 million into critical research that led to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The government also paid $31.6 billion during the pandemic for vaccine research, production, and vaccines for all Americans.Read More
Vaccine effectiveness against Omicron variants may change over time Researchers from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts collaborated on a case-control study and found that two vaccines were generally effective over time against severe outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection. The research, published February 3 in the journal JAMA Network Open, also showed that protection among older individuals was more likely to wane six months after the second dose.Read More
Initial colon cancer surgery may not be best course Southern China researchers unexpectedly found pre-surgery immunotherapy for a common type of colorectal cancer even more effective at early and mid-stages than its previously known high success rate in the metastatic stage of the disease. The study, published January 11 in JNCCN - Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, found that immune checkpoint programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor treatment prior to surgery was significantly effective for patients with certain types of colorectal cancer.Read More