Health

Should people vaccinated against coronavirus still get tested?

As COVID-19 vaccines go into arms at record pace, and more than one in four U.S. adults are now fully vaccinated, according to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some may question whether testing is still necessary after receiving jabs.

“Fully vaccinated people should test if they develop symptoms of COVID or if they think they may have had a significant exposure,” said Dr. Anna P. Durbin, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore who specializes in infectious disease and vaccines, in an emailed statement to Fox News.

Likewise, the CDC suggests fully vaccinated people can do without testing and quarantine after an exposure if they don’t develop symptoms.

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Fully vaccinated individuals should seek clinical evaluation should they develop COVID-like symptoms, the CDC says. (iStock)

“If symptoms develop, all people – regardless of vaccination status – should isolate and be clinically evaluated for COVID-19, including SARS-CoV-2 testing, if indicated,” the CDC says.

The guidance differs for those in congregate settings (like correctional facilities and group homes) due to turnover rates, heightened risk of virus spread and difficulties maintaining distancing. In these instances, the agency recommends 14-day quarantine and testing following a potential exposure.

As Durbin explains, vaccines are designed to protect against disease, particularly for respiratory viruses. Evidence from clinical trials has shown the recently approved vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna are about 95% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, and real-world data has suggested the mRNA vaccines cut infection risk by 90%. Johnson & Johnson previously said its single-shot coronavirus vaccine was 72% effective in preventing moderate-to-severe COVID-19 in the U.S., but fell to 66% in a larger trial conducted worldwide. According to the CDC, early data suggests the Janssen vaccine may tamp down asymptomatic transmission too.

“Breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 — or, contracting the virus despite having received the vaccine — are rare, but possible, Dr. John Whyte, the chief medical officer of the health care website WebMD, previously told Fox News.

The vaccines are very good, he said, but “aren’t 100% effective.”

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“Fully vaccinated people should still watch for symptoms of COVID-19, especially following an exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19,” the CDC advises. However, the federal health agency says that the risk of becoming infected is “low” for vaccinated individuals. With this, the CDC has already said testing and isolation before-and-after travel is not necessary for those who have completed their vaccinations.

“It is possible that people who have completed their vaccination series can still be infected with SARS-CoV-2; however, the rate of being infected after vaccination appears to be reduced by 70-80% compared to the non-vaccinated population,” said Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory in Mayo Clinic’s Division of Clinical Microbiology, in an emailed statement to Fox News. “Furthermore, in the event that a vaccinated person becomes infected, they may shed lower amounts of the virus and for shorter periods of time compared to non-vaccinated individuals.”

Fox News’ Madeline Farber contributed to this report.

Michigan coronavirus strategy should focus on restrictions, not more vaccine supply, Walensky says

Michigan’s governor has renewed her call for additional vaccine supply from the Biden administration to combat the state’s surging coronavirus cases, but federal officials have instead said the focus should be on implementing restrictions to stop the spread. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the state’s strategy should emulate the restrictions put in place last spring and summer, as sending additional vaccines would result in a delayed impact.

“Really what we need to do in those situations is to shut things down,” Walensky said. “If we tried to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we would be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work to actually have the impact.”

Walensky said that when states are faced with “an acute situation, an extraordinary number of cases like we have in Michigan – the answer is not necessarily to give vaccine.” Additionally, she said pulling vaccine supply from one state to give another could create further issues as “we don’t know where the next place” to experience a case surge will be.

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On Friday, Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, signaled during a briefing that the government would not be shifting course in its vaccine allocation plans anytime soon. Federal health officials have been on the ground in Michigan and upper Midwest states to further investigate what is driving outbreaks in the region.

Walensky said the states should ramp up testing, focus on decreased contact, conduct contact tracing and shut down necessary activities previously closed to “flatten the curve.” The latest data from Michigan indicates a 16% increase in cases from a week ago, with an average of 6,545 new cases per day, according to MLive.com. The state is also averaging about 40 deaths per day, up from 27 the week prior.

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The concerning trends comes amid promising news on the country’s vaccination front, which saw a new record-high of 4.6 million shots administered on Saturday. The White House’s Andy Slavitt said that 46% of adults have now received at least one shot, and that 28% are now fully vaccinated. Beginning next week, all states will expand eligibility to all adults.

Regeneron COVID-19 antibody cocktail helps prevent symptomatic disease in study

A monoclonal antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron and Roche dropped the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 by up to 76% after three days for recently infected individuals not yet experiencing symptoms, according to a press release posted Monday. The drug, REGEN-COV, also significantly reduced duration of symptoms and lowered viral levels, Regeneron said.

REGEN-COV, comprised of casirivimab with imdevimab, has already received emergency use authorization from the FDA in the U.S. Under the current EUA, the combo therapy is approved to treat non-hospitalized adults and adolescents with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 and who are at high risk for developing severe symptoms or the need for hospitalization.

The currently authorized dosage is 1,200 mg of casirivimab and 1,200 mg of imdevimab administered together as a single infusion within 10 days of symptom onset.

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The results announced Monday drew from a Phase 3 study involving 204 individuals who were randomly assigned to receive the drug via 1,200 mg injection or placebo.

“COVID-19 transmission often occurs via infected people who do not yet have symptoms, so it is critical that we rapidly diagnose and treat these individuals for their own health and to prevent transmission,” Dr. Katharine Bar, co-principal investigator of the trial and assistant professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said in part in the release.

More specifically, the company noted a 45% drop in the number of weeks patients felt symptoms, and the viral burden was cut by over 90%.

Regeneron also announced separate, positive findings on REGEN-COV on Monday, indicating the 1,200 mg injection helped to tamp down symptomatic COVID-19 infections within households by 81%. Findings drew from 1,505 trial participants who were not infected when they entered the study.

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“These findings are very encouraging and suggest that REGEN-COV is highly effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in household contacts of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, Ph.D., co-principal investigator of the trial and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“These antibodies may be particularly useful in individuals who are not yet vaccinated, and may also have potential in those who are immunosuppressed and may not respond well to vaccines,” Barouch said in part.

Almost 10% of people living with an infected individual experienced symptomatic infection if they did not take the drug, according to Dr. Myron Cohen, who leads the monoclonal antibody efforts for the NIH-sponsored COVID Prevention Network (CoVPN) and is director of the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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While participants on placebo cleared symptoms in three weeks, those taking REGEN-COV saw symptoms clear in one week, the company said.

Regeneron intends to share the findings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand the currently authorized use “to include COVID prevention for appropriate populations, using a 1,200 mg subcutaneous dose,” the company said.

Fox News’ Alexandria Hein contributed to this report.

New Hampshire first to administer COVID-19 vaccine dose to over 50% of eligible residents, data shows

New Hampshire became the first state to administer at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to over 50% of eligible residents, according to data compiled by Fox News. The state had opened vaccine eligibility to residents ages 16 and older on April 2, and on April 19 will do away with residency requirements.

“New Hampshire’s vaccine rollout is moving at an incredible pace, and we are incredibly proud of the fact that our success allows the state to offer the vaccine to any person from anywhere beginning on April 19,” Gov. Chris Sununu said last week, according to the Boston Herald. “New Hampshire is getting the job done.”

Sununu said he expects that the state will soon “have a lot of vaccine” to give out.

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“It’s kind of a first-come, first-serve for anyone from out of state,” Sununu said, according to the outlet. “It doesn’t matter to us. As long as you’re 16-and-up, you can come get the vaccine for any reason you want.”

As of Monday numbers showed that 50.9% had received at least one dose of vaccine. An additional 21.5% had received the second dose as well. Statewide, administrators have doled out some 958,018 doses of vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), New Hampshire also has the second-highest doses administered rate, at 70,457 per 100,000 of total population. The Granite State trails New Mexico, which is averaging 71,674 per 100,000, but has administered about 100,000 more doses.

However, despite the promising developments on the vaccine front, the state is currently seeing an increase in cases with state officials on Sunday reporting an 11% increase in cases per day from the prior 7-day period. As is the trend in other states, New Hampshire is seeing an increase in cases among younger demographics, which health officials elsewhere have said is likely due to increasing vaccination rates among older populations.

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Currently, the state has 3,233 active cases, and 107 COVID-19 related hospitalizations. The numbers are still far lower than peaks seen during the winter months.

Model left brain-damaged after allergic reaction to pretzel awarded $29.5M

The family of a model who was left brain-damaged after having a serious allergic reaction to a peanut butter-infused pretzel was awarded nearly $30 million by a Las Vegas jury.

Chantel Giacalone’s family was awarded the $29.5 million sum Friday when a jury found that the responding ambulance service negligently treated her in 2013, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

“At least my daughter will be taken care of. I’m happy about that,” her father, Jack Giacalone, said after the verdict was read.

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On Feb. 20, 2013, then-27-year-old Giacalone was modeling clothes at a fashion trade show at the Mandalay Bay South Convention Center when her friend bought her frozen yogurt and put a bite-size pretzel on top.

Giacalone, an aspiring actress, went into anaphylactic shock after taking a bite.

Her lawyer, Christian Morris, said she lost oxygen to her brain for a period of minutes after seeking treatment from MedicWest Ambulance, which was running the medic station that day.

During the three-week civil trial, Morris argued that neither of the two medics on-site that day had IV epinephrine, an adrenaline treatment for severe allergic reactions required by the Southern Nevada Health District.

The medics only had intramuscular epinephrine in their bags, which they used on Giacalone — but IVs are required when a patient is going into full anaphylaxis.

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“Every minute of Chantel’s life has been inextricably altered,” Morris said in court. “Every single minute since she walked into that medic room to a company that chose profits over patient care.”

MedicWest denied any wrongdoing and said the outcome was inevitable because of Giacalone’s heightened sensitivity to peanuts.

But, her dad said, “The truth came out. Because what happened in that room was nothing. They let my daughter linger.”

“All the anguish that we’ve been through for the last eight years, I’m not happy about,” Jack Giacalone said. “I just hope MedicWest changes their ways.”

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At the time of the incident, Chantel had been launching her acting career, with roles in the 2009 thriller “The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations” and the web series “Hollow Walls.”

Now 35, she is quadriplegic, has to be fed through a tube and can only communicate with her eyes, according to the Review-Journal.

Her parents provide Chantel with 24-hour care. They said the money from the lawsuit will be invested in her future care and a new home that is more conducive to her needs.

Click for more from NYPost.com.

Unusual treatment shows promise for kids with brain tumors

For decades, a deadly type of childhood cancer has eluded science’s best tools. Now doctors have made progress with an unusual treatment: Dripping millions of copies of a virus directly into kids’ brains to infect their tumors and spur an immune system attack.

A dozen children treated this way lived more than twice as long as similar patients have in the past, doctors reported Saturday at an American Association for Cancer Research conference and in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This 2016 photo provided by the family shows Jake Kestler, center, with his parents, Gallite and Josh, and his sister, Lily, a month before he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
(Family photo via AP)

Although most of them eventually died of their disease, a few are alive and well several years after treatment — something virtually unheard of in this situation.

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“This is the first step, a critical step,” said the study’s leader, Dr. Gregory Friedman, a childhood cancer specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“Our goal is to improve on this,” possibly by trying it when patients are first diagnosed or by combining it with other therapies to boost the immune system, he said. The patients in the study were given the experimental approach after they failed other treatments.

The study involved gliomas, which account for 8% to 10% of childhood brain tumors. They’re usually treated with surgery, chemotherapy or radiation but they often recur. Once they do, survival averages just under six months.

In such cases, the immune system has lost the ability to recognize and attack the cancer, so scientists have been seeking ways to make the tumor a fresh target. They turned to the herpes virus, which causes cold sores and spurs a strong immune system response. A suburban Philadelphia company called Treovir developed a treatment by genetically modifying the virus so it would infect only cancer cells.

Through tiny tubes inserted in the tumors, doctors gave the altered virus to 12 patients ages 7 to 18 whose cancer had worsened after usual treatments. Half also received one dose of radiation, which is thought to help the virus spread.

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Eleven showed evidence in imaging tests or tissue samples that the treatment was working. Median survival was just over a year, more than double what’s been seen in the past. As of last June — the cutoff for analyzing these results — four were still alive at least 18 months after treatment.

Tests also showed high levels of specialized immune system cells in their tumors, suggesting the treatment had recruited the help needed from the body to attack the disease.

No serious safety issues were seen, though there were several procedure-related complications and mild side effects including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fatigue.

Jake Kestler had the treatment when he was 12.

“It went very well. He lived for a year and four months after that,” long enough to celebrate his bar mitzvah, go with his family to Hawaii and see a brother be born, said his father, Josh Kestler, a financial services executive from Livingston, New Jersey.

This combination of MRI images provided by the University of Alabama in April 2021 shows scans of a child with a brain tumor, before and after a treatment that involves using viruses to spur an immune system response to the cancerous cells. Lighter-colored areas inside the red circles indicate the tumor size.
(UAB via AP)

Jake died April 11, 2019, but “we have no regrets whatsoever” about trying the treatment, said Kestler, who with his wife has started a foundation, Trail Blazers for Kids, to further research.

“It’s a devastating disease for these patients and their families,” and the early results suggest the virus treatment is helping, but they need to be verified in a larger study, which doctors are planning, said Dr. Antoni Ribas, a cancer specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and president of the group holding the conference.

Friedman said studies are continuing in adults as well, and plans are in the works for other types of childhood brain tumors. U.S. government grants and several foundations paid for the study, and several doctors have financial ties to Treovir.

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Only one similar virus therapy is currently approved in the United States — Imlygic, also a modified herpes virus, for treating melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer.

‘Patient 16’ recovers from COVID-19 infection during Defense Department study

A military spouse who was hospitalized due to COVID-19 was able to fight off the infection after taking part in a Defense Department study that involved a filter attached to a dialysis machine to rid her blood of the virus.

Retired Col. Matt Hepburn, a physician who worked for years in the defense advanced research projects agency, or DARPA, told “60 Minutes” that the military is working on several moonshot projects to help prevent the next pandemic and assist in the current one. One included a sensor that would be placed underneath your skin in order to detect chemical reactions that may be occurring due to an infection. The sensor is still being developed but Hepburn likened it to a “check-engine light.”

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He pointed to another example of technology spurred by the agency that involved a military spouse called “Patient 16.” The individual was suffering from COVID-19 and experiencing organ failure. She entered the study that essentially involved a blood filter that removes the virus from the body. Hepburn told the show that the filter “takes the virus out, and puts the blood back in.”

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The report said the patient made a full recovery and the Food and Drug Administration approved its use in emergency situations. The report said the filter has been used in almost 300 critically ill patients.

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The report that included the “Patient 16” story was wide-ranging and discussed ways the military hopes to intervene in future outbreaks.

Israel COVID-19 study finds South Africa variant able to ‘break through’ Pfizer vaccine

A new study from Israel indicates the South Africa variant of the coronavirus can “break through” the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to some degree.

A team from Tel Aviv University and Clalit Health Services found that the prevalence of the South Africa variant among patients who received both doses of the vaccine was around eight times higher than those unvaccinated – 5.4% versus 0.7%.

The study compared over 400 people who received at least one shot of the vaccine and contracted the coronavirus with the same number who were infected and unvaccinated.

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“We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group,” said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern. “This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection.”

The study, published Saturday, still requires peer review to verify the results, according to Reuters.

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“It is the first in the world to be based on real-world data, showing that the vaccine is less effective against the South Africa variant, compared to both the original virus and the British variant,” said Professor Ran Balicer, director of research at Clalit.

Balicer noted that the results indicate a need for continued health policy, including social distancing and wearing masks in indoor spaces.

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The study appears to corroborate a recent study from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, according to the Times of Israel: The Ben-Gurion study analyzed blood samples, while the new research is based on sequenced test results.

The new study most notably does not indicate the full prevalence of the variant, which is largely uncommon so far, though it is much more virulent than the original strain of COVID-19.

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“Even if the South African variant does break through the vaccine’s protection, it has not spread widely through the population,” said Stern.

Israel has conducted a number of important studies into vaccine efficacy as the nation clears full vaccination for over 50% of its population. About a third of the population is under the age of 16, meaning they are not eligible for the shot.

Chinese COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness ‘not high,’ government exploring options: officials

China’s coronavirus vaccines may not provide the appropriate protection, with the government exploring options to try and boost efficacy as additional vaccines enter clinical trials.

In a rare admission from a normally tight-lipped government, Chinese health officials admitted that the vaccines “don’t have very high protective rates.”

“It’s now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines for the immunization process,” China Centers for Disease Control director Gao Fu said at a conference Saturday.

Director-general of Chinese Disease Control and Prevention Gao Fu speaks during a news conference on prevention and control of the new coronavirus related pneumonia in Beijing, China January 22, 2020. REUTERS/Jason Lee

Drug companies Sinopharm and Sinovac were the leading producers for China’s vaccine efforts, with their products exported to 22 countries including Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey.

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Sinopharm initially reported a 79% efficacy rate, but did not release any trial data for the vaccines.

Meanwhile, foreign trials for the Sinovac vaccine have found a wide range of efficacy, with Brazil reporting 50% efficacy for and Turkey reporting over 80% efficacy, the Washington Post reported.

Sinovac spokesperson Liu Peicheng acknowledged varying levels of effectiveness in the company’s vaccine, but claimed a number of factors could result in that variation, including the age of people in a study or the virus strain, among other factors.

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China is therefore exploring a number of options to boost efficacy and better protect its citizens.

One option would see alterations to the dosage regimen, either through increasing the number of doses or increasing the interval between doses to boost effectiveness.

The second option would attempt to mix vaccines, which China currently does not recommend, the South China Morning Post reported.

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Countries are running clinical trials to see if mixing vaccines proves safe and yields any increased protection.

Britain is currently exploring the possibility of mixing its AstraZeneca vaccine with the Pfizer vaccine.

Gao suggested that China explore using mRNA vaccines, which are used by American and European companies but not by China – so far.

Another CDC official said that mRNA vaccines have entered the clinical trial phase, but provided no timeline otherwise.

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Health experts say the Chinese vaccines are unlikely to be sold to the United States or Western Europe due to the complexity of the approval process.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Women, those under 40 more likely to have side effects to COVID vaccine, expert says

Women and people under 40 years old are more likely to experience side effects from COVID-19 vaccines, an expert told The Post on Friday.

“Women and younger people have more local reactions — a sore arm, a day of not feeling so well, or aches and pains,” according to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert from Vanderbilt University.

“People wonder if it’s because women have more estrogen but that remains to be studied,” he said.

“The short answer is there’s got to be reasons for it but we don’t know what they are,” added Schaffner.

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Side effects from COVID-19 vaccines range from nausea and flu-like symptoms to nothing at all — but your reaction says nothing about how you would have fared against the virus, experts said.

“I don’t think that there’s any relationship between your reaction to the vaccine and what would have happened to you had you gotten infected with the virus,” Schaffner said in an interview with the CBS affiliate WFMY.

But regardless of the severity of post-vaccination symptoms — which this week included nausea and dizziness for 11 people at a shuttered Colorado Johnson & Johnson jab site — the shots are equally effective for everyone, experts said.

“People will say, ‘Well if I didn’t get a reaction, does that mean the vaccine didn’t work?’ and the answer is, no,” Dr. William Moss, a vaccines expert from Johns Hopkins University, told the outlet.

He added, “[There are] no implications for protective efficacy…No implications for how your body would respond if you got infected with the actual SARS-CoV-2.”

On Wednesday, around a dozen people reportedly suffered adverse reactions to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, prompting officials to shutter the site.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment later stressed that the side effects experienced were “consistent with what can be expected” with the single-dose shot.

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As of Friday, more than 112 million people had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the US.

This story first appeared in The New York Post.

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