Moderna Vax Works in Teens; Vegas, Baby?! Most Segregated Hospitals

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Moderna announced that its phase III TeenCOVE trial met the primary endpoint, with its COVID vaccine in kids ages 12 to 17 demonstrating non-inferior immunogenicity versus an adult comparator group, and showing 93-100% efficacy after the second dose.

Describing the “scandalous inequity” in global COVID-19 vaccine distribution, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, called on wealthier countries to donate enough supply so that 30% of every nation could be inoculated by year’s end. (Reuters)

Pfizer has begun testing its pneumonia vaccine along with a third shot of its COVID vaccine in people over 65, to see if the vaccine combination is safe and what immune response it induces. (Reuters)

As of Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. EDT, the unofficial COVID-19 toll in the U.S. was 33,144,178 cases and 590,697 deaths, increases of more than 26,258 and 804, respectively, since this time a day ago.

The Wuhan “lab leak” theory now turns to an abandoned copper mine where six workers fell ill in 2012 after clearing bat guano. (Wall Street Journal)

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) apologized after pictures surfaced on social media showing her dining at a restaurant with a group of at least a dozen people; state guidelines call for no more than six people to be together. (CNN)

Two months before Tokyo is set to host the Summer Olympics, the U.S. State Department advised against traveling to Japan, as COVID infection rates are surging. (NBC News)

But the Japanese government is determined to host the Games, mobilizing mass vaccination sites to help inoculate older residents by the end of July. (AP)

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a bill barring private businesses and public institutions such as schools from requiring COVID-19 “vaccine passports.” (The Hill)

Sen. Rand Paul, MD (R-Ky.), does not plan to get vaccinated, saying he has natural immunity from when he caught COVID in March 2020. (Business Insider)

In a genomic surveillance study of SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S., variants of concern appeared disproportionately more frequent in kids under 12, according to a medRxiv preprint.

Russia’s Sputnik V COVID vaccine is “highly effective” against the Brazilian variant, according to a Russian government-led fund and Argentine researchers. (Reuters)

A lawmaker in Ohio wants to end the state’s $1 million vaccine lottery. (WVXU)

Las Vegas plans to remove all COVID restrictions June 1, in time for the first large, in-person convention scheduled in the U.S. since the pandemic started. (Washington Post)

Staff nurses were among a few dozen people who publicly protested Houston Methodist’s COVID vaccine mandate over the weekend. (Becker’s Hospital Review)

About 12,000 non-clinical employees of the Midwestern Advocate Aurora Health system will continue working remotely permanently, as they have been during the pandemic. (BizTimes)

In other news:

• A who’s who of the most racially inclusive and segregated hospitals. (Lown Institute)
• Twenty-one people in northwest China died while running a high-altitude ultramarathon over the weekend, when weather conditions suddenly changed to freezing rain and gale-force winds. (NBC News)
• An in-depth look at the so-called Havana syndrome affecting U.S. diplomats and now officials in Washington. (The New Yorker)
• Nearly 150 organizations (including the Harvard and Johns Hopkins schools of public health) signed a letter asking governments across the world to phase out combustible tobacco sales. (Action on Smoking & Health)
• Kids 10 and under are more at risk of accidental poisoning via ingesting edibles and other cannabis-derived products, according to a study analyzing poison control center calls. (JAMA Network Open)

Last Updated May 25, 2021