COVID-19

New findings on long COVID long-term effects on health experienced by many who have had COVID-19 present a good-news, bad-news situation, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care system.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, continues to evolve and evade current vaccine and therapeutic interventions. A consortium of scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed), the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Columbia University have developed a promising new human monoclonal antibody that appears a step closer to a universal antibody cocktail that works against all strains of SARS-CoV-2.

AstraZeneca announced that it had initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a surplus of available updated vaccines since the pandemic.

The company also said it would proceed to withdraw the vaccine Vaxzevria's marketing authorizations within Europe.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can damage the heart even without directly infecting the heart tissue, a National Institutes of Health-supported study has found. The research, published in the journal Circulation, specifically looked at damage to the hearts of people with SARS-CoV2-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a serious lung condition that can be fatal. But researchers said the findings could have relevance to organs beyond the heart and also to viruses other than SARS-CoV-2.

Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Long COVID remains an unsolved, complex and urgent healthcare crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 9 adults in the United States who have ever had COVID-19 continue to experience Long COVID with a wide range of symptoms. Many symptoms are debilitating, affecting patients’ ability to work and go to school.

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has posed unprecedented challenges worldwide. While extensive efforts have focused on understanding the clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, certain aspects of the virus behavior, such as reactivation and recurrence, remain elusive. 

Novavax, Inc a global company advancing protein-based vaccines with its novel Matrix-M™ adjuvant, today announced that the Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted (2023-2024 Formula) (NVX-CoV2601) has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 in individuals aged 12 and older. Immediately upon authorization, Novavax's vaccine has also been included in the recommendations issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on September 12, 2023.

The National Institutes of Health launched and is opening enrollment for phase 2 clinical trials that will evaluate at least four potential treatments for long COVID, with additional clinical trials to test at least seven more treatments expected in the coming months. Treatments will include drugs, biologics, medical devices and other therapies. The trials are designed to evaluate multiple treatments simultaneously to identify more swiftly those that are effective.