Author: Paul E.

The FDA has paved the way for flu vaccines that can be given at home. A self-administered version of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s FluMist was approved by regulators on Friday for home administration to patients aged between 2 and 49. The spray, available through doctor’s appointments since 2003, is roughly as effective as the injected vaccine. “The approval of self-administration of FluMist is an important step forward in making our vaccine more accessible to combat the significant annual burden of influenza,” AstraZeneca executive Iskra Raik said in a statement. According to the CDC, while confidence in the flu vaccine is higher…

Elida Middle School eighth grader Willow Shaner practices drawing blood on a replica arm in Elida Middle School’s new career exploration lab. ELIDA — In Elida Middle School’s new Career Exploration Lab, students are drawing blood from replica arms, designing key chains on 3D printers and making videos in front of a green screen. The intensive course is available to seventh and eighth graders and involves students rotating through 16 stations that mimic popular careers such as paramedicine, welding, cosmetology and drone technology. Each station begins with research and then students experience something as close to the everyday life of…

image: Dr. Matthew Lee Smith Show more Credit: Steven Arnold/Texas A&M University School of Public Health Texas A&M University School of Public Health and USAging have received the 2024 Immunization Regional Champion Award from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Adult and Influenza Vaccination Summit. Matthew Lee Smith, PhD, professor in the School of Public Health, leads the school’s efforts as a founding member of USAging’s Elderly and Disabled Vaccination Collaborative (ADVC). The honor, announced as respiratory disease season is in full swing in the United States, recognizes Smith’s work in supporting ADVC’s efforts to increase the…

CNN — The number of whooping cough cases in the United States is skyrocketing, up fivefold from the same period last year, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s the highest number of whooping cough cases since 2014 and “shows no signs of abating,” said Dr. Susan Hariri of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who presented the data Friday at a meeting of experts who advise the Food and Drug Administration on vaccine decisions. The surge in cases this year suggests the disease, also known as whooping…

New coronavirus variant XEC may spread more easily than previous variantsJarun Ontakrai/Shutterstock A new COVID-19 variant called XEC has begun to spread around the world, primarily in Europe. Early evidence suggests that this variant may be more easily transmitted than past variants, but public health experts say this new variant is very similar to past ones and available vaccines are effective. Here’s what we know so far about XEC. What is the new covid-19 XEC variant? XEC is a combination of two other SARS-CoV-2 variants, known as KP.3.3 and KS.1.1, that formed when the two variants infected the same organism,…