What we know about the next round of COVID-19 vaccines | Wilnesh News

Do you think a friend or colleague should receive this newsletter? share this link Sign up with them.

Good afternoon! It’s almost that time of year again.

Another round of COVID-19 vaccines could reach Americans in the coming months. Here’s what we know so far about the latest vaccines.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday suggestion Vaccine makers will develop a monovalent Covid vaccine against a highly contagious strain called JN.1 for use in the United States starting this fall.

Omicron variant JN.1 first emerged in the United States last summer and became the dominant strain circulating in January. But strain only accounts for about 3% of all new cases in the U.S. as of Saturday, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Several derivative strains of JN.1.11.1 (direct descendants of JN.1) have become the predominant strains circulating in the United States, including KP.3, KP.2, and KP.1.1, also known as FLiRT variants.

CDC data shows that as of June 8, KP.3 accounted for a quarter of all new cases in the United States, while KP.2 accounted for 22.5% of cases.

Federal health officials have long told Americans to expect COVID-19 vaccines to be updated every year as the virus creates new strains that can evade immunity from previous vaccinations or infections — and that protection is also Will weaken over time. This is similar to how the U.S. rolls out a new flu vaccine every year.

Here’s what three coronavirus vaccine makers have said so far.

• Pfizer A spokesperson said it has applied to the FDA for approval of an updated messenger RNA Covid vaccine targeting JN.1, with the goal of having a vaccine available in the fall, pending recommendations from the CDC.
• modern has applied to the FDA for approval of its updated mRNA vaccine against JN.1, according to a report release. The company said production is underway and doses of the new vaccine could be ready to ship in the United States as soon as August.
• Novavax The company said in a statement that it expects to be ready to launch its protein-based Covid vaccine against JN.1 in the United States in September, pending authorization from the FDA and CDC. release.

The companies each presented data last week showing that the JN.1 Covid vaccine should produce higher levels of protection against circulating strains of the virus than vaccines currently approved against another omicron variant called XBB.1.5 Variant protective antibodies. This strain is no longer in circulation.

Once the FDA approves their respective vaccines, they will require recommendations from the CDC and the agency’s own advisory panels before they can be rolled out to Americans. The CDC Advisory Committee is Book a meeting Voting at the end of the month will determine who should receive another round of vaccines this fall.

The bigger question is, how many people will actually roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated later this year?

According to statistics, only about 22.5% of U.S. adults received the latest round of vaccinations launched last fall CDC data to early May.

Many Americans who have received previous rounds of COVID vaccines experience yearly vaccine fatigue. Others believe they no longer need the protection of a booster dose because the threat from the virus has diminished in the U.S.

COVID-19 cases in the United States have plummeted from peaks early in the pandemic but appear to be slowly rising. As of June 1, the U.S. weekly test positivity rate was 4.5%, up from 4.1% the week before and 3.4% the week before that. CDC data.

As fall approaches, we will continue to watch for another round of COVID-19 vaccines.

Please feel free to send Annika any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data: annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

White House Monday declare Microsoft and Google As the healthcare sector struggles to defend against a growing number of attackers, both parties have agreed to provide free and low-cost cybersecurity resources to rural hospitals across the United States.

A press release stated that cyberattacks against healthcare systems climbed 128% from 2022 to 2023, with the number of large security breaches in the industry soaring to a record last year. As major health systems and companies have been plagued by breaches in recent months, these attacks show no signs of stopping.

For example, Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, suffered a severe cyberattack in February that prevented thousands of doctors from writing prescriptions, checking benefits, or getting paid for their services. The White House said the breach was “one of the most serious health care-related cyberattacks to date.”

Maintaining cybersecurity infrastructure is complex and expensive, and vulnerabilities often require “staff-intensive manual workarounds,” which is especially difficult for small rural hospitals, the White House said. As a result, the Biden administration has called on technology companies such as Microsoft and Google to provide additional support.

According to reports, Microsoft said it will provide rural emergency hospitals and critical access hospitals with discounts of up to 75% on customized security products for small organizations. A release. The company will provide its “state-of-the-art” security suite to some larger rural hospitals for free for a year, and participating rural hospitals will also receive free Windows 10 security updates.

Rural hospitals can receive free cybersecurity assessments and training through Microsoft and its partners to help identify risks and gaps within their systems, the company said.

Google said it will provide free “endpoint security advice” to rural hospitals and nonprofits, meaning the company will help organizations make devices such as laptops and desktops more difficult to attack.

Taylor Lehmann, director of the Google Cloud CISO Office, said that Google is also helping organizations build platforms such as Google Workspace and systems such as Chrome and ChromeOS with built-in security features. this switch.

“It’s not correct to think that this problem is going to go away, or that the bad guys just have bigger goals,” he told CNBC. “Hope is not a strategy, especially when the market for attackers is so indiscriminate. ”

Lyman said Google is also running a pilot program with some rural hospitals to develop a free or low-cost toolkit that can be made available to similar organizations on a larger scale in the future.

“It’s very encouraging to see this activity. I think this has been a long time coming, and I think there’s more work to be done here,” he said. “I would say it’s a trend in the right direction in terms of bringing attention to some of the really critical issues that we’re seeing.”

Read the full press release from the White House here.

Please feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.