Page 29 - Florida Sentinel 10-1-21

National
In A Matter Of Days, Pfizer CEO Says They'll Be Ready To Ask For Approval Of A COVID-19 Vaccine For Kids
Pfizer/BioNTech plans to ask for authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine for some children under 12 soon, bring- ing the US one step closer to offering protection to a popu- lation that has grown particu- larly vulnerable as the fall season gets underway.
"It is a question of days, not weeks," Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla told ABC News Sunday about when the company will submit data on children ages 5 to 11 to the FDA for consideration.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion, said on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday that the CDC will review data on vaccines for 5-11-year-olds with urgency.
"We are all enthusiastically awaiting these data," Walen- sky said, when asked how soon authorization and shots for kids could be seen after Pfizer submits its data to the US Food and Drug Adminis- tration. "As soon as they get submitted to the FDA, I know the FDA is urgently planning to review these data, it will go from the FDA to the CDC, and we will review it with similar urgency," she continued. "And I'm hoping in the order of weeks."
Currently, COVID-19 vac- cines are only approved for children 12 and older, which has stirred concern among health experts as cases in chil- dren increase, school years begin and the more transmis- sible Delta variant spreads.
Thousands Of Haitians Lack Food, Water, And Medicine At A Bleak US–Mexico Border Camp
DEL RIO, Texas — Fear and desperation gripped a makeshift camp in Texas holding about 13,000 immi- grants, most of them from Haiti, on Sunday amid food shortages, medical issues, and confusion as word spread that the Biden ad- ministration had begun de- portation flights.
Over the past days, the immigrants arrived and set up under an international bridge in the US city of Del Rio after wading across the Rio Grande in hip-high water. They carried with them everything they have: clothes, food, and blankets packed into plastic bags and backpacks. Since then, water, food, and medicine have grown scarce as they use sheets and bamboo to avoid the rain and pounding sun.
On Saturday, immigrants waded back across the Rio Grande into Mexico’s Ciudad Acuña to make critical pur- chases. They say the supplies
that US immigration author- ities are providing are not enough.
But things suddenly changed for the worse on Sat- urday afternoon, when the Texas Department of Public Safety and Border Patrol stopped allowing immigrants who had left in search of pro- visions to cross back into the camp from Mexico.
Facing the prospect of being separated from their families or the people they came with, the immigrants
from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and other nations, scrambled for a few hours on Sunday to find an- other section of the Rio Grande where they could safely cross. They finally found a point about a mile from the previous crossing, where the water was chest- deep but stagnant enough for them to safely make the jour- ney. Many made it back to US soil, but it’s unclear if every- one did, and some may now be stranded in Mexico.
Johnson & Johnson Says Its Booster Shot Provides Increased Protection From COVID-19
People who receive a John- son & Johnson COVID-19 vac- cine booster shot are better protected against the coron- avirus for a longer period of time, according to the pharma- ceutical company's latest trial results.
The one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been found to be 66% protective against moderate and severe disease overall worldwide and 72% protective against such cases in the U.S. But when a person receives a booster shot two months after getting the pharmaceutical company's one-dose vaccine, the protec- tion against COVID-19 in- creased to 94%.
A booster shot at six months provided a 12-fold in- crease in antibodies.
The company had previ- ously shared earlier evidence from this trial that people who received its one-shot COVID-
Johnson & Johnson shared data from the Phase 3 trial of its booster shot on Tuesday indicating a booster shot at six months pro- vided a 12-fold increase in antibodies.
19 vaccine could benefit from a booster shot after six months. The information shared Tues- day was part of the company's Phase 3 trial.
"Our large real-world-evi- dence and Phase 3 studies con- firm that the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine provides strong and long-last-
ing protection against COVID- 19-related hospitalizations. Additionally, our Phase 3 trial data further confirms protec- tion against COVID-19 related death," said Mathai Mam- men, global head of Janssen research and development for Johnson & Johnson, in a state- ment.
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