As COVID Spreads, New Vaccines and More Research Offer Hope

Despite more than 3,200 new COVID-19 cases in the past week and an 8.8 percent positivity rate in Connecticut as of June 9, there are some promising developments leading experts to believe that an almost three-year-old pandemic might loosen its grip.

While the U.S. and other parts of the world endure yet another COVID summer, here is why there might be light at the end of the tunnel:

• On Thursday, the White House unveiled a plan to distribute a soon-to-be approved vaccine for children under five years old, who make up a large group of Americans – beyond the 27 million adults – who are unvaccinated. Vaccinating young children will help slow the spread of the disease in day cares and schools, scenarios that allow kids to bring COVID home to their families and friends. The Federal Drug Administration is expected to approve the vaccine soon, and distribution could begin later this month.
• Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommended this week that the agency authorize Novavax’s two-dose vaccine against COVID-19, bringing the total of vaccine options available to four. The vaccine uses recombinant protein, which has been used before in other vaccines targeting influenza, shingles, human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, known as mRNA vaccines, rely on messenger RNA to instruct human cells to produce copies of the COVID-19’s spike protein.

Learn more about how this new vaccine works: https://healthnewshub.org/as-c...