Tag Archives: Covid-19 Vaccines

Covid-19 Podcast: What Are Vaccine Side Effects?

From a sore arm to anaphylaxis, a wide range of adverse events have been reported after people have received a COVID-19 vaccine. And yet it is unclear how many of these events are actually caused by the vaccine. In the vast majority of cases, reactions are mild and can be explained by the body’s own immune response.

But monitoring systems designed to track adverse events are catching much rarer but more serious events. Now scientists need to work out if they are causally liked to the vaccine, or are just statistical anomalies – and that is not an easy task.News: Why is it so hard to investigate the rare side effects of COVID vaccines?Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

Video Analysis: How Vaccine Passports Can Kick-Start The Economy

Vaccine passports are likely to become a feature of everyday life as lockdowns are lifted across the world. But as “green passes” kick-start economies, what are the potential drawbacks? Read more of our coverage on coronavirus : https://econ.st/397Mkxq

Morning News Podcast: AstraZeneca Deemed Safe, Asian Attacks In The U.S.

We get the latest from Brussels after the EU’s medicines regulator says the Astrazeneca vaccine is “safe and effective”.

Plus: we unpack the wave of anti-Asian attacks in the US and get the business headlines.

Covid-19: Israel’s Efforts To Vaccinate Holdouts

Israel is allowing vaccinated citizens to access gyms, restaurants and live concerts. As the country races to immunize all adults against Covid-19 and reopen fully, it is even offering free drinks and pizza to entice those who are hesitant to get the shot. Photo: Tamir Elterman

Covid-19: ‘What Are The Vaccine’s Ingredients?’

There are all sorts of different vaccines but many of them share specific types of ingredients. Josh Toussaint-Strauss talks to Professor Adam Finn to find out what is in most conventional vaccines, as well as what they do to our bodies when we take them – and why the mRNA Covid jabs from Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca and Moderna work differently.

Covid-19: ‘Intranasal Vaccines’ Might Be More Effective Than Needles

From Scientific American (March 1, 2021):

Enter the intranasal vaccine, which abandons the needle and syringe for a spray container that looks more like a nasal decongestant. With a quick spritz up the nose, intranasal vaccines are designed to bolster immune defenses in the mucosa, triggering production of an antibody known as immunoglobulin A, which can block infection. This overwhelming response, called sterilizing immunity, reduces the chance that people will pass on the virus.

The development of highly effective COVID vaccines in less than a year is an extraordinary triumph of science. But several coronavirus variants have emerged that could at least partly evade the immune response induced by the vaccines. These variants should serve as a warning against complacency—and encourage us to explore a different type of vaccination, delivered as a spray in the nose. Intranasal vaccines could provide an additional degree of protection, and help reduce the spread of the virus.

Read more

Morning News Podcast: J&J Vaccine Approval, New York Governor Cuomo

What will the approval of the J&J vaccine mean for the immunization effort, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo responds to sex-harassment claims, and a troop made up of homeless girls is on a mission to sell Girl Scout cookies in all 50 states.