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Due to a large number of mutations in the spike protein and immune escape, the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) has become a predominant variant of concern (VOC) strain. To prevent the disease, we developed a candidate inactivated vaccine (Omicron COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated). To evaluate the safety of the vaccine, we tested the repeat-dose toxicity in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The doses were administered randomly to three groups: physiological saline solution (control), aluminum adjuvant in PBS solution adjuvant (adjuvant group), and low-dose and high-dose omicron vaccines (vaccine group) for 6 weeks. The SD rats were allowed to recover for 4 weeks after withdrawal. We evaluated the physiological condition of the rats, including their ophthalmological condition, body weight, food intake, body temperature, blood biochemistry, urine, neutralizing antibody, inflammation at the injection site, and organs weight. In summary, no dose-dependent adverse toxicological changes were observed, and a recovery trend was obvious, which proved the preclinical safety of the candidate omicron vaccine and provided evidence for clinical trials in humans. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of COVID is the property of MDPI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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The vaccine distribution system, being a bio-pharmaceutical cold chain, is a complicated and sensitive system that must be effectively managed and maintained due to its direct impact on public health. However, vaccine supply chains continue to be affected by concerns, including vaccine expiry, inclusion of counterfeit vaccines, and vaccine record fraud. The blockchain technology integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT) can create a solution for global vaccine distributions with improved trust, transparency, traceability, and data management, which will help monitor the cold chain, tackle counterfeit drugs, surveillance, and waste management. Several theoretical models for vaccine management with blockchain have recently been published, and a few pilot studies for COVID-19 vaccine management using blockchain have been started in India. Still, full-scale adoption of blockchain technology in vaccine distribution and management has yet to be achieved due to underlying barriers. This study explores the adoption barriers utilizing Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework with the help of extant literature and inputs from administrators, academics, immunization, and blockchain experts and then analyzed using the Delphi and fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques. The finding shows that the requirement of change in organizational structure and policies is the most prominent barrier, and the barrier related to requirement of large-scale IoT infrastructure and lack of technical expertise are the most impactful barriers. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in the identification and analysis of barriers that should be addressed to achieve blockchain technology adoption in the vaccine supply chain. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
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The article presents the discussion on participation in mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics offering opportunities for families to gather.
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Objective: On June 17, 2021, Louisiana launched a lottery campaign to reward residents who received a COVID-19 vaccination. We investigated the association between the lottery and vaccination uptake by characteristics of parishes. Methods: We constructed an interrupted time series based on daily parish-level data on COVID-19 vaccinations to analyze the association with the lottery. We used recursive partitioning to separate vaccination uptake due to the Delta variant from vaccination uptake due to the lottery and limited our study period to May 25 through July 20, 2021. We performed subanalyses that grouped parishes by political affiliation, hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to detect heterogeneous responses to the lottery by these characteristics. We ran models separately for parishes in the top and bottom tertiles of each sociodemographic indicator and used a z test to check for differences. Results: The lottery was associated with an additional 1.03 (95% CI, 0.61-1.45;P <.001) first doses per parish per day. Comparing lottery impacts between top and bottom tertiles, we found significantly larger associations in parishes with lower vaccine hesitancy rates, higher percentage of Hispanic population, higher median annual household income, and more people with a college degree. Conclusions: Results suggest that the lottery was associated with increased COVID-19 vaccination uptake in Louisiana. However, larger associations were observed in parishes with an already higher likelihood of accepting vaccines, which raises equity issues about the opportunity created by the lottery and its effectiveness as a long-term behavioral incentive.
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The article discuses the suggestions by various leading scientists to remain healthy during pandemic. It is reported by Eric Feigl Ding, chief of the Covid risk task force at the New England Complex Systems Institute that Vitamin D plays a crucial role in immune health. It is further reported that to prevent chronic illnesses one should eat well, be active, should avoid tobacco, and be moderate with alcohol.
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The article offers a look at the advances in obstetrics and gynecology in 2022 along with some impactful articles that were important to women's health care providers. It includes an article on addressing physician burnout published in the January 2021 issue, another on a study on the treatment for mild chronic hypertension in pregnancy, and another study which evaluated whether the addition of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab improved outcome in women with recurrent advanced endometrial cancer.
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In this article author focuses on perspective and context on various international pharmacopoeias and regulatory requirements, monographs, reference standards, and protocols.
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Purpose: Even though social media (SM) has been explored in-depth, its role remains unclear regarding short- and long-term preventive attitudes in global health emergencies. To fill this gap, the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework aims to clarify the social media exposure mission in acknowledging risk perception and triggering preventive attitudes and behaviors toward COVID-19 and general vaccination. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an explanatory-predictive study on 480 Romanian students, using partial least squares structural equation modeling, and performed model evaluation, multi-group, model selection, and importance-performance map analyses. Findings: The study provides insights in understanding significant relationships and drivers explaining and predicting attitudes towards vaccines. The main relationships are between fear and risk perception;risk and preventive attitudes and behaviors;and vaccination degree and attitudes to vaccines. The most important factor is the vaccination degree and media exposure is the most performant. Practical implications: Developing and applying regulations and communication strategies for quality mass information may positively increase attitudes toward vaccines by indirectly enforcing the main drivers. Social implications: Organizations, authorities, and opinion leaders must have a coherent supportive presence in media. Originality/value: This study filled the literature gap by building a generic theoretical and empirical proven framework that investigates the mediated effect towards vaccines of all media types by COVID-19 experience and vaccination degree. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2021-0621. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Social media is invariably being used these days for exchanging information and views on global affairs including COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we have worked to understand the public attitudes of people in different countries towards COVID-19 vaccines using social media platform Twitter. We have applied natural language processing techniques of sentiment analysis to get an insightful outlook on people's views. Hence, we categorized our results into fine-grained polarities to grasp the exact sentiment. For analyzing the sentiments, we have taken tweets that expressed sentiments for all countries, as well as for four countries that had higher fatality rates are United States of America, Mexico, Brazil and India. The people have expressed a neutral opinion towards the vaccines. Based on the sentiment, the vaccines were also ranked in which the people have expressed more faith in Sputnik V and Covishield vaccines. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Background: Information regarding effects of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant strains on clinical manifestations and outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in pregnant women is limited. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted using the data from the nationwide COVID-19 registry in Japan. We identified pregnant patients with symptomatic COVID-19 hospitalized during the study period. The Delta and Omicron variants of concern (VOC) predominant periods were defined as August 1 to December 31, 2021 and January 1 to May 31, 2022, respectively. Clinical characteristics were compared between the patients in the Delta and Omicron VOC periods. In addition, logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors for developing moderate-to-severe COVID-19. Results: During the study period, 310 symptomatic COVID-19 cases of pregnant women were identified;111 and 199 patients were hospitalized during the Delta and Omicron VOC periods, respectively. Runny nose and sore throat were more common, and fatigue, dysgeusia, and olfactory dysfunction were less common manifestations observed in the Omicron VOC period. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, onset during the later stage of pregnancy (OR: 2.08 [1.24–3.71]) and onset during the Delta VOC period (OR: 2.25 [1.08–4.90]) were independently associated with moderate-to-severe COVID-19, whereas two doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine were protective against developing moderate-to-severe COVID-19 (OR: 0.34 [0.13–0.84]). Conclusions: Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in pregnant women differed between the Delta and Omicron VOC periods. SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was still effective in preventing severe COVID-19 throughout the Delta and Omicron VOC periods. © 2022 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases