effective | Common News Update

Mar222021 by adminNo Comments

AstraZeneca: US data shows vaccine effective for all ages

Health

LONDON -- AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against disease and complete protection against hospitalization and death across all age groups in a late-stage U.S. study, the company announced Monday.AstraZeneca said its experts also identified no safety concerns related to the vaccine, including a rare blood clot that was identified in Europe. Scientists found no increased risk of clots among the more than 20,000 people who got at least one dose of the AstraZeneca shot.Although AstraZeneca's vaccine has been authorized in more than 50 countries, it has not yet been given the green light in the U.S. The U.S. study comprised more than 30,000 volunteers, of whom two-thirds were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots.In a statement, AstraZeneca said its COVID-19...

Jan32021 by adminNo Comments

Chemotherapy drug may be effective against COVID-19, researchers say

Health

Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The chemotherapy drug pralatrexate, originally developed to treat lymphoma, may be effective in patients with COVID-19, according to a study published Thursday by the journal PLOS Computational Biology. That's based on the results generated by a new computational drug screening approach created by researchers in China and lab experiments conducted by their colleagues at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology in Shenzhen, China, the researchers said. Advertisement "From our data, pralatrexate is able to potently inhibit [COVID-19] replication [better] ... than remdesivir," study co-author Yanjie Wei, executive director of the Center for High Performance Computing at the Shenzhen Institutes, told UPI. Since the start of the global pandemic earlier this year, researc...

Nov182020 by adminNo Comments

Pfizer vaccine is safe, 95% effective and will be submitted for authorisation ‘within days’

Technology

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has now proved 95% effective in preventing coronavirus and has met the safety criteria needed for emergency authorisation, the firms have said.Pfizer and BioNTech say they plan to submit the COVID-19 vaccine to the US regulator for emergency use approval "within days" after "no serious safety concerns" were reported. The UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), is also poised to fast-track authorisation of the vaccine after the government ordered enough for 20 million people.Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that, pending authorisation, the NHS will be ready to roll them out to the most vulnerable from 1 December. Final efficacy analysis of the jab showed 95% were protected from the virus within 28 days of the first ...

Sep132020 by adminNo Comments

Fewer than 60% of Americans believe vaccines are safe, effective, study finds

Health

Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Less than 60% of Americans believe vaccines are safe and effective, according to an analysis published Thursday by the Lancet. Although that figure is on par with much of Western Europe -- and is far higher than those in many eastern European and Asian nations -- it may be "masking pockets of dissent," study co-author Heidi Larson told UPI. Advertisement The findings are significant, given the global quest for a vaccine against COVID-19, which as of Thursday afternoon has infected nearly 28 million people globally, including 6.4 million in the United States, based on figures from Johns Hopkins University. The pandemic won't end until there is a viable vaccine and large numbers of people take it, experts have said. "Our U.S. data is from a nationally representative sampl...

Aug172020 by adminNo Comments

NSAID painkillers less harmful, just as effective as opioid drugs, studies show

Health

Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, are just as effective as opioids at reducing pain from common injuries like strains and sprains, two analyses published Monday by the Annals of Internal Medicine found. People taking NSAIDs also are less likely to experience the potentially harmful risks associated with opioid use, including abuse and addiction, researchers from McMaster University in Canada said. Advertisement The findings come as the United States is still dealing with an "opioid epidemic" fueled by misuse and abuse of used prescribed pain medications, according to the researchers. "Although there are many treatment options available for addressing acute pain from musculoskeletal injuries, only a limited number of pharmacologic options are currently sup...