Tagged: vaccines

How do NZ’s vaccinated teachers have those hard conversations with their anti-vax colleagues? - COVID-19

Guest Author • Nov 10, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• education,
• New Zealand stories,
• vaccines

Paul Heyward, University of Auckland   The news that all staff members at a small King Country school were still unvaccinated a week out from the government’s November 15 mandatory deadline underlines how challenging the weeks ahead might be. Next Monday marks the day teachers will need to have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine … Read More

Nose sprays, needle-free patches, durable immunity: towards the next generation of COVID vaccines - COVID-19

Guest Author • Nov 09, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• immunity,
• vaccination,
• vaccines

Kylie Quinn, RMIT University   The past 20 months has seen an explosion of vaccine development, with COVID vaccine testing and rollout happening at an unprecedented pace in the face of a global pandemic. There have been absolute triumphs – the fact we have multiple safe, effective vaccines is remarkable – but there have also been challenges. We’ve seen storage … Read More

New Zealand has ramped up vaccination rates, but too many people remain concerned about vaccine safety - COVID-19

Guest Author • Sep 21, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• New Zealand stories,
• vaccination,
• vaccines

Stephen Croucher, Massey University; Doug Ashwell, Massey University, and Jo Cullinane, Massey University   After five weeks in the strictest lockdown, Auckland will move to level 3 restrictions from midnight on Tuesday, for at least two weeks. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the decision was based on low community spread and an accelerated vaccination rollout. A targeted vaccination campaign will … Read More

Covax misses its 2021 delivery target – what’s gone wrong in the fight against vaccine nationalism? - COVID-19

Guest Author • Sep 20, 2021 •

• covax,
• COVID-19,
• vaccines

Rory Horner, University of Manchester   The latest supply forecast for Covax – the programme for sharing COVID-19 vaccines around the world – suggests that accelerating vaccination in low-income countries looks unlikely. Covax estimates it will have distributed 1.425 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021, significantly less than the 2 billion doses it was aiming for … Read More

Unverified reports of vaccine side effects in VAERS aren’t the smoking guns portrayed by right-wing media outlets – they can offer insight into vaccine hesitancy - COVID-19

Guest Author • Aug 26, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• vaccine hesitancy,
• vaccines,
• VAERS

Matt Motta, Oklahoma State University and Dominik Stecuła, Colorado State University   Chances are you may not be not familiar with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. Co-managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, VAERS was established in 1990 to detect possible safety problems with vaccines. Unfortunately, the … Read More

New Zealand approves Pfizer vaccine for young people from 12 to 15, but they’ll have to wait their turn - COVID-19

Guest Author • Jun 25, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• New Zealand stories,
• Pfizer,
• vaccines

Michael Plank, University of Canterbury   New Zealand’s medicines regulator Medsafe has granted provisional approval of the Pfizer vaccine for youth aged 12 to 15, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects cabinet approval to follow next week. Once cabinet approves, 12-15-year-olds will become eligible for vaccination towards the end of the year, after older groups have had their … Read More

We discovered what’s killing the world’s rarest penguin – and it could help us make a vaccine - Hot off the press

Guest Author • Jun 15, 2021 •

• hoiho,
• New Zealand stories,
• penguins,
• vaccines

Vartul Sangal, Northumbria University, Newcastle   Yellow-eyed penguins are the most endangered penguin species in the world, with just 4,000 left in the wild. Found only in New Zealand and its outlying islands, these birds can grow up to 79cm tall and weigh 8.5kg, which is similar to a one-year-old child. They’re easily identified by the pale-yellow band … Read More

From smallpox to polio, vaccine rollouts have always had doubters. But they work in the end - COVID-19

Guest Author • Jun 08, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• polio,
• smallpox,
• vaccines

David Isaacs, University of Sydney   In 2019, before COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten greatest threats to global health. Every year, vaccination saves around 4-5 million lives, although a further 1.5 million lives could be saved annually with improved global vaccine coverage. Now, we are seeing a … Read More

HIV/AIDS vaccine: Why don’t we have one after 37 years, when we have several for COVID-19 after a few months? - News

Guest Author • May 18, 2021 •

• AIDS,
• hiv,
• vaccines

Ronald C. Desrosiers, University of Miami   Smallpox has been eradicated from the face of the Earth following a highly effective, worldwide vaccination campaign. Paralytic poliomyelitis is no longer a problem in the U.S. because of development and use of effective vaccines against the poliovirus. In current times, millions of lives have been saved because of rapid deployment … Read More

Vaccine patents - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • May 12, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• New Zealand stories,
• patents,
• vaccines

This week’s Newsroom column covered some of the arguments around increasing vaccination rates in poor countries by voiding patents. It won’t work. A snippet: Fundamentally, voiding patents is an unserious way of dealing with a serious problem. The world needs substantial expansions in vaccine manufacturing capabilities as quickly as possible. Replicating the processes used by successful manufacturers is not … Read More