“The FDA followed them and will continue to follow them,” the infectious-disease expert said during a media roundtable. In other news: An anti-vaccine protest in Los Angeles that temporarily halted vaccinations at Dodger Stadium was organized on Facebook despite the company’s pledge to crack down on misinformation.
There’s a serious problem with the way clinical trial participants are recruited, as well as how research ethics committees think about vulnerable populations and potentially risky research. Rather than reflecting the diversity of society, too many trial cohorts are dominated by white male, adults, able-bodied and English-speaking people. True, that means their participation is easy and we don’t need to worry about their needs or vulnerabilities. But their exclusion means our data is incomplete. Thinking about COVID-19 and vaccine development, we are left with a situation where we don’t have safety data for a huge group of people. Consequently, women, seniors and children are facing the situation where we don’t know if the vaccines will be safe for them.
Some pregnant women remain unsure about getting the COVID-19 vaccine because safety data is scarce and health agency guidelines are vague and in some cases contradictory. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Monday that about 10,000 pregnant women in the U.S. have been vaccinated since the Food and Drug Administration authorized two vaccines, and so far there have been “no red flags.” “We had a lot of pregnant women vaccinated. The FDA followed them and will continue to follow them,” he said during a media roundtable at the IAS COVID-19 Conference: Prevention. “Even though we don’t have good data on it, the data that we’re collecting on it so far has no red flags.” (Rodriguez, 2/1)
The Baltimore Sun:
Some Marylanders With Health Conditions Can Get The COVID Vaccine Starting Monday. But Who’s Included?
Starting Monday, adults in Maryland who are hospitalized with certain health conditions will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s latest clinician guidance. But the list of qualifying conditions is short, and the news comes while vaccine appointments remain difficult to obtain. People who are not hospitalized but are diagnosed with these conditions won’t be able to be vaccinated until Phase 2 of the rollout. (Condon, 2/1)