The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, giving the United States a third vaccine to fight the pandemic—one that offers an easier, one-dose option. The formal announcement follows yesterday’s unanimous recommendation from the FDA’s outside advisory panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC). In [...]

Abstract During the 2020 COVID‐19 pandemic, an outbreak occurred following attendance of a symptomatic index case at a weekly rehearsal on 10 March of the Skagit Valley Chorale (SVC). After that rehearsal, 53 members of the SVC among 61 in attendance were confirmed or strongly suspected to have contracted COVID‐19 and two died. Transmission by [...]

An outside vaccine advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today voted to recommend the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after discussing study findings and policy and clinical considerations. Their interim recommendation, moving a third vaccine option just a step away from distribution, comes on the heels of the Food and [...]

In the past week, more than 80 cases of cholera including 3 deaths have been recorded in the city of Sange in the territory of Uvira in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo according to a 7SUR7.CD news report (computer translated). According to Marcel Matabishi Nyange, head of the city of Sange, the resurgence of [...]

Members of the public are advised that there has been a recent increase in the number of deaths among the monkey population in South, Trinidad. Laboratory testing by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has confirmed the presence of the Yellow Fever virus in samples obtained from the bodies of the dead mammals. This was discovered amidst [...]

Canadian Animal Health Surveillance System officials have confirmed a horse from Outauais Region, Quebec, as positive for neurologic equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1). The horse presented with clinical signs that included fever, ataxia (loss of muscle control), mild cough, problems urinating and defecating, and recumbency (down and unable to rise). The horse, whose vaccination status was unknown, [...]

There hasn’t been a measles outbreak in Canada recently and the country has gone more than a year without a single case of the disease. Dr. Theresa Tam shared the news about this milestone on Twitter. She said that “measles has also been self-isolating” since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Even though there has been enhanced surveillance going on regularly in [...]

The U.S. will soon be monitoring travelers coming into the country from two nations impacted by the Ebola virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday. The CDC confirmed these plans after CBS News first reported the details on Friday night. Starting next week, the “very small number” of travelers arriving from Guinea and [...]

Following a month-long fact-finding mission in China, a World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic concluded that the virus probably originated in bats and passed to people through an intermediate animal. But fundamental questions remain about when, where and how SARS-CoV-2 first infected people. As the international WHO team finalizes a [...]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued travel notices for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Guinea due to ongoing Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreaks. The outbreak, the 12th ever in the DRC is in the North Kivu (Kivu Nord) province in the eastern part of the country–the same location as the [...]