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What do you do when you can’t find a judge who doesn’t own Pfizer stock? Keep looking. Then look again—and again...Such was plaintiffs’ plight this week in two consolidated federal lawsuits taking aim at the New York City Department of Education’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Since Monday, two judges have come and gone, thanks to their financial ties to pandemic vaccine companies. Meanwhile, a third has vowed to stick around, arguing her investments in Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are out of date...READ MORE

The Food and Drug Administration has determined that the risk of a rare, but serious, clotting syndrome tied to Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine warrants limiting its use to adults who either can’t or won’t get another available shot...The agency is taking stricter measures following a new analysis...has uncovered 60 known cases of the side effect, nine of which were fatal. The overall rates remain very low — about 3.23 cases per million vaccinations with J&J’s shot and 0.48 deaths per million. Regulators still aren’t sure exactly which factors put people at risk for the disorder, which initially appeared most common in younger women. It isn’t associated with either Pfizer’s or Moderna’s vaccines...READ MORE

Pfizer and Moderna are now two of the leading pharma companies in the U.S. when it comes to public image, thanks to their COVID vaccines. On the flip side, vaccine rivals J&J and AstraZeneca have seen their reputations plummet...This is according to a new survey by market research firm Leger, which looked into how the pharma industry’s reputation has changed during COVID and the creation of new vaccines against the disease...READ MORE

Nevada health officials have confirmed the state’s second confirmed case of the coronavirus caused by the highly transmissible omicron variant, this time in a rural county...The second case was found in Churchill County in northern Nevada and involved an unvaccinated woman in her mid-40s, according to the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory...READ MORE

The White House announced the launch of the first federally supported test-to-treat site, a part of the White House test-to-treat initiative designed to improve access to COVID-19 antiviral oral medications for certain high-risk patients. In response, ASHP sent a letter to Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, requesting the administration dramatically expand access to COVID-19 antivirals in all communities by removing the federal barrier preventing pharmacists from initiating therapy with these time-sensitive medications...READ MORE

Texas federal judge Mark Pittman will conduct a hearing...to consider whether to allow Pfizer to participate in the redaction and release of information about the development of its COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty...Earlier this month, Pittman ruled that the FDA would have to turn over 55,000 pages of documentation on the vaccine per month, starting on March 1...Last Friday, Pfizer provided the court a memorandum outlining why it should participate in the process...“Pfizer supports the public disclosure of the vast majority of this information to promote transparency and the public’s confidence in the vaccine,” the company wrote in the filing. “Pfizer seeks to intervene for the limited purpose of ensuring that information that is exempt from disclosure under FOIA is not disclosed inappropriately.”...READ MORE

A booster shot of Moderna's authorized coronavirus vaccine significantly increases antibody levels against the omicron variant, according to the results of laboratory tests the company disclosed... The update comes days after another analysis indicated the initial two-shot regimen is less effective at neutralizing omicron than other variants like delta...As a result of the booster's apparent cross-protection against multiple variants, Moderna said it will focus its efforts away from a more complex "multivalent" shot and toward further study of its existing booster dose formulation. The biotech said it will still develop an omicron-specific booster, however, and aims to begin clinical testing of that in early 2022...READMORE

Jose Maria Fernandez Sousa-Faro, president of European pharmaceuticals giant PharmaMar, has been charged by police with being falsely vaccinated against Covid-19. Dr. Sousa-Faro has been caught up in a scandal in Europe involving people being added to the National Immunization Registry in exchange for large sums of money...Police allege that Sousa-Faro arranged to be injected with a saline solution instead of a Covid-19 vaccination and paid thousands of dollars to have his name added to Spain's immunization register, as confirmed by police sources and reported by El Periodico de Espana...READ MORE

Nearly 4,000 people may have received a slightly less than recommended dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a Kaiser Permanente location in California last year. The health system is offering repeat vaccinations to anyone affected...The vaccinations were given at the Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center...Individuals may have received between 0.01 and 0.04 milliliters less than the correct 0.3-ml dose. The health system reportedly said the incident was a misunderstanding among staff, which it has retrained, and is contacting patients about the error...READ MORE

COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna should be "preferred" over Johnson & Johnson's shot, a U.S. government advisory panel said...after reviewing data on potentially dangerous blood vessel blockages from clotting associated with J&J's vaccine. The recommendation follows a strengthened warning the Food and Drug Administration added to the shot...The recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory panel...is likely to further constrain use of J&J's vaccine...READ MORE