vaccines

A recent movie produced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine group tries to capitalize on the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial justice movement and renewed interest in the history of medical racism.

The market is risky for over-the-counter COVID tests. Demand has plunged dramatically since the height of the winter surge and may not rebound as more people are vaccinated.

Surgeon General Scott Rivkees says he does not know when additional “first doses” of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be sent or how many doses would be in a potential future delivery.

Drugmakers will walk away with with massive profits, but much of the pioneering work on mRNA vaccines was done with government money.

"If people don't take part in it, then we cannot get the vaccine approved," says Dr. Dushyantha Jayaweera. "Because if everybody waits for somebody else to do it, studies will never be completed."

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is the first to have data showing that it exceeded the minimum effectiveness threshold set by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use.

The president-elect. who made the pandemic a linchpin of his campaign, now has the urgent job of filling top health care positions in his administration to oversee the rollout of several coronavirus vaccines.

A Trump administration spokesman says Washington will continue to engage the rest of the world in vaccine development but won't be "constrained" by the "corrupt" World Health Organization.

A vaccine against the coronavirus needs to keep people from getting very sick and dying. But preventing the spread of the disease is also important, and vaccines delivered by nasal spray may do that.

New vaccines usually take years to get the approval of the Food and Drug Administration. But the Trump administration suggests the FDA may greenlight a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.