Reuters Health

• EU Should Review Approval of Plastics With Toxic Softener DEHP The European Commission should review a decision to let companies use recycled plastics containing DEHP, a toxic additive, since it failed to properly consider associated health risks.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• NYC Officials Downplay Concern Over New Coronavirus Variant Mayor Bill de Blasio's chief medical adviser downplayed the results of studies that may suggest a new COVID variant found in New York in November will be more resistant to vaccines.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Weary of COVID Variants, EU Leaders Push to Step Up Vaccination German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union must prepare to vaccinate for new COVID variants over the coming years after EU leaders discussed ways of salvaging tourism.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Ireland Sees Strong Early Evidence That Vaccines Are Working Ireland is beginning to see strong early evidence that its COVID-19 vaccine rollout is protecting healthcare workers and care home residents from catching the disease, health officials said.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• A Patchwork: Europe and COVID-19 Vaccination Passports European Union leaders moved closer to an agreement on certificates showing that citizens have been vaccinated against COVID-19, a move that could revive international travel.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• EU Regulator Plans to Fast Track Variant-Modified COVID Vaccines Europe's medicines regulator said it has issued new guidance for drug makers that modify their COVID-19 vaccines to protect against variants of the virus to speed up the approval process.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Ad Campaign to Combat Vaccine Hesitancy in US With Celebrity Help The Ad Council launched a campaign designed to combat hesitancy about the safety of the coronavirus vaccine, blanketing messages across TV, radio, websites, and social media.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Regeneron to Stop Placebo in COVID Trial After 'Clear Efficacy' Regeneron said that an independent panel found the company's COVID-19 antibody cocktail to have 'clear clinical efficacy' in reducing the rates of hospitalization and deaths in patients.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• GSK Will Focus on Elderly in Trial to Treat Pneumonia From COVID GlaxoSmithKline will extend a trial testing an experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug on patients suffering from COVID-related pneumonia in order to focus on the elderly.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Debilitating 'Long-COVID' May Have Severe Health Impacts: WHO Thousands of COVID-19 patients continue to suffer serious symptoms months after their initial infection, with major social, health and economic consequences, European health experts said.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• EU Countries Report Offers for 900 Million COVID Vaccines Several European Union countries have reported offers from 'alleged intermediaries' for 900 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for some 12.7 billion euros, the bloc's anti-fraud agency OLAF said.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Pfizer-BioNTech Testing Booster of COVID Vaccine in New Trial Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said they are testing a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• No Survival Benefit to Primary Resection Before Chemo in CRC Contrary to previous reports, primary tumor resection prior to chemotherapy did not confer a survival benefit in colorectal cancer patients in a randomized phase 3 study in Japan.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• In Boost for COVID-19 Battle, Pfizer Vaccine Found 94% Effective in Real World The first big real-world study of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be independently reviewed shows the shot is highly effective at preventing COVID-19, in a potentially landmark moment for countries desperate to end lockdowns and reopen economies.
  Reuters Health Information, February 24, 2021
• In Transgender Youth, Obesity Impacts Effects of Sex Steroids on HDL-C In transgender and gender-diverse young people receiving sex steroids, obesity exacerbates the decrease in HDL-C levels and attenuates the benefits of estradiol, researchers say.
  Reuters Health Information, February 25, 2021
• Modern Treatment Tied to Low Disease Activity in Pregnant Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Many pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis may achieve low disease activity in the third trimester with a modern treatment regimen that includes anti-TNF medications, a recent study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, February 24, 2021
• Pet Cats Highly Susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 Cats are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, but transmissibility is reduced as the virus spreads through cats, according to new research from China.
  Reuters Health Information, February 24, 2021
• SOFA Score Not Helpful for Ventilator Triage in Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score has 'inadequate' discriminant accuracy for ventilator triage of patients with COVID-19, clinicians caution.
  Reuters Health Information, February 24, 2021
• China's Bid to Stop Wuhan COVID-19 Spread Cut Deaths From Other Causes: Study The number of deaths in China, excluding the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan, fell slightly during the first three months of 2020, suggesting efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 reduced fatalities from other causes, a new study showed.
  Reuters Health Information, February 24, 2021
• Germany Approves COVID Home Tests to Ease Way Out of Lockdown Germany approved three COVID-19 tests for home use as part Health Minister Jens Spahn's strategy to help Europe's biggest economy emerge from a lockdown that has been in place since mid-December.
  Reuters Health Information, February 24, 2021