Tag: vaccine

science in the news

Black participation in covid-19 vaccine trials is key to Black economic recovery

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Vaccine trials need Black people. And the Black economic recovery needs a vaccine.



a man wearing a suit and tie walking on a sidewalk: Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

© Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post
Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

The economic downturn from the novel coronavirus has had a staggering financial impact on Blacks. Job losses from the pandemic have overwhelmingly affected low-wage, minority workers. Black men and women are among those taking the longest time to regain their employment.

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Black Americans account for about 13 percent of the U.S. population but 24 percent of coronavirus deaths, the Pew Research Center reported in June.

But when I ask the Black folks I know if they’re going to take a coronavirus vaccine, most without hesitation say, “No, I will not.”

They all reference the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, which started in 1932 with the recruitment of 600 Black men. About half of the men in the

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science daily

Details about broadly neutralizing antibodies provide insights for universal flu vaccine — ScienceDaily

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New research from an immunology team at the University of Chicago may shed light on the challenges of developing a universal flu vaccine that would provide long-lasting and broad protection against influenza viruses.

The study, published October 22 in Immunity, explores the behavior of polyreactive antibodies — antibodies that are capable of binding to more than one distinct antigen — in an effort to understand their role against influenza viruses. The researchers identified that broadly neutralizing antibodies are commonly polyreactive and are preferentially induced by novel and pandemic-level influenza viruses.

The research is inspired by the limited efficacy of the annual flu vaccine, which must be adjusted each year to provide the best protection against commonly circulating strains of the virus, and why it so rarely induces broadly neutralizing antibodies.

“For whatever reason, when we are exposed to the flu virus, the antibody response mounted targets the parts of

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science in the news

More Troubling Events In The Rush To Find Covid-19 Vaccine

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Johnson & Johnson, one of four U.S. companies whose Covid-19 vaccine has advanced to the last phase of clinical trials, has hit pause on a study of 60,000 patients due to a case of “unexplained illness,” according to an official announcement released last week. Whether the illness was caused by the vaccine or a placebo remains unknown.

The temporary pause, their statement goes on to clarify, differs from a clinical hold, which fellow vaccine developer AstraZeneca initiated after a participant in a U.K. trial developed serious neurological symptoms. Under normal (which is to

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science daily

New anti-AB vaccine could help halt Alzheimer’s progression, preclinical study finds — ScienceDaily

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Our immune system’s capacity to mount a well-regulated defense against foreign substances, including toxins, weakens with age and makes vaccines less effective in people over age 65. At the same time, research has shown that immunotherapy targeting neurotoxic forms of the peptide amyloid beta (oligomeric Aβ) may halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common age-related neurodegenerative disease.

A team led by Chuanhai Cao, PhD, of the University of South Florida Health (USF Health), has focused on overcoming, in those with impaired immunity, excess inflammation and other complications that interfere with development of a therapeutic Alzheimer’s vaccine.

Now, a preclinical study by Dr. Cao and colleagues indicates that an antigen-presenting dendritic vaccine with a specific antibody response to oligomeric Aβ may be safer and offer clinical benefit in treating Alzheimer’s disease. The vaccine, called E22W42 DC, uses immune cells known as dendritic cells (DC) loaded with a modified Aβ

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