British regulator 1st to approve Moderna’s updated virus booster
LONDON — British drug regulators have become the first in the world to authorize an updated version of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine that includes protection against the omicron variant, which the government said would be offered to people aged 50 and over starting in the fall.
In a statement Monday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it had given the green light to Moderna’s combination “bivalent” vaccine, which will be used as an adult booster shot.
Each dose of the booster shot will target both the original COVID-19 virus first detected in 2020 and the omicron BA.1 variant that was first picked up in November.
British regulators said the side effects were similar to those seen for Moderna’s original booster shot and were typically “mild and self-resolving.”
“What this (combination) vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armory to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve,” said Dr June Raine, the head of Britain’s health care and medicines regulator.
British health secretary Steve Barclay said the new shot will be part of the country’s booster program rollout from September, based on advice from the government’s vaccine experts.
“This safe and effective vaccine will broaden immunity and potentially improve protections against some variants as we learn to live with this virus,” Barclay said.
Such an approach, combining protection against several strains of the same disease is used with flu shots that are adjusted each year depending on the variants that are circulating.
Pfizer CEO has virus: The top executive at Pfizer, a leading producer of COVID19 vaccines, has tested positive for the virus and says he is experiencing mild symptoms.
Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said Monday that he started taking Pfizer’s Paxlovid pill treatment and is isolating while he recovers.
Bourla has received four shots of Comirnaty, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the New York drugmaker along with BioNTech. He said in a brief statement issued by the company that he is confident of a quick recovery.
More than 128 million in the United States have become fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s two-shot vaccine since it entered the market more than a year ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
George Floyd officers: Two former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing told a judge Monday that they have rejected plea deals that would have resulted in three-year sentences, setting the stage for trial in October.
Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. They and Thomas Lane were working with Derek Chauvin when he pinned Floyd’s neck with his knee for more than nine minutes as the 46-year-old Black man said he couldn’t breathe and eventually grew still.
The killing, captured on bystander video, sparked protests worldwide and a reckoning on racial injustice. Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of second-degree murder last year and sentenced to 22 ½ years on
Visitors in old Japanese Imperial the state charge.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill had set a limited window for accepting a plea deal ahead of trial, and Monday’s brief hearing served to formalize the two ex-officers’ rejections of the state’s offers.
Griner appeal: Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner have filed an appeal of her nine-year Russian prison sentence for drug possession, Russian news agencies reported Monday, amid talks between the U.S. and Russia that could lead to a high-profile prisoner swap.
Griner, an eight-time All-Star with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage, but said she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
Racketeering arrests: Federal authorities on Monday arrested seven people including a union leader and various dock workers accused in a $1.2 million extortion scheme that targeted shipping companies.
U.S. Attorney Stephen Muldrow said the scheme began in 2005 and affected local and foreign commerce, including shipping between Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
He said suspects at three docks in San Juan, Puerto Rico, are accused of illegally extorting small shipping companies and threatened to stop loading and unloading goods if a monthly fee wasn’t paid. The fee demanded varied by weight and sometimes ranged from $10,000 to $20,000 a month, Muldrow said.
Kenya election: In a chaotic announcement that could foreshadow a court challenge, Kenya’s electoral commission chairman on Monday declared Deputy President William Ruto the winner of the country’s close presidential race over five-time contender Raila Odinga.
The outcome was a triumph for a candidate who shook up the East African nation’s politics by appealing to struggling Kenyans’ economic concerns instead of their ethnic allegiances.
Ruto received about 50.5% of the vote to nearly 49% for Odinga in last Tuesday’s balloting, the chairman said.
But just before the declaration, four of the seven electoral commissioners told reporters they could not support the “opaque nature” of the final steps, without giving details.
Screams and scuffles broke out in the auditorium, the lectern was tossed from the stage, and police rushed in to restore order as a choir continued to sing.
Minutes later, commission chairman Wafula Chebukati announced the official results and said the two commissioners who stayed behind with him had been injured.
Odinga’s campaign alleged that unspecified “electoral offenses” were committed and that a winner was illegally declared without a quorum of commissioners.
Modi pledge: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to raise millions out of poverty and turn India into a developed country in the next 25 years as he marked the country’s 75 years of independence from British rule.
Wearing a flowing, cream-colored turban printed with small stripes of orange, white and green, the colors of the country’s flag, Modi addressed the country Monday from New Delhi’s 17th-century Mughal-era Red Fort, saying the world was looking toward India to help resolve global issues.
• In the month since your death, has brought “homecooked” meals to your husband 6 times, each time wearing skimpier outfits.
• Can’t wait to redecorate your home, especially that hideous wallpaper you chose.
• Thinks there is no good reason that money marked for your children shouldn’t be spent on more important things: jewelry, sports cars & European spa vacations.