An elderly couple wearing a protective face mask walks past the Pfizer Inc headquarters in New York City on December 9, 2020. A quarter of those who had breakthrough infections showed signs of long COVID, according to a study by veterans published Wednesday in Nature Medicine.
The study examined medical records of mostly white male veterans, aged 60 on average.
Nearly 3 million veterans were vaccinated last year, and almost 3 million had been vaccinated last year through October. Nearly 34,000 people, or 1 percent, have developed breakthrough infections.
A study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about one in five adults aged 18 and older in the United States has a health condition that might be related to their previous COVID 19 illness, compared to one in five younger adults.
Long COVID refers to persistent symptoms or organ dysfunction after acute COVID-19, including cardiovascular, pulmonary, hematologic, renal, endocrine, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, neurologic and psychiatric signs and symptoms.
Switzerland will destroy more than 620,000 expired doses of Moderna's COVID 19 vaccine, health officials said on Friday, as demand for the shots drops dramatically.
A Federal Office of Public Heath spokeswoman for the Federal Office of Public Heath said that it was consciously accepted that too much vaccine was purchased for Switzerland's needs under certain circumstances.
The goal is to protect the population in Switzerland with sufficient amounts of the most effective vaccine available. Switzerland, which ended public health measures designed to curb the spread of the disease, secured a total of 34 million doses of COVID 19 vaccines for 2022 for a population of around 8.7 million.
It said in February it would donate up to 15 million surplus doses to poorer countries by the end of the year. How many doses can actually be donated is still under discussion.
Switzerland said in March it had secured 14 million doses of COVID 19 vaccines for 2023 from Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna, with options to double the order.
It will be able to buy up to one million doses from another manufacturer.
There are just over 70 percent of the population who have had one shot in Switzerland and the tiny neighbor of Liechtenstein. Nearly 3.7 million COVID infections and 13,325 deaths have been reported by authorities.
On Friday, the World Health Organization said it had received 650 reports of possible cases of acute hepatitis in children, but added that the causes remain unknown and are under investigation.
As of May 26, 650 probable cases have been reported to WHO from 33 countries, with 99 additional cases pending classification, according to the WHO study.
Health authorities are investigating a mysterious increase in severe cases of hepatitis inflammation of the liver in young children, which has resulted in at least nine deaths.
The United States health officials said last week that adenovirus, a common childhood virus, is the leading hypothesis for recent cases of severe hepatitis of unknown origin in children.
Almost exclusively, hepatitis linked to this type of adenovirus has been associated with immunocompromised children.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was looking into whether COVID 19 infections might be playing a role, as well as other pathogens, medications and risk factors.