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COVID-19

US expected to authorize mix-and-match COVID booster shots

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are expected to authorize the mixing and matching of COVID-19 booster doses this week in an effort to provide flexibility as the campaign for extra shots expands. The upcoming announcement by the Food and Drug Administration is likely to come along with authorization for boosters of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots and follows the OK for a third dose for the Pfizer vaccine for many Americans last month. The move was previewed Tuesday by a U.S. health official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of the ...

MNMC, regional partners experiencing ‘pandemic strains’

STATE COLLEGE — As cases of COVID-19 continue to skyrocket in Centre County, one local healthcare facility is facing a crisis. Continuing high numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations combined with difficulty discharging patients to long-term care facilities are causing strains on Mount Nittany Medical Center and the local health care system that are “unprecedented” during the course of the pandemic, hospital officials said on Thursday. “We continue to be very concerned about the high number of COVID cases and hospitalizations in the community,” Dr. Upendra Thaker, the ...

US: States can order COVID shots for younger kids next week

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials are setting the stage for a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign for younger children, inviting state officials to order doses before the shots are authorized. Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is currently being given to people as young as 12 in the ...

FDA panel endorses booster shot for J&J COVID-19 vaccine

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health advisers endorsed a booster of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine Friday, citing growing worry that Americans who got the single-dose shot aren’t as protected as those given two-dose brands. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration weighed J&J’s ...

Cities, police unions clash as vaccine mandates take effect

Police departments around the U.S. that are requiring officers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 are running up against pockets of resistance that some fear could leave law enforcement shorthanded and undermine public safety. Police unions and officers are pushing back by filing lawsuits to block the mandates. In Chicago, the head of the police union called on members to defy the city’s Friday deadline for reporting their COVID-19 vaccination status. Seattle’s police department sent detectives and non-patrol officers to emergency calls this week because of a shortage of patrol ...

Does 1918 pandemic offer clues on emerging from COVID-19?

PITTSBURGH — Karen Baldridge rolled up her sleeve to get her COVID-19 booster vaccine. “I’m trying to baby myself and (am) doing everything that I can to keep healthy,” she said this past week while at Excela Square at Norwin. “I feel there’s about a 90% chance I wouldn’t get ...