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COVID-19

Can you mix and match COVID-19 vaccines?

Can you mix and match two-dose COVID-19 vaccines? It’s likely safe and effective, but researchers are still gathering data to be sure. The authorized COVID-19 shots around the world are all designed to stimulate your immune system to produce virus-fighting antibodies, though the way they do so varies, noted Dr. Kate O’Brien, director of the World Health Organization’s vaccine unit. “Based on the basic principles of how vaccines work, we do think that the mix-and-match regimens are going to work,” she said. Scientists at Oxford University in the United Kingdom are ...

‘A summer of freedom’: Vaccine gives new meaning to July 4th

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden wants to imbue Independence Day with new meaning this year by encouraging nationwide celebrations to mark the country’s effective return to normalcy after 16 months of coronavirus pandemic disruption and more than 600,000 lives lost. The White House is ...

Vaccine effort turns into slog as infectious variant spreads

As cases tumble and states reopen, the potential final stage in the U.S. campaign to vanquish COVID-19 is turning into a slog, with a worrisome variant gaining a bigger foothold and lotteries and other prizes failing to persuade some Americans to get vaccinated. “The last half, the last ...

Geisinger administers 300,000th COVID-19 vaccine dose

DANVILLE — Geisinger has reached another milestone as we work to move past the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, Geisinger administered its 300,000th COVID-19 vaccine dose and has seen COVID-19 hospitalizations decline to their lowest levels in months. As of Monday, Geisinger has administered 301,306 COVID-19 vaccine doses and had 37 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The 37 hospitalizations are the lowest since September 28 when 40 patients were hospitalized, but still higher than mid-June of last year, when COVID-19 hospitalization rates were in the low 20s. Geisinger continues its ...

More evidence suggests COVID-19 was in US by Christmas 2019

NEW YORK (AP) — A new analysis of blood samples from 24,000 Americans taken early last year is the latest and largest study to suggest that the new coronavirus popped up in the U.S. in December 2019 — weeks before cases were first recognized by health officials. The analysis is not ...

Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 emergency declaration formally ends

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration on Tuesday certified the results of the May primary election, bringing a formal end to the disaster emergency declaration that the Democrat first issued at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid signed the certification Tuesday afternoon, her agency said. Certification formalizes the results of the May 18 primary election, in which voters approved Republican-backed constitutional amendments giving lawmakers broad new power over extending and ending disaster emergency ...