Newly installed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

The U.S. is poised to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like a yearly flu shot.

A federally funded study has found a possible link between aluminum in some childhood vaccines and persistent asthma, but experts say the study has several shortcomings.

A new government report shows Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine gave children 5 and older strong protection against hospitalization and death even during the omicron surge.

The number is surging, though it is still much lower than the peak one year ago.

The omicron-fueled surge that is sending COVID-19 cases rocketing in the U.S. is putting children in the hospital in record numbers.

An influential federal advisory panel has overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give Pfizer booster shots against COVID-19 to most Americans, but it endorsed the extra doses for those who are 65 or older or run a high risk of severe disease.

President Joe Biden’s administration drew up a strategy to contain one coronavirus strain, then another showed up that’s much more contagious.

The world’s leading COVID-19 vaccines may offer lasting protection that diminishes the need for frequent booster shots.

FILE - This September 2020, file photo provided by Johnson & Johnson shows a pharmacist preparing to give an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. (Johnson & Johnson via AP, File)WASHINGTON – U.S. health advisers endorsed a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson on Friday, putting the nation on the cusp of adding an easier-to-use option to fight the pandemic. One challenge in rolling out the new vaccine will be explaining how protective the J&J shot is after the astounding success of the first U.S. vaccines. One dose of the J&J vaccine was 85% protective against the most severe COVID-19. On Sunday, a CDC panel is expected to meet to recommend how to best prioritize use of the J&J vaccine.

FILE - This Dec. 2, 2020 photo provided by Johnson & Johnson shows vials of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. Across all countries, the analysis of the J&J vaccine showed protection began to emerge about 14 days after vaccination. All of the world’s COVID-19 vaccines have been tested differently, making comparisons nearly impossible. Like other COVID-19 vaccines, the main side effects of the J&J shot are pain at the injection site and flu-like fever, fatigue and headache. AdIf the FDA clears the J&J shot for U.S. use, it will not boost vaccine supplies significantly right away.

Some 15,600 doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine arrived at hospitals on Tuesday in El Paso and Edinburg, and more will land in Laredo, McAllen, Brownsville and El Paso later this week. El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said he’s concerned about community spread continuing as the vaccine begins to be administered. The pandemic has disproportionately affected El Paso and Hidalgo counties compared to areas of similar or larger sizes in Texas. As of Wednesday, there had been more than 91,000 cases recorded in El Paso County, the fourth-highest total in the state. This is an exciting time,” said Mielke, the University Medical Center of El Paso spokesperson.

The U.S. is considering a second vaccine, made by Moderna Inc., that could roll out in another week. Friday, Sanofi and GSK announced a months-long delay after early tests showed their vaccine didn’t work well enough in older adults. About 3 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected in the first shipments around the country, according to officials with Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development program. Expected to follow health workers and nursing homes are other essential workers, older adults and people at high risk because of other health problems. If emergency use of Moderna's vaccine also is authorized, the U.S. expects to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of December.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense held a briefing with Operation Warp Speed on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. View the briefing below:The Food and Drug Administration held a briefing Saturday following its authorization of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use Friday. View the briefing in its entirety below:The U.S. gave the final go-ahead Friday to the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, marking what could be the beginning of the end of an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans. The U.S. is considering a second vaccine, made by Moderna Inc., that could roll out in another week. In addition, the FDA insisted that large COVID-19 vaccine studies track at least half the participants for two months to look for side effects, a time period when historically any vaccine problems appear.

Pfizer has said it will have about 25 million doses of the two-shot vaccine for the U.S. by the end of December. Next week, the FDA will review a second vaccine, from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, that appears about as protective as Pfizer-BioNTech’s shot. FDA scientists issued a glowing review of the vaccine earlier in the week. The company proposed gradually moving those patients to the vaccine group, with priority based on age, health conditions and other factors. Pfizer must still show whether the vaccine works in children younger than 16 and in pregnant women.

Anticipating that, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is on standby to publicly debate the data in early December. The companies also have begun “rolling submissions” for the vaccine with regulators in Europe, the U.K. and Canada and soon will add this new data. Pfizer and BioNTech had initially estimated the vaccine was more than 90% effective after counting a group of the earliest infections that occurred in its final-stage testing. Pfizer would handle shipping of its own doses; the warp speed program will help with support and distributing additional companies' vaccines if and when they become available. Pfizer and BioNTech said they expect to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.

University of Hong Kong scientists claim to have the first evidence of someone being reinfected with the virus that causes COVID-19. The man had mild symptoms the first time and none the second time; his more recent infection was detected through screening and testing at the Hong Kong airport. It shows that some people do not have lifelong immunity to the virus if they've already had it, To said. If there is a reinfection, it suggests the possibility there was residual immunity ... that helped protect the patient from getting sick again, Goodman said. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education.