Dr. Humayra Ali interviews with BIONOWIN Santé Ave Association. BIONOWIN is focused on professional training for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare professionals.   In this interview, Dr. Ali discusses the existing covid vaccines, the upcoming candidates, the collaboration and investment in this industry, and the future of vaccine biotech companies. Dr. Ali also briefly mentions her own experience with the COVID-19 vaccination. Check out her thoughts on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in this video as well (video can be found below). Disclaimer: Vaxtherapy is NOT affi ..read more

To quote Jimmy Fallon from an earlier segment of The Tonight Show, “Well guys, here is some big news from earlier today: Johnson and Johnson announced its single-shot COVID vaccine has completed its global trial and soon will be available. Yup, Johnson and Johnson said their vaccine is proved to be 66% effective. Way…way to go? 66%? Pretty much the D students of the vaccine world! Not failing, but we pretty much want to bump that average up to a C+ by next semester.” Fallon’s jokes aside, he merely reflected the sentiment a lot of people currently hold regarding the efficacy outcome of t ..read more

People of color, including Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans, are nearly 3 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than Caucasian, white people. However, there is an immense level of vaccine hesitancy among these people, particularly African Americans. Aside from the safety concerns, vaccine hesitancy among people of color is deeply rooted in mistrust in our government and healthcare disparity. If most of our African American and Latino communities refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccines, then we simply won’t get to herd immunity. Herd immunity can be better understood as herd pr ..read more

So, you think there are microchips or Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFIDs) in your COVID-19 vaccines? Well, think again—but open up your mind before you ponder—that will serve you well in the end—that’s a promise. I also promise not to judge here. I know many people believe in this conspiracy theory—that the coronavirus pandemic is a made-up marvel for a scheme to implant trackable microchips in humans. A poll of 1,640 people showed that 28% of Americans believe that the Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates wants to use COVID-19 vaccines to implant microchips in people.  ..read more

Vaccines may give you the false sense of security that mask-wearing, hand-washing, and social distancing are no longer needed. Unfortunately, that is not the case for COVID-19. One day we can, and we will get back to normalcy, but we need to continue to patiently mask-up and follow the public health measures for a little while longer, just until enough people are vaccinated. To effectively contain this coronavirus pandemic, we need to leverage both vaccination and reducing our exposure to the corona beast. While vaccination will teach the body to successfully fight off the virus without ..read more

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) makes recommendations for the allocation of COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. Based on their recommendation, each state has set priorities about who gets the vaccine, and in what order. Although each state will ultimately make its own final decisions about vaccine implementation plans, guided by a team of independent experts, they are trying to ensure that the process is ethical, equitable, transparent, and benefits the greatest number of people. Currently, the states are rolling out the vaccines per need-based categories. Most ..read more

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are mRNA vaccines that leverage the mRNAs to induce our immune responses. These mRNAs instruct our cells to make the viral spike proteins, which then serve as antigens against which our body makes antibodies that can block the virus from invading, and thus, generate protection against the COVID-19 coronavirus infection. We have received multiple queries regarding whether the mRNAs can mess up our DNA by reverting to a DNA, followed by insertion into our genome. Lately, this has become quite a heated topic in social and news media. This article breaks down ..read more

A couple of days ago one of our readers had enquired about this important question. So here goes. Hopefully, you will find this article helpful. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out a great number of resources on this topic. The short answer is that someone who has recovered from COVID-19 cannot spread or transmit the virus (after a window of time when they are not symptomatic; see below) to others unless they become reinfected with the virus subsequently. Yes, reinfection is possible—please keep reading, as there is more to it. Let’s reserve the topic of ..read more

As the United Kingdom (UK) is facing an upsurge of a mutant, highly transmissible variant of the SARS-CoV2 (the virus responsible for COVID-19), British health authorities are taking “creative” measures to fight the pandemic--particularly when faced with a very limited supply of the vaccines. On December 30, the UK regulator has authorized Oxford University / AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 (coronavirus) vaccine for use by concluding that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality, and effectiveness. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) in the UK has re ..read more

A new mutant strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is sweeping across the United Kingdom (UK) rapidly. This mutant virus, named the B.1.1.7 lineage, has also entered dozens of other countries, including the United States (US). The UK variant has accumulated many mutations much quicker than the original strain.  Meanwhile, a second mutated strain of coronavirus, which is potentially a more contagious variant of COVID-19, was discovered in South Africa on December 18, 2020. According to the British health authorities, the South African mutant variant, whi ..read more