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Patient autonomy and criminal law
Published in Paweł Daniluk, Patient Autonomy and Criminal Law, 2023
Gintaras Švedas, Aurelijus Gutauskas
Furthermore, vaccination against COVID-19 is not mandatory in Lithuania. Although there was an initiative by the government of Lithuania to introduce mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for medical and social sector workers, it was rejected by the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) on 20 January 2022. The amendments would have made vaccinations mandatory for people working in health and social care facilities, including those providing services, such as cleaning and food services. At present, each person who is 16 years old and older has a right to decide on their own free will whether to be vaccinated. Adolescents from 12 to 15 years old can also decide independently, but they need to have the consent of their parents or guardians. COVID-19 vaccination of children from 5 years old is recommended. Every person who is vaccinated in Lithuania can choose the type of the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccines Vaxzevria, Comirnaty, Spikevax and COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen are currently available in Lithuania. Both the vaccine and the vaccination service are free of charge.
Acute Uveitis following COVID-19 Vaccination
Published in Ocular Immunology and Inflammation, 2021
Reem H. ElSheikh, Abid Haseeb, Taher K. Eleiwa, Abdelrahman M. Elhusseiny
Research on the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines is a developing initiative still in its early stages. Based on currently available literature, the reported adverse effects for the Pfizer/BioNTech (Pfizer Inc., Manhattan, New York City, New York) and Moderna (Moderna, Inc, Cambridge, Massachusetts) COVID-19 vaccines include rare anaphylaxis, pain, swelling, or redness at the injection site; systemic symptoms such as fever, chills, fatigue, nausea; and others.5 In April 2021, the Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause in the use of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine (Janssen Biotech, Inc., a Janssen Pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson; New Brunswick, New Jersey) following six reports of cerebral sinus venous thrombosis with thrombocytopenia after vaccine administration.6
COVID-19 vaccines approved in the European Union: current evidence and perspectives
Published in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2021
EMA, using the rolling review regulatory tool to speed up the assessment process during a public health emergency, granted four conditional approvals for COVID-19 vaccines that met a positive benefit-risk balance: BNT162b2 (Comirnaty), mRNA-1273 (COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna), ChAdOx1-S (Vaxzevria), and Ad26.COV2-S (COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen) (Table 1). Both BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 are based on nucleoside-modified mRNA encoding for the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles, while ChAdOx1-S and Ad26.COV2-S are monovalent, recombinant, replication-incompetent chimpanzee and type 26 adenovirus vectors, respectively, encoding the S glycoprotein [2–5].
Antibody response after two doses of the SARS-CoV-2 Comirnaty vaccine in a Covid-19 positive and Covid-19 negative Italian healthcare workers cohort
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation, 2022
Adela Sulejmani, Chiara Giacobone, Simona Spiti, Claudia Pozzobon, Roberto Dominici, Paolo Mascagni, Rosanna Falbo, Paolo Brambilla, Valerio Leoni
As of March 11, 2020, the world has been officially declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be under siege of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). One year later, the toll on human lives to SARS-CoV-2 has been more than 3.98 million deaths, and over 183,000,000 more infected in almost 200 countries and territories worldwide [1]. This has generated a worldwide health and economic emergency. Containment strategies have not been totally successful in keeping the virus from spreading around the globe, nor from developing variants of concern. The single most efficacious strategy in reducing the risk of infection is the use of vaccines. The US government responded to this necessity by establishing Operation Warp Speed in May of 2020 in order to develop, produce, and distribute COVID-19 vaccines [2]. As of June 18, 2021 there are a total of 287 candidate vaccines of which 102 are in various stages of clinical progress [3]. Four vaccines, so far, have received FDA emergency, European Medicines Agency (EMA), and Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) approval in Italy: Comirnaty (BNT162b2, Pfizer-BioNTech, BioNtech Manufacturing GmbH, Mainz, Germany) an mRNA vaccine; Spikevax (mRNA-1273, Moderna Biotech Spain, S.L., Madrid, Spain) an mRNA vaccine; Vaxzevria (ChAdOx1nCoV-19, AstraZeneca AB, Sodertalje, Sweden) an adenovirus-vectored vaccine; COVID-19 vaccine Janssen (Ad26.COV2.S, Janssen-Cilag International, Beerse, Belgium) an adenovirus serotype 26 vectored vaccine [4]. All of these vaccines have targeted the spike (S1) glycoprotein of the SARS-CoV-2 surface, eliciting an immune response against the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) located on the S1 protein by generating functional neutralization antibodies. Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 with strong neutralizing capacity, especially against the RBD, have been identified in COVID-19 patients [5]. This humoral immune response seems to last for 6–8 months [5]. Therefore, a logical consequence of this observation is that also the available vaccines may produce a humoral response that is at least as durable. A longitudinal appraisal of antibody response to vaccination is pertinent since neither SARS-CoV nor MERS-CoV infections, especially mild ones, seem to generate long-lived antibody responses [6]. This may also be true for COVID-19, and there is still debate on whether subjects infected with SARS-CoV-2 should be subjected to the two dose regimen. Therefore, this study points to determine the durability of antibodies elicited by Comirnaty vaccine in a cohort of COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative healthcare workers (HCW).