Category: Feature Stories

Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) plan to provide 3.5 billion CoV vaccine doses to poor countries. They pledged that amount for 2021 and 2022 at the World Health Summit in Rome yesterday. U.S. company Pfizer, working with German company Biontech, plans to supply two billion doses of its vaccine to countries, Moderna up to 995 million and J&J up to 500 million. In the run-up to the summit, the EU Commission had contacted the manufacturers, with whom the EU had good experience, about this, according to…

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Getting “caught” by a stinging nettle isn’t exactly pleasant. That’s probably one of the main reasons why most people tend to avoid this plant or immediately consider it a weed. Yet the stinging nettle not only contains an extremely large number of nutrients, it seems to be a veritable miracle herb. Hardly any wild plant is as robust as the stinging nettle. And there is hardly a meadow, path or forest edge where it cannot be found. Only very few people take the opportunity to pick it and use it…

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The good news: vaccination protection lasts – at least according to current knowledge – for six to nine months, with minor deviations. The bad news is that we will probably have to get a booster this year. The manufacturers have long been working on adapting their vaccines in the best possible way. “We will have to settle the vaccine booster on a broader scale in autumn,” said vaccination expert Herwig Kollaritsch, “the logistics for this are in the making.” Soon there should be a recommendation from the National Immunization Panel,…

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Austria-entry: Quarantine not a mustJust in time for the long weekends because of the Catholic feasts – Pentecost Sunday and on the first week of June, the Corpus Christi, traveling is getting easier. Like Austria, some European countries have relaxed their entry restrictions. However, the regulations still vary widely. While some countries still do not allow tourist entries or impose quarantine, you can enter many countries with a negative Coronatest without any problems. Vaccinated and recovered people have advantages only in some places. In Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Greece,…

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Covid 19 vaccination with Astrazeneca followed by Biontech/Pfizer vaccine is safe and highly effective, according to study data from Spain. According to the data, antibody levels were between 30 and 40 times higher at the second dose with the Biontech vaccine compared with a control group that received only one dose of Astrazeneca. In addition, the combination of the two vaccines apparently increases efficacy, according to preliminary results of the Combivacs study published Tuesday by Spain’s Carlos III Health Institute. Levels of neutralizing antibodies increased more than sevenfold after the…

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Although the Indian variant of the coronavirus with the abbreviation B.1.617 is still rarely found in Austria, the fear of the mutation is also increasing. This is because the Indian mutation is spreading rapidly. But how well do the available vaccines from Pfizer/Biontech and Moderna protect against it? People who have received a Biontech/Pfizer or Moderna vaccine may be able to rejoice: the two preparations probably provide good protection against two variants from India. This is the result of preliminary data from the USA. A U.S. study has now investigated…

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Vaccinated, tested and recovered people will be allowed to visit a restaurant again from May 19. Those caught without proof will face hefty fine. On May 19, restaurants in Austria are finally allowed to reopen and provide their guests with culinary delights both in the guest garden and indoors. Here, the 3-G rule applies (geimpft, getestet, genesen), which means that only people who have either been vaccinated, tested or have recovered may consume food and drink in a restaurant. “As long as the ‘green passport’ is not yet on the…

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Starting tomorrow, the quarantine requirement will be dropped for many countries when entering Austria. It will be replaced by mandatory proof of vaccination, testing or recovery (3-G rule). For virus variants, there continue to be strict rules in the amended entry regulation that comes into force at midnight, the health ministry said yesterday. “In many states, the infection figures are declining, so we can also implement facilitations for entry into Austria in parallel with the opening steps in the country,” Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) said in a statement. All…

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French pharmaceutical company Sanofi is moving forward with the development of its covid-19 vaccine after setbacks. The drug, developed jointly with Glaxo-Smithkline (GSK), showed strong efficacy in all age groups in a Phase 2 trial, the company announced Monday. Now, both partners plan to start a large-scale pivotal Phase 3 trial with more than 35,000 participants in the coming weeks. If successful, the vaccine could be approved in the fourth quarter of this year. According to the company, interim results from the study involving about 720 participants show antibodies forming…

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