'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Pregnant women who get an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 pass high levels of protective antibodies on to their babies, new research shows. Doctors analyzed umbilical cord blood from 36 newborns whose mothers had received at least one dose of an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna . All 36 babies had high levels of antibodies that target the spike protein on the surface of the virus - and all of the antibodies could be traced to the mothers' vaccinations.
The findings, reported on Wednesday in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology - Maternal Fetal Medicine, indicate that "the antibodies that the mother is building to the vaccine are crossing the placenta and that's likely to confer benefits for the infant after it's born," said coauthor Dr. Ashley Roman of NYU Langone Health in New York City. It is not clear whether the timing of vaccination during pregnancy is related to antibody levels in the baby. And, "we don't know how long those antibodies stick around in the baby," Roman said. "But the presence of these antibodies in the cord blood, which is the fetus' blood, indicates that the baby also has potential to derive benefit from maternal vaccination."
SCIENTISTS MAP ANITBODY BINDING SITES ON VIRUS SPIKE
A new COVID-19 "antibody map" is helping researchers identify antibodies that will be able to neutralize the coronavirus even after it mutates, according to a report published on Thursday in Science. Using hundreds of antibodies collected from COVID-19 survivors around the world, a global research team mapped out exactly where each antibody attaches to the spike protein on the virus surface, which it uses to break into cells and infect them. The researchers looked for - and found - antibodies that target sites on the spike that are so important for the viral life cycle that the virus probably could not function without them. Those sites are likely to remain targets for vaccines or treatments even when the virus mutates. "If you are making an antibody cocktail, you'd want at least one of those antibodies in there because they are probably going to maintain their efficacy against most variants," said coauthor Kathryn Hastie of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California, in a news release. Her team, known as the Coronavirus Immunotherapeutic Consortium, has made the map and a color-coded library of antibodies available in public databases so other scientists can access the data.
J&J VACCINE EFFICACY HOLS STEADY, INCREASES WITH BOOSTER
A U.S. study comparing nearly 400,000 people who got the one-shot COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson with 1.52 million people of similar ages, genders and health issues who were unvaccinated showed it was 79% effective at preventing confirmed coronavirus infections and 81% effective at preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations, J&J said in a report posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review. There was no evidence of reduced effectiveness over the study's duration from March to late July - a period that included the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant, the company said. Preliminary data from a separate study suggest a second booster dose given about two months after the first shot increased the vaccine's efficacy to 94% in the United States against moderate-to-severe forms of COVID-19. The company announced those latest findings on Tuesday, when half the people in the study had received the second shot at least 36 days prior. Side effects of the second dose were comparable to those seen in studies of the first shot. The data will be submitted for publication in the coming months, J&J said.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid, Megan Brooks and Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.