
Pfizer and BioNTech plan to file for emergency use authorization for COVID vaccine booster as Delta variant spreads
CBSN
Pfizer announced on Thursday that its COVID vaccine booster shot could further protect individuals from "all currently known variants" of COVID-19 — including the highly transmittable Delta variant. The booster shot is currently undergoing trials, the company said, and has shown "encouraging clinical trial data in a small number of participants in our study."
Pfizer said that the initial two doses that patients received have elicited "strong immune responses" against the Delta variant and that current studies are focused on whether the booster shot will increase that response even further. Trial data has shown that when given six months after the second dose, Pfizer's booster has a "consistent tolerability profile" and neutralizes an immune response. Pfizer and BioNTech plan to share their booster data with the Food and Drug Administration in August and file for emergency use authorization shortly thereafter, a Pfizer spokesperson said.
Santa Fe, New Mexico — A representative for the estate of actor Gene Hackman is seeking to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports, especially photographs and police body-camera video related to the recent deaths of Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa after their partially mummified bodies were discovered at their New Mexico home in February.

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.