"COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy: Safe for Newborns, No Risk of Miscarriage"
A study of almost 200,000 newborns in Sweden and Norway found that maternal receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy poses no risk to infants and may prevent serious complications, with the mortality rate for babies born to vaccinated mothers being half the rate of those whose mothers were unvaccinated. Additionally, a new rapid point-of-care test for gonorrhea in South Africa showed high accuracy and rapid detection, potentially improving syndromic management of the infection. Data from three US cohort studies suggested that bivalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were 54% effective against lab-confirmed COVID infection and 49.4% protective against symptomatic disease in school-aged children. Meanwhile, a report highlighted weak FDA oversight of foreign firms making medications for the US market, with the FDA struggling to oversee more than 4,800 foreign drug manufacturers supplying medications for the US market.