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Thousands of lives could have been saved if the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved COVID-19 boosters sooner, along with stronger public health messaging, according to a new study. The Northwestern University study used Israel as a counterfactual or a "what if" scenario to see the possible outcomes that could have happened in the United States. (Price, 12/4)

The U.S. is heading into peak respiratory virus season, and some of the most vulnerable Americans are unprotected against COVID-19.   Only 27 percent of nursing home residents and just 6 percent of staff have been vaccinated since the updated version of the shot became available in September, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Weixel, 12/5)

COVID-19 vaccination rates among Iowa's nursing homes are significantly lagging this year, highlighting the toll that vaccine fatigue is taking on front-line health care workers as the respiratory virus season nears. Only 8% of nursing home staff statewide are up to date on their coronavirus shots as of Nov. 26, the latest data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And only 45% of Iowa's nursing home residents are up to date on COVID-19 vaccines, according to the CDC. While that's better than the national average of 27%, it still trails rates from previous years. (Ramm, 12/5)

Generic drugmaker Emcure Pharmaceuticals convinced a federal court in Seattle, Washington, on Monday to throw out a lawsuit that accused it of stealing trade secrets from biopharma company HDT Bio to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. A sealed entry in the court's docket said that U.S. District Judge James Robart dismissed the case without prejudice, which means it can be refiled. India-based Emcure had argued that the court lacked jurisdiction over the company. (Brittain, 12/4)

Here are two things that are true. The world needs more effective flu vaccines. And pharmaceutical companies that learned of the vaccine-making power of the messenger RNA platform during the Covid-19 pandemic need new markets for their technology. (Branswell, 12/5)

Respiratory virus season is ramping up in California, prompting health officials to renew their calls for residents to get vaccinated in hopes of reducing potential pressure on health systems across the state. While conditions so far are nowhere near as daunting as last autumn — when hospitals labored under the strain of a “tripledemic” spawned by wide simultaneous circulation of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus — the transmittable trio is on the rise. (Lin II, 12/5)

Researchers in China report thinning of the gray matter and other changes in certain parts of the brain in 61 men after COVID-19 Omicron infection. For the study, published late last week in JAMA Network Open, the researchers evaluated 61 men before and after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in January 2023. The men had been part of a larger cohort who had undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychiatric screenings before infection in August and September 2022. Average age was 43 years. (Van Beuskom, 12/4)