COVID-19: Latest News – Winnipeg Free Press

FILE - A healthcare worker prepares a shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in La Paz, Bolivia, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine sales tumble after government guidance on the shots narrows

Tom Murphy, The Associated Press 4 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025

The fall COVID-19 vaccine season is starting slowly for Pfizer, with U.S. sales of its Comirnaty shots sinking 25% after federal regulators narrowed recommendations on who should get them.

Approval of updated shots also came several weeks later than usual, and Pfizer said Tuesday that hurt sales as well.

Many Americans get vaccinations in the fall, to protect against any disease surges in the coming winter. Experts say interest in COVID-19 shots has been declining, and that trend could pick up this fall due to anti-vaccine sentiment and confusion about whether the shots are necessary.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month stopped recommending COVID-19 shots for anyone, instead leaving the choice up to patients. The government agency said it was adopting recommendations made by advisers picked by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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Boris Johnson denies UK failure in planning COVID school closures but apologizes for mistakes

The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Boris Johnson denies UK failure in planning COVID school closures but apologizes for mistakes

The Associated Press 3 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025

LONDON (AP) — Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied on Tuesday that his government failed to properly prepare for the “horror" of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he apologized for government mistakes.

Johnson told the U.K. Covid-19 Inquiry that officials were overwhelmed by the acceleration of the virus but he believed his Education Department was considering school closings. His education secretary, however, has testified that he was given one night to develop a plan to close schools in March 2020.

“I was very much hoping that we wouldn’t have to close schools," Johnson testified. "I thought it was a nightmare idea.”

It was the second time Johnson has appeared before the inquiry he agreed to establish after being pressured by bereaved families who were particularly angry at his own actions. Two years ago, he defended himself from suggestions that his indifference and failure to heed scientific advice led to thousands of unnecessary deaths in Britain.

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Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025

Former prime minister Boris Johnson leaves Dorland House in London after giving evidence for module 8 (children and young people) in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, on Tuesday Oct. 21, 2025. (Lucy North/PA via AP)

Firm linked to UK lingerie tycoon must repay $163 million for breaching COVID contracts

Pan Pylas, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Firm linked to UK lingerie tycoon must repay $163 million for breaching COVID contracts

Pan Pylas, The Associated Press 4 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025

LONDON (AP) — A British High Court judge ruled Wednesday that a company linked to a lingerie tycoon must repay the government more than 121 million pounds ($163 million) for breaching a contract to supply 25 million surgical gowns during the coronavirus pandemic.

In an 87-page ruling, Justice Sara Cockerill found that PPE Medpro had “breached the contract” and that the Department of Health and Social Care was “entitled to the price of the gowns as damages,” though not to the cost of storing the gowns.

The judge said the gowns, which had been manufactured in China to supposedly European standards, “were not, contractually speaking, sterile, or properly validated as being sterile” and that as a result they “could not be used as sterile gowns.”

PPE Medpro, which was established as the pandemic erupted in the spring of 2020, was a consortium led by Doug Barrowman, the husband of Michelle Mone, who had made her fortune though her lingerie brand Ultimo.

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Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025

FILE - Michelle Mone poses for a picture on June 28, 2014. (Philip Toscano/PA via AP, File)

How to get a COVID-19 shot and ensure its covered by your insurance

Tom Murphy, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

How to get a COVID-19 shot and ensure its covered by your insurance

Tom Murphy, The Associated Press 4 minute read Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

Drugstores are ready to deliver updated COVID-19 vaccines this fall and insurers plan to pay for them, even though the shots no longer come recommended by an important government committee.

On Friday, vaccine advisers picked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declined to specifically recommend the shots but said people could make individual decisions on whether to get them.

The recommendations from the advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention require sign off by the agency's director, but they are almost always adopted.

Those recommendations normally trigger several layers of insurance coverage and allow drugstores in many states to deliver the shots. But insurers and government officials have said coverage will continue, and several states have allowed for vaccine access through pharmacies, the most common place to get shots.

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Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

Pharmacy manager Aylen Amestoy administers a patient with a COVID-19 vaccine at a CVS Pharmacy in Miami, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

For some, a COVID-19 vaccine means jumping through hoops or hitting the road

Tom Murphy, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

For some, a COVID-19 vaccine means jumping through hoops or hitting the road

Tom Murphy, The Associated Press 5 minute read Friday, Sep. 5, 2025

Michelle Newmark has tried — and failed — a couple times to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine.

First, she was told she needed a prescription. Then she learned that her local CVS drugstore won't have shots for a couple more weeks. The Reston, Virginia, resident was considering a drive to Maryland to get vaccinated before a friend told her of a closer CVS that was booking appointments.

What was once a simple process has become “a whole different beast this year,” Newmark said.

“It’s very frustrating that I can’t get a vaccine that I feel should be widely available like it always has been in the past,” she said.

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Friday, Sep. 5, 2025

Co-owner Marc Ost at Eric's Rx Shoppe holds a box of COVID-19 vaccines as he unpacks a shipment in Horsham, Pa., Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Why getting a COVID-19 vaccine is more complicated

Tom Murphy, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Why getting a COVID-19 vaccine is more complicated

Tom Murphy, The Associated Press 5 minute read Friday, Aug. 29, 2025

Will you get a COVID-19 vaccine? That has become a complicated question for many people.

The answer may depend on your age, insurance coverage, health and finding a health care professional who will give you the shot.

A once-straightforward seasonal vaccine process has become muddled this year because of new federal guidance on who the shots are approved for. It raises questions about whether pharmacists will provide the shots and if insurers will cover them.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has OK'd new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax, but the approvals came with some new caveats. And it's not clear yet how that will play out.

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Friday, Aug. 29, 2025

This photo provided by Pfizer in August 2025 shows boxes for the updated COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty. (Pfizer via AP)

FDA approves updated COVID-19 shots with limits for some kids and adults

Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

FDA approves updated COVID-19 shots with limits for some kids and adults

Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press 6 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 shots Wednesday but limited their use for many Americans — and removed one of the two vaccines available for young children.

The new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are approved for all seniors. But the Food and Drug Administration narrowed their use for younger adults and children to those with at least one high-risk health condition, such as asthma or obesity. That presents new barriers to access for millions of Americans who would have to prove their risk — and millions more who may want to get vaccinated and suddenly no longer qualify.

Additionally, Pfizer’s vaccine will no longer be available for any child under 5, because the FDA said it was revoking the shot’s emergency authorization for that age group.

Parents will still be able to seek out shots from rival drugmaker Moderna, the other maker of mRNA vaccines, which has full FDA approval for children as young as 6 months. But the company’s Spikevax vaccine is only approved for children with at least one serious health problem.

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Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025

This photo provided by Pfizer in August 2025 shows a vial of the updated COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty. (Pfizer via AP)

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Premier Danielle Smith defends new COVID shot administration fee during radio show

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Premier Danielle Smith defends new COVID shot administration fee during radio show

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025

EDMONTON - Alberta's wasteful purchase of children's pain and fever medicine three years ago helped inform the province's decision to charge some people $100 for a COVID-19 vaccine shot this fall, Premier Danielle Smith said Saturday.

Smith told her provincewide call-in radio show that a large portion of the approximately 1.4 million medicine bottles from Turkey, which Alberta paid $70 million to secure in 2022 during a national shortage, had to be donated this year to war-torn places around the world. Front-line health staff had said the medicine’s thicker consistency risked clogged feeding tubes.

She said the off-loading made the government think, 'What else is going to waste?'"

"People were really, really angry at the thought that there might be $20 million worth of product that went to waste," Smith said on her show's first episode Saturday following a summer hiatus.

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Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks during a press conference in Edmonton, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

North Carolina Supreme Court says bars’ COVID-19 lawsuits can continue

Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

North Carolina Supreme Court says bars’ COVID-19 lawsuits can continue

Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press 4 minute read Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina Supreme Court issued favorable rulings Friday for bars and their operators in litigation seeking monetary compensation from the state for COVID-19 restrictions first issued by then-Gov. Roy Cooper that shuttered their doors and, in their view, treated them unfairly compared to restaurants.

The majority decisions by the justices mean a pair of lawsuits — one filed by several North Carolina bars and their operators and the second by the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association and other private bars — remain alive, and future court orders directing the state pay them financial damages are possible.

As a way to ease the spread of coronavirus, Cooper — a Democrat who left office last December and is now running for U.S. Senate — issued a series of executive orders that closed bars starting in March 2020. By that summer, bars still had to remain closed, but restaurants and breweries could serve alcohol during certain hours. Later in 2020, bars could serve alcoholic drinks in outdoor seating, with time limits later added, but the plaintiffs said it was unprofitable to operate. All temporary restrictions on bars were lifted in May 2021.

Lawyers defending Cooper have said the orders issued in the ninth-largest state were based on the most current scientific studies and public health data available at a time when thousands were ill or dying and vaccines weren't widely available.

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Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

FILE - Health Director Lillian B. Koontz leads North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on a tour of the COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Davidson County Health Department in Lexington, N.C., June 17, 2021. (Woody Marshall/News & Record via AP, File)

Health Canada approves updated Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for fall

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Health Canada approves updated Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for fall

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

TORONTO - Health Canada has authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and BioNTech and by Moderna for use this respiratory virus season.

Moderna says it will manufacture vaccine doses for the Canadian market in its new facility in Laval, Quebec and syringes will be filled in Cambridge, Ontario.

News releases from both Pfizer and Moderna say the new mRNA shots will target the LP.8.1 variant, a descendant of Omicron that the World Health Organization was monitoring earlier this year.

Both Pfizer's vaccine — called Comirnaty — and Moderna's shot — called Spikevax — are approved for adults and children six months of age and older.

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Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

A person gets the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, April 30, 2021, in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Urban greenspace a protective lifeline against COVID-19 depression, study suggests

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Urban greenspace a protective lifeline against COVID-19 depression, study suggests

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025

Green space helped protect the mental health of city-bound Canadians during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study suggests, even as the number of people with depression surged.

People living in greener neighbourhoods were less likely to be depressed in the first months of the pandemic, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, with stronger benefits for those who weren't already depressed.

That protective lifeline was also more pronounced for people with mobility issues or lower incomes, though only among those who weren't already depressed, the study said.

"The protective effects during the pandemic could be because green spaces act as a refuge from financial and other stressors and the restorative and therapeutic effects of accessing nature," read the study, co-authored by university and federal public health researchers.

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Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025

People enjoy a warm sunny day in a city park in Montreal, Sunday, May 24, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

US pediatricians’ new COVID-19 shot recommendations differ from CDC advice

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

US pediatricians’ new COVID-19 shot recommendations differ from CDC advice

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press 5 minute read Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time in 30 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics is substantially diverging from U.S. government vaccine recommendations.

The group’s new COVID-19 recommendations — released Tuesday — come amid a tumultuous year for public health, as vaccine skeptics have come into power in the new Trump administration and government guidance has become increasingly confusing.

This isn't going to help, acknowledged Dr. James Campbell, vice chair of the AAP infectious diseases committee.

“It is going to be somewhat confusing. But our opinion is we need to make the right choices for children to protect them,” he added.

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Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025

FILE - A pharmacist holds a Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shot on Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Charges dropped against Utah doctor accused of throwing away $28,000 in COVID vaccine doses

Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Charges dropped against Utah doctor accused of throwing away $28,000 in COVID vaccine doses

Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press 3 minute read Saturday, Jul. 12, 2025

The federal government on Saturday dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away COVID-19 vaccines, giving children saline shots instead of the vaccine and selling faked vaccination cards.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction.

Moore and other defendants faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in those efforts. The charges were brought when Joe Biden was president.

“Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so,” Bondi wrote. “He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today.”

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Saturday, Jul. 12, 2025

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to the media, Friday, June 27, 2025, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Chinese man charged in Texas with stealing COVID-19 research from US colleges

The Associated Press 2 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 8, 2025

HOUSTON (AP) — A Chinese national has been arrested on suspicion of hacking into several U.S. universities' computer systems to steal COVID-19-related research, authorities announced on Tuesday.

Xu Zewei is charged in a nine-count indictment in the Southern District of Texas for his alleged involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021. Another Chinese national, Zhang Yu, was also charged in the indictment.

Xu was arrested on Thursday in Italy and is awaiting extradition to the U.S. Authorities said Zhang remains at large.

Xu and others are accused of targeting and hacking several U.S.-based universities, immunologists, and virologists conducting research into COVID‑19 vaccines, treatment and testing, according to court documents.

WHO expert group fails to find a definitive answer for how COVID-19 began

Maria Cheng, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

WHO expert group fails to find a definitive answer for how COVID-19 began

Maria Cheng, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Jun. 27, 2025

LONDON (AP) — An expert group charged by the World Health Organization to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started released its final report Friday, reaching an unsatisfying conclusion: Scientists still aren't sure how the worst health emergency in a century began.

At a press briefing on Friday, Marietjie Venter, the group’s chair, said that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals.

That was also the conclusion drawn by the first WHO expert group that investigated the pandemic’s origins in 2021, when scientists concluded the virus likely spread from bats to humans, via another intermediary animal. At the time, WHO said a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.”

Venter said that after more than three years of work, WHO’s expert group was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID-19 was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for hundreds of genetic sequences and more detailed biosecurity information that were made to the Chinese government.

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Friday, Jun. 27, 2025

FILE - Medical workers check on patients in Jinyintan Hospital, designated for critical condition COVID-19 patients, in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, Feb. 13, 2020. (Chinatopix Via AP, File)

FDA requires updated warning about rare heart risk with COVID shots

Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

FDA requires updated warning about rare heart risk with COVID shots

Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press 4 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it has expanded existing warnings on the two leading COVID-19 vaccines about a rare heart side effect mainly seen in young men.

Myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation that is usually mild, emerged as a complication after the first shots became widely available in 2021. Prescribing information from both Pfizer and Moderna already advises doctors about the issue.

In April, the FDA sent letters to both drugmakers asking them to update and expand the warnings to add more detail about the problem and to cover a larger group of patients. While the FDA can mandate label changes, the process is often more of a negotiation with companies.

Specifically, the new warning lists the risk of myocarditis as 8 cases per 1 million people who got the 2023-2024 COVID shots between the ages of 6 months and 64 years old. The label also notes that the problem has been most common among males ages 12 to 24. The previous label said the problem mostly occurs in 12- to 17-year-olds.

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Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2025

November 6, 2025

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