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Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic said on Wednesday it is examining potential risks in connection with bubbles that appeared in vials of COVID-19 vaccine boosters retooled to target the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. (11/2)

Air bubbles in a syringe are typically problematic due to their impact on accuracy of vaccine dose (i.e., large air bubbles reduce the volume of vaccine in syringe, thus creating risk for underdosing). While small air bubbles can be ignored, large air bubbles can lead to underdosing and should be addressed. (February 2021)

Americans who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine after SARS-CoV-2 infection are more likely to experience severe systemic adverse events (AEs) than their never-infected counterparts, according to a study published yesterday in Vaccine. (11/2)

This summer, when the shocking news emerged that there was a case of polio in New York, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immediately turned to Shoshana Bernstein. The agency urgently needed to increase polio vaccination rates in Rockland County, New York. And while Bernstein is neither a doctor nor a public health official, she is exactly what the CDC was looking for: a local vaccine educator who’s part of the Orthodox Jewish community, one of several groups that has a low vaccination rate. (Cohen and Lape, 11/2)

US teens who could correctly answer survey questions about COVID-19 reported lower stress, anxiety, and depression as well as less loneliness and fear of missing out, according to a study today in Journal of Child and Family Studies. (11/2)

There is no question these variants are increasing at a rapid rate. BQ.1.1, for example, currently accounts for 7,000 cases per day and appears to be doubling every nine days, says Trevor Bedford, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center who models COVID evolution. It is outpacing BA.5—the current leading variant in the U.S. That’s because every person sick with BQ.1.1 is infecting an average of 1.4 other people, while those sick with BA.5 are averaging an infection of less than one other person. (11/1)

Wastewater data shows that COVID-19 transmission levels are higher than official case counts indicate in Santa Clara County, health officials told the board of supervisors Tuesday. “It looks to the casual observer that we’re in pretty good shape because we’re between waves and it’s gone lower,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the county health officer, but added that data from the sewer sheds covering 75% of the population showed substantially higher virus levels in circulation. (Vaziri, Buchmann and Asimov, 11/2)