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Federal health officials are investigating after a Saginaw teen died just days after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Saginaw County Health Department learned about the death from the county medical examiner on Thursday, June 17. The 13-year-old received a dose of the vaccine three days before his death. Since the teen was recently vaccinated, his death was reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The state health department was also notified of the death. (Borowy, 6/23)

The National Institutes of Health launched a new observational study to evaluate the immune responses generated by COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant and postpartum individuals. The study, dubbed MOMI-VAX, will also assess vaccine safety and the transfer of vaccine-induced antibodies through breast milk. "Tens of thousands of pregnant and breastfeeding people in the United States have chosen to receive the COVID-19 vaccines available under emergency use authorization," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAD), which is funding the study, said in a news release. "However, we lack robust, prospective clinical data on vaccination in these populations. The results of this study will fill gaps in our knowledge and help inform policy recommendations and personal decision-making on COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and in the postpartum period." (Hein, 6/24)

A study yesterday in JAMA Dermatology shows that, among 40,000 healthcare employees receiving either the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines, only 1.9% reported injection-site skin reactions, including itching, rash, and swelling, after their first dose. (6/24)

Researchers at Oxford University said Thursday they developed a method for predicting the efficacy of coronavirus vaccines by a blood test. The model "can be used to extrapolate efficacy estimates for new vaccines where large efficacy trials cannot be conducted," the researchers said in their paper, which was submitted for peer review for publication in a scientific journal on Thursday. (Chen, 6/24)

COVID-19 transmission among household members may be reduced 40% to 50% when a person has been vaccinated 21 days or more, according to a New England Journal of Medicine letter to the editor yesterday. (6/24)

At the end of January, reports that yet another COVID-19 vaccine had succeeded in its clinical trials—this one offering about 70 percent protection—were front-page news in the United States, and occasioned push alerts on millions of phones. But when the Maryland-based biotech firm Novavax announced its latest stunning trial results last week, and an efficacy rate of more than 90 percent even against coronavirus variants, the response from the same media outlets was muted in comparison. The difference, of course, was the timing: With three vaccines already authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the nation is “awash in other shots” already, as the The New York Times put it. (Bastian, 6/24)