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An observational study of Italian healthcare workers infected with SARS-CoV-2 who didn't require hospitalization suggests a link between two or three doses of vaccine and a lower prevalence of long COVID. ... The number of vaccine doses was linked to lower prevalence of long COVID, at 41.8% of a reference group of unvaccinated participants, 30.0% after one dose, 17.4% after two doses, and 16.0% after the third dose. Risk factors for long COVID included older age, high body mass index, allergies, and obstructive lung disease. (Van Beusekom, 7/5)

Think about the adults you know: Does 1 out of every 5 have long Covid, as the CDC estimates? Asking that question should in no way diminish the suffering of people who thought they were done with their infections, only to find their return to well-being still beyond reach. But knowing how many people are living with that bitter legacy of Covid-19, and who among working-age adults can’t work or care for their families, is critical to their care and to the health of our society. (Cooney, 7/6)

A new type of vaccine developed at Caltech aims to ward off novel coronaviruses even before health officials are aware that they exist. When tested in mice and monkeys, it trained the animals’ immune systems to recognize eight viruses at once — and induced immunity to viruses they had never encountered. (Purtill and Healy, 7/5)

A new vaccine candidate, named mosaic-8, containing pieces of eight different SARS-like betacoronaviruses provides broad protection against other related coronaviruses. (California Institute of Technology, 7/5)

German biotech company CureVac said Tuesday it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against rival BioNTech for work that it says contributed to the development of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. BioNTech said its work is original and it would “vigorously” contest the claim. CureVac, which last year reported disappointing results from late-stage testing of its own first-generation COVID-19 shot, earlier this year started a clinical trial of a second-generation vaccine candidate developed with British pharmaceutical company GSK. (7/5)

The World Health Organization program for the fast-tracking and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics is likely to close in its current form in the fall, according to two individuals familiar with the matter. The program, known as the ACT-Accelerator, is a collaboration among the WHO, governments and global health organizations that works to ensure equitable access to Covid tools. It faced significant obstacles to get vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, but it eventually succeeded in shipping over one billion shots. (Banco and Furlong, 7/5)

Canada is going to throw out about 13.6 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine because it couldn’t find any takers for it either at home or abroad. Canada signed a contract with AstraZeneca in 2020 to get 20 million doses of its vaccine, and 2.3 million Canadians received at least one dose of it, mostly between March and June 2021. (7/6)