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Steve Wenger says he began struggling to walk in May 2021, seven days after receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. He eventually became paralyzed from the waist down and had to go to the hospital. His arms became so weak he couldn’t pick up a glass of water. In clinical notes, his doctor at Mayo Clinic referred to an autoimmune disorder called chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) saying it was “triggered by COVID vaccination.” It’s almost impossible to sue a vaccine company for a COVID vaccine injury, due to liability protections under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, or PREP Act. ... Instead of filing a lawsuit, people injured by a COVID vaccine can seek government compensation through the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, or CICP. Wenger says he filed his claim in October 2021. A year and a half later, he’s still waiting to hear back about whether he’s eligible.(Congrad, 4/3)

Federal regulators have decided to authorize a second omicron-specific coronavirus vaccine booster shot for people who are at least 65 or have weak immune systems — an effort to provide additional protection to high-risk individuals, according to several officials familiar with the plan. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce the step in the next few weeks, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to move quickly to endorse it, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal discussions. *McGinley and Sun, 4/3)

Scientists in Germany say they’ve been able to make a nasal vaccine that can shut down a Covid-19 infection in the nose and throat, where the virus gets its first foothold in the body. In experiments in hamsters, two doses of the vaccine – which is made with a live but weakened form of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 – blocked the virus from copying itself in the animals’ upper airways, achieving “sterilizing immunity” and preventing illness, a long-sought goal of the pandemic. (Goodman, 4/3)

The US has started unwinding its Covid-19 crisis measures that have expanded access to health care for millions of people since the beginning of the outbreak in the country in 2020. President Joe Biden is imminently expected to sign a bill passed by Congress that will conclude the country’s national emergency. The White House on May 11 plans to end a separate, more consequential public health emergency and disband its Covid response team. (Griffin, 4/3)

A lawsuit against the University of Delaware over its campus shutdown and halting of in-person classes because of coronavirus can proceed as a class action on behalf of thousands of students who were enrolled and paid tuition in spring 2020, a federal judge has ruled. (Chase, 4/3)

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is highly contagious but the current dominant strains are not very lethal. Its much rarer cousin in the betacoronavirus family of pathogens, MERS-CoV, is highly lethal but not very contagious. Now imagine a blend of the two—a respiratory virus with the most dangerous qualities of both. Contagious and lethal. It’s a real risk, according to a new study from China. And it’s a strong argument for a new, more widely effective vaccine. (Axe, 4/3)