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Science & Technology

The U.S. Army's new vaccine offers ‘broad protection’ against current and future COVID variants

army covid vaccine, covid vaccines, paxlovid
via U.S. Army

Rsearchers at Walter Reed Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch develop a new COVID-19 vaccine.

The number of average weekly COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has more than doubled since November 28 due to the spread of the new omicron variant. The increase has many worried that it’ll be another deadly winter in the U.S., especially for the unvaccinated.

President Biden had a dire warning for the unvaccinated this week saying they face a winter of "severe illness and death."

As our exhausted populace prepares to fight through another tough winter, there is good news on the horizon, courtesy of the U.S. Army. Recently published preclinical study results show that a new vaccine, known as the Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle (SpFN) COVID-19 developed by researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, provides “a potent immune response” and “broad protection” against COVID-19 variants and other coronaviruses.

The vaccine was developed as part of a strategy to address the current variants as well as those that could emerge in the future.

via U.S. Army

“The accelerating emergence of human coronaviruses throughout the past two decades and the rise of SARS-CoV-2 variants, including most recently Omicron, underscore the continued need for next-generation preemptive vaccines that confer broad protection against coronavirus diseases,” Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, Director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch at WRAIR and co-inventor of the vaccine, told the U.S. Army. “Our strategy has been to develop a ‘pan-coronavirus’ vaccine technology that could potentially offer safe, effective and durable protection against multiple coronavirus strains and species.”

If the vaccine is approved by the FDA, it could act as a one-size-fits-all shot against current and future variants.

The new vaccine will have to undergo Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials before it is approved for public use. The next step for researchers is to see how the new pan-coronavirus vaccine works on those who haven’t been vaccinated nor previously infected with COVID-19.

“We need to evaluate it in the real-world setting and try to understand how does the vaccine perform in much larger numbers of individuals who have already been vaccinated with something else initially…or already been sick,” Modjarrad said.

“It's very exciting to get to this point for our entire team and I think for the entire Army as well,” Modjarrad told Defense One.

News of the Army’s new vaccine comes as the FDA announced on Wednesday that it has approved a new anti-COVID pill by Pfizer. In clinical trials the Paxlovid treatment "reduced risk of hospitalization or death by 89% (within three days of symptom onset) and 88% (within five days of symptom onset) compared to placebo; no deaths compared to placebo in non-hospitalized, high-risk adults with COVID-19."

The Biden administration has paid Pfizer $5 billion for 10 million courses of the Paxlovid treatment and 65,000 courses of the treatment are expected to be delivered next week. According to The New York Times, Pfizer will be able to supply 200,000 courses of the treatment in January and 150,000 more in February.

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Wonder how volunteering can change your life? Ask a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Those who give back get so much in return.

True

Larissa Gummy was first introduced to the work of the Peace Corps in high school. All it took was seeing a few photos shared by her ninth-grade teacher, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, to know that one day, she would follow in those footsteps.

This inspiration eventually led Larissa away from her home in Minnesota to Rwanda in East Africa, to give back to her family’s country of origin and pursue her passion for international development. Though her decision confused her parents at first, they’re now proud and excited to see what their daughter has accomplished through her volunteer work.

And just what was that work? Well, it changed from day to day, but it all had to do with health.

Mostly, Larissa worked for Rwanda’s First 1,000 Days Health project, which aims to improve the conditions that affect the mortality rate of kids within the first 1,000 days of being born (or almost three years old). These conditions include hygiene, nutrition, and prevention of childhood diseases like malaria and acute respiratory infections (ARI). Addressing malnutrition was a particular focus, as it continues to cause stunted growth in 33% of Rwandan children under the age of five.

In partnership with the local health center, Larissa helped with vaccination education, led nutrition classes, offered prenatal care to expecting mothers, and helped support health education in surrounding communities. Needless to say—she stayed busy with a variety of tasks.

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Mom notices the boy she adopted looks a lot like her biological son, so she gets a DNA test

She had to know the truth.

via Liza Summer/Pexels and ANIRUDH/Unsplash

A concerned woman gets a DNA test.

A woman, 35, and her husband, 38, had been married for 10 years and during that time became good friends with a neighbor in her 20s. Two years after they met the neighbor she had a son. She said the father wasn’t in the son’s life because he was a one-night fling.

The woman had health issues, so the couple happily took care of the child when she was in the hospital. Sadly, the woman died when the child was young, so the couple became his foster parents and legally adopted him at the age of 7.

Years later, when their adopted son was 10, and their biological child was 5, the mother noticed that both children looked a lot alike. “Now that they are 10 and 5 years old and they looked so much like each other that I begin to have suspicions,” the woman wrote on the Reddit Relationship Advice subforum.

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Woman goes viral walking the streets of New York holding a sign looking for a husband

"You know what... This might just work."

Karolina Geits|TIkTok

Woman holds new signs walking in New York causing laughter

There's the old cliché, desperate times call for desperate measures and one woman decided it was time to pull out all the stops. Well, sort of. Karolina Geits was annoyed with dating sites when she and her friends came up with the joke of walking around New York City with a sign that reads, "looking for a husband."

The sign isn't something fancy that they printed up at Office Depot or something. It's just a piece of cardboard with black sharpie writing. Geits, who is a model, debuted the sign in July, racking up more than 6.4 million views on TikTok. Since striking virility, she's taken to filming herself with some pretty eyebrow raising signs.

People walking along the streets seem to be a mixture of confused and amused by these silly signs, which sometimes actually result in money. One of her signs, "need money for a Birkin" had onlookers giggling and some folks forgetting they were in New York traffic while craning their necks to...read her sign. I'm sure.

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13 side-by-side portraits of people over 100 with their younger selves

These powerful before-and-after photos reveal just how beautiful aging can be.


Centenarians — people 100 years or older — are a rarity. Their lives are often scrutinized as holding the key to aging.

Czech photographer Jan Langer's portrait series "Faces of Century" shows them in a different light: as human beings aged by years of experience, but at their deepest level, unchanged by the passing of time.

In the series, Langer juxtaposes his portraits with another portrait of the subject from decades earlier. He recreates the original pose and lighting as closely as he can — he wants us to see them not just as they are now, but how they have and haven't changed over time. That is the key to the series.

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Dad's sweet video shows the 'unsung benefits' of reliving his childhood with his son

Nostalgic, relatable and poignant all at the same time.

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There comes a point in every person’s life when the toys, games, fantasy books, cartoons, all start to take up less space in our lives. Partially because of naturally changing interests, and also due to the responsibilities of adulthood setting in.

But then when we have kids, suddenly we are transported back to this magical time when play ruled our lives.

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Matthew McConaughey avoids being labeled 'anti-gun' during tense moment on 'The View'

"His response is exactly what we need in politics today."

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People are applauding the way Matthew McConaughey refused to be reduced down to the partisan label of “anti-gun” during a recent guest appearance on “The View.”

McConaughey had initially been brought on the show to discuss his new children’s book, “Just Because,” but host Sunny Hostin later praised the actor for being “so outspoken against violence, and gun violence in particular,” referencing his previous impassioned speech in the aftermath of the Robb Elementary School shooting.

Hostin then asked McConaughey if he had given any more thought to holding a political office. Previously in 2021 the actor publicly announced considering running for governor of the state of Texas, but then decided to focus on his family.
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To celebrate Fiona Apple's birthday, here's her epic 1997 takedown of celebrity culture

Her "career suicide" moment was brilliantly ahead of its time.

via Long Day Closes/X

Fiona Apple speaking at the 1997 MTV Video Music awards.

In 1997, singer-songwriter 19-year-old Fiona Apple was a massive breakthrough artist on MTV, having recently scored big hits with “Shadowboxer,” “Criminal” and “Sleep to Dream” from her debut album, “Tidal.”

However, even though she was still a teenager, she was already suspicious of celebrity culture.

When accepting the award for the single "Sleep to Dream" at the MTV Video Music Awards, she gave an impromptu speech taking dead aim at the music industry. She asked the young people watching to stop emulating the stars they see in music videos and to be themselves.

Her speech was a bold move by a young woman in a room full of celebrities, rock stars and industry people. At the time, it looked like she was committing career suicide in front of the world. Twenty-six years later, it seems even more audacious in a world where the notion of being sellout is a Gen X relic and the entire culture is dominated by influencers.

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