In England, a 90-year-old grandmother named Maggie Keenan and an 81-year-old man named William Shakespeare have become the first and second non-trial recipients of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.

Under a health care provider’s request, patients can now collect a home sample for combination COVID-19 and influenza testing and send it to Quest Diagnostic laboratory for analysis.

New treatments for sickle cell disease, including gene editing, are in the works after a decades-long lull in drug development for the condition primarily affecting African Americans.

In August, HHS announced that it expanded pharmacists’ authority to immunize children ages 3 to 18 years with vaccines recommended by CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and authorized or licensed by FDA. This will include the COVID-19 vaccine.

The drugmaker Moderna said on Wednesday that it would soon begin testing its coronavirus vaccine in children aged 12 years through 17 years. The study is to include 3,000 children, with one-half receiving two shots of vaccine 4 weeks apart, and one-half getting placebo shots of salt water.