The e-commerce giant is contributing $12 million to the National Safety Council to conduct research and develop technology to reduce musculoskeletal disorders, a frequent injury in its warehouses.... Read more.

To celebrate World Food Safety Day, held this week, we are drawing attention to the importance of nuclear techniques in monitoring food safety.... Read more.

World Food Safety Day was observed earlier this week, however, safe feed is a pre-requisite to producing safe food every day of the year. Safe feed and... Read more.

New guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) grant transportation construction contractors and other businesses the flexibility to adopt COVID-19 safety protocols that fit their specific workplaces, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).�... Read more.

Healthcare professionals and public health authorities have a central role in discussing vaccination against COVID-19 with their patients. Vaccines play a critical role in preventing deaths, hospitalisation caused by infectious diseases. Emerging data on effectiveness indicates that licenced COVID-19vaccines are contributing to controlling the spread of the disease. Until widespread vaccination has been achieved, both vaccinated and unvaccinated people need to be aware of the additional protective behaviours required to control the pandemic locally.The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented level of public interest in vaccines. This includes a focus on the development of vaccines and their regulatory review and safety monitoring. Much of this coverage has taken place through mass and social media.� Reports of adverse events (side effects) have led some people to express concerns about getting vaccinated, delay getting vaccinated or even be strongly opposed to vaccination.� There are also differences in individual confidence in national safety monitoring systems. Another challenge in communicating the importance of COVID-19 vaccination is that younger adults are typically less clinically affected by COVID-19 infection and so may see limited value in getting vaccinated, including until further data confirms that vaccines prevent transmission and that vaccines are effective against variants. Clear and consistent communication is therefore essential to support people in making the choice to be vaccinated. We appreciate that you, your colleagues and your patients may have a number of questions around the development, regulatory review and ongoing safety monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines.PurposeThis joint International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA)* and WHO statement aims to help healthcare professionals answer questions about the role of regulators in the oversight of COVID-19 vaccines. �It explains how vaccines undergo robust scientific evaluation to determine their safety, efficacy and quality and how safety is closely and continually monitored after approval.Vaccination has been shown to contribute to reducing deaths and severe illness from COVID-19, and to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.� Vaccinating as many people as possible and reducing the spread of disease is important.� Vaccination of a significant proportion of the population also protects vulnerable people, including those who cannot receive vaccines, or the small proportion of people who might remain at risk of infection after vaccination. Failure to vaccinate widely also enables continued circulation of the virus and the generation of variants, including some that may pose a greater risk. Widespread vaccination will help prevent people from having to go to hospital and contribute to fewer people getting sick, ultimately alleviating the burden of COVID-19 on healthcare systems. It will also help allow a return to normal societal functioning and the re-opening of economies.Vaccines and the regulatory processHow do regulatory authorities evaluate COVID-19 vaccines?Regulators rigorously evaluate scientific and clinical evidence provided by vaccine manufacturers. Vaccine manufactures are legally obliged to follow defined standards in the data they provide, and their clinical research and manufacturing operations are subject to regulatory oversight. Either full or summary data from clinical trials is made available following vaccine evaluation. Each vaccine is thoroughly assessed for safety, efficacy and pharmaceutical quality to determine whether it can be approved for use.� Regulators use available scientific evidence from preclinical laboratory research, human clinical trials, and manufacturing information to assess benefits and risks of candidate vaccines.Regulators may seek additional expert advice from independent scientific advisory committees to help inform their decision on whether to approve a vaccine. These committees are made up of experts in science, medicine (including infectious diseases) and public health, and often include consumer and healthcare professional representatives.Public health agencies have a different role than regulatory authorities.� They develop and deliver vaccination programmes, often working with their expert immunisation technical advisory committees. This includes prioritising and designating populations for vaccination with specific vaccines, issuing additional recommendations and providing information more broadly about vaccines and immunization. They also collaborate with regulators to monitor the safety of vaccines after they are approved for use. Globally, the public can have confidence in the rigour of the process used to scientifically evaluate the safety, efficacy and quality of vaccines before they are approved for use in the wider population.�Safety evidence prior to potential regulatory authorisation:Safety evidence is an essential part of each regulatory submission for a COVID-19 vaccine. It is gathered during all phases of the vaccine development process. Robust assessment of safety is carried out in the clinical trials and submitted to regulators for review as part of the approval process.All adverse events need to be examined and reported in the regulatory submission by the companies for a marketing licence. Typically, regulators will require that participants in clinical trials have been followed for at least 1-2 months after receiving their final vaccine dose.� Generally, based on previous experience with vaccines, most adverse events occur within such timeframes, though rare adverse events might not be recognised until after wide population use. There will also be longer-term (for example for 6-12 months or more) follow-up of those who participated in the earlier phases of the clinical trials of each vaccine. Many trial participants will also be followed for at least one year to assess the duration of protection and longer-term safety of individual vaccines, and safety data from these longer-term trials will be carefully reviewed by regulators as part of post-approval monitoring of safety.Efficacy:Apart from information on the types of immune responses induced by the vaccine, companies must submit data from well-designed clinical trials to regulators to demonstrate that the vaccine prevents COVID-19.� The data showed there were sufficient numbers of people included in the clinical trials receiving the vaccine so that the efficacy of the vaccine can be accurately measured (generally at least 10 000 and usually 15 000 or more people who receive the vaccine, in addition to those in the control arm). Populations in clinical trials should include a range of age groups and people with co-morbidities. �Given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on older people, COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials have included significant numbers of older participants.�Vaccine clinical trials for a new candidate vaccine showed that vaccines very significantly reduced COVID-19 in people who were vaccinated, compared to a control group of people who did not receive the vaccine, through a reduction in numbers of laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections.�Quality:Any COVID-19 vaccine that receives regulatory authorisation must be manufactured according to internationally accepted stringent regulatory standards of good manufacturing practices (GMP). Regulators review data to confirm that the manufacturing process at each production site is well-controlled and consistent. This will include data on the composition and purity of the vaccine and its potency, as well as data on every step of manufacturing and on the controls used to ensure that each batch of vaccine is consistently of a high quality. Data on vaccine stability must also be provided before a vaccine can be approved. After approval, batches may also undergo evaluation by individual national regulatory authorities to ensure they meet national requirements, before they can be supplied.Monitoring safety and effectiveness after vaccine approval:After a vaccine is approved for use, regulators conduct robust effectiveness monitorin... Read more.

Bangladeshi textile workers fear for their safety following the expiry of a successful accord brought in after the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster. Global unions say firms could revert to an old model of self-monitoring.... Read more.

POLICE have launched a survey to better understand how you feel about women�s safety.... Read more.

Mohan, 75, was an Honorary Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.... Read more.

The LA County Public Health Department held a town hall meeting Thursday even and tried to answer the many questions that residents, employees and businesses have regarding reopening guidelines.... Read more.

The NFL wants to know about alternatives to opioids, including CBD (cannabidiol) and other cannabis-derivative products, that may help players recover from sports-specific and musculoskeletal injuries.... Read more.

Amid safety concerns about Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE: JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine, along with the weakening of demand for vaccinations, around half of 21 million doses produced for the U.S. is sitting unused, Reuters reported. What Happened: J&J’s shot, being a single dose, was supposed to be an essential tool for reaching rural areas and vaccine-hesitant citizens. It requires less stringent storage than the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) / BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) and Moderna Inc (NA... Read more.

Aurora, the autonomous vehicle company that acquired Uber ATG last year, has re-assembled a team of outside experts, shared new details about its operations in a self-assessment safety report and launched a website�as part of a broader effort to win over consumers wary of the technology that they may someday share the road with, or […]... Read more.

THE parents at Manor road school consistently insist on dropping their child off as close to the school as possible, ignoring the double yellow�... Read more.

Psychological safety: Hot concept... Read more.

Foodstuffs North Island celebrated the Co-op’s Manual Handling Equipment Operators in its inaugural MOOTY (Machine Operator of the Year) competition last week at its Landing Drive Distribution Centre in South Auckland. More than 16 MHE operators from ...... Read more.

Baldwin Co. Sheriff confirms deputy drowning, weighs in on safety in Fort Morgan - NBC 15 WPMI... Read more.

'Little feet can definitely slip': El Paso doctor offers safety tips for water parks - KVIA El Paso... Read more.

The Aiken Department of Public Safety is asking for the public's help in locating two runaway juveniles.... Read more.

Australians are being urged to be informed, but not alarmed, about a very rare blood clotting condition linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine, following the death of a 52-year-old woman in New South Wales.... Read more.

Safety checks, water samples testing for E. coli among the steps being taken... Read more.

State inspectors noted a dozen “willful serious violations.” Allways Roofing says it will appeal.... Read more.