Vaccine 411, the latest coronavirus vaccine information for April 29th, 2021

<p>This is Vaccine 411, the latest coronavirus vaccine information for April 29th, 2021.</p><p><br></p><p>An EU agency says Russia is spreading fake news that the West and EU are trying to undermine their Sputnik V vaccine and trying to sow distrust in the European Medicines Agency. That agency regulates which vaccines can be put on the EU market. The European Commission so far doesn't intend to order Sputnik V, but Germany may talk to Russia about an individual order and Hungary’s already using it.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>We’ve heard about the situation in India, but next door, in Pakistan, that country recorded more than 200 COVID-19 deaths in a day for the first time since the start of the pandemic. They are now considering stricter lockdowns because Pakistan has very limited health resources, with ventilators and oxygen in short supply.</p><p><br></p><p>Research is now underway at Oxford to come up with blood tests that will determine not only whether a vaccine will work but for how long. Volunteers who survived COVID are being deliberately exposed to gauge levels of protection against reinfection. They’re trying to learn how to tell if a new vaccine would provide protection without having to test it on tens of thousands of people.</p><p><br></p><p>A new study shows why you should not skip your second vaccine dose. In a "real-world" study, the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in keeping people out of the hospital was 94% for those fully vaccinated, but only 64% for those with one dose. As we reported here before, 8% of Americans are not returning for their second shot.</p><p><br></p><p>And from the utter silliness department, a conspiracy has been making the rounds that singer Mariah Carey faked getting her vaccine injection in a video. In the video, the needle cannot be seen coming out of her arm. The reason is the person giving the shot used a retractable needle. These are sometimes used to help protect health care workers by allowing an extra push on the plunger to retract the needle up into