Featured Headlines

Unvaccinated face new restrictions in Italy – DW

Many areas of public life are now off-limits for Italians who have not had a COVID-19 shot. Rising infection rates have raised concerns ahead of the Christmas season.

Omicron looks set to cause a huge wave of covid-19 around the world – New Scientist

It remains unclear whether the omicron coronavirus variant causes less severe disease, but even if this is true, hospitals could still be overwhelmed by the sheer number of cases

Omicron Leads to New Curbs From NYC to Hong Kong: Virus Update – Bloomberg

New restrictions are showing up across the world as authorities try to stem the spread of the omicron strain of Covid-19. France shut nightclubs for four weeks, New York City called for a private sector vaccine mandate and Hong Kong imposed quarantine requirements on more countries.

NYC to Impose Vaccine Mandate on Businesses as Cases Rise – Bloomberg

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will become the nation’s first to impose a vaccine mandate on private-sector workers starting on Dec. 27, characterizing it as a “preemptive strike” to head off a potential upsurge in Covid-19 cases in the face of the omicron variant.

Fauci says early reports encouraging about omicron variant – PBS Newshour

U.S. health officials said Sunday that while the omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than delta, which continues to drive a surge of hospitalizations.

Omicron variant is likely everywhere while delta cases are on the rise – Johns Hopkins

Delta remains dominant around the world while omicron emerges, though time will tell whether the new variant will challenge vaccine effectiveness. The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has most likely spread around the world already, but ineffective COVID-19 testing will continue to hamper scientists’ ability to say anything definitive about the latest strain for several more weeks, according to two Johns Hopkins University experts.

Over a dozen COVID cases were found on a cruise ship that just docked in New Orleans – NPR

At least 17 people have tested positive for COVID-19 — including one probable case of the omicron variant — on a cruise ship that disembarked in New Orleans over the weekend.

Omicron outbreak at Norway Christmas party is biggest outside S. Africa – Reuters

At least 13 people in Oslo have been infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus following a corporate Christmas party described as a “super spreader event”, and their numbers could rise to over 60 cases, authorities said on Friday.

Omicron v. delta: Battle of coronavirus mutants is critical – AP

As the omicron coronavirus variant spreads in southern Africa and pops up in countries all around the world, scientists are anxiously watching a battle play out that could determine the future of the pandemic. Can the latest competitor to the world-dominating delta overthrow it?

How to Socialize Safely in the Booster Era – The Atlantic

This winter, there are many shades of what it means to be vaccinated. Here’s how to make everyday risk assessments. This past spring, if someone told you that they were fully vaccinated, you knew precisely what they meant: At least two weeks before, they’d received two doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, two doses of Pfizer, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson.

Nearly All States Have At Least 70% Of Hospital And ICU Beds Occupied – Forbes

Nearly all U.S. states have at least 70% of their hospital and intensive care unit beds occupied and could face hospital constraints if coronavirus cases continue to surge amid the spread of the delta variant and new omicron variant.

Coronavirus FAQ: Help me with omicron vocab. What’s immune evasion? Epistasis? – NPR

COVID-19 news happens fast, and those of us without a medical degree can feel a little lost. So we turned to three COVID-wise experts — Dr. Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Greg Poland, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; and Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., vice chair of practice in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic — to help us translate some of the terms you’re likely to run across.

Vaccine Headlines

Omicron Raises Vaccine Questions a Year After First Pfizer Shot – Bloomberg

One year ago, a grandmother named Margaret Keenan, then 90 years old, rolled up her sleeve at University Hospital Coventry in the English midlands to take her place in history.

Accelerating COVID-19 Vaccine Testing with ‘Correlates of Protection’ – NIH Director’s Blog

With Omicron now on so many people’s minds, public health officials and virologists around the world are laser focused on tracking the spread of this concerning SARS-CoV-2 variant and using every possible means to determine the effectiveness of our COVID-19 vaccines against it. Ultimately, the answer will depend on what happens in the real world. But it will also help to have a ready laboratory means for gauging how well a vaccine works, without having to wait many months for the results in the field.

Here’s How Covid-19 Vaccine Makers Plan To Tackle Omicron – Forbes

The emergence of the highly-mutated omicron variant of coronavirus sparked concerns existing vaccines may be less effective and triggered a new vaccine race to develop shots to target the strain—here’s how the makers of the most widely-used vaccines in the U.S. plan to target the variant: Johnson & Johnson said it has started work on an omicron-specific vaccine and is testing blood serum from people taking part in its booster trials to see if it can neutralize the variant, though Mathai Mammen, who heads research and development at the J&J’s vaccine division, Janssen, said the company is “confident” in the strong immune responses the vaccine has shown against other variants in clinical studies.

Post-Booster Breakthrough Covid-19 Cases Are Happening, but Rarely – WSJ

A small number of Covid-19 breakthrough cases are beginning to show up among people who got both a full round of vaccinations and a booster shot. Heather Green received her Covid-19 booster, a third injection of the Pfizer vaccine, at the end of September. A month later, the 47-year-old was surprised to discover during a routine test that her mild allergy-like symptoms were actually from Covid-19.

U.K. study makes the case for mixing and matching vaccine regimens – Washington Post

A British study has made the case for a more flexible approach to mixing and matching vaccine regimens, which is likely to support a swifter rollout in many countries still working to immunize their populations.

As variants spread, the U.S. invests $400 million in new global vaccine distribution program – NYT

The U.S. government is investing $400 million in a new program to help countries get vaccines to their citizens quickly, an effort that comes amid fears that the Delta and Omicron variants will drive a new wave of cases.

Clinical Considerations

None Today

Official Reporting for December 7, 2021