Featured Headlines

With omicron, you need a mask that means business – NPR

With another coronavirus variant racing across the U.S., once again health authorities are urging people to mask up indoors. Yes, you’ve heard it all before. But given how contagious omicron is, experts say, it’s seriously time to upgrade to an N95 or similar high-filtration respirator when you’re in public indoor spaces.

Omicron Is Our Past Pandemic Mistakes on Fast-Forward – The Atlantic

With Omicron, everything is sped up. The new variant is spreading fast and far. At a time when Delta was already sprinting around the country, Omicron not only caught up but overtook it, jumping from an estimated 13 to 73 percent of U.S. cases in a single week. We have less time to make decisions and less room to course-correct when they are wrong. Whereas we had months to prepare for Delta in the U.S., we’ve had only weeks for Omicron. Every mistake gets amplified; every consequence hits us sooner. We should have learned after living through multiple waves and multiple variants of COVID, but we haven’t, at least not enough. We keep making the same pandemic mistakes over and over again.

Omicron Drives U.S. Virus Cases Past Delta’s Peak – New York Times

The Omicron variant, which is now dominant in the United States and spreading faster than any variant yet, has already pushed daily coronavirus case counts higher than the peak of the recent Delta wave. By most estimates, the country is in for a significant winter surge.

We’re About to Lose Track of the Pandemic – The Atlantic

As the Omicron variant sprints to dominance across the United States, the country’s ability to track the resulting infections is about to evaporate. There are multiple reasons for this. The first is that the United States can’t do enough tests. Where cases are rising quickly, demand has already outstripped testing capacity, leaving people standing in long lines, many in bad weather. CDC rules specify that the only way a COVID-19 infection gets counted as a confirmed case is if it’s identified via PCR test or genomic sequencing.

Covid is here for good, scientists say. The rest remains unpredictable. – NBC News

Covid could take on a similar ebb and flow to the flu, but there is plenty left to figure out about just how severe and disruptive it will continue to be.

United Cancels Over 100 Flights on Christmas Eve Due to Omicron-Linked Shortages – Bloomberg

United Airlines Holdings Inc. said it’s canceling more than 100 Friday flights, the day before Christmas, because of personnel shortages linked to the spike in omicron Covid-19 cases.

China Locks Down City of 13 Million in Protracted Covid War – Bloomberg

China locked down the western city of Xi’an on Thursday to stamp out a persistent Covid outbreak, its biggest such move since the pandemic started in Wuhan, underscoring how the country’s zero-tolerance approach hasn’t allowed it to move on since the virus emerged nearly two years ago.

Omicron becoming dominant in some parts of California as COVID-19 cases soar – LA Times

Omicron is now California’s most identified variant of the coronavirus in some parts of California, officials said Thursday, completing a stunning rise that has triggered a new surge of infections, cast fresh uncertainty on holiday plans and prompted additional measures aimed at checking the strain’s rapid spread.

How the Dutch Are Escaping Lockdown Restrictions in Belgium and Germany – Bloomberg

Faced with the spread of the omicron variant across Europe, the Dutch government introduced new restrictions on social contact on Dec. 19, closing non-essential stores and shuttering hospitality businesses at 5 p.m. But some Dutch people haven’t stopped shopping and celebrating. Instead, they simply moved these activities to countries where stores, restaurants and bars remain open.

Omicron escapes the majority of existing SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies – Nature

The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 variant (Omicron) contains 15 mutations on the receptor-binding domain (RBD). How Omicron would evade RBD neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) requires immediate investigation. Here, we used high-throughput yeast display screening1,2 to determine the RBD escaping mutation profiles for 247 human anti-RBD NAbs and showed that the NAbs could be unsupervised clustered into six epitope groups (A-F), which is highly concordant with knowledge-based structural classifications3-5. Strikingly, various single mutations of Omicron could impair NAbs of different epitope groups. Specifically, NAbs in Group A-D, whose epitope overlap with ACE2-binding motif, are largely escaped by K417N, G446S, E484A, and Q493R. Group E (S309 site)6 and F (CR3022 site)7 NAbs, which often exhibit broad sarbecovirus neutralizing activity, are less affected by Omicron, but still, a subset of NAbs are escaped by G339D, N440K, and S371L. Furthermore, Omicron pseudovirus neutralization showed that single mutation tolerating NAbs could also be escaped due to multiple synergetic mutations on their epitopes.

Omicron May Double Risk of Getting Infected on Planes – Bloomberg

Aircraft passengers are twice or even three times more likely to catch Covid-19 during a flight since the emergence of the omicron variant, according to the top medical adviser to the world’s airlines.

How the U.S. Shit the Bed on Tracking New Strains of Covid-19 – Rolling Stone

The coronavirus pandemic is entering its third year, and the United States still isn’t doing enough to track the virus. It’s not just a testing shortfall. The U.S. government is falling short on “genomic surveillance” — that is, sequencing enough tests in the right places at the right times in order to keep tabs on the latest, more transmissible variants. Where they are. Where they might spread next.

Vaccine Headlines

Efficacy of an adenovirus type 5 vectored SARS-CoV-2 vaccine – The Lancet

Despite remarkable accomplishments in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development and production, there are still large regions of the world where access to vaccines remains limited.1 In some areas of the world vaccine hesitancy is also an obstacle to achieving high vaccination coverage.2
In addition to these challenges, there is waning immunity from the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and a continued emergence of variants capable of different degrees of immune evasion. Thus, there is a clear and urgent need for the continued development, testing, and use of additional vaccines.

Newly authorized Covid pills won’t change course of pandemic right away – NBC News

With two antiviral pills, from Pfizer and Merck, now cleared to treat Covid-19, many health experts see a shift in the fight against the virus — but not right away.

Three Sinovac Doses Fail to Protect Against Omicron in Study – Bloomberg

The research suggests that people who’ve received Sinovac’s shot, known as CoronaVac, should seek out a different vaccine for their booster: Getting Germany’s BioNTech SE’s messenger RNA as a third dose saw those previously fully vaccinated with CoronaVac significantly improve in protective levels of antibodies against omicron, according to the study from the University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

First doses of Paxlovid, Pfizer’s new COVID pill, are released to states – NPR

A federal agency has released the first allocations of Paxlovid, the new COVID-19 treatment from Pfizer, to states and territories. The federal government has a contract for 10 million courses of the treatment and is providing the medicine free to state and territorial health departments.

J&J’s COVID Vaccine on the Way Out? – MedPageToday

Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines are recommended over Johnson & Johnson’s for all adults, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said on Thursday.

COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections – Science

The pivotal phase 3 clinical trials of the two-dose messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, among the largest ever conducted, led to the notable finding of ∼95% efficacy for prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 2 months after the second dose. Adenovirus vectored vaccines showed lower protection against infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) but achieved >90% protection against severe disease. No vaccines protect against all infections, and very few achieve such a high level of protection as that of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Clinical Considerations

The Flu Makes an Unwelcome Comeback as Omicron Surges – NYT

The flu virus, which all but disappeared in early 2020, is once again circulating in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 2,500 cases from clinical tests nationwide for the week that ended Dec. 11. That number is typical for this time of year, but it also represents a level of cases that has not been seen since before the coronavirus pandemic.

Remdesivir Cuts COVID Hospitalization Risk for Unvaccinated, But … – MedPageToday

Remdesivir (Veklury) reduced serious outcomes among unvaccinated high-risk COVID-19 patients when given during the early symptomatic period outside the hospital, as published results from the PINETREE trial detailed.

Omicron and children: Pediatric hospitals in parts of U.S. filling fast – Washington Post

About 800 kids have been admitted nearly every day this week, with those in Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and New York hit particularly hard by the juggernaut variant.

Official Reporting for December 24, 2021

World Health Organization

Weekly Epi Update December 21st (latest release)

New Cases: 822,278

Confirmed Cases: 276,436,619

Deaths: 5,374,744

Johns Hopkins

Confirmed Cases: 278,251,128
Deaths: 5,389,443

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Total cases: 51,574,787 (+243,817 New Cases)
Total deaths: 809,300 (+1,522 New Deaths)

Science and Tech

Making Sense of the Different Types of Tests for Covid-19 – Washington Post

The United States logged a seven-day average coronavirus case count of 168,981 on Wednesday, amid a nationwide spike driven partly by the omicron variant, Washington Post figures show, surpassing a summer peak of just over 165,000 infections on Sept. 1.

Under the Microscope: How Sequencing Plays Pandemic Detective – MedPageToday

John Connor, MD, an associate professor and researcher at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories at Boston University, joins us to explain how they track the introduction of COVID and remnants of COVID infections over time.

Early lab studies hint Omicron may be milder. But most scientists reserve judgment – Science

The new SARS-CoV-2 variant exploding around the planet is forcing humanity to adapt at a breakneck speed. This week, countries across Northern Europe imposed stringent new measures to try to bring down soaring case numbers. On Saturday, The Netherlands issued a near-complete lockdown of public life and allowed residents to receive no more than two guests per day—with an exception for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, when four visitors are allowed. Denmark, which lifted all pandemic restrictions in September, closed theaters, concert halls, museums, and other public spaces on Friday and banned alcohol sales after 10 p.m.

Psychological and Sociological Impact

How to deal with (even more) Covid uncertainty – Vox

At the start of the pandemic, practically everything was unknown: How did the coronavirus spread? Why does it affect people differently? How long would we need to social distance? When might we have a vaccine? While some questions were answered just as quickly, a new crop of uncertainties emerged throughout 2020 and 2021.

Published Research

Mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic: the blind spots in statistics – The Lancet

A Potential New Agent to Treat Covid-19 – NEJM

Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories

Russia and China spread coronavirus conspiracies about US in Middle East – NBC News

Russian and Chinese state media are using their Arabic channels to spread the conspiracy that Covid-19 is an American biological weapon. One Russian report has gone viral and been viewed more than 1 million times. But a small group of young Arab activists – led by an Iraqi refugee living in New York – are fighting back against those falsehoods and other forms of misinformation about the pandemic.

Coping with COVID