Covid-19 Christmas: World faces omicron infection wave this festive season

The festive season will be dominated by a large wave of covid-19 infections caused by the omicron variant, but few countries appear to have substantially changed their plans Health 13 December 2021 By Michael Le Page A shop window in Tehran, Iran Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images There now seems little doubt that the Christmas … Read more

Covid booster shots: Third vaccine doses are pushing protection to unexpected heights

Evidence suggests that vaccine booster programmes can take people’s covid-19 protection to unexpectedly high levels, but we don’t yet know how effective existing vaccines will be against the omicron variant Health 30 November 2021 By Clare Wilson A road sign in Buckinghamshire, UK, in mid-November Maureen McLean/Shutterstock While the emergence of the omicron variant has caused concern worldwide, … Read more

Omicron variant: Can we adapt covid-19 vaccines fast enough to make a difference?

Vaccine-makers are already adapting vaccines to fight the omicron coronavirus variant, but it will probably already have swept the world by the time these arrive Health | Analysis 30 November 2021 By Michael Le Page A health worker holds a vial of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine CHAMILA KARUNARATHNE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Is omicron better at evading existing vaccines than … Read more

Children and covid-19 vaccines: Why has the UK been so slow to vaccinate teenagers and children?

Compared with other high-income countries, the UK has been slow to approve and roll out covid-19 vaccines to teenagers, prompting concerns over long covid and the new omicron variant Health 3 December 2021 By Clare Wilson Children at a school in Cardiff, UK, in September Matthew Horwood/Getty Images For the first few months of this … Read more

Omicron coronavirus variant may cause a global wave of covid-19 cases

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 Health 6 December 2021 By Michael Le Page A health worker at a covid-19 testing site in Cape Town, South Africa Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images … Read more

Does the omicron variant mean you shouldn’t go to Christmas parties?

By Michael Le Page Omicron may spread much more easily at social functions than other variants Shutterstock Should you go to that festive party this year if you want to avoid being infected by the coronavirus? Probably not. In addition to the risk posed by the high levels of the delta variant in many countries, … Read more

Omicron coronavirus variant: Maria Van Kerkhove on what we know so far

Exclusive: The World Health Organization’s technical lead on covid-19 says we will know how effective our vaccines are against omicron by Christmas Health 8 December 2021 By Helen Thomson Maria Van Kerkhove is the World Health Organization’s technical lead on the coronavirus pandemic RICHARD JUILLIART/AFP via Getty Images Since it was first detected by scientists … Read more

Omicron: How do prior infections affect covid-19 risk from new variants?

Many people all over the world have now had one infection with covid-19 – how does that affect their future chance of a second round with the coronavirus? Health 8 December 2021 By Clare Wilson A healthcare worker does tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus Peter Kovalev/TASS via Getty Images For the past year, … Read more

Omicron: How do we stop coronavirus variants from evolving

By Michael Le Page Artist’s rendering of the delta variant of the coronavirus Shutterstock / Fit Ztudio We are witnessing the scenario that many people feared unfold before our eyes. The new omicron variant can largely evade prior immunity and is spreading with alarming rapidity. And the really bad news is that there is every … Read more

Omicron Is Likely to Weaken COVID Vaccine Protection–but Boosters Could Restore It

The fast-spreading Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant is highly likely to compromise some of the protection from vaccines, suggest the first laboratory studies of Omicron’s ability to evade immunity. But the preliminary results—released overnight by teams in South Africa, Germany, and Sweden, as well as the Pfizer-BioNtech collaboration—hint that protection conferred by existing COVID-19 vaccines won’t be … Read more