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Early data suggests that only the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer
PFE,
and German partner BioNTech
BNTX,
and Moderna, bolstered by a booster shot, are effective against infection with the new omicron variant, with other vaccines such as AstraZeneca’s
AZN,
and Johnson & Johnson’s
JNJ,
failing to offer enough protection.
But all of the vaccines that have been granted emergency use authorization in the U.S. continue to protect against omicron creating severe illness, according to a New York Times report. That’s the most important goal and underlines how important it is for unvaccinated people to get their shots.
Moderna
MRNA,
said data showed that a 50 microgram booster dose of its COVID vaccine triggered a 37-fold rise in neutralizing antibodies against the omicron variant. Tests also showed that a 100 microgram dose increased those neutralizing antibodies 83-fold against omicron, the company said in a statement.
Omicron is “just raging around the world,” President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday, and Biden is expected to offer another warning of what the winter will be like for the unvaccinated, the Associated Press reported.
Fauci told NBC’s Meet the Press” that “the real problem” for the U.S. hospital system is that “we have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated.”
Early Monday, Fauci told NPR that the best way to protect children against omicron when families gather for the holidays later this week is to make sure all the adults around them are fully inoculated.
Biden plans to speak Tuesday on the status of the fight against COVID-19 and discuss government help for communities in need of assistance, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted. She also said he would be “issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated.”
Biden last week warned that the unvaccinated are facing a “winter of severe illness and death,” and said hospitals will be overwhelmed, especially in parts of the country with large unvaccinated populations.
Dr. Francis Collins, who retired as director of the National Institutes of Health this past weekend, told NPR that while people are tired of the virus almost two years into the pandemic “the virus is not tired of us.”
“Nobody was expecting omicron,” he said. “This one really was a curveball. It’s almost like we’re starting over with a different virus from where we began.” While appearing to be milder, this variant is proving more resilient to vaccines.
The U.S. is averaging almost 1,300 COVID-19 deaths a day, according to a New York Times tracker, and cases and hospitalizations are rising fast, especially in the Northeast.
Maine and Connecticut have become hot spots with new cases up about 150% in the last two weeks. In New York, the omicron variant is rapidly spreading.
Hospitalization rates are highest in the Midwest and New England, and in Michigan, which has the highest rate, one doctor told the paper it’s like “living in a constant crisis” as beds fill again.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine tracker is showing that of the roughly 204 million people living in the U.S. that are fully vaccinated, just 60.2 million have received a booster dose.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, both Democrats, disclosed over the weekend that they have tested positive for COVID, with both saying they are breakthrough infections with mild symptoms.
Tennis legend Rafael Nadal tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving back in Spain from Abu Dhabi, the 20-time grand slam champion said on Monday, CNN reported.
Elsewhere, the Netherlands has entered a strict lockdown with all non-essential stores, restaurants and gyms closed until Jan. 14. The Netherlands reopened its economy late summer and immediately dropped mitigation measures, a move criticized by health experts for being premature and risky.
See: Nearly 50 passengers aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ship test positive for COVID-19
Britain’s health secretary refused to rule out imposing tougher COVID-19 restrictions before Christmas amid the rapid rise of infections and continuing uncertainty about the omicron variant, the AP reported. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said Sunday that the government was assessing the fast-moving situation and urged the public to be cautious as scientists examine the data.
See: UK nurses see ‘very bleak’ next few weeks because of omicron
Thailand is considering reinstating mandatory quarantine for foreign visitors because of omicron, Reuters reported. The health ministry reported on Monday the country’s first case of local transmission of the coronavirus variant.
The European Medicines Agency, the regulator for the European Union, has recommended granting a conditional marketing authorization to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax Inc.
NVAX,
to prevent the illness in people aged 18 and older. The vaccine called Nufaxovid is now the fifth recommended in the EU for preventing COVID.
Latest tallies
The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness climbed above 274.8 million on Monday, while the death toll edged above 5.35 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. continues to lead the world with 50.8 million cases and 806,437 deaths.
India is second by cases after the U.S. at 34.7 million and has suffered 477,554 deaths. Brazil has second highest death toll at 617,803 and 22.2 million cases.
In Europe, Russia has the most fatalities at 292,331 deaths, followed by the U.K. at 147,679.
China, where the virus was first discovered late in 2019, has had 112,996 confirmed cases and 4,809 deaths, according to its official numbers, which are widely held to be massively understated.
