The Omicron Variant

Omicron variant identified in U.S.: First case of covid-19 linked to new variant found in California The previously healthy patient, who was fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine but had not received a booster shot, tested positive Nov. 29 ....... Since the new variant was first reported in southern Africa last week, it has been identified in at least 20 countries spanning the globe ........ “We should all be focused on getting vaccinated and boosted and get tested if you know you have been exposed. And continue to wear those masks.” ........

The omicron variant has a swath of mutations that raised concerns that this version of the virus might be able to evade immunity and withstand existing treatments for those infected with covid-19...... public health experts are carefully watching to see if omicron will displace delta as the most prominent viral strain.

......... “We have been talking for months about the fact that vaccinations do one really, really important thing: protect against severe disease, against hospitalization and death” ......... “The evidence that an individual with omicron, identified by sequencing, actually has mild symptoms, is improving — I think is a testimony to the importance of the vaccinations.” ....... Hundreds of passengers flying from South Africa to Amsterdam on Friday landed to learn not only that the variant had been discovered but that more than 60 people on two different planes had tested positive for coronavirus, including at least 14 who had the omicron variant. Dutch officials said this week that they detected the variant in the Netherlands at least a week before omicron’s worldwide debut. ....... emphasizing the importance of continued mitigation efforts — including vaccines, masks and social distancing — to prevent the spread of all covid variants amid fears of a possible winter surge of cases.

Existing vaccines might not be as effective against omicron variant, Moderna CEO says it would take months for pharmaceutical companies to manufacture new variant-specific doses to address omicron ........ existing vaccines might need to be modified in 2022. ...... his initial talks with scientists indicate what could be “a material drop” in vaccine effectiveness against omicron. ........ all the scientists I’ve talked to … [say], ‘This is not going to be good.’” ....... U.S. stock futures are down, and Asian markets retreated, while markets in Europe also fell. U.S. oil prices dropped below $70 a barrel, while gold rose and risk-sensitive currencies such as the Australian dollar weakened against the greenback. The 10-year Treasury yield also declined. ......... whether it can cause severe illness, if it’s more transmissible than the delta variant and whether it can erode or evade immunity....... The World Health Organization has said the “overall global risk” from omicron is “very high,” and it is pushing for governments worldwide to report cases of omicron and accelerate their vaccination drives. ......... “greater concerns about the virus” could exacerbate existing problems, such as labor shortages and supply-chain struggles. .......... the omicron variant’s unruly bunch of mutations has worried scientists, many of whom did not expect such a highly mutative variant to emerge for another year or two. He noted that

32 of the 50 mutations in omicron have focused on the spike protein — the area where existing coronavirus vaccines help boost a person’s immune system to fight the virus

. ............. omicron’s mutations were new and utterly enigmatic. ....... “Now, all together? It’s a complete black box.” ....... it would take months before an omicron-specific vaccine is produced at scale for billions of doses.

How the omicron variant unsettled the world in just one week has upended the world, disrupting global travel, rattling financial markets and posing a reminder — especially in wealthy countries with high vaccination rates — that the pandemic is far from over. ........ if it has the potential to outcompete the dominant delta variant, a very high bar. ....... Scientists said the omicron variant could be more transmissible than past iterations and has around 50 mutations, approximately 30 of which were found on the spike protein, which it uses to latch onto human cells, raising concerns that the new form of the virus could also be more resistant to existing immunities. ....... “Outside of perhaps New Zealand and maybe Australia — island nations — I’ve not seen much in the way of positive impact for travel bans” ......

“The virus just travels too fast and has too many ports of entry.”

......... “The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant,” he said Sunday. “The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to and also to recover from the pandemic.” Malawi’s president, Lazarus Chakwera, spoke out as well, condemning the restrictions. ........ “The need to create a new vaccine against omicron will restart all the never-resolved controversies about

vaccine nationalism, vaccine diplomacy and vaccine apartheid

seen with the vaccines originally developed against” the coronavirus

Omicron travel bans on African countries are ‘Afrophobia,’ Malawi’s president says

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The Supreme Court seems poised to uphold Mississippi’s abortion law. The Supreme Court seemed poised on Wednesday to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, based on sometimes tense and heated questioning at a momentous argument in the most important abortion case in decades. ......... Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion and prohibited states from banning the procedure before fetal viability, or around 23 weeks. ....... the court’s six-member conservative majority seemed divided about whether to stop at 15 weeks, for now at least, or whether to overrule Roe entirely, allowing states to ban abortions at any time or entirely. ........ Should Roe be overturned, at least 20 states will immediately or in short order make almost all abortions unlawful, forcing women who can afford it to travel long distances to obtain the procedure. ........ Justice Sotomayor asked whether the court would “survive the stench” of being considered a political institution, a point echoed by Justice Kagan. ........ The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19- 1392, concerns a law enacted in 2018 by the Republican-dominated Mississippi Legislature that banned abortions if “the probable gestational age of the unborn human” was determined to be more than 15 weeks. The statute, a calculated challenge to Roe, included narrow exceptions for medical emergencies or “a severe fetal abnormality.”