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Down with Covid, Saurav Ganguly hospitalised in Kolkata
India's cricket control board chief Sourav Ganguly, affectionately called 'Dada', has been hospitalised after testing positive for Covid.
The 49-year-old former India skipper was rushed to Woodlands hospital, a leading private hospital in the eastern metropolis of Kolkata, on Monday night after his RT-PCR test result came positive, UNB has learnt.
"Saurav displayed mild symptoms of Covid. Anyway, his blood samples will be sent for genome sequencing to ascertain if he has got the new Omicron strain of the virus" a doctor at the hospital told the local media.
On December 24, Sourav attended the premiere of Bengali superstar Dev's latest film Tonic, where he was photographed with several other celebrities like actress Nusrat Jahan and Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo.
Read: Saurav Ganguly appointed ICC cricket panel chief
Saurav has, in fact, been hospitalised for the third time this year.
On January 2, Saurav was rushed to Woodlands after he complained of acute chest pain and dizziness while working out at a gym. Later that day, he underwent angioplasty after three tiny blockages were detected in his coronary artery.
Later that month, he had to be rushed to Apollo hospital after he complained of mild chest pain. Subsequently, he underwent another angioplasty surgery at the hospital.
Considered one of the best captains in international cricket, Saurav quit the game in 2008 but continued playing in the multi-billion-dollar cricketing tournament Indian Premier League for a few more years.
He scored more than 18,500 runs in Tests and one-day internationals. Last year, Dada was elected as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the world's richest cricketing body.
Immigrants welcome Afghan refugees, inspired by own journeys
Tram Pham tears up recalling how tough life was at first in the U.S. But she also remembers the joy she felt as a 22-year-old refugee from Vietnam when a nurse spoke to her in her native language and guided her through a medical screening required of new arrivals.
Nearly three decades later, Pham hopes to pay that comfort forward as a registered nurse at the same San Jose, California, clinic that treated her family. The TB and Refugee Clinic at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center is screening people from Afghanistan who began seeking asylum in the U.S. after American troops withdrew from the country in August.
Pham can’t speak Farsi or Pashto. But she can soothe patients stressed out over the job they can’t find or the rent that’s due. The other day, she held the hand of an older Afghan woman as she cried out her fears.
“I can see patients from all over the world come in. I see, you know, Vietnamese patients. I see a lot of refugee patients,” she said. “I see myself.”
The TB and Refugee Clinic joins a vast network of charities and government organizations tasked with carrying out President Joe Biden’s plan to relocate nearly 100,000 people from Afghanistan by September 2022. Nearly 48,000 Afghans have already moved off U.S. military bases and settled in new communities, the U.S. Department of State said in an email, including more than 4,000 in California.
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The operation has been hampered by the need to scale up quickly after steep cutbacks to refugee programs under President Donald Trump. But the community response has been overwhelming and enthusiastic, said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine national resettlement agencies.
“We know that resettlement isn’t a weekslong or monthslong process. Success requires years of effort. And so that’s where it’s really important to have strong community ties,” Vignarajah said.
The nonprofit, which operates in at least two dozen states, has resettled roughly 6,000 newly arrived Afghans since summer, including 1,400 in northern Virginia, 350 in Texas, 275 in Washington and Oregon and 25 in Fargo, North Dakota.
The state of Oklahoma has received about half of the 1,800 people it was told to expect, said Carly Akard, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City. Akard said that in their rush to escape, many of the refugees arrived without identification.
“They fled and didn’t have anything,” she said.
In San Jose, the clinic is scrambling to hire more people and reallocate staff for the more than 800 people expected in the county through September. Not only is the number a large increase from the 100 people the clinic assessed in all of the last fiscal year, it is uncertain when they will arrive, said health center manager Nelda David.
But David said that won’t stop the staff of roughly three dozen from rolling out the welcome mat at the clinic, founded four decades ago specifically to assist Southeast Asians after the Vietnam War. Most of the nurses, assistants and other staff are immigrants or former refugees themselves, and understand the shock of starting over in a new country.
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Medical interpreter Jahannaz Afshar welcomes Farsi speakers at the front door even before they check in for their first visit. In a windowless office, she explains what to expect over at least four visits as part of a comprehensive health assessment, which includes updating immunizations and checking for infectious diseases. A medical exam is required of all refugees.
But Afshar, who moved from Iran in 2004, also explains cultural differences, such as the American preference for personal space and chitchat. She’ll tell newcomers how to take the bus or use the public library, and reassure them that in the U.S., people help without expectation of getting anything in return.
Most staff members are bilingual, and come from a number of countries, including China, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Mexico, said Mylene Madrid, who coordinates the refugee health assessment program. But staff can help even without speaking the same language.
An Afghan woman was tense and nervous when she arrived the other day for her first medical exam. By the end of the hourslong visit, however, she was cracking jokes and sharing photos with public health assistant Nikie Phung, who had fled Vietnam decades earlier with her family.
Another new arrival from Afghanistan dropped by the clinic complaining of chest pains but was so anxious she couldn’t elaborate on her symptoms. Pham, the nurse, asked if she could hold her hand. They sat as the woman sobbed, then finally spoke of the stress of having her entire family living in a cramped hotel room.
By then, her pains had receded. Pham noticed that the woman’s daughter and son-in-law were upbeat and more comfortable speaking English. She pulled the daughter aside.
“Would you please spend time with your mom?” she asked her. “Talk to her more.”
Staff members have gone out of their way to connect patients to jobs, furnish empty apartments and tap the broader community for rent and other relief. They’ve stocked diapers for babies and handed out gift baskets at Thanksgiving. During a routine visit, a patient mentioned he needed car repairs for work. Within weeks, the clinic had raised $2,000 to give him.
“Your heart is different,” says Jaspinder Mann, an assistant nurse manager originally from India, of immigrants’ desire to help.
Afshar says she can’t imagine what refugees are going through. The former apparel designer and her husband were not fleeing strife and shootings when they chose to leave Iran. And yet, she too struggled at first.
“And this is one of the things that I always share,” she said. “That even though it’s going to be hard, later you’re going to be happy because ... you’re going to learn so much and you’re going to grow so much.”
At the clinic, she hops on the phone to arrange an eye exam for Mohammad Attaie, 50, a radio technician who fled the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, this summer with his wife, Deena, a journalist, and their daughter. Sana, 10, adores her new school in San Jose but the couple worry about finding work when they can’t speak the language.
Still, seeing people like Afshar and Pham gives them confidence.
“They are successful. They’re working here. Their language skills are good. I am hoping that in less than a year I can stand on my feet,” Deena Attaie said, speaking in Farsi.
Desmond Tutu, South African equality activist, dies at 90
Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights and retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, has died, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday. He was 90.
An uncompromising foe of apartheid, South Africa’s brutal regime of oppression again the Black majority, Tutu worked tirelessly, though non-violently, for its downfall.
The buoyant, blunt-spoken clergyman used his pulpit as the first Black bishop of Johannesburg and later Archbishop of Cape Town as well as frequent public demonstrations to galvanize public opinion against racial inequity both at home and globally.
READ: 3 US-based economists receive economics Nobel Prize
Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born Oct. 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, a town west of Johannesburg, and became a teacher before entering St. Peter’s Theological College in Rosetenville in 1958 for training as a priest. He was ordained in 1961 and six years later became chaplain at the University of Fort Hare. Moves to the tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho and again to Britain followed, with Tutu returning home in 1975.
READ: Russian Nobel winner: Peace Prize is for my paper, not me
He became bishop of Lesotho, chairman of the South African Council of Churches and, in 1986, the first black Anglican archbishop of Cape Town. Tutu was arrested in 1980 for taking part in a protest and later had his passport confiscated for the first time. He got it back for trips to the United States and Europe, where he held talks with the U.N. secretary-general, the pope and other church leaders.
COVID puts a damper on Christmas Eve again around the world
From Bethlehem and Frankfurt to London and Boston, the surging coronavirus put a damper on Christmas Eve for a second year, forcing churches to cancel or scale back services and disrupting travel plans and family gatherings.
Drummers and bagpipers marched through Bethlehem to smaller than usual crowds after new Israeli travel restrictions meant to slow the highly contagious omicron variant kept international tourists away from the town where Jesus is said to have been born.
In Germany, a line wound halfway around Cologne’s massive cathedral, not for midnight Mass but for vaccinations. The offer of shots was an expression of “care for one’s neighbor” that was consistent with the message of Christmas, cathedral provost Guido Assmann told the DPA news agency.
Around the world, people weary from nearly two years of lockdowns and other restrictions searched for ways to safely enjoy holiday rituals.
“We can’t let the virus take our lives from us when we’re healthy,” said Rosalia Lopes, a retired Portuguese government worker who was doing some last-minute shopping in the coastal town of Cascais.
She said she and her family were exhausted by the pandemic and determined to go ahead with their celebrations with the help of vaccines and booster shots, rapid home tests and mask-wearing in public. She planned a traditional Portuguese Christmas Eve dinner of baked cod.
In New York City, where omicron has spread widely, people waited in long lines to get tested, many doing so as a precaution before traveling to reunite with family.
Brianna Sultan and her daughter Ava, 8, spent Friday in one of those long lines waiting for a test after they got word of another infection at school.
“It’s a terrible way to be spending Christmas Eve,” Sultan said after more than two hours in line and as the chill deepened into the evening in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. “It’s terrible that we can’t see our families because this COVID strain is coming back up again.”
Holiday travel was dealt a blow when major airlines canceled hundreds of flights amid staffing shortages largely tied to omicron.
Sadia Reins arrived in New York City from Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday to be with with her 75-year-old mother. Reins said the two haven’t spent Christmas together in two years, and despite the risks in traveling during the outbreak, she couldn’t bear to be apart from her mother again this year.
“We’re going to cry,” she said, adding: “We talk on the phone all the time, but it’s not the same as looking at someone.”
In Britain, where the coronavirus variant is ripping through the population, some houses of worship hoped to press on.
At St. Paul’s Old Ford, an Anglican church in East London, priests planned to hold services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But to protect parishioners, the church called off its Nativity play.
“You might have to cancel the service, but you can’t cancel Christmas,” said the Rev. April Keech, an associate priest. “You can’t stop love. Love still stands.”
Numerous churches in the U.S. canceled in-person services, including Washington National Cathedral in the nation’s capital and historic Old South Church in Boston. Others planned outdoor celebrations or a mix of online and in-person worship.
In Rome, a maskless Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve Mass before an estimated 2,000 people in St. Peter’s Basilica, where admission was limited and worshippers had to wear masks.
While the number of faithful was far more than the 200 allowed in last year, it was a fraction of the 20,000 the basilica can seat. Before the pandemic, St. Peter’s was routinely packed for midnight Mass.
Read: Christmas joy in the air amid Covid-19
In Germany, churchgoers faced a thicket of health restrictions and limits on attendance. Some had to show proof of vaccination or testing.
Frankfurt’s cathedral, which can hold 1,200 people, offered only 137 socially distanced spaces, all of which were booked days in advance. Singing was allowed only through masks.
People in the Netherlands tried to make the best of the holiday, despite living under one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe. All nonessential shops were closed, including bars and restaurants, and home visits were limited to two people per day, four on Christmas.
“We are just meeting with some small groups of family for the next few days,” Marloes Jansen, who was waiting in line to buy the traditional Dutch kerststol, a Christmas bread with fruits and nuts.
A glitch in a computerized appointment system prevented scores of people from scheduling COVID-19 tests and undermined the government’s efforts to administer booster shots in a country already lagging far behind its neighbors.
Also read: Yet another Christmas in the shadow of Covid-19
In France, some visited loved ones in the hospital. In the Mediterranean city of Marseille, the intensive care unit at La Timone Hospital has been taking in more and more COVID-19 patients in recent days.
Amelie Khayat has been paying daily visits to her husband, Ludo, 41, who is recovering from spending 24 days in a coma and on a breathing machine.
They touched their heads together as she sat on his bed, and now that he is strong enough to stand, he got up to give her a farewell hug, as a medical worker put final decorations on the ICU Christmas tree.
Parisians lined up at chocolate shops, farmers’ markets and testing centers. France has posted record numbers of daily COVID-19 infections, and hospitalizations have been rising, but the government has held off on imposing curfews or closings during the holidays.
“It does affect our enthusiasm to celebrate Christmas. It does makes us a bit sad. But at least we are sure not to contaminate or get contaminated. We will all do the test in our family,” said Fabienne Maksimovic, 55, as she waited in line at a pharmacy in Paris to get tested.
In Antwerp, Belgium, Christmas trees hung upside down from windows in a protest against the closing of cultural venues.
In Bethlehem, the scene was much more festive than it was a year ago, when musicians marched through empty streets. This year, hundreds of people gathered in Manger Square as bagpipe-and-drum units streamed through.
Before the pandemic, Bethlehem would host thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world. The lack of visitors has hit the city’s hotels, restaurants and gift shops especially hard.
China orders lockdown of up to 13 million people in Xi’an
China ordered the lockdown of as many as 13 million people in neighborhoods and workplaces in the northern city of Xi’an following a spike in coronavirus cases, setting off panic buying just weeks before the country hosts the Winter Olympic Games.
State media reported that city officials ordered all residents to stay home unless they had a pressing reason to go out and suspended all transport to and from the city apart from special cases.
One person from each household will be permitted out every two days to buy household necessities, the order said. It took effect at midnight Wednesday, with no word on when it might be lifted.
There was no word on whether the virus was the newly surging omicron variant or the far more common delta. China has recorded just seven omicron cases — four in the southern manufacturing center of Guangzhou, two in the southern city of Changsha and one in the northern port of Tianjin.
Read: Bangladesh receives 1.8 mn Pfizer vaccine jabs from US
Social media posts recorded panic buying of groceries and household products, with the government saying new supplies would be brought in. Residents posting on Thursday however, said the situation remained relatively calm, with people allowed to travel in and out of the compounds in which they live.
Xi’an on Thursday reported another 63 locally transmitted cases over the previous 24 hours, pushing the city’s total to at least 211 over the past week. Xi’an is the capital of Shaanxi province, famed for its imperial relics, as well as a major center of industry.
China has also been dealing with a substantial outbreak in several cities in the eastern province of Zhejiang near Shanghai, although isolation measures there have been more narrowly targeted.
Read: FDA paves way for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations in young kids
China has adopted strict pandemic control measures under its policy of seeking to drive new transmissions to zero, leading to frequent lockdowns, universal masking and mass testing. While the policy has not been entirely successful while leading to massive disruptions in travel and trade, Beijing credits it with largely containing the spread of the virus.
Those measures have been stepped up in recent days ahead of the start of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games on Feb. 4.
The Xi’an restrictions are some of the harshest since China in 2020 imposed a strict lockdown on more than 11 million people in and around the central city of Wuhan, after the coronavirus was first detected there in late 2019.
China has reported 4,636 deaths among a total of 100,644 cases of COVID-19.
Omicron less likely to put you in the hospital, studies say
Two new British studies provide some early hints that the omicron variant of the coronavirus may be milder than the delta version.
Scientists stress that even if the findings of these early studies hold up, any reductions in severity need to be weighed against the fact omicron spreads much faster than delta and is more able to evade vaccines. Sheer numbers of infections could still overwhelm hospitals.
Still, the new studies released Wednesday seem to bolster earlier research that suggests omicron may not be as harmful as the delta variant, said Manuel Ascano Jr., a Vanderbilt University biochemist who studies viruses.
“Cautious optimism is perhaps the best way to look at this,” he said.
Also read: Moderna: Initial booster data shows good results on omicron
An analysis from the Imperial College London COVID-19 response team estimated hospitalization risks for omicron cases in England, finding people infected with the variant are around 20% less likely to go to the hospital at all than those infected with the delta variant, and 40% less likely to be hospitalized for a night or more.
That analysis included all cases of COVID-19 confirmed by PCR tests in England in the first half of December in which the variant could be identified: 56,000 cases of omicron and 269,000 cases of delta.
A separate study out of Scotland, by scientists at the University of Edinburgh and other experts, suggested the risk of hospitalization was two-thirds less with omicron than delta. But that study pointed out that the nearly 24,000 omicron cases in Scotland were predominantly among younger adults ages 20 to 39. Younger people are much less likely to develop severe cases of COVID-19.
Also read: Booster at least 80% effective against severe Omicron
“This national investigation is one of the first to show that omicron is less likely to result in COVID-19 hospitalization than delta,” researchers wrote. While the findings are early observations, “they are encouraging,” the authors wrote.
The findings have not yet been reviewed by other experts, the gold standard in scientific research.
Ascano noted the studies have limitations. For example, the findings are specific to a certain point in time during a quickly changing situation in the United Kingdom and other countries may not fare the same way.
Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said that in the Scottish study, the percentage of younger people was almost twice as high for the omicron group compared with the delta group, and that “could have biased the conclusions to less severe outcomes caused by omicron.”
He nonetheless said the data were interesting and suggest omicron might lead to less severe disease. But he added: “It’s important to emphasize that if omicron has a much higher transmission rate compared to delta, the absolute number of people requiring hospitalization might still increase, despite less severe disease in most cases.”
Data out of South Africa, where the variant was first detected, have also suggested omicron might be milder there. Salim Abdool Karim, a clinical infectious disease epidemiologist in South Africa, said earlier this week that the rate of admissions to hospitals was far lower for omicron than it was for delta.
“Our overall admission rate is in the region of around 2% to 4% compared to previously, where it was closer to 20%,” he said. “So even though we’re seeing a lot of cases, very few are being admitted.”
Harvard professor found guilty of hiding ties to China
A Harvard University professor charged with hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program was found guilty on all counts Tuesday.
Charles Lieber, 62, the former chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of making false statements, and two counts of failing to file reports for a foreign bank account in China.
The jury deliberated for about two hours and 45 minutes before announcing the verdict following five days of testimony in Boston federal court.
Lieber’s defense attorney Marc Mukasey had argued that prosecutors lacked proof of the charges. He maintained that investigators didn’t keep any record of their interviews with Lieber prior to his arrest.
He argued that prosecutors would be unable to prove that Lieber acted “knowingly, intentionally, or willfully, or that he made any material false statement.” Mukasey also stressed Lieber wasn’t charged with illegally transferring any technology or proprietary information to China.
Read: US population growth at lowest rate in pandemic’s 1st year
Prosecutors argued that Lieber, who was arrested in January, knowingly hid his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan — a program designed to recruit people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China — to protect his career and reputation.
Lieber denied his involvement during inquiries from U.S. authorities, including the National Institutes of Health, which had provided him with millions of dollars in research funding, prosecutors said.
Lieber also concealed his income from the Chinese program, including $50,000 a month from the Wuhan University of Technology, up to $158,000 in living expenses and more than $1.5 million in grants, according to prosecutors.
In exchange, they say, Lieber agreed to publish articles, organize international conferences and apply for patents on behalf of the Chinese university.
The case is among the highest profile to come from the U.S. Department of Justice’s so-called “China Initiative.”
The effort launched in 2018 to curb economic espionage from China has faced criticism that it harms academic research and amounts to racial profiling of Chinese researchers.
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Hundreds of faculty members at Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, Princeton, Temple and other prominent colleges have signed onto letters to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on him to end the initiative.
The academics say the effort compromises the nation’s competitiveness in research and technology and has had a chilling effect on recruiting foreign scholars. The letters also complain the investigations have disproportionally targeted researchers of Chinese origin.
Lieber has been on paid administrative leave from Harvard since being arrested in January 2020.
Boosters key to fight omicron, lot still to learn
The new omicron variant took only a few weeks to live up to dire predictions about how hugely contagious it is but scientists don’t yet know if it causes more severe disease even as the world faces exploding cases just before Christmas.
“Everything is riskier now because omicron is so much more contagious,” said Dr. S. Wesley Long, who directs the testing lab at Houston Methodist Hospital — and over the past week has canceled numerous plans to avoid exposure.
Omicron now is the dominant variant in the U.S., federal health officials said Monday, accounting for about three-quarters of new infections last week.
The speed that it's outpacing the also very contagious delta variant is astonishing public health officials. In three weeks, omicron now makes up 80% of new symptomatic cases diagnosed by Houston Methodist’s testing sites. It took the delta variant three months to reach that level, Long said.
Also read: Moderna: Initial booster data shows good results on omicron
The mutant's ability to spread faster and evade immunity came at a bad time — right as travel increased and many people let down their guard. But what the omicron wave will mean for the world is still unclear because so many questions remain unanswered.
Here’s the latest on what’s known and what’s still to learn about omicron.
HOW MUCH PROTECTION DO VACCINES OFFER?
Vaccines in the U.S. and around the world do not offer as much protection against omicron as they have against previous versions of the coronavirus. However, vaccines still help — a lot. Lab tests show while two doses may not be strong enough to prevent infection, a booster shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine produces virus-fighting antibodies capable of tackling omicron.
Antibody levels naturally drop over time, and a booster revved them back up again, by 25 times for Pfizer’s extra shot and 37 times for Moderna’s. No one knows exactly what level is high enough — or how long it will be before antibody levels begin dropping again.
After a booster, the protection against an omicron infection still appears about 20% less than protection against the delta variant, said Dr. Egon Ozer of Northwestern University.
But if the virus gets past that first line of defense, the vaccinated have additional layers of protection.
“The vaccines are going to protect you against severe disease, hospitalization and death,” said Houston Methodist's Long. “And that’s really the most important thing.”
Those extra defenses include T cells that mobilize to beat back the virus, plus memory cells that, once reactivated, race to make more and stronger antibodies.
WHAT ABOUT NATURAL IMMUNITY?
A prior infection doesn’t seem to offer much protection against an omicron infection although, like with vaccination, it may reduce the chances of severe illness.
In South Africa, where omicron already has spread widely, scientists reported a jump in reinfections that they hadn’t seen when two previous mutants, including delta, moved through the country.
In Britain, a report from the Imperial College of London on Friday found the risk of reinfection from omicron was five times higher compared to the earlier delta variant.
Health experts say anyone who’s survived a bout of COVID-19 still should get vaccinated, because the combination generally offers stronger protection.
WHY ELSE DOES OMICRON SPREAD SO FAST?
Scientists are trying to decode the dozens of mutations that omicron carries to figure out what else is going on. Researchers in Hong Kong recently reported hints that omicron may multiply more quickly in the airway than delta did, although not as efficiently deep in the lungs.
What scientists can't measure is human behavior: Many places were relaxing restrictions, winter forced gatherings indoors and travel has jumped right as omicron began spreading.
IS OMICRON CAUSING MILDER ILLNESS?
It’s still too early to know — especially given that if the vaccinated get a breakthrough infection, it should be milder than if omicron attacks the unvaccinated.
Early reports from South Africa suggested milder illness but doctors were unsure whether that’s because the population is fairly young — or that many retained some protection from a recent delta infection.
And that British study found no evidence that omicron has been milder than delta in Britain, even with young adults — who would be expected to have milder illness — having higher rates of infection with omicron.
"There’s a hint, and I think many of us are hopeful, that omicron will be less severe. But I don’t think we can bet the farm on that. We’re still talking about SARS CoV-2, a virus that has killed millions of people,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, who monitors variants for a research collaboration led by Harvard Medical School.
Also read: Booster at least 80% effective against severe Omicron
WHO’S MOST AT RISK?
Based on the behavior of other variants, “if you’re older, if you have underlying conditions, if you’re obese, you’re more likely to have severe disease. I don’t think it’s going to be any different” than other variants, said Dr. Carlos del Rio of Emory University.
But even if you don’t get very sick, an omicron infection could certainly ruin the holidays. Experts agree that in addition to getting vaccinated and boosted, it's wise to get back to the basics of protection: Wear masks indoors, avoid crowds and keep your distance.
Pfizer tests extra COVID shot for kids under 5 in setback
Pfizer said Friday it was changing plans and testing three doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in babies and preschoolers after the usual two shots didn’t appear strong enough for some of the children.
Pfizer announced the change after a preliminary analysis found 2- to 4-year-olds didn’t have as strong an immune response as expected to the very low-dose shots the company is testing in the youngest children.
It’s disappointing news for families anxious to vaccinate their tots. Pfizer had expected data on how well the vaccines were working in children under 5 by year’s end, and it’s not clear how long the change will delay a final answer.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said if the three-dose study is successful, they plan to apply for emergency authorization sometime in the first half of 2022.
Read: Pfizer says COVID booster offers protection against omicron
A kid-sized version of Pfizer’s vaccine already is available for 5- to 11-year-olds, one that’s a third of the dose given to everyone else 12 and older.
For children younger than 5, Pfizer is testing an even smaller dose, just 3 micrograms or a tenth of the adult dose.
Researchers analyzed a subset of youngsters in the study a month after their second dose to see if the tots developed levels of virus-fighting antibodies that were similar to teens and young adults who get the regular shots.
The very low-dose shots appeared to work in youngsters under age 2, who produced similar antibody levels. But the immune response in 2- to 4-year-olds was lower than the study required, Pfizer vaccine research chief Kathrin Jansen said Friday in a call with investors.
Read: Pfizer agrees to let other companies make its COVID-19 pill
Rather than trying a higher-dose shot for the preschoolers, Pfizer decided to expand the study to evaluate three of the very low-dose shots in all the study participants — from 6 months up to age 5. That third shot will come at least two months after the youngsters’ second dose.
No safety concerns have been spotted in the study, the companies said.
Jansen cited other data showing a booster shot for people 16 and older restores strong protection, a jump in immunity that scientists hope also will help fend off the new omicron variant.
The companies also are preparing to test a booster for 5- to 11-year-olds, who are just now getting their two-dose vaccinations. And they are testing different dose options for teen boosters.
Jansen said if the additional pediatric testing is successful, “we would have a consistent three-dose vaccine approach for all ages.”
Surging COVID-19 cases bring a 2020 feel to the end of 2021
U.S. officials intensified calls Friday for unvaccinated Americans to get inoculated in the face of the new omicron variant that contributed to a record number of infections in New York and threatened to wipe out a second holiday season in Europe.
Though the calendar is about to change, Friday had a distinctly 2020 feel: NFL games were postponed because of COVID-19 infections. The Rockettes Christmas show was canceled for the season. European governments imposed a spate of restrictions that ground travel to a halt and saw travelers lying low.
Much remains unknown about omicron, but officials warn that it appears more transmissible than the delta variant, which has already put pressure on hospitals worldwide. The uncertainty alone was enough for many people to change their plans.
In the United States, President Joe Biden’s administration resisted tightening any restrictions, but also sketched out dire scenarios for the unvaccinated in a plea for hesitant Americans to get the shot.
“For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death, for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday, echoing the president’s own comments earlier this week.
The new variant is already in “full force” in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, with new cases hitting a one-day record of more than 8,300 on Thursday. But new hospitalizations and deaths – so far – are well below their spring 2020 peak and even where they were this time last year, city data shows.
The coronavirus also interrupted sports in the U.S. again. The NFL announced Friday that three games would be pushed from the weekend to next week because of outbreaks. The league has not specified whether the cases came from the omicron variant.
The Radio City Rockettes called off four performances scheduled for Friday because of breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the production, and plans for upcoming shows were still being assessed. The popular holiday program generally has four shows per day in December at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan.
Dr. Stanley Weiss, a Rutgers University epidemiology professor, said officials need to react faster, citing a willingness to redefine fully vaccinated to include booster shots, for example.
“Everyone wants us to be through with this pandemic, but in order to get us through it, we can’t ignore the realities of what’s going on and what is needed,” Weiss said.
Denmark decided to close theaters, concert halls, amusement parks and museums in response to virus cases. In Spain, friends and classmates canceled traditional year-end dinners.
Scotland and Wales on Friday pledged millions of pounds for businesses hurt in Britain’s latest infection surge, a move that heaped pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to do the same in England.
Treasury chief Rishi Sunak held talks with business representatives who have demanded more support, decrying a “lockdown by stealth” in which government officials recommend people cut back on socializing as much as possible without officially imposing the strict rules of past shutdowns.
Britain reported record numbers of infections three days in a row this week, the latest on Friday with more than 93,000 cases tallied.
Businesses ranging from vacation providers to pubs and theaters saw a wave of cancellations as customers decided to skip merrymaking for now rather than risk being infected and missing family celebrations later.
Even Britain’s Christmas pantos — beloved and raucous holiday performances — are under threat. The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in western England had to refund 180,000 pounds ($240,000) in ticket sales after customers decided not to go to shows. It was also forced to cancel 12 performances of “Beauty and the Beast” because half the cast tested positive.
“There’s been a real dent of confidence,” Executive Director Joanna Reid told the BBC.
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said Friday that financial assistance for business must come from the central government because it has the borrowing power to finance the scale of aid that is needed.
“Business is already bleeding, every 24 hours counts,” Sturgeon said during a briefing in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital. “There is no time to waste.”
The already beleaguered travel and tourism industry is being particularly hammered.
Eurostar, which operates trains across the English Channel, sold out of tickets to France on Friday before new rules restricting travel to and from Britain took effect. Long lines snaked around the parking lot at the Eurotunnel, which runs the tunnel that drivers use to cross the water.
Ryanair originally expected to carry about 11 million passengers in December, but that figure dropped to 10 million, chief executive Michael O’Leary told the Guardian. Europe’s biggest airline will also cut about 10% of its capacity in January.
Amanda Wheelock, 29, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, canceled a trip to France with her partner as cases spiked there. Even though the surge isn’t necessarily due to omicron, the uncertainty about the new variant, and a new requirement that all U.S. travelers have to test negative before flying back to the U.S., made her worry that the trip would be more stressful than fun.
“A vacation with a lot of stress is probably not a great vacation,” said Wheelock, who is from Arvada, Colorado.
The Advantage Travel Group, which represents about 350 U.K. travel agents, said business fell by 40% in mid-December from a month earlier. Those numbers, including flights, cruise bookings and package holidays, add to the travel industry’s existing slump, which had already seen business fall by two-thirds since the pandemic began, CEO Julia Lo Bue-Said.
“Our members are dealing with customers who are really nervous about traveling now,” she said “They’re really nervous about bookings for the New Year because they fear that there’s a risk that the government will make more knee-jerk reactions.”
Many in the travel and hospitality trades hoped they had put the worst behind them, nearly two years into a pandemic that has devastated those industries. They saw this holiday season as a chance to claw back some of what was lost — until omicron cast a pall reminiscent of the early days of the crisis.
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Richard Stevens estimates he has lost out on 4,000 pounds ($5,300) worth of bookings at his rental ski chalet in the French Alps after the new, stricter travel rules for people coming from Britain were announced.
He lost his first reservation when a guest called to say that the restrictions won’t allow anybody to come to France without a compelling reason, Stevens said. “And the compelling reason doesn’t include going on holiday.”
Celebrity chef Michel Roux and other restaurateurs have invested heavily to remake their venues to address safety concerns — and hoped to reap some of the benefits.
To return to a state of huge uncertainty for a second consecutive Christmas is “like a kick in the stomach,” said Roux, who has a destination restaurant in London.
Jorge Riera, who manages a traditional Spanish diner in central Madrid, said it doesn’t matter that authorities have not imposed specific restrictions and, at most, have only issued recommendations.
“Most of our customers prioritize the well-being of their relatives over going out for a fun night with colleagues,” Riera said.
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In the past week alone, cancellations rolled in for about half of the booked space, sometimes on the same day of the event, the manager said.
“People are once again afraid of the virus,” he said.