In the News

Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, talks about how to navigate life with the new variant.

In Germany, Lutheran pastors are offering COVID-19 shots inside churches. In Israel’s science-skeptical ultra-Orthodox community, trusted rabbis are trying to change minds. And in South Africa, undertakers are taking to the streets to spread the word.

People at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from Covid-19 will likely have more treatment options in January.

The omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, discovered just a few weeks ago, is poised to dominate Covid-19 cases around the world. It’s a stunning new twist to the pandemic saga that has countries scrambling to prepare.
 

The omicron variant of the coronavirus has rapidly spread across the United States, upending holiday plans for some of the pandemic-weary and driving people to testing sites — and for many, into quarantine.

As Americans prepare for out-of-state travel and multigenerational indoor gatherings over the holidays, many people who need to get tested for the coronavirus are running into shortages, long lines and other deterrents — while many others are avoiding getting tested altogether.

Timing matters a lot because infections with SARS-CoV-2 are so dynamic. The virus tends to incubate at levels undetectable by any test for a couple of days, before growing explosively, often moving from undetectable levels to infectiousness within a span of 12 hours. Omicron may move even faster.

Medical researchers say there is renewed promise in reducing COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths by increasing the use of convalescent plasma treatments early on in a coronavirus infection.
Arturo Casadevall and David Sullivan, study co-leads, are quoted. 

The U.S. is heading into its second Christmas and New Year’s with Covid-19 cases on the rise again, but this time armed with readily available vaccines and booster shots.

While some should consider pushing back their plans, health experts say there are ways to travel safely this holidays season.  

Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S., accounting for 73% of new infections last week, federal health officials said Monday.
 

Even as the variant surges, the seasonal travel rush seems unstoppable, but there are steps you can take to travel more responsibly and mitigate the health risks for yourself — and others.