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There are ways to soften the blow of the pandemic this winter. The best thing to do is to get vaccinated against Covid-19 if you haven’t already. The next best is to get a booster shot if your last vaccine dose was more than six months ago. After that, there is another crucial measure that some Americans have neglected: continued testing. 

Viruses don’t care who they infect, how long the infection lasts or what the disease they induce is like. A virus doesn’t care about anything because all a virus needs to do is find a new host in which it can propagate. That is it.
Andy Pekosz wrote the piece. [Opinion]

William Moss and Amesh Adalja are quoted. 
The detection of the Omicron variant has brought renewed attention, and a new urgency, to the worldwide Covid-19 vaccination campaign, which experts say remains among the most powerful tools at our disposal when it comes to preventing dangerous new variants.
 

Human blood samples and the substance that makes fireflies glow are among the tools that scientists are using for early clues about whether Covid-19 vaccines retain their effectiveness against the new Omicron virus variant.
 

With its vast wealth and scientific capability, the United States held on to its top ranking among 195 countries, even as it scored lowest on public confidence in government — a factor associated with high numbers of cases and deaths
 

Services provided by the Maryland Department of Health, such as its public accounting of some key COVID-19 metrics, remain halted in the days following a cyberattack that forced the state agency to temporarily take its website offline.
 

Who’s “fully vaccinated” against Covid-19 — and who’s not — is starting to get a lot more complicated.
 

Vaccinations are rising in response to the new variant. While much is unknown, health officials hope the public — and politicians — will be inspired to get back to the basics of protection.
 

Researchers in South Africa, where the variant is spreading quickly, say it may cause less serious Covid cases than other forms of the virus, but it is unclear whether that will hold true.
 

New York City will now require employees at private companies to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in an interview with MSNBC early Monday.
 

The arrival of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in the U.S. has health officials in some communities reviving contact tracing operations in an attempt to slow and better understand its spread as scientists study how contagious it is and whether it can thwart vaccines.
 

As the world waits for studies that give a clear picture of the Omicron variant, early clinical data emerging from South Africa hint at a virus that may cause less severe cases of Covid-19.