In order to minimize the risk of Olympic athletes being exposed to COVID-19, journalists covering the event are tested daily for the disease, and a state-of-the-art facility helps limit human contact.
Travel nurses have helped plug the gap in health care systems that have been pushed to the brink from the highly contagious omicron variant, AFP reports. Healthcare staff are leaving in droves due to poor conditions or burnout, leaving many hospitals and other health care systems short staffed. While travel nursing isn’t new, the sector saw revenue growth of 35% in the year 2020 and is expected to expand. Mike Press, a recruiter at staffing agency Judge, told AFP rates ranged from $3,000 to $5,000 per week, but some were as high as $8,000 per week. Contracts usually last three to four months, allowing for travel nurses to make as much money as they did in a full year before the pandemic. On the other hand, temporary staffing companies don’t offer benefits like retirement plans or health insurance.
An impenetrable giant bubble, stretching nearly 120 miles, has cocooned thousands of people at the Beijing Olympics in efforts to thwart the coronavirus pandemic, according to AFP. The bubble will enclose athletes, support staff, volunteers and media throughout the entirety of the Games. One must be fully vaccinated or have completed 21 days of quarantine to enter. Within the bubble, masks are required and participants will be subjected to a series of rigorous prevention and control measures, according to CNN. Participants who test positive for COVID-19 will be immediately removed from the Games. “The quarantine is arguable the most ambitious of its kind ever undertaken,” as Beijing welcomes an estimated 11,000 people from around the world.
The omicron subvariant BA.2 has been detected in 22 states, UPI reported. Just 92 cases of the subvariant have been recorded in the United States, with scientists worldwide studying the variant to see if it is more transmissible, more deadly or better evades vaccines. "I don't think it's going to cause the degree of chaos and disruption, morbidity and mortality that BA.1 did," said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. At least 40 countries have reported BA.2, with the variant spreading rapidly in countries like Denmark and the United Kingdom. The World Health Organization has not deemed BA.2 a variant of concern, saying that there is no “current evidence” to suggest it is any worse than the original omicron variant.
An impenetrable giant bubble, stretching nearly 120 miles, has cocooned thousands of people at the Beijing Olympics in efforts to thwart the coronavirus pandemic, according to AFP. The bubble will enclose athletes, support staff, volunteers and media throughout the entirety of the Games. One must be fully vaccinated or have completed 21 days of quarantine to enter. Within the bubble, masks are required and participants will be subjected to a series of rigorous prevention and control measures, according to CNN. Participants who test positive for COVID-19 will be immediately removed from the Games. “The quarantine is arguable the most ambitious of its kind ever undertaken,” as Beijing welcomes an estimated 11,000 people from around the world.
Travel nurses have helped plug the gap in health care systems that have been pushed to the brink from the highly contagious omicron variant, AFP reports. Healthcare staff are leaving in droves due to poor conditions or burnout, leaving many hospitals and other health care systems short staffed. While travel nursing isn’t new, the sector saw revenue growth of 35% in the year 2020 and is expected to expand. Mike Press, a recruiter at staffing agency Judge, told AFP rates ranged from $3,000 to $5,000 per week, but some were as high as $8,000 per week. Contracts usually last three to four months, allowing for travel nurses to make as much money as they did in a full year before the pandemic. On the other hand, temporary staffing companies don’t offer benefits like retirement plans or health insurance.
Novak Djokovic, the world’s top-ranked men’s tennis player, will reportedly play at next month’s ATP tennis tournament in Dubai, AFP reported. Djokovic, who is unvaccinated, was deported from Australia earlier this month due to his vaccination status ahead of the Australian Open, the first grand slam tournament on the sport’s calendar. Djokovic has not announced plans to play, but an entry list for the tournament, scheduled for Feb. 21-26, was leaked and picked up by reporters, according to AFP. There is no vaccine mandate in place for visitors entering the United Arab Emirates, AFP reported.
The World Health Organization says the next COVID-19 variant to arise will likely be more contagious than omicron, CNBC reports. More importantly, scientists need to still answer whether this new variant will be more deadly. Over the past week, roughly 21 million COVID-19 cases were reported by the WHO, which marks a new global record for weekly cases. While omicron appears to be less virulent than other strains, the amount of cases is crushing hospitals worldwide. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead warned to not buy into the theories that the virus will continue to mutate into milder strains. “We hope that is the case, but there is no guarantee of that and we can’t bank on it,” Van Kerkhove says. “The virus has proven to give us some nasty surprises,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO’s director of emergency programs, urging the WHO to continue to track the virus and be ready if there are any “surprises.”
Who is more prone to developing long COVID? A team of researchers who followed more than 200 patients reported that they have identified biological factors that might help predict who might develop long COVID, The New York Times reported. The study, published Tuesday by the journal Cell, highlighted four factors that could be identified early in a person’s coronavirus infection that seemed to correlate with increased risk of having long-lasting symptoms. While these findings were exploratory and would need to be verified by more research, Dr. Steven Deeks, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told The New York Times, “They’ve identified these four major factors. Each is biologically plausible, consistent with theories that other people are pursuing, an importantly, each is actionable. If these pathways get confirmed, we as clinicians can actually design interventions to make people better. That is the take-home message." The factors that the researchers identified were:
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The level of coronavirus RNA in the blood early in the infection, which is an indicator of viral load.
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The presence of antibodies that mistakenly attack tissues in the body.
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The reactivation of Epstein-BArr virus, which is a virus that infects most people, often when they are young, before usually becoming dormant, according to The New York Times.
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Having Type 2 diabetes, though researchers and other experts say this might be only one of several medical conditions that increase the risk of long COVID.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday defended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to rescind its authorization from the Eli Lilly & Co. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. monoclonal antibody treatments in the U.S. since they are not effective against omicron — the current dominant strain in the nation. The decision was backed by the American Medical Association and comes as other therapies become available and one other monoclonal remains in use, Bloomberg reported, adding that Eli Lilly agreed with the FDA and Regeneron acknowledged the decision and was working on other monoclonal antibody treatments. Despite this, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis voiced over Twitter early Tuesday morning that the access to those drugs shouldn’t be barred “based on the whims of a floundering president.” The decision was made by the regulator, not by President Joe Biden nor his staff. “What the FDA is making clear is that these treatments, the ones that they are fighting over, that the governor is fighting over, do not work against omicron, and they have side effects,” Psaki said. “That is what the scientists are saying. We have sent them 71,000 doses of treatments that are effective against omicron and are effective also against delta, and they are still advocating for treatments that don’t work.”
N95 masks are starting to arrive at pharmacies and grocery stores across the U.S. nearly a week after the Biden administration announced it will deploy 400 million free quality face coverings to the public, NPR reports. The White House launched its latest effort to combat COVID-19 following new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that cloth masks are no longer effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19. The CDC recommends people should wear N95 or KN95 masks to prevent the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant. The N95 nonsurgical masks are coming from the Strategic National Stockpile, which has more than 750 million of them on hand. Kroger, Walgreens, and CVS are among some of the participating retailers that will be offering free N95 masks, but the full list can be found here. The White House said more than 25 million N95 masks will be delivered to community health centers, food pantries and soup kitchens beginning in March.
The head of the World Health Organization is warning that nations need to remain focused on beating the pandemic, Reuters reported. WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned nations that are assuming that omicron will bring about the end of the pandemic that such an assumption is hasty. "It’s dangerous to assume that omicron will be the last variant and that we are in the end game," Tedros said. "On the contrary, globally the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge." Omicron’s lower lethality and increasing access to vaccines has led some nations to be cautiously optimistic that the end of the pandemic phase of COVID-19 may soon be over.
Seven Virginia school boards are suing to halt a mask-optional policy ordered by newly inaugurated Gov. Glenn Youngkin, The Washington Post reports. The suit, led by Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest in the state, asks for an immediate injunction barring the order’s enforcement, which allows parents to make the decision whether or not their kids should wear a mask in school. The school boards’ complaint says that Youngkin’s order violates the Virginia Constitution, which says that “the supervision of schools in each school division shall be vested in a school board.” The school boards released a collective statement Monday, saying that they seek to preserve their authority to protect students. “Without today’s action, school boards are placed in a legally untenable position,” the school boards said in the statement. “Today’s action is not politically motivated … the lawsuit is not brought out of choice but out of necessity.”In a statement, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said that Youngkin’s team is disappointed that the school boards are ignoring the rights of parents. “The governor and attorney general are in coordination and are committed to aggressively defending parents’ fundamental right to make decisions with regard to their child’s upbringing, education and care,” Porter said.
With over 3,000 people having arrived since Jan. 4 for the upcoming Winter Olympics and 78 people testing positive so far, China is upping its testing in Beijing, The Associated Press reported. Officials in the nation’s capital have started testing the Fengtai district’s 2 million residents as it’s where a majority of the capital’s 40 cases since Jan. 15 had been found, according to the AP. Anyone who has bought fever, cough or other certain medicines within the past two weeks will also have to take a COVID-19 test within 72 hours, Beijing authorities said. “The current epidemic prevention situation is still grim and complicated, and all departments across the city must act proactively and swiftly,” Beijing city spokesperson Xu Hejian said. “The overall situation is controllable.” All participants of the Games will be tested daily and kept isolated from the public. Athletes visiting from other nations are required to be vaccinated or be quarantined after arriving in China.
Sarah Palin has tested positive for the coronavirus just before the beginning of a civil defamation trial between the former Republican vice presidential candidate and The New York Times, CNBC reported. Palin, who said she tested positive for the coronavirus back in March, said in December that she would get vaccinated “over [her] dead body.” While Palin was sick the first time around, she said that she experienced “bizarre” symptoms and urged Americans to take the virus seriously, People reported. If a second coronavirus test confirms Palin has the virus, the civil defamation trial will be delayed.
Weekly hospitalizations have increased 406% from one month ago amid the latest surge fueled by the omicron variant, ABC News reports. Between Jan. 13 and Jan. 19, there were a total of 449 hospitalizations per week, which is a drastic increase from the 80 hospitalizations that were occurring over a one-week period just a month ago. UW Medicine reported more than 200 COVID-19 patients for the first time ever this past weekend. Unvaccinated people are now 12 times more likely to be hospitalized and 20 times more likely to die during the omicron surge, according to Seattle Public Health. Dr. John Lynch, an infectious disease expert at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and UW Medicine medical lead for the COVID-19 response, urged residents to help ease the burden on hospitals by getting vaccinated, wearing masks indoors and avoiding large gatherings.
A New York state judge has struck down a mask mandate ruling that New York Governor, Kathy Hochul, overstepped her authority in imposing the restriction, which required the wearing of masks in all public places as a COVID-19 precaution, Reuters reported. Last year, state legislature curbed any governor’s ability to issue orders, such as a mask mandate, amid a declared state of emergency. Hochul declared a state of emergency almost immediately after the World Health Organization named omicron a variant of concern on Nov. 26. Hochul then issued a mask mandate, requiring New Yorkers to wear a mask in any public area, calling it temporary before she extended the original expiration date of Jan. 15 to Feb. 1. Judge Thomas Rademaker of New York State Supreme Court on Long Island wrote his ruling is not intended in any way to question the efficacy, need, or requirement of masks, but that “enacting any laws to this end is entrusted solely to the State Legislature.”
After testing positive for the coronavirus, Russian figure skater Mikhail Kolyada has been pulled from the Olympics, The Associated Press reported. Kolyada, the only skater on the team with previous Olympic experience, began feeling unwell and has not been training for several days. More athletes are expected to be ruled out from the Olympics due to China’s strict testing requirements. Last week, two-time ski jumping gold medalist Andreas Wellinger, a German, was ruled out from the Beijing Games after testing positive. “The risk for him and for the team is too high,” team spokesman Ralph Eder said Tuesday.
In a since-deleted letter, Neil Young wrote to his management and record label demanding that his music be removed from Spotify as he says the platform is helping to spread misinformation about vaccines, Rolling Stone reported. The letter specifically calls out Joe Rogan and his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, which averages 11 million listeners per episode. “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he continued. “They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.” Rogan has become well-known for distributing misinformation on his podcast, with 270 doctors, physicians, and science educators joining together to sign an open letter asking Spotify to stop hosting the podcast. “Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy,” the letter reads.
The highly contagious omicron variant is spreading rapidly across South Korea, with the country reporting more than 8,000 new infections for the first time since the pandemic began, Reuters reported. To slow the spread of the virus, the government has extended strict social distancing rules, leading some small business owners to shave their heads in protest. "I haven't been able to pay monthly rent, so I'm facing an eviction suit and had to fire employees," said Yang Hee-kyoung, one of the nearly 300 protestors. "I have no life," added Yang. Health officials in South Korea expect daily case numbers could rise to 30,000 in the coming weeks.
Legendary performer Elton John has canceled two of his farewell tour dates in Dallas after he tested positive for COVID-19, The Associated Press reported. According to a statement obtained by the AP, John is dealing with “mild symptoms” and those planning to attend the Dallas shows should hold onto their tickets as the performances will be rescheduled. John’s current tour was rescheduled from 2020 after it was postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Tuesday that they have started a clinical trial testing a modified COVID-19 vaccine, which protects against the omicron variant, NBC News reports. The drugmakers are aiming to enroll up to 1,420 healthy adults, ages 18 to 55 to evaluate whether the omicron-specific vaccine generates a safe and strong immune response. All participants will be divided into three groups, which will determine whether they receive one, two or three dose of the modified vaccine. Drugmakers continue to develop variant-specific shots which could be seen as an “insurance policy” if the omicron variant were to become lethal, according to John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College. The results from this trial will come as experts and health officials learn more about the trajectory of the pandemic.
A 31-year-old in desperate need of a heat transplant was at the front of the line to receive one, but because he has not received the COVID-19 vaccination he is no longer eligible according to the hospital's policy, CBS Boston reports. His father, David Ferguson is speaking out on behalf of his son, DJ, who refuses to get the shot because it goes against his basic principles and doesn’t believe in it. “Post any transplant, kidney, heart whatever, your immune system is shut off,” the Head of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Dr. Arthur Caplan, says, “The flu could kill you, a cold could kill, COVID-19 could kill you. The organs are scarce, we are not going to distribute them to someone who has a poor chance of living when others who are vaccinated have a better chance post-surgery of surviving.” A statement released from Brigham and Women’s Hospital reiterates that the COVID-19 vaccine is one of several vaccines that are required for transplant candidates. DJ, a father of two with a third on the way, and his family are considering transferring him to a different hospital, but he may be too weak to move.
A new study has shown that the omicron variant can survive longer on plastic surfaces and human skin than previous variants, Reuters reported. Omicron can survive over 193 hours on plastic, while the delta variant could survive only 114 hours. When it comes to human skin, omicron can last more than 21 hours, while delta can survive just under 17. On skin, alcohol-based hand sanitizers inactivated the virus within 15 seconds. "Therefore," the researchers concluded, "it is highly recommended that current infection control (hand hygiene) practices use disinfectants ... as proposed by the World Health Organization."
The Food and Drug Administration has revoked emergency use authorization for two COVID-19 antibody drugs because they no longer work against the omicron variant, The Associated Press reported. The drugs, made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly, could be reauthorized if they prove effective against new variants. There are drugs that remain effective against omicron, though, such as two new antiviral pills produced by Pfizer and Merck, as well as an antibody drug produced by GlaxoSmithKline. There is also remdesivir, the first drug authorized to treat the coronavirus. On Friday, the FDA expanded access to remdesivir to those at high risk of being hospitalized, not just those already hospitalized.
After nine new cases of the omicron variant were discovered in Auckland, New Zealand, the country’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is postponing her wedding, The Associated Press reported. Following the discovery of the cases, which were identified in a family that flew to Auckland to attend a wedding of their own, the country’s pandemic response moved to its “red setting,” which requires mask wearing and imposes limits on gatherings. However, unlike earlier in the pandemic, businesses remain open and people can travel freely across the country. “Our plan for managing omicron cases in the early stage remains the same as delta, where we will rapidly test, contact trace and isolate cases and contacts in order to slow the spread,” Ardern said. More than 100 people were potentially exposed to the infected family.
Recent studies have found that booster shots alone cannot prevent the spread of omicron, though infections among those boosted are generally not severe, Bloomberg reported. In one small-scale study of seven young, healthy German tourists who visited South Africa, all got sick. The boosted Germans experienced mild or moderate disease, but the protection against severe disease remained strong. “The mild to moderate course of illness suggests that full vaccination followed by a booster dose still provides good protection against severe disease caused by omicron,” the researchers said. Other studies have shown similar results, with a new study out of Israel finding a fourth dose of a Pfizer vaccine does not prevent omicron infections, but those who caught the disease had no or minor symptoms.
Travelers arriving in England will no longer need to take a COVID test when their flight lands if they are fully vaccinated, the BBC reported. Everyone arriving in England will need to fill out a passenger locator form. Transport Secretary Grant Schapps says the changes will be introduced on Feb. 11. "That means that after months of pre-departure testing, post-arrival testing, self-isolation, additional expense, all that fully vaccinated people will now have to do, when they travel to the U.K., is to verify their status via a passenger locator form,” Schapps said. The travel and tourism industry welcomed the news, which makes travel much easier. “The removal of all testing for vaccinated passengers is the final step in moving towards frictionless air travel, allowing passengers to reconnect with loved ones and business colleagues,” airline Virgin Atlantic said in a statement.
Booster shots have been approved for the elderly in Japan, and cities such as Tokyo are beginning to administer the doses, Bloomberg reported. Cases have been on the rise across Japan, with nearly 50,000 cases reported on Monday, just 4,000 below the record set last Friday. “I think every city district feels the same, but basically with the spread of the omicron variant, we want to focus on the elderly first because they’re at higher risk and that’s why we moved so quickly to get all of them booster shots,” said Hitoshi Iwase, a Health Center official in Tokyo.
The deadline to file will not be extended because of the coronavirus pandemic this year, USA Today reported. The deadline to file income tax returns is Monday, April 18, which is three days later than normal due to it being a holiday weekend in Washington, D.C. Even though the pandemic won’t delay the filing date, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is warning that COVID’s resurgence and less funding than usual could add challenges to this year’s tax season. “The pandemic continues to create challenges, but the IRS reminds people there are important steps they can take to help ensure their tax return and refund don't face processing delays,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said, noting that it is important to avoid a paper tax return.
Severe weather has extended the tax deadline for some, though. For victims of the Colorado wildfires that struck towns near Boulder, Colorado, in late 2021 and those affected by a December tornado outbreak that devastated parts of Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, including an EF4 tornado that tore through Mayfield, Kentucky, the new tax filing deadline is May 16.
The UK Security Agency is investigating an omicron coronavirus offshoot known as BA.2 as concerns grow that it could spread even faster than the original omicron variant, The Financial Times reported. The BA.2 offshoot was first identified in the Philippines in early December and appears to be outcompeting omicron in several countries, such as in Denmark and India. “It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so it’s to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge as the pandemic goes on,” said Dr Meera Chand, UKHSA Covid-19 incident director. “So far there is insufficient evidence to determine whether BA.2 causes more severe illness than omicron BA.1, but data is limited and UKHSA continues to investigate.” The World Health Organization has not BA.2 a variant of interest or a variant of concern.
Some of the most prominent figures in the anti-vaccine movement joined thousands of protestors in D.C. to rally against vaccine mandates, The Washington Post reported. A crowd of largely unmasked protestors packed the National Mall, protesting vaccine and mask mandates, such as the ones in effect in D.C., which saw a large surge in cases attributed to the omicron variant. The protestors carried flags and posters displaying an array of conspiratorial and false slogans such as “Vaccines are mass kill bio weapons,” or claims that former President Trump won the 2020 Presidential Election. “The goal [of the rally] is to show a unified front of bringing people together — vaccinated, unvaccinated, Democrats, Republicans, all together in solidarity,” said Matt Tune, an unvaccinated 48-year-old from Chicago who helped organize the event, which he says he hopes “help[s] change the current narrative … which is basically saying that we’re a bunch of weirdos and freaks who don’t care about humanity. And that’s not true at all.” Suzanne Robertson, 52, traveled to the event to support an end to vaccine mandates. “This is not a political thing,” Robertson, who is unvaccinated, said. “If you want to get the vaccine, get it,” she said, adding that she would rather die than be vaccinated against COVID19.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, expects that the omicron variant will have peaked in the United States by mid-February, he told ABC’s This Week. In fact, cases may have already peaked in the Northeast, New England, and in the Upper Midwest. “If the patten follows the trend that we are seeing in other places, such as the Northeast, I believe that you will start to see a turnaround in the entire country,” Fauci said, adding that hospitalizations might rise more in areas where booster and vaccine uptake is lower. “Even with omicron, boosting makes a major, major difference in protecting you from hospitalization and severe outcomes.” For more of Fauci’s interview, watch the video below.
More than 210 million Americans, or 64% of the total population of the United States, are now fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University figures. An average of 1.1 million vaccines are being administered daily. The seven-day moving average of positive tests has continued to drop and is now down to below 682,000 and the positivity ratio has sharply decreased down below 23%. However, the seven-day moving average of deaths continues to rise, with an average of more than 2,000 Americans dying each day. The U.S. still by far leads the world in new cases reported daily, followed by France, India and Italy.
More than 7,600 new coronavirus cases were recorded in Pakistan on Friday, the most the South Asian nation has reported in one day since the start of the pandemic, Al Jazeera reported. The rapid growth in cases is being blamed on the spread of the omicron variant during the country’s wedding season, which has led the government to impose new pandemic restrictions. “Amid the rising trend of disease across the country a ban on indoor dining in cities/districts with positivity above 10 percent has been imposed with effect from January 21,” said a statement issued by the National Command Operation Centre. Booster shots have been authorized for Pakistanis over the age of 30, and kids over the age of 12 must be vaccinated to go to school. Roughly 32% of people in Pakistan have received two vaccine doses.
As China tightened anti-disease controls ahead of the Winter Olympics, people in a Beijing district with some 2 million residents were ordered to undergo mass coronavirus testing on Sunday, The Associated Press reports. The government told people who have been deemed high risk within the Chinese capital not to leave the city after 25 cases were found in Fengtai district and 14 elsewhere. A “zero tolerance” strategy to isolate every infected person as Beijing prepares to open the Winter Games on Feb. 4 has been enforced by the ruling Communist Party. A city government spokesman, Xu Hejian, said in a news conference that the Chinese capital must “take the most resolute, decisive and strict measures to block the transmission chain of the epidemic.” There were 56 new cases reported through midnight Saturday across the nation. The National Health Commission said 37 cases were believed to have been acquired abroad.
Rock legend Meat Loaf was seriously ill with COVID-19 before his death, though it is currently unknown if it is what killed him, The New York Post reported. The 74-year-old rocker reportedly canceled a dinner earlier in the week because he had a severe case of the disease, and his condition reportedly continued to worsen. No official cause of death was given when his death was announced on his official Facebook page. Meat Loaf had previously come out against lockdowns and mask mandates. “If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled,” the rocker had said, adding that he believed masks were useless, something that experts have said is definitively untrue. “They don’t stop you from getting COVID. They’re just a nuisance and make your nose itch and make it so you can’t breathe.” Meat Loaf had said he was “scared to death” of the pandemic, but that life could not be stopped “because of politics.”
A bill being debated in California’s state government would allow kids as young as 12 to get vaccinated without their parents’ permission, The Associated Press reported. Some states allow kids to make vaccination decisions themselves; Alabama permits such decisions at age 14, Oregon at age 15, and South Carolina at age 16, while Washington D.C. allows kids as young as 11 to consent to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The legislator who proposed the change, State Sen. Scott Weiner, notes that California already allows 12-year-olds to consent for the Hepatitis B and HPV vaccines. “Giving young people the autonomy to receive life-saving vaccines, regardless of their parents’ beliefs or work schedules, is essential for their physical and mental health,” he said. “It’s unconscionable for teens to be blocked from the vaccine because a parent either refuses or cannot take their child to a vaccination site.” Just under 29% of California kids ages 12 to 17 remain unvaccinated.
A study published in the peer-reviewed Environmental Science & Technology journal on Jan. 5, 2022, looked at the odds of catching COVID-19 in different indoor environments. Researchers analyzed outbreaks and super spreader events, studying factors that either hindered or aided the transmission to design a mathematical model that considers the factors involved before giving a percentage risk of infection. The equation doesn’t give a definite answer if someone will or will not contract the virus in a location, but it can help answer how likely someone is or isn’t to catch COVID-19. The equation considered factors such as ventilation, face coverings, if the space was enclosed or not, etc.
One example that the Charlotte Observer gave from the study data is that going into a crowded movie theater with poor ventilation and a mostly unmasked audience, there’s a 14% chance of being infected — assuming that everyone in the room is silent before, during and after the movie. However, if people are talking throughout the movie, potentially spreading viral particles, the odds of infection in the otherwise same scenario increase to 54%. The Charlotte Observer highlighted that the data showed being outdoors, masked and surrounded by silence was the best way to avoid the coronavirus. On the other hand, heavy exercise in a poorly ventilated place with maskless people saw a 99% chance of infection.
People planning to dine out in Alberta, Canada, need to show proof of vaccination, a negative COVID-19 test or a medical exemption, but The Granary Kitchen was briefly allowing entry with another document, according to CBS News. “Specifically, complaints were received...indicating that employees are allowing patrons to dine-in when presented with a photograph of a dog and personal identification,” Alberta Health Services said. “Facility staff used a tablet to make it appears as if they were scanning a QR code when in fact the staff member was presented with a photograph of a dog.” The restaurant was closed by health officials and cannot reopen until they provide officials with a written document stating that they will comply with local health ordinances, train all its employees and attend a hearing on the incident, CBS News said.
Authorities have warned that the police will deal with pet lovers or animal activists who try to prevent the culling of hamsters potentially infected with the coronavirus, Reuters reported. On Tuesday, officials ordered the killing of about 2,000 hamsters imported from the Netherlands after 11 hamsters tested positive and likely infected a pet shop worker. Thousands have volunteered to adopt the creatures amid an outcry against the government’s policy. However, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has said that it will use whatever means necessary to put down the hamsters. "If the people concerned continue with such action, or fail to return the hamsters taken away, the AFCD will stringently follow up and hand it over to the police for handling," said the department. Hong Kong is perusing a “zero COVID” policy focused on totally eliminating the disease, and the government says it cannot take any chances.
A new study of COVID-19 vaccine side effects suggests that a large number of people who report side effects are falling victim to the placebo effect, ABC News reported. The researchers analyzed a series of vaccination studies which used a placebo and a real dose. The group found that 25% of people who received a placebo dose experienced side effects like a sore arm. "After the injection, people are more aware now that they think they might have gotten a vaccine. They're more likely to tell their doctor about things," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University. "Never underestimate the power of the human mind." The group attributed two-thirds of all reported symptoms to the placebo effect, and experts hope that this study might encourage some who are still experiencing vaccine hesitancy to get the jab. "When people are armed with information, they are better suited to identify and manage their symptoms," Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease physician at South Shore Health, said. "This might also help those who are reluctant to get vaccinated."
Several states are continuing to use monoclonal antibody treatments that are not effective against the omicron variant, NBC News reported. The ineffective treatments, which are produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lily and Co, are mostly used in the South and have also been used in California. Many hospitals and clinics are still charging hundreds of dollars for these infusions, which are no longer effective. “There’s not a medical justification based on the evidence on the Regeneron and Lilly products,” McClellan said, adding that they are effective against the delta variant, which represents less than 1% of cases in the United States. Sotrovimab, an antibody treatment produced by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, is still recommended for use.
Former Olympic speedskater Allison Baver has been charged with money laundering after taking more than $10 million dollars in COVID-19 relief funds, FOX Business reported. Baver won a bronze medal in the women’s 3000m relay in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, after which she launched a company called Allison Baver Entertainment. Authorities say Baver lied on a loan application, claiming she had employees and a monthly payroll when in reality she had neither. Federal prosecutors want Baver to return $9.7 million of the $10 she fraudulently claimed; Baver faces 40 years in jail if convicted. According to estimates from the Secret Service, 3% of the $3.4 trillion in federal pandemic aid has been taken by scammers.
Alan Blake is a retired 90-year-old man living in Hereford, U.K., with his wife, but he has been hard at work throughout the pandemic. Over the past two years, Blake has been walking up and down the 120 stone steps in his garden with the goal of “climbing” Mount Everest from home, the BBC reported. Blake recently achieved his goal, climbing up 69,780 steps, the equivalent of climbing up a set of stairs as high as the tallest mountain on Earth. He did so in all types of weather, climbing up the stairs almost every day, even when it was cold or snowy outside, although it was never as cold as it is on the summit of Mount Everest. “I think exercise, moving, has got to be good for the soul, and I certainly think it’s helped him get through COVID instead of sitting around at home,” Blake’s daughter said. The lofty goal was more than just to pass the time while at home during the pandemic. Blake managed to raise more than $27,000 for charity, the BBC reported.
Australia recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic on Friday, with 80 people dying of the coronavirus, The Associated Press reported. The record was last broken on Tuesday when 78 people died of COVID-19. In the United States, the deadliest day of the pandemic was just about a year ago, when 4,442 people died on Jan. 20, 2021, which is more people than have died in Australia since the pandemic first began, according to Johns Hopkins University figures. Pandemic restrictions have largely been lifted in Australia even as omicron spreads, though the state of Western Australia says it will not reopen as planned on Feb. 5, citing a rise in COVID cases in other parts of the country.
As the omicron variant spreads across Japan, the country is implementing new COVID restrictions in an attempt to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed, The Associated Press reported. Eateries that stop serving alcohol can stay open until 9 p.m., while ones that continue to serve alcohol must close by 8 p.m. Some restaurant owners have criticized the restrictions as not making any sense. “We cannot make business without serving alcohol,” Saga said in an interview with Nippon Television. “It seems only eateries are targeted for restraints.” Others have said the restrictions just seem to be ineffective, as infections have not slowed in prefectures where the restrictions have already been implemented.
