“To be crystal clear — we have far more tools to fight the variant than we had at this time last year,” Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a White House coronavirus briefing.
Walensky added that as part of the ramped-up efforts to ward off new variants, the U.S. has significantly increased genomic sequencing from 8,000 samples a week earlier this year to 80,000 samples a week. It has also expanded its surveillance to the John F. Kennedy, San Francisco, Newark and Atlanta airports, four of the busiest in the country, for increased testing for specific international arrivals.
The agency will also evaluate additional travel measures, including pre-departure testing closer to the flight and post-arrival testing.
Here’s what to know
Analysis: How Biden and Trump actually compare on coronavirus deaths
Return to menuThe United States passed yet another grim coronavirus milestone in November: We have now seen more deaths from the virus in 2021 than we did in all of 2020 — despite the advent of vaccines.
Naturally, this has led to plenty of partisan politicking, with conservatives and Republicans using it to argue that President Biden has failed in his promise to get the virus under control. Some have gone so far as to say this statistic proves Biden’s handling of the virus is worse than former president Donald Trump’s was.
As with all coronavirus statistics, such comparisons can easily be manipulated depending upon when waves occur, etc., and stripped of context. And that context is less damning for Biden vis-a-vis Trump.
Lara Logan draws outrage for comparing Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele on Fox News
Return to menuLara Logan, once a lauded foreign correspondent for CBS News’s “60 Minutes” and now a boundary-pushing Fox News guest commentator and streaming show host, drew fierce condemnation for on-air comments Monday night comparing the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.
Her comments came during a segment in which Fox host Pete Hegseth, a frequent critic of coronavirus vaccine mandates and masking politics, accused the Biden administration of overhyping the new omicron variant.
Logan’s response, though, went well beyond.
“What you see on Dr. Fauci — this is what people say to me: that he doesn’t represent science to them. He represents Josef Mengele,” she said. “Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who did experiments on Jews during the Second World War and in the concentration camps. And I am talking about people all across the world are saying this, because the response from covid, what it has done to countries everywhere, what it has done to civil liberties, the suicide rates, the poverty, it has obliterated economies. The level of suffering that has been created because of this disease is now being seen in the cold light of day.”
Nursing unions around the world file U.N. complaint over vaccine patent waivers
Return to menuOn Monday, nurses unions from around the world filed a complaint with the United Nations, accusing some wealthy nations of violating human rights by blocking waivers that they say are critical to equitably expanding vaccine access and keeping health workers safe.
The move comes as the World Trade Organization postponed what was to be its biggest meeting in four years — an in-person forum to debate calls to waive intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines, which the United States in theory has endorsed — after news of the omicron variant spread Friday.
The meeting, meant to kick off in Switzerland on Monday, will be held in March “if conditions allow it,” the Geneva-based agency said Monday.
WHO adjusts travel advice related to omicron variant
Return to menuThe World Health Organization is tweaking its travel advice related to the omicron variant just hours after releasing it.
The U.N. health agency originally said that people who are unwell or at risk of developing severe covid-19 and dying are advised to postpone travel, the Associated Press reported. The recommendation applies to people who are at least 60 and those with co-morbidities including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
But the WHO revised that statement later to say that people who haven’t been fully vaccinated or don’t have proof of earlier infection and are at greater risk are advised to postpone travel to areas with “community transmission,” where it’s spreading more widely.
Canada imposes new testing rules for travelers, adds countries to entry ban
Return to menuTORONTO — Canada imposed new testing rules Tuesday for travelers in a bid to halt the spread of the omicron variant, and added foreign nationals who have visited Nigeria, Egypt and Malawi in the past 14 days to its list of those banned from entry.
Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada’s health minister, said the country will require all air travelers — regardless of their vaccination status — to be tested for the coronavirus at the airport on arrival and to self-quarantine while awaiting results.
He said the measure will not apply to travelers arriving from the United States but added that the federal government is working with the provinces and territories to see “whether it could be done if the situation evolves and requires such a policy to be implemented.”
“It may well be that as we gain time, we find that the new variant is of less concern than what some experts might be hearing,” Duclos said at a news conference in Ottawa, “but the situation might also evolve differently. We’re reminding Canadians that travel rules and border rules … can always change.”
Canada last week banned foreign nationals from seven southern African countries — as well as foreign nationals who have traveled to them within the last two weeks — from entry.
Asked why Nigeria, Egypt and Malawi have been added to the travel ban list when the omicron variant has been detected elsewhere, including in Europe, Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said it was because “they have not yet reported on the omicron variant in their own country prior to other countries reporting importations from those countries.”
“This tells us that there may be some uncertainty in the countries’ overall epidemiological situation and their ability to adapt and respond,” Tam added.
Officials have confirmed cases of the variant in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.
Children 5 and older now have a coronavirus vaccine. But many parents of younger kids are still anxiously waiting.
Return to menuEven with the recent authorization of the coronavirus vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, many parents and grandparents are still in limbo, anxiously awaiting shots for younger children.
Although children are less likely to suffer severe disease, they can still contract and transmit the virus to others. Those who test positive must quarantine — and may even have to stay home from day-care or preschool when their classmates become ill after exposure to the virus. This forces parents to find alternative child care or take time off from work to care for them, which some families say has become common.
“It’s nice that 5- to 11-year-olds have this option available to them,” Diana Wakim, a 31-year-old in Columbus, Ohio, and mother of a 2-year-old boy, said about the coronavirus vaccine. “But we’re just sort of sitting here and twiddling our thumbs and thinking, ‘When are we going to be protected? When can we keep our son safe and ourselves safe?’ ”
First Latin American cases of omicron variant are reported in Brazil
Return to menuAnvisa, Brazil’s health regulatory agency, said Tuesday that two of the country’s residents had tested positive for the omicron coronavirus variant, according to a Reuters report. They are the first reported cases of the variant in Latin America.
A Brazilian arriving in São Paulo from South Africa and his wife, who had not traveled, tested positive for the new variant, Anvisa said.
The traveler had a negative coronavirus test after arriving at São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport on Nov. 23. But before a planned return trip, the couple tested positive. A sample of their test results were sent for further analysis, and the omicron variant was identified.
The travel took place before the World Health Organization publicly alerted about the omicron variant and before Brazil suspended flights from South Africa and five other southern African countries Friday.
Omicron was first identified officially in southern Africa last week, but data shows it was circulating before then. It has since been detected in more than a dozen countries.
Massachusetts could soon have a digital vaccination passport, governor says
Return to menuMassachusetts, along with other states, could soon roll out a digital coronavirus vaccination passport that would allow people to quickly show their vaccination status.
Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said Monday that his administration has been working with more than 15 states on creating an app that uses the scannable quick response (QR) code that would streamline vaccine verification.
“It’s a universal standard, and we’ve been working with a bunch of other states, there’s probably 15 or 20 of them, to try to create a single QR code that can be used for all sorts of things where people may choose to require a vaccine,” Baker said in an interview with GBH News Boston Public Radio.
The governor did not offer more details on how would the digital vaccine passport program would be implemented, but he has previously opposed statewide vaccine passport mandates as well as businesses requiring proof of vaccination as a condition for access.
He did, however, implement a strict vaccine requirement last month for all employees of state agencies. Those who don’t comply and aren’t exempt face suspension without pay and risk being fired.
The Bay State has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, with 71 percent of the population fully immunized, according to data gathered by The Washington Post.
Head Start imposes new mask rules for children, mandates vaccinations for adults
Return to menuThe federal government on Tuesday required that hundreds of thousands of children attending Head Start, its preschool program for low-income families, begin wearing masks immediately.
“This [rule] requires effective upon publication, universal masking for all individuals two years of age and older, with some noted exceptions,” such as when children are eating, drinking or napping, the Head Start office wrote in an interim final rule published in the Federal Register. Children with disabilities or special health needs also may be exempted from the new rule.
Head Start additionally required that all staffers, contractors working directly with children and volunteers be vaccinated against the coronavirus by Jan. 31, 2022, with some medical and religious exemptions.
The new rules “are essential for protecting the living environments of our Head Start families,” Bernadine Futrell, Head Start’s director, wrote in an accompanying announcement, adding, “Sleeve up and mask up, Head Start family, as it’s the best way we can care for and protect each other.”
About 900,000 children 2 and older were enrolled in Head Start during the 2018-2019 program year, according to the most recent data available. Head Start programs also employed or contracted with more than 270,000 staffers that year, and more than 1 million adults volunteered to participate.
Many local Head Start programs moved to swiftly implement the new rules, which follow recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that everyone 2 and older wear masks indoors to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The requirements drew fire from conservatives who characterized the move as federal overreach. The universal masking rule is “discriminatory toward disadvantaged, minority families who may not know how to apply for exemptions and can’t afford non-insane alternatives,” Katy Talento, a health policy adviser and former Trump White House official, wrote on Twitter.
Pentagon chief denies Okla. governor’s bid to exempt Guard troops from vaccine mandate
Return to menuDefense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected a request from Oklahoma’s governor to exempt his state’s National Guard members from the coronavirus vaccine requirement, continuing a showdown that could result in punishments — including removal for service members who refuse to comply with the mandate.
Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), the only governor to enact a policy defying the Pentagon mandate for all service members to be vaccinated, maintains that he can sidestep federal policy while his troops are in state control, his office said, as he explores legal guidelines on who can be punished for order refusal.
Stitt told Austin in a Nov. 2 letter that the defense chief’s order for all troops to get vaccinated “violates the personal freedoms of many Oklahomans” and that a significant number of troops planned to forgo the vaccine. He later ordered Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, commander of Oklahoma’s roughly 8,200 National Guard troops, to execute a policy allowing members to avoid the vaccine while on state orders if they wish.
Austin denied the request in a letter Monday, asserting his authority over every aspect of the military, including National Guard members under state command.
Despite concerns, U.S. is better prepared to fight omicron variant, CDC says
Return to menuHealth officials said Tuesday that even as the world learns anew how “unpredictable” the coronavirus is, with still so much unknown about the omicron variant that has countries around the world sounding alarms, the United States is far better prepared to fight and contain it than it was with other highly transmissible variants, such as delta.
“To be crystal clear — we have far more tools to fight the variant than we had at this time last year,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday during a White House coronavirus briefing. Health officials should “remain ready to be proactive” as data continues to be analyzed and as new mutations evolve, she added.
“One thing has become clear over the past 20 months: We cannot predict the future, but we can prepare for it,” she said.
As part of the ramped-up efforts to ward off new variants, Walensky said, the United States has increased genomic sequencing from 8,000 samples a week earlier this year to 80,000 samples a week — 1 in every 7 positive PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test results.
The CDC is also expanding its surveillance to four of the busiest airports in the country — New York’s John F. Kennedy, San Francisco International, Newark Liberty and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson — for increased testing for specific international arrivals. The CDC will evaluate additional post-arrival testing and self-quarantines, Walensky added.
Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, underlined the “unusual” constellation of changes found in omicron’s genome, arguing that although some of the mutations are also found in delta, this is “something different.”
While these mutations have been associated with increased transmissibility and immunization, Fauci said that it will take two to four weeks for scientists to be able to reach a conclusion on exactly how contagious the variant is, as well as its capacity to evade vaccines and produce severe disease.
Fauci urged the public to get vaccinated or get booster shots.
“The significant reductions are possible because mutations suggest immune evasion, but as with other variants, vaccines and boosters give a level of antibodies that gives you a degree of cross-protection, particularly against severe disease,” Fauci said.
Analysis: As omicron variant alarm spreads, countries mull a radical ‘pandemic treaty’
Return to menuOmicron was the Black Friday surprise no one wanted. But this mysterious and alarming new coronavirus variant has injected itself into a global debate about vaccine inequality and pandemic responses at a potentially crucial moment.
Less than a week after the new variant was reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa, global leaders met Monday to discuss the creation of an international agreement to better deal with historic outbreaks — what some advocates have dubbed a “pandemic treaty.” The special session of the World Health Assembly, only the second ever held by the WHO’s governing body, is expected to last until Wednesday.
The meeting began as the WHO warned of “very high” global risk from the new variant. “The emergence of the highly mutated omicron variant underlines just how perilous and precarious our situation is,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his opening statement.
Omicron alarms scientists, but variant first must prove it can outcompete delta
Return to menuWhen the variant known as omicron first appeared on a global database of coronavirus genomic sequences, scientists were stunned. This was the weirdest creature they’d seen to date. It had an unruly swarm of mutations. Many were known to be problematic, impeding the ability of antibodies to neutralize the virus. And there had never been a variant of the novel coronavirus with so many of these mutations gathered in a package.
Even though scientists recognized some of these mutations, many others were new and utterly enigmatic.
“We have seen these mutations in other strains, in twos and threes, and each time they were a little harder to neutralize, but didn’t spread particularly well. Now, all together? It’s a complete black box,” Benjamin Neuman, a virologist at Texas A&M University, said in an email.
Video: How coronavirus variants like omicron form and spread
Return to menuCoronavirus variants such as omicron, delta and mu are an expected part of the virus’s lifecycle, but vaccines and other methods can prevent more infectious strains from developing.