BY Sam Mellins, New York Focus, THE CITY A New York state judge Tuesday ordered that a proposed cost-cutting change in city government retirees’ health insurance be delayed until at least April 1, 2022. Retired city workers will have until June 30, 2022 to opt out of the plan. The ruling also listed several steps […]
By David Leonhardt, NY Times Get ready for the Omicron surge, and take it seriously. But remember that the vaccines appear to provide strong protection against what matters most: severe Covid illnesses. That’s my reading of experts’ reactions to the latest developments on the Omicron variant. Today, I will walk through them. Highly contagious The […]
By Colbert I. King, Washington Post A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help. Soon a man in a rowboat came by and shouted to the man on the roof: “Jump in. I can save you.” The stranded fellow shouted back: “No, it’s okay. I’m praying […]
By Shabir A. Madhi, The Conversation South Africa reacted with outrage to travel bans, first triggered by the UK, imposed on it in the wake of the news that its genomics surveillance team had detected a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa has been monitoring changes in […]
By Suresh V. Kuchipudi, The Conversation A new variant named omicron (B.1.1.529) was reported by researchers in South Africa on Nov. 24, 2021, and designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization two days later. Omicron is very unusual in that it is by far the most heavily mutated variant yet of SARS-CoV-2, […]
By Nancy S. Jecker & Caesar Atuire, The Conversation Omicron, the latest COVID-19 variant dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, has prompted new travel restrictions in many nations. Although little is known about omicron, scientists have expressed concern that it may be more transmissible or vaccine-resistant than previous variants. On Nov. […]
By Tamra Burns Loeb, Gail Wyatt, Michele R. Cooley-Strickland, The Conversation With college students back on campus, and COVID-19 with us for the foreseeable future, it has become increasingly clear that educators need to develop a new definition of safer sex. Although the virus is not a sexually transmitted infection, students can spread COVID-19 through […]
By Maya Kaufman, Crains New York A Minnesota man tested positive for the Covid-19 omicron variant several days after returning home from New York City, where he attended an anime convention at the Javits Center, according to Minnesota health officials. The man, who is vaccinated, developed mild symptoms Nov. 22 and got tested two days […]
By ABC News The Biden administration is preparing to implement new travel guidelines that would require proof of a negative COVID-19 test within one day of flying into the U.S., including for vaccinated people, a spokesperson from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed. The expected change comes as the country beefs up surveillance […]
By David Leonhardt, NY Times The public reaction to new Covid-19 variants has followed a familiar cycle. People tend to assume the worst about two different questions — whether the variant leads to faster transmission of the Covid virus and whether it causes more severe illness among infected people. The first of those worries came […]