Omicron

Prominent Chinese commentator urges COVID experts to ‘speak out’

BEIJING, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin said on Sunday that as China ponders its COVID-19 policies, epidemic experts need to speak out and China ought to conduct comprehensive research and make any studies transparent to the public.

Hu’s unusual call on Chinese social media for candour and transparency earned him 34,000 likes on the popular Twitter-like microblog Weibo, as well as frank responses from netizens in a normally tightly policed internet quick to censor voices deemed a risk to social stability.

China’s top leaders warned in May amid the COVID lockdown of Shanghai and widespread restrictions in the Chinese capital Beijing that they would fight any comment or action that distorted, doubted or repudiated the country’s COVID policies. read more

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“About the future, China needs very rational research and calculations,” said Hu, former editor-in-chief of nationalist state tabloid Global Times.

“Experts must speak out, and the country should organise comprehensive studies and make them transparent to the public: what are the pros and cons for our common people, and what are the overall pros and cons for the country?”

China has significantly tightened its COVID-19 policies this year to contain the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant even as its death toll since the pandemic began remains low – around 5,226 as of Saturday – and as many other countries let go of tough restrictions and learn to live with the coronavirus.

“Oppose excessive epidemic prevention,” one Weibo user wrote in response to Hu’s post.

In the name of putting the lives of people first, entire cities have been subjected to varying degrees of lockdown, while the infected or suspected cases are confined in facilities or at home, and local populations are required to take a PCR test every two to three days or be barred from public amenities and spaces. read more

“I don’t mind being infected, but I fear you can’t help but stop me from moving freely,” another Weibo user said.

Even Chinese-controlled Hong Kong is moving to scrap its controversial COVID-19 hotel quarantine policy for all arrivals, more than 2 1/2 years after it was first implemented, and just weeks ahead of a major Communist Party congress in Beijing next month when President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term as China’s leader. read more

Macau is also planning to reopen its borders to mainland tour groups in November, the Chinese special administrative region surprised with an announcement on Saturday. read more

“The people must trust the state, but the state must also trust the understanding of the people,” Hu said.

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Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Toby Chopra and Stephen Coates

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Pfizer CEO tests positive for COVID for a second time

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Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer attends a discussion at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

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Sept 24 (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said on Saturday he had tested positive for COVID-19.

“I’m feeling well and symptom free,” Bourla said in a statement.

Bourla, 60, back in August had contacted COVID and had started a course of the company’s oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid. read more

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Paxlovid is an antiviral medication that is used to treat high-risk people, such as older patients.

Bourla has received four doses of the COVID vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech (22UAy.DE).

The chief executive said he has not yet taken the new bivalent booster.

Developed by Moderna and the team of Pfizer and BioNTech, the new so-called bivalent shots aim to tackle the BA.5 and BA.4 Omicron subvariants, which make up 84.8% and 1.8%, respectively, of all circulating variants in the United States, based on latest data.

“I’ve not had the new bivalent booster yet, as I was following CDC guidelines to wait three months since my previous COVID case which was back in mid-August,” Bourla added.

In August, the FDA authorized Pfizer and Moderna’s updated booster shots that target the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.

A federal health agency said this week that over 25 million doses of the so-called bivalent shots had been sent out. That consisted of mostly the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, as production of the Moderna vaccine ramps up. read more

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Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis

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4.4M Americans Roll Up Sleeves For Omicron-Targeted Boosters

Some Americans who got the new shots said they are excited about the idea of targeting the vaccine to the variants circulating now.

U.S. health officials say 4.4 million Americans have rolled up their sleeves for the updated COVID-19 booster shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the count Thursday as public health experts bemoaned President Joe Biden’s recent remark that “the pandemic is over.”

The White House said more than 5 million people received the new boosters by its own estimate that accounts for reporting lags in states.

Health experts said it is too early to predict whether demand would match up with the 171 million doses of the new boosters the U.S. ordered for the fall.

“No one would go looking at our flu shot uptake at this point and be like, ‘Oh, what a disaster,'” said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “If we start to see a large uptick in cases, I think we’re going to see a lot of people getting the (new COVID) vaccine.”

A temporary shortage of Moderna vaccine caused some pharmacies to cancel appointments while encouraging people to reschedule for a Pfizer vaccine. The issue was expected to resolve as government regulators wrapped up an inspection and cleared batches of vaccine doses for distribution.

“I do expect this to pick up in the weeks ahead,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. “We’ve been thinking and talking about this as an annual vaccine like the flu vaccine. Flu vaccine season picks up in late September and early October. We’re just getting our education campaign going. So we expect to see, despite the fact that this was a strong start, we actually expect this to ramp up stronger.”

Some Americans who plan to get the shot, designed to target the most common Omicron strains, said they are waiting because they either had COVID-19 recently or another booster. They are following public health advice to wait several months to get the full benefit of their existing virus-fighting antibodies.

Others are scheduling shots closer to holiday gatherings and winter months when respiratory viruses spread more easily.

Retired hospital chaplain Jeanie Murphy, 69, of Shawnee, Kansas, plans to get the new booster in a couple of weeks after she has some minor knee surgery. Interest is high among her neighbors from what she sees on the Nextdoor app.

“There’s quite a bit of discussion happening among people who are ready to make appointments,” Murphy said. “I found that encouraging. For every one naysayer there will be 10 or 12 people who jump in and say, ‘You’re crazy. You just need to go get the shot.'”

President Biden later acknowledged criticism of his remark about the pandemic being over and clarified the pandemic is “not where it was.” The initial comment didn’t bother Murphy. She believes the disease has entered a steady state when “we’ll get COVID shots in the fall the same as we do flu shots.”

Experts hope she’s right, but are waiting to see what levels of infection winter brings. The summer ebb in case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths may be followed by another surge, Dowdy said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, asked Thursday by a panel of biodefense experts what still keeps him up at night, noted that half of vaccinated Americans never got an initial booster dose.

“We have a vulnerability in our population that will continue to have us in a mode of potential disruption of our social order,” Fauci said. “I think that we have to do better as a nation.”

Some Americans who got the new shots said they are excited about the idea of targeting the vaccine to the variants circulating now.

“Give me all the science you can,” said Jeff Westling, 30, an attorney in Washington, D.C., who got the new booster and a flu shot on Tuesday, one in each arm. He participates in the combat sport jujitsu, so wants to protect himself from infections that may come with close contact. “I have no issue trusting folks whose job it is to look at the evidence.”

Meanwhile, President Biden’s pronouncement in a “60 Minutes” interview broadcast Sunday echoed through social media.

“We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over,” President Biden said while walking through the Detroit auto show. “If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing.”

By Wednesday on Facebook, when a Kansas health department posted where residents could find the new booster shots, the first commenter remarked snidely:

“But Biden says the pandemic is over.”

The president’s statement, despite his attempts to clarify it, adds to public confusion, said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington.

“People aren’t sure when is the right time to get boosted. ‘Am I eligible?’ People are often confused about what the right choice is for them, even where to search for that information,” Michaud said.

“Any time you have mixed messages, it’s detrimental to the public health effort,” Michaud said. “Having the mixed messages from the president’s remarks, makes that job that much harder.”

University of South Florida epidemiologist Jason Salemi said he’s worried the president’s pronouncement has taken on a life of its own and may stall prevention efforts.

“That soundbite is there for a while now, and it’s going to spread like wildfire. And it’s going to give the impression that ‘Oh, there’s nothing more we need to do,'” Salemi said.

“If we’re happy with 400 or 500 people dying every single day from COVID, there’s a problem with that,” Salemi said. “We can absolutely do better because most of those deaths, if not all of them, are absolutely preventable with the tools that we have.”

New York City photographer Vivienne Gucwa, 44, got the new booster Monday. She’s had COVID twice, once before vaccines were available and again in May. She was vaccinated with two Moderna shots, but never got the original boosters.

“When I saw the new booster was able to tackle Omicron variant I thought, ‘I’m doing that,'” Gucwa said.

“I don’t want to deal with Omicron again. I was kind of thrilled to see the boosters were updated.”

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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President Joe Biden Claims The Pandemic Is Over

During an interview on 60 Minutes, President Joe Biden claimed the pandemic is over.

President Joe Biden raised eyebrows over the weekend with a bold declaration on 60 minutes.

“The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID, we’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over,” said President Biden.

That’s an assessment of the COVID-19 outbreak that doesn’t square with the facts.

The WHO’s top official said clearly just days ago.

“We’re not there yet, but the end is in sight,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization.

The president’s own chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said this Monday, “we are not where we need to be if we’re going to be able to quote live with the virus.”

Still it’s the most hopeful the World Health Organization’s leaders have sounded since the start of the virus’ spread in late 2019.

“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic,” said Ghebreyesus.

Leaders from the Oval Office to state houses celebrated.

But the CDC says the virus is still killing 360 people a day in the U.S. — the lowest we’ve seen since July and far from winter peaks.

Yet, it’s still higher than the lulls of mid-2021.

Infectious disease experts warn colder weather could again spike the spread, though vaccines will soften the blow.

Meanwhile the economic mayhem from the global shutdown lingers. World leaders are still grappling with how to navigate out of the storm.

It’s a key focus for the UN General Assembly this week.

“We meet at the moment of great peril for our worlds. The ongoing effects of a global pandemic. Lack of access to finance for developing countries to recover. A crisis not seen in a generation,” said António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

As even White House COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff masked up just Friday to get COVID booster shots.

“This is a new formulation that we want all Americans to get right now over the age of 12,” said Emhoff.

They’re setting an example for millions of Americans being asked to give the fight against COVID a final push across the finish line.

“Let’s make sure we’re playing the game until the very end,” said Gov. Andy Beshear.

“A marathon runner does not stop when the end comes into view. She runs harder with all the energy she has left. So must we,” said Ghebreyesus.

Source: newsy.com

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End of COVID pandemic is ‘in sight’ -WHO chief

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Sept 14 (Reuters) – The world has never been in a better position to end the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, his most optimistic outlook yet on the years-long health crisis which has killed over six million people.

“We are not there yet. But the end is in sight,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a virtual press conference.

That was the most upbeat assessment from the UN agency since it declared an international emergency in January 2020 and started describing COVID-19 as a pandemic three months later.

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The virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has killed nearly 6.5 million people and infected 606 million, roiling global economies and overwhelming healthcare systems.

The rollout of vaccines and therapies have helped to stem deaths and hospitalisations, and the Omicron variant which emerged late last year causes less severe disease. Deaths from COVID-19 last week were the lowest since March 2020, the U.N. agency reported.

Still on Wednesday, he again urged nations to maintain their vigilance and likened the pandemic to a marathon race.

“Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap the rewards of all our hard work.”

Countries need to take a hard look at their policies and strengthen them for COVID-19 and future viruses, Tedros said. He also urged nations to vaccinate 100% of their high-risk groups and keep testing for the virus.

The WHO said countries need to maintain adequate supplies of medical equipment and healthcare workers.

“We expect there to be future waves of infections, potentially at different time points throughout the world caused by different subvariants of Omicron or even different variants of concern,” said WHO’s senior epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove.

A woman walks past a mural depicting a frontline worker amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Dublin, Ireland, January 12, 2022. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

With over 1 million deaths this year alone, the pandemic remains an emergency globally and within most countries.

“The COVID-19 summer wave, driven by Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, showed that the pandemic is not yet over as the virus continues to circulate in Europe and beyond,” a European Commission spokesperson said.

WHO’s next meeting of experts to decide whether the pandemic still represents a public health emergency of international concern is due in October, a WHO spokesperson said.

GLOBAL EMERGENCY

“It’s probably fair to say most of the world is moving beyond the emergency phase of the pandemic response,” said Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University.

Governments are now looking at how best to manage COVID as part of their routine healthcare and surveillance, he said.

Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States have approved vaccines that target the Omicron variant as well as the original virus as countries prepare to launch winter booster campaigns.

In the United States, COVID-19 was initially declared a public health emergency in January 2020, and that status has been renewed quarterly ever since.

The U.S. health department is set to renew it again in mid-October for what policy experts expect is the last time before it expires in January 2023.

U.S. health officials have said that the pandemic is not over, but that new bivalent vaccines mark an important shift in the fight against the virus. They predict that a single annual vaccine akin to the flu shot should provide a high degree of protection and return the country closer to normalcy.

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Reporting by Manas Mishra, Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru, Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Jennifer Rigby in London; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, William Maclean, Josephine Mason, Elaine Hardcastle

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Updated Omicron Booster Shots Are Now Available For Americans

Experts say the booster shots are to get ahead of a COVID surge before the end of the year, when more people are indoors.

Updated COVID Omicron boosters are here. The CDC and FDA OK’d the new formula last week.

“I think they’re coming because people want to keep them coming. I don’t believe in them, but do what you gotta do,” Arizona resident Jim Cave said.

“I already got the first one. I’ve gotten all my vaccines to date. I just want to keep everyone healthy,” Arizona resident Melanie Crouch said.

The emergency-authorized formula change targets the highly contagious Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants. CDC data shows about 90% of U.S. COVID cases are BA.5.

Anyone at least 2 months past their last COVID-19 shot is eligible. Moderna’s is authorized for those age 18 and older. For Pfizer and BioNTech’s it’s 12 and up.

Health experts say it’s to get ahead for the end of the year when more people are inside.

“Every year, beginning right after Thanksgiving, we have a terrible time with COVID, where we have the bulk of the hospitalizations and death. But these vaccines, we hope, are going to blunt whatever we might experience this winter,” said UC Berkley Clinical Professor Emeritus Dr. John Swartzberg.

Experts say we’re entering a new phase where a COVID vaccination process will resemble something like a flu shot.

The recommendations are each year that we get a flu shot. But what’s in that flu shot will change each year. There’s an expert committee that looks at that and determines what they think the most common strain will be. That’s in communities. And it’s not until halfway through the flu season that we know how good that vaccine is. We’re in a similar situation here with this with this COVID booster.

Much of the CDC’s role is the small details of vaccinations: Labels on the vaccines or the colors of the caps so providers don’t confuse them.

One example-you may have noticed the old formula from Pfizer had purple caps on the vials. The new ones have gray.

It comes as federal funding for buying and sending out the vaccines is running dry.

Health and Human Services says over the next six months, they’re transitioning to where Americans will pay for their COVID vaccinations. They have about 170 million doses to distribute before January 2023. That means, if you want to get a COVID booster, look to get it sooner rather than later.

Source: newsy.com

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Health Officials Are Recommending Americans Get Omicron Booster Shots

Experts say the booster shots are to get ahead of a COVID surge before the end of the year, when more people are indoors.

The CDC is recommending people get updated COVID Omicron boosters. The FDA authorized the new formula this week.

Experts say we’re entering a new phase where a COVID vaccination process will resemble something like a flu shot.

“The recommendations are, each year that we get a flu shot. But what’s in that flu shot will change each year,” Former CDC Director and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation CEO Dr. Richard Besser said. “There’s an expert committee that looks at that and determines what they think the most common strain will be. That’s in communities — And it’s not until halfway through the flu season that we know how good that vaccine is. We’re in a similar situation here with this with this COVID booster.”

Much of the CDC’s role is the small details of vaccinations, labels on the vaccines, or the colors of the caps so providers don’t confuse them.

One example you may have noticed is the old formula from Pfizer had purple caps on the vials, whereas the new ones have gray caps.

The emergency-authorized formula change targets the highly contagious Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants. CDC data shows about 90% of U.S. COVID cases are BA.5.

Anyone at least 2 months past their last COVID-19 shot is eligible.

Moderna is authorized for those age 18 and older. For pfizer and biontech’s… It’s 12 and up.

Health experts say it’s to get ahead for the end of the year when more people are inside.

“Every year, beginning right after Thanksgiving, we have a terrible time with COVID where we have the bulk of the hospitalizations and death. But these vaccines, we hope, are going to blunt whatever we might experience this winter,” said UC Berkley Clinical Professor Emeritus Dr. John Swartzberg.

It comes as federal funding for buying and sending out the vaccines is running dry.

Health and Human Services says over the next six months, they’re transitioning to where Americans will pay for their COVID vaccinations. They have about 170 million doses to distribute before January 2023, which means if you want to get a COVID booster, look to get it sooner rather than later.

Source: newsy.com

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The FDA Has Authorized New Omicron Booster Shots

Pfizer and Moderna have released a new COVID booster shot that will target the highly contagious BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variant.

COVID boosters are getting an omicron makeover and could go into arms by the weekend.

“I will be at the front of the line at the pharmacy getting my vaccination. I’m very confident about this,” said Dr. Robert Califf, the FDA commissioner.

The Food and Drug Administration has authorized a formula change to target the highly contagious omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants.

Anyone at least two months past their last COVID-19 shot is eligible. Moderna is authorized for those age 18 and older. For Pfizer and Biontech’s it’s 12 and up.

Health officials say it’s to get ahead for fall and winter when the virus has mutated and spread because more people are inside.

“The idea here is the more up to date you are, the better chance we have of looking at what may come afterwards,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA vaccine chief.

Pfizer and Moderna can now ship out the omicron formulated boosters.

State and local health departments began placing pre-orders last month.

The decision has faced some criticism though.

Regulators say the new vaccine formula is similar enough that safety is sound.

But how well it works in humans is unclear.

Both Moderna and Pfizer submitted efficacy results from animal studies.

That research did show a better antibody response to all the omicron subvariants compared to the original formula.

Clinical trials on humans are set to begin next month.

“f we wait for those data in human data, not just mice data, in human data we will be using what I would be using what I would consider to be a very outdated vaccine,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDCd director.

The CDC still needs to sign off and officially recommend the new booster formula. Their advisors are meeting this week.

Source: newsy.com

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WHO: World Coronavirus Cases Fall 24%, Deaths Rise In Asia

By Associated Press
August 19, 2022

The U.N. health agency said there were 5.4 million new COVID-19 cases reported last week, a decline of 24% from the previous week.

New coronavirus cases reported globally dropped nearly a quarter in the last week while deaths fell 6% but were still higher in parts of Asia, according to a report Thursday on the pandemic by the World Health Organization.

The U.N. health agency said there were 5.4 million new COVID-19 cases reported last week, a decline of 24% from the previous week. Infections fell everywhere in the world, including by nearly 40% in Africa and Europe and by a third in the Middle East. COVID deaths rose in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia by 31% and 12% respectively, but fell or remained stable everywhere else.

At a press briefing Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said reported coronavirus deaths over the past month have surged 35%, and noted there had been 15,000 deaths in the past week.

“15,000 deaths a week is completely unacceptable, when we have all the tools to prevent infections and save lives,” Tedros said. He said the number of virus sequences shared every week has plummeted 90%, making it extremely difficult for scientists to monitor how COVID-19 might be mutating.

“But none of us is helpless,” Tedros said. “Please get vaccinated if you are not, and if you need a booster, get one.”

On Thursday, WHO’s vaccine advisory group recommended for the first time that people most vulnerable to COVID-19, including older people, those with underlying health conditions and health workers, get a second booster shot. Numerous other health agencies and countries made the same recommendation months ago.

The expert group also said it had evaluated data from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for younger people and said children and teenagers were in the lowest priority group for vaccination, since they are far less likely to get severe disease.

Joachim Hombach, who sits on WHO’s vaccine expert group, said it was also uncertain whether the experts would endorse widespread boosters for the general population or new combination vaccines that target the Omicron variant.

“We need to see what the data will tell us and we need to see actually (what) will be the advantage of these vaccines that comprise an (Omicron) strain,” he said.

Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, the expert group’s chair, said that unless vaccines were proven to stop transmission, their widespread use would be “a waste of the vaccine and a waste of time.”

Earlier this week, British authorities authorized an updated version of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that targets Omicron and the U.K. government announced it would be offered to people over 50 beginning next month.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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The CDC Is Restructuring Its Agency Amid Public Criticism

The CDC is now changing how it releases information to the public due to recent criticism from Americans.

Change is coming to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The goal is to regain the public’s trust.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says the agency needs to respond much faster to outbreaks and share information in a way that isn’t confusing.

She told The Associated Press, “I feel like it’s my responsibility to lead this agency to a better place after a really challenging three years.”

“This will take a time, but we need to restore trust in the CDC,” said CDC consultant Dr. William Schaffner.

The shake-up comes after an internal review Walensky OKd in April. That report isn’t out yet.

Reorganized CDC plans include: using more outside preprint research instead of waiting for the CDC’s own review and publication, requiring CDC leaders in an outbreak response role to devote a minimum of six months on the job, restructuring the agency’s communications office and changing the CDC website to make it easier to understand.

The CDC’s long been criticized for confusing communication, and the COVID-19 pandemic put that center stage.

The CDC, the American Medical Association, and the National Institutes of Health say public health information should be in between sixth through eighth grades.

Newsy first reported in spring and summer 2020 that researchers found CDC guidance was written on average for someone with an 11th grade reading level.

“Approximately three grade levels above the CDC’s own recommendations,” said Joseph Dexter, a Dartmouth Neukom Institute Fellow.

The criticism of the nation’s health agency has grown throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as public confidence has dropped.

A January 2022 poll found only 44% of Americans trusted what the CDC has communicated about the virus.

That distrust grew with the Monkeypox outbreak. There’s continuing criticism over the lack of vaccines and treatments, information and help. Currently, about one in three cases globally are in the U.S.

It’s uncertain how any reorganization would impact the current public health response to Monkeypox, or to COVID omicron boosters coming in the fall.

“It is achievable, but it will take a change in mindset,” Dexter said.

Experts say constant updates with the public during it all will be key.

Source: newsy.com

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