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The Biden administration is focusing on booster shots as a key weapon in efforts to protect the nation against a potentially dangerous coronavirus variant even as the extent of the threat remains unclear, the White House said Sunday. A group of senior health officials had a call with South African scientists Sunday to review the latest on the new variant and to help inform next steps, according to two senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. (Abutaleb, Nirappil, Roubein and Pannett, 11/28)

Top federal health officials in the United States urged unvaccinated Americans on Sunday to get their shots and for eligible adults to seek out boosters, as the discovery of a new variant sparked a new wave of travel restrictions and alarmed scientists. Appearing on several morning talk shows on Sunday, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, cautioned Americans that the emergence of Omicron and the uncertainty that surrounds it is a reminder that the pandemic is far from over. While the variant has yet to be detected in the United States, maintaining vigilance and safeguarding public health through inoculations, masking indoors and distancing, remains critical, he said. (Petri, 11/28)

The top U.S. infectious disease official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told President Joe Biden on Sunday it will take about two weeks to have definitive information on the new coronavirus variant Omicron that has sparked new travel restrictions and shaken financial markets. Biden, returning to Washington following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, was briefed in person by his coronavirus response team on Sunday afternoon as officials expect the new variant to reach the United States despite an impending ban on travelers from Southern Africa, where it was first detected. (Heavey, 11/29)

President Biden will provide an update on his administration's response to the new COVID-19 omicron variant on Monday, according to the White House, after Dr. Anthony Fauci said it will take roughly two weeks to gather more information on the new strain. Biden met with Fauci and members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team on Sunday, two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) held an emergency meeting to discuss the new COVID-19 strain, which it labeled a variant of concern. (Schnell, 11/28)

Governors across the United States tried to reassure Americans on Sunday that their administrations were closely monitoring the latest developments after the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus. Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut issued a statement on Sunday reminding his constituents to remain vigilant even though the new variant, known as Omicron, had yet to be detected in the United States. “Given the number of countries where Omicron has already been detected, it may already be present in the U.S.,” he said in the statement. (Delkic and Heyward, 11/28)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared a state of emergency Friday in response to a cold-weather surge of coronavirus infections and the threat of the newly detected omicron variant, making her state one of the first in the country to impose measures against the mutation that was recently sequenced in southern Africa. As part of the emergency, the state’s health department will be allowed to protect hospital capacity by limiting nonessential and non-urgent care until at least Jan. 15. Hospitals with less than 10 percent staffed bed capacity, or those designated by the state, will be authorized to screen patients and restrict admissions to keep beds open for the most urgent cases. (Jeong, 11/27)

Americans need to be prepared to do “anything and everything” to fight the omicron Covid variant, U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday. Still, it’s “too early to say” whether lockdowns or new mandates will be appropriate, Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.” The World Health Organization last week classified omicron as a “variant of concern,” meaning it is more contagious, more virulent or more skilled at evading public health measures, vaccines and therapeutics. (Bursztynsky, 11/28)

National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins on Sunday said that while much is still unknown about the Omicron coronavirus variant, "there's no reason to panic" yet but more data is needed. Collins' remarks on CNN's "State of the Union" come amid a broader discussion of how the new strain, first identified in South Africa, will impact the pandemic and how to curb its spread. (Reyes, 11/28)

U.S. health officials have not imposed any new screening or tracing requirements in response to the newly discovered Omicron COVID-19 variant that prompted the Biden administration to restrict travel from southern Africa. Starting Monday, the United States will bar most foreign travelers from South Africa and seven other southern African countries in an attempt to curb the spread of the Omicron variant, which was first identified in South Africa on Friday. However, the travel restrictions do not ban flights or apply to U.S. citizens and lawful U.S. permanent residents. Until the ban starts at 12:01 ET Monday, flights from South Africa have continued to carry foreign nationals. (Szekely and Shepardson, 11/29)

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, took to Twitter to express his disapproval of the travel restrictions being imposed due to the latest Covid-19 variant, saying they hurt current containment efforts and discourage future sharing. (McHale, 11/26)

The emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, with a suite of mutations that suggests it might be extra transmissible and be able to evade at least some immune protection, has the world eager for answers about what it means for the Covid-19 pandemic. But so much remains unknown largely because the variant appears to have been detected and publicized so quickly. With other variants, a matter of months passed between the time they were first documented until they were designated “variants of concern” — in some cases giving scientists more opportunity to understand them before they attracted widespread attention. With Omicron, initially identified as B.1.1.529, it all happened within about two weeks. (Joseph, 11/28)

Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, who directs the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), publisher of CIDRAP News, said it's important to be careful in interpreting early data, but said the signals are extremely concerning. The uncertainties surrounding the impact of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, compared to what we expect a pandemic influenza virus to do over time, is what makes responding to evolving threats from the virus so hard. "This situation is a reminder that the future course of this pandemic as it relates to evolving variants is not settled," he said. (Schnirring, 11/26)

The early findings are a mixed picture. The variant may be more transmissible and better able to evade the body’s immune responses, both to vaccination and to natural infection, than prior versions of the virus, experts said in interviews. The vaccines may well continue to ward off severe illness and death, although booster doses may be needed to protect most people. Still, the makers of the two most effective vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are preparing to reformulate their shots if necessary. (Mandavilli, 11/28)

Covid symptoms linked to the new omicron variant have been described as “extremely mild” by the South African doctor who first raised the alarm over the new strain. Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, told the BBC on Sunday that she started to see patients around Nov.18 presenting with “unusual symptoms” that differed slightly to those associated with the delta variant, which is the most virulent strain of the virus to date and globally dominant. (Ellyatt, 11/29)

A South African doctor who was one of the first to suspect a different coronavirus strain among patients said on Sunday that symptoms of the Omicron variant were so far mild and could be treated at home. Dr. Angelique Coetzee, a private practitioner and chair of South African Medical Association, told Reuters that on Nov. 18 she noticed seven patients at her clinic who had symptoms different from the dominant Delta variant, albeit "very mild". Now designated Omicron by the World Health Organization, the variant was detected and announced by South Africa's National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Nov. 25 from samples taken from a laboratory from Nov. 14 to Nov. 16. (Mukherjee, 11/28)

At Moderna Inc.’s offices in Cambridge, Mass., alarm bells went off last Tuesday. The company’s team that tracks variants noticed unusual activity in a global database run by the nonprofit Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, or GISAID, as scientists around the world began uploading information about a new strain, says Moderna President Stephen Hoge. The Moderna team saw roughly 50 mutations on the new variant, which could potentially render it more transmissible and allow it to evade immune responses generated by vaccination and previous infection. “Everyone’s blood pressure went through the roof,” says Dr. Hoge. “It was all the mutations we didn’t want to see together in one variant.” (Zuckerman, 11/28)

Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said Sunday the vaccine maker could roll out a reformulated vaccine against the omicron coronavirus variant early next year. It’s not clear whether new formulations will be needed, or if current Covid vaccinations will provide protection against the new variant that has begun to spread around the globe. “We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks, but the remarkable thing about the MRNA vaccines, Moderna platform is that we can move very fast,” Burton said on BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show.” (Bursztynsky, 11/28)

Moderna's chief medical officer Paul Burton said Sunday that a reformulated vaccine against the newly identified Omicron coronavirus variant could be ready as soon as early 2022 if it's found to be necessary. Burton's comments on BBC's "Andrew Marr Show" come as companies are testing whether current COVID-19 vaccines will provide adequate protection against the strain. (Reyes, 11/28)

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc said on Monday its COVID-19 diagnostic tests can accurately detect the new coronavirus variant Omicron that has made several countries to shut their borders. The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week classified the Omicron variant as a SARS-CoV-2 "variant of concern," saying it may spread more quickly than other forms. Thermo Fisher's TaqPath COVID-19 assays can report accurate results even in the case where one of the gene targets is impacted by a mutation, the company said in a statement. (11/29)

When the World Health Organization began to name the emerging variants of the coronavirus, officials turned to the Greek alphabet to make it easier for the public to understand the evolution: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and so on. Now the alphabet has created its own political headache. When it came time to name the potentially dangerous new variant that has emerged in southern Africa, the next letter in alphabetical order was Nu, which officials thought would be too easily confused with “new.” (Lee Myers, 11/27)

The omicron coronavirus variant has been detected in Canada, the country’s health minister said on Sunday, marking the first identification of the variant in North America as cases continue to emerge around the globe. Two cases in Ontario were confirmed to have been of the omicron variant, which has been noted as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada’s health minister, said. Omicron has also been found in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Botswana, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, France and South Africa, where it was first identified. Israel moved to block the entry of noncitizens for two weeks in an effort to curb further spread of the variant within its borders. (Pietsch, 11/28)

Canadian health officials reported two cases of the COVID-19 omicron variant on Sunday, confirming for the first time that the variant has spread to North America. The cases were found in two people who had recently been to Nigeria, according to a statement from health officials in Ontario, where the cases were detected. “As the monitoring continues, it is expected that other cases of this variant will be found in Canada and other countries,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement. (Meyn, 11/28)

Across a world of vaccine haves and have-nots, the omicron variant sends a warning on how the virus can evolve and spread without more aggressive measures to expand vaccinations, a top South African scientist said Saturday. “Until we vaccinate enough people we’re going to have this happen over and over again,” said Glenda Gray, head the South African Medical Research Council, as global health agencies rushed to understand more about the new variant just days after it was first identified in South Africa. (Wroughton, 11/28)

South Africa’s announcement Thursday that it had identified a new, possibly highly contagious coronavirus variant sent shock waves worldwide. Stock markets fell as the United States, among other countries, imposed a travel ban on southern Africa. Much remains unknown about the mutations that make up the new omicron variant. But what scientists do know is that 20 months and several variants into the coronavirus pandemic, one tool to stem the spread of infection — sequencing the virus to catch significant genetic changes — remains used only patchily. (Berger, 11/28)

Cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in countries on opposite sides of the world Sunday and many governments rushed to close their borders even as scientists cautioned that it’s not clear if the new variant is more alarming than other versions of the virus. The variant was identified days ago by researchers in South Africa, and much is still not known about it, including whether it is more contagious, more likely to cause serious illness or more able to evade the protection of vaccines. But many countries rushed to act, reflecting anxiety about anything that could prolong the pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people. (Corder, Moulson and Collins, 11/29)

British health officials said Sunday that a third case of the new Omicron coronavirus variant had been discovered in the country, in an individual who had spent time in central London. The announcement came just hours after the health secretary, Sajid Javid, rejected calls for tougher restrictions on daily life. The health security agency said the individual had spent time in the Westminster section of London, but was no longer in the country, and that contact tracing was being performed. It said the case was linked to travel in southern Africa. Dr. Jenny Harries, chief executive of the agency, said it was “very likely’’ there would be more cases in the coming days. (Castle, 11/28)

Portuguese health authorities on Monday identified 13 cases of omicron, the new coronavirus variant spreading fast globally, among members of a top soccer club and were investigating whether it was one of the first reported cases of local transmission of the virus outside of southern Africa. The Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute said that one of those who tested positive was a player from the Lisbon-based Belenenses SAD soccer club who had recently traveled to South Africa, where the omicron variant was first identified. The others had not reportedly traveled to southern Africa, where most of the cases have been recorded so far. (Parra and Alves, 11/29)

Dutch health officials said on Sunday that they had found cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant among passengers who had arrived from South Africa on Friday, a clear sign that the virus was crossing borders. Additional cases could emerge, as health officials were still examining test samples, said Hugo de Jonge, the country’s health minister. The 61 people who tested positive, 13 with the new variant, were isolating. The passengers were among more than 500 who arrived on two separate flights. (Breeden, Moses and Chutel, 11/28)

Japan on Monday joined Israel and Morocco in sealing its borders to all foreign travelers in response to the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said that Japan would reverse a move earlier this month to reopen its borders to short-term business travelers and international students. Japan has been closed to tourists since early in the pandemic, a policy it has maintained even as other wealthy nations reopened to vaccinated visitors. (Kershner, 11/28)

The World Health Organization called on countries Sunday not to impose travel bans on southern African nations amid concerns over the COVID-19 Omicron variant. The U.S. and countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific announced travel restrictions in response to Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa. It's since spread to several European countries, Canada, Israel, Australia and Hong Kong. The WHO noted in a statement that only two southern African nations have detected the new strain. (Falconer, 11/28)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, warned the U.S. could potentially experience a fifth wave of coronavirus infections, but said increasing the number of Americans who are vaccinated against the virus and receive their booster shots could blunt its severity. "We certainly have the potential to go into a fifth wave," Fauci told "Face the Nation" in a wide-ranging interview about the U.S. response to the pandemic that aired Sunday. "And the fifth wave, or the magnitude of any increase, if you want to call it that it will turn into a wave, will really be dependent upon what we do in the next few weeks to a couple of months. (Quinn, 11/28)

New York City may already be seeing signs of a winter spike in Covid-19 even though holiday travel, gatherings and colder weather are just getting started. The city’s positive test rate rose to a two-month high as hospitals admitted more than 100 new virus patients on Friday, contributing to a 25% jump in hospitalizations in just two weeks. The city has 463 people in the hospital for Covid-19, up from 370 on Nov. 12. The seven-day average of residents testing positive for the virus -- the lowest in the state of New York -- has climbed above 2% for the first time since the end of September. That metric doesn’t include rapid antigen test results. (Sherman and Chua, 11/28)

A Massachusetts sheriff is requiring proof of coronavirus vaccination for all employees, vendors and contractors at the jail his office oversees. Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger, who oversees the Middleton House of Correction, told The Salem News that he expects the mandate to survive legal challenges. The mandate takes effect Jan 4. The union representing Essex County correctional officers has already filed a prohibited practice complaint with the state’s Division of Labor Relations, alleging that Coppinger’s order was made unilaterally and that the sheriff failed to bargain in good faith. (11/28)

Many Southern states, especially Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, have fallen behind the rest of the nation in vaccinating children as the threat of a winter surge casts a pall over the holiday season. Those states also rank near the bottom for vaccinating adolescents and adults, and have among the nation’s highest overall covid-19 death rates, according to a review of state vaccination and death data by The Washington Post. Their slow uptake of children’s — as well as adults’ — vaccines have heightened fears that another pandemic wave could hit hard as families gather for the holidays and spend more time indoors. (Shepherd and Keating, 11/26)

When hospital officials canceled his kidney transplant, Mike Ganim’s surgery date was just five days away. He had already undergone a preoperative appointment and taken medical leave from work for the long-awaited, lifesaving operation. His close-knit family had created videos for him and for the woman who was giving him her kidney, stitching together tearful well-wishes and thank-yous from dozens of loved ones. But on Oct. 8, the Cleveland Clinic phoned Ganim to say a newly enacted policy required organ transplant donors and recipients be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The Eastlake, Ohio, man had gotten the vaccine — as a transplant patient, he is at risk of developing severe covid-19. But his donor hadn’t. Although she was willing to give up an organ, she did not want to get the shot. (Shammas, 11/28)

School officials in the city of Baltimore say they’re not ready to enforce a requirement that school employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Baltimore Sun reported Saturday that the school system had set a Nov. 1 deadline. But school officials have not started enforcing penalties that can include terminating employees who fail to comply. School officials say they want to work with staff members who have concerns. About 90% of Baltimore school’s10,000 employees are either vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption. The rate for teachers is 95%. For principals, it’s 98%. (11/28)

Thousands of American service members are facing disciplinary action — up to dismissal —  if they are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Monday. With vaccination deadlines looming, the two top Marines pleaded with the troops. (Martin, 11/28)

The world is on high alert due to the new omicron Covid strain — but delta is still responsible for most of the current infections globally, the World Health Organization pointed out on Monday. “Over 99% of cases around the world are due to the delta variant and more deaths are occurring in the unvaccinated,” WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday. “I think that’s our priority while we wait to find out more about [the omicron] variant.” (Choudhury, 11/29)

With an expanded definition to reflect the times, Merriam-Webster has declared an omnipresent truth as its 2021 word of the year: vaccine. “This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day in 2021,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large, told The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s announcement. “It really represents two different stories. One is the science story, which is this remarkable speed with which the vaccines were developed. But there’s also the debates regarding policy, politics and political affiliation. It’s one word that carries these two huge stories,” he said. (Italie, 11/29)

Federal health regulators say an experimental COVID-19 pill from Merck is effective against the virus, but they will seek input from outside experts on risks of birth defects and other potential problems during pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration posted its analysis of the pill ahead of a public meeting next week where academic and other experts will weigh in on its safety and effectiveness. The agency isn’t required to follow the group’s advice. (Perrone, 11/26)

New data, in addition to analyses by scientists at the Food and Drug Administration, may take some of the shine off Merck’s experimental Covid-19 pill, molnupiravir. On Friday, the drug maker released full results from its study of the pill, molnupiravir, showing it reduced the risk of hospitalization by 30%, down from a decrease of 50% seen in an earlier analysis. In the 1,433-patient study, fewer patients died when they received the treatment. There were nine deaths in the placebo group in the final analysis, and one in the molnupiravir group. (Herper, 11/26)

The Food and Drug Administration will ask independent advisers Tuesday whether to limit the use of a Covid-19 antiviral pill in pregnant people due to potential risks, according to agency documents posted Friday. Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics manufacture the drug, molnupiravir, which they say cuts in half the risk of hospitalization or death from Covid for patients with mild to moderate disease and has boosted hopes of finding a simple at-home treatment for the virus. Regulators are considering whether to authorize the pill's emergency use in adults who have been experiencing symptoms for less than five days and, if so, how to define who's considered high risk. (Gardner, 11/26)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, blasted Sen. Ted Cruz for suggesting that Fauci be investigated for statements he made about COVID-19 and said the criticism by the Texas Republican was an attack on science. “I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?” Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” It was a reference to the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump that was stoked as Cruz helped lead GOP objections to Congress’ certifying the 2020 election results. (Yen, 11/28)

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Sunday that Republican lawmakers who criticize him are "criticizing science, because I represent science." Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," Fauci added that such attacks are dangerous because "if you damage science, you are doing something very detrimental to society." (Saric, 11/28)

Paul took to Twitter Sunday morning to respond to Fauci’s claims, calling it "absolute hubris" for Fauci to declare that he represents science. "It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity," Paul wrote. (Aitken and Brown, 11/28)

“Initial cases are mostly young people, who tend to have mild infections anyway,“ Collins said. “We need more data there before we can say confidently that this is not a severe version of the virus. But we should find that out in the next couple weeks.“ Collins said he hoped the new variant would be “one more wake-up call” for those who have yet to be vaccinated. “It’s clear that in all the previous examples of variants, the vaccines have worked to provide protection,” Collins said. He added: “The vaccines are your seat belt. Use them.” (Cohen, 11/28)

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday that the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus reported last week is likely already in the United States, but said the federal government is better positioned to detect cases of the new strain than it was a year ago. "It's almost definitely here already, just looking at the number of cases coming off planes this weekend. It's almost a certainty that there have been cases that have gotten into the United States," Gottlieb said in an interview with "Face the Nation." "We're in a much better place now than we were a year ago when B.1.1.7 first arrived, or even when Delta first arrived. We are sequencing about a hundred thousand cases a week, which is very good. It's about 20% of all the diagnosed cases. CDC is also going to set up this week a new surveillance system specifically for this variant." (Quinn, 11/28)

Both sides are telling the Supreme Court there’s no middle ground in Wednesday’s showdown over abortion. The justices can either reaffirm the constitutional right to an abortion or wipe it away altogether. Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that declared a nationwide right to abortion, is facing its most serious challenge in 30 years in front of a court with a 6-3 conservative majority that has been remade by three appointees of President Donald Trump. “There are no half measures here,” said Sherif Girgis, a Notre Dame law professor who once served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel Alito. (Sherman, 11/29)

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case seeking to reverse cuts to the 340B Drug Program next week, and the outcome could have consequences for all providers, even those who don't access the discounted medicines. Plaintiffs including the American Hospital Association and providers that participate in the program are asking the high court to reverse a nearly 30% cut in 340B reimbursements the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services initiated during President Donald Trump's administration and continued under President Joe Biden. Oral arguments are scheduled for Nov. 30. (Hellman, 11/24)

A bipartisan group of U.S. House members chided the Biden administration for repealing a rule that would have required Medicare to pay for any medical device deemed a "breakthrough" by the FDA. Medical device manufacturers really wanted the rule enacted, in part, because it would have led to higher sales. Now many members of Congress who receive sizable campaign donations from the industry want the federal government to revive the rule. (Herman, 11/29)

The World Health Organization is convening a special session of its governing body, the World Health Assembly, to start talks on a new global treaty covering pandemics. Representatives of WHO's 194 member states will meet virtually for three days starting on Monday to consider new international rules for handling future outbreaks. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says the world has not worked well together to confront the current COVID-19 pandemic. (Beaubien, 11/28)

Member states of the World Health Organization have reached a tentative consensus to negotiate a future agreement on preventing pandemics, bridging the gap between sides led by the European Union and United States, diplomats said on Sunday. The draft resolution, hammered out in negotiations over the weekend, will be presented for adoption to health ministers at the WHO's three-day special assembly that opens on Monday, they said. (Nebehay, 11/28)

This week, health officials from around the world will meet in Geneva — and virtually — to discuss plans for a global treaty on pandemic preparedness. This is an essential undertaking as the world struggles to find a path through the current pandemic, with a race against time to get vaccines to all who need them. This special session of the World Health Assembly will be a chance to share lessons from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and lay the groundwork for how to tackle the next major outbreak. (Cueni, 11/28)

Some hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare providers are preparing to operate without up to a third of their staff at the start of next year, if those workers don’t comply with a federal mandate to get vaccinated against Covid-19. The Biden administration is requiring facilities that receive funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to have workers vaccinated by Jan. 4. Two dozen states are challenging the requirement in court. Many healthcare providers in those states and beyond are reviewing requests for religious and medical exemptions from the rule or firing workers who won’t get the shots. (Wernau and Dill, 11/29)

Michele Nadeem-Baker is steeling herself for another winter. Diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2012, she lives with an impaired immune system that even a third dose of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine may not be able to rouse. Living in Boston in November now that the weather has turned cold means an end to backyard dinners and a return to a world narrowed by fear of infection. “I am not alone in that feeling,” said Nadeem-Baker, a patient advocate who also spoke to STAT in June. “Everyone is dreading yet another winter in lockdown. Just because there are these third vaccinations, it doesn’t mean everyone is protected. There is still a part of the population that is not.” (Cooney, 11/29)

It’s not unusual for people to cry on the phone when they talk with contact tracers. Often, people vent to them about their fears, such as missing work because of a COVID-19 quarantine or infecting family members. Occasionally, contact tracers have to call ambulances for the people on the other end of the line. Since the early months of the pandemic, contact tracers have worked to try to slow the spread of COVID-19 by identifying close contacts of people with COVID-19 and often advising them to quarantine. (Schencker, 11/26)

The state is trying to wind down an expensive, federally paid program of hiring nurses and other health care professionals to keep its hospitals from buckling under staffing pressures and burnout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the plan could be upended by any spike in COVID-19 cases prompted by gatherings over the holidays. Already, the state decided to keep up surge staffing at hospitals in El Paso and the Panhandle because of recent outbreaks. (Garrett, 11/26)

Amid the intense race to develop Covid-19 products, Pfizer (PFE) accused a former employee of stealing more than 12,000 files — including scores of confidential documents — that contained information about its coronavirus vaccine as well as two cancer drugs. In its lawsuit, the drug maker alleged Chun Xiao (Sherry) Li uploaded the material from a company laptop in October onto a personal Google drive account and other personal devices shortly before she planned to accept a job with Xencor (XNCR), a small company developing monoclonal antibodies for various cancers. Pfizer sells one such treatment for bladder cancer and is working on another for blood cancer. (Silverman, 11/28)

The logjam at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — which handle 40% of all waterbound imports to the U.S. — has triggered shortages of everything from computer chips to paper products and drawn the attention of President Joe Biden. Many Californians are grappling with shortages of lifesaving medical supplies. California hospitals say medical supplies are more difficult to acquire now or are taking much longer to be delivered. Although the Hospital Association of Southern California says no one has reported any acute shortages yet, administrators are concerned about the delayed shipments that are anchored off the coast. (Hwang, 11/28)

KHN: Black Tech Founders Want To Change The Culture Of Health Care, One Click At A Time

When Ashlee Wisdom launched an early version of her health and wellness website, more than 34,000 users — most of them Black — visited the platform in the first two weeks. “It wasn’t the most fully functioning platform,” recalled Wisdom, 31. “It was not sexy.” But the launch was successful. Now, more than a year later, Wisdom’s company, Health in Her Hue, connects Black women and other women of color to culturally sensitive doctors, doulas, nurses and therapists nationally. (Anthony, 11/29)

Agnieszka Czechowicz remembers what the Magenta Therapeutics website looked like before the biotech startup went public: She, as a scientific co-founder, was featured on the website along with other, more junior co-founders. Then, as the company prepared for its IPO in 2018, she said, “suddenly the founders on the website were older, Caucasian men, even though some of those individuals were not part of the founding of the company during the early stages.” (Osman, 11/26)

KHN: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: How To Avoid The Worst Health Insurance

This episode kicks off with a wild ride: How one journalist nearly got roped into a scam. While hunting for a new health insurance plan, award-winning journalist Mitra Kaboli got an offer that seemed too good to be true — and seemed to be coming from her current insurer. She was skeptical and, it turns out, had every reason to be. Dania Palanker of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms unpacks this sketchy scheme and gives us the key to avoiding it: When you’re searching for health insurance, skip Google. Seriously. (Weissmann, 11/29)

SARS-CoV-2 antibody concentrations predict COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, with higher levels correlating with greater protection, according to an ongoing US phase 3 clinical trial yesterday in Science. A team led by researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle evaluated 30,420 adult recipients of the Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine at 99 centers for neutralizing and binding antibodies as correlates of risk for, and protection against, infection. (11/24)

About one in 10 lung transplants in the United States now go to COVID-19 patients, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. The trend is raising questions about the ethics of allocating a scarce resource to people who have chosen not to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. (Sheridan, 11/28)

Two studies today in JAMA Network Open describe the emotional toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers (HCWs), one showing that US HCWs experienced a range of negative emotions as the pandemic progressed, and the other concluding that mental distress eased 14 months into the pandemic in Italian clinicians. In the US study, a team led by Duke University researchers surveyed 1,344 HCWs in 2020 about their emotional state before the availability of COVID-19 vaccines. They recruited HCWs via email and social media from Apr 24 to May 30 (phase 1) and Oct 24 to Nov 30 (phase 2). (Van Beusekom, 11/24)

Brian Shelton’s life was ruled by Type 1 diabetes. When his blood sugar plummeted, he would lose consciousness without warning. He crashed his motorcycle into a wall. He passed out in a customer’s yard while delivering mail. Following that episode, his supervisor told him to retire, after a quarter century in the Postal Service. He was 57. His ex-wife, Cindy Shelton, took him into her home in Elyria, Ohio. “I was afraid to leave him alone all day,” she said. Early this year, she spotted a call for people with Type 1 diabetes to participate in a clinical trial by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The company was testing a treatment developed over decades by a scientist who vowed to find a cure after his baby son and then his teenage daughter got the devastating disease. (Kolata, 11/27)

A new study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise addressed the age-old question: does exercise make us eat more afterwards or decrease our appetite for the next meal? The research studied physically inactive men and women, finding that among those who worked out, when given a mouth-watering buffet lunch afterward, they did not overeat, but they didn’t skip dessert or take smaller portions either, suggesting that exercise during the holidays will likely not help us eat less or lose weight. (Sudhakar, 11/28)

Children face a deluge of electronic information from traditional television and computers to tablets, smartphones and video games, but prior studies examining the impact of electronic media on children and adults have yield mixed results. The team of researchers from the University of Luxembourg and Université de Genève studied 118 Swiss boys and girls, ranging from age eight to 12, asking them to fill out surveys with questions crafted to examine their electronic media use as well as their attention spans, sleep, grades, and mental health, according to the report. (Sudhakar, 11/28)

A common in vitro fertilization procedure offered to patients with the promise of increasing their likelihood of successful pregnancy actually does not improve healthy patients’ chances of going home with a baby, according to new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week. The study focuses on preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy, or PGT-A, which screens embryos for chromosomal abnormalities that could keep them from implanting. The diagnostic tool has been controversial for decades, since no rigorous studies have conclusively proven the test improves the odds of having a baby. Studies as far back as 2007 showed an earlier, more invasive version of the test, called PGS, harmed patients’ chances of having a child. Nonetheless, PGT-A has been sold to prospective parents across the world, bolstering the multibillion-dollar industry of reproductive medicine. (Cueto, 11/26)

As the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 5 million lives, a group of researchers is working to get ahead of the next killer pathogen. They aim to identify and establish a bank of warrior antibodies in Maryland, close to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. The antibodies would be derived from a who’s who of viruses most likely to wreak havoc, such as coronaviruses, influenzas, and flaviviruses that cause Zika and debilitating conditions such as encephalitis. (Cohn, 11/29)

Most older Americans would prefer to stay in their homes as long as possible. Unfortunately, biology sometimes gets in the way. More than 85 percent of older adults live with at least one chronic illness, and 10 percent live with Alzheimer’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD). The development and progression of such illnesses creates significant barriers to successful aging at home. However, thanks to developments in multiple technical fields, including artificial intelligence and hardware design, it may be possible to equip tomorrow’s older adults to face this challenge more effectively. (Ganesan, Choudhry, and Marlin, 11/29)

More than 22 million children worldwide missed getting their first measles vaccination last year, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. Health officials fear that the drop in vaccinations will spark global outbreaks and deaths from the highly contagious disease, which primarily strikes children but can affect people of any age. In the past 20 years, the number of measles cases around the globe has declined dramatically — from roughly 36.8 million in 2000 to 7.5 million in 2020, according to the report. (Searing, 11/28)

An increased infant mortality rate among Black newborn children contributed to what Indiana health officials found was a slightly higher overall infant mortality rate in the state during 2020. The state health department reported this month that after Indiana recorded its lowest infant death rate during 2019, those deaths increased from 6.5 per 1,000 live births to 6.6 last year. The 2020 death rate is the second lowest that Indiana officials have recorded. Indiana’s mortality rate among white and Hispanic newborns improved last year, but deaths among Black infants jumped from 11.0 deaths per 1,000 live births during 2019 to 13.2 deaths in 2020, The Indianapolis Star reported. (11/28)

People in some of the more rural parts of the state face fewer birthing options as three hospitals move to suspend labor and delivery services. Executives at Windham Community Hospital, Sharon Hospital and Johnson Memorial Hospital have halted their hospital’s birthing services, citing a mix of financial challenges, patient safety concerns and difficulty recruiting OB-GYN healthcare providers. (Golvala, 11/28)

Northern and Midwestern states report brisk disease activity as the nation returned to pre-pandemic holiday travel levels ahead of Thanksgiving. Despite rising case counts across the country, this past weekend the number of people flying in the United States was double what it was for the same days last year, and only 8% lower than the same days in 2019, the Associated Press reports. As the holiday season begins tomorrow, experts say Americans are planning pre-pandemic levels of travel. (Soucheray, 11/24)

As more is understood about the transmission of COVID-19 some 19 months into the pandemic, some religious communities in North Carolina are breathing sighs of relief at being able to return to preparing bodies for burial as they have traditionally done for centuries. Many Jews and Muslims, for example, have been in turmoil since the early days of the pandemic about their inability to prepare the bodies of those who died, whether from COVID-19 or unrelated disease, as they typically would have. Now they can. Safely, too. (Bokhari, 11/29)

KHN: California Joins States Trying To Shorten Wait Times For Mental Health Care

When Greta Christina fell into a deep depression five years ago, she called up her therapist in San Francisco. She’d had a great connection with the provider when she needed therapy in the past. She was delighted to learn that he was now “in network” with her insurance company, meaning she wouldn’t have to pay out-of-pocket anymore to see him. But her excitement was short-lived. Over time, Christina’s appointments with the therapist went from every two weeks, to every four weeks, to every five or six. “To tell somebody with serious, chronic, disabling depression that they can only see their therapist every five or six weeks is like telling somebody with a broken leg that they can only see their physical therapist every five or six weeks,” she said. “It’s not enough. It’s not even close to enough.” (Dembosky, 11/29)

A Northern Virginia child was the first in the state to die of an inflammatory syndrome associated with covid-19, state health officials said Friday. The child, who was between the ages of 10 to 19, lived in the Prince William health district, which includes Prince William County as well as the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. More than 5,526 cases of the rare but serious illness — which is known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) — had been reported nationwide as of Nov. 1. Just 48 of those patients have died. (Armus, 11/26)

The Virginia Department of Health will be monitoring sewage in various parts of the state in an effort to predict future outbreaks of COVID-19. The Danville Register & Bee reported Saturday that VDH is deploying up to 25 wastewater monitoring sites across the commonwealth. That’s according to a recent report from the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute, which collaborates with state health officials. The report does not state where those monitoring sites will be. But VDH has been polling utilities to assess their willingness to participate in a sampling program. (11/28)

Amid growing concerns about the new Omicron variant, Los Angeles County health officials are urging the public to wear masks in indoor public settings and at outdoor “mega events” and be vaccinated as the best way to protect against another winter surge. The variant, first identified in South Africa amid a spike in infections there, has more mutations than any scientists have seen, including some that may make the virus more resistant to immunity generated from previous infections or vaccines. But much isn’t known, including whether the variant is more transmissible, results in more severe illness or reduces the efficacy of vaccines. (Wigglesworth, Lin II and Parvini, 11/28)

The state of Michigan this week asked the U.S. Department of Defense to supply medical staff to deal with the state's ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The Michigan Department of HHS said Wednesday the federal government accepted its request for 44 additional military personnel to be deployed at Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn, and across Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. FEMA previously staffed military personnel across the state last year to manage and operate field hospitals in Novi and Detroit. (Walsh, 11/24)

Three months into the school year, the Philadelphia School District has nearly 1,900 vacant positions. That’s so many that, beginning Monday, about 50 staffers from the district’s administrative offices will leave their posts to answer phones, teach classes, and monitor cafeterias in a handful of schools that Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has deemed “in crisis with staffing.” (Graham, 11/28)

Routine testing in a Minnesota turkey flock turned up low-pathogenic H5 avian influenza, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health (MBAH) said yesterday in a statement. The affected farm is in Kandiyohi County, located about 90 miles west of Minneapolis. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, confirmed the findings. The MBAH said the low-path H5 virus doesn't pose a health risk to the public and isn't the same one that caused highly pathogenic outbreaks in Midwestern poultry in 2015. (11/24)

The University of Georgia student came to campus this semester with everything she was told she’d need for her first semester of college, including an air purifier. The student, who lives in Hill Hall, and many others say they’re often sick inside their dorms. They believe the illnesses — intense coughing, severe sore throat, congestion — are a result of substandard housing conditions from rooms that are improperly ventilated or old. (Stirgus, 11/29)

Health ministers from the world’s richest seven democracies will convene on Monday to discuss the new coronavirus variant of concern, Omicron, the U.K. government announced Sunday. The urgent G7 meeting, called by the U.K. presidency, will discuss developments related to the spread of Omicron, the government said in a statement. South Africa alerted the world to Omicron on Friday after seeing a sharp spike in cases over a week, possibly associated with the new variant, which has a significant number of mutations. There is concern these mutations will render current vaccines less effective. (Collis, 11/28)

The emergence of the Omicron variant is bringing new urgency to global vaccination efforts. New variants can emerge anywhere, and can spread everywhere. Getting doses to the developing world — and getting those doses into people's arms — is essential, and that effort has so far been lagging. (Reed, 11/29)

Wastewater analysis shows that Covid-19 infections are surging in two major metropolitan areas, the South African Medical Research Council said. The number of virus fragments found in water samples have jumped this month in Tshwane, the municipal area that includes the capital, Pretoria, and in Nelson Mandela Bay, the municipality that governs the coastal city of Gqeberha, the council said in a statement on Friday. (Sguazzin, 11/27)

People in Iquitos, Peru, refer to their city as "una isla," an island, even though it's not an island. Iquitos is a port city of roughly 400,000 people on the Amazon River in northeastern Peru. Residents proudly note that it's the largest city in the world that's unreachable by road. You can only get there by boat or by plane. In the early days of the COVID pandemic being isolated seemed like an advantage. It might delay the arrival of the virus. It might make it easier to contain. But that didn't turn out to be the case for Iquitos. (Beaubien, 11/27)

�Թϲ����� “toxic parents” on Instagram, and you’ll find more than 38,000 posts, largely urging young adults to cut ties with their families. The idea is to protect one’s mental health from abusive parents. However, as a psychoanalyst, I’ve seen that trend in recent years become a way to manage conflicts in the family, and I have seen the steep toll estrangement takes on both sides of the divide. This is a self-help trend that creates much harm. (Galit Atlas, 11/28)

When parents warn their children about drug exposure, they tell them tales of the danger of peer pressure from teenagers in murky basements or from the dark corners of the bleachers during a high school football game. Coming-of-age movies portray swimming pools full of teens drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana while the protagonist dodges bad influences like a spy weaving through radioactive laser beams. The reality for many American teenagers, however, doesn’t align with popular narratives. First-time drug use often begins somewhere far more fluorescent: the dentist’s chair. (Cameron Bullet, 11/26)

Like the Affordable Care Act and other landmark social spending measures before it, the human infrastructure bill now in Congress, the Build Back Better Act, would lower barriers to affordable healthcare for millions of Americans. That's a praiseworthy goal and one that safety-net hospitals welcome as they care for the nation's low-income and marginalized patients. (Dr. Bruce Siegel, 11/29)

A grieving mother who became a political force made Minnesotans painfully aware of what can happen when prescription drugs are priced out of reach. Nicole Smith-Holt's 26-year-old son Alec, who had diabetes, died in 2017 after he aged off his mother's health plan and began rationing the medication that kept him alive: insulin. Its cost increases have easily eclipsed inflation over the past decade. Alec managed a restaurant but couldn't afford a $1,300 refill. (11/27)

Most older Americans would prefer to stay in their homes as long as possible. Unfortunately, biology sometimes gets in the way. More than 85 percent of older adults live with at least one chronic illness, and 10 percent live with Alzheimer’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD). The development and progression of such illnesses creates significant barriers to successful aging at home. However, thanks to developments in multiple technical fields, including artificial intelligence and hardware design, it may be possible to equip tomorrow’s older adults to face this challenge more effectively. (Deepak Ganesan, Niteesh Choudhry and Benjamin Marlin, 11/29)

In 2012, Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old married dentist, appeared at Ireland’s University Hospital Galway in pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant and miscarrying. According to Dr. Halappanavar’s husband, hospital staff said that there was no saving the pregnancy, but they refused to intercede because her fetus still had a heartbeat. She was told her only option was to wait. (Sarah Wildman, 11/29)

Many Americans are becoming accustomed to discussing how pandemic-related lockdowns and remote engagement have changed our lives. The conversations tend to be mechanical and superficial, like discussing the weather, and often include references to changes in eating or jokes about “the pandemic 15” to reflect weight gain from sitting too much or too close to the homemade bread. But for one segment of the population, pandemic-related changes in eating habits are no joke. As we and several colleagues reported in JAMA Network Open, data from a large national health insurer showed substantial increases in hospitalizations among people with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and other eating disorders, such as binge-eating disorder, starting in the second half of 2020. (David A. Asch and Kelly C. Allison, 11/26)

More Americans are getting the Covid-19 vaccine, but a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that 32 percent of people in the United States remain unlikely to get vaccinated against the virus. The newest group of vaccine doubters are parents of children who just received approval to get the shots. A poll in late October from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that fewer than 1 in 3 American parents want to vaccinate their 5- to 11-year-olds. (Daryl Austin, 11/27)

For the nearly two years that COVID has hung over our heads, my children have been at risk of contracting and spreading the disease. I recently got them vaccinated, and I will never forget the relief I felt as we walked away from the mass vaccination site. I am a college professor and am routinely in small rooms with students who have tested positive for COVID, even with mask and vaccine mandates in place at my university. While getting my girls vaccinated doesn’t completely eliminate their chances of getting sick, it significantly reduces their risks. To me, vaccination is crucial for protecting children and families. (Emily Mendenhall, 11/24)

The federal workforce of more than 3.5 million employees has met President Biden’s vaccine requirement deadline with 92 percent getting at least one dose. Mr. Biden’s proposal to require vaccines for workers in larger businesses is now on hold due to legal challenges, but that should not distract from the fact that vaccine mandates help get more shots into more people. (11/28)

There’s a grim inevitability to the fact that the latest concerning strain of the Covid-19 virus — known as B.1.1.529, and now nicknamed the Omicron variant 1  — should have been first identified in South Africa. So far, SARS-CoV-2’s most devastating impacts have been in developed countries. The U.S., U.K. and European Union have accounted for about a third of deaths, compared to their roughly 10% share of the world’s population. However, it’s been in the BRICS grouping of fast-growing middle- income nations where an outsized share of new variants of concern have been isolated and analyzed for the first time. From the original strain in China, to the Delta lineage picked up in India, the Gamma variety isolated in Brazil and the Beta and latest Omicron strains from South Africa, only the U.K.-related Alpha variant has emerged outside these countries. (David Fickling, 11/26)

There’s very little we know for sure about Omicron, the Covid variant first detected in South Africa that has caused tremors of panic as winter approaches. That’s actually good news. Fast, honest work by South Africa has allowed the world to get on top of this variant even while clinical and epidemiological data is scarce. So let’s get our act together now. Omicron, which early indicators suggest could be more transmissible even than Delta and more likely to cause breakthrough infections, may arrive in the United States soon if it’s not here already. (Zeynep Tufekci, 11/28)

When the travel ban was finally lifted this month, Brits visiting the U.S. got a shock. Not only were rapid COVID tests hard to find; prices were at rip-off levels. A survey conducted by the Independent newspaper found an antigen test at Orlando International Airport cost $65; it was $75 in San Francisco and $100 in a Washington, D.C., travel clinic. By contrast, antigen home test kits are provided free of charge from Britain’s National Health Service and come in a box of seven tests that can be picked up at local pharmacies (airport tests are around 35 pounds or $46.88). The tests are useful in areas where the virus is surging. Some schools make antigen tests mandatory before a parent-teacher meeting; they can be required for a hospital visit or for entering a nursing home. (Therese Raphael, 11/26)

“What was the worst part about Covid? Besides masks, of course. ”That was the question one of my school administrators greeted me and my fellow Texas classmates with on my first day as a high school junior in August. (Zoe Yu, 11/28)