Connect with us

Government

WHO Tracking 4 Omicron Subvariants while a New Antibody Gets the Nod

The World Health Organization indicated WHO is tracking four Omicron subvariants: BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3. BA.2 has a growth advantage over BA.1,…

Published

on

WHO Tracking 4 Omicron Subvariants while a New Antibody Gets the Nod

Published: Feb 14, 2022

By Mark Terry

BioSpace

Although the Omicron surge appears to be waning in the U.S., the World Health Organization keeps an eye on four Omicron subvariants, with BA.2 being of particular concern, because it seems to be more transmissible than even the first variant. Read on for more news.

WHO is Tracking 4 Omicron Subvariants

The WHO indicated it is tracking four Omicron subvariants: BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3. BA.2 has a growth advantage over BA.1, the variant responsible for the recent Omicron surge.

“For everybody [who is] out there watching this, what is important for you to know is that this virus continued to be dangerous,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the COVID-19 technical lead of the WHO. “This virus transmits very efficiently between people, but there’s a lot that you can do.”

She emphasizes that the goal is not to prevent all transmissions, which is almost impossible. Van Kerkhove said, “But, we need to drive transmission down. Because, if we don’t, we will not only see more cases, more hospitalizations, more deaths, we will see more people suffering from post-COVID condition—Long COVID—and we will see more opportunities for variants to emerge.”

Lilly’s New Antibody Receives EUA Against Omicron Variant

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Eli Lilly’s bebtelovimab antibody therapy an Emergency Use Authorization against the Omicron variant. It is authorized for treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and children 12 years and older who have had positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 testing and who are at high risk for severe COVID-19,  including hospitalization or death, or for people where alternative treatments aren’t approved or authorized or not accessible or clinically appropriate.

Source: BioSpace

“Early in 2021, prior to the identification of the Omicron variant, Lilly scientists were already working to develop bebtelovimab as a broadly neutralizing antibody that could be used to fight a highly mutated variant, should one emerge,” stated Daniel Skovronsky, Ph.D., Lilly’s chief scientific and medical officer, and president of Lilly Research Laboratories. “With the emergence of variants such as Omicron, treatment options remain limited. Lilly is pleased to provide another treatment option to help address the ongoing needs of patients and healthcare providers who continue to battle this pandemic.”

Immunocompromised Who Received J&J Shot Can Receive 3rd Shot

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that immunocompromised people who received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, then a second shot, are eligible for a third two months later. The CDC also shifted its guidance on the fourth dose for the immunocompromised for the Moderna and PfizerBioNTech vaccines, saying they can get a fourth shot only three months after their initial vaccinations instead of five months later.

Antibody Levels Wane After Boosters but Offer Strong Protection Against Severe Disease

new CDC report found that although antibody levels waned within a few months after receiving booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines, they continued to offer strong protection against severe disease. When the Omicron variant was predominant, they found vaccine effectiveness against outpatient visits was 87% in people who had received a booster two months before, but 66% at four months after. The efficacy of the vaccines against hospitalization dropped from 91% at two months to 78% by month four. However, the study was based on fewer than 200 patients and the data doesn’t indicate whether the people had received boosters for medical reasons that might make them more susceptible to severe disease.

“I’m a little surprised, according to the data, that it’s starting to wane already,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a vaccines expert at Vanderbilt University. But he also said he would like to see more research, saying, “Let’s take this with a grain of salt.”

Surgeon General Warns About Abandoning Masks Too Soon

As many states begin rescinding mask mandates, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warns that giving up on masking too soon risks avoidable suffering, especially for the immunocompromised. He said, “I can imagine that future. I can’t tell you if it’s coming in a couple of months or in six months or in 12 months. What I can tell you is that to live that future, we are going to need the tools that we’ve been building over the last year. We’re going to need readily available vaccines and therapeutics … We’re going to need those freely available high-quality masks and tests, and we’re going to also need the right mindset recognizing that COVID is not going to disappear overnight.”

Congressional Republicans Call for End of COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

Congressional Republicans have called for President Biden to end the Public Health Emergency (PHE) designation for COVID-19. They claim because vaccines are accessible and other treatments are effective, the risk of long-term isolation is more of a problem than the disease. Although the Omicron surge is falling, the seven-day average of deaths per day from COVID-19 is still 2,300, as of February 10. The PHE designation was renewed a month ago and expire on April 15.

Rural Americans Paid the Price for Low Vaccine Uptake

A study published in JAMA Network Open found that rural counties in the U.S. that had low COVID-19 vaccination rates had 2.4 times more infections per 100,000 people than urban countries during the Delta surge. Counties with lower than 30% vaccination rates reported 190 infections per 100,000 people from July 1 to 15, to 1,272 infections per 100,000 from August 16 to 31. In comparison, during the same period, counties with 50% and higher vaccination rates went from 71 per 100,000 to 531 per 100,000. Additional data shows that COVID-19 vaccination rates in about 82% of the rural U.S. are lower than 30%.

Oral Antivirals Now Available, but Patients Don’t Always Know It

Merck and Ridgeback’s molnupiravir and Pfizer’s Paxlovid, both tablet antivirals against COVID-19, are finally making their way into pharmacies. However, data suggest that patients either don’t know about them or are hesitant to take them.

“High-risk patients in the first few days after diagnosis don’t realize how much sicker they’re going to get, so they miss the opportunity to get better faster—and by the time they actually do, it’s too late,” said Dr. Bryan Jarabek, chief medical informatics officer and hospitalist at M Health Fairview in Minneapolis.

Molnupiravir has an efficacy of about 30%, whereas Paxlovid’s is 88%. GlaxoSmithKline and Vir’s monoclonal antibody sotrovimab has an efficacy of about 85%. Dr. Jarabek points out that “People don’t often identify themselves as high-risk. They often say, ‘Someone else is probably more high risk than me; why don’t you give it to them?’”

BioSpace source:

https://www.biospace.com/article/who-tracking-4-omicron-subvariants-and-more-covid-19-news

Read More

Continue Reading

International

Angry Shouting Aside, Here’s What Biden Is Running On

Angry Shouting Aside, Here’s What Biden Is Running On

Last night, Joe Biden gave an extremely dark, threatening, angry State of the Union…

Published

on

Angry Shouting Aside, Here's What Biden Is Running On

Last night, Joe Biden gave an extremely dark, threatening, angry State of the Union address - in which he insisted that the American economy is doing better than ever, blamed inflation on 'corporate greed,' and warned that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to the republic.

But in between the angry rhetoric, he also laid out his 2024 election platform - for which additional details will be released on March 11, when the White House sends its proposed budget to Congress.

To that end, Goldman Sachs' Alec Phillips and Tim Krupa have summarized the key points:

Taxes

While railing against billionaires (nothing new there), Biden repeated the claim that anyone making under $400,000 per year won't see an increase in their taxes.  He also proposed a 21% corporate minimum tax, up from 15% on book income outlined in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as well as raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% (which would promptly be passed along to consumers in the form of more inflation). Goldman notes that "Congress is unlikely to consider any of these proposals this year, they would only come into play in a second Biden term, if Democrats also won House and Senate majorities."

Biden also called on Congress to restore the pandemic-era child tax credit.

Immigration

Instead of simply passing a slew of border security Executive Orders like the Trump ones he shredded on day one, Biden repeated the lie that Congress 'needs to act' before he can (translation: send money to Ukraine or the US border will continue to be a sieve).

As immigration comes into even greater focus heading into the election, we continue to expect the Administration to tighten policy (e.g., immigration has surged 20pp the last 7 months to first place with 28% in Gallup’s “most important problem” survey). As such, we estimate the foreign-born contribution to monthly labor force growth will moderate from 110k/month in 2023 to around 70-90k/month in 2024. -GS

Ukraine

Biden, with House Speaker Mike Johnson doing his best impression of a bobble-head, urged Congress to pass additional assistance for Ukraine based entirely on the premise that Russia 'won't stop' there (and would what, trigger article 5 and WW3 no matter what?), despite the fact that Putin explicitly told Tucker Carlson he has no further ambitions, and in fact seeks a settlement.

As Goldman estimates, "While there is still a clear chance that such a deal could come together, for now there is no clear path forward for Ukraine aid in Congress."

China

Biden, forgetting about all the aggressive tariffs, suggested that Trump had been soft on China, and that he will stand up "against China's unfair economic practices" and "for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

Healthcare

Lastly, Biden proposed to expand drug price negotiations to 50 additional drugs each year (an increase from 20 outlined in the IRA), which Goldman said would likely require bipartisan support "even if Democrats controlled Congress and the White House," as such policies would likely be ineligible for the budget "reconciliation" process which has been used in previous years to pass the IRA and other major fiscal party when Congressional margins are just too thin.

So there you have it. With no actual accomplishments to speak of, Biden can only attack Trump, lie, and make empty promises.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/08/2024 - 18:00

Read More

Continue Reading

Government

Jack Smith Says Trump Retention Of Documents “Starkly Different” From Biden

Jack Smith Says Trump Retention Of Documents "Starkly Different" From Biden

Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Special…

Published

on

Jack Smith Says Trump Retention Of Documents "Starkly Different" From Biden

Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Special counsel Jack Smith has argued the case he is prosecuting against former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified information is “starkly different” from the case the Department of Justice declined to bring against President Joe Biden over retention of classified documents.

(Left) Special counsel Jack Smith in Washington on Aug. 1, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images); (Right) Former President Donald Trump. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

Prosecutors, in responding to a motion President Trump filed to dismiss the case based on selective and vindictive prosecution, said on Thursday this is not the case of “two men ‘commit[ting] the same basic crime in substantially the same manner.”

They argue the similarities are only “superficial,” and that there are two main differences: that President Trump allegedly “engaged in extensive and repeated efforts to obstruct justice and thwart the return of documents” and the “evidence concerning the two men’s intent.”

Special counsel Robert Hur’s report found that there was evidence that President Biden “willfully” retained classified Afghanistan documents, but that evidence “fell short” of concluding guilt of willful retention beyond reasonable doubt.

Prosecutors argue the “strength of the evidence” is a crucial element showing these cases are not “similarly situated.”

Trump may dispute the Hur Report’s conclusions but he should not be allowed to misrepresent them,” prosecutors wrote, arguing that the defense’s argument to dismiss the case fell short of legal standards.

They point to volume as another distinction: President Biden had 88 classified documents and President Trump had 337. Prosecutors also argued that while President Biden’s Delaware garage “was plainly an unsecured location ... whatever risks are posed by storing documents in a private garage” were “dwarfed” by President Trump storing documents at an “active social club” with 150 staff members and hundreds of visitors.

Defense attorneys had also cited a New York Times report where President Biden was reported to have held the view that President Trump should be prosecuted, expressing concern about his retention of documents at Mar-a-lago.

Prosecutors argued that this case was not “foisted” upon the special counsel, who had not been appointed at the time of these comments.

“Trump appears to contend that it was President Biden who actually made the decision to seek the charges in this case; that Biden did so solely for unconstitutional reasons,” the filing reads. “He presents no evidence whatsoever to show that Biden’s comments about him had any bearing on the Special Counsel’s decision to seek charges, much less that the Special Counsel is a ’stalking horse.'”

8 Other Cases

President Trump has argued he is being subjected to selective and vindictive prosecution, warranting dismissal of the case, but prosecutors argue that the defense has not “identified anyone who has engaged in a remotely similar battery of criminal conduct and not been prosecuted as a result.”

In addition to President Biden, defense attorneys offered eight other examples.

Former Vice President Mike Pence had, after 2023 reports about President Biden retaining classified documents surfaced, retained legal counsel to search his home for classified documents. Some documents were found, and he sent them to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Prosecutors say this was different from President Trump’s situation, as Vice President Pence returned the documents out of his own initiative and had fewer than 15 classified documents.

Former President Bill Clinton had retained a historian to put together “The Clinton Tapes” project, and it was later reported that NARA did not have those tapes years after his presidency. A court had ruled it could not compel NARA to try to recover the records, and NARA had defined the tapes as personal records.

Prosecutors argue those were tape diaries and the situation was “far different” from President Trump’s.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had “used private email servers ... to conduct official State Department business,” the DOJ found, and the FBI opened a criminal investigation.

Prosecutors argued this was a different situation where the secretary’s emails showed no “classified” markings and the deletion of more than 31,000 emails was done by an employee and not the secretary.

Former FBI Director James Comey had retained four memos “believing that they contained no classified information.” These memos were part of seven he authored addressing interactions he had with President Trump.

Prosecutors argued there was no obstructive behavior here.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus kept bound notebooks that contained classified and unclassified notes, which he allowed a biographer to review. The FBI later seized the notebooks and Mr. Petraeus took a guilty plea.

Prosecutors argued there was prosecution in Mr. Petraeus’s case, and so President Trump’s case is not selective.

Former national security adviser Sandy Berger removed five copies of a classified document and kept them at his personal office, later shredding three of the copies. When confronted by NARA, he returned the remaining two copies and took a guilty plea.

Former CIA director John Deutch kept a journal with classified information on an unclassified computer, and also took a guilty plea.

Prosecutors argued both Mr. Berger and Mr. Deutch’s behavior was “vastly less egregious than Trump’s” and they had been prosecuted.

Former White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx had possession of classified materials according to documents retrieved by NARA.

Prosecutors argued that there was no indication she knew she had classified information or “attempted to obstruct justice.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/08/2024 - 17:40

Read More

Continue Reading

International

United Airlines adds new flights to faraway destinations

The airline said that it has been working hard to "find hidden gem destinations."

Published

on

Since countries started opening up after the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, airlines have been seeing demand soar not just for major global cities and popular routes but also for farther-away destinations.

Numerous reports, including a recent TripAdvisor survey of trending destinations, showed that there has been a rise in U.S. traveler interest in Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and Vietnam as well as growing tourism traction in off-the-beaten-path European countries such as Slovenia, Estonia and Montenegro.

Related: 'No more flying for you': Travel agency sounds alarm over risk of 'carbon passports'

As a result, airlines have been looking at their networks to include more faraway destinations as well as smaller cities that are growing increasingly popular with tourists and may not be served by their competitors.

The Philippines has been popular among tourists in recent years.

Shutterstock

United brings back more routes, says it is committed to 'finding hidden gems'

This week, United Airlines  (UAL)  announced that it will be launching a new route from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Morocco's Marrakesh. While it is only the country's fourth-largest city, Marrakesh is a particularly popular place for tourists to seek out the sights and experiences that many associate with the country — colorful souks, gardens with ornate architecture and mosques from the Moorish period.

More Travel:

"We have consistently been ahead of the curve in finding hidden gem destinations for our customers to explore and remain committed to providing the most unique slate of travel options for their adventures abroad," United's SVP of Global Network Planning Patrick Quayle, said in a press statement.

The new route will launch on Oct. 24 and take place three times a week on a Boeing 767-300ER  (BA)  plane that is equipped with 46 Polaris business class and 22 Premium Plus seats. The plane choice was a way to reach a luxury customer customer looking to start their holiday in Marrakesh in the plane.

Along with the new Morocco route, United is also launching a flight between Houston (IAH) and Colombia's Medellín on Oct. 27 as well as a route between Tokyo and Cebu in the Philippines on July 31 — the latter is known as a "fifth freedom" flight in which the airline flies to the larger hub from the mainland U.S. and then goes on to smaller Asian city popular with tourists after some travelers get off (and others get on) in Tokyo.

United's network expansion includes new 'fifth freedom' flight

In the fall of 2023, United became the first U.S. airline to fly to the Philippines with a new Manila-San Francisco flight. It has expanded its service to Asia from different U.S. cities earlier last year. Cebu has been on its radar amid growing tourist interest in the region known for marine parks, rainforests and Spanish-style architecture.

With the summer coming up, United also announced that it plans to run its current flights to Hong Kong, Seoul, and Portugal's Porto more frequently at different points of the week and reach four weekly flights between Los Angeles and Shanghai by August 29.

"This is your normal, exciting network planning team back in action," Quayle told travel website The Points Guy of the airline's plans for the new routes.

Read More

Continue Reading

Trending