Israeli health minister says there are “indications” Covid vaccine protects against Omicron
From CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali
There are “indications” that people who received a coronavirus vaccine booster are “protected” against the Omicron variant, Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Tuesday.
“In the coming days we will have more accurate information about the efficacy of the vaccine against Omicron, but there is already room for optimism, and there are initial indications that those who are vaccinated with a vaccine still valid or with a booster will also be protected from this variant,” Horowitz said at a news conference.
Boosters have been available in Israel to anyone over age 16 since late August, five months after their second dose of the vaccine. A person is not considered fully vaccinated in the country until they have received a third dose, once they are eligible for it.
US considers stricter coronavirus testing for international travelers
From CNN’s Kaitlan Collins
Top US government officials are considering requiring everyone who enters the United States to be tested for Covid-19 the day before their flight and having all travelers — including US citizens and permanent residents — be tested again after returning home, regardless of vaccination status, sources familiar with the thinking have told CNN.
Officials were deliberating Tuesday night and no final decisions have been made, but an announcement could come as soon as this week. Currently, travelers are required to test three days before their departures. The move under consideration would shorten that timeline to one day.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters earlier Tuesday the CDC was “evaluating how to make international travel as safe as possible, including pre-departure testing closer to the time of flight and considerations around additional post-arrival testing and self-quarantines.”
On Monday, the US banned all travel from South Africa and seven neighboring nations, with the exception of US citizens and legal permanent residents, who must test negative to enter the US but not once they have arrived.
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Biden says decisions on southern Africa travel restrictions is “going week-to-week”
From CNN’s Maegan Vazquez
President Biden said on Tuesday that travel restrictions on countries in southern Africa “kind of depends” on the Omicron coronavirus variant, also suggesting he won’t “shock allies” like former President Donald Trump did when he barred travel from Europe earlier in the pandemic.
Asked if he’s considering any new vaccine requirements or efforts to get more Americans vaccinated, Biden told reporters on a tarmac in Minnesota, “I’ll be talking about that on Thursday.”
The President also said that it “kind of depends” how long travel restrictions on Southern Africa will remain in place.
“Well, it kind of depends. It’s going week-to-week, to determine what we need and the what the state of affairs (is). We’re going to learn a lot more in the next couple of weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, about whether what we have can control it, etc.,” Biden said.
When asked about travel restrictions, given that former President Trump’s 2020 decision to bar travel from Europe shocked allies, Biden remarked, “Unlike Trump, I don’t shock our allies.”
FDA advisers vote to recommend emergency use authorization of Merck’s pill to treat Covid-19
From CNN’s Maggie Fox and Jen Christensen
Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted 13-10 Tuesday to recommend emergency use authorization of a pill made by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to help treat Covid-19.
Members of the FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee were split in their vote to recommend molnupiravir, which can reduce the risk someone will progress to severe disease or death by about 30%.
The pills must be taken within five days of symptoms starting to do much good, and people must take pills twice a day for five days. Members of the committee were worried about risks to pregnant women.
Molnupiravir is not the only antiviral scientists are developing against Covid-19. Pfizer applied for authorization of its antiviral pill this month. The FDA has not yet set a date for its advisory panel to review that drug.
Next, the FDA will consider the committee’s recommendation. It doesn’t have to follow the committee’s advice, but often does.
Remdesivir, sold under the brand name Veklury, is an antiviral approved to treat Covid-19 but it’s infused, not given as a pill.
Canada is now reporting 6 cases of the Omicron variant
From CNN’s Paula Newton
Alberta’s top doctor confirmed Canada’s sixth case of the new coronavirus variant Omicron.
In addition, federal health officials say they will expand the travel ban on foreign travelers from countries in Africa to include Nigeria, where most of Canada’s cases have been linked.
Some background: Earlier today, Canada confirmed five cases of the Omicron variant and health officials in several provinces say they continue to investigate dozens of other suspected cases across the country.
Four of the cases have been confirmed in Ottawa and a fifth case was been identified in the province of Quebec.
Quebec’s health minister, Christian Dubé, speaking at a news conference Monday said more than a hundred travelers from southern African countries were asked to take a new Covid-19 test and isolate.
US stocks sink on Omicron and Fed fears
From CNN’s Paul R. La Monica
US stocks tumbled Tuesday as renewed concerns about the Omicron variant of Covid-19 weighed on sentiment.
Comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell didn’t help. Powell told Congress that the Fed no longer thought inflation was “transitory,” and he hinted that the Fed could accelerate its plans to cut back on, or taper, bond purchases.
Here’s how stocks closed the trading day:
- The Dow dropped more than 650 points, or 1.9%
- The S&P 500 also fell 1.9%
- The Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 1.6%.
Note: As stocks settle after the trading day, levels might still change slightly.
Latin America’s first Omicron variant cases reported in Brazil
From CNN’s Shasta Darlington and Anusha Rathi
The Brazilian health agency, Anvisa, said on Tuesday that two Brazilians had tested positive for the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
This marks the first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Latin America and makes Brazil the 20th country to report the new variant.
A passenger, who had flown in from South Africa on the 23rd with a negative Covid-19 test result, did a new test along with his wife to prepare for a return flight back to South Africa when the results came back positive.
“The Agency emphasizes that the passenger’s entry into Brazil took place on 11/23, that is, before the worldwide notification on the identification of the new variant,” Anvisa added.
Brazil has since suspended flights from South Africa.
The samples are being sent to another laboratory for confirmatory analysis, Anvisa said.
It’s too soon to know if Omicron causes less severe illness, Fauci says
From CNN’s Maggie Fox
It’s too soon to know if the Omicron variant of coronavirus causes less severe disease than the Delta variant – in spite of reports that many cases so far have been mild, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday.
Most cases of Covid-19 overall are mild, and especially among younger patients. But nonetheless the virus can and does cause severe disease as it spreads among populations and has killed 5.2 million people globally and more than 779,000 in the US alone, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that some South African physicians have reported the patients they treated had mild disease. But they were treating young people, Fauci said.
“We believe that it is too soon to tell of what the level of severity is,” Fauci told a White House Covid-19 briefing.
“Dr. Walensky and I specifically asked our South African colleagues that on the most recent Zoom call that we had, and they agreed with us that it’s too early to tell. They’re hoping that it is going to, across the board, give a lower level of severity, but they don’t know that right now,” he added.
In the meantime, vaccination and boosters should protect people, Fauci said. Boosters, especially, can bring antibody levels up to where there is a cushion of extra protection that can cover even variants of the virus.
“And that’s usually most manifested in protection against severe disease that leads to hospitalization,” Fauci said.
“So when we say that although these mutations suggest a diminution of protection and a degree of immune evasion, still from the experience that we have with Delta (you) can make a reasonable conclusion that you would not eliminate all protection against this particular variant,” he said.
“And that’s the reason why we don’t know what that degree of diminution of protection is going to be. But we know that when you boost somebody, you elevate your level of protection very high. And we are hoping, and I think with good reason, to feel good that there will be some degree of protection. Therefore, as we said, if you’re unvaccinated get vaccinated, and if you’re vaccinated, get boosted,” he added.
Testing Omicron to see how dangerous it is compared to other variants will take two weeks or so, Fauci says
From CNN’s Maggie Fox
Tests to look for whether the Omicron variant of coronavirus is more dangerous than Delta will take two weeks or so, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday.
Fauci said researchers will test the virus in the laboratory and also look at what it does in real life to see whether the highly mutated strain is more transmissible, more likely to evade the effects of vaccine or treatments, and whether it can cause more severe disease.
Lab tests take time, Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a White House Covd-19 briefing.
“Well, one of the things you do is you get the virus and you grow it or you put it into a modified form called a pseudovirus. And when you do that, you can then get convalescent plasma, monoclonal antibodies, as well as sera and antibodies that are induced by the vaccine to see if they neutralize the virus,” he said.
Labs are already taking blood from people who have been vaccinated, as well as from people who have recovered from infection – that’s the convalescent sera – to see what happens when it’s exposed to the new variant.
“That will give you a pretty good idea as to what the level of immune evasion is,” he said.
The blood serum contains the antibodies as well as cells called B cells and T cells that fight infections.
“That process will take likely two weeks or more, perhaps even sooner, depending upon how well the virus grows in the isolates that we get. That’s the first thing,” Fauci said.
“And in those countries in which there are a lot of cases, like South Africa, the computational biologists and the evolutionary biologists are going to be getting a good feel as to what the competition of this virus would be with Delta. Those are just a few of the things that will take a couple of weeks to a few weeks to learn,” he added.
