Careful lab work will complement public health data as researchers worldwide focus on omicron, asking questions about contagiousness, severity of disease and whether vaccines hold up against it.
Gemma Ware, The Conversation e Daniel Merino, The Conversation
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People wait at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa on Nov. 26, 2021, as many nations moved to stop air travel from the country.
AP Photo/Jerome Delay
With limited vaccines available in early 2021, the CDC had to decide which people received vaccines first. With the help of a supercomputer, researchers have shown that the CDC did an excellent job.
As well as protecting a great number of people, giving vaccines away can raise the UK’s influence abroad and perhaps even change how the country perceives the pandemic.
People who had previously caught the coronavirus, which is similar to having an additional vaccine dose, had more neutralising antibodies against COVID variants after being vaccinated.
Vaccines can’t provide 100% protection, so it’s not a failure or surprise when some vaccinated people get sick with COVID-19. The good news is their cases are much less likely to be severe or fatal.
A Ukrainian nurse fills a syringe with the CoronaVac vaccine.
Volodymyr Petrov
The British government has opted to press on with reopening and not wait for the number of fully vaccinated people to rise, while Japan introduces new restrictions ahead of the Olympics.
Despite being prioritised, less than a third of over-60s in South Africa have been vaccinated so far.
Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE
South Africa now appears to have made a massive error in not rolling out AstraZeneca, while in the UK a study suggests a mix of vaccines may be the way forward.