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Goats and Soda : NPR

Thinking about the next pandemic keeps lots of researchers busy.

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Thinking about the next pandemic keeps lots of researchers busy.

Peter Zelei Images/Getty Images

Just three years ago, on Jan. 30, 2020, the head of the World Health Organization made a landmark declaration: A “novel coronavirus” that had first been identified in China had spread to a degree where it was now a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).”

The virus now known as SARS-CoV-2 — which causes the disease COVID-19 — is still spreading. But for those who study infectious diseases, talking about possible next pandemics is a necessity.

Hidden viruses: how pandemics really begin

NPR is running a series on spillover viruses — that’s when animal pathogens jump into people. Researchers used to think spillovers were rare events. Now it is clear they happen all the time. That has changed how scientists look for new deadly viruses. To learn more, we traveled to Guatemala and Bangladesh, to Borneo and South Africa.

Send your questions about spillovers to [email protected] with “spillovers” in the subject line. We’ll answer questions in a follow-up post when the series concludes in mid-February.

That’s why the World Health Organization keeps a list of viruses and bacteria with pandemic potential. Jill Weatherhead of Baylor College of Medicine says prioritizing diseases is generally based on two factors: their ability to spread and the ability of humans to treat them.

The list helps guide scientists, governments and organizations in investing energy and funds to study the pathogens most likely to cause the greatest devastation to humans. The WHO develops “blueprints” with strategic goals and research priorities for each disease on the list.

Here are the diseases on the current list. A revised list is expected in the coming months: In late 2022, the World Health Organization convened more than 300 scientists to assess and update the list.

Note: The infrastructure to detect diseases in different parts of the world varies, as does the fact that mild cases of an illness may not be known or reported. Fatality rates are based on the best available data.

Nipah virus

What animals carry it: fruit bats, including those called flying foxes, and domestic animals such as pigs, horses, cats and dogs

How it spreads: Nipah virus can be transmitted to humans from animals or contaminated foods. It can also be transmitted directly from human to human.

Its toll: 40{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} to 75{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} fatality rate. The virus can also cause encephalitis, or swelling of the brain.

Medical toolbox: There is no vaccine available for either people or animals. Monoclonal antibody therapies are in development.

Pandemic potential: Outbreaks occur almost every year in parts of Asia, but there are known ways to prevent spread of the virus. Prevention efforts include avoiding exposure to bats and sick animals, avoiding consumption of fruits that bats may have nibbled on and not drinking certain raw juices from fruits that bats feed on. The risk of international transmission can be lowered by washing those fruits and fruit products thoroughly and peeling them before eating.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

What animals carry it: ticks, livestock

How it spreads: Humans usually get the virus from contact with ticks or infected livestock. To get the virus from another person requires close contact with blood or other bodily fluids from an infected person.

Its toll: 10{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} to 40{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} fatality rate. The disease is endemic, meaning it occurs regularly, in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia. The virus causes severe outbreaks of viral hemorrhagic fever, a condition that can damage the body’s organ systems and cardiovascular system and that often includes severe bleeding.

Medical toolbox: Although a vaccine is in use in Bulgaria, no research has been published on how well it works, and it’s not licensed anywhere else. Other vaccines are in development, and an antiviral drug called ribavirin appears to help treat infections.

Pandemic potential: It’s difficult to tell when an animal is infected and should be avoided, and the WHO says the ticks that carry the virus are numerous and widespread. The threat could be reduced by trying to avoid tick bites and wearing gloves and other protective clothing when around livestock.

Lassa fever

What animals carry it: rats and other rodents

How it spreads: The virus is endemic in parts of West Africa. Rats excrete the virus, and humans pick it up when exposed to the rodents’ urine and feces, either through direct contact or eating contaminated food. It can also spread between humans through direct contact with an infected person’s secretions (blood, urine, feces), through sexual contact and in medical settings via contaminated equipment.

Its toll: 1{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}, but up to 15{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} in severe hospitalized cases. It can be deadly for people and fetuses in the third trimester of pregnancy. Besides death, a common complication is deafness, which can be permanent.

Medical toolbox: There is no vaccine, but ribavirin seems to help treat infections.

Pandemic potential: Because the primary method of transmission is exposure to a certain type of rat, potential for the spread of the disease is most likely limited to the countries where the rat lives.

Rift Valley fever

What animals carry it: mosquitoes. The insects can transmit the virus to both humans and their own offspring. Livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo and camels can also get infected.

How it spreads: It spreads to people through contact with blood, other body fluids or tissues of infected animals.

Its toll: Although the fatality level is less than 1{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} and the disease is mild for most people, about 8{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} to 10{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of people infected develop severe symptoms, including eye lesions, encephalitis and hemorrhagic fever.

Medical toolbox: Although a vaccine has been developed, it is not yet licensed or available.

Pandemic potential: Rift Valley fever has spread from Africa to Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Flooding seems to contribute to more Rift Valley fever because more virus-infected mosquitoes buzz about after heavy rainfalls. Rapid case detection, including prompt laboratory testing of people with symptoms, has limited recent outbreaks.

Zika

What animals carry it: mosquitoes

How it spreads: In addition to mosquito bites, the virus can spread from a pregnant person to a fetus. The disease can also be transmitted through sex and probably through blood transfusions.

Its toll: It’s rarely fatal, but Zika can cause severe brain defects in fetuses, including microcephaly. It has also been linked to miscarriage, stillbirth and other birth defects.

Medical toolbox: No treatment or vaccine

Pandemic potential: So far, it’s largely limited to areas where Zika-carrying mosquitoes live.

Ebola and Marburg virus disease

What animals carry them: Bats and nonhuman primates are believed to carry the viruses, from the filovirus family, that cause these hemorrhagic fevers.

How they spread: Both viruses are believed to spread in the same way. After the initial spillover from an animal, humans spread the viruses to other humans through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids of a person who is symptomatic or who has died from the disease. The viruses can also spread through objects or surfaces contaminated with bodily fluids and through semen from people who have recovered from the disease.

Their toll: The average fatality rate is about 50{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}, though rates have varied from 25{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} to 90{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} in past outbreaks.

Medical toolbox: Vaccines have been used for Ebola in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Monoclonal antibodies approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2020 can also help with treatment of Ebola. Vaccines for Marburg virus are in development.

Pandemic potential: These viruses can spread quickly in health care settings, especially when proper sterilization isn’t used. However, the disease spreads only when a person is symptomatic, making it easier to control.

MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome)

What animals carry it: camels

How it spreads: After the initial spillover event from camels to humans, this coronavirus can spread from person to person through close contact with an infected person.

Its toll: The reported fatality rate, according to the WHO, is 35{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}.

Medical toolbox: Several vaccines are in development, but none has been approved.

Pandemic potential: 27 countries have reported infections since 2012. Unlike SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes MERS grows deep in the respiratory tract, making it much less likely to be transmitted through sneezing and coughing.

SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)

What animals carry it: Palm civets were largely blamed for the 2003 outbreak. Bats and possibly other wildlife also carry it.

How it spreads: After the initial spillover event from animal to human, SARS can spread from person to person through close contact with an infected person. It’s believed to usually spread through droplets from coughs and sneezes and sometimes through surfaces touched by infectious people.

Its toll: less than a 1{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} fatality rate

Medical toolbox: No treatment or vaccine has been approved.

Pandemic potential: Unlike SARS-CoV-2, which can spread before people know they’re infectious, this SARS virus is usually spread only by those with known symptoms, making it much easier to contain through public health measures such as quarantining. The 2003 outbreak was contained after causing about 8,000 cases and 700 deaths in 29 countries.

Disease X

The WHO says it does not rank diseases in any order of potential threat, but it acknowledges the possibility that an as-yet-unknown disease could cause a serious pandemic.

In her work with bat viruses, for example, Raina Plowright of Cornell University says that even in the small proportion of bat species that have been studied, the animals carry thousands of viruses, “and we have no clue how many present risk,” she says. “We don’t have the technology to take a sequence and say with certainty whether it can infect humans or can transmit from human to human. We’re blind, really.”

Not to mention that variants pose threats, she says. “Just the tiniest genetic change can have a profound effect. What if we had [a pathogen] with a 50{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} fatality rate that transmitted efficiently?”

Sheila Mulrooney Eldred is a freelance health journalist in Minneapolis. She has written about COVID-19 for many publications, including The New York Times, Kaiser Health News, Medscape and The Washington Post. More at sheilaeldred.pressfolios.com. On Twitter: @milepostmedia.

January 30, 2023
6 tips to know : Life Kit : NPR

Wellness insurance policies in the U.S. can be complicated. A lot of folks do not have access to fantastic coverage they can manage, and hundreds of thousands of men and women do not have any health insurance policy at all. There are a great deal of large image variations that the federal federal government wants to make so that wellbeing insurance policies performs far better.

In the meantime, if you’re fortunate sufficient to have wellness insurance coverage with the system that is in spot, you can use your coverage strategically to established you up for far better health and reduce out-of-pocket expenses.

Here is how to make great use of your health and fitness coverage program:

Read through your plan’s coverage paperwork, each year – even if you feel you know what they say

Right before you can determine out how to use your system, you have to know what is in it.

“Quite a few buyers fall short to choose benefit of the benefits that are available by their overall health insurance policy policy only since they never know they exist – or even worse, they end up paying out out-of-pocket for expenditures that may well have been included,” explains Tasha Carter, the Coverage Purchaser Advocate for the condition of Florida. She helps people today comprehend all kinds of insurance – together with well being insurance – and her business office advocates on behalf of Florida people whenever insurance plan selections are remaining designed.

Health insurance plan providers are essential to present a summary of gains and coverage created in easy language. If you you should not get it in the mail at the beginning of the calendar year, you can log on to your health and fitness insurance policies web-site or get in touch with the amount on the back again of your insurance policy card and talk to for it.

At the start out of each individual yr, acquire a couple of minutes to appear in excess of your summary of added benefits, even if you’ve got experienced the exact approach for a very long time and you are really positive you know what is actually in it.

“Oftentimes insurance policy companies also make changes to gains in conditions that are ordinarily applicable on renewal of the policy, and so you want to make positive that you are examining those and you have an understanding of what those people variations are and how they may perhaps impression you,” Carter claims.

It is also worth examining your added benefits if your health has modified not long ago. Areas of your prepare that did not make a difference to you right before may well now be important, like protection for specialists or prenatal positive aspects.

“If individuals can simply make the assessment of their health insurance coverage a common follow, it’s something that gets easier and less difficult to do about time,” says Carter.

Come across yourself a very good major treatment health practitioner

How a lot you use your health and fitness insurance coverage is dependent on what is likely on with your overall health. An annual physical with your primary care health care provider can hold you up-to-date with what’s heading on in your overall body, and give you an plan of what kind of well being care you might will need in the coming yr.

Dr. Nicole Rochester functions with patients and their families to navigate the health care method. She claims having a health care provider who seriously understands you – ideally in excess of lots of many years – is seriously important.

“When you do not have a most important care medical doctor, you’re likely sporadically to distinct suppliers when you happen to be ill,” she says. “They really don’t know what is usual for you [when it comes to] your critical signs or even your laboratory experiments, so all they can do is react in that instant.”

A fantastic doctor who knows your spouse and children record and your typical essential indicators and symptoms. They can support maintain you healthier by flagging screenings that you might be eligible for, spotting troubles before they convert into big fears and directing you to a expert if you require a single.

Will not have a major treatment medical doctor? Rochester suggests getting referrals from buddies or other men and women you know, in its place of relying on world-wide-web assessments.

“There is almost nothing far more potent than chatting to a close friend, a coworker, a neighbor, a congregation member and asking, ‘Do you have a fantastic medical professional? Do you like your doctor? What is it you like about your medical doctor? What is it you really don’t like?’” she says.

“Just like we make use of our loved ones and friends and colleague community for vacations and hair stylists…we truly will need to faucet into that exact same effective network when on the lookout for a medical professional.”

Get gain of preventive treatment

Even if you have a bare-bones, significant-deductible prepare, any screenings or other “preventive” care you want must be provided – which means, you happen to be not liable for a copay or other out-of-pocket expenses.

That consists of obtaining screened for diabetic issues, cholesterol and blood strain. “Generally, breast most cancers screenings are also absolutely free [and] immunizations these as finding the flu shot,” states Carter.

The American Academy of Family members Doctors periodically updates a handy cheat sheet with proposed screenings by age, even though your medical doctor could advocate some thing diverse dependent on your personal and family healthcare historical past or possibility components.

Strategy the timing of strategies strategically

Obviously you cannot approach for an unexpected emergency appendectomy, but you can be strategic about the timing of prepared appointments and procedures.

Overall health insurance policy options appear with a deductible quantity, which defines the threshold in payments you have to reach prior to your medical expenditures are entirely covered by your insurance plan. Dependent on your approach, your yearly deductible could be a handful of hundred dollars or it may be as large as $7,000.

On January 1 each individual yr, your deductible resets to zero, which indicates you might be back to spending for your health care treatment out-of-pocket till you arrive at that threshold.

If you have a large health care treatment you can strategy for, there are a couple of methods to method scheduling it so that you happen to be maximizing your wellbeing treatment protection, Rochester states. “Some individuals will wait around till they’ve fulfilled their deductible to get a large treatment,” she explains. This could make perception if you don’t have a whole lot of revenue saved up. If you pay back into your deductible with overall health care expert services you get in excess of the course of the calendar year and then plan a surgery for immediately after you’ve fulfilled it, it is a lot more likely your coverage will fork out the bulk of the medical procedures value and you is not going to have to pay back a massive out-of-pocket invoice.

Others who have the funds up front might pick to schedule a far more highly-priced procedure to meet their deductible early in the yr, with the peace of brain that the rest of their health care expenditures that yr will be protected by insurance coverage.

Find out how to file a declare

If you see a health practitioner or go to a clinic that will not invoice your insurance coverage for you, you may have to pay out the complete charge at the time of your appointment and file a claim afterward so that your coverage pays you back for at minimum aspect of it.

When you are shelling out out-of-pocket, talk to for an itemized receipt you can use to file an insurance plan declare. In advance of you go away the doctor’s business, talk to them to print just one out for you with the info you have to have, this kind of as the date of service and the diagnosis code.

Then, you are going to have to have an insurance policies statements kind. Rochester suggests calling your insurance company to check with for the suitable promises kind – even if you believe you have located it on-line – just to be absolutely sure.

When you get the proper statements variety for your approach, fill out all the data except the signature and date fields, then make copies or scan it. After that, any time you require to file a claim, all you have to have to do is sign it, day it and stick it in the mail (or scan and e-mail it) with your itemized receipt you received from your health practitioner.

In some states, right after your insurance company receives your declare, they have to course of action it – and pay back you or your supplier – in a certain time frame, like 30 times. You can seem on your state insurance coverage division website for facts about your state’s “prompt fork out” guidelines.

Really don’t pass up out on perks

We have to juggle so substantially just to get – and fully grasp – standard wellbeing coverage in the U.S. But even with all of the economic and logistical head aches that come with navigating well being insurance policies in this country, your insurance policy prepare could also occur with some nice benefits.

Want to acquire zumba classes? Your insurer may possibly provide special discounts if you get a neighborhood health club membership. It could also give discounts on expert services that increase your quality of lifetime, like LASIK medical procedures or massages. You might be in a position to conserve funds on prescription drugs by utilizing your insurer’s chosen pharmacy, or by purchasing about on your insurer’s web site for different companies or services for the care that you need to have.

If pondering about your well being coverage would make you groan, you happen to be not the only 1. But Rochester suggests framing it this way: “Your well being insurance plan strategy is a tool for you to improve your health, but you can only do that if you utilize it entirely, and you can only do that if you acquire the time to discover and to have a obvious knowledge of your system and the gains that it gives.”

The podcast part of this story was developed by Andee Tagle.

We’d enjoy to hear from you. If you have a excellent existence hack, go away us a voicemail at 202-216-9823 or email us at [email protected]. Your tip could surface in an forthcoming episode.

If you love Life Kit and want far more, subscribe to our newsletter. You would not regret it.

May 28, 2022
Your Fitness Journey Shouldn’t Just Be About How You Look : NPR
Ornella Corazza, a professor of addictive behavior at the University of Hertfordshire, says there was more anxiety about body image during the lockdown.

Photo Illustration by Catie Dull/NPR

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Ornella Corazza, a professor of addictive behavior at the University of Hertfordshire, says there was more anxiety about body image during the lockdown.

Photo Illustration by Catie Dull/NPR

Like a lot of folks, I started working out a bunch during the pandemic. I’m talking real jock stuff — swinging and cleaning and pressing hunks of metal. And I started noticing my body change which was cool! I’d never lifted weights before, so this was new to me.

But then I noticed myself noticing my body more often. Suddenly the ever-changing glob of skin and bones that I was seeing in the mirror wasn’t changing enough … my traps weren’t big enough, my core not toned enough.

It turns out a lot of people were feeling similarly. “There was a greater anxiety about body image during the lockdown,” says Ornella Corazza, professor of addictive behavior at the University of Hertfordshire.

We talked to experts for tips on how to keep comfortable with your body, even as it changes. Here’s what they had to say.

Examine your motivations for getting in shape

Maillard Howell, head of fitness at Reebok and co-owner of Dean CrossFit, doesn’t promise clients they’ll be the most ripped person on the beach. Instead, he tells them, “you’re going to be able to play with your kids without getting out of breath.”

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Maillard Howell, head of fitness at Reebok and co-owner of Dean CrossFit, doesn’t promise clients they’ll be the most ripped person on the beach. Instead, he tells them, “you’re going to be able to play with your kids without getting out of breath.”

Catie Dull/NPR

Instead of focusing on aesthetic changes, consider how exercising can improve your quality of life. Study after study shows exercise is good for your physical health, as well as your mental health. Exercise can help lower your risk of heart disease. Aerobic exercises have been proven to reduce anxiety and depression.

Maillard Howell is the head of fitness at Reebok and co-owner of Dean CrossFit. When he works with clients, he doesn’t promise them they’ll be “the most ripped person on the beach” or that they’ll get strong enough to qualify for the CrossFit games. Instead, he tells them, “you’re going to be able to play with your kids without getting out of breath.” The process of “getting into shape” isn’t just a physical journey but a mental and emotional one as well, Howell says.

Corazza agrees, adding that “we need to remember that we not only have a body, but we are our body.” Our bodies aren’t machines. They have other needs, too, she says.

“We need to get in touch with feelings, with sensation … asking ourselves how we feel,” Corazza says.

Keep an eye on your behaviors for any indications that you might be veering into unhealthy territory

Corazza says that seeing fitness as purely a means to get more attractive can lead people to compulsive exercise, disordered eating, depression, and performance-enhancing drugs.

It’s normal to shift your behavior as you’re working towards or training for a fitness goal, but Corazza says, “the key question is who is in control? Are you in control of your life, or [are] certain behavioral things controlling you?”

Here are some questions to consider:
- Do you feel like you have control over your exercise habits, or do they feel compulsive?
- If you aren’t able to exercise, do you feel any kind of withdrawal?
- Are you repeatedly canceling plans with friends and family in order to exercise?
- How is your exercise routine impacting your eating behavior or sleeping patterns?
- Do you feel the need to obscure the amount you exercise?
Try not to compare yourself — or your progress — to others

“Comparison is the thief of joy,” says Howell. “Focus on you. Focus on your self-confidence. Focus on your journey.”

It’s hard to not get caught up in comparing yourself to others in this age of hyperconnectivity. If you find yourself scrolling through Instagram and constantly comparing your body to other bodies populating your feed, remember that we’re all built differently. “We all do different things for a living. I don’t have any kids … You might have four or five kids at home. There’s so many variables,” says Howell.

For advice on how to have a healthier relationship with social media overall, check out this Life Kit episode.

Figure out a way to move your body that doesn’t feel like a total chore

Exercise can look like a lot of different things — lifting weights and doing circuits, yoga and spin classes.

“Find a fitness facility that resonates with you,” suggests Howell. Gyms and studios often offer free trials. Take advantage of those offers to feel out the vibe of each spot. If a certain class or studio feels aimed at a goal that’s not a right fit for you, head over to the next one.

If the idea of exercise for exercise’s sake doesn’t work for you, consider more recreational activities, like hiking, rock climbing, or a recreational soccer team.

When you do find your thing, remember exercise doesn’t have to leave you absolutely wrecked for it to “count.” Research shows that just a little bit counts in big ways. For long-term benefits, consistency is key.

Set a realistic goal

It can be hard to stay motivated. It helps to have something concrete and specific to work towards — something challenging, but achievable.

If you need help identifying a goal, Howell suggests working with your doctor to figure out what you can do to improve your health. Ask about the different facts and figures on your medical chart, like resting heart rate or blood pressure, he suggests. “What does it mean, and how does it relate to my day-to-day?”

Once you’ve set your goal, figure out when you want to accomplish it and work backward from there. Identifying the small steps you can take makes the larger task feel more achievable, which can help keep you motivated.

On days you’re not feeling up to it (rest days aside), Howell says to remember, “Today is important. [Your activity today] doesn’t have to be a big thing. Just go in the general direction of [your long term] goal.”

Can’t run your miles? Go for a short walk. Feeling sore? Do some stretch work.

“I know what I do today is going to have an effect no matter how tiny it is,” Howell says. “That drop in the pan today is going to help that three-month goal. And that’s what keeps me focused.”

The podcast portion of this story was produced by Audrey Nguyen with help from David West Jr. Engineering support from Alex Drewenskus. Fact checking by Janet W. Lee

We’d love to hear from you. If you have a good life hack, leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at [email protected]. Your tip could appear in an upcoming episode.

If you love Life Kit and want more, subscribe to our newsletter.
December 2, 2021
The World Health Organization warns of very high risk posed by omicron variant : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

People stage off a tram in Nottingham, England, a city the place a circumstance of the omicron variant of the coronavirus was determined past week.

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Folks stage off a tram in Nottingham, England, a town in which a case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus was discovered very last 7 days.

Joe Giddens/PA Pictures by using Getty Photographs

The Globe Wellness Group is warning that the new omicron variant of the coronavirus poses a “extremely higher” world possibility simply because of the possibility that it spreads more simply and might resist vaccines and immunity in people who were infected with former strains.

In a technical short issued Sunday, the WHO warned its 194 member states that the new variant’s many mutations “may perhaps confer immune escape potential and possibly transmissibility gain,” and as a final result “the probability of likely even more spread of omicron at the world amount is high.”

It claims that the risk to susceptible populations — especially in nations around the world with very low vaccination prices — could be “substantial.”

On the other hand, it cautions that there’s nonetheless substantial uncertainty about the virus, together with how conveniently it spreads, how dangerous it is, irrespective of whether it can evade vaccines and immunity, how it responds to diagnostic checks and therapeutics, and even its precise signs and symptoms.

“The vaccines have been designed, basically, to retain people out of hospital, and they’ve stood up and they’ve finished that extremely nicely,” Dr. Margaret Harris, a general public health and fitness doctor and WHO spokesperson, instructed NPR’s Early morning Version on Monday. “So we really have to have to know no matter whether this unique variation is heading to change that photograph.”

The omicron variant was first claimed very last week in South Africa, exactly where bacterial infections attributed to the new pressure have risen sharply in latest times. Since then, it has been located in more than a dozen international locations, which includes Botswana, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Israel, Australia and Hong Kong.

So far, there have been no documented deaths joined to the omicron variant. Meanwhile, a lot of nations around the world together with the U.S. have reimposed some vacation limitations in an effort to stem the distribute of the new variant.

The Centers for Ailment Control and Prevention has nevertheless to announce any omicron instances in the U.S., while the White Property chief clinical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci has claimed that he thinks it truly is unavoidable at some stage.

In response to omicron, the CDC on Monday strengthened and simplified its suggestions on who should get a COVID-19 vaccine booster.

“Anyone ages 18 and older should really get a booster shot either when they are 6 months following their original Pfizer or Moderna series or 2 months immediately after their initial J&J vaccine,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in an statement.

This replaces steering that said persons ages 18 and older but youthful than 50 could acquire a booster and others in selected at-possibility categories or 50 and more mature should get a booster.

The WHO on Sunday warned of doable “potential surges of COVID-19, which could have extreme implications, relying on a quantity of things like wherever surges might consider position.”

The brief advises nations to enrich surveillance and sequencing initiatives and speed up COVID-19 vaccination protection. It also advises renewed social distancing constraints and speak to tracing.

“In anticipation of amplified COVID-19 caseloads and associated pressure on the health procedure, guarantee mitigation options are in position to sustain crucial overall health solutions and needed wellbeing care resources are in position to respond to opportunity surges,” it advises.

Talking on Monday, the WHO Director-Basic Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus claimed: “World health protection is way too essential to be remaining to prospect, or goodwill, or shifting geopolitical currents, or the vested pursuits of companies and shareholders.”

“Omicron demonstrates just why the planet desires a new accord on pandemics,” he claimed, noting that the new variant’s emergence reveals how “perilous and precarious” the existing problem is.

November 30, 2021
Omicron variant spreads to U.K., Germany, Italy as new travel bans take effect : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

Vacationers wander around an electronic flight recognize board displaying canceled flights at O.R. Tambo Worldwide Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday. Numerous nations around the world have started travel bans in response to the omicron variant.

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Tourists stroll near an electronic flight detect board exhibiting canceled flights at O.R. Tambo Intercontinental Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday. Many nations have begun vacation bans in reaction to the omicron variant.

Phill Magakoe/AFP by means of Getty Images

The omicron pressure of the coronavirus is cropping up across Europe, with cases detected in two people in the United Kingdom, two in Germany and at minimum a single in Italy, as the latest variant of concern spreads all over the globe.

A number of nations, like the U.S., have initiated journey bans against South Africa — exactly where the speedily circulating new pressure was initially discovered on Nov. 24 — as very well as seven other southern African nations. More tests and self-isolation steps for travelers from these countries are also in location.

The two persons arrived at Munich airport in Germany on Wednesday, according to a statement by the Bavarian Ministry of Overall health and Treatment. It states one more 50 folks who arrived from Cape Town on Friday are in quarantine.

At the very least two individuals in the United Kingdom have the omicron variant, Wellness Secretary Sajid Javid said Saturday. The folks are isolating at property.

One circumstance was also recognized by wellness authorities in Italy, in accordance to Corriere della Sera, a foremost day-to-day newspaper.

Circumstances have also been reported in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel throughout a rather short interval of time.

In the U.S., the Centers for Ailment Handle and Prevention so considerably has not discovered any cases of the rapid-spreading pressure.

President Biden has been briefed on the latest on the omicron variant, a White Property official stated Saturday.

“At the identical time, senior health officers and the COVID response staff have been monitoring the most current updates on omicron and in normal touch with health officials around the planet,” the formal said.

Stricter vacation restriction and testing steerage introduced

The issue over the quick distribute of the variant has led to constraints on travel from quite a few nations in southern Africa. The Biden administration declared limited journey for non-U.S. citizens starting up Monday from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. The Condition Division also issued “do not travel” advisories for U.S. citizens.

The European Union also introduced designs to halt vacation from South Africa and other southern African nations.

In the U.K., Primary Minister Boris Johnson declared more necessities for travelers in a press convention Saturday.

Any tourists getting into the nation will be essential to take a PCR examination by the conclusion of the next working day immediately after arrival, and be needed to self-isolate till they obtain a detrimental final result, Johnson stated.

“We need to take qualified and proportionate steps now as a precaution as we find out far more,” Johnson reported. In aspect, he extra, the attempts are a way to obtain scientists additional time as they check out to discover additional about the variant.

Johnson also thanked the experts in South Africa who recognized and shared information on the new variant “widely and right away.”

More steps Johnson declared Saturday include at the time once more demanding face coverings in retailers and general public transportation, and requiring all contacts of everyone who exams positive for the omicron variant to isolate for 10 times no matter of vaccination standing.

The mutations of the omicron variant are about, WHO claims

The omicron variant is the initial new variant of problem given that the delta variant that swept as a result of the globe earlier this summer months, resulting in an uptick in bacterial infections and deaths, particularly among the the unvaccinated population. The delta strain was two times as infectious as the authentic COVID-19 virus.

When there are a range of scientific tests underway to continue evaluating the omicron variant, the Earth Wellness Corporation claims the selection of mutations in this variant is “concerning” and that it could propose an “greater possibility of reinfection.”

The WHO also suggests that existing COVID-19 tests are able of pinpointing this omicron variant, which is how authorities have been able to monitor how quickly the variant is spreading. But even more information and facts and experiments on the variant could get “times to weeks,” overall health officials from WHO mentioned.

Specifically how rapid the variant is spreading and no matter whether the present-day vaccines readily available can stop an infection are nevertheless unclear. But Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Well being, advised NPR: “Allow me be clear, there is no knowledge at the present time to indicate that the existing vaccines would not do the job.”

In the meantime, individuals ought to continue to just take steps to reduce their publicity to infection and lessen the spread of the virus, the WHO urges. This contains mask-carrying and having the vaccine when it is your switch to do so.

Collins also suggests that people who are six months out from becoming absolutely vaccinated get their booster shot.

November 28, 2021
10 states sue Biden administration over vaccine mandate for health care workers : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

President Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations in Elk Grove Village, Ill. 10 states are filing a lawsuit over the administration’s rule requiring overall health treatment employees to be vaccinated.

Susan Walsh/AP

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Susan Walsh/AP

President Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations in Elk Grove Village, Sick. 10 states are submitting a lawsuit more than the administration’s rule demanding wellbeing treatment personnel to be vaccinated.

Susan Walsh/AP

A group of 10 states has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and its prerequisite that wellbeing care workers in the U.S. to be vaccinated against COVID-19, declaring the mandate is “unconstitutional and unlawful.”

Led by Missouri Lawyer General Eric Schmitt and Nebraska Attorney Common Doug Peterson, the 10 states say the required nationwide vaccine need will guide to shortages of wellness treatment personnel and could threaten the work opportunities of “hundreds of thousands of overall health care personnel” who risked their lives for the duration of the starting stages of the pandemic.

In addition to Missouri and Nebraska, lawyers typical from Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire also joined the lawsuit.

“Regrettably, with this latest mandate from the Biden Administration, final year’s healthcare heroes are turning into this year’s unemployed. Necessitating health care personnel to get a vaccination or encounter termination is unconstitutional and illegal, and could exacerbate healthcare staffing shortages to the stage of collapse, primarily in Missouri’s rural regions,” Schmitt said in a news launch.

He says his business office has been tough the Biden administration’s “unlawful edicts” and this is the newest.

“This scenario illustrates why the police electricity around obligatory vaccination has usually been the province of — and however adequately belongs to — the States,” the lawyers standard argued in their lawsuit.

The 58-website page lawsuit argues the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies vaccine mandate is intruding on states’ law enforcement power, stating it’s a violation of a number of acts and rights, which include the Administrative Treatments Act, the Social Security Act, the Tenth Modification and federalism.

“By disregarding the specifics on the floor and unreasonably dismissing concerns about workforce shortages, the CMS vaccine mandate jeopardizes the healthcare passions of rural People,” the lawsuit claims.

In September, President Biden unveiled a collection of techniques to overcome the surge of COVID-19 situations in the country, announcing that 17 million health treatment workers at hospitals and elsewhere that acquire Medicare or Medicaid funding would have to be vaccinated.

Final week, CMS issued an interim last rule requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for well being treatment employees in most configurations — this sort of as hospitals and wellbeing techniques — that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid applications.

The new necessities, which went into effect Nov. 5, will implement to about 76,000 providers.

November 12, 2021