Month: January 2022

Public-health officials ruined many lives by insisting that workers with natural immunity to Covid-19 be fired if they weren’t fully vaccinated. But after two years of accruing data, the superiority of natural immunity over vaccinated immunity is clear. By firing staff with natural immunity, employers got rid of those least likely to infect others. It’s time to reinstate those employees with an apology. For most of last year, many of us called for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to release its data on reinfection rates, but the agency refused. Finally last week, the CDC released data from New York and California, which demonstrated natural immunity was 2.8 times as effective in preventing hospitalization and 3.3 to 4.7 times as effective in preventing ...

Interest in booster shots is waning, and just 40% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average number of booster shots dispensed per day in the U.S. declined from 1 million in early December to less than half of that number last week. Initial vaccinations also have leveled off. Less than two-thirds – 63% – of Americans are fully vaccinated with the initial rounds of shots, while Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi and Alabama have vaccinations rates below 50%. And a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that Americans are more likely to see those jabs – rather than a booster – as essential. “It’s clear that the booster effort is falling short,” said Jason Schwartz, a ...

At this point in the omicron-driven COVID-19 surge, you’ve probably heard some version of this story at least once: One person in a friend or family member’s household tested positive for the virus, but no one else did. Or maybe it was in your house, when your roommates or spouse or kids all tested positive, but you kept getting negative tests. If the virus is so transmissible, how can people sharing bathrooms or beds have such different outcomes? "The research has indicated from the beginning that when COVID is introduced into a household, high rates of transmission occur, but I didn’t say 100%," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. "Some people manage to escape even though they’re in close quarters with ot...

People cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London, Britain on Jan. 24, 2022. Tim Ireland | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images Omicron has almost completely replaced the previously dominant delta variant of Covid-19 in England, a new study has found, with the vast majority of cases being possible reinfections. Imperial College London's React study — which has been updated monthly since May 2020 and is funded by the U.K. government — analyzed 100,607 PCR test results from across England. Swabs were collected between Jan. 5 and Jan. 20. The study found that 99% of sequenced positive swabs came from people infected with the omicron variant, with only 1% of infections being caused by the delta variant. "We observed unprecedented levels of infecti...