The latest The Biden administration is urging people to get booster shots if they have not already done so, as two omicron subvariants drive a new wave of cases in the United States. Federal officials are pushing Americans to take precautions against infection, reinfection and serious illness – including getting up to date with their vaccines and wearing masks in crowded indoor locations. BA.4 and BA.5 – which now account for 80 percent of new cases — can more easily evade immunity than previous variants, leaving people who had an earlier omicron infection vulnerable, once again. "New waves of the virus demonstrate again that covid-19 is nowhere near over," said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. New variants are driving case spikes in Europe, where most countries have largely lifted pandemic restrictions. Ghebreyesus appealed to governments to ramp up testing and vaccination efforts again as medical systems face the strain of soaring case counts. The Food and Drug Administration greenlit the nation's fourth coronavirus vaccine, a shot developed by Maryland biotechnology company Novavax. The Novavax shot offers a new chance for protection against the coronavirus for a relatively small niche of people who either could not or did not want to get the mRNA vaccines. The newest vaccine option was developed with more traditional vaccine technology than the cutting-edge mRNA vaccines created by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. Here's how Novavax compares to the other vaccines available in the United States. Other important news President Biden was supposed to limit handshakes on a trip to the Middle East because of coronavirus risks, but he has struggled to adhere to the policy. Global childhood vaccinations for 11 key diseases fell from 71 percent in 2019 to 68 percent in 2021 – the worst backslide in a generation, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization. |
Your questions, answered My wife and I have recently been exposed to the coronavirus. If one or both of us develop covid, how can we protect our indoor pet cat from infection? If he does become infected by the virus, how can we best care for him? – Ronald H., Fla. You are right to be concerned. The coronavirus can spread from people to animals during close contact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has been found in cats, dogs and deer – at least 20 animal species in total. There are only a few cases of known transmission from animals back to people. To protect animals, "stay away from your pets when infected (find someone else who can take care of them), just like you would stay away from other people," suggested Sarah Hamer, an assistant professor and veterinary ecologist at Texas A&M University who is studying this phenomenon, in an email. If there isn't someone else to take care of the pets, wear a mask around them as you would around people, she said. "Certainly, it's a good idea to avoid some of the activities that are likely high risk for transmission, including sleeping in same bed/room, snuggling, letting pet kiss/lick your face," Hamer wrote. She pointed to a study that found cats that slept on their owners' beds were more likely to have contracted covid. Interestingly, that pattern was not true for dogs. Hamer and her research team have also been sampling pets in the homes of people with covid and found more than 100 infected animals. About one quarter of the pets with covid showed relatively mild symptoms, she said, such as lethargy, sneezing and loss of appetite. The rest were asymptomatic. Her research is continuing. |
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