Bee Bloeser

Politics & Life Sciences (PLS) with Dean L. Fanelli, Ph.D.

Omicron spreading rapidly in U.S. and could bring punishing wave as soon as January, CDC warns

Top federal health officials warned in a briefing Tuesday morning that the omicron variant is rapidly spreading in the United States and could peak in a massive wave of infections as soon as January, according to new modeling analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The prevalence of omicron jumped sevenfold in a single week, according to the CDC, and at such a pace, the highly mutated variant of the coronavirus could ratchet up pressure on a health system already strained in many places as the delta variant continues its own surge.

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J&J Shot Loses Antibody Protection Against Omicron in Study

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine produced nearly no antibody safety towards the omicron coronavirus variant in a laboratory experiment, underlining the brand new pressure’s capacity to get round one pillar of the physique’s defenses.

The vaccine seems to offer some protection towards omicron, maybe by way of different means akin to stimulation of immune cells, based on Penny Moore, a South African virologist. The findings are in keeping with different research that present a partial lack of efficiency towards Covid-19 for numerous vaccines, with J&J’s antibody safety wanting significantly weak within the lab take a look at.

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Bee Bloeser was in Africa after the CDC dispatched her husband Carl to join the global smallpox vaccination campaign in 1969. “Vaccines and Bayonets: Fighting Smallpox in Africa amid Tribalism, Terror and the Cold War,” details Bee’s time in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea (where she was one of only two American women), including brushes with a brutal dictator and a heartbreaking humanitarian crisis unknown to the outside world.

An award-winning author and engaging public speaker, Bee Bloeser has been featured on NPR’s Journeys of Discovery and NPR KCBX Radio’s show, Issues and Ideas.