The food shortages being reported by a growing number of household names are likely to last forever, a leading industry figure has said in a stark ...

On August 30, 2021, the WHO classified the SARS-CoV-2 Mu variant (B.1.621 lineage) as a new variant of interest. The WHO defines “comparative assessment of virus characteristics and public health risks” as primary action in response to the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Here, we demonstrate that the Mu variant is highly resistant to sera from COVID-19 convalescents and BNT162b2-vaccinated individuals. Direct comparison of different SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins revealed that Mu spike is more resistant to serum-mediated neutralization than all other currently recognized variants of interest (VOI) and concern (VOC). This includes the Beta variant (B.1.351) that has been suggested to represent the most resistant variant to convalescent and vaccinated sera to date (e.g., Collier et al, Nature, 2021; Wang et al, Nature, 2021). Since breakthrough infection by newly emerging variants is a major concern during the current COVID-19 pandemic (Bergwerk et al., NEJM, 2021), we believe that our findings are of significant public health interest. Our results will help to better assess the risk posed by the Mu variant for vaccinated, previously infected and naïve populations. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Christopher Ingraham, of the Why Axis newsletter: The net result of this relentless pressure: even in the midst of a variant surge that’s proven especially lethal in conservative areas, nearly 40 percent of Republicans say they’re either unwilling to get the vaccine or uncertain about it, compared to just 15 percent of Democrats. But the […]

STAT is making available real-time data that shows how fast Covid-19 is accelerating in every state and territory.

Our daily estimate of excess deaths around the world | Graphic detail

MIAMI (AP) — Funeral director Wayne Bright has seen grief piled upon grief during the latest COVID-19 surge. A woman died of the virus, and as her family was planning the funeral, her mother was also struck down.

I updated the covdata package for the first time in a while, as I’ll be using it to teach in the near future. As a side-effect, I ended up taking a look at what the ongoing polarization or divergence of the COVID experience is like in different parts of the United States. Here I use county-level data to draw out some of the trends. The idea is to take the time series of COVID-19 deaths and split it into deciles by some county-level quantity of interest.

Nonseroconversion after SARS-CoV-2 Infection

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Service ran the numbers and found that unvaccinated people are 15.4x (or 1,540%) more likely to die from Covid than those who received vaccines, an…

The number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU hit 71 on Friday, tying the previous high on Jan. 20 in Maine after a holiday surge in infections.

The favorite new miracle cure of the far right has been tied to a wave of calls to poison-control centers and dubious prescriptions. Now inmates are caught in the fray.

COVID-19 outbreak associated with an unvaccinated infected teacher in an elementary school from May–June 2021 in Marin County, California.

Israelis who had an infection were more protected against the Delta coronavirus variant than those who had an already highly effective COVID-19 vaccine

Background Reports of waning vaccine-induced immunity against COVID-19 have begun to surface. With that, the comparable long-term protection conferred by previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 remains unclear. Methods We conducted a retrospective observational study comparing three groups: (1)SARS-CoV-2-naïve individuals who received a two-dose regimen of the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine, (2)previously infected individuals who have not been vaccinated, and (3)previously infected and single dose vaccinated individuals. Three multivariate logistic regression models were applied. In all models we evaluated four outcomes: SARS-CoV-2 infection, symptomatic disease, COVID-19-related hospitalization and death. The follow-up period of June 1 to August 14, 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant in Israel. Results SARS-CoV-2-naïve vaccinees had a 13.06-fold (95% CI, 8.08 to 21.11) increased risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant compared to those previously infected, when the first event (infection or vaccination) occurred during January and February of 2021. The increased risk was significant ( P

Voices on the extreme right and extreme left are drowning out opportunities for conversations we should be having about unvaccinated people.

“I don’t want to frighten you,” Israel’s COVID czar Dr. Salman Zarka told parliament this week. “But… unfortunately, the numbers don’t lie.”

Massachusetts schools are likely to face a statewide mask mandate starting Wednesday.

A doctor featured in a Times article published Sunday on the latest wave of COVID-19 speaks for herself in a searing letter to unvaccinated people.

A surge involving the rapidly-transmitting Delta variant in heavily vaccinated countries has led to much hand-wringing that the vaccines are not effective against Delta, or vaccine efficacy wanes after 4-6 months. This has fueled anti-vaccine sentiment suggesting the vaccines are not working, and causing much stress in vaccinated people that they are not as protected as they thought they would be. In this post, I will focus on vaccine efficacy vs. severe disease/hospitalization, which is the ke

Booster doses of Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine will be offered late next month, beginning with those vaccinated first, like health care providers.

Shielding children from danger is a fundamental instinct. Tolerating risk for them is hard—but necessary—emotional work.

Georgia’s Cobb County School District had parents choose between virtual and in-person learning, then lifted its mask mandate. Many families are frantically figuring out how to navigate this reality. ProPublica reporter Nicole Carr is one of them.

Cases of COVID-19 are rising fast. Vaccine uptake has plateaued. The pandemic will be over one day—but the way there is different now.

One hundred people who had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus died from the disease in Massachusetts by the end of July, according to the state Department of Public Health.

When his friends started to get sick after a week of parties, Michael Donnelly started keeping track. His work — and his community's willingness to help — led the CDC to a major pandemic discovery.

AbstractBackground. Multiple SARS-CoV-2 superspreading events suggest that aerosols play an important role in driving the COVID-19 pandemic. To better understan

As the Delta variant of the coronavirus fuels an ongoing COVID wave, San Francisco Bay Area health experts are keeping a close eye on yet another variant: Delta Plus.

The CDC’s recent announcement that the Delta variant has an average reproductive number of 6–9 has a lot of people concerned & many are…

Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine is 93-percent effective against the coronavirus six months after patients get the second dose.

You’ve asked me to write a response to my student evaluations. I’m sitting in my living room, my feet are cold because I haven’t been wearing shoes. Who wears shoes to work at home? My dog runs into the room and then looks at me and runs out. “If you pee on the carpet one more time, I swear to god!” I yell in his direction. My students have heard me yell the same thing at him during class. “The quiz on this section will be an asynchronous OH MY GOD YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT TO MY CARPET AGAIN ess