Dec 8th, 2021 - (Reuters) -The Omicron variant of the coronavirus can partially evade the protection from two doses of Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, the research head of a laboratory at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said on Tuesday. Still, the study showed that blood from people who had received two doses of the vaccine and had a prior infection were mostly able to ...

Dec 8th, 2021 - DAKAR (Reuters) - Up to one million COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used, two sources told Reuters, one of the biggest single losses of doses that shows the difficulty African nations have getting shots in arms. Governments on the continent of over one billion people have been pushing for more vaccine deliveries as inoculation rates lag richer...

Dec 7th, 2021 - BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil will require that unvaccinated travelers entering the country go on a five-day quarantine followed by a COVID-19 test, its health minister said on Tuesday, after its president said he opposed the use of a vaccine passport. President Jair Bolsonaro criticized Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa for proposing the vaccination passport be required for arriving travelers to h...

Dec 7th, 2021 - The intention to vaccinate children against COVID-19 was lower among vaccine-hesitant parents when compared with parents who were willing to or had already received the COVID vaccine, a new survey finds. “Parental vaccine hesitancy is a major issue for schools resuming in-person instruction, potentially requiring regular testing, strict mask wearing, and physical distancing for safe operation,”.

Dec 7th, 2021 - (Corrects paragraphs 12 and 13 to reflect that the airline index and American Airlines closed lower, not higher) * Adds preliminary closing prices, commentary Dec 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street’s main indexes finished Tuesday’s session with strong gains as investors shook off some anxiety about the latest virus variant and investors piled into technology stocks that boosted Nasdaq. Intel’s announcem...

Dec 7th, 2021 - Dec 7 (Reuters) - The Omicron variant of the coronavirus can partially evade the protection from Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing the research head of a laboratory at Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa. Its evasion is not complete and a booster shot could provide additional protection, according to the report bloom.bg/3...

Dec 7th, 2021 - (Recasts, updates with closing prices) CHICAGO, Dec 7 (Reuters) - U.S. soybean futures fell on Tuesday, pressured by signs of rising competition on the export market that could lead to a domestic supply glut, traders said. Forecasts for improving crop weather in Brazil and Argentina during January also weighed on the market. Corn and wheat futures ended firm after spending much of the day in ne...

Dec 7th, 2021 - FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The German state of Saxony, among the hardest hit by surging COVID-19 infections, will start vaccinating at-risk children under 12 years of age from Wednesday, even though the approved paediatric shot will not be available before next week. The early launch follows a recommendation by Saxony’s vaccination commission on Dec. 1 to give one third of the 30 microgram dose of t...

Dec 7th, 2021 - LONDON (Reuters) - Britain reported 45,691 new COVID-19 cases and 180 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test on Tuesday, government statistics showed. Cases are up 12.1% over the last seven days compared to the previous seven days, with deaths up 3% over the same timeframe.

Dec 7th, 2021 - Total COVID-19 cases in children surpassed the 7-million mark as new cases rose slightly after the previous week’s decline, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. The 133,000 new cases reported for the week ending Dec.

Dec 7th, 2021 - OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada will soon crack down on COVID-19 mandates, forcing banks, telecommunications companies and all other federally regulated workspaces to ensure their employees are inoculated, Ottawa said on Tuesday. Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan made the announcement two months after the government said it would oblige the public sector and employees working in the federally regulated a...

Dec 7th, 2021 - WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The United States administered 12.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the last week, the highest number of vaccinations since May, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said on Tuesday. Around 7 million of those were booster doses, a daily rate of a million boosters, Zients told reporters at a White House briefing. (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Wr...

Dec 7th, 2021 - Use of high-flow oxygen was associated with less of a need for mechanical ventilation and a shorter time to recovery compared with conventional oxygen therapy in patients with severe COVID-19, a randomized trial in Colombia found. Thirty-four percent of patients randomized to high-flow oxygen through a nasal cannula were intubated by day 28 compared with 51% of those randomized to conventional ...

Dec 7th, 2021 - COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -The new Omicron coronavirus variant has spread across Denmark, health authorities said on Tuesday after registering large outbreaks of the variant in the east and west of the country. Denmark is currently seeing record high infection numbers in the third wave of its epidemic, propelled by the Delta-variant, but authorities fear the Omicron variant could spread further in t...

Dec 7th, 2021 - COVID-19 vaccine myocarditis is usually resolved quickly among people under age 21 years, according to a report from 26 centers. (Circulation) How an abstract from the American Heart Association (AHA) meeting added fire to vaccine myocarditis claims and led to an AHA committee issuing an "expression of concern" in Circulation. (Forbes) Metabolomic analysis reveals novel metabolites associated w...

Dec 7th, 2021 - (Corrects to “region” from “regions” in paragraph 1) Dec 7 (Reuters) - The European Union’s drug regulator and public health body have recommended that mixing and matching of approved COVID-19 vaccines can be done for both the initial courses and booster doses, as the region reels with an increase in infections. Evidence suggests that the combination of viral vector vaccines and mRNA vaccines p...

Dec 7th, 2021 - A self-administered cognitive test identified people who converted from mild cognitive impairment to dementia 6 months sooner than the Mini-Mental State Examination. (Alzheimer's Research & Therapy) About half of people diagnosed with incident mild cognitive impairment were classified as cognitively normal at follow-up, a community-based cohort study showed. (Neurology) Upper motor neuron loss ...

Dec 7th, 2021 - Note that some links may require registration or subscription. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended against the use of convalescent plasma for any patient with COVID-19, calling it a costly therapy that does not improve survival or cut the need for mechanical ventilation. (The BMJ) New York City stiffened its vaccine mandate, requiring that all private business workers be fully vacci...

Dec 7th, 2021 - (For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window) Dec 7 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on Tuesday to their highest in more than a week, with technology shares witnessing a rebound, as worries about the Omicron coronavirus variant ebbed, while miners jumped after China eased its monetary policy. The continent-wide STOXX 600 index gaine...

Dec 7th, 2021 - (For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window) * Both FTSE 100, FTSE 250 rise 0.9% Dec 7 (Reuters) - UK’s FTSE 100 rose on Tuesday, as receding concerns about the Omicron coronavirus variant lifted global mood for a second day, while a jump in mining stocks and positive earnings further boosted the blue-chip index. The FTSE 100 added...