A surge in Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant is causing disruption to sporting events around the world.There have been postponements in the Premier League, English Football League (EFL) and Women's Super League (WSL).European and domestic rugby has been hit, while NFL and NBA games have also been postponed after Covid outbreaks in the United States.

Covid: How sport is being affected by surge in cases

The Bollingers and others were already in the business of selling vaccine disinformation before the coronavirus began its inexorable march across the globe. But the pandemic presented the couple and others a huge opportunity to expand their reach.

‘This is a disinformation industry’: Meet the media startups making big money on vaccine conspiracies

The Netherlands has announced a strict lockdown over Christmas amid concerns over the Omicron coronavirus variant. Non-essential shops, bars, gyms hairdressers and other public venues will be closed until at least mid-January. Two guests per household will be allowed - four over the holidays.

Covid: Dutch go into Christmas lockdown over Omicron wave

If Omicron is the dominant variant in UK, why is the number of confirmed cases so low?

Confirmed Omicron cases are a sample of an already incomplete figureThe UK reported an average of 88,000 Covid cases each day in the past week (to 21 December). However, only a subset of those cases are being picked up through PCR tests – the type carried out in an NHS walk-in centre – and it is only PCR tests that allow labs to check what kind of variant a person has.What is more, not all UK laboratories have the capability to carry out these checks. Just four provide the UKHSA with data on variant types.

Florida pulls pro-vaccination television ads, replacing with spots that don’t mention vaccines

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – State sponsored commercials promoting COVID-19 vaccinations have been pulled from Florida’s airwaves.

That awful VAERS preprint, championed by anti-vaxxers Marjorie Taylor Greene & Robert Malone, which argued the vax is more dangerous than Covid, refuses to die The preprint was coauthored by a member of Rational Ground, an extreme Covid denialist group that harasses scientists

A study in @NatureMedicine indicates that the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infections with symptoms or high viral burden is reduced with the Delta variant compared to the Alpha variant. https://go.nature.com/3vecpoj

1/ The regular vaccines give great booster responses against Delta and other variants This was first shown by Moderna, with 'original recipe' vaccine booster, compare to Beta booster. https://nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01527-y

Just published @ScienceTM With blunting of the immune response, why it is so important for pregnant women to get a Covid vaccine https://science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abm2070… w/ @ScienceVisuals

Politics is derailing a crucial debate over the immunity you get from recovering from #Covid19 https://statnews.com/2021/10/19/politics-is-derailing-a-crucial-debate-over-the-immunity-you-get-from-recovering-from-covid-19/… @levfacher via @statnews “People on the right scream, so people on the left say no. We’re in this horrible, awful feedback loop of vitriol right now.”

There are 2 other impressive conclusions from this study: 1. Comparing vaccine effectiveness of booster vs 'fully vaxxed' as the baseline. Booster ADDS 81-85% protection against symptomatic infection ON TOP of what you already had from your primary (2-dose) vaccination

Comprehensive dossier evidence of effectiveness of third dose Vax. @TVMohandasPai @ARanganathan72 @TimesNow @RShivshankar

A dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine followed by a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine confers better protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection than two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, according to a study in healthcare workers published in @Nature. https://go.nature.com/3npW5gO

'The benefit of a third [booster] dose in reducing transmission is sizeable and increases with vaccine coverage and contact rates among individuals." https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.25.21265500v1… by @billy_gardner_ and @DiseaseEcology

3.5% of health and care workers already have long COVID- the highest across all occupations. How can we expect the NHS to manage a huge crisis when our govt is doing very little to support it?

As Omicron reality dawns, consider investing in better masks: "....tight-fitting FFP2 masks provide *75 times* better protection compared to well-fitting surgical masks"

Wow. COVID vaccine misinformation continues to be soooo horrible. This is incredible widespread and ABSOLUTELY made up. (Just like the insanity of implantable chips they continue to claim over and over) These fabrications are so damaging to the health of Americans.

How do we get broad immunity to SARS-CoV-2 that will protect against future variants? 2 studies (are there more?) suggest that vaccination followed by infection gives broader protection than infection followed by vaccination. @florian_krammer @profshanecrotty @GuptaR_lab

EMA recommends approval of BioNTech/Pfizer’s #COVID19vaccine, Comirnaty, for children aged 5 to 11. In this population, the dose of #Comirnaty will be lower than that used in people aged 12 and above. Read the full press release: https://ema.europa.eu/en/news/comirnaty-covid-19-vaccine-ema-recommends-approval-children-aged-5-11

Five quick tweets on the new variant B.1.1.529 Caveat first: data here is *very* preliminary, so everything could change. Nonetheless, better safe than sorry. 1) Based on the data we have, this variant is out-competing others *far* faster than Beta and even Delta did

Around the world, there are now 132 COVID-19 vaccine candidates undergoing clinical trials and 194 candidates in pre-clinical development. Read our latest #COVID19 vaccine race update:

“Participants who received a booster at least 5 months after a second dose of BNT162b2 had 90% lower mortality due to Covid-19 than participants who did not receive a booster.” #covid19

We find that logistic growth of Omicron sequence fraction looks similar between the UK, the US and Germany with roughly 1% of sequenced cases in all three countries being Omicron on Dec 1. 3/10

Well captured by @snolen. Even as vaccine supply becomes more reliable, the uptake challenge across Africa is partly down to “vaccine indifference” rather than hesitancy––there are far more pressing problems across the region.

"There is no evidence currently that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to an increase in sportspeople collapsing or dying due to heart issues such as myocarditis."

This is an important point that needs to get out there. It takes time for the *booster* to work. People will not have invincibility straight after receiving their booster, and should still be cautious.

Just updated hospital admissions for 0-5 and 6-17 years old in England.

As well as Tom's new one (B.1.1.529), C.1.2 seems to be spreading in S Africa - C.1.2 was the one with lots of worrying mutations first reported in August... plus cases in S Africa suddenly increasing again in the middle of their summer.

2 key resources, if you writing about us in Africa right now: Africa-Vaccine Data 2021: https://mediahack.co.za/datastories/coronavirus/africa-covid19/africa-vaccinations/… @mediahackza South Africa Vaccine Deliveries Quarterly, 2021: https://healthjusticeinitiative.org.za/2021/10/13/hji-summary-sheets-vaccine-supplies/#dearflip-df_3476/1/… @HealthJusticeIn Also: @Bhekisisa_MG @Afri_Alliance @PHMSA1 @MSF_access

NEW translation of the Covid-19 Handbook for our friends in Poland https://c19vax.scibeh.org/pl This work was only possible because of the work done by Mateusz Kozak and Beata Kuśmider.

but it is not vaccinated people that are disproportionately filling up ICUs. For any government whose policy is guided by ICU capacity, limiting the transmission possibilities for the unvaccinated is now the point. It is frustrating to see someone continue to ignore this

#Omicron update from Denmark. Omicron cases on the 12th of December adjusted up to 20.5% (+2%). Omicron is now having a large impact on the total number of cases in Denmark. The government has announced a press-meeting Friday, and PM says new measures are needed. 1/4

Current excess deaths estimate per @TheEconomist: 18.2 million with 95% range of 11.4 million to 21.2 million. And up it will go. https://economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates?fsrc=core-app-economist

No evidence that Omicron is less severe, new @imperialcollege study reports https://ft.com/content/020534b3-5a54-4517-9fd1-167a5db50786

South Africa Deaths (7 day average) are near double levels of a few weeks ago. They will go up further. They are *only* 7.5% of Delta peak, despite higher cases. It should NOT be a surprise that more deaths are being reported after so many cases and hospitalizations.

Many of the world's richest countries have spent the past year hoarding coronavirus vaccines, buying up enough doses to vaccinate their populations several times over and consistently failing to deliver on their promises to share doses with the developing world. The World Health Organization said the approach was "self-defeating" and "immoral."

Vaccine inequity and hesitancy made the Omicron variant more likely, scientists say

Exclusive: Hospitals plan for ‘mass casualty’ event with up to one-third of staff sick

positivity rising steeply too - there are definitely many more people we aren't catching

Risk of hospital stay 40% lower with Omicron than Delta, UK data suggests

COVID-19 & B.1.1.529: a chance for govt & others to change their mind and their approach? While we are still gathering data on B.1.1.529, the early indicators are very very alarming- likely far more transmissible and more serious than delta + more vaccine escape. (1/10)

vaccine equity has been a disaster, but I do wonder whether the exclusive focus on donations does the US/EU comparison justice. The EU allowed the export of huge numbers of EU produced doses at a time when the US did not (and EU itself was struggling to meet demand).

…this info is more relevant than immune escape. For instance the B.1.351 from ZA last year never really took off. So transmissibility a greater factor for global spread. But we’ll learn more in coming days. Based on inadequate genomic sequencing in US it’s likely here already

maybe this is a good moment to remind people that makers of mRNA vaccines have been extensively prepping for the possibility of new variants. Biontech/Pfizer have given a timeline of 100 days to the delivery of a retooled version of their vaccine

Parts of Germany seem to have potentially introduced requirements that cannot practically be met as testing capacity is proving insufficient - a dangerous moment for rule compliance Nadelöhr Corona-Tests: "Es ist Wahnsinn" via @sz

Following the meeting of the @WHO TAG-VE today, WHO classifies B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern named Omicron. We call for increased surveillance and genetic testing & thank for sharing their work in real time. More information can be found here https://who.int/news/item/26-11-2021-classification-of-omicron-(b.1.1.529)-sars-cov-2-variant-of-concern

German statistics suggesting that 8-9 of 10 infections involve at least one unvaccinated person

Ouch. Norway 4117 new cases is equivalent to over 50k in the U.K. But the kickers are the sheer speed of increase (43% in a day) and the positivity rate of c24% suggesting plenty more cases undetected.

Booster access brought forward to slow spread of Omicron COVID-19 variant

Massive French study on school transmission should now put a stopper to the “no transmission in schools” U.K. mantra: transmission rates were higher in schools than community.

"...the vaccine provided 70 percent protection in fully vaccinated individuals against severe complications that would require a patient to be hospitalized." (That is WITHOUT boosting).

Check out the #OpenWHO course "#Infodemic Management 101" https://openwho.org/courses/infodemic-management-101… via @WHO @TDPurnat cc @ScienceUpFirst @GovCanHealth Infodemic "is making it hard for people to find trusted information" & "leads to risk-taking behaviours & is eroding social cohesion & trust."

BREAKING South Africa: 82% increase in cases, week over week. 34.9% positive rate. Record 7-day average. Not near plateau. Even with milder disease (irrespective of cause), this will lead to more hospitalizations and deaths.

BREAKING: Hospitalizations South Africa Hospitalizations67% week over week. Gauteng Province66%. GP1.6% from yesterday (weekend effect) ICU 2 from yesterday. Indications remain that morbidity & mortality are reduced in this wave, relative to size of outbreak.

DOUBLING % in one day: the spike of probable #Omicron variant in Scotland has critically surged—now at 13.3%, up from 6.8% in just **1 day** (SGTF PCR proxy test). At this alarming rate of climb and displacing Delta— it will be near 100% before Xmas. https://gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/research-and-analysis/2021/12/omicron-scotland-evidence-paper/documents/omicron-scotland-evidence-paper/omicron-scotland-evidence-paper/govscot%3Adocument/omicron-scotland-evidence-paper.pdf?forceDownload=true

New preprint led by Kaori Sano in collaboration with @VivianaSimonLab https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.06.21267352v1…. Convalescent individuals induce strong mucosal secretory IgA response after mRNA vaccination. This may help to explain the robust protection from infection in that group.

Getting Africa fully vaccinated is complicated. It isn't as simple as just sending more doses https://cbc.ca/news/world/vaccine-inequity-covid-19-africa-1.6275262?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar… @markgollom Only 7.5% of Africa fully vaccinated. "...capacity & logistical challenges, along with vaccine hesitancy, are also creating significant challenges."

If you think Prior Covid protects against Omicron (B.1.1.529), think again https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.08.21267491v1… and "Neutralizing antibody titers against Omicron were low, even below the limit of detection in a significant fraction of convalescent individuals https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjJWsybGaa3egiyn5nQqTzBtl0kmvMUu/view

In the battle to debunk COVID-19 misinformation, Ottawa Public Health officials lead the way https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/in-the-battle-to-debunk-covid-19-misinformation-ottawa-public-health-officials-lead-the-way… v @ottawacitizen cc @OttawaHealth @ScienceUpFirst Me: "Debunking really does work, especially if it is done by experts. Your voice really can make a difference."

India, U.S. account for a quarter of #COVID19 #misinformation: @UAlberta study https://ualberta.ca/folio/2021/12/india-us-account-for-a-quarter-of-covid-19-misinformation-study.html… “Misinformation surged before or amid infection & death rate surges." "We need to understand how social media is used in other cultures and in different political situations,”

Excess deaths are now above 900,000 in the US. Conservative estimate as reporting takes weeks to fill in: https://cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

NEW: @UKHSA Mini Omicron Update Omicron VOC-21NOV-01 (B.1.1.529) update on cases, S gene target failure and risk assessment https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1039470/Omicron_SGTF_case_update.pdf… Updated Risk Assessment https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1039420/8_December-2021-risk-assessment-for-SARS_Omicron_VOC-21NOV-01_B.1.1.529.pdf

> A new diverse genome has appeared within the B.1.1.529 lineage that has all of the shared mutations of B.1.1.529, some of the mutations unique to BA.1 and some unique to BA.2 plus a few of its own.

BREAKING: South Africa: Week over week increase of only 4.8% today. 16.4% positive rate is near half of recent levels. 36 deaths remains in line with totals of last month Still need more info, but this combined with hospitalization data is better news....

"...With nearly 5 million children ages 5 to 11 now vaccinated against COVID-19, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says real-world monitoring finds vaccines are safe for young children..."

important update on the now withdrawn @BallouxFrancois tweet identifying hopeful turning of the corner in SA omicron data

11) Omicron is doubling every 1.6 days in UK according to @DrWilliamKu’s figure. That’s way faster growth than in South Africa. I think it’s maybe due to 2x doses of AstraZeneca being the main vaccine in the UK while SA haven’t used any AZ for a long time. Boosters now!

Now that there is evidence for community transmission in the U.K. and we have tighter testing for travellers we should reassess the red list - travel bans for countries doing excellent surveillance causes more damage than good even in the medium term. And COVID has not gone away.