‘No one really wants to talk about COVID anymore,’ the WHO’s pandemic lead laments. But the ‘worst case’ possibility of a new coronavirus exists “Omicron can cause severe disease” and “is not nature’s vaccine,” experts warned, raising concerns that evolution could produce a more dangerous variant—or a new coronavirus altogether. YahooFinance

... “until no one is at risk, everyone is at risk” of a disease that continues to evolve and affect different countries to different extents, Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for COVID-19 at the WHO, added.

Two-dose COVID vaccine efficacy durable against severe Omicron but drops in elderly

Overall two-dose vaccine effectiveness (VE) against Omicron variant-related hospitalization or death remained above 70% for at least 6 months among adults in Hong Kong but dropped to below 62% in those aged 80 and older, necessitating a third dose, finds a case-control study published today in JAMA Network Open.

...

U.S. FDA removes COVID test requirements for Pfizer, Merck pills The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday removed the need for a positive test for COVID-19 treatments from Pfizer Inc and Merck & Co Inc . Reuters Reuters

...