WHO chief worried about 'tsunami' of omicron, delta cases | AP News BERLIN (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that he's worried about the omicron and delta variants of COVID-19 producing a “tsunami” of cases between them, but he's still hopeful that the world will put the worst of the pandemic behind it in 2022. AP NEWS

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A new, low-cost Texas Children’s Hospital vaccine gets approval for use in India

A COVID-19 vaccine created at the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development in Houston has received emergency use authorization in India, after nearly 10 years of research and funding obstacles in 2020.

The goal is to make the vaccine – called Corbevax – available in other low- and middle-income nations across the globe to help prevent future variants of concern from forming.

“As long as we leave the southern hemisphere unvaccinated new variants of concern for us will emerge," said Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean at Baylor's National School of Tropical Medicine. “The only way to stop it is to vaccinate the world and we think our [vaccine] is going to be a major contributor to that."

Asia keeps omicron at bay, but a surge may be inevitable | AP News TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Much of Asia has largely managed to keep omicron at bay even as the variant rages in other parts of the world, but the region that is home to most of the globe’s population is bracing for what may be an inevitable surge. AP NEWS

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Pharmacies don't have enough staff to keep up with prescriptions Pharmacy technicians are quitting in waves, saying they’re being asked to do too much with too little pay, increasing the possibility of prescription mistakes. YahooNews

Heidi Strehl worked as a pharmacy technician at a Rite Aid in the Pittsburgh suburbs for more than 16 years. She loved her customers, enjoyed her job and thought of her co-workers as family. But this fall, Strehl abruptly quit, walking out in the middle of a shift — one of many in a wave of pharmacy technicians who are doing the same.

CDC significantly cuts estimate of omicron's prevalence in US The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday significantly revised downward the estimate of the percentage of new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. Nathaniel Weixel TheHill

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday significantly revised downward the estimate of the percentage of new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. caused by the omicron variant of the virus.