August 16, 2022 Health Policy New Moderna BA.1 variant vaccine approved for use in UK. We will likely see BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariant versions here as U.S. FDA wants the latter versions included in any vaccine submitted for their approval.
April 20, 2022 Vaccines Moderna reports on successful development of variant-specific updates to its vaccine.
January 27, 2022 Health Headlines Omicron subvariant BA.2 reported in Canada. General consensus is that more information is required before any conclusions are drawn. So in short, no change to public health recommendations.
December 16, 2021 Clinical Research Although bronchial lung tissue culture study showed Omicron grew 70x faster than Delta, it cannot be extrapolated to potential clinical outcomes. Lagging clinical indicators will arrive shortly to answer questions pertaining to severity of illness.
December 15, 2021 Epidemiology The talk of Omicron causing milder disease is premature. There’s still not enough data to draw broad conclusions about hospitalizations and the severity of disease caused by Omicron. Answers will come soon.
December 15, 2021 Health Headlines Omicron set to become the dominant strain in Ontario within the week. Third dose policy must change to include 18+ now and not in January given rates of exponential growth.
December 8, 2021 Clinical Research Initial Omicron data released. Small study from South Africa. Pfizer jumps in with theirs today. Many questions about clinical efficacy remain. Answers will come soon.
December 7, 2021 Epidemiology Growing evidence that omicron variant is capable of spreading rapidly in populations with immunity against other coronavirus variants. Big unknown for the next week or so is whether it more or less likely to cause severe disease and deaths.
December 3, 2021 Epidemiology Science communication should be calm, measured, provide quality evidence for claims, and offer solutions. Hyperbole and fear-mongering statements like “Omicron will dominate and overwhelm the world in 3-6 months” are unhelpful and easily misinterpreted.