Category: Technica Aquarius

Enlarge / Illustration of antibodies (red and blue) responding to an infection with Covid-19 (purple). (credit: Getty Images)

A lower share of people infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant are likely to require hospital treatment compared with cases of the Delta strain, according to healthcare data from South Africa, Denmark, and the UK.

The findings by separate research teams raise hopes that there will be fewer cases of severe disease than those caused by other strains of the virus, but the researchers cautioned that Omicron’s high degree of infectiousness could still strain health services.

The reduction in severe illness was likely to stem from Omicron’s greater propensity, compared with other variants, to infect people who have been vaccinated or previously infected, experts stressed, though the UK studies also hinted at a possible drop in intrinsic severity.

(credit: Andrew Cunningham)

After an all-virtual Consumer Electronics Show in 2021, it was looking like January 2022’s CES would go back to being an in-person event. Though the Consumer Technology Association is forging ahead with the show, the list is growing of companies that are either going remote or canceling their plans entirely because of the COVID-19 surge being driven by the delta and omicron variants, according to Bloomberg.

Amazon, Twitter, Meta, and Pinterest have all dropped out, and T-Mobile has announced that it has chosen to “significantly limit our in-person participation” at CES and has canceled a planned keynote speech from CEO Mike Sievert. Nvidia was already planning a virtual conference for this year’s show, while AMD will also have “a limited presence,” according to the report. Press outlets like The Verge, TechCrunch, Engadget and, yes, Ars Technica, are also planning to cover the event remotely.

Other companies are planning to show, though many say that they are “monitoring the situation” and that their plans may include a mix of virtual and in-person presentations. Samsung, Qualcomm, Sony, Google, and HTC are all still planning to show up.

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COVID-19 patients as young as 12 can now be treated with Paxlovid, an antiviral pill developed by Pfizer, after the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization on Wednesday. 

“Today’s authorization introduces the first treatment for COVID-19 that is in the form of a pill that is taken orally—a major step forward in the fight against this global pandemic,” said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “This authorization provides a new tool to combat COVID-19 at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.” 

In early November, Pfizer published trial results for the new oral medication, saying that it reduced hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 by 89 percent. Although the results had not undergone peer-review, Paxlovid’s strong effectiveness moved an independent data-monitoring committee to recommend ending the trial early.