omicron

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data that showed around 60 percent of Americans — more than half of adults and three quarters of children — have now been infected with the coronavirus. 

But herd immunity looks likely to remain elusive, and many people are still at high risk from Covid-19.

What do the C.D.C. figures mean for immunity in the United States, and for the future of the pandemic?

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Sixty percent of Americans, including 75 percent of children, had been infected with the coronavirus by February — another remarkable milestone in a pandemic that continues to confound expectations.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The pandemic seems to be entering a new phase as Omicron has taken hold. Is it milder? And how might we make decisions based on the latest data?

Predictions that lockdowns might lead to a baby boom have proven wrong - in fact fertility is falling.

We re-examine a baffling claim about the number of children being abducted every year in the US after claims by a Republican politician on social media, and we run our statistical measuring tape up the inside leg of the government’s promise to give everyone a booster jab before New Year’s Day.

 The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has a reputation for causing mild illness, yet it’s fueling a staggering rise in hospitalizations across the country. 

In some of the early hot spots for the variant, emergency rooms are filling up, hospitals are being flooded with new patients and there aren’t enough staff to care for all of them. 

We explore why the Omicron surge is leading to hospitalizations and hear from doctors about what they are seeing, and why this surge feels different from the ones that came before. 

Guest: Emily Anthes, a reporter covering science and health for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Covid hospitalizations are surging, though severe cases are a smaller share of the total than in previous waves. With staff shortages, some hospitals are still in crisis.
• In the cities where Omicron first drove a rapid rise in Covid cases, serious outcomes including I.C.U. stays and deaths are following case curves upward.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Omicron variant is fueling record-breaking cases across the world and disrupting life. But it may not present as great a danger of hospitalization and severe illness as earlier variants. We explore why this is and what it means for the next stage of the pandemic.

Guest: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• New studies are providing the first indication of why the Omicron variant causes milder disease than previous versions of the coronavirus: It spares the lungs.
• The decision by U.S. health officials to shorten isolation periods for many infected with the coronavirus has drawn both tempered support and intense opposition from scientists.
• The growing consensus in nations with Omicron that the virus is moving too fast to catch is tempered by early evidence that the variant causes milder symptoms.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Omicron is now the dominant strain of covid in the United States; Joe Biden threatens the unvaccinated with illness and death for Christmas; and the White House gives up on Joe Manchin.

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Today on the Matt Walsh Show, the media is in full panic pushing mode over omicron. We are told that a winter of death and misery is upon us. But how worried should we really be? Also, Joe Manchin blocks Biden’s agenda. Pope Francis continues his war against conservative Catholics. And students in Fairfax county protest a hate crime, but wait until you hear the totally unexpected twist in that story. And finally in our Daily Cancellation, Mark Zuckerberg has launched his virtual reality meta verse, and the meta verse has already had its first Me Too moment. 

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The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is incredibly contagious — it is able to infect people with even greater frequency than the Delta variant, and it is skilled at evading the immune system’s defenses. Much is still unknown about the new variant, and scientists are racing to understand its threat. But amid the uncertainty, there’s good news about a prospective new virus treatment: A pill by Pfizer is effective in reducing people’s risk of hospitalization or death from Covid-19.

We explore these two developments and what they could mean for the next phase of the pandemic.

Guest: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• An Omicron surge is likely. Here’s what to expect.
• Pfizer announced that its Covid pill was found to stave off severe disease in a key clinical trial and that it is likely to work against the highly mutated Omicron variant of the virus.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Congress holds former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt, Michael Kosta highlights the biggest scams of 2021, and Chelsea Handler talks about her Vaccinated and Horny Tour.

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The story of the Omicron variant began a week ago, when researchers in southern Africa detected a version of the coronavirus that carried 50 mutations. 

When scientists look at coronavirus mutations, they worry about three things: Is the new variant more contagious? Is it going to cause people to get sicker? And how will the vaccines work against it? 

We explore when we will get the answers to these three questions, and look at the discovery of the variant and the international response to it. 

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a reporter covering science and global health for The New York Times.

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• South African scientists have said that while they need more data to be sure, existing treatments and precautions seem to be effective against the Omicron variant.
• Mutations can work together to make a virus more fearsome, but they can also cancel one another out. This phenomenon, called epistasis, is why scientists are reluctant to speculate on Omicron.
• Almost two years into the pandemic, finger-pointing, lack of coordination, sparse information and fear are once again influencing policy.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.