If someone told you in March, when the World Health Organization finally called the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic, that we’d have three strong coronavirus vaccine candidates by mid-November, you might have called that person delusional. Yet with Monday’s news from AstraZeneca and University of Oxford that early results from their phase 3 trial demonstrate their vaccine’s effectiveness, that’s exactly the scenario we’re in. In a press release, the pharmaceutical giant and its Oxford co-developers reported interim findings from two groups in their ongoing trials — one in the UK and one in Brazil. The trials used different approaches to inoculating the people who participated, and found two levels of efficacy,…

On Wednesday, under increasing criticism for the state’s slow vaccine rollout, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced that all Californians 65 and older will be eligible for the shot. But if you were a Californian who wanted to find more information about where to get that shot for yourself or your loved one, you would’ve been out of luck. While the state’s website has been updated to say that individuals 65 or older are eligible, there are no tools to find a nearby location where vaccines are available. The state’s official FAQ answers the question, “How can I get the Covid-19 vaccine?” with, “Most Californians will be vaccinated at community vaccination…

MAYO HAVE MADE five changes for Saturday night’s trip to Omagh for a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final against Tyrone. David McBrien comes in at full-back for his first league start of the season, with Castlebar Mitchels youngster Donnacha McHugh named to start alongside him. Fionn McDonagh, Jason Doherty and Paul Towey are the three players drafted into attack. Padraig O’Hora, Michael Plunkett, Jack Carney, Diarmuid O’Connor and Paddy Durcan are the players to make way. There are several positional changes, most notably in Aiden O’Shea named at centre-back. Throw-in is 5.45pm at Healy Park as Mayo seek to rebound from last Saturday’s loss to Kerry while Tyrone look…

President-elect Joe Biden announced a plan on Friday for what will likely be his most pressing challenge when he takes the White House next week: fixing America’s messy Covid-19 vaccine rollout. The plan builds on Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic stimulus proposal, which included a $400 billion Covid-19 plan, announced on Thursday. It seeks more support to states and lower levels of government, a greater expansion of vaccine eligibility, funding for more public health workers, a boost in vaccine production, better communication about the vaccines, an education and awareness campaign, and more. He promises 100 million vaccine doses delivered in his first 100 days in office. Above all, the plan aims…

For the nearly 100 million people around the world who’ve been infected with the coronavirus, new science offers some comfort: Reinfections appear to be rare, and you may be protected from Covid-19 for at least five months. The study, the largest of its kind, followed more than 20,000 health workers in the UK, regularly testing them for infection and antibodies. Between June and November, the researchers — from Public Health England (PHE) — found 44 potential reinfections out of the 6,614 participants who had tested positive for antibodies or had a previous positive PCR or antibody test when they joined the study. Meanwhile, of the 14,000-plus people who had tested…

There’s a reason why a new, more contagious variant of SARS-CoV-2 appeared first in the UK: The country does a lot of viral genetic sequencing. Since the start of the pandemic, researchers in the UK have uploaded 151,859 individual SARS-CoV-2 sequences to GISAID, an international platform for sharing viral genomic data. That’s the highest number of sequences shared by any country in the world. If a more contagious strain of SARS-CoV-2 first evolved in the United States, scientists likely would not have noticed so quickly. Despite having a larger population than the UK, a sophisticated biomedical research industry, and tens of millions more cases of Covid-19, to date US labs…

Since the start of the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has been mutating, its genetic code slowly changing as it spreads from person to person across the globe. For most of that time, the mutations didn’t concern scientists. The genetic changes didn’t seem meaningful in terms of how dangerous the virus is. Mutations are normal. Some even weaken the virus. Now, things are different. There are three mutated variants of SARS-CoV-2 of particular concern around the world. Researchers do not have the same level of evidence for each: One is more well understood than the others. But in each case, researchers see a seed of something concerning. There’s…

More than 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been distributed around the world so far. Only 55 — 55! — have gone to people in low-income countries. In fact, just one country: Guinea. Those 55 doses in Guinea don’t even represent “the start of a ‘real’ national vaccination rollout,” said Edouard Mathieu, head of data at Oxford University’s Our World in Data, which has been tracking the global vaccine effort. Rather, a few Guinean public officials were vaccinated at the end of December — with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine — on an experimental basis, the Associated Press reported. “Then nobody was vaccinated after that,” added Mathieu. (The Guinea health…

THEY WERE THE days of their lives. At least that is what his father often tells him. Regularly they gather and reminisce about that famous summer. In 2014, Darragh Joyce captained Kilkenny to All-Ireland minor glory against a Limerick team that included Sean Finn, Cian Lynch, Barry Nash, Peter Casey and Seamus Flanagan. Afterwards, Tipperary and Kilkenny played out a thrilling draw in the senior final. Still giddy from success, a few weeks later Joyce and his team-mates boarded the bus to Dublin and journeyed to Hill 16. From there he watched his older brother Kieran, who didn’t play the first day, put in a man-of-the-match performance as the Cats…

President Joe Biden on Thursday set a new goal for Covid-19 vaccines in the US: 200 million shots in his first 100 days in office. That’s up from Biden’s original goal of 100 million in 100 days. “I know it is ambitious — twice our original goal,” Biden said. But the goal of 200 million shots in 100 days is really not that ambitious; it’s achievable if absolutely nothing changes with America’s current vaccine rollout. That’s a testament to how much America’s vaccine campaign has improved since Biden took office. Before Inauguration Day, the country administered less than 1 million shots a day. Today, the US is at 2.5 million…