U.S. health authorities on Wednesday authorized the use of synthetic antibodies developed by AstraZeneca to prevent COVID-19 infections in people who react badly to vaccines. It was the first time the Food and Drug Administration has given emergency authorization for such a purely preventative treatment. The FDA warned the drug Evusheld is “not a substitute for vaccination in individuals for whom COVID-19 vaccination is recommended” and can only be authorized for people with weakened immune systems or those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, such a strong allergic reaction. In those cases, the drug can be administered to people 12 and older. Evusheld combines two types of synthetic antibodies (tixagevimab and cilgavimab), and is given as two intramuscular injections, one right after the other. These antibodies help the immune system fight off the virus by targeting its spike protein, which allows it to enter cells and infect them. The …

The Senate narrowly approved a resolution Wednesday to nullify the Biden administration’s requirement that businesses with 100 or more workers have their employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing. The vote was 52-48. The measure now goes to the Democratic-led House, which is unlikely to take up the measure, which means the mandate would stand, though courts have put it on hold for now. Still, the vote gave senators a chance to voice opposition to a policy that they say has sparked fears back home from businesses and from unvaccinated constituents who worry about losing their jobs should the rule go into effect. “Every so often Washington, D.C., does something that lights up the phone lines. This is one of these moments,” said Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican. At home, he said, “this issue is what I hear about. This issue is a top-of-mind issue.” …

More than 40 people in the U.S. have been found to be infected with the omicron variant so far, and more than three-quarters of them had been vaccinated, the chief of the CDC said Wednesday. But she said nearly all of them were only mildly ill.  In an interview with The Associated Press, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the data is very limited and the agency is working on a more detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the United States.  “What we generally know is the more mutations a variant has, the higher level you need your immunity to be. … We want to make sure we bolster everybody’s immunity. And that’s really what motivated the decision to expand our guidance,” Walensky said, referencing the recent approval of boosters for all adults. She said …

The World Health Organization says new data is emerging every day about the potential impact of the new omicron variant on the coronavirus pandemic, but that it is premature to draw conclusions about the severity of the infection. Since omicron was detected two weeks ago in South Africa, it has spread rapidly to 57 countries. The World Health Organization says certain features of the new coronavirus variant, including its global speed and large number of mutations, suggest it could have a major impact on the evolution of the pandemic.  WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says omicron appears to be extremely contagious, with cases in South Africa rising more quickly than the delta variant. That indicates an increased risk of re-infection with omicron, he says, but adds that more data is needed to draw firmer conclusions.  “There is also some evidence that omicron causes milder diseases than delta,” he said. “But …

U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to “leverage” the federal government’s scale and purchasing power to make it carbon neutral, cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 65% in less than a decade and establish an all-electric fleet of vehicles. The order will cut emissions in federal operations as part of the government’s effort to combat climate change. Biden’s directive requires that government buildings consume 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030, the U.S. fleet of vehicles be 100% electric by 2035, and federal contracts for goods and services be carbon-free by 2050. “The United States government will lead by example to provide a strong foundation for American businesses to compete and win globally in the clean energy economy while creating well-paying union jobs at home,” the White House said in a statement announcing the climate change initiative. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. …

A Japanese billionaire and his producer rocketed to space Wednesday as the first self-paying space tourists in more than a decade.  Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and producer Yozo Hirano, who plans to film his mission, blasted off for the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.  The trio lifted off as scheduled at 12:38 p.m. (0738 GMT) aboard Soyuz MS-20 from the Russia-leaded Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.  Maezawa and Hirano are scheduled to spend 12 days in space. The two will be the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. The price of the trip hasn’t been disclosed.  “I would like to look at the Earth from space. I would like to experience the opportunity to feel weightlessness,” Maezawa said during a pre-flight news conference on Tuesday. “And I also have a personal expectation: I’m curious how the space will change me, how I will change after this space flight.”  A company that …

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was exposed to the coronavirus Tuesday by a U.N. official who already had COVID-19 and is isolating for the next few days, diplomatic sources said.  Guterres, 72, has canceled his upcoming in-person engagements, sources told AFP.  The U.N. chief was to be the guest of honor of the U.N. Correspondents Association at its annual gala in New York City on Wednesday. On Thursday, he was to participate in a U.N. Security Council meeting on the challenges of terrorism and climate change, led by Niger President Mohamed Bazoum.  Bazoum, whose country holds the council presidency, arrived in New York on Tuesday and is expected to stay until the end of the week, when he heads to Washington.  The spokesperson for the secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, declined to comment immediately on Guterres’ condition.  Dujarric indicated a few days ago that Guterres had recently received his third dose of …

The omicron variant is making headlines as the world’s newest strain of coronavirus. In the United States, where nearly 200,000 new coronavirus cases were reported Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University, top public health officials warn Americans to stay vigilant even as vaccination rates rise and travelers from countries where the variant was first detected are shut out.  Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a news briefing on Tuesday that the delta variant accounts for 99% of positive cases sequenced in the United States. She and other members of the White House’s COVID-19 response team asked the public for patience as researchers learn more about the omicron variant, which was first reported in South Africa on November 24. In the U.S., 19 states have reported omicron infections, but that number is expected to rise as Americans continue to grapple with a pandemic that …

As South Africa struggles with a new surge of COVID-19 infections due to the omicron variant of the coronavirus, a new study suggests omicron could be less severe than other forms of the virus. The New York Times reports doctors at the Steve Biko Academic and Tshwane District Hospital Complex in Pretoria observed 42 patients who had been admitted last week with COVID-19.They found that 29 patients were breathing ordinary air, while four of 13 patients who were using supplemental oxygen were doing so for reasons unrelated to the virus. Dr. Fareed Abdullah, the director of the Office of HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Research at the South African Medical Research Council, told the Times that the 166 coronavirus patients who were admitted to the hospital between November 14 and November 29 had an average hospital stay of 2.8 days, with fewer than 7 percent dying. In comparison, COVID-19 patients at the …

More than 5 million people worldwide have had their lives cut short by COVID-19, and the number keeps rising as many countries experience another wave of transmission.  The best defense against this disease is a vaccine, experts say.    Since the outbreak was first reported in 2019, the best scientists all over the world have been working on a vaccine to protect against SARS‑CoV‑2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The acronym stands for “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” to distinguish it from the first SARS outbreak in 2003.  Historically, when scientists make vaccines, they have used a live virus that is so weak it can’t reproduce, or they use a dead virus. When these weakened or inactive viruses are injected into the body, the body recognizes them as intruders, produces antibodies and fights them off.   Polio vaccines have used both weakened live viruses as well as dead ones with enormous success. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative reports that polio cases were reduced by 99.9% between 1988, when the global effort to eliminate polio was started, and 2021. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports …

More than 5 million people worldwide have had their lives cut short by COVID-19, and the number keeps rising. The best defense against this virus is a vaccine. VOA’s Carol Pearson explains one approach in making a vaccine that’s been effective against polio, measles, Ebola and a host of other viruses.   …

Three 2021 Nobel Prize laureates said Monday that climate change is the biggest threat facing the world — yet they remain optimistic — as this year’s winners began receiving their awards at scaled-down local ceremonies adapted for pandemic times.  For a second year, COVID-19 has scuttled the traditional formal banquet in Stockholm attended by winners of the prizes in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics, which were announced in October. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded separately in Oslo, Norway.  Literature laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah was first to get his prize in a lunchtime ceremony Monday at the Swedish ambassador’s grand Georgian residence in central London. Ambassador Mikaela Kumlin Granit said the U.K.-based Tanzanian author had been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”  “Customarily you would receive …

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the U.S. space agency, NASA, says it has new software that will allow its Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) to better assess potential threats posed by asteroids that can come close to Earth.  In a press release on Monday, NASA astronomers said they have upgraded their impact software, called Sentry, with its next generation, Sentry-II, to better evaluate near-Earth asteroid (NEA) impact probabilities.  NASA said to date, almost 28,000 NEAs have been found by survey telescopes that continuously scan the sky, making about 3,000 new discoveries per year. But with better technology and newer, bigger telescopes scheduled to come online, that number is expected to multiply quickly, necessitating the software upgrade.  Contrary to what some might believe, asteroids are extremely predictable celestial bodies that obey the laws of physics and follow knowable orbital paths around the sun, NASA scientists say. Sometimes, when …

Rick Levin is trying to keep the waters of Chesapeake Bay clean by building oyster reefs. VOA’s Zdenko Novacki visits him in Pasadena, Maryland, to learn how oysters filter water and about the benefits of oyster reefs for the environment and other marine life.  Camera: Philip Alexiou, Zdenko Novacki  Produced by: Zdenko Novacki …

In early 2020, a team of scientists from the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University took stem cells from African clawed frog embryos and turned them into tiny living robots. As if that isn’t amazing enough, then something unexpected happened. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. …

The World Health Organization reports a significant rise in malaria cases and deaths in 2020 due to COVID-19 disruptions in malaria services. Over the past two decades, global malaria death rates have been cut in half, saving the lives of 10.6 million people. New data gathered by the WHO show COVID-19 has stopped and even reversed the progress made in reducing deaths from this preventable, treatable disease. The WHO’s World Malaria Report estimates 241 million malaria cases and 627,000 malaria deaths globally have occurred in 2020.This represents an increase of 14 million cases and 69,000 deaths compared to the previous year. WHO links the increase to disruptions of malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services during the pandemic. Director of WHO’s Global Malaria Program, Pedro Alonso, said the situation could have been far worse. The good news, he said is that the predicted doomsday scenario did not transpire. He notes gloomy …

America’s winter wonderland is starting out this season as anything but traditional.  The calendar says December, but for much of the country, temperatures beckon for sandals. Umbrellas, if not arks, are needed in the Pacific Northwest, while snow shovels are gathering cobwebs in the Rockies.  Meteorologists attribute the latest batch of record-shattering weather extremes to a stuck jet stream and the effects of a La Nina weather pattern from cooling waters in the equatorial Pacific. It’s still fall astronomically, but winter starts December 1 for meteorologists. This year, no one told the weather that.  On Thursday, 65 weather stations across the nation set record high temperature marks for December 2, including Springfield, Missouri, hitting 24 Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit) and Roanoke, Virginia, 22 Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit). Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana, broke long-time high-temperature records by 6 degrees.  Parts of Canada and Montana have seen their highest December temperatures …

Cameroon has begun a measles vaccination drive on its northern border with Nigeria after several dozen children were found with the infection at a demobilization center. Cameroon says most of those infected are children of former fighters fleeing Boko Haram terrorism. A mother comforts her 13-month-old baby in Kanuri, a language spoken in Meri, a commercial town on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. The 24-year-old mother says she hopes her child’s life will be saved after inoculation against measles, as promised by vaccination agents deployed to her town. Prosper Essomba is the Cameroon government’s chief medical officer in Meri. He is supervising a vaccination campaign launched Friday against measles. Essomba says he first inoculated his 1-year-old son to convince people that vaccination will protect their children from a measles outbreak. He says about 100 vaccination teams have been deployed in all villages around Meri to vaccinate all children with ages …