Omicron may not cause as much lung damage as the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, according to new lab studies. That, plus vaccination, may help explain why patients with omicron are not being hospitalized or dying as often as patients infected with previous variants. But omicron is still killing an average of 1,200 people each day in the United States, about equal to the peak of the second COVID-19 wave in July and August of 2020. “If it’s milder compared to delta; delta was horrible,” said Joe Grove, a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research. “This has not necessarily just turned into the common cold all of a sudden. It is still something that we should be concerned about.” Plus, experts caution, omicron’s ferocious infectiousness means the less virulent virus can still do a lot of damage, especially among the unvaccinated who are elderly …

Influential government advisers are strongly urging that teens as young as 12 get COVID-19 boosters as soon as they’re eligible, a key move as the U.S. battles the omicron surge and schools struggle with how to restart classes amid the spike.  All Americans 16 and older are encouraged to get a booster, which health authorities say offers the best chance at avoiding the highly contagious omicron variant. Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized an extra Pfizer shot for kids ages 12 to 15, as well — but that wasn’t the final hurdle.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes recommendations for vaccinations and on Wednesday, its advisers voted that a booster was safe for the younger teens and should be offered to them once enough time — five months — has passed since their last shot. And while the CDC last month opened boosters as an …

Exactly two years after the World Health Organization issued an alert about “a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause” in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that evolved into the global COVID-19 pandemic, the world is now struggling under the weight of the fast-moving omicron variant of the coronavirus that sparked the disease.  In Brazil, a surge of new COVID-19 cases driven by the omicron variant has prompted authorities in Rio de Janeiro to cancel its iconic Carnival street festival for the second consecutive year.  Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes announced the cancellation Tuesday during a speech carried live online. Paes said the “nature” and “democratic aspect” of Carnival makes it impossible to control the potential spread of the virus.  But Paes said the traditional procession of Rio’s samba schools into the city’s Sambadrome stadium will take place next month, as authorities will impose mitigation efforts to inhibit the …

TRANSCRIPT The Inside Story: Crossing the Frontier Episode 21 – January 6, 2022   Show Open Graphics:   Voice of KANE FARABAUGH, VOA Correspondent:   All Systems go, Falcon 9 Blasts off into space. With high expectations, changing the trajectory of U.S. space exploration. And signaling a new era in the aerospace industry.       Kelly DeFazio, Lockheed Martin Orion Site Director:   We’re going to take humans farther then we’ve ever gone before.     KANE FARABAUGH: A return to the moon. More trips to Mars. And increased competition from China.       Rocky Kolb, Astronomy and Astrophysics Professor:   China is gaining rapidly on the U.S.     KANE FARABAUGH:   On The Inside Story: Crossing the Frontier.     The Inside Story:     Unidentified launch announcer:   Ok and here we go. 10. 9. 8. 7.6.5.4.3.2.1. Ignition!  And liftoff! Liftoff of Falcon 9 and …

President Joe Biden has directed his administration to buy an additional 10 million courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill, Paxlovid, bringing the total to at least 20 million courses, as part of his strategy to combat omicron. He addressed the American public Tuesday as COVID-19 cases in the U.S. surge to record levels following the holidays. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …

Illinois farmer Jack McCormick planted 350 acres of barley and radishes last fall as part of an off-season crop that he does not intend to harvest. Instead, the crops will be killed off with a weed killer next spring before McCormick plants soybeans in the same dirt.  The barley and radishes will not be used for food, but Bayer AG will pay McCormick for planting them as the so-called cover crops will generate carbon offset credits for the seeds and chemicals maker.  The purpose of cover crops is to restore soil, reduce erosion and to pull climate-warming carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The carbon trapped in roots and other plant matter left in the soil is measured to create carbon credits that companies can use to offset other pollution.  The practice shows how the agriculture industry is adapting as a result of climate change. Farmers no longer make money …

On the 40th anniversary of a famous skin cancer campaign, research has revealed that a high number of young Australians are not using sun protection.  Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. A new multi-million-dollar awareness campaign hopes to repeat the success of the ‘Slip Slop Slap’ advertisement of the early 1980s.   “Sid the seagull” the voice of the advertisement’s jingle, urged Australians to protect themselves from the sun with a shirt, sunscreen and a hat. It is an enduring message that has educated generations of people since it was released 40 years ago.  But the government believes rates of skin cancer are too high. The disease kills about 1,300 Australians each year. Research has shown that more than a quarter of Australians do not use any protection from the sun’s ultra-violet radiation.  Heather Walker, from the charity, the Cancer Council, says teenagers need …

A community health service in Africa’s largest urban slum is helping poor people get affordable emergency services during the COVID pandemic.  The Kibera community emergency response team in Nairobi is offering a $1 monthly fee for access to emergency services, including an ambulance.  Victoria Amunga has more from Nairobi. Camera:  Robert Lutta …

Conservationists are blaming climate change, land clearing and pesticides for the population crash of one of Australia’s most famous insects. Once a common sight, bogong moths have become rare in recent years. They are now recognized as endangered by the world’s leading scientific authority on vulnerable species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  The bogong moth is native to Australia. The mass migration of billions of the small insects has long been a spectacular sight in eastern Australia.    Scientists say the moths are guided by the stars and the earth’s magnetic fields.   They fly up to 1,000 kilometers from Queensland to the mountains of Victoria to shelter in caves from the heat of summer. In the caves, it was once estimated there were as many as 17,000 moths per square meter.   But Jess Abrahams, a nature campaigner from the Australian Conservation Foundation says bogong moth numbers have collapsed.    “It is a dramatic decline, and this population crash has been caused by climate change-fueled extreme drought in their breeding grounds in western Queensland. There has also …

As the COVID-19 omicron variant surges across the United States, top federal health officials are looking to add a negative test along with its five-day isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans who catch the coronavirus, the White House’s top medical adviser said Sunday.  Dr. Anthony Fauci said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now considering including the negative test as part of its guidance after getting significant “pushback” on its updated recommendations last week.  Under that Dec. 27 guidance, isolation restrictions for people infected with COVID-19 were shortened from 10 days to five days if they are no longer feeling symptoms or running a fever. After that period, they are asked to spend the following five days wearing a mask when around others.   The guidelines have since received criticism from many health professionals for not specifying a negative antigen test as a requirement for leaving isolation.   “There has been some concern about why we …

World-renowned Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter Richard Leakey, whose groundbreaking discoveries helped prove that humankind evolved in Africa, died on Sunday at the age of 77, the country’s president said. The legendary paleoanthropologist remained energetic into his 70s despite bouts of skin cancer, kidney and liver disease.  “I have this afternoon… received with deep sorrow the sad news of the passing away of Dr. Richard Erskine Frere Leakey,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement late Sunday. Born on December 19, 1944, Leakey was destined for paleoanthropology — the study of the human fossil record — as the middle son of Louis and Mary Leakey, perhaps the world’s most famous discoverers of ancestral hominids. Initially, Leakey tried his hand at safari guiding, but things changed when at 23 he won a research grant from the National Geographic Society to dig on the shores of northern Kenya’s Lake Turkana, despite having …

France has lowered the age of its mask mandate to 6-year-old children, officials announced Saturday. The news comes just days before schools reopen Monday, following the winter holiday break. While the mandate requires children to wear masks in indoor public places, the mandate will also include outside locations in cities like Paris and Lyon where an outside mandate is already in place. The wildly contagious omicron variant, French authorities said Saturday, has resulted in four consecutive days of over 200,000 new infections. The chief executive of Britain’s National Health Service Confederation told the BBC Saturday that the surge in COVID cases fueled by omicron may force hospitals to ban visitors. “It’s a last resort. But, when you’re facing the kind of pressures the health service is going to be under for the next few weeks, this is the kind of thing managers have to do,” Matthew Taylor said. Europe has …

India’s health ministry reported 22,775 new cases of the coronavirus Saturday, saying the new cases bring the country’s omicron variant count to 1,431. Public health officials, however, have warned that the country’s COVID-19 tallies are likely undercounted. The Sydney Morning Herald reported Saturday that paramedics in the Australian state of New South Wales had a “record breaking” level of calls overnight, resulting in its busiest night in 126 years, as the omicron variant of coronavirus sweeps across the globe. New South Wales Ambulance Inspector Kay Armstrong told the newspaper the telephone calls included, “the usual business of New Year’s Eve – alcohol-related cases, accidents, obviously mischief – and then we had COVID on top of that.” The Herald reported paramedics also received “time-wasting calls from people wanting COVID-19 test results.” The chief executive of Britain’s NHS Confederation said the omicron variant will “test the limits of finite NHS [National Health …