Why new COVID variants are driving a surprise surge
In its evolutionary fight for survival, the COVID virus is switching strategies: It’s becoming a master at slipping past our immune systems. And that, say experts, is largely why we’re dealing with an unexpected surge.
Powered by two mutations, new lineages of the omicron variant — called BA.2 and its more recent descendants BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 — are increasing rates of vaccine breakthrough and reinfection, according to an analysis published Saturday by Trevor Bedford, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who studies the evolution of viruses.
These latest strains are succeeding “not because they’re more contagious, as much as they are more immune evasive,” Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA adviser and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said at a recent presentation at UC San Francisco. “This is something that surprises virologists.”
They’re driving up case counts, even among those who are fully vaccinated or previously infected.
—The Mercury News
Bill Cosby's civil trial begins for alleged 1975 assault of teen at Playboy Mansion
Nearly a year after being freed from prison, Bill Cosby is facing yet another sexual assault allegation in a court case kicking off in California Wednesday.
The embattled 85-year-old actor is not expected to appear in the Santa Monica courtroom to face Judy Huth, who claims that she and a friend met Cosby while he was in Los Angeles in 1975 to shoot “Let’s Do It Again” with Sidney Poitier.
A few days later, she claims, Cosby got her drunk and forced her to perform a sex act on him at the Playboy Mansion when she was just 16. Huth, now 64, filed a civil lawsuit against Cosby in 2014, seeking financial damages, and a police report, but no criminal charges were ever brought.
Cosby’s lawyers have publicly admitted the pair met at Hugh Hefner’s sprawling home after a photo already confirmed their meeting, but claim that Huth was 18, not 16, at the time.
The trial, likely to last about two weeks, is one of the last for Cosby, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women dating back to the 1960s and crossing states.
—New York Daily News
Colorado becomes first state to ban anonymous sperm and egg donations
DENVER — The days of being able to anonymously donate sperm or eggs in Colorado will soon be over.
Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday signed a landmark bill that will make Colorado the first state in the nation to give donor-conceived individuals the right to learn their donor’s identity when they turn 18, and access that person’s medical history before that.
The Donor-Conceived Persons and Families of Donor-Conceived Persons Protection Act, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2025, also caps the number of families that can use a specific donor and will require sperm and gamete banks to permanently maintain a donor’s records and regularly update their medical history. The minimum age to donate will be raised to 21.
“This is groundbreaking,” said Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor and expert on fertility law. “We’re really not sure what these bills should look like ideally, but we have one now.”
—The Denver Post
The queen has seen it all in her 70 years. How will Prince Charles compare?
A worsening cost-of-living crisis, a messy political scandal and the threat of further repercussions from the war in Ukraine form an unlikely backdrop for a celebration of national stability.
As the U.K. marks Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, the clouds are a reminder that the 96-year-old monarch won’t be around forever, just as the country faces an uncertain future. Beyond the most immediate challenges, the unresolved status of Northern Ireland after Brexit and Scotland split over independence raise questions about whether the kingdom will even stay united in the coming decades.
The pomp of royal patronage or public scrutiny of her family dramas more often capture attention around the world, but over 70 years the queen’s private weekly meetings with the prime minister have arguably been just as important in providing a constant thread running through British public life.
That deep well of experience means that when Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Buckingham Palace each Wednesday, he’s talking to a confidante who had a regular audience with his hero Winston Churchill. Elizabeth was just 25 when she began her weekly conversations with her first prime minister, and she’s had a unique insight into every political crisis the country has navigated since then.
—Bloomberg News
