Being 'fully vaccinated' but not boosted doesn't help against omicron, study finds
Two shots of COVID-19 vaccine without an additional booster offer essentially no lasting protection against infection with omicron, and a coronavirus infection is as effective as a recent booster shot in preventing a new omicron-fueled illness, researchers reported Wednesday.
At the same time, any immunity to the highly contagious variant, either from infection or vaccination, appears to offer significant and lasting protection against serious illness, hospitalization and death, the researchers found. And if you haven't had either the virus or the vaccine, doctors urged, it's better to get the jab.
The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, provide some of the best understanding to date on the longevity of different types of coronavirus immunity and offer insight into the future of the pandemic.
"COVID-19 is going to stay with us essentially forever. It's not really going to disappear. But the question will be: Will we be able to live with it somehow?" said Laith Jamal Abu-Raddad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar and a co-author of the study. "And the initial results we are getting are actually very encouraging."
—Los Angeles Times
Refiners led by Exxon face Biden’s wrath as profits explode
Exxon Mobil Corp., Marathon Petroleum Corp. and the other top U.S. oil refiners are on course to reap a combined $10 billion in profits this quarter even as U.S. President Joe Biden lambastes the industry for closing plants.
With little prospect for any near-term boost in gasoline output, the bonanza will go on for years, barring an economic crash, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said. Fuel supplies already are so tight that any surprise hiccup in the system, such as a hurricane that rakes Gulf Coast refineries, could force rationing, according to the bank.
With U.S. consumers paying a record $5 for a gallon of gasoline and sky-high diesel prices bleeding through the rest of the supply chain, Biden has pivoted from blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine to accusing domestic refiners of gouging and profiteering.
Just days after Biden asserted that Exxon is making “more money than God,” his emissaries fanned out to press the case that something suspect is going on with fuel production and pricing.
—Bloomberg News
For president, Elon Musk leans toward DeSantis, who jokes about African American support
ORLANDO, Fla. — Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter he was leaning toward Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Republican presidential race.
In response, DeSantis deflected speculation about his presidential ambitions and joked, “I welcome support from African Americans. What can I say?”
Musk, the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $219 billion, was born in South Africa and has white Afrikaner ancestry.
“I supported Yang last time, but DeSantis has a better chance of winning,” Musk added, referring to Andrew Yang, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in 2020.
DeSantis has spent the last two years raising his national profile among Republicans but has stopped short of saying whether he would run for president in 2024. He and his political mentor, former President Donald Trump, have been reportedly at odds over whether DeSantis would step aside for another Trump run.
—Orlando Sentinel
Russian dissident Navalny moved to tougher prison camp
MOSCOW — Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who has just been sentenced to another nine years in prison, says he has been transferred to a prison camp with harsher conditions than before.
He has been transferred to penal colony 6 in Melekhovo near the city of Kovrov and is currently in quarantine, the 46-year-old announced on Instagram on Wednesday.
Earlier, relatives, associates, friends and supporters had worried about the whereabouts of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critic. Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said the day before that his life was in danger.
The prominent anti-corruption campaigner's lawyer had not been told where the leading opposition figure had been moved to at the prison camp in Pokrov where he had been before. Now the lawyer had also seen Navalny in the new prison camp, Yarmysh said.
The camp with particularly harsh detention conditions is located about 93 miles farther away from the Pokrov penal colony, or some 162 miles northeast of the Russian capital, Moscow.
—dpa
