PLUS: The Covid-19 headlines you need to know, a distraction, and something to read.
By Eve Sneider | 03.17.22 | A new Omicron strain spreads in Europe, the White House announces a new coronavirus czar, and companies worldwide will make Pfizer's antiviral. But first, here's this week's big story: |  | Pfizer and BioNTech applied for emergency use authorization from the FDA earlier this week to administer a fourth dose of their Covid-19 shot to adults over 65. The drugmakers said the move was based on two data sets from Israel that indicate an additional shot lowered rates of confirmed infections and severe illness. One of the data sets, which featured research from an ongoing trial, was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine; the other hasn't yet been peer-reviewed or published in a professional journal. Several countries have already approved fourth shots, and some older Americans have taken it upon themselves to procure an additional booster even without FDA authorization. When boosters were first approved in the US last summer, some experts and people around the world expressed outrage that Americans were getting third shots when so many other countries had yet to receive initial doses. These criticisms are likely to come up again as the FDA weighs approving another round of shots. | | Cases are rising in roughly a dozen Western European countries, due to the BA.2 strain of the Omicron variant, which appears to be more transmissible than the original strain. (Washington Post) Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University's School of Public Health and a prominent voice throughout the pandemic, will be the new White House Covid-19 response coordinator, replacing Jeff Zients. (NPR) Today the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool announced a deal that will help 35 companies around the globe manufacture generic versions of Pfizer's oral coronavirus antiviral, making the drug available to more than half of the world's population. (ABC News) The Biden Administration said earlier this week that the US is running short on boosters and other Covid treatments and implored Congress to sign off on $22.5 billion more in pandemic funding to get ahead of a potential next wave. (CNBC) The WHO had intended to evaluate Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use authorization but announced on Wednesday that this assessment has been postponed due to the country's invasion of Ukraine. (New York Times) | | When you think you can save everything online, you might tend to just save it all—even when you know you're probably never going to look at most of those old photos or emails again. But it's not too late to reimagine and reform our relationships with information. | | A new tool from OpenAI and GitHub purports to help automate writing code. But can a technological tool actually build new generations of software? It's complicated. | |
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