In California, cases may have peaked. Icy world: Is Pluto a planet? The declines over the past week have been sharp, which is a sign of Omicron's retreat: Many hospitals are still coping with a crushing number of patients, because Covid hospitalization trends often trail case trends by about a week.
The final major piece of encouraging news involves booster shots: They are highly effective at preventing severe illness from Omicron. You won't necessarily find all of these wines at your local shop. Covid's Origins: A House subcommittee opened its first public hearing on the possible origins of the pandemic, including a lab leak theory that's the subject of intense political and scientific debate. Those are meaningful risks. And vaccines — particularly after a booster shot — remain extremely effective in preventing hospitalization and death. Getting sick pushed Ross Douthat's views on health policy to the left — but also made him more skeptical of some liberal solutions. The latest Omicron developments continue to be encouraging. They're down by more than 10 percent in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. More advice: Here's how to find the best wine shop in your area. China's baby bust, as well as expanded U. Next to normal composer tom crossword clue free. immigration, could create a new American century, James Pethokoukis writes on Substack. Redemption: A Nike executive is asking forgiveness for a 1965 murder. Covid Testing: The Biden administration appears to be planning to end a requirement that travelers coming from China present a negative Covid-19 test before entering the United States.
Here is today's puzzle — or you can play online. The U. will make 400 million free N95 masks available at community health centers and retail pharmacies. The following data comes from Kinsa, a San Francisco company that tracks 2. American households can receive four free rapid tests from the government. Every few months, the Times wine critic Eric Asimov takes some of the guesswork out of the experience by publishing a selection of 20 great bottles of wine under $20. It's likely to remain grim into early February. Next to normal soundtrack. Long Covid: A large study found that Covid patients were significantly more likely to experience gastrointestinal problems a year after infection than people who were not infected. 5 million internet-connected thermometers across the country. But even the hospital data shows glimmers of good news: The number of people hospitalized with Covid has begun declining over the past few days in places where Omicron arrived first: The U. S. seems to be following a similar Omicron pattern as South Africa, Britain and several other countries: A rapid, enormous surge for about a month, followed by a rapid decline — first in cases, then hospitalizations and finally deaths. For a typical 65-year-old man, the risk would be 1 in 434.
Yvette Mimieux found stardom in the early 1960s portraying delicate, fragile women in "The Time Machine, " "Where the Boys Are" and other films. When should masks come off? Lives Lived: The fashion editor André Leon Talley went from the Jim Crow South to the front rows of Paris couture, parlaying his knowledge of fashion history and his quick wit into roles as author, public speaker, television personality and curator. Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York State, said during a budget speech, "We hope to close the books on this winter surge soon. Some of the clearest research on Covid's risks comes from a team of British researchers led by Dr. Julia Hippisley-Cox of the University of Oxford. A federal judge has approved a deal to end Puerto Rico's five-year bankruptcy. Switzerland has begun reporting Covid deaths among three different groups of people: the unvaccinated; the vaccinated who have not received a booster shot; and the vaccinated who have been boosted (typically with a third shot). Sudan's security forces fatally shot seven people at a demonstration against a military coup, before a visit from U. diplomats this week. Omicron appears to be in retreat, even if the official national data doesn't yet reflect that reality. AT&T and Verizon will delay their 5G expansion near some airports after airlines said it could interfere with planes' safety equipment. Emily's List and NARAL, two abortion-rights groups, threatened to cut off support for Democrats who support the filibuster. Next to normal musical soundtrack. The protection is "remarkably high, " as Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research wrote.
New Drug's Long Odds: A promising new treatment quashes all Covid variants, but regulatory hurdles and a lack of funding make it unlikely to reach the United States market anytime soon. But they are not larger than many other risks older people face. Most wines from big retailers aren't bad, Eric told us, but the industrial process that keeps them uniform and cheap also makes them boring. Small individual risks have added up to large societal damage. It also inherits Activision's troubled workplace, The Wall Street Journal explains. Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Rack up (five letters). In today's newsletter, I'll walk through these developments, with help from charts created by my colleague Ashley Wu. In the 2019-20 flu season, about 1 out of every 138 Americans 65 and older who had flu symptoms died from them, according to the C. D. C. And Omicron probably presents less risk than the British calculator suggests, because it uses data through the first half of 2021, when the dominant version of Covid was more severe than Omicron appears to be.
Here's today's front page. "Let's be clear on this — we are winning, " Mayor Eric Adams of New York said yesterday. When should offices reopen? The first two shots still provide a lot of protection, but the booster makes a meaningful difference, as Edouard Mathieu and Max Roser of Our World in Data have noted: The next stage. But online tools can help: Eric recommends, which shows whether shops carry a particular wine, and, which ships bottles. Omicron also appears to be mild in a vast majority of cases, especially for the vaccinated.
These are tricky questions, and they could often sound inappropriate during the Omicron surge. It uses that data to estimate the percentage of Americans who have a fever every day. Shopping for wine can be overwhelming. But the full picture is less grim than the current moment.
If that happens — and there is no guarantee it will, as Katherine Wu of The Atlantic explains — it will be time to ask how society can move back toward normalcy and reduce the harsh toll that pandemic isolation has inflicted, particularly on children and disproportionately on low-income children. The team has created an online calculator that allows you to enter a person's age, vaccination status, height and weight, as well as major Covid risk factors. Bluffing: How A. I. conquered poker. American Jews are shaken but resilient, Deborah Lipstadt writes. Corporate greed, not Covid, caused the hospital staffing crisis, nurses argue in this video. Now, though, the surge is receding. I also think it's time to begin considering what life after the Omicron wave might look like. Advice from Wirecutter: Paper planners to help you organize your year. One sign of Omicron's relative mildness: Among vaccinated people in Utah (a state that publishes detailed data), the percentage of cases leading to hospitalization has been only about half as high in recent weeks as it was last summer. New Covid-19 cases are plummeting in a growing list of places. Microsoft will buy Activision Blizzard — the video game maker behind Call of Duty and Candy Crush — for $70 billion. When should asymptomatic people stop interrupting their lives because of a Covid exposure?
Caseloads are still high in many communities, and death trends typically lag case trends by three weeks. Let's see where you stand. If anything, the official Covid numbers probably understate the actual declines, because test results are often a few days behind reality.