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 Sydney set to unveil freedom roadmap as more curbs eased
Australian authorities announced plans on Monday to gradually reopen
locked-down Sydney, unveiling a two-tiered system that will give
citizens inoculated for COVID-19 more freedoms than the unvaccinated
for several weeks.
Movement restrictions the most populous state of New South Wales
will be lifted gradually from Oct. 11 to Dec. 1 as vaccination rates
push through 70%, 80% and 90%. However, people who are not fully
inoculated will not be allowed to join in renewed activities, like
community sports, dining out and shopping, until the final date.
Study says pandemic cut life expectancy by most since WW2
The COVID-19 pandemic reduced life expectancy in 2020 by the largest
amount since World War Two, according to a study published on Monday
by Oxford University, with the life expectancy of American men
dropping by more than two years.
There were greater drops in life expectancy for men than women in
most countries, with reductions in life expectancy in 27 of the 29
countries overall. There have been nearly 5 million reported deaths
caused by the new coronavirus, a Reuters tally shows.
New York may use National Guard to replace unvaccinated healthcare
workers
New York Governor Kathy Hochul is considering employing the National
Guard and out-of-state medical workers to fill hospital staffing
shortages with tens of thousands of workers unlikely to meet a
Monday deadline for mandated COVID-19 vaccination. Some 16% of the
state's 450,000 hospital staff, or roughly 70,000 workers, have not
been fully vaccinated, the governor's office said.
The plan, outlined in a statement from Hochul on Saturday, would
allow her to declare a state of emergency to include licensed
professionals from other states and countries as well as retired
nurses. National Guard officers with medical training would be used
to keep hospitals and other medical facilities adequately staffed.
Scientists map antibody binding sites on virus spike
[to top of second column] |
 A new COVID-19 "antibody map" is helping
researchers identify antibodies that will be
able to neutralize the coronavirus even after it
mutates, according to a report published on
Thursday in Science. Using hundreds of
antibodies collected from COVID-19 survivors
around the world, a global research team mapped
out exactly where each antibody attaches to the
spike protein on the virus surface, which it
uses to break into cells and infect them.
The researchers looked for - and found - antibodies that target
sites on the spike that are so important for the viral life cycle
that the virus probably could not function without them. Those sites
are likely to remain targets for vaccines or treatments even when
the virus mutates. "If you are making an antibody cocktail, you'd
want at least one of those antibodies in there because they are
probably going to maintain their efficacy against most variants,"
said coauthor Kathryn Hastie of the La Jolla Institute for
Immunology in California, in a news release.
Vaccinated pregnant women pass antibodies to babies
Pregnant women who get an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 pass high
levels of protective antibodies to their babies, new research shows.
The findings, reported on Wednesday in the American Journal of
Obstetrics and Gynecology - Maternal Fetal Medicine, indicate that
"the antibodies that the mother is building to the vaccine are
crossing the placenta and that's likely to confer benefits for the
infant after it's born," said coauthor Dr Ashley Roman of NYU
Langone Health in New York City.
It is not clear whether the timing of vaccination during pregnancy
is related to antibody levels in the baby or how long the antibodies
last.
"We don't know how long those antibodies stick around in the baby,"
Roman said. "But the presence of these antibodies in the cord blood,
which is the fetus' blood, indicates that the baby also has
potential to derive benefit from maternal vaccination."
(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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