WHO names variant found in Belgium and Israel Omicron White House adviser Fauci: no indication variant is in USBioNTech says vaccine can be tweaked in 100 days if neededJoe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said on Friday there was “no indication” the new “Omicron” coronavirus variant discovered in southern Africa had reached the US.Nonetheless, the the Biden administration...

Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science are hoping to breed corals that are more resilient to extreme heat events. The researchers collected hundreds of coral samples from the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef that have survived three mass bleaching events since 2016. The samples have to be collected before they spawn which occurs only once a year, several days after a...

We do not yet know how much of a threat it poses, but the pandemic has already shown it is better to act earlyCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageHearts are sinking. Many had hoped the worst of the pandemic was over, enjoying a return to quasi-normality despite warnings that this winter could prove punishing. Now Covid cases are surging across Europe; rates are rising in...

Key questions answered about coronavirus variant that has been detected in South AfricaCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe B.1.1.529 variant was identified on Tuesday and highlighted as a concern due to its high number of mutations, which could lead it to evade immunity. It was also linked to a surge in case numbers in the Gauteng province of South Africa, an urban...

The only way to stop B.1.1.529 and other mutations is through testing, masks, and getting vaccines to everyone in the worldMany of the world’s leading Covid-19 experts are raising the alarm about a new variant which has been described as “horrific” and “the worst ever”. Authorities are understandably worried. But it’s important to place their concerns in context. We have detected...

Ex-PM says world was ‘forewarned’ of dangers of failing to vaccinate poorer countries amid rise of new variant‘New variant is no surprise when rich countries are hoarding vaccines’Coronavirus – latest updatesThe failure of the world to get vaccines to the developing world is “coming back to haunt us”, Gordon Brown has warned, as experts said the emergence of variants such as...

Western countries are destroying surplus doses of vaccine while the poorest nations go without. This must changeDespite the repeated warnings of health leaders, our failure to put vaccines into the arms of people in the developing world is now coming back to haunt us. We were forewarned – and yet here we are.In the absence of mass vaccination, Covid is not only spreading uninhibited among...

Prof Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester, on the possibility of a cold vaccineFamously, there is no cure for the common cold. But with the success of the Covid vaccine, could it finally be in grabbing – or, rather, jabbing – distance? I asked Prof Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester, about the possibility of a cold vaccine.I have...

Studies of MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelics have shown tremendous potential for therapeutic applicationsI study psychedelics. The organization I work for – the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) – has been researching MDMA since 1992, seven years after the substance was prohibited. Our organization was founded in 1985.One of a few treatments...

Dr Susan Hopkins said R value of variant first found in Gauteng, South Africa, is now 2Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe chief medical adviser to the UK Health and Security Agency has warned that a newly identified Covid-19 variant in southern Africa is the “most worrying we’ve seen”, with transmission levels not recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.Dr...