The WHO says the mu variant has “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape.” But it says further studies are needed to find out whether the variant reported in the United States, Japan, Ecuador and parts of Europe will be resistant to coronavirus vaccines.
As the United States is expected to roll out coronavirus booster shots later this month, pending reviews by federal health agencies, Fauci also said he would not be surprised if three shots — not two — become the new standard for someone to be considered fully vaccinated.
Here’s what to know
‘Vaccine snob’ travelers head to Guam for sun, sea — and shots
TUMON, Guam — Passport: check. Coronavirus test: negative. Temperature: normal.
Wearing an N95 mask and face shield, Jimmy Lin lugged his bag full of instant noodles and beachwear out of Guam’s modest airport one recent afternoon.
“It feels kind of surreal being here,” said the 37-year-old from Taiwan, who owns a ski resort in Japan that he hasn’t visited since early 2020 because of travel restrictions. “I used to travel abroad at least every other month, and then suddenly the world was closed on me.”
Like thousands of Asian tourists who have visited this American outpost in the Pacific since early this summer, Lin was in Guam to get his preferred coronavirus shots — Pfizer’s messenger-RNA doses — under a vaccine tourism initiative designed to offset pandemic losses.
While an increasing number of tourism-reliant countries, such as Italy and Thailand, recognize vaccination records for travel, a vacation abroad remains off-limits for millions of the unvaccinated. Enter Guam, a U.S. territory with ample vaccine supplies and no quarantine restrictions, where more than 80 percent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.
For residents of Taiwan, South Korea and elsewhere, three weeks on a tropical island plus the chance to get doubly dosed equals an opportunity they can’t always get at home because of supply shortages and access issues.
Key coronavirus updates from around the globe
Here’s what to know about the top coronavirus stories around the world from news reports.
- The European Commission and drugmaker AstraZeneca reached an agreement on Friday that ends legal proceedings over the purchase of vaccine doses, after a prolonged dispute about shortages and deliveries.
- In North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his health officials to strengthen preventive measures against the coronavirus, the country’s state media reported Friday. This follows Pyongyang’s rejection of a series of vaccine shipments. The reclusive state has also formally reported zero covid cases, a figure drawing skepticism from outside experts.
- South Korea on Friday confirmed its first three infections of the mu coronavirus variant, saying that all three cases were brought in from abroad — specifically the United States, Colombia and Mexico.
- Soccer fans in Argentina will get a glimpse of the much-loved game after President Alberto Fernández authorized some spectators for a Sept. 9 World Cup qualifying match against Bolivia. Spectators at stadiums had been banned for 20 months due to the pandemic. Now, fans will be allowed to fill 30 percent of the stadium.
- Thousands of Asian tourists are paying a trip to Guam, the American outpost in the Pacific, to get their coronavirus shots under a vaccine tourism initiative designed to offset pandemic losses on the island.
- Australia will receive 4 million Pfizer vaccine doses from the U.K., its Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday. The move is part of a “swap deal” between the two countries, with Australia sending doses to the U.K. in the future.
- In Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, 72, said Friday that he would not seek reelection in the ruling party’s leadership race this month, amid plummeting approval ratings over his handling of the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. economy added a lackluster 235,000 jobs in August as delta variant caused coronavirus case spike
The U.S. economy added just 235,000 jobs in August, a disappointing month of hiring as the delta variant caused coronavirus caseloads around the country to spike.
The unemployment rate dropped slightly to 5.2 percent.
The stubbornness of the coronavirus, fueled by the transmissibility of the new variant and the country’s large pockets of unvaccinated people, has begun raising questions about the country’s long-term recovery, as large sectors of the economy, such as the leisure and hospitality sectors, remain well below pre-pandemic numbers.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers become second NFL team to reach full vaccination
The defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers has vaccinated its entire team, Head Coach Bruce Arians said, making the franchise the second in the NFL to reach the milestone after the Atlanta Falcons.
“We’re 100 percent vaccinated. Our entire organization — all the players, all the coaches, everybody,” Arians said on Thursday, speaking to reporters after a practice. Arians said he expects his team to be fully available before the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys next week on Sept. 9. “We’ll have everybody back by Monday,” he said.
Running back Leonard Fournette, one of the last vaccination holdouts, said he had decided to receive shots to help protect his teammates. “[I’m] just trying to be the best teammate I can be, not causing no more than what we can handle,” he said. “So [I’m] just trying to be the bigger person and get it over with.”
Strict league protocols mandate days-long sit-outs for players who show symptoms or get in touch with infected individuals, possibly forcing them to miss key games during the season. The league has also said that a team may be forced to forfeit, and hence lose a game, if a match is canceled because of outbreaks triggered by unvaccinated individuals.
Cam Newton, one of the more prominent NFL players to remain unvaccinated, was cut by the New England Patriots this week, giving rookie Mac Jones an opportunity to start the season.
Patriots’ Head Coach Bill Belichick has said Newton’s vaccination status had nothing to do with his release. Newton missed days of practice last month. The 2015 most valuable player also missed a game last season after testing positive for the virus.
Fauci says mu variant not an ‘immediate threat’ to United States
A coronavirus variant known as mu — which was designated by the World Health Organization as a “variant of interest” earlier this week — is not an “immediate threat” to the United States, the country’s top infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci said.
Fauci told a press briefing on Thursday that the variant was “not at all even close to being dominant” as the delta variant remains the cause of over 99 percent of cases in the country, but added, “we’re keeping a very close eye on it.”
The WHO said the mu variant has “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape” but added that further studies were needed to find out whether the variant will be resistant to coronavirus vaccines.
Fauci said that while laboratory data has shown that the variant can evade certain antibodies, among them those induced by vaccine shots, there is a lack of clinical data — that is, research involving people — showing this. He underscored that in general vaccines remain effective and the best protection against the coronavirus.
The mu coronavirus variant was first reported in Colombia in January and has since been found in 39 countries according to the WHO, including the United States, Japan, Ecuador and parts of Europe.
Australia will receive 4 million Pfizer doses from Britain in vaccine swap
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday that the country will receive 4 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine from Britain this month, after the two sides negotiated a “swap deal.”
The arrival will double the number of Pfizer doses in Australia for September, Morrison said at a news conference. The extra supply “will enable us to bring forward significantly the opportunity for Australia to open up again under the national plan,” Morrison said, calling the 4 million doses “a great cause for hope around the country.”
Morrison said he had started discussing the deal, which will involve Australia sending 4 million doses of its future vaccine supply to Britain, “some time ago” with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Britain for its part, has described the agreement as “mutually beneficial” as it enables the country to manage the timings of its own vaccine supply later this year, when it may wish to provide booster shots or vaccinate teenagers.
Morrison announced a similar swap of 500,000 doses with Singapore on Tuesday.
The doses will help Australia expedite its lagging vaccination campaign as the country seeks to overcome a spike in coronavirus cases. Australia has logged 1,380 new locally transmitted cases in 24 hours as of Thursday evening.
About 37 percent of Australians 16 and older have been fully vaccinated, according to government data — far below the vaccination rates of 70 and 80 percent the government has set as benchmarks for its reopening plans.
South Korea confirms first three cases of mu variant
TOKYO — South Korea on Friday confirmed its first three infections of the mu variant of the coronavirus, designated by the World Health Organization earlier this week as a “variant of interest.”
South Korean public health officials said Friday that all three cases were brought in from outside of the country, and that there are no known cases of the variant originating locally.
The three individuals who tested positive for the mu variant traveled from Mexico in May, the United States in June and Colombia in July, officials said.
The WHO said in a statement this week that the “mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” so it is unclear whether it will be resistant to authorized coronavirus vaccines.
South Korean officials said they will strengthen protocols to monitor new variants and manage overseas arrivals closely.
North Korea’s Kim orders stronger anti-covid measures after rejecting 3 million vaccine doses
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his health officials to strengthen preventive measures against the coronavirus at a meeting involving senior members of the ruling Workers’ Party, the country’s state media reported on Friday.
Kim’s remarks about the pandemic were part of a broader speech touching on the country’s recent efforts to reduce damage wrought by annual summer storms, overcome economic stagnation, and increase food production. But they also came after Pyongyang rejected coronavirus vaccine shipments.
Earlier this week, North Korea turned away 3 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccines, saying harder-hit countries should receive them, according to the United Nations. That declination followed Pyongyang’s refusal to receive around 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in July, citing concerns about side effects and supply shortages at an India-based distributor.
The regime has so far reported zero infections to the United Nations, although outside experts are skeptical about the figure. The country has enforced severe border lockdowns and restrictions on internal movement to prevent the spread of the coronavirus since January 2020. It has also gone to drastic extents to avoid inadvertent importations of the virus, including giving its border guards shoot-to-kill orders against unauthorized border-crossers.
In September last year, North Korean troops fatally shot a South Korean civil servant who was adrift near its shores in the Yellow Sea. The troops subsequently burned his body, apparently due to concerns about him possibly carrying the coronavirus, according to Seoul officials. Kim issued a rare apology to the South after the incident.
The measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus have hurt North Korea’s already-feeble economy.
Battered by years of global sanctions and consecutive summer storms before the pandemic, Pyongyang saw its economy shrink by 4.5 percent in 2020, an annual report by Seoul’s central bank released in July said. The figure was the worst since the late 1990s, when North Korea underwent a deadly famine.
Japan’s leader plans to step down after one year in office to focus on covid crisis
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Friday that he would not seek reelection in the ruling party’s leadership race this month, amid plummeting approval ratings over his handling of the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Suga’s announcement means he will step down just one year after he took office to fill the remainder of former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s term. Abe resigned in 2020 because of ill health.
Suga, 72, announced his decision during a party meeting Friday, telling party leaders that he intends to focus on the country’s coronavirus crisis rather than re-contest the leadership.
Masks at large outdoor events mandated in Washington’s King County, home to Seattle
Masks will be required outdoors at events with more than 500 people in King County, Wash., starting Tuesday.
The requirement applies to everyone over age 5, regardless of vaccination status. Masks are already required indoors in King County, which includes Seattle. Masks are recommended, but not required, in outdoor situations where it’s not possible to maintain physical distance.
The county executive, Dow Constantine, said in a statement that the outdoor mask requirement “recognizes the risk to communities and our healthcare system if we don’t take action now to further prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
Hospitals in the county are “more crowded than at any point since the pandemic began, and our healthcare workers are stressed and stretched thin,” the statement said.
About 624 new cases are reported each day in King County on average, according to a Washington Post database.
The county said it has about 320,000 residents who are eligible but have not been vaccinated.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown (D) issued a statewide requirement that masks be worn “in most public outdoor settings” where physical distancing is not possible. The requirement, which applies to people regardless of vaccination status, went into effect last week.
Massive randomized study is proof that surgical masks limit coronavirus spread, authors say
The authors of a study based on an enormous randomized research project in Bangladesh say their results offer the best evidence yet that widespread wearing of surgical masks can limit the spread of the coronavirus in communities.
The preprint paper, which tracked more than 340,000 adults across 600 villages in rural Bangladesh, is by far the largest randomized study on the effectiveness of masks at limiting the spread of coronavirus infections.
Its authors say this provides conclusive, real-world evidence for what laboratory work and other research already strongly suggest: Mask-wearing can have a significant impact on limiting the spread of symptomatic covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Georgia professors are quitting over their universities’ lax mask rules
After more than a year of working from home, lecturer Cornelia Lambert was days away from returning to the University of North Georgia to teach a seminar on the history of infectious diseases when she began having second thoughts.
Several things worried her. Coronavirus cases tied to the highly transmissible delta variant were on the rise. Although she is vaccinated, Lambert feared the possibility of infecting her immunocompromised husband. But above all, she said, there was no way to make her classroom safe for her students since she could not require masks or proof of vaccination.
Lambert, who received her university’s “Excellence in Online Teaching Award” earlier this year, asked if she could teach her fall courses virtually. The university declined, she said.
“The next day, I quit,” Lambert, 45, told The Washington Post. “I was going to feel like a fraud sitting there and talking to my students about public health while being paid by an institution that’s ignoring public health.”
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