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Pandemic

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WHO calls for moratorium on booster COVID-19 vaccine shots until end of Sep

A small group of nations, including some in Europe, are planning additional shots for the fully inoculated even as the COVID-19 continues to infect and kill at alarming rates across the Global South, where vaccination levels remain “catastrophically low,” The Washington Post reported.

The report stated that the decision by wealthy countries to give booster shots to their own people rather than donating those doses to poorer countries is controversial. Health experts have called this move immoral.

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COVID-19 herd immunity: It’s not going to happen, so what next?

The evolution of the virus has been so rapid that the Delta variant, which is currently dominating the world, is at least twice as transmissible as the ancestral virus that was circulating.

What this means is that herd immunity is no longer a discussion the world should be having. We should start to avoid using that term in the context of SARS-CoV-2, because it’s not going to materialise – or is unlikely to materialise – during our lifetimes.

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Pvt hospitals, labs welcome Delhi govt’s announcement on capping of rate of RT-PCR and RATs

Welcoming the decision Dr Bhagwan Mantri, Senior Consultant, Respiratory and Chest Medicine at Moolchand Hospital said, ”RT-PCR tests are required for everything these days – for travel purposes and for hospital admissions. Capping of prices will help people in going for tests and they will not be hesitant. It will also prevent people from going in for fake test reports that are available for Rs 200-300.”

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U.S. developing plan to require foreign visitors to be vaccinated -official

The White House is not ready to immediately lift travel restrictions because of the rising COVID-19 case load, the official said.

The Biden administration has interagency working groups working “in order to have a new system ready for when we can reopen travel,” the official said, adding it includes “a phased approach that over time will mean, with limited exceptions, that foreign nationals traveling to the United States (from all countries) need to be fully vaccinated.”

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What is a breakthrough infection? Here’s a guide to what you need to know

No vaccine is 100 per cent effective. Dr Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was 80 per cent-90 per cent effective in preventing paralytic disease. Even for the gold standard measles vaccine, the efficacy was 94 per cent among a highly vaccinated population during large outbreaks. Comparably, clinical trials found the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were 94 per cent 95 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 much more protective than initially hoped.

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‘By 2030, India might lead the world in almost every category’

“I look out at the year 2030, for example, and I see an India that may lead the world in almost every category…the most populous nation, the most college graduates, the largest middle-class, the most cell phone and Internet users, along with the third largest military and third largest economy, all coexisting in the world’s largest democracy, with 600 million people under the age of 25,” Richard Verma said on Monday.

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