Duke study: Moderna vaccine less effective against Omicron variant, but booster helps
RALEIGH, N.C. — The standard two doses of the Moderna vaccine appear to be far less effective against the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, but a booster shot seems to make up the difference.
That's the result of a study conducted by researchers at Duke University and the National Institutes of Health and released Thursday. The results mirror those of a similar study involving the Pfizer vaccine released earlier this week.
The Duke and NIH study used blood samples of people who received the Moderna vaccine as part of previous clinical trials. Researchers measured how the coronavirus antibodies in the blood responded to the Omicron variant.
They found that the antibodies were 50 times less likely to neutralize Omicron compared to the original form of the virus that emerged in early 2020, said Dr. David Montefiori, whose lab at Duke conducted the research.
"That's the bad news," Montefiori told The News & Observer. "The good news is that if you get the boost, the levels go up to where they are against the Delta variant after two doses. And we know that two doses of the vaccine are very effective against Delta."
The Omicron variant was first reported in South Africa in November, and scientists have been scrambling since then to determine whether it will evade the vaccines that hundreds of millions of people have received around the world.
—The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
EPA to propose tightening Trump rule on lead pipes
WASHINGTON — The EPA has decided to implement the Trump administration’s lead and copper rule while proposing additional new requirements intended to address concerns that it doesn’t go far enough to protect the public.
The agency plans to announce that approach Thursday along with a number of other actions across the government to remediate lead paint in homes and address lead contamination in drinking water, according to senior administration officials who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.
In its closing weeks in office, the Trump administration finalized the first updates in decades to lead and copper rules for water utilities. Under the updated rule, utilities that exceed 10 parts of lead per billion have to work with state regulators on plans to replace lead service lines and at 15 parts per billion communities would be required to replace at least 3 percent of known or suspected lead lines per year.
Critics suggested that represented a slower replacement rate than a previous 7 percent requirement. Then-EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler defended the proposal by saying that it also closed a number of loopholes that had kept the actual replacement rate much lower.
—CQ-Roll Call
13-year-old girl missing after Kentucky tornadoes found dead; statewide death toll now at 76
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Searchers found the body of a missing 13-year-old girl killed in a tornado that hit Bowling Green early on Dec. 11.
Nyssa Brown was the final person in Bowling Green that had not been accounted for after the deadly storm.
Her mother, father, three siblings and grandmother also died in the tornado.
Statewide, the death toll from the tornadoes now stands at 76.
Ronnie Ward, spokesman for the Bowling Green Police Department, said searchers found Nyssa’s body in a dense briar thicket near the street where she lived, Moss Creek Avenue.
The street was in the area hit hardest by the tornado. Most of the people who died in the tornado lived on or near the street. Nyssa was the 17th person who died as a result of tornadoes that hit Bowling Green and Warren County.
Of those, 16 were killed by the tornado or died as a result of injuries, and one man died after suffering a heart attack while cleaning up debris at his daughter’s house, according to county Coroner Kevin Kirby.
—Lexington Herald-Leader
Rebels claim 28 civilians killed in air force strike in Ethiopia
JOHANNESBURG — Ethiopia's air force has killed at least 28 civilians in an airstrike on a town in the troubled region of Tigray, according to the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
A total of 76 others were wounded in the attack on the market in the town of Alamata, regional Tigray TV reported in the evening. Both military aircraft and drones were involved in the attack. TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda confirmed on Twitter that the victims were all civilians.
The central government in Addis Ababa did not comment at first.
Human Rights Watch had earlier said Tigrayan forces battling the Ethiopian government executed civilians in two towns located in the country’s Amhara region earlier this year.
In a report released Thursday, the rights group said the killings took place between Aug. 31 and Sept. 9.
"On August 31, Tigrayan forces entered the village of Chenna and engaged in sporadic and at times heavy fighting with Ethiopian federal forces and allied Amhara militias," the HRW report said.
Residents told the group that over the next five days Tigrayan forces executed 26 civilians in 15 separate incidents, before withdrawing on Sept. 4.
—dpa
