Omicron Round-Up

🦠 The Biden administration’s website for ordering and distributing rapid tests (​​COVIDtests.gov) is expected to officially launch later this morning. A quick recap of other virus-related news:

• The omicron surge has yet to peak nationwide despite some states in the Northeast seeing a plateau of new cases, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on Sunday. The variant made up ~99.5% of all new cases for the week ending Saturday, per the CDC.
• New evidence from nearly 70,000 patients in Southern California suggests omicron has a 74% lower risk of ICU admission and a 91% lower risk of death than delta.
• ​​Paxlovid, Pfizer’s new Covid pill, was effective against omicron in laboratory tests, according to three separate unpublished studies.
• A ‘first-of-its-kind’ preliminary study from Israel found a fourth shot of Pfizer/Moderna’s vaccine boosts antibodies to even higher levels than the third, but still isn’t enough to prevent omicron infections (though it still prevents severe outcomes).

+Bonus: ​​Some people are genetically predisposed to losing their sense of smell during or following infection, according to new research.