Q: 'Do you believe that March will be way better than now? Many are saying that we are maybe heading to the pandemic endgame ...'
A: Dr. Eric Rubin of @NEJM says that's wishful thinking. Follow along: reut.rs/3rWoBZF
(Corrects tag of The New England Journal of Medicine)
Q: Is there evidence to suggest we need to disinfect groceries or wait before opening mail?
A: Real-world evidence hasn't shown surface contamination to be a major factor in how COVID-19 spreads, Christine Soares of @Reuters says. Follow along on Reddit: reut.rs/3rWoBZF
Q: Can I get Omicron twice? Someone said it’s possible to get a second type of Omicron after having recently recovered
A: With a healthy immune system, ‘it seems pretty unlikely’ for a while, Dr. Eric Rubin of @NEJM says. Follow our Reddit AMA: reut.rs/3rWoBZF
Q: When will we see a vaccine for children under 5?
A: It's not clear how long this will take, but trial results are expected to come in the next few months, @NancyLapid says. Read along on Reddit: reut.rs/3rWoBZF
Q: Is Omicron less severe than other variants for older, unvaccinated people?
A: ‘The question of severity is complicated,’ Christine Soares of @Reuters says in our Reddit AMA: reut.rs/3rWoBZF
EXCLUSIVE: Russia's military buildup near Ukraine has expanded to include supplies of blood along with other medical materials that would allow it to treat casualties, a key indicator of Moscow's military readiness, three U.S. officials tell @Reutersreut.rs/3G3pCnK 1/5
Current and former U.S. officials say concrete indicators — like blood supplies — are critical in determining whether Moscow would be prepared to carry out an invasion, if Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to do so 2/5
The disclosure of the blood supplies by U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, adds another piece of context to growing U.S. warnings that Russia could be preparing for a new invasion of Ukraine as it masses more than 100,000 troops near its borders 3/5
First lady Jill Biden's office has announced America's first family is excited to welcome a two-year-old, gray-and-white-striped feline named Willow to the White House reut.rs/33ZRsEr 1/4
Jill Biden named the cat after her hometown of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, the first lady's spokesperson Michael LaRosa said 2/4
Dr. Biden had said in April that the family had a female cat 'waiting in the wings'
'A farm cat from Pennsylvania, Willow made quite an impression on Dr. Biden in 2020 when she jumped up on the stage and interrupted her remarks during a campaign stop,' LaRosa said 3/4
A school board in Tennessee has voted to remove the Holocaust-themed graphic novel 'Maus' from its eighth-grade language arts curriculum, citing profanity and nudity contained in the Pulitzer Prize-winning work by cartoonist Art Spiegelman reut.rs/3KRpjA0
The 10-0 vote by the McMinn County Board of Education in Athens, Tennessee, located about 150 miles southeast of Nashville, came on Jan. 10 but gained wide U.S. media attention, ironically coinciding with International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The board vote overrode a state-level curriculum review that had approved the teaching of 'Maus,' based on the real-life Holocaust experiences of Spiegelman's parents in Poland, with Jewish characters depicted as mice and their Nazi persecutors as cats
On #HolocaustRemembranceDay, Centenarian Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlaender urged the young generation to always remember the Nazi genocide and denounced the use by some anti-COVID vaccination protesters of the yellow star Jews were forced to wear reut.rs/3KNsKYo 1/6
'Today, I see the memory of what happened being abused for political reasons, sometimes even derided and trampled all over,' she told EU lawmakers in Brussels at a ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland 2/6
She was referring to some demonstrators at anti-vaccination protests who have pinned yellow star badges to their clothes, reminiscent of the cloth badges the Nazis forced Jews to wear to mark them as outsiders 3/6
Burkina Faso's army said it had ousted President Roch Kabore, suspended the constitution, dissolved the government and the national assembly, and closed the borders reut.rs/3nTid4f
The announcement cited the deterioration of the security situation and what the army described as Kabore's inability to unite the West African nation and effectively respond to challenges, which include an Islamist insurgency reut.rs/3H0W5Mz
It also said the takeover was carried out without violence and that those detained were at a secure location reut.rs/3H0W5Mz
NATO said it was putting forces on standby and reinforcing eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets in response to Russia's military build-up at Ukraine's borders reut.rs/3tUf0Fp
The move was a further sign that the West is bracing for Russia to attack its neighbor after massing an estimated 100,000 troops within reach of the Ukrainian border, although Russia denies any intention of invading reut.rs/3nT0Nop
Having engineered the crisis by surrounding Ukraine with forces from the north, east and south, Moscow is now citing the Western response as evidence to support its narrative that Russia is the target, not the instigator, of aggression