Coronavirus vaccine and COVID variant updates for 12-02-2021

<p>This is Vaccine 411, the latest coronavirus vaccine information for December 2nd, 2021.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The UN Secretary-General has called the travel restrictions being placed by countries like the United States on one region like South Africa not only ineffective, but travel apartheid. The Omicron variant is already in 24 countries around the world, and as it turns out, it appears it didn’t originate in South Africa anyway. The Netherlands had cases a week before two flights arrived from South Africa carrying the virus. Nine cases were linked to a private event in Scotland, days before South Africa announced the existence of the variant. And Nigeria detected its first case in a sample collected weeks before South Africa alerted the world about Omicron.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Tracking the Omicron variant’s spread, it’s in the United States now. A fully vaccinated person in the San Francisco area came back from South Africa Nov. 22 and tested positive seven days later. South Korea confirmed the variant in five people linked to international arrivals. And Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates confirmed the first infections in the Persian Gulf region. So far, all symptoms reported have been mild.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>A reprieve for healthcare workers in ten states who don’t want to take the vaccine. A federal judge blocked the vaccine requirement, saying the agency that issued the rule likely exceeded its authority. That stops the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from enforcing its healthcare worker mandate until the court can hear legal challenges brought by Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Well people who don’t like mandates sure aren’t going to like this. The chief of the European Union's executive arm said member nations should consider making vaccinations mandatory, period. The EU-wide vaccination rate stands at 66%. Germany’s new Chancellor, for one, said he’d back a proposal like that.</p><p>&nbsp;