Coronavirus vaccine and COVID variant updates for 12-17-2021

<p>This is Vaccine 411, the latest coronavirus vaccine information for December 17th, 2021.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>After the meeting we told you about yesterday, the CDC has come out and said most Americans should get Pfizer or Moderna instead of the Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccine. The advisers said a blood clotting problem has caused nine confirmed deaths after J&amp;J vaccinations — while the other top vaccines don't have that risk and appear more effective. J&amp;J will stay on the market because the condition is rare, but it is no longer considered a one dose vaccine. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>You may as well accept that Omicron is everywhere, even in places that have had almost no cases of clinical infection. Take Orange County, Florida for example, home of Disney World and Universal. Wastewater testing shows Omicron is already the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the county. In fact, it represented almost 100% of the strains in the wastewater samples.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>It’s become almost comically naïve, thinking travel restrictions will slow or stop the Omicron variant. But countries have to do something and travel is an attractive target. France is sharply restricting travel to and from Britain, putting limits on reasons for traveling and requiring 48-hour isolation on arrival. And Sweden will make citizens from its fellow Nordic countries show a vaccination certificate when entering starting next week.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>We hear health care systems expressing grave worry about their ability to care for people. And here’s just one example of such a situation. Hospitals in England are 94% full right now and four out of five critical care beds are occupied. And this is before the expected massive influx of patients from Omicron.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Yeah, yeah, humans and all that. But what you really might want to know is can your pet get COVID? Well, the answer is yes, and they’d probably get it from you. However, it’s unlikely they’d get seriously ill, and the risk of them spreading it to other people is low. Still, a