The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe was Friday pessimistic about vaccines' ability to put an end to the COVID pandemic, as new variants dash hopes of reaching herd immunity.Faced with the possibility that the virus may be around for many years, health officials must now "anticipate how to gradually adapt our vaccination strategy," in particular on the question of additional doses, Hans Kluge told reporters.In May, the WHO director had said "the pandemic

Many of us started the summer fully vaccinated and ready to celebrate. I booked tickets for work and family trips, left my mask at home when seeing friends, and took a deep sigh of relief that the worst seemed to be behind us.But now COVID-19 cases are rising at my hospital. My colleagues and I are worried about kids going back to school while so many are ineligible for vaccination. Many businesses are telling their workers to stay home a bit longer.

As COVID-19 cases and deaths exploded in India in April and May, New Delhi’s premier Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and several others ran so short of oxygen that many patients in the capital suffocated.When the Reuters news agency visited the hospital on Friday, its last coronavirus patient was readying to leave after recovery - remarkable turnaround health experts attribute to growing levels of immunity from natural infection and vaccinations.But hospitals have learned from bitter experience during

Each phone call from Vietnam causes Thai Duong’s heart to skip a few beats.For Duong, who grew up in District 4 of Ho Chi Minh City but currently lives in California, every contact with home poses the possibility of bad news.

Wealthy countries could potentially have a surplus of more than one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses available by the end of the year that are not designated as donations to poorer nations, according to a new analysis.Vaccine stock in Western countries has reached 500 million doses this month, with 360 million not earmarked for donations, according to new research by data analytics firm Airfinity.

Being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 not only cuts the risk of catching it but also of an infection turning into long COVID, research led by King's College London suggests.It shows that in the minority of people who get COVID despite two jabs, the odds of developing symptoms lasting longer than four weeks are cut by 50 percent.This is compared with people who are not vaccinated.So far, 78.9 percent of people in the United Kingdom (UK) have had two doses of a COVID vaccine.Many people

"William" is refusing to take a coronavirus vaccine because he fears Indonesia's military will use the country's inoculation programme to poison him and wipe out his fellow Papuans. Decades of conflict, racism and human rights abuses are fuelling COVID conspiracy theories among his neighbours at a time when their breakaway region is facing a renewed threat from the pandemic."I won't take a vaccine if it's brought here by Indonesia," William, wh

The idea of breakthrough cases is not a new concept.

A British public health study has found that protection from either of the two most commonly used COVID-19 vaccines against the now prevalent Delta variant of the coronavirus weakens within three months.It also found that those who get infected after receiving two shots of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the AstraZeneca vaccine may be of greater risk to others than under previous variants of the coronavirus.Based on more than three million nose and throat swabs taken across Britain, the Oxford

Southeast Asia has recorded twice as many COVID-related fatalities as North America over the past two weeks, according to the Red Cross, which warned wealthier countries that they must urgently share their vaccine supplies.The more aggressive Delta variant, combined with a lack of vaccines, is driving record outbreaks in countries across the region - from Vietnam to Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar.