World Coronavirus Dispatch: Variants threaten to drag the pandemic

New Zealand success made it a lab for the world, Bolsonaro more isolated than ever in Covid shock, likely link between blood clots and AstraZeneca jab and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Virus variants threaten to drag the pandemic

Pushing aside all the gains from vaccinations and the optimism that there is an end to pandemic in sight, the virus is threatening to draw out longer and longer potentially for months, led by variants that are more contagious and some are even deadly. At the moment, most vaccines appear to be effective against the variants. But public health officials are deeply worried that future iterations of the virus may be more resistant to the immune response, requiring people to queue up for regular rounds of booster shots or even new vaccines. Already,