Tuesday, January 18 Briefing

Good morning. We’re covering Omicron’s effect on the pandemic and the continuing costs of Brexit.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said the evolution of the pandemic was still unclear.Salvatore Di Nolfi/EPA, via Shutterstock

 

Will Omicron bring an end to the pandemic?

 

Speaking at the online World Economic Forum, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s top medical adviser for Covid, said it was too soon to say how the Omicron variant would change the course of the pandemic. The sheer volume of cases could have a meaningful effect on collective immunity, he said, but the evolution of the pandemic was still unclear.

“It is an open question as to whether or not Omicron is going to be the live virus vaccination that everyone is hoping for,” he said, adding: “That would only be the case if we don’t get another variant that eludes the immune response.”

 

Cases remain extremely high across the U.S., averaging nearly 802,000 per day, an increase of 98 percent over the past two weeks. An average of nearly 156,000 people with the virus are hospitalized nationwide, a record. Deaths now exceed 1,900 per day, up 57 percent over two weeks.

Next steps: Dr. Fauci said the world was still in the first phase of the pandemic — “where the whole world is really very negatively impacted.” The next phases are deceleration, control, elimination and eradication. In the control phase, he said, the virus will become a “nondisruptive presence” and be considered endemic.

Friday, January 14 Morning Briefing

Good morning. We’re covering an ominous outcome of talks with Russia and a stinging rebuke to Prince Andrew.

Russian tanks near the border with Ukraine on Wednesday.Associated Press

 

Russia warns it may abandon diplomacy

Russian officials signaled yesterday that they might abandon diplomatic efforts to resolve the security crisis surrounding Ukraine, bringing a whirlwind week of talks to an ominous end and deflating hopes that negotiators could move to ease tensions in Eastern Europe. Russia’s next move will most likely be up to its president, Vladimir Putin.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said the West’s current approach led only to a “dead end.” Michael Carpenter, the U.S. official present at the negotiations, also depicted the two sides as engaged in a standoff with no clear resolution. Ukraine said Russia’s massing of troops needed to be reversed.

Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, said that the U.S. was prepared to talk further, especially about missile deployments and military exercises in Europe, but was also preparing to respond “to a further Russian invasion of Ukraine.” “We have been very clear with Russia on the costs and consequences of further military action or destabilization,” he said. “So we’re ready either way.”