Simone McCarthy
SCMP News
Hong Kong
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Past articles by Simone:
Which vaccines stop Omicron? Search for data moves from labs to real world
As coronavirus variant’s rapid spread forces rethink of Covid-19 vaccine strategies, real-world data can help show jabs’ effectiveness against it. → Read More
Covid-19 experts agree: 2021 was a failure for vaccine distribution
After effective vaccines were developed in record time, how shots have been allocated among rich and poor countries has been starkly uneven. → Read More
Coronavirus: worst stage of the pandemic may end in 2022, WHO chief says, World News
The acute stage of the pandemic could come to an end in 2022, the World Health Organisation chief said on Wednesday, as the UN agency marked two years since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak. But exiting the crisis will partly depend on whether the world can adhere to a global “New Year’s resolution” of vaccinating 70 per cent of... → Read More
Covid-19 pill offers hope but no magic bullet against pandemic
Global supply of the treatments expected to be better than vaccines but their success will rely on countries’ health care systems. → Read More
'People infected with omicron gets more immunity than with delta'
New findings from South Africa suggest that the omicron coronavirus variant could muscle out its highly transmissible predecessor delta for good, according to researchers studying how the body’s immune system responds to the two variants. → Read More
Will the coronavirus pandemic finally end in 2022? , World News
This is the first of a three-part series to mark the second anniversary of Covid-19. Here, Simone McCarthy looks at whether 2022 will be the year the coronavirus pandemic finally ends. If one top World Health Organisation official is correct, 2022 could be the year the Covid-19 pandemic ends. As it enters its third year of the coronavirus, the world... → Read More
Covid-19 in 2022: into the known unknowns of ending the pandemic
The path back to global stability is through vaccinations and limiting spread of the virus but it all depends on how well immunity and societies hold up. → Read More
Sinovac says its vaccine can fight omicron with 3rd dose
Beijing-based Sinovac on Wednesday said a third shot of its CoronaVac vaccine could improve its ability to neutralize the omicron variant, citing its own laboratory studies. → Read More
Sinovac shot too weak to beat Omicron, Hong Kong study shows, China News
The Covid-19 vaccine by Sinovac Biotech is not able to produce adequate antibodies to neutralise the highly mutated coronavirus strain Omicron, according to new research from the University of Hong Kong. Both the Sinovac vaccine and another by Pfizer-BioNTech produced “inadequate” antibody responses to the variant, HKU scientists said in a statement Tuesday (Dec 14) night, calling for the use... → Read More
Omicron better at dodging vaccine, South African study finds, World News
South African researchers have provided the first tentative answers to the question of how well vaccines currently in use may protect against Omicron , the new and highly mutated coronavirus variant. Their findings, made public on Tuesday (Dec 7) ahead of peer review, indicated the variant was significantly better at evading virus-fighting antibodies produced by the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine than… → Read More
Omicron puts travel bans and vaccines inequity front and centre in pandemic politics, World News
When South African officials held a briefing introducing a new and worrying coronavirus variant late last month, the reaction was swift: Countries around the world threw up travel bans, decimating flight schedules and isolating nations across southern Africa. As African leaders decried the moves and warned of dire economic impacts, the global fallout began. A top South African scientist said... → Read More
China’s Xi Jinping pushes multilateral message ahead of US democracy summit
Chinese president says changes needed to global governance to better represent developing countries. → Read More
EXPLAINER: What is the COVID-19 Omicron variant?
Here’s what we do know, and what scientists are doing to work out what we don’t about the COVID-19 Omicron variant. → Read More
WHO races against time to understand Omicron variant
The World Health Organization is racing to better understand the new coronavirus Omicron variant, as countries throw up travel restrictions against the heavily mutated strain that appeared on the global radar last week. → Read More
Members of COVID-19 review panel warn vs slow response
Governments are not moving fast enough to end the pandemic or to prevent another one, warned the former heads of an independent body tasked with grading the world on its response to COVID-19. → Read More
Coronavirus: Former heads of pandemic review panel warn ‘the world is losing time’, World News
Governments are not moving fast enough to end the pandemic or to prevent another one, warned the former heads of an independent body tasked with grading the world on its response to Covid-19. "Waves of disease and death continue — as people in the northern hemisphere move indoors, fatigue with restrictions sets in, vaccine coverage and other countermeasures remain uneven,... → Read More
Covid-19 antiviral pills show promise, but will they be game changers?
Experts say oral drugs could have a significant on the pandemic, but a lot will depend on how well they work in the real world. → Read More
Covid-19 lessons not being learned, says global body that predicted pandemic, Lifestyle News
In September 2019, three months before the world first learned of a new virus that would spark a global pandemic, a health watchdog released a report painting a dire picture of a planet at risk of a crisis. There was a "very real threat" of a rapidly moving, highly lethal respiratory pathogen starting a pandemic, killing tens of millions and... → Read More
Severe Covid-19 risk lower earlier in pregnancy, Chinese study finds, China News
Chinese women who caught Covid-19 earlier in pregnancy were at lower risk for severe disease than those who became infected later, according to an analysis of cases in expectant mothers during China’s initial outbreak last year. Researchers at the National Clinical Research Centre on Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Peking University Third Hospital in Beijing assessed 138 pregnant women who came... → Read More
China sticking with ‘zero-Covid’, but is it a binary choice?
The inevitability of further cases and a waning of vaccine antibody levels beg the question of how long China should persist with its strategy. → Read More