AFP

Archeologists in Peru working on a site in the outskirts of the capital Lima have unearthed a mummy believed to be between 800 and 1,200 years old — and, surprisingly, bound with rope.

The remains are thought to be of a man aged 18-22 at the time of his death, with his hands covering his face.

The mummy was found in a burial chamber that is about three meters (10 feet) long and at a depth of about 1.4 meters at the dig site in Cajamarquilla, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) east of Lima.

Archeologist Pieter Van Dalen, who is in charge of the Cajamarquilla project, called the find “peculiar and unique.”

“The mummy would have been buried sometime between 800 and 1200 AD,” he said — meaning it would be at least 800 years old.

On one side of the mummy, experts found the skeleton of an Andean guinea pig and what appears to be a dog, according to the researchers at the University of San Marcos.

Traces of corn and other vegetables were found in the burial chamber.

Cajamarquilla was an urban center that could have been home to 10,000-20,000 people, Van Dalen explained. 

The city was built in around 200 BC and was occupied until about 1500.

The World Health Organization has warned blanket travel bans will not prevent the spread of Omicron, as more countries rushed to impose curbs and the first cases of the new Covid strain were detected in Latin America.

In the week since the new virus strain was reported by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions — most targeting southern African nations.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that “blanket” travel bans risked doing more harm than good, just as Canada expanded its restrictions.

In a travel advisory, the WHO warned the bans could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.

But it did advise that unvaccinated people vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, should avoid travel to areas with community transmission of the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens “against a variant we don’t yet fully understand”.

But he called for the global response to be “calm, coordinated and coherent”, urging nations to “take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures”.

The likely futility of broad travel restrictions was underscored as Dutch authorities reported that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa officially reported its first cases on November 25.

The new variant — whose high number of mutations the WHO believes may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines — was found in two Dutch test samples from November 19 and 23, with one having no travel history.

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and Portugal.

Latin America reported its first two cases Tuesday — in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil — and a first case was confirmed in Japan, one day after it barred all foreign arrivals.

However, US President Joe Biden said the travel bans on just the southern African nations would stay in place, without referencing the other places where Omicron has been detected. 

Asked how long travel restrictions that took effect Monday on South Africa and seven other southern African countries would remain, Biden said it “kind of depends”.

“We’re going to learn a lot more in the next couple weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, what we have to control it, etcetera,” he told reporters.

Asked if any expansion of the travel restrictions to other countries could be made suddenly, as happened under former president Donald Trump, Biden said: “Unlike Trump I don’t shock our allies.”

In Asia, governments continued Wednesday to expand restrictions, including with Indonesia adding Hong Kong to its travel ban list alongside various African nations.

Hong Kong also added three more countries – Japan, Portugal and Sweden — to its highest travel restriction category after Omicron cases were discovered in those nations.

– Vaccine-resistant? –

While much is still unknown about the Omicron variant — it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent it is vaccine-resistant — it has highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

Omicron has emerged as much of the northern hemisphere was already bracing for a new winter wave of the pandemic — leaving even nations with high vaccination rates struggling to contain rising infection numbers and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

Governments, particularly in Western Europe, have already reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns — leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

Greece went ahead Tuesday in making vaccines compulsory for over-60s, while Norway will offer booster shots to all adults before Easter, as preferable to a lockdown.

Britain has set a target of delivering third jabs to all adults within two months.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, the Pacific island of Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a “momentous” occasion, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

“The international border reopening will reignite Fiji’s economy,” he told reporters.

burs-kma/jah

The World Health Organization has warned blanket travel bans will not prevent the spread of Omicron, as more countries rushed to impose curbs and the first cases of the new Covid strain were detected in Latin America.

In the week since the new virus strain was reported by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions — most targeting southern African nations.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that “blanket” travel bans risked doing more harm than good, just as Canada expanded its restrictions.

In a travel advisory, the WHO warned the bans could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.

But it did advise that unvaccinated people vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, should avoid travel to areas with community transmission of the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens “against a variant we don’t yet fully understand”.

But he called for the global response to be “calm, coordinated and coherent”, urging nations to “take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures”.

The likely futility of broad travel restrictions was underscored as Dutch authorities reported that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa officially reported its first cases on November 25.

The new variant — whose high number of mutations the WHO believes may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines — was found in two Dutch test samples from November 19 and 23, with one having no travel history.

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and Portugal.

Latin America reported its first two cases Tuesday — in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil — and a first case was confirmed in Japan, one day after it barred all foreign arrivals.

However, US President Joe Biden said the travel bans on just the southern African nations would stay in place, without referencing the other places where Omicron has been detected. 

Asked how long travel restrictions that took effect Monday on South Africa and seven other southern African countries would remain, Biden said it “kind of depends”.

“We’re going to learn a lot more in the next couple weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, what we have to control it, etcetera,” he told reporters.

Asked if any expansion of the travel restrictions to other countries could be made suddenly, as happened under former president Donald Trump, Biden said: “Unlike Trump I don’t shock our allies.”

In Asia, governments continued Wednesday to expand restrictions, including with Indonesia adding Hong Kong to its travel ban list alongside various African nations.

Hong Kong also added three more countries – Japan, Portugal and Sweden — to its highest travel restriction category after Omicron cases were discovered in those nations.

– Vaccine-resistant? –

While much is still unknown about the Omicron variant — it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent it is vaccine-resistant — it has highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

Omicron has emerged as much of the northern hemisphere was already bracing for a new winter wave of the pandemic — leaving even nations with high vaccination rates struggling to contain rising infection numbers and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

Governments, particularly in Western Europe, have already reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns — leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

Greece went ahead Tuesday in making vaccines compulsory for over-60s, while Norway will offer booster shots to all adults before Easter, as preferable to a lockdown.

Britain has set a target of delivering third jabs to all adults within two months.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, the Pacific island of Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a “momentous” occasion, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

“The international border reopening will reignite Fiji’s economy,” he told reporters.

burs-kma/jah

The World Health Organization has warned blanket travel bans will not prevent the spread of Omicron, as more countries rushed to impose curbs and the first cases of the new Covid strain were detected in Latin America.

In the week since the new virus strain was reported by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions — most targeting southern African nations.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that “blanket” travel bans risked doing more harm than good, just as Canada expanded its restrictions.

In a travel advisory, the WHO warned the bans could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.

But it did advise that unvaccinated people vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, should avoid travel to areas with community transmission of the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens “against a variant we don’t yet fully understand”.

But he called for the global response to be “calm, coordinated and coherent”, urging nations to “take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures”.

The likely futility of broad travel restrictions was underscored as Dutch authorities reported that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa officially reported its first cases on November 25.

The new variant — whose high number of mutations the WHO believes may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines — was found in two Dutch test samples from November 19 and 23, with one having no travel history.

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and Portugal.

Latin America reported its first two cases Tuesday — in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil — and a first case was confirmed in Japan, one day after it barred all foreign arrivals.

However, US President Joe Biden said the travel bans on just the southern African nations would stay in place, without referencing the other places where Omicron has been detected. 

Asked how long travel restrictions that took effect Monday on South Africa and seven other southern African countries would remain, Biden said it “kind of depends”.

“We’re going to learn a lot more in the next couple weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, what we have to control it, etcetera,” he told reporters.

Asked if any expansion of the travel restrictions to other countries could be made suddenly, as happened under former president Donald Trump, Biden said: “Unlike Trump I don’t shock our allies.”

In Asia, governments continued Wednesday to expand restrictions, including with Indonesia adding Hong Kong to its travel ban list alongside various African nations.

Hong Kong also added three more countries – Japan, Portugal and Sweden — to its highest travel restriction category after Omicron cases were discovered in those nations.

– Vaccine-resistant? –

While much is still unknown about the Omicron variant — it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent it is vaccine-resistant — it has highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

Omicron has emerged as much of the northern hemisphere was already bracing for a new winter wave of the pandemic — leaving even nations with high vaccination rates struggling to contain rising infection numbers and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

Governments, particularly in Western Europe, have already reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns — leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

Greece went ahead Tuesday in making vaccines compulsory for over-60s, while Norway will offer booster shots to all adults before Easter, as preferable to a lockdown.

Britain has set a target of delivering third jabs to all adults within two months.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, the Pacific island of Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a “momentous” occasion, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

“The international border reopening will reignite Fiji’s economy,” he told reporters.

burs-kma/jah

Archeologists in Peru working on a site in the outskirts of the capital Lima have unearthed a mummy believed to be between 800 and 1,200 years old — and, surprisingly, bound with rope.

The remains are thought to be of a man aged 18-22 at the time of his death, with his hands covering his face.

The mummy was found in a burial chamber that is about three meters (10 feet) long and at a depth of about 1.4 meters at the dig site in Cajamarquilla, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) east of Lima.

Archeologist Pieter Van Dalen, who is in charge of the Cajamarquilla project, called the find “peculiar and unique.”

“The mummy would have been buried sometime between 800 and 1200 AD,” he said — meaning it would be at least 800 years old.

On one side of the mummy, experts found the skeleton of an Andean guinea pig and what appears to be a dog, according to the researchers at the University of San Marcos.

Traces of corn and other vegetables were found in the burial chamber.

Cajamarquilla was an urban center that could have been home to 10,000-20,000 people, Van Dalen explained. 

The city was built in around 200 BC and was occupied until about 1500.

Rainfall could start replacing snowfall in the Arctic decades sooner than previously thought, a study found Tuesday, warning the change caused by global warming could have effects beyond the region.

The Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the planet, melting sea ice and adding moisture to the air that is likely to increase precipitation.

Comparing the latest projections to previous climate models, the study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications estimates the switch from snowfall-dominated annual precipitation to one dominated by rain will come about “one or two decades earlier”.

“Changes are going to be more severe and occur much earlier than projected and so will have huge implications for life in and beyond the Arctic,” the study’s main author Michelle McCrystall told AFP.

“In autumn, for example, when the greatest changes occur, the central Arctic may transition around 2070 in the latest set of models compared to 2090 in the previous set,” added McCrystall, a researcher at Canada’s University of Manitoba.

But everything depends on the degree of global warming.

At the current rate of warming rain could dominate snow in the Arctic before the end of the century, the study says. 

But it says limiting warming to 1.5C — the most ambitious goal in the 2015 Paris climate agreement — could mean the Arctic stays dominated by snow.

Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said the results “imply that the worst impacts can be avoided if countries match their stated intentions to cut emissions in line with the Paris agreement”.

But Schmidt added that he felt the study did not prove the change would come sooner than expected.

Whenever it comes, the switch from snow to rain is likely to have major effects on the Arctic ecosystem and beyond.

More rainfall on top of current snow cover could lead to increased surface ice that would make it impossible for caribou and reindeer to forage for food.

Less snow cover also means the Arctic will lose some of its capacity to deflect solar heat and light away from the Earth’s surface and thus contribute to warming.

Thick grey dust hangs in the air and vast chasms are gouged into the land in the Indian coal hub of Singrauli, where giant machines scoop up dirty fuel to power the country’s growth while worsening its pollution blight.

The open-cast mines of Singrauli epitomise the economic and environmental dilemma faced by the world’s second-most populous nation, which led the opposition to phasing out coal at this month’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

India’s resistance on the issue is driven by its desire to distribute the benefits of development more widely among its 1.3 billion people, some of whom still have no access to electricity.

But it comes at a heavy price.

In Singrauli, home to more than a dozen mines and coal-fired power stations, dark soot covers trees, houses, cars and even cows.

In scenes reminiscent of a dystopian movie, sticky sludge lines the roads, while trucks, trains and ropeway cars carry huge mounds of coal and spill black dust on passers-by.

Residents have little choice but to breathe in the acrid air that stings the eyes and throats.

“Our air, water and in fact the entire environment is heavily polluted. Even the cows look like buffaloes here,” said Sanjay Namdev, a labour union activist, as cranes and dumpers whirred behind him at a sprawling coal yard.

“But forget phasing out, you cannot even phase down coal in a country like India,” he told AFP. “Millions of people depend on coal for cheap electricity and I don’t see that stopping ever.”

– A/C and fridges –

As Asia’s third-biggest economy grows, its hunger for coal is mounting, with aspirational middle classes needing electricity to run their air conditioners and refrigerators. 

Coal consumption in India has already doubled in the last decade — only China burns more — and the fuel powers 70 percent of the country’s electricity grid.

With international pressure mounting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month announced India would aim to be carbon-neutral only by 2070 — a decade after China and 20 years after the world’s other big emitters.

The government argues that although the country is the world’s third-largest emitter in total, its per capita emissions are far lower than the American average.

Around 30,000 people are employed in the Singrauli mines, with thousands more working as casual labourers, and fear they have no future without coal, even as climate change brings them hotter summers and heavy unseasonal rains.

“You can see how bad the pollution situation is here. I know it is bad for my health but what will I do if the coal mines shut down? How will I feed my children?” said mineworker Vinod Kumar, whose haggard looks belied his 31 years.

Northern Coalfields, a state-run mining firm, owns over 80 percent of the coal assets in Singrauli, producing 130 million tonnes of the fuel annually, and says it is trying to make its operations less polluting.

“We want to make coal dispatch completely eco-friendly,” said company spokesman Ram Vijay Singh. “We also hold free camps every year to screen health problems among the locals.”

But activists say such piecemeal measures serve no real purpose.

“There are some machines and techniques that can cut down the pollution but the companies are not serious about these,” said Namdev.

“There are so many anti-pollution guidelines but these are flouted with impunity. All they are concerned about is making quick profits.”

– Begging for jobs –

Across India, more than 13 million people are employed in coal mining and related sectors, according to Harjeet Singh of the Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty Initiative, a campaign group.

“An abrupt coal phase-out in India may lead to economic disruption,” he said. “In a country where a large population depends on coal for their income and energy, we must ensure social justice in the shift towards a fossil fuel-free future.”

And for some Singrauli residents, their biggest complaint is that they are not profiting from the environmental carnage around them.

Casual labourer and part-time liquor distiller Uma Devi, 50, lives in a thatched mud house on the edge of a coal mine owned by Reliance, an Indian conglomerate headed by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.

“We have been begging them to give us jobs for two years but they don’t listen to us,” she said. “They have brought people from outside to work for them.

“Each time blasting happens, it shatters our eardrums. The government is making money off them but we are getting nothing in return except the pollution.”

She cannot afford the 900-rupee ($12) cost of a gas cylinder, so every day she cooks her family’s food on a fire made with scavenged coal.

The Omicron coronavirus variant was present in Europe before the first cases were reported in South Africa, new data from the Netherlands showed Tuesday, as Latin America reported its first two cases in Brazil.

In the week since the new virus strain was reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions — most targeting southern African nations.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday — as Canada expanded its restrictions to also include Egypt and Nigeria — that “blanket” travel bans risked doing more harm than good.

And the likely futility of broad travel restrictions was underscored as Dutch authorities reported that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa officially reported its first cases, on November 25.

The new variant — whose high number of mutations the WHO believes may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines — was found in two Dutch test samples from November 19 and 23, with one having no travel history.

With countries now on alert for the Omicron variant, a clearer picture is emerging by the day of where it has been circulating, and for how long.

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and Portugal.

Among European countries, Belgium and Germany have both reported cases of the new strain prior to November 25, but both linked to foreign travel.

Latin America reported its first two cases Tuesday — in people who traveled from South Africa to Brazil — and a first case was confirmed in Japan, one day after it barred all foreign arrivals.

– Vaccine-resistant? –

While much is still unknown about the Omicron variant — it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent it is vaccine-resistant — it has highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

Asian, European and US markets all fell on Tuesday, while the benchmark US oil price tumbled more than five percent after the boss of vaccine manufacturer Moderna warned existing jabs might be less effective against the new variant.

“All the scientists I’ve talked to … are like ‘this is not going to be good’,” Moderna boss Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times, warning against a “material drop” in the effectiveness of current jabs against Omicron.

Moderna, US drugmaker Pfizer and the backers of Russian vaccine Sputnik V are already working on an Omicron-specific vaccine.

On the treatment front, meanwhile, a panel of US health experts voted Tuesday to endorse Merck’s Covid pill for high-risk adult patients, which is already authorised in Britain.

– ‘Heavy burden’ –

In a briefing to WHO member states, the body’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens “against a variant we don’t yet fully understand”.

But he called for the global response to be “calm, coordinated and coherent”, urging nations to “take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures”.

The UN agency cautioned in a travel advisory that “blanket” travel bans risked placing a “heavy burden on lives and livelihoods” and could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus — as South Africa did in reporting the latest variant.

But it did advise that people not fully vaccinated and considered vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, should put off travel to areas with community transmission of the virus — after correcting a previous statement that indicated all over-60s should defer travel.

– Tougher measures –

Omicron has emerged as much of the world was already bracing for a new winter wave of the pandemic — leaving even nations with high vaccination rates scrambling to stem infections and prevent health services from being overwhelmed. 

Governments, particularly in western Europe, have already reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns — leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

In Germany, incoming Chancellor Olaf Scholz said parliament would vote on making Covid vaccines compulsory by the end of the year — and a source from Scholz’s party told AFP he had “signalled his sympathy” for such a rule.

Greece went ahead Tuesday in making vaccines compulsory for over-60s, while Norway will offer booster shots to all adults before Easter, as preferable to a lockdown.

Britain meanwhile set a target of delivering third jabs to all adults within two months, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying vaccination centres would be “popping up like Christmas trees.”

burs-ec/sst

A panel of US health experts on Tuesday voted to recommend Merck’s Covid pill for high-risk adults — a new form of treatment that is easy to administer and could prove better able to withstand variants, including Omicron.

Molnupiravir, already authorized in Britain, has been shown to reduce the rate of hospitalizations and deaths among people at high risk of developing severe Covid, when it is taken within five days of symptom onset.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which convened Tuesday’s meeting, is now expected to grant an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the treatment, meaning millions of courses will soon be stocked in pharmacies.

The independent scientists appointed by the FDA voted 13 in favor and 10 against authorization — a narrow win that reflected some concerns over a recent downgrading of the treatment’s efficacy results, as well as misgivings over potential side-effects.

Sascha Dublin, of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, said that while she found the benefits compelling and voted “yes,” it will be important to make sure the treatment is strictly regulated and goes only to patients best suited for it.

Daria Hazuda, Merck’s vice president of infectious disease discovery, told AFP after the vote: “We need as many tools in the toolbox as possible to really make an advance in this pandemic as this virus continues to evolve.”

Last week, Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, released full results from a clinical trial of 1,400 people. 

These showed the pill reduced the risk of hospitalizations and death by 30 percent, a significant result albeit more modest than an earlier advertised figure of 50 percent, which was based on an analysis from half the number of patients.

Hazuda told AFP the reason might be an unexplained drop in the rate of severe cases in the placebo group during the second half of the study, which may have made the drug appear less effective than it was.

– Risk-benefit balance –

Briefing documents uploaded by the FDA ahead of the meeting illustrated the benefit-risk balance the experts were asked to assess.

Potential harmful effects were noted on fetal development, as seen in studies on rats and rabbits, and Merck said it would not recommend use of molnupiravir in pregnant women.

The company did not seek authorization for children, and the FDA said it didn’t plan to carry out pediatric trials until safety is established in juvenile rats over concerns related to bone formation.

Currently, the most effective treatment for Covid is monoclonal antibodies, which are administered via a drip and have been shown to reduce the risk of severe cases in high-risk patients by up to 70 percent. 

But pills have the advantage of being far more easy to use, and, unlike antibodies, don’t require a visit to an infusion site.  

– Variant-proof –

Merck’s treatment is taken as four capsules, twice a day, over five days — for a total of 40 pills.

It was found to be safe in its clinical trial, with non-serious adverse events such as diarrhea and dizziness occurring roughly equally between the placebo group and the drug group.

Molnupiravir, which was developed in partnership with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, works by introducing mutations into the genetic material of the coronavirus, inhibiting its ability to replicate.

It is thought likely to be more variant-proof than monoclonal antibodies or vaccines, because unlike them, it does not target the ever-mutating spike proteins that dot the surface of the virus.

Molnupiravir’s error-driving mechanism has also raised concerns, including that it could harm mammal DNA. In its presentation, however, the FDA said rat studies showed this effect was negligible.

Another worry is whether the mutations the pill introduces might lead to a dangerous evolution of the virus itself, spurring new variants.

This is “currently a theoretical concern,” that hasn’t been found in real life, the FDA said.

“Treating people should reduce the probability that you’re going to transmit these super variants, as opposed to allowing untreated people to transmit the virus,” stressed Hazuda.

The US government has committed to buying 3.1 million courses of molnupiravir for approximately $2.2 billion, with the option to purchase more.

Pfizer is also seeking authorization for a Covid pill that cut hospitalizations and deaths by nearly 90 percent.

A panel of US health experts on Tuesday voted to recommend Merck’s Covid pill for high-risk adults — a new form of treatment that is easy to administer and could prove better able to withstand variants, including Omicron.

Molnupiravir, already authorized in Britain, has been shown to reduce the rate of hospitalizations and deaths among people at high risk of developing severe Covid, when it is taken within five days of symptom onset.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which convened Tuesday’s meeting, is now expected to grant an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the treatment, meaning millions of courses will soon be stocked in pharmacies.

The independent scientists appointed by the FDA voted 13 in favor and 10 against authorization — a narrow win that reflected some concerns over a recent downgrading of the treatment’s efficacy results, as well as misgivings over potential side-effects.

Sascha Dublin, of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, said that while she found the benefits compelling and voted “yes,” it will be important to make sure the treatment is strictly regulated and goes only to patients best suited for it.

Daria Hazuda, Merck’s vice president of infectious disease discovery, told AFP after the vote: “We need as many tools in the toolbox as possible to really make an advance in this pandemic as this virus continues to evolve.”

Last week, Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, released full results from a clinical trial of 1,400 people. 

These showed the pill reduced the risk of hospitalizations and death by 30 percent, a significant result albeit more modest than an earlier advertised figure of 50 percent, which was based on an analysis from half the number of patients.

Hazuda told AFP the reason might be an unexplained drop in the rate of severe cases in the placebo group during the second half of the study, which may have made the drug appear less effective than it was.

– Risk-benefit balance –

Briefing documents uploaded by the FDA ahead of the meeting illustrated the benefit-risk balance the experts were asked to assess.

Potential harmful effects were noted on fetal development, as seen in studies on rats and rabbits, and Merck said it would not recommend use of molnupiravir in pregnant women.

The company did not seek authorization for children, and the FDA said it didn’t plan to carry out pediatric trials until safety is established in juvenile rats over concerns related to bone formation.

Currently, the most effective treatment for Covid is monoclonal antibodies, which are administered via a drip and have been shown to reduce the risk of severe cases in high-risk patients by up to 70 percent. 

But pills have the advantage of being far more easy to use, and, unlike antibodies, don’t require a visit to an infusion site.  

– Variant-proof –

Merck’s treatment is taken as four capsules, twice a day, over five days — for a total of 40 pills.

It was found to be safe in its clinical trial, with non-serious adverse events such as diarrhea and dizziness occurring roughly equally between the placebo group and the drug group.

Molnupiravir, which was developed in partnership with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, works by introducing mutations into the genetic material of the coronavirus, inhibiting its ability to replicate.

It is thought likely to be more variant-proof than monoclonal antibodies or vaccines, because unlike them, it does not target the ever-mutating spike proteins that dot the surface of the virus.

Molnupiravir’s error-driving mechanism has also raised concerns, including that it could harm mammal DNA. In its presentation, however, the FDA said rat studies showed this effect was negligible.

Another worry is whether the mutations the pill introduces might lead to a dangerous evolution of the virus itself, spurring new variants.

This is “currently a theoretical concern,” that hasn’t been found in real life, the FDA said.

“Treating people should reduce the probability that you’re going to transmit these super variants, as opposed to allowing untreated people to transmit the virus,” stressed Hazuda.

The US government has committed to buying 3.1 million courses of molnupiravir for approximately $2.2 billion, with the option to purchase more.

Pfizer is also seeking authorization for a Covid pill that cut hospitalizations and deaths by nearly 90 percent.