Geneva:

Covid-19 cut global life expectancy by almost two years when it raged from 2019 to 2021, wiping out a decade of progress, the World Health Organization said Friday.

“The Covid-19 pandemic reversed the trend of steady gain in life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy at birth,” the UN health agency said.

Global life expectancy fell 1.8 years to 71.4 years, the same level as it was in 2012, according to a WHO annual world health statistics study.

The amount of time the average person can expect to live in good health fell 1.5 years to 61.9 years in 2021 — also the 2012 level, the study said.

The impact was even worse than the findings of a study published by the Lancet in January, which said average life expectancy fell 1.6 years during the pandemic.

Researchers for that study said Covid-19 had a “more profound impact” on life expectancy than any other event over the past half century.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the figures highlighted the importance of the global pandemic security accord being negotiated in Geneva “to strengthen global health security, but to protect long-term investments in health and promote equity within and between countries”.

The Lancet researchers estimated that Covid-19 caused 15.9 million excess deaths during 2020-2021, either from the virus or pandemic-related disruption to health systems.

The WHO study said however that life expectancy did not fall in the same way around the world.

The Americas and Southeast Asia were the worst-hit regions, with life expectancy falling by about three years, it said.

The Western Pacific was the least hit, with life expectancy falling just 0.1 year.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New York:

The so-called FLiRT variants of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that cause COVID-19 have been the dominant forms of the virus circulating this year globally, according to the World Health Organization

The moniker FLiRT is an acronym for the locations of the mutations the variants share on the virus’ spike protein. One of them, called KP.2, has become the most commonly circulating variant in the United States over the past month, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here is what you need to know about FLiRT.

HOW ARE THE FLIRT VARIANTS DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS VARIANTS?

The FLiRT variants, which also include KP.2’s “parental” lineage JN.1, have three key mutations on their spike protein that could help them evade antibodies, according to Johns Hopkins University.

ARE THE FLIRT VARIANTS MORE CONTAGIOUS OR LIKELY TO CAUSE MORE SEVERE ILLNESS?

Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, New York, and a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America said he has not seen evidence of an uptick in disease or hospitalizations, based on the data he tracks and experience with his own patients.

“There have been some significant changes in the variants, but I think in recent times it’s not been as important, probably because of the immunity many, many people already have” from prior illness and vaccination.

CDC data suggests that COVID-related hospitalizations have trended downwards in recent weeks and the number of patients in emergency departments who have tested positive for COVID has been about flat for the past month.

Data suggests that COVID rates are also down year-over-year. The rate of COVID hospitalizations is less than half than a year earlier, and the amount of the antiviral Paxlovid currently being prescribed for COVID-19 is down around 60% from last year, according to analyst notes.

DO CURRENT VACCINES WORK AGAINST THE FLIRT VARIANTS?

The current vaccines should still have some benefit against the new variants, Glatt said.

Since 2022, health regulators have asked vaccine makers to design new versions of the COVID-19 vaccines to better target circulating variants. Last month, Europe’s regulator said vaccine makers should target the JN.1 variant. U.S. experts and regulators will meet to discuss vaccine design on June 5 after having postponed the meeting from May 16 in order to have more time to “obtain surveillance data and other information.”

Makers of vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology – Pfizer with partner BioNTech, and Moderna – say they are waiting for the June 5 meeting before settling on the design of their next vaccines.

Novavax, which makes a more traditional protein-based vaccine that takes longer to manufacture, has begun producing a shot targeting JN.1 consistent with recommendations from European regulators.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

File picture of a nurse holding vials of AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19
| Photo Credit: AP

AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it had initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” since the pandemic.

The company also said it would proceed to withdraw the vaccine Vaxzevria’s marketing authorisations within Europe.

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“As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines,” the company said, adding that this had led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied.

According to media reports, the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker has previously admitted in court documents that the vaccine causes side-effects such as blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

The firm’s application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and came into effect on May 7, according to the Telegraph, which first reported the development.

London-listed AstraZeneca began moving into respiratory syncytial virus vaccines and obesity drugs through several deals last year after a slowdown in growth as COVID-19 medicine sales declined.