Pandemic treaty talks will go on after missed deadline, some progress, WHO says The document aims to shore up the world's defenses against new pathogens after the COVID pandemic. Jennifer Rigby Reuters

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KP.2 is now the dominant COVID variant. Experts say US may see a summer increase in cases A new offshoot of omicron, KP.2, has become the dominant variant in the U.S. Experts are predicting the country may see a mild "swell" of cases this summer. ABC News ABC News

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Over the past four years, the U.S. has seen summer waves of COVID and this summer may also bring a rise in cases, but not severe as in past seasons.

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Will your last COVID vaccine work against new ‘FLiRT’ variants?

...Both FLiRT variants are considered very similar to JN.1, health officials say, with early data suggesting only a couple of changes in their spike proteins.

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However, because the FLiRT variants are relatively new, there isn’t enough data to show whether the vaccine or immunity from a recent case of COVID will provide effective protection against them.

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Researchers estimate vaccines have saved 154 million lives over past half-century

An international team of health and medical researchers including workers at the WHO, working with economists and modeling specialists, has found that the use of vaccines to prevent or treat disease has saved the lives of approximately 154 million people over the past half-century.

In their study, published in The Lancet, the group used mathematical and statistical modeling to develop estimates for lives saved due to vaccines and then added them together to find the total.

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