A new Greek tragedy has risen with the World Health Organization (WHO) designating Omicron, a SARS-CoV-2 variant, as a ‘variant of concern’ (VOC). While it took WHO several weeks to designate older VOCs such as Alpha, Beta and Delta as a VOC when they emerged, in the case of Omicron, which was first confirmed in Botswana, it moved without even waiting for reports on the variant’s increased likelihood to cause disease and whether it is denting the normal public health response. Omicron has now been confirmed in South Africa, Botswana, the U.K., Germany, Italy and travellers into the Netherlands and Israel. It reportedly has over 50 mutations, 32 of which are on the spike protein, which binds to human cells and is the preferred target for vaccines. Several of the mutations confer the virus resistance to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) such as etesevimab, bamlanivimab, casirivimab and their combinations. Antibodies are the first line of defence against viral infection and mAbs are used
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The questions raised by the Supreme Court of India about the criteria for identifying the ‘Economically Weaker Sections’ (EWS) for the purpose of granting reservation are quite apposite. Faced with sharp questions that it could not answer satisfactorily, the Union government has obtained time to reconsider the criteria, especially the income norm that only those from a family with annual income less than ₹8 lakh can avail of the 10% reservation earmarked for the EWS category. It is now a settled principle that quantifiable data or proof of a detailed study are required to justify any category of reservation, as well as the norms that determine which section gets it and which does not. In this backdrop, it is logical that the Court would want to know whether there was any study before the Centre prescribed the norms for identifying EWS beneficiaries based on indicators of economic disadvantage. The enquiry by the three-judge Bench is necessarily circumscribed by the fact that the
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