Will we do better next time? Not from what I can see now — Columbia University’s medical school just held a week-long symposium on pandemic vaccines, which I attended and spoke at.* We heard from 40 experts, virtually all (other than me) specialists at fighting infectious diseases, from the W.H.O., the C.D.C. and its Chinese counterpart, from Operation Warp Speed, Pfizer and the Serum…

Trump is losing hundreds of voters a day to Covid — far more than the margins in the swing states. — Math is not Donald Trump’s strong point. Example: In 1988, he paid $408 million for the Plaza Hotel and spent millions making it gaudier. Seven years later, his creditors sold it for $325 million. And yet he styles himself a business genius. Genius or no, he is suddenly doing something…

The Mountain States still have little Omicron, except in counties with ski resorts. Maybe this could be the opening that makes vaccine passports acceptable? — Viruses spread through networks — and one of those networks is skiers. It’s probably too late to do anything about it. But if we’re ever going to get serious about stopping the spread of viruses (as we tried to do by suspending flights from South Africa on Nov. 26), we…

I have no symptoms and the C.D.C. says I can go out. But I keep testing positive, so I might be infectious. What’s the responsible thing to do? — I’ve been in isolation for seven days now, meaning the C.D.C.’s new guidelines say I could have left two days ago. But I’ve tested positive on my Day 6 and Day 7 rapid tests, making me I worry that I might still be slightly infectious. So now I’m hanging on…

I’m boosted, I feel fine. But what timing, huh? I got it the very day the C.D.C. cut isolation time in half. And I guiltily remembered how I cheated on my SARS quarantine 18 years ago. — Well, that didn’t take long. I thought this wave of the virus might get most of us. And now it’s my turn. Nonetheless, my timing was perfect: the same day I turned positive, the C.D.C. cut isolation times in half. I can go into hiding for only five days, not…

The infected have the “wrong” symptoms. Many are sick and yet test negative. Whether it’s mild is still unproven. Sequences posted by NYU have a possibly worrisome mutation. — My recent fears about Omicron came true much faster than I expected: it took less than two weeks for it to blitz past Delta and become the country’s dominant variant. Here in New York, case counts are setting records. Testing centers have block-long lines, pharmacies are out of home-testing kits…

Omicron is doubling so fast that it may soon be the pandemic of the unboosted — with holiday risks even for the boosted. Two weeks ago, I was flippant about Omicron, calling it a variant “with a name like a villain from a Transformers movie.” Now I’m feeling chastened — and nervous. Just in time for Christmas, data pouring in from South Africa, Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Washington State and elsewhere shows Omicron cases…

We have another new threat, but two pills that might fight it. Instead of debating which is better, how about combining them? We know “cocktails” work. But our laws prevent drug companies from cooperating to make them. — We are now threatened by Omicron, a new Covid variant with a name like a villain from a Transformers movie. Although on paper its genes look scary, we still know very little about its real-life behavior.

It’s the “hammer of Thor” drug, so Trump’s unvaxxed army should consider it cool. But it works by forcing mutations into the genetic code, so even serious scientists have worries. The world gets its medical advice from both sides. Whose will win out? — Let’s ask a question that sounds silly but isn’t: How will QAnon ultimately feel about molnupiravir? Why ask? Because Merck’s new antiviral pill just might be the game-changer this pandemic needs. It may cure, cheaply and quickly. It may even prevent.