Vaccines appear weak at blocking Omicron, better against severe disease

Omicron continues to make headlines around the globe as the fast-spreading variant pushes to become the dominant form of COVID-19. Infections in the U.K. are estimated to be running at 200,000 a day, prompting the country to impose new restrictions, while it also became the first nation to publicly confirm a death from the heavily mutated variant. Meanwhile, Norway is banning alcohol in bars in restaurants to curb the outbreak there, while China detected its first Omicron case on the mainland in the city of Tianjin.

Latest research: Vaccine names rose on Wall Street yesterday as additional studies showed COVID shots can protect against Omicron. An Israeli study of 40 participants found that those who received a booster shot had a significant rise in antibodies, while a University of Oxford study also discovered increased protection from boosters. Last week, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and partner BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) said preliminary research they conducted found that three doses of their vaccine were effective in neutralizing Omicron.

Over in the U.S., California is imposing a month-long statewide mask mandate for indoor public places regardless of vaccination status. Mandates are also hitting Philadelphia, with the city requiring proof of a COVID vaccine to eat inside a restaurant or food establishment starting from January. On the other side of the fence, some of the largest U.S. hospital systems like HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) and Tenet Healthcare (NYSE:THC) have dropped COVID mandates for staff after a federal appeals court upheld an order blocking the White House's mandate for healthcare workers and as the industry deals with a severe labor shortage.

Return to the office? Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) CEO James Gorman has walked back an order that employees should be back at the office by now, saying he was "wrong" about a widely publicized plan that was based on being out of the pandemic's worst after Labor Day. "I think we'll still be in it through most of next year," he told CNBC. "Everybody's still finding their way and then you get the Omicron variant; who knows, we'll have Pi, we'll have Theta and Epsilon, and we'll eventually run out letters of the alphabet. It's continuing to be an issue."