Technologies

COVID delta variant fears spur booster shot plans around the world. The latest update

The WHO calls for a pause in the world’s booster plans, while San Francisco gives Johnson & Johnson recipients the green light for an mRNA dose. Here’s what’s going on with boosters.

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.

Calling the eradication of the COVID-19 virus «unlikely,» a UK scientific advisory group says (PDF) there is a «realistic possibility» that a variant will emerge that is resistant to the current battery of vaccines. Governments, public health organizations and vaccine makers are all tracking developments in coronavirus variants like delta and lambda, hoping to answer the question if booster shotstargeting new variants will be needed soon.

«Things are going to get worse,» Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the president, said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.

Currently in the US, «breakthrough» coronavirus cases caused by the dominant delta variant amount to less than 1% of people who are fully vaccinated. Both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are proven to be over 90% effective against hospitalizations and death. The surge in new COVID-19 cases are primarily affecting unvaccinated people and causing community spread, and in turn, the return of mask mandates and guidance in hard-hit areas, even for people who have full vaccine protection. The debate over mask use and vaccine boosters underscores how scientists and other health experts continue to grapple with the uncertainties of COVID-19.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent study shows that vaccinated people can both contract the highly contagious delta variant and spread it. According to a widely reported internal CDC memo, the delta variant spreads as easily as chicken pox, which is considered more contagious than the flu and less contagious than measles.

To prepare for the possibility of a booster shot, the CDC said it’s weighing a third vaccine dose for people with compromised immune systems. Over the weekend, Israel began administering third doses of the vaccine to those 60 and older, and the UK plans to do the same. However, this is resulting in a backlash among countries that are struggling to deliver first and second shots to residents.

On Wednesday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for a «moratorium» on booster shots in high-income countries, citing the global disparity in vaccine distribution. Of the 4 billion doses administered globally, 80% have gone to high- and upper-middle income countries that make up less than half of the world’s population, he said.

«We cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected,» Tedros said.

What does all of this mean in the US? Here’s what we know about COVID booster shots now.

Booster shot vs. new COVID vaccine: There’s a difference

Along with Moderna, Pfizer’s current two-dose vaccine provides powerful and effective protection against all known variants of COVID-19, including the delta variant, according to ongoing studies and self-reported statistics. But Pfizer also announced in July that a third dose of its vaccine is currently under development. The company said its own research showed a booster shot of its current vaccine increased antibody levels five to 10 times higher over its two-dose shots, noting that its results have not been published or peer-reviewed.

Pfizer said it believes the level of protection the first two doses of its vaccine provide can gradually decrease over time, and a third booster dose may be needed «within six to 12 months» after a person is fully vaccinated with the first two doses. Pfizer said a booster shot could enhance protection against the delta variant, which has been known to infect fully vaccinated people. Clinical trials on the booster are set to begin, as Pfizer seeks approval from government regulators for a third dose.

However, while a booster shot would complement the two doses of its existing vaccine, Pfizer is also separately working on a new vaccine formulation targeting the delta variant.

What do the CDC, FDA and WHO think about a booster shot?

The CDC and FDA initially exercised caution over a booster shot.

«People who are fully vaccinated are protected from severe disease and death, including from the variants currently circulating in the country such as delta,» the CDC and FDA said in a July 8 joint statement, without naming Pfizer. The government agencies emphasized the need for all eligible people to receive full doses of one of the approved vaccines, all of which are free.

The CDC and FDA said the question of a booster requires extensive scientific data and doesn’t depend on the input from pharmaceutical companies alone. «Virtually all COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are among those who are unvaccinated,» the statement mentioned, adding that the agencies will approve booster doses «if and when the science demonstrates that they are needed.»

New research has demonstrated a need. There is a growing consensus among Biden administration health officials that older individuals and those with compromised immune systems may, in fact, need a third shot. At a White House press briefing Thursday, Fauci said that it is «extremely important for us to move» to get immunocompromised people a booster, citing observational data that they generally aren’t «adequately protected» with the standard vaccine dose.

«We are now working on that, and we’ll make that be implemented as quickly as possible,» Fauci said. About 2.7% of the US adult population is immunosuppressed, CNBC reported, but immunocompromised people make up about 44% of people hospitalized with COVID complications.

Earlier in the week, at a WHO press briefing Wednesday, Tedros said that while he understands «the concern of all governments to protect their people from the delta variant,» booster shots shouldn’t be prioritized until the world’s most vulnerable people and health care workers are vaccinated.

«We call on vaccine producers to prioritize Covax,» Tedros said, referring to the world’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution program.

Is Moderna also planning to develop a booster shot?

While scientists and public health officials continue to study if those who are fully vaccinated will need a booster shot, Moderna said — along with Pfizer — it is exploring a third vaccine dose to complement the initial two vaccine shots.

I got Johnson & Johnson — Do I need a booster?

No, fully vaccinated Americans don’t need a booster yet, including those who got the single dose of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID vaccine, according to the country’s health officials. But residents in San Francisco who received Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose COVID vaccine were given the green light Tuesday to get a dose of an mRNA vaccine, though it still isn’t recommended by the city’s health department.

Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s health director, said that there isn’t conclusive evidence that getting a dose of Pfizer or Moderna benefits those who got the J&J shot, but there’s also not evidence to show it’s harmful, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

«If people received the Johnson & Johnson and are requesting a second shot, we will accommodate them, but our policy has not changed,» Colfax said.

San Francisco’s decision to legitimize Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients getting an mRNA vaccine comes in light of a small study that suggests the vaccine isn’t nearly as effective against the delta variant as the other vaccines. (Another study suggests that Johnson & Johnson remains effective, and the drug-maker continues to claim the vaccine is effective.)

Would the booster shot be free?

The current one-dose vaccine shot from Johnson & Johnson and two-dose versions from Moderna and Pfizer are free to anyone who wants to get vaccinated. According to the Biden administration, COVID-19 booster shots will also be free, if and when they’re approved.

Is it a good idea to mix and match COVID vaccines?

The CDC doesn’t recommend mixing and matching vaccines from the different makers, saying it hasn’t evaluated the effectiveness of mixing vaccine doses and that the «vaccines are not interchangeable.»

However, other global health agencies and countries are testing administered vaccines from two different manufacturers. In the UK, for example, a recent study found that those who received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a second of Pfizer had a higher immune response than those who received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

In early June, the National Institutes of Health started a trial that tests mixing COVID-19 vaccines, and will determine if those who got Pfizer or J&J initially can safely receive a Moderna booster. The initial results of the study are expected in late summer 2021, the NIH said in a news release.

While we wait to see how the situation develops, here’s what we know about the delta variant, more about COVID-19 boosters and if you need to continue to wear a mask.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Technologies

The Maker of the $20K Neo Robot Has a Deal for 10,000 of Its Humanoids

The goal is to get the robots working with actual humans in areas such as manufacturing, facility operations and health care.

Robot maker 1X made a splash back in October when it opened preorders for its Neo humanoid robot for home use, not least because of its $20,000 price tag. Now it’s making another splash with a deal for up to 10,000 of its humanoids to be deployed over the next five years.

Private equity firm EQT says it will facilitate getting thousands of 1X humanoids into its portfolio companies to work with humans in areas such as manufacturing, facility operations and health care. It’s unclear whether those robots will be from the Neo line itself or a variation. The press release for the EQT deal says that 1X will launch pilots in the US in 2026, which is the same time frame the company gave for getting the first Neo units to customers.

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1X, based in Palo Alto, California, has also worked on industrial robots before introducing Neo. Stockholm-based EQT is an investor in 1X.

Preorders for Neo require a $200 down payment. For those who prefer not to own, a $499-per-month leasing option is available.

Neo stands 5 feet 6 inches tall and can lift 154 pounds. 1X has demonstrated its ability to perform household tasks, such as folding laundry and carrying groceries. Notably, though, in a demo witnessed by a Wall Street Journal reporter, Neo was not autonomous — it required a remote human operator using a VR headset and controllers.

A 1X spokesperson told Bloomberg that the robots will operate autonomously.

Financial terms for the EQT deal weren’t disclosed. 1X and EQT said robots will be deployed to US partner companies first, for purchase or for leasing, and then to those in Europe and Asia.

A representative for 1X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A robotic future?

In a release, EQT Ventures said the deal will be part of a wave of mass-market robot adoption and is meant to address issues including labor shortages.

«This isn’t about replacing people, it’s about giving them superpowers,» Ted Persson, lead partner at EQT Ventures, said in a statement. «By making 1X’s technology available to our portfolio companies, we help them tackle labor shortages, improve safety, and unlock new levels of productivity in the industries that keep the world running.»

1X is one of several companies aiming to mass-produce humanoid robots for business, household tasks and even boxing. Amazon is already using robots in its warehouses, and it’s anticipated that AI advances will help speed the rise of robotics across the world.

Unitree, Apptronik, Boston Dynamics and Tesla are among the companies working on human-style robots.

Tesla has been trolled for a recent robot fail: At a public demo in Miami, one of its Optimus robots apparently knocked over bottles it was trying to pick up, then lost its balance and fell.

Technologies

Microsoft Wishes Xbox Game Pass Subscribers a Bloody Christmas With Mortal Kombat 1

«Get over here!» and celebrate the holidays with Scorpion.

Just in time for the holidays, Microsoft has a new batch of games on Xbox Game Pass. Leading the pack is Mortal Kombat 1, the bloody reboot of the fighting game franchise. It’s the perfect time of the year to sing carols and decapitate some digital heads.

Xbox Game Pass offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, smart TV and PC or mobile device, with prices starting at $10 a month. While all Game Pass tiers offer you a library of games, Game Pass Ultimate ($30 a month) gives you access to the most games, as well as Day 1 games, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, added monthly.

Here are all the games subscribers can play on Game Pass. You can also check out other games the company added to the service in November, including The Outer Worlds 2.

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Mortal Kombat 1

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers.

The Mortal Kombat series has gone back to the beginning, sort of. Mortal Kombat 1 is a reboot of the franchise with some changes, such as series protagonist Liu Kang becoming the Fire God who created this new universe. Pick your favorite fighter from the mainstays, including Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Johnny Cage, or splurge a bit and purchase the downloadable characters, including the T-1000 from the Terminator series, Conan the Barbarian or DC Comics’ Peacemaker.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a narrative adventure game from Don’t Nod, the studio behind Life Is Strange, and follows a group of friends as they uncover long-hidden secrets from a pivotal summer in 1995. Decades later, they reunite to confront the secrets they buried and the fallout that still haunts them.

Monster Train 2

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Monster Train 2 is the sequel to the deck-building roguelike from Shiny Shoe, bringing back strategic card combat with new factions and mechanics. Players once again battle through shifting hellscapes while defending their pyre from invading forces. The sequel expands on the original with deeper customization, more dynamic battles and fresh ways to build powerful decks.

Routine

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Routine is a first-person sci-fi horror game from Lunar Software, finally released after more than a decade in development. Set on an abandoned lunar base, it blends exploration with tense, survival-driven encounters against rogue machines. The game’s long road to launch has made its atmospheric world and polished retro-futuristic design a key part of its appeal.

The Crew Motorfest

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Nov. 20.

The Crew Motorfest is a massive car culture festival spanning the Hawaiian islands, featuring races, stunts and open-world driving challenges. The game features more than 700 vehicles, including cars, bikes, boats and planes, letting you pick how you want to explore the islands. Now in its third year of free updates, Motorfest adds new locations, customization options, a race creator tool and NASCAR content.

Death Howl

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Death Howl is a genre‑blending soulslike deckbuilder where players craft tactical decks and face relentless spirits as Ro, a grieving mother on a mythic quest to bring her son back from the dead. You’ll be building decks, dodging deadly spirits and wondering if that creepy forest is watching you back.

Dome Keeper

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Nov. 25.

Dome Keeper is a roguelike survival miner from indie studio Bippinbits, where players dig for resources and upgrade their defenses while protecting a glass dome from relentless alien attacks. You’ll still be digging for scraps and blasting alien hordes as you juggle mining for upgrades and zipping back to shore up your dome before it gets wrecked.

Games leaving Game Pass in December

While Microsoft is adding those games to Game Pass, it’s also removing five others from the service this month. So you still have some time to finish your campaign and any side quests before you have to buy these games separately.

On December 15:

On December 31:

For more on Xbox, discover other games available on Game Pass now and check out our hands-on review of the gaming service. You can also learn about recent changes to the Game Pass service.

Technologies

Exodus, the Upcoming Sci-Fi Game, Merges Mass Effect With the Drama of Interstellar

Ahead of The Game Awards, the developers of the action RPG talk about time dilation, romanceable companions and other hard sci-fi effects.

Exodus, the upcoming game made by former BioWare developers who worked on the Mass Effect series, has been a long-awaited follow-up to the venerable action RPG. Now, a new trailer shown off at The Game Awards 2025 on Thursday night introduces the game’s characters, teases the dramatic, star-spanning story, and gives sci-fi gamers what they want most: the news that the game will be released in 2027.

First introduced at The Game Awards two years ago, Exodus will be the debut game from studio Archetype Entertainment, operating under Wizards of the Coast. Early trailers laid the groundwork of the game’s universe, a hard science fiction adventure where travel across the stars can take moments for one person or decades for another. Now that the game is closer to its release, I sat down with Exodus’ developers to chat about what’s in store for their newly revealed hero, Jun. We also chatted about companions, big choices and Matthew McConaughey.

McConaughey, previously confirmed to be in the game, plays a mysterious character named C.C. Orlev, explained Chad Robertson, co-founder and general manager at Archetype. He’s a blend of teacher and voice of the people, meaning players will likely hear a lot from the famed actor during their playthrough as Jun.

«Jun doesn’t really fully understand the origins of how C.C. comes into his life, effectively. And C.C. still serves as a bit of a mentor and advisor to Jun,» Robertson said.

McConaughey’s role in the hard sci-fi film Interstellar thematically aligns with Exodus’ implementation of time dilation — the physics theory that as objects go faster (like a ship approaching the speed of light), time slows down for them. Since there are no wormholes or teleporters in the game’s universe, explained Drew Karpyshyn, narrative director of Exodus at Archetype, players will have to make some tough calls. If they head out on a mission that’s 10 years away and takes 10 years to come back, that’s 20 years passing on the planet they left.

«Everybody’s aged. The world has moved on. Things have changed, and that puts some really interesting opportunities and some really interesting conflicts and dilemmas for the players to deal with, the emotional impact of what happens to the people you leave behind — your friends, your companions, the people you care about,» Karpyshyn said.

Time dilation is just one of the mechanics that sets Exodus apart from other sci-fi games. In Exodus, humanity left an uninhabitable Earth thousands of years ago to find refuge in the Centauri system, but their colony ships staggered in their arrival. The latest humans to make it, like Jun, are met by civilizations that have evolved over the millennia into other humanoids alongside «Awakened animals,» explained Chris King, game director of Exodus at Archetype.

«I think there’s similarities to games we’ve worked on in the past, but there’s a ton of things we’re doing that are pretty different,» King said.

Archetype has leaned heavily on player decisions in Exodus, which isn’t a surprise since its developers were behind the choice-heavy BioWare games. Expect plenty of morally ambiguous choices in the game that won’t make everyone happy, King said. Players will just have to go on Exodus missions — the titular sojourns that leave family and friends behind for years at a time — and see how they play out.

«For us, it’s all about trying to give players as much agency as possible. We think of them as co-authors in the story and experience,» King said. «We’re basically trying to cram in as many choices and consequential gameplay so that they can customize the experience and compare notes with a friend who’s playing the same game. Their experience can be pretty drastically different.»

Unlike the pure good and evil choices of games like Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect, Exodus will veer away from a specific alignment system, Karpyshyn said. There will be mechanics in the game that honor and reflect choices, though the developers are trying to avoid the more artificial feel of picking options for, say, goodness points in favor of picking what’s best for their character. Gameplay choices, interactions and how players upgrade their hero will give them a reputation.

Companions also play a big part, and some of them will be romanceable, but not all. In the new trailer, we meet Salt, an Awakened octopus piloting a mech suit who simply isn’t interested in humans like Jun. These companion characters have their own stories and motivations that players can choose to explore, and they won’t always see eye-to-eye with each other.

While we’ll have to wait and see how Archetype incorporates all these sci-fi RPG elements, it’s clear that Mass Effect’s shadow looms large over Exodus. How much the new game resembles its spiritual predecessor will be clarified as more of it is revealed, but a clear divergence lies in inspiration. In addition to Interstellar, Archetype’s developers looked to another iconic sci-fi saga to pattern its new game after: Frank Herbert’s epic Dune novels, which were recently adapted to the screen by Denis Villeneuve.

Archetype took specific inspiration from «the scope and timelines of consequences, the idea of dynasties, family politics, rising up to become a leader and sort of savior of your people,» Karpyshynsaid.

At Archetype’s studio space in Austin, Texas, posters line the walls from films and media that also inspired the game, like Interstellar and Edge of Tomorrow. Other properties, like the Star Wars show The Mandalorian, evoke the desperate fights players will find themselves in in Exodus — outnumbered, outgunned and flanked by a couple of companions. The developers took a page out of Horizon Zero Dawn’s elemental combat, too.

For all that they’re working to step out from Mass Effect’s shadow, the developers acknowledge its impact on fans — and their desire that Exodus rise to a similar place in gamers’ esteem.

«Mass Effect gets brought up pretty frequently for us. We humbly aspire to deliver something that will resonate with fans at the scale of Mass Effect. We’re super excited and confident that what we’re building is going to put us in that direction, but we’ve got to earn that with fans and deliver something that they’re excited about,» Robertson said.