With Europe still grappling with Covid-19, Talking Europe speaks to Christa Schweng, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

The head of the World Health Organization says rich countries are merely prolonging the pandemic by fueling vaccine inequality. "No country can boost its way out of the pandemic," he says.

Instead, mRNA vaccines use mRNA created in a laboratory to teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies.

The person who died was between the ages of 60 and 79, according to the Robert Koch Institute health body. Germany has also registered a spike in omicron infections in recent days.

Antiviral drugs like Paxlovid could slash hospitalizations and deaths from coronavirus. Treatment would bring us a step closer to the end of the pandemic.

Three BTS members — Suga, RM and Jin — have tested positive for COVID-19. The superstar group had recently returned to South Korea from the United States where they held their first in-person concerts since the pandemic.

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Pfizer's anti-COVID treatment has already received emergency approval in the US. Now, Germany is hoping the drug will reduce the burden on intensive care units.

Children have been out of school for over a year, raising worries about students falling behind. In India this month, some states have started allowing schools to reopen. But in Delhi, many are choosing to stay away, over fears of a third wave.

German police are running "at full capacity all the time" and struggling to cope with stress as they deal with violent and aggressive protesters, the police union has said.

Although Germany isn't logging record cases like its neighbors, Health Minister Lauterbach said current figures don't show the whole picture. Data reporting has slowed over the holidays — but the omicron variant has not.

Wolfgang Preiser, the virologist who first discovered omicron, has spoken to DW about the rapid rise in cases. He predicts that most people will catch the new variant.