Google has added new search tools related to offering all the information about the COVID-19 pandemic to its users. The features can help you quickly find where free diagnostic tests are being performed, or where vaccinations are taking place. You can also select specific vaccine brands: Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson. These new tools come as the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19 continue to spread rapidly across Europe and the United States, with omicron rising from 12% of all confirmed COVID-19 cases at the start of last Christmas to more than 73% today.
To get started, open Google on your mobile phone and type or say a term like “COVID shots near me.” You will immediately see a list of pharmacies and medical facilities that offer the vaccines for COVID-19. You can modify your search so that Google only shows pharmacies that administer the Pfizer vaccine, for example. To find free testing sites, try searching for “free COVID tests near me.” If a site offers free testing, it will say “Free COVID-19 Testing.” Otherwise, the search engine might say something like “The price of laboratory PCR is 60 euros.”
All information at your fingertips
Earlier this past December, the tech giant announced another tool that allows users to quickly find the sites where the Moderna and Pfizer booster shots that make up the third dose are being administered. The omicron variant of COVID-19 has rapidly become the dominant coronavirus strain in the United States and Europe, accounting for up to 73.2% of total COVID-19 cases in many countries.
Scientists are working through mounting evidence that this new mutation of the virus can easily pass from person to person and evade the protection provided by primary vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Prestigious media such as the famous New York Times have reported that vaccines used in other parts of the world “offer almost no defense against infection by the highly contagious omicron variant.” Only the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines appear to be effective in protecting against this aggressive variant.
Therefore, those vaccinated with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines need a booster dose to protect against serious infections and illnesses . So far, licensed COVID-19 vaccines in almost all Western countries, especially Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, have proven highly effective in preventing hospitalization and death, with unvaccinated people having 10 times more likely to be hospitalized if infected.
Faster spread than delta variant
A growing body of data suggests that the omicron variant may be much more infectious than the delta variant, which originated in South Africa and is now the dominant strain worldwide. The World Health Organization has assured that the variant has already spread to 89 countries and that the number of cases is skyrocketing, even in countries with high levels of immunity.
