Vaccines
If I understand this paper correctly, scientists found spike protein in the blood of mice after vaccinating them with AZ. (See previous discussion of why that matters in the 26 May General blog posting.)
There have been a number of papers which say that you are much less likely to transmit COVID if you have been vaccinated, including this one.
Variants
There has been a lot of concern lately about various Asian countries which had done a really good job of containing the virus (e.g. Vietnam), which are now getting overrun. I have seen several articles mention that their previous success hurts them a little now, as they have essentially no immunity acquired from having had COVID-19.
C.36.3 was first found in Thailand, and Thailand is arguing strongly that it should not be referred to as the “Thai variant” and besides is probably not a problem. (It probably came from Egypt.)
Vietnam says they have found a new variant. No information yet on a name for it.
Disease
This paper is one of several (I think I’ve mentioned this before) which says that COVID-19 has elements of an auto-immune attack.