The Wall Street Journal offered a fascinating article about the story behind this famous photograph of President Abraham Lincoln. The article’s author observes

[H]ere is President Lincoln as he surely looked to contemporaries, his expression mysterious yet mesmerizing: gray eyes sunken within dark hollows; brow creased; sallow cheeks mottled by scars and moles; huge ears akimbo; nose large but blunt; and the head, he noted in his only personal description, crowned “with coarse black hair.” A great sufferer, perhaps, but firmly in control and command.

As Union officer and future U.S. Rep. Theodore Lyman III once recalled of Lincoln—as if viewing this very pose: “He has the look of sense and wonderful shrewdness, while the heavy eyelids give him a mark almost of genius”—a genius desperately needed in Lincoln’s time, and fully reflected in this timeless image.

In Omicron news —

• NPR Shots brings us to to date on the Omicron subvariant.

As the omicron surge continues to decline in the U.S., infectious disease experts are keeping a close eye on an even more contagious version of the variant that could once again foil the nation’s hopes of getting back to normal.

The virus, known as BA.2, is a strain of the highly contagious omicron variant that appears to spread even more easily — about 30% more easily. * * *

“A lot of us were assuming that it was going to quickly take off in the United States just like it was doing in Europe and become the new dominant variant,” says Nathan Grubaugh, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.

So far that hasn’t happened. Instead, BA.2 has slowly, but steadily spread even as the omicron surge continued to dissipate. The fear is that spread may be on track to rapidly accelerate in the near future.

* * *

Some experts think it’s unlikely BA.2 will trigger a massive new surge because so many people have immunity from prior infections and vaccination at this point.

“The most likely thing that’s going to happen is that it might extend our tail, meaning it might slow down the decrease in cases. But it’s probably not going to lead to a new wave of cases,” says Grubaugh.

• The Wall Street Journal explains the science behind why children fare better with Covid. In short in this case, it’s better to have an immature immune system.

In other healthcare news

• A friend of the FEHBlog called his attention to the final column of New York Times personal health columnist Jane E. Brody. Ms Brody has been writing this column continuously since 1976. She joined the New York Times in 1965. If Ms. Brody doesn’t deserve a gold watch upon retirement, no one does.

• Two well known experts write in MedPage today about how large employers are collaborating to revamp U.S. healthcare.