In one welcome development, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said new research indicates there is not increased disease severity in children.
Here’s what to know
- Nearly 80 percent of African countries — 42 out of 54 — will miss the global target of vaccinating 10 percent of their population by the end of September, WHO Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said during a weekly virtual briefing Thursday. She also said that less than 3 percent of people in Africa have been fully vaccinated.
- The South Carolina Supreme Court sided with the state legislature in prohibiting mask mandates in public schools and day-care centers in Columbia. The unanimous ruling Thursday said the “City of Columbia’s ordinances mandating face masks in public schools that serve grades K-12 are in direct conflict with Proviso 1.108 of the 2021-2022 Appropriations Act.” According to that law, state funds cannot be used to enforce mask mandates in schools.
- Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths, Florida is reportedly set to begin issuing $5,000 fines to businesses, schools and government agencies that require proof of vaccination. The penalty is part of a bill signed earlier this year by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who championed the legislation as protecting “personal choice.” It goes into effect Sept. 16.
Key coronavirus updates from around the globe
Here’s what to know about the top coronavirus stories around the world from news service reports.
- The computer chip shortage caused by the pandemic is forcing temporary closings of General Motors’ eight North American plants and Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant for the next two weeks.
- Almost all school districts in North Carolina are requiring face masks, Betsey Tilson, the state health director, said Thursday. “We are seeing now the highest cases increase in our younger people,” she said.
- Kentucky reported its second-highest daily number of coronavirus cases, 5,457, since the start of the pandemic, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.
- Walmart will give pay raises of at least $1 to 565,000 of its U.S. store workers as it tries to retain and attract workers ahead of the holiday shopping season, the company announced Thursday.
- Vaccine doses made in a South African facility will remain in the country and not be exported to Europe, the African Union’s coronavirus vaccine envoy said Thursday.
- In France, 12 million schoolchildren started their academic year wearing masks Thursday. French President Emmanuel Macron and school principals encouraged coronavirus vaccinations, since only about half of 12-to-17-year-olds in the country are fully vaccinated.
- In Greece, health-care workers protested mandatory coronavirus vaccinations by marching in central Athens on Thursday. According to a rule that went into effect Wednesday, unvaccinated health workers or those who did not get covid-19 in the last six months face suspension without pay. But Thursday evening, the Health Ministry said those suspensions would be lifted if workers get at least one shot and commit to completing their vaccinations.
- India reported its biggest daily rise in infections — 47,092 new cases — in two months on Thursday. The southern state of Kerala accounted for nearly 70 percent of those cases and a third of deaths, and authorities worried about the virus spreading to other parts of the country. The situation also could worsen nationwide with schools reopening and the start of the festival season. India has recorded 32,861,444 coronavirus cases, second only to the United States, according to The Washington Post tracker.
- Belgium’s king and queen are in partial quarantine after a member of the royal family tested positive for the coronavirus. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde “decided, as a precautionary measure, to limit their contacts in the days to come, in line with the health regulations in force,” a Royal Palace statement said.
Italian prime minister floats idea of mandatory vaccines
ROME — Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday indicated that the country may eventually make vaccines compulsory for the general population, though he did not provide details about how such a policy might be put in place.
If it came to pass, Italy would become even more at the forefront of how far a nation can go in pushing for immunization.
Asked in a news conference if mandatory vaccinations might be on the table after the European and Italian medicine regulators gave full authorization to the vaccines, Draghi said, “Yes,” without elaborating.
Such a move would surely draw blowback, as have other recent steps aimed at pressuring the unvaccinated population. Italy already mandates the use of what is known as Europe’s Green Pass for many leisure activities, including indoor dining, as well as long-distance travel.
The country is aiming to fully vaccinate 80 percent of its eligible population by the end of the month, a target Draghi expressed optimism about reaching. Italy currently has a 71 percent vaccination rate.
With the help of relatively widespread vaccination, as well as continued rules about mask-wearing indoors, Italy has so far avoided a significant wave in cases or deaths amid the highly transmissible delta variant.
U.S. to invest $3 billion to become vaccine ‘arsenal’ to the world
The United States plans to invest $3 billion in the coronavirus vaccine supply chain in a bid to increase manufacturing capacity and boost vaccination efforts, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday.
The nation has fully vaccinated 175 million people and shipped 130 million doses outside its borders — more than all other countries combined, he said. But more can be done, Zients said during a news briefing, and the funding set to be distributed in coming weeks will “help us deliver on the president’s commitment to be the arsenal of vaccines for the world.”
He and other health officials described the vaccination drive as crucial amid the surge in cases driven by the delta variant. In a concerning trend, the increase has also affected children, who are becoming infected in greater numbers.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said research set to be released Friday found emergency room visits and hospitalizations are higher in states with the lowest overall vaccination coverage. In one encouraging sign, she said the new studies suggest that there is not increased disease severity in children.
“Instead, more children have covid-19 because there is more disease in the community,” she said. “What is clear from these data is community-level vaccination coverage protects our children.”
Amazon reviews push ivermectin as covid-19 cure, despite FDA warnings
SEATTLE — “Chris C.” recently offered tips on how to use a horse deworming drug “good enough to prevent or treat o-vid” in a comment on an Amazon product page.
While the Food and Drug Administration has warned against human use of the animal version of ivermectin, the misspelling, typically used to avoid detection across social media sites blocking coronavirus misinformation, worked on Amazon.
People like Chris are fueling a new wave of misinformation on Amazon’s site by using slightly altered spellings in reviews and comments that evade Amazon’s efforts to crackdown on crack cures and dangerous advice.
Amazon has struggled to police scammy sellers on the site for years. Amazon leans on technology, such as algorithms trained to detect words or phrases that could indicate violations of its rules to prevent misinformation. Some humans are involved, Amazon said, although it declined to provide numbers or details.
Surging crash death rates that took hold with the pandemic continued this year, according to new estimate
The first quarter of 2021 was the deadliest start of a year on the nation’s roads in over a decade, with car crashes killing an estimated 8,730 people from January to March, according to a new estimate from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The numbers indicate that a surge in road deaths that began with the coronavirus pandemic has continued into this year, although they offer some early glimmer of hope that unusually high fatality rates might be starting to come down.
NHTSA said the ongoing high death rate appears to have been caused by drivers continuing to take risks by speeding, getting behind the wheel after drinking or using drugs, and not wearing seat belts. And to coincide with the new estimates, NHTSA on Thursday released an updated version of a guide to improving highway safety, largely focusing on encouraging more conscientious behavior on the roads and discouraging risk-taking.
Boston Marathon to require vaccination proof or negative coronavirus test from participants
Boston Marathon entrants must provide proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test to participate in the race, organizers said Thursday.
The marathon is being held in person Oct. 11 for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The 2020 race was postponed and then staged as a virtual event; this year’s edition was rescheduled for the fall. The marathon typically takes places on the third Monday in April.
In its Thursday announcement, the Boston Athletic Association said it is “strongly recommended that all entrants, staff, and volunteers are vaccinated.” Masks will not be required while running the marathon, although they will be mandated during participant transportation and in indoor settings, as required by the city of Boston.
Vaccination records or negative coronavirus test results must be shown before bib pickup, with testing conducted on-site in a Boston Marathon medical tent. Verification of vaccination status will take place the weekend before the race in coordination with the Boston Marathon Expo hours.
The Boston Athletic Association is urging race participants to “ ‘Earn A PR’ by practicing personal responsibility” during the marathon. It suggested efforts including “refraining from kissing a stranger around the halfway mark of the Boston Marathon and only using B.A.A. provided course nutrition in lieu of accepting hydration or food from spectators.”
“From guests traveling with athletes to spectators cheering on participants, everyone is encouraged to take efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” the organization said.
Returning to offices, rethinking commutes
The pandemic-era experiment with remote work, now in its 18th month, has created one of the biggest disruptions to the American commute in memory.
As more workers gradually return to the office this fall, many are rethinking how — and how often — they will get there, while reconsidering commuting habits years in the making.
In interviews with workers across the region, The Washington Post found former mass transit commuters who now are hitting the road again, nervous about sharing the ride or finding that driving has become faster amid suppressed rush hour traffic volumes. Others are switching to a bike commute, having discovered a love for cycling during the pandemic.
Time lost to commuting — once considered an unavoidable part of life — now feels unnecessary, many say.
Apple asks U.S. employees to report vaccination status
Apple is asking all of its employees in the United States to disclose their coronavirus vaccination status, although it has not followed several other tech giants in mandating the shots.
The company set a Sept. 17 deadline for employees to “voluntarily” share their status, Bloomberg News reported. It said in a memo that the information would be used in determining coronavirus protocols.
“As Apple’s Covid-19 response continues to evolve, our primary focus remains keeping our team members, their friends and families, and our entire community healthy,” Apple said in the memo, according to Bloomberg.
Apple has not announced such a rule, although Bloomberg noted that the company recently launched a campaign to encourage employees to get inoculated.
The iPhone maker initially planned to have corporate staff members return to the office in September. But amid the rise of the delta variant, the company has delayed the return date until January.
Apple said in its memo that it would keep employee vaccine information confidential, Bloomberg reported. It added, however, that circumstances could change.
“It is possible your vaccination status may be used in an identifiable manner, along with other information about your general work environment such as your building location, if we determine or, if it is required that, this information is necessary in order to ensure a healthy and safe work environment,” the memo said.
FDA to meet with outside advisers on booster shots Sept. 17, days before first shots expected
The Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a key meeting on coronavirus boosters with its outside advisers for Sept. 17 — just a few days before the Biden administration’s planned starting date for an extra-shot campaign.
The session, which will be public, could add much-needed clarity and transparency to a decision-making process that some people have criticized as confusing. But it also could fuel more controversy over an administration position some experts regard as premature.
One of the panel members is Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who has questioned whether boosters are needed at this time because data indicates the vaccines remain effective against severe covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Administration officials have responded that protection is waning, and it is important to make a plan to administer boosters before it is too late.
House panel endorses measures focusing on Wuhan, China, to determine origins of the coronavirus
The House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment demanding that the administration’s top defense and intelligence officials produce a report on the origins of the coronavirus by the end of the year — including whether it emanated from the coronavirus research lab in Wuhan, China.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) called the measure a “first step” in the accountability process, to make sure that the public could see “an unclassified report … about the origins of the virus.”
“The American people deserve to know what our intelligence agencies have gathered thus far about what actually took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and any efforts the Chinese Communist Party made to conceal the activities conducted in that lab,” Johnson said. “Surely after a year and a half, we have additional information that can and should be presented to the American people so they can draw their own conclusions.”
Though the parties have been angrily debating the origins of the coronavirus for nearly the duration of the pandemic, Johnson’s amendment was accepted without incident. A second coronavirus proposal from Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), to study whether athletes who attended the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan were infected with the coronavirus, also faced no serious hurdles to inclusion in the annual defense bill.
Gallagher drew attention to the Military Games after citing reports of how various international participants suffered “symptoms consistent” with covid-19 after the competition. The 2019 games were held in October 2019 — months before the coronavirus began dominating global reports and making its way through the world.
“We can’t understand the origin unless we get the timeline right,” Gallagher said. “I’m not privileging one hypothesis over the other. … I simply want to get to the bottom of it, and this is one small step that DoD [Department of Defense] can take to help us understand where and how the pandemic started.”
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Rep. Mike Gallagher (R) represents Pennsylvania. He represents Wisconsin. The article has been corrected.
Hard-hit Spain becomes first major European nation to reach 70 percent vaccination goal
Spain has fully vaccinated 70 percent of its population, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez tweeted on Wednesday, championing his country’s national health system and thanking health workers and the public for their efforts.
The vaccination goal is a remarkable milestone for a country that has suffered two devastating waves of the coronavirus, with shocking images of overrun intensive care units and medical staff exasperated at supply shortages making global headlines. Spain was one of the hardest hit European countries, with more than 84,000 deaths so far, due to covid-19.
Spain is the first major European country to hit the 70 percent vaccination mark. The island nations of Malta and Iceland, which have much smaller populations, were among the first to reach the vaccination goal in Europe, with Denmark and Portugal also recently hitting the 70 percent mark. Ireland and Belgium are expected to reach the milestone soon.
There are, however, statistical differences in the tallies: Portugal counts anyone who has received a first shot or a single dose as vaccinated, given that a significant amount of the population is receiving the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. For its part, Belgium has mostly used vaccines that require two jabs, as has Ireland.
Moderna to recall 1.6 million vaccine doses in Japan contaminated with stainless steel
Three lots of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine used in Japan will be recalled after an investigation conducted by the company; its Japanese distributor, Takeda; and its Spanish manufacturer, ROVI, found that some doses were contaminated with stainless steel, the companies said Wednesday.
The lots in question contained more than 1.6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine. On Aug. 26, Japan’s health ministry and Takeda suspended the use of those doses when several vaccination centers found unexpected substances in some vials.
The investigation concluded that the contamination most likely happened during the process of sealing vaccine vials at the plant in Spain that produced those specific lots, where “friction between two pieces of metal” in the production line would have caused particles of high-grade stainless steel to enter the vials.
For those who were already vaccinated with doses from the contaminated lots, the companies said there was no major known health risk, and that the doses would still work. “Metallic particles of this size injected into a muscle may result in a local reaction, but are unlikely to result in other adverse reactions beyond the local site of the injection,” the companies added.
At the same time, Moderna and Takeda are investigating the deaths of two people who died in Japan shortly after receiving doses from one of the contaminated batches — but said so far there was no evidence the deaths were related to the vaccine.
Moderna has applied for authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to distribute third doses of its coronavirus vaccine.
Religious exemptions from coronavirus vaccines are expected to become a legal battleground
As more companies and states require employees to get coronavirus vaccines, some Americans are seeking a way out through religious exemptions to skirt mandates that they believe burden their beliefs.
The rules around religious exemptions for coronavirus vaccines vary widely, state by state, institution by institution. But experts on religious freedom court cases believe lawsuits will become more common as vaccine mandates become more prevalent.
With no nationally consistent way of navigating religious exemptions, some churches have offered parishioners templates to download. Other leaders, however, have said they will not provide exemptions.
Prince Harry makes plea for fairer global access to vaccines
Prince Harry urged world leaders and public health officials to do more to ensure global equity and access to coronavirus vaccines, speaking virtually at a GQ magazine awards ceremony on Wednesday night.
“There is a huge disparity between who can and cannot access the vaccine,” the British royal said, adding that less than 2 percent of people in developing nations — among them many health care workers ― had received a first dose.
“Where you are born should not affect your ability to survive, when the drugs and know-how exist to keep you alive,” he added.
Harry, wearing a tuxedo and speaking via video link, also criticized “mass-scale misinformation across news media and social media” for stoking vaccine hesitancy.
The Duke of Sussex, who now lives in the United States, presented the ‘Hero Award’ to British scientists Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green for their work in developing the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
“We cannot move forward together unless we address this imbalance as one,” Harry said.
"world" - Google News
September 02, 2021 at 11:04PM
https://ift.tt/3mWdkHW
U.S. to invest $3 billion to become vaccine 'arsenal' to the world - The Washington Post
"world" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3d80zBJ
https://ift.tt/2WkdbyX
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "U.S. to invest $3 billion to become vaccine 'arsenal' to the world - The Washington Post"
Post a Comment