Category: Medical

PENTAGON —

About 10,000 active duty Air Force airmen and Space Force guardians remain unvaccinated for COVID-19, according to the latest data provided on the day of the military’s first vaccination deadline Tuesday.

That leaves senior leaders with tough choices concerning the fate of those who have refused to follow orders or are seeking exemptions.

The Air Force and Space Force’s COVID-19 vaccination compliance deadline is Tuesday for active duty troops. According to data obtained by VOA, 97% of active duty airmen and guardians have had at least one vaccine dose, with 95% fully vaccinated.

Asked whether Air Force and Space Force leadership is planning to issue new guidance to commanders now that the deadline is here, a senior Air Force official told VOA, “The guidance (to commanders) is clear. Use all tools at your disposal to encourage your people to get vaccinated.”

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters that 97% of all active duty troops had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, with deadlines for active duty troops in the Army, Navy and Marines coming later this year.

Some exemptions have been granted on rare occasions, including five permanent medical waivers granted to sailors in the Navy.

Kirby said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has asked commanders to first execute options other than punitive measures, but Kirby added that commanders may eventually need to escalate the pressure to comply with the lawful vaccination order.

“I think the secretary has been very clear with the leaders of the military departments that he wants them to execute the mandate with a sense of compassion and understanding,” Kirby said. “He knows, as a former commander himself, that leaders have a range of tools available to them to help troops make the right decisions for themselves, for the units, for the families, short of using the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

Data provided to VOA from the military service branches Tuesday showed 94% of the Army, 99% of the Navy and 93% of the Marine Corps are fully or partially vaccinated.

But active duty troops are vaccinated at a much higher rate than their Reserve and Guard counterparts, some of whom have deadlines as late as June 30, 2022.

About one-fifth of the total population of U.S. service members — hundreds of thousands of troops — has yet to get a single COVID-19 vaccine dose.

According to spokesman Major Charlie Dietz, the Pentagon requires at least nine vaccines for individuals entering military service, including hepatitis A; hepatitis B; influenza; measles; poliovirus; tetanus, diphtheria; pertussis; and varicella. Up to 17 vaccines are required for service members, depending on their role and geographic region.

Exemptions have been granted to service members for some required vaccines, such as the vaccine for anthrax.

Source: Voice of America

The White House COVID-19 response team said Monday it is anticipating final approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is prepared to administer the first vaccines to U.S. children ages 5-11 later this week.

Last Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave emergency approval for the distribution of children’s doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC’s advisory committee will consider the children’s doses of the vaccine for approval on Tuesday.

But during the White House COVID-19 briefing Monday, response coordinator Jeff Zients said the White House has been preparing for this moment for weeks. He said almost two weeks ago officials reached out to states and took their initial orders for the vaccine.

The FDA’s announcement Friday prompted the White House to begin sending the children’s doses of the vaccine to pediatricians, pharmacies and community health centers all over the country. Zients said, pending CDC approval, the first children will get their initial vaccinations perhaps as early as Wednesday, and certainly by the end of the week.

He said by this time next week – the week of Nov. 7 – the children vaccination program will be fully up and running across the country. Zients said again, the White House has procured 28 million children’s doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for every child between the ages of 5 and 11 in the United States.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky offered assurance the CDC advisory committee will conduct a comprehensive, fair and open review of the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine for children. She said the vaccine, once approved, will be an important tool for protecting children from the virus that causes COVID-19. Walensky added that the best protection for children is surrounding them with vaccinated adults.

Walensky said that while, as of Monday, 70 percent of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, there are still 60 million U.S. residents who are unvaccinated. She urged anyone who has not yet been vaccinated to do so.

Source: voice of America

White House press secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, she said in a statement, adding she had last seen President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

Psaki, 42, who stated she was vaccinated and experiencing mild symptoms, said she and the president sat outside more than 6 feet (1.8 m) apart and wore masks on Tuesday. Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday, said a person familiar with the matter.

“I am disclosing today’s positive test out of an abundance of transparency,” Psaki said.

Psaki, the main spokesperson for the White House, is the most high-profile person in the Biden administration known to have contracted COVID-19 since he took office in January.

Psaki decided not to join Biden on his trip to Rome and Glasgow this week because a member of her household tested positive for the virus, after which she quarantined, she said.

She has been in quarantine since Wednesday and repeatedly tested negative before testing positive on Sunday, she said.

Psaki planned to return to work at the end of a 10-day quarantine period following a negative rapid COVID-19 test, she said in the statement.

The White House has been struggling to get the pandemic under control, with millions of Americans declining to take life-saving vaccines.

Psaki said earlier this year that Biden, who is fully vaccinated, is tested randomly every two weeks as surveillance, at the request of his physician, Kevin O’Connor. Biden, 78, has received three Pfizer Inc./BioNTech COVID-19 shots, including a booster last month.

The White House has declined to disclose the number of breakthrough COVID-19 infections that have occurred among staff.

Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, eschewed masks and played down the seriousness of the virus in its early stages. He contracted COVID-19 in the waning stages of the 2020 presidential campaign and many of his staff, including former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, came down with the illness.

Source: Voice of America

Three people were shot dead by security forces during Saturday demonstrations against a military coup in Sudan.

The Sudan Doctors Committee had initially reported two protesters were shot and killed, but confirmed that a third person died when security forces fired into crowds in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city.

Twelve people have been killed in demonstrations since the military seized power and deposed the prime minister on Monday.

Saturday’s demonstrations have drawn hundreds of thousands of people in the capital, Khartoum, as well as major cities throughout the country.

Protests began Monday, when General Abdel-Fattah Burhan declared a state of emergency and announced the dissolution of a landmark transitional government established in 2019. But Saturday’s “March of Millions” is expected to be the largest coordinated demonstration yet.

Images and video footage from Khartoum and other cities throughout the country show crowds carrying Sudanese flags and banners denouncing the military government. Chants and songs that were sung in 2019 when protesters demanded the ouster of dictator Omar al-Bashir have been revived in this week’s protests as well.

“I see people everywhere, from each direction, thousands of young people, women, old men, children, everyone,” Walaa Salah, an activist in Khartoum, told VOA’s English to Africa.

“Khartoum, the entire city, is outside protesting, calling for the fall of the military rule, calling for the fall of the coup, calling for the end of this partnership,” she said. “People are chanting against the military.”

Witnesses reported heavy military security in Khartoum, especially by the Rapid Special Forces, notoriously for fatally shooting dozens of protesters in 2019.

Earlier this week, security forces killed at least nine people by gunfire and wounded at least 170 others during the protests, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Committee. Experts and demonstrators had expressed concern that Saturday’s protests could be violent.

Despite mobile internet and some WIFI being blocked throughout the country, organizers were able to coordinate demonstrations. Netblocks, which monitors internet cuts around the world, has reported that with the exception of one four-hour window, mobile internet has been cut throughout Sudan since Tuesday’s military takeover.

“We can’t call or text. We have no idea what’s going on, on the other side of the city,” Salah said.

Volker Perthes, the special representative of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, said in a statement Friday that he “remains in constant contact with all sides to facilitate a political solution in line with the Constitutional Document. UNITAMS (the U.N. Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan) is actively coordinating with mediation efforts currently underway to facilitate an inclusive dialogue, which remains the only path toward a peaceful solution to the current crisis.”

The United States had urged the military leaders of Monday’s coup to refrain from “any and all violence” against peaceful protesters.

The appeal to Sudan’s military leaders came from a senior U.S. State Department official who was briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

Saturday will be “a real indication of what the military intentions are,” the official had said.

The military takeover occurred after weeks of escalating tensions between military and civilian leaders over Sudan’s transition to democracy. The coup threatens to derail the process, which has slowly progressed since the army ousted longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir, ending a popular uprising in 2019.

But even after the landmark power-sharing agreement in August of 2019, in which now-deposed Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok was named the country’s leader, protests have continued. Demonstrators, who often used the word “Medaniya,” or civilian, to call for a civilian government, opposed any military control in the transitional government.

Burhan said Tuesday the army’s overthrow of the country’s transitional government was necessary to avoid a civil war.

Source: Voice of America

Following are Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Security Council’s virtual high-level debate on cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations — African Union:

The Secretary-General regrettably could not join you today and he therefore asked me to convey his regards and to provide this briefing on his behalf.

Let me begin by congratulating Your Excellency, President Uhuru Kenyatta, as Kenya concludes a prolific month as President of the Security Council. I also salute Donald Kaberuka, African Union High Representative for Financing of the Union and the African Union Peace Fund, who joins us today.

And thank you to the members of the Security Council for helping us shine a spotlight on the vital importance of peace and security in Africa. And how the United Nations — and all Member States — can join forces with the African Union and other regional and subregional groups to achieve this vision.

This discussion takes place in the context of a number of worrying trends across the continent. COVID-19 has created additional socioeconomic burdens on countries’ efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals.

In too many places, we are seeing a rise in seizures of power by force. Earlier this week, a military coup d’état took place in Sudan, posing a major threat to the political transition taking place since the signing of the Constitutional Declaration in August 2019.

The conflict in northern Ethiopia continues unabated, despite appeals by the African Union and the United Nations for a permanent ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to the Tigray region.

In the Sahel, and throughout the Lake Chad Basin region, we face persistent threats of terrorism and violent extremism from groups affiliated to Al-Qaida, Da’esh and Boko Haram. And we’re seeing a proliferation of militias.

And across Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated poverty, inequalities and all the drivers of conflict. It has undercut the provision of public services, disrupted supply chains, slowed economic activity, and hampered peace agreements and conflict resolution.

Despite these worrisome developments, the people of Africa are determined to work relentlessly for a more prosperous, sustainable and peaceful continent. One based on shared values and the universal principles of human rights.

The Secretary-General’s annual report on the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union contains a number of hopeful developments. This includes a peaceful and inclusive election in Burkina Faso. And peaceful transfers of power in Niger and Zambia following presidential elections.

Throughout, we’re seeing growing cooperation between the United Nations, the African Union, and subregional organizations on sustainable development, elections and peace processes. In Libya, for example, the United Nations is working closely with the African Union, the League of Arab States, and the European Union to support the ceasefire agreement and preparations for the upcoming elections.

The African Union has played a particularly active role in the International Follow-Up Committee on Libya of the Berlin process, including as a co-chair of the Security Working Group. I also welcome the African Union’s efforts to lead international support for the Libyan reconciliation process. The United Nations stands ready to work with the African Union in support of Libyan authorities and support a rights-based reconciliation process.

We’re also working closely with the African Union and subregional organizations to support the countries of the Sahel and beyond, including to address the return of mercenaries and foreign fighters to their countries of origin. And we’re committed to continuing our support for the African Union-led negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The United Nations special political missions, peacekeeping missions, and country teams in Africa continue to provide comprehensive support to other peace initiatives and political transitions — including in Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

We work closely with the African Union on regular joint consultations and analyses through our cooperation frameworks for peace and security, humanitarian aid and for sustainable development — our blueprint for joint integrated action. The United Nations Office to the African Union is playing a key role in that regard.

And once the ongoing discussions on the division of responsibilities between the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms are concluded, the United Nations looks forward to continue harnessing the opportunities and strengths of each organization, and build effective conflict prevention and resolution strategies as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change continues to affect the continent, particularly women and youth.

While our partnership with the African Union and subregional organizations is a necessary condition for peace, security, humanitarian, development, and justice in Africa, we also recognize that all Member States need to support these efforts.

In the Secretary-General’s report on Our Common Agenda, he underlined the need to re-embrace global solidarity to find new ways to work together for the common good of all people in every country, grounded in human rights and through a stronger, more networked and inclusive multilateral system. In this context, I would like to add three urgent actions that require global solidarity and support.

First, we need to prioritize our response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa through accelerated vaccine distribution, strengthening national health systems and much needed investments in preparedness. Today, only about 5 per cent of the population in Africa is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. We urgently require universal access to COVID-19 vaccines, support for domestic manufacturing of vaccines, and financing to alleviate the socioeconomic challenges caused by the pandemic.

Second, we need to reaffirm our focus on sustainable development, with Agenda 2030 and 2063 at the heart of our common efforts. Ultimately, sustainable and inclusive development is our best chance to address the root causes of conflict and achieve a future of peace and prosperity for all.

Despite the pandemic, African countries have shown remarkable resilience. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates, economic growth will expand at 3.4 per cent in 2021, but African countries are in urgent need of liquidity and debt relief to create jobs, expand social protection and reverse poverty trends. Recovery must be grounded in advancing just transitions in key areas such as energy, food systems, digital connectivity and infrastructure. Urgent action is needed to speed up the re-channelling of special drawing rights (SDRs) and increase fiscal space.

Spurring these transitions and implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area — a major achievement for the region — will facilitate trade, help reduce emissions, support those who are shifting from the brown economy and create new jobs geared to the economy of tomorrow for Africa’s burgeoning youth population. It could also boost the region’s combined GDP by $44 billion and create millions of jobs. In addition, digital transformation offers the potential to considerably accelerate trade, job creation and access to services.

And as we look to a sustainable and green recovery out of COVID-19 and to meet the promises of the 2030 Agenda, we should redouble our commitment to strengthening our institutions to respond to the needs of all people — especially women, youth, and minorities. One powerful litmus test will be ensuring the full representation of women as countries make the journey to peace and stability.

And third, we need to continue securing adequate, predictable, and sustainable resources that will bring to life development, peace and security mandates across Africa. Here, I would like to highlight the centrality of ensuring coherent action across peace, development and humanitarian objectives in the continent — in establishing a common vision, in ensuring complementarity and safeguarding of investments.

The African Union Peace Fund is an inspiring example. I call on the members of this Council to work with the African Union’s Peace and Security Council to strengthen financing mechanisms for African Union-led peace support operations authorized by the Security Council.

In the Sahel, the United Nations stands ready to, jointly with the African Union, convene an international forum with the G5 Sahel States and their partners to bolster peace and development efforts across the Sahel in support of the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel.

Under the guidance of Member States, we will spare no effort to make our partnerships more effective to help all Africans build a more inclusive, prosperous, integrated and peaceful continent, as envisaged in Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Source: United Nations

A cheap antidepressant reduced the need for hospitalization among high-risk adults with COVID-19 in a study that was looking for existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat coronavirus.

Researchers tested the pill used for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder because it was known to reduce inflammation and looked promising in smaller studies.

They’ve shared the results with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which publishes treatment guidelines, and they hope for a World Health Organization recommendation.

“If WHO recommends this, you will see it widely taken up,” said study co-author Dr. Edward Mills of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, adding that many poor nations have the drug readily available. “We hope it will lead to a lot of lives saved.”

The pill, called fluvoxamine, would cost $4 for a course of COVID-19 treatment. By comparison, antibody IV treatments cost about $2,000 and Merck’s experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 is about $700 per course. Some experts predict various treatments eventually will be used in combination to fight the coronavirus.

Researchers tested the antidepressant in nearly 1,500 Brazilians recently infected with coronavirus who were at risk of severe illness because of other health problems, such as diabetes. About half took the antidepressant at home for 10 days, the rest got dummy pills. They were tracked for four weeks to see who landed in the hospital or spent extended time in an emergency room when hospitals were full.

In the group that took the drug, 11% needed hospitalization or an extended ER stay, compared to 16% of those on dummy pills.

The results, published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Global Health, were so strong that independent experts monitoring the study recommended stopping it early because the results were clear.

Questions remain about the best dosing, whether lower risk patients might also benefit and whether the pill should be combined with other treatments.

The larger project looked at eight existing drugs to see if they could work against the pandemic virus. The project is still testing a hepatitis drug, but all the others — including metformin, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin — haven’t panned out.

The cheap generic and Merck’s COVID-19 pill work in different ways and “may be complementary,” said Dr. Paul Sax of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study. Earlier this month, Merck asked regulators in the U.S. and Europe to authorize its antiviral pill.

Source: Voice of America

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s independent advisory committee endorsed giving child-size emergency doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to children ages 5-11.

While it is considered rare for younger children to become seriously ill or die from COVID-19, FDA vaccines chief Dr. Peter Marks told the panel Tuesday that 1.9 million children in the 5 to 11 age group have tested positive and 8,300 have been hospitalized in the United States. Of those hospitalized, one-third needed intensive care, and nearly 100 died.

With the approval of the vaccine for use in children, officials said they hoped it would help close a major gap in the U.S. vaccine campaign that had been worrying parents, educators and public health leaders.

Regulators said shots could begin as soon as next week.

Last week, the White House said it had already obtained enough vaccine for the 28 million children in the United States who would become eligible and established a network of pediatricians, pharmacies and other health care providers to quickly distribute the shots.

The FDA, which isn’t bound by the panel recommendation, will make its decision in the next few days.

Pending FDA approval, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory committee is expected to consider the proposal next week.

In a related development, U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Moderna said a clinical trial showed that a low dose of its COVID-19 vaccine was safe for children ages 6 to 11.

The company said it inoculated more than 4,700 children with its two-dose vaccine about 28 days apart, with each shot about half the strength given to adults. Preliminary results show the antibody levels in the children were at same level as those seen in young adults who received a full dose.

Moderna says the children suffered mild side effects such as fatigue, headache, fever and pain at the injection site. The number of test subjects was too small to detect any rare side effects such as myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, which has been detected mostly among boys and young men who received either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine.

The study has not been published by any peer-reviewed journal, but Moderna says it will soon present its findings to the FDA and other global drug regulators.

Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency is reporting that the African Union will purchase up to 110 million doses of the Moderna vaccine. The AU will receive 15 million doses before the end of the year, with another 35 million doses arriving in the first quarter of 2022 and up to 60 million in the second quarter.

The purchase was facilitated by the White House, which is deferring delivery of 33 million doses it had purchased from Moderna to give the AU an opportunity to negotiate with the company.

According to the report, in an email, AU coronavirus envoy Strive Masiyiwa said the deal allowed the alliance to increase the number of vaccines available immediately. He said, “We urge other vaccine producing countries to follow the lead of the (U.S. government) and give us similar access to buy this and other vaccines.”

The CDC has extended the coronavirus health rules for cruise ships until January 15, 2022. The current regulations, which were first imposed in March 2020 and include a requirement for ships to sail with at least 95% of passengers and crew fully vaccinated, were set to expire November 1.

The CDC says when the current regulations expire in January, it will shift to a voluntary program for cruise ship operators to detect and control the spread of COVID-19 on their vessels.

Source: Voice of America

A Financial Times report says COVAX, the global collaboration established to ensure that poor countries have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, has “largely failed.”

“Wealthy countries have received over 16 times more COVID-19 vaccines per person than poorer nations that rely on the COVAX program backed by the World Health Organization,” the newspaper reported.

Millions of people in the world’s poorest countries have not yet received their first shots of the vaccine, while people in the wealthiest countries have access to booster shots, following their initial inoculations.

The disparity, The Financial Times warned, “could lead to a rise in cases and the emergence of more virulent strains, and hold back the global economic recovery.”

The World Health Organization’s director-general said Friday 82 countries are at risk of not meeting WHO’s goal of having 40% of every country’s population vaccinated against COVID by the end of the year. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “For most of those countries, it’s simply a problem of insufficient and unpredictable supply.”

Earlier this month, Britain reported its highest daily number of COVID-19 related deaths since March 9. A government advisor told a BBC television show Saturday that people should not wait for government mandates to begin initiating measures to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus.

Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, told BBC Breakfast, “I think hospitals in many parts of the country are barely coping actually” under the weight of COVID cases.

“The sooner we all act,” Openshaw said, “the sooner we can get this transmission rate down and the greater the prospect of having a Christmas with our families.”

British Prime Minister Boris continues to dismiss calls for renewed COVID-19 restrictions, saying there is nothing to indicate those moves will be necessary in the coming months, despite the fact Britain is experiencing a dramatic surge in COVID-19 infections.

Russia is preparing for or a weeklong workplace shutdown and the reimposition of a partial lockdown because of a surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths.

Daily coronavirus deaths in Russia have been rising for weeks because of sluggish vaccination rates, casual attitudes toward precautionary measures and the government’s hesitance toward tightening restrictions. The country’s national task force on COVID-19 said only about one-third of Russia’s 146 million people have been vaccinated, straining the country’s health system.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that employees would observe “non-working days” from October 30 to November 7, during which they would still receive salaries. He said the period, in which four of the seven days are state holidays, could start earlier or be extended in certain regions.

The rollout of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Namibia was postponed Saturday by the country’s health ministry after the vaccine’s regulator in neighboring South Africa raised concerns about its safety for people at risk of HIV.

The regulator said it would not approve an emergency-use application for the vaccine at this time because some studies suggest that the delivery system, known as a vector, used to inoculate people with the Sputnik V vaccine can cause men to be more susceptible to HIV.

The vaccine’s manufacturer, Gamaleya Research Institute, said Namibia’s postponement was not based on scientific evidence.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday a global count of 243.3 million COVID cases and almost 5 million COVID deaths. The center said 6.7 billion vaccines have been administered.

Source: Voice of America