Post-COVID Symptoms Will Have Profound Impact on Global Health 

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The World Health Organization says debilitating post-COVID-19 symptoms in patients will have an impact on global health because of the magnitude of the pandemic.   The World Health Organization is conducting research into  why many people who are infected with COVID-19 continue to suffer from various disabling conditions for up to six months after they have had the illness.    The team lead of WHO’s Health Care Readiness Division, Janet Diaz, says some people with post-COVID-19 conditions, also known as “long COVID” have not been able to go back to work.  She says their incapacitating symptoms prolong their recovery period.   “Some of the more common symptoms of the post-COVID-19 condition can be fatigue, exertional malaise, and cognitive dysfunction.  Sometimes you may be hearing patients describing that as ‘brain fog.’  These are real,” …
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Report: British Scientists Developing Universal COVID Vaccine

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There are 108.5 million global COVID-19 infections, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday. The U.S. has the most cases at 27.5 million, followed by India with 10.9 million and Brazil with 9.8 million.The Telegraph newspaper reports British scientists are developing a universal vaccine that would combat all the variants of the coronavirus and could be available within a year.The British newspaper says scientists at the University of Nottingham are working on a vaccine that would target the core of virus instead of the spike protein that current vaccines focus on.Targeting the core alleviates the need to frequently adjust existing vaccines as the virus mutates.The Telegraph said proteins found in the core of the virus are far less likely to mutate, meaning the vaccine would protect against all current…
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Doctors, Selfie Points Help Fight Vaccine Hesitancy in New Delhi

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Azhoni Marina had witnessed the havoc wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic up close as she nursed patients in a COVID ward for seven months at New Delhi’s Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. As she waited after her night shift to get her first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, however, she was apprehensive.“I heard from so many people that there is lot of side effect, so actually I was a bit worried before I received the vaccine,” Marina said.However, a sense of relief washed over her when she did not suffer any aftereffects during the half-hour mandatory wait after she got the shot.“I am now waiting for my second dose,” she said, heading home.Unlike most countries, for India the challenge is not availability of vaccines as it rolls out a nationwide inoculation drive…
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More Than 50 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Administered in US, CDC says

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered more than 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and delivered about 69.9 million doses.The tally of vaccine doses is for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 6:00 a.m. ET Saturday, the agency said.According to the tally posted on Friday, the agency had administered 48.4 million doses of the vaccines, and delivered about 69 million doses.The agency said about 37.1 million people had received one or more doses while more than 13 million people have got the second dose as of Saturday.About 5.7 million vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.    ...
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Guinea Sees First Ebola Deaths Since 2016 

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Four people have died of Ebola in Guinea in the first resurgence of the disease in five years, the country's health minister said Saturday.Remy Lamah told AFP that officials were "really concerned" about the deaths, the first since a 2013-16 epidemic — which began in Guinea — left 11,300 dead across the region.One of the latest victims in Guinea was a nurse who fell ill in late January and was buried on February 1, National Health Security Agency head Sakoba Keita told local media."Among those who took part in the burial, eight people showed symptoms: diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding," he said. Three died and four were in a hospital, he added.The four deaths from Ebola hemorrhagic fever occurred in the southeast region of Nzerekore, he said.Keita also told local media…
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Australia Leading Race to Save Endangered ‘Hedge-Trimmer’ Fish

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New research has shown that Australia is the “last stronghold on Earth” for four out of five threatened species of sawfish. With their serrated snouts, these predatory fish are one of the ocean’s most unusual and endangered animals.They have a snout, or rostrum, that looks like a hedge-trimmer or a chainsaw. Small electromagnetic sensors help the sawfish detect the heartbeat and movement of buried prey. They are generally unassuming creatures, but when threatened, the saw also serves as a weapon. They can grow up to 7 meters in length and move easily between fresh and salt water. In Australia, they’re found in Queensland, the Northern Territory and on the west coast.Around the world, they are hunted for their fins and other body parts, which are used in traditional medicines or…
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CDC: Evidence Is Strong That Schools Can Reopen Doors Safely

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The top public health agency in the U.S. said Friday that in-person schooling could resume safely with masks, social distancing and other strategies but that vaccination of teachers, while important, was not a prerequisite for reopening.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its long-awaited road map for getting students back to classrooms in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. But its guidance is just that — the agency cannot force schools to reopen, and agency officials were careful to say they were not calling for a mandate that all U.S. schools be reopened.Officials said there was strong evidence now that schools could reopen, especially at lower grade levels.The new guidance included many of the same measures previously backed by the CDC, but it suggested them more forcefully. It emphasized…
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Malawi Health Workers Face Harassment over COVID-19 Deaths

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In Malawi, health care workers have come under attack several times recently while trying to bury victims of COVID-19 without spreading the coronavirus.Health care workers now want a review of guidelines that say they should handle the burials.The incident happened Tuesday in Mchinji district in central Malawi where villagers threw stones at an ambulance carrying the dead body, in an effort to force the heath care workers to release the body for viewing.The pandemonium forced the heath care workers to return the body to the mortuary.This came a week after villagers in Zomba district in southern Malawi chased away health care workers who had come to bury a COVID-19 victim.They too claimed that their loved one died of other illnesses, not COVID-19, and demanded to bury the body themselves.Shouts Simeza…
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ICRC Calls for Africa to Get Fair Share of COVID-19 vaccines

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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is calling on the world community to make sure Africa gets a fair share of COVID-19 vaccines.     Ahead of a visit to the Central African Republic, one year after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported there, ICRC President Peter Maurer said in a statement Friday that “[i]t is a moral imperative that Africa’s access to needed vaccines is drastically improved, but also that COVID vaccination campaigns do not come at the cost of other key health concerns.”     He said as new COVID-19 variants start to spread, “[n]o one is safe until everyone is safe,” adding that “equitable access to its vaccine today is a critical step towards more equitable access to vaccines more generally.”   The…
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Australian Open Begins Under COVID Lockdown

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The Australian Open in Melbourne is underway, but without any spectators. Instead of enjoying the tournament, tennis fans and the millions of people who live in Victoria state are under a five-day snap shutdown, following a coronavirus outbreak at a quarantine hotel in Melbourne, Victoria’s capital. Tennis players have been classified as essential workers. Germany is banning travel from its Czech border regions and Austria’s Tyrol because of an alarming COVID surge in the two locations.  The restrictions go into effect Sunday.Missionaries in some remote areas of Brazil have convinced some Indigenous people that the COVID-19 vaccine is not good for them. The residents of one Amazon village picked up bows and arrows to fight off healthcare workers set on inoculating the region’s residents. Brazil has 9.7 million COVID-19 cases, coming in third place in the world’s infections, behind only India with 10. 8 million and the U.S. with 27.3 million cases. There are more than 107 million global infections. FILE - Packages of protective face…
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Experts Worry About Pandemic’s Impact on Malaria Progress in Nigeria

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A warning by the World Health Organization that the COVID-19 pandemic could harm efforts to eradicate malaria appears to be coming true in Nigeria. Nigerian officials say people are refusing to get treatment for fear of catching the virus at a clinic.Fatima Mohammed is in her home at a camp for displaced people in Abuja, tending to her two sons who are currently down with malaria.She says she's can't afford huge hospital bills and is afraid that taking them to the hospital could potentially expose them to COVID-19 or result in a misdiagnosis."I don't have money to take them to the hospital — and, again, at the hospital, they'll easily call it coronavirus,” she said. “I don't have money for that.”Malaria and COVID-19 present similar symptoms, but fear and stigma…
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Biden Team Seeks Pause in US WeChat Ban Litigation

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The Biden administration asked a U.S. court Thursday to suspend litigation connected to former President Donald Trump's proposed ban on WeChat while it reviews the policy. The Justice Department filed a request with the U.S. Court of Appeals seeking a suspension of the case. That followed action Wednesday in which the department asked a federal court for a pause on proceedings aimed at banning TikTok. Newly installed Commerce Department officials have begun a review of the prior administration's actions on WeChat, including "an evaluation of the underlying record justifying those prohibitions," the DOJ said in the filing. "The government will then be better positioned to determine" whether "the regulatory purpose of protecting the security of Americans and their data continues to warrant the identified prohibitions," the filing added. Trump issued an executive order last August declaring…
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Microsoft Backs Search Engines Paying for News Worldwide

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Microsoft on Thursday lobbied for other countries to follow Australia's lead in calling for news outlets to be paid for stories published online, a move opposed by Facebook and Google.Microsoft last week offered to fill the void if rival Google follows through on a threat to turn off its search engine in Australia over the plan.Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement the company fully supports proposed legislation in Australia that would force Google and Facebook to compensate media for their journalism."This has made for an unusual split within the tech sector, and we've heard from people asking whether Microsoft would support a similar proposal in the United States, Canada, the European Union and other countries," Smith said in a blog post.FILE - This combination of file photos shows…
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Biden Asks for Patience While Ramping Up Vaccinations 

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized his predecessor’s vaccination program and urged Americans to be patient as he fixed it."My predecessor — I'll be very blunt about it — did not do his job in getting ready for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions," Biden said at the National Institutes of Health."We won't have everything fixed for a while. But we're going to fix it," he added.Biden also announced that the United States had acquired enough vaccines to inoculate 300 million of the 328 million U.S. population by the end of July.President Joe Biden listens as Kizzmekia Corbett, an immunologist with the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, speaks during a visit at the NIH Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. NIH Director Francis…
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Fauci: COVID-19 Vaccinations Should Be Ready for All in US by Mid-April

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Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that by April, anyone in the United States who wants a COVID-19 vaccination should be able to get one.   In an interview with the NBC morning television program “Today,” Fauci, who also is the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said projections indicate top priority groups, such as U.S. frontline workers and the elderly, should have received their vaccinations by April.   Fauci said after that, it would be “open season, namely, virtually everybody and anybody, in any category, could start to get vaccinated.” From there, he said, given logistics, it likely would take several more months to get vaccines to all who want them.     Fauci was hopeful that by July or August, “the overwhelming majority…
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Amid Tussle with Twitter, India Warns Social Media Giants

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India has warned social media giants to comply with local laws or face action amid an escalating dispute with Twitter over the government’s demand that hundreds of accounts be blocked.   Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told parliament Thursday that “if social media is misused to spread fake news and misinformation, then action will be taken."     Naming Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and LinkedIn, he said that they were free to do business in India but would have to “follow the Indian constitution."   The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on Twitter to take down hundreds of accounts and posts for allegedly using provocative hashtags and spreading misinformation about a massive farmers’ protest that erupted in violence on January 26.   India has reacted…
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Robert Kennedy Jr. Banned From Instagram for False Posts

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The social media platform Instagram has permanently removed the account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for posting false information regarding vaccines and COVID-19.   In a statement Wednesday, Facebook, which owns Instagram, said, “We removed this account for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.”   Kennedy’s Facebook page, which has carried some of same information and has over 300,000 followers, remains active.  Kennedy is the son of the former senator and U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and worked for decades as an environmental lawyer. In recent years, he is better known as an anti-vaccine crusader.   He chairs a nonprofit organization, Children’s Health Defense, which is skeptical about the health benefits of vaccines. Kennedy has lobbied Congress to…
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WHO Europe Office, EU, Cooperate on Vaccines for Eastern Europe

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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) European office announced Thursday it will partner with the European Union to deploy COVID-19 vaccines in six eastern European nations.Speaking at his headquarters in Copenhagan, WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge said the nearly $50 million program will target Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.Kluge said the program is intended to ensure equitable access to vaccines throughout Europe. “Vaccines offer a way to emerge faster from this pandemic, but only if we ensure that all countries, irrespective of income level, have access to them," he said.UK COVID Variant Will Likely 'Sweep the World,' British Scientist WarnsScientists will probably be tracking global spread of mutations for at least next decade, Sharon Peacock of COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium saysKluge said the program will focus on vaccine readiness,…
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UK COVID Variant Will Likely ‘Sweep the World,’ British Scientist Warns

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A British scientist says the coronavirus variant first discovered in that country late last year has “swept the country” and will “sweep the world in all probability.” Sharon Peacock, the head of the COVID-19 Genomics U.K. consortium, made the prediction Wednesday during an interview with the BBC.     The more transmissible strain was first detected in the southern British county of Kent back in September, and has since been identified in more than 50 countries, including the United States.      The COVID-19 Genomics U.K. consortium tracks the genetic mutations of the novel coronavirus.  Peacock said the newly developed vaccines are effective against the current mutations, but she warned that scientists will be tracking new mutations at least for the next decade until the virus “mutates itself out of…
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Twitter Suspends Some Indian Accounts Amid Farmer Protests

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Twitter said Wednesday it had suspended some accounts in India after New Delhi served the social media giant several orders to block accounts amid civil unrest.  The announcement comes after months of unrest in India over changes to agriculture bills in the country. Protesting farmers have been met with internet cuts and social media blocks, which New Delhi has said are necessary for security. In a FILE - Security officers push back people shouting slogans during a protest held to show support to farmers who have been on a monthslong protest, in New Delhi, India, Feb. 3, 2021.Just last week, Twitter blocked hundreds of accounts in India — many of them belonging to news professionals and activists. Twitter said that two orders served by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology…
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Yellen Eyes Innovation to Battle Cryptocurrency Misuse, Narrow Digital Gaps

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday warned about an "explosion of risk" from digital markets, including the misuse of cryptocurrencies, but said new financial technologies could also help fight crime and reduce inequality.In remarks to a financial sector innovation roundtable, Yellen said such technologies could be used to stem the flow of dark money from organized crime and fight back against hackers, but also to reduce digital gaps in the United States.She said passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act in December would allow the Treasury Department to rework a framework for combating illicit finance that has been largely unchanged since the 1970s."The update couldn’t have come at a better time," Yellen told policymakers, regulators and private sector experts. "We’re living amidst an explosion of risk related to fraud, money…
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WHO Panel OKs AstraZeneca Vaccine Against COVID-19 Variants

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A World Health Organization panel of immunization experts Wednesday recommended the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for all ages and in regions where variant strains of the virus are prevalent.The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization made the recommendation from agency headquarters in Geneva. The panel reviewed the vaccine this week after South Africa halted its use Sunday in response to a study by a university there that indicated the drug provided only minimal protection from the variant that was first discovered in that country.FILE - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization speaks in Geneva, Jan. 21, 2021.The panel made the evaluation at the request of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and for the benefit of health care workers around the world…
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China Probe Becomes Second in Two Days to Reach Mars

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Chinese state media reported Wednesday a spacecraft known as Tianwen-1 has successfully entered orbit around Mars, the first step in an ambitious mission that includes landing a rover on the surface of the planet. In a statement, China’s National Space Administration said the spacecraft conducted a 15-minute burn of its thrusters, slowing it down enough to be pulled into Mars’ gravity, making it the country’s first artificial satellite orbiting the planet. The space agency says that in May or June, the Tianwen-1 will attempt to land a capsule carrying a 240-kilogram rover onto the surface of Mars, in a massive plain in the northern hemisphere known as Utopia Planitia. If all goes as planned, the rover will conduct a 90-day mission studying soil, looking for indications of water, and searching for signs…
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WHO, UNICEF Say 130 Countries Yet to Administer Any COVID-19 Vaccine

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The heads of the World Health Organization and the U.N. Children's Fund are appealing for scaled-up COVID-19 vaccine production and equitable distribution, warning that the global rollout is dangerously uneven. "Of the 128 million vaccine doses administered so far, more than three quarters of those vaccinations are in just 10 countries that account for 60% of global GDP," said WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore in a joint statement on Wednesday. "As of today, almost 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, are yet to administer a single dose." A three star general receives the Sinopharm vaccine from China during the first day of COVID-19 vaccinations at a hospital in Phnom Penh, Feb. 10, 2021.If this continues, they warn, it "will cost lives and livelihoods," and create…
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Ugandan Government Restores Social Media Sites, Except Facebook

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Ugandan authorities restored access to the internet Wednesday, a month after blocking it ahead of the January 14 elections. The government said the disruption was needed for security, while critics say it was intended to cut off communication among opponents of President Yoweri Museveni. "Internet and social media services have been fully restored," Ugandan Minister for Information and Communications Technology Peter Ogwang tweeted Wednesday, adding, "We apologize for the inconveniences caused, but it was for the security of our country." A tweet by Peter Ogwang, Ugandan Minister for Information and Communications Technology, announces the restoration to access to social media websites. (Screenshot from Twitter)Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said the shutdown was a method of war against elements that were a threat to the credibility of the elections. Since those threats have been greatly…
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