A huge, already damaged radio telescope in Puerto Rico that has played a key role in astronomical discoveries for more than half a century completely collapsed on Tuesday. The telescope’s 900-ton receiver platform and its Gregorian dome — a structure as tall as a four-story building that houses secondary reflectors — fell onto the northern portion of the vast reflector dish more than 400 feet below. The U.S. National Science Foundation had earlier announced it would close the radio telescope. An auxiliary cable snapped in August, causing a 30-meter (100-foot) gash on the 305-meter-wide (1,000-foot-wide) dish and damaged the receiver platform that hung above it. Then a main cable broke in early November. The collapse stunned many scientists who had relied on what was until recently the largest radio telescope in the world.  The Arecibo Observatory space telescope was damaged from broken cables like the one pictured, as seen in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, November 7, 2020. (UCF/Handout via REUTERS)”It sounded like a rumble. I knew exactly what it was,” said Jonathan Friedman, who worked for 26 years as a senior research associate at the observatory and still lives near it. “I was screaming. Personally, I was out of control. … I don’t have words to express it. It’s a very deep, terrible feeling.” Friedman ran up a small hill near his home and confirmed his suspicions: A cloud of dust hung in the air where the structure once stood, demolishing hopes held by some scientists that the telescope could somehow be repaired.The collapse at 7:56 a.m. on Tuesday wasn’t a surprise because many of the wires in the thick cables holding the structure snapped over the weekend, Ángel Vázquez, the telescope’s director of operations, told The Associated Press. “It was a snowball effect,” he said. “There was no way to stop it. … It was too much for the old girl to take.” He said that it was extremely difficult to say whether anything could have been done to prevent the damage that occurred after the first cable snapped in August.  “The maintenance was kept up as best as we could,” he said. “(The National Science Foundation) did the best that they could with what they have.” Director of Arecibo Observatory Francisco Cordova gives a news conference following the collapse of the observatory’s telescope facilities in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, December 1, 2020.However, observatory director Francisco Córdova said that while the NSF decided it was too risky to repair the damaged cables before Tuesday’s collapse, he believes there had been options, such as relieving tension in certain cables or using helicopters to help redistribute weight. Meanwhile, installing a new telescope would cost up to $350 million, money the NSF doesn’t have, Vázquez said, adding it would have to come from the U.S. Congress.  “It’s a huge loss,” said Carmen Pantoja, an astronomer and professor at the University of Puerto Rico who used the telescope for her doctorate. “It was a chapter of my life.” Scientists worldwide had been petitioning U.S. officials and others to reverse the NSF’s decision to close the observatory. The NSF said at the time that it intended to eventually reopen the visitor center and restore operations at the observatory’s remaining assets, including its two LIDAR facilities used for upper atmospheric and ionospheric research, including analyzing cloud cover and precipitation data. The LIDAR facilities are still operational, along with a 12-meter telescope and a photometer used to study photons in the atmosphere, Vázquez said. “We are saddened by this situation but thankful that no one was hurt,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said in a statement. “When engineers advised NSF that the structure was unstable and presented a danger to work teams and Arecibo staff, we took their warnings seriously.” The telescope was built in the 1960s with money from the Defense Department amid a push to develop anti-ballistic missile defenses. It had endured hurricanes, tropical humidity and a recent string of earthquakes in its 57 years of operation. A view of the structure of the telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory following its collapse in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, December 1, 2020.The telescope has been used to track asteroids on a path to Earth, conduct research that led to a Nobel Prize and determine if a planet is potentially habitable. It also served as a training ground for graduate students and drew about 90,000 visitors a year. “I am one of those students who visited it when young and got inspired,” said Abel Méndez, a physics and astrobiology professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo who has used the telescope for research. “The world without the observatory loses, but Puerto Rico loses even more.”  He last used the telescope on August 6, just days before a socket holding the auxiliary cable that snapped failed in what experts believe could be a manufacturing error. The National Science Foundation, which owns the observatory that is managed by the University of Central Florida, said crews who evaluated the structure after the first incident determined that the remaining cables could handle the additional weight. But on November 6, another cable broke. Scientists had used the telescope to study pulsars to detect gravitational waves as well as search for neutral hydrogen, which can reveal how certain cosmic structures are formed. About 250 scientists worldwide had been using the observatory when it closed in August, including Méndez, who was studying stars to detect habitable planets. “I’m trying to recover,” he said. “I am still very much affected.” 
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Healthcare workers and nursing home residents should be among the first Americans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, members of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee determined Tuesday. The panel voted 13-1 to give a vaccine, as soon as it’s approved, to the some 24 million Americans who are healthcare workers or nursing home residents, while supplies are still limited as production ramps up. The decision from the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices comes as the U.S. records record numbers of coronavirus cases across the country. The U.S. recorded 4.36 million cases of COVID-19 in November — roughly double the number from a month earlier. The state of Florida surpassed 1 million cases Tuesday. The Trump administration has said that 20 million people could be inoculated by the end of this year. The FDA is considering an emergency request from Pfizer to authorize the use of its vaccine. Moderna said Monday it also would apply for emergency use authorization of its vaccine.  FILE – A nurse prepares a shot that is part of a possible COVID-19 vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., in Binghamton, New York, July 27, 2020.Hours after Moderna’s announcement, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the agency would announce its decision up to a week after it decides on Pfizer’s application. Dr. Larry Corey of the University of Washington, who leads vaccine clinical trials in the U.S., has said once Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are approved, they could make 50 million doses in January. The advisory committee met one day after nearly 139,000 new coronavirus cases and 826 deaths were reported in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. As it has for months, the U.S continues to lead the world in coronavirus infections, with nearly 13.7 million of the world’s 63.6 million cases. Over 270,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S., more than any other country, according to Johns Hopkins, which reports over 1.4 million deaths worldwide. In Europe, which is also experiencing surges in coronavirus infections and related deaths, BioNTech and Moderna have applied to the European Union for approval of their vaccines, the EU said on Tuesday. EU officials are expected to decide on at least one of the vaccines by the end of December. BioNTech has already filed a similar application with the FDA. Its vaccine is under review in Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries. Since it began nearly a year ago, the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased the number of people who are experiencing extreme poverty, according to the United Nations. The U.N. said in its annual humanitarian report that 235 million people, or one in 33 people, will require basic needs like food, water and sanitation in 2021, a 40% increase from this year. The report said the greatest need for humanitarian assistance next year is in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia. The U.N. contributed a record $17 billion in 2020 for humanitarian response worldwide, the report said.  
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Healthcare workers and nursing home residents should be among the first Americans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, members of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee determined Tuesday. The panel voted 13-1 to give a vaccine, as soon as it’s approved, to the some 24 million Americans who are healthcare workers or nursing home residents, while supplies are still limited as production ramps up. The decision from the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices comes as the U.S. records record numbers of coronavirus cases across the country. The U.S. recorded 4.36 million cases of COVID-19 in November — roughly double the number from a month earlier. The state of Florida surpassed 1 million cases Tuesday. The Trump administration has said that 20 million people could be inoculated by the end of this year. The FDA is considering an emergency request from Pfizer to authorize the use of its vaccine. Moderna said Monday it also would apply for emergency use authorization of its vaccine.  FILE – A nurse prepares a shot that is part of a possible COVID-19 vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., in Binghamton, New York, July 27, 2020.Hours after Moderna’s announcement, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the agency would announce its decision up to a week after it decides on Pfizer’s application. Dr. Larry Corey of the University of Washington, who leads vaccine clinical trials in the U.S., has said once Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are approved, they could make 50 million doses in January. The advisory committee met one day after nearly 139,000 new coronavirus cases and 826 deaths were reported in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. As it has for months, the U.S continues to lead the world in coronavirus infections, with nearly 13.7 million of the world’s 63.6 million cases. Over 270,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S., more than any other country, according to Johns Hopkins, which reports over 1.4 million deaths worldwide. In Europe, which is also experiencing surges in coronavirus infections and related deaths, BioNTech and Moderna have applied to the European Union for approval of their vaccines, the EU said on Tuesday. EU officials are expected to decide on at least one of the vaccines by the end of December. BioNTech has already filed a similar application with the FDA. Its vaccine is under review in Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries. Since it began nearly a year ago, the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased the number of people who are experiencing extreme poverty, according to the United Nations. The U.N. said in its annual humanitarian report that 235 million people, or one in 33 people, will require basic needs like food, water and sanitation in 2021, a 40% increase from this year. The report said the greatest need for humanitarian assistance next year is in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia. The U.N. contributed a record $17 billion in 2020 for humanitarian response worldwide, the report said.  
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Climate change, voracious beetles and disease are imperiling the long-term survival of a high-elevation pine tree that’s a key source of food for some grizzly bears and found across the West, U.S. officials said Tuesday.A Fish and Wildlife Service proposal scheduled to be published Wednesday would protect the whitebark pine tree as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, according to documents posted by the Office of the Federal Register.But the agency said it does not plan to designate which forest habitats are critical to the tree’s survival, stopping short of what some environmentalists argue is needed.Live in harsh conditionsThe trees can live up to 1,000 years and are found at elevations up to 12,000 feet (3,600 meters) — conditions too harsh for most tress to survive.Environmentalists had petitioned the government in 1991 and again in 2008 to protect the trees, which occur across 126,000 square miles (326,164 square kilometers) of land in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and western Canada.A nonnative fungus has been killing whitebark pines for a century. More recently, the trees have proven vulnerable to bark beetles that have killed millions of acres of forest, and climate change that scientists say is responsible for more severe wildfire seasons.The trees have been all but wiped out in some areas, including the eastern edge of Yellowstone National Park, where they are a source of food for threatened grizzly bears. More than half of whitebark pines in the U.S. are dead, according to a 2018 study from the U.S. Forest Service.Bears eat pineconesThat has complicated government efforts to declare grizzlies in the Yellowstone area as a recovered species that no longer needs federal protection. Grizzlies raid caches of whitebark pinecones that are hidden by squirrels and devour the seeds within the cones to fatten up for winter.A 2009 court ruling that restored protections for Yellowstone bears cited in part the tree’s decline, although government studies later concluded the grizzlies could find other things to eat.After getting sued for not taking steps to protect the pine trees, wildlife officials in 2011 acknowledged that whitebark pines needed protections but they took no immediate action, saying other species faced more immediate threats.An attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which submitted the 2008 petition for protections, lamented that it took so long but said the proposal was still worth celebrating.”This is the federal government admitting that climate change is killing off a widely distributed tree, and we know that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are many species threatened,” said Rebecca Riley, legal director for the environmental group’s nature program.Climate change impactThe government’s proposal described the threats to whitebark pines as imminent and said it was one of many plants expected to be impacted as climate change moves faster than the plants can adapt.”Whitebark pine survives at high elevations already, so there is little remaining habitat in many areas for the species to migrate to higher elevations in response to warmer temperatures,” Fish and Wildlife Service officials wrote.The officials added that overall, whitebark pine stands have seen severe reductions in regeneration because of wildfires, a disease called white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetles and climate change.Amid those growing threats, federal officials are working in conjunction with researchers and private groups to gather cones from trees that are resistant to blister rust, with plans to grow them in greenhouses and then plant them back on the landscape, said Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Amy Nicholas.”We do have options to revive this species,” she said.Rusty-patched bumblebeeThe decision not to pursue protections for the tree’s habitat is in line with another recent action by the Fish and Wildlife Service — the denial of critical habitat for the endangered rusty-patched bumblebee.The bumblebee’s population has plummeted 90% over about two decades. As with whitebark pine, loss of the bee’s habitat was considered less important than other threats.The two cases underscore a pattern of opposition to habitat protections by the administration of President Donald Trump, environmentalists said.The Fish and Wildlife Service under Trump also has proposed rules to restrict what lands can be declared worthy of protections and to give greater weight to the economic benefits of development.”It’s clear that the intent is to limit protection of habitat for threatened and endangered species. Whitebark pine is another example of that,” said Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity.Fish and Wildlife Service Wyoming Field Supervisor Tyler Abbott said it would not be prudent to designate specific areas for habitat protections since the major threats to the trees can’t be addressed through land management.Blister rust to blame”The driving factor (in the tree’s decline) is that white pine blister rust, and that’s working synergistically with mountain pine beetle, the altered fire regime, climate change,” Abbott said. “These are biological factors that we really don’t have any control over.”
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The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has announced its Chang’e-5 spacecraft, designed to collect lunar samples and return them to Earth, successfully landed on the near side of the moon. China state media report the spacecraft arrived at the preselected landing area Tuesday and sent back images to the CNSA.  The spacecraft – composed of orbiter, lander, ascender and returner components – was launched a week ago.  The CNSA said the lander-ascender combination of the Chang’e-5 probe began a powered descent from about 15 kilometers above the lunar surface. They say the probe touched down on the north of the region known as Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also called the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon. Under ground control, the lander carried out a series of status checks and settings, preparing for about 48 hours of work on the lunar surface. The space agency said about 2 kilograms of samples are expected to be collected and sealed in a container. Then the ascender will take off and dock with the orbiter-returner combination in orbit. After the samples are transferred to the returner, the ascender will separate from the orbiter-returner. The orbiter is expected to carry the returner back to Earth. The returner is scheduled to reenter the atmosphere and land at Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. 
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Affordable treatment will soon be available for children living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries thanks to an agreement between the global health agency UNITAID and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, or CHAI.The pediatric  treatment has been available in wealthy countries but out of reach for children in poor countries. A new agreement with two generic drug makers, Viatris and Macleods, will significantly lower the price. UNITAID and CHAI plan to roll out the first anti-retroviral treatments specifically designed for children next year in six African countries — Benin, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe. FILE – A mother watches her HIV-positive child in the intensive care unit of the Bangui pediatric complex, while in the foreground, an HIV-positive child sleeps, in Central African Republic, Dec. 4, 2018.An estimated 1.7 million children globally live with HIV, but only half receive any treatment and 100,000 die every year.   UNITAID spokesman Herve Verhoosel said HIV is not suppressed for many of those children. That is due, in part, to the lack of availability of effective drugs that are properly adapted for them.   “Many children who are living with HIV have a poor response to treatment because they take anti-retroviral medication that are not correctly dosed or bitter to taste. … Now with this new drug … it will be much, much easier and much, much less expensive,” he said, adding that even the youngest children will like the strawberry-flavored pills.   Under the new pricing agreement, the cost for the yearly pediatric HIV treatment will go from more than $480 per child to under $120 per child.
 
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Thabani Raymond Kalala, or “coach,” as he prefers to be called, was diagnosed with HIV six years ago. He lives in a small town in rural South Africa, but this year, as societies across the globe went into viral lockdowns, his world expanded.  The 33-year-old community development worker was part of a pilot project called Coach Mpilo — the word means “life,” or “health” in isiZulu. As a “coach,” he works with 54 newly diagnosed men and boys, supporting their battle against HIV and boosting them, in ways big and small.The launch of the project, earlier this year, coincided with the beginning of global shutdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus. However, he says, that hasn’t slowed down progress.  “I think the program has been successful,” he told VOA by phone from his rural village along South Africa’s southern coast. “However, the challenge is, we had to cut down many people, actually we had to cut down many coaches. … We need to try, I’m not sure if this is possible, but if we can get more coaches, because the program has been very successful to such an extent that even the facilities that we work in have seen the difference that we’ve been doing.”Laboratory technicians test a blood sample for HIV infection at the Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (RHI) in Johannesburg, Nov. 26 2020.This small initiative is one of the ways that, 40 years after the emergence of AIDS, the nation with the world’s heaviest burden of HIV continues to innovate. The coaching program will soon be fully funded, for about $1 million a year, from the $90-billion U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.Those funds, which cover about 4,000 “players” and 50-plus coaches across South Africa, go a long way. Organizers say the results have been astonishing in terms of getting participants to stay on their medication.  “I think this has been like a revolutionary program for us because it has never happened before where HIV-positive men come together, and support each other in a way that is very sincere and honest and which has, like, a brotherly kind of relationship,” said project coordinator Silver Shabalala.  “We’ve seen that. I mean, the retention rate for Coach Mpilo in the six months that we piloted the project, it was a 98 percent retention. We retained almost 4,000 men that had been lost to treatment. And if you look at (Department of Health), their retention is almost like 24 percent, during COVID. So this was really something that was amazing in terms of the retention rate.”On Tuesday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, said the dual pandemic has not stopped progress. Today’s HIV drugs can beat the virus down to undetectable levels in the blood, meaning it cannot be transmitted.  The U.S. funded effort against AIDS has saved more than 20 million lives, resulted almost 3 million babies being born HIV-free and helped raise the number of people in treatment.  But, she says, doctors can’t do it alone. That’s why they need community partners.  “In some cases and in some countries we’re actually seeing more stigma and more discrimination among key populations,” she said via teleconference — echoing comments made by coaches and participants in the Coach Mpilo program. “This is not getting better. If anything, the structural barriers that exist now are getting higher and more difficult to address. And that’s why we have to put effort not only into setting up these peer-led services, but protecting those peer-led services so that they can be successful.”“Coach” Kalala has one message for the world during this very strange time. It’s precisely the kind of thing a coach would say — words that resonate well beyond his small town of Mtwalume, and well beyond one pandemic, or even two.  “People shouldn’t feel sorry for us,” he said. “We’re just ordinary human beings, like every other, every other person who takes TB treatment, who takes BP treatment, you know. I think support is very important. Do not stigmatize.”
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All Europeans want is a merry and bright Christmas season, just like the ones they used to know. And under public pressure some governments are easing their pandemic restrictions in a bid to salvage something of the holiday spirit.But as some governments plan to soften restrictions by increasing the number of separate households permitted to socialize and allowing people to travel, others are still grappling with how far they should go in easing lockdowns or lifting curfews, fearing that having a merry Christmas will likely mean suffering a miserable new year.Scientists across the continent, which already accounts for a quarter of the world’s coronavirus cases and deaths from COVID-19, the disease triggered by the virus, are warning of a doubling in infection rates, if the regime for the holiday is too liberal.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said it was important for European states to coordinate any easing of pandemic restrictions. “We will make a proposal for a gradual and coordinated approach to lifting containment measures. This will be very important to avoid the risk of yet another wave,” von der Leyen said.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, top, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, European Council President Charles Michel and Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe attend a virtual meeting in Brussels, Nov. 26, 2020.Despite her call for coordinated action, national governments are making up their own minds without synchronizing approaches — as they have ever since the pandemic first struck the continent earlier this year. Many European governments say they have little choice but to ease pandemic restrictions, fearing that if they maintain stringent rules, their citizens will only ignore them. People who have elderly relatives with not many Christmases left to enjoy are unlikely to heed warnings to observe tight restraints, officials worry.As a result, some countries that have tight pandemic restrictions in place are planning to abandon them for a few days at least, including “whack-a-mole” strategies aimed at suppressing local outbreaks of contagion. They include England. Others, like Italy, though, are still struggling to decide.A patchwork of strategies is emerging. Take ski resorts for example. Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has said Italian resorts should remain closed over Christmas and the New Year holiday. Italian officials say he’s mindful that earlier this year, when the pandemic first appeared, the ski resorts in the Tyrol region in northern Italy and western Austria acted as super-spreaders. More than an estimated 6,000 people, from 45 countries, who contracted the coronavirus in March, either went on vacation in the Tyrol or came into contact with someone who did.A chairlift is pictured in front of the Geisler group massif at the Dolomites mountains near Bressanone, autonomous region of South Tyrol, northern Italy’s German-Italian speaking region, Nov. 26, 2020.Ski resorts and overseas vacationsGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel wants all resorts across Europe closed during Christmas. That, though, is something Austria and Switzerland are not prepared to do. Both countries are desperate for the resorts to generate some income and have said cable cars, restaurants and bars will operate, but with social distancing rules in place and mask-wearing required.“When someone uses a lift, it is similar to when they use public transport,” Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, said last week. France, too, is planning to allow ski resorts to operate but without the use of lifts or cable cars. Some countries, including Germany, will require any of their citizens or residents returning from vacations abroad to quarantine for at least 10 days.Aside from ski resorts and overseas vacations, European countries are also trying to balance contradictory demands. They want to stem the spread of the virus but limit the economic fallout. The nations are also fearful of widespread non-compliance if they are too strict.Christmas and New Year’s restrictionsFrance is easing coronavirus lockdown rules incrementally ahead of the holiday. On Saturday, small businesses were allowed to reopen and places of worship permitted to hold services for up to 30 people. The French, who were required to stay within a kilometer of their homes, are now allowed to travel up to 20 kilometers away from their residences. After December 15, the current broad lockdown will be lifted, but a curfew will remain in place between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. local time except on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Unhindered travel will be permitted, allowing people to spend Christmas with family, but restaurants, bars and gyms won’t be allowed to reopen until January 20, and then only if the epidemic remains contained.“I call upon your sense of responsibility,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a nationwide broadcast last week. “This will certainly not be a Christmas like the others,” he warned, urging the French to wear masks and wash their hands.People line up outside a shop in Bayonne, southwestern France, Nov. 28, 2020. Non-essential shops around France are opening their doors as part of a staggered relaxing of lockdown restrictions.The Spanish government is yet to finalize Christmas plans. But Madrid is likely to impose a limit of six people at parties. It is encouraging all social gatherings in the run-up to the holiday to be held outside. Traditionally Spain celebrates the Feast of the Three Kings, marked by local parades on January 5, but the government has said the celebrations should not go ahead this time.In Italy, Conte, his ministers and regional heads of government have been debating what to allow and what to restrict, including whether midnight church services can go ahead. The country’s contagion rate has slowed in some regions but in others, transmission rates are alarming and Italy’s death toll is as high as the country experienced in the first wave of the pandemic in March and April.Many restrictions are likely to remain in place in Italy and what rule easing that will be seen will be less than during Italy’s summer. “It will be a different kind of Christmas; sacrifices are still necessary in order not to expose ourselves to a third wave in January with a high number of deaths,” Conte cautioned Italians. Final decisions on Christmas rules will be issued later this week.Germany is to continue with its current strategy dubbed “lockdown light.” Bars, restaurants and entertainment venues are likely to remain shuttered and travel discouraged. “Daily cases are still far too high, and our intensive care units are still very full,” according to Chancellor Merkel. But she has approved a temporary reprieve over Christmas with up to 10 people allowed to meet at a time between December 23 and New Year’s Day.People wearing protective face masks are seen at Schloss Strasse shopping street, amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 1, 2020.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has decided to ease some pandemic rules in England, although privately ministers acknowledge that will prompt another surge of new cases, just as the country’s lockdown has been slowing the rate of infections. The government’s scientific advisory panel has warned the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas will increase infections “potentially by a large amount.”In a document published last week, the panel said, “Substantial mixing of people over a short period of time, especially those who do not make contact regularly…represents a significant risk for widespread transmission.” “The prevalence could easily double during a few days of festive season,” it added.A man wearing a face mask walks past the Debenhams flagship department store on Oxford Street, during the second coronavirus lockdown in London, Dec. 1, 2020.All four nations of the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, are planning to try to coordinate Christmas coronavirus rules and are intending to relax some over the holiday season. In England, people will be allowed to celebrate in three-household “Christmas bubbles” for a five-day period over the season; but, those households cannot meet up inside pubs, hotels, stores, theaters or restaurants.Restrictions on church services are due to be lifted, allowing Christmas services. Last week, Prime Minister Johnson told lawmakers, “I can’t say that Christmas will be normal this year — but in a period of adversity, time spent with loved ones is even more precious for people of all faiths and none.”Some British Cabinet ministers are pressing for more easing — so, too, are backbench lawmakers from Johnson’s ruling Conservative party. Local government minister Robert Jenrick acknowledges the softening of restrictions will likely “drive some higher rate of infection.” Nonetheless he’s pushing for stores to remain open 24 hours a day in the run-up to Christmas, if they so wish. 
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Four years ago, governments around the world committed to U.N. goals that would end the AIDS pandemic. VOA’s Carol Pearson tells us why these goals are so elusive, and how a major city succeeded.
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Tuesday is World AIDS Day, with organizations around the world highlighting the need to support those living with and affected by HIV, the virus that causes the disease, while also remembering those who have died. This year’s event comes amid the global coronavirus pandemic, which UNAIDS says has made it more difficult for those living with HIV to access health care and other services while also highlighting issues such as inequality and stigma. The agency is calling on governments to boost investment and action on HIV and other pandemics.  It says if there were better health and social safety nets in place, the world would have been better able to slow the spread of the coronavirus.Laboratory technicians test a blood sample for HIV infection at the Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (RHI) in Johannesburg, Nov. 26 2020.The United Nations said models show there could be an additional 123,000 to 293,000 new HIV infections and between 69,000 and 148,000 AIDS-related deaths by 2022 because of the coronavirus pandemic’s effects on HIV responses. “The collective failure to invest sufficiently in comprehensive, rights-based, people-centered HIV responses has come at a terrible price,” UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said in a statement. “Implementing just the most politically palatable programs will not turn the tide against COVID-19 or end AIDS. To get the global response back on track will require putting people first and tackling the inequalities on which epidemics thrive.” The joint challenges of HIV/AIDS and the coronavirus are also the focus of a live-streamed event Tuesday by the National AIDS Memorial in the United States.  It includes discussions with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. David Ho, who each have experience working on both pandemics, as well as with activists and the mayors of Atlanta, Chicago and New York. There are about 38 million people living with HIV, with 26 million accessing antiretroviral therapy.  In 2019, 690,000 died of AIDS-related illnesses. 
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Joseph Varon, a doctor treating coronavirus patients at a Texas hospital, was working his 252nd day in a row when he spotted a distraught elderly man in the COVID-19 intensive care unit. Varon’s comforting embrace of the white-haired man on Thanksgiving Day was captured by a photographer for Getty Images and has gone viral around the world. Varon, chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, told CNN he was entering the COVID-19 ICU when he saw the elderly patient “out of his bed and trying to get out of the room.” “And he’s crying,” Varon said. “So I get close to him and I (ask) him, ‘Why are you crying?'” “And the man says, ‘I want to be with my wife.’ So I just grab him and I hold him,” Varon said. “I was feeling very sorry for him. I was feeling very sad, just like him.” “Eventually he felt better, and he stopped crying,” Varon told CNN on Monday. “I don’t know why I haven’t broken down,” the doctor said. “My nurses cry in the middle of the day.” Varon said the isolation of the COVID-19 unit was difficult for many patients, particularly the elderly. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. “You can imagine,” he said. “You are inside a room where people are coming in spacesuits. “When you are an elderly individual, it’s more difficult because you are alone,” he said. “Some of them cry. Some of them try to escape,” he said. “We actually had somebody who tried to escape through a window the other day.” Varon said the elderly man in the picture is “doing much better.” “We are hoping that before the end of the week he’ll be able to get out of the hospital,” he said. Take precautions, doctor saysVaron also had a message for people who are not taking precautions amid the pandemic. “People are out there in bars, restaurants, malls,” the doctor said. “It is crazy. People don’t listen and then they end up in my ICU. “What people need to know is I don’t want to have to be hugging them,” he said. “They need to do the basic things — keep your social distance, wear your masks, wash their hands, and avoid going to places where there are a lot of people,” he said. “If people would do that, health care workers like me could hopefully rest.” 
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China has provided North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family with an experimental coronavirus vaccine, a U.S. analyst said Tuesday, citing two unidentified Japanese intelligence sources. Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert at the Center for the National Interest think tank in Washington, said the Kims and several senior North Korean officials had been vaccinated. It was unclear which company had supplied its drug candidate to the Kims and whether it had proven to be safe, he added. FILE – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released Nov. 16, 2020, by KCNA.”Kim Jong Un and multiple other high-ranking officials within the Kim family and leadership network have been vaccinated for coronavirus within the last two to three weeks thanks to a vaccine candidate supplied by the Chinese government,” Kazianis wrote in an article for online outlet 19FortyFive. Citing U.S. medical scientist Peter J. Hotez, he said at least three Chinese companies were developing a coronavirus vaccine, including Sinovac Biotech Ltd, CanSinoBio and Sinophram Group. Sinophram says its candidate has been used by nearly 1 million people in China, although none of the firms was known to have publicly launched Phase 3 clinical trials of their experimental COVID-19 drugs. North Korea has not confirmed any coronavirus infections, but South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has said an outbreak there cannot be ruled out as the country had trade and people-to-people exchanges with China, the source of the pandemic, before shutting the border in late January. Microsoft said last month that two North Korean hacking groups had tried to break into the network of vaccine developers in multiple countries, without specifying the companies targeted. Sources told Reuters they included British drugmaker AstraZeneca. The NIS said last week it had foiled North Korea’s attempts to hack into South Korean COVID-19 vaccine makers. 
 
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