Month: March 2021

Indians Gather for Holi Celebrations as Virus Cases Surge

Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive Holi celebrations Monday despite many Indian states restricting gatherings to try to contain a coronavirus resurgence rippling across the country.  
Holi marks the advent of spring and is widely celebrated throughout Hindu-majority India. Most years, millions of people throw colored powder at each other in outdoor celebrations. But for the second consecutive year, people were encouraged to stay at home to avoid turning the festivities into superspreader events amid the latest virus surge.
India’s confirmed infections have exceeded 60,000 daily over the past week from a low of about 10,000 in February. On Monday, the health ministry reported 68,020 new cases, the sharpest daily rise since October last year. It took the nationwide tally to more than 12 million.
Daily deaths rose by 291 and the virus has so far killed 161,843 people in the country.
The latest surge is centered in the western state of Maharashtra where authorities have tightened travel restrictions and imposed night curfews. It is considering a strict lockdown.
Cases are also rising in the capital New Delhi and states of Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
The surge coincides with multi-stage state elections marked by large gatherings and roadshows, and the Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, celebrated in northern Haridwar city, where tens of thousands of Hindu devotees daily take a holy dip into the Ganges river.
Health experts worry that unchecked gatherings can lead to clusters, adding the situation can be controlled if vaccination is opened up for more people and COVID-19 protocols are strictly followed.
India, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, has vaccinated around 60 million people, of which only 9 million have received both doses of vaccine so far.
However, more than 60 million doses manufactured in India have been exported abroad, prompting widespread criticism that domestic needs should be catered to first.
The government said last week that there would be no immediate increase in exports. It said vaccines will be given to everyone over 45 starting April 1.

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‘All Hypotheses’ on the Table Regarding COVID-19 Origins, WHO Chief Says 

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general says despite leaked reports about the results of the agency-sponsored probe into the origins of virus that causes COVID-19, all theories remain on the table and will be studied further. The Associated Press reported Sunday a draft copy of a joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 concluded that the “transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario” for the emergence of the virus, and a lab leak of the virus to the public was deemed “extremely unlikely” by the joint investigation. During a news conference from Geneva, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that he had received the report over the weekend and that it would be formally presented by the mission experts Tuesday. He added, “All hypotheses are on the table and warrant complete and further studies from what I have seen so far.” FILE – Peter Ben Embarek of the World Health Organization holds up a chart showing pathways of transmission of the virus during a press conference in Wuhan, China, Feb. 9, 2021.The WHO sent an international team to China earlier this year to explore the origins of the virus. But critics of that study say it was limited to only what China allowed them allowed them to see.  Death toll The report comes as the number of global coronavirus cases is at least 127,289,043 as of Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. More than 2,785,682 people have died from COVID-19 around the world. Mexico has revised its coronavirus death toll figures, increasing the tally by 60%, which makes it one of the top three nations with the highest death toll. The new statistics are staggering as the Mexican population of 126 million is far below the populations of the U.S. and Brazil. FILE – People wait to receive the first dose of China’s Sinovac Biotech CoronaVac vaccine against COVID-19, in Ecatepec, Mexico state, Feb. 22, 2021.Public health analysts had warned that Mexico’s death count was likely higher than previous figures had indicated because the country’s healthcare system was overwhelmed by the pandemic, resulting in few available intensive care beds that led to many people dying at home whose deaths had not been included in the COVID count. The new numbers follow a government review of death certificates. Late Sunday, Mexico received 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, the foreign ministry said.  The vaccines were part of the 2.7 million doses the U.S. promised its southern neighbor in a pact reached earlier this month between the two countries.  The AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in Mexico but has not yet been approved for use in the U.S., which has stockpiled the shots.  US infections plateau While the United States’ vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is well under way, daily rates of infection remain high. FILE – U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci speaks at the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Jan. 21, 2021.Anthony Fauci, the White House’s top adviser on the pandemic, expressed concern Sunday that this could be the result of states lifting some restrictions too early — especially around Spring Break. “I think it is premature,” Fauci told CBS, speaking of some states lifting restrictions as vaccination rates rise, warning that there is “really a risk” of seeing a third epidemic wave. Answering reporters’ questions Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden said he believes rates may be plateauing, instead of decreasing, because people are “letting their guard down.” 

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Plastic Pollution Packs the Surface of Bolivian Lake

It can take hundreds of years for plastic containers to break down, if ever at all. Their presence reshapes entire ecosystems, and experts in Bolivia are calling for action to protect their communities. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.Producer: Arash Arabasadi

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Eddie Murphy Inducted into NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame 

Eddie Murphy was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame at the organization’s show that highlighted works by entertainers and athletes of color.   After Murphy accepted his induction award Saturday night, the actor-comedian said he was “very moved” by the honor. He was presented the award by his longtime friend and “Coming 2 America” co-star Arsenio Hall.   “I’ve been making movies for 40 years now … 40 years. This is the perfect thing to commemorate that and be brought into the hall of fame,” he said. “Thank you very much. I’m very moved.”   Murphy went on to send a message to Hall about his famous red leather suit from his 1983 stand-up special “Delirious.”   “My red suit was not that tight Arsenio,” Murphy said. “I get a lot of cracks about that red suit. When I was rocking that red suit, that [expletive] was fly.”   The hall of fame induction is bestowed on an individual who is viewed as a pioneer in their respective field and whose influence shaped the “profession for generations to come.”   Previous inductees include Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Spike Lee, Ray Charles and Sidney Poitier. The most recent honorees to be inducted were Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Paris Barclay in 2014.   Murphy began his career as a stand-up comic while as a teenager and eventually joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live.” He starred in the box office hit “48 Hours” and made his mark in a slew of films such as “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Coming to America,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Dr. Dolittle” and “Dolemite Is My Name.” His latest film “Coming 2 America” was released on Amazon this month.   The awards ceremony virtually aired live on BET. It was also simulcast on CBS, MTV, VH1, MTV2, BET HER and LOGO.   “Black-ish” star and comedian Anthony Anderson hosted the show for the eighth consecutive year.   The late Chadwick Boseman won best actor in a motion picture for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” The actor, who also starred in the blockbuster Marvel film “Black Panther,” died at 43 last year after he privately battled colon cancer.   “As always, he would give all honor and glory to the most high God,” said the teary-eyed Simone Ledward Boseman, the actor’s wife, who accepted the award on his behalf. “He would thank his mom and dad. And he would give honor to his ancestors as we now honor him. Thank you, NAACP, for always giving him his flowers. He was an uncommon artist and an even more uncommon person.”   Boseman spoke about how commonly Black people have been diagnosed with or died from colon cancer. She urged Black people over the age of 45 to get screened.   “Don’t put it off any longer,” she said. “Please, get screened. This disease is beatable if you catch it in its early stages. So, you don’t have any time to waste, even if you don’t have any family history. If you think nothing is wrong, and younger than 45, please be proactive about your health. Know the signs. Know your body. Listen to your body.”   LeBron James received the President’s Award for his public service achievements. He thanked the NAACP for recognizing his efforts beyond the basketball court.   The Los Angeles Lakers superstar was recognized for his efforts through his LeBron James Family Foundation and his I PROMISE School, a co-curricular educational initiative. Last year, he launched More Than a Vote — a coalition of Black athletes and artists — that is dedicated to educating and protecting Black voters.   James ventured into the entertainment realm with The SpringHill Company, which unites three companies he co-founded with Maverick Carter including athlete empowerment brand UNINTERRUPTED, film and television production company SpringHill Entertainment and The Robot Company, the brand and culture consultancy.   “This award is so much more than myself,” James said. “I’m here receiving it, but this dives into everything that I’m a part of.”   DJ D-Nice took home entertainer of the year in a competitive category against big names such as Regina King, Tyler Perry, Viola Davis and Trevor Noah.   During the pandemic’s early stage, D-Nice created a virtual remedy for anyone dealing with the lockdown blues. He hosted Homeschool at Club Quarantine on his Instagram Live, where he spun popular tunes on the turntables at his home. An array of celebrities tuned in: Rihanna, Oprah Winfrey and Mark Zuckerberg popped in for a listen.   “It’s been an honor to provide entertainment and inspiration during one of the darkest times we’ve experienced,” D-Nice said.   Michelle Obama presented Stacey Abrams with the first Social Justice Impact award. Abrams was honored for being a political force and her voting rights work that helped turn Georgia into a swing state.   Abrams paid homage to her parents for her upbringing.   “They taught me and my five siblings that having nothing was not an excuse for doing nothing,” she said. “Instead, they showed us by word and deed to use our faith as a shield to protect the defenseless, to use our voices to call out injustices, and to use our education and our time to solve the problems that others turn away from.”   Viola Davis took home best actress for her film and television roles in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “How to Get Away with Murder.” 

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Facebook Freezes Venezuelan President’s Page Over COVID Misinformation

Facebook has frozen Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s page, according to a spokesperson for the social media giant, because the page contained misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.Maduro violated Facebook policy when he posted a video without any medical evidence, promoting Carvativir, a drink made with the herb thyme, as a cure for the coronavirus, a company spokesperson told Reuters. He described the drink as a “miracle” medication capable of neutralizing the coronavirus without any side effects.“We follow guidance from the WHO [World Health Organization] that says there is currently no medication to cure the virus,” Facebook’s spokesperson told Reuters.The company said it is taking action to limit use of Maduro’s Facebook page. “Due to repeated violations of our rules, we are also freezing the page for 30 days,” the company spokesperson said, “during which it will be read-only.”Brazil is averaging nearly 2,400 deaths a day from COVID-19, about one-fourth of the world’s daily tally, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.The South American nation is on pace to reach 4,000 deaths a day, six experts told The Associated Press, a level that would rival the worst seen in the U.S., which has about one-third more people. The U.S. set a record of 4,477 deaths on Jan. 12, according to Johns Hopkins data.“Four thousand deaths a day seems to be right around the corner,” Dr. José Antônio Curiati, a supervisor at Sao Paulo’s Hospital das Clinicas, the biggest hospital complex in Latin America, told the AP.President Jair Bolsonaro remains unconvinced that restrictions on activity are needed. At this point, they may be too late.Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University who advised several Brazilian governors and mayors on pandemic control, anticipates the total death toll reaching 500,000 by July and exceeding that of the U.S. by year-end, according to the AP.“We have surpassed levels never imagined for a country with a public health care system, a history of efficient immunization campaigns and health workers who are second to none in the world,” Nicolelis said. “The next stage is the health system collapse.”Spain tests mass-gathering limitsIn Spain, an experiment is under way to find a pandemic-safe way to hold mass events indoors. The setting is an arena in Barcelona filled with 5,000 fans Saturday night for a live concert.The morning of the show, those looking to attend came to one of three field hospitals set up in closed nightclubs. They were given COVID-19 and antigen tests, tests introduced to the body to induce an immune response. If they tested negative, they received a pass to the show and were told to wear a surgical mask. The arena was equipped with a ventilation system.“Over the next 14 days we will look at how many of the audience test positive for COVID and will report back,” Josep Maria Llibre, a doctor at the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital just north of Barcelona, told Agence France-Presse.The aim is “to discover a way in which we can coexist with COVID and hold concerts which are completely safe,” Ventura Barba, executive director of Barcelona’s Sonar festival, one of the organizers, told AFP.WHO seeks COVAX donationsThe head of the World Health Organization on Friday urged the global community to donate COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries, citing the urgent need for 10 million doses for a WHO-backed vaccine distribution program.“COVAX is ready to deliver but we can’t deliver vaccines we don’t have,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual news conference in Geneva.COVAX, an abbreviation for the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative, aims to provide equitable access to vaccines worldwide to low- and middle-income countries.“Bilateral deals, export bans, and vaccine nationalism have caused distortions in the market with gross inequities in supply and demand,” Tedros said. “Ten million doses are not much, and it’s not nearly enough.”Tedros’ appeal comes after India, a key supplier to the agency’s COVAX vaccine-sharing program, said it was prioritizing local needs.The WHO chief said India’s move was “understandable” given the rising number of infections in India. He said talks were in progress with India to find a balance between local and international needs.India said Friday it set a record with a tally of more than 59,000 new cases from the previous 24-hour period.UN demands fair vaccine accessAt the United Nations in New York, 181 nations signed onto a political declaration that calls for COVID-19 vaccinations to be treated as a global public good, ensuring affordable, equitable and fair access to vaccines for all.“We can see the end of the crisis, but to reach it, we need to work together with a deeper sense of collaboration,” part of the declaration states.Among the appeals are calls on nations to fully fund the COVAX facility to distribute vaccines to low-income and developing countries, scale up vaccine production through the distribution of technology and licenses and launch public information campaigns on the importance and safety of COVID-19 vaccines.COVAX has so far distributed more than 31 million doses of vaccines to 57 countries.“There is a race everywhere between the vaccines and the pandemic,” said Lebanon’s Ambassador Amal Mudallali, on behalf of the countries that drafted the document. “This race will be won before the start by the ‘haves,’ if there is no equitable, affordable sharing of vaccines.”The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday there are more 126 million global COVID-19 infections. The research center updates its data constantly and provides expert input.The United States has more cases than any other country, with more than 30.2 million infections, followed by Brazil, with 12.5 million, and India, with almost 12 million, according to the center.

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US Woman who Lost Child to Brain Tumor Gives Birth at Age 57

A New Hampshire woman who lost her 13-year-old daughter to a brain tumor in 2016 has now given birth to a son — at age 57.Barbara Higgins also had a brain tumor of her own while trying to get pregnant and had it removed.Higgins and her husband, Kenny Banzhoff, of Concord, have been grieving for their late daughter, Molly.In recent years, the couple, who also have an older daughter, thought about having another child. They found an in vitro fertilization clinic in Boston that worked with them.Higgins gave birth to a healthy boy named Jack on Saturday. He weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces.”Yes, I’m scared and I’m anxious, but I’m so excited,” Higgins told the Concord Monitor for a story published Friday.Higgins, an avid runner who has been a high school track coach, said she did weight training until the day she went into labor.In addition to Higgins’ struggles with her brain tumor, Banzhoff, 65, had been living with kidney disease and underwent a transplant.According to Guinness World Records, the oldest woman to give birth was 66-year-old Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, who had twins in Spain in 2006.  

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Israelis Gather for Passover, Celebrating Freedom from Virus

A year ago, Giordana Grego’s parents spent Passover at home in Israel, alone but grateful that they had escaped the worst of the pandemic in Italy. This year, the whole family will get together to mark the Jewish feast of liberation and deliverance from the pandemic.Israel has vaccinated over half its population of 9.3 million, and as coronavirus infections have plummeted, authorities have allowed restaurants, hotels, museums and theaters to reopen. Up to 20 people can now gather indoors.It’s a stark turnaround from last year, when Israel was in the first of three nationwide lockdowns, with businesses shuttered, checkpoints set up on empty roads and people confined to their homes. Many could only see their elderly relatives on video calls.”For us in Israel, really celebrating the festivity of freedom definitely has a whole different meaning this year after what we experienced,” said Grego, who immigrated to Israel from Italy. “It’s amazing that this year we’re able to celebrate together, also considering that in Italy, everybody is still under lockdown.”Passover is the Jewish holiday celebrating the biblical Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt after a series of divine plagues. The week-long springtime festival starts Saturday night with the highly ritualized Seder meal, when the Exodus story is retold. It’s a Thanksgiving-like atmosphere with family, friends, feasting and four cups of wine.An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man dips cooking utensils in boiling water to remove remains of leaven in preparation for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover in Jerusalem, March 26, 2021.Throughout the week, observant Jews abstain from the consumption of bread and other leavened foods to commemorate the hardships of the flight from Egypt. Instead, they eat unleavened matzah.Holiday preparations involve spring cleaning to the extreme to remove even the tiniest crumbs of leavened bread from homes and offices. Cauldrons of boiling water are set up on street corners to boil kitchenware, and many burn their discarded bread, known as chametz. Supermarkets cordon off aisles with leavened goods, wrapping shelves in black plastic.Most Israeli Jews — religious and secular alike — spend the Seder with extended family. Last year’s Passover was a major break in tradition.Government-imposed restrictions forced the closure of synagogues and limited movement and assembly to slow the virus’ spread. Some conducted the ritual meal with their nuclear family, others over videoconference, while an unfortunate few held the Seder in solitude.Another lockdown was imposed over the Jewish High Holidays in September, again preventing family gatherings, and a third came earlier this year with the emergence of more contagious variants of the virus.By the third lockdown, Israel had launched one of the most successful inoculation campaigns in the world after the government secured millions of doses from Pfizer and Moderna. Israel has now vaccinated more than 80% of its adult population.It’s too early to say that Israel’s coronavirus crisis is over, as new variants could emerge that are resistant to the vaccines.The vaccination campaign in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza has been slow to get off the ground, with Israel facing criticism for not sharing more of its supplies. Israel has vaccinated over 100,000 Palestinian laborers who work in Israel and West Bank settlements, and has sent a couple thousand doses to the Palestinian Authority.The Palestinians have imported more than 130,000 doses on their own, but it could be several months before shots are available for the vast majority of the nearly 5 million Palestinians in the territories. Experts say that could pose a risk to Israel’s own public health efforts.  

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Cities Worldwide Dim Lights to Mark Earth Hour

Cities around the world were turning off their lights Saturday for Earth Hour, with this year’s event highlighting the link between the destruction of nature and increasing outbreaks of diseases such as COVID-19.In London, the Houses of Parliament, London Eye Ferris wheel, Shard skyscraper and neon signs of Piccadilly Circus were among the landmarks flicking the switches for one hour starting at 8:30 p.m. local time.“It’s fantastic news that Parliament once again is taking part in Earth Hour, joining landmarks across the country and the world to raise awareness of climate change,” said Lindsay Hoyle, speaker of the House of Commons.“It shows our commitment to improving sustainability … and that we’re playing our part in reducing energy consumption,” he said.In Paris, the three stages of the Eiffel Tower progressively went dark, but there were few people to watch with the whole country under a 7 p.m. COVID-19 curfew.The giant metal tower has been shut to the public since October 30 because of the pandemic.The ancient Parthenon is pictured just before the lights on the Acropolis hill shut down for Earth Hour in Athens, Greece, March 27, 2021.In Rome, the lights went out at Rome’s 2,000-year-old Colosseum, while police enforcing Italy’s coronavirus movement restrictions checked the papers of a small crowd of onlookers.Harmful human activityAsia kicked off the event after night fell with the skylines of metropolises from Singapore to Hong Kong going dark, as did landmarks including Sydney Opera House.The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and Moscow’s Kremlin on Red Square also joined the annual initiative that calls for action on climate change and the environment.After Europe, Earth Hour moved west to the Americas with the Empire State Building in New York, the Obelisk of Buenos Aires and Rio’s Museum of Tomorrow among venues dimming the lights.For this year, organizers said they wanted to highlight the link between the destruction of the natural world and the increasing incidence of diseases, such as COVID-19, making the leap from animals to humans.Experts believe human activity such as widespread deforestation, destruction of animals’ habitats and climate change are spurring this increase and warn that more pandemics could occur if nothing is done.A view of the Kronborg Castle before the lights are switched off for Earth Hour, in Elsinore, Denmark, March 27, 2021.”Whether it is a decline in pollinators, fewer fish in the ocean and rivers, disappearing forests or the wider loss of biodiversity, the evidence is mounting that nature is in free fall,” said Marco Lambertini, director general of the WWF, which organizes Earth Hour.”And this is because of the way we live our lives and run our economies. Protecting nature is our moral responsibility, but losing it also increases our vulnerability to pandemics, accelerates climate change and threatens our food security,” he added.’Impact on environment’Earth Hour is about “more than just saving energy, it’s more like remembering our impact on the environment,” Ian Tan, 18, told AFP in Singapore.But he was not convinced the event, which has been running since 2007, made much of a difference.”One hour is not enough for us to remember that climate change is actually a problem,” he said.In Hong Kong, people at viewing points above the city watched as lights were dimmed on hordes of closely packed skyscrapers, while in the South Korean capital, Seoul, the historic Namdaemun gate went dark.In Thailand, Bangkok’s ultra-popular CentralWorld mall counted down to 8:30 p.m. before its exterior glass displays went dark for an hour. But inside, shopping appeared to continue as usual. 

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Pakistan Struggles to Contain Third COVID-19 Wave

Pakistan is struggling to contain a third wave of coronavirus infections, reporting close to 4,500 new cases in the last 24 hours, the highest number of daily infections in nine months.Officials said Saturday that the rate of people testing positive for COVID-19 had alarmingly risen to more than 10% from a low of about 3% a couple weeks ago, suggesting the actual number of infections is likely much higher than the reported cases.The overall number of infections and deaths from COVID-19, however, remains under control in Pakistan, a country of about 220 million people.Since the pandemic hit the South Asian nation a year ago, officials have documented around 650,000 infections and about 14,200 deaths, including 67 fatalities recorded Friday.British variantAsad Umar, the minister who heads the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) overseeing the government’s COVID-19 response, insisted Saturday that a British variant of the virus, detected in Pakistan early last month, was likely behind the flare-up in infections.“This relatively more contagious and deadlier variant seems to be a major cause for the sudden and sharp increase in the spread of the disease,” Umar told reporters after chairing an emergency meeting of the NCOC in Islamabad.FILE – An elderly resident receives his first dose of the coronavirus disease vaccine, at a vaccination center in Karachi, Pakistan, March 10, 2021.He added that public “disregard” for safety guidelines outlined by the government was contributing to the spread.The minister said his office had already started receiving messages that hospitals across Pakistan were nearing capacity and that finding enough beds for coronavirus patients was becoming a challenge.Call for public supportUmar urged people to strictly follow health and safety guidelines to help the government contain the infection, saying that bringing this “very dangerous situation” under control was impossible without public support.The third coronavirus wave is largely being driven by a high number of cases reported in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, and the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.The Pakistani government earlier this week ordered educational institutions in high-risk districts across the two provinces and the national capital, Islamabad, to remain closed until April 11, tightening restrictions on public gatherings in those areas.FILE – People gather for COVID-19 vaccine doses at a vaccination center in Karachi, Pakistan, March 22, 2021.Meanwhile, Pakistan is struggling to keep the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign going because of supply challenges and vaccine hesitance.Last month, the government began inoculating frontline health care workers and citizens age 60 and over after receiving a donation of 1 million doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine. Beijing announced a donation of another 500,000 doses and Islamabad is awaiting the delivery.Umar said this week that the national campaign had already vaccinated more than 700,000 people across Pakistan, raising concerns the government will soon run out of the drug.Officials said Pakistan was supposed to receive several million doses of coronavirus vaccine from the World Health Organization’s COVAX program in the first week of March.But the vaccine did not come because of supply issues, and the delay has forced Islamabad to explore other options to fill the gap and try to ramp up the national vaccination drive.COVAX aims to vaccinate people in low- and middle-income countries against COVID-19.Purchases from ChinaFederal Health Minister Faisal Sultan said this week that his government had purchased just over a million doses of the Chinese vaccine and that the consignment would arrive in the country later this month. He added Pakistan was also planning to buy additional Chinese vaccine to ensure its citizens are inoculated against COVID-19.WHO’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged the global community on Friday to donate COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries, citing the urgent need for 10 million doses for the COVAX vaccine distribution program.“COVAX is ready to deliver but we can’t deliver vaccines we don’t have,” Tedros told a virtual news conference in Geneva.“Bilateral deals, export bans and vaccine nationalism have caused distortions in the market with gross inequities in supply and demand,” Tedros said. “Ten million doses are not much and it’s not nearly enough.”   

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Tech Faces a Year of Scrutiny and Change

Facebook hired fact-checkers, Twitter labeled tweets and Google took down videos, but for tech companies, disinformation is the problem that won’t go away. The social media giants face intensifying pressure to curtail disinformation as lawmakers in the US talk about new regulations. Tina Trinh reports.
Producer: Matt Dibble

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Spurred by Lockdown, Spain Gives 4-day Week a Try

After years of waiting tables, Danae De Vries is one step closer to achieving her lifetime dream of becoming a theater coach.Ironically, she owes that to the pandemic. It was after last year’s brutal lockdown that shut the Spanish economy down for weeks that the owners of a small restaurant chain in Madrid offered De Vries to cut her weekly work schedule by one day.Already struggling to make ends meet in a city that has seen rental prices spiral, the 28-year-old was hesitant at first — and then enthusiastic when she was told her wages would remain untouched.“Now I have time to work, to see my family and friends, and to find enough time to study,” she said. “It’s marvelous to have time, to not rush everywhere and find a bit of inner peace.”A happier and more motivated De Vries is also better for her boss María Álvarez, the entrepreneur who turned her two-restaurant business upside-down when she proposed rotational four-day week shifts. Álvarez, a mother of two toddlers, and her startup partner at La Francachela had both struggled to keep the business going with no childcare support.“There was a feeling that society had turned its back on families, that we had been betrayed,” explained Álvarez. “As business owners, we had to come up with some solutions for our businesses, our employees and also for our personal lives.”Experimenting with cutting back one workday per week is about to go nationwide in Spain — the first country in Europe to do so. A three-year pilot project will be using 50 million euros ($59 million) from the European Union’s massive coronavirus recovery fund to compensate some 200 mid-size companies as they resize their workforce or reorganize production workflows to adapt to a 32-hour working week.The funds will go to subsidizing all of the employers’ extra costs in the first year of the trial and then reduce the government’s aid to 50% and 25% each consecutive year, according to a blueprint by the Más País progressive party that’s behind the initiative.Maria Alvarez co-owner of La Francachela and founder of the Campaña 4 Suma poses for a picture at La Francachela restaurant in Madrid, Spain, March 26, 2021.The only condition is that the readjustment leads to a real net reduction of working hours while maintaining full-time contract salaries, explained Héctor Tejero, a lawmaker with Más País in the Madrid regional assembly.“It’s not using the European funds for Spaniards to work less, it’s about seeing how we can improve productivity and competitiveness of our companies,” said Tejero.Arguments in favor of the move also cite benefits for the overall economy. A mass shift to a three-day weekend would lead to more consumption, especially in entertainment and tourism, a backbone of the Spanish economy.Reducing work hours from 40 to 35 per week in 2017 would have resulted in a 1.5% GDP growth and 560,000 new jobs, a study published earlier this year in the Cambridge Journal of Economics found. Salaries would have also increased nationally by 3.7%, especially benefitting women who more often take part-time jobs, the research said.Software Delsol, in southern Spain, invested 400,000 euros last year to reduce working hours for its 190 employees and has since then reported a 28% reduction in absenteeism, with people choosing to go to the bank or see their doctor on their weekday off. Their sales increased last year by 20% and no single employee has quit since the new schedule was adopted.Rocio Sanchez works in the kitchen at La Francachela restaurant in Madrid, Spain, March 26, 2021.Critics say that a pandemic-shaken economy is not the best scenario for experiments. With a 10.8% GDP contraction last year, its worst since the 1930s Civil War, Spain has suffered from intermittent lockdowns and the near-total freeze in international travel. Some experts argue that the priority should instead be fixing the country’s dysfunctional labor market, which is dragging one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates and is marred by precarious, low-wage jobs.ESADE Business School’s Carlos Victoria also warned against the one-size-fits-all approach of the proposal. “There are probably industries or economic areas in which a reduction of working hours won’t necessarily lead to productivity gains,” the economic policy researcher said.But Más País argues that it’s best to try first and decide later how to scale it up — or whether to do it at all.Still, not all unions are fully backing the plan, conservatives have been defensive and CEOE, the main Spanish business association, has so far offered a lukewarm response to the project.Nevertheless, at least half a dozen companies have already reached out expressing interest, according to Tejero, who said the pilot won’t be launched at least until September, when and if mass vaccination helps revive the economy.“In Spain, we have moved from presenteeism, where people had to be at the office for a very long time, to be in front of the computer, at home, for an even longer time,” said La Francachela’s Álvarez. “People are increasingly angry because remote working in itself is not going to solve our problems from a broader perspective.”

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Shots in Little Arms: COVID-19 Vaccine Testing Turns to Kids

The 9-year-old twins did not flinch as each received test doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine — and then a sparkly bandage to cover the spot.“Sparkles make everything better,” declared Marisol Gerardo as she hopped off an exam table at Duke University to make way for her sister Alejandra.Researchers in the U.S. and abroad are beginning to test younger and younger kids to make sure COVID-19 vaccines are safe and work for each age. The first shots are going to adults who are most at risk from the coronavirus but ending the pandemic will require vaccinating children too.“Kids should get the shot,” Marisol told The Associated Press this week after the sisters participated in Pfizer’s new study of children under 12. “So that everything might be a bit more normal.” She is looking forward to when she can have sleepovers with friends again.So far in the U.S., teen testing is furthest along: Pfizer and Moderna expect to release results soon showing how two doses of their vaccines performed in the 12 and older crowd. Pfizer is currently authorized for use starting at age 16; Moderna is for people 18 and older.But younger children may need different doses than teens and adults. Moderna recently began a study similar to Pfizer’s new trial, as both companies hunt the right dosage of each shot for each age group as they work toward eventually vaccinating babies as young as 6 months.Last month in Britain, AstraZeneca began a study of its vaccine among 6- to 17-year-olds. Johnson & Johnson is planning its own pediatric studies. And in China, Sinovac recently announced it has submitted preliminary data to Chinese regulators showing its vaccine is safe in children as young as 3.Getting this data, for all the vaccines being rolled out, is critical because countries must vaccinate children to achieve herd immunity, noted Duke pediatric and vaccine specialist Dr. Emmanuel “Chip” Walter, who is helping to lead the Pfizer study.Most COVID-19 vaccines being used around the world were first studied in tens of thousands of adults. Studies in children will not need to be nearly as large: Researchers have safety information from those studies and subsequent vaccinations of millions of adults.And because children’s infection rates are so low — they make up about 13% of COVID-19 cases documented in the U.S. — the main focus of pediatric studies is not counting numbers of illnesses. Instead, researchers are measuring whether the vaccines rev up youngsters’ immune systems much like they do adults’ — suggesting they will offer similar protection.Proving that is important because while children are far less likely than adults to get seriously ill, at least 268 have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. alone and more than 13,500 have been hospitalized, according to a tally by the American Academy of Pediatrics. That is more than die from the flu in an average year. Additionally, a small number have developed a serious inflammatory condition linked to the coronavirus.Apart from their own health risks, there still are questions about how easily children can spread the virus, something that has complicated efforts to reopen schools.Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, told Congress he expected that high school students likely would begin getting vaccinated in the fall. The elementary students, he said, may not be eligible until early 2022.In North Carolina, Marisol and Alejandra made their own choice to volunteer after their parents explained the opportunity, said their mother, Dr. Susanna Naggie, an infectious disease specialist at Duke. Long before the pandemic, she and her husband, emergency physician Dr. Charles Gerardo, regularly discussed their own research projects with the girls.In the first phase of the Pfizer study, a small number of children receive different doses of vaccine as scientists winnow out the best dosage to test in several thousand kids in the next phase.“We really trust the research process and understand that they may get a dose that doesn’t work at all but may have side effects,” said Naggie, describing the decision-making that parents face in signing up their children.But 9-year-olds have some understanding of the pandemic’s devastation and “it’s nice to participate in something where it’s not just about yourself but it’s about learning,” Naggie added. “They do worry about others and I think this is something that really, you know, struck home for them.”For Marisol, the only part that was “a bit nerve-wracking and scary” was having to give a blood sample first.The vaccination itself was “really easy. If you just sit still during the shot, it is just going to be simple,” she said.

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Beloved Children’s Author Beverly Cleary Dies at 104

Beverly Cleary, the celebrated children’s author whose memories of her Oregon childhood were shared with millions through the likes of Ramona and Beezus Quimby and Henry Huggins, has died. She was 104.Cleary’s publisher HarperCollins announced Friday that the author died Thursday in Northern California, where she had lived since the 1960s. No cause of death was given.FILE – In this photo taken Nov. 12, 2003, President George Bush, center, stands in the Oval Office with recipients of the National Medal of Arts. From left: musician Buddy Guy, dancer Suzanne Farrell, author Beverly Cleary and actor Ron Howard.Trained as a librarian, Cleary didn’t start writing books until her early 30s when she wrote Henry Huggins, published in 1950. Children worldwide came to love the adventures of Huggins and neighbors Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, Beatrice “Beezus” Quimby and her younger sister, Ramona. They inhabit a down-home, wholesome setting on Klickitat Street — a real street in Portland, Oregon, the city where Cleary spent much of her youth.Among the Henry titles were Henry and Ribsy, Henry and the Paper Route and Henry and Beezus.Ramona, perhaps her best-known character, made her debut in Henry Huggins with only a brief mention.”All the children appeared to be only children so I tossed in a little sister and she didn’t go away. She kept appearing in every book,” she said in a March 2016 telephone interview from her California home.Cleary herself was an only child and said the character wasn’t a mirror.”I was a well-behaved little girl, not that I wanted to be,” she said. “At the age of Ramona, in those days, children played outside. We played hopscotch and jump rope and I loved them and always had scraped knees.”In all, there were eight books on Ramona between Beezus and Ramona in 1955 and Ramona’s World in 1999. Others included Ramona the Pest and Ramona and Her Father. In 1981, Ramona and Her Mother won the National Book Award.Cleary wasn’t writing recently because she said she felt “it’s important for writers to know when to quit.””I even got rid of my typewriter. It was a nice one but I hate to type. When I started writing I found that I was thinking more about my typing than what I was going to say, so I wrote it long hand,” she said in March 2016.Although she put away her pen, Cleary re-released three of her most cherished books with three famous fans writing forewords for the new editions.Actress Amy Poehler penned the front section of Ramona Quimby, Age 8; author Kate DiCamillo wrote the opening for The Mouse and the Motorcycle; and author Judy Blume wrote the foreword for Henry Huggins.Cleary, a self-described “fuddy-duddy,” said there was a simple reason she began writing children’s books.”As a librarian, children were always asking for books about `kids like us.’ Well, there weren’t any books about kids like them. So when I sat down to write, I found myself writing about the sort of children I had grown up with,” Cleary said in a 1993 Associated Press interview.Dear Mr. Henshaw, the touching story of a lonely boy who corresponds with a children’s book author, won the 1984 John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. It “came about because two different boys from different parts of the country asked me to write a book about a boy whose parents were divorced,” she told National Public Radio as she neared her 90th birthday.Ramona and Her Father in 1978 and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 in 1982 were named Newbery Honor Books.Cleary ventured into fantasy with The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and the sequels Runaway Ralph and Ralph S. Mouse. Socks, about a cat’s struggle for acceptance when his owners have a baby, is told from the point of view of the pet himself.She was named a Living Legend in 2000 by the Library of Congress. In 2003, she was chosen as one of the winners of the National Medal of Arts and met President George W. Bush. She is lauded in literary circles far and wide.She produced two volumes of autobiography for young readers, A Girl from Yamhill, on her childhood, and My Own Two Feet, which tells the story of her college and young adult years up to the time of her first book.”I seem to have grown up with an unusual memory. People are astonished at the things I remember. I think it comes from living in isolation on a farm the first six years of my life where my main activity was observing,” Cleary said.Cleary was born Beverly Bunn on April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon, and lived on a farm in Yamhill until her family moved to Portland when she was school-age. She was a slow reader, which she blamed on illness and a mean-spirited first-grade teacher who disciplined her by snapping a steel-tipped pointer across the back of her hands.By sixth or seventh grade, “I decided that I was going to write children’s stories,” she said.Cleary graduated from junior college in Ontario, California, and the University of California at Berkeley, where she met her husband, Clarence. They married in 1940; Clarence Cleary died in 2004. They were the parents of twins, a boy and a girl born in 1955 who inspired her book Mitch and Amy.Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and inspired Japanese, Danish and Swedish television programs based on the Henry Huggins series. A 10-part PBS series, Ramona, starred Canadian actress Sarah Polley. The 2010 film Ramona and Beezus featured actresses Joey King and Selena Gomez.Cleary was asked once what her favorite character was.”Does your mother have a favorite child?” she responded.

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US Vaccination Effort Quickens as COVID Cases Rise Again

As cases of the coronavirus continue to rise in the United States, officials are racing to open up vaccine eligibility in the hope of staving off another wave of the pandemic.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expressed concern Friday about rising case numbers, noting the seven-day average daily case count was up 7% over the past week.“We have seen cases and hospital admission move from historic decline to stagnation to increases, and we know from prior surges that if we don’t control things now there is a real potential for the epidemic curve to soar again,” she said at a White House briefing.Walensky noted that about 1,000 Americans a day are dying of COVID-19 and said, “Please take this moment very seriously.”As of Friday evening, the U.S. led the world in the number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, with 30.2 million, and the number of deaths, with more than 548,000, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Globally, more than 126 million people have contracted COVID-19 and almost 2.8 million have died.Inflection pointNew U.S. cases peaked at nearly 260,000 a day in early January, and that month saw an average of more than 3,100 people dying every day. Case numbers and deaths began to fall later in January and continued to drop in February.New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham talks with National Guard members after receiving her Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination event held in the gym at Desert Sage Academy in Santa Fe, N.M., March 26, 2021.Currently, case numbers are starting to rise, with the average daily case count at 57,000. The increase comes at a time when optimism of a return to normal is growing in the United States with more and more Americans being vaccinated. CDC data on Friday showed that 27% of the U.S. population had received at least one vaccine dose and nearly 15% had been fully vaccinated.Health officials have indicated that the U.S. could be at an inflection point for the pandemic: a time when the country either turns the corner in its battle with the virus or faces a setback.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said at a White House briefing earlier this week: “I’m often asked: Are we turning the corner?“My response is really more like: We are at the corner. Whether or not we’re going to be turning that corner still remains to be seen.”On March 4, Fauci told CNN that states shouldn’t ease restrictions to prevent COVID-19 until new coronavirus cases fell below 10,000 daily.U.S. officials have been warning about the danger of more contagious variants of the virus, like the one first identified in Britain, which is now causing new surges of the pandemic in a number of European countries.FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks at a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, March 18, 2021.Last week, Fauci said that variant likely accounted for 20% to 30% of coronavirus infections in the United States, adding that the numbers were likely growing. If the variant were to become the dominant strain in the United States, health officials say, reinfections would become more likely among those who have already had COVID-19. Such reinfections, along with the higher transmission rate of the variant, could lead to a wave of new cases.Race to vaccinateTo try to stave off the spread of the new variants, the Biden administration and U.S. state officials are trying to speed up the pace of vaccinations across the country.The governors of South Carolina and Kansas announced Friday that their states would open up vaccine eligibility next week to anyone older than 16.They will join at least a dozen states that have allowed those 16 and older to schedule vaccination appointments. At least 34 states have announced plans to make everyone 16 and older eligible for the vaccine by mid-April, according to a review by The Washington Post.FILE – Michelle Melton, who is 35 weeks pregnant, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pa., Feb. 11, 2021.Of the three vaccines approved for emergency use in the United States, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized for those 16 and older while the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are approved for those 18 and older. No vaccine has been approved for anyone younger than 16.President Joe Biden has set a deadline of May 1 for all states to open up vaccinations to all adults. Jeff Zients, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, said 46 states have confirmed that they will be able to meet the deadline.He acknowledged, however, that some states were opening up their eligibility for adults more quickly than planned because they had not been able to fill appointments for the most vulnerable populations, including the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.”If there are states that are lagging behind, we’re working with those states to ensure they continue to prioritize the most vulnerable populations,” he said during a briefing Friday.Data from the CDC on Friday showed that more than 71% of people 65 and older had received at least one vaccination shot.3 more vaccination centersThe White House announced Friday that three more cities — Boston, Massachusetts; Norfolk, Virginia; and Newark, New Jersey — were getting new federally run mass vaccination centers as part of the president’s new goal of vaccinating 200 million Americans by the end of April. Biden had previously set a goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans during his first 100 days in office, a goal he surpassed last week.Zients said that while the pace of vaccinations was encouraging, there is still concern about the increasing case numbers of the coronavirus across the country.“It is clear there is a case for optimism, but there is not a case for relaxation,” he said. “This is not the time to let down our guard.”   

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China Outlines COVID-origin Findings, Ahead of WHO Report

Chinese officials briefed diplomats Friday on the ongoing research into the origin of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, ahead of the expected release of a long-awaited report from the World Health Organization.The briefing appeared to be an attempt by China to get out its view on the report, which has become enmeshed in a diplomatic spat. The U.S. and others have raised questions about Chinese influence and the independence of the findings, and China has accused critics of politicizing a scientific study.”Our purpose is to show our openness and transparency,” said Yang Tao, a Foreign Ministry official. “China fought the epidemic in a transparent manner and has nothing to hide.”WHO worked with Chinese in WuhanThe report, which has been delayed repeatedly, is based on a visit earlier this year by a WHO team of international experts to Wuhan, the city in central China where infections from a new coronavirus were first reported in late 2019.The experts worked with Chinese counterparts, and both sides have to agree on the final report. It’s unclear when it will come out.Feng Zijian, a Chinese team member and the deputy director of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the experts examined four possible ways the virus got to Wuhan.They are: a bat carrying the virus infected a human, a bat infected an intermediate mammal that spread it to a human, shipments of cold or frozen food; and a laboratory that researches viruses in Wuhan.Over 50 countries representedThe experts voted on the hypotheses after in-depth discussion and concluded one of the two animal routes or the cold chain was most likely how it was transmitted. A lab leak was viewed as extremely unlikely, Feng said.His remarks were reported by state broadcaster CCTV, which said envoys from 50 countries, the League of Arab States and the African Union attended the briefing at the Foreign Ministry.”China firmly opposes certain countries’ attempts to politicize the origin tracing issue and make groundless accusations and hold China accountable,” the ministry said in an online post about the briefing.Separately, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “I would like to stress that virus tracing is a scientific issue that should be studied by scientists through cooperation.”She told reporters that the experts are still discussing the contents and translation of the report, and she did not know when it would be released.WHO report in final stagesAt a press briefing later Friday in Geneva, the World Health Organization expert who led WHO’s China mission said the nearly 400-page report was finalized and in the process of being fact-checked and translated.”I expect that in the next few days, that whole process will be completed and we will be able to release it publicly,” WHO expert Peter Ben Embarek said.At a Biden administration health briefing Friday, U.S. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the agency was looking forward to the release of the WHO report.Dr. Anthony Fauci said the explanation that “most public health officials agree with” about how COVID-19 appeared in humans is that the virus was likely spreading in China below the radar for several weeks, allowing it to be well-adapted by the time it was recognized.The government’s top infectious disease expert’s comments came in response to speculation by former CDC head Robert Redfield on CNN that COVID-19 came from a lab.”What he likely was expressing is that there certainly are possibilities … of how a virus adapts itself to an efficient spread among humans,” Fauci said. 

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‘Lonesome Dove’ Author McMurtry Dies at 84

Novelist Larry McMurtry, who wrote of complex relationships in novels such as “The Last Picture Show” and “Terms of Endearment,” and then helped redefine the American Old West with the epic “Lonesome Dove,” has died at 84, The New York Times reported Friday.McMurtry’s death was confirmed by family spokeswoman Amanda Lundberg, who did not specify a cause or say where he died, the Times said.In addition to his Pulitzer Prize for “Lonesome Dove” in 1986, McMurtry won an Academy Award in 2006 with writing partner Diana Ossana for the screenplay for “Brokeback Mountain” about the relationship between two gay cowboys. He also was nominated in 1972 for his adaptation of his novel “The Last Picture Show.”McMurtry wrote nearly 50 books — collections of essays and criticism and memoirs in addition to his novels — but “Lonesome Dove” had the most impact. It was a sweeping tale of two aging former Texas Rangers, the amiable Gus and cantankerous Call, on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana.”If anybody had any sense, they’d throw out ‘Moby-Dick’ and put ‘Lonesome Dove’ in the center as the great American epic novel,” Carolyn See, a literature professor at the University of California-Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times in 2003. “No question about it. His heroes in that book are just terrific. His women are just terrific. And he sustains it for 800 pages.”FILE – Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry accept the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for their work on “Brokeback Mountain” at the 78th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, March 5, 2006.McMurtry developed lasting affection for many of his characters and quite often brought them back for sequels. The principals from “Lonesome Dove” would eventually be in four books and the characters from “The Last Picture Show” generated five novels.Critics praised McMurtry for his skill in fashioning nuanced and compelling characters and the way he brought them together — whether they were coming-of-age teenagers fighting small-town ennui in “The Last Picture Show” or a self-absorbed woman and her needy, dying daughter in “Terms of Endearment.”McMurtry had a contrarian streak — e wore jeans with his tuxedo jacket to pick up his Oscar — and took a simple approach to his writing.”I like making stuff up,” he told Texas Monthly in 2016. “I just write.” 

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WHO Urges World Community to Donate COVID Vaccines to Poorer Countries

The head of the World Health Organization on Friday urged the global community to donate COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries, citing the urgent need for 10 million doses for a WHO-backed vaccine distribution program. “COVAX is ready to deliver but we can’t deliver vaccines we don’t have,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual news conference in Geneva. “Bilateral deals, export bans and vaccine nationalism have caused distortions in the market with gross inequities in supply and demand,” Tedros said. “Ten million doses are not much and it’s not nearly enough.” FILE – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, speaks in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 18, 2021.COVAX, an abbreviation for the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative, aims to provide equitable access to vaccines worldwide. The WHO chief called on countries to donate spare doses of vaccines to COVAX because a rush to secure vaccines around the world delayed deliveries that COVAX had anticipated. Meanwhile, at the United Nations in New York, 181 nations signed on to a political declaration that calls for COVID-19 vaccinations to be treated as a global public good, ensuring affordable, equitable and fair access to vaccines for all. “We can see the end of the crisis, but to reach it, we need to work together with a deeper sense of collaboration,” part of the declaration states. Among the appeals are calls on nations to fully fund the COVAX facility to distribute vaccines to poor and developing countries, to scale up vaccine production through the distribution of technology and licenses, and to launch public information campaigns on the importance and safety of COVID-19 vaccines. FILE – Boxes of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and provided through the global COVAX initiative arrive at the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, March 15, 2021.COVAX has distributed more than 31 million doses of vaccines to 57 countries. “There is a race everywhere between the vaccines and the pandemic,” said Lebanon’s Ambassador Amal Mudallali, on behalf of the countries that drafted the document. “This race will be won before the start by the ‘haves,’ if there is no equitable, affordable sharing of vaccines.” Global numbersThe Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Friday afternoon that total global COVID-19 infections were at 125.9 million.The United States had more cases than another country, with 30.1 million infections, followed by Brazil, with 12.3 million, and India, with 11.8 million. India said Friday that it had set a record with a tally of more than 59,000 new cases from the previous 24-hour period. On Thursday, Brazil said it had recorded its highest number of new coronavirus cases in 24 hours with 100,158 infections. UNESCO studySeparately, UNESCO said a new study has found that the coronavirus pandemic has adversely affected the reading proficiency of over 100 million children. “The number of children lacking basic reading skills was on a downward curve prior to the pandemic and expected to fall from 483 million to 460 million in 2020,” UNESCO said in a statement Thursday. “Instead, as a result of the pandemic, the number of children in difficulty jumped to 584 million in 2020, increasing by more than 20% and wiping out gains made over the past two decades through education efforts.” UNESCO is convening a meeting Monday with education ministers from around the world to discuss ways to combat the trend. Canada hit a stumbling block in its vaccination program when U.S. vaccine manufacturer Moderna said it was delaying a shipment of nearly 600,000 shots expected to be delivered this weekend.  Anita Anand, Canada’s federal procurement minister, said Moderna officials attributed the setback to a “backlog in its quality assurance process.” The vaccines, however, are expected to be shipped out before the end of next week.  VOA’s Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
  

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Fauci: Idea COVID-19 Originated in Lab, Just Another Theory

Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday the former U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director’s belief that the virus that causes COVID-19 escaped from a lab is his opinion, and not one shared by a majority of public health care experts.Fauci who spoke during a regular White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing, was responding to comments by former U.S. president Donald Trump-appointed CDC director Robert Redfield.FILE – Then-Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Education building in Washington, July 8, 2020.In an interview, as part of a documentary on the U.S. news channel CNN, Redfield said it is his belief that the virus was created in a lab and escaped, not necessarily intentionally. He said it was his opinion, something he was allowed to have now that he is a private citizen.When asked about the comments, Fauci said he was familiar with the comments and he said it was one of several theories as to the origin of the virus. He said he believes it is based on the idea that when the virus was first identified in late December of 2019, it seemed well adapted to transmission among the human population, suggesting it was adapted in the lab.But Fauci said the explanation that most health professionals go by is that the virus had been circulating in China for several weeks, if not a month, before it was clinically recognized, giving it plenty of time to adapt to the human population.When asked her thoughts on Redfield’s theory, current CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she had no formal opinion on the origin of the virus. She referred to a study on the origin of the virus being conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and said she is looking forward to their thoughts on the issue.In preliminary comments regarding the virus originating in a lab, leaders of the WHO study said they believed it was highly unlikely. 

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Johns Hopkins Records 125.5M Global Coronavirus Infections

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Friday there are more 125.5 million global COVID-19 infections.The U.S. has more cases than another country, with over 30 million infections, followed by Brazil, with 12.3 million, and India, with 11.8 million.India said Friday it set a record with a tally of more than 59,000 new cases in the previous 24-hour period.On Thursday, Brazil said it had recorded its highest number of new coronavirus cases in 24 hours with 100,158 infections.UNESCO said a new study has found that the coronavirus pandemic has adversely affected the reading proficiency of more than 100 million children.“The number of children lacking basic reading skills was on a downward curve prior to the pandemic, and expected to fall from 483 million to 460 million in 2020,” UNESCO said in a statement Thursday. “Instead, as a result of the pandemic, the number of children in difficulty jumped to 584 million in 2020, increasing by more than 20% and wiping out gains made over the past two decades through education efforts.”UNESCO is convening a meeting Monday with education ministers from around the world to discuss ways to combat the troubling trend.Canada hit a small stumbling block in its vaccination program when U.S. vaccine manufacturer Moderna said it was delaying a shipment of nearly 600,000 shots expected to be delivered this weekend.Anita Anand, Canada’s federal procurement minister, said Moderna officials attributed the setback to a “backlog in its quality assurance process.” The vaccines, however, are expected to be shipped out before the end of next week.New York City’s theater industry workers are about to receive a literal shot in the arm. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that a vaccination site will be set up on Broadway for theater workers, with satellite sites around the city. New York officials say they want Broadway to reopen in the fall. “It’s time to raise the curtain and bring Broadway back,” de Blasio said.

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Hopkins Records 125.5 Million Global Coronavirus Infections

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Friday there are more 125.5 million global COVID-19 infections.The U.S. has more cases than another country, with over 30 million infections, followed by Brazil, with 12.3 million, and India, with 11.8 million.India said Friday it set a record with a tally of more than 59,000 new cases in the previous 24-hour period.On Thursday, Brazil said it had recorded its highest number of new coronavirus cases in 24 hours with 100,158 infections.UNESCO said a new study has found that the coronavirus pandemic has adversely affected the reading proficiency of more than 100 million children.“The number of children lacking basic reading skills was on a downward curve prior to the pandemic, and expected to fall from 483 million to 460 million in 2020,” UNESCO said in a statement Thursday. “Instead, as a result of the pandemic, the number of children in difficulty jumped to 584 million in 2020, increasing by more than 20% and wiping out gains made over the past two decades through education efforts.”UNESCO is convening a meeting Monday with education ministers from around the world to discuss ways to combat the troubling trend.Canada hit a small stumbling block in its vaccination program when U.S. vaccine manufacturer Moderna said it was delaying a shipment of nearly 600,000 shots expected to be delivered this weekend.Anita Anand, Canada’s federal procurement minister, said Moderna officials attributed the setback to a “backlog in its quality assurance process.” The vaccines, however, are expected to be shipped out before the end of next week.New York City’s theater industry workers are about to receive a literal shot in the arm. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that a vaccination site will be set up on Broadway for theater workers, with satellite sites around the city. New York officials say they want Broadway to reopen in the fall. “It’s time to raise the curtain and bring Broadway back,” de Blasio said.

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First COVID-19 Vaccines Arrive in Juba, South Sudan

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in South Sudan’s Juba International Airport on Thursday. The 132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be offered first to health care workers, including doctors and nurses, along with other vulnerable groups.South Sudan Health Minister Elizabeth Achuil said 732,000 additional doses are scheduled to arrive over the next few months through the support of the COVAX facility, a global partnership made up of a coalition that includes the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF and the World Health Organization. COVAX was established to ensure that all countries can equitably access COVID-19 vaccines.Achuil said the AstraZeneca shipment is a milestone for South Sudan.“The COVID-19 vaccine will help us to protect our population against the COVID infections and prepare for a return to a normal life. We are grateful to all partners for their support in facilitating the arrival of the vaccines in our country,” she told reporters at Juba International Airport.A COVID-19 vaccination campaign will kick off across the country next week, according to Hamida Lasseko, the UNICEF representative for South Sudan.“It is very important that the government has decided to start with the health workers, who are the front-line workers, because they are the ones to be safe so as to continue with delivering health services,” Lasseko said.German Ambassador to South Sudan Manuel Muller, who represented the donor community at Juba International Airport to receive the vaccine doses, said South Sudan is one of 140 countries that will benefit from the COVAX initiative by the end of May.“Our goal is that everyone in the world can have access to the required vaccine. That is what we mean when we say the vaccine against COVID-19 must be a common goal. People in the developing countries also have the right to a vaccine that has been tested safely, thoroughly and transparently,” Muller said.COVAX has secured more than 3 billion doses of vaccines that can cover at least one-third of the global population in 2021, according to Muller.FILE – A pharmacist prepares to fill a syringe with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Vaccine Village in Antwerp, Belgium, March 16, 2021.The AstraZeneca vaccine requires two doses to ensure optimal immune response against the virus. The doses will be provided on a voluntary basis and free of charge in South Sudan.Confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine had plunged across Europe after recent reports that a small number of recipients had developed unusual blood clots amid a coronavirus wave on the continent.In France, Germany, Italy and Spain, polling shows more people now believe the vaccine is unsafe, compared with those who think it is safe. That is a major setback to a shot that remains Europe’s best hope for saving lives.Millions of doses have been sitting unused in refrigerators across the continent, with doctors reporting some people canceling appointments for injections over fears about side effects.In South Sudan, health experts say people should still wear face masks and practice other preventative measures, said Dr. Fabian Ndenzako, World Health Organization representative for South Sudan.“I would like to emphasize that if the vaccine starts to roll out around the world, they should complement, not replace, the proven public measures such as wearing masks, physical distancing, ventilation and hand hygiene, alongside robust programs to test, trace, isolate and treat,” Ndenzako told South Sudan in Focus.More than 15 African countries received COVID-19 vaccines in recent weeks.

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Popular Haitian Rapper Arrested Then Released by Haiti National Police

Popular Haitian Rapper Izolan, is a free man after being arrested Wednesday night at the Toussaint Louverture international Airport in Port-au-Prince by agents of the anti-drug trafficking branch of the Haitian National Police. News of the arrest went viral on Twitter and Instagram after lawyer and opposition leader Andre Michel alerted his followers. 
 La DCPJ vient de procéder illégalement à l’arrestation de Jean Léonard Tout Puissant( IZOLAN),un artiste populaire.Maitre Palvin Phizéma, un avocat du du Secteur Démocratique et Populaire,est en route pour la DCPJ.Le Secteur Démocratique et Populaire exige sa libération immédiate— Me. André Michel (@avokapepla) March 24, 2021″DCPJ has just illegally arrested Jean Leonard Tout Puissant (IZOLAN) a popular artist. Palvin Phizema, a lawyer who works for the Democratic and Popular sector (of opposition groups), is on his way to the DCPJ. The Democratic and Popular Sector demand his immediate release,” Michel tweeted.   
 
VOA spoke to Phizema shortly after he arrived at the headquarters of the judiciary police, DCPJ. He told VOA he had not yet been allowed to see or speak with the rapper. It is still unclear why the rapper was arrested.  
 
Popular Haitian American rapper Wyclef Jean, who has recorded several songs with Izolan, posted a video on his Instagram account condemning the arrest. .⁦@wyclef⁩ on the news that pioneering rap Kreyol artist ⁦@izolanofficial⁩ was arrested today in #Haiti, (we’re still waiting info from ⁦@PNH_officiel⁩ ) calls for his immediate release. pic.twitter.com/JMHIlcNIEL— Jacqueline Charles (@Jacquiecharles) March 25, 2021 
“I’m only going to say this once, this thing – I’m not going for it,” Wyclef said, speaking in a mixture of Haitian Creole and English. “I’m not going for it, we’re not going for it … Let Izolan go. Please let Izolan go.” The video has since been deleted from Wyclef’s Instagram account.  
 
About 10 p.m., after being released from DCPJ custody, Izolan posted a black-and- white selfie on his Instagram account and thanked fans for their support.  
 
“Thanks everybody for your support. DCPJ asked me to join them to respond to some questions. I didn’t panic because I know myself. I will always be who I am, nothing can change that,” Izolan posted in Creole.   
 
The rapper told a local radio station he had been interrogated but did not elaborate. He would say only that he was not asked about his ties to Fantom 509, the renegade group of former and current police officers who have been blamed for a series of jailbreaks, looting, violence and the Monday hold-up at gunpoint of the Belize national team bus, shortly after they arrived in Haiti for a World Cup qualifier. The team was unharmed. The U.S. State Department has described the group as “criminals.” Earlier this week, the national police announced several arrest warrants for members of Fantom 509.  
 
Lawyer Michel tweeted his thanks.  
 
“Good News. IZOLAN has just been released. In the name of the Democratic and Popular Sector I would like to thank all the lawyers who went to the DCPJ to help IZOLAN,” he tweeted. 
 Bonne nouvelle. IZOLAN fenk Jwenn liberasyon li.Nan non Sektè Demokratik e Popilè a,Mwen Remèsye Tout Avoka( Mèt Palvin Phizéma, Arnel Rémy, Jules Frantz, Bellevue, Théophin) Ki te rive nan DCPJ nan Kad Dosye IZOLAN an.— Me. André Michel (@avokapepla) March 25, 2021Izolan says he is ready to talk to the police again if needed. 
 
The rapper has been an outspoken critic of President Jovenel Moise’s governance and widespread insecurity. In an interview with VOA during a pro-democracy demonstration on February 21, Izolan said he has received threats due to his outspokenness.  
 
“I’m one of the people who receives threats all the time because of my political views. That’s why I don’t bother anyone, and I don’t want anyone to bother me either. Everyone clearly sees that gangs rule this capital [Port-au-Prince],” he told VOA.  He also had a message for Fantom 509. “Everyone knows the 509 policemen are not illegal, they are legal, they are working with the union (SPNH17) to claim their rights. They are unable to eat or sleep and they spend their days out in the streets,” he told VOA, adding that as an artist he considers the police to be heroes. 
 Our reporter ran into rapper @izolanofficial on the street during the protest against dictatorship and kidnapping in #Haiti. He expressed support for the 509 Policemen who are trying to unionize. ?Matiado Vilme pic.twitter.com/BcxdoSz62w— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) February 21, 2021
Izolan says he will participate in two days of protests on March 28 and March 29. The demonstrations, organized by Haitian civil society groups, aim to protest violence and demand respect for the constitution.Matiado Vilme in Port-au-Prince, Haiti contributed to this report

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