More than 119.5 million people have contracted COVID-19, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday.  The United States tops the list as the place with the most infections at 29.4 million.  Brazil and India follow the U.S. with 11.4 million and 11.3 million, respectively.   The U.S. appears to be on a path to stockpiling coronavirus vaccines, with plans to have enough doses for almost double the country’s population.  The U.S. has committed funding to several vaccine initiatives, including $2 billion to Covax, the international program designed to provide coronavirus vaccines wherever needed.  The U.S., Australia, India and Japan also agreed last week to a partnership to make 1 billion vaccines available across Asia by the end of 2022, India’s foreign secretary said at a news conference in New Dehli after a virtual meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of the other countries.   The initiative is designed to attack the global vaccine shortage and counter China’s growing diplomatic campaign to distribute vaccines in Southeast Asia and globally. Civil defense members stand outside the new Salt government hospital in the city of Salt, Jordan, March 13, 2021.Jordan’s health minister was resigned Saturday after at least seven COVID-19 patients died at a hospital in Salt, near Amman, due to a shortage of oxygen at the facility, state media reported.   Later Saturday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II visited the hospital where an angry mob had gathered.   China eases visitor entryThe competition to distribute vaccines worldwide escalated Saturday when China announced it would streamline the entry process for foreigners who want to visit mainland China from Hong Kong if they have received Chinese-manufactured coronavirus vaccines.   By imposing fewer paperwork obligations, China hopes to enhance the global appeal of its vaccines, which most Western countries have not yet approved. In addition, China has yet to approve the manufacture or distribution of foreign-made vaccines within the country.   Italy aims for 80% of shots by fall
In Italy, meanwhile, the special commissioner for the coronavirus said Saturday that the country planned vaccinate at least 80% of its population by September. Francesco Paolo Figliuolo disclosed a plan to put 500,000 shots in arms daily, according to a statement from the office of the Cabinet. FILE – Italy’s special COVID-19 commissioner General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo gestures during a visit to a mass vaccination centre at Fiumicino Airport near Rome, Italy, March 12, 2021.Nearly 2 million Italians, or about 4% of the population, have gotten two shots of vaccine, but fewer than 51 million Italians are eligible for inoculation. Italy is one of the countries hit hard by the coronavirus, with 3.2 million cases and more than 101,000 deaths so far, according to Johns Hopkins. With increasing vaccine deliveries, from 15.7 million doses in the first quarter to 52.5 million doses from April to June, Italy plans to broadly expand the places where shots will be available, including military barracks, stores, gyms, schools and Catholic Church facilities.   In the meantime, most Italians face new restrictions beginning Monday as the government tries to stop a rise in case numbers. The restrictions include the closure of schools and nonessential shops in more than half of the country, including Rome and Milan.   There is good news in Corvo, the smallest island in the Azores off the Portuguese coast: 322 of its 400 residents have received a COVID-19 shot and herd immunity will likely be reached by the end of March. “There’s an atmosphere of celebration in Corvo,” Dr. Antonio Salgado told the Lusa news agency. “From now on, we will feel safe.” Herd immunity is reached when enough people, usually 50% to 70% of a population, are immune to an infection. Corvo will have nearly 85% of its residents 16 and older vaccinated this month. 
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A year into the coronavirus pandemic that is disproportionately ravaging African American lives both physically and economically, efforts are underway to target racism as a public health crisis that shortens lives and costs millions of dollars.“Systemic racism defines the Black experience in our nation,” said Virginia Democratic State Delegate Lashrecse Aird, who co-sponsored a resolution approved by lawmakers in February that makes Virginia the first state in the South to declare racism a public health crisis.“It provides the framework for all of us to formally and finally reckon with those injustices so we can build a more equitable and just society for all,” Aird said in a statement to VOA.The Virginia resolution cites more than 100 studies that link racism to negative health outcomes. The research indicates the cumulative experience of racism throughout a person’s life can induce chronic stress and health conditions that may lead to otherwise preventable deaths. Overall life expectancy for African Americans is nearly 3 ½ years shorter than for white people.“Virginians of color, especially Black Virginians, deserve no further delay of the Commonwealth’s public recognition of this centuries-old crisis,” Robert Barnette Jr., president of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP, told VOA in a virtual news conference.“We know systemic racism manifests itself as a determinant to public health through persistent racial disparities in all areas of our lives,” he said.The Virginia resolution would create a watchdog agency to promote policies that address systemic racism and its impact on public health. It requires state elected officials, their staff, and state employees to undergo training to recognize racism. Community engagement throughout the state will also be promoted to detect racism.The legislation is a big step for lawmakers in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, and a state with a checkered history of racially discriminatory and segregationist activities. Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to approve the declaration soon.Health inequalityVirginia joins Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and dozens of municipalities that have issued similar nonbinding resolutions in the last year. However, some communities are hoping to use the measures to direct additional funding for research and grants to support intervention programs.While some communities addressed racism as a public health emergency before the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 has underlined the health disparities among communities of color.FILE – Melissa Brooks, from left, Jordan Brown, Jazmine Brooks, Shari Moore and and Laila Brooks, all of Baltimore, study photographs of Black people killed by police that cover a fence near the White House, Washington, Aug. 25, 2020.“Racism is literally killing Black and brown people. It’s a public health crisis, and it’s beyond time to treat it as such,” said Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison of Austin, Texas, which declared racism a public health crisis in July 2020.“The inequities are countless, and they aren’t because African Americans are inherently inferior. They are the fruits of generations’ worth of explicitly discriminatory and racist policies,” Harper-Madison said.A nationwide poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 70% of African Americans believe people are treated unfairly based on race or ethnicity when they seek medical care. Additionally, 50% of Black people said they do not trust the U.S. health care system.“It’s hard day-to-day when you’re constantly being denied or overlooked. It has an effect on your mental health,” said Janette Boyd Martin, president of the NAACP in Charlottesville, Virginia.According to the American Psychiatric Association, half of African Americans do not seek help for mental health issues, often because they fear the stigma some associate with it. Overall, only one in three Black adults who need mental health care ultimately receives it.Legacy of mistrustHistorically, racism in the U.S. health care system has long left African Americans burdened by chronic illness, reduced access to healthy foods and preventative treatment. As a result, Black people suffer more frequently than white people from diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, maternal mortality and infant mortality.African Americans have also been the subjects of unethical medical research programs.FILE – People wait in line for the COVID-19 vaccine in Paterson, N.J., Jan. 21, 2021.In 1932, the U.S. government launched a medical experiment on the progression of syphilis, studying nearly 400 Black men who suffered from the disease. At the time of the study, there was no known cure for syphilis. The men never gave informed consent or received proper treatment. Even when penicillin was used to treat syphilis in 1947, researchers did not offer it to them. The study ended after 40 years when the research became public and caused a national outcry.Another case involved Henrietta Lacks, a poor Black woman from Baltimore, Maryland, who in 1951 was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins University. Her unique cells, collected without her consent, were patented by medical researchers who reaped millions of dollars. Called “HeLa” cells, they continue to be used in medical research around the world.Changing the course of historyIn January, U.S. President Joe Biden launched a task force to examine ways to reverse persistent racial and ethnic disparities in health care.“What’s needed to ensure equity in the recovery is not limited to health and health care,” said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, chairwoman of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.“We have to have conversations about housing stability and food security and educational equity, and pathways to economic opportunities and promise,” she said.The task force plans to target at-risk locations and provide medical resources to vulnerable communities struggling with social and economic inequalities.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans are three times more likely to die from COVID-19. In addition, people of color are infected with the disease and hospitalized at higher rates than the white population. Despite the high rates of infection, Black people are being vaccinated at half the rate of white Americans, according to the CDC.In Utah, where racial disparities persist, an effort to declare racism a public health crisis was postponed. State Representative Sandra Hollins withdrew her sponsored resolution at the conclusion of this year’s legislation session.Some Utah lawmakers questioned the policy implications and said they did not understand the link between race and health care.“People don’t know what racism is,” Hollins, the only African American in the state Legislature, said recently in a televised interview.She said she will reintroduce the measure in 2022.“My definition of what racism is as a Black woman who grew up in the South may be different than people who may have grown up in Utah. The definitions are different, and that’s part of the conversation we need to have,” she said.
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The United States and other wealthy countries are standing in the way of low- and middle-income countries seeking better access to COVID-19 vaccines, health-equity advocates say.South Africa and India have led an effort at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive drug companies’ exclusive rights to manufacture their vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic.Countries with major pharmaceutical industries, including the United States, several European countries and Japan, have opposed the waiver. WTO, the global trade regulating body, operates by consensus, so the proposal fails without unanimous support.“It is shameful that U.S. policy is prioritizing profits over life, and doing so in the name of the American people,” Emily Sanderson, senior grassroots advocacy coordinator for the activist group Health GAP, said in a statement.The pharmaceutical industry says patents are not the biggest barriers, however. Supplies and expertise are the major limitations, executives say. But the industry says novel partnerships already in place will meet the demand for vaccines.Vaccine rollout has been highly unequal so far. While deliveries are accelerating in many higher-income countries, “there’s over 100 countries where not a single (dose of) vaccine has been delivered,” said Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Georgetown University Global Health Policy & Politics Initiative.U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans Thursday to vaccinate enough Americans by July 4 to get life nearly back to normal.Meanwhile, A healthcare worker receives a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus as South Africa proceeds with its inoculation campaign at the Klerksdorp Hospital on Feb. 18, 2021.Manufacturers in waitingAdvocates say more people would get vaccinated if drug companies would relinquish control of their products.“We know that in India, in South Africa, in Senegal, in Thailand, there are producers that within six months could start making vaccines if the information about how to do so was shared with them,” Kavanagh said.Plus, he added, the vaccines were developed in a large part with public funding from taxpayers in the United States and Europe, which should limit drug companies’ rights to them.The conflict has echoes of the fight over HIV/AIDS drugs two decades ago. Over the vigorous opposition of drug companies and their host governments, several developing countries broke patents to produce lifesaving antiretroviral medications at much lower cost than the companies were charging.It ultimately opened the door for developing-world manufacturers to produce low-cost generic drugs that have helped control HIV/AIDS.Many say those lessons should be applied to COVID-19.“If a temporary waiver to patents cannot be issued now, during these unprecedented times, when will be the right time?” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on Twitter earlier this month.We need equal access to life-saving tools everywhere, if we are to end the #COVID19 pandemic. If a temporary waiver to patents cannot be issued now, during these unprecedented times, when will be the right time? Solidarity is the only way out. #VaccinEquityhttps://t.co/VTSholGOpZ— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 4, 2021Supply bottlenecksBut the pharmaceutical industry says revoking intellectual property will not get more shots in arms.“The bottlenecks are the capacity, the scarcity of raw materials, scarcity of ingredients, and it is about the know-how,” Thomas Cueni, head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), told Reuters.“A better approach is to continue the intense collaboration already taking place between companies, governments and other partners around the world,” Megan Van Etten, senior public affairs director at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an industry trade group, said in a statement.Rival companies have teamed up to increase supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.Earlier this month, Merck announced it would help to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in a deal brokered by the Biden administration. Sanofi is producing shots for Pfizer-BioNTech after its own vaccine suffered a setback. And AstraZeneca partnered with the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, to boost supplies of its vaccine.All told, the industry plans to manufacture 10 billion doses of vaccine this year, which would in theory be about enough to immunize the world’s entire adult population.Pharmaceutical companies say intellectual property protections were how the industry was able to produce safe and effective vaccines against a novel virus in less than a year.“Undermining the very policies that have helped research companies move so quickly against the pandemic won’t provide relief for people and will leave us all less prepared to confront future public health threats,” PhRMA’s Van Etten said.
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A top official at the World Health Organization said that a genetic analysis of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Guinea suggests it may have been sparked by a survivor of the devastating West Africa epidemic that ended five years ago.At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan described the results of the genetic sequencing of the virus in Guinea as “quite remarkable.”Scientists in Africa and Germany posted their results on a virology website on Friday, concluding that the current Ebola virus sickening people in Guinea is extremely similar to the virus that sparked the widespread West Africa outbreak that began in 2014.”More studies are going to be needed,” Ryan said. But he added that based on the available genetic sequencing data, the current outbreak was unlikely to be linked to an animal, which is how nearly all previous Ebola epidemics have begun. “[This] is much more likely to be linked to a persistence [of virus] or latency of infection in a human.” Ryan said that would probably be the longest period that a virus has ever persisted between outbreaks.  Scientists have previously documented Ebola survivors who inadvertently infected others long after they had recovered, but such rare cases have not prompted outbreaks. In 2018, doctors published a study about a Liberian woman who probably caught Ebola in 2014 but then infected three relatives about a year later.  Health officials have also warned that men can sometimes infect others via sexual activity long after they seem to have recovered — the virus can persist in semen for more than a year.  The rare possibility of Ebola spreading long after infection highlights the importance of monitoring survivors, and Ryan cautioned against their stigmatization. He said that the vast majority of people who are sickened by Ebola clear the virus from their system and recover within six months.  Ryan said a tiny proportion of people end up carrying the virus but are not infectious to others “except in very particular circumstances.”He said there are 18 cases of Ebola in Guinea to date and that WHO has sent more than 30,000 vaccine doses to the country.  The Ebola outbreak that swept across West Africa from 2014 to 2016 ultimately killed more than 11,000 people.
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A new report says 2020 was a record year for discovering new asteroids, particularly those with near-Earth orbits in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down a number of observatories.The report, published Thursday in the science journal Nature, says astronomers registered 2,958 previously unknown near-Earth asteroids over the course of the year, the most since 1998, the year the U.S. space agency, NASA, began tracking such objects.More than half of the asteroids and other objects recorded came from the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, which uses its three telescopes to hunt for potentially threatening space rocks. Astronomers there discovered 1,548 near-Earth objects, even with the center closed briefly last spring because of the pandemic, and a longer closure in June, due to a wildfire in the area.Among the Catalina 2020 discoveries was a rare “minimoon” named 2020 CD3, a tiny asteroid less than 3 meters in diameter that had been temporarily captured by Earth’s gravity. The minimoon broke away from Earth’s pull last April.The report says another 1,152 discoveries came from the Pan-STARRS survey telescopes in Hawaii. One of the objects discovered there was not a space rock at all, but a leftover rocket booster that had been looping around in space since 1966 when it helped to launch a NASA spacecraft to the Moon.The report says at least 107 of the objects discovered last year came closer to Earth than the distance between the planet and the Moon.Among last year’s near-misses was the tiny asteroid 2020 QG, which skimmed just 2,950 kilometers above the Indian Ocean in August. That was the closest known approach by an outer space object, until just three months later when another small object, named 2020 VT4, passed less than 400 kilometers (about the length of New York State) from the planet.Observers did not discover 2020 VTA until 15 hours after it had flown by the earth. The scientist say had it hit, it would probably have broken apart in Earth’s atmosphere.NASA created the Center for Near Earth Objects (CNEO) in 1998, fulfilling a Congressional request to track and catalogue at least 90% of space objects a kilometer or larger that may come near Earth and/or cause a threat. Since then, CNEO and its contributing astronomers have logged more than 25,000 such objects.
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The Philippines has gotten a measure of control over its once-runaway COVID-19 outbreak through strict lockdowns and a year of school closures, coupled with widespread use of face protectors, experts and citizens on the ground say.The Southeast Asian country known for its migratory population — Filipinos work throughout the developed world — has reported fewer than 2,000 new cases per day most of the time since October, down from as much as 6,275 cases previously. Daily counts fell below 1,000 at the start of January.Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, only Indonesia struggled last year with the same level of  daily COVID-19 caseload surges. Most countries around Northeast Asia, including the coronavirus’s apparent source, China, recovered early last year, despite isolated flare-ups.Border closures that remain in effect and enforced stay-home orders in the nation of 109 million’s larger cities get the most credit for bringing cases down, residents and a United Nations official say.Meanwhile, medical personnel are better equipped now to do tests for the virus and trace the contacts of the sick than they were a year ago, according to Aaron Rabena, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in the Philippines’ Quezon City.Adding support, ordinary Filipinos have accepted the use of face masks and face shields in public.Public school classes have not met in person for a year, said Behzad Noubary, Philippine deputy UNICEF representative.“These are the aspects that have contributed to [caseload declines] — the international closure, which has lasted a long time, and a really, really prolonged lockdown,” Noubary told VOA in a call on Thursday.“Schools have been closed a year now, no in-person classes since then, and most of the country has been in quite strict lockdown,” he said.In June, when caseloads were higher, stay-home orders had begun easing before hospitals could get their equipment ready and coordinate with each other to handle the coronavirus, said Maria Ela Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman.People still went outside without masks then, sometimes to find work in an increasingly desperate economy, as well as to join friends and relatives in tight spaces where the virus could quickly spread.Local authorities, however, now sometimes enforce stay-home orders so strictly they even force residents to turn back if they go out too far from their doorways, domestic media and people on the ground say.Meanwhile, metro Manila reportedly plans new curfews from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Monday because of a recent spike in cases.Ordinary people are doing their share now in controlling cases, Rabena said.“It’s because the people have exercised more caution,” Rabena said. “Here, when you go out, you wear a mask and a face shield. Everybody is still careful. Compared to last year of course, this year is much better.”Marivic Arcega, operator of an animal feed distributor in the Manila suburb of Cavite, has gone all-out to keep herself and her surroundings safe.She employs only a “skeletal” staff plus a driver who does delivery, Arcega said. A son takes college courses online and another lives in central Manila but seldom comes home. When he does visit, Arcega said, he rides in a friend’s car rather than taking public transit. Her husband never goes out. Customers are told to keep a distance.“Us here at the store, no facemask, no entry, and then my cashier is enclosed in a booth, and we’re all wearing face shields,” said Arcega, 52. “I stay inside my office and don’t interact with the customers anymore. If they speak to me, [it is] from the door of my office. They don’t really come in.”The millions of vaccine doses that the Philippines has secured so far are boosting morale, Rabena said. The government aims to loosen neighborhood quarantine rules as more people become immunized, he believes.Officials hope to pull the Philippines out of a sharp recession caused by store closures and people being stuck at home rather than able to work outside. The country’s economy contracted 9.5% last year after sharp annual upturns in the previous half-decade.If family incomes shrink 30%, per a worst-case estimate, up to 45% of Philippine children would live in poverty, up from 24% now, Noubary said. The Philippines, he said, already has paid a “significant price” in terms of child poverty.UNICEF has supplied personal protective equipment and cleaning solutions to poor families and helped provide vaccines that are on the ground today. It is now nudging the government to reopen schools little by little in parts of the archipelago with low COVID-19 caseloads as online learning has caused 2.7 million children to drop out of the school system, Noubary said.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of Japan, India, and Australia are meeting virtually Friday for a summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, where they will discuss strategies to counter China’s rising influence in the Indo-Pacific region, including an offer to match Beijing’s ambitious vaccine diplomacy.The Quad is launching a financing mechanism to ramp up production of up to a billion doses of vaccines by 2022 to address a shortage in the Indo-Pacific region, mainly in Southeast Asian countries, a Biden administration official said in a briefing call to reporters Thursday.The group has put together “complex financing vehicles” to dramatically increase vaccine production capacity the official said. A second administration official said the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is working with companies in India and the governments of Japan and Australia to increase production of vaccines already authorized by the World Health Organization.The administration did not say whether this Quad vaccine mechanism would be separate from, or part of, COVAX, the global mechanism to distribute 2 billion doses of vaccines to 94 poorer countries by the end of the year, partly by using AstraZeneca/Oxford University-developed vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a public–private global health partnership funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gavi has been the dominant player in the financing and distribution of various vaccines since its founding in 2000, but it is unclear whether Gavi will be involved in the Quad vaccine mechanism.Biden has been under pressure to respond to Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy as he seeks to vaccinate all Americans first by ensuring that the U.S. vaccine stockpile is “over-supplied,” to prepare to vaccinate against new variants, and to vaccinate children. There is currently not enough data to determine which of the three vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S. is safe and effective for children.Chinese President Xi Jinping proclaimed in May that Chinese-made vaccines would become a “global public good”. Since then, Beijing has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccine to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country Associated Press tally. After China’s initial failures in handling the outbreak, some see Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy as a face-saving tactic and a means to expand its influence.Countering ChinaThe Quad is not a formal military alliance but often seen as a counterweight to growing Chinese military and economic influence in Asia. The 90-minute Friday meeting would be the first leaders’ summit since the Quad’s first meeting in 2004 following the tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia.“President Biden has worked hard to bring these leaders together to make a clear statement of the importance of the Indo-Pacific region,” the administration official said. The official added that during the leaders’ meeting, there will be an “honest, open discussion about China’s role on the global stage.”Analysts say there is wide expectation that the summit will elevate the Biden administration’s agenda in the Indo-Pacific.“This is a pretty big signal that this is a high priority for the new administration,” Sheila A. Smith a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said.Following the Quad summit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel together to Japan and South Korea next week, followed by a solo trip by Austin to India.Without providing details on the timing, the administration also announced that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will be the first leader to visit Biden at the White House in person.The U.S. wants to return to strong U.S. alliances in the region to project strength to China, according to Bonnie Glaser, director of China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.“The Biden administration has crafted this arrangement to signal that it is engaging from a position of strength,” she said.State Department spokesperson Ned Price acknowledged Thursday that over the course of recent years these alliances “in some cases have atrophied, in some cases, they have frayed.”In November 2017, former President Donald Trump in Vietnam outlined the U.S. vision for a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”While the Trump administration’s strategy in the region focused largely on maritime security and trade, the Biden administration is seeking a more comprehensive approach, including cooperation to defeat COVID-19, combat climate change, ensure a resilient supply chain and post-pandemic economic recovery.“It’s a whole – how does the region look going forward, and how do we maintain the prosperity that has long been part of the Indo-Pacific?” Smith said.After the series of meetings with regional allies, Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will meet their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday.
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In his first prime-time address Thursday night, President Joe Biden marked one year since widespread pandemic shutdowns began across the United States and asked Americans to help with the challenges ahead. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.
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The largest asteroid to pass by Earth this year will approach within about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) of our planet on March 21, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Thursday.The U.S. space agency said it would allow astronomers to get a rare close look at an asteroid.The asteroid, 2001 FO32, is estimated to be about 3,000 feet (915 meters) in diameter and was discovered 20 years ago, NASA said.”We know the orbital path of 2001 FO32 around the sun very accurately,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies. “There is no chance the asteroid will get any closer to Earth than 1.25 million miles.”That is roughly 5.25 times the distance from Earth to the moon, but still close enough for 2001 FO32 to be classified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.”NASA said 2001 FO32 would pass by at 77,000 mph (124,000 kph), faster than the speed at which most asteroids encounter Earth.“Currently, little is known about this object, so the very close encounter provides an outstanding opportunity to learn a great deal about this asteroid,” said Lance Benner, principal scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Reflections to be studiedNASA said astronomers hope to get a better understanding of the asteroid’s size and a rough idea of its composition by studying light reflecting off its surface.“When sunlight hits an asteroid’s surface, minerals in the rock absorb some wavelengths while reflecting others,” NASA said. “By studying the spectrum of light reflecting off the surface, astronomers can measure the chemical ‘fingerprints’ of the minerals on the surface of the asteroid.”Amateur astronomers in some parts of the globe should be able to conduct their own observations.“The asteroid will be brightest while it moves through southern skies,” Chodas said.“Amateur astronomers in the Southern Hemisphere and at low northern latitudes should be able to see this asteroid using moderate-size telescopes with apertures of at least 8 inches in the nights leading up to closest approach, but they will probably need star charts to find it,” he said.NASA said more than 95% of near-Earth asteroids the size of 2001 FO32 or larger have been cataloged and none of them has any chance of impacting our planet over the next century.  
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While NASA’s Mars rover roams the Red Planet searching for signs of ancient life, scientists on Earth follow clues in a Turkish lake that may hold some answers.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.Camera: NASA/AP/AFP/REUTERS/SPACEXProduced by: Arash Arabasadi   
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While NASA’s Mars rover roams the Red Planet searching for signs of ancient life, scientists on Earth follow clues in a Turkish lake that may hold some answers.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.Camera: NASA/AP/AFP/REUTERS/SPACEXProduced by: Arash Arabasadi  
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U.S. President Joe Biden signed his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package into law Thursday, opening the door for the release of federal aid for financially ailing American households and businesses.Biden, a Democrat, signed the package one day after the House of Representatives approved the bill 220-211 without Republican support and one day earlier than the White House initially had planned.“This historic legislation is about building a backbone in this country and giving people in this country, working people, middle-class folks, people who built the country, a fighting chance,” Biden said as he prepared to sign the bill.Republican lawmakers objected to the package, saying it was too large and did not sufficiently target those who were most in need of economic assistance. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday called the bill “costly, corrupt and liberal.”No federal minimum wage hikeThe measure narrowly passed in the Senate on Saturday after the chamber altered some aspects of a bill approved earlier by the House. Among the changes was the removal of an increase in the federal minimum wage.White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks to reporters at the White House, March 11, 2021, in Washington.White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki praised the legislation at a news conference Monday, saying that while there were some changes on the margins as the Senate acted, it represented the “core” of what Biden proposed.On Tuesday, she said Biden and other senior administration officials planned to continue to tout the benefits of the relief plan after it passed.“We certainly recognize that we can’t just sign a bill,” Psaki told reporters. “We will need to do some work and use our best voices, including the president, the vice president and others, to communicate to the American people the benefits of this package.“So, I think you can certainly expect the president to be doing some travel, and we’ll have more details on that in the coming days,” she said. 
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Denmark health officials announced Thursday they are suspending the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for 14 days as it investigates reports of patients developing blood clots after being inoculated.
On his Twitter account, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said authorities were looking into “signs of a possible serious side effect in the form of fatal blood clots,” though he made clear the stoppage was a “precautionary measure,” saying it was not possible yet to conclude whether the clots were linked to the vaccine.
The Danish Medicines Agency also confirmed the investigation on Thursday in a statement, saying it would work with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other European pharmaceutical authorities following the reports.
Austria suspended use of a batch of the vaccine earlier this week after a recipient was diagnosed with multiple blood clots and later died, and another was hospitalized with blockage in the arteries of their lungs – otherwise known as a pulmonary embolism.
 
The EMA investigated and issued a statement Wednesday saying it found no evidence so far linking the AstraZeneca vaccine to the two cases in Austria. The EMA said four other countries – Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Latvia – have stopped inoculations from the batch while an investigation continues.
The batch in question went to 17 EU countries.
In a statement regarding the Austria cases, AstraZeneca said earlier this week its vaccine is subject to strict and rigorous quality controls and that there have been “no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the vaccine.”
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Four former living U.S. presidents are appearing in a new ad campaign to encourage people to get COVID-19 vaccines.In the video produced by the Ad Council, former President Bill Clinton says, “We’ve lost enough people and we’ve suffered enough damage.”There is a photo of Clinton and his wife, Hillary, receiving their vaccines.Former President George W. Bush says, “In order to get rid of this pandemic, it’s important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated.”Like the Clintons, the video shows Bush and his wife, Laura, getting their shots, as well as former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, and former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.The former leaders talk about what they are looking forward to after being protected by the vaccine. Obama says he wants to “visit with Michelle’s mom, to hug her and see her on her birthday.”Bush says he is looking forward to seeing the start of the Major League Baseball season among a full crowd at the Texas Rangers’ stadium.Carter ends the ad by telling viewers, “It’s up to you.”Former President Donald Trump, who was hospitalized last year with COVID-19, is not featured in the ad.The video points viewers to a website featuring information about the different vaccines available, how they were approved, how to go about getting vaccinated and what the experience is like.
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Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that current vaccination levels indicate the United States could reach pre-pandemic levels of “normal life” by late August or early September.  
 
Fauci made the comment during a virtual news briefing on herd immunity by the White House COVID-19 Response Team.  
 
Fauci said their best estimates regarding when herd immunity would be reached and enough people are considered immune from the virus range between 70% to 85% of the U.S. population.  
 
He said at current vaccination rates, that level should be reached at the end of the North American summer. But he also said that if the nation is vaccinating 2 million to 3 million people a day, society is increasingly more protected.  
 
 “You don’t have to wait until you get full herd immunity to get a really profound effect on what you can do,” he said.
 
Fauci said as the pace of vaccination ramps up, and the most vulnerable to the virus are protected, some government restrictions could be lifted.
 
 Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cautioned that at this point, only about 10% of the population is fully vaccinated. But the CDC anticipated loosening federal guidelines as more people receive shots.
 
Fauci also said that a refusal from a significant number of people to get vaccinated will delay when the nation reaches the endpoint of the pandemic.
 
Also at the briefing, White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services procured an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. 
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