Over the next 10 days, the United States will achieve what President Joe Biden describes as “two giant goals” — the completion of 100 million coronavirus vaccine shots in people’s arms and 100 million checks in people’s pockets.Those payments are among the disbursements from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package the U.S. leader signed into law last week.“The American rescue plan is already doing what it was designed to do — make a difference in people’s everyday lives,” Biden said Monday during remarks in the White House State Dining Room.What his administration is promoting as the “Help is Here” tour began on Monday. It features the president and others, including Vice President Kamala Harris, visiting numerous states beginning this week to promote the benefits of the plan.The appearances are intended to highlight to voters how the aid, approved by both chambers of Congress despite uniform Republican opposition, could help them. Republican lawmakers objected to the size of the deal and said that some of the funding is not tied directly to trying to end the pandemic in the United States. “The American Rescue Plan includes a $350 billion bailout for states, rewarding those with poor fiscal management and punishing those who operated responsibly during the pandemic. Funds can be used for virtually anything a state chooses to spend money on, with next to nothing in terms of constraints or restrictions,” said Republican Senator Mike Crapo in a statement on Monday.  The ranking member of the Senate finance committee and his fellow Idaho Republican senator, Jim Risch, have introduced a bill to eliminate a provision in the legislation Biden signed that would prevent states from using relief funds to cut taxes.  Biden is scheduled to be in a key suburban Philadelphia jurisdiction Tuesday in the eastern state of Pennsylvania that he carried over former President Donald Trump in the November election.His visit there is to “highlight how the rescue plan invests in small businesses,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.U.S. First Lady Jill Biden delivers remarks at the playground of the Samuel Smith Elementary School in Burlington, New Jersey, March 15, 2021.First lady Jill Biden went to the state of New Jersey on Monday where she joined Governor Phil Murphy at a school in Burlington.“We are going to safely open schools. We are going to get people back to work. We’re going to lift up the families who are struggling to get by,” she said at the Samuel Smith Elementary School.Harris traveled west to visit a COVID-19 vaccination site at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and several other locations in the area.  The vice president was asked by a reporter why the administration is compelled to sell the plan, which enjoys widespread public support.  “It’s not selling,” Harris replied. “It’s kind of like you buy a product — you’re already sold on the product, but you need some directions out of the box.” Both Biden and Harris are to make appearances in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday.Vice President Kamala Harris looks over a vaccination site at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, March 15, 2021.“When it’s a package of this size, people don’t always know how they benefit,” explained Psaki, responding to reporters’ questions on Monday about the president’s travel this week.The American Rescue Plan is one of the FILE – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 17, 2019.Republicans, who mostly opposed the stimulus, captured the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections.  The White House is also planning to make surrogates and senior administration officials available for local television interviews in cities across the country and get more than 400 mayors and governors to talk about what the relief package means for them and their communities.  Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the House’s No. 3 Republican, said in a statement that only a small fraction of the $1.9 trillion deal was aimed at the virus and warned the relief package might eventually lead to tax increases to help pay for it. 
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The top U.S. infectious disease expert said Sunday the country is going in the “right direction” with millions of Americans receiving coronavirus vaccinations, but he was cautious about the high plateau of U.S. cases.  Speaking on the NBC-TV program “Meet the Press,” Anthony Fauci warned that “When you get a plateau at a level around 60,000 new infections per day, there’s always the risk of another surge.”  Fauci used Italy as an example of a location that experienced “a diminution of cases.” People walk past army vehicles at a street on the final day of open restaurants and bars before tighter coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions are enforced, in Rome, Italy, March 14, 2021.He said Italy “plateaued, and they pulled back on public health measures,” which contributed to Italy’s current surge of infections, forcing officials to place portions of the European country in lockdowns Monday. “He urged people to continue to observe “public health measures,” especially wearing masks.  The U.S. remains at the top of the list as the location with the most COVID-19 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, a research body constantly updating with COVID-19 data and expert input.The U.S. has 29.4 million of the world’s almost 120 million COVID infections, followed by Brazil with 11.4 million and India with 11.3 million.    AstraZeneca said Sunday a review of its data found no evidence that its vaccine against COVID-19 causes blood clots. A woman receives a vaccine as Vietnam starts its official rollout of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for health workers, at Hai Duong Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Hai Duong province, Vietnam, March 8, 2021.“A careful review of all available safety data,” the company said in a statement. The vaccine “has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.” Pulmonary embolism occurs when lung arteries are blocked as a result of blood clotting whereas thromboembolic events occur when a blood clot breaks loose and travels through the body, causing harm.  The AstraZenica review, which covered more than 17 million people who had received the vaccine in Britain and the European Union, was conducted as Ireland and the Netherlands joined Denmark, Norway, and Iceland in suspending the use of the vaccine because of clotting issues. Austria stopped using a batch of the shot last week while investigating a death from coagulation disorders. However, the company asserts that there is no connection with the vaccine. This photo provided by Berkshire Community College shows cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing at Berkshire Community College’s second dose Pfizer vaccination clinic in the Paterson Field House on March 13, 2021 in Pittsfield, Mass.In Massachusetts on Saturday, Yo-Yo Ma, the internationally acclaimed cellist, celebrated receiving his second vaccine. While he waited seated with others for the 15 minutes of observation post vaccination, Ma, 65 and wearing a mask, started playing his cello at a clinic in Berkshire Community College, Massachusetts, on Saturday. His impromptu performance included Ave Maria and Bach’s Prelude in G Major. As Ma got up to leave, he was applauded by others seated and socially distant waiting for their own observation periods to end.   
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There was no reason to celebrate on Rachel Van Lear’s anniversary. The same day a global pandemic was declared, she developed symptoms of COVID-19. A year later, she is still waiting for them to disappear. And for experts to come up with some answers. The Texas woman is one of thousands of self-described long-haulers, patients with symptoms that linger or develop out of the blue months after they first became infected with coronavirus. Hers first arrived March 11, 2020. The condition affects an uncertain number of survivors in a baffling variety of ways.  “We’re faced with a mystery,” said Dr. Francis Collins, chief of the National Institutes of Health. Is it a condition unique to COVID-19, or just a variation of the syndrome that can occur after other infections? How many people are affected, and how long does it last? Is it a new form of chronic fatigue syndrome — a condition with similar symptoms?  Or could some symptoms be unrelated to their COVID-19 but a physical reaction to the upheaval of this past pandemic year — the lockdowns, quarantines, isolation, job losses, racial unrest, political turmoil, not to mention overwhelming illness and deaths?  These are the questions facing scientists as they search for disease markers, treatments and cures. With $1 billion from Congress, Collins’ agency is designing and soliciting studies that aim to follow at least 20,000 people who’ve had COVID-19. “We’ve never really been faced with a post-infectious condition of this magnitude, so this is unprecedented,” Collins said Monday. “We don’t have time to waste.’’ With nearly 30 million U.S. cases of COVID-19 and 119 million worldwide, the impact could be staggering, even if only a small fraction of patients develop long-term problems.  Fatigue, shortness of breath, insomnia, trouble thinking clearly, and depression are among the many reported symptoms. Organ damage, including lung scarring and heart inflammation, have also been seen. Pinpointing whether these symptoms are directly linked to the virus or perhaps to some preexisting condition is among scientists’ tasks. “Is it just a very delayed recovery or is it something even more alarming and something that becomes the new normal?” Collins said.President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, left, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.There are a few working theories for what might be causing persistent symptoms. One is that the virus remains in the body at undetectable levels yet still causes tissue or organ damage. Or it overstimulates the immune system, keeping it from returning to a normal state. A third theory: Symptoms linger or arise anew when the virus attacks blood vessels, causing minute, undetectable blood clots that can wreak havoc throughout the body.  Some scientists think each of these may occur in different people. Dr. Steven Deeks, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said researchers first need to create a widely accepted definition of the syndrome. Estimates are “all over the map because no one is defining it in the same way,” he said. Deeks is leading one study, collecting blood and saliva samples from volunteers who will be followed for up to two years. Some people develop long-term problems even when their initial infections were silent.  Deeks said some evidence suggests that those who initially get sicker from a coronavirus infection might be more prone to persistent symptoms, and women seem to develop them more than men, but those observations need to be confirmed, Deeks said. Van Lear says she was in great shape when she got sick. At 35, the suburban Austin woman had no other health issues and was a busy mother of three who often worked out. First came a chest cold, then a high fever. A flu test came back negative, so her doctor tested for COVID-19. Soon after she developed blinding headaches, debilitating fatigue and nausea so severe that she needed emergency room treatment.  “I was very scared because no one could tell me what was going to happen to me,” Van Lear said. Over the next several months, symptoms would come and go: burning lungs, a rapid heartbeat, dizzy spells, hand tremors and hair loss. While most have disappeared, she still deals with an occasional racing heartbeat. Heart monitoring, bloodwork and other tests have all been normal.  Fatigue, fever, and no taste or smell were Karla Jefferies’ first symptoms after testing positive last March. Then came brain fog, insomnia, a nagging smell of something burning that only recently disappeared, and intermittent ringing in her ears. Now she can’t hear out of her left ear. Doctors can’t find anything to explain it, and she bristles when some doctors dismiss her symptoms. “I understand that COVID is something that we’re all going through together but don’t brush me off,” said Jefferies, 64, a retired state worker in Detroit. As an African American woman with diabetes and high blood pressure, she was at high risk for a bad outcome and knows she’s lucky her initial illness wasn’t more serious. But her persistent symptoms and home confinement got her down and depression set in. Political and racial unrest that dominated the news didn’t help, and church services — often her salvation — were suspended. She knows all that could have contributed to her ill health and says listening to music — R&B, jazz and a little country — has helped her cope. Still, Jefferies wants to know what role the virus has played. “I’m a year in, and to still from time to time have lingering effects, I just don’t understand that,” Jefferies said.  Jefferies and Van Lear are members of Survivor Corps, one of several online support groups created during the pandemic and that have amassed thousands of members. Some are enrolling in studies to help speed the science. Dr. Michael Sneller is leading one study at the NIH. So far, 200 have enrolled; they include survivors and a healthy comparison group.  They are being given a series of physical and mental tests once or twice a year for three years. Other tests are seeking signs of ongoing inflammation, abnormal antibodies and blood vessel damage. Sneller said he’s found no serious heart or lung tissue damage so far. He notes that many viruses can cause mild heart inflammation, even some cold viruses. Many people recover but in severe cases the condition can lead to heart failure. Fatigue is the most common symptom in the coronavirus group, and so far, researchers have found no medical explanation for it. Insomnia is common, too — in both groups.  Sneller says that’s not surprising. “The whole pandemic and lockdown affected all of us,” he said. “There’s a lot of anxiety in the control group too.” Many have symptoms similar to those of chronic disease syndrome; and to a condition involving fatigue and thinking difficulties that can develop after treatment for Lyme disease, a bacterial infection spread by certain ticks.  Researchers are hopeful that studies of long-term COVID-19 may yield answers to what causes those conditions, too. 
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, U.S. President Joe Biden’s top coronavirus adviser, said Sunday he is optimistic the country can return to some sense of normalcy by the annual July 4 independence celebration, but that precautions still need to be taken in the meantime to avert a new surge in infections. The United States is picking up the pace of coronavirus vaccinations, administering a new high of 3 million shots on Saturday. Fauci told news talk shows he believes the U.S. will have enough doses of vaccine by the end of May so that any American who wants a shot will be able to get one. Biden last week said all adults, not just older people, should be eligible to get a shot starting May 1. The U.S. leader predicted families may be able to gather for small Independence Day celebrations. “I think the Fourth of July projection is quite reasonable,” Fauci told the “Fox News Sunday” show. But Fauci also warned the pandemic is still a danger in the United States, with the number of new cases seeming to plateau at 50,000 or 60,000 daily over the last week. On CNN, he called it a “very vulnerable” time, citing the new increase in cases in Europe as officials there eased off coronavirus restrictions. “We can avoid that,” Fauci said. “We need to get as many vaccinated as possible.” He said the growing pace of vaccinations can be maintained and even increased as the U.S. opens more community health centers for vaccinations and more pharmacies start to administer shots, too.  Governors in some U.S. states have started to allow businesses to resume normal operations and told residents in their states they no longer have to wear face masks in public. “This is absolutely no time to declare victory,” Fauci told Fox. “There’s always a risk of a surge back up.” He contended that easing face mask directives and social distancing guidelines to stay two meters away from other people is “risky and potentially dangerous.” Nonetheless he offered assurances that the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is continuing to monitor the number of new infections and the pace of inoculations to see whether restrictions can be carefully lifted. Fauci told CNN that new directives will be issued soon on how safe it is for people who have been vaccinated to travel or be in a crowd of people, or for school children to return to in-school instruction while maintaining a one-meter distance from others instead of two meters. He said the disease control agency “wants to make sure they get it right” before issuing new directives. 
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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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Australian researchers say an “incredible” discovery could allow new treatments for asthma and prevent autoimmune diseases and life-threatening anaphylaxis. They have found a natural way the body stops rogue antibodies causing disease through a protein called neuritin.Allergies and autoimmune diseases, where the body’s defenses turn rogue and target healthy tissue, are increasing in adults and children, but researchers aren’t quite sure why.At the Australian National University, scientists have found that humans have their own mechanisms for fighting back against these pathogenic antibodies that can cause autoimmunity or allergies.Professor Carola Vinuesa said it’s an exciting discovery.“We found a protein called neuritin that is made by our own immune system, and we never knew before that our immune system could make this protein, and it proves to be quite important to prevent allergies autoimmune diseases,” she said.Neuritin is like a supercharged antihistamine, the type of drug commonly used to treat allergy symptoms.Vinuesa hopes the research could provide a completely new approach to current treatments for immune conditions, which can have a debilitating effect on patients.“We tend to either dampen the entire immune system or use drugs that tend to either eliminate an entire cell type or some products of the immune system that normally are required to fight infection,” she said. “So, by using one of our own products that our own body produces, we could leave most of the immune system, or all of the immune system, intact, and simply enhance our own defense mechanisms against allergy and autoimmunity.”Researchers say there are more than 80 known autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis.The Australian study began five years ago and used genetically engineered mice and human cells grown in a laboratory. It was published in the science journal Cell.
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Spacewalking astronauts had to take extra safety precautions Saturday after ridding their suits of any toxic ammonia from the International Space Station’s external cooling system.Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins had no trouble removing and venting a couple of old cables to clear any ammonia lingering in the lines. But so much ammonia spewed out of the first hose that Mission Control worried some of the frozen white flakes might have gotten on their suits.Hopkins was surprised at the amount of ammonia unleashed into the vacuum of space.”Oh, yeah, look at that go. Did you see that?” he asked flight controllers. “There’s more than I thought.”Even though the stream of ammonia was directed away from the astronauts and the space station, Hopkins said some icy crystals may have come in contact with his helmet. As a result, Mission Control said it was going to be conservative and require inspections.The astronauts’ first suit check found nothing amiss. “Looks clean,” Hopkins called down.NASA did not want any ammonia getting inside the space station and contaminating the cabin atmosphere. The astronauts used long tools to vent the hoses and stayed clear of the nozzles, to reduce the risk of ammonia contact.Once the ammonia hoses were emptied, the astronauts moved one of them to a more central location near the NASA hatch, in case it’s needed on the opposite end of the station. The ammonia cables were added years ago following a cooling system leak.No apparent residue leftAs the nearly seven-hour spacewalk ended, Mission Control said the astronauts had spent enough time in the sunlight to bake off any ammonia residue from their suits. Indeed, once Glover and Hopkins were back inside, their crewmates said they could smell no ammonia but still wore gloves while handling the suits.The hose work should have been completed during a spacewalk a week ago but was put off along with other odd jobs when power upgrades took longer than expected.Saturday’s other chores included: replacing an antenna for helmet cameras, rerouting ethernet cables, tightening connections on a European experiment platform, and installing a metal ring on the hatch thermal cover.Eager to get these station improvements done before the astronauts head home this spring, Mission Control ordered up the bonus spacewalk for Glover and Hopkins, who launched last November on SpaceX. They teamed up for back-to-back spacewalks 1½ months ago and were happy to chalk up another.”It was a good day,” Glover said once back inside.Although most of their efforts paid off, there were a few snags.The spacewalk got started nearly an hour late, so the men could replace the communication caps beneath their helmets in order to hear properly. A few hours later, Glover’s right eye started watering. The irritation soon passed, but later affected his left eye.Then as Glover wrapped up his work, a bolt came apart and floated away along with the washers, becoming the latest pieces of space junk.”Sorry about that,” Glover said. “No, no, it’s not your fault,” Mission Control assured him.It was the sixth spacewalk — and, barring an emergency, the last — for this U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew of seven. All but one was led by NASA. 
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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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