Malawi has introduced a mandatory quarantine on returnees from South Africa to control rising cases of COVID-19. Thousands of Malawians have returned from South Africa in recent weeks, and officials fear they could import the new, more contagious form of coronavirus.Malawi has seen a rapid increase of COVID-19 cases since the middle of December. The Public Health Institute of Malawi reports confirmed cases jumped from 116 on December 18 to 946 on January 5. Health authorities say they believe the rise is largely driven by Malawians who traveled to South Africa to look for work and escape poverty triggered by the pandemic. According to Malawi’s immigration department, about 10,000 Malawians have returned from South Africa since the start of the pandemic, with others expected to return soon. Immigration officers at Mwanza border wellcoming buses carrying Malawi returnees. (Courtesy: Pasqually Zulu/Immigration Department)“Forty percent of our cases have come from especially our returnees and indeed our deportees. So we have no option but to put this mandatory institutionalized quarantine,” said Malawi’s minister of health Khumbize Kandodo-Chiponda.The new policy, announced Tuesday, says returnees will be taken to a quarantine facility for coronavirus testing. Those found to have the virus will not be allowed to return home until they test negative. John Phuka, the chairperson of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, says the measure will help contain the more deadly new strain of the coronavirus known as 501.V2 which has hit South Africa. “For the past two weeks the number of cases had doubled almost twice,” he said. “We were 210; we should have doubled to 400. We have now doubled again to over 800 active cases. So the rate at which this is rising is pointing towards that.” Phuka notes that more young people are getting infected, compared to the first wave of the pandemic. “In the current wave, amongst those we have lost to death, three are less than 30 years. As we speak we have two children who are admitted for example at Queens [Central Hospital]. And then last week we also discharged one child, six months old, so there are indications that we may have this variant,” he said.This is not the first time Malawi has put returnees in quarantine. In May last year, more than 400 Malawian migrant workers who returned from South Africa escaped from a coronavirus screening camp at Kamuzu Stadium in the economic capital, Blantyre. This came two days after eight people who tested positive for coronavirus escaped from Kameza Isolation center in Blantyre. This time Health Minister Kandodo-Chiponda says there will ‘very tight security’ in the quarantine facilities.
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Dr. Dre says he will be “back home soon” after the music mogul received medical treatment at a Los Angeles hospital for a reported brain aneurysm.
The rapper and producer said in a social media post Tuesday night that he’s thankful for the “well wishes.” TMZ reported that he suffered a brain aneurysm Monday and was recovering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
“I’m doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team,” he said. “I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars. One Love!!”
His representative has not immediately responded to an email.
Several music artists and athletes paid tribute to Dre on social media on Tuesday. Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and LeBron James offered prayers toward Dre’s recovery.
Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, has produced hits for Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and more. He’s won six Grammys.
Born in the Southern California city of Compton, he broke out on the music scene as a co-founding member of N.W.A., producing the group’s groundbreaking 1988 debut album, “Straight Outta Compton.”
Dre produced his own hits and multiplatinum albums, along with crafting music for many others including Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Nas, Busta Rhymes, the Game and Anderson .Paak. He also found success outside of the rap genre, producing pop hits for Gwen Stefani and Mary J. Blige.
Dre founded Beats Electronics in 2008 with Jimmy Iovine and six years later they launched a streaming subscription service, Beats Music. Apple acquired both in a $3 billion deal in 2014.
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India has not imposed a ban on export of vaccines for COVID-19, the federal government said amid a controversy that it had imposed restrictions on an Indian company expected to be on the frontlines in supplying vaccines to developing countries. India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, is expected to play a pivotal role as low and middle income countries look ahead to launching immunization programs to bring the pandemic under control. But following the emergency authorization granted by Indian authorities to the British-developed AstraZeneca and another vaccine developed locally on Sunday, media reports said that India will not allow exports for several months. “The government hasn’t banned the export of any one of the COVID vaccines. That is something that should be absolutely clear,” Rajesh Bhushan, the health ministry’s top official told reporters cautioning against what he called “misinformation.” In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two companies manufacturing the vaccines — the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech — also pledged global access for the doses saying that the most important task ahead was to save lives and livelihoods in India and the world. FILE – An employee in personal protective equipment (PPE) removes vials of AstraZeneca’s COVISHIELD, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from a visual inspection machine inside a lab at Serum Institute of India, in Pune, India, Nov. 30, 2020.For the time being, the global focus is mainly on the Serum institute that is manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine — the company is on track to make a billion doses this year as it ramps up its current capacity of 60 to 70 million doses a month to 100 million doses by March, according to a company spokesman. It has already stockpiled 50 million doses made even before approval came in. The initial vaccines are expected to be supplied domestically India, which aims to immunize 300 million people by August, will need millions of doses for its own massive population. A health worker talks to a vaccine trials’ volunteer before he is tested for COVID-19 and takes part of the country’s human clinical trial for potential vaccines at the Wits RHI Shandukani Research Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug. 27, 2020.However, the rollout in many countries in Asia and Africa will depend on the speed with which they secure vaccines from Indian companies like the Serum Institute. Half the one billion doses it is contracted to make are to be sold to developing countries. Health experts are also watching the development of two local vaccine candidates by Indian companies.“India’s leadership on this front may be a game changer for COVID vaccine distribution in the developing world,” according to Andrea D. Taylor, an Assistant Director at the Duke Innovation Global Health Center. “The first is the sheer volume of vaccines that they intend to produce, as well as the considerable number of doses that have already been manufactured and stockpiled and are now ready to ship out.” While rich countries like the U.S., Britain, and Canada have secured available vaccines for their own populations and launched immunization programs, developing countries have been left behind as they look for affordable vaccine supplies. FILE – Staff members deliver injections of the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to patients in their cars at a drive-in vaccination center in Hyde, Greater Manchester, northwest England, Dec. 17, 2020.For them, the most promising candidate so far is AstraZeneca that can be stored in ordinary refrigerators and is cheaper compared to vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna. Gavi, a non-profit global vaccine alliance, has entered into an agreement with the Serum Institute for 200 million doses of AstraZeneca billed as the “vaccine for the world.” It is expected to be priced at around $ 3.However, when these will be available remains unclear. Though Indian companies, which make 60 percent of the world’s vaccines, are ramping up production lines, there is expected to be a huge mismatch between supply and demand amid the worldwide scramble for vaccines. “Our data on vaccine purchases and manufacturing indicate that there is reason to be concerned that low and middle income countries will not receive enough vaccines in 2021,” according to Taylor. “This is not because of hoarding by the Indian market but because globally we cannot produce enough doses quickly enough or ensure that they reach all high-priority populations first.”
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More than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines shipped within the United States have so far gone unused. As Mariama Diallo reports, some states are vowing to penalize hospitals that fail to dispense shots quickly enough.
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Tanya Roberts, who captivated James Bond in “A View to a Kill” and appeared in the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” has died, several hours after she was mistakenly declared dead by her publicist and her partner. She was 65. Lance O’Brien, her companion of nearly two decades, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reached out to him on Monday at 9:30 p.m. PST to inform him that Roberts had passed away. “She was my soulmate, she was my best friend. We haven’t been apart for two days” in their years together, a tearful O’Brien said. Roberts’ death was related to a urinary tract infection, publicist Mike Pingel said. He had been at the hospital Tuesday morning with O’Brien to pick up Roberts’ personal effects. Roberts collapsed at home on December 24 after walking her dogs and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai. She had been reported dead on Sunday, but Pingel said that was based on a mistake by O’Brien, who believed Roberts had slipped away during what was expected to be a final visit. Numerous outlets, including The Associated Press, reported Roberts’ death Monday, based on information Pingel received from O’Brien. O’Brien, who’d been unable to see Roberts in the hospital because of COVID-19 restrictions, was allowed to visit Sunday as her condition worsened. The actor did not have the virus, he said. When he got the call Sunday that she was failing, O’Brien said he was “emotionally shocked because I was expecting her to come home.” Acting careerRoberts played geologist Stacey Sutton opposite Roger Moore in 1985’s “A View to a Kill,” where she held a gun on Bond after tricking him into thinking she was in a shower. The character later joined him to stop bad guys on an airship over San Francisco. Roberts also appeared in such fantasy adventure films as “The Beastmaster” and “Hearts and Armour.” She replaced Shelley Hack in “Charlie’s Angels,” joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third Angel Julie. She also played comic book heroine Sheena — a female version of the Tarzan story — in a 1984 film. A new generation of fans saw her on “That ’70s Show” from 1998 and 2004, playing Midge, mother to Laura Prepon’s character Donna. Roberts, a huge animal rights activist, is survived by O’Brien.
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U.S. intelligence officials investigating last month’s massive cybersecurity breach that impacted thousands of companies and dozens of government agencies warn the hack is part of an ongoing intelligence operation, likely being carried out by Russia. The public conclusion, shared Tuesday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the National Security Agency (NSA), is the first formal statement of attribution from U.S. officials, and confirms previous comments by senior officials and lawmakers who said the evidence pointed “pretty clearly” to Moscow. FILE – The sign outside the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md., June 6, 2013. All fingers are pointing to Russia as author of the worst-ever hack of U.S. government agencies.”This work indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and nongovernmental networks,” according to the statement from the intelligence and security agencies. “At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence gathering effort,” they added. “We are taking all necessary steps to understand the full scope of this campaign and respond accordingly.” ‘Serious compromise’Evidence of the breach involving SolarWinds, a Texas-based software management company, first emerged in early December when the private cybersecurity firm FireEye announced its systems had been penetrated and that sensitive information had been stolen. In the days that followed, the hack was traced to SolarWinds, with investigators warning that approximately 18,000 customers, including U.S. government agencies and companies around the world, had been affected. FILE – Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington. (VOA/Diaa Bekheet)Late last month, software giant Microsoft said the hackers even managed to use the breach to access some of the company’s heavily guarded source code — the basic programming essential to running Microsoft programs and operating systems. But despite the huge number of SolarWinds customers affected by the hack, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that “a much smaller number” were compromised by follow-on activities. “We have so far identified fewer than 10 U.S. government agencies that fall into this category and are working to identify the nongovernment entities who also may be impacted,” they said in the statement. U.S. officials had previously said the hack had impacted the departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, Energy, Treasury and Commerce, as well as state and local governments. “This is a serious compromise that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate,” the FBI, CISA, ODNI and the NSA said in Tuesday’s statement, adding the agencies will “continue taking every necessary action to investigate, remediate and share information with our partners and the American people.” Trump responseU.S. President Donald Trump has been largely silent on the SolarWinds hack, tweeting last month, “Everything is well under control,” while appearing to deflect blame from Moscow. “Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China,” Trump said.The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2020In a tweet late Tuesday, the White House National Security Council said the president “continues to surge all appropriate resources to support the whole-of-government response to the recent cyber incident affecting government networks.”President @realDonaldTrump continues to surge all appropriate resources to support the whole-of-government response to the recent cyber incident affecting government networks. We are taking every necessary step to understand the full scope of this incident & respond accordingly. https://t.co/WnmH2dE1Y7— NSC (@WHNSC) January 5, 2021Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, however, accused the Trump administration of dragging its feet. “It’s unfortunate that it has taken over three weeks after the revelation of an intrusion this significant for this administration to finally issue a tentative attribution,” Warner said in a statement late Tuesday. “We need to make clear to Russia that any misuse of compromised networks to produce destructive or harmful effects is unacceptable and will prompt an appropriately strong response.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese software applications, including Ant Group’s Alipay, the White House said, escalating tensions with Beijing before President-elect Joe Biden takes office this month. The order, first reported by Reuters, tasks the Commerce Department with defining which transactions will be banned under the directive and targets Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay as well. The move is aimed at curbing the threat to Americans posed by Chinese software applications, which have large user bases and access to sensitive data, a senior official told Reuters. A U.S. Tencent spokeswoman did not immediately comment. FILE – WeChat has an average of 19 million daily active users in the United States.The order signed by Trump also names CamScanner, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate and WPS Office and says “the United States must take aggressive action against those who develop or control Chinese connected software applications to protect our national security.” A U.S. official told Reuters that even though the order gave the Commerce Department 45 days to act, the department plans to act before January 20 when Trump leaves office to identify prohibited transactions. Trump’s order says “by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information.” It added the data collection “would permit China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information.” The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. FILE – A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration.Another official said the order mirrors earlier Trump executive orders signed in August directing Commerce to block some transactions with WeChat and Chinese-owned Tiktok seeking to bar some transactions that have been blocked by U.S. courts. Any new transactions prohibited by the Trump administration are likely to face similar court challenges as the Commerce Department did when it sought to block transactions with WeChat and TikTok. The Commerce orders would have effectively banned the Chinese app’s use in the United States and barred Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s app stores from offering them for download for new users. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement he supports Trump’s “commitment to protecting the privacy and security of Americans from threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.” The latest action has been under debate within the administration for an extended period. Many administration officials are eager to cement the hardline U.S. position with China on a number of fronts before Trump leaves office. Last month, the Commerce Department added dozens of Chinese companies, including the country’s top chipmaker SMIC and Chinese drone manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd., to a trade blacklist. Also last month the administration published a list of Chinese and Russian companies with alleged military ties that restrict them from buying a range of U.S. goods and technology. In November, the administration put on hold an effort to blacklist Ant Group, the Chinese financial technology company affiliated with e-commerce giant Alibaba.
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The 2021 Grammy Awards will no longer take place this month in Los Angeles and will be broadcast in March due to a recent surge in coronavirus cases and deaths. The Recording Academy told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the annual show would shift from its original January 31 broadcast to an unspecified date in March. The Grammys will be held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the crisis in California, has surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths and has had 40% of the deaths in California. It is the third state to reach the 25,000 death count. An average of six people die every hour from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, which has a quarter of the state’s 40 million residents. County health officials fear the incoming Christmas and New Year’s surge. FILE – Trevor Noah will host the 2021 Grammy Awards. (Comedy Central)The Daily Show host and comedian Trevor Noah is set to host the 2021 Grammys, where Beyoncé is the leading contender with nine nominations. She scored nominations for song and record of the year with Black Parade, which she released on Juneteenth, while Savage — her No. 1 collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion — picked up bids for record of the year, best rap song and best rap performance. Beyoncé’s Black Is King, which aired on Disney+, is nominated for best music film, while Brown Skin Girl, a song dedicated to dark- and brown-skinned women, is nominated for best music video. Her daughter Blue Ivy Carter sings on Brown Skin Girl and also earned a Grammy nomination. Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Roddy Ricch, Jhené Aiko, Post Malone, Renée Zellweger, Billie Eilish and her producer-brother Finneas also scored nominations. First-time nominees include The Strokes, Megan Thee Stallion and Harry Styles. Since the pandemic, a number of awards shows were postponed and later revamped due to COVID-19 restrictions. The BET Awards was the first major awards show during the pandemic and was a success thanks to its artsy, highly produced, well-crafted pre-taped performances. The MTV Video Music Awards featured Lady Gaga winning awards and performing onsite in a mask, and the Latin Grammys pre-taped several performances the week of the show, handing out some of its awards to the winners who attended the show. Performers at the upcoming Grammys will be announced at a later date.
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Andrew Savoia, a 24-year-old Arlington, Virginia, cello player has taken social media by storm, posting TikTok videos of himself performing instrumental covers of modern pop and hip- hop songs. One of his first viral videos, cover of “Come Get Her” by the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, had over 3 million views. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. Camera: David Gogokhia, Artyom Kokhan
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The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed disappointment Tuesday with the failure of Chinese officials to grant final permission to an international team of researchers to enter the country to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.At the agency’s regular COVID-19 briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “very disappointed” that China had not authorized entry of the team, some of whom had begun their travels to Wuhan. The news forced other members of the team to cancel their travel at the last minute.Tedros said plans for the trip had been arranged jointly among WHO officials, the Chinese government and the countries for which the team was meant to travel through on their way to Wuhan. He said the agency just learned Tuesday “that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China.”Tedros said he had been in contact with senior Chinese officials. “And I have once again made it clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team. I have been assured that China is speeding up the internal procedures for the earliest possible deployment. We are eager to get the mission under way as soon as possible.”FILE – Medical workers move a person who died from COVID-19 at a hospital in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, Feb. 16, 2020.China reported the first cases of a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan to the WHO on Dec. 31, 2019, and closed a market where the novel coronavirus was believed to have emerged.Health ministers called on the WHO in May to identify the source of the virus and how it crossed the species barrier.The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticized its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research. U.S. President Donald Trump has accused the agency of being a puppet for China during the pandemic. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 illness.
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French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Tuesday the nation was going to “amplify, accelerate and simplify” its COVID-19 vaccination program after coming under fire for the initial slow roll out of the program.In an interview with French radio, Veran said more than 2,000 doctors, nurses and other health care workers have received vaccinations. He also announced that firefighters and home aid workers age 50 and older would also be prioritized “because they are also professionals who are in contact with fragile people and who may have to work with the sick.”The faster-paced vaccination campaign comes after the government was criticized for its slow rollout of the vaccine, delivering just over 500 inoculations in the first week, compared to hundreds of thousands delivered by Germany in the same period.The criticism prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to call a meeting with Veran, Prime Minister Jean Castex and other leaders late Tuesday to discuss how to speed up the process.Veran vowed to increase vaccinations exponentially in the next few days, promising the pace of the program “will be on par with that of our neighbors” by the end of the week.He said France is prepared to deliver 500,000 doses per week of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and once it is approved by the European Medicines regulatory agency, (EMA) they will be prepared to deliver 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine per month. The EMA is expected to consider the Moderna vaccine Wednesday.
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Andrew Savoia, a 24-year-old Arlington, Virginia, cello player has taken social media by storm, posting TikTok videos of himself performing instrumental covers of modern pop and hip- hop songs. One of his first viral videos, cover of “Come Get Her” by the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, had over 3 million views. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. Camera: David Gogokhia, Artyom Kokhan
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As millions of people await their turn to get a COVID-19 vaccine that could be months away, scammers online, in emails and on messaging apps are luring victims with claims they can deliver shots within days for as little as $150.
COVID-19 vaccine scams are on the rise, according to European and U.S. government officials who are warning the public of fraudsters out for money and personal data.
A Reuters search online, in dark web forums and on messaging app Telegram found seven different offers for alleged COVID-19 vaccines.
Scams include emails promising entry to supposedly secret lists for early vaccine access and robocallers impersonating government agencies. Message boards on the so-called dark web have added COVID-19 vaccines to more traditional illicit goods for sale.
The U.S. FBI and Interpol, among others, have warned of emerging pandemic-related fraud schemes, saying false cures and vaccines advertised on fake websites could pose cyber threats and a significant risk to peoples’ health, or even lives.
Website domains containing the word vaccine in combination with COVID-19 or coronavirus more than doubled since October to roughly 2,500 in November, when the first legitimate vaccines were nearing regulatory approval, according to cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, which is tracking COVID-19 fraud online.
“So far a lot of these domains just appear to be opportunistic registrations, but some are going to be used for phishing attempts to have people click on (malicious) links,” said Lindsay Kaye, director of operational outcomes at Recorded Future.
Kaye said her team, which also scours the dark web, so far has not come across any legitimate vaccine diverted from healthcare facilities or national stockpiles.
The scams are preying on concerns about the far slower-than-promised rollout of vaccines to protect against the virus that has claimed more than 1.8 million lives worldwide so far. Most people will likely have to wait well into the spring, or even summer, to get their shot.
In the United States, only about 4.5 million people had received their first shot as of Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. That is a fraction of the 20 million who were supposed to have been vaccinated by the end of 2020, according to earlier government forecasts.
Vaccines, Guns and Money
On dark web forum Agartha, fake COVID-19 vaccines were offered next to cocaine, opioid medication, “super high quality fake money,” hand guns and gift cards. Posts showed stock photos of vaccines and offered vials for $500 and $1,000, or the equivalent in Bitcoin.
On another dark web site, a seller claiming to be from the “Wuhan Institute of Science” offered COVID-19 vaccines in exchange for a donation, and asked buyers to provide their medical history.
On Telegram, several channels claimed to offer COVID-19 vaccines, accompanied by stock images. One user offered supposed Moderna Inc vaccines for $180, and claimed the vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE could be had for $150 and AstraZeneca’s for $110 per vial.
Asked how the vaccines would be shipped, the account creator said they were transported in “regulated temperature packs” and ice packs within a few days, or overnight for an additional charge.
Actual COVID-19 vaccines, particularly the Pfizer/BioNTech offering, must be temperature controlled to remain effective, with drugmakers equipping shipments with temperature trackers to ensure the cold chain. Vaccine shipments and distribution are also tightly controlled by officials and will be administered at no cost.
The United States has so far authorized two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use – the ones from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. The European Union to date has authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and is expected to clear the Moderna vaccine this week.
The UK has already authorized those two and just added the vaccine developed by Oxford University with AstraZeneca.
Asked about vaccine scams, Pfizer said it had taken meticulous steps to reduce the risk of counterfeiting and tracked trends very carefully.
“Patients should never try to secure a vaccine online – no legitimate vaccine is sold online – and only get vaccinated at certified vaccination centers or by certified healthcare providers,” a Pfizer spokesman said in a statement.
Moderna referred a request for comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which did not respond. AstraZeneca did not respond to a request for comment.
The HHS, FBI and U.S. Department of Justice have urged the public to report any COVID-19 vaccine scams, including people asking for out-of-pocket payments for the vaccine and online vaccine advertisements.
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In France, public frustration with the government is growing as the nation’s coronavirus immunization campaign gets off to a slow start. In response, officials say they will speed up and widen the vaccine rollout.As of Monday, only 2,500 people had received the vaccine against COVID-19 in France — most of them nursing home residents and their nurses. It is too small a number, critics say, for a rollout that began, as in other EU countries, on December 27. A doctor administers a dose of Pfizer-BioNtech coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine to an old woman on Jan. 4, 2020 at the Antonin Balmes gerontology center in Montpellier in the south of France.Critics describe the pace as ridiculously low compared with neighboring Germany, where at least 264,000 people have been vaccinated so far. French President Emmanuel Macron and his government are under pressure to do better, especially considering the relative success of other nations in Europe. One of the main critics is Jean Rottner, the president of France’s Grand Est region. Rottner says the immunization strategy in France is a scandal, and he says the government keeps failing like it did for the masks and the tests. He says he is devastated since his region is heavily hit by the pandemic. FILE – A woman is tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing center in Marseille, France, Sept. 24, 2020.French officials claim they are still on track to reach their goal to have one million people vaccinated by the end of January. To make it, authorities say they will set up 600 immunization centers across the territory by the end of this month. Olivier Veran, France’s health minister, addressed concerns Tuesday, and he vowed to catch up with the other EU countries. Veran says the French government will now amplify, accelerate and simplify the immunization strategy. Firefighters and in-home care workers above 50 years of age, will now receive the vaccine. The minister, who oversees the fight against the virus, says it is a permanent race to save lives. Although the immunization response is coordinated at the European level, each of the 27 members is responsible for setting its own strategy. The Netherlands will only start its immunization campaign on January 8. FILE – Healthcare workers assist a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at the Joseph Imbert Hospital Center in Arles, southern France, April 5, 2020.As of Monday, more than 65,000 people had died from COVID-19 in France according data from Johns Hopkins University.
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The amount of baked-in global warming, from carbon pollution already in the air, is enough to blow past internationally agreed upon goals to limit climate change, a new study finds. But it’s not game over because, while that amount of warming may be inevitable, it can be delayed for centuries if the world quickly stops emitting extra greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, the study’s authors say. For decades, scientists have talked about so-called “committed warming,” or the increase in future temperature based on past carbon dioxide emissions that stay in the atmosphere for well over a century. It’s like the distance a speeding car travels after the brakes are applied. But Monday’s study in the journal Nature Climate Change calculates that a bit differently and now figures the carbon pollution already put in the air will push global temperatures to about 2.3 degrees Celsius (4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times. Previous estimates, including those accepted by international science panels, were about a degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) less than that amount of committed warming. International climate agreements set goals of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, with the more ambitious goal of limiting it to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) added in Paris in 2015. The world has already warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit). “You’ve got some … global warming inertia that’s going to cause the climate system to keep warming, and that’s essentially what we’re calculating,” said study co-author Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University. “Think about the climate system like the Titanic. It’s hard to turn the ship when you see the icebergs.” Factoring in cooler spotsDessler and colleagues at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Nanjing University in China calculated committed warming to take into account that the world has warmed at different rates in different places and that places that haven’t warmed as fast are destined to catch up. Places such as the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica are a bit cooler, and that difference creates low-lying clouds that reflect more sun away from Earth, keeping these places cooler. But this situation can’t keep going indefinitely because physics dictates that cooler locations will warm up and when they do, the clouds will dwindle and more heating will occur, Dessler said. Previous studies were based on the cooler spots staying that way, but Dessler and colleagues say that’s not likely. Outside experts said the work is based on compelling reasoning but want more research to show that it’s true. Breakthrough Institute climate scientist Zeke Hausfather said the new work fits better with climate models than observational data. Rate of warming Just because the world is bound to get more warming than international goals, that doesn’t mean all is lost in the fight against global warming, said Dessler, who cautioned against what he called “climate doomers.” If the world gets to net zero carbon emissions soon, 2 degrees of global warming could be delayed enough so that it won’t happen for centuries, giving society time to adapt or even come up with technological fixes, he said. “If we don’t, we’re going to blow through (climate goals) in a few decades,” Dessler said. “It’s really the rate of warming that makes climate change so terrible. If we got a few degrees over 100,000 years, that would not be that big a deal. We can deal with that. But a few degrees over 100 years is really bad.”
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The Midwestern state of Indiana this year will be host to the entire men’s college basketball tournament, also known as March Madness, the NCAA announced Monday.The college athletic group is attempting to create a “bubble,” or an isolation zone, in an attempt to protect the college athletes from contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.“If we’re going to be able to do it, it’s got to be done safely,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “The more you can limit travel the better. To do it in the middle of the country makes it easier for everybody. … You want to be there, you want to be part of it. It’s going to be an historic event.”The sporting event, which was canceled last year at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, is one of America’s most celebrated sporting competitions. The NCAA tournament spans 67 basketball games, culminating with the national championship.Organizers decided to move away from playing the games in 13 venues across the country to just a few sites in or near the city of Indianapolis as a way to control the environment for the games.FILE – In this Feb. 11, 2020, file photo, NCAA President Mark Emmert testifies during a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on intercollegiate athlete compensation on Capitol Hill in Washington.In a video call, NCAA President Mark Emmert said, “Last year, we had to rip March Madness away from all the teams and all the fans at the very last minute.” He said it was a painful but necessary decision.Emmert said they “want to deliver this year on the promise of March Madness” because teams and fans “deserve it.”The tournament begins March 14 with Selection Sunday, when the teams will be placed into groups. The tournament culminates with the Final Four, with the championship games scheduled for April 3 and April 5.The NCAA has not yet released the full schedule for the games. It also said a limited number of family members of players and coaches will be able to attend the games.The NCAA said it will work with local authorities to provide COVID-19 testing for players, coaches and staff. It is also running a “Mask Madness” program that will provide thousands of masks to attendees and participants to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.“This is going to be complicated and difficult; there’s no question about that,” NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt said.Indianapolis has hosted seven men’s Final Fours since 1980 as well as early-round games and regional championships. 2021 March Madness makes the city the No.1 all-time host.The NCAA plans to host the corresponding women’s event in San Antonio, Texas.March Madness will be televised on U.S. television networks.
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Tanya Roberts, who captivated James Bond in “A View to a Kill” and later played Midge Pinciotti in the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” has been hospitalized after falling at her home. The actor had mistakenly been reported dead by her publicist earlier Monday. Later Monday afternoon, Roberts’ publicist, Mike Pingel, told The Associated Press that Roberts, 65, was alive as of 10 a.m. PST but was in a poor condition. He had said earlier Monday that she had collapsed in her home December 24 and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was believed to have died Sunday. Pingel said Robert’s husband, Lance O’Brien, told him that he held his wife and she seemed to him to “slip away.” The publicist said he is awaiting further updates on Roberts’ condition. Multiple media outlets, including the AP, reported Roberts’ death. The AP removed its obituary and sent an advisory noting that the actor was still alive. One of Roberts highest-profile roles was playing geologist Stacey Sutton opposite Roger Moore in 1985’s “A View to a Kill.” Roberts also appeared in such fantasy adventure films as “The Beastmaster” and “Hearts and Armour.” She replaced Shelly Hack in “Charlie’s Angels,” joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third Angel Julie. She also played comic book heroine Sheena — a female version of the Tarzan story — in a 1984 film. A new generation of fans saw her on “That ’70s Show,” playing Midge, mother to Laura Prepon’s character, Donna.
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Online communication and collaboration service Slack reported a global outage Monday, as millions returned to work after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.”Our team is currently investigating, and we’re sorry for any troubles this may be causing,” Slack said in a statement.Slack has seen its popularity grow as many people work and study from home during the coronavirus pandemic. When it last reported, the company said it had 12 million daily users. Slack shares have surged by 80% over the past year.According to The Associated Press, the outage began around 10 a.m. Eastern time, with outages reported in the United States, Germany, India, Britain, Japan and other countries.The disruption in service was the latest in a string of tech outages, which have seen Google services, Zoom and some Microsoft products suffer breakdowns in recent months.According to Bloomberg, Salesforce.com agreed to buy Slack Technologies, Inc. last year for $27.7 billion.
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Britain’s prime minister announced a fresh round of lockdowns Monday, closing schools and nonessential shops, as the country begins vaccinating health care workers and the elderly.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said people must stay at home until at least mid-February, noting that British hospitals are under more strain now than they have been at any point during the pandemic.“If the rollout of the vaccine program continues to be successful. If deaths start to fall as the vaccine takes effect. And critically, if everyone plays their part by following the rules, then I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown,” Johnson said in a televised address Monday.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Chase Farm Hospital in north London, Jan. 4, 2021, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.The announcement comes days after British health officials confirmed a variant of the coronavirus that doctors say is far more contagious than the original.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday that a case of the same variant had been confirmed in an older New York state resident who had not traveled recently.NEW: The Wadsworth Lab has confirmed New York State’s first case of the U.K. variant (B.1.1.7) of the virus that causes COVID.An individual from Saratoga County, New York, tested positive for the strain. The individual had no known travel history.— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) Brian Pinker, 82, receives the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sam Foster at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, England, Jan. 4, 2021.British officials say half a million doses of the vaccine are ready for use.The AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper and more easily transported than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because it does not need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures. The Pfizer shot has already been administered to many health care professionals in Britain and the United States.France, which is administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, pledged Monday to increase the speed at which it is inoculating its health care workers after facing criticism from the public.FILE – A man applies finishing touches to graffiti representing a vaccine, amidst the spread of coronavirus disease, in Kolkata, India, Jan. 2, 2021.In Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that more than 800,000 people had received the domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine and that 1.5 million doses had been distributed throughout the country of 147 million.The Kremlin is pinning its hopes on mass vaccinations, not nationwide restrictions, to stop the spread of the virus and save its struggling economy from the hit of another lockdown.The coronavirus has killed more than 1.8 million people globally since emerging in China in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins.Experts fear the worst is yet to come, predicting a sharp rise in cases and deaths after weeks of holiday gatherings.VOA’s Fern Robinson contributed to this report.
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Drug maker Moderna says it plans to ramp up production of its COVID-19 vaccine by 100 million more doses than what it originally forecast.The Massachusetts-based company said Monday it would produce 600 million doses in 2021.So far, the company says it has supplied 18 million doses of a promised 200 million to the U.S. government.U.S. states have been administering both the Moderna vaccine and a vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech since late last month.Both vaccines are reportedly highly effective in preventing coronavirus infection.According to MarketWatch, Moderna’s stock is up 453.0% over the past year.
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Tanya Roberts, who captivated James Bond in “A View to a Kill,” appeared in the final season of “Charlie’s Angels” and later played Midge Pinciotti in the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” has died in Los Angeles. She was 65.
Roberts’ death Sunday was announced by her publicist, Mike Pingel. She collapsed in her home and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. No cause of death was given, but Pingel said it was not due to COVID-19.
One of her highest profile roles was playing geologist Stacey Sutton opposite Roger Moore in 1985’s “A View to a Kill,” where she held a gun on Bond after tricking him into thinking she was in a shower. The character later joined him to stop bad guys on an airship over San Francisco.
“We are saddened to hear of the passing of Tanya. She was a very lovely person,” Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli wrote in tribute. Britt Ekland, who starred opposite Moore in 1974’s “The Man with the Golden Gun,” tweeted: “Once a Bond Girl always a Bond Girl!”
“One of my favorite memories with Tanya was driving in the car and Duran Duran’s ‘A View to a Kill’ theme song came on the radio — we both sang along. Priceless,” Pingel said.
Roberts also appeared in such fantasy adventure films as “The Beastmaster” and “Hearts and Armour.” She replaced Shelly Hack in “Charlie’s Angels,” joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third Angel Julie. She also played comic book heroine Sheena — a female version of the Tarzan story — in a 1984 film.
A new generation of fans saw her on “That ’70s Show,” playing Midge, mother to Laura Prepon’s character Donna. On Twitter, Topher Grace, one of the the show’s stars, called Roberts “truly a delightful person to work with.” He added: “I had never acted before and, to be honest, a little nervous around her. But she couldn’t have been kinder. We’ll miss you Midge.”
Roberts, a huge animal rights activist, is survived by her husband, Lance O’Brien. “Tanya and I have never been apart. This is too much to handle. Her animals are lost without her and so am I,” he said in a statement.
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More than 200 Google employees in the United States have formed a workers’ union, the elected leaders of the union wrote in a New York Times opinion piece on Monday.
The “Alphabet Workers Union” aims to ensure that employees work at a fair wage, without fear of abuse, retaliation or discrimination, the union heads wrote.
Google has been under fire from the U.S. labor regulator, which has accused the company of unlawfully questioning several workers who were then terminated for protesting against company policies and trying to organize a union. Google has said it was confident it acted legally.
“We’re building on years of organizing efforts at Google to create a formal structure for workers,” the union leaders wrote, adding that so far 226 employees had signed union cards with the Communications Workers of America.
“Our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees,” Kara Silverstein, director of people operations at Google, said on Monday.
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British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday the government is not ruling out new restrictions as the coronavirus continues to spread even in areas with the strictest constraints.In television interviews, Hancock said a new variant spreads more easily than the original strains of the virus and Britain’s three-tiered system of restrictions is proving less effective at controlling it.Hancock said that while new restrictions might be necessary, ultimately it is up to people’s behavior. He said people should act as if they already have the virus and take greater care around others.“Yes, it’s about the government rules, and absolutely we’re prepared to bring in, unfortunately, tougher rules if they are needed on the public health advice. But it’s on all of us,” Hancock said.The health secretary praised the National Health Service (NHS) for its vaccination program, saying it has successfully inoculated more than a million people at 700 sites around the country and that there would be more than a thousand sites by the end of the week.Hancock also praised the latest vaccine, produced in a joint effort between the University of Oxford and drug manufacturer AstraZeneca, saying British science is leading the world.Britain reported 55,157 new cases on Sunday, and 455 new deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The nation set a daily record for new cases Saturday with 57,853.
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Gerry Marsden, frontman of 1960s group Gerry and the Pacemakers, has died aged 78, the singer’s friend Pete Price announced Sunday. Liverpool-born Marsden, who died after a short illness, had a 1960s hit with his cover of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, which originally featured in their musical Carousel. Liverpool FC fans adopted the Gerry and the Pacemakers’ version of the song, which became one of the most famous football anthems in the world. It is still sung regularly by Liverpool supporters before and during matches. Marsden re-recorded the track in April 2020 in tribute to Britain’s National Health Service during the coronavirus pandemic. He also wrote the 1960s hit “Ferry Cross the Mersey” at a time when The Beatles had made Liverpool pop music’s most important city. It was Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein who signed up Gerry and the Pacemakers. As part of the “Merseybeat” groups, Gerry and the Pacemakers also broke into the American market.Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney tweeted that “Gerry was a mate from our early days in Liverpool. He and his group were our biggest rivals on the local scene.””His unforgettable performances of You’ll Never Walk Alone and Ferry Cross the Mersey remain in many people’s hearts as reminders of a joyful time in British music,” he added.Liverpool football club, on their Twitter account, said, “It is with such great sadness that we hear of Gerry Marsden’s passing.”Gerry’s words will live on forever with us. You’ll Never Walk Alone.”The famous song was also adopted by fans of other European football teams including Celtic in Scotland, Borussia Dortmund and Feyenoord.Marsden’s friend and broadcaster Price announced the death when he wrote on Instagram: “It’s with a very heavy heart after speaking to the family that I have to tell you the legendary Gerry Marsden MBE, after a short illness which was an infection in his heart, has sadly passed away.”I’m sending all the love in the world to Pauline and his family. You’ll Never Walk Alone.”Marsden received his MBE at Buckingham Palace in 2003 for services to charities in Liverpool and beyond.
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