Month: October 2020

Wildfires churning out dense plumes of smoke as they scorch huge swaths of the U.S. West Coast have exposed millions of people to hazardous pollution levels, causing emergency room visits to spike and potentially thousands of deaths among the elderly and infirm, according to an Associated Press analysis of pollution data and interviews with physicians, health authorities and researchers. Smoke at concentrations that topped the government’s charts for health risks and lasted at least a day enshrouded counties inhabited by more than 8 million people across five states in recent weeks, AP’s analysis shows. Major cities in Oregon, which has been especially hard hit,  last month suffered the highest pollution levels they’ve ever recorded when powerful winds supercharged fires that had been burning in remote areas and sent them hurtling to the edge of densely populated Portland. Medical complications began arising while communities were still enveloped in smoke, including hundreds of additional emergency room visits daily in Oregon, according to state health officials. “It’s been brutal for me,” said Barb Trout, a 64-year-old retiree living south of Portland in the Willamette Valley. She was twice taken to the emergency room by ambulance following severe asthmatic reactions, something that had never happened to her before. Trout had sheltered inside as soon as smoke rolled into the valley just after Labor Day but within days had an asthma attack that left her gasping for air and landed her in the ER. Two weeks later, when smoke from fires in California drifted into …

The World Health Organization says the young and healthy may have to wait until 2022 to get a COVID-19 vaccine.  WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said Thursday health authorities will likely prioritize health care and frontline workers such as law enforcement and emergency responders, then the elderly.   Swaminathan said she hoped there would at least be one safe and effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus by 2021, but said it would only be available in “limited quantities.”   Over 170 potential COVID-19 vaccines are in various stages of testing around the world, including 10 that have entered late-stage, wide scale human testing.  U.S. pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca have recently halted  late-stage trials of their experimental vaccines after a volunteer in each study became ill.   The race to develop a coronavirus vaccine comes amid a surge of new infections across Europe, sparking fears the continent is on the verge of a second wave of the outbreak as the winter season nears.   German Chancellor Angela Merkel and governors of the country’s 16 states have agreed to impose a new round of nationwide restrictions after posting a record-high 6,638 new cases on Wednesday, including the early closure of bars and restaurants and limiting the number of people allowed to gather in public.   French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the region of Paris and at least seven other cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Étienne.  The curfew will take effect …

U.S. regulators Wednesday approved the first drug for the treatment of Ebola.The Food and Drug Administration OK’d the drug developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for treating adults and children with the Zaire Ebola virus strain, the most deadly of six known types. It typically kills 60% to 90% of patients.The drug was one of four tested during an outbreak in Congo that killed nearly 2,300 people before it ended in June. Survival was significantly better in study participants given Regeneron’s Inmazeb or a second experimental drug.The study was ended ahead of schedule last year so all patients could get access to those drugs.Regeneron’s treatment is a combination of three antibodies that work by killing the virus. It’s given once by IV.”When you have three drugs that bind to the (virus), there’s a low probability that the virus can evade all of them,” said Leah Lipsich, who heads Regeneron’s global program for infectious diseases.She said that should help prevent the virus from becoming resistant to the drug.Seeking U.S. approval first is a common strategy for drugmakers developing treatments for diseases mainly found in the tropics and in developing countries. The FDA’s action will make it easier for Regeneron to get approval or allow emergency use during outbreaks in African countries, where the approval process is not straightforward, Lipsich said.The study in Congo involved 681 people, who were give one of four treatments. After four weeks, about a third of those who got Regeneron’s drug had died. Results were about the same for …

Another pharmaceutical company halted testing of an experimental COVID-19 drug treatment because of safety concerns. U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Company announced Tuesday that the clinical trial of its coronavirus antiviral drug had been paused by independent monitors “out of an abundance of caution,” but did not go into details.   The drug, which Eli Lilly is developing with Canadian-based biotech firm AbCellera, is part of a class of treatments known as monoclonal antibodies, which are made to act as immune cells that scientists hope can fight off the virus. The antibody therapy was similar to one given to U.S. President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month.   The study, which launched in August, aimed to enroll 10,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients in the United States.   Eli Lilly applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization for the drug to be used for mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 infections based on preliminary results from a different clinical trial.   A day before the pause, U.S. drug maker Johnson & Johnson halted its late-stage clinical trials of its experimental vaccine after a participant was diagnosed with an unexplained illness.    Johnson & Johnson had just launched a wide scale test of its single-dose vaccine involving 60,000 volunteers across more than 200 locations in the United States and internationally, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and South Africa.    The Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial is the second to be put on hold after a volunteer became ill after receiving the vaccine.  U.S.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca halted its late-stage trial of a vaccine developed with the University of Oxford early …

Scientists have discovered that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef lost more than half of its coral populations between 1995 and 2017.  Researchers at the The Great Barrier Reef stretches across 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeastern coast and is home to a wide variety of marine life, making it the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem. The region was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1981.  …

Another pharmaceutical company halted testing of an experimental COVID-19 drug treatment because of safety concerns. U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Company announced Tuesday that the clinical trial of its coronavirus antiviral drug had been paused by independent monitors “out of an abundance of caution,” but did not go into details.   The drug, which Eli Lilly is developing with Canadian-based biotech firm AbCellera, is part of a class of treatments known as monoclonal antibodies, which are made to act as immune cells that scientists hope can fight off the virus. The antibody therapy was similar to one given to U.S. President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month.   The study, which launched in August, aimed to enroll 10,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients in the United States.   Eli Lilly applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization for the drug to be used for mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 infections based on preliminary results from a different clinical trial.   A day before the pause, U.S. drug maker Johnson & Johnson halted its late-stage clinical trials of its experimental vaccine after a participant was diagnosed with an unexplained illness.    Johnson & Johnson had just launched a wide scale test of its single-dose vaccine involving 60,000 volunteers across more than 200 locations in the United States and internationally, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and South Africa.    The Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial is the second to be put on hold after a volunteer became ill after receiving the vaccine.  U.S.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca halted its late-stage trial of a vaccine developed with the University of Oxford early …

A trio of space travelers has launched successfully to the International Space Station, for the first time using a fast-track maneuver to reach the orbiting outpost in just three hours. NASA’s Kate Rubins along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled Wednesday morning from the Russia-leased Baikonur space launch facility in Kazakhstan for a six-month stint on the station.   For the first time, they are trying a two-orbit, three-hour approach to the orbiting space outpost. Previously it took twice as long for the crews to reach the station.   They will join the station’s NASA commander, Chris Cassidy, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, who have been aboard the complex since April and are scheduled to return to Earth in a week. Speaking during Tuesday’s pre-launch news conference at Baikonur, Rubins emphasized that the crew spent weeks in quarantine at the Star City training facility outside Moscow and then on Baikonur to avoid any threat from the coronavirus.   “We spent two weeks at Star City and then 17 days at Baikonur in a very strict quarantine,” Rubins said. “During all communications with crew members, we were wearing masks. We made PCR tests twice and we also made three times antigen fast tests.” She said she was looking forward to scientific experiments planned for the mission.   “We’re planning to try some really interesting things like bio-printing tissues and growing cells in space and, of course, continuing our work on sequencing DNA,” Rubins said. Ryzhikov, who will be the station’s skipper, said …

Australia is trying to clarify reports of a Chinese ban on its coal imports. Industry sources have said Beijing told energy providers and steel firms to stop buying Australian coal. Trade tensions between the Asia-Pacific partners have deteriorated in recent years. Coal is one of the major Australian commodity exports to China, behind iron ore and liquefied natural gas.  So, any disruption to this multi-billion trade would hurt.  State-owned energy providers and steel mills in China have reportedly been told not to buy Australian coal.  Australian officials believe it could be temporary and part of informal quotas in China, or an attempt to restrict imports to protect China’s domestic coal mining industry. However, analysts have speculated that the reported ban on Australian coal could be part of an emerging trade war.     Earlier this year, China was infuriated when Canberra called for a global investigation into COVID-19, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Relations have also soured over allegations of Chinese interference in Australia’s domestic politics, cyber-espionage and the detention of Australian citizens in China. Beijing has accused Australia of being “anti-China.” Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham says he has not confirmed that coal exports to China are being disrupted. “We have also been working to seek a response from Chinese authorities in relation to the accusations that have been made publicly. But we take the reports seriously enough to certainly to try to seek some assurances from Chinese authorities that they are honoring the terms of the China-Australia free trade agreement,” Birmingham said.Earlier this year, Beijing effectively banned imports of Australian …

Hot, dry conditions and intense winds across California are threatening to reinvigorate what has already been the worst fire season in state history, officials warned on Tuesday.Gusty winds in California’s north and extreme heat in its south are creating conditions that could fan wildfires that began earlier in the summer as well as spark new ones, leading state and federal authorities to urge residents to prepare.The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for a wide swath of Southern California as temperatures topped 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). The agency asked residents to exercise caution with any fire sources.Strong winds, low humidityThe California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said strong winds and low humidity could ramp up blazes in Northern California starting Wednesday.”While good progress has been made on a number of fires, this could hamper containment efforts,” Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire assistant deputy director, said on Twitter on Tuesday. “It means if a new fire breaks out, that that fire is going to be able to burn very rapidly.”Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which provides power to much of California, said Monday it was considering proactively shutting off power as soon as Wednesday to as many as 50,000 state residents to mitigate fire risk.Over 4 million acres burned This year, wildfires have burned over 4 million acres in California — twice the total of 2018 which had been the highest on record. Five of the six largest fires in state history were in 2020. Thirty-one …

Britain’s opposition Labor Party Leader Keir Starmer on Tuesday called on the government to implement a three-week temporary nationwide “circuit breaker” lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 throughout Britain.Starmer made the proposal in a speech in London, one day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced his three-tiered regional alert plan designed to simplify and standardize the variety of COVID-related restrictions that have been imposed around the country.But Starmer said Britain is in a decisive moment in the fight against the virus and “there’s no longer time to give this prime minister the benefit of the doubt.””This was not inevitable, but it is now necessary,” he said, acknowledging that the restrictions are largely unpopular.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London, Oct. 12, 2020.He also said the lockdown idea comes from recommendations made by Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) which said “a package of stringent interventions is now urgently needed” to lower the rate of infection and take strain off hospitals and the National Health service.Quoting SAGE, the opposition leader said, “not acting now will result in a very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences.”Starmer proposed allowing only essential work and travel, restricting household mixing and that all pubs, bars and restaurants should be closed, but also be compensated. He said he understood the measures would require “significant sacrifices across the country.”The Labor Party leader added that schools would not have to close under his proposal, as the lockdown would be timed to …

The commercial space launch company Blue Origin, in partnership with the U.S. space agency NASA, launched an unmanned reusable suborbital rocket into space Tuesday and landed it on a West Texas launch site. The 12-minute flight, 100 kilometers to the edge of space and back, was a test of a number of new technologies, including two NASA precision descent and landing sensor systems, which could be used in future landers on the moon and Mars, and are able to intelligently identify and avoid potential hazards on target landing zones. FILE – A general view of the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket booster at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Apr. 5, 2017.The launch included Blue Origin’s six-person crew capsule, which is designed with future commercial passengers in mind, including what the company says are the largest windows ever designed for a spacecraft. Once in space, the capsule separated from the launch rocket. The reusable rocket, named New Shepard after the first U.S. astronaut in space, Alan Shepard, touched down at the Texas launch and landing site with a controlled, engine-powered descent. The capsule landed a short time later using three large parachutes.  The capsule contained a variety of experiments and other payloads, including postcards provided by children from across the country. Blue Origin is owned by U.S. investor and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com.       …

The United Nations is warning that climate change is threatening the lives of millions of people throughout the world, and that demand for humanitarian aid could rise 50% by 2030. The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization released a report Tuesday that found more weather-related disasters such as heat waves, storms and droughts are occurring each year. “While COVID-19 generated a large international health and economic crisis from which it will take years to recover, it is crucial to remember that climate change will continue to pose an ongoing and increasing threat to human lives, ecosystems, economies and societies for centuries to come,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.  The 2020 State of Climate Services Report said 11,000 disasters attributed to weather have taken place over the past 50 years, causing 2 million deaths and $3.6 trillion in economic damage.  The report also said 108 million people worldwide needed humanitarian help in 2018 because of natural disasters. Despite the increase in weather-related disasters over that period, the report noted that the average number of fatalities from each disaster per year fell by one-third. In addition to the U.N., the report was prepared by 15 other international agencies and financial institutions. They urge governments to invest more in early-warning systems that can help countries more effectively respond and mitigate the impact of natural disasters.    …

U.S. pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson paused its late-stage clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine after a participant was diagnosed with an unexplained illness. The pause was first reported Monday by the health care news website Stat, which obtained a document the company sent to outside researchers.  Johnson & Johnson had just launched its wide scale testing of its single-dose experimental vaccine. The trial involves 60,000 volunteers across more than 200 locations in the United States and internationally, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and South Africa.   The company said in a statement that so-called “adverse events” such as illnesses and accidents are an expected part of a clinical study, especially with such a large number of participants.  It also said the hold was a “study pause” and not a “clinical hold” which is imposed by a formal health regulatory agency.  Because it can be administered in a single dose, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine has significant advantages over the other three potential vaccines, which require two doses.   The single-dose vaccine would not have to be kept frozen in ultracold temperatures, making it easier to utilize in a mass immunization campaign.   The Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial is the second to be put on hold after a volunteer became ill after receiving the vaccine.  U.S.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca halted its late-stage trial of a vaccine developed with the University of Oxford early last month after a volunteer in Britain was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and is often sparked by viral infections.  FILE – …

A late-stage study of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been paused while the company investigates whether a study participant’s “unexplained illness” is related to the shot. The company said in a statement Monday evening that illnesses, accidents and other so-called adverse events “are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies,” but that its physicians and a safety monitoring panel would try to determine what might have caused the illness. The pause is at least the second such hold to occur among several vaccines that have reached large-scale final tests in the U.S. The company declined to reveal any more details about the illness, citing the participant’s privacy. Temporary stoppages of large medical studies are relatively common. Few are made public in typical drug trials, but the work to make a coronavirus vaccine has raised the stakes on these kinds of complications. Companies are required to investigate any serious or unexpected reaction that occurs during drug testing. Given that such tests are done on tens of thousands of people, some medical problems are a coincidence. In fact, one of the first steps the company said it will take is to determine if the person received the vaccine or a placebo.FILE – A worker feeds vials for production of SARS CoV-2 Vaccine for COVID-19 at the SinoVac vaccine factory in Beijing.The halt was first reported by the health news site STAT. Final-stage testing of a vaccine made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University remains on hold in the U.S. as officials examine whether an illness …

U.S. President Donald Trump’s doctor says the president has tested negative for COVID-19 on “consecutive days” as Trump traveled to Florida for his first campaign rally since being diagnosed with the disease earlier this month.In a memo released Monday by the White House, Dr. Sean Conley said Trump was tested using a newer rapid coronavirus test from Abbott Laboratories. He did not say when Trump was tested.Conley said the negative tests, along with other clinical and laboratory data, “indicate a lack of detectable viral replication.” He also repeated an assessment that he gave over the weekend that Trump is no longer infectious to others.Trump returned to the campaign trail Monday for a busy week that includes stops in Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina and Wisconsin, his first campaign travel since his positive test for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, on Oct 2. Trump spent several days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and completed his COVID-19 treatment at the White House.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus crisis hearing, July 31, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington.Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking on CNN before Trump left the White House for Florida, questioned the wisdom of holding an event like this. Test positivity rates, he noted, are climbing in parts of the Sun Belt.“We know that that is asking for trouble when you do that,” Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said on CNN.Trump described …

The head of the World Health Organization is warning against a strategy of pursuing herd immunity to stop the coronavirus pandemic, calling the idea unethical.At a news briefing Monday in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health officials should only try to achieve immunity through vaccination, not through exposing people to the virus.Herd immunity happens when a population is protected from a virus because a threshold immunity has been reached in that society.“Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic. It’s scientifically and ethically problematic,” Tedros said.The WHO estimates that about 10% of the world has contracted the coronavirus. It is not yet known what percentage rate of infection is needed to achieve herd immunity.Tedros noted that to obtain herd immunity from measles, about 95% of the population must be vaccinated, while for polio, the threshold is about 80%.Virus can survive 28 daysIn another development Monday, scientists in Australia discovered that the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, can survive on solid common surfaces for as long as 28 days.In a study published in Virology Journal, researchers at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), Australia’s national science agency, found the SARS-CoV-2 virus was “extremely robust,” surviving on smooth surfaces at 20 degrees Celsius, compared to the flu virus, which lasts for 17 days in the same circumstances. The scientists at CSIRO also found the SARS-CoV-2 virus stopped being infectious after about 24 …

A scientist from the U.S. space agency says what was thought to be a small asteroid heading towards Earth may actually be a 54-year-old section from a rocket coming back home. The head of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), Paul Chodas, told the Associated Press the object was first spotted by a telescope in Hawaii last month as part of the ongoing effort to monitor space objects that may pass close to Earth and possibly pose a threat. Chodas said further observations of the object, named Asteroid 2020 SO, indicated it had that a near-circular orbit around the sun, similar to Earth’s, an unusual characteristic for an asteroid, and a first clue that it might have originated from here. Chodas said the object is also in the same orbital plane as Earth, not tilted above or below, while asteroids that originate in deep space the sun orbit at odd angles. Finally, its speed approaching Earth is about 2,400 kilometers per hour, slow by asteroid standards. The NASA scientist speculates 2020 SO is actually the upper stage of a Centaur rocket that successfully propelled NASA’s Surveyor 2 unmanned lunar probe to the moon in 1966 before it was discarded.  The lander had been designed to land on the moon but crashed there after one of its thrusters failed.  The rocket, meanwhile, swept past the moon and into orbit around the sun as it was designed to do. Asteroid 2020 SO is estimated to be roughly eight meters long, based on its brightness, which would …

French Prime Minister Jean Castex warned Monday that France could impose further restrictions — including a lockdown — as the coronavirus is spreading rapidly, and the situation in hospitals is deteriorating there.In an interview with news broadcaster France Info on Monday, Castex said the country was facing a “strong” second wave of new infections and urged that all citizens be mobilized, saying, “There can be no more slackening.”The government announced nine large cities, including Paris and Marseille, will be placed under maximum virus alert beginning Tuesday. While local governments have objected, bars and other public establishments will be closed in those areas. Castex called on French residents to limit private gatherings in their homes.The prime minister said the French Defense Council will meet this week to examine epidemiological data “to see if there is a reason to go farther.” He said a “general lockdown” of the country “must be avoided by all means,” but said no option is being excluded.President Emmanuel Macron is expected to address the nation later Monday.According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, France currently has 732,434 infections and more than 32,600 deaths. It ranks second in Europe behind Spain in the number of cases.  …

An icebreaker belonging to Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) returned to Germany Monday with what the scientists on board say is proof of a dying Arctic Ocean and warnings of ice-free summers, after a more than yearlong expedition that included time at the North Pole. Expedition leader Markus Rex said the team collected a wealth of data that will be used to improve scientific models of global warming to predict climate change in the decades to come, especially in the Arctic, where changes have come faster than elsewhere on Earth. Rex, an atmospheric scientist at AWI for Polar and Ocean Research that organized the expedition, said that scientists witnessed firsthand the dramatic effects of global warming on ice in the Arctic Circle, considered “the epicenter of climate change.” The RV Polarstern arrived in the North Sea port of Bremerhaven, 389 days after it set off on its mission. More than 300 scientists from 20 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China participated in the $177-million expedition.  …

Scientists in Australia have discovered that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can survive on solid common surfaces for as long as 28 days. In a study published Monday in Virology Journal, researchers at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), Australia’s national science agency, found the SARS-COV-2 virus was “extremely robust,” surviving on smooth surfaces at 20 degrees Celsius, compared to the flu virus, which lasts for 17 days in the same circumstances. The scientists at CSIRO also found the SARS-COV-2 virus stopped being infectious after about 24 hours at 40 degrees Celsius.  The scientists at CSIRO found the novel coronavirus can survive on such common surfaces as paper banknotes, glass and stainless steel.   In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to unveil a new coronavirus alert system for the country during a speech in Parliament Monday. Instead of a blanket nationwide lockdown, the government’s new system designates areas as medium, high and very high risk. Under the first tier, areas with relatively low infection rates will have limited restrictions on restaurants and bars, with the restrictions gradually tightening up to the third tier, when restaurants and bars will be forced to close.Commuters walk across London Bridge during the morning rush hour towards the offices in the financial district of the City of London in London, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020.The new system is being implemented as Britain reaches what a spokesman for Prime Minister Johnson described as “a critical juncture.”  The nation is experiencing a dramatic surge of new COVID-19 cases, especially in …

Ghana has started building sea defense walls at key points along the coast to stop coastal erosion and protect beaches, communities and historic buildings. But fishermen fear the walls will block them from pulling their nets ashore, and coastal resorts say they are harming business. Stacey Knott has the story from Cape Coast, Ghana.   …

A Trump administration official leading the response to the coronavirus pandemic says the U.S. can expect delivery of a vaccine starting in January 2021, despite statements from the president that inoculations could begin this month.And a growing, bipartisan chorus of lawmakers, experts and public health officials says the country is ill prepared for a projected winter surge of COVID-19.Dr. Robert Kadlec said in an email Friday that the administration “is accelerating production of safe and effective vaccines … to ensure delivery starting January 2021.” Kadlec is the Department of Health and Human Services’ assistant secretary of preparedness and response.Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies at a hearing with the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, on Capitol Hill Sept. 16, 2020.Vaccine ‘within weeks’President Donald Trump has said at rallies, debates and press conferences that a vaccine could arrive within weeks. “We think we can start sometime in October,” Trump said at a White House press briefing last month.Kadlec wasn’t the first health official to counter the president’s optimistic timeline. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday that there could be 100 million vaccine doses available by the end of the year “pending FDA authorizations.” And Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the government’s vaccine effort, told Marketwatch on Friday that researchers could know “by late October, or November, or in December” whether one of the vaccines in development is effective, but that it would then take weeks …

China said on Friday that it had joined a global COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan backed by the World Health Organization, becoming the biggest economy to date to pledge support to distribute the shots fairly.Meanwhile, the country is holding separate talks with the WHO to have its COVID-19 vaccines assessed, a step toward making them available for international use.Public health experts welcome the Chinese move, yet caution potential safety concerns.They are calling on China to publish all its clinical trial data to ensure transparency and gain public trust, saying rushing out a vaccine without adequate efficacy and safety testing is a recipe for disaster.Zheng Zhongwei, from China’s National Health Commission, holds a chart showing priority groups for a coronavirus vaccine as he speaks during a press conference to discuss COVID-19 vaccine-related issues on Sept. 25, 2020, in Beijing.Clinical trial dataSocorro Escalate, WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies in the Western Pacific region, indicated this week that China had held preliminary discussions with the organization to have its vaccines included in a list for emergency use.Beijing currently has at least four experimental vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials. The country has been giving hundreds of thousands of essential workers considered at high risk these experimental vaccines before the conclusion of phase III trials.Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told VOA that it’s important for the WHO to evaluate the Chinese vaccines, yet also called on China to publish its data to …

Spain’s government declared a state of emergency in Madrid Friday, taking control of efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 from local authorities after a regional court struck down restrictions as the region faces one of the most significant outbreaks in Europe.   Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government took the step at a special cabinet meeting as he imposed his authority on regional officials, who have resisted his calls for restrictions on travel in the region.   The move gives Sanchez extraordinary powers to order new constraints on life in the capital, where efforts to control a surge in infections have been complicated by the standoff. The step forced Madrid authorities to restore restrictions they had ignored following the court ruling.   At a news conference Friday, Health Minister Salvador Illa said the measures, which prohibit residents from leaving the area, including nine nearby towns, without a valid reason, among other measures, would be effective immediately and remain in place for 15 days.   The Madrid region’s 14-day infection rate of more than 560 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents is more than twice Spain’s national average of 256 and five times the European average rate of 113 for the week ending September 27.   The Interior Ministry said an extra 7,000 policemen and security personnel would be deployed for enforcement of the measures “at various exit and access points of the region under state of emergency.”     The partial lockdown comes as the nation begins a three-day holiday weekend, …