Month: May 2021

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is investigating reports  that young people have developed myocarditis, or heart inflammation, after being inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine.The agency’s vaccine safety group said in a recent report that there have been “relatively few reports“ of the heart inflammation, but most tended to occur in male teenagers and young adults, usually after a second vaccine dose.“Most cases appear to be mild, and follow-up of cases is ongoing,” the safety group said.In another development, two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca are about as effective against the coronavirus variant first found in India as they are against the variant first found in England, according to a study by Public Health England announced Saturday.The study found that Pfizer’s vaccine is 88% effective against B.1.617.2, or the Indian variant, and 93% effective against B.1.1.7, now known as the Kent variant. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is 60% against the Indian variant and 66% effective against the English variant.In both cases, the effectiveness was measured two weeks after the second shot and against symptomatic disease. The Kent variant is the dominant strain in England but health officials fear the Indian strain may outpace it.In England, health authorities have stretched the time between the two doses to as much as three months in order to get more people vaccinated and stop the coronavirus in its tracks. Against the variants, though, two shots are better than one, so for clinically vulnerable people or those older …

Yuan Longping, a Chinese scientist who developed higher-yield rice varieties that helped feed people around the world, died Saturday at a hospital in the southern city of Changsha, the Xinhua News agency reported. He was 91.Yuan spent his life researching rice and was a household name in China, known by the nickname “Father of Hybrid Rice.” Worldwide, a fifth of all rice now comes from species created by hybrid rice following Yuan’s breakthrough discoveries, according to the website of the World Food Prize, which he won in 2004.On Saturday afternoon, large crowds honored the scientist by marching past the hospital in Hunan province where he died, local media reported, calling out phrases such as: “Grandpa Ye, have a good journey!”In the 1970s, Yuan achieved the breakthroughs that would make him famous. He developed a hybrid strain of rice that recorded an annual yield 20% higher than existing varieties — meaning it could feed an extra 70 million people a year, according to Xinhua.His work helped transform China from “food deficiency to food security” within three decades, according to the World Food Prize, which was created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food.Yuan and his team worked with dozens of countries around the world to address issues of food security as well as malnutrition.In his later years, Yuan did not stop researching. In 2017, working with a Hunan agricultural school, he helped create a strain …

Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.High above the desert in a cloudless sky, VSS Unity ignited its rocket to hurtle the ship and two pilots toward space. A live feed by NASASpaceFlight.com showed the ship accelerating upward and confirmed a landing later via radar.Virgin Galactic announced that the shuttle achieved a speed equal to three times the speed of sound and an altitude of just more than 89 kilometers (55 miles) above sea level before making its gliding return through the atmosphere.British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson said the flight and landing brought the roughly 15-year-old venture tantalizingly close to commercial flights for tourists. Virgin Galactic said those flights could begin next year.’They all worked’”Today was just an incredible step in the right direction,” Branson told The Associated Press shortly after the flight landing. “It tested a lot of new systems that the teams have been building and they all worked.”Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said at least two more undated test flights lie ahead — the next with four mission specialist passengers in the cabin. Pending trials also include a flight that will take Branson to the edge of space.”The flight today was elegant, beautiful,” Colglazier said. “We’re going to analyze all the data that we gather on these flights, but watching from the ground and …

Billions, perhaps even trillions, of cicadas are emerging from the soil over a six-week period in more than a dozen U.S. states. The Washington region, including Northern Virginia, is a hot spot for the plentiful but short-lived thumb-sized insect that some find fascinating and others unnerving.Entomologist Floyd Shockley searched a wooded area in Alexandria, Virginia, for the harmless insects, which slowly climb out of the ground every 17 years from under the deciduous trees on which they feed.An adult cicada climbs up a bush at a forested park in Alexandria, Virginia. Scientists say billions, perhaps even trillions of the insects, may emerge during the next several weeks. (Deborah Block/VOA)”There’s a couple of adults over here,” Shockley said as he gently picked up a black creature with translucent wings and prominent red eyes. Shockley is the collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Today, he is collecting specimens for research.More than 3,000 kinds of cicadas can be found worldwide. While many appear annually, some U.S. varieties spring from the ground either every 17 or 13 years. The cicadas currently blanketing the Washington area are known as Brood X (10).”It’s an amazing phenomenon,” Shockley said.Two-year-old Robert Cody in Alexandria can’t get enough of the cicadas, even when they fly and land on him. “The cicadas are my friends. They tickle my ears, and their eyes look like fire,” he said.Some people are wary of the bugs, like Jeremy Buchanan in Herndon, Virginia, who likes to take a …

COVID-19, climate change and cooperation in high-tech industries were the focus of a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House Friday. While the leaders also discussed North Korea, prospects for a breakthrough on denuclearization appear dim. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …

U.S. and German vaccine partners Pfizer and BioNTech on Friday pledged to deliver 2 billion doses of their vaccine to low- and middle-income nations as part of a global effort to close the vaccine gap between rich and poor nations.Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, speaking in Rome at the Global Health Summit, said the first billion doses of their vaccine will be delivered this year, and the second in 2022.U.S. pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Johnson & Johnson also pledged donations of 200,000 and 100,000 doses respectively.Tentative reopeningsIn large parts of Germany on Friday, beer gardens, cafes and restaurants opened outdoor tables for the first time in months. Customers had to show a negative COVID-19 test or a vaccination certificate to gain entry. Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to behave responsibly as the country begins to reopen.Also Friday, International Olympic Committee Vice President John Coates said the games will open in just more than two months in Tokyo even if the city is under a state of emergency because of the pandemic.Recent opinion polls indicate that most Japanese oppose hosting the Olympics, which are scheduled to begin July 23.Coates said the polls might improve once more Japanese receive coronavirus vaccinations. Japanese officials have pledged to vaccinate the country’s elderly population by the end of July.The government in Lebanon said Friday it will allow cinemas and theaters to reopen at reduced capacity for the first time in more than a year. The development comes a day after the country recorded its lowest one-day …

The White House COVID-19 response team said Friday that major online dating sites are pitching in to encourage more people in the United States to get vaccinated.At the response team’s Friday briefing, Andy Slavitt, senior White House adviser, told reporters that major dating sites including Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, Match, OkCupid and others are offering incentives to members to get vaccinated, including badges to display on their profiles and access to premium features.Slavitt said that the pandemic has had an impact on people’s personal lives, as social distancing is not conducive to dating. He said that while people are eager to get back into dating, they want to be able to do it safely. And, he said, the dating site OkCupid reports that its members who can show they are fully vaccinated are 14% more likely to get dates.Slavitt said online dating sites have access to more than 50 million members, and the White House welcomes the incentives.Numbers droppingMeanwhile, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky reported that as of Thursday, the national daily average number of COVID-19 cases for the past week fell by almost 20% to the lowest daily average since June 13, 2020. Thursday was also the second day in a row the national daily average number of cases fell below 30,000.The good news about declining COVID-19 numbers around the country creates, ironically, a problem for officials trying to get more people vaccinated. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says the numbers may make people think …

Twenty-two-year-old Meta Josten from the Democratic Republic of Congo was already living a hard life in one of Uganda’s refugee settlements. When the Ugandan government announced measures last year to control the spread of COVID-19, life got even harder.With little or no work available to locals, Josten, who previously survived on casual labor outside the settlement, had no income to supplement the aid his family was given.For Josten, who lived with five siblings and a jobless father, it was the hunger that almost got him to take his life.“We slept two days without eating food,” Josten said. “We were just surviving on just porridge. A bit of porridge which sustained us for the bit of moments. By then I was like if it’s like this, which means, it’s useless for me to stay in this world.”Mamuru Jackson, a refugee from South Sudan, said it was the lack of human interaction that pushed him to the brink. Having fled to Uganda with a younger brother, leaving his mother and father in South Sudan, Jackson wasn’t ready to assume the role of a parent.“Actually, that thought came into my mind,” Jackson  said. “Because, I feel like I’m alone in this world. And also, the work at home. Because I was only elder person. The other brother of mine is still very young. I feel overwhelmed.”Male Ali, a psychologist and counselor, said  both Josten’s and Jackson’s conditions were deepened due to the thought of not being cared for after separation from family. He outlines the …

The true number of global deaths attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic is probably two to three times higher than those officially documented, findings in this year’s World Health Statistics Report suggest.Based on excess death since the pandemic began, World Health Organization officials believe the true number is much higher than the 3.4 million deaths that have been officially documented as of Dec. 31, 2020. WHO data analyst William Msemburi said the organization is working with other U.N. agencies to quantify both the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19. “Direct incorporates the reported COVID deaths as well as those COVID deaths that were missed because people died without testing,” he said. “What I mean by indirect, these are the deaths that can be attributed to the difficult conditions that many people in the world are living under because of the pandemic. These conditions have made patients avoid health care, which has increased deaths.” A medical worker takes care of a patient with coronavirus disease, inside the Intensive Care Unit at the Government Institute of Medical Sciences hospital, in Greater Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, May 21, 2021.Msemburi said the pandemic has taken a severe socio-economic toll, resulting in increases in diseases like depression, but treating COVID emergency patients has taken priority over those suffering from other diseases. The report, which provides the latest data on more than 50 health-related U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and regional health trends, finds the pandemic has disrupted health services for many life-threatening diseases and poses major threats …

U.S. health officials said Thursday that people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus can go maskless and stop maintaining social distancing in most social settings. Folks, if you’re fully vaccinated — you no longer need to wear a mask.If you’re not vaccinated yet — go to Taisei Kikuchi performs in the park competition during a test event set in preparation at the venue for the Olympic Games, which has been rescheduled to start in July, in Tokyo, May 14, 2021.Calls to cancel Tokyo Olympics In Japan, a petition with more than 350,000 signatures, calling for the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics, was submitted Friday to the Olympic and Paralympic committee chiefs, as well as Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.Japan is experiencing a surge in cases in various locations, including Tokyo where the Olympics are scheduled to start on July 23.  “Precious medical resources would need to be diverted to the Olympics if it’s held,” said “Stop Tokyo Olympics” campaign organizer Kenji Utsunomiya.Japanese officials seem determined to push ahead with plans to open the games which were cancelled last year because of the COVID outbreak.  “Though there is a global pandemic, it is important to hold safe and secure Tokyo 2020 Games,” Governor Koike said recently.Multiple funeral pyres of people who died of COVID-19 burn at the Ghazipur crematorium in New Delhi, India, May 13, 2021.India cases mount “We are facing invisible enemy, fighting it on war-footing mode,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday about the COVID contagion in India.  On Friday, India reported 343,144 new cases in the last 24 –hour period.  Last week, daily cases sometimes totaled more than 400,000. Only the U.S. has more COVID-19 cases than India, but public health officials say India’s coronavirus numbers are …

Data missing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website is back and updated after a four-year absence under the Trump administration.The EPA’s new Climate Change Indicators website shows that the last decade was the hottest on record; heat waves have increased in frequency from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s; and sea levels rose as much as 8 inches in coastal areas.”With this long overdue update, we now have additional data and a new set of indicators that show climate change has become even more evident, stronger, and extreme — as has the imperative that we take meaningful action,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.The site pulls together data from 13 federal agencies, plus academics and other organizations, on everything from greenhouse gas emissions to winter ranges of birds.The usual metrics are here, including rising temperatures and sea levels and shrinking glaciers.The updated version adds a dozen new indicators including the frequency and duration of heat waves, melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, and summer energy use for air conditioning.The website shows “the public and planners the many costs that climate change has on their daily lives, public health and ecosystems that many livelihoods depend upon,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists.The move to update the data is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s sidelining of science and scientists.Former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” …

The man in the WhatsApp video says he has seen it work himself: A few drops of lemon juice in the nose will cure COVID-19.”If you practice what I am about to say with faith, you will be free of corona in five seconds,” says the man, dressed in traditional religious clothing. “This one lemon will protect you from the virus like a vaccine.”False cures. Terrifying stories of vaccine side effects. Baseless claims that Muslims spread the virus. Fueled by anguish, desperation and distrust of the government, rumors and hoaxes are spreading by word of mouth and on social media in India, compounding the country’s humanitarian crisis.”Widespread panic has led to a plethora of misinformation,” said Rahul Namboori, co-founder of Fact Crescendo, an independent fact-checking organization in India.While treatments such as lemon juice may sound innocuous, such claims can have deadly consequences if they lead people to skip vaccinations or ignore other guidelines.In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India had “saved humanity from a big disaster by containing corona effectively.” Life began to resume, and so did attendance at cricket matches, religious pilgrimages and political rallies for Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.Four months later, cases and deaths have exploded, the country’s vaccine rollout has faltered and public anger and mistrust have grown.”All of the propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories that I’ve seen in the past few weeks has been very, very political,” said Sumitra Badrinathan, a University of Pennsylvania political scientist who studies misinformation in India. “Some people are …

Just weeks ago, the Gaza Strip’s feeble health system was struggling with a runaway surge of coronavirus cases. Authorities cleared out hospital operating rooms, suspended nonessential care and redeployed doctors to patients having difficulty breathing.Then, the bombs began to fall.This week’s violence between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers has killed 103 Palestinians, including 27 children, and wounded 530 people in the impoverished territory. Israeli airstrikes have pounded apartments, blown up cars and toppled buildings.Doctors across the crowded coastal enclave are now reallocating intensive care unit beds and scrambling to keep up with a very different health crisis: treating blast and shrapnel wounds, bandaging cuts and performing amputations.Distraught relatives didn’t wait for ambulances, rushing the wounded by car or on foot to Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest. Exhausted doctors hurried from patient to patient, frantically bandaging shrapnel wounds to stop the bleeding. Others gathered at the hospital morgue, waiting with stretchers to remove the bodies for burial.At the Indonesia Hospital in the northern town of Jabaliya, the clinic overflowed after bombs fell nearby. Blood was everywhere, with victims lying on the floors of hallways. Relatives crowded the ER, crying out for loved ones and cursing Israel.”Before the military attacks, we had major shortages and could barely manage with the second (virus) wave,” said Gaza Health Ministry official Abdelatif al-Hajj by phone as bombs thundered in the background. “Now casualties are coming from all directions, really critical casualties. I fear a total collapse.”Gutted by years of conflict, the impoverished health care system …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson voiced anxiety Thursday about a rise in the U.K. of the coronavirus variant first identified in India, after a closely monitored study of infections in England found it becoming more prevalent — just as the next big easing of lockdown restrictions is to begin. “It is a variant of concern. We are anxious about it,” Johnson said. “We want to make sure we take all the prudential, cautious steps now that we could take, so there are meetings going on today to consider exactly what we need to do. There is a range of things we could do. We are ruling nothing out.” Johnson’s comments have stoked speculation that the government will ramp up vaccinations alongside testing in areas that are seeing a rising incidence of the virus. FILE – A handout photograph released by the U.K. Parliament shows Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic at the House of Commons, in central London, May 12, 2021.Already, the local authority in the northwest England town of Blackburn is setting up additional coronavirus vaccine clinics following a spike in infections. For now, the jabs will be offered to those eligible under the rules governing the rollout, which is largely based on age — the rollout was extended Thursday, with vaccines now available to those ages 38 and older. Worries over the Indian variant were central in the latest assessment of the pandemic in England from Imperial College London. Though it said overall cases have fallen to their …

NASA shares the sound of its Mars helicopter.  Plus, space debris triggers a verbal sparring match, and an asteroid sample is heading to Earth.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has This Week in Space.Producer: Arash Arabasadi. …

Health officials are recommending lifting most COVID-19 restrictions for people who are fully vaccinated.That means no more masks or social distancing, indoors or outdoors, according to updated guidance from the U.S. FILE – Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 18, 2021.For now, masks are still required on planes, trains and buses. Walensky said the CDC would be updating travel guidance soon, as well as recommendations for schools, camps and other settings.Walensky left it up to local leaders to decide whether businesses and other gathering places should continue to require masks. The number of cases and the number of people vaccinated in an area should guide the choice, she said.Experts said the announcement was mostly good news.”The science on this is pretty clear. Vaccinated people rarely get sick and don’t do much transmitting,” Brown University School of Public Health Dean Ashish Jha wrote on Twitter.This is realAnd its correctAnd its goodThe science on this is pretty clear. Vaccinated people rarely get sick and don’t do much transmittingCDC to announce that fully vaccinated folks no longer need to mask up or physically distance in most circumstancesGet the shot Thomas Lo, 15, receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the coronavirus disease at Northwell Health’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, May 13, 2021.Walensky also noted that new research published in the past couple of weeks has shown how effective the vaccines are in the …

Children ages 12 and older can now roll up their sleeves for COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., offering parents and schools a chance to relax their pandemic precautions and bringing the country a step closer to controlling the virus.   A government advisory committee recommended Pfizer’s vaccine for children 12 and older on Wednesday, after the Food and Drug Administration expanded authorization of the shots to the age group earlier in the week.Here’s what you need to know:Are The Shots The Same as Those for Adults? Yes. The dose and the schedule are the same; the two shots are given three weeks apart.  Where Can Kids Get The Shots? Pharmacies, state sites and other places that are already vaccinating people 16 and older with the Pfizer vaccine should be able to give the shots to all authorized ages in most cases.   “All those sites can simply extend down to the younger age group,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s acting commissioner, said in a call with reporters after the agency expanded authorization.   School districts are also preparing to host vaccination clinics to speed up the campaign. And since parents might feel more comfortable with their pediatricians and primary care doctors, health officials are working to make the shots more widely available at private practices.Will Kids Need a Guardian? Parental consent will be needed, but exactly how it’s obtained could vary. For vaccinations at school-based clinics, for example, parents might be able to give consent by signing a form, said …