Month: October 2021

The United States announced Friday an additional 9.6 million doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine are being shipped to Pakistan through the global vaccine-sharing COVAX initiative. The shipment brings to more than 25 million the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by Washington to the Pakistani people, said the American Embassy in Islamabad. “The United States is proud to partner with Pakistan to get effective, life-saving Pfizer vaccinations into the arms of Pakistanis, and Pakistan has done a great job of distributing our donated vaccines,” U.S. Chargé d’affaires Angela Aggeler was quoted as saying. “This donation comes just in time for young Pakistanis over age 12 to get their first jabs.”  COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Pakistan, with fewer than 1,000 new daily cases reported on average. The government last week eased restrictions on almost all public movement, education activities and businesses across the country of roughly 220 million people. The latest government data show there have been 1,262,771 confirmed cases of infections, 39,953 of them active, and 28,228 COVID-19-related deaths since the pandemic hit Pakistan.  Officials reported Friday that more than 95 million doses have been administered to Pakistanis, including roughly 1 million in last 24 hours alone, since the national vaccination drive was rolled out in February. The vaccination campaign has largely relied on Chinese vaccine, but the U.S. donations are helping officials overcome critical shortages of Western-developed anti-coronavirus shots.  “These Pfizer vaccines are part of the 500 million Pfizer doses the United States purchased this summer to deliver to 92 countries worldwide, including Pakistan, …

Recent polls have shown that U.S. President Joe Biden’s standing with the American public is entwined with the state of the pandemic in the country. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has more. …

The world’s most famous “starship captain” takes the trek of a lifetime. Plus, new software makes possible virtual trips through the universe, and a mining company in Greenland offers a potentially planet-saving alternative to aluminum. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space. …

Attention asteroid aficionados: NASA is set to launch a series of spacecraft to visit and even bash some of the solar system’s most enticing space rocks.  The robotic trailblazer named Lucy is up first, blasting off this weekend on a 12-year cruise to swarms of asteroids out near Jupiter — unexplored time capsules from the dawn of the solar system. And yes, there will be diamonds in the sky with Lucy, on one of its science instruments, as well as lyrics from other Beatles’ songs.  NASA is targeting the predawn hours of Saturday for liftoff.  Barely a month later, an impactor spacecraft named Dart will give chase to a double-asteroid closer to home. The mission will end with Dart ramming the main asteroid’s moonlet to change its orbit, a test that could one day save Earth from an incoming rock.  Next summer, a spacecraft will launch to a rare metal world — a nickel and iron asteroid that might be the exposed core of a once-upon-a-time planet. A pair of smaller companion craft — the size of suitcases — will peel away to another set of double asteroids.  And in 2023, a space capsule will parachute into the Utah desert with NASA’s first samples of an asteroid, collected last year by the excavating robot Osiris-Rex. The samples are from Bennu, a rubble and boulder-strewn rock that could endanger Earth a couple of centuries from now.  “Each one of those asteroids we’re visiting tells our story … the story of us, …

The World Health Organization’s endorsement of the world’s first malaria vaccine marks a major advance against the mosquito-borne illness, which kills some 265,000 children in Africa annually. Bitrus Yusuf pours syrup into a measuring cup to give to his three-year-old daughter and grandson who are sick with malaria.  He said the mosquito-borne parasite that causes the illness is all too common at this Abuja camp for internally displaced people where they live.  “We went to bed, all was well, everybody was well,” Yusuf said. “But toward midnight I heard him shivering. As I touched his body (it was) very hot, so I woke him up.”  The World Health Organization said some 94% of malaria cases and deaths worldwide occur in Africa, and that Nigeria accounts for a quarter of the fatalities. The U.N. agency said children under the age of five and pregnant women are the most affected. Last week, the global health body announced its approval for the rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine, Mosquirix. The vaccine, made by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, has been in development for more than three decades. The WHO said Mosquirix could potentially change the course of public health history. Walter Kazadi Mulombo is the WHO representative in Nigeria.  “You know before the vaccine could be introduced in the country, it has to be cleared by NAFDAC for the case of Nigeria and there are steps to be taken for the country to approve the vaccine so that introduction can start,” Mulombo said. NAFDAC …

he effects of climate change are expected to push more than 200 million people from their homes by 2050, according to the World Bank. The impacts are already being felt in the southern U.S. state of Louisiana, where four major weather disasters struck in a nine month period. VOA’s Steve Baragona reports from the state’s coastal southwest, where the damage has devastated the local economy and led to a drop in population. …

Victoria state has Thursday reported 2,297 new local COVID-19 cases — the highest number of daily infections recorded by any Australian state or territory since the pandemic began. But as infections surge, authorities hope to lift a lockdown in Melbourne within days when vaccination rates reach 70%. A 107-day lockdown in Sydney, the New South Wales state capital, was lifted on Monday. Neighboring Victoria state has record COVID-19 case numbers, however, but epidemiologist Catherine Bennett said she believes vaccinations will soon bring the outbreak under control. “While we might see cases go up as we have those freedoms start to come into effect this week in New South Wales, Victoria, probably, in a week or two, we are now seeing that we can do that safely,” she said. “That’s everything.” Health authorities in Victoria do not think case numbers have peaked, but they say vaccination rates are rapidly increasing. They say they are on track to soon cancel stay-at-home orders in the state capital, Melbourne. A lockdown in the national capital, Canberra, will end later on Thursday. Lockdowns in Australia are being lifted as inoculation rates hit 70%, and further restrictions on domestic and international travel and the size of gatherings will end when they reach 80%. For now, though, the freedoms apply only to the fully vaccinated. Nationally, about 69% of Australians have received two vaccine doses. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Pfizer drug could soon be approved for Australian children ages 5-11. “It offers additional support …

COVID-19 cases among U.S. service members have been on a steady decline over the last month, as more service members have become vaccinated ahead of the Defense Department’s fast-approaching vaccination compliance deadlines. The number of cases reached 4,902 the week of Sept. 8 but dropped to 863 cases last week, the military’s lowest number of cases since early June, according to DOD data obtained by VOA. “The decline, it’s exactly how we wanted it to go,” Defense Department spokesperson Major Charlie Dietz told VOA on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo Aug. 25 requiring service members to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or face penalties, leaving deadlines for vaccination compliance to the service branches. DOD’s vaccination mandate came during a summer surge of the coronavirus across the country that was particularly hard-hitting for unvaccinated people. Nearly as many service members died in August as in all of 2020. More service members died in September than in August, and none of those who died in September were fully vaccinated, Dietz said. According to data on active-duty troops obtained Wednesday by VOA, 91% of the Army, 99% of the Navy, 96% of the Air Force and Space Force, and 91% of the Marine Corps are fully or partially vaccinated. But active-duty troops are vaccinated at a much higher rate than their Reserve and Guard counterparts, some of whom have deadlines as late as June 30, 2022. With less than three weeks until the first of the military’s COVID-19 vaccination compliance dates, …

Finance ministers from the Group of 20 economies Wednesday pledged to keep economic stimulus policies in place to ensure a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid ongoing risks, “We will continue to sustain the recovery, avoiding any premature withdrawal of support measures,” according to the official communique released after the G-20 meeting. While the global recovery has been solid, the statement notes that it has been “highly divergent” among countries. “We reaffirm our resolve to use all available tools for as long as required to address the adverse consequences of COVID-19, in particular on those most impacted,” the statement continued. At the same time, officials are closely watching rising prices, the statement said. The meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors is being held at a time when suppliers are struggling to meet renewed demand and bottlenecks are causing shortages of key materials and pushing prices higher. Oil prices, notably, have spiked above $80 a barrel for the first time in years. The World Bank estimates 8.5% of global container shipping is stalled in or around ports, twice as much as in January. Italy’s central bank chief Ignazio Visco agreed with the International Monetary Fund and others who have said the inflation pressures are mostly the result of transitory factors like the surge in demand. But he acknowledged that “these may take months before fading away.” G-20 central bankers are studying the issue to see if there are “more structural factors at work” in the bigger-than-expected inflation spike, and …

People who got Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine as a first shot had a stronger immune response when they boosted it with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, a study by the National Institutes of Health showed Wednesday. The study, which is preliminary and hasn’t been peer reviewed, is the latest challenge to J&J’s efforts to use its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster in the United States. The study, which included more than 450 adults who received initial shots from Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson, showed that “mixing and matching” booster shots of different types is safe in adults. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are based on messenger RNA, while J&J’s uses viral vector technology. The finding comes as an advisory group to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prepares to meet later this week to discuss the merits of a booster shot for Moderna and J&J vaccines. FDA officials on Wednesday said J&J’s regulatory submission for its booster raised red flags such as small sample sizes and data based on tests that had not been validated. U.S. health officials have been under pressure to offer advice on booster doses of the J&J and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines since the White House announced in August that it planned to roll out boosters, beginning last month, for most adults. The NIH study contrasted the safety and immune responses of volunteers who were boosted with the same shot used in their initial vaccination with those of volunteers who received a different type of …

The chief of the World Health Organization on Wednesday honored the late Henrietta Lacks, an American woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge during the 1950s and ended up providing the foundation for vast scientific breakthroughs, including research about the coronavirus.    The recognition from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came more than a decade after the publication of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot’s book about the discrimination in health care faced by Black Americans, the life-saving innovations made possible by Lacks’ cells and her family’s legal fight over their unauthorized use.    “What happened to Henrietta was wrong,” Tedros said during a special ceremony at WHO Geneva headquarters before handing the Director-General’s Award for Henrietta Lacks to her 87-year-old son Lawrence Lacks as several of her other descendants looked on. Reproduced infinitely ever since, HeLa cells have become a cornerstone of modern medicine, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.  Tedros noted that Lacks lived at a time when racial discrimination was legal in the United States and that it remains widespread, even if no longer legal in most countries. “Henrietta Lacks was exploited. She is one of many women of color whose bodies have been misused by science,” he said. “She placed her trust in the health system so she could receive treatment. But the system took something from her without her knowledge or consent.”    “The medical technologies that were developed from this injustice have been used to perpetuate …

A report marking the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction finds many deaths and economic losses from natural disasters could be averted by investing in preventive risk reduction measures.  Climate-related disasters have nearly doubled over the past 20 years, with developing countries bearing the brunt of the damage. Though extreme weather events and other emergencies are growing, the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction says little money is being allocated to help countries prevent or reduce risks.  The report finds $133 billion of official development assistance was allocated for disaster-related aid between 2010 and 2019, but only $5.5 billion was invested in measures to reduce the risks and lessen the impact of disasters.  For every $100 spent on disaster-related development aid, only 50 cents goes toward protecting development from the impact of disasters, according to the report.  Ricardo Mena, director of the Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, said even that low-level funding should be better targeted to address the needs of poorer, more vulnerable countries.  “One would think that countries that are more prone to disasters and that experience higher mortality rates would be the ones where DRR, disaster risk reduction, financing would be allocated the most. But that is unfortunately not the case,” he said. “Insufficient investment is being provided to prevent future disasters in areas where high mortality is likely.”  Mena said failure to invest in DRR is like buying a nice car that has no brakes. “Investing in DRR, we know it makes sense and, in terms …

Two Israeli scientists have grown a group of date palms from 2,000 year-old seeds. This year, one of the trees produced a harvest of hundreds of dates that until now had been considered extinct. Linda Gradstein reports from Kibbutz Ketura in Israel’s Arava desert. …

Hurricane Pamela came ashore on Mexico’s Pacific coast Wednesday, bringing with it strong winds and rain.  The Category 1 storm had just regained hurricane strength before hitting 65 kilometers north of Mazatlan, a port city and tourist destination.  The storm has the potential for strong storm surge and possible flooding.  At landfall, the storm had winds of 120 kph, but that was anticipated to dissipate quickly as the storm moves inland. The remnants of the storm, which is expected to bring heavy rains across much of Mexico, could hit Texas on Thursday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.  Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.  …

A tropical storm set off landslides and flash floods as it barreled over the tip of the northern Philippines, leaving at least 11 people dead and seven missing, officials said Tuesday.  More than 6,500 villagers were evacuated from homes in several towns and cities swamped by floods and battered by pounding rains and wind that toppled trees and knocked down power.   Tropical Storm Kompasu was last tracked over the South China Sea heading toward China’s Hainan island and later Vietnam with sustained winds of 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour and gusts of 125 kph (78 mph), government forecasters said.   Six villagers died in landslides that hit their houses in the northern mountain province of Benguet and three others in the region remain missing. A security guard was swept away by strong waves while inspecting a seaport and drowned in Claveria town in Cagayan, disaster response officials said.   In western Palawan province, four people died and four others went missing in flash floods in Narra town, which was drenched by monsoon rains enhanced by the storm.  The coast guard its personnel rescued elderly residents and children trapped in submerged homes Monday and carried them through floodwaters in a rural village in Brooke’s Point town in Palawan.  About 20 storms and typhoons each year lash the Philippines, which also lies in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, making the Southeast Asian archipelago one of the most disaster-prone in the world.  …

As William Shatner prepares to be beamed up Wednesday for his first real-life spaceflight, and to become at 90 the oldest person ever to enter the final frontier, he’s bringing out the awe in the small handful of people around a rural Texas spaceport.  Shatner’s 10-minute trip with three others on the second passenger flight from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be more like the first space launches of the 1960s than the fictional galactic voyages of the Starship Enterprise on “Star Trek,” but the very idea of him leaving the atmosphere is powerful.  “It’s time Captain Kirk actually physically got up into space. I’m kind of excited about that,” said Becky Brewster, mayor of Van Horn, a rural town of about 1,800 people on what was once desolate desert ranchland in far West Texas that has been transformed by the presence of the Blue Origin spaceport facilities 25 miles away.  The mayor, a lifelong “Star Trek” fan, said she was disappointed she wasn’t invited to the launch site but is savoring the moment anyway. She’s planning to watch from her backyard with the livestream playing.  “He and Mr. Spock were the ones that got me interested in space and science fiction and and everything else,” Brewster said. “So, from junior high age up to now where William Shatner is actually in our town fixing to go up into space. You know, it’s kind of like the whole circle now for me.”  Beyond his celebrity identity, Shatner being space-bound at his age …

Heath officials on Tuesday authorized the first electronic cigarettes in the United States, saying the R.J. Reynolds vaping products can benefit adult smokers. The Food and Drug Administration said data submitted by the company showed its Vuse e-cigarettes helped smokers either quit or significantly reduce cigarette use, the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. Tuesday’s first-of-a-kind decision is part of a sweeping effort by the FDA to bring scientific scrutiny to the multibillion-dollar vaping industry after years of delays. In September, the agency said it had rejected applications for more than a million e-cigarettes and related products, mainly because of their potential appeal to underage teens. But regulators delayed deciding on most of the major vaping companies, including market leader Juul. The FDA’s decision applies only to Vuse’s refillable Solo Power device and its tobacco-flavored nicotine cartridges. The FDA said it rejected 10 other requests from the company for other flavored products, but it did not disclose details. The agency is still reviewing the company’s request to sell a menthol-flavored nicotine formula. “Today’s authorizations are an important step toward ensuring all new tobacco products undergo the FDA’s robust, scientific premarket evaluation,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s tobacco center, in a statement. “The manufacturer’s data demonstrates its tobacco-flavored products could benefit addicted adult smokers who switch to these products — either completely or with a significant reduction in cigarette consumption.” E-cigarettes first appeared in the U.S. more than a decade ago with the promise of providing smokers …

People over the age of the 60 without heart disease should not take low-dose aspirin daily to prevent a first stroke or heart attack, according to an independent panel of U.S. health experts. In a draft of new guidelines released online Tuesday, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said bleeding risks caused by aspirin outweigh any potential benefits for adults in their 60s who have not had a heart attack or stroke. Low-dose aspirin has long been recommended for people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity or other maladies that increase their risks of a heart attack or stroke.  “Aspirin use can cause serious harms, and risk increases with age,’’ said task force member and Tufts Medical Center primary care expert Dr. John Wong. Wong said adults of all ages should consult with their doctors before deciding to start or stop taking aspirin, a pain reliever and blood thinner. If the guidelines are finalized, they would mark a reversal of the group’s 2016 recommendations for preventing a first heart attack and stroke. But they would be more consistent with more recent guidelines issued by other medical organizations. Public comments on the guidelines are allowed until Nov. 8, after which the group will consider before making a final decision. …

Brain computer interfaces, where computers analyze brain signals and help paralyzed people to write and carry out other actions, is a burgeoning area of research. VOA’s Deana Mitchell has the story of one breakthrough. …