Year: 2021

Amnesty International and 27 groups in southern Africa are calling for a faster pace of vaccinations as a new wave of coronavirus infections sweeps through the region. “A number of countries across southern Africa, including Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are currently in the midst of what could be the deadliest wave yet,” said Robert Shivambu, spokesman for Amnesty International in Southern Africa, speaking via a messaging app from Johannesburg. “The lack of vaccines in the region with high levels of poverty and inequality means many people feel they are just waiting to die.” Zimbabweans line up for COVID-19 jabs, at Harare Central Hospital, June 24, 2021. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)He said regional bloc SADC (Southern African Development Community) and the international community must work together to accelerate the vaccine rollout and ensure that as many people as possible are given jabs. Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization regional director for Africa, appealed to wealthier countries to donate COVID-19 vaccine to the continent, June 24, 2021. (Photo courtesy of WHO)On Thursday, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the head of the World Health Organization in Africa, asked wealthier countries to start donating vaccine doses to the continent. She said richer countries have vaccinated 60 percent of their populations, while most African countries are at about 1 percent.  She said for Africa to reach 30 percent by the end of the year, it needs at least 700 million doses. “African people have been vaccinated with a first dose of a vaccine that needs a second dose in order to …

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday there is a likely association between two COVID-19 vaccines and a rare heart condition in boys and young men. The federal health agency said more than 1,200 people who had received either the PfizerBioNTech or Moderna vaccines developed myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle. The condition was more prominent in men than women, and was detected more after the second dose than the first.   The CDC said the side effects, which include fatigue and chest pain, have been mild and that the vast majority of those diagnosed with myocarditis have fully recovered.  The agency concluded that despite the “likely association” between the two vaccines and myocarditis, the benefits of receiving the vaccine far outweigh the risks.   FILE – Health care workers prepare doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine before administering them to staffers of Japan’s supermarket group Aeon at the company’s shopping mall in Chiba, Japan, June 21, 2021.Both the Pfizer and Moderna two-shot vaccines were developed using messenger RNA, which is a single-stranded RNA molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene, according to the FILE – Health workers treat a COVID-19 patient at the emergency unit of a field hospital set up to treat COVID patients in Ribeirao Pires, greater Sao Paulo area, Brazil, April 13, 2021.A White House official said “scientific teams and legal and regulatory authorities” from both nations collaborated to secure the arrangement. Brazil has posted 507,109 COVID-19 deaths, second only …

An Indonesian court jailed hardline Islamic cleric Rizieq Shihab on Thursday for four years for spreading false information in a video saying he was healthy despite having tested positive for COVID-19.The verdict comes after an eight-month jail term handed last month to Rizieq, the spiritual leader of the outlawed Islamic Defender’s Front (FPI), for breaching coronavirus curbs over several mass events, including his daughter’s wedding, which was attended by thousands.Prosecutors had called for a six-year sentence in the latest case after Rizieq was charged over the video, posted on the YouTube channel of the hospital where he was being treated for the coronavirus.In a streamed broadcast, Judge Khadwanto said Rizieq was guilty of “announcing false information and purposefully causing confusion for the public.”Indonesia passed the 2 million mark in coronavirus cases on Monday, as authorities announced a tightening of restrictions to contain the spread in the world’s fourth most populous country. Deaths from COVID-19 now total 55,594.Hundreds of Rizieq’s supporters had gathered outside the East Jakarta court amid heavy guard by police and video footage showed some scuffles.Shortly after being sentenced, Rizieq told the court he rejected its ruling and would contest it.Rizieq’s supporters and legal team have said the cases are politically motivated efforts to silence the cleric, who has a large and vocal following in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.He returned last year from self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia, where he had fled while facing charges of pornography and insulting the state ideology, both later dropped.The FPI had …

The U.S. space agency NASA aspires to land humans on the moon every year for 12 consecutive years, Administrator Bill Nelson testified to a congressional committee Wednesday in support of a request to boost the agency’s fiscal 2022 budget.Nelson acknowledged to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology that the agency’s budget for fiscal 2021 included $850 million toward the development of a lunar lander as part of an ambitious, roughly $3 billion Human Landing System program.“But there needs to be a landing each year for a dozen years, so there are many more awards to come if you all decide that it’s in the interest of the United States to appropriate that money,” Nelson said.The Biden administration has proposed a 6.6% increase to NASA’s current budget for 2022, amounting to a $24.8 billion request from Congress. The funding would support sending additional rovers to Mars, continuing International Space Station operations, initiating probes to Venus and sending manned flights to the moon by 2024.Former astronautNelson spent 18 years as a U.S. senator before President Joe Biden appointed him as NASA’s 14th administrator.Members of the Science, Space and Technology Committee asked Nelson how NASA would use the new funding to preserve America’s title as the world’s preeminent space agency through programs focused on space exploration, space technology and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).FILE – A worker monitors screens showing the interior of the Tianhe space station module after Chinese astronauts docked with and entered it, at the Beijing Aerospace …

Images of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol are seared into many Americans’ minds and remain especially vivid for members of Congress who witnessed the riot. One congressman has been especially forthcoming about the mental trauma he has been experiencing months after the riot. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti spoke with the lawmaker and filed this report. Camera: Saqib Ul Islam   Produced by: Adam Greenbaum     …

What do the Pentagon, the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies know about UFOs? A report due this week is expected to draw few conclusions and raise many questions — especially about U.S. adversaries. Matt Dibble reports.Producer: Matt Dibble. …

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday the COVID-19 State of Emergency, originally declared in March of 2020, will expire Thursday.Cuomo made the announcement during a news briefing, and from his Twitter account, where he wrote, “New York’s COVID-19 State of Emergency will end tomorrow [Thursday]. Fighting COVID and vaccinating New Yorkers are still top priorities, but the emergency chapter of this fight is over.”The governor had lifted most of the COVID-19-related restrictions for the state on June 15. Lifting the state emergency will allow state and local governments to decide about their own respective public health measures, without being over-ruled by the governor. It also will end the governor’s ability to issue executive orders in areas usually reserved for the state legislature.The governor said more than 71% of all state residents over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 63% are fully vaccinated.Cuomo did say the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 guidelines would remain in effect, including wearing masks on public transportation, including airplanes, at airports, and train and bus stations.  …

Feeling like you are being watched? It could be from a lot farther away than you think.   Astronomers took a technique used to look for life on other planets and flipped it around — so instead of looking to see what’s out there, they tried to see what places could see us.   There’s a lot. Astronomers calculated that 1,715 stars in our galactic neighborhood — and hundreds of probable Earth-like planets circling those stars — have had an unobstructed view of Earth during human civilization, according to a study Wednesday in the journal Nature. “When I look up at the sky, it looks a little bit friendlier because it’s like, maybe somebody is waving,” said study lead author Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University.   Even though some experts, including the late Stephen Hawking, warn against reaching out to aliens because they could harm us, Kaltenegger said it doesn’t matter. If those planets have advanced life, someone out there could conclude that there is life back here based on oxygen in our atmosphere, or by the radio waves from human sources that have swept over 75 of the closest stars on her list.   “Hiding is not really an option,” she said.   One way humans look for potentially habitable planets is by watching them as they cross in front of the star they are orbiting, which dims the stars’ light slightly. Kaltenegger and astrophysicist Jacqueline Faherty of the American Museum of Natural …

Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says tens of thousands of people in Cameroon’s western regions have been deprived of lifesaving healthcare since December, when authorities stopped their services. Cameroon accused the aid group of being too close to anglophone separatists, which the group denies.  Doctors Without Borders says over 1.4 million people in Cameroon’s restive western regions need humanitarian support, with access to healthcare extremely limited.The coordinator for the group’s operations in Central Africa, Emmanuel Lampaert, said that’s due to insecurity, lockdowns, and the targeting of health facilities.He said mortality among vulnerable groups, such as women and children, has increased, and the government’s suspension of their support since December has made the situation even worse.”Humanitarian and health needs have surges due to the armed violence and notably for the population and several hundreds of thousands of them who have to flee their houses, and who have barriers to access health care.  Concretely speaking, this means suffering from malaria or diarrhea for children in the bush, women in labor who are unable to reach health facilities, people suffering from acute respiratory infections, women victims of sexual violence and so on,” said Lampaert.Cameroon’s government in 2020 accused Doctors Without Borders of being too close to separatists who are fighting to create an independent English-speaking state in the majority French speaking country.Lampaert denied the accusation and said their only goal is to save lives.”Responding to urgent health needs is our mere and only concern.  Viruses, bullets, and infections do not care which side of …

The Delta COVID-19 variant first identified in India has spread quickly around the world and is now hitting Indonesia. Southeast Asia’s largest country now looks at another peak as it hits the 2 million mark in confirmed cases. VOA’s Ghita Permatasari reports. Ahadian Utama  contributed to this reportCamera: Ahadian Utama …

Organizers of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics have imposed restrictions on the few Japanese spectators who will be allowed inside the venues to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  Under rules announced Wednesday, domestic spectators are forbidden from cheering or waving towels, approaching athletes for autographs, or talking with other spectators, and will be asked to go straight home when the event is over. Foreign spectators have been banned from attending the event. A general view of the National Stadium in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2021 on the day to mark one month until the opening of the Olympic Games.Alcohol sales have also been banned in the venues during the Games.   The restrictions follow Monday’s decision to cap the number of spectators at 10,000 people, or 50% of a venue’s capacity, despite advice from health experts that banning all spectators was the “least risky” option for holding the Games in light of a surge in new COVID-19 infections in the Japanese capital and across the country. The decision to allow spectators dovetails with authorities changing Tokyo and eight other prefectures from a nearly two-month-long state of emergency to “quasi-emergency” measures that took effect Sunday. The looser restrictions would remain in place until July 11, 12 days before the start of the Olympic Games. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has warned he would not rule out banning all spectators from attending the Olympics if the COVID-19 situation worsens. The initial state of emergency was declared in April and extended in late …

India’s technology driven vaccination initiative has raised concerns the country’s huge digital divide is making it difficult for many people to get inoculated, particularly in the nation’s vast countryside. While tech savvy, digitally aware city dwellers have managed to get shots, millions in rural areas are left behind because of a technology barrier. Anjana Pasricha has a report. Camera: Rakesh Kumar     …

Colombia is home to the world’s largest variety of butterflies, approximately 20% of all known species, according to a study published Tuesday by the Natural History Museum in London.An international team of scientists cataloged 3,642 species and 2,085 subspecies, registering them in a document titled “Checklist of Colombian Butterflies.”More than 200 butterfly species are found only in Colombia, said Blanca Huertas, the senior butterfly collection curator at the museum and a member of the research team.An Alissa de Pteronymia “Crystal wings” butterfly lands on a flower at the Botanic Garden Jose Celestino Mutis during an exhibition in Bogota on Sept. 14, 2011.Project researchers traveled widely in Colombia, analyzed more than 350,000 photographs and studied information collected since the late 18th century, the museum said.”Colombia is a country with a great diversity of natural habitats, a complex and heterogeneous geography and a privileged location in the extreme northeast of South America,” the report reads in part.”These factors, added to the delicate public order in the last century in certain regions, has limited until now, the advancement of field exploration.”Colombia has endured more than a half century of armed conflict, with some areas controlled by leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups or drug lords, and with little government presence.Protecting butterflies in Colombia will also help protect its forests as well as other less likeable species, Huertas said.Between 2000 and 2019 Colombia lost nearly 2.8 million hectares of forest, equivalent to the area of Belgium, according to the National Department of Planning.A Siproeta Ephaphus …

The World Bank announced a partnership with the African Union Tuesday to finance the acquisition and distribution of COVID-19 vaccine for 400 million people in Africa.In a remote news conference via Zoom, World Bank Managing Operations Director Axel van Trotsenburg said the World Bank is providing $12 billion to not only acquire but deploy 400 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — a single dose shot — in support of the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) initiative.The announcement comes a day after African finance ministers and the World Bank Group met to fast-track vaccine acquisition on the continent and avoid a third wave of COVID-19.Van Trotsenburg said the bank is making the financing available in an effort to address the imbalance in vaccine access between the world’s wealthy and not-so-wealthy nations.  He said, “Less than one percent of the African population has been vaccinated. Africa has been marginalized in this global effort to get a vaccine. We have to correct this unfairness; and given that this is a global pandemic, we need global solutions and global solidarity.”  The project will be a big step toward helping the African Union meet its goal to vaccinate 60% of the continent’s population by 2022.   Van Trotsenburg said the regional effort complements the work of the World Health Organization-managed COVAX vaccine cooperative and comes at a time of rising COVID-19 cases in the region.The World Bank has already approved operations to support vaccine roll outs in 36 countries. By the end …

The United States will miss President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of U.S. adults partially or fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by the July 4 Independence Day holiday, but the White House says it expects to hit that mark “in a few extra weeks.”In a new assessment Tuesday of the country’s vaccination effort, COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said the federal government expects that 70% of those 27 and older will have gotten at least one vaccination shot by the July 4 holiday, which he described as “a remarkable achievement.”“The virus is in retreat,” Zients said, with the country regaining a sense of normalcy. “We are entering a summer of joy, a summer of freedom.”Now, he said, a renewed effort is being made to inoculate more younger adults in the 18-to-26 age group. Many of the younger adults, for various reasons, have shown little interest in getting vaccinated, especially since the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths has fallen sharply in the country in recent weeks and many businesses have reopened without facemask and social distancing restrictions that had been in place for more than a year.“Our effort does not end on July 4,” Zients said. “It’s more important than ever that they get the shot,” along with others who have yet to be inoculated. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “We are seeing a dramatic decline in deaths and hospitalizations.”She said that with the proven …

When COVID-19 hit, the world was not ready. The pandemic showed us major gaps in our preparation and ability to respond to the virus. Health experts say we will have another one. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports that it doesn’t have to be as bad as COVID-19. Camera: Laurel Bowman  Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov    …

The Philippine president has threatened to order the arrest of Filipinos who refuse COVID-19 vaccination and told them to leave the country if they would not cooperate with efforts to end a public health emergency.President Rodrigo Duterte, who is known for his public outbursts and brash rhetoric, said in televised remarks Monday night that he has become exasperated with people who refuse to get immunized amid a health crisis then help spread the coronavirus.”Don’t get me wrong. There is a crisis being faced in this country. There is a national emergency. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, I’ll have you arrested and I’ll inject the vaccine in your butt,” Duterte said.”If you will not agree to be vaccinated, leave the Philippines. Go to India if you want or somewhere, to America,” he said, adding he would order village leaders to compile a list of defiant residents.Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra acknowledged on Tuesday that there was no Philippine law criminalizing refusal to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.  “I believe that the president merely used strong words to drive home the need for us to get vaccinated and reach herd immunity as soon as possible,” Guevarra said.A human rights lawyer, Edre Olalia, raised concerns over Duterte’s threat, saying the president could not order the arrest of anybody who has not clearly committed any crime.Duterte and his administration have faced criticism over a vaccination campaign that has been saddled with supply problems and public hesitancy. After repeated delays, vaccinations started in March, …

 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that younger Americans are less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 than older Americans. The federal health agency issued a report Monday revealing that just 38% of adults between 18 and 29 years of age had received at least one dose of a vaccine by May 22, compared to 80% of adults older than 65.   The report also found that the percentage of 18- to 29-year-old Americans who were vaccinated between April 19, when all adults in the United States became eligible to receive the vaccine, and May 22 declined from 3.6% per week to 1.7% per week.   In another CDC study, nearly half of the 2,726 people between 18 and 39 years of age said they were either unsure about getting the vaccine or did not plan on getting the vaccine.    About 40% of younger adults said they believed others needed to be inoculated more than they did, while those considering getting the shot cited a desire to resume their regular social activities or keeping others from being infected. Cuba vaccinesCuba announced Monday that its three-shot COVID-19 vaccine dubbed Abdala has proved to be 92% effective in late-stage human clinical trials.  FILE – A man is vaccinated at a vaccination center amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Havana, Cuba, June 17, 2021.The Caribbean island had just announced that another of its domestically produced vaccines, Soberana 2, was 62% effective with just two of its three doses. …