Year: 2022

A bill enhancing health care and disability benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits won final approval in the Senate on Tuesday, ending a brief stalemate over the measure that had infuriated advocates and inspired some to camp outside the Capitol. The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 86-11. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. Biden described the legislation as the biggest expansion of benefits for service-connected health issues in 30 years and the largest single bill ever to comprehensively address exposure to burn pits. “I look forward to signing this bill, so that veterans and their families and caregivers impacted by toxic exposures finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they earned and deserve,” Biden said. The Senate had overwhelming approved the legislation back in June, but a do-over was required to make a technical fix. That process derailed when Republicans made a late attempt to change another aspect of the bill last week and blocked it from advancing. The abrupt delay outraged veterans groups and advocates, including comedian Jon Stewart. It also placed GOP senators in the uncomfortable position of delaying the top legislative priority of service organizations this session of Congress. A group of veterans and their families have been camping out at the Capitol since that vote. They had endured thunderstorms and Washington’s notorious summer humidity, but they were in the galleries as senators cast their votes. “You can go home knowing the …

The United States sued Idaho on Tuesday over a state law that it says imposes a “near-absolute ban” on abortion and also sought to block the Western state from prosecuting or disciplining doctors, according to a court filing. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Idaho, seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction against the state prohibiting enforcement of the law and asked the court to rule that the state law violates federal statutes. The lawsuit also alleges the state law interferes with the United States’ pre-existing agreements with hospitals under Medicare, referring to the federal health care program for seniors. “Today, the Justice Department’s message is clear … if a patient comes into the emergency room with a medical emergency jeopardizing the patient’s life or health, the hospital must provide the treatment necessary to stabilize that patient,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference in Washington announcing the filing. “This includes abortion, when that is the necessary treatment,” Garland added. Tuesday’s lawsuit marks the Justice Department’s first legal battle over reproductive rights since the Supreme Court in June overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion. Idaho in March became the first state to enact a six-week abortion ban modeled on a Texas law that empowers private citizens to sue abortion providers. The law bans abortion before many women know they are pregnant. …

India is accelerating action against the monkeypox virus after reporting its first death due to monkeypox in the southern state of Kerala, that of a 22-year-old man who had recently returned from the United Arab Emirates. The death of the young man is the first due to monkeypox in Asia, where several countries have reported outbreaks of the viral infection that has been declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization. Kerala health authorities announced the death on Monday after it was confirmed that the man had monkeypox. He had died in a hospital on Saturday, about a week after returning from the UAE, where his family said he had tested positive for the infection. By the time doctors were informed, he was already critical. Samples from the man that were tested in India also detected the virus, according to Kerala Health Minister, Veena George. This is the fourth monkeypox death reported globally outside Africa. So far there have been two monkeypox related fatalities in Spain and one in Brazil. Kerala health authorities said that about 20 persons, who had been in contact with the 22-year-old, are being monitored. Passengers who were on the flight with him from UAE to Kerala have also been contacted and authorities have urged people with symptoms to inform doctors. After the death was reported in Kerala, the federal government said it is setting up a task force to monitor the outbreak in the country. Fifteen laboratories have been designated to diagnose …

The public health response to the outbreak of monkeypox in the United States has so far failed to prevent significant community spread of the disease, leading to a call for a reassessment of the strategy for containing it. Since the first reported U.S. case of the outbreak on May 17, the number of infections has soared to more than 5,000, with the majority found among men who have sex with men. Although reporting of case numbers is scattered across different agencies, the U.S. appears to account for more than 25% of global cases identified during the current outbreak, which the World Health Organization has identified as a “public health emergency of international concern.” ‘You have to act fast’ Infectious disease experts have been dismayed by what they saw as a lack of urgency on the part of U.S. public health agencies in the early weeks of the outbreak. “What I expected to see would have been a more vigorous kind of a response based on lessons that we’ve learned from … COVID-19, as well as lessons we’ve learned from the HIV response,” Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, founder and director of ICAP at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told VOA. “When you have an outbreak, the most important thing is you have to act fast, you have to mobilize, and … you have to rally all your assets to work together really quickly to be able to do what’s needed,” El-Sadr said. Facing criticism at the end of June, the …

New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency Monday over the spread of monkeypox. “This order will bolster our existing efforts to educate, vaccinate, test, and treat as many New Yorkers as possible and ensure a whole-of-government response to this outbreak,” Adams said in a statement released with the executive order. The order allows Adams to suspend local laws and temporarily impose new rules to control the spread of the outbreak. Similarly, Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency last Friday. She previously announced that over the next four to six weeks, the federal government would distribute 110,000 vaccine doses to the state in addition to the 60,000 already distributed. As of Monday, New York City has reported 1,472 cases, according to monkeypox data on the NYC Health website. Most cases worldwide have affected men who have sex with men. In an announcement Saturday declaring a public health emergency in the city, Adams and Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan estimated that about 150,000 New Yorkers may be at risk of monkeypox infection. Cases are continuing to rise across the country. New York currently has the highest number of recorded monkeypox cases among the 50 states, followed by California with 799 cases as of Friday, the CDC reports. San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency on Thursday. Though California has distributed more than 25,000 vaccine doses, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a KTVU-TV interview last week that the state is “not even close to where …

Whether it’s abstinence, avoiding nightclubs, limiting sexual partners or pushing for a swift vaccine rollout, Spain’s gay community is on the front line of the monkeypox virus and is taking action.  “With this monkey thing, I prefer to be careful. … I don’t have sex anymore, I don’t go to parties anymore, and that’s until I’m vaccinated and have some immunity,” said Antonio, a 35-year-old from Madrid who declined to give his last name.  Antonio, who often went to nightclubs and sometimes to sex parties, decided to act as cases continued to increase.  Spain on Saturday reported its second monkeypox-related death.  Outside of Africa, the only other such death has been in Brazil.  More than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  Spain is one of the world’s worst-hit countries. The health ministry’s emergency and alert coordination center put the number of infected people at 4,298.  As cases increase globally, the WHO has called on the group currently most affected by the virus, men who have sex with men, to limit their sexual partners.  Lack of vaccines  “This is not like Covid, the vaccine already exists, there’s no need to invent it. If it wasn’t a queer disease, we would have acted more — and faster,” said Antonio.  Like other members of the gay community, he believes the authorities have not done enough.  NGOs have denounced a lack of prevention, a shortage of vaccines …

New York has declared a public health emergency due to a monkeypox outbreak.  Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan made the announcement Saturday. The two officials said in a joint statement that “New York City is currently the epicenter of the outbreak, and we estimate that approximately 150,000 New Yorkers may currently be at risk for monkeypox exposure.” “Over the past few weeks, we have moved as quickly as possible to expand outreach and access to vaccines and treatment to keep people safe,” the officials said.  “We will continue to work with our federal partners to secure more doses as soon as they become available. This outbreak must be met with urgency, action, and resources, both nationally and globally, and this declaration of a public health emergency reflects the seriousness of the moment.” On Friday, New York state Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order declaring a state disaster emergency because of the monkeypox outbreak. In her executive order, Hochul said that “More than one in four monkeypox cases in this country are in New York State.”  Her declaration also expanded the number of health care individuals who can administer the monkeypox vaccines. The World Health Organization has declared the global monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said recently that while 98% of global monkeypox cases “are among men who have sex with men, anyone exposed can get monkeypox, which is why WHO …

The bedsheets are big. Some are light pink, others hot pink or purple, connected and stretched taut by people holding wooden poles. Together, the sheets form a barrier across the parking lot. The activists, who are supporting a woman’s right to an abortion, wear bright pink vests with PRO-CHOICE in black emblazoned on the front. This is the front line of protection for pregnant women who drive to this women’s center for an abortion. The sheeting forms a tunnel for them to leave their cars and enter the center, unseen by anti-abortion protesters trying to stop them. ‘There’s very little conversation’ This is the daily scene at the Bristol Regional Women’s Center.   The abortion-rights activists stay inside the center parking lot; the anti-abortion protesters stand on the sidewalk. They walk next to a busy street with posters reading “Love Your Baby and Yourself” or “Babies are Murdered Here” next to competing pink signs that read, “Honk Twice for Choice.” A local church organizes the anti-abortion protesters. Natalie, who asked to use only her first name for safety reasons, is 24. She has been coming here weekly for seven years, saying, “This is what the Lord has called us to do.” She says  no patient has ever approached her for help. Another young protester, Haven, says he’s handed out a few pamphlets but it is difficult to approach the women because of the sheeting. He has not spoken to the doctors or the abortion-rights protesters, adding, “There’s very little conversation …

Two of the hardest-hit U.S. regions have raised the alert level over the monkeypox outbreak. San Francisco declared a public health emergency Thursday. The city accounts for 281 of California’s nearly 800 cases. The declaration gives health officials access to additional resources to deal with the outbreak. New York, with nearly 1,400 cases statewide, made a similar declaration Thursday. Worldwide, more than 21,000 cases have been reported in 78 countries, nearly all of them outside West and Central Africa, where the virus is endemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) raised the threat level to its highest ranking last weekend. The U.S. case count is nearing 5,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The federal government has not declared an emergency but announced plans Thursday to distribute nearly 800,000 additional doses of monkeypox vaccine. U.S. health officials said they had already distributed 340,000 doses, but many jurisdictions have reported that they have had to turn away patients because of short supplies. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions. Who gets monkeypox, and how? The outbreak has been concentrated among men who have sex with men, though anyone can get monkeypox. The virus spreads through contact with the rash that infected patients develop. It can also pass through bodily fluids, respiratory droplets after prolonged face-to-face contact or contaminated clothing, bedding or towels. Men who have sex with men should have fewer sex partners in order to curb the spread, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. …

U.S. regulators said Friday they are no longer considering authorizing a second COVID-19 booster shot for all adults under 50 this summer, focusing instead on revamped vaccines for the fall that will target the newest viral subvariants. Pfizer and Moderna expect to have updated versions of their shots available as early as September, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. That would set the stage for a fall booster campaign to strengthen protection against the latest versions of omicron. The announcement means the U.S. won’t pursue a summer round of boosters using the current vaccines for adults under 50, as some Biden administration officials and outside experts previously suggested. They had argued that another round of shots now could help head off rising cases and hospitalizations caused by the highly transmissible omicron strains. Currently, all Americans ages 5 and over are eligible for a booster shot five months after their initial primary series. Fourth doses of the Pfizer or Moderna shots — a second booster — are recommended for Americans 50 and older and for younger people with serious health issues that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19. The FDA urged eligible adults who haven’t been boosted to get their extra shot now: “You can still benefit from existing booster options and leave time to receive an updated booster in the fall,” the agency said in a statement. The White House has also emphasized that getting a fourth dose now won’t impact anyone’s ability to get omicron-targeted shots …

Scientists say wildfires in the American West are bigger, hotter and more destructive than in the past. …

Human-caused climate change made last week’s deadly heat wave in England and Wales at least 10 times more likely and added a few degrees to how brutally hot it got, a study said. A team of international scientists found that the heat wave that set a new national record high at 40.3 degrees Celsius was made stronger and more likely by the buildup of heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. They said Thursday that temperatures were 2 to 4 degrees Celsius warmer in the heat wave than they would have been without climate change, depending on which method scientists used. The study has not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal yet but follows scientifically accepted techniques, and past such studies have been published months later. “We would not have seen temperatures above 40 degrees in the U.K. without climate change,” study senior author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College of London, said in an interview. “The fingerprint is super strong.” World Weather Attribution, a collection of scientists across the globe who do real-time studies of extreme weather to see whether climate change played a role in an extreme weather event and if so how much of one, looked at two-day average temperatures for July 18 and 19 in much of England and Wales and the highest temperature reached in that time. The daily highest temperatures were the most unusual, a one-in-1,000-year event in the current warmer world, but “almost impossible in a …

Los Angeles County dropped a plan to impose a universal indoor mask mandate this week as COVID-19 infections and rates of hospitalizations have stabilized, a top health official said Thursday.  Health director Barbara Ferrer said two weeks ago that the nation’s most populous county could again require face coverings if trends in hospital admissions continued under criteria set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  On Thursday, she said the county had dodged imposition of the broad mask rule. The county remains at the “high” CDC level of community transmission, but it could drop to “medium” in coming weeks.  Ferrer made the announcement during a briefing at which she displayed flat and declining data graphs. She said transmission had dropped steadily since July 23, “potentially signaling the beginning of a downward trend in cases.” Hospitalizations are also down.  “We’re on a decline right now, and it’s hard for us to imagine reinstating universal indoor masking when we’re on this significant of a decline,” Ferrer said. But she added that health officials would reassess things should case rates and hospital admissions spike again.  While masks won’t be required in most indoor spaces, Ferrer reminded residents that face coverings remain an effective tool to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.  As it has for most of the pandemic, L.A. County will still require masks in some indoor spaces, including health care facilities, mass transit vehicles, airports, jails and homeless shelters.  The new mandate, which would have gone into effect Friday, …

Russia announces plans to sever a long-term space partnership. Plus, a private spaceflight company extends its record of successful launches, and NASA scores a win for its upcoming moon mission. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.  …

President Joe Biden’s administration is launching a renewed push for COVID-19 booster shots for those eligible, pointing to the enhanced protections they offer against severe illness as the highly transmissible BA.5 variant spreads across the country.  The initiatives include direct outreach to high-risk groups, especially seniors, encouraging them to get “up to date” on their vaccinations, with phone calls, emails and new public service announcements.  Americans ages 5 and older should all get boosters five months after their initial primary series, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It also says those age 50 and older, or those who are immunocompromised, should get their second boosters four months after their first. According to the CDC, tens of millions of eligible Americans haven’t received their first boosters, and only 30% of those who have received their first boosters have also received their second.  The CDC has released a “booster calculator” to help people determine when to get a booster shot.  Biden, who received his second booster shot in March, tested positive for the virus last week and recovered after experiencing mild symptoms for five days.  “Given the rise of the Omicron BA.5 variant, it is essential that Americans stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations — with booster shots — to achieve the highest level of protection possible,” the White House said. COVID-19 is killing about 366 people in the U.S. each day, the vast majority of whom are not up to date on their vaccinations. The administration …

The World Health Organization is calling for greater investment in the development of new vaccines to keep pace with the rapidly evolving variants of the coronavirus. As world attention is focused on the monkeypox outbreak, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. He says new tools must be developed to curb this deadly disease while public health measures that are known to work must be maintained and strengthened. He says one of the most effective ways to save lives is to vaccinate the right groups first. By this he means health workers, older people, and other at-risk groups such as those with underlying health conditions. He notes COVID-19 cases and deaths have been increasing for the last five weeks. The latest WHO report puts the number of confirmed global cases at nearly 566 million, including more than 6.3 million deaths. Tedros says several countries also are reporting increasing hospitalizations, following waves of transmission driven by omicron subvariants. “While vaccines have saved countless lives, they have not substantially reduced transmission. So, it is vital for governments and the private sector to continue collaborating and investing in the development of new vaccines that prevent both infection and disease.” Tedros adds vaccines should be developed that can be delivered more easily, such as through nasal sprays or drops. The WHO executive director for health emergencies, Mike Ryan, says more attention must be paid to pandemic preparedness. He says risks from diseases such as COVID-19, monkeypox, Marburg, and …

Every week, tons of electronic waste cross the border from Israel to the West Bank. Thousands of Palestinian families make a living off the waste by burning it to extract copper they can sell. But the burning is taking a toll on residents’ health. Linda Gradstein reports. Camera: Ricki Rosen. …