Author: Sellscien

U.S. President Joe Biden hosted an event at the White House Thursday honoring the 50 millionth coronavirus vaccination administered in the country.Four people — an elementary school counselor, a grocery store employee and two firefighter EMTs — were vaccinated against the virus at the White House Thursday afternoon to commemorate the milestone..@POTUS watching vaccination to commemorate 50 million #COVID19 shots under his watch. pic.twitter.com/CizKLRlXYv— Patsy Widakuswara (@pwidakuswara) February 25, 2021 “Fifty-million shots in just 37 days since I’ve become president,” Biden told reporters at the event, noting that despite extreme weather conditions, the United States is on track to surpass his promise to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days in office.Almost half of Americans over the age of 65 have received at least one of two shots of the vaccine, according to the White House.50 million shots in the past 37 days — no other country has done it.There are about 55m Americans who are over 65:– Six weeks ago, only 8% had gotten a shot– Today, almost 50% have gotten at least one shotLong way to go, but what a change these past weeks!— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) February 25, 2021But U.S. officials have warned that there is still a long road ahead. Biden urged Americans to continue wearing masks and said Thursday he cannot provide a date for when things will return to “normal.”The president’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also cautioned, “We are still at …

At a dog training center in Myakka City, Florida, Heather Junqueira, founder of BioScent, brings a four-year-old beagle, Noel, into a room with stainless-steel canisters, several containing samples of COVID-19.   Noel springs into action as she tries to find the ones with a smell that she knows will earn her praise and dog treats. It only takes Noel only a few seconds to figure out which ones contain gauze pads wiped with sweat or surgical masks worn by people infected with COVID.  Heather Junqueira, founder of BioScent in Myakka City, Florida, gives a reward treat to Noel, a beagle, after she successfully detects a sample of COVID-19 in a canister. (Courtesy of BioScent)BioScent, which trains medical detection dogs, was focusing on research with canines sniffing out certain cancers. But Junqueira switched gears last April after the coronavirus pandemic hit. “I realized the importance of this research,” she told VOA, “and how we might save a lot of lives.” Junqueira discovered it is easier for her dogs to detect COVID-19 than cancer.  “The virus must have a much stronger odor, which is really the body’s response to the virus,” she said, which humans cannot smell.  Dogs have up to 300 million scent receptors as compared to about 6 million in humans. Hounds, including beagles like Noel, have famously sensitive snouts. The results of her study have been “incredibly successful,” Junqueira said, with the dogs recognizing the COVID samples about 95 percent of the time.  This is in line with the high success rates …

The huge parachute used by NASA’s Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message, thanks to a puzzle lover on the spacecraft team.   Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the 70-foot (21-meter) parachute. He also included the GPS coordinates for the mission’s headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Clark, a crossword hobbyist, came up with the idea two years ago. Engineers wanted an unusual pattern in the nylon fabric to know how the parachute was oriented during descent. Turning it into a secret message was “super fun,” he said Tuesday. Only about six people knew about the encoded message before Thursday’s landing, according to Clark. They waited until the parachute images came back before putting out a teaser during a televised news conference Monday. It took just a few hours for space fans to figure it out, Clark said. Next time, he noted, “I’ll have to be a little bit more creative.” “Dare Mighty Things” — a line from President Theodore Roosevelt — is a mantra at JPL and adorns many of the center’s walls. The trick was “trying to come up with a way of encoding it but not making it too obvious,” Clark said.   As for the GPS coordinates, the spot is 10 feet (3 meters) from the entrance to JPL’s visitor center. Another added touch not widely known until touchdown: Perseverance bears a plaque depicting …

The U.S. government has determined that a one-shot COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson is safe and offers partial protection against the disease.In an analysis released Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the vaccine was about 66% effective during global trials in preventing moderate to severe cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.The American company said last month that nearly 44,000 people participated in the trial. Its effectiveness was between 66% and 72% in the United States, 57% in Latin America and in South Africa, where a new variant of the virus has spread.Data Inconclusive on Efficacy of Moderna Vaccine Against COVID-19 VariantsMore clinical evidence is needed to know whether the two-dose regimen of the vaccine protects against the coronavirus variants, experts sayAlthough the vaccine’s effectiveness appears less robust than Moderna’s and Pfizer’s, the results pave the way for final government approval for emergency use of a third vaccine that is easier to administer. The FDA analysis also said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could help accelerate vaccinations because, unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, two doses are not required.  Israel Starts to Reopen as Study Shows Pfizer Vaccine Works Study suggests vaccines are even better than clinical trials showedAn FDA panel of independent experts meet on Friday to decide whether to approve the vaccine. The FDA then weighs whether to authorize it, as it did before approving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. A final decision is expected within days.The addition of a third vaccine to combat …

The French government Wednesday said the COVID-19 situation is deteriorating in about 10 French regions, including the Paris-Ile-de-France area around the capital, and said it is considering additional restrictions to address the situation. At a news conference in Paris, government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters infection numbers and infection rates have started to climb over the past week after declining the week before. He said some regions “require rapid and strong measures.”  He said the regions of most concern are the northern Hauts-de-France region, the Ile-de-France or Paris region, the eastern Grand Est region and the southern PACA region surrounding the city of Marseille. Officials in the Alpes-Maritimes Mediterranean coastal region around the cities of Nice and Cannes on Monday announced a partial lockdown, to last during the daytime over the next two weekends. The region already has a 12-hour nightly curfew. French Health Minister Olivier Veran and French Junior Minister of Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon visit the coronavirus disease emergency and intensive care units of the Hospital Centre in Dunkirk, Feb. 24, 2021.Health Minister Olivier Veran was in the northern port of Dunkirk on Wednesday, and was expected to discuss possible measures to limit infections with local officials. Attal told reporters that Prime Minister Jean Castex would hold a news conference Thursday to further discuss the overall COVID-19 situation. Attal said the government was doing all it could to avoid a new national lockdown. Unlike some of its neighbors, France has resisted a new national lockdown to control more contagious variants, hoping a curfew in place …

A study suggests a key environmental system that affects how water circulates in the Atlantic Ocean and effects the climate could be on the verge of collapse due to the rapid melting of glaciers and sea ice. The study, published Tuesday in the scientific journal Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) used a global ocean model to study the effects of melting ice on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a large system of ocean currents that carry warm water from the tropics northward into the North Atlantic.   The system includes the Gulf Stream, of the eastern U.S. coast, which carries warm tropical water north and helps moderate temperatures in much of Europe, considering its high latitude.  The current has been under intense scrutiny in recent years because cold, fresh water from melting Greenland glaciers has essentially been causing the current to slow down, though not stop completely. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen – who conducted the study – said their model indicates the AMOC could reach a “tipping point” or, crucial threshold, sooner than earlier predicted because of the speed at which glacial ice is melting.   In an interview, one of the study’s authors, Johannes Lohmann, said it has been predicted, based on previous climate models, the AMOC could reach its tipping point when a certain level of freshwater flowed into the North Atlantic from ice melt in Greenland. He said those models were based on a very slow melting of ice. Lohmann …

Ghana has received the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines through the World Health Organization’s global vaccine-sharing program. A flight carrying 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine arrived Wednesday in the capital, Accra, according to a joint statement from WHO and UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. The vaccines were manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.  The vaccines sent to Ghana were purchased through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX, an initiative launched by WHO in cooperation with  Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, an organization founded by philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates to vaccinate children in the world’s poorest countries. The project purchases vaccines with the help of wealthier countries and distributes them equitably to all countries. U.S. President Joe Biden pledged $4 billion to the COVAX program last week.  WHO announced in December that COVAX has secured agreements for nearly two billion doses of several “promising” vaccine candidates.A pack of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines is seen as the country receives its first batch of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines under COVAX scheme, in Accra, Feb. 24, 2021.A new variant of the novel coronavirus recently discovered in the western U.S. state of California is more contagious than other versions, according to two new preliminary studies. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco discovered the new variant, called B.1.427/B.1.429, as they were tracking the possible spread of the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first detected in Britain last year.  The team found B.1.427/B.1.429  had become the predominant …

The number of people going hungry in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has nearly quadrupled in the last two years, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as Central America has been battered by an economic crisis. New data released by the U.N.’s World Food Program showed nearly 8 million people across the four countries are experiencing hunger this year, up from 2.2 million in 2018. “The COVID-19-induced economic crisis had already put food on the market shelves out of reach for the most vulnerable people when the twin hurricanes Eta and Iota battered them further,” Miguel Barreto, WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement.   He was referring to two hurricanes that hit Central America in November. “We’re eating the little food that people give to us,” said Marina Rosado, 70, who along with her son and grandchildren live along a boulevard in the Honduran city of Lima that was inundated by flooding last year. The storms that destroyed their home were the latest blow pushing the family further into hunger, Rosado said, after pandemic-related restrictions limited their ability to collect bottles and cans in the streets to sell to recycling companies.   The WFP also noted that 15% of those surveyed by the organization in January 2021 said that they were making concrete plans to migrate — nearly double the percentage in 2018.  …

The European Union and the World Health Organization teamed with the international advocacy organization Global Citizen on Tuesday to host a virtual panel discussion on global recovery of the COVID-19 pandemic.The webcast included leaders from the United States and the African Union, as well as actors and musicians seeking to solicit donations from organizations and individuals. The effort aims to set the stage for the world to bounce back from the pandemic, addressing issues such as vaccine equity, world hunger, the climate crisis and international aid.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a news conference on COVID-19 vaccination plan at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Jan. 8, 2021.In her comments, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen echoed a call by French President Emmanuel Macron’s to donate vaccines to health care workers in Africa.”Vaccines must reach all corners of the planet as soon as possible,” she said.The EU has contributed an additional $606.3 million to the WHO-backed COVAX vaccine cooperative program to supply COVID-19 shots to emerging economies, doubling the bloc’s contribution. Last week, the Biden administration pledged $4 billion to the program.U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry made comments from his office in Washington, saying the recovery discussion represents a “bold plan of action” to get the world through and beyond the pandemic. He said protecting the planet should be part of that plan.South African President Cyril Ramaphosa receives the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination at the Khayelitsha Hospital near Cape Town, South Africa, …

U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry urged the U.N. Security Council Tuesday to start treating the climate crisis like the “urgent security threat” that it is.“The climate threat is so massive, so multifaceted, that it is impossible to disentangle it from other challenges that the Security Council faces,” Kerry told a virtual summit on climate and conflict.“We bury our heads in the sand at our peril,” he cautioned.His participation at the summit comes just days after the United States officially rejoined the Paris Agreement, reversing a Trump administration decision to leave the landmark pact. Kerry said that was “an inexcusable absence by our country from this debate.”The main international instrument for mitigating climate change is the 2015 Paris Agreement. Signed by virtually every country in the world, it aims to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and limit the planet’s temperature increase during this century to 2 degrees Celsius, while working to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees. Most of the international climate debate focuses on the environmental impact of global warming, but Tuesday’s meeting was intended to highlight the ripple effect that it has on peace and security.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech during a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 18, 2020.“Climate disruption is a crisis amplifier and multiplier,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the 15-nation council. “Where climate change dries up rivers, reduces harvests, destroys critical infrastructure and displaces communities, it exacerbates the risks of instability and conflict.”A Swedish study found in …

Orangutans are a critically endangered species and the coronavirus pandemic halted efforts to protect and increase their population. But as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, rescue efforts in Indonesia are back under way.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi    …

The U.S. space agency NASA has released the first sounds ever recorded on Mars — a light gust of wind on the planet’s surface — along with panoramic views from its Perseverance Mars rover.In a remote news briefing late Monday, NASA scientists released video taken by Perseverance as it descended to the surface of Mars last Thursday, deploying its red-and-white supersonic parachute by way of a rocket-powered hovercraft and lowering its wheels to the ground in a plume of dust and smoke.The footage was captured by cameras mounted at different angles of the landing craft as it passed through the planet’s thin atmosphere to gently touch down inside a basin called the Jezero Crater.Along with the video and still photos, NASA scientists also released the first ever audio recordings of wind from the surface. NASA scientist Dave Gruel noted the microphone picked up a gust of wind, along with a gentle “whir” sound from the rover itself. Gruel said their analysis indicated the sound came from a gust traveling about five meters per second.The chief imaging scientist behind the project, Justin Maki, told reporters, “This is it. This is Mars. We’re here in our place that we’re going to be exploring over the next months and coming years.”Perseverance reached Mars last week after a nearly seven-month journey covering 472 million kilometers.Scientists hope to find biosignatures embedded in samples of ancient sediments that Perseverance is designed to extract from Martian rock for future analysis back on Earth — the first such …

Malian linguists and braille experts have translated the most widely spoken African language in Mali, Bambara, to braille for the country’s blind.  Bambara is spoken and understood by about 15 million Malians, even more than the colonial language, French, making it an important step for blind people. Annie Risemberg profiles a teacher of the new braille translation in this report from Bamako. Camera: Annie Risemberg  …

As the United States races against time and devastating winter weather to vaccinate more than 300 million people against COVID-19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a new set of guidelines that removes a key requirement for vaccine approval. The FDA announced Monday that drug makers would not need to perform a new round of massive clinical trials involving thousands of volunteers to test vaccines that have been adapted to target new variants of the coronavirus.  The agency said companies can test the efficacy of the updated vaccines through a similar process used for annual flu shots.FILE – A clinical trial patient receives a dose of AstraZeneca test vaccine at the University of Witwatersrand facility in Soweto, South Africa, Nov. 30, 2020. The process involves giving the newly adapted vaccine to a small group of volunteers and comparing the strength of its immune response to that of the original version.  Researchers can test the newly adapted vaccine as either a first shot or a booster shot for those who have already been inoculated. Drug makers are already working to revise their vaccines to meet the rapidly evolving strains of the coronavirus that have been identified in Britain, Brazil and South Africa, that may reduce the effectiveness of the existing vaccines.   The FDA’s new guidelines were released on the same day the United States surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 fatalities, first among all nations and the only one to reach such a  grim milestone in the 14-month long global pandemic.   U.S. President Joe Biden …

Is it better to give more people partial protection from COVID-19, or maximum protection to fewer people? As limited supplies of vaccines begin rolling out in parts of the world, some experts are suggesting authorities go against the recommended vaccine schedule. Rather than giving two shots spaced three or four weeks apart, they say it would be better to delay the second shot and instead focus on giving as many people their first shots as possible. With an out-of-control pandemic, they say, some protection is better than nothing.  And new data suggest that the vaccines work pretty well after one shot.  Many experts don’t like the idea, however. Big questions remain about how long protection lasts after the first shot and whether one shot is enough to protect against emerging variants.  Experts agree that everyone needs a second shot to get the highest level and longest-lasting protection. The question is how soon after the first. The longer the second shot can wait, the more people can potentially get the first.  First shot promising Some new data suggest that the first dose of vaccine provides pretty good protection. The British government Monday released figures showing that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 72% effective against infection after one dose. It reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 75%. In those older than 80, the shot cut the risk of death by more than half.  Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with a woman waiting to receive an Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, during his visit at a vaccination …

A NASA unmanned resupply ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday carrying more than 3,600 kilograms of research equipment and supplies to the orbiting laboratory. The spacecraft, built by aerospace company Northrop Grumman, was bolted into place on the Earth-facing port of the ISS shortly after arrival.  Along with basic supplies for the space station, the ship’s cargo included equipment to conduct science investigations into the creation of artificial retinas for treating degenerative human eye diseases, zero-gravity advanced computer capabilities, and the cause of muscle weakening that astronauts can experience in microgravity using tiny worms. Northrop Grumman named the supply capsule the S.S. Katherine Johnson, after the African American NASA mathematician whose work was made famous in the movie “Hidden Figures.” Her calculations contributed to the February 20, 1962, flight in which John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. The supply ship blasted off from Wallops Island in Virginia on Saturday. It will remain at the space station until May, when it will depart for Earth carrying several tons of trash.  …

NASA on Monday released the first high-quality video of a spacecraft landing on Mars, a three-minute trailer showing the enormous orange and white parachute hurtling open and the red dust kicking up as rocket engines lowered the rover to the surface. The quality was so good — and the images so breathtaking — that members of the rover team said they felt like they were riding along. “It gives me goose bumps every time I see it, just amazing,” said Dave Gruel, head of the entry and descent camera team. The Perseverance rover landed last Thursday near an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater to search for signs of ancient microscopic life. After spending the weekend binge-watching the descent and landing video, the team at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, shared the video at a news conference. The surface of Mars directly below NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is seen using the Rover Down-Look Camera in a combination of images acquired Feb. 22, 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Reuters)”These videos and these images are the stuff of our dreams,” said Al Chen, who was in charge of the landing team. Six off-the-shelf cameras were devoted to entry, descent and landing, looking up and down from different perspectives. All but one camera worked. The lone microphone turned on for landing failed, but NASA got some snippets of sound after touchdown: the whirring of the rover’s systems and wind gusts. Flight controllers were thrilled with the thousands of images beamed back — and also with the remarkably good condition of …

With the Ebola virus flaring in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a new outbreak in Guinea, Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum is worried.“This is a great concern for us, especially since the COVID and Ebola crises are occurring” simultaneously, said Muyembe, who manages DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research and is coordinating his country’s responses to both infectious diseases.A renowned expert on the Ebola virus, the 78-year-old microbiologist sees it as a more urgent threat than COVID-19 in his country. Meanwhile, the pandemic’s official Locations of current Ebola virus disease outbreaks in Guinea and DRC as of Feb. 22, 2021In past Ebola outbreaks, anywhere from 25% to 90% of infected people died, the World Health Organization reports. By comparison, the overall mortality risk of COVID-19, a respiratory disease, is 1% or less, but rises with age and risk factors, according toThe Congolese government’s Ebola response coordinator, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, visits a new Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug. 6, 2019. (Reuters)New tools to combat EbolaSome positive developments in Ebola prevention and treatment emerged, Muyembe noted, citing vaccines and drug therapies.“We have the tools to vaccinate and to treat the sick. Thus, we break the chain of transmission, and the virus can go back into the forest,” he said.In late 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Ervebo, a one-shot vaccine. Last July, the European Union approved Zabdeno, with a two-dose regimen.Gains also have been made in …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans Monday to begin easing coronavirus lockdown measures. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, Johnson credited Britain’s rapid vaccination program for allowing the country to begin reopening — amid growing scientific evidence that the vaccines will help to bring the global pandemic under control. Camera: Henry Ridgwell    …

World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Monday said some of the world’s wealthiest nations are hampering efforts by his agency and its partners to get vaccines to world’s poorest nations.Tedros took part in a joint, virtual news conference, along with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to talk about the WHO- facilitated international vaccination initiative COVAX, designed to obtain and equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccines throughout the world.Speaking from WHO headquarters in Geneva, Tedros said some high-income countries are entering into contracts with vaccine manufacturers that undermine the deals that COVAX has with those same companies, reducing the number of doses COVAX can buy. He did not name the countries.The WHO chief said making sure there are enough vaccines to be shared with the world’s poorest nations helps everyone.“This is not a matter of charity. It’s a matter of epidemiology. Unless we end the pandemic everywhere, we will not end it anywhere,” he said.Tedros said it is in the interest of all countries, including high-income countries, to ensure that health workers, older people and other at-risk groups are first in line for vaccines globally.The WHO chief reiterated the comments during his regular news briefing from Geneva. Top U.S. Infectious disease expert and presidential health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci took part in the briefing remotely from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.In his comments, Fauci agreed with Tedros’s call for all countries to support the efforts of the COVAX facility. He said there is a need for vaccines to be produced and …

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli appears to be acknowledging the problem of COVID-19 in the country, after months of claiming the virus had been defeated through prayer and steam treatments. While not specifically naming the virus, Magufuli on Sunday urged Tanzanians to begin wearing face masks for “respiratory” illnesses that are becoming a problem.It is almost a year since  Magufuli declared his country to be free from COVID-19 and said prayer helped to defeat the virus.COVID-19 Cases Increase in Tanzania, Despite Government DenialResidents and doctors point to a growing number of illnesses and deaths; opposition politicians say government’s stance is endangering livesBut on a Sunday church mass in the capital Dodoma, Magufuli urged citizens to take precautions including traditional remedies and wear face masks – but only locally made ones.We should take health precautions as it was announced, Magufuli said.  He said we should put God first, while searching for an alternative, in line with steam inhalation. He said that his own children got sick, some of his little ones got sick and they recovered. It’s all about putting God first, he said, adding that steam inhalation should not be ignored.At the end of last week, Magufuli called on citizens for three days of prayer to defeat unnamed respiratory diseases amid warnings from the Catholic church, the U.S. embassy and others that Tanzania is seeing a deadly resurgence in coronavirus infections.Tanzanians such as Baraka Kila found President’s remarks unsettling.Kila says at first they were convinced that it really did not exist. …

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is appealing for $9.4 million to fund efforts to prevent a new Ebola outbreak from spreading across West Africa.      The IFRC said Monday the money will be used to step up “surveillance and community sensitization efforts” in Guinea, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone.   “Ebola does not care about borders,” said Mohammed Mukhier, the IFRC’s Regional Director for Africa.  “Close social, cultural and economic ties between communities in Guinea and neighboring countries create a very serious risk of the virus spreading to Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone, and potentially even further.”   Health officials in Guinea declared an epidemic Sunday after three cases were detected in Gouécké, a rural community in N’Zerekore prefecture. At least one victim there has died. It is the first Ebola outbreak in Guinea since 2016.   The 2014 Ebola outbreak, the biggest in history, killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.   Guinea was expecting the delivery of 11,000 doses of Ebola vaccine from the World Health Organization Sunday, but the Reuters news agency says the shipment was delayed due to heavy dust brought by winds from the Sahara Desert.  The shipment is now due to arrive in Conarky on Monday, with vaccination efforts due to begin on Tuesday.      Guinea is also expecting another 8,600 doses of vaccine from the United States.      There have also been four confirmed Ebola cases in …

Israel closed all its Mediterranean beaches until further notice Sunday, days after an offshore oil spill deposited tons of tar across more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) of coastline in what officials are calling one of the country’s worst ecological disasters.Activists began reporting globs of black tar on Israel’s coast last week after a heavy storm. The deposits have wreaked havoc on local wildlife, and the Israeli Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry determined Sunday that a dead young fin whale that washed up on a beach in southern Israel died from ingesting the viscous black liquid, according to Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster.  Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority has called the spill “one of the most serious ecological disasters” in the country’s history. In 2014, a crude oil spill in the Arava Desert caused extensive damage to one of the country’s delicate ecosystems.  The Environmental Protection Ministry and activists estimate that at least 1,000 tons of tar, a product of an oil spill from a ship in the eastern Mediterranean earlier this month, have washed up on shore. The ministry is trying to determine who is responsible. It declined commenting on details of the investigation because it was ongoing.  Yoav Ratner, coordinator of the ministry’s oil spill contingency plan, said that there were still many “unknown unknowns” about the extent of the ecological damage and therefore it was difficult to say how long cleanup would take.  Thousands of volunteers took to the beaches on Saturday to help clean up the tar, …

Israel has reopened many schools, malls and gyms that were closed for several weeks. Some venues, however, are open only to those with a “green passport,” a document showing they have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine. The opening comes amid reports that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine works better than expected.  Malls reopened after almost two months, and there were lines outside some of the stores. Parking lots were jammed, and many children went back in school for the first time in months. But some venues, like gyms, cultural events and hotels, are open only to those with a green passport, a document showing that they have either received both shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, or have recovered from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Israel is not imposing an obligation to get vaccinated.   Edelstein said that contrary to what he called “fake news,” Israel is not imposing sanctions on anyone who does not get vaccinated.   At the same time, some in Israel said that limiting venues like gyms and hotels to those who have been vaccinated was in effect a sanction on those who hadn’t received the shots.   FILE – Israelis receive a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from medical professionals at a coronavirus vaccination center set up on a shopping mall parking lot in Givataim, Israel, Feb. 4, 2021.So far, about one-third of Israel’s population of 9.2 million has received both doses, and nearly half have received the first shot. A further 3 million Israelis are not eligible to receive …