Month: May 2021

Categories
Health

Airborne Coronavirus Is a Risk, the C.D.C. Acknowledges

Airborne Coronavirus Is a Threat, the C.D.C. Acknowledges

The federal health authorities updated the public guidelines on the spread of the coronavirus on Friday, emphasizing that the transmission occurs through inhalation of very fine respiratory droplets and aerosolized particles, as well as through contact with sprayed droplets or by touching contaminated hands with the mouth, nose or eyes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now explicitly state – in large, bold letters – that airborne viruses can be breathed even if you are more than three feet from an infected person. The new language, released online, is a change from the agency’s previous position that most infections were acquired through “close contact, not airborne transmission”.

As the pandemic played out last year, infectious disease experts warned for months that both the CDC and the World Health Organization were overlooking research that strongly suggested the coronavirus was floating in the air in small particles. Several scientists on Friday welcomed the agency’s abolition of the term “close contact”, which they criticized as vague and which did not necessarily capture the nuances of aerosol transfer.

“Now the CDC has caught up with the latest science, got rid of some old problematic terms and thought about how the transmission happens,” said Linsey Marr, aerosol expert at Virginia Tech.

The new focus underscores the need for the federal agency for occupational safety and health to issue standards for employers to address potential hazards in the workplace, some experts said.

“They hadn’t talked much about aerosols and focused more on droplets,” said David Michaels, an epidemiologist at the George Washington School of Public Health and head of OSHA in the Obama administration.

He and other researchers expressed concern that the CDC has not yet reaffirmed its recommendations on preventing exposure to aerosolized viruses.

The new information has a significant impact on the indoor climate and especially on the workplaces, said Dr. Michaels. Virus-laden particles “retain their properties in the air for hours and accumulate in a room that is not well ventilated.”

“There’s more exposure closer,” said Dr. Michaels. “But if you are further away there is still a risk, and those particles are still in the air.”

Donald Milton, an aerosol scientist at the University of Maryland, agreed that federal officials should come up with better guidelines for workplace safety.

“We need to better focus on good breathing apparatus for people who have to be around other people for long periods of time,” said Dr. Milton. “A surgical mask, even if it’s hidden around the edges, still doesn’t give you enough protection when you’re elbow-to-elbow with other people in a meat packing facility.”

Health care workers, bus drivers, and other workers may also need respirators, said Dr. Michaels. Customers in retail stores should continue to keep their distance and wear masks, he added. Good ventilation is of the utmost importance with these settings.

Dr. Marr pointed out that an updated page on the CDC website entitled “How Covid-19 Spreads” states that inhaling the virus when people are far apart is “unusual”. The statement is “misleading and potentially harmful,” said Dr. Marr.

“If you are in a poorly ventilated area, a virus will build up in the air and everyone in that room will be exposed.”

Categories
Business

China’s Sinopharm Vaccine Authorised for Emergency Use By W.H.O.

China's Sinopharm Vaccine Approved for Emergency Use By W.H.O.

Developing countries looking for coronavirus vaccines now have another reliable option – and China’s reputation as an emerging scientific superpower has just gotten a big boost.

The World Health Organization on Friday declared a vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm as a safe and reliable way to fight the virus. The statement marks a significant step in dispelling doubts about the vaccine after the Chinese government and company released little data on late-stage clinical trials.

WHO emergency approval enables Sinopharm vaccine to be included in Covax, a global initiative to provide free vaccines to poor countries. The possible inclusion in Covax raises the hope that more people – especially in developing countries – will have access to recordings at a crucial moment.

Rich countries hoard vaccine doses. India, a major vaccine maker, has stopped exporting to deal with the deepening coronavirus crisis. Safety concerns led health authorities in some countries to temporarily stop using AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

“The addition of this vaccine has the potential to quickly accelerate access to Covid-19 vaccines for countries that want to protect health workers and vulnerable populations,” said Dr. Mariângela Simão, WHO Deputy Director General for Access to Health Products, in a statement.

Reliable access to vaccines could improve even further next week if WHO considers another Chinese shot from a company called Sinovac. But the fanfare can be short-lived. While China has claimed it could produce up to five billion cans by the end of this year, Chinese officials say they are struggling to make enough cans for their own people and are warning a pandemic-weary world to keep expectations in check .

“This should be the golden time for China to practice vaccine diplomacy. The problem is also that China itself is facing a shortage, ”said Yanzhong Huang, Senior Fellow on Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “In terms of global access to vaccines, I don’t expect the situation to improve significantly in the next two to three months.”

China’s vaccination campaign got off to a slow start, partly because the government gave export priority and residents did not feel rushed to get vaccinated. The country is now accelerating its national vaccination campaign and aims to vaccinate 40 percent of its 1.4 billion people by the end of June.

Sinopharm and Sinovac are producing about 12 million doses a day, slightly more than the 10 million doses China plans to give daily to meet the domestic target. According to a calculation on data from Bridge Consulting, a Beijing-based consultancy focused on China’s impact on global health, companies would have to produce around 500 million additional doses to meet other countries’ demands.

The vaccine shortage in China underscores the complexity of launching a mass vaccination campaign for the world’s most populous nation and attempting an ambitious export program. Companies involved in the vaccine supply chain, such as syringe manufacturers, work overtime.

Updated

May 7, 2021, 2:53 p.m. ET

“This vaccine is lacking all over the world,” said Pearson Liu, a Sinovac spokesman. “The demand is just too great.”

To make up for the deficit, Chinese officials said those who get vaccinated in China could delay the second shot for up to eight weeks or combine the same type of vaccine from different companies. You said the shortage should subside by June.

Andrea Taylor, who analyzes global data on vaccines at the Duke Global Health Institute, described the possible inclusion of two Chinese vaccines in the Covax program as a “game changer”.

“The current situation is so desperate for low- and lower-middle-income countries that it is worth mobilizing all the doses we can get out of it,” said Ms. Taylor. “Possibly having two options from China could really change the landscape of the possible in the next few months.”

China’s vaccines have been launched in more than 80 countries, but have met with considerable skepticism, partly because the companies have not released data on phase 3 clinical trials to allow scientists to independently evaluate vaccine efficacy rates. A WHO advisory group released the data this week.

According to the WHO advisory group, the Sinopharm vaccine developed with the Beijing Institute of Biological Products has an effectiveness rate of 78.1 percent. The Sinovac vaccine has different efficacy rates between 50 and 84 percent depending on the country in which phase 3 studies were conducted. Both vaccines are made using a proven technology that uses chemicals to weaken or kill a virus.

The advisory group’s data showed that the Sinopharm vaccine had a “high level of confidence” in preventing Covid-19 in adults, but a “low confidence” for people over 60. The group’s results were for the Sinovac vaccine similar .

The WHO said that Sinopharm could not estimate the effectiveness of the vaccine for this group because Sinopharm had only included a few adults over 60 years of age in its studies. However, WHO said it would not restrict use of the vaccine in this age group, as preliminary data suggests that “the vaccine is likely to have protective effects in the elderly”.

There is limited data on how well the vaccine works against the many coronavirus variants that are found around the world. Chinese vaccines are overall less effective than those manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

But for China’s leaders, WHO’s approval can still be seen as a badge of honor. Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is committed to making a Covid-19 vaccine a “global public good.”

After India announced export restrictions on vaccines last month, Indonesia and the Philippines said they would turn to China for help. Last week, China’s foreign minister offered to give South Asian countries access to vaccines.

Indonesia said it would receive additional doses of Sinovac after President Joko Widodo held talks with Mr. Xi. In a speech that same week, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines said he owed China “gratitude” for its vaccines.

It remains to be seen whether WHO’s approval will change Beijing’s approach to vaccine distribution. China has only given Covax 10 million doses, despite having independently donated 16.5 million doses and sold 691 million doses to 84 countries, according to Bridge Consulting. Many of the donations went to developing countries in Africa and Asia.

“They don’t like to have their generosity in their products under one UN brand,” said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the global center for health policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “You are in a historic phase,” he said. “They want recipients to know this is China delivering.”

Jason Gutierrez contributed to the coverage. Elsie Chen contributed to reporting and research.

Categories
Business

UK reveals inexperienced listing of countries England residents can go to quarantine-free

UK reveals green list of nations England residents can visit quarantine-free

A traveler leaves a test center at Heathrow Airport in London on January 17, 2021.

Hollie Adams | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Friday the ‘green list’ of countries UK residents will soon be able to visit without being quarantined on their return.

Travel was severely restricted during the heaviest months of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. However, as of May 17th, people in England will be allowed to visit certain countries, although some restrictions still apply.

Twelve countries will be on England’s so-called “green list”. Travelers to these countries must be tested prior to departure and upon their return. However, they do not need to be quarantined on their return.

The 12 countries are:

Portugal

Israel

Gibraltar

Australia

New Zealand

Singapore

Brunei

Iceland

Faroe Islands

Falkland Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

St. Helena, Tristan de Cunha, Ascension Island

Outside of these 12, other nations have been divided into “amber” and “red” lists – the latter requiring the strictest of measures. Turkey was a notable name that was added to the Red List on Friday.

Popular destinations for the British such as France and Spain were not yet put on the green list at this point. Shapps said at a press conference on Friday that countries on the green list can have their status withdrawn at any time.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will separately announce their own travel restrictions for their residents.

British travelers are also exposed to travel restrictions in other countries, such as Australia and the United States.

U.S. and European airlines, as well as a multitude of travel companies grappling with a slump in international travel, urged their governments this week to relax the travel rules that are currently preventing most Britons from entering the country an increase in vaccination rates in their respective countries.

“We continue to encourage the US to implement a two-way policy that allows fully vaccinated travelers to travel to the US from countries with similarly successful vaccination programs,” said Airlines for America, a trade group that promotes most of the US major Airlines, including American, represents, Delta and United.

Airline executives have expressed doubts about restoring most US-Europe travel this summer, with restrictions still in place, but have been more optimistic about the possibility of re-opening UK-US travel.

American airlines have announced new flights to some destinations that have opened or are planned, such as Greece, Iceland and Croatia, in the past few weeks.

– CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to coverage from New York.

Categories
Health

WHO approves Covid vaccine made by China’s Sinopharm for emergency use

WHO approves Covid vaccine made by China's Sinopharm for emergency use

On April 24, 2021, workers at Damascus International Airport in the Syrian capital unloaded boxes of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine donated by China.

Loua Beshara | AFP | Getty Images

The World Health Organization announced on Friday that it had approved an emergency coronavirus vaccine developed by the Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm.

Beijing’s Covid vaccine is recommended for adults aged 18 and over with a double dose, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

The new addition to the list of usable vaccine options could accelerate efforts to control the spread of Covid-19 and its variant forms, which are causing new infections in many parts of the world.

“To solve the vaccine crisis, we have to pull out all the stops,” said Tedros.

Sinopharm’s shot is the sixth to receive WHO approval for “safety, efficacy and quality,” he said.

“Vaccines remain an important tool. However, at the moment, the volume and distribution of vaccines is insufficient to end the pandemic without the sustained and tailored application of public health measures that we know work,” said Tedros.

“The pandemic has shown that everything is at risk when health is at risk. When health is protected and promoted, individuals, families, communities, economies and nations can thrive,” he said.

The state-owned drug manufacturer’s two-dose Covid shot has already been approved for emergencies in China, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Another Chinese shot by the private company Sinovac has not yet been approved by the WHO.

In the US, vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson have received emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

WHO has granted emergency validation for these three shots as well as vaccines made by Astrazeneca-SK BIO and the Serum Institute of India.

Categories
Entertainment

Musicians Say Streaming Doesn’t Pay. Can the Trade Change?

Musicians Say Streaming Doesn’t Pay. Can the Industry Change?

An example of this tension is the pop duo Frenship from Los Angeles.

In 2016, the group with Brett Hite and James Sunderland had a breakout hit with “Capsize”, recorded with singer and songwriter Emily Warren. Frenship released the song independently, and it was quickly added to a prominent playlist on Spotify. Capsize hit 40 million streams in 10 weeks and raised $ 150,000 in payments, the group said.

“Spotify made our career possible for us,” Hite said in an interview.

Then the group signed with Columbia Records, which launched a radio advertising campaign centered around “Capsize”. The song failed to break the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it remained a steady streaming success, now with around 570 million clicks on Spotify. The band declined to disclose specific details of their time in Columbia – they agreed to confidentiality in their 2018 separation agreement with the label – but Hite glorified his time with the majors with an anecdote about buying a car in the months “Capsize” lifted off.

“I look at BMWs and when I break down, I leased a Honda CR-V,” he said. “I’ll let this be the tale of where our hit brought us from.” The group is now independently preparing its next release.

Columbia declined to comment.

Despite the criticism of the artists of their labels, the contracts with the big record companies have steadily developed in recent years, which benefits the performers. Joint venture deals and shorter engagements are now more common, according to music managers, lawyers, and artist managers.

And the all-important license fee is also increasing. A 2002 study by Steven S. Wildman of Michigan State University that examined hundreds of major label contracts from that time found that artists who received their first contract from a label had, on average, royalties of 15 to 16 percent were offered. Tony Harlow, the managing director of Warner Music UK, told the parliamentary committee in January that the company’s royalties to artists had “increased from 27 to 32 percent” since 2015.

Categories
Politics

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Received’t Search Second Time period

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Won’t Seek Second Term

The other challenger, Sharon Gay, a lawyer, also said she would make crime fighting a top priority.

Ms. Bottoms, 51, was expected to build a formidable defense. She has a loyal ally in President Biden, whom she endorsed early on and who repaid her loyalty with an appearance at a virtual fundraiser in March. Ms. Bottoms was briefly mentioned as a potential vice president and said she later turned down a cabinet position in the Biden administration.

Ms. Bottoms, who served as a judge and councilor before narrowly winning the 2017 mayor election, is also blessed with one voice – measured, compassionate, slightly hurt, and permeated by her experience as a black daughter and mother – that seemed uniquely calibrated too to address the challenges of the past year.

After the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Ms. Bottoms went on live television and became a national star speaking directly to protesters. Some of their demonstrations had fallen into lawlessness, with people smashing windows, spraying property and burning cars.

“When I saw the murder of George Floyd, I hurt like a mother hurt,” she said. She then scolded the protesters, insisting that they “go home” and study the rules of nonviolence as practiced by the leaders of the civil rights movement.

Mr Biden was one of several national figures who were noted. “We saw her stand and speak out in the summer full of protests and pain,” said the president at the fundraiser in March.

However, the challenges were numerous.

On June 12, shortly after Mr. Floyd’s death, a white Atlanta police officer shot and killed a black man, Rayshard Brooks, in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. Protests and violence broke out, and the Bottoms administration fired officer Garrett Rolfe the day after the shooting. (This week, the city’s public services agency reinstated officer Rolfe, who was accused of murder, because the administration violated his procedural rights.)

Categories
Business

Meme Shares and Archegos: Fed Calls Out Monetary Weak Spots

Meme Stocks and Archegos: Fed Calls Out Financial Weak Spots

The Federal Reserve warned of the financial stability risks posed by foamy stocks and debt-laden hedge fund betting in its bi-annual report on potential vulnerabilities in the system, and pointed to the surge in so-called meme stocks as a sign of risk-taking spiraling out of control .

The central bank’s financial stability report released on Thursday followed an unusual six-month period for the markets. During that period, stocks rose steadily as the US economic outlook rebounded and stories of surpluses surfaced.

Internet roundtables helped spark interest in stocks like GameStop, a cryptocurrency created as a hoax, and a little-known hedge fund melted down. These stories have made headlines, causing many – including obviously some at the Fed – to wonder if the financial system was headed for trouble.

“The security vulnerabilities associated with an increased risk appetite are increasing,” said Lael Brainard, a Fed governor, in a statement on the Fed’s release. Stock prices are high compared to earnings, and “risk-taking has risen sharply, as the” Meme Stock “episode demonstrated.”

The Fed’s new report painted a generally sunny picture with banks, consumers and businesses weathering the coronavirus shock in reasonable financial shape, and it said that some measures made risk appetite look typical.

However, the report found that some asset prices “may be susceptible to significant declines should appetite decline” and that “high volume and price volatility episodes for so-called meme stocks” are among the signs of “increased appetite for risk.” Stock markets “belong. Officials also selected hedge funds, saying the opaque investment vehicles had slightly higher than normal leverage, while warning that the data available on funds “may not capture major risks”.

The report, which took on a threatening tone at times, contrasted with the picture Fed officials, economists and investors alike have painted of the U.S. economy, which is expected to recover rapidly from the spread of coronavirus vaccines. It was emphasized that increasing consumer and business confidence can fuel risky bets and create or expand weaknesses in the financial markets.

In business today

Updated

May 7, 2021, 11:56 p.m. ET

The Fed’s suggestion that more data be needed on hedge fund debt followed an episode in March when banks were having trouble at a large fund, Archegos Capital Management. The fund had amassed large, leveraged stock bets that went bad and cost the banks with which it had done business.

“While broader market spillovers appeared limited, the episode shows the potential for material hardship” in non-bank financial firms “to” affect the broader financial system, “the Fed said in its report. The opacity of hedge funds was also said to have raised questions during the meme stock episode: some funds that had wagered against the stocks in question suffered losses when chatboard vigilants poured into them.

The answer to both episodes, which Fed and Ms. Brainard seemed to suggest, starts with better data.

“Archegos’ event highlights the limited visibility of hedge fund exposure and is a reminder that the measures available to leverage hedge funds may not capture key risks,” said Brainard. She added that the episode “underscores the importance of more detailed, more frequent disclosures”.

And while bubbles were high on the list of concerns, the Fed believed that underlying economic risks remained that could disrupt financial markets.

The coronavirus pandemic, which is under control in the US but continues to rage across much of the world, continues to pose risks to the system.

“Despite significant advances in vaccination, the perceived risks associated with the progression of the pandemic and its impact on the US and overseas economies remain relatively high,” the report said. “A worsening global pandemic could put a strain on the financial system in emerging economies and some European countries.”

Categories
World News

Covid-19 Reside Updates: Vaccines, Variants and Circumstances

A vaccination site administering the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine in North Macedonia on Thursday.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters

The World Health Organization on Friday approved China’s Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, easing the way for poorer nations to get access to another much-needed shot to help end the pandemic.

The approval allows the Sinopharm vaccine to be included in Covax, the World Health Organization’s global initiative that is designed to promote equitable vaccine distribution around the world.

The need is dire.

Rich countries are hoarding doses. India, a major vaccine maker, has stopped exports to address its worsening coronavirus crisis. Questions about safety after exceedingly rare side effects led some countries to briefly pause using AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson doses or change their guidance around the use.

Reliable vaccine access could improve further next week when the W.H.O. considers another Chinese shot, made by the company Sinovac.

Andrea Taylor, who analyzes global data on vaccines at the Duke Global Health Institute, called the potential addition of two Chinese vaccines into the Covax program a “game changer.”

“The situation right now is just so desperate for low- and lower-middle-income countries that any doses we can get out are worth mobilizing,” Ms. Taylor said. “Having potentially two options coming from China could really change the landscape of what’s possible over the next few months.”

But the fanfare may be short-lived. While China has claimed it can make up to 5 billion doses by the end of this year, Chinese officials say the country is struggling to manufacture enough doses for its own population and are cautioning a pandemic-weary world to keep expectations in check.

“This should be the golden time for China to practice its vaccine diplomacy. The problem is, at the same time, China itself is facing a shortage,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “So in terms of global access to vaccines, I don’t expect the situation to significantly improve in the coming two to three months.”

Still, the approval represents a high point in its vaccine diplomacy efforts and a chance to fill the gap left by Western nations and pharmaceutical companies in low- and middle-income countries. Sinopharm is the first Chinese shot to be classified as safe and effective by the W.H.O., and its approval could ease concerns about the lack of transparency from Chinese vaccine companies.

Regulators from China and other countries have approved the Sinopharm vaccine in recent months, though the company has not released Phase 3 clinical trial data for scientists to independently assess.

The W.H.O. was given access to this data before the announcement, but there is limited data on how well the vaccine will work against the many coronavirus variants cropping up around the world.

United States › United StatesOn May 6 14-day change
New cases 47,325 –27%
New deaths 818 –4%
World › WorldOn May 6 14-day change
New cases 856,719 Flat
New deaths 13,873 +9%

U.S. vaccinations ›

Where states are reporting vaccines given

Ton Tran, 106, receiving his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a clinic in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday.Credit…Noah Berger/Associated Press

Pfizer and the German company BioNTech have become the first companies to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for full approval of their Covid-19 vaccine for use in people 16 and older. The vaccine is currently being administered to adults in America under an emergency use authorization granted in December.

The approval process is likely to take months.

The companies said in a statement on Friday that they had submitted their clinical data, which includes six months of information on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, to the F.D.A. They plan to submit additional material, including information about the manufacturing of the vaccine, in the coming weeks.

“We are proud of the tremendous progress we’ve made since December in delivering vaccines to millions of Americans, in collaboration with the U.S. government,” Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, said in the statement. “We look forward to working with the F.D.A. to complete this rolling submission and support their review, with the goal of securing full regulatory approval of the vaccine in the coming months.”

As of Thursday, more than 134 million doses of the vaccine had been administered in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Full approval would allow Pfizer and BioNTech to market the vaccine directly to customers.

It could also make it easier for companies, government agencies and schools to require vaccinations. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in December that employers could mandate vaccination, and legal experts have generally agreed.

Many companies have been hesitant to require the vaccines, especially while they have only emergency authorization, which is designed to be temporary. Some institutions, like the University of California and California State University systems, have said that they would do so only after a vaccine has full approval.

Full approval could also prompt the U.S. military, which has had low uptake of Covid-19 vaccines, to mandate vaccinations for service members.

If the F.D.A. grants full approval, it could also help raise confidence in the vaccine. The pace of vaccination has slowed in the United States in recent weeks, and a recent national survey indicated that most people in the country who planned to get the shots had already done so.

The agency is also expected to issue an emergency authorization for use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in 12- to 15-year-olds next week. The companies have said that they plan to file for emergency authorization for 2- to 11-year-olds in September.

Moderna plans to apply for full approval for its Covid-19 vaccine this month, the company said during its quarterly earnings call on Thursday.

Director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Dr. Nancy Messonnier spoke in Washington in January 2020.Credit…Amanda Voisard/Reuters

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who famously warned the nation early last year that the coronavirus would upend their lives, resigned from her position at the Centers for Disease Control and Protection on Friday.

Dr. Messonnier’s resignation is effective May 14. She is taking on a new role as an executive director at the Skoll Foundation, a philanthropical organization based in Palo Alto, Calif., she told staff in an email on Friday.

Her exit may augur more changes at the agency. Reports have circulated for weeks that the C.D.C.’s new director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, planned to completely reorganize the division Dr. Messonnier led.

“My family and I have determined that now is the best time for me to transition to a new phase of my career,” Dr. Messonnier wrote in the email to staff.

Dr. Messonnier began her career in public health in 1995 with a stint in the prestigious Epidemic Intelligence Service. She has since held a number of leadership posts in the C.D.C. Since 2016, she has served as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, the C.D.C. division responsible for managing influenza and other respiratory threats.

In late 2019, she became the agency’s lead in responding to the coronavirus, and initially shared a stage with President Trump at briefings about the coronavirus.

She fell out of favor with President Trump and sent stocks tumbling after she sounded a dire alarm about the coronavirus, saying it would disrupt the lives of every American.

“It’s not a question of if this will happen but when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses,” she said on Feb. 25, just as Mr. Trump was boarding Air Force One in New Delhi for his flight home.

Soon after that, she stopped appearing at briefings of the White House and of the C.D.C.

Patients with Covid-19 in the emergency ward at the Holy Family hospital in New Delhi on Thursday.Credit…Rebecca Conway/Getty Images

India’s worsening coronavirus outbreak has spread far outside its cities to rural areas with poor health care infrastructure and limited testing capacities, doctors and experts say.

One factor behind the surge of cases, they believe, is a series of recent campaign rallies held without social distancing.

The state of West Bengal, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party lost an election last week after more than a month of campaigning to vast crowds, is recording the highest rate of positive coronavirus tests in the country. More than 31 percent of tests in the state are now coming back positive.

“There is a clear pattern here: States that went through elections and where large rallies were held are witnessing a huge rise in cases,” said Dr. Thekkekara Jacob John, a senior virologist in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, 1,028 new coronavirus cases and four deaths were recorded on March 26. On April 29, after campaigns for local village council elections were held, there were 35,104 cases and 288 deaths. A teachers’ union in the state said that 577 teachers and support staff members who were on duty as election workers had died of Covid-19.

The country’s cases as a whole have been skyrocketing since late March, from a seven-day average of more than 62,000 on March 31 to more than 385,000, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. On Friday, the country reported more than 410,000 new daily infections, a record, and more than 3,900 deaths.

As the outbreak reaches new heights, India’s vaccination campaign has slowed down, marred by supply shortages and competition among states.

The official daily death in the country has stayed over 3,000 over the past 10 days, and experts say the numbers are much higher,.

The true scope of the outbreak remains hard to measure. Nationwide, India conducted about 1.9 million coronavirus tests on Thursday, an increase from about 1.2 million daily tests last month, but hardly enough to keep up with a daily caseload that has almost quadrupled in that time.

West Bengal, a state of 90 million people that has poor health care infrastructure and is under a partial lockdown, has carried out fewer than 60,000 coronavirus tests a day. That is one of the lowest rates in the country, according to data compiled by researchers at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Abhijeet Barua, a physician in Kolkata, the state’s capital, said that cases had exploded in every corner of the city and that infections were spreading quickly in the state’s rural areas. At his 10-bed clinic, two people have died every day over the past 15 days, Dr. Barua said.

“What is making things worse in Kolkata is that over 70 percent of the population lives in close contact,” he said, adding that he was receiving dozens of calls a day from patients seeking help. “You can’t isolate yourself, because it is so congested here.”

Mr. Modi has repeatedly refrained from imposing a nationwide lockdown. Instead nearly a dozen of India’s 28 states have imposed restrictions, though they are less stringent than the nationwide lockdown put in place last year.

Protective masks are worn in March in Tokyo, the host of this summer’s Olympic Games.Credit…Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times

TOKYO — Japan on Friday extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions until the end of May to contain a surge of coronavirus cases, casting further doubt on the country’s ability to safely host the Summer Olympics, which are scheduled to begin in 11 weeks.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga made the announcement at a meeting of the government’s coronavirus task force, saying that the measures were necessary because infections remain at a “high level, mainly in large cities.”

The announcement extends emergency measures imposed last month to two more prefectures, covering a total of six prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, that are together home to over a third of Japan’s 126 million people. Another eight prefectures will be under slightly looser restrictions.

The existing state of emergency, which were imposed to curb travel during the just-ended Golden Week holiday period and had been set to expire next week, have not slowed Japan’s fourth wave of coronavirus infections. In early March, the country recorded about 1,000 daily new. It is now recording nearly 6,000, according to a New York Times database.

Health officials say that they are seeing a growing number of cases of coronavirus variants spreading in the population, including at least 26 cases of the strain first detected in India. The authorities in Tokyo say that in four out of five cases found in the city, the infected person neither traveled abroad nor had close contact with someone who had.

The outbreak is stretching health care systems even in Japan’s biggest cities. On Thursday, there were 370 people being treated for serious cases of Covid-19 in Osaka, a prefecture of nine million people, more than the number of hospital beds available for seriously ill patients.

Japan, which has recorded more than 620,000 infections and 10,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, has controlled the virus better than many countries. But the government has faced criticism for the sluggish pace of vaccinations, and for pledging to go ahead with the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to begin on July 23, despite widespread public opposition.

Toru Hashimoto, a lawyer and a former governor of Osaka prefecture, said on a television show on Friday that Olympic organizers were ignoring the severity of Japan’s outbreak, and that it was inappropriate to continue holding pre-Olympic “test events” during the state of emergency, even though they are taking place without spectators.

“If the government wants to reduce the number of people in the city, it’s not a time when test events can be held,” Mr. Hashimoto said.

The government has imposed two previous states of emergency during the pandemic, although they are looser than the total lockdowns seen in many nations. The measures allow the prefectures to ask businesses to close or to restrict their hours, and to fine those that do not.

Under the extended state of emergency, people are asked not to go out for nonessential matters, especially after 8 p.m., and to refrain from traveling outside their prefectures. Karaoke parlors are asked to close, and restaurants requested not to serve alcohol, with fines of up to 300,000 yen, or $2,750, for noncompliance.

A vaccination center in Johannesburg in March.Credit…Joao Silva/The New York Times

A global debate is heating up over how to get Covid-19 vaccines to the nations most in need.

The United States supports an effort to suspend intellectual property protections on Covid-19 vaccines, and European countries say that richer nations should begin exporting more of their vaccine supply to poorer ones.

The European Union — whose approval is needed for any waiver of vaccine patents — said on Thursday that it would consider the Biden administration’s proposal. But Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, said that pushing pharmaceutical companies to share vaccine patents could have “significant implications” for the production of vaccines. The European Commission signaled it wouldn’t support the U.S. proposal.

“The limiting factor in vaccine manufacturing is production capacity and high-quality standards, not patents,” a spokeswoman for Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said in a statement.

Europe’s position emphasized the challenges of winning support for the waivers at the World Trade Organization, where the bloc wields significant influence, and where unanimous approval would be needed for any measure to suspend patents.

Many experts believe that the waivers are needed to expand the manufacturing of vaccines and get them to poorer parts of the world where inoculations have lagged behind those of richer countries.

Until the Biden administration’s announcement this week, the United States had been a major holdout at the W.T.O. over a proposal by India and South Africa to suspend some intellectual property protections. The move could give drugmakers access to the trade secrets of how the vaccines are made.

The pharmaceutical industry has argued that suspending patent protections would undermine risk-taking and innovation.

The debate arises amid a growing divide between wealthy nations that are slowly regaining normal life, and poorer countries that are confronting new and devastating outbreaks.

In India, which is suffering the world’s worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic, only 2.2 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, according to a New York Times database. South Africa has fully vaccinated less than 1 percent of its people. By contrast, vaccinations are slowing down in the United States — where one-third of people are fully inoculated — as they begin to pick up in Europe.

Even if a waiver receives support from the trade body, it alone would not increase the world’s vaccine supply. Large drug manufacturers in India and elsewhere would need extensive technological and other support to produce doses, experts say.

The American jobs engine slowed markedly last month, confounding rosy forecasts of the pace of the recovery and sharpening debates over how best to revive a labor market that was severely weakened by the coronavirus pandemic.

Employers added 266,000 jobs in April, the government reported Friday, far below the vigorous gains registered in March. The jobless rate rose slightly to 6.1 percent, as more people rejoined the labor force.

5

10

15%

’06

’08

’10

’12

’14

’16

’18

’20

“It turns out it’s easier to put an economy into a coma than wake it up,” Diane Swonk, chief economist for the accounting firm Grant Thornton, said of the disappointing report. “It’s understandable, it’s going to take some time, you’re not just going to snap your fingers and get everyone back to work,

Economists had forecast an addition of about a million jobs. The increase for March was revised down to 770,000 from 916,000.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing blamed supply chain problems for the loss of 18,000 jobs in that sector, noting in particular the impact that a shortage of semiconductors has had on the automotive industry.

And many offices are not yet ready to reopen fully. “I just think it takes a while for businesses to figure out how many people they need,” Ms. Swonk said, noting there is still a lot of skittishness on the part of employers and workers. “I don’t view this as terribly troubling or distressing.”

Ben Herzon, executive director of U.S. economics at the financial services company IHS Markit, agreed. “A single report with unexpected weakness in job gains is not a cause for concern,” he said. “Demand is picking up, activity is picking up.”

He noted that labor force participation had been on the upswing for two months in a row, rising to 61.7 percent last month from 61.4 percent in February.

More opportunities are bubbling up as coronavirus infections ebb, vaccinations spread, restrictions lift and businesses reopen. Job postings on the online job site Indeed are 24 percent higher than they were in February last year.

“There’s been a broad-based pickup in demand,” said Nick Bunker, who leads North American economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab. The supercharged housing market is driving demand for construction workers. There is also an abundance of loading, stocking and other warehousing jobs — a side-effect of the boom in e-commerce.

The economy still has a lot of ground to regain before returning to prepandemic levels. Millions of jobs have vanished since February 2020, and the labor force has shrunk.

–20

–15

–10

–5 million

–8.2 million since February 2020

152.5 million jobs in February 2020

As the economy fitfully recovers, there are divergent accounts of what’s going on in the labor market. Employers, particularly in the restaurant and hospitality industry, have reported scant response to help-wanted ads. Several have blamed what they call overly generous government jobless benefits, including a temporary $300-a-week federal stipend that was part of an emergency pandemic relief program.

But there are other forces constraining the return to work. Millions of Americans have said that health concerns and child care responsibilities — with many schools and day care centers not back to normal operations — have prevented them from returning to work. Millions of others who are not actively job hunting are considered on temporary layoff and expect to be hired back by their previous employers once more businesses reopen fully. At the same time, some baby boomers have retired or switched to working part time.

An 18-year-old student received a shot of a coronavirus vaccine in Los Angeles last month.Credit…Etienne Laurent/EPA, via Shutterstock

A series of vaccine developments and the loosening of restrictions amid an improving virus trajectory may foreshadow a welcome return to normalcy for many young Americans, just as summer vacation nears.

By early next week, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue an emergency use authorization allowing the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to be used in children 12 to 15 years old, a major step ahead in the United States’ efforts to tackle Covid-19. Pfizer also expects to seek federal clearance in September to administer the vaccine to children age 2 to 11, the company said on Tuesday.

Vaccinating children is key to raising the level of immunity in the population, experts say, and to bringing down the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths. It could also put school administrators, teachers and parents at ease if millions of adolescent students become eligible for vaccination before the next academic year begins.

The move would be a major leap forward, experts say, and comes as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said that vaccinated adolescents would be able to remove their masks outdoors at summer camps.

Yet the eagerness of parents to let their children be vaccinated is limited, according to a new national poll, which found that three in 10 parents surveyed said they would get their children vaccinated right away and 26 percent said they wanted to wait to see how the vaccine was working. About 23 percent said they would definitely not get their children vaccinated, and 18 percent said they would do so only if a child’s school required it. The survey also noted that only 9 percent of respondents said they had not yet gotten a shot but still intended to do so, one more indication that achieving widespread immunity in the United States is becoming increasingly challenging.

As health experts focus on the future of vaccinating children, a growing number of students have returned to in-person learning this school year. In March, 54 percent of K-8 schools were open for full-time in-person learning, and 88 percent were open for either full-time in-person and/or hybrid learning, according to data from a federal government survey released on Thursday. But Black, Hispanic and Asian students are enrolled in full-time in-person learning at much lower rates than white students.

The Biden administration has made an aggressive push for reopening schools in recent months, including an effort to prioritize vaccinations for teachers and employees.

An airplane landing at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany.Credit…Michael Probst/Associated Press

One returning pilot lost control of an aircraft during landing and skidded off the runway into a ditch. Another just returning from furlough forgot to activate a critical anti-icing system designed to prevent hazards in cold weather. Several others flew at the wrong altitudes, which they attributed to distractions and lapses in communication.

In all of these incidents, which were recorded on NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System, a database of commercial aviation mistakes that are anonymously reported by pilots and other airline crew, the pilots involved blamed the same thing for their mistakes: a lack of practice flying during the pandemic.

In 2020, global air passenger traffic experienced the largest year-on-year decline in aviation history, falling 65.9 percent compared with 2019, according to the International Air Transport Association. Flights were grounded, schedules reduced and thousands of pilots were laid off or put on furlough for up to 12 months.

As vaccination programs pick up speed across some parts of the world and travel starts to rebound, airlines are beginning to reactivate their fleets and summoning pilots back as they prepare to expand their schedules for the summer. But returning pilots can’t just pick up where they left off.

“It’s not quite like riding a bike,” said Joe Townshend, a former pilot for Titan Airways, a British charter airline, who was laid off when the pandemic hit in March last year.

“You can probably go 10 years without flying a plane and still get it off the ground,” he said, “but what fades is the operational side of things.”

Marc Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri, examining samples of wastewater to track the coronavirus.Credit…MichaelB Thomas for The New York Times

Although Covid-19 is primarily a respiratory disease, research conducted early in the pandemic revealed that people infected with the coronavirus often shed it in their stool. This finding, combined with the scale and urgency of the crisis, spurred immediate interest in tracking the virus by sampling wastewater.

In the past year, many scientists have been drawn into the once niche field of wastewater epidemiology. Researchers in 54 countries are tracking the coronavirus in sewage, according to the Covid19Poops Dashboard, a global directory of the projects.

These teams have found that the wastewater data seemed to accurately indicate what was happening in society. When the number of diagnosed Covid-19 cases in an area increased, more coronavirus appeared in the wastewater. Levels of the virus fell when areas instituted lockdowns and surged when they reopened.

Several teams have also confirmed that sewage can serve as an early warning system: Wastewater viral levels often peaked days before doctors saw a peak in official Covid-19 cases.

And wastewater analysis has allowed scientists to detect the arrival of certain variants in a region weeks before they are found in people — and to identify mutations that have not yet been detected in people anywhere.

The surveillance is not a replacement for clinical testing, experts said, but can be an efficient and cost-effective complement. The approach is likely to be especially valuable in low- and middle-income countries, where testing resources are more limited.

“Not every population gets tested, not everyone has access to health care,” said Dr. Marc Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri. “If there’s groups of people that are asymptomatic, they probably aren’t getting tested either. So you aren’t really getting the full big picture. Whereas for our testing, everyone poops.”

global roundup

Administering the AstraZeneca vaccine in Nottingham, England, last month.Credit…Oli Scarff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Britain’s vaccines regulator advised on Friday that all adults under 40 in the country should be offered alternatives to AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine. It factored in concerns over very rare blood clots, the dwindling risk of severe coronavirus infection in younger adults and the availability of alternatives.

The guidance extends earlier advice that people under 30 would be offered alternative doses.

The use of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been marred by uncertainty after reports of a possible link between the doses and very rare blood clots, but public health experts around the world say that the vaccine’s benefits far outweigh the risks for most people.

Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization stressed that the chances of younger people becoming seriously ill with the coronavirus had grown smaller as infection rates decrease across the country. It said that this new reality paired with the availability of alternative vaccines had factored into the decision.

In other news from around the world:

  • Australia will resume repatriation flights for Australian nationals in India after May 15, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday. The resumption will end a travel ban that made it a criminal offense for citizens and residents of Australia to enter the country from India. No other democratic nation has issued a similar ban on all arrivals.

  • Tunisia will enter a weeklong nationwide lockdown starting on Sunday, Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi said on Friday. The country of nearly 12 million people has reported 11,122 deaths and 315,000 cases, according a New York Times database.

Categories
Health

Pharmacies Are Getting into the Psychological Well being Market

Pharmacies Are Entering the Mental Health Market

CVS, which merged with insurer Aetna three years ago, plans to use its mental health pilot program to reduce overall health costs, said Dr. Servant. Mental health problems that are not addressed turn into crises, he added. “Our goal is therefore to make mental health services accessible and locally available so that we can address these issues before they get worse and lead to significant morbidity and poor outcomes.”

Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation for the American Psychological Association, says removing barriers to psychiatric care by making providers more accessible is helpful. “Cost is.”

Psychiatrists take out less insurance than other types of doctors, and many psychologists, social workers, and others who offer therapies also decline insurance because they say that insurance payments are relatively low and managed care companies sometimes do intrusive audits undergo.

The mental health services provided by CVS MinuteClinics are covered by many major health insurers and Employee Assistance Program programs, a spokeswoman said.

“The pricing options without insurance range from $ 129 for an initial assessment to $ 69 for a 30-minute session, with lots of options in between,” she added.

At Walmart, the first therapy session is $ 60, and the 45-minute follow-up visits are $ 45, according to the company’s website.

If you’re considering using a retail location to get therapy, be sure to ask the same questions you would ask any new therapist, experts advise. Some examples are:

  • Where did you get trained?

  • What kind of license do you have?

  • What is your specialty?

  • How will we monitor my progress?

  • How long does my session last and how many sessions do I have?

  • Is there a follow up if I need a transfer?

  • How much is it?

  • How is my data stored and shared?

If you identify yourself as LGBT or are a member of another minority group, or if you already know that you have a specific illness such as anxiety or depression, it is helpful to know if the therapist has worked with similar populations in the past and Alfiee Breland-Noble , Researcher on health inequalities and founder of the AAKOMA project, a non-profit mental health organization for adolescents and their families.

Categories
Business

Confidence within the security of the J&J vaccine is low following U.S. pause, Kaiser survey reveals

Confidence in the safety of the J&J vaccine is low following U.S. pause, Kaiser survey shows

An Army nurse holds a vial of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the FEMA-sponsored COVID-19 vaccination site at Valencia State College on the first day the site provided the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after the FDA repealed The CDC has offered a break again due to blood clot concerns.

Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty Images

According to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, less than half of Americans believe the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is safe after it was temporarily suspended in the US after reports of rare blood clotting problems in some recipients.

While most people believe in Covid vaccines, in general, only 46% of respondents said they were at least somewhat confident about the J&J inclusion, compared to 69% who were for both Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines said. Kaiser surveyed 2,097 randomly selected adults aged 18 and over from April 15 to 29 for the study published on Wednesday.

The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged states on April 13 to temporarily stop using J & J’s vaccine “out of caution” after six women reported rare blood clots. A CDC panel recommended the US resume the vaccine ten days later, saying the benefits outweigh the risks.

The J&J news seems to have changed some opinions about a shot.

One in five non-vaccinated respondents said the news changed their minds about receiving the vaccine, even though the specific responses were different. 7% said they were less likely to want any of the three Covid vaccines, Kaiser noted. Another 9% said they were less likely to want the J&J vaccine, but that it didn’t change their mind about the Pfizer or Moderna shots.

Nevertheless, the proportion of respondents who said they had received a shot rose significantly from 32% to 56% in the survey last month. That number reflects data from the CDC, which reports that roughly the same proportion of adults in the United States have received one or more doses.

“The news was widespread and it certainly hurt confidence in J&J, but it’s not clear that it had much of an impact on whether or not people were actually vaccinated,” said Dr. Mollyann Brodie, General Manager of Public Opinion and Survey Research at the Foundation Program. “It confirmed for people who were concerned about side effects that there were side effects, but we know that the immediate effect – at least in terms of what people told us – is very small in terms of demand.”

Women were more likely than men to say the J&J news had changed their minds about vaccination. The Kaiser survey found that Hispanic women in particular, 18% of whom said they were less likely to want a vaccine at all.

The timing of the Johnson & Johnson hiatus coincides with a general slowdown in US vaccinations. The country reported an average of 2.1 million vaccinations per day for the past week, CDC data shows, up from a high of 3.4 million on April 13.

The fact that the nationwide drop in daily shots occurred during the stop is more a coincidence than a direct effect, said Dr. Rupali Limaye, faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Limaye is researching vaccine decision-making and has worked with state health departments during the vaccine launch.

While the hiatus at J&J, and the reluctance it caused, contributed somewhat to the decline, the bigger factor, according to Limaye, is that the country has reached the point where most Americans who want a vaccine have got one.

“I hear from states that not only are things slowing down generally because of J&J, but also slowing down because we have essentially been able to meet the demand,” she said.

The survey data from the Kaiser Foundation confirm this. Respondents who said they were most anxious to get a shot – those who have already been vaccinated or want it as soon as possible – rose only marginally from 61% to 64% in the previous survey in March. The proportion who wanted to “wait and see” before vaccination, who had lost in size, remained roughly the same.

“We are at a stage in the vaccination effort where all the eager people are vaccinated or are about to be vaccinated,” said Brodie. “We are now turning to the reluctant people, with strategies that are required to reach many different people.”

This equates to an 87% decline, which is steeper than the declines Pfizer and Moderna saw from their respective peaks.