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WSJ Original article ›
NYTimes.com Original article ›
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How is it that Britain's regulatory agency approved the Pfizer vaccine before the U.S. FDA agency? This report in the NYT says FDA looks at the raw data. Britain's Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency looks at the information provided by the company. It still does the testing batch by batch and has access to the data and looks at thousands of pages of data. What about the European Union? The European Union Medicines Agency meets on December 29. It takes days after it meets to get input of 27 countries so that vaccination cannot start till January. The U.S. president summoned the FDA to the White House to find out how soon the FDA could act. Both Britain and the U.S. are feeling the impact of the second wave of coronavirus.

DW.COM Original article ›
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A study shown in New England Journal of Medicine shows Pfizer vaccine 2 doses offers 88% protection from symptomatic disease for delta variant of coronavirus. The Astra Zeneca vaccine has 67% protection against delta variant after 2 doses.

NYTimes.com Original article ›
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Research at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows the reduction of serotonin in the gut from coronavirus as a cause of long covid symptoms. This NYT report looks at the research findings.

NYTimes.com Original article ›
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By preventing serious illness in patients two pills for coronavirus from Pfizer and Merck can change the course of this pandemic. Pfizer will give a royalty free license to Medicines Patent Pool, an organization backed by the United Nations for its coronavirus pill. Merck has also given a royalty free license to Medicines Patent Pool for it pill. This organization will then grant a license for the manufacture of the coronavirus pills to poor developing countries. India is included in the list of countries yet China, Russia and Brazil are excluded for the Pfizer license.  Merck has given Indian generics manufacturers approval to make the pill. This will provide supplies of the pill to 105 developing countries, South Africa will also make the pill to provide it at $10 a course in Africa. Pfizer will begin manufacturing of large quantities in 2022 with 50 million planned for 2022 and 21 million in the first half of 2022. Pfizer pill will be made available in 95 countries. The Merck pill is called Molnupiravir. Pfizer pill is called Paxlovid with 30 pills taken over the course of 5 days. Pfizer pill is effective in studies when given to people who had not been vaccinated. It has to be given within 3-4 days of getting coronavirus confirmed through a test which makes testing critical for its use. ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Covaxin vaccine from Bharat Biotech in India is found to be 81% effective at protecting people from coronavirus in clinical trials. India's first Made in India vaccine for coronavirus will play a major role in India's effort to produce enough vaccine to vaccinate 1.2 billion people. With enough vaccine supplies coming from many Indian pharmaceutical makers who will now have access to Bharat Biotech's science and vaccine making technologies. The Indian government has stepped in to coordinate this effort. Covaxin and Covishield will play a major role when new vaccine supplies come into the field in July to December 2021. The target is to vaccinate 1.2 billion people by December 2021. This is an important moment for Indian science in the field of medicine.

France 24 Original article ›
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The Quillay tree, a rare evergreen native of central Chile provides a key ingredient for new vaccines, including the Novavax vaccine for coronavirus and the new vaccine for malaria. FR24 provides a glimpse of this rare evergreen tree in this video. It was used by indigenous people for soap and medicine.

WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Scott McCartney looks at the situation facing frequent travelers who have done something incredible- not taken a flight for a full year during the coronavirus. Many travelers are now getting ready to start flying again. Here he gives a list of things to check including passport expiry, and expiry dates for medicine kit, checking other items, as a way to get ready for travel after May.

WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Coronavirus testing is taking off in the U.S. for the first time after the U.S. Federal Drug Administration relaxed testing regulations on February 29, and as more universities and hospitals develop their own testing technology and apply it. The FDA has approved more than 15 tests and many more are awaiting approval. 

This includes UC Davis, Washington University School of Medicine, Brigham and Women's, Harvard Medical School, Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, centers that are running the tests limited only by the shortage of reagents supplies.

Washington Post Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Now that finance ministries around the world are trying to save their economies with trillions of dollars in aid packages their finances are stretched to the limit. The so called digital tax is not really a digital tax. And efforts to recover lost tax revenues in Europe are being opposed by the U.S. because tax levies by France go only to France, not the U.S. The U.S. Treasury or U.S. government or the American people would not turn down tax revenues that it normally gets when its finances are stretched to the limit with trillions of dollars for cornavirus leaving little for crumbling infrastructure and essential public health services, other services that determine quality of life in America.  This Washington Post report shows that there is greater awareness that the right approach is to pay taxes based on where revenues are located and by the number of users in each country. But the problem goes deeper than that. The coronavirus changes the entire perspective and take this back to roots. Companies pay taxes because it is the right thing to do. In Japan Panasonic's founder Matsushita felt that it was a national duty to pay its share of taxes as it too was sharing in the benefits provided by society- in the health, sanitation, education and transportation, parks, and hundreds of services provided by government. Once this is seen as dispensable or somebody else's problem, then these very services and infrastructure can be starved of capital. Coronavirus changes this perspective. People crave for outdoor spaces- who is going to maintain them and set up new spaces. People crave for not moving around on crumbling bridges, roads, subway systems. Who is going to provide them? People crave for good schools, community colleges. Who is going to provide them? People crave for good sanitation systems? Who is going to provide them? People crave for good public health systems. Who is going to provide them? Its just good common sense. Is it possible for common sense to be missing? It is- just ask people today, and it is good common sense to have good critical infrastructure such as sanitation, medicine, public health, and local manufacturing of medicine, yet economic experts and economic theories thought it made sense not to do this.  ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Weak and poorly equipped public health systems, densely crowded conditions, make coronavirus spread extremely serious in South Asian and African countries. India imposed a complete lockdown of the entire country. South Africa imposed a 21 day lockdown enforced by the military. Decisive and strong action is needed early. Pakistan acted early to quarantine pilgrims entering the country from Iran. Pakistan's government has announced a $20 monthly wage subsidy for poorer households. The average in Africa is 20, according to the UN, and South Asian populations are also very young. Generally hotter climates may offer some offsetting factors to makeup for the lack of strong public health systems. India made major strides in direct deposit to bank accounts of 1.3 billion citizens by the government for many social safety net schemes in the last 5 years. It has also computer records of all citizens under a plan underway for a decade. The nationwide rollout of 4G mobile technologies has connected every citizen including remote areas. This should assist in the identification and isolation of affected areas and people. Other factors that mitigate the spread will be access to medicine when medicine and vaccine is developed for the virus. India has a large pharmaceutical industry, scientific labs and other medical resources similar to South Korea, which should help limit the affected areas and people. ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
US life expectancy dropped by 1.5 years to 77.3 years, the largest drop since 1943. This takes life expectancy back to the level in 2003. During the pandemic of 1918 the drop was 11.5 years, showing how much difference vaccines and modern medicine can make. The drop is a result of coronavirus, and added to this are the complications for people with other diseases including chronic liver disease, which is connected to use of alcohol. There was a decline in asthma and cancer related diseases. Delayed treatment for health conditions because of lockdowns and homicide increase were other causes of the drop.

Isolation, stress and disruption of normal diet and exercise will have effects still to be seen, say experts. 

WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Two studies now show that it isn't that coronavirus just takes away the infirm or elderly who would have died anyway this year or the next. It is taking people away who still had over 10 years to live. Professor Biggs at the London School of Health Hygiene and Tropical Medicine says this is is what is happening from the study he is conducting.

A paper by Scotland based researchers published online by the Wellcome Trust a London based foundation found the average number of years of life lost to coronavirus for healthy adults is 14 for men and 12 for women. Using data from Italy and UK on the kind of long term conditions in the general population , the researchers found that for those suffering from common chronic illnesses and cancer including multiple conditions, the researchers found that people of this type lost about 10 years on average.

The Times Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The Labour party's support for not withdrawing from the European Medicines Agency is the subject of an argument after Prime Minister's Questions in the British parliament. Labour leader Keir Starmer confronts prime minister Boris Johnson in parliament after Johnson reminds Labour that it had on repeated occasions called for the UK not to withdraw from the European Medicines Agency.  The UK vaccination drive is far ahead of the vaccination drive in European Union countries including France and Germany, because of British initiative in boldly betting money on vaccine supplies with pharmaceutical companies, and earlier approval by the UK health regulatory authority. Here is the comment in the House of Commons by Boris Johnson- "If we had listened to (Starmer), we would still be at the starting blocks because he wanted to stay in the European Medicines Agency and said so four times from that dispatch box." Starmer disputes the statement. The Times cites Hansard, the official record of the House of Commons. It records that Starmer questioned why Britain would want to withdraw from the Medicines Agency in Jan. 2017. In 2018 Labour party supported an Amendment to the Trade Bill that called for the UK to seek participation in the European Medicines Agency. Germany, Spain and France are hit hard by the second wave of the coronavirus and the lack of adequate vaccine supplies is causing grief in European Union. The EU president Von der Leyen, another European Union style bureaucrat, seen as having bungled the handling of vaccine supply. ...
BBC News Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
This BBC report shows how contact tracing works in Singapore to control the spread of coronavirus. On 4 February 20 Chinese tourists visited a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Singapore. Only 18 coronavirus cases had been recorded in Singapore on that date. That visit to the medicine shop created a new cluster for the disease to spread. Singapore's contact tracing units traced such locations through its well developed and extensive contact tracing programme, which follows the chain of the virus, identifying and isolating people before they can spread the virus further. For about 40% of the 243 cases so far on March 19 the first indication they had was a call from the Singapore Health Ministry.      About 6000 people have been contact traced so far, using a combination of CCTV footage, labor intensive detective work with phone calling. This includes an incident of a taxi ride of 6 minutes in which the person a yoga teacher was identified and contacted by the Health Ministry. Enforcement is done as the person was contacted at her home by three people who showed her a quarantine order, which said you could not go out or its fine time and jail time. With about 8000 people per square kilometre, Singapore is small and densely crowded. It could easily be overwhelmed with hospitals not able to cope and the health system collapsing if this was not done. Wuhan could have happened here, says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Leong at Mont Elizabeth Novena hospital, who advises the government.  Because the crime rate is low the police were given this task of tracing as a priority in addition to hospital units working on tracing. It also included the armed forces personnel helping with tracing so that it could be done quickly without delay. This provides a lesson on how countries that have faced the health crisis have used innovative methods to tackle it with good results. ...
NYTimes.com Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Already vaccination experts at the Baylor College of Medicine cited here say they foresee another wave of the coronavirus in the Southern US because of vaccine skepticism barriers to vaccination, and much of the population not being vaccinated. The percentage of the population in the Carolinas, Georgia, Georgia and Louisiana, that has both doses of vaccine is low. About 50% have had just one dose. In southern states Mississippi and Alabama the vaccination rates are much lower leaving large parts of the population unvaccinated. The widespread presence of the Delta variant in the UK and the R rate being between 1.00 and 1.2 in UK shows that the UK even with higher vaccination rates than the US is still facing a danger of another wave as it reopens.  The ominous aspect of this is that from just over 400,000 the vaccinations per day dropped to 316,000i n the US. This means there will be a period when vaccination drive is stalled while the reopening is fully underway with a new contagious variant twice as contagious as the original coronavirus. This leaves the US at risk of another wave, with the south and western US, younger people who are out more and unvaccinated, more at risk.  ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ report on critical analysis of coronavirus data has a very useful chart of Estimated Range of Symptomatic Cases Reported by Country. Complete coronavirus data for all symptomatic persons who have the coronavirus infection is lacking in most countries. Many people in large populations have symptoms and are positive but are not reflected in the official data collection. This is a big problem as the total number of cases are understated by a magnitude of twice to five times the numbers reported in official tally.   South Korea has done a good job of getting more of the symptomatic people with the infection in its data, as about 53% to 90% of such persons are reflected in official data. Next comes Germany at a range of 38% to 55%.  China comes third and has about 28% to about 38% of such persons reflected in its data, the U.S. currently on April 4 at about 14% to 19%, according to this chart in the WSJ. The source for this is Mathematical Modeling Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. What this means is that the US. number of cases at 278,000  reported infected people with symptoms (April 4) is only 14% to 19% of the true number. Another way to say this is that the actual infected persons with symptoms is about 5 times what is reported, or over 1 million not the 278,000 reported.  As happens for China data collection agencies may never get the true number. To be comparable to the Chinese numbers, as the U.S. is a large country, the figure closer to the true numbers would be twice the 278,000 reported or over half a million symptomatic infections of coronavirus in the U.S. Why is this data important. With widespread testing as in South Korea one gets data that tells one how many people are infected (the size of the problem) and therefore the resources needed and the point of greatest impact. Also it tells one the typical transmission rate per person, and it helps hospitals in each area know what to expect and what resources are needed to prepare- not find people suddenly turn up in the E.R. in unpredictable numbers. The lack of widespread testing and better reporting in the data to get a grip on the pandemic is shown in this chart for countries hardest hit, less than 5-6% for Italy and Spain. The UK and France at 5-8%.   ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ looks at the changes in the way medicine should be practiced in the light of what we have learned from the pandemic.  Medicine practiced before the pandemic and still today relies mainly on a visit to the doctor or specialist who is short of time. There is a shortage of doctors. Patients have many illnesses as a result of decades of neglect of proper nutrition, and exercize habits. Obesity is at about 40% in the U.S. about 30% in the UK and 17% in France, and high also in other parts of the world. These high rates were unknown throughout history and result in many illnesses and increase by four times the vulnerability to the coronavirus. One authority in medicine calls obesity pouring gasoline on a fire for effects of the virus.  A doctor's appointment with doctors short of time with no coordination around a whole range of factors related to obesity, illnesses, health checkups, mental health, is now seen as a heavily handicapped way to practice medicine or for patient healthcare and wellbeing. The alternative is discussed here as the way forward. A  team will be responsible for a patient's care not just an individual doctor. The team would care for general health after a patient's checkup, cover individual illnesses, weight issues, mental health, exercize nutritional needs and other good healthcare habits. Instead of relying on doctors at a time of shortages of doctors the team would be led by nurse practitioners.  A nurse practitioner is someone with a bachelors degree and a masters degree or doctoral degree in nursing with 1000 hours of clinical training. Studies have shown that they are effective and even more effective than individual doctors. Today particularly with the problem of doctors with limited time compounded by the built up problems of decades of bad habits in nutrition and exercize and poor "cultural" habits getting entrenched, there has never been a greater need for a better way to practice real healthcare for a person's wellbeing. Particularly in rural areas with an even larger shortage of doctors the health practitioner led team will play a big role. Patients will under this setting receive more care virtually and get more followup care by phone and video messaging. The numbers tell the story- there are shortages of doctors in USA, Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the U.S. shortage of doctors is 55,000 projected to 2033 by Association of American Medical Colleges. There are 290,000 nurse practitioners licensed in the U.S. and 131,0000 physician assistants. The goal will be to get an adequate number of nurse practitioners licensed in this decade to take care of these teams. The pandemic has made virtual visits to doctors and nurse practitioners popular. Medicine reimbursement should and would be practiced on the basis of how well a patient is doing not on a fee for each micro service that is delivered. For this to happen the teams led by the nurse practitioner have to commit to patient education of the benefits from good practices and good habits for nutrition, exercize, caring for oneself. A doctor short of time is hardly the person to carry on this patient education which is where the major opportunities for a new system arise. The virtual care also provides a new medium for patient education and awareness of the risks of getting illnesses, preventive actions to be taken in advance. One approach being tested in California and Texas is for a monthly fee for patients more payments by health plans to doctors or healthcare teams if the patient is healthier. Additional health professionals are added to the team including health coaches, dietitians and medical assistants to increase its effectiveness in counseling and education and monitoring.  The nurse practitioner team approach is already being practiced in parts of the U.S. including the example of New Hampshire shown here, and is predicted to be the approach for primary care in the next decade. ...
The Times Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
A major British and Indian collaboration and scientific achievement of both countries is not given the recognition it should get because of mismanaged communication of the results of clinical trials. Tom Whipple science editor of The Times says do not make the mistake of thinking oh Pfizer vaccine scores a 9 out of 10 and Oxford's a 7 or 8 out of 10. Pfizer vaccine says it 94% effective. But this is only part of the story. It is the first exam paper in a long number of exam papers and the final score will require scoring them all. "Oxford vaccine is complex, and we are happy with the complexity," says Adrian Hill, Oxford researcher and head of the Jenner Institute. It is not highly unusual in this complex field for a half first dose to work better than a full first dose in a two dose vaccine treatment. This happened with the Oxford vaccine. As a result the study results were harder to communicate. This happened by accident. Much of medical research and much of medicine's biggest breakthroughs in the last 200 years happened by accident, as one researcher looked for something and accidentally discovered something else profoundly useful. Whipple's points are turning out to be true now that Britain's medicine regulator has asked that Pfizer vaccine not be given to people with history of allergic reactions after 2 NHS workers had strong allergic reactions. A lot of questions remain for all vaccines. How long will the protection last? WIll it prevent transmission of coronavirus? Are there any other complications? Which vaccines can work without ultralow refrigeration storage? Ahead lie the prospect of billions of doses. Two are in final stages in India including Bharat Biotech request for emergency authorization. Johnson & Johnson has a competing one to Pfizer's in the U.S. As many as 30 are being developed in India and 100 around the world. Countries like South Korea say they will wait to find out which one works best and where cost overall combined with benefit is attractive. Some of the vaccines are coming out only weeks apart. The early ones could stumble, if something was missed. ...
The Guardian Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The Biden vaccination target of 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated with one dose by July 4, 2021 remains elusive as vaccination rates have dropped. From a high of 2 million a day vaccinations have dropped to 400,000 a day during the first week of June 2021. Vaccination skepticism particularly in the south and western part of the US is making it harder to vaccinate the rest of the US population. This poses increasing risks as the new variants of the virus such as the Delta variant found in India, and now the most widely prevalent strain of virus in the UK, remain a serious problem. The unvaccinated population in the US is too large for any degree of safety in numbers vaccinated. Consider that at the press briefing given by the White House on June 3, 2021, only 28 states out of 51 states have fully vaccinated 50% or more of their population. There is a large variation between different states with states in the south such as Mississippi as low as 34% at least one dose and a similar situation in Alabama. In Arkansas, Georgia, Carolinas, and Louisiana  it is higher at about 50% with at least one dose. Even these figures are deceiving as in some parishes in Louisiana only 20% have even one dose. Studies show that only after the second dose are enough antibodies released to protect well against coronavirus. This is why vaccine experts at Baylor College of Medicine cited in NYT foresee a second wave in the southern US because of the South so underachieving in the case of vaccination.  ...
The Guardian Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
During the first days of vaccination drive in India the uptake is lower than expected, below 48% in many states of India. Healthcare workers are coming forward in smaller numbers. The glitches in the app that was used to transmit information is one reason, the other being that not enough information was disclosed about the two vaccines.  On the first day Jan. 16 India vaccinated 200,000 healthcare workers. The target was 300,000. The uptake is lowest in states such as Tamilnadu and Punjab.  One of the reasons for the low uptake is also that India has a lower number of cases, and cases are in decline in India for coronavirus. The first wave peaked on September 13 at over 90,000 and has declined ever since to 13,000 on January 19, 2021. The Indian diet includes vegetables and a large part of the country is vegetarian. Indian diet also includes herbs such as turmeric, ginger and cinnamon, and many others that help build immunity. The lack of cars for large numbers of the population means a lot more exercize walking long distances is essential in daily living. Another factor is that the mandate for masks is strictly followed everywhere. Also helpful is that after independence in 1947 the pharmaceutical industry was built up to serve the large population with prices regulated carefully by the government, enabling steady supply of medicine during the pandemic. ...
NYTimes.com Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The NYT provides a good look at the situation in India in September where cases are over 4.5 million, the world's second largest after U.S. During the lockdown in April and May India had successfully stemmed the coronavirus. After reopening in June a lot has changed as can be seen in this look at the steep curve in June, July, August and September. Cases are now at the rate of 95,000 daily and deaths at 1172 daily as of September 9. The deaths are up 16% and cases up 29% over 2 weeks. Maps show the situation in the states with Maharashtra, Andhra, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh showing the highest cases. Maharashtra has about 1 million cases and the two states in the south east Andhra and Tamilnadu have about 1 million combined with Uttar Pradesh at about 250,000 cases. Delhi has about 200,000 cases. So that about half of the 4.5 million cases are in three states in the southeast and the western state where Mumbai (Bombay) is located. The increase was seen after increased testing from 200,000 a day to 1 million a day by the end of August, a steep jump being seen in late August and September. At the end of July the coronavirus recovery rate of 70% in India and 90% in Delhi were the favorable signs, until things changed in August with increased testing and the spread to rural areas. India is doing over 1 million tests daily. On September 3, 1.1 million people were tested, taking the total to 45 million tested throughout India.  As in Europe and America the reopening which is essential for the economy and jobs has resulted in a big jump in cases. The laws for lockdown were carefully obeyed without many of the problems seen in America and Europe, the early complete lockdown was implemented with success, and Indian pharmaceutical companies are some of the largest in the world giving the public wide access to essential medicines and drugs. The postal service has functioned remarkably well during the lockdown for delivery of essentials throughout the country, and earlier action to establish bank accounts for each and every individual in the country, has enabled rural Indians to get through this most difficult period. This has given the government some breathing room as it faces the cases from reopening in a vast country of 1380 million people.   ...
The Indian Express Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Prime minister Modi's address in Hindi to the nation on May 12 on "Atman Nirbhar Bharat" (self reliant India) as India looks ahead to a situation beyond the coronavirus. What would the economy look like as India moves forward? He says the emphasis will be on planning for the need for land, labor, liquidity, and laws to develop the Indian economy. A bold package of economic action for an investment of 20 lakh crore rupees or $280 billion was announced with details to be provided later. The basic philosophy of the next move forward was what the prime minister concentrated his speech on. Modi says there are 5 pillars for the Atman Nirbhar Bharat, or Self Reliant India. The first action not to go for incremental change- go instead for a quantum leap, be bold. This applies to both technology and investment and creating an environment where results can be achieved. Second action to make the kind of infrastructure that would set a new standard in the world. Third a "sabhi ke sapno ke aadhar," taking everyone along, be technology driven. Third action celebrate and build on India's vibrant demography, once seen as a weakness this will be turned into a strength. Fifth action be Demand driven - "demand or supply chain puri samtha ke saman karne ki jaruat che." The demand and supply chain  should be taken good care of. That also means be local and local manufacturing. Be vocal for local is the new message said Modi, because this is what worked and is saving us in the pandemic. As external supply chains failed countries in Europe and North America, it is the local supply chain for medicine, health care equipment, and food supplies, local technology for citizen id and bank accounts for direct deposit, agricultural supplies, strong and large national postal and rail networks and millions of employees spanning the country in all directions, that have proved of amazing value in this crisis. "Is local ne bhi bachaya, ham sabki jinnadari hai," - the local saved us and is everyone's responsibility.   ...
NYTimes.com Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Stephanie Nolan's reports from Africa provide the few glimpses one can get today of the situation in Africa where variants are growing as a result of lack of vaccines (vaccine inequality) and the faltering vaccination drive, shortage of medicine and food supplies. Her report from South Africa showed how healthworkers and scientists in South Africa are working hard on the frontlines. This one from Zambia looks at the vaccination centers and vaccination workers as vaccination drives falter. The African continent with 1.4 billion people received 404 million doses. Today only 7% of the population is vaccinated in Zambia and the rest of Africa. People in Zambia do not have car transport so they have to walk 3-6 kilometres to get to a vaccination center, when they turn up at a center and it is out of vaccines they stop coming. Other problems are the social media accounts that show the vaccination drives as harmful to people, or CNN and other news that talk about blood clots that when carefully understood affect a tiny fraction of people. There are other issues also. Ida Musonda, a nurse in a clinic near Lusaka says after not many people turned up that she should go to markets and churches, but says there is no fuel for the vehicle to get clinic workers there. Bernadette Kawango is shown with her children. She works at an auto parts store and lives in a low income neighborhood in the edge of Lusaka. She ignores all the social media accounts that scare people from vaccines, yet she says she worries more about cholera, TB and malaria, and also HIV, AIDS. And she does not know anybody diagnosed with coronavirus.  The result is that there is vaccine shortage resulting in a kind of vaccine indifference (why walk miles to a center if it may not have vaccines), compounded by other problems such as the other diseases that also pose a threat in Africa, and the low incomes in a shrinking economy. And with about 8% vaccinated in Africa, the problem of variants can only be tackled by consistent and not erratic supply of vaccines. ...
The Times Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Britain has come together in surprising ways during coronavirus with a community of ten million volunteers helping with food and medicine and other voluntary work. It is a beacon of hope during the crisis and it is here to stay.


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