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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004213

U.K. to offer covid vaccines to 16- and 17-year-olds, but remains hesitant to go younger

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LONDON – It was a relatively easy call to vaccinate the elderly against the coronavirus and keep them from getting seriously sick. But as rich countries rapidly work their way through the age groups, attention is turning to the vaccination of children, and that raises thorny questions about the protection of the individual versus society.

The debate has been especially contentious in Britain. Just two weeks ago government advisers said that the “minimal benefits” of vaccinating children under 18 didn’t outweigh the potential risks. Yet on Wednesday, those same advisers said 16- and 17-year-olds should get jabbed as soon as possible. Though only one dose for now. And younger children should still wait. Unless they are between age 12 and 15 and medically vulnerable or living with immunosuppressed adults.

The new guidance represents a confusing 90-degree turn for British teens and their families. Even pro-vaccine parents would be forgiven if their heads were spinning with the ever-changing messaging from this government.

Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization said its revised recommendation reflected both the state of the virus in Britain and additional safety data.

“In the last few weeks, there have been large changes in the way COVID-19 has been spreading in the UK, particularly in younger age groups,” the committee said in a statement on Wednesday.

It did not specify what about the spread had influenced the change in thinking, but Britain was hit early and hard by the highly contagious delta variant of the virus, and because so many older people are vaccinated, many of those getting infected are young.

The vaccination committee also cited data suggesting that one dose would provide young people with 80 percent protection against hospitalization. The committee had previously cited concern about serious side effects involving inflammation of the heart muscle or the membrane around the heart, but on Wednesday it offered further assurance that these were “extremely rare” and more of an issue after a second dose.

At a Downing Street news conference, government officials were repeatedly pressed on how much had changed in just two weeks.

“I think people are a bit confused about this changing advice,” said one reporter.

Wei Shen Lim, chair of the vaccination committee, said the advisers now had a greater certainty of data that has influenced their recommendations.

“There is no time to waste in getting on with this,” said Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, noting that children will start returning to school within weeks. “I want us to proceed as fast as is practically possible.”

But health policy experts who have been critical of the government’s hesitancy to inoculate teenagers said officials have been wasting time while getting to even this halfway conclusion, undermining what is otherwise one of the world’s most successful vaccination programs.

“The idea of allowing a pretty much uncharacterized virus tear through our children is utterly reckless and irresponsible, especially because it’s a vaccine-preventable disease,” said Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds.

“I’m very pleased that they are doing this U-turn,” Griffin said. “I hope once the safety data is in they go even younger.”

Peter Kyle, the opposition Labour Party’s point person on schools, tweeted that the government reversal on vaccines for older teens “is too late to make a difference to education when terms starts next month. Government have squandered the opportunity summer offered.”

Britain’s resistance to jabbing the young has made it an outlier in the developed world, where most rich countries are trying to get a needle into the arms of those under 18 as quickly as possible.

The United States and Canada have been vaccinating 12- to 17-year-olds since May. France, Italy and other countries in Europe began in June. Germany was something of a holdout, but this week it decided to move forward on vaccinations for that age group.

Trials are underway to test the vaccines in even younger subjects. Last week, President Biden expressed optimism that children under 12 would become eligible for inoculations in the United States “soon.”

In Britain, regulators authorized use of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine in June for those as young as 12. But when the experts on the government advisory panel delivered their assessment two weeks ago, they concluded: “Until more safety data is available and has been evaluated, a precautionary approach is preferred.”

The government advisers have emphasized the benefits and risks for individual teens. With the new advice on Wednesday, Lim said: “While covid-19 is typically mild or asymptomatic in most young people, it can be very unpleasant for some and for this particular age group, we expect one dose of the vaccine to provide good protection against severe illness and hospitalization.”

But other public health experts say it’s not just a question of risk to the individual but risk for the whole society. Teens can readily become infected and spread the virus to other children and to adults, including those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

Some of the most comprehensive studies on the effects of the coronavirus on children and teens have come out of Britain, and those studies have shown it is very rare for children to get severe covid.

Within England, from the beginning of the pandemic through February of this year, studies calculated that there were about four million cases of covid identified in children, with fewer than 6,000 hospitalizations and 25 deaths.

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Children can suffer from so-called long covid, but a review in the journal Nature reported estimates of how common it is in children “vary wildly.”

A new study published Tuesday by researchers at King’s College London followed 1,734 children, aged 5 to 17, who developed symptoms and tested positive for the coronavirus between September 2020 and February 2021, before the delta variant became dominant. The researchers report that one in 50 children with had symptoms that lasted for more than eight weeks. Two percent – of millions of cases – could be worrisome.

It is well-established that the delta variant of the virus is highly contagious, but researchers are not certain that the strain makes anyone – including young people – more ill.

Some front line health-care workers in the United States are reporting anecdotal evidence from their hospital wards that the delta variant makes for “younger, sicker, quicker” patients. But in Britain, the scientists are awaiting for more evidence.

In England, hospital admissions of those aged 15 to 24 years reached their highest rate since the peak in January 2021, but researchers note that the most likely to be unvaccinated today are the young.

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A preliminary study by Aziz Sheikh and colleagues at Public Health Scotland suggested that the risk of hospitalization was doubled for those infected by the delta variant, when compared to the alpha strain, originally detected in England. But when the alpha version of the virus was rampaging, vaccines were just beginning to be deployed, so comparisons are tricky.

Some commentators in Britain have wondered aloud if the government’s reluctance to inoculate younger people has been driven by concerns about vaccine supply. Health officials insist that supply has never been a limiting factor, though the government has declined to release numbers of available jabs.

Others have argued that the morally responsible move would be to focus on vulnerable people worldwide – not kids in Britain or America.

Andrew Pollard, a leader of the team that developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, told lawmakers in May that “it feels completely wrong” to prioritize children in rich countries over older populations in poor countries that don’t have access to vaccines.

“Children have near-to-zero risk of severe disease or death,” Pollard said.

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While it is true that children are less likely to become seriously ill or die, the risk is not zero.

“Kids are not invulnerable to covid, we have long covid to consider, and hospital admissions data show that between 6 and 8% of people in hospital in England are under 18,” said Griffin, of the University of Leeds.

He added that this age group has a lot more social mixing and contacts, “so, in terms of achieving population immunity, you need to target them.”

Vaccination of children under 16 in Britain requires parental approval, and a survey conducted in April and May by the U.K. Office of National Statistics found that almost 9 in 10 parents would definitely, or probably, vaccinate their children against the coronavirus if they could. In a more recent YouGov survey, 53% of parents with underage children said they would get them a shot if the vaccine was available, while 18% said they would not. Twenty-nine percent were unsure.

Educators are also keen to see students vaccinated before their return to school in the fall, to help reduce outbreaks and minimize disruption.

The National Education Union, the biggest teachers union in Britain, said the decision will “help to protect young people, their families and communities and minimise disruption to education next academic year. No one wants thousands of pupils to miss out on school.”

Before the recent term ended, more than 1 million children in England were out of school for covid-19-related reasons in a single week in July, a record. This comes in the wake of schools being closed for months because of the pandemic.

Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at Warwick Medical School, said infection among youths is high – which translates into quarantine and missed school days and knock-on mental health impacts.

He warned that Britain may never reach population immunity or herd immunity if children are not vaccinated. People under 18 make up about 20 percent of the British population, and this pool of unvaccinated humans could keep the pandemic going on and on, increasing the risk of new variants. Some estimates suggest 85 percent of a population must be vaccinated or have had a previous infection to stop the pandemic, which would be hard to reach without including children and teens.

“The benefits of vaccination for the young strongly outweigh any risks,” Young said.

Anthony Harnden is a professor of primary care at the University of Oxford and deputy chair of Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization. In a statement, Harden stressed that “the primary aim of the vaccination program has always been to prevent hospitalizations and deaths.”

Meaning: the point of vaccines is not ending the pandemic, which many might argue with.

“The benefits of reducing transmission to the wider population from children are also highly uncertain, especially as vaccine uptake is very high in older people who are at highest risk from serious covid-19 infection,” he said.

Published : August 05, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Karla Adam, William Booth

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004212

Wildfires blaze in Athens outskirts as Greece battles worst heat in 30 years

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Thousands of residents fled their homes in Athens as forest fires swept the north of the city, burning houses, severing electricity supplies and sending plumes of thick smoke into the air as Greece grappled with its worst heatwave in 30 years.

Emergency services worked to contain the flames, in part by sending planes to drop water from the sky. Greek officials confirmed Wednesday that at least 77 people had been hospitalized as a result of the huge blaze in the Varympompi area of Athens.

Temperatures soared to 115.3 degrees Fahrenheit earlier this week as Greece recorded its hottest day on record. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this week that the country was “facing the worst heatwave since 1987,” during which more than 1,000 people died.

George Patoulis, regional governor of greater Athens, described the fire as “large” and said the heat had dried out the landscape, worsening the conditions. “It will take a lot of work to get this under control,” he said Tuesday on state-run television.

“The fire is still raging, its perimeter is very wide and the heat load is very strong,” a fire brigade official said Wednesday, according to Reuters.

On Wednesday, Greek emergency services took to Twitter to warn residents and tourists of “extreme fire danger” in Rhodes and Crete, and advised people that conditions were “very difficult.”

“Whenever I go outside on the balcony it ‘rains’ ashes from the sky,” tweeted Demetrios Ioannou, a journalist living around 20 miles from the fires raging in Athens.

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The fires come following devastating blazes in nearby Turkey which saw lush green landscapes blackened by the inferno and forced residents force to flee their villages.

At least eight people were killed in the city of Antalya and parts of the country’s Turquoise Coast and livestock across affected areas perished before help arrived.

Turkish authorities said that over the past week, rescue services had battled to contain more than 100 fires.

Climate experts blamed rising temperatures on the widespread devastation which was also seen in Italy where residents in Sicily were evacuated and in Finland, which saw its worst forest fire in half a century.

In The United States, record-breaking heat over the summer triggered fires and stifling smoke.

Last month Greece became the first country in Europe to appoint a chief heat officer in Athens. Eleni Myrivili will be responsible for finding ways to keep the city cool as the world faces more extreme weather conditions as a result of climate change.

The mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, said that finding ways to navigate the consequences of the climate crisis was an issue for cities and countries worldwide.

“Climate change for our city means more frequent and dangerous extreme high temperatures for residents and for tourists who are critical for our economy,” he said.

Published : August 05, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Jennifer Hassan

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004211

WHO calls for moratorium on booster vaccine shots through September, citing global disparity

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The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for a halt on booster shots of coronavirus vaccines through at least September, as poorer countries struggle to access doses, even for high-risk populations such as health-care workers and the elderly.

“We cannot and we should not accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference.

Tedros said the focus for now should be meeting the U.N. health agency’s goal of 10 percent vaccination coverage in every country by the end of September. So far, more than 80 percent of vaccine doses globally have gone to high and upper-middle income countries that represent less than half of the world’s population.

The remarks come as the United States and other wealthy nations weigh if and when booster shots are necessary and consider how to balance domestic calls for additional doses against growing evidence of an alarming vaccine gap around the world.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday said the WHO was presenting a “false choice.”

The United States announced Tuesday “an important milestone” of over 110 million vaccines donated to the world, she said, more than any other country has shared, combined.

“More needs to happen, but we believe we can do both,” she said.

In recent months as a small number of relatively rich countries have pressed ahead with coronavirus vaccination campaigns, the WHO, public health experts and advocates have urged rich countries to do more to share doses and increase global supply.

They have stressed, repeatedly, that the unequal distribution of doses is not only unethical, but could extend the pandemic by prolonging shutdowns and giving the virus room to spread and mutate in unvaccinated populations.

Now, the spread of the highly-transmissible delta variant has countries with vaccine access considering third doses before much of the world has had access to one.

The WHO’s position on boosters is still shaping up. WHO officials said Wednesday that they do not necessarily oppose giving additional doses to certain populations who are not protected by standard doses.

Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the director general, acknowledged that the moratorium may also need to be extended. “Is September long enough? Not on the current trajectory,” he said.

Officials in the United States say that booster shots are not needed yet. But there is growing concern among some health officials about the urgent need to give additional doses to people with fragile immune systems amid growing concerns about waning immunity in vulnerable populations and surging infections from delta.

Some patients are trying to get additional doses, including those who are immunocompromised and are doing so at the recommendation of their doctors, clinicians have said.

Many patients have ‘taken matters into their own hands and many are proceeding with additional doses of vaccine as they see fit,” said Camille Kotton, a transplant-medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a member of the vaccine advisory board to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at the panel’s meeting last month.

In Northern California, the Contra Costa county health department notified its providers July 23 to allow individuals who wanted a booster dose of any coronavirus vaccine to get one if one was available, only to reverse itself this week after realizing it was in violation of FDA policy, a spokesman said.

The FDA’s existing authorization permits only a two-dose regimen of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson product. But the FDA is expected to give full approval to the Pfizer vaccine by the end of the summer, according to a federal official familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because the process is ongoing.

Once the Pfizer vaccine is licensed, clinicians could recommend additional doses to immunocompromised patients and other vulnerable populations who are more likely to become seriously ill from covid-19and might more frequently spread the virus to others.

Emerging data suggests that an additional dose in immunocompromised people may enhance disease-fighting antibody responses and increase the proportion of those who respond to the vaccines, CDC officials have said.

Debate over the need for booster shots has intensified since Pfizer and BioNTech announced last month they would seek regulatory approval for a third shot for all eligible adults, not just the immunocompromised, amid rising global concern about the delta variant.

The companies’ announcement that they would seek an emergency use authorization for a booster prompted U.S. health officials to declare that Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a third shot at this time.

But health officials make a distinction between boosters for people who already have an immune response after getting vaccinated versus additional doses for the immunocompromised who have failed to respond fully or at all to the shots.

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Other countries are grappling with questions over boosters. A booster campaign is already underway in Israel, where the effort focuses on adults over 60, and Russia. Clinics in Moscow started offering boosters in July, amid a surge in cases and concern about delta.

Parts of Europe appear to be moving in that direction. The WHO’s announcement came two days after Germany said it would also start offering boosters to the elderly, the immunocompromised and those who got the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson shots, because they may be less effective than other vaccines.

France also plans to make certain groups of people – residents of nursing homes, those over the age of 75 and people with severe health conditions – eligible for boosters in September.

Hungary will this month begin offering citizens a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. Both Spain and Italy have said residents will be very likely to need a booster, but have yet to announce firm plans.

In Britain, meanwhile, health officials have said they are preparing to offer booster shots in September, but are awaiting guidance from an expert advisory panel before firming up plans.

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With global supply scarce, the booster debate will deepen questions about how the world should address the problem.

Since last summer, a small number of relatively wealthy nations have cut deals with directly with vaccine-makers, snapping up a disproportionate share of near-term supply and undermining a WHO-backed effort, known as Covax, to equitably distribute vaccine.

Covax aimed to deliver up to 2 billion doses this year, with an eye to vaccinating 20 percent of the populations of participating countries in need. To date, it has delivered just under 178 million doses to 138 countries.

As it became clear that the U.S. had more than enough doses for its population, the Biden administration stepped up its vaccine diplomacy, promising to play a leadership role.

At a June meeting of the Group of Seven meeting in Britain, the White House announced it would buy 500 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to donate to the world, a step President Biden said would help “help supercharge the global fight against the pandemic.”

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On Tuesday, Biden said the United States has sent more than 110 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to 65 countries, putting the country ahead of all others on vaccine donations.

Other wealthy nations have pledged to share surplus doses, but supply remains limited – and diverting supplies to boosters could make that worse, the WHO warns.

Asked if nations already providing extra doses are “failing their duties,” WHO officials focused Wednesday on those still pondering the issue, saying they hoped leaders will hold off.

Tedros urged “concrete” commitments to global vaccination goals and ventured that the that leaders of G-20 countries will determine the course of the pandemic.

“We need everyone’s cooperation,” he said.

Published : August 05, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Emily Rauhala, Hannah Knowles, Lena H. Sun, Laurie McGinley

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004209

Indonesia becomes second in Asia to hit 100,000 covid deaths

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Indonesia has reached a grim milestone as more than 100,000 people died from the coronavirus, becoming the second country in Asia to breach that threshold.

After weeks of topping the world’s tally of daily covid-19 deaths, Southeast Asia’s largest economy added 1,747 fatalities on Wednesday, according to data from the health ministry, bringing its total number to 100,636.

Indonesia joins 11 other countries – including Brazil and India – that have lost more than 100,000 lives in the pandemic that began last year, showing how the world’s epicenter for the virus is shifting beyond Europe and America to Southeast Asia. While Indonesia is adding fewer number of cases daily than the U.S., its lower vaccination coverage and less-equipped health-care system have led to higher mortality rates from the virus.

Just 8% of Indonesia’s 270 million population are fully inoculated, compared with more than half in the U.S., according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.

The death toll has risen frighteningly fast for Indonesia. More than a third of fatalities was recorded in July alone, when the highly transmissible delta variant took hold, overwhelming hospitals and depleting the supply of much-needed oxygen tanks. Most of the deaths were due to late treatment, as health-care facilities could only take in the sickest patients despite setting up beds across parking lots and converting apartment buildings into isolation centers.

At least 2,837 people have died while isolating at home or outside of hospitals, as the government urged only those with severe cases to come to the overburdened health facilities, according to data compiled by crowdsourcing platform LaporCovid19.

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In early July, the government imposed its strictest set of movement limits on the most populated island of Java and tourist destination Bali to curb the spread of the virus, before expanding similar restrictions to the rest of the country. Daily cases have since eased from the peak reached on July 15, especially in the capital Jakarta that had long been the local virus hot spot. Infections are now spreading through provinces beyond Java, including in East Kalimantan and Riau.

Indonesia seeks to quicken its vaccine rollout with a target of administering 2.5 million doses a day this month and the next, more than double the rate in July. Lack of supply remains the key hurdle. The majority of the Sinovac Biotech shots it’s relying on needs to be cultured from the bulk doses shipped by the Chinese manufacturer, a process that can take one to two months. The country’s just starting to receive shipments of Pfizer and Moderna shots through Covax and bilateral deals.

As other countries grapple with vaccine hesitancy, most Indonesians are eager to be inoculated but lack access. Among those who haven’t had their shots, 80% said they’re waiting for a slot, are looking for available doses or haven’t been able to get the jabs for various other reasons, such as health conditions or lack of transport. More than 65% of those who have been vaccinated said they did so out of personal choice, followed by 31% who were told to by their workplace or other figures of authority, according to the July survey by the statistics agency.

Published : August 05, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Yudith Ho

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004198

Anti-science drive in U.S. seriously undermines recovery efforts

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With such anti-science sentiments, bigoted Washington elites are fueling an ideology-motivated disinformation campaign, through which they deliberately ignore facts and seek to mislead the public.

Amid new spikes in COVID-19 deaths and infections in the United States, anti-science rhetoric and conspiracy theories are also gaining steam in the country, triggering concerns that the global anti-pandemic course could worsen further.

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The latest episodes of such absurdity include Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson’s assertion that it was Anthony Fauci, a top U.S. infectious disease expert, who had “helped to create COVID in the first place,” and Congressman Clay Higgins’s wild claim that the virus had been weaponized for biological attacks.

These ridiculous statements can not withstand any rational analysis and are nothing but a new epitome of the rising anti-science sentiments in the United States. With such sentiments, bigoted Washington elites are fueling an ideology-motivated disinformation campaign, through which they deliberately ignore facts and seek to mislead the public.

What is more worrying is that these delusional minds are bringing about real consequences: In the United States, scientists and health officials, while working overtime to study the novel coronavirus and address the pandemic, have to spare a massive amount of time and resources to bust rumors and refute opinions spread by conspiracy theorists.

Due in part to the anti-science push, the United States overall has responded poorly to the pandemic and remains among the worst-hit countries in the world.

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the U.S. government, instead of acknowledging the threat it posed and informing the public in a timely manner, repeatedly downplayed the severity and exaggerated the country’s capabilities to handle the disease.

After the situation got worse, some U.S. officials quickly turned to conspiracy theories and anti-science positions in order to deflect attention and blame. The political tricks have gone as far as going after some of the country’s leading scientists, including Fauci, who had received death threats for siding with science and evidence.

Since the current U.S. leadership took office early this year, the U.S. government has been accelerating vaccinations for its residents. Over the past few months, states and cities have moved to lift COVID-19 preventive measures. The White House announced last month that the country is “closer than ever” to declaring “independence” from the deadly virus.

Healthcare workers operate in an ICU in the “COVID Area” of the Beverly Hospital in Montebello City, California, the United States, Jan. 22, 2021.

However, the pandemic is rapidly rebounding in the United States, with new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations all on the rise. “We’re going in the wrong direction,” Fauci told CNN during an interview late last month.

A man receives COVID-19 test at a mobile testing site in Times Square, New York, the United States, on July 20, 2021.

The giant gap between the cruel reality and the narrative pushed by the U.S. government and media is eroding people’s trust in their government and confidence that a recovery is on the horizon.

In addition, the current White House’s political maneuver, including asking intelligence agencies to investigate the origin of COVID-19 with a presumption of guilt targeting China, is further fanning anti-science remarks and activities.

Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Global Health Policy & Politics Initiative at Georgetown University, pointed out that if the aim of the U.S. government was finding a scientific explanation of the COVID-19 origin, it would have tasked health institutes instead of intelligence agencies with the research.

“This tells us that this is a political and an intelligence story: not a story mostly about science,” Kavanagh recently told U.S. magazine Rolling Stone. “We’re in a place where politics is driving people’s scientific understanding in a dangerous way.”

As Kavanagh said, anti-science sentiments and rhetoric would be unhelpful in suppressing the still raging COVID-19 pandemic and tracing the origin of the disease, and could further impede global efforts to defeat the pathogen. As a result, the international community should stay alert to the anti-science drive in the United States. 

Journalists wearing face masks enter the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, July 28, 2021

Published : August 04, 2021

By : xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004197

Racist incidents targeting Asian Americans worry students, parents: U.S. media

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With the rise in hate incidents nationwide and the new school year less than a month away, many Asian American students in central Ohio are bracing for the potential of new or continued verbal assaults by fellow students when they return to school in the fall, said an article published by The Columbus Dispatch.

Racist incidents targeting Asian Americans occurred before COVID-19, but the pandemic has increased the frequency and level of bullying, worrying Asian American students and their parents, said an article published by The Columbus Dispatch, a daily newspaper based in Ohio, on Monday.

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One in eight Asian Americans reported hate incidents in 2020, according to AAPI Data, a national coalition battling the problem, and one in 10 reported anti-Asian hate incidents in the first quarter of 2021, including physical assaults, verbal harassment, civil rights violations and online harassment, the article said.

Hate crimes against Asian-Americans overall have reached an “alarming level” in the United States, the article said, noting that more than 1,800 racist incidents against Asian Americans were reported from March to May.

With the rise in hate incidents nationwide and the new school year less than a month away, many Asian American students in central Ohio are bracing for the potential of new or continued verbal assaults by fellow students when they return to school in the fall, the article added.

Published : August 04, 2021

By : xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004196

7-day average of daily U.S. COVID-19 cases surpasses last summers peak: U.S. media

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“Cases in the U.S. begin to spike once again, with the highly contagious delta variant fueling infections, particularly in regions of the nation with low vaccination rates,” the report said.

The seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases in the United States surpassed the peak seen last summer, CNBC has reported.

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The U.S. daily infections, based on a seven-day moving average, reached 72,790 last Friday, which was higher than last summer’s peak, CNBC reported on Monday, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Cases in the U.S. begin to spike once again, with the highly contagious delta variant fueling infections, particularly in regions of the nation with low vaccination rates,” the report said.

Published : August 04, 2021

By : xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004166

Hero nurse saving 3 babies from Beirut blast expects better future

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Working at a hospital close to the Beirut port, Zeinoun did not expect a picture of her on the day of the explosion could touch hearts around the world.

One year after the deadly explosions rocked the Beirut port, Pamela Zeinoun, the 26-year-old nurse who saved the lives of three babies, voiced her two expectations.

“I hope we can bring justice to people who were affected by the explosions, and those who lost their beloved ones can somehow be relieved,” Zeinoun said.

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Meanwhile, she expected future generations would not experience the same awful circumstances that Lebanese are currently suffering.

On Aug. 4, 2020, the Beirut port was hit by two big explosions, destroying a big part of Beirut, killing over 200 people, and injuring more than 6,000 others.

Estimated as one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions recently, the explosions had a major impact on the country’s economy while plunging lots of people into psychological distress.

Working at Saint George Hospital close to the Beirut port, Zeinoun did not expect a picture of her on the day of the explosion could touch hearts around the world. In the picture, she was seen holding three newborn babies close to her chest, while making a phone call.

“Those babies were the first thing I thought of at the moment of the explosion. I had lived with these babies every single day for one month and could not even imagine for a moment that I’d leave the place without them,” Zeinoun recalled.

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Then she managed to pull the three babies from incubators before a long and hard journey of running out of the hospital, along with one father and his baby who were on the same floor.

“The electric power was out given the magnitude of the explosion. It was dark in there, and the sound of the alarm was so high that it was barely possible to hear the frightened people screaming when they were trying to find the way out,” Zeinoun said.

“It was a horrible experience,” she added.

After reaching the hospital’s ground floor a few minutes later, Zeinoun realized how hard it was to find emergency medical care at the intensive care units of the hospital filled with injured doctors and cadavers.

“I figured out I only had one choice: to look for another hospital where I can place the babies in incubators to guarantee their survival until they are found by their parents,” said Zeinoun.

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The roads were covered by debris, so she had to walk for five kilometers to reach another hospital.

“You cannot imagine how relieved I felt when I was sure that the babies were safe. I felt they were my responsibility,” she added.

One year after the catastrophic explosions, the horrific image still haunted Zeinoun.

“Several days after the incident, I still could not believe what had happened. I lost a lot of weight as I could not eat or sleep,” she said.

Currently doing her Master’s degree in Hospitals Management at the Lebanese German University, Zeinoun had received multiple job offers from Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Kuwait, given her bravery and courage.

“I don’t want to leave my country. We’ve already lived through the worst moments,” she said, expecting for a better future.

Families of the victims of the Aug. 4 explosion protest in front of the Beirut Justice Palace, Lebanon, on July 12, 2021.

Families of the victims of the Aug. 4 explosion protest in front of the Beirut Justice Palace, Lebanon, on July 12, 2021. 

Zeinoun takes care of three babies in a damaged hospital after the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 4, 2020.

Zeinoun takes care of three babies in a damaged hospital after the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 4, 2020. 

Damaged buildings are seen after the explosions near the Port of Beirut in Lebanon, Aug. 5, 2020.

Damaged buildings are seen after the explosions near the Port of Beirut in Lebanon, Aug. 5, 2020. 

Photo taken on Aug. 2, 2021 shows a view of the Port of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon.

Photo taken on Aug. 2, 2021 shows a view of the Port of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon.

Published : August 04, 2021

By : xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004164

UN concerned about worsening humanitarian situation in Lebanon

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Lebanon is grappling with an economic and financial meltdown, COVID-19, the disastrous impact and aftermath of the Beirut Port explosions a year ago, and the continued impact of the Syrian crisis, the UN OCHA said.

The United Nations remains deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation in Lebanon, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday.

The country is grappling with an economic and financial meltdown, COVID-19, the disastrous impact and aftermath of the Beirut Port explosions a year ago, and the continued impact of the Syrian crisis, it said.

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Political deadlock continues to fuel popular protests and is hampering meaningful reform and recovery efforts, it added.

The situation of ordinary people in Lebanon is worsening day by day. Food prices increased by a staggering 400 percent between January and December 2020. Humanitarian needs are increasing among Lebanese and migrants, including in food security and nutrition, health, protection, education and water and sanitation, said OCHA.

At the end of 2020, 19 percent of Lebanese nationals reported the loss of their main sources of income. In March 2021, 78 percent of the population was estimated to be in poverty. More than a third of the Lebanese population is facing extreme poverty, it said.
 

Photo taken on Aug. 2, 2021 shows a view of the Port of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon.

In parallel, nine out of 10 Syrian refugee families live in extreme poverty, increasing from 55 percent only a year before. The situation is most acute for female-headed households. The estimated 210,000 migrants in Lebanon, who are predominantly female, face high rates of unemployment, food and shelter insecurity, and poor access to drinking water, it said.

At the same time, basic services such as fuel, electricity, health care, and clean water, are in short supply. Most of these services were previously provided through the private sector which is already overstretched due to years of under-investment, said OCHA.  

Published : August 04, 2021

By : xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40004162

Massive wildfire prompts new mandatory evacuation orders in Northern California

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A total of 5,998 wildfires had burned over estimated 542,000 acres and damaged or destroyed 400 structures in California this year, according to official data. California and most of the U.S. West are in the grip of a severe drought of historic proportions.

Amassive wildfire scorched over 253,000 acres (around 1,024 square km) in Northern California as of Tuesday morning, prompting new mandatory evacuation orders and warnings for local communities.

The fire raging in Plumas and Butte counties, dubbed Dixie Fire, was at 253,052 acres and 35 percent contained, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) in an incident report Tuesday morning.

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Officials said at least 7,144 structures were threatened by the fire and more than 5,100 fire personnel were battling the blaze.

The fire, which started on July 13, has destroyed 45 structures and 22 other minor structures to date. It’s now the largest wildfire so far this year in California and the 11th largest wildfire in the history of the western U.S. state.

Extreme fire behavior is predicted due to drying conditions on Tuesday, according to the InciWeb, an interagency all-risk incident web information management system provided by the U.S. Forest Service.

Officials said that active fire with uphill runs, single tree torching, and spotting was expected.

“Winds and fire activity are expected to test established firelines on the perimeter. Evacuation zones have changed with new mandatory areas in Plumas County,” the InciWeb noted, urging residents in evacuation warning areas to stay alert to conditions and remain prepared.

After reviewing the current position of the wildfire and receiving a recommendation from the operations division, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office issued new evacuation orders and warnings for residents in some communities near the fire zones Tuesday morning.

Firefighters participate in battling wildfire at the Angeles National Forest in Azusa, California, the United States, on July 31, 2020.

A total of 5,998 wildfires had burned over estimated 542,000 acres and damaged or destroyed 400 structures in California this year, according to the Cal Fire’s 2021 Incident Archive. The state and most of the U.S. West are in the grip of a severe drought of historic proportions.

In 2020, over 9,900 fires burned over 4.2 million acres, more than 4 percent of the state’s roughly 100 million acres of land, making it the largest wildfire season recorded in California’s modern history. A total of 33 people were killed and 10,488 structures were damaged or destroyed by wildfires last year.

“While wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, the fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year. Climate change is considered a key driver of this trend,” said the Cal Fire on the agency’s official website.

“Warmer spring and summer temperatures, reduced snowpack, and earlier spring snowmelt create longer and more intense dry seasons that increase moisture stress on vegetation and make forests more susceptible to severe wildfire,” the agency noted.

Published : August 04, 2021

By : xinhua