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Alleged organizer in Capitol riot freed from jail as he awaits trial

InternationalMar 13. 2021Thomas Caldwell

By The Washington Post, Tom Jackman

WASHINGTON – A Virginia man accused of being an organizer of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol was ordered released from jail Friday by a federal judge, who said the man did not enter the Capitol and “there’s no direct evidence that he was planning to do so that day.”

Thomas Caldwell, 66, of Berryville, had been in jail since an FBI raid on his home on Jan. 19, and U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta had refused to release him after a hearing on Feb. 12. But Caldwell’s lawyer said the government still had no evidence that Caldwell planned an invasion of the Capitol, he didn’t physically enter the building, and he noted that Caldwell fully cooperated with FBI agents. That included providing them the passwords to his computers and sitting for a two-hour interview, which seemed to convince Mehta that Caldwell had not destroyed evidence after the Jan. 6 siege.

Caldwell also suffers from severe back pain as a result of injuries received during his 20-year Naval career, his attorney, David Fischer, said, and was unable to receive treatment for that in the Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange. Mehta said he took that into account, as well as Caldwell’s military service, his former top secret security clearance, and his lack of a prior criminal history.

During the hearing in Washington, prosecutors asked Mehta to delay Caldwell’s release until Monday while they considered whether to appeal his order, but Mehta declined.

Caldwell is indicted, along with eight others from around the country, with conspiring to block Congress from confirming the winner of the U.S. presidential election, destroying government property, entering a restricted building and destroying evidence. The FBI said it found messages that Caldwell sent to members of the conservative Oath Keepers group lining up their arrival in Washington, and seemingly establishing a “quick reaction force” with weapons, staged outside the city, to summon during the siege if needed.

Caldwell then sent messages and photos from the Capitol on Facebook on Jan. 6 which the government interpreted as his narration of joining the crowd of rioters, while Fischer said they were merely reports to his friends watching from afar. Comments by Caldwell such as “We must smite them now and drive them down” were actually harmless hyperbole from an amateur screenwriter, Fischer said.

Fischer said Caldwell and others were planning to provide protection for Trump supporters from a feared antifa attack. He said the Oath Keepers had traveled around the country to help local police defend against violent protesters.

“Who deputized the Oath Keepers to come in and help the local police?” Mehta asked. “This notion that they are a roving band, ready and willing to step in just in case Antifa shows up seems fanciful.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy noted that some of Caldwell’s messages referenced more than protection. “Let them try to certify some crud on capitol hill,” Caldwell wrote on Dec. 31 on Facebook, “with a million or more patriots in the streets. This kettle is set to boil.”

Seven of Caldwell’s alleged co-conspirators composed the “stack” of Oath Keepers who marched up the Capitol steps and into the building, prosecutors allege, but the judge agreed that Caldwell was not one of them. “There is an absence of direct evidence of planning by Mr. Caldwell to enter the Capitol building,” Mehta said.

Mehta placed Caldwell on 24-hour home confinement with electronic monitoring, with no access to guns, computers or smartphones, to stay away from the District and to have no contact with anyone affiliated with the Oath Keepers.

“Believe me Mr. Caldwell,” Mehta told the defendant, “if there’s any hint of violation of these conditions, you’ll be right back where you are.”

“Yes your honor, I understand,” said Caldwell, who attended the hearing through a video link from the jail in Virginia.

Separately Friday, prosecutors unsealed charges filed Wednesday accusing alleged Florida Proud Boys member Christopher John Worrell of spraying pepper-spray gel toward police at West Capitol front. At an initial appearance in the afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Mac McCoy of Fort Myers ordered Worrell’s release, but Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of Washington stayed an order to hear a government appeal for detention.

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British tabloid claims Oprah Winfrey ‘seriously misled’ viewers in royal interview

InternationalMar 13. 2021

By The Washington Post, Paul Farhi

The owner of the Daily Mail has requested that Oprah Winfrey’s production company and CBS alter a widely viewed interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – specifically that they stop using the British tabloid’s headlines to demonstrate racist coverage of the royal couple.

“Many of the headlines have been either taken out of context or deliberately edited and displayed as supporting evidence for the program’s claim that [Meghan] was subjected to racist coverage by the British press,” Elizabeth Hartley, the chief legal officer for the Mail’s parent company, Associated Newspapers, wrote to CBS on Friday.

She cited three instances in which Winfrey’s company, Harpo Productions, “seriously misled” viewers during the two-hour interview, which featured allegations by the duchess and her husband that racism had driven them to leave Britain for the United States. The program has been seen by tens of millions of people since it first aired Sunday, and was reran on CBS on Friday.

Meghan is an unusual figure in the British royal family: An American actress, the child of a Black mother and White father, and a divorcée before she married Harry, who is sixth in line for the throne. The British media’s obsession over their relationship has been shadowed by claims of racism and double standards from the beginning.

Some of the coverage has been overtly racist. “Harry to marry into gangster royalty? New love ‘from crime-ridden neighborhood,’ ” read a 2016 headline in the Daily Star, a competitor to the Mail, which is one of Britain’s top-selling newspapers.

Associated Newspapers claims that Winfrey’s interview with the couple misled viewers by including Daily Mail headlines in a montage of offensive coverage that periodically flashed across the screen.

One of the tabloid’s headlines that was used read, “Meghan’s seed will taint our royal family.” It was in fact a direct quote of a text sent by the girlfriend of the leader of a far-right British party. She was suspended from the party after the Mail reported on her texts.

At another point, CBS showed an excerpt from a 2016 Daily Mail column written by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s sister, Rachel Johnson. As presented on screen it read, “Miss Markle’s mother is a dreadlocked African-American lady from the wrong side of the tracks . . . ” underneath the Daily Mail logo.

In the complaint letter, Hartley wrote that the comment was intended to praise Markle for bringing diversity to the insular, overwhelmingly White royal family. In the sentence before the excerpt, Hartley noted, Johnson had written: “If there is issue from her alleged union with Prince Harry, the Windsors will thicken their watery, thin blue blood and Spencer pale skin and ginger hair with some rich and exotic DNA.” (Exotifying multiracial people and relationships is itself an offensive stereotype.)

The third instance involves the blurring of a single word in a Mail headline from 2017 that was shown during in the interview. As presented by Winfrey, the headline reads, “Yes, they’re joyfully in love. So why do I have a [word obscured] worry about this engagement picture?”

The word in question is “niggling,” a commonly used adjective in Britain (and The Washington Post) that means petty or trivial. By blurring out the word and including the altered headline in the montage, Hartley wrote, the producers “invited audiences to speculate on what word had been used and, in the context of the program, to reach a false and damaging conclusion that it was racist.”

The demand letter asked that all three headlines be removed from reruns of the interview. It did not threaten legal action, and so far neither Winfrey nor CBS has shown much inclination to comply with the request.

In a statement Friday, a spokeswoman for Harpo said no changes are planned. The royal couple “shared in the interview their personal story,” she said. “We stand by the broadcast in its entirety.”

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AstraZeneca vaccine’s benefits outweigh risks, says EMA, as probe launched into blood clotting cases

InternationalMar 12. 2021

By THE NATION

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday that it is aware that Denmark has paused the administering of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines. This step was taken as a precaution while a full investigation is ongoing into reports of blood clots in people who received the vaccine, including one case in Denmark where the person died.

Some other European countries have also paused the use of this vaccine.

“There is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects with this vaccine,” said the agency. “The position of EMA’s safety committee PRAC [Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee] is that the vaccine’s benefits continue to outweigh its risks and the vaccine can continue to be administered while an investigation of cases of thromboembolic events is ongoing. PRAC is already reviewing all cases of thromboembolic events, and other conditions related to blood clots reported post-vaccination with AstraZeneca vaccine.”

EMA also added that the number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people is no higher than the number seen in the general population. As of Wednesday, 30 cases of thromboembolic events had been reported among close to 5 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe.

EMA said it will provide updates as the assessment progresses.

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EU regulator clears Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine

InternationalMar 12. 2021

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Suzi Ring, Nikos Chrysoloras

Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine won clearance from the European Union’s drugs regulator, paving the way for the first single-injection shot to help bolster the region’s sluggish vaccination campaign.

The European Medicines Agency recommended that the EU grant the vaccine conditional approval for all adults in a statement Thursday. The European Commission said it will move quickly to rubber-stamp the decision.

The newcomer could help the bloc ramp up its immunization effort because it can be stored in a refrigerator for long periods — unlike two of the other three vaccines available in the EU — and the logistics of injecting a single dose are far simpler. The shot protected all volunteers in clinical trials against hospitalization and death from covid-19.

The EU has purchased 200 million doses of the vaccine, with an option for 200 million more. The Commission had said previously deliveries were expected to begin in early April, but officials are now bracing for delays, two people with knowledge of the process said earlier this week. At a meeting of EU ambassadors Wednesday, diplomats were told J&J has yet to provide a delivery schedule for the shot.

The vaccine is the fourth to be cleared in the region after those made by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford, Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE, and Moderna Inc.

The EMA’s “recommendation is a landmark moment for Johnson & Johnson and for the world,” said Paul Stoffels, the drugmaker’s chief scientific officer, in a statement.

The EU’s vaccination program has faced criticism for its slow rollout, prompting Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to lash out earlier this week, saying the bloc’s executive arm is “tired of being the scapegoat.” Instead she refocused the blame on manufacturers like Astra, which has delivered fewer vaccines than promised.

The J&J vaccine was found to be 67% effective against symptomatic covid-19 in trials, a number that was affected by the prevalence of new variants of the virus at some study sites such as South Africa. In the U.S. arm of the studies, the vaccine prevented 72% of infections.

That’s less protection than what vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna offer, but its ease of use makes up for that, especially since it affords protection against severe disease. Side effects include headaches, tiredness and pain at the injection site.

“As a cheap, easily shipped and stored vaccine, it will play a key role,” Sam Fazeli, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a note after the shot won clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month.

Like the Astra vaccine, the J&J shot uses an adenovirus, similar to the virus that causes the common cold, to deliver the genetic material into the body to provoke a defense against covid-19. The Oxford-Astra vaccine uses a chimpanzee adenovirus to do this, while J&J’s is derived from humans.

The U.S. began rolling out the shot last week, following the FDA’s emergency-use authorization. Through Operation Warp Speed the U.S. has provided about $1.5 billion in funding for the vaccine in exchange for 100 million doses, with the option to purchase more. The company is also conducting a two-dose trial of its shot.

The U.K., where some of J&J’s advanced trials were conducted, has purchased 30 million doses of the vaccine, but hasn’t yet cleared it for use.

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Denmark, Norway temporarily suspend AstraZeneca vaccine, even as European regulator maintains it is safe

InternationalMar 12. 2021

By The Washington Post · Rick Noack

BERLIN – Danish and Norwegian authorities said Thursday that they have temporarily suspended the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, citing concerns over a possible association with blot clots, even as the European Union’s regulator found no evidence that the vaccine is unsafe.

“We are engaged in the largest and most important vaccination rollout in Danish history. And right now, we need all the vaccine doses we can get,” said Soren Brostrom, director of the Danish National Board of Health, in a statement on Thursday. “It is, therefore, not an easy decision to pause vaccination with one of the vaccines. However, because we vaccinate so many people, we also need to react with due diligence when we learn of possible and severe side effects.”

Danish authorities said that one death in Denmark is being investigated.

None of the coronavirus vaccines authorized in Europe or the United States have yet been linked to deaths, in clinical trials or real-world settings.

While the Danish suspension is expected to last two weeks, Norwegian authorities did not immediately provide a timeline for their review of the vaccine.

Concerns were first prompted by a case in Austria of a person who was diagnosed with blood clots and died 10 days after vaccination. At least three other people who received AstraZeneca vaccines from the same batch also developed serious conditions, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Wednesday.

But the EMA concluded there “is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects with this vaccine.” It added that the prevalence of blood clots in vaccinated people “is no higher than that seen in the general population.”

In its release, the EMA said “although a quality defect is considered unlikely at this stage,” it would investigate the quality of the relevant batch of vaccines – a shipment of 1 million AstraZeneca doses distributed to 17 European countries.

Several affected nations had already said they would not use the batch’s doses until further notice. Thursday’s announcement by Denmark appeared to go further, as it applied to all AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses in the country of 5.8 million people.

Norway did not receive doses from the batch that is under scrutiny, according to the EMA.

In Britain, where more than 11 million doses of the vaccine have already been administered, the country’s regulator reassured people on Thursday that they “should still go and get their COVID-19 vaccine when asked to do so.”

“It has not been confirmed that the report of a blood clot, in Denmark, was caused by the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca,” said Phil Bryan, a senior official with the British regulator, according to the statement. “Blood clots can occur naturally and are not uncommon.”

In a statement of its own, AstraZeneca said “the safety of the vaccine has been extensively studied in Phase III clinical trials and Peer-reviewed data confirms the vaccine has been generally well tolerated.”

Denmark’s response to the pandemic has at times been more cautious than that of other E.U. members. The country’s government ordered the culling of millions of minks last year amid concerns that animals infected with the coronavirus could prompt the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants.

Still, the Danish and Norwegian moves could put pressure on other European nations to impose similar temporary suspensions, which may throw into further disarray the bloc’s vaccination strategy that has already been mired by backlogs and mixed political messaging.

The chief epidemiologist of Iceland, which like Norway is not a member of the E.U., said Thursday that the country would also temporarily suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to a spokesman for the Icelandic Foreign Ministry. But the spokesman could not immediately say whether that suspension would only apply to the batch under scrutiny or to all AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines in the country.

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Biden signs $1.9 trillion stimulus bill

InternationalMar 12. 2021

President Joe Biden

By The Washington Post · Tony Romm

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package into law on Thursday, setting in motion a vast effort on the part of his administration to implement one of the largest stimulus measures in U.S. history, and some stimulus payments could be delivered this weekend.

“This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country,” the president said during the bill signing.

The first round of stimulus payments of up to $1,400 could go out this weekend to Americans whose direct deposit bank account information is already on hand at the IRS, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday.

The bill, known as the American Rescue Package, authorizes a third round of one-time stimulus payments up to $1,400 for most Americans; extends additional unemployment support to millions still out of work; and makes major changes to the tax code to benefit families with children. It also sets aside new federal money to help schools reopen, aid cities and states facing budget shortfalls, and assist in the distribution of coronavirus vaccine doses.

Democrats have pledged to promote the bill heavily in the coming months, touting it as one of the most significant anti-poverty proposals that Congress has adopted in a generation. Biden, meanwhile, is expected to embark on a cross-country tour to sell the rescue plan to voters, including a trip to Pennsylvania scheduled for Tuesday. Vice President Harris and her husband are set to deliver the same message out west, although details of the trip are not yet clear.

For now, Biden’s signature on the law puts the U.S. government on track to start delivering some of the total $1.9 trillion in new coronavirus support, including stimulus checks. Administration officials have said a large number of Americans could receive their checks before the end of the month since the IRS, which is tasked with implementing the program, has delivered such aid in the past.

Other elements of the sweeping law may prove much tougher to implement, as the U.S. government must grapple with complex new mandates to deliver it in a tight time frame. That includes some of the changes to unemployment benefits and the new payments to be provided to Americans who have children, meaning it could be weeks or months before some families start to see the full scope of support authorized under the law. The White House said this week it would task an official to oversee stimulus spending across government.

Its passage offered an early economic jolt: Two airline giants, United Airlines and American Airlines, said this week they would cancel tens of thousands of layoffs as a result of aid they are set to receive under the stimulus law. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York, which oversees the city’s buses and trains, said the money would help stave off layoffs and other service cuts in the face of a rapidly dwindling budget situation.

Biden had initially intended to sign the bill on Friday, but White House aides said they received a copy of the legislation from Congress earlier than anticipated, allowing the president to put his signature on the proposal hours before he is set to deliver his first-ever prime time television address.

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Russia slows down Twitter over ‘banned content’

InternationalMar 11. 2021

By The Washington Post · Hamza Shaban

Russia slowed down Twitter for hundreds of thousands of users on Wednesday after regulators accused the platform of failing to remove illegal content. It’s the latest escalation between a government entity and an American social media company over ongoing debates shaping the boundaries of global communications.

The nation’s communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said Twitter has not removed content that encourages suicide among young people, as well as posts and links tied to child pornography and drug use. Thousands of tweets fall into these categories, Russian officials said.

Should Twitter continue to host the prohibited content, the regulator warned that it could move to block the site entirely. For now, though, agency officials said they would throttle Twitter access on all mobile devices, and on half of the users who log on through their computers.

The company has more than 690,000 active users in the country, according to a recent report from the research agency Brand Analytics. In Russia’s messaging battle, the opposition lights up social media. Putin’s allies plod along on state TV.

In a TV appearance Wednesday, the deputy chief of Roskomnadzor, Vadim Subbotin, said that Twitter stands out as the only social network that has “openly ignored the Russian authorities’ demand to remove the banned content.”

Twitter’s content policies ban a host of illegal and abusive behavior, including child exploitation, the encouragement of self-harm and suicide, and facilitating drug transactions.

“We are aware of reports that Twitter is being intentionally slowed down broadly and indiscriminately in Russia due to apparent content removal concerns,” Twitter said in a statement Wednesday, adding that it has a “zero-tolerance policy” regarding the illicit content. “We remain committed to advocating for the Open Internet around the world and deeply concerned by increased attempts to block and throttle online public conversation,” the company said.

Moscow’s move highlights the government’s ongoing hostility toward social media platforms, which have helped galvanize young Russians protesting against President Vladimir Putin. In recent months, dissidents and anti-corruption activists have fueled waves of demonstrations across the country, powered in part by social networks including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram that provide a messaging alternative to state-backed Russian media.

Earlier this year, in a video address to the World Economic Forum, Putin took aim at social media companies in an implicit acknowledgment of the threat they pose to his grip on power. “These are no longer just economic giants – in some areas they are already de facto competing with states,” he said.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his political allies have relied on social media platforms to amplify their criticisms of the government and to rally support for street protests.

Navalny, an outspoken Kremlin critic who was nearly killed in a nerve agent attack last year, was sentenced to more than two and a half years in prison for allegations that have drawn widespread condemnation from human rights groups for being politically motivated. Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced punitive sanctions against Russian government figures in connection with Navalny’s poisoning.

The antagonism between authoritarian governments and social media also reflects generational differences in news consumption, experts say. Young people in Russia watch far less TV than older generations, and are less likely to adopt the views espoused on state television, challenging the portrayals of a self-reliant, trustworthy Russian government.

On a technical level, the Twitter slowdown appears to have interfered with broader Internet traffic in Russia, according to Doug Madory, the director of Internet analysis at Kentik, a network analytics company.

Over a roughly two-hour span Wednesday morning, Madory observed a 24% drop in Internet traffic volume to the Russian state telecom Rostelecom. “This disruption was caused by a flawed attempt to block Twitter’s link-shortening service,” Madory said.

But the blocking attempt interfered with Web traffic destined for other sites, including Reddit and Microsoft, Madory said.

On Twitter, Rostelecom apologized for the outages and said they were caused by a “global accident.”

Maria Kolomychenko, technology editor of Meduza, an independent investigative news site, said that Russia’s moves against Twitter were prompted by tweets about Navalny, and of posts containing detailed information about opposition actions and protests. Observers are interpreting the throttling as a test of Moscow’s ability to block internet access, Kolomychenko said in an interview, with Twitter serving as an early target.

Andrei Soldatov, a fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis and a Russian investigative journalist, said on Twitter that Russia’s slowdown was “partly a warning to global platforms,” and a nationwide test of the government’s censoring infrastructure. But the throttling also caused an outage of government websites, he said, and “failed on all fronts.”

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E.U. denies coronavirus vaccine nationalism charge, says U.S. and U.K. are not sharing

InternationalMar 11. 2021

By The Washington Post · Rick Noack, Quentin Ariès, Loveday Morris

BERLIN – The European Union is defending itself against accusations of vaccine nationalism, highlighting its role in producing coronavirus vaccines for export and calling out the United States and Britain for not similarly sharing with the world.

The E.U. came under heavy criticism after member Italy blocked the export of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses to Australia last week, citing coronavirus vaccine shortages and delayed supplies to the bloc.

But now the E.U. is emphasizing that just one shipment was held back, while 257 others have gone out.

A European official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to share the information publicly, said Wednesday that the bloc had approved the export of more than 34 million coronavirus vaccine doses since late January. Britain was the biggest recipient of those exports, with more than 9 million doses, followed by Canada, which got nearly 4 million, and Mexico, which received more than 3 million. The bloc approved the export of more than 950,000 doses to the United States.

European Council President Charles Michel also noted on Tuesday that most of the doses deployed in Israel’s world-leading vaccination program came from Belgium.

He contrasted the European approach with that in the United States and Britain, which he singled out for having “imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory.”

Michel’s comments drew a fierce response from the British government on Wednesday.

“Let me be clear: We have not blocked the export of a single covid-19 vaccine or vaccine components,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson, adding that “we oppose vaccine nationalism in all its forms.”

Britain’s Foreign Ministry summoned a top E.U. official over the spat on Wednesday.

The E.U., the United States and Britain have all invested heavily in coronavirus vaccine research and development. They are also key backers of Covax, a program co-led by the World Health Organization that primarily aims to secure equitable access to vaccines for poorer nations. President Joe Biden last month pledged $4 billion to the program over the next years – more than any other nation has vowed to donate.

Still, high-income countries have so far bought up the majority of available vaccine doses, purchasing 55% of coronavirus vaccine supplies worldwide, even though they represent only 16% of the global population, according to data collected by Duke University.

Some poorer nations may still have to wait years for sufficient supplies.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week that Biden “has made clear that he is focused on ensuring that vaccines are accessible to every American” and is not considering sharing vaccines with Mexico at this point.

Neither of the two U.S. neighbors have so far been able to secure deliveries from U.S.-based facilities. In addition to what they have received from Europe, Mexico has ordered vaccines developed in Russia and China, whereas Canada purchased AstraZeneca doses produced in India and requested doses from the Covax program.

The Italian block on the Australia shipment reflected concerns that British-Swedish company AstraZeneca is shortchanging the E.U. to fulfill its contracts with other nations. It was the first time an E.U. member made use of new rules introduced in January that require manufacturers to ask permission before exporting doses outside of the bloc – a rule imposed as AstraZeneca and other suppliers said they would not meet their pledges for the first part of the year.

The tense exchanges between London and Brussels this week are a sign of the stakes involved in vaccine diplomacy around the globe. But they are also an indication of strained relations between Britain and the 27-nation bloc it was formerly part of. On both sides, the vaccine rollout is being seen as a critical post-Brexit test, pitting Britain’s go-it-alone approach against the E.U.’s communal model.

In Britain, the latest European remarks have been widely perceived as an E.U. effort to distract from the bloc’s woes. Even as Brussels and European capitals cry foul over bearing the brunt of supply chain issues from manufacturers and point to continued exports, sluggish vaccination programs in many European countries mean millions of delivered doses haven’t been used.

The E.U.’s most populous member state, Germany, has administered just over 8 million vaccine doses but still has a backlog of 4.3 million doses in storage, according to government figures.

While officials have said that some are being saved for second doses, vaccination rollouts in a number of areas have been mired by confusion. Some vaccination centers have said they have been forced to turn away some people with appointments because they weren’t eligible. Others who are eligible say they’ve been unable to secure them.

Not helping matters was an initial decision by several European countries to not recommend the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine – which doesn’t require hyper-cold storage and can be administered through doctor’s offices – for people older than 65. Even after the reversal of that decision in Germany, millions of elderly people in the highest-risk group are still to be vaccinated, according to media reports.

Germany will only roll out vaccines in doctor’s offices nationwide in April, whereas Britain started offering AstraZeneca jabs through its general practitioners in January.

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BioNTech sees potential to supply 3 billion doses in 2022

InternationalMar 11. 2021The BioNTech covid-19 production facility in Marburg, Germany, on Dec. 2, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Alex Kraus.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Naomi Kresge, Matthew Miller

BioNTech could have capacity to make 3 billion doses of covid-19 vaccine with U.S. partner Pfizer next year, the German company’s chief executive officer said, making their pioneering shot far more widely available around the world.

“In principle, we could further increase manufacturing capacity,” Ugur Sahin said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “It depends on demand, it depends on factors such as if an additional boost to vaccinations is required.”

Demand is growing around the world for Covid vaccines that countries desperately need to breathe back life into economies, return children to schools and get people back into offices and shops. Both the U.S. and Europe have sought to accelerate vaccine deliveries this year as new, more aggressive variants of the virus spread.

“We have an order book of already 1.3 billion orders, which is already fixed,” Sahin said. “We are discussing additional doses — hundreds of millions of doses as options — with government organizations.”

BioNTech shares rose as much as 1.3% early Wednesday in Frankfurt.

The two companies have committed to make 2 billion doses of their two-shot vaccine this year. Pfizer promised to ship two-thirds of the U.S.’s 300 million-dose order by the end of May. In the European Union, the partners have promised to ship at least 500 million doses this year, with an option for an additional 100 million doses.

Pfizer has projected about $15 billion in revenue this year from Covid vaccine sales, and CEO Albert Bourla said the price of the shot may increase.

Concerns about mutated versions of the virus may also drive demand if new variants evolve with the ability to evade current inoculations. BioNTech is already discussing potential orders for boosters, Sahin said.

BioNTech and Pfizer have begun laying the groundwork for a booster shot of their vaccine, which uses a new technology called messenger RNA. One trial, begun in February, is examining the safety and immune response of a third dose of the vaccine in people who took part in an early study of the shot last year. The partners have also said they’re planning a human test of a new vaccine that’s specific to a particularly problematic vaccine variant that emerged late last year in South Africa.

“We now understand the evolution of the virus can result in new variants that come with new biological and medical features,” Sahin said. “The whole world was not prepared for this pandemic, and we now understand that this could happen again.”

In lab studies using blood of people who’ve been inoculated, the existing form of the vaccine seems to be less effective against the South Africa strain than against other mutant versions of the coronavirus. While the vaccine still appears to offer some protection, the implications of the variants remain unclear.

The companies will gain more data on the South Africa variant within six to eight weeks, Sahin said.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is cleared in more than 50 countries. Aside from the EU and the U.S., other major orders have come from Japan, Canada and the U.K.

The BioNTech chief called for continued solidarity among EU countries, despite concerns in countries like Germany that tethering vaccine purchasing and distribution to the bloc has slowed the immunization push. In the U.K., more than a third of the population has received a shot, compared with 6% in Germany, according to Bloomberg’s vaccination tracker.

“At the end of the day we have to see that Germany is not an isolated state,” Sahin said. “It’s part of Europe, and Europe decides and has to come to a common solution.”

As vaccine campaigns pick up, Sahin said he’s optimistic that inoculations will become more widespread this year and next.

“I’m pretty confident that we will be able to provide vaccines in Europe and the U.S. and that everyone who requires a vaccine gets a vaccine by the end of summer,” Sahin said, provided there are no production glitches. “Within 2022, we hope to have enough to vaccinate around the world.”

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30403557

Congress sends $1.9 trillion stimulus to Biden, his first major win

InternationalMar 11. 2021Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., talks with her staff inside the House Chamber before announcing the final votes on the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Salwan Georges

By The Washington Post · Tony Romm

WASHINGTON – Congress approved a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on Wednesday, authorizing a flurry of new federal spending and a temporary yet dramatic increase in anti-poverty programs to help millions of families still struggling amid the pandemic.

The 220-to-211 vote in the House of Representatives almost entirely along party lines sends to President Joe Biden’s desk one of the largest economic rescue packages in U.S. history, which Democrats had promised to pass as one of their first acts of governance after securing narrow but potent majorities in Washington during the 2020 presidential election.

The bill, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, authorizes another round of stimulus payments up to $1,400 for most Americans; extends additional, enhanced unemployment aid to millions still out of work; and makes major changes to the tax code to benefit families with children. It couples the new pandemic relief with what Democrats have come to describe as one of the most robust legislative responses to poverty in a generation, seeking to assist low-income families who struggled financially long before the coronavirus took root.

Lawmakers also set aside tens of billions of dollars to fund coronavirus testing, contact tracing and vaccine deployment, as they aim to deliver on Biden’s recent promise to produce enough inoculations for “every adult in America” by the end of May. The stimulus bill approves additional money to help schools reopen, allow restaurants and businesses to stay afloat, and assist state and local governments trying to meet their financial needs.

“The Biden American Rescue Plan is about the children, their health, their education, [and] the economic security of their families,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., just before lawmakers gave the bill a final green light, prompting cheers among Democrats in the chamber. “This legislation is one of the most transformative and historic bills any of us will ever have an opportunity to support.”

Republicans banded together in opposition on Wednesday, much as they had against an earlier version of the proposal in the House last month and the Senate bill’s over the weekend. The GOP approach evinced the tough political climate that Biden is likely to face even after preaching political unity upon taking office. Partisan tensions threaten to overshadow his expected work in the coming months to shepherd major new investments in infrastructure, overhaul the immigration system and rethink other elements of the U.S. tax code.

“This isn’t a rescue bill; it isn’t a relief bill; it is a laundry list of left-wing priorities that predate the pandemic and do not meet the needs of American families,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said earlier in the debate.

The bill now heads to Biden, who is expected to sign it Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. The signing comes a day after the president is set to deliver his first prime-time television address on the country’s response to the pandemic. Wall Street appeared to acknowledge the news, as the Dow Jones industrial average continued to climb and was about 529 points by the early afternoon.

“For weeks now, an overwhelming percentage of Americans – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans – have made it clear they support the American Rescue Plan. Today, with final passage in the House of Representatives, their voice has been heard,” Biden said in a statement.

“This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation – the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going – a fighting chance,” he added.

With the American Rescue Plan, lawmakers adopted their sixth major coronavirus relief package since the pandemic first encroached on the country roughly a year ago.The sheer vastness of aid Congress has adopted to date reflects the contagion’s toll, with 29 million cases, more than 527,000 deaths, and deep economic scars, including 10 million fewer jobs than at the start of the crisis.

The situation appeared especially grim in January, prompting Biden to put forward the first details of his nearly $2 trillion stimulus before he officially entered the White House. Since then, though, infections have ticked downward, and vaccines have reached Americans more efficiently. More workers have returned to their jobs, sparking concern among some lawmakers and economists that the new stimulus may be mismatched for the moment.

Still, Democrats say the rate of recovery has not been fast or robust enough, and they stress that the $1.9 trillion package given a final green light in the House on Wednesday will prevent the economy from backsliding. In doing so, some party leaders have sought to shift their messaging, seizing on the fact that the stimulus doubles as an attempt to help Americans who were struggling long before the coronavirus took hold.

“We promised relief, the president promised relief, and now help is on the way,” said Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., the chairman of the House Budget Committee, as the House debate began Wednesday.

The newly adopted legislation includes another round of $1,400 stimulus checks, which Biden and his top aides have said should reach a large number of Americans by the end of the month. Democratic leaders pledged to authorize the payments in the final days of the 2020 campaign, seizing on the highly popular idea to give them an electoral boost in Georgia, where they later picked up two Senate seats and ultimately took control of the chamber.

Millions of Americans who were set to lose unemployment benefits in a matter of days now will received continued, enhanced federal payments of an extra $300 each week until early September. Many workers who collect unemployment also are set to receive a tax break on those benefits.

The new stimulus also includes a dramatic expansion of the child tax credit, for the first time seeking to send out periodic, perhaps monthly, payments to families with kids. Biden and his congressional Democratic allies have estimated the changes could cut child poverty by up to half.

The bill authorizes a wide variety of additional aid, including a $5 billion expansion to federal programs that help Americans afford food in the pandemic and a $7 billion effort to help students obtain Internet access. In total, it includes $1.8 billion in federal spending and is expected to add $1.85 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to a congressional estimate.

In High Point, N.C., Sonya Roper said she’s eager to start seeing some of the help show up in her bank account. The 51-year-old home health aide has seen her hours slashed, and her bills rise, while caring for four grandchildren who have been learning from home during the pandemic.

Roper said the forthcoming aid, including a $1,400 stimulus check, would help her cover much-needed car repairs. Her Honda Pilot has broken down twice and needs new tires, brakes and an oil change, forcing her to rely on her daughter’s car. And she said the new child tax changes could prove instrumental once they’re in place, allowing her to receive periodic payments because she claims her grandchildren as dependents.

Yet Roper fears all of the new money still might not be enough. “The $1,400 check comes months after the last stimulus, so all that check is going to do is help people catch up,” she said, adding that she needs “something ongoing.”

Democrats did not get everything they initially sought. An earlier version of the stimulus, which passed the House last month, coupled the aid with the first increase in the federal minimum wage in decades. The idea died in the Senate, where moderate Democrats proved unwilling to support the aggressive procedural maneuvering that would have been required to raise the hourly rate.

The changes at the time rankled some party lawmakers in the House, as liberals felt they had a broad mandate from voters in the 2020 election to enact sweeping economic overhauls. But Democrats soon lined up behind the bill anyway, stressing it still contained significant relief that promises to help families amid the pandemic.

“Today, we are putting money in the pockets of ordinary people, of poor people, of the middle class, and they will be an engine that creates a healthy, prosperous future for all of us,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said during a speech on the House floor.

Only one Democrat voted against the measure: Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, who has said the party should have focused on a narrower measure targeting vaccine funding. In a statement describing his vote, he said that the Senate’s changes did not assuage his concerns while removing elements he did support, including the increase to the minimum wage.

Republicans, meanwhile, sought to portray the bill as wasteful and unnecessary. They cited the fact that sums still remain from past congressional packages, including a nearly $1 trillion law adopted in December. And party leaders faulted Democrats for focusing relief on aid programs they say are not immediately related to the pandemic.

“Democrats made a choice: a choice to put their own partisan political ambitions ahead of the needs of the working class, ahead of the needs of the American people,” said Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, the top Republican on the House’s budget panel, ahead of the vote. “When our Democratic colleagues speak of unity, they mean keeping their party together, not keeping this country together.”

But Democrats countered that the absence of GOP support – after lawmakers crossed the aisle to approve prior stimulus packages – reflected the party’s own political calculations.

“There’s only one thing that’s changed since we passed those first five bills,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “The need is there, the virus is still with us, the economy is struggle, but now we have a Democratic president.”