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WASHINGTON – All American adults became eligible for coronavirus vaccine boosters on Friday, ending months of confusion over complicated guidelines that had slowed their uptake and prompted unilateral moves by governors from Maine to California to make the shots available more broadly.

Federal health officials hope a straightforward boosters-for-all policy will prompt millions more people to get the shots before they travel or gather with friends and family over the holidays. Many are concerned about the worsening picture as winter approaches. After new cases dipped to almost 69,000 on Oct. 25 – their lowest point in months – they began climbing again, with the seven-day average rising 40% to more than 96,000 on Thursday.

The final piece of the booster-policy overhaul fell into place early Friday evening when Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accepted two unanimous recommendations from the agency’s independent experts. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said anyone 18 and older may get a booster and – to stress the urgency of increasing protection for the most vulnerable age group – anyone 50 and older should make sure they get one.

“Based on the compelling evidence, all adults over 18 should now have equitable access to a COVID-19 booster dose,” Walensky said in a statement. “Booster shots have demonstrated the ability to safely increase people’s protection against infection and severe outcomes and are an important public health tool to strengthen our defenses against the virus as we enter the winter holidays.”

The more forceful recommendation for those 50 and older had not been on the CDC advisory panel’s agenda and was added at the last minute. Panel members said it was important to convey that older adults have the clearest benefit versus risk, with far less chance than young people of developing the rare but serious cardiac side effects from the mRNA vaccines.

Grace Lee, a pediatrics professor at Stanford University and chair of the advisory panel, said she favored the callout to older people because many have a hard time keeping up with the guidelines. “That list keeps changing,” she said. “I’m not even sure I could keep up with who’s eligible and who’s not eligible.”

Earlier in the day, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna boosters for people 18 and older who are at least six months past their second shot of the two-dose regimen.

“I have heard from I don’t know how many states, ‘everything is confusing here, can you make it simpler?'” Peter Marks, director of the FDA center that regulates vaccines, said in an interview. “I think this is pretty simple now: If you are over 18, and you have been vaccinated . . . it is time to go get a booster. Doesn’t matter which one you get, go get a booster.”

The new policy is an attempt to put into place a coherent federal position as about a dozen states moved ahead in recent days to give all adults access to boosters. Until Friday, federal guidelines said boosters were for people 65 or older as well as for others at high risk of covid-19 because of health problems or their job or living conditions. Any adult who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson already has been eligible for a booster two months after vaccination.

Those categories covered a high proportion of vaccinated Americans, but experts said their complexity slowed the booster rollout because some people believed they didn’t need the shots or didn’t qualify for them. And some health-care providers were confused as well. Only about 38% of fully vaccinated people over 65, and 18% of all adults have gotten boosters, according to the CDC.

“Simplifying eligibility will allow staff across the states, territories and local health departments to focus on making vaccination – primarily the primary vaccination series – as easy and as accessible as possible,” said Nirav Shah, director of Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, president of the Association of State and Territorial health Officials.

Still, individuals who wanted boosters, regardless of their eligibility, were able to get them by attesting they qualified, so the simplified policy largely reflects what has been taking place on the ground.

The action on booster shots means the Biden administration has come full circle since August, when President Joe Biden and his top health aides announced plans to make boosters available to all adults beginning in late September. The administration backed off after receiving sharp criticism from many scientists and public health experts who said there was little evidence that young, healthy people needed the extra shot, especially because of concerns about a rare side effect involving inflammation of the heart muscle seen mostly in young men.

Three months later, with cases spiking, there was also more data – both on waning immunity and on the vaccines’ safety.

But data on side effects, presented for the first time Friday, provided reassurance: Of 26 million mRNA boosters given in the United States, there were a dozen confirmed reports of myocarditis, and another 38 pending investigation, said Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC vaccine safety official, citing preliminary data from one vaccine safety monitoring system. The median age of the dozen confirmed with myocarditis is 51. Ten were discharged from the hospital and six recovered from symptoms, he said.

And FDA’s Marks said the agency also took a close look at the potential risk of heart-related side effects in older male teenagers and young men. Updated information and analyses showed that the risks posed by the boosters were very low, and were far outweighed by the potential benefits of preventing covid-19, he said.

Nevertheless, the agency noted in its Moderna booster fact sheet for health care providers that some studies show a potentially higher risk of the cardiac side effect after the second shot of Moderna, compared with Pfizer-BioNTech. The FDA also noted a lower risk from the Moderna booster shot than from the initial vaccination. Some countries have restricted or barred the use of the Moderna vaccine in younger men because of concerns about that side effect.

The FDA and CDC decisions were largely praised by experts Friday, although some questioned just how much firepower the booster shots might bring to the pandemic battle.

David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, expressed skepticism that boosters would affect the course of the pandemic.

“Whether that is going to have a major impact in terms of transmission, probably not,” he said. “A large fraction of transmission is still occurring from people who are not vaccinated.” Getting those people inoculated, he argued, should be the No. 1 priority.

Still, Dowdy backed giving all adults the option of getting extra doses. “The risk-benefit ratio is sufficiently favorable that if you want a booster, this is the time to do it, with cases going up,” he said.

Robert M. Wachter, professor and chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, was more enthusiastic.

“The evidence is just crystal clear now that [vaccine] efficacy wanes for all infections” and that boosters can reduce breakthrough cases and vulnerability to long covid,” he said.

CDC official Sara Oliver told panel members Friday that the impact of a vaccine booster dose on transmission is unknown. But even a temporary boosting effect, she said, “may factor into the benefit risk balance, especially as we approach the winter and holidays with increased traveling and indoor gatherings.”

The American Medical Association applauded the agencies’ decisions, saying, “The scientific evidence is clear that the vaccines against COVID-19 are safe and remain effective. We continue to strongly urge everyone who has not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19 and is eligible, including children aged 5 and older and pregnant people, to get vaccinated as soon as possible to protect themselves and their loved ones.”

The new policy ends an awkward chapter for federal officials who have wrestled with the eligibility issue since summer and been leapfrogged by New York City and a growing number of states, including Louisiana, Maine and Colorado, that already endorsed widespread use of the extra shots to try to stave off a spike in cases.

“The states made the right decisions, but the optics are awful in appearing to go rogue and undermining the federal agencies,” said Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine.

While many experts expressed relief at the simpler recommendations, Jay A. Winsten, director of strategic media initiatives at the Harvard School of Public Health, said that the conflicting messages over recent weeks have taken a toll that will have an ongoing impact on people’s trust in public health.

“After months of confused and contradictory messaging, it’s baked into the coverage now and into the public psyche,” Winsten said. “The way they have handled this has done real damage to the agency’s credibility with a lot of people.”

Published : November 20, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009048

WASHINGTON – Russian President Vladimir Putin is “playing chess” with the West by moving military forces and equipment along Russias border with Ukraine, Ukraines new defense minister said Friday while calling on the United States and European nations to hold the Kremlin accountable for any renewed aggression.

“He is testing the unity of the European Union, he is testing the unity of NATO allies, he is testing our society, Ukrainians, he is testing Poland, the Baltic countries,” Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in an interview during his visit to Washington, a trip that has included face-to-face talks with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and a request for additional military assistance.

Reznikov said he and his American counterpart came to the same conclusions about the situation on the Russia-Ukraine border, though he suggested some Ukrainian officials initially viewed the developments with less alarm, having grown numb to the threat from Russia after nearly eight years of war.

“We have the same assessment of the risks, of the threats, but the difference is in risk perception,” Reznikov said. “We are living in this standard of life for eight years, so we have like psychological immunity.”

Reznikov declined to go into detail about the request he made to the Pentagon.

Austin said ahead of Thursday’s meeting with Reznikov that the U.S. military was continuing to monitor the situation on the border between Russia and Ukraine and acknowledged Washington was unclear on the meaning of the latest moves.

“We are not sure exactly what Mr. Putin is up to, but these movements certainly have our attention,” Austin said, calling on Russia to be transparent about its military activities near the border.

Speaking to The Washington Post, Reznikov said he believed Putin was at an inflection point, deciding whether to “go through the Ukrainian border and burn the bridges, or he is still bargaining and trying to find something interesting for him.”

“I hope he has not made his decision on this point,” Reznikov said, accusing Putin of “trying to grow that fear in the hearts of people.”

Reznikov’s visit to the United States, his first as Ukraine’s newly minted defense minister, came as Putin gave an address to the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow outlining his view of global affairs. Putin had harsh words for the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he accused of leading to a “dead end” the Minsk accords designed to solve the conflict in Ukraine’s east.

Putin also lashed out at exercises that the United States and its NATO allies have been conducting, often in conjunction with Ukraine, in the Black Sea region. The Post reported Friday that the White House has asked the Pentagon to provide a rundown of U.S. military activities and exercises in Europe and provide their policy justification, as Russia repeatedly raises concerns about the drills.

This week, Russia’s Foreign Ministry shocked diplomats by releasing traditionally confidential correspondence with France and Germany over a new round of peace talks involving France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine to discuss ending the conflict.

Russia’s release of the correspondence came after France accused Russia of refusing to commit to a new round of talks on the ministerial level.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said such comments were “arrogant” and “not exactly appropriate or ethical” and released the correspondence in an attempt to dispute the claim.

Reznikov described his surprise at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s release of the letters and said it was perhaps the product of “something emotional” on the part of Lavrov.

Asked during a news conference whether his French and German counterparts had rattled him, Lavrov said: “We are all human. You could say they got to me.”

Reznikov declined to comment Friday on what specific piece of territory Russia may be eyeing, saying he didn’t want to give Moscow any ideas.

“Our intelligence, American intelligence and U.K. intelligence – we have the same perception,” Reznikov said. “So we know about that, and we agree.”

Published : November 20, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden was deemed “fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency” by his physician following a “routine physical” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday.

The examination included a colonoscopy requiring anesthesia, during which Biden temporarily transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris. That made her the first woman to serve as acting president – for 85 minutes. White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that Biden resumed his duties around 11:35 a.m., was in good spirits and had spoken to both Harris and White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.

Photo Credit: Washington Post photo by Demetrius Freeman.

In a six-page summary of his physical released by the White House Friday evening, Kevin O’Connor – who has been Biden’s primary care doctor since 2009 – observed that Biden “has experienced increasing frequency and severity of ‘throat clearing’ and coughing during speaking engagements,” as well as that Biden’s “ambulatory gait is perceptibly stiffer and less fluid than it was a year or so ago.” O’Connor added that Biden confirmed these observations.

O’Connor concluded that Biden’s coughing and throat clearing – which critics have seized on as a sign that Biden is unwell – are the result of his existing gastroesophageal reflux, and that no additional treatment is needed other than continuing with his current regimen of Pepcid.

O’Connor also noted that while Biden’s stiff gait could be explained by the orthopedic and sports-related injuries he has previously sustained, “a gait disturbance can include a variety of neurologic pathologies”; the team he brought into assess Biden’s gait included spine, foot, ankle, radiology, and physical therapy, as well as movement disorder neurologic specialists.

Ultimately, however, Biden’s doctor concluded that Biden’s stiffness was the result of normal “wear and tear” to his spine, and noted that an “extremely detailed neurologic exam was reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder,” like a stroke or Parkinson’s.

He suggested that Biden would likely benefit from shoe orthotics.

That report also noted he does not use any tobacco products, does not drink any alcohol and works out at least five days per week. Biden’s report recorded him at nearly 6 feet tall and weighing 184 pounds,with a total cholesterol level at 100.

O’Sullivan concluded that Biden remains “a healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male.”

White House officials have said for months that Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday and is the nation’s oldest president, would get an annual physical and be transparent about the results.

In her statement, Psaki noted that President George W. Bush had also briefly transferred power to his vice president under similar circumstances in 2002 and 2007.

Psaki said that Harris worked out of her office in the West Wing during the period – one hour and 25 minutes – that she had the powers of the presidency.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Psaki noted that when Biden selected Harris as his running mate, he knew he was making history and that “today was another chapter in that history.”

“I think that will be noted for many women, young girls across the country,” Psaki said.

Biden’s motorcade arrived at the hospital shortly before 9 a.m. Friday.

The records will be the first since Biden released a three-page summary of his medical records nearly two years ago, and come after the White House committed to releasing his records before the end of the year.

Biden also vowed as a candidate to be “totally transparent in terms of my health,” which came at a time when he was running against President Donald Trump, who had a record of being less than forthcoming about his own health and who sought to make Biden’s mental acuity and age an issue in their race.

During the campaign, Biden would often say it was legitimate for voters to question and consider his age as a factor, while he also attempted to prevent those questions from lingering by jogging onto a stage or being among the last to leave his events.

At times he has grown prickly over questions about his mental acuity and his fitness for office. When a reporter questioned him about his medical records during the campaign, Biden suggested a wrestling match. When an 83-year-old farmer in Iowa said he thought Biden might be too old for the job – noting how he noticed his own body and mind slowing down – Biden said he was prepared for a push-up contest, a footrace or an IQ test.

A group of doctors last year also reviewed available records on Biden and Trump to provide an assessment, determining Biden’s estimated life expectancy was nearly 97 years, given his health and family history (his mother died at 92, his father at 86).

In the White House, Biden’s health has continued to garner outsize attention because of both his age and criticism from Republicans who have seized on what they claim are his deteriorating mental and physical abilities. During the 2020 campaign, Trump repeatedly raised questions about Biden’s fitness for office, nicknaming him “Sleepy Joe.” And Trump’s base quickly took up the political attack, with some making veiled comments about Biden’s mental acumen and others offering more overt ones.

After Biden’s first news conference in March, for instance, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., tweeted, “A President with cognitive decline is a national security risk.”

Also in March, Biden stumbled several times walking up the stairs to Air Force One, prompting another round of mocking and questions about his health, and forcing the White House to clarify that it was a windy day and the president was “100 percent fine.”

In a Pew survey in September, 56% of respondents said that “mentally sharp” described Biden not too well or not well at all. Asked Friday about voter concerns surrounding Biden’s physical and mental health, Psaki pointed to attacks being stoked by the former president and his allies.

“There is certainly quite a bit of conspiracy theory pushing out there on a range of social media platforms and even through the mouths of elected officials,” she said. “So that could certainly be a root cause.”

Biden’s last medical records came in December 2019, in a three-page summary written by his doctor and declaring him “healthy” and “vigorous.” That summary was the most complete glimpse into Biden’s health since the Obama-Biden campaign released 49 pages of records in 2008.

The December 2019 report indicated he was treated for an irregular heartbeat, gastroesophageal reflux and seasonal allergies.

It also showed he had a history of atrial fibrillation, which was discovered during a routine check before he had his gallbladder removed in 2003. Biden has never required any medication or electrical treatments to control the rate or rhythm of his heartbeat, but he does take a blood thinner. He also uses over-the-counter esomeprazole for gastroesophageal reflux and uses Allegra and Dymista to treat his sinus symptoms. It also noted Biden had no permanent damage from the aneurysms he suffered in 1988.

Since that time, the only known instance of Biden requiring medical attention came after he had a hairline fracture in his right foot shortly after he won the presidential election. The injury came while he was chasing his dog Major, grabbing his tail and then tripping on a throw rug. Biden wore a boot on his foot for a few weeks and visited an orthopedic specialist clinic shortly after his inauguration.

“Both small fractures of his foot are completely healed,” O’Connor said in February. “This injury has healed as expected,” he added, “and he will return to his usual exercise regimen.”

There is no requirement for a president to divulge their medical details, and there has been a long history of politicians, including presidents, attempting with withhold health information.

Woodrow Wilson kept it a secret when strokes paralyzed his left side, and Franklin D. Roosevelt famously masked the effects of polio. John F. Kennedy’s youthful appearance helped cover his chronic back pain and Addison’s disease.

Biden’s report is coming earlier than some of his immediate predecessors.

Trump’s first physical as president was released in January 2018, with a glowing report from Ronny Jackson, who was the White House physician at the time and, after allegations of misconduct derailed a nomination for secretary of Veterans Affairs, is now a Republican congressman from Texas.

Obama had his first medical checkup about a year after taking office. He was 48 at the time and deemed in “excellent health” but was still struggling to stop a 30-year smoking habit.

George W. Bush had his first physical as president Aug. 4, 2001, less than seven months after taking office and about a year since his last exam. He was 55 at the time and deemed “fit for duty.” George H.W. Bush released his physical results in May 1989.

Biden returned to the White House Friday afternoon, where he participated in the time-honored White House tradition of a turkey pardon. He is scheduled to travel later to Wilmington, Del., for the weekend.

Published : November 20, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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WASHINGTON – The triumphant passage by House Democrats on Friday of President Joe Bidens chief domestic priority – a sweeping $2 trillion package that invests heavily in health care, the social safety net and climate – now sets up the ultimate test of his legislative acumen as Biden navigates a Senate with no room for error.

For the president, who has long touted his intimate knowledge of Capitol Hill and ability to negotiate complex congressional deals, failure to shepherd the “Build Back Better” package into law would be a devastating blow, handing his opponents a political cudgel while falling short of his promise to pass transformational legislation.

But its successful passage – combined with the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law that Biden heralded this week and an earlier coronavirus relief package – would cap a historic set of domestic policy achievements for Biden and the Democratic-controlled Congress despite a narrowly divided and highly polarized environment.

Biden’s top aides are signaling that the president is prepared to scale back the party’s ambition further to accommodate the handful of moderate Democrats in the Senate who are reluctant to embrace the most expansive components of the package.

“The president would have loved to have seen his entire original proposal pass, but he also knows from having served 36 years in the Senate, that’s not how it goes,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. “He’s someone who governs from the position of compromise not being a dirty word.”

The package already has shrunk from an initial target of $6 trillion to its current size of roughly $2 trillion in the interest of political viability. Biden “sees consensus as the way you get things done, and that’s certainly how we’re going to approach the next few weeks as well,” Psaki said

In a preview of Biden’s likely message – both to senators and voters he hopes will support the package – the president issued a statement Friday citing benefits such as lower prescription drug costs, universal pre-K, an extended child tax credit, senior care and a sizable climate package. Biden has also promoted the social spending bill while touring the country to promote his freshly signed infrastructure law.

“This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America, and it leaves no one behind,” Biden said of the new infrastructure law at a General Motors plant in Michigan this week. Pivoting immediately to the pending package, Biden said, “The same goes for my Build Back Better Plan – it’s for our people.”

But the infrastructure package was a bipartisan effort, supported by 19 Senate Republicans and 13 House Republicans in addition to almost all Democrats. In contrast, Build Back Better is not expected to attract any Republican support, so every single Senate Democrat must sign on for it to pass, giving centrists, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., enormous bargaining power.

There are plenty of challenges confronting Biden in the Senate. The House package includes four weeks of paid family and medical leave, a measure Manchin opposes. Immigration provisions cleared by House Democrats may not survive procedurally in the Senate, where the bill must follow strict parliamentary guidelines.

The House bill also significantly raises the cap on state and local tax deductions, a move designed to pick up the votes of Democrats representing high-tax districts but likely to be adjusted in the Senate.

Even in the ebullient aftermath of the House passage of the Build Back Better Act – teeing off a Biden campaign slogan that he has since replicated for his domestic and foreign policy agendas – Democratic lawmakers acknowledged that the $2 trillion measure was likely to be changed in the Senate.

The bill’s fortune in coming weeks – Democrats hope for final passage by Christmas – could determine the scope of Biden’s legacy. Most members of both parties believe Democrats will lose their majority next year in the House and possibly the Senate as well, and it could be years before the party again controls the White House and both chambers of Congress.

What’s less clear is whether passage of the bill would boost Biden’s low approval ratings. The story of Biden’s tenure so far has been accomplishments – a coronavirus vaccine drive, a covid-19 pandemic relief law, an infrastructure package, a pullout from Afghanistan – that are often messy and do little to strengthen his political standing.

Yet many Democrats believe that failing to pass Biden’s agenda would probably deal a severe political blow to the party. That’s created a dynamic where centrists repeatedly downsize liberals’ spending wishes and blunt efforts to hike taxes on wealthy corporations.

“We’re going to have work to do when the bill comes back from the Senate,” said Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo. But helping the party, Neguse said, was that the vast majority of the legislation already has been negotiated with Democrats on the other end of the Capitol.

Still, some Democrats say privately one likely scenario is Senate leaders embracing whatever version of the bill is palatable to Sinema and Manchin and the House largely accepting the result. That would deeply disappoint liberals, but they may have few other options.

Aside from one overarching red line – that the legislation should not raise taxes for those making than less than $400,000 annually – Biden has rarely imposed his views on Manchin and Sinema, stubborn negotiators who often have been at odds with the rest of the party.

At one point, Sinema said she would not support an increase in corporate tax rates that had been cut significantly by Republicans in 2017. Though it was a position held by virtually everyone across the Democratic Party on Capitol Hill, Biden acknowledged that once Sinema made her opposition clear, there was little choice but to drop the provision.

“Look, when you’re in the United States Senate and you’re president of the United States and you have 50 Democrats, every one is a president,” Biden remarked at a CNN town hall in Baltimore last month. “So you’ve got to work things out.”

In an interview with The Washington Post this week, Sinema said it was not Biden’s approach to push her into a specific position, saying “no one tells me what to do” and that if the administration tried, “it would not be effective.”

In negotiations, Sinema is “of the mind that you should be very frank, very honest, very upfront,” the senator said in the interview. “My experience is that the White House negotiators and the president himself, you know, appreciate and respect that.”

More vocal with his objections has been Manchin, who has opposed a paid leave program and a tax credit to encourage purchases of electric vehicles, beyond his objection to the overall size of the bill.

Psaki stressed Friday that administration officials continued to stay in touch with Manchin and his aides, signaling that Biden would engage directly with senators once the timing was right.

“We believe that he is operating and negotiating in good faith,” Psaki said of Manchin. White House officials have said the same about Sinema, despite the criticisms both have faced from Democratic colleagues on policy and tactics as the package has taken shape over the past several months.

Asked whether he would sign the bill into law even if paid family leave provisions were dropped – as Manchin has telegraphed he would demand – Biden said Friday: “I will sign it. Period.”

As the legislation now winds through the Senate, Democrats will also have to contend with liberals already frustrated that the package has shrunk from its initial size. In a statement Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Congress “must” expand Medicare coverage to cover dental, vision and hearing assistance, although the House bill included only hearing benefits.

“As this moves to the Senate and the Senate looks at the bill,” said Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., “if they want to mess with it at all, I hope what they remember is that anything you move out of this bill, you are saying, you’re preventing lifesaving change for people.”

Published : November 20, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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Billionaire hedge fund executive Ken Griffin outbid a group of cryptocurrency investors to buy an original copy of the U.S. Constitution for $43.2 million at a Sothebys auction on Thursday.

The Citadel CEO said he will loan the document to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., where it will be on display to the public for free.

The auction drew wide attention thanks to the online campaign by crypto enthusiasts to crowdfund a bid for the document. More than 17,000 people joined the effort, according to Sotheby’s, raising more than $40 million worth of the digital token Ethereum in a matter of days for an artifact that the auction house had valued at between $15 million and $20 million.

“The U.S. Constitution is a sacred document that enshrines the rights of every American and all those who aspire to be,” Griffin said in a statement released by Sotheby’s. “That is why I intend to ensure that this copy of our Constitution will be available for all Americans and visitors to view and appreciate in our museums and other public spaces.”

The artifact is one of 13 copies of the founding document that survived from a series of about 500 printed for Constitutional Convention delegates to consider in Philadelphia in 1787. Its sale to Griffin set a world auction record for a document, Sotheby’s said.

Bidders for Griffin and the crypto collective squared off in an eight-minute battle on Thursday night. The contest made for riveting viewing through an online stream of the event, though it wasn’t clear which representative in the room at Sotheby’s was bidding on behalf of the investors – or whom they were bidding against.

The crypto group – which called itself ConstitutionDAO, referring to its self-governing structure as a “decentralized autonomous organization” that allows participants to vote on major decisions – claimed a kind of victory in defeat. The effort “still made history” as “the largest crowdfund for a physical object that we are aware of – crypto or fiat,” the group said in a statement. It had also planned to put the Constitution on public display.

“We have educated an entire cohort of people around the world – from museum curators and art directors to our grandmothers asking us what eth is when they read about us in the news,” the group said. It said it would refund all contributions.

Griffin already boasts an expansive collection of multimillion-dollar artworks. He spent $100 million last year to acquire Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump,” now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. He also owns works by Paul Cézanne, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns.

The financier has also been a prolific Republican donor, contributing more than $67 million in the 2020 election cycle alone, mostly to GOP candidates and causes, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Published : November 20, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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The number of Covid-19 cases crossed 13.73 million across Southeast Asia, with 28,225 new cases reported on Friday (November 19), lower than Thursday’s tally at 29,302. New deaths are at 524, decreasing from Thursday’s number of 608. Total Covid-19 deaths in Asean are now at 286,895.

Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on November 18 decided to suspend karaoke, disco, massage, spa and bar services just after 2 days of reopening, in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus in the community. The city is also considering cutting short the isolation and treatment period for asymptomatic F0 who have received two vaccine doses and have negative testing results on day 7.

The borders between Singapore and Malaysia will be reopened for quarantine-free travel at scale from November 29, for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began rapidly worsening in March last year. Travellers will be able to fly between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur under the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme. To qualify, travellers must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with vaccines approved by both countries.
 

Published : November 20, 2021

By : THE NATION

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“We are heading into a serious emergency at the moment. We will really have a very bad Christmas if we do not take countermeasures now,” said RKI President Lothar Wieler on Wednesday during an online debate.

The number of daily COVID-19 infections in Germany continued to rise strongly, exceeding 65,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases announced on Thursday.

Daily infections increased by around 15,000 within one week as the country’s seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate climbed to 336.9 cases per 100,000 people, according to the RKI. A week ago, the seven-day incidence rate still stood at 249.1.

“We are heading into a serious emergency at the moment. We will really have a very bad Christmas if we do not take countermeasures now,” said RKI President Lothar Wieler on Wednesday during an online debate.

A man enters a COVID-19 test center in Berlin, Germany, on Nov. 15, 2021. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

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“We have never been as worried as we are now,” said Wieler. The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients is rising, he said, adding that for people suffering from strokes, it can take up to two hours to find a free intensive care bed in some places.

As of Wednesday, 56.4 million people in Germany have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, bringing the country’s vaccination rate to 67.8 percent, according to the RKI.

People queue to receive COVID-19 vaccines outside a vaccination center in Berlin, capital of Germany, Nov. 12, 2021. (Xinhua/Stefan Zeitz)

Published : November 19, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009005

“In terms of investment into the UK, weve seen Chinese companies set up research and development centers,” said SMMT chief executive officer Mike Hawes, listing a couple of Chinese firms which have invested in the country, including Geely, Changan, SAIC, BYD and so on.

“We’ve seen most recently a real vote of confidence in the UK when Envision (a Chinese smart energy technology company) had announced a massive expansion of its battery production facility in Sunderland in the northeast of England to support Nissan.”

Britain and China have seen increasing cooperation in the electric vehicle (EV) sector over the past decade, as the two countries strive to pursue ambitious emission reduction targets, Mike Hawes, chief executive officer of a leading British automotive trade body, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

His remarks came just a few days after the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which concluded in Glasgow on Nov. 13, with negotiators agreeing on a new global pact to tackle climate change.

Visitors view a new energy car of Jaguar at Haikou New Energy Vehicle Exhibition in Haikou, south China

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Noting that the development of EVs is “absolutely important” for the two major economies, Hawes, head of the British Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said “road transport is a major contributor of that transition” in the global ambition to achieve the net zero goal.

“The UK government has set out its ambition that it wants the road transport to be 100 percent zero emission by 2035,” said Hawes. “I think if you look at in both investment and trade between China and the UK, that have been increasing over the last 10 years or so.”

China has announced that it would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

“In terms of investment into the UK, we’ve seen Chinese companies set up research and development centers,” said Hawes, listing a couple of Chinese firms which have invested in the country, including Geely, Changan, SAIC, BYD and so on.

An electric car is seen at a charging point in London, Britain, Oct. 26, 2021. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)

“We’ve seen most recently a real vote of confidence in the UK when Envision ( a Chinese smart energy technology company) had announced a massive expansion of its battery production facility in Sunderland in the northeast of England to support Nissan.”

In terms of the institutional communication with the Chinese counterpart, Hawes said the SMMT has a memorandum of understanding with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on cooperation.

“Because whether you’re based in China, whether you’re based in the UK, the automotive industry faces similar challenges around decarbonization, connectivity, automation, and so forth.”

As to the British auto industry, Hawes said now the country is not part of the European Union, so “we can pursue a trade policy that’s unique to the UK that will probably have a focus on the growing markets, and China, Asia Pacific markets are growing rapidly.”

China certainly has been a big market for British exporters, especially for premium brands, such as Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, etc, Hawes said.

“There’s also the challenge that needs to be met in terms of making sure your products match local tastes, local culture, local demands,” said Hawes. “To be really successful, you have to tailor those vehicles to an individual market.”

Seeing the auto industry, particularly around the EV section, as “a global player”, Hawes said there would be “great, tremendous opportunities for new entrance as well as existing players, because you need to put the products on the market that attract people.”

“Whether the individual companies can take advantage of those opportunities, it depends on their own strategies, it depends on their own technology, and depends on their attitude towards trade, their attitude towards overseas investment,” he added.

“That is about performance, it’s about range and it’s about affordability,” said Hawes. “So whoever can meet those objectives will succeed in that transition.”

Published : November 19, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009004

Nearly 10 percent of 5-to-11-year-olds in the United States have received their first coronavirus vaccine dose, just two weeks into the immunization campaign for the 28 million young Americans in that age group, said White House official Jeff Zients.

Fewer Americans this year plan on taking precautions against COVID-19 when hosting or attending holiday gatherings compared with last year, signaling some return to normalcy now that 59 percent of the country is vaccinated against the virus, local media has reported.

Researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center polled 2,042 adults nationwide from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, finding that 51 percent would ask party-goers to wear masks, down from 67 percent, showed the survey published on Monday. Half of those surveyed would ask for the vaccination status of their friends and family.

But anti-vaccine and anti-mask sentiment isn’t necessarily to blame, Iahn Gonsenhauser, a collaborator on the survey and chief quality and patent safety officer at the Wexner Medical Center, was quoted by CNBC as saying.

Students of Montrara Ave. Elementary School are seen in their in-person class in Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Xinhua)

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Vaccinated Americans are also starting to feel more comfortable seeing each other without masks, and groups of fully immunized individuals can enjoy the holidays together “with basically no precautions in place,” he said.

“I was pretty surprised to see that 51 percent were still considering asking attendees to wear masks,” Gonsenhauser added. “I think that what we’ve seen happen is a change in the understanding and approach to risk mitigation, particularly with a significant proportion of vaccinated individuals.”

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated that 228,175,638 people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, making up 68.7 percent of the whole U.S. population; fully vaccinated people stood at 195,612,365, accounting for 58.9 percent of the total. A total of 31,464,669 people, or 16.1 percent of the fully vaccinated group, have received booster shots.

Local residents come for the COVID-19 booster shots at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Los Angeles, the United States, Aug. 19, 2021. (Xinhua)

FORTH AND BACK

Nearly 10 percent of 5-to-11-year-olds in the United States have received their first coronavirus vaccine dose, just two weeks into the immunization campaign for the 28 million young Americans in that age group, Jeff Zients, the White House’s coronavirus coordinator, said on Wednesday.

Zients, speaking to reporters alongside the nation’s top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, estimated that by the end of the day on Wednesday, 2.6 million children younger than 12 would have received their first shot.

“In fact, the pace of vaccinations for kids has been accelerating. In the last week, 1.7 million kids got vaccinated — double the prior week,” he added. The CDC signed off on a pediatric vaccine for younger children on Nov. 2, and the nationwide drive to inoculate that age group was operational on Nov. 8.

In contrast, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is suspending enforcement of the Joe Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large private businesses after a federal appeals court upheld a stay on it last week.

OSHA said in a statement published on its website that while it is confident in its power to protect workers amid the pandemic, it is suspending activities related to the mandate, citing the pending litigation. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit fully blocked Biden’s executive order requiring companies with over 100 workers to mandate vaccination for their employees after temporarily staying it earlier.

BOOSTERS FOR ALL ADULTS

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC are expected to recommend COVID-19 boosters for anyone who wants one and is at least six months past their initial vaccination by the end of the week. The CDC has said it’s safe to mix vaccine brands.

“COVID-19 vaccines do a great job of preventing hospitalization and death, but their protection against infection starts to fade at about six months, even in young, healthy people. That’s why by the end of the week, booster doses may be recommended for all adults, or at least those over 30,” reported USA Today on Thursday.

There’s really no downside to getting a third shot, Ted Ross, an infectious disease expert at the University of Georgia in Athens, was quoted as saying. California, New Mexico and Colorado are among the states that have already made boosters available to all adults.

Meanwhile, Moderna has asked federal regulators to authorize booster shots of its coronavirus vaccine for all adults, a request that the FDA could grant as early as this week along with a similar request from Pfizer, reported The New York Times on Wednesday.

If the CDC also signs off, every adult who was fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shot at least six months ago would not only be eligible for a booster, but could choose which vaccine. The agency’s committee of independent experts is set to meet on Friday to discuss booster shots.

It would also allow U.S. President Joe Biden to fulfill his August pledge to offer booster shots to every adult, nearly two months later than the administration originally planned, though, and “amid an ongoing debate among experts over whether extra shots are necessary for younger, healthy adults,” according to the report. 

Published : November 19, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009003

Relations between Russia and China have reached their highest level in history, Putin said.

Relations between Russia and China have reached their highest level in history, and the two countries will step up cooperation further, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. 

“We will continue to strengthen ties with our good neighbors and friends in the People’s Republic of China,” Putin said at an expanded meeting of the Russian Foreign Ministry Board. 

The bilateral relations have served as a model for effective interstate cooperation in the 21st century, he stressed.

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Putin noted that some Western countries are “openly trying to drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing.”

“Together with our Chinese friends, we will continue to respond to such attempts by expanding our political, economic and other cooperation, and coordinating steps in the international arena,” he said.

Published : November 19, 2021

By : Xinhua