The disaster of China’s zero-Covid policy has many contributors, starting with the Communist Party’s need for political control. One of the byproducts of that control that deserves more attention is Beijing’s vaccine nationalism, and President Xi Jinping’s decision not to offer China’s 1.4 billion citizens access to Western-made mRNA Covid vaccines.
Months into the pandemic, as vaccine manufacturers around the world began their race to develop the shots, countries including Canada and the U.S. signed contracts with multiple vaccine suppliers. The fastest and best would be deployed. But China let Communist nationalism drive its procurement decisions and rejected foreign vaccines.
That decision is still haunting the Chinese public. China’s homegrown vaccines—including Sinovac and Sinopharm—are much less effective against Covid than are the mRNA shots created by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Sinovac was much less effective initially against symptomatic Covid—only about 50%—compared with more than 90% for the mRNA vaccines.
FILE – Surgeon and doctor-turned-refugee, Dr. Tewodros Tefera, prepares a malaria test for 23-year-old Tigrayan refugee Hareg from Mekele, Ethiopia, at the Sudanese Red Crescent clinic in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 17, 2021. The coronavirus pandemic interrupted efforts to control malaria, resulting in 63,000 more deaths and 13 million more infections. That’s according to a World Health Organization report released Thursday Dec. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)
The coronavirus pandemic interrupted efforts to control malaria, resulting in 63,000 additional deaths and 13 million more infections globally over two years, according to a report from the World Health Organization published Thursday.
Cases of the parasitic disease went up in 2020 and continued to climb in 2021, though at a slower pace, the U.N. health agency said Thursday. About 95% of the world’s 247 million malaria infections and 619,000 deaths last year were in Africa.
“We were off track before the pandemic and the pandemic has now made things worse,” said Abdisalan Noor, a senior official in WHO’s malaria department.
Alister Craig, dean of biological sciences at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, noted that progress in reducing malaria deaths had stalled even before COVID-19.
“It is almost as if we have reached a limit of effectiveness for the tools we have now,” said Lister, who was not linked to the WHO report.
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Noor said he expected the wider rollout of the world’s first authorized malaria vaccine next year to have a “considerable impact” on reducing the number of severe illnesses and deaths if enough children get immunized, adding that more than 20 countries have applied to vaccines alliance Gavi for help in securing the shot. Still, the vaccine is only about 30% effective and requires four doses.
Bed nets can protect people from being bitten by the mosquitoes that spread malaria. The WHO report found that about three-quarters of nets provided by donors have been distributed, but there are major gaps in some of the worst-hit countries. Authorities in Nigeria, for example, gave out just over half their nets, while Congo distributed about 42% of theirs.
Officials also raised concerns about a new invasive mosquito species that thrives in cities, is resistant to many pesticides and which could undo years of progress against malaria. The invasive species has not yet significantly contributed to the continent’s overall malaria burden, but the insects are likely responsible for a recent spike in parts of the horn of Africa, Noor said.
David Schellenberg, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said there were promising new tools and strategies to tackle malaria, but that “the elephant in the room is the level of funding.” WHO estimated the total investment into malaria — about $3.5 billion — was less than half of what was needed to dramatically reduce its impact.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Climate change is creating many pathways for zoonotic diseases to reach people. Four cases show how the climate crisis is altering disease threats and how the world can respond.
THAILAND: Infectious-disease researchers catch bats to study. Adam Dean/New York Times/Redux
The world is already witnessing the consequences of human-caused climate change, including hotter temperatures, rising sea levels, and more frequent and severe storms. What’s harder to see are climate change’s effects on the spread of disease: on the mosquito that carries a virus, or the pathogenic bacteria on a piece of fruit.
A Nikkei reporter reflects on a milestone in the country’s path out of pandemic
Roadblocks in Ho Chi Minh City were common in October, but now Vietnam has eliminated almost all COVID restrictions for foreign and domestic travel. (Photo by Lien Hoang)
HO CHI MINH CITY — Last week after a trip to California, I returned to Vietnam with a COVID vaccine certificate, negative PCR test and smartphone tracing app in hand. The green-uniformed immigration officer at the airport asked for none of it. Inside his plexiglass cage, the 20-something officer gestured for me to pull down my mask for a second. I spent less than a minute and zero words at passport control and then was back outside on the balmy, car horn-filled streets of Ho Chi Minh City.
Marnie Hunter and Forrest Brown, CNN • Updated 1st March 2022
Tourists take boat tours through the Thu Bon River on April 24, 2021, in Hoi An, Vietnam. (Linh Pham/Getty Images)
(CNN) — Vietnam was the only destination added to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s highest-risk Level 4 category for travel on Monday.
The “very high” risk category still contains more destinations than all the other levels put together, with nearly 140 places now at Level 4. In early January, there were around 80 destinations listed there.
The CDC places a destination at “Level 4: Covid-19 Very High” risk when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.
To recap, a single destination was added to Level 4 on February 28:
By Hoai Thu, Hoang Thuy January 5, 2022 | 04:30 pm GMT+7 vnexpressA man prepares food inside an eatery in Hanoi, December 26, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Chieu
Lawmakers have expressed mixed opinions on the government’s VND347 trillion ($15 billion) stimulus package, with some urging for more cash while others worry about inflation.
“We plan to provide a large amount through fiscal policy but the amount through monetary policy is not meeting expectations from businesses and the people,” said Trinh Xuan An, a member of the National Assembly’s National Defense and Security Committee.
The COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a human tragedy, infecting more than 120,000 and killing more than 4,200 people as of March 12, 2020. The loss of human life is heart-breaking and set to continue ticking upwards.
The virus has also hit society like a global tsunami, disrupting travel, cutting off communities, shuttering factories and shaking up economic markets. The global manufacturing sector has suffered its worst contraction since the 2009 recession. Goldman Sachs forecasts zero earnings growth for U.S. companies, while airlines and cruise lines are reeling as people opt to stay home.
Unsurprisingly this major global disruption is leading to lower energy demand, which in turn reduces global greenhouse gas emissions. China’s industrial output has dropped 15% to 40% since the crisis began, leading to a roughly 25% drop in emissions over that same period.
In Greek mythology, the Chimaera was a fire-breathing monster, a horrifying mishmash of lion, goat and snake that laid waste to the countryside. In 2015, virologists led by Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill reported the creation of their own chimaera. They took a version of the coronavirus responsible for the deadly outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the early 2000s — now known as SARS-CoV — and adorned it with surface proteins from a different coronavirus taken from Chinese horseshoe bats. In the laboratory, this particular mash-up was able to break into human cells and also make mice ill1. This chimaera came with a message: other coronaviruses have the potential to spark a human pandemic. In just a few years’ time, that warning would prove prescient, as a distant cousin of SARS-CoV has now killed more than 4.9 million people worldwide.
Đại dịch COVID-19 sớm muộn gì rồi cũng phải chấm dứt theo cách này hay cách khác. Và rồi, sau những tiếng thở dài vừa nhẹ nhõm vừa đau đớn, chắc chắn chúng ta sẽ phải tự vấn: Vì sao điều ấy lại xảy ra?
Khi đại dịch qua đi, một cuộc cầu siêu cho những nạn nhân đã tử nạn vì COVID-19 như ý kiến của Bí thư Thành ủy TP.HCM Nguyễn Văn Nên là điều hợp tình hợp lý: Nhà nước nên đứng ra tổ chức cầu siêu và các tôn giáo tùy theo nghi thức riêng cũng có thể tổ chức cầu siêu cho các nạn nhân của đại dịch.
Và rồi, sau những tiếng thở dài vừa nhẹ nhõm vừa đau đớn vì những mất mát không gì bù đắp nổi, chắc chắn chúng ta sẽ phải tự vấn: Vì sao điều ấy lại xảy ra? Vì sao lại mất mát, thiệt hại về nhiều mặt khủng khiếp đến thế? Và tiếp đến, phải làm gì để ngăn ngừa tai họa tái diễn? Phải làm gì để không bỏ phí những bài học quá đắt giá? Cuộc tự vấn càng sâu, càng nghiêm khắc, càng có cơ may giúp tránh được việc lặp lại những sai lầm tương tự trong tương lai.
Lấy thí dụ TP.HCM. Đại dịch COVID-19 đã như một loại thuốc thử làm trôi đi nhiều lớp sơn hào nhoáng và để lộ ra những thiếu thốn, yếu kém, bất cập trong sự phát triển lâu dài của thành phố. Nhìn chung, nếu sự phát triển của thành phố (cũng như của các tỉnh thành trong vùng) trong những năm qua hướng đến con người hơn, tập trung cho con người hơn thì những thực tế đau lòng mà chúng ta chứng kiến trong mấy tháng đại dịch sẽ giảm đi nhiều.
Covid developments in Mekong Delta provinces as of November 11 morning remained complicated.
Chau Ba Thao Company
Bac Lieu reported 291 positive cases within 24 hours, including 97 community transmission cases, raising the total number of infections to 6,200.
Gia Rai commune and Bac Lieu City are the two hotspots in the province. The hotbeds at Tan Khoi Seafood Import/Export Company and Chau Ba Thao Seafood Company in Gia Rai Town are the most serious.
The hotbed at Tan Khoi was found after a worker went to the Gia Rai medical center to have a health examination and tested positive. To date, 700 infections have been found.
By Thu Anh November 5, 2021 | 09:33 am GMT+7A doctor takes care of a coronavirus patient in HCMC’s Thu Duc City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh TranAround 86 percent of people hospitalized with Covid-19 in HCMC have been vaccinated at least once, a survey by its Department of Health found.
The survey began on Tuesday at hospitals, deputy director of the city Department of Health, Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, said.
Of the remaining 14 percent, 90 percent are children under 18, and were found mostly at industrial parks and quarantine zones around the city, he said.
Lần đầu sau 13 năm tha hương, Bảo thấy mình không còn ràng buộc với thành phố. Anh xếp nốt mấy bộ quần áo cũ rồi giục vợ, con gái lên xe máy về Kiên Giang.
Người lao động đưa con nhỏ về quê sau khi TP HCM và các tỉnh nới lỏng giãn cách. Ảnh: Phạm Chiểu, Võ Thạnh, Nguyễn Đông
Sáng 3/10, Nguyễn Văn Bảo, 31 tuổi, trọ ở huyện Hóc Môn, nhận được 3 triệu đồng chính quyền hỗ trợ. Anh dùng luôn trả tiền thuê phòng mấy tháng nay. Dù đã được chủ nhà giảm đến 70% trong 3 tháng nghỉ dịch, nay có khoản trợ cấp anh mới đủ tiền trả số còn lại. Đây cũng là khoản trợ cấp duy nhất Bảo nhận được khi thất nghiệp, vì công việc trước đó là thời vụ, không có bảo hiểm.
Từ cuối tháng 6, khi thấy tình hình Covid-19 ở TP HCM trở nên phức tạp, một số công ty đã lao vào chạy đua chuẩn bị cơ sở vật chất cho “3 tại chỗ”.
“Đó gần như là một cuộc chiến”, giám đốc một công ty mô tả. Toàn bộ nguồn nhân sự, tài chính của công ty phải tập trung chuẩn bị từ những việc lớn như chuyển đổi công năng nhà xưởng, bãi giữ xe, lắp đặt khu vệ sinh, bồn nước đến những thứ nhỏ như chăn màn, chiếu ngủ, xô chậu giặt…
Sau thời gian tự nguyện triển khai, ngày 15/7, tất cả doanh nghiệp đóng trên địa bàn Thành phố phải thực hiện phương án “3 tại chỗ” hoặc “một cung đường, 2 điểm đến”.
Thời gian thực hiện kéo dài, nhiều nhà máy “3 tại chỗ” gặp khó khăn, chi phí tăng gấp đôi nhưng công suất giảm một nửa, công nhân muốn về nhà…. Ông Chu Tiến Dũng, Chủ tịch Hiệp hội Doanh nghiệp TP HCM ước tính, đến cuối tháng 9, chỉ có khoảng 20% năng lực sản xuất được duy trì hoạt động theo mô hình 3 tại chỗ.
At the opening of a virtual Covid-19 summit organized with the U.N., President Biden called on world leaders, pharmaceutical executives, philanthropists and civil society organizations to forge a global consensus around a plan to fight the coronavirus crisis.
“We need to go big,” Biden said. “It’s an all-hands-on-deck crisis.”
The president pointed to two especially urgent challenges: vaccinating the world and solving a global oxygen shortage, which is leading to unnecessary Covid deaths. Tiếp tục đọc “Biden’s Covid Summit”→
Để hỗ trợ kịp thời người dân gặp khó khăn do ảnh hưởng dịch bệnh Covid-19, chính quyền TP.HCM triển khai nhiều đợt chi tiền hỗ trợ với cam kết không để người dân thiếu đói.
Người dân thuộc nhóm lao động tự do đang phản ánh những thắc mắc, bức xúc về cách chi trả tiền trợ cấp với cán bộ UBND P.2, Q.8 (bìa trái)THANH NIÊN
Tuy nhiên, vừa qua nhiều người dân ngụ tại địa bàn P.2 (Q.8, TP.HCM) bức xúc phản ánh đến Báo Thanh Niên về việc chi tiền hỗ trợ của phường này quá bất cập, đáng ngờ, khiến họ đi tới đi lui và về tay không. Thậm chí, có trường hợp đã qua đời do Covid-19 nhưng vẫn cùng nhiều người trong gia đình có tên trong danh sách nhận tiền, nhưng chính quyền địa phương chỉ giải quyết cho 1 trường hợp… PV Thanh Niên đã vào cuộc tìm hiểu.
A man prepares food inside an eatery in Hanoi, December 26, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Chieu
A doctor takes care of a coronavirus patient in HCMC’s Thu Duc City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh TranAround 86 percent of people hospitalized with Covid-19 in HCMC have been vaccinated at least once, a survey by its Department of Health found.
CVD 