The coughing among the western lowland gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in January was the first warning sign. Soon the fears were confirmed: A troop of gorillas became the first apes known to test positive for the coronavirus.Around the world, many scientists and veterinarians are now racing to protect animals from the coronavirus, often using the same playbook for minimizing disease spread among people: That includes social distancing, health checks and, for some zoo animals, a vaccine.Karen, a 28-year-old orangutan, became the first ape in the world to get a coronavirus vaccine on Jan. 26 at the San Diego Zoo.Two shots for KarenKaren has received two shots of a vaccine from Zoetis, a veterinary pharmaceutical company in New Jersey, and has shown no adverse reactions. Since then, nine other primates at the San Diego Zoo have been fully vaccinated: five bonobos and four orangutans. Four more animals — one bonobo and three gorillas — got their first shot this month and will get a second one in April.“I was really convinced that we wanted to get that to protect our other great apes,” said the zoo’s wildlife health officer Nadine Lamberski, who explained she felt urgency to act after the eight gorillas fell sick.That virus outbreak was linked to a zookeeper who was infected but had no symptoms. Seven gorillas recovered after a mild cases of the sniffles, but one elderly silverback had pneumonia, likely caused by the virus, as well as heart disease. He was put on antibiotics and heart medication, and he received an antibody treatment to block the virus from infecting cells.Zoetis vaccine of choiceAbout three dozen zoos across the United States and abroad have put in orders for the Zoetis vaccine, which is formulated to elicit a strong immune response in particular animal species.“We will jump at the opportunity to get the Zoetis vaccine for our own great apes,” said Oakland Zoo’s veterinary director Alex Herman, who is ordering 100 doses.Zoetis got a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide the doses on an experimental basis to the San Diego Zoo. The company will need to apply for the same permission to provide vaccine to additional zoos.Scientists believe the coronavirus likely originated in wild horseshoe bats, before jumping — perhaps through an intermediary species — to humans. Now many researchers worry that humans may unwittingly infect other susceptible species.
“Right now, humans are the main vectors of SARS-CoV-2, with consequences for many animal species,” said Arinjay Banerjee, a disease researcher at McMaster University in Canada.Great apes such as gorillas, which share 98% of their DNA with humans, are especially susceptible, as are felines. So far, confirmed coronavirus cases include gorillas, tigers and lions at zoos; domestic cats and dogs; farmed mink, and at least one wild mink in Utah.Cattle, pigs are safeScientists have also experimentally shown that ferrets, racoon dogs and white-tailed deer are susceptible, although pigs and cattle are not.“This could be a conservation concern, especially if the virus began to spread in a wild species with extremely reduced populations, like the black-footed ferret,” which is endangered, said Kate Langwig, an infectious disease ecologist at Virginia Tech.Another worry is that virus spread among other species could produce new variants, complicating health authorities’ efforts to curb the pandemic.In Denmark, workers at a mink farm accidentally infected the animals. As the coronavirus spread among the mink, it mutated — and human handlers contracted the new variant. In response, the government ordered millions of mink to be killed.“Mutations happen when there’s a lot of disease transfer going on between animals,” said Scott Weese, a veterinary microbiologist at the Ontario Veterinary College.Many recommended steps to minimize disease spread to animals are familiar: wearing masks and sanitizing shared equipment, regular health checks, and maintaining physical distance.Since the outbreak, the San Diego Zoo and its safari park north of San Diego have installed more fans at its indoor primate areas to increase air circulation. The staff wears double masks and face shields and limits their time indoors with animals.’Wake-up call’ for care of apesScientists and conservationists who monitor wild primates have also adapted their daily routines.“COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for the world about the fact that these viruses can go from wild animals to people, and from people to great apes,” said Kirsten Gilardi, executive director of Gorilla Doctors, a conservation group that includes field veterinarians who treat wild gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.There are only about 1,000 wild mountain gorillas, so the threat of coronavirus infection “has changed the way we do our work,” said Felix Ndagijimana, the Rwanda country director for Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, a conservation group.For the past year, field trackers who check on gorillas daily in the rainforest first get a coronavirus test, then stay with other trackers in an encampment for work stints of several weeks. This is to ensure that they don’t pick up the bug by returning to their villages at night.“It was really a big ask of our team, especially during the pandemic. People want to be close to their families, but also keep the gorillas safe,” said Ndagijimana. To date, he said, there have been no coronavirus cases among wild gorillas.No plan to use vaccine on wild gorillasWhile some wild gorillas were vaccinated against measles in the 1980s, there are currently no plans to vaccinate them against the coronavirus. With wild apes, the first choice is always to be as hands-off as possible, said Jean Bosco Noheli, a field veterinarian for Gorilla Doctors in Rwanda. “Let’s focus on other measures we can take first to protect wild gorillas,” he said.But more zoo animals could soon be getting virus shots.“There’s a lot of interest,” said Sharon Deem, a veterinary epidemiologist at the St. Louis Zoo who is also part of a hazard preparedness group of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums that represents 240 zoos.“I think given how horrible this particular pathogen has been to humans, and that we know it can be transmitted between humans and animals, that there is great interest to use an animal vaccine as soon as it is available,” she said.
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France, Germany and Italy resumed use Friday of a coronavirus vaccine made by AstraZeneca after health officials sought to allay concerns it might cause blood clots.The European nations resumed inoculations after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine was “safe and effective” and the World Health Organization said “available data do not suggest any overall increase in clotting conditions” among those who had been vaccinated.From left, German public health expert Karl Lauterbach, RKI health institute deputy director Lars Schaade and German Health Minister Jens Spahn speak at a news conference, March 19, 2021, in Berlin, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.Germany and Italy are trying to avoid a third wave of coronavirus infections while France is experiencing its highest caseload in four months.Beginning Friday, several French regions, including Paris, will be under new lockdown orders to contain increasing coronavirus cases.France had 40,000 new cases Wednesday.The EMA approved the continued use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Thursday in the battle to contain the pandemic. Spain had also stopped using the vaccine.The agency said in a statement that “the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread threat of COVID-19 (which itself results in clotting problems and may be fatal) continue to outweigh the risk of side effects.”“A causal link with the vaccine is not proven but is possible and deserves further analysis,” the agency added.FILE – A member of the medical staff holds a vial of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine at the South Ile-de-France Hospital Group in Melun, in the outskirts of Paris, Feb. 8, 2021.Meanwhile, the White House announced Thursday that it was sending millions of stockpiled doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada. Mexico is slated to receive 2.5 million doses from the U.S., with Canada receiving 1.5 million.U.S. regulators have not yet approved use of the vaccine, but Mexican and Canadian officials have.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the vaccine would be loans to the two U.S. neighbors, with the U.S. eventually being reimbursed with vaccine from the bordering countries.The announcement came as the Biden administration sought Mexico’s help in stemming the tide of migrants trying to enter the U.S.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced new distance guidelines for schools Friday, saying three feet of distance for masked students was adequate instead of the previously recommended six-foot span.“These updated recommendations provide the evidence-based road map to help schools reopen safely, and remain open, for in-person instruction,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.On Friday, India’s Union Health Ministry reported an increase in coronavirus infections for the ninth day in a row, with 40,000 new cases in the previous 24 hours. India has reported 11.5 million COVID-19 cases. As of early Friday afternoon EDT, only two countries had more — the U.S., with 29.7 million, and Brazil, with 11.8 million, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Hopkins reported a global total of 122.1 million infections. 
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A 14-year-old South Sudanese girl who could not control her urine or bowel movements for two years is lying on a bed at the Lutheran Medical Center in Juba, recovering from an operation to repair a fistula – a medical condition in which a hole develops in the birth canal that is caused by prolonged obstructed labor.The girl, who VOA is not identifying for privacy reasons, said a doctor friend called her last month from Juba when she was in Rumbek to inform her about a two-week camp being run by the Barbara May Foundation, an Australian organization that helps women suffering from fistula in the South Sudanese capital.The girl told South Sudan in Focus that in 2019 an old man found her by the roadside, kidnapped her, and forced her into marriage. She said she later became pregnant and developed fistula while delivering her first-born child as a child herself.”I delivered a baby at home in the village. It’s not a town where I could be taken to the hospital. I delivered alone. There was a woman who was helping me so that the baby could come in her hands, but she put her hands in and it cut the urinary tube and urine started flowing by itself. The relatives of my husband said they don’t want me, that I am smelling, so I went to my father’s home,” said the girl.Australian surgeon Dr. Andrew Browning, who started the foundation and conducted the operations, said he and his team have operated on more than 100 women and girls in three different camps in South Sudan.“About 30 ladies per camp and [in] this camp, we have 34 ladies to operate on so it’s now about 120 ladies we have treated in South Sudan but that’s just a small part of the problem; there are many thousands of women in South Sudan with this problem, so we need to train more doctors how to do this operation,” Browning told South Sudan in Focus.The obstetrician and gynecologist became involved with helping women suffering from fistula 17 years ago after visiting his aunt Valerie Browning in rural Ethiopia, who assisted women with terrible childbirth injuries.Dr. Browning trained a few South Sudanese surgeons in Ethiopia.  He said those surgeons could now be working in Juba, Wau and Aweil, but far more doctors are needed to perform fistula operations.“There are some people doing it but not enough, and the patients that come here are usually patients who have been operated on in other places and they failed,” Browning said.  “We pray they succeeded this time,” he added.People believe all kinds of misconceptions about fistula, says Browning.“Some people say it’s a bad spirit, or a curse or maybe the woman was unfaithful in her marriage, but that’s not true.  It’s just that the baby was too big for the mother to deliver and that’s how she got stuck, so she was stuck in labor for five days, it’s not her fault, it’s an awful condition to live with, she is leaking all the time, she is very ashamed,” Browning said.Dr. John Sebit, medical director at the Lutheran Medical Center, where the operations have been conducted, said the center started the project to support mothers who are often rejected by their loved ones due to their condition.“This camp we started in 2018 after realizing there are so many mothers outside living with fistula or obstetric fistula and again the specialists who do these surgeries are not so common, there are so few,” Sebit told South Sudan in Focus.The Lutheran Medical Center helps identify women and girls suffering from fistula and transports them “to where they can be operated on,” he said.Obstetric fistula “will continue in South Sudan until mothers start delivering from hospitals” so that if a baby becomes stuck, doctors can carry out a caesarean section, said Browning.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson received his first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Friday and urged the public to do the same, saying “he did not feel a thing.”
Johnson, 56, received his vaccine at the same hospital where almost a year ago he was put in an intensive care unit and given oxygen via a tube in his nose after he contracted the virus and fell seriously ill. He later said he was so sick that plans were drawn up on how to announce his death.
“I literally did not feel a thing. It was very good, very quick,” Johnson said after receiving the injection at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
“I cannot recommend it too highly, everybody when you do get your notification to go for a jab, please go and get it, it is the best thing for you, best thing for your family and for everyone else.”
Pictures showed the prime minister wearing a black mask, and a shirt and tie with his sleeve rolled up, while a nurse gives him the vaccine.Record day for Britain
Britain broke its record for the most coronavirus shots given out in one day Friday and almost half of all adults have received one dose, making it one of the fastest countries in the world to roll out a vaccine program.
This success has helped the ruling Conservatives regain the lead over the main opposition Labour Party in opinion polls after the prime minister last year was accused of acting too slowly to stop the spread of the virus.
Johnson received his vaccine as European countries Friday resumed using the AstraZeneca shot after regulators said its benefits outweighed any risks following recent reports of blood clots.
Countries including Germany and France reversed their decision to temporarily pause its use after reports of about 30 cases of rare brain blood clots sent scientists and governments scrambling to determine any link.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, also has been at the center of tensions between Britain and the European Union, after Brussels expressed anger over the lack of deliveries of the shot coming from Britain.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are traveling to the southern U.S. state of Georgia on Friday, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the massage parlor shootings near Atlanta on Tuesday.The U.S. leaders will meet with Asian American leaders to discuss the shootings and the targeting of people of Asian descent in the U.S. in apparent hate crimes.Georgia officials, however, have not yet labeled the massage parlor shootings as hate crimes because the suspect said the shooting spree was a result of his sexual issues.The president and the vice president will also meet with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while in Georgia to get an update on the U.S.  handling the COVID-19 pandemic.They were originally also planning to participate in a “Help Is Here” rally to promote the trillion-dollar COVID relief package.The rally has been postponed in the wake of the shootings that killed eight people, six of Asian descent. Biden is, however, slated to meet with former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams whose organizing is widely viewed as being responsible for the Democratic presidential win in Georgia in November, the first Democratic presidential victory in the southern state since 1992.Meanwhile, U.S. and Mexican officials deny Washington is attaching any strings to a likely shipment of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses to America’s southern neighbor at a time of heightened migration passing through Mexico en route to the United States.“[P]reventing the spread of a global pandemic is part of one of our diplomatic objectives. Another one of our diplomatic objectives is working to address the challenges at the border. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that those conversations are both ongoing and happening,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied when asked about a link between lending vaccine supplies and commitments from Mexico to tighten the flow of migrants heading north.“These are two separate issues, as we look for a more humane migratory system and enhanced cooperation against COVID-19, for the benefit of our two countries and the region,” said a statement from Roberto Velasco, director general for the North America region at Mexico’s foreign ministry.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 19 MB720p | 37 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 224 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioPsaki confirmed Thursday that there are discussions to send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.“We are assessing how we can lend doses,” the press secretary said. “That is our aim. It’s not fully finalized yet.”Mexican officials say an agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico is to be announced Friday.Tens of millions of doses of the Astra Zeneca-University of Oxford vaccine are in U.S. manufacturing sites. That company’s vaccine has been authorized in numerous countries, but not yet in the United States.The AstraZeneca vaccine has received some negative publicity and there is speculation some Americans will hesitate to take that vaccine after it receives expected approval in the United States.Several countries in Europe this week suspended use of the AstraZeneca doses after reports that a few people who received it later developed blot clots and severe bleeding.Europe’s drug regulator Thursday declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, adding that a review of the 17 million people who received it found they were actually less likely to develop dangerous clots than others who hadn’t received the vaccine.“It makes sense for the United States to loan its surplus of millions of doses to neighbors where it can be put to good use right away,” said Joshua Busby, assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas-Austin.The pending deals with Canada and Mexico, Busby told VOA, do not go far enough because “more countries in the Americas and beyond will need vaccines. But I’m confident that the Biden team is aware of this.”Busby, author of the book Moral Movements and Foreign Policy, said he expects in the coming months the Biden administration will make a major effort to increase global vaccine access “because the longer the epidemic persists globally, the greater the risk of variants that could emerge for which the current vaccines are ineffective.”Asked on Thursday about requests from other countries to make U.S. coronavirus vaccine stock available to them, Psaki replied: “Certainly we’ll have those conversations, and we are open to receiving those requests and obviously making considerations.””Various countries including China have been engaged in so called vaccine diplomacy,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Japanese reporters on Wednesday. “We shouldn’t tie the distribution or access to vaccines to politics or to geopolitics.”Concerns have been raised that the United States and the rest of the West are losing a public relations battle with China and Russia which, at minimum, are using such vaccine distribution to improve their influence and image in developing countries.“Even as nations understandably prioritize their own citizens for vaccines, including their own most vulnerable, we cannot forget that those with the means should also help other countries in need,” said Curtis Chin, former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank.Vaccine diplomacy competition between nations to help other countries can be a good thing, but “where it falls apart is when that competition overrides necessary cooperation and coordination,” Chin told VOA.
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German health officials Friday said coronavirus cases in the country are rising at “an exponential rate,” forcing the government to reconsider lifting COVID-19 restrictions. At a news conference in Berlin, Robert Koch Institute ((RKI)) for infectious Diseases Vice President Lars Schaade told reporters highly contagious virus variants were getting the upper hand in the nation, wiping out progress seen last month in containing the pandemic.Shaade, appearing with German Health Minister Jens Spahn, reported 17,482 new infections in the previous 24 hours and 226 deaths in Germany, with the seven-day incidence rate soaring to about 96 per 100,000 people, despite a months-long lockdown in much of the country.Shaade said increased infections were notably among younger people. “The incidence increases are clearly in the groups under 60 years old, especially in the group 15 to 49 years old.”Spahn told reporters the numbers mean plans to re-open the country will need to be put on hold. “On the contrary, we may even have to take steps backwards.”Earlier this month, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to gradually lift COVID-19 restrictions, she said she and regional leaders agreed to impose new restrictions in areas where the seven-day incidence rate surpassed 100. At least two regions have already reached that threshold.Meanwhile, Spahn said he has been negotiating with Russia regarding its Sputnik V vaccine, and indicated he is very close to completing a deal. He said the government had been in close contact with the Russians, “and I can also well imagine that we [will] conclude contracts — and conclude them quickly.”He said, however, Germany needs more details on how many doses could be delivered and when. The vaccine has yet to be approved by German or European Union regulators.Germany resumed administering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine Thursday after the EU regulator Europe Medincines Agency ((EMA)) concluded once again that it was safe and effective. The agency had conducted a study of the vaccine and cases of blood clots reported in several patients after receiving the vaccine.
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As the Northern Hemisphere enters a second spring of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts are saying the higher temperatures and sunnier days are unlikely to do much on their own to curtail the spread of the virus.Travel restrictions and mask mandates, along with people’s behavior, have a much bigger impact than the weather, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The report highlights that the steps people can take “far outweigh any external factors, and that’s a really positive thing to know,” said Dev Niyogi, geosciences professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in the report but wrote a study published in November with similar findings. “We saw waves of infection rise in warm seasons and warm regions in the first year of the pandemic, and there is no evidence that this couldn’t happen again in the coming year,” Ben Zaitchik, a climate scientist at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. Panel to review informationZaitchik chaired an interdisciplinary panel set up by the WMO to make sense of the deluge of research on the issue.When the pandemic began in early 2020, the virus now called SARS-CoV-2 was known simply as the “novel coronavirus.” Scientists could only look to other coronaviruses to guess how this one would behave.Some coronaviruses cause common colds, which rise and fall with the seasons.Scientists do not know exactly why that is, however, the report noted.Some respiratory viruses do not survive as long in a warmer, more humid atmosphere compared with cold, dry winter air. Stronger summer sunlight may zap viruses more with ultraviolet (UV) radiation than on dimmer winter days.In lab studies, SARS-CoV-2 did survive longer in cold, dry conditions with low UV light. But these studies did not show whether those conditions “have a meaningful influence on transmission rates under real-world conditions,” the report said.Affect of weather an unknownOne way the weather could affect how well the virus spreads is by affecting how people behave. Cold weather drives people indoors, where the virus is known to spread more easily. But hot weather and rain can also prompt people to go inside, the report noted.The report also considered how air pollution affected COVID-19, but could not draw firm conclusions on the subject. Some early studies show higher death rates in more polluted air, but they have not been confirmed.While the role of many of these environmental factors are still open questions, the report says the benefit of policies such as travel restrictions and mask mandates “has been clearly established.”Weather and air pollution levels are not a good basis for relaxing these measures, it added.By highlighting how masks and social distancing are more powerful than the weather, the report shows that “for a change, our ability to be exposed or not (to a disease) is in our hands,” Niyogi of the University of Texas said.
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The European Medicines Agency has approved the continued use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the battle to contain the pandemic. The European regulator’s seal of approval comes after several European countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, stopped using the vaccine following reports that the shots caused blood clots in some vaccine recipients.The agency said in a statement Thursday “the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread threat of COVID-19 (which itself results in clotting problems and may be fatal) continue to outweigh the risk of side effects.”The agency added, “A causal link with the vaccine is not proven but is possible and deserves further analysis.”Meanwhile, the White House announced Thursday that it is sending millions of stockpiled doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada.The vaccine has not yet been approved for use by U.S. regulators, but it has been approved for use by Mexico and Canada.The announcement comes as the Biden administration wants Mexico’s help in stemming the tide of migrants who are attempting to come into the U.S.Mexico is slated to receive 2.5 million vaccines from the U.S., with Canada receiving 1.5 million.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the vaccines would be loans to the two U.S. neighbors, with the U.S. eventually being reimbursed with vaccines from the bordering countries.Beginning Friday, several French regions, including Paris, will be under new lockdown orders to contain increasing coronavirus cases.France had 40,000 new cases Wednesday.Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday the outbreak in France is “worsening,” adding, “Our responsibility now is that it not get out of control.”On Friday, India’s Union Health Ministry reported an increase in coronavirus infections for a ninth day in a row, with 40,000 new cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has 11.5 million COVID-19 cases.Only two countries have more infections than India — the U.S., with 29.6 million cases, and Brazil, with 11.7 million, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Johns Hopkins reports there are 121.7 million global coronavirus infections.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are traveling to the southern U.S. state of Georgia on Friday, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the massage parlor shootings near Atlanta on Tuesday.The U.S. leaders will meet with Asian American leaders to discuss the shootings and the targeting of people of Asian descent in the U.S. in apparent hate crimes.Georgia officials, however, have not yet labeled the massage parlor shootings as hate crimes because the suspect said the shooting spree was a result of his sexual issues.The president and the vice president will also meet with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while in Georgia to get an update on the U.S.  handling the COVID-19 pandemic.They were originally also planning to participate in a “Help Is Here” rally to promote the trillion-dollar COVID relief package.The rally has been postponed in the wake of the shootings that killed eight people, six of Asian descent. Biden is, however, slated to meet with former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams whose organizing is widely viewed as being responsible for the Democratic presidential win in Georgia in November, the first Democratic presidential victory in the southern state since 1992.Meanwhile, U.S. and Mexican officials deny Washington is attaching any strings to a likely shipment of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses to America’s southern neighbor at a time of heightened migration passing through Mexico en route to the United States.“[P]reventing the spread of a global pandemic is part of one of our diplomatic objectives. Another one of our diplomatic objectives is working to address the challenges at the border. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that those conversations are both ongoing and happening,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied when asked about a link between lending vaccine supplies and commitments from Mexico to tighten the flow of migrants heading north.“These are two separate issues, as we look for a more humane migratory system and enhanced cooperation against COVID-19, for the benefit of our two countries and the region,” said a statement from Roberto Velasco, director general for the North America region at Mexico’s foreign ministry.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 19 MB720p | 37 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 224 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioPsaki confirmed Thursday that there are discussions to send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.“We are assessing how we can lend doses,” the press secretary said. “That is our aim. It’s not fully finalized yet.”Mexican officials say an agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico is to be announced Friday.Tens of millions of doses of the Astra Zeneca-University of Oxford vaccine are in U.S. manufacturing sites. That company’s vaccine has been authorized in numerous countries, but not yet in the United States.The AstraZeneca vaccine has received some negative publicity and there is speculation some Americans will hesitate to take that vaccine after it receives expected approval in the United States.Several countries in Europe this week suspended use of the AstraZeneca doses after reports that a few people who received it later developed blot clots and severe bleeding.Europe’s drug regulator Thursday declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, adding that a review of the 17 million people who received it found they were actually less likely to develop dangerous clots than others who hadn’t received the vaccine.“It makes sense for the United States to loan its surplus of millions of doses to neighbors where it can be put to good use right away,” said Joshua Busby, assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas-Austin.The pending deals with Canada and Mexico, Busby told VOA, do not go far enough because “more countries in the Americas and beyond will need vaccines. But I’m confident that the Biden team is aware of this.”Busby, author of the book Moral Movements and Foreign Policy, said he expects in the coming months the Biden administration will make a major effort to increase global vaccine access “because the longer the epidemic persists globally, the greater the risk of variants that could emerge for which the current vaccines are ineffective.”Asked on Thursday about requests from other countries to make U.S. coronavirus vaccine stock available to them, Psaki replied: “Certainly we’ll have those conversations, and we are open to receiving those requests and obviously making considerations.””Various countries including China have been engaged in so called vaccine diplomacy,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Japanese reporters on Wednesday. “We shouldn’t tie the distribution or access to vaccines to politics or to geopolitics.”Concerns have been raised that the United States and the rest of the West are losing a public relations battle with China and Russia which, at minimum, are using such vaccine distribution to improve their influence and image in developing countries.“Even as nations understandably prioritize their own citizens for vaccines, including their own most vulnerable, we cannot forget that those with the means should also help other countries in need,” said Curtis Chin, former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank.Vaccine diplomacy competition between nations to help other countries can be a good thing, but “where it falls apart is when that competition overrides necessary cooperation and coordination,” Chin told VOA.
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U.S. and Mexican officials deny Washington is attaching any strings to a likely shipment of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses to America’s southern neighbor at a time of heightened migration passing through Mexico en route to the United States.“[P]reventing the spread of a global pandemic is part of one of our diplomatic objectives. Another one of our diplomatic objectives is working to address the challenges at the border. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that those conversations are both ongoing and happening,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied when asked about a link between lending vaccine supplies and commitments from Mexico to tighten the flow of migrants heading north.White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, March 18, 2021, in Washington.“These are two separate issues, as we look for a more humane migratory system and enhanced cooperation against COVID-19, for the benefit of our two countries and the region,” said a statement from Roberto Velasco, director general for the North America region at Mexico’s foreign ministry.Psaki confirmed Thursday that there are discussions to send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.“We are assessing how we can lend doses,” the press secretary said. “That is our aim. It’s not fully finalized yet.”President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, right, speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2021, in Washington.In remarks Thursday afternoon, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the 100 millionth shot of a coronavirus vaccine of his presidency will be administered Friday.The president had previously set a goal of 100 million shots in 100 days. Friday marks the 58th day of his administration.“Scientists have made clear that things may get worse as new variants of this virus spread,” Biden warned. “Getting vaccinated is the best thing we can do to fight back against these variants. Millions of people are vaccinated, we need millions more to be vaccinated.”Biden, in his remarks from the White House East Room, made no mention of sending doses to other countries.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Medical workers prepare doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Antwerp, Belgium, March 18, 2021.“It makes sense for the United States to loan its surplus of millions of doses to neighbors where it can be put to good use right away,” said Joshua Busby, assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas-Austin.The pending deals with Canada and Mexico, Busby told VOA, do not go far enough because “more countries in the Americas and beyond will need vaccines. But I’m confident that the Biden team is aware of this.”Busby, author of the book “Moral Movements and Foreign Policy,” said he expects in the coming months the Biden administration will make a major effort to increase global vaccine access “because the longer the epidemic persists globally, the greater the risk of variants that could emerge for which the current vaccines are ineffective.”Asked on Thursday about requests from other countries to make U.S. coronavirus vaccine stock available to them, Psaki replied: “Certainly we’ll have those conversations, and we are open to receiving those requests and obviously making considerations.”FILE – In this March 3, 2021, file photo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks on foreign policy at the State Department in Washington.”Various countries including China have been engaged in so called vaccine diplomacy,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Japanese reporters on Wednesday. “We shouldn’t tie the distribution or access to vaccines to politics or to geopolitics.”Concerns have been raised that the United States and the rest of the West are losing a public relations battle with China and Russia which, at minimum, are using such vaccine distribution to improve their influence and image in developing countries.“Even as nations understandably prioritize their own citizens for vaccines, including their own most vulnerable, we cannot forget that those with the means should also help other countries in need,” said Curtis Chin, former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank.Vaccine diplomacy competition between nations to help other countries can be a good thing, but “where it falls apart is when that competition overrides necessary cooperation and coordination,” Chin told VOA.Chin termed it disappointing that “some in China’s government and state-controlled media might seek to tear down the vaccine development efforts of other nations’ companies and institution as a response to a call for greater transparency and honesty in China when it comes to COVID-19.”Nearly all countries are participating in the COVAX initiative to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries.The administration of then-President Donald Trump last year declined to join the project because of its association with the World Health Organization, which had lost the his support.Since his inauguration in January, Biden has said the United States would join COVAX and play a more active role globally to fight COVID-19.
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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) director for Europe said Thursday that the COVID-19 situation in the continent has taken a step backward, with more people dying from the disease than at this time last year.
 
During a virtual briefing from his office in Copenhagen, Hans Kluge told reporters he is particularly concerned about central Europe, the Balkans and the Baltic states, where new cases, hospitalizations and deaths are now among the highest in the world.
 
Kluge said Europe is averaging more than 20,000 deaths from COVID-19 per week, with the overall death toll passing 900,000. He said there were more than 1.2 million new cases reported across Europe last week, the third consecutive week that infection numbers have increased.
 
Kluge said 46 countries in the region have administered more than 107 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, with 3% of the population in 45 countries having received a completed vaccination series. He said while that represents progress, it is not enough to significantly slow the spread of the virus.
 
“Let there be no doubt about it, vaccination by itself — particularly given the varied uptake in countries — does not replace public health and social measures,” Kluge said.
 
He said 21 European nations are gradually easing COVID-19-related restrictions based on the assumption that increasing vaccinations would immediately lead to an improved epidemiological situation. Kluge added, “Such assumptions are too early to make.”
 
Kluge also weighed in on the AstraZeneca vaccine controversy, in which several countries have suspended its use after reports of patients developing blood clots. He reiterated a statement from WHO officials Wednesday saying the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh its risks, and it should be used.
 
Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, though it issued a similar recommendation earlier this week, is expected to announce the results of a review of the vaccine and the blood clot cases later Thursday.
 
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NASA calls its latest mission on the surface of Mars a “Wright Brothers moment” of aeronautical pioneering. The ISS gets hardware upgrades, and Russia’s lone, female Cosmonaut now has a Barbie doll in her own image. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.Camera: NASA/AP/ESA/REUTERS/SPACE X/MATTELProduced by: Arash Arabasadi  
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Europe’s drug regulator, the Europe Medicines Agency (EMA), said Thursday the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective in protecting people from the disease and its benefits outweigh its possible risks. Speaking to a remote news conference from the agency’s Amsterdam headquarters, Executive Director Emer Cooke said the review by the agency’s safety committee also concluded that the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots, also known as thromboembolic events.  Several European nations in the past week had suspended administering the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports patients who had received it had developed blood clots, that, in a few cases, led to death. The EMA review sprang from those reports. People arrive at a vaccination center to receive a dose of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in Antwerp, Belgium, March 18, 2021.Cooke added, however, the committee found during its investigation that a small number of rare and unusual but very serious cases of clotting disorders, which triggered a more focused review. She said it found very rare cases of unusual blood clots accompanied by low levels of blood platelets, which help blood to clot, after vaccination. The reported cases were almost all in women under 55. Based on the evidence available, Cooke said the EMA “still cannot rule out definitively a link between these cases and the vaccine.” The EMA chief said the committee recommended raising awareness of the possible risks and ensuring they are included in the product information. She said they would also provide information to health care professionals as well as vaccinated people to help identify and mitigate any possible side effects. Cooke repeated the EMA’s overall finding, that the AstraZeneca vaccine is a safe and effective option to protect citizens against COVID-19. 
 
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Leading United Nations agencies are calling for urgent action to combat ageism, which they say harms the well-being of older people and national economies. The World Health Organization, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs and U.N. Population Fund have released the first global report on ageism.A survey of more than 83,000 people in 57 countries finds 1 in every 2 people holds moderately or highly ageist attitudes. Those beliefs are based on stereotypical  ideas about older people drummed into them at an early age.Alana Officer is the World Health Organization’s unit head for demographic change and healthy aging. She says biases start early in life and are reinforced over time. She says ageism is pervasive — in health care systems, in workplaces and in the media.Why Aging of America Poses Huge Risk to US Economy

Americans are getting older and family size is shrinking, which means the nation will have fewer working-age adults going forward.”I think it is a cause for concern if we are calibrating our expectations of having a strongly growing population,” says David Kelly, chief global strategist for JP Morgan Asset Management. “If you’re investing in things like the housing industry or the auto industry and you need an ever-growing population, then you have to adjust to a world in which the U.S. population is…
She says ageism leads to poorer physical and mental health and to a reduced quality of life for older people. Ageism, she says, determines who receives medical procedures and treatment and who does not. She says age discrimination denies older people jobs and job training.“Half of the world’s population are ageist against older people, which rates much higher in low- and lower middle-income countries …The report indicates that you are likely to be ageist against older people if you are younger, you are male, you are fearful of dying or you are less educated,” Officer said.The report finds women are more likely to be targets of ageism than men. It says younger people also suffer from ageism across many areas, such as employment, health, housing and politics.Vania de la Fuente-Nunez is technical officer in the WHO’s Demographic Change and Healthy Ageing Department. She says the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how prevalent ageism is against both the young and the old.“Older people have been systematically and homogenously framed as vulnerable and dependent and younger people have been stereotyped as invincible and selfish, which of course fails to recognize the great diversity that we see in both younger people and in older people,” Fuente-Nunez said.She says the stereotypical portrayal in the media is both inaccurate and harmful.The report finds the economic cost of ageism is huge. A 2020 study in the United States shows ageism led to excess annual costs of $63 billion for a broad range of health conditions.Another study in Australia suggests the national economy would be boosted by $37 billion annually if 5% more people aged 55 or older were employed.
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The European Union’s medications watchdog is due to release initial results Thursday of its investigation into whether there is a connection between the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and cases of recipients developing blood clots.The European Medicines Agency has been examining 30 reported blood coagulation disorders among the 5 million people in the EU who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Among the considerations is whether that rate is more common than the incidence found in the general population.The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is conducting its own assessment of the latest available safety data for the vaccine, but that at this time the agency considers the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks.“In extensive vaccination campaigns, it is routine for countries to signal potential adverse events following immunization,” the WHO said in a statement.  “This does not necessarily mean that the events are linked to vaccination itself, but it is good practice to investigate them.”India said Wednesday it would continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine.Concerns about the vaccine prompted a number of EU countries to suspend its use, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed confidence in AstraZeneca on Wednesday, but continued criticism of the company’s pace of vaccine deliveries.“AstraZeneca has unfortunately under-produced and under-delivered, and this painfully, of course, reduced the speed of the vaccination campaign,” she told reporters.Von der Leyen said the EU is targeting vaccinating 70% of all adults by September.
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Scientists are rethinking the cause of water loss on Mars in the face of new evidence that challenges the long-held theory that the water may have evaporated into space. That’s according to new NASA-funded research published this week in the journal Science.Researchers hypothesize that about 30% and 99% of the water on Mars may have been lost to the crust, likely trapped within the minerals there.The lead author of the study, Eva Scheller, said “the water was lost by 3 billion years ago, meaning Mars has been the dry planet it is today for the past 3 billion years.”Once upon 3 billion years ago, Mars was covered with plentiful water that collected into pools, lakes, and deep oceans about half the volume of Earth’s Atlantic Ocean, researchers concluded based on geological evidence.In search of the missing water, scientists believed water on the Martian crust escaped through the atmosphere because of low gravity on the red planet.Now that theory is being challenged by a new study that theorizes a new model to explain the loss of water.“Atmospheric escape doesn’t fully explain the data that we have for how much water actually once existed on Mars,” she said.Scheller further disclosed that there are three key processes within their model.“Water input from volcanism, water loss to space and water loss to the crust.”She said the model allowed them to match their hydrogen isotope data set in order to calculate the amount of water lost to space and that which was lost to crust.Presenting the study at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, the Caltech Ph.D. candidate explained the research findings are based on the fact that not all hydrogen atoms are the same.There is the most common hydrogen which contains a proton and the less common variant that comprises both proton and neutron. This type is widely referred to as the deuterium or “heavy” hydrogen.When water is lost on a surface, lighter hydrogen atoms defy gravity quicker, leaving behind the “heavy” hydrogen.But the researchers said the amount of the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio observed in the Martian atmosphere and large amounts of water in the past does not support this theory.
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Australia is beginning an urgent rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in the Torres Strait in northern Queensland because of a sharp increase in infections in neighboring Papua New Guinea, a situation Health Minister Greg Hunt called a “clear and present danger” to both nations.Papua New Guinea, a South Pacific nation of more than 7 million people, is Australia’s nearest neighbor.It’s facing a public health crisis, and in Canberra, Australia Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is increasingly worried. Some of Australia’s most northerly islands are just a few kilometers from Papua New Guinea, raising concern the virus could spread easily and quickly across the border.“We do not want the virus sneaking across what is obviously a very small area, and we do not want people in north Queensland, particularly Indigenous communities, facing the incursion of that disease,” he said.Officially, Papua New Guinea has recorded more than 2,300 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. More than 25 people have died, according to research from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Australia’s Chief medical officer, professor Paul Kelly, believes the real situation is far worse.“We are seeing a large number of health care workers on the front lines in Papua New Guinea now coming down with COVID-19,” he said. “These are all the signs that there is a major epidemic in the community. They do not have the resources for mass testing as we do here in Australia, and so any number you see coming out of Papua New Guinea in terms of cases and even deaths will be a major underestimate.”Australia is sending 8,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to its northern neighbor, along with vital supplies for health workers. It is asking the European Union to provide another 1 million doses to help Papua New Guinea. Australian doctors are also starting an urgent vaccination program to protect islanders on the Australian side of the Torres Strait that separates the two nations.The opposition Labor party in Canberra believes Australia has been too slow to react.In Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister James Marape has said COVID-19 has “broken loose” and he warned that hospitals would soon be overwhelmed.His country occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean and lies to the east of Indonesia and to the north of Australia. Agriculture provides a subsistence livelihood for an estimated 85% of the population.
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Testing is under way for modified versions of COVID-19 vaccines that aim to deal with coronavirus variants. Experts say current vaccines still seem to work against the variants and prevent the most severe forms of disease, though the evidence is limited. Making changes may not be necessary for all the vaccines.  “We don’t know yet,” said Emory University Vaccine Center Associate Director Walter Orenstein. “But people want to get prepared just in case we need to.” Testing and manufacturing will likely take months, he said, so now is the time to get started. All major Western manufacturers with shots in use have announced studies involving either new shots targeted against a specific variant or additional booster shots of their existing vaccines. A woman reacts to seeing a syringe of the Sinovac vaccine for COVID-19 as health workers vaccinate residents in the Kalunga Vao de Almas quilombo on the outskirts of Cavalcante, Goias state, Brazil, March 16, 2021.The A pharmacist prepares to fill a syringe with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Vaccine Village in Antwerp, Belgium, March 16, 2021.B.1.351 shares mutations with a strain first found in Brazil, where cases are surging. These mutations are thought to help both viruses spread more easily and also make them less susceptible to the effects of the vaccines. A vaccine against one variant may protect against both, said Baylor College of Medicine vaccine expert Peter Hotez. “The hope is that they’ll be close enough that [one variant vaccine] should cross-protect,” he said. “But these studies take time, so we don’t know for certain.” Moderna’s shot was less potent against B.1.351 in test tube studies, but still appeared strong enough to work. The company announced earlier this month that it had A man receives a dose of the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus, at the Music Auditorium in Rome, Italy, March 17, 2021.Like Moderna’s shot, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine suffered in A nurse fills a syringe with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Zinga Zanga village hall vaccination center in Beziers, southern France, March 17, 2021.Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are easier to change than earlier types of vaccines, which used dead or weakened germs or germ parts to trigger the immune system. The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech shots are genetic recipes for those parts, not the parts themselves.  “It’s relatively straightforward to swap out the genetic recipe for an earlier variant with a newer variant,” said William Moss, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University International Vaccine Access Center. “Technologically, that’s not a big lift.” Booster dose While that remains an option, Pfizer-BioNTech said in February that they are focusing mainly on testing a third, booster dose of their original vaccine. Further strengthening the immune response might overcome a variant’s ability to evade it.  FILE – A health worker loads syringes with the vaccine on the first day of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine being made available to residents at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles. California, March 11, 2021.One of the biggest advantages of this vaccine is that it only requires one dose, while Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech take two. But Johnson & Johnson announced last November that it was testing the effects of a second dose. The AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine took the biggest hit from B.1.351: just 10% effective against mild to moderate illness in a study published Wednesday. The study did not test how well it works against severe disease and death. Experts expect that it does still provide protection, though that has not been studied yet.  Lead developer Sarah Gilbert at the University of Oxford told the BBC that she expected a modified version against B.1.351 would be ready by late this year. The AstraZeneca vaccine is the one most widely used in the World Health Organization-backed COVAX vaccine distribution program.   The shots are currently on hold in several European countries over concerns about blood clots, though these may be coincidental and unrelated to the vaccine. 
 
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U.S. President Joe Biden says he is mystified about continuing opposition by some Americans to getting vaccinated against the coronavirus, particularly among Republicans who opposed his election.”I honest to God thought that, once we guaranteed we had enough vaccine for everybody, things would start to calm down,” Biden told ABC News on Tuesday. “Well, they have calmed down a great deal.”Still, Biden told ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, “I don’t quite understand – you know – I just don’t understand this sort of macho thing about, ‘I’m not gonna get the vaccine. I have a right as an American, my freedom to not do it.’“Well, why don’t you be a patriot? Protect other people,” Biden said.Biden, who was inoculated before his inauguration two months ago, said getting vaccinated let him show Americans it is safe and also was personally satisfying “because I can hug my grandkids now.””They come over to the house,” the president said. “I can see them. I’m able to be with them.”More than 35 million Americans are fully vaccinated, about 13% of adult Americans. Former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania were both vaccinated before he left office.On Tuesday, Trump told Fox News, “I would recommend it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.”However, he added, “But you know, again, we have our freedoms, and we have to live by that, and I agree with that also.”Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s top medical adviser and the country’s top infectious-disease expert, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show last Sunday that anyone’s reluctance to getting vaccinated was “disturbing” and makes “absolutely no sense.”Three recent national polls showed that Republicans who voted for Trump were far more reluctant to get vaccinated than Democrats who supported Biden.A recent NPR/PBS/Marist poll found that 47% of Trump voters and 41% of Republicans said they will not get a shot when eligible.A CBS News poll in recent days found 33% of Republicans won’t get inoculated when it becomes available to them, while just 10% of Democrats took the same view. A Monmouth University found 59% of Republicans were either hesitant to get vaccinated or said they would likely never get inoculated. By contrast, 23% of Democrats felt the same way.  Fauci called the political split on vaccinations baffling.“It makes absolutely no sense,” he said. “We’ve got to dissociate political persuasion from what’s common sense, no-brainer, public health things.” 
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Mass migration and the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the worldwide spread of female genital mutilation, or FGM, executed on girls from infancy to puberty, say aid organizations.Perpetrators cross borders to perform FGM in countries such as Chad, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan, where there is no legislation against the practice, according to research by This map from the University of Virginia Medical School is from 2017 and shows where FGM occurs most in the world.The practice dates back more than 2,000 years and is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital tissues, including suturing the genitalia. Among the four levels of FGM, some are banned in some countries, while other types remain legal.“In many cases, families are aware that FGM carries a physical and mental health risk, but they have girls undergo FGM to increase their marriageability or as a way of safeguarding their chastity,” said Nankali Maksud, senior adviser of Prevention of Harmful Practices at UNICEF.“While communities cite reasons such as religion, culture or hygiene for practicing FGM, the practice is a human rights violation and an expression of power and control over girls’ and women’s bodies and sexuality,” she said.Despite bans, practice continuesFGM “If a country bans FGM, they’ll usually ban a particular practice of it, so people will just do something else,” said Dena Igusti, a 24-year-old artist and activist from New York who underwent FGM in 2006.“If a country bans FGM, they’ll usually ban a particular practice of it, so people will just do something else,” said Dena Igusti, 24, an artist and activist from New York who underwent FGM in 2006. “If that doesn’t work, they’ll go to a country that’s outwardly against it, like Western countries. But because there isn’t a focus on it, and there is this denial that it happens here, they get away with it.”In early January, the United States tightened its ban on FGM nationally, and it is explicitly banned in 39 states. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 500,000 women and girls have undergone or are at risk of undergoing FGM in the U.S.In all member states of the European Union, FGM is criminalized. But six African nations — Chad, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan — have no laws against FGM, CoP-FGM says.While FGM is banned in the EU, Britain and the United States, it still occurs in these areas. The private nature of the practice and the silencing of victims or their hesitation to come forward continue to make FGM challenging to track.“Because it’s being brought to other places, the thought of it as something that happens in a faraway country doesn’t matter, because if you know someone who can do it, they’ll do it,” Igusti said. “There isn’t protection here. There are legal protections, but it doesn’t really matter.”Some parents travel back to their home countries to administer FGM to their children. Igusti underwent FGM while in Indonesia visiting family.“When it happened, it was kind of out of nowhere,” Igusti said. “My aunt said that we were going to the supermarket, but it was a completely different route. It happened in a way that was painful. I couldn’t walk for a couple of days, and I had gauze stuck in me.Some parents travel back to their home countries to administer FGM to their children. Dena Igusti underwent FGM while in Indonesia visiting family. “It was kind of out of nowhere,” she said.“There’s the physical pain of it, but there’s also the threats of what can happen afterwards. For me, it was always the threat of getting cut again.”Anecdotal evidence shows that when families migrate outside practicing communities, the pressure to conform still compels them to cut their daughters in secret or take them back home, Maksud said.“Discriminatory gender norms, poverty, low levels of education, lack of access to services, poor governance and humanitarian crises may all still lead to girls being cut, even following migration,” she said.Intervention by international organizations to end FGM has been disrupted by COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions, the U.N. Children’s Fund reported in February. Over the next decade, 2 million additional women and girls may undergo this procedure as a result of halted outreach and school closures, the report said.“Before the pandemic, there were educational programs,” said Ann-Marie Wilson, founder and executive director of 28 Too Many, an anti-FGM advocacy group. “Either the funding has stopped for some of the programs, the people delivering the programs have gone away, or the girls aren’t able to access it anymore because of school closures.”Without checks on girls in schools, many have been sent out to work, married off by their parents or sent to work in the sex industry, said Wilson.Wilson said her organization and others like it have had difficulty continuing their FGM intervention programs during the pandemic because of a lack of funding. The group received most of its funds through in-person events. In the first quarter of 2021, 28 Too Many’s income was down by a quarter, according to Wilson.“We’d like to make sure that we do make it through this pandemic and carry on to the future, expanding our work and seeing it into the future,” Wilson said. “We want to work until there is nobody left who has FGM and is vulnerable.”UNICEF adapted its FGM intervention programs to accommodate social distancing during the pandemic by switching to digital media platforms, conducting door-to-door campaigns and conducting community dialogues, according to Maksud.In 2019, the U.N. called for action to eliminate FGM globally by 2030. But with intervention tactics halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this goal may be out of reach.UN Calls for Ending Female Genital Mutilation by 2030

Wednesday marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. Coinciding with the day, the United Nations is calling for action to eliminate the procedure by 2030.

The U.N. estimates at least 200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital mutilation, a procedure that partially or totally removes female genital organs.

“Even before COVID-19 upended progress, the Sustainable Development Goals’ target of ending female genital mutilation by 2030 was an ambitious commitment,” said the report, written by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and Natalia Kanem, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). “Far from dampening our ambition, however, the pandemic has sharpened our resolve to protect the 4 million girls and women who are at risk of female genital mutilation each year.”
   
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Kenya’s constitutional court has dismissed a petition to strike down the Female Genital Mutilation Act, which outlaws the traditional practice of female circumcision.Women’s rights groups welcomed the ruling and said the judges’ pronouncement would protect millions of women and girls.The 2017 petition sought to invalidate the FGM measure on the ground that it took away a grown woman’s right to undergo the cut.Judge Lydia Achode read the ruling on behalf of the other two judges:”Our final orders shall be as follows: The amended petition is devoid of merit and is hereby dismissed. Two, the attorney general … shall forward a proposal to the national assembly to consider amendment of Section 19 of the prohibition of female genital mutilation … with a view to prohibiting all human practices of FGM as set out in this judgment above.”Sofia Rajab Leteipan, a lawyer with Equality Now, an organization that fights for women’s and girls’ rights, said the ruling had saved women and girls from the practice.”We are extremely pleased with the judgment from the three judges, and I think this judgment goes very far in reaffirming the rights of women and girls to human dignity, to their right to health and also ensuring that we do not use cultural practices as an excuse to undermine the rights of women and girls,” Leteipan said. Law passed decade agoIn 2011, Kenya passed legislation barring female genital mutilation, also called female circumcision. The legislation imposed harsh penalties on those involved in cutting girls and women, including a minimum fine of $1,800 or three years’ imprisonment.Speaking after Wednesday’s ruling, Tatu Kamau, the petitioner, she said she was not happy with the court’s ruling.”Generally for me I am disappointed,” she said. “I feel that the rights of women have been subsumed by those of a child.”Achode disagreed.”We have also discussed the absence of consent by victims. …  We are not persuaded that one can choose to undergo a harmful practice from medical and anecdotal evidence presented by the respondent.  We find that limiting this right is reasonable in an open and democratic society,” the judge said.According to UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, more than 200 million women and girls have undergone FGM in 31 countries.  
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U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Moderna has begun testing its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine in young children to determine if vaccinations should be expanded to people younger than 18 years of age.   The company will administer the vaccine to about 6,750 children in the United States and Canada between the ages of six months and 12 years old.  The doses would be given 28 days apart so researchers can monitor the side effects from the vaccine and determine its ultimate effectiveness.   The study is being conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped Moderna in development of the vaccine. Moderna has been conducting a separate study on the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness since December involving 3,000 children between the ages of 12 and 18 years old.A nurse draws a Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, in Los Angeles, March 12, 2021.In a related development, the Vietnamese government says its homegrown COVID-19 vaccine called Nanocovax will be available by the end of this year. Vietnam has inoculated more 15,000 of its citizens with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this month, and is negotiating to purchase more vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and the developer of Russia’s Sputnik V.  Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Wednesday that the country will send about 8,000 doses of its supply of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to neighboring Papua New Guinea, which is battling an ever-increasing spread of the disease.  Prime Minister Morrison also called on the European Union and AstraZeneca to ship one million doses of the vaccine to Papua New Guinea that had been purchased by Canberra. The EU recently blocked a shipment of more than 250,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia in order to help make up an acute shortage of vaccines in Europe, plus Australia’s success in largely containing the virus.  Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told reporters that half of expectant mothers who have been admitted to hospitals in the capital of Port Moresby have tested positive for COVID-19. Kelly said large numbers of frontline health care workers have also contracted the virus.  Morrison says all travel between Australia and Papua New Guinea has been suspended.   
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Europe’s medical regulator, the European Medicines Agency, will announce Thursday its findings on the safety of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine as more European Union countries suspend its use over fears it might be linked to blood clots. Critics say governments are putting politics over science.The European Medicines Agency’s executive director, Emer Cooke, said Tuesday that for now, the regulator stands behind its conclusion the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe, even as its experts conduct a thorough safety review.The AstraZeneca vaccine has been injected into millions of arms, with just a few reported cases of blood clots—and it’s uncertain if they’re linked to the shot.  “We need to have the facts first,” Cooke said. “We cannot come to a conclusion before we’ve done a thorough scientific analysis. And we owe it to the European citizens to deliver this clear and science-based response.”The medicines agency, or EMA, has also tapped international experts for its review, which will also look at whether certain specific batches could be problematic. Scientists will also look at chances of blood clots with other COVID-19 vaccines beyond AstraZenaca’s.”At present there is no evidence that vaccination has caused these conditions,” said Cooke. “They have not come up in clinical trial and they are not listed as known or expected side events with this vaccine.”  But increasingly, European Union governments are taking no chances. Sweden and Latvia are among the latest to join more than a dozen EU countries to temporarily halt their AztraZeneca rollouts.In France, which suspended the shot Monday, Health Minister Olivier Veran said he hoped the AstraZeneca vaccine campaign will quickly resume — pending a positive EMA ruling. Veran himself received the AstraZeneca inoculation and he told French citizens who have done likewise not to worry.The World Health Organization also recommends AstraZeneca, pending evidence to the contrary. Dozens of countries have authorized its use, although the United States has yet to do so. And AstraZeneca still has EU champions. Belgium, for example, argues suspending the vaccine’s rollout would be irresponsible.That’s also the view of many French medical experts. Dr. Jean-Paul Hamon, honorary president of the French doctor’s federation, told French TV the decision to suspend the vaccine’s use reflected political rather than medical considerations.  “National governments are afraid for safety concerns,” said Simona Guagliardo, an analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre. “But at the same time, I’m not convinced that this is the right way to go about it.””I wonder what could be the damage in the public opinion,” she said. “People are already scared, and I fear that this might scare them off even more.”The vaccine suspensions couldn’t come at a worse time for the EU, with some member states hit by a third wave of the pandemic. Italy is again under lockdown. France and Germany may follow shortly.  And suspending the shot’s use may further delay the EU’s much-criticized vaccine rollout that sees the 27-member bloc lagging behind countries like the United States, Israel, Bahrain and even ex-member Britain—which has jabbed millions in the UK with the AstraZeneca shot. While acknowledging mistakes, EU officials also blame some of the problems on production delays by AstraZeneca itself.
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Researchers in Japan recently discovered that some sea slugs can regrow their bodies. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that studying these slugs may one day help answer questions about our own health.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi 
 
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Pakistan says it is now facing a third wave of the novel coronavirus. Officials have particularly expressed concern over the spread of the so-called UK variant of the virus. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Camera: Malik Waqar Ahmed   Produced by: Malik Waqar Ahmed, Rob Raffaele 
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