Four former living U.S. presidents are appearing in a new ad campaign to encourage people to get COVID-19 vaccines.In the video produced by the Ad Council, former President Bill Clinton says, “We’ve lost enough people and we’ve suffered enough damage.”There is a photo of Clinton and his wife, Hillary, receiving their vaccines.Former President George W. Bush says, “In order to get rid of this pandemic, it’s important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated.”Like the Clintons, the video shows Bush and his wife, Laura, getting their shots, as well as former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, and former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.The former leaders talk about what they are looking forward to after being protected by the vaccine. Obama says he wants to “visit with Michelle’s mom, to hug her and see her on her birthday.”Bush says he is looking forward to seeing the start of the Major League Baseball season among a full crowd at the Texas Rangers’ stadium.Carter ends the ad by telling viewers, “It’s up to you.”Former President Donald Trump, who was hospitalized last year with COVID-19, is not featured in the ad.The video points viewers to a website featuring information about the different vaccines available, how they were approved, how to go about getting vaccinated and what the experience is like.
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Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that current vaccination levels indicate the United States could reach pre-pandemic levels of “normal life” by late August or early September.  
 
Fauci made the comment during a virtual news briefing on herd immunity by the White House COVID-19 Response Team.  
 
Fauci said their best estimates regarding when herd immunity would be reached and enough people are considered immune from the virus range between 70% to 85% of the U.S. population.  
 
He said at current vaccination rates, that level should be reached at the end of the North American summer. But he also said that if the nation is vaccinating 2 million to 3 million people a day, society is increasingly more protected.  
 
 “You don’t have to wait until you get full herd immunity to get a really profound effect on what you can do,” he said.
 
Fauci said as the pace of vaccination ramps up, and the most vulnerable to the virus are protected, some government restrictions could be lifted.
 
 Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cautioned that at this point, only about 10% of the population is fully vaccinated. But the CDC anticipated loosening federal guidelines as more people receive shots.
 
Fauci also said that a refusal from a significant number of people to get vaccinated will delay when the nation reaches the endpoint of the pandemic.
 
Also at the briefing, White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services procured an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. 
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The British Natural History Museum said it has recovered fragments of the first meteorite collected in the United Kingdom in 30 years and one of the rarest ever discovered.  On the night of February 28, a fireball was seen streaking across the sky over southwestern Britain, dazzling onlookers and exciting scientists. No fragments from a meteorite — what a meteor is called once it lands on Earth — had been recovered in the nation since 1991.  Museum researchers asked people to look in an area north of the town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire County. They received calls from the town of Winchcombe. Scientists went door to door asking people if they had seen anything. Several had, including a family that said a piece landed in their driveway.Researchers were even more excited when they realized the fragment was an extremely rare type known as a carbonaceous chondrite, which has never been found in Britain.Researcher Sara Russell explained that with about 65,000 known meteorites in the world, only 51 of them have been a carbonaceous chondrite, a mineral substance that is believed to date back 4.6 billion years to about the time the solar system was forming.  The coal-black mineral contains all the original ingredients that created asteroids, comets, and ultimately, planets like the Earth.Russell said she had the opportunity to work with material gathered on an asteroid from a recent Japanese space mission.“This material looks exactly like the material they are collecting,” she said. 
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The U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry said Wednesday the world’s developed countries – which emit most of the world’s greenhouse gases – “have every capacity” to address the climate crisis.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Paris with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Kerry stressed that no one country or government can address the issue alone. Referencing the 2015 Paris Agreement, Kerry said it was about everyone accepting the same emission reduction goals.
 
But he said, too few nations have abided by their commitments. He said, “The point of Paris ((agreement)) is everybody has said that we will get on this road, and the problem today is we’re not on that road sufficiently.”
Former U.S. president Donald Trump had withdrawn from the Paris agreement, and U.S. President Joe Biden very soon after he was sworn into office, agreed to rejoin the accord.  
French Finance Minister Le Maire said France was “very happy” about the U.S. decision, telling reporters that climate issues are the “main challenge of our generation and future generations.”
The 2015 Paris climate change accord commits countries to put forward plans for reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which is released from burning fossil fuels.
Kerry also mentioned the international summit to be hosted by the U.S. next month, featuring 20 of the world’s major economies – and biggest polluters. The summit is expected to lay out some of the groundwork ahead of November’s United Nations climate conference in Glasgow.
While in Paris, Kerry met with French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he also discussed climate change. He told reporters they had a very thorough discussion on how critical this moment in history is to address the issue. He conveyed that Macron wants to work with Biden on the reduction of emissions as well helping provide the tools to do so.
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The first federal recommendations for people vaccinated against COVID-19 allow cautious steps toward normal life.Too cautious, critics say.The In this Jan. 27, 2021, image from video, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks during a White House briefing.Though vaccinated people are protected from severe illness, there is still a “small risk” that they could carry the virus without showing symptoms and spread it to other people, FILE – In this Feb. 5, 2021, file photo, Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans travel by boat along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Fla.More than half of Americans are planning or have booked a trip, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an industry group.Public health experts have criticized Texas and Mississippi for completely reopening their economies and canceling their mask mandates. But they are not the only ones relaxing restrictions. Other states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, are allowing restaurants to go back to full capacity.“The CDC guidance is lagging what people are actually doing,” said Adalja of Johns Hopkins, adding that the agency is risking irrelevance. “People are passing them by, and I think they’re losing an opportunity to actually help people make better decisions.”Adalja also thinks the CDC would be better off approaching COVID-19 the way it does HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C or sexually transmitted diseases.“We know that abstinence-only education doesn’t work,” he said.Rather than telling vaccinated people what not to do, the CDC should explain how to lower their risks.“Don’t throw away your mask,” he said. “But don’t be worried about visiting your grandfather, or getting on an airplane or subway, or indoor dining. I tell people, go back to as close to normal life as you feel comfortable.”The guidance is “an important first step,” Walensky added, but it’s “not our final destination.” The risks that vaccinated people can still spread the virus is “an ongoing area of research,” she said, adding that the CDC will continue updating the guidance as new information comes in. 
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With COVID-19 still limiting travel, a Cameroonian startup has created a system that allows African medical patients to have an online consultation with doctors abroad.  Moki Edwin Kindzeka has this report from Anne Nzouankeu in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Camera: Anne Nzouankeu  
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Behind the counter of Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, near Philadelphia, owner Mayank Amin has been working late into the night since his independent drugstore received state approval to administer COVID-19 vaccines in late January.
 
There are thousands of emails to sort through and phone calls to field, supplies to organize, appointments to schedule.
 
Amin, known as Dr. Mak, set up a vaccination clinic on Super Bowl Sunday at the local firehouse that drew more than 1,000 people who kept their appointments for shots despite the snow that day.
 
“It was just like a party out there,” Amin, 36, recalled during an interview with Reuters in late February. “It was something you could have never imagined in your life, to see four strangers carrying somebody on a wheelchair to get them through the mud and into the building.”
 
Thanks to deep ties with their communities and the trust they have been able to establish over the years, some local pharmacists are instrumental in reaching people who might be reluctant to get vaccinated or may not know about vaccination efforts, said Jennifer Kates, the director of global health and HIV policy at Kaiser Family Foundation.
 
“Those local pharmacies are a really important trusted voice,” Kates said.
 
The vaccine rollout, which the administration of former President Donald Trump left to the states to carry out without a federal blueprint or sufficient funding, has proven to be choppy. Under President Joe Biden supply has increased but some distribution and access hurdles persist.
 
Montgomery County, where Schwenksville is located, has one of the highest per capita vaccination rates in the state, according to the state health department website. Pennsylvania ranks 28 out of 50 states with 18% of residents getting at least one shot, according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. 
 Surprise shot
 
On a gray Saturday morning in late February, Amin slipped into a Superman costume, the remnant of Halloweens past that he now sometimes wears for vaccinations, and drove through the frozen suburbs to deliver two COVID-19 vaccines to home-bound patients.
 
“What a surprise!” 74-year-old on Gail Bertsch said after Amin and a few volunteers, whom she had not been expecting, knocked on her door. She and her husband James, who suffers from dementia, both got injections.
 
“I can’t believe we can actually have this done,” she said.
 
Amin has also vaccinated people by appointment at his pharmacy, including holding a special clinic for pregnant women and another one for children with underlying health conditions.
 
Among them was the pharmacist’s nephew, who suffers from neurofibromatosis, a condition that causes tumors to form in the brain, nerves, and other parts of the body.
 
Some 3,000 people have received first shots of both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech through Skippack Pharmacy since early February, Amin said. Among some 1,000 residents who received second doses over the weekend were Chester and Martha Pish, 97 and 98 years old respectively, who have been married 78 years.
 
The effort has been all-consuming for Amin, and riddled with hurdles, including organizing vaccine stocks — which sometimes arrive at a few hours’ notice, a side effect of the supply chain hiccups that are among the problems that have plagued the rollout.
 
The young pharmacist reunites with his pregnant wife only on weekends as a health precaution and spends the week at his parents’ home in Lansdale. The couple will welcome their first child in May.
 
“I want to be there when my child is born, and I want to make sure that all my people are vaccinated by then,” he told Reuters. “If I can, that would be my dream.” 
Come together
 
Pandemic hardship and now the drive to get shots into people’s arms have united his Montgomery County community behind the young pharmacist.
 
On a recent Friday, five volunteers converged in the back of the store. They filled spreadsheets with patients’ contact information and checked the inventory of vaccination supplies.
 
Amin has just one other full-time employee, Jacquelyn Ziegler, and two pharmacy student interns, Erica Mabry and Isabelle Lawler. But he can count on dozens of volunteers, including family members, to answer the phone and help less tech-savvy patients navigate the online system to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment.
 
“It’s just incredible how everyone has kind of like filtered into this one space,” said event planner Courtney Marengo, one of Amin’s volunteers.
 
Amin said he did not set out to own a pharmacy. But he moved to fill a void left when Skippack, a 50-year-old local institution, was bought out by national giant CVS in 2018. The chain acquired Skippack Pharmacy’s assets but left it shuttered. Amin bought the pharmacy from CVS before the pandemic in hopes of keeping the resource in the community.
 
“I feel like sometimes things fall into your lap at certain points in your life,” he said. “You might not have planned for it to happen, but things happen for the right reason.”
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The first federal recommendations for people vaccinated against COVID-19 allow cautious steps toward normal life.Too cautious, critics say.The In this Jan. 27, 2021, image from video, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks during a White House briefing.Though vaccinated people are protected from severe illness, there is still a “small risk” that they could carry the virus without showing symptoms and spread it to other people, FILE – In this Feb. 5, 2021, file photo, Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans travel by boat along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Fla.More than half of Americans are planning or have booked a trip, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an industry group.Public health experts have criticized Texas and Mississippi for completely reopening their economies and canceling their mask mandates. But they are not the only ones relaxing restrictions. Other states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, are allowing restaurants to go back to full capacity.“The CDC guidance is lagging what people are actually doing,” said Adalja of Johns Hopkins, adding that the agency is risking irrelevance. “People are passing them by, and I think they’re losing an opportunity to actually help people make better decisions.”Adalja also thinks the CDC would be better off approaching COVID-19 the way it does HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C or sexually transmitted diseases.“We know that abstinence-only education doesn’t work,” he said.Rather than telling vaccinated people what not to do, the CDC should explain how to lower their risks.“Don’t throw away your mask,” he said. “But don’t be worried about visiting your grandfather, or getting on an airplane or subway, or indoor dining. I tell people, go back to as close to normal life as you feel comfortable.”The guidance is “an important first step,” Walensky added, but it’s “not our final destination.” The risks that vaccinated people can still spread the virus is “an ongoing area of research,” she said, adding that the CDC will continue updating the guidance as new information comes in. 
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The World Health Organization reports one in three women globally, around 736 million, suffer physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner. The study, the largest ever conducted on the prevalence of violence against women, is based on data from 2000 to 2018.Violence often begins at an early age. The study finds one in four young women aged 15 to 24 are violently abused by an intimate partner. WHO officials said this is of particular concern as it is during this formative age that healthy relationships are made.Short- and long-term impactsThe report said intimate partner violence is by far the most prevalent form of violence against women worldwide. It said abusive treatment can have both short- and long-term impacts on women’s physical and mental well-being. Claudia Garcia-Moreno is Unit Head in WHO’s Department of Sexual Reproductive Health and an author of the report.She told VOA problems include unwanted pregnancies and higher rates of sexually transmitted infections. She said many women suffer from mental health issues, particularly depression and anxiety which can lead to substance abuse and other risky behavior.“It can lead to death as well both, in the form of homicide,” Garcia-Moreno said. “We know that about 38% — and some studies report even higher of the murders of women are committed by intimate partners. And we also see a strong association with suicide and suicide attempts.”Abuse higher in poorest countriesData show violence disproportionately affects women living in low-and lower-middle-income countries. An estimated 37% of women in the poorest countries are found to have been physically or sexually abused by their intimate partners.Highest prevalence rates are in the regions of Oceania, Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The lowest rates are in Europe, and in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Asia.Garcia-Moreno said the prevalence of violence in intimate relationships in lower socio-economic regions is driven by a whole range of factors.“We know that there is a strong correlation with economic development and strong, stringent, rigid gender norms,” Garcia-Moreno said. “Discrimination against women, laws that maybe are unsupportive of women in terms of divorce or child custody or inheritance rights.”Women’s movements successful Garcia-Moreno said countries that have organized women’s movements are most successful in tackling this problem. Reducing the stigma around violence by intimate partners, she said is critical in addressing this issue.Authors of the study report that changing discriminatory gender norms and institutions, addressing economic and social inequalities, and ensuring access to education and safe work are other measures that can help prevent violence. 
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The United Nations’ weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said Tuesday the record cold felt in the U.S. during February was the result of the same weather phenomena that sent above-average warmth to parts of the arctic. 
At a virtual news conference from Geneva WMO, spokeswoman Clare Nullis told reporters that February saw much colder than average temperatures in North America and Russia, but warmer temperatures in parts of the Arctic and other regions.  
 
Nullis cited a report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) this week showing the contiguous United States had its coldest February since 1989. She said the U.S. set 62 all-time daily cold minimum temperature records in a span of five days between February 11 and February 16.  
 
But she was quick to note, “A relatively cold February does not negate the long-term warming trend from climate change.”By recent global standards, February 2021 was relatively cool.This doesn’t mean #climatechange has stopped.Average February CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa, the world’s benchmark station, were 416.75 parts per million, up from 413.4 ppm in February 2020.https://t.co/kJLahYTm79pic.twitter.com/xvuIEBKUTa— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) March 9, 2021The WMO explained February’s weather was influenced to a large extent by a recent meteorological phenomenon called a Sudden Stratospheric Warming Event, which occurred about 30 kilometers over the North Pole. This, scientists say, led to a weakening of the polar vortex, the area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth’s poles, with swirling westerly jet stream winds circulating around them.
 
Those winds are normally strong enough to keep the coldest air in the Arctic during the winter. But the weakening allowed the cold air to spill out into the mid-latitudes, including the U.S., and for the warmer air to enter the Arctic.
 
Nullis said statistics show the record cold and cold waves seen last month in the United States and parts of Russia are becoming rarer, while heat records are becoming much more frequent, a trend which the WMO expects to continue.
 
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U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry was in Brussels Tuesday to discuss transatlantic cooperation with European Union (EU) officials and U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the global climate change effort.
 
Speaking to reporters alongside EU climate chief Frans Timmermans, Kerry reiterated that climate is “one of the most important issues” that Biden’s “administration intends to deal with.”
 
Kerry said the climate summit scheduled for November of this year in Glasgow, Scotland “is the last, best opportunity that we have and the best hope that the world will come together and build on [the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference agreement reached in] Paris.”
 
Kerry said the Paris agreement did not go far enough, noting that if all the parties were doing everything in the Paris agreement — which they are not — the world would still see a warming of 3.7 degrees or more.
 
Biden had the U.S. rejoin the Paris climate accord in the first hours of his presidency, undoing the country’s withdrawal ordered by predecessor Donald Trump.
 
Kerry also met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and joined a weekly commission meeting on transatlantic climate action.
 
Before the meeting, von der Leyen referred to Kerry as “an old friend,” and described a phone conversation she had with Biden last week, in which, she said, the U.S. president told her the U.S. and the EU are working towards the common goal of becoming climate neutral, which she said was “music to my ears.”
 
The 2015 Paris climate change accord commits countries to put forward plans for reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which is released from burning fossil fuels.
 
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Last March, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, it had already proved to be lethal and highly contagious. It was a new virus with many unknowns. Since then, scientists have learned a lot about how it affects vital organs and its long-term effects. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports.
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Uganda launches its national vaccination program on Wednesday, two days after receiving 100,000 additional doses of Covid-19 vaccine donated by the Indian government.
 
So far, Uganda has received 964,000 doses of the vaccine through donations.
 
Health minister Jane Ruth Aceng said healthcare workers will be the first to get their shots followed by teachers and those in high risk groups, including the elderly.
 
The health ministry earlier said Ugandans seeking vaccinations must present a national identification card and non-citizens a passport.
 
Aceng also warned that vaccination does not mean the public should abandon Covid-19 safety protocols to help prevent the spread of the virus.
 
Uganda has confirmed nearly 40,500 infections and 334 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center.
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The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine neutralizes the rapidly spreading variant of the coronavirus recently discovered in Brazil, according to the results of a laboratory study.   Scientists with Pfizer and the University of Texas took blood from people who had been given the vaccine and mixed it with an engineered version of the mutation, dubbed P.1.  The researchers found the vaccine was roughly as effective against the Brazilian variant as it was against other, less contagious versions of the virus from last year.  The results of the study were published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Here’s What Doctors Know About How COVID-19 Impacts the Body It’s been a year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemicRussia vaccine deal
In another vaccine related development, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF has signed a deal with Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Adienne to mass produce Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for eventual use in Europe.  The vaccine would be manufactured in Adienne’s production site in Milan, Italy under a deal reached Tuesday.   The European Union has warned member states against purchasing Russia’s COVID vaccine since the EU has not yet finished its review of Sputnik V.  But the EU’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, has come under growing criticism for its slow approval process of COVID-19 vaccine candidates, prompting some countries to unilaterally approve Sputnik V.  A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet medical journal last month showed the two-dose Sputnik V vaccine is nearly 92% effective against symptomatic COVID-19.  FILE – Travelers wear face masks while waiting to check in at the Southwest Airlines counter in Denver International Airport, Dec. 22, 2020, in Denver.US airline industry calls for new standards
As more and more coronavirus vaccines become available to the general public, the U.S. airline industry is urging the Biden administration to craft new standards for travel documents for travelers to prove they have been tested for, and vaccinated against, COVID-19.  In a letter sent Monday to Jeffrey Zients, the head of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 coronavirus response team, more than 30 airlines, trade organizations and labor unions called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take the lead in developing the new standards they hope will eventually lead to the resumption of global travel.Many nations and organizations are working to develop so-called “vaccine passports” for travelers to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.  But the World Health Organization says that such documents should not be used for international travel because coronavirus vaccines are not easily available globally.    Vaccine passports
WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan told a press briefing on Monday there are “real practical and ethical considerations” for countries that are considering using vaccine passports and said the U.N. health agency advises against it for now. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new guidelines Monday for those who have been fully vaccinated, advising that they can gather without masks in small groups with others who have been inoculated, but that they should still wear masks in public. 
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Last March, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, it had already proved to be lethal and highly contagious. It was a new virus with many unknowns. Since then, scientists have learned a lot about how it affects vital organs and its long-term effects. COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by a virus — officially known as SARS-COV2, short for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2. It’s the second time a coronavirus has sickened people and caused death. SARS first appeared in China in November 2002. The current version of the virus emerged from China in 2019, which is why it is called COVID-19.A worker inspects vials of SARS CoV-2 Vaccine for COVID-19 produced by SinoVac at its factory in Beijing, Sept. 24, 2020.The virus invades the lungs. Once there, it multiplies and neutralizes the molecules that help us fight infection.   Most people recover, but the virus can damage the lungs and leave patients gasping for air. Patient stories
Thomas Steele needed a double lung transplant because of COVID-19.  “It’s nothing like sitting in your hospital room gasping for every breath and air you take, and I did that for 58 days,” Steele said.The lungs pass oxygen into the bloodstream, and the virus can damage the lungs and make the oxygen levels fall. Patients may need to be put on a ventilator to help them breathe.    Blood clots
COVID-19 can also cause dangerous clotting in the bloodstream. People who already have damaged blood vessels, from high blood pressure or stroke, and those with heart disease have a higher risk of serious disease. These clots can form throughout the body, including in the lungs and the heart. The clotting can cause heart attack or stroke. Dr. Allen Anderson at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio is one of many cardiologists who saw people with healthy hearts suffer heart damage.“They had elevations of blood enzyme markers that were consistent with a heart attack even though they didn’t have any blockages in their coronary arteries, they had heart rhythm disturbances, and this occurred with quite high provenance,” Anderson said.The virus and the inflammation that accompanies it, can damage the heart tissue. Some of the damage can be reversed. But some cannot.This 2020 electron microscope image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – Rocky Mountain Laboratories shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles which cause COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S.Kidney damage
Doctors have also learned that the virus can damage another vital organ — the kidneys. A large New York medical system looked at more than 5,000 COVID patients last year.Dr. Kenar Jhaveri at Hofstra/Northwell in Great Neck, New York is the lead author whose findings were published in the journal Kidney International.“Of the 5,449 patients, 36.6% of them developed acute renal failure or kidney injury. Of the ones that got kidney injury, 14% required dialysis,” Jhaveri said.Scientists are still studying the impact of COVID-19 on the body. But the most severe effects start with the lungs. Damaged lungs have a harder time getting oxygen to the bloodstream. And organs need oxygen to function. If there is none, they can fail … the lungs, the heart, the kidneys and the liver. And then there are long-term consequences of the disease. Some are not life-threatening but can affect the quality of life. Lingering symptoms
Symptoms include persistent fatigue, headache, shortness of breath or chest pain. Others may experience brain fog or memory issues. And still others have lingering feelings of anxiety and depression. Anyone, not just those who were hospitalized, can have long-term symptoms. And there’s no way to tell who will be affected.  “We don’t really know right now how many patients will develop these long-COVID symptoms after they have had this infection,” Dr. Kristin Englund, an infectious disease specialist at Cleveland Clinic, explained. ” Studies look at anywhere between 10% and 80%, so there could be a large number of people who are experiencing symptoms well after that four-week time period when we expect people to normally recover.”   Some medical centers have started special clinics to treat the long-haulers, people whose symptoms persist even after they have recovered from COVID. Others may not be long-haulers, but their lives have changed drastically because of COVID-19.  “I’ll never be the same person for the rest of my life,” Steele said.He is one of many who will never be the same because of COVID-19.  
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The United States denounced Monday what it called a Russian disinformation campaign against U.S.-made COVID-19 vaccines, saying Moscow was putting lives at risk. The Global Engagement Center, an arm of the State Department whose activities include monitoring foreign propaganda, said that Russian intelligence was behind four online platforms involved in a campaign. The sites have “included disinformation about two of the vaccines that have now been approved by the FDA in this country,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “It is very clear that Russia is up to its old tricks, and in doing so is potentially putting people at risk by spreading disinformation about vaccines that we know to be saving lives every day,” Price said.A medical specialist holds a vial of Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus in a department store in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 2, 2021.The Wall Street Journal first reported on the Global Engagement Center’s findings, which said that the websites played up risks of the U.S.-made Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in an apparent bid to boost Russia’s homegrown Sputnik V. In an assessment provided last year to AFP, the Global Engagement Center said that thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts have run a coordinated campaign to undermine official narratives on COVID-19 including by spreading allegations of U.S. involvement. The center found that China briefly made a similar effort but ultimately decided it made more traction by highlighting Beijing’s own efforts. U.S. intelligence has long suspected Russia in disinformation campaigns on health, including spreading the myth in the 1980s that U.S. scientists created the HIV virus that causes AIDS. 
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Italy’s death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 100,000 on Monday, a year after it became the first country in Europe to go into lockdown to try to stop the spread of the virus.  Italy’s Health Ministry recorded 318 deaths Monday in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total of COVID-19 deaths to 100,103 and making it the seventh country in the world to surpass the marker, following the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India, Russia and Britain, according to a tally by Reuters. Italy has the second-highest death toll from the pandemic in Europe after Britain. Earlier Monday, the Italian Health Ministry changed course and signed an order approving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for people 65 and older.  Even though Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, fully approved the vaccine, the Italian government initially balked, as did Germany, at giving the vaccine to people older than 65 because of limited data on its efficacy within that age group. Germany has reversed course on its use, as well.  The doubts raised by some health officials prompted people to turn down the vaccine, resulting in doses going unused and slowing down the vaccination process throughout the continent.  Around the globeMeanwhile, Britain reopened all its schools Monday for the first time since late 2020. The openings come as the country experiences some of its lowest coronavirus death tolls since October. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease.  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday called the reopening of schools in the nation “a crucial first step” in a “road map to freedom” from the coronavirus pandemic but added a warning against complacency.  Students listen to a teacher during a lesson at Heath Mount school as schools reopen in England, amid the coronavirus pandemic, in Watton at Stone, Hertfordshire, Britain, March 8, 2021.In Israel, health officials celebrated the country’s 5 millionth coronavirus vaccination and extended its vaccination campaign to Palestinians working in Israel or its West Bank settlements. The country has faced criticism for not providing more doses to Palestinians in occupied territory. Greek authorities say they have registered the country’s youngest COVID-19 victim so far — a 37-day-old baby boy. The infant had been in the hospital with the virus for the past three weeks after being brought in with a nasal infection and fever. VaccinesThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new guidelines for those who have been fully vaccinated, advising that they can gather without masks in small groups with others who have been inoculated, but that they should still wear masks in public. U.S. students in Detroit, Michigan, returned to classrooms for in-person learning Monday for the first time in months, while officials in New York City announced that public high schools will reopen for in-person learning March 22. The World Health Organization argued that so-called “vaccine passports” for COVID-19 should not be used for international travel because coronavirus vaccines are not easily available globally. WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan told a press briefing on Monday there are “real practical and ethical considerations” for countries that are considering using vaccine passports and said the U.N. health agency advises against it for now. Also on Monday, Vietnam launched its COVID-19 vaccination program, with its front-line health care workers and first responders receiving the first shots.   A woman receives a vaccine as Vietnam starts its official rollout of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for health workers, at Hai Duong Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Hai Duong province, Vietnam, March 8, 2021.In Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the country will speed up its vaccination program after a slow start thanks to vaccine and syringe shortages. Three weeks in, a little more than 46,500 front-line medical workers have received their shots. The elderly will be next in line.  The Reuters news agency reported that Suga promised to have enough of the shots to vaccinate the entire population by the start of the Summer Olympics in July.   The European Union has warned member states against buying Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, since the EU has not yet completed a review of it. Despite the warning, several nations have made moves to purchase the vaccine.   Early Monday, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported almost 117 million global coronavirus cases. The United States has more infections than any other country with 29 million, followed by India with 11.2 million and Brazil with 11 million. 
 
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The U.S. government on Monday sued the automobile device manufacturer EZ Lynk for selling tens of thousands of “defeat devices” that enabled car and truck owners to disable their vehicles’ computerized emission controls at the push of a button. In a complaint filed in the federal court in Manhattan, the U.S. Department of Justice accused EZ Lynk of having since 2016 violated the federal Clean Air Act by selling its aftermarket EZ Lynk System for drivers of Ford, GMC and Chrysler trucks, among other vehicles. The government said the system includes a device that plugs into vehicles’ computers to install deletion software, a cloud platform that stores the software, and an app that lets drivers buy and install the software through their smartphones. According to court papers, the Cayman Islands-based company “actively encourages” drivers to use EZ Lynk System, including through an online forum where drivers praise the product and some EZ Lynk representatives even offer technical support. “Emissions controls on cars and trucks protect the public from harmful effects of air pollution,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan said in a statement. “EZ Lynk has put the public’s health at risk by manufacturing and selling devices intended to disable those emissions controls.” EZ Lynk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Other defendants include co-founders Bradley Gintz and Thomas Wood and an affiliate, Prestige Worldwide. Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be identified. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties, including daily fines, for Clean Air Act violations, and an injunction against further EZ Lynk System sales and installations. Drivers can sometimes obtain faster acceleration and better fuel economy by using defeat devices. The U.S. government has stepped up oversight of vehicle emissions after Volkswagen AG admitted in 2015 to intentionally evading emissions rules. The German automaker has since incurred more than $30 billion in penalties and costs. The case is U.S. v EZ Lynk SEZC et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 21-01986.  
 
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As coronavirus vaccine rates in the U.S. continue to climb, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Monday that those who have been vaccinated can gather with other vaccinated people indoors without masks or social distancing. The CDC also said vaccinated people can gather with younger people and those who are considered low risk for developing a severe case of COVID-19. This would mean that grandparents can now visit their grandchildren, even if the grandchildren are not vaccinated. Furthermore, the CDC said vaccinated people no longer must be quarantined after encountering an infected person. “We know that people want to get vaccinated so they can get back to doing the things they enjoy with the people they love,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, said in a statement. “There are some activities that fully vaccinated people can begin to resume now in the privacy of their own homes. Everyone — even those who are vaccinated — should continue with all mitigation strategies when in public settings. As the science evolves and more people get vaccinated, we will continue to provide more guidance to help fully vaccinated people safely resume more activities.” Vaccinated people should continue to wear masks and practice social distancing when in public, the CDC said, adding that a vaccinated person should still get tested if they develop any COVD-19 symptoms. In order to be considered fully vaccinated, the CDC said a person should wait two weeks after receiving the final dose of vaccine. There are currently three vaccines available in the United States. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one. Currently, about 30 million Americans have been fully vaccinated. 
 
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Wang  Jingyu didn’t think he would become an enemy of China for his online comments.    The 19-year-old left his hometown of Chongqing in July 2019 and is now traveling in Europe. On February 21, netizens on the popular micro-blogging website, Weibo reported him to Chinese authorities for questioning the actions of the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as official media reported an incident in the disputed Himalayan border regions.   On February 19, China revealed that four of its soldiers died during a bloody Himalayan border clash with Indian troops in June last year. State media said the men “died after fighting foreign troops who crossed into the Chinese border.”   On the same day, China’s military news outlet PLA Daily named the “heroic” Chinese soldiers who “gave their youth, blood and even life” to the region. China’s official media outlet, the People’s Daily, said the soldiers were posthumously awarded honorary titles and first-class merit citations.Four Chinese soldiers, who were sacrificed in last June’s border conflict, were posthumously awarded honorary titles and first-class merit citations, Central Military Commission announced Friday. A colonel, who led them and seriously injured, was conferred with honorary title. pic.twitter.com/Io9Wk3pXaU— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) February 19, 2021Wang posted his comments on February 21, questioning the number of deaths and asking why China had waited nearly eight months before making the deaths public.“That very night, around 6:50 p.m., Chongqing police and some people without uniforms knocked on the door of my parent’s condo,” Wang told VOA. In a statement, police in Chongqing city said Wang had “slandered and belittled the heroes” with his comments, “causing negative social impact,” according to The Guardian. “Public security organs will crack down on acts that openly insult the deeds and spirit of heroes and martyrs in accordance with the law.” According to Wang, the police handcuffed his parents, and confiscated an iPad, cash and computers. Then they took his parents to the local police station, where the couple was told to tell their son to delete his Weibo posts.   “And since then, they take my parents to the police station every day around 6 a.m., put them in separate interrogation rooms without providing any food, and only let them return home around 6 or 7 p.m.,” he said about being “pursued online.”“The police keep asking them one thing: ‘When will your son come back?’ ‘Think twice before you answer me.’”   “The police even texted me directly, asking me to return to China within three days, otherwise my parents [situation] ’won’t end well,’” Wang said.   In 2018, China passed the Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law. According to the official English-language outlet, the China Daily, the law “promotes patriotism and socialist core values, bans activities that defame heroes and martyrs or distort and diminish their deeds.” An amendment set to take effect this month could mean those who violate the law could be sentenced to up to three years in jail.Apart from Wang, the authorities have also detained at least six people for posting critical comments online about the same incident.   China’s government is expanding its censorship controls by targeting Chinese citizens overseas who criticize Beijing on social media. The tactic, which predated the Communists, is known as “zhulian” or “guilt by association.” Today, it usually involves police threatening family members in China for the actions of their relatives overseas.    Teng Biao, an academic lawyer and a human rights activist affiliated with Hunter College in New York City, told VOA via Skype that he has seen an increasing number of cases like Wang’s.   “In any normal society, there is no such thing as zhulian,” he said. “No one, other than yourself, is responsible for your own actions.  Chinese laws state that everyone is responsible for their own actions. Yet in practice, it’s a different story.”   Wang, who is now traveling in Europe, has been worried about his parents’ safety. Yet during a brief video chat on February 25, he said his father told him to withstand the pressure.   “Don’t give in. Even if you lose your life for this, you have to hold on to your dreams,” his father told him. “History will remember you.”     Wang said his family has always been on the “rebellious side.”  When he was a little boy, Wang said his father showed him how use a virtual private network  (VPN)  to remain anonymous while accessing information outside the Great Firewall of China.  He told VOA he would not go back to China and that he plans to keep speaking out for those on the other side of the Great Firewall.   “Maybe 99% of the people won’t understand why I’m doing this,” he said. “But as long as I can wake up 1%, it’s worth it.”  Shih-Wei Chou and Lin Yang contributed to this report. It originated on VOA Mandarin. 
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The Italian Health Ministry Monday changed course and signed an order approving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for people 65 and older. Even though Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, fully approved the vaccine, the Italian government initially balked, as did Germany, at giving the vaccine to people over 65 due to “limited data” on its efficacy within that age group. Germany has reversed course on its use, as well. The doubts raised by some health officials prompted people to turn down the vaccine, resulting in doses going unused and slowing down the vaccination process throughout the continent. Italy’s decision comes as the nation’s COVID-19 death toll approaches 100,000 since the pandemic started. The nation is expected to pass the milestone by Tuesday. Syrian President and First Lady Test Covid-19 Positive ‘They are in good health and their condition is stable,’ the statement added. Meanwhile, Britain reopened all its schools Monday for the first time since late 2020. The openings come as the country experiences some of its lowest coronavirus death tolls since October. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease. Also on Monday, Vietnam launched its COVID-19 vaccination program, with its front-line health care workers and first responders receiving the first shots.  In Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the country will speed up its vaccination program after a slow start due to vaccine and syringe shortages. Three weeks in, a little more than 46,500 front-line medical workers have received their shots. The elderly will be next in line.  The Reuters news agency reported that Suga promised to have enough of the shots to vaccinate the entire population by the start of the Summer Olympics in July.  The European Union has warned member states against buying Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, since the EU has not yet completed a review of it. Despite the warning, several nations have made moves to purchase the vaccine.  The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Monday that there are almost 117 million global coronavirus cases.   The United States has more infections than any other location with nearly 30 million, followed by India with 11.2 million and Brazil with 11 million. 
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When the coronavirus first emerged, many East Asian countries were hailed as global examples due to their impressive containment efforts. But as the one-year anniversary of the pandemic approaches, some of those countries are falling behind in their vaccine campaigns, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul.Camera: Kim Hyungjin, William Gallo
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Before COVID-19, the United States considered itself one of the best-prepared countries in the world for a health crisis. The pandemic proved otherwise. One year into the crisis, more than half a million Americans have died. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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Canada’s postal service is trying to bridge the socially distanced gap of the coronavirus pandemic by encouraging people to send postcards to loved ones.To facilitate that effort, Canada Post is delivering a postcard to every residential address in the country that people can then send to anyone they want at no charge.The postcards come in one of six different designs with messages such as “Sending hugs” and “Wishing I were there.”Doug Ettinger, Canada Post’s president and CEO, said in a video describing the program that “everyone is missing someone.”“We want all Canadians to send these postcards to loved ones to remind them that they’re missed, they’re special and they matter,” he said.
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Britain opened all its schools Monday. The openings come as the country has experienced some of its lowest coronavirus death tolls since October.Vietnam began its COVID-19 vaccination program Monday with its front-line health care workers as the first recipients of the shots.Japan’s rollout of its COVID vaccine program has been slow, hampered by vaccine and syringe shortages. Three weeks in, a little over 46,500 front-line medical workers have received their shots. The elderly will be the next in line.Japan, however, intends to speed up its vaccination program. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has promised to have enough of the shots to vaccinate Japan’s entire population by the start of the Summer Olympics in July, according to Reuters.The European Union has warned member states against purchasing Russia’s COVID vaccine since the EU has not yet finished its review of Sputnik V. Despite the warning, several nations have made moves to purchase the vaccine.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Monday that there are almost 117 million global coronavirus cases.The U.S. has more infections that any other location with nearly 30 million, followed by India with 11.2 million and Brazil with 11 million.
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