Source: Skateboarder alleges abuse by LA deputies involved in Guardado shooting – Los Angeles Times
All posts by nedhamson
Pfizer, BioNTech cut back vaccine deliveries to EU at ′short notice′ | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 15.01.2021
Tuberculosis Kills As Many People Each Year As COVID-19. It’s Time We Found a Better Vaccine | Inter Press Service – (Racism + Imperialist past + Profit = little incentive for development of an adult vaccine)
In most TB endemic regions of the world, BCG is given to infants shortly after birth. The vaccination prevents childhood versions of TB and saves thousands of children’s lives annually.
However, the efficacy of BCG wanes over time. In other words, it stops working. Protection against TB is often lost by adolescence or early adulthood.
Importantly, BCG doesn’t prevent active lung TB in adults, the most important driver of ongoing transmission and cause of death.
The World Health Organization has a goal of TB elimination. To do that, we need to find a TB vaccine that also works in adults.
The reasons BCG hasn’t been replaced with a more effective TB vaccine include:
- the decline of TB in many Western countries in the 20th century
- limited interest from pharmaceutical companies to invest in TB vaccine development
- the fact TB research and pre-clinical vaccine development is logistically challenging and requires special biological containment facilities
- the short-term and fiercely competitive environment for government and philanthropic research funding makes it difficult for academics to commit to TB vaccine research as a career path.
‘It’s Starting Again’: Why Filipino Nurses Dread the Second Wave – The New York Times
As devastating as Covid-19 was in those early months, a number of studies now reveal just how hard the virus hit Filipino health care workers. Of all the nurses who died from the virus nationwide, one study found, close to a third of them were Filipino.
According to an analysis by ProPublica, in the New York City area alone, at least 30 Filipino health care workers had died from the virus by June.
As devastating as Covid-19 was in those early months, a number of studies now reveal just how hard the virus hit Filipino health care workers. Of all the nurses who died from the virus nationwide, one study found, close to a third of them were Filipino. According to an analysis by ProPublica, in the New York City area alone, at least 30 Filipino health care workers had died from the virus by June.
Filipino nurses have a long history of working in New York City hospitals, dating at least to the immigration reforms in the 1960s, which broadened the categories of foreign workers who could apply for a United States visa.
In the Philippines, nursing schools have taught an American curriculum since as early as 1907, granting degrees to English-speaking nurses who could slot easily into American hospitals. They quickly became invaluable in the 1980s as a solution to staffing shortages exacerbated by the AIDS epidemic. It was in 1986 that Ms. Ellis was recruited by Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where she was quickly deployed to the bedsides of patients with H.I.V.
San Francisco and New York were especially welcoming to migrant nurses, according to Leo-Felix Jurado, a professor of nursing at William Paterson University in New Jersey who wrote his dissertation on the importation of Filipino nurses into American hospitals.
Mr. Jurado, who is now 55, was recruited in 1988 by JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J. He recalls that visiting the employment fairs held in Manila hotels felt like an afternoon of barhopping. Recruiters jostled to make hires, sweetening work visas to the United States with signing bonuses and promises of free housing, Mr. Jurado said.
Parents Sue Louisiana Sheriff and Deputies Over Autistic Son’s Death – The New York Times
The suit, filed in United States District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana, came a year after the death of the teenager, Eric Parsa, who had severe autism. Eric, 16, died on Jan. 19, 2020, after being held down, sat on and handcuffed by deputies in a shopping center parking lot after he had an autism-related meltdown, an outburst resulting from emotional or sensory overload, according to lawyers representing his parents, Daren Parsa and Donna Lou.
In the lawsuit, Dr. Parsa and Dr. Lou charge that the authorities exhibited negligence and used excessive force while also violating their son’s civil rights and his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Never did we ever think that our 16-year-old son with special needs would die in front of our eyes at this age and in the hands of law enforcement,” Dr. Lou said at a news conference on Thursday with her husband and their lawyers. “Unfortunately, it is our reality of a nightmare.”
Coronavirus variant could become dominant strain by March, CDC warns
Modeling work done by CDC scientists suggests that unless the pace of vaccination of the population increases dramatically and people adhere stringently to Covid-19 control measures, the new variant will spread rapidly. The work was reported Friday in the CDC’s online journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
“We’re concerned,” Jay Butler, CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases, told STAT. “We want to sound the alarm and urge people to continue to do the things that we know work.”
Source: Coronavirus variant could become dominant strain by March, CDC warns
Florida in ‘full COVID-19 resurgence,’ White House Task Force report says | WFLA (trusting your “luck” does not work, masks do)
The Florida Department of Health recorded 13,720 new cases on Thursday and marked the third straight day of more than 400 new hospitalizations.
“Almost 7,800,” Salemi said, “that’s the highest single-day number of current hospitalizations since early August.”
The White House Task Force recommends even more testing of young adults to prevent the “silent asymptomatic spread” to family members.
During a conversation with Mayor Jane Castor on Wednesday, Dr. Jason Wilson from Tampa General Hospital said he’s observed that after Thanksgiving gatherings.
“I want to echo this really serious issue of the burden of guilt and tragedy when a family member or friend gives somebody else COVID and this is a reality that we’re facing,” Dr. Wilson said.
Source: Florida in ‘full COVID-19 resurgence,’ White House Task Force report says | WFLA
Cleveland temporarily closes all non-emergency downtown buildings ahead of protests planned for Inauguration Day
“As a loyal American, I’m outraged that we have to do this,” said Cleveland City Councilman Michael Polensek. “That we have federal troops having to ring the capitol building and other government buildings and facilities, it just, it’s outrageous that in 2021 we have to go through this we have to worry about domestic terrorism.”
From Monday through Wednesday, all city of Cleveland neighborhood recreation centers will shut down.
All of this is being done in an abundance of caution ahead of the protests planned across the country on Inauguration Day.
Councilman Polensek says he still feels sick to his stomach after watching the violence unfold at our nation’s capital.
“If you wanna do the crime, be prepared to do the time,” Polensek said. “This is the stuff you see in the dictatorial countries, and there’s no place for it in America, and again, as loyal Americans, we need to rise up together, link hands and arms, and say enough is enough, and we move forward.”
As new COVID-19 cases emerge in Chicago Public Schools, families plead for reinstatement of locked-out teachers – Chicago Tribune
In addition to staff members who don’t trust the district to implement COVID-19 precautions and are refusing to report to buildings they believe are unsafe, the district has had to deal with coronavirus cases, quarantines and failed health screens.
The number of failed employee health screens dipped below 200 on Wednesday for the first time since staff returned on Jan. 4. Cumulatively, 2,240 health screen have been failed since then, but data provided by CPS does not make clear how much that reflects those who’ve failed multiple times.
CPS has also acknowledged a “potential cluster”at McCutcheon Elementary, where two cases have been reported among staff members and another eight are under quarantine.
The first employee was last at school Jan. 7 and notified the district of a positive COVID-19 test the next day, according to CPS. Over the weekend, contact tracers identified and notified close contacts, asking six staff members to quarantine, CPS said. The second case, confirmed Wednesday, involved one of those close contacts, who did not report to school Monday. Contact tracers identified two close contacts of the second case who were not also contacts of the first case and asked them to quarantine as well.
“Because of the protocols in place, which are designed to prevent spread, all close contacts were told to quarantine for 14 days,” CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement. “While the district cannot rule out the possibility of in-school transmission, it also cannot rule out the possibility that these cases were acquired in the community, outside of school.”
The Chicago Teachers Union, however, does not think the district has handled the cases well.
“In the midst of a COVID outbreak that surfaced last Friday, four days after CPS began forcing pre-K and special education cluster teachers back into buildings, educators at McCutcheon Elementary report that the school is in chaos,” the CTU claimed in a news release Thursday. “Most teachers who had reported to work last week are now in quarantine, leaving just one educator in the building. CPS waited until Sunday evening to notify educators, and didn’t tell parents about the outbreak until yesterday afternoon.”
Chicago mariachi family known as Cielito Lindo facing eviction in Andersonville; community raises over $25K – ABC7 Chicago
The band with kids from ages 7 to 18 had performances canceled due to the pandemic. So a neighbor asked Juan Lucero if he could start an online fundraiser. In 24 hours, over $25,000 was donated to the family
“I want to say thank you to them,” daughter Maya Lucero said. “I can’t believe this many people helped us out I’m speechless.”
“It can be hard to ask for help, but I’m glad we did,” son Diego Lucero said. “It makes me happy.” Source: Chicago mariachi family known as Cielito Lindo facing eviction in Andersonville; community raises over $25K – ABC7 Chicago
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