Senate Confirms Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General – The New York Times

Dr. Murthy will return as surgeon general at a critical moment, as the president tries to steer the nation out of the worst public health crisis in a century while expanding access to health care for millions of Americans. During his confirmation hearing, he told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that he would make ending the coronavirus pandemic his highest priority.

Vaccination Time for Jamaican Seniors

Needless to say, we were happy to see the blue boxes carried in. And when they had organized themselves, the health workers started bustling around; beginning with some public education and counselling. Patients went on to the “jab” (I felt a sudden surge of anxiety for my husband at this point, and hovered around like a mother hen!) and then to the “recovery room,” where the vaccinated ones (vaccinees?) sat for twenty minutes to make sure they did not have any immediate adverse effects. After that, we checked out with another health worker and have an appointment for my husband to have his second shot on June 1 – a little under three months from now.

Petchary's Blog

This morning was an interesting experience. My dear husband, who falls in the over-75 bracket, received an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine. This is the much-discussed AstraZeneca, which is the first vaccine that Jamaica has received, to date. By the way, Jamaica was the first Caribbean country to receive vaccines through the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility (which, so far, has been disappointingly low in terms of supplies).

Dr. Denise Eldemire-Shearer received her COVID-19 vaccine last week. (Photo: Joseph Wellington/Jamaica Observer)

We are on our doctor’s list. Professor Dr. Eldemire-Shearer is a very special person to us. She has been our family doctor since “way back when,” and she also happens to be in charge of theMona Ageing and Wellness Centre at the University of the West Indies (UWI). She is also Patron of the National Council for Senior Citizens (a government entity) and Honorary Chair of the Caribbean…

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Brazil’s COVID-19 crisis affecting nearby countries | CIDRAP

Brazil’s dire situation is affecting neighboring countries, with cases rising in Venezuela’s border states of Bolivar and Amazonas. Etienne said cases are also increasing in Bolivia’s Pando department, with ICU occupancy very high in Loreto department in northern Peru. Source: Brazil’s COVID-19 crisis affecting nearby countries | CIDRAP

Officials reexamining AstraZeneca COVID vaccine data | CIDRAP – (Regular news media is making people think something is wrong with flashy headlines – read this if you want to know what is going on)

In a statement, NIAID said it is urging AstraZeneca to work with the DSMB and provide the panel with the most recent efficacy data available. Today, AstraZeneca responded that it would comply with the request.

Source: Officials reexamining AstraZeneca COVID vaccine data | CIDRAP

Re-Learning the Obvious

Focus better than scatter gun approach – in vaccines, as in life.

CRAIN'S COMMENTS

In my first year of college, I was taught a painful lesson about writing. If you want to be successful in making a point with a limited number of words, you need to define your point very specifically and narrowly, so that you can do it justice with limited resources.

We always have limited resources, whether it’s time, or the reader’s attention span, or the supply of a vaccine.

The opposite of focus is the broad generalization, which is typically neither accurate nor meaningful, but is the kind of thing in which most politicians seem to specialize. Broad goals are also less likely to be met.

The need for focus is brought home again in an analysis of COVID vaccination rates in the US. Simply stated, the states that have rushed to make a larger percentage of their population eligible for vaccination have been less effective in actually delivering the…

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Vaccination by inhalation | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In addition to protecting against pathogens that infect the lungs, these types of inhaled vaccines could also be used to treat cancer metastasizing to the lungs or even prevent cancer from developing in the first place, the researchers say.

The researchers also tested a mucosal vaccine against cancer. In that case, they used a peptide found on melanoma cells to immunize mice. When the vaccinated mice were exposed to metastatic melanoma cells, T cells in the lungs were able to eliminate them. The researchers also showed that the vaccine could help to shrink existing lung tumors.

 

This kind of local response could make it possible to develop vaccines that would prevent tumors from forming in specific organs, by targeting antigens commonly found on tumor cells.

 

“In both the virus and the tumor experiments, we’re leveraging this idea that, as other people have shown, these memory T cells set up shop in the lungs and are waiting right there at the barrier. As soon as a tumor cell shows up, or as soon as a virus infects the target cell, the T cells can immediately clear it,” Irvine says.

 

This strategy could also be useful for creating mucosal vaccines against other viruses such as HIV, influenza, or SAR-CoV-2, Irvine says. His lab is now using the same approach to create a vaccine that provokes a strong antibody response in the lungs, using SARS-CoV-2 as a target.

Source: Vaccination by inhalation | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Puerto Rico cracks down on tourists flouting pandemic rules – The Washington Post

They come from New York, Illinois, Michigan, and authorities say too many of the tourists are flouting Puerto Rico’s pandemic health measures, including the mask mandate, the nightly curfew and a requirement to stay in isolation pending coronavirus tests. So officials are cracking down, with nearly a dozen visitors arrested over the past six days. They include three men from New York who were not wearing face masks and got into an argument with a teenager while visiting a popular beach on the island’s northeast coast, authorities said Tuesday. But most of the arrests have been been in the San Juan metropolitan area, and a couple of them remain in jail.

Source: Puerto Rico cracks down on tourists flouting pandemic rules – The Washington Post

Bizarre reasoning aside, Erdogan’s exit from Istanbul Convention is unconstitutional | NRS-Import | DW | 23.03.2021

Women’s rights groups go to court

Her appeal was heard. An organization fighting for the rights of women and children in Turkey has already filed a suit against the government. The group is arguing that the president does not have the power to invalidate an international agreement that was passed by parliament, simply by decree.

Many in Turkey have little sympathy with President Erdogan’s decision to leave the convention, especially when considering the country’s high femicide rates. There is widespread criticism that too little is done to protect women in Turkey from violence.

Thanks to social media and women’s groups, the pressure is now being turned up on the government, which together with law enforcement authorities refuses to acknowledge that a problem even exists – despite that fact that 300 women were killed in Turkey last year alone, according to the organization “We will stop the murder of women.” An additional 171 deaths last year were flagged by the authorities as “suspicious.” Many of those deaths were registered as suspected suicides.

Source: Bizarre reasoning aside, Erdogan’s exit from Istanbul Convention is unconstitutional | NRS-Import | DW | 23.03.2021

Coronavirus ‘long haulers’ feared they would never recover. Then they got the vaccine – ABC News

A woman with medium-length brown hair stands in front of mountains After a year of crippling fatigue, kidney problems, bleeding gums and other strange symptoms, Ms Bempeki woke up one day and felt “99 per cent improved”.

She’d received the AstraZeneca vaccine several days earlier.

In the United States, many so-called long haulers — a term people suffering from long COVID call themselves — say they are feeling better after receiving a vaccine.

It also doesn’t seem to matter which vaccine the patient receives. Reports are similar among people who get the Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca shot.

Source: Coronavirus ‘long haulers’ feared they would never recover. Then they got the vaccine – ABC News

UNHRC Resolution: A Ray of Hope for Sri Lanka – Groundviews

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution “Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” was adopted with 22 members of the council voting in favour of the resolution, 11 members voting against it and 14 members abstaining. The passing of the resolution marks the strongest action ever taken by the UNHRC regarding the human rights violations by Sri Lanka, calling for an extensive series of actions for correcting past wrongs. It also recognises the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka over the past year, which has warning signs for the future, including accelerating the militarization of civilian government functions, the erosion of the independence of the judiciary and key institutions responsible for the promotion and the protection of human rights and ongoing impunity and political obstruction of accountability for crimes and human rights violations in emblematic cases. Source: UNHRC Resolution: A Ray of Hope for Sri Lanka – Groundviews

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