The variant, known as P.1 has spread rapidly across Brazil since emerging in early January, reinfecting people who already had covid, and leaving a tidal wave of misery and death in its wake. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just 15 cases of the Brazil variant have been identified in nine states.
Sputnik seeks apology from European official who preached caution over preliminary approval of Russia’s vaccine
The Twitter account for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine has demanded an apology from the head of the managing board of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) after she cautioned member states from early approvals of the vaccine.
Christa Wirthumer-Hoche of the EMA said the European Union institution had started its review of the vaccine on Thursday and cautioned countries about using Sputnik V until it was complete. E.U. members Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary have already approved or are in the process of approving it amid the slow rollout of other vaccine varieties on the continent.
“We demand a public apology,” the vaccine’s Twitter account stated. “Her comments raise serious questions about possible political interference in the ongoing EMA review.”
The account went on to note that 46 other countries had approved the vaccine and called such comments “inappropriate and undermine the credibility of EMA and its review process.”
Sputnik V, the only vaccine with its own Twitter account, has distinguished itself for not just promoting itself, but calling attention to the shortcomings of others on the global market. The Russians have proudly proclaimed their vaccine the first to be registered to fight covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Moscow’s decision to authorize the vaccine before it been through Phase 3 mass trials elicited skepticism around the world, which Sputnik’s backers have loudly condemned. The Twitter feed contains numerous entries publicizing any bad news about rival vaccines, particularly those by Pfizer (in collaboration with BioNTech of Germany) and Moderna of the United States.
The Twitter account follows a pattern identified by the State Department of institutions linked to Russian authorities spreading vaccine disinformation, particularly negative information about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
On Monday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Biden administration was aware of these efforts and “taking steps to address.”
“We will fight, with every tool we have, disinformation. We are certainly familiar with the approach and tactics of Russian disinformation efforts,” Psaki said.
Pfizer vaccine effective against more contagious Brazil variant, study says
Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine appears to be highly effective against a more contagious variant of the virus first discovered in Brazil, according to a new lab study published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study, conducted by Pfizer scientists and researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch, used blood samples from vaccinated individuals against an engineered version of the variant. The samples were taken from participants in Pfizer’s late-stage clinical trials for the vaccine and were obtained between two to four weeks after they received the second dose.
In the lab, the ability of the vaccine to neutralize the variant, known as P.1., was “roughly equivalent” to its impact on the original strain of the virus, the researchers said. According to Pfizer, its vaccine had a 95 percent efficacy rate against the less contagious coronavirus strain in trials last year.
The P.1 variant was first detected in January and has since spread from its origins in the Amazonian city of Manaus to multiple countries, including the United States.
An earlier study by researchers in Britain and Sao Paulo, which had not yet been peer-reviewed, suggested that P.1 was more contagious and better equipped to evade immune protection than previous versions of the virus.
A separate study also by researchers in Sao Paulo and Washington University’s School of Medicine said that the vaccine developed by Chinese drugmaker Sinovac appeared to be ineffective against P.1.
The study, a preprint posted online last week, tested the convalescent plasma of eight individuals immunized with Sinovac’s CoronaVac injection, which uses inactivated virus to stir an antibody response. The plasma samples failed to efficiently neutralize the variant, study said.
Coronavirus relief plan will prevent deep job losses in airlines and public transit agencies, officials say
President Biden’s sweeping $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package would give airlines, airports and public transit agencies more breathing room to adjust to a new normal as the nation emerges from the global pandemic, transportation officials say.
The legislation would extend payroll support for a third time to airlines, enabling them to avoid furloughing more than 27,000 workers when the current program expires at the end of March. It also would provide $8 billion in support to U.S. airports. Transit agencies from Washington to Houston to Seattle also would benefit from $30.5 billion in grants to help make up for sharp decreases in ridership and other expenses resulting from the pandemic. Amtrak would receive about $2 billion.
The legislation still must pass the House and get Biden’s signature, which could happen this week. If approved, many in the transportation industry said Monday, the legislation would provide critical support, keeping workers on the job and off the unemployment rolls.
Child marriage is increasing during the pandemic. How one girl in Guatemala fought back.
When a young man in Mayra Lineth Pop’s village asked her to marry him for the second time, she was determined to turn him down again. It was 2016, and she wasn’t ready to get married, she told her father. She wanted to continue her studies. Their family needed money, her father told her in response, and it was time for her to start her own family.
She was 14. The man who wanted to marry her was 21.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, child marriage often takes the form of an informal union, and girls from poor households and in rural areas are particularly vulnerable.
Although it’s early to fully quantify the pandemic’s effect, analysts agree that the coronavirus has reversed gender equality gains won in the previous few years, and girls’ rights are no exception. According to a new analysis released by UNICEF on Monday, 10 million additional child marriages may take place before the end of the decade.
Pandemic relief bill includes most significant help for Black farmers since Civil Rights Act
A little-known element of President Biden’s massive stimulus relief package would pay billions of dollars to disadvantaged farmers — benefiting Black farmers in a way that some experts say no legislation has since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Of the $10.4 billion in the American Rescue Plan that will support agriculture, approximately half would go to disadvantaged farmers, according to estimates from the Farm Bureau, an industry organization. About a quarter of disadvantaged farmers are Black. The money would provide debt relief as well as grants, training, education and other forms of assistance aimed at acquiring land.
While it’s a fraction of the $1.9 trillion bill that passed in the Senate on Saturday, advocates say it still represents a step toward righting a wrong after a century of mistreatment of Black farmers by the government and others. Some say it is a form of reparations for African Americans who have suffered a long history of racial oppression.
House set to take up $1.9 trillion stimulus, putting Biden on track to sign this week
House lawmakers are set to vote as soon as Tuesday on a roughly $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, putting President Biden on track to sign his first major legislative accomplishment into law by the end of the week.
Democrats in the chamber are expected to approve the bill — which includes a dramatic expansion of pandemic aid and federal safety net programs — despite changes to critical elements of the stimulus adopted by the Senate over the weekend.
Dubbed the American Rescue Plan, the package authorizes $1,400 checks to millions of low- and middle-income Americans, bolsters families by providing new child tax benefits, boosts unemployment payments for workers still out of a job and authorizes a wide array of additional programs in an attempt to shepherd a swift, equal recovery to one of the worst economic crises in a generation.
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