Facebook says it will no longer remove claims that COVID-19 is human-made or manufactured “in light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts." There is rising pressure worldwide to investigate the origins of the pandemic, including the possibility that it came from a lab. Since the pandemic began, Facebook has been changing what it allows on the topic and what it bans. In February, it announced a host of new claims it would be prohibiting -- including that COVID-19 was created in a Chinese lab. Other claims it added at the time included the false notion that vaccines are not effective or that they are toxic. Lisa Fazio, a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, said the reversal shows the difficulty of fact-checking in general, particularly with something unprecedented like the coronavirus, when experts can disagree and change their minds with new evidence. “It’s one reason that content moderation shouldn’t be … [Read more...]

BANGKOK - Thailand has begun human trials with two of four homegrown vaccine candidates local scientists are developing against COVID-19, as the country scrambles to secure shots from abroad amid its worst wave of infections since the pandemic began. The homegrown vaccines will not be ready for mass production in time to help Thailand fight off the latest wave. Officials and developers are hoping, though, that they will arrive in time to give Thailand — and maybe its neighbors — booster shots tailored to the main variants of the novel coronavirus by next year. “The vaccine will be against the variants like the South African variant and the Indian variant and others, so that will be our strategy,” said Kiat Ruxrungtham, who is spearheading development of one of the most anticipated candidates at Chulalongkorn University’s Vaccine Research Center in Bangkok. A shot in the arm For now, Thailand is relying on a mix of vaccines from foreign drugmakers to reach herd immunity by the … [Read more...]

President Joe Biden announced Friday that 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in the United States since he took office January 20. But Biden’s plan to have 70% of Americans at least partially vaccinated by July 4 may fall short because of a sharp decline in the number of vaccinations that began about two months ago. As of early Friday, according to the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 377.9 million vaccine doses had been distributed in the U.S. and 316.0 million had been administered. The site said 176.3 million people, or 53.1 percent of the total U.S. population, had received at least one dose of the vaccine and 148.5 million, or 44.7 percent, had been fully vaccinated. COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths have fallen to their lowest levels in more than a year, but the vaccination drive has flagged because of a lack of urgency on the part of some people to get the shots, especially in the South and Midwest. On Friday, … [Read more...]

KAMPALA - Uganda is seeing a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, forcing its health officials to take stern emergency measures. From 200 cases per day in April, the East African country is now recording over 1,000 cases per day amid a looming vaccine shortage. At the Ministry of Health, hundreds of people line up standing, others sitting, as the line snakes its way to the vaccination tent. Uganda’s COVID-19 cases stand at 44,594, with 361 deaths. Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, the country’s representative at the World Health Organization, spells out the rate at which the coronavirus is spreading in Uganda. “On the week starting from 25 April, Uganda reported 256 cases. The week starting 2nd May, that number went up to 411. The week of the 9th of May, the number went to 475.  And the week of the 16 May, the number has already reached 1,060,” he said. Kampala is among 10 districts that have recorded a high number of cases. Odoi Paul, 39, is among the many who thronged to the … [Read more...]

GENEVA - African health officials are urgently appealing for vaccines to combat a third wave of COVID-19 surging across the continent. The World Health Organization reports the number of African COVID-19 cases has exceeded 5 million and the disease has killed 136,000 people. WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says cases have been increasing over the past four weeks.   She says new cases in the past week have risen by nearly 30% across the continent and deaths have increased by 15%. She says five countries—South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda, and Namibia—account for 76% of new coronavirus infections in Africa. “Africa is in the midst of a full-blown third wave. The sobering trajectory of surging cases should rouse everyone to urgent action,” said Moeti.  "We’ve seen in India and elsewhere how quickly COVID-19 can rebound and overwhelm health systems. Public health measures must be scaled up fast to find, test, isolate and care for patients and to quickly trace … [Read more...]

For all of the front-line healthcare workers who eagerly rolled up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, there’s something a little disingenuous — or maybe Pollyannaish — about the chorus of insistence that we’re at “the beginning of the end” of the pandemic. Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted as much on Sunday, as trucks and planes carrying millions of doses packed in dry ice fanned out across the country. His words echoed those of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and of Army Gen. Gustave Perna, who compared the Trump administration’s massive vaccine distribution operation to D-day, as if it was the beginning of the end of World War II. For the record: 9:06 AM, Dec. 16, 2020 An earlier version of this column incorrectly identified Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital as a partner in running a COVID-19 testing site with Charles R. Drew University and L.A. County. The partnership is with the Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center. The truth is, the hardest work … [Read more...]

Douglas Jessop wasn’t getting anywhere. For the past 15 minutes, the canvasser with Community Coalition had been standing in a driveway in South L.A., listening to Myra Trahan explain why she hadn’t gotten around to getting vaccinated for COVID-19. Mostly, the 19-year-old college student told him, it’s because she hadn’t had time to do her own research. Jessop nodded and finally asked: “What would satisfy you enough to be like, ‘OK, I’ll go get it’?” Trahan thought for a moment. Advertisement “I’m not really sure,” she said. “Like I don’t know what’s really stopping me and I don’t know what really could push me to get to it. I just need to know the long-term effects. I need to know if this is something I need to get every month, every two months, every year? Or is it just like a one-time shot type of thing?” Now Jessop was stumped. “What we could do for you is we could get your number, we can take it down and have a follow-up team call you,” he said. “Wanna do … [Read more...]

DAR ES SALAAM - The president of Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, has said his government will soon import COVID-19 vaccines.  This puts the region at odds with the national government, which has yet to approve any COVID vaccine. Opposition parties are urging the government to allow vaccinations to begin. Mwinyi said there will be nobody who will be forced to get a vaccination they don’t want.  He added we should not accept people’s sayings that if you get vaccinated would die; all over the world, people have been vaccinated.  He said we will bring in the vaccine and those who want it will be vaccinated and those who don’t won't take the shot. Former Tanzanian president John Magufuli, who died in March, denied the presence of COVID-19 in the country and dismissed the vaccines as unproven and risky. The new president, Samia Hassan, accepts that the disease exists and has said she is looking to import vaccines.  But still, weeks have gone by without any sign of … [Read more...]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — Maryland reported 62 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths Saturday as hospitalizations and the positivity rate declined. More than 3.2 million Maryland adults are fully vaccinated. State officials also reported that the state positivity rate went down to 0.73%. READ MORE: ‘I’m Terrified’ At Least 20 People Shot This Week In Baltimore; Police Identify Victim of Deadly Mass Shooting Hospitalizations went down by nine cases, now at 153 people hospitalized for the virus. Since the pandemic began, there were 461,697 total confirmed cases and 9,490 deaths. There are 3,249,663 Marylanders fully vaccinated. The state has administered 6,632,077 doses. Of those, 3,382,414 are first doses with 6,651 administered in the past 24 hours. They have given out 2,997,597 second doses, 12,316 in the last day. The state began to administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine again in April, after the CDC and FDA lifted their pause on the vaccine due to a rare blood … [Read more...]

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration announced Friday that the state will next month step back from flexibilities that were offered to Medicaid providers and beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic, including allowing people to receive behavioral health services without first obtaining prior authorization. The Agency for Health Care Administration issued eight Medicaid notices announcing that the policies designed to make it easier for patients to access health care and for providers to bill for the care were being rescinded. READ MORE: Parental Rights Bill Sent To Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “The state of Florida led the national effort to distribute COVID-19 vaccines and now maintains a sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines for every eligible Floridian who desires to be vaccinated. The data demonstrate that Florida is positioned to transition to pre-pandemic activities,” the email alerts began. Effective July 1, the state will once again … [Read more...]