Day: November 16, 2020

Last week the World Health Organization hosted its annual summit known as the World Health Assembly to outline new policies and priorities, but a controversy involving Taiwan ended up also drawing renewed attention on how Beijing’s politics continue to influence the WHO.During the summit, which was hosted on the WHO official Facebook page, WHO moderators appeared to censor comments that contained words related to Taiwan or that implied the coronavirus originated in China. Several Taiwanese media reported that the WHO Facebook page blocked any Taiwan-related comments that included “Taiwan” or “Taiwan can help.”After coming under criticism, the WHO said it was facing an “onslaught” of cyberattacks during the summit by activists using words including “Taiwan” and “China.” The group said it applied content filters to improve moderators’ ability to monitor conversations. The measures were later removed after the Taiwanese government complained.The censorship goes beyond Taiwan. Since the incident, internet users have found that phrases such as “Winnie the Pooh,” “Wuhan Virus” and “China Virus” were also blocked. Winnie the Pooh has become a sensitive character in China because people use it to mock Chinese leader Xi Jinping.Several members of Congress have raised concerns about the WHO’s actions.In this image from video, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, speaks on the floor of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, April 23, 2020.Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in response to a VOA email last Thursday that he was concerned about the WHO’s approach.“I am disturbed the WHO appears to have engaged in online censorship related to Taiwan’s exemplary COVID-19 response, undoubtedly to appease the Chinese Communist Party,” he said. “Taiwan’s participation in the WHO is critical for global health.”This year, Taiwan was barred from attending the annual World Health Assembly. McCaul said the WHO should invite Taiwan to join and participate in future meetings.Facebook said it was not directly involved in the management of the WHO Facebook livestream, which includes functions to block specific keywords or turn off messages, according to Deutsche Welle. The blocking function on Facebook is controlled by the page managers who can use it according to their needs.Meanwhile, many saw the WHO’s shutting out one of the countries that has been most successful in fighting the pandemic as self-defeating.“Why would China try to silence Taiwan at the WHO meeting?” Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn tweeted Friday. “Maybe because Taiwan has been successful at containing COVID-19.”Why would China try to silence Taiwan at the @WHO meeting?  Maybe because Taiwan has been successful at containing COVID-19.https://t.co/lc5v9fOEgh— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) November 13, 2020As of last Friday, Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, had reported 597 confirmed cases of coronavirus, most of them from abroad.Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s Representative to the United States, said that if the WHO did block Taiwan-related messages on its Facebook page, “it would be an outrage to see the WHO and Facebook teaming up to do China’s dirty work of censoring the success story in the fight against COVID-19.”If that is true, it would be an outrage to see the WHO and Facebook teaming up to do China’s dirty work of censoring the success story in the fight against COVID-19.— Bi-khim Hsiao 蕭美琴 (@bikhim) November 12, 2020The U.S. Mission in Geneva tweeted a photo on Monday of Andrew Bremberg, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, and an art installation in front of United Nations Headquarters with the caption “Taiwan Can Help.” The tweet also noted that Ambassador Blumberg said he “couldn’t agree more” with the caption and called for Taiwan to be invited to join the World Health Assembly.Ambassador Bremberg: Saw this display on how Taiwan can help in front of @UNGeneva. Couldn’t agree more! Invite Taiwan to the WHA! #TaiwanCanHelppic.twitter.com/ruwcfoxjAN— U.S. Mission Geneva (@usmissiongeneva) November 9, 2020This year’s World Health Assembly held a six-day video conference starting November 9. Taiwan has been unable to participate in the World Health Assembly since 2017.
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Experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) say the news Monday of another COVID-19 vaccine candidate is encouraging but more information is needed and, as new virus cases surge around the world, it is no time to be complacent.At their regular COVID-19 news briefing in Geneva, WHO officials reacted to the news from U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna that its vaccine candidate tested at better than 90% efficacy.WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that level of efficacy in this vaccine, as well as the Phizer/BinNTech vaccine candidate announced last week, is very encouraging.WHO Chief Says Vaccine Alone Will Not End the PandemicTedros tells executive board that testing, vaccine will complement other tools, not replace themBut, she said, there are many questions remaining about the duration of protection they provide, the impact on severe cases of the virus, the impact on different subpopulations, especially the elderly, as well as the adverse events beyond a certain period. Swaminathan said she hoped the clinical trials would continue to collect data to answer these questions.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that while the vaccine news is cause for “cautious optimism,” this is no time for complacency. He said the agency is currently “extremely concerned” by the surge in cases they are seeing in some countries, “particularly in Europe and the Americas.”Echoing comments he made earlier in the day to the WHO executive board, Tedros said a vaccine alone will not end the pandemic. Rather, it will be a valuable tool along with active testing and contact tracing and continued vigilance in communities and among individuals.
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The high-pitched whine of a mosquito is annoying, but scientists have developed an app that uses that sound to detect dangerous mosquitoes.Mosquitoes kill hundreds of thousands of people each year by spreading microbes that cause diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever. But researcher Haripriya Vaidehi Narayanan says anyone with a cellphone can help tackle these diseases by using the Abuzz app to identify mosquitoes. “If they see a mosquito around us, they just open the phone, open up the app, point their phone towards the mosquito and hit the record button,” said Narayanan, who started working on the project as a graduate student at Stanford University. She’s now in the Department of Immunology at the University of California Los Angeles. “So then, when the mosquito flaps its wings and starts flying around, it makes that noise, that annoying buzzing noise … that noise is what gets recorded by the Abuzz app,” she added. Many mosquito-borne diseases don’t have cures or vaccines, so targeting mosquitoes is the best approach to controlling these diseases. “If we’re going to tackle diseases caused by mosquitoes like malaria or dengue, the most important step is to know where the mosquitoes are,” Narayanan said.Listening for answersTraditional mosquito monitoring can be time-consuming and expensive because it requires labor-intensive trapping and trained scientists to identify the tiny insects. There are around 3,500 different mosquito species, but only about 40 are dangerous to humans, according to Manu Prakash, professor of bioengineering at Stanford University and principal investigator of the project. “In your backyard, do you have a nuisance mosquito or do you have a potentially dangerous mosquito?” Prakash said.To answer that question, Prakash’s team decided to listen. When mosquitoes beat their wings up and down, they produce that distinctive buzzing sound. Every mosquito species makes a slightly different buzz. Users record as little as one or two seconds of a mosquito sound with the Abuzz app on their cellphone. The app compares this recording against a database and decides which species of mosquito it is most likely to be. Because the tool — any cellphone or smartphone — is already in billions of people’s pockets, the team says they’ll be able to monitor mosquitoes on a much larger scale than previously possible. “This is something that doesn’t require fancy smartphones, just the very bare minimum, basic cellphones are actually good enough,” Prakash said. Combining informationBy crowd-sourcing mosquito information from across the world, the app will build maps of where dangerous mosquitoes are found. This will help scientists and health authorities predict where disease outbreaks might occur and where to target mosquito control. Prakash believes this type of community engagement is key to tackling big problems like mosquito-borne disease. “The more number of people engage the better the tool gets. So, we’re very excited that if literally, you know, hundreds of thousands of people are recording mosquitoes every day especially, you know, around the world, it will create the kind of community that is needed,” Prakash said. The Abuzz app will be available to download for free in the next month or two. Another group of researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom is developing a similar cellphone app — called Mozzwear — that identifies malaria mosquitoes by their sound. 
 
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Meteorologists at the U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted late Friday Iota will “become a dangerous major hurricane soon.”   The forecasters said Iota is “expected to bring potentially catastrophic winds, life-threatening storm surge and extreme rainfall impacts to Central America.”  Iota is moving with maximum sustained winds of 165 kilometers per hour.  Hurricane warnings are in effect for portions of Colombia, Nicaragua and Honduras, covering much of the same area devastated by Hurricane Eta earlier this month. The NHC said a hurricane warning means that “preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.” 
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