Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts will be suspended at least through Inauguration Day in the wake of violence by the president’s supporters that erupted Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol.“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg said in a statement on his Facebook page, adding that the account could remain locked indefinitely.“Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”Twitter barred Trump from posting messages on its platform Wednesday for 12 hours for “repeated and severe violations” of the social media company’s civic integrity rules.Twitter and Facebook had taken the unprecedented step of temporarily suspending Trump’s account on Wednesday as Trump continued to post inflammatory messages and make false accusations that the election was rigged in favor of President-elect Joe Biden. It was the most aggressive action the social media giants have taken against Trump.Twitter ordered the removal Wednesday of three Trump tweets, including a video urging his supporters who stormed the Capitol to “go home” while continuing to make false claims about the elections. Twitter said the posts were voluntarily deleted from Trump’s account after the company threatened to extend the suspension.Later Wednesday evening, Facebook said Trump would be barred from posting for 24 hours for two violations of its policies.Syracuse University communications professor and social media expert Jennifer Grygiel told The Associated Press that Wednesday’s deadly violence is a direct result of Trump’s abuse of social media to spread falsehoods and said the social media companies should bear some responsibility for the violence.“This is what happens,” Grygiel said. “We didn’t just see a breach at the Capitol. Social media platforms have been breached by the president repeatedly. This is disinformation. This was a coup attempt in the United States.”The incoming chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee, Democrat Mark Warner, applauded Twitter and Facebook for their actions in a statement Thursday, but he also criticized them for not taking more stringent action much sooner.“While I’m pleased to see social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube take long-belated steps to address the president’s sustained misuse of their platforms to sow discord and violence, these isolated actions are both too late and not nearly enough,” Warner said.“Disinformation and extremism researchers have for years pointed to broader network-based exploitation of these platforms. As I have continually said, these platforms have served as core organizing infrastructure for violent, far right groups and militia movements for several years now — helping them to recruit, organize, coordinate and in many cases (particularly with respect to YouTube) generate profits from their violent, extremist content.” YouTube has not taken any action to silence Trump. The Associated Press reported that YouTube said it removed Trump’s video, but it was still publicly accessible on Thursday.The White House has not responded to the suspensions.
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Day: January 7, 2021
A ray of hope emerged Thursday for the Rainbow Nation, which has seen a massive spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases, as South Africa’s health minister announced a large shipment of vaccines is coming this month.
Zweli Mkhize said the country will receive one million vaccine doses by the end of January, and another half million in February, both from the Serum Institute of India. The first doses, he says, will go to health workers.
Mkhize acknowledged that South Africa’s vaccine acquisition was delayed because the nation was unable to pay for vaccines that were still in development — a barrier wealthier nations haven’t faced. But, he vowed, it will catch up. South Africa’s limited budget also led officials to choose the cheapest vaccine option, offered by AstraZeneca.
“We will be making sure that we bring the vaccines as quickly as possible into South Africa,” he said. “By the time we start the vaccination program, we won’t be very far different from many countries. We would actually be all in line with most of the countries. So, we would like to assure the public that, in fact, we are all on course.”
That heartening news came after South Africa, which is the continent’s viral hotspot, reported what Mkhize described as a “grim milestone” — surpassing 20,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. And, he said the situation gets worse from there, as the nation enters a second wave that features a new variant of the virus that appears to be spreading much faster.
“Deaths are already higher than what we ever experienced before,” the health minister said. “Admissions are already higher than what we experienced before. The new cases on the seven day average are also higher than what we experienced before.”
South Africa has now seen more than 1.1 million cases since the virus first arrived in March. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases says that 31,368 people have died in South Africa.
Once South Africa’s health workers are vaccinated, a second round of vaccinations will target 17 million people, including essential workers, teachers, the elderly and those with other health conditions that put them at higher risk. In the end, Mkhize said, the nation hopes to vaccinate about 40 million people within the year, about 67 percent of the population. That figure is close to what health experts say is the threshold for herd immunity.
As for the rest of the vast continent, Dr. Kate O’Brien, the WHO’s director of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, described the process by which 92 of the world’s poorest nations can get access to the vaccine, through the COVAX Facility, a global initiative of 192 countries that is trying to ensure equitable access.
“For countries, 92 countries, that are less able to actually purchase these vaccines on their own from their own domestic funds, there are donor funds that have been provided,” she said. “We need about $7 billion in order to deliver enough vaccine to these countries through the end of 2021. And the facility has already raised about $6 billion of the $7 billion.”
O’Brien said the facility “has access to over two billion doses of vaccine” and will start to deliver those vaccines by mid-February.
“That’s how countries in Africa and South Asia, and other countries around the world of these 92 that are less able to afford vaccines, are actually going to get vaccine,” she said.
O’Brien emphasized that people with HIV — South Africa carries the world’s highest burden of that virus — should be vaccinated. But pregnant and breastfeeding women should discuss the vaccine with health care providers before making a decision.
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The World Health Organization warns the European region is probably in the most acute phase of COVID-19 transmission and drastic measures must be taken to control the spread of the pandemic.
More than 26 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the European region, including over 580,000 deaths. The World Health Organization reports levels of transmission remain extremely high. As a consequence, it notes countries and territories across the region are enacting full lockdown measures, affecting more than 230 million people. FILE – Medical personnel attend patients at Casalpalocco Covid 3 hospital in the outskirts of Rome, Jan. 1, 2021.WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge says the year ahead offers new opportunities and tools, such as vaccines for controlling the pandemic. At the same time, he notes new challenges posed by the virus itself are of great concern. He says the COVID-19 virus has changed. He says it is normal for viruses that circulate to mutate over time. While little is known about the impact of the new variant, he says the new strain appears to spread more quickly and be more contagious. FILE – The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, speaks during a news conference about the coronavirus disease at Eigtveds Pakhus, in Copenhagen, Denmark, March 27, 2020.”Twenty-two countries in the WHO European region have detected this new variant. This variant is of concern and it has increased transmissibility. So far, we understand there is no significant change to the disease this variant produces — meaning the COVID-19 is not more nor less severe,” he said. Kluge says the new viral strain spreads across all age groups and children do not appear to be at higher risk. Over time, he says the variant may replace other lineages, as seen in Britain and Denmark. Senior Emergency Officer in WHO’s European Region Catherine Smallwood says new variants are assessed for any public health impact. She says the strain identified in Britain has been studied for its transmissibility and impact on COVID-19 vaccines that have been developed. FILE – A man receives the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Britain, Jan. 4, 2021.”There is probably quite promising evidence that the vaccines will work. At the moment, there is no evidence for any of the variants that have emerged that there will be any decreased effectiveness of the vaccine. But studies are still going on and we expect to hear more after the studies are confirmed,” she said. The vaccine rollout will have little immediate effect on the control of transmission and spread of COVID-19. WHO officials say that will be achieved by following public health measures, such as wearing masks and social distancing. However, vaccines will protect the most vulnerable people from becoming severely ill and dying in hospital. Vaccines also hold the promise of one day bringing this devastating pandemic to an end.
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Facebook and Alphabet’s YouTube took down a video from President Donald Trump on Wednesday that continued to make the baseless claim the election was fraudulent as he told supporters who had stormed the U.S. Capitol to go home.Twitter restricted users from retweeting the video “due to a risk of violence,” as hundreds of protesters sought to force Congress to undo the president’s election loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. Twitter restricted a later tweet from Trump that again falsely alleged he had won the election.Later Wednesday night, Twitter locked the president’s account for 12 hours over “repeated and severe violations” of the social media platform’s civic integrity rules and threatened permanent suspension.Facebook Vice President of Integrity Guy Rosen tweeted that it believed the video “contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence,” saying the action was part of “appropriate emergency measures.”Google-owned YouTube said the video violated its policy against content that alleges “widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Election.” YouTube spokesman Farshad Shadloo added the company does allow copies that include additional context.Social media companies have been under pressure to police misinformation on their platforms around the election. Trump and his allies have continuously spread unsubstantiated claims of election fraud that have proliferated online.In a statement on Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League called for social media companies to suspend Trump’s accounts, saying the events at the Capitol resulted from “fear and disinformation that has been spewed directly from the Oval Office.”Former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos tweeted: “Twitter and Facebook have to cut him off. There are no legitimate equities left and labeling won’t do it.”A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.According to researchers and public postings, violent rhetoric and advice on weaponry ramped up significantly in the past three weeks on many social media platforms as multiple groups planned rallies for Wednesday, including Trump supporters, white nationalists and enthusiasts of the wide-ranging conspiracy theory QAnon.
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