Day: January 12, 2021

The United States recorded a 10.3% decline in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 2020 as economic activity contracted due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, which noted the single largest drop in annual emissions in the post-World War II era.“The hardest-hit economic sectors — including transportation, electric power, and industry — are also the leading sources of US GHG emissions,” the report said.The transportation sector saw GHG emissions plummet 14.7% compared to 2019 levels, while the power sector saw a similar decline to the national average of 10.3%, the report said.Industry, on the other hand, saw mixed impact as activity levels fluctuated from the onset to the peak of the pandemic. Between April and March, emissions fell 16%, the researchers noted.The changes were attributed to reduced economic activity across America as a whole, including measures put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19 such as shelter-in-place orders and travel restrictions.Additionally, changes in the demand for goods and services as well as record-high unemployment contributed to falling emissions levels, the report said.Last year’s decline in GHG emissions eclipsed a 6.3% drop recorded during the deep U.S. economic recession of 2009.The researchers underscored that the factors leading to the decline are temporary and driven by the pandemic, adding that the 2020 reduction does not constitute “a down payment toward the U.S. meeting its 2025 Paris Agreement target of 26-28% below 2005 levels.”President-elect Joe Biden has said the United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement once he takes office January 20 and that he intends to put America on a course to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.According to the Rhodium Group, even if the pandemic had not occurred and economic activities were at full throttle, U.S. emissions would have declined by around 3% during 2020, mainly driven by the decline of coal-fired power generation and in part by a reduction in heating demand due to warmer winter weather.
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A top British police official Tuesday said officers have issued about 45,000 fines for violations of COVID-19 restrictions and that they will issue more to keep the infection from spreading. The chair of Britain’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, Martin Hewitt, made the comments at a news conference, along with Home Secretary Priti Patel. Hewitt said he makes no apology for the fines levied because too many people were still choosing not to abide by the rules. He warned there would be more officers out on patrol to catch those who he said were “endangering us all.” Britain is among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic and is in the midst of a third national lockdown to stop rapidly spreading infections. The nation reported 1,243 more deaths Tuesday, bringing the current number of fatalities to 83,203. Patel described the figures as “horrifying” and stressed the “absolutely critical” need for people to follow the rules. Patel said she supported the efforts of police officers, and that a minority of people were putting the entire nation at risk by not following the rules. She said, “Our ability to get through the coming weeks and months depends on each and every one of us contributing to what is truly a national effort.” 
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Pakistan is concluding its phase three human trials of a Chinese company’s coronavirus vaccine. Health officials say the test of CanSinoBio’s vaccine are nearly complete and show promise. Pakistan is one of seven countries testing the Chinese vaccine. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.Camera:  Malik Waqar Ahmed   
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The attack on the U.S. Capitol has reignited criticism of social media and its alleged role in inciting violence. While Facebook and Twitter have banned President Trump, there are questions about the future of online speech. Tina Trinh reports.Producer: Matt Dibble 
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China says a team of scientists from the World Health Organization will arrive this week in Wuhan to begin its investigation of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
 
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Tuesday that the 10-member team will leave from Singapore this Thursday and fly directly to Wuhan, the central city where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019. The virus eventually spread to nearly every corner of the globe, leading to more than 1.9 million fatalities out of nearly 91 million infections.   
 
China has sought to change the narrative over the virus’s origins, with officials eagerly pushing theories that it first emerged in other nations.   
 
Dr. Mike Ryan, the head of WHO’s emergencies program, told reporters in Geneva Monday the agency is simply “looking for the answers here that may save us in the future. Not culprits and not people to blame.”  
 
Ryan said if blame exists, “we can blame climate change. We can blame policy decisions made 30 years ago about everything from urbanization to the way we exploit the forest,”  
 
A health expert affiliated with WHO has said that expectations should be “very low” the mission will lead to a conclusion about the origins of the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness.   
 
The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the original outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticized its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research. President Donald Trump has accused the agency of being a puppet of China.  
 
The WHO team’s journey to Wuhan comes a week after Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment with China’s failure to grant final permission to the delegation to enter the country, although the plans had been jointly arranged between the two sides.   
 
Beijing dismissed Tedros’s criticisms, calling the delay a “misunderstanding.” 
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The World Health Organization is warning that mass vaccinations against the novel coronavirus will not produce herd immunity this year. WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan told reporters Monday that it takes time to produce and administer enough doses of a vaccine to finally stop the spread of COVID-19.  Dr. Swaminathan stressed the need for countries to continue observing mitigation efforts such as mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing.   In a related story, Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine should provide immunity for at least a year.FILE – Boxes containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the McKesson distribution center in Olive Branch, Miss., Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, Pool)According to Reuters news agency, the company said during the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference Monday it was confident the messenger RNA technology it used was well suited to deploy a vaccine based on the new variant of the coronavirus which has emerged in a handful of countries. Dr. Bruce Aylward, a WHO senior advisor, said Monday the agency is hoping to begin providing COVID-19 vaccines to the world’s poorest countries in February, but said “we cannot do that on our own” as he urged vaccine makers to prioritize deliveries to the  COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX. FILE – A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the novel coronavirus walks on a street in Lagos, Nigeria, Dec. 31, 2020.COVAX is an alliance of WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, an organization founded by Bill and Melinda Gates to vaccinate children in the world’s poorest countries. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nearly 9 million Americans had been given their first COVID-19 vaccination dose as of Monday morning. That is less than one-third of the total doses distributed to states by the U.S. government, signifying the sluggish distribution efforts across the nation which experts have blamed on a lack of a national strategy and a national distribution system.FILE – A public health information sign is seen with St. Paul’s Cathedral seen behind amidst a lockdown during the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, London, Britain, Jan. 7, 2021.The CDC also said Monday that at least 72 cases of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus first identified in Britain has now been discovered across 10 U.S. states. California has the most with at least 32 cases, followed by 22 in Florida, with the remaining spread across Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, New York state, Pennsylvania and Texas.   The British variant is one of three that have emerged from the original coronavirus, with the third just recently detected in Japan in travelers from Brazil. The Brazil variant is different from the British and South African variants, but the three share a common mutation.      While the variants are worrisome, they are not unexpected, according to scientists. The coronavirus has made thousands of tiny modifications since it was first discovered, researchers say.   Malaysia’s king has declared a national state of emergency as part of an effort to curb the growing numbers of novel coronavirus infections.    FILE – A doctor collects a swab sample from a man to be tested for the coronavirus disease outside Clinic Ajwa in Shah Alam, Malaysia.The royal palace announced Tuesday that King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah issued the decree after meeting with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Prime Minister Muhyiddin had issued a two-week lockdown for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, and five surrounding states Monday as the number of total COVID-19 cases has grown over 138,000, including 555 deaths, with the number of daily new cases rising to well over 2,000 in recent weeks.   And New Zealand will require that international travelers from most countries show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before boarding flights to the country.  Travelers from Australia, Antarctica and some Pacific island nations will be exempted from the rule.   There are nearly 91 million global coronavirus infections, including over 1.9 million deaths.  The United States leads the world in both categories with 22.6 million infections and 376,280 deaths.  India is second in total COVID-19 infections with more than 10.4 million cases and Brazil with 8.1 million, with both nations are in reverse order in fatalities — Brazil trails the U.S. with 203,580 deaths, followed by India with 151,327. 
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Parts of the world ravaged by outbreaks of Ebola can now heave a small sigh of relief thanks to the stockpile of vaccine, the International Coordinating Group (ICG) announced Monday. The single-dose vaccine will allow affected countries, particularly those in Africa, to better contain the deadly virus during future outbreaks. “This new stockpile is an excellent example of solidarity, science and cooperation between international organizations and the private sector to save lives,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said in a Tuesday FILE – Health workers begin their shift at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 16, 2019.The vaccine, which is recommended by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization for use in Ebola outbreaks, will be managed by UNICEF although the ICG will be “the decision-making body for its allocation and release,” the press release said. “We are proud to be part of this unprecedented effort to help bring potential Ebola outbreaks quickly under control,” Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director, said in the press release. Fore said “when it comes to disease outbreaks, preparedness is key.” She said the vaccine stash is a “remarkable achievement” that will allow vaccines to be delivered to those who need them in a timely manner. Countries that make requests for vaccines should receive a response in 48 hours. The vaccines will then be shipped from Switzerland in temperature-controlled packages. The statement said the target is to make “overall delivery time from the stockpile to countries” in seven days. An initial 6,890 doses are now available for outbreak response with additional quantities to be delivered into the reserve this month and throughout 2021 and beyond. It could take between two to three years to reach the SAGE-recommended level of 500,000 doses in the emergency stockpile. Unlike COVID-19, Ebola is rare and unpredictable, hence the need to create a reserve in the absence of a “natural market for the vaccine.”   In this case, vaccines are available in limited quantities, and therefore they are reserved for health and front-line workers and when there is an outbreak. IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said in the release, “through each outbreak, our volunteers have risked their lives to save lives.” Chapagain hopes “the impact of this terrible disease will be dramatically reduced” with the vaccine. “An Ebola vaccine stockpile can increase transparency in the management of existing global stocks and the timely deployment of the vaccine where it’s most needed, something MSF has called for during recent outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Dr. Natalie Roberts, Program Manager, MSF Foundation, said in the release. Meanwhile, the WHO, UNICEF, Gavi, and vaccine manufacturers are continuously monitoring the situation and will increase supply should demand soar. The current vaccine is manufactured by Merck, Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Corp. and developed with financial support from the United States.
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President-elect Joe Biden rolled up his sleeve and received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, to complete his inoculation against the deadly disease. The process was livestreamed to reassure Americans the vaccines are safe. Global cases of the coronavirus have topped 90 million, as the number of deaths approaches 1.9 million. In the United States, more than 375,000 people have died from the virus. The number of cases is now more than 22 million, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.   The president-elect, who responded to questions after his inoculation, said the increasing number of deaths is “wrong, and we can do a lot to change it.” Vaccinations across the United States have been uneven and have not gone according to the Trump administration’s plans. Biden’s transition team plans to vaccinate as many people as possible with their first shot, rather than save the vaccine for second doses.  This, his team believes, will give some protection against the virus to people who would otherwise not have any. Experts have advised, however, against this approach, citing inadequate data on holding back second doses. FILE – A vial contains doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.In response, Biden’s team said plans are in place to ensure second doses are produced and delivered to Americans on time. Two vaccines now in circulation require a second dose for optimum efficacy. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a second shot about three weeks after the first, while Moderna’s has a four-week interval. There are currently no one-shot vaccines approved for use in the U.S. Biden, who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, said he is optimistic his administration will be able to inoculate as many Americans as possible once he is sworn in office January 20. The incoming administration has promised to distribute 100 million vaccinations in its first 100 days in office. “My No. 1 priority is getting the vaccine in people’s arms … as rapidly as we can, and we’re working on that program now,” Biden said, adding he would have an announcement on Thursday. Biden admitted it will not be easy to bring the virus under control but is hopeful measures such as wearing masks, social distancing and frequent handwashing, coupled with rapid vaccination, will help. He chided Republican lawmakers who were seen without masks during the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol last week. Democratic Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware distributed face masks to lawmakers during the siege, but many Republican lawmakers refused them. “The Republican colleagues wouldn’t take the mask. Irresponsible,” Biden said.  “And so, we all have to make sure it’s not a political issue. It’s an issue of public safety. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”  
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