Day: January 25, 2021

Twitter on Monday unveiled a new tool it is piloting to combat misinformation. Called Birdwatch, the crowdsourcing tool aims to enlist other Twitter users to vet tweets they think contain misinformation.Instead of deleting an offending tweet or having Twitter attach a warning label, users will be able to add annotations to the tweet to “provide informative context,” according to a Twitter blog post.For now, the added notes will not be visible to all users, as the program is a pilot project with only a limited number of U.S. volunteers. The company would eventually like to have the notes visible to all.”We believe this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding contact that people trust and find valuable,” Twitter wrote.The move comes as social media companies face increasing pressure from those who say their platforms spread misinformation, and those who say they are too censorious.Twitter’s approach differs from Facebook, which uses a team of third-party fact-checkers.“We know there are a number of challenges toward building a community-driven system like this — from making it resistant to manipulation attempts to ensuring it isn’t dominated by a simple majority or biased based on its distribution of contributors. We’ll be focused on these things throughout the pilot,” Twitter said. 
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World leaders gathered virtually Monday for the Climate Adaption Summit, an online meeting hosted by the Netherlands with hopes of developing practical solutions and funding for dealing with climate change between now and 2030.The online program featured leaders from around the world, including China’s Deputy Prime Minister Han Zheng, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other leaders. Representing the United States was former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been appointed by President Joe Biden to be Washington’s new special climate envoy. Kerry told the group the Biden administration has made fighting climate change a top priority and said the U.S. is proud to be back as a leader on the issue.“We have a president now, thank God, who leads, tells the truth and is seized by this issue,” Kerry said. “And President Biden knows that we have to mobilize in unprecedented ways to meet a challenge that is fast accelerating. And he knows we have limited time to get it under control.”Kerry said that is the reason Biden immediately rejoined the Paris climate agreement that former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from formally last November. Trump originally announced the U.S. was pulling out of the agreement in 2017, but United Nations regulations prevented it from being official until November. Biden rejoined the agreement on his first day in office. As secretary of state under former President Barack Obama in 2015, Kerry helped negotiate the original agreement, bringing China to the table at the U.N. climate conference in Paris.
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Malawi says it is recruiting hundreds of healthcare workers to address a shortage as the country deals with a surge in COVID-19 cases. Healthcare workers welcome the move but say the government needs to do more than just hire more nurses.Government statistics show that about 900 Malawian health workers are currently in quarantine after exposure to COVID-19. Ten of them have died.Dr. Charles Mwansambo is secretary for the Ministry of Health.Speaking during a televised presidential address on Sunday evening, he said to address the shortage, the government is attempting to recruit 1,380 new healthcare workers from various schools this week.“So there are 219 workers for central hospitals, 150 workers for CHAM [Christian Health Association of Malawi] facilities and 377 for district hospitals. And we are also recruiting 634 interns,” he said.Malawi is experiencing a lot of challenges under COVID-19, including a shortage of personal protective equipment or PPEs.Mwansambo said Malawi has set aside about $1.2 million for the procurement of the PPEs.“Districts where the pandemic is severe have been furnished with emergency treatment units. And our next step is to set up emergency treatment units in each of the remaining district with a bed capacity between 30 and 60,” he said.In an address Sunday night, Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera said he was concerned with an unprecedented rise in coronavirus cases.“In the past seven days, we have confirmed a total of 6,675 new infections, which is an average of 953 confirmed infections per day. This means that the average daily number of new infections from this past week is double what it was the previous week,” he said.Chakwera also said in the past seven days, the daily average number of COVID-19 deaths was more than double what it was the previous week.“Covid-19 deaths in the seven days between January 10th and 16th were 80, but in the seven days between January 17th and yesterday, the total was 170. The continued rise in new infections and new deaths over the past week means that the urgent directives I gave a week ago must continue to be implemented with uncommon speed,” he said.The directives included a nighttime curfew, suspension of schools and a recommendation that Malawians wear face masks.
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Israel says it plans to shut down its international airport by the end of the week to keep out highly contagious coronavirus variants.   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, “We are closing the skies hermetically, except for really rare exceptions, to prevent the entry of virus mutations, and also to ensure that we progress quickly with our vaccination campaign.” The new measure is set to begin Tuesday and last until the end of the month, pending parliamentary approval.   Meanwhile, the White House said Sunday it is ready to restrict entry of non-U.S. citizens traveling to the U.S. from South Africa because of concerns about the highly contagious coronavirus variant that has emerged there.Vehicles line up at a self-swabbing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test at a Rite Aid drive-thru during the outbreak of COVID-19, in Pasadena, California, Jan. 22, 2021.The U.S. is increasing efforts to track several coronavirus variants emerging as the virus continues to spread throughout the world, a health official said Sunday. The plan is to monitor “the impact of these variants on vaccines, as well as on our therapeutics,” as the virus continues to mutate while it spreads, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We are now scaling up both our surveillance of these and our study of these,” Walensky said during a Fox News Sunday interview. She said the CDC was collaborating with the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Pentagon, in tracking the coronavirus mutations. A worker digs a grave in a cemetery amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Manchester, Britain, Jan. 25, 2021. Picture taken with a drone.The news comes as the world is on the verge of reaching 100 million COVID-19 infections, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. More than 2 million people have died from the virus.   “We’re in a race against these variants,” said Vivek Murthy, who has been nominated by President Joe Biden to become the next U.S. surgeon general, on ABC’s “This Week” program Sunday. Walensky took the helm at the CDC last Wednesday, as Biden was inaugurated. The recent emergence of several coronavirus variants, which have shown to be more transmissible — and in the case of a strain first identified in Britain, possibly more lethal — has made vaccinations a top issue for health officials.    People are processed at the entrance to an empty department store being used as a vaccination center during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Chula Vista, California, Jan. 21, 2021.Walensky said that until enough people have been vaccinated, providing “herd” immunity, mask-wearing and social distancing will need to remain in place to “decrease the amount of virus that is circulating, and therefore, decrease the amount of variants that are out there,” the CDC chief said.   Scientists said last week that while the British variant was associated with a higher level of mortality, it was believed that existing vaccines were still effective against it. However, a more contagious South African variant may reduce the efficacy of current vaccines, scientists said. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has become the most recent world leader to announce that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. “I regret to inform you that I am infected with COVID-19. The symptoms are mild, but I am already undergoing medical treatment,” the 67-year-old wrote on Twitter Sunday. Lamento informarles que estoy contagiado de COVID-19. Los síntomas son leves pero ya estoy en tratamiento médico. Como siempre, soy optimista. Saldremos adelante todos. Me representará la Dra. Olga Sánchez Cordero en las mañaneras para informar como lo hacemos todos los días.— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) January 25, 2021Mexico has confirmed more than 1.7 million cases of COVID-19 and recorded more than 149,000 deaths — the fourth-highest death toll in the world after the United States, Brazil and India, according to Johns Hopkins. India follows the U.S. caseload with 10.6 million infections and more than 153,000 deaths. Brazil has nearly 9 million cases and more than 217,000 deaths.  On Monday, Australia approved use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. The country expects to begin vaccinating priority groups in late February. New Zealand health officials confirmed Monday that they are investigating its first domestic case of COVID-19 since mid-November. The positive case is a 56-year-old woman who has become infected with the South African variant. She returned to New Zealand December 30 and probably became infected by a fellow returnee in a quarantine facility, an official said.  COVID-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said officials are looking at whether the coronavirus could have spread through the quarantine facilities’ ventilation and air conditioning systems. Authorities said the woman’s husband has tested negative. With a tough lockdown, New Zealand had nearly eliminated the coronavirus, with new cases found among travelers returning home and quarantining. As of Sunday, there were 79 such cases. The new variants from Britain and South Africa, however, have been found among those cases, raising concerns of community spread returning. New Zealand does not expect to have most of its population vaccinated against the coronavirus until the second half of the year.  
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The U.S. is increasing efforts to track the several coronavirus variants emerging as the virus continues to spread throughout the world, a health official said Sunday. The plan is to monitor “the impact of these variants on vaccines, as well as on our therapeutics,” as the virus continues to mutate while it spreads, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We are now scaling up both our surveillance of these and our study of these,” Walensky said during a Fox News Sunday interview. She said the CDC was collaborating with the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Pentagon, in tracking the coronavirus mutations. The news comes as the world is on the verge of reaching 100 million COVID-19 infections, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. More than 2 million people have died from the virus.A sign reading ‘COVID-19 High-Risk Area’ is posted on a downtown sidewalk amid a surge in coronavirus infections on January 22, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.”We’re in a race against these variants,” said Vivek Murthy, who has been nominated by President Joe Biden to become the next U.S. surgeon general, on ABC’s “This Week” program Sunday. Walensky took the helm at the CDC last Wednesday, as Biden was inaugurated. The recent emergence of several coronavirus variants, which have shown to be more transmissible — and in the case of a strain first identified in Britain, possibly more lethal — has made vaccinations a top issue for health officials.  Walensky said that until enough people have been vaccinated, providing “herd” immunity, mask-wearing and social distancing will need to remain in place to “decrease the amount of virus that is circulating, and therefore, decrease the amount of variants that are out there,” the CDC chief said.   Scientists said last week that while the British variant was associated with a higher level of mortality, it was believed that existing vaccines were still effective against it. However, a more contagious South African variant may reduce the efficacy of current vaccines, scientists said. Meanwhile, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador became the most recent world leader to announce that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. “I regret to inform you that I am infected with COVID-19. The symptoms are mild, but I am already undergoing medical treatment,” the 67-year-old wrote on Twitter Sunday.Lamento informarles que estoy contagiado de COVID-19. Los síntomas son leves pero ya estoy en tratamiento médico. Como siempre, soy optimista. Saldremos adelante todos. Me representará la Dra. Olga Sánchez Cordero en las mañaneras para informar como lo hacemos todos los días.— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) A medical assistant vaccinates a resident of a nursing home with an injection of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the nursing home for seniors, in Froendenberg, western Germany, Jan. 22, 2021.New Zealand health officials confirmed Monday that they are investigating its first domestic case of COVID-19 since mid-November. The positive case is a 56-year-old woman who has become infected with the South African variant. She returned to New Zealand December 30 and probably became infected by a fellow returnee in a quarantine facility, an official said.  COVID-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said officials are looking at whether the coronavirus could have spread through the quarantine facilities’ ventilation and air conditioning systems. Authorities said the woman’s husband has tested negative. With a tough lockdown, New Zealand had nearly eliminated the coronavirus, with new cases found among travelers returning home and quarantining. As of Sunday, there were 79 such cases. The new variants from Britain and South Africa, however, have been found among those cases, raising concerns of community spread returning. New Zealand does not expect to have most of its population vaccinated against the coronavirus until the second half of this year. 
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