Day: February 8, 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday it is reviewing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in light of a South African study indicating the drug offers minimal protection against the new South Africa variant of the virus. The study, conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand, prompted the South African government to temporarily halt its use of the vaccine.  At WHO’s usual Monday briefing at its headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the news concerning but noted what he called “some important caveats” to that development. FILE – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, speaks in Geneva, Jan. 21, 2021.He said given the limited sample size of the Witwatersrand trial and the younger, healthier profile of the participants, it is important to determine whether the vaccine remains effective in preventing more severe illness. Tedros said it is becoming increasingly clear that manufacturers will have to adjust to the evolution of the virus and consider altering their vaccines to address the variants, as is done with flu shots each year.  He said WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) met Monday to review the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. He said he would be meeting with them to discuss their recommendations. Ebola deathMeanwhile, Tedros also said a new case of Ebola was reported Sunday near the city of Butembo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Butembo is in North Kivu province, where a previous outbreak last June was declared over. He said the female victim, the wife of an Ebola survivor, had died. Tedros said WHO is supporting local and national authorities to trace those who had contact with the woman, and so far, more than 70 contacts have been identified, and no additional cases. He warned, however, there could possibly be additional cases, because the woman had contact with many people after she became symptomatic. Vaccines are being sent to the area, as well as a WHO rapid response team. 
 
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After a brief honeymoon, China appears to have blocked a popular, invitation-only audio app called Clubhouse.The iPhone-only app had seen a surge in users over the weekend as users were able to discuss taboo topics like reunification with Taiwan and the plight of the Muslim minority in Xinjiang province.But on Monday, users began reporting difficulty connecting, fueling speculation the app had been blocked by the so-called Great Firewall.“Clubhouse created the space many Chinese yearn for – the means to communicate with each other and the world outside of the Great Firewall unconstrained by censorship,” said Angeli Datt, a senior research analyst at Freedom House. “The Chinese government swiftly blocked Clubhouse because it knows the most effective way to control free speech is to swiftly clamp down on the channels and tools used to communicate rather than policing individual conversations.” The user surge started last week when Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla appeared on the app unexpectedly and held a discussion with Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, the app instrumental to the GameStop drama. Chinese media covered the conversation.According to Bloomberg, Clubhouse was a hot topic on Chinese social media, and some were even selling invitations to the app on Alibaba’s online retailer. Some of the invites were going for as much as $44.60, according to Bloomberg.As with many banned apps, Chinese users can still access Clubhouse using a virtual private network (VPN), and CNN reported that many were doing so. One such user was Susan Liang, a 31-year-old from Shenzhen.”It is too rare an opportunity. Everyone has lived under the Great Firewall for so long, but on this platform, we can talk about anything,” she told CNN. “It’s like someone drowning and can finally breathe in a large gulp of air.”She said she feared a crackdown as VPNs not approved by the government are illegal.Clubhouse has so far not responded to media inquiries, Reuters reported.While Clubhouse was fully accessible, VOA Mandarin observed several Chinese-language clubs where users joined discussions on wide-ranging and sensitive topics including Uighur rights, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan’s independence, China’s national identity and gender issues.   In a club conversation titled “Politically Incorrect Reporters,” users engaged in a heated debate about the continuing influence of former U.S. President Donald Trump. In another people were chatting about women’s rights in different places  In the “room of silence” chat, the description read, “Today is the death anniversary of Dr. Li Wenliang. We remember him not because he’s a hero, but because everyone of us could be him.” Li was a Chinese whistleblower doctor who died from the coronavirus a year ago.Chinese Whistleblower Honored on Anniversary of His DeathDr. Li Wenliang, 34, was one of eight whistleblowers whom local authorities punished early on for ‘spreading rumors’ about a SARS-like virus; it turned out to be COVID-19, which eventually killed him Graham Webster, editor of the DigiChina project at the Stanford University Cyber Policy Center, told VOA Mandarin that Chinese netizens had seized the rare chance to hold open, free discussions with their peers in Hong Kong and Taiwan.  “[The conversations] were open and people were having a really interesting engagement in a way that they might not be able to in writing, which is a much more censorship and surveillance intensive form,” he said.  He added that the app was helping people working across the Chinese border to have connections with one another when travel is difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  A netizen said in a Chinese language chat room that he/she valued the platform mostly because it offered people from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan a chance to sit down and just talk about anything.  “I think it’s a rare ecology, it’s quite Utopian,” the user said, “I want to learn more and get more information from it.” Datt said it is unlikely that China will unblock the app, adding, “Even if the developers of the app comply with Chinese censorship and surveillance laws, which would be difficult for a small startup, there is no guarantee that censors would unblock Clubhouse.” Adam Xu and Lin Yang of VOA Mandarin contributed to this report. 
 
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More than 800,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine should be delivered to South Sudan by the end of the month according to a South Sudanese health ministry official.  
 
Doctor John Rumunu, director-general for preventive health services at the national health ministry said the vaccine will first be administered to the country’s most vulnerable populations.
 
Rumunu told reporters in Juba Sunday that South Sudan met all of the requirements necessary to acquire the vaccine.
 
“I’m happy to let you know that the 864,000 doses are from AstraZeneca, and AstraZeneca is using the same chain like we are using for the routine vaccination, meaning you need fridges that can keep vaccines in conditions of two to eight degrees centigrade. We have that all over the country,” he said.
 
Rumunu said COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) assessed all vaccines and determined that AstraZeneca was best suited to South Sudan’s capacity to preserve the vaccine.
 
Concerns have been raised over the safety and efficacy of preserving COVID-19 vaccines in hot climate countries like South Sudan, concerns triggered primarily by misinformation circulating on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
 
Dr. Guyo Guracha, the World Health Organization’s emergency coordinator in the South Sudan capital Juba, said AstraZeneca is safe to use in South Sudan.
 
“There should be no worry about safety and efficacy because we have an elaborate mechanism in place as WHO and the country also has its own. Many countries also will be looking at it on their own, independently,” Guracha said.
 
Health Ministry spokesperson Dr. Loi Thuou strongly advised the public against sharing misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines on the internet.
 
“We need to be very careful in handling and sharing that information with, let’s say innocent people, who may not necessarily have their own analytical capacity. I mean, if someone really wanted to actually do something against Africa or black race, why should it be through vaccines?” Thuou said in Juba.
 
Africans are consuming many other common drugs from the Western world like malaria medications such as Artimisin, according to Thuou.
 
He urged South Sudanese to practice social distancing and follow other preventative measures to prevent transmission of the virus in markets and other places where people congregate.
 
“Part of the reason why partial lockdown is mandatory is the behavior of our people. If you go to Konyokonyo [marketplace]… before partial lockdown was declared, you will not have a sense that there’s COVID-19 in this country, people are just mingling [in the] crowd and nobody cares, hardly people wear masks,” said Thuou.
 
Health officials are reporting a rapid jump in the number of COVID-19 cases in parts of South Sudan, particularly Central Equatoria state, which in recent days reported more than 300 new cases.
 
As of Sunday, South Sudan registered 4,609 positive COVID-19 cases, 861 active cases, 66 deaths and 3,692 recoveries.
 
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Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera says the country will go ahead with acquiring the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, despite concerns about its efficacy.  Chakwera on Sunday evening announced Malawi has acquired 1.5 million doses and that additional ones were on the way to vaccinate a total of about four and a half million people.  Chakwera said Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest countries, settled for the AstraZeneca vaccine because it is cheaper.  In a televised address on the fight against COVID-19, President Chakwera said the vaccine type coming to Malawi has an average of 60 to 70 percent efficacy. FILE – Malawi’s newly elected President Lazarus Chakwera takes the oath of office in Lilongwe, Malawi, June 28, 2020.He said although the efficacy is lower that than other vaccine types, the AstraZeneca vaccine has one great advantage over the other vaccines: its cost. “At four dollars a dose, it costs two and a half times less than the two other vaccine types, almost four times less than a third type, five times less than a fourth type, and eight times less than a fifth type,” he said. However South Africa has decided to put a hold on the AstraZeneca vaccine jabs after studies showed that it gives minimal protection against the COVID-19 variant that is currently circulating in the country. Prior to widespread circulation of the more contagious variant, the vaccine was showing efficacy of around 75%, but health officials say in a later analysis of its strength against the new variant, shows a 22% efficacy rate. A woman walks past newspaper billboards during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Johannesburg, South Africa, Feb. 8, 2021.President Chakwera announced last week that Malawian scientists had confirmed that the country now has a more contagious new strain of the virus from South Africa known as 501Y.V2. In his address Sunday, Chakwera said the country’s rate of infection is too high. “Over the course of this past week, 2,987 new infections were confirmed by our testing facilities across the country. This represents a 22 percent positivity rate. And while it is lower than the 29 percent positivity rate from last week, it is still higher than the 0 to 5 percent rate we are aiming for,” he said. FILE – COVID-19 patients being treated at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, Jan. 30, 2021.Dorothy Ngoma, former president of Malawi’s National Organization of Nurses and Midwives, says Malawi should take vaccine with caution. “Because we have both virus raging in our country, there is still an advantage to be protected from the first virus probably the one which was put at 75 percent efficacy. And if that’s correct, then it makes sense because as long as it [the vaccine] is a gift,” she said. Ngoma said the government would consider buying vaccines with more efficacy rate once they have got money to do so. Social commentator Humphrey Mvula disagrees. “Life is not cheap. We will not compromise on the price of the vaccine which does not address the concerns that we have on COVID-19. We should be able to base on experience of South Africa. We should now engage our scientists; medical experts do an analysis on the strain that is prevalent in Malawi and then advise the government accordingly,”  he said.The chairperson for the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. John Phuka said Monday that the task force would soon make its decision on whether to proceed with AstraZeneca vaccine roll out — based on findings about its efficacy on the new strain of the virus. 
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Emergency teams in northern India are working Monday to rescue 37 power plant workers trapped in a tunnel after part of a Himalayan glacier broke away, slamming water and debris into a dam and at least two hydroelectric plants early Sunday.  Authorities say at least 18 bodies have been recovered, but more than 165 people are missing and feared dead.  More than 2,000 people have been deployed to the search-and-rescue operation in the valley, including members of the military and police. The floods destroyed a hydroelectric plant on the Alaknanda river and damaged another on the Dhauli Ganga river. The two rivers flow out of the Himalayan mountains and meet before merging with the Ganges river.Rescuers leave on a boat to search for bodies in the downstream of Alaknanda River in Rudraprayag, northern state of Uttarakhand, India, Feb.8, 2021.The incident sent a massive amount of water and debris downhill, flooding the Dhauli Ganga River and forcing the evacuation of downstream villages. Video from the area shows floods of gray glacial water and debris traveling through a valley and surging through the dam in the northern state of Uttarakhand. Scientists have blamed global warming for the glacier’s catastrophic melting.    
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