Month: March 2021

There was no reason to celebrate on Rachel Van Lear’s anniversary. The same day a global pandemic was declared, she developed symptoms of COVID-19. A year later, she is still waiting for them to disappear. And for experts to come up with some answers. The Texas woman is one of thousands of self-described long-haulers, patients with symptoms that linger or develop out of the blue months after they first became infected with coronavirus. Hers first arrived March 11, 2020. The condition affects an uncertain number of survivors in a baffling variety of ways.  “We’re faced with a mystery,” said Dr. Francis Collins, chief of the National Institutes of Health. Is it a condition unique to COVID-19, or just a variation of the syndrome that can occur after other infections? How many people are affected, and how long does it last? Is it a new form of chronic fatigue syndrome — a condition with similar symptoms?  Or could some symptoms be unrelated to their COVID-19 but a physical reaction to the upheaval of this past pandemic year — the lockdowns, quarantines, isolation, job losses, racial unrest, political turmoil, not to mention overwhelming illness and deaths?  These are the questions facing scientists as they search for disease markers, treatments and cures. With $1 billion from Congress, Collins’ agency is designing and soliciting studies that aim to follow at least 20,000 people who’ve had COVID-19. “We’ve never really been faced with a post-infectious condition of this magnitude, so this is unprecedented,” Collins said Monday. “We don’t have time to waste.’’ With nearly 30 million U.S. cases of COVID-19 and 119 million worldwide, the impact could be staggering, even if only a small fraction of patients develop long-term problems.  Fatigue, shortness of breath, insomnia, trouble thinking clearly, and depression are among the many reported symptoms. Organ damage, including lung scarring and heart inflammation, have also been seen. Pinpointing whether these symptoms are directly linked to the virus or perhaps to some preexisting condition is among scientists’ tasks. “Is it just a very delayed recovery or is it something even more alarming and something that becomes the new normal?” Collins said.President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, left, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.There are a few working theories for what might be causing persistent symptoms. One is that the virus remains in the body at undetectable levels yet still causes tissue or organ damage. Or it overstimulates the immune system, keeping it from returning to a normal state. A third theory: Symptoms linger or arise anew when the virus attacks blood vessels, causing minute, undetectable blood clots that can wreak havoc throughout the body.  Some scientists think each of these may occur in different people. Dr. Steven Deeks, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said researchers first need to create a widely accepted definition of the syndrome. Estimates are “all over the map because no one is defining it in the same way,” he said. Deeks is leading one study, collecting blood and saliva samples from volunteers who will be followed for up to two years. Some people develop long-term problems even when their initial infections were silent.  Deeks said some evidence suggests that those who initially get sicker from a coronavirus infection might be more prone to persistent symptoms, and women seem to develop them more than men, but those observations need to be confirmed, Deeks said. Van Lear says she was in great shape when she got sick. At 35, the suburban Austin woman had no other health issues and was a busy mother of three who often worked out. First came a chest cold, then a high fever. A flu test came back negative, so her doctor tested for COVID-19. Soon after she developed blinding headaches, debilitating fatigue and nausea so severe that she needed emergency room treatment.  “I was very scared because no one could tell me what was going to happen to me,” Van Lear said. Over the next several months, symptoms would come and go: burning lungs, a rapid heartbeat, dizzy spells, hand tremors and hair loss. While most have disappeared, she still deals with an occasional racing heartbeat. Heart monitoring, bloodwork and other tests have all been normal.  Fatigue, fever, and no taste or smell were Karla Jefferies’ first symptoms after testing positive last March. Then came brain fog, insomnia, a nagging smell of something burning that only recently disappeared, and intermittent ringing in her ears. Now she can’t hear out of her left ear. Doctors can’t find anything to explain it, and she bristles when some doctors dismiss her symptoms. “I understand that COVID is something that we’re all going through together but don’t brush me off,” said Jefferies, 64, a retired state worker in Detroit. As an African American woman with diabetes and high blood pressure, she was at high risk for a bad outcome and knows she’s lucky her initial illness wasn’t more serious. But her persistent symptoms and home confinement got her down and depression set in. Political and racial unrest that dominated the news didn’t help, and church services — often her salvation — were suspended. She knows all that could have contributed to her ill health and says listening to music — R&B, jazz and a little country — has helped her cope. Still, Jefferies wants to know what role the virus has played. “I’m a year in, and to still from time to time have lingering effects, I just don’t understand that,” Jefferies said.  Jefferies and Van Lear are members of Survivor Corps, one of several online support groups created during the pandemic and that have amassed thousands of members. Some are enrolling in studies to help speed the science. Dr. Michael Sneller is leading one study at the NIH. So far, 200 have enrolled; they include survivors and a healthy comparison group.  They are being given a series of physical and mental tests once or twice a year for three years. Other tests are seeking signs of ongoing inflammation, abnormal antibodies and blood vessel damage. Sneller said he’s found no serious heart or lung tissue damage so far. He notes that many viruses can cause mild heart inflammation, even some cold viruses. Many people recover but in severe cases the condition can lead to heart failure. Fatigue is the most common symptom in the coronavirus group, and so far, researchers have found no medical explanation for it. Insomnia is common, too — in both groups.  Sneller says that’s not surprising. “The whole pandemic and lockdown affected all of us,” he said. “There’s a lot of anxiety in the control group too.” Many have symptoms similar to those of chronic disease syndrome; and to a condition involving fatigue and thinking difficulties that can develop after treatment for Lyme disease, a bacterial infection spread by certain ticks.  Researchers are hopeful that studies of long-term COVID-19 may yield answers to what causes those conditions, too. 
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, U.S. President Joe Biden’s top coronavirus adviser, said Sunday he is optimistic the country can return to some sense of normalcy by the annual July 4 independence celebration, but that precautions still need to be taken in the meantime to avert a new surge in infections. The United States is picking up the pace of coronavirus vaccinations, administering a new high of 3 million shots on Saturday. Fauci told news talk shows he believes the U.S. will have enough doses of vaccine by the end of May so that any American who wants a shot will be able to get one. Biden last week said all adults, not just older people, should be eligible to get a shot starting May 1. The U.S. leader predicted families may be able to gather for small Independence Day celebrations. “I think the Fourth of July projection is quite reasonable,” Fauci told the “Fox News Sunday” show. But Fauci also warned the pandemic is still a danger in the United States, with the number of new cases seeming to plateau at 50,000 or 60,000 daily over the last week. On CNN, he called it a “very vulnerable” time, citing the new increase in cases in Europe as officials there eased off coronavirus restrictions. “We can avoid that,” Fauci said. “We need to get as many vaccinated as possible.” He said the growing pace of vaccinations can be maintained and even increased as the U.S. opens more community health centers for vaccinations and more pharmacies start to administer shots, too.  Governors in some U.S. states have started to allow businesses to resume normal operations and told residents in their states they no longer have to wear face masks in public. “This is absolutely no time to declare victory,” Fauci told Fox. “There’s always a risk of a surge back up.” He contended that easing face mask directives and social distancing guidelines to stay two meters away from other people is “risky and potentially dangerous.” Nonetheless he offered assurances that the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is continuing to monitor the number of new infections and the pace of inoculations to see whether restrictions can be carefully lifted. Fauci told CNN that new directives will be issued soon on how safe it is for people who have been vaccinated to travel or be in a crowd of people, or for school children to return to in-school instruction while maintaining a one-meter distance from others instead of two meters. He said the disease control agency “wants to make sure they get it right” before issuing new directives. 
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More than 119.5 million people have contracted COVID-19, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday.  The United States tops the list as the place with the most infections at 29.4 million.  Brazil and India follow the U.S. with 11.4 million and 11.3 million, respectively.   The U.S. appears to be on a path to stockpiling coronavirus vaccines, with plans to have enough doses for almost double the country’s population.  The U.S. has committed funding to several vaccine initiatives, including $2 billion to Covax, the international program designed to provide coronavirus vaccines wherever needed.  The U.S., Australia, India and Japan also agreed last week to a partnership to make 1 billion vaccines available across Asia by the end of 2022, India’s foreign secretary said at a news conference in New Dehli after a virtual meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of the other countries.   The initiative is designed to attack the global vaccine shortage and counter China’s growing diplomatic campaign to distribute vaccines in Southeast Asia and globally. Civil defense members stand outside the new Salt government hospital in the city of Salt, Jordan, March 13, 2021.Jordan’s health minister was resigned Saturday after at least seven COVID-19 patients died at a hospital in Salt, near Amman, due to a shortage of oxygen at the facility, state media reported.   Later Saturday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II visited the hospital where an angry mob had gathered.   China eases visitor entryThe competition to distribute vaccines worldwide escalated Saturday when China announced it would streamline the entry process for foreigners who want to visit mainland China from Hong Kong if they have received Chinese-manufactured coronavirus vaccines.   By imposing fewer paperwork obligations, China hopes to enhance the global appeal of its vaccines, which most Western countries have not yet approved. In addition, China has yet to approve the manufacture or distribution of foreign-made vaccines within the country.   Italy aims for 80% of shots by fall
In Italy, meanwhile, the special commissioner for the coronavirus said Saturday that the country planned vaccinate at least 80% of its population by September. Francesco Paolo Figliuolo disclosed a plan to put 500,000 shots in arms daily, according to a statement from the office of the Cabinet. FILE – Italy’s special COVID-19 commissioner General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo gestures during a visit to a mass vaccination centre at Fiumicino Airport near Rome, Italy, March 12, 2021.Nearly 2 million Italians, or about 4% of the population, have gotten two shots of vaccine, but fewer than 51 million Italians are eligible for inoculation. Italy is one of the countries hit hard by the coronavirus, with 3.2 million cases and more than 101,000 deaths so far, according to Johns Hopkins. With increasing vaccine deliveries, from 15.7 million doses in the first quarter to 52.5 million doses from April to June, Italy plans to broadly expand the places where shots will be available, including military barracks, stores, gyms, schools and Catholic Church facilities.   In the meantime, most Italians face new restrictions beginning Monday as the government tries to stop a rise in case numbers. The restrictions include the closure of schools and nonessential shops in more than half of the country, including Rome and Milan.   There is good news in Corvo, the smallest island in the Azores off the Portuguese coast: 322 of its 400 residents have received a COVID-19 shot and herd immunity will likely be reached by the end of March. “There’s an atmosphere of celebration in Corvo,” Dr. Antonio Salgado told the Lusa news agency. “From now on, we will feel safe.” Herd immunity is reached when enough people, usually 50% to 70% of a population, are immune to an infection. Corvo will have nearly 85% of its residents 16 and older vaccinated this month. 
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Australian researchers say an “incredible” discovery could allow new treatments for asthma and prevent autoimmune diseases and life-threatening anaphylaxis. They have found a natural way the body stops rogue antibodies causing disease through a protein called neuritin.Allergies and autoimmune diseases, where the body’s defenses turn rogue and target healthy tissue, are increasing in adults and children, but researchers aren’t quite sure why.At the Australian National University, scientists have found that humans have their own mechanisms for fighting back against these pathogenic antibodies that can cause autoimmunity or allergies.Professor Carola Vinuesa said it’s an exciting discovery.“We found a protein called neuritin that is made by our own immune system, and we never knew before that our immune system could make this protein, and it proves to be quite important to prevent allergies autoimmune diseases,” she said.Neuritin is like a supercharged antihistamine, the type of drug commonly used to treat allergy symptoms.Vinuesa hopes the research could provide a completely new approach to current treatments for immune conditions, which can have a debilitating effect on patients.“We tend to either dampen the entire immune system or use drugs that tend to either eliminate an entire cell type or some products of the immune system that normally are required to fight infection,” she said. “So, by using one of our own products that our own body produces, we could leave most of the immune system, or all of the immune system, intact, and simply enhance our own defense mechanisms against allergy and autoimmunity.”Researchers say there are more than 80 known autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis.The Australian study began five years ago and used genetically engineered mice and human cells grown in a laboratory. It was published in the science journal Cell.
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Spacewalking astronauts had to take extra safety precautions Saturday after ridding their suits of any toxic ammonia from the International Space Station’s external cooling system.Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins had no trouble removing and venting a couple of old cables to clear any ammonia lingering in the lines. But so much ammonia spewed out of the first hose that Mission Control worried some of the frozen white flakes might have gotten on their suits.Hopkins was surprised at the amount of ammonia unleashed into the vacuum of space.”Oh, yeah, look at that go. Did you see that?” he asked flight controllers. “There’s more than I thought.”Even though the stream of ammonia was directed away from the astronauts and the space station, Hopkins said some icy crystals may have come in contact with his helmet. As a result, Mission Control said it was going to be conservative and require inspections.The astronauts’ first suit check found nothing amiss. “Looks clean,” Hopkins called down.NASA did not want any ammonia getting inside the space station and contaminating the cabin atmosphere. The astronauts used long tools to vent the hoses and stayed clear of the nozzles, to reduce the risk of ammonia contact.Once the ammonia hoses were emptied, the astronauts moved one of them to a more central location near the NASA hatch, in case it’s needed on the opposite end of the station. The ammonia cables were added years ago following a cooling system leak.No apparent residue leftAs the nearly seven-hour spacewalk ended, Mission Control said the astronauts had spent enough time in the sunlight to bake off any ammonia residue from their suits. Indeed, once Glover and Hopkins were back inside, their crewmates said they could smell no ammonia but still wore gloves while handling the suits.The hose work should have been completed during a spacewalk a week ago but was put off along with other odd jobs when power upgrades took longer than expected.Saturday’s other chores included: replacing an antenna for helmet cameras, rerouting ethernet cables, tightening connections on a European experiment platform, and installing a metal ring on the hatch thermal cover.Eager to get these station improvements done before the astronauts head home this spring, Mission Control ordered up the bonus spacewalk for Glover and Hopkins, who launched last November on SpaceX. They teamed up for back-to-back spacewalks 1½ months ago and were happy to chalk up another.”It was a good day,” Glover said once back inside.Although most of their efforts paid off, there were a few snags.The spacewalk got started nearly an hour late, so the men could replace the communication caps beneath their helmets in order to hear properly. A few hours later, Glover’s right eye started watering. The irritation soon passed, but later affected his left eye.Then as Glover wrapped up his work, a bolt came apart and floated away along with the washers, becoming the latest pieces of space junk.”Sorry about that,” Glover said. “No, no, it’s not your fault,” Mission Control assured him.It was the sixth spacewalk — and, barring an emergency, the last — for this U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew of seven. All but one was led by NASA. 
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A year into the coronavirus pandemic that is disproportionately ravaging African American lives both physically and economically, efforts are underway to target racism as a public health crisis that shortens lives and costs millions of dollars.“Systemic racism defines the Black experience in our nation,” said Virginia Democratic State Delegate Lashrecse Aird, who co-sponsored a resolution approved by lawmakers in February that makes Virginia the first state in the South to declare racism a public health crisis.“It provides the framework for all of us to formally and finally reckon with those injustices so we can build a more equitable and just society for all,” Aird said in a statement to VOA.The Virginia resolution cites more than 100 studies that link racism to negative health outcomes. The research indicates the cumulative experience of racism throughout a person’s life can induce chronic stress and health conditions that may lead to otherwise preventable deaths. Overall life expectancy for African Americans is nearly 3 ½ years shorter than for white people.“Virginians of color, especially Black Virginians, deserve no further delay of the Commonwealth’s public recognition of this centuries-old crisis,” Robert Barnette Jr., president of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP, told VOA in a virtual news conference.“We know systemic racism manifests itself as a determinant to public health through persistent racial disparities in all areas of our lives,” he said.The Virginia resolution would create a watchdog agency to promote policies that address systemic racism and its impact on public health. It requires state elected officials, their staff, and state employees to undergo training to recognize racism. Community engagement throughout the state will also be promoted to detect racism.The legislation is a big step for lawmakers in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, and a state with a checkered history of racially discriminatory and segregationist activities. Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to approve the declaration soon.Health inequalityVirginia joins Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and dozens of municipalities that have issued similar nonbinding resolutions in the last year. However, some communities are hoping to use the measures to direct additional funding for research and grants to support intervention programs.While some communities addressed racism as a public health emergency before the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 has underlined the health disparities among communities of color.FILE – Melissa Brooks, from left, Jordan Brown, Jazmine Brooks, Shari Moore and and Laila Brooks, all of Baltimore, study photographs of Black people killed by police that cover a fence near the White House, Washington, Aug. 25, 2020.“Racism is literally killing Black and brown people. It’s a public health crisis, and it’s beyond time to treat it as such,” said Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison of Austin, Texas, which declared racism a public health crisis in July 2020.“The inequities are countless, and they aren’t because African Americans are inherently inferior. They are the fruits of generations’ worth of explicitly discriminatory and racist policies,” Harper-Madison said.A nationwide poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 70% of African Americans believe people are treated unfairly based on race or ethnicity when they seek medical care. Additionally, 50% of Black people said they do not trust the U.S. health care system.“It’s hard day-to-day when you’re constantly being denied or overlooked. It has an effect on your mental health,” said Janette Boyd Martin, president of the NAACP in Charlottesville, Virginia.According to the American Psychiatric Association, half of African Americans do not seek help for mental health issues, often because they fear the stigma some associate with it. Overall, only one in three Black adults who need mental health care ultimately receives it.Legacy of mistrustHistorically, racism in the U.S. health care system has long left African Americans burdened by chronic illness, reduced access to healthy foods and preventative treatment. As a result, Black people suffer more frequently than white people from diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, maternal mortality and infant mortality.African Americans have also been the subjects of unethical medical research programs.FILE – People wait in line for the COVID-19 vaccine in Paterson, N.J., Jan. 21, 2021.In 1932, the U.S. government launched a medical experiment on the progression of syphilis, studying nearly 400 Black men who suffered from the disease. At the time of the study, there was no known cure for syphilis. The men never gave informed consent or received proper treatment. Even when penicillin was used to treat syphilis in 1947, researchers did not offer it to them. The study ended after 40 years when the research became public and caused a national outcry.Another case involved Henrietta Lacks, a poor Black woman from Baltimore, Maryland, who in 1951 was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins University. Her unique cells, collected without her consent, were patented by medical researchers who reaped millions of dollars. Called “HeLa” cells, they continue to be used in medical research around the world.Changing the course of historyIn January, U.S. President Joe Biden launched a task force to examine ways to reverse persistent racial and ethnic disparities in health care.“What’s needed to ensure equity in the recovery is not limited to health and health care,” said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, chairwoman of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.“We have to have conversations about housing stability and food security and educational equity, and pathways to economic opportunities and promise,” she said.The task force plans to target at-risk locations and provide medical resources to vulnerable communities struggling with social and economic inequalities.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans are three times more likely to die from COVID-19. In addition, people of color are infected with the disease and hospitalized at higher rates than the white population. Despite the high rates of infection, Black people are being vaccinated at half the rate of white Americans, according to the CDC.In Utah, where racial disparities persist, an effort to declare racism a public health crisis was postponed. State Representative Sandra Hollins withdrew her sponsored resolution at the conclusion of this year’s legislation session.Some Utah lawmakers questioned the policy implications and said they did not understand the link between race and health care.“People don’t know what racism is,” Hollins, the only African American in the state Legislature, said recently in a televised interview.She said she will reintroduce the measure in 2022.“My definition of what racism is as a Black woman who grew up in the South may be different than people who may have grown up in Utah. The definitions are different, and that’s part of the conversation we need to have,” she said.
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The United States and other wealthy countries are standing in the way of low- and middle-income countries seeking better access to COVID-19 vaccines, health-equity advocates say.South Africa and India have led an effort at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive drug companies’ exclusive rights to manufacture their vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic.Countries with major pharmaceutical industries, including the United States, several European countries and Japan, have opposed the waiver. WTO, the global trade regulating body, operates by consensus, so the proposal fails without unanimous support.“It is shameful that U.S. policy is prioritizing profits over life, and doing so in the name of the American people,” Emily Sanderson, senior grassroots advocacy coordinator for the activist group Health GAP, said in a statement.The pharmaceutical industry says patents are not the biggest barriers, however. Supplies and expertise are the major limitations, executives say. But the industry says novel partnerships already in place will meet the demand for vaccines.Vaccine rollout has been highly unequal so far. While deliveries are accelerating in many higher-income countries, “there’s over 100 countries where not a single (dose of) vaccine has been delivered,” said Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Georgetown University Global Health Policy & Politics Initiative.U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans Thursday to vaccinate enough Americans by July 4 to get life nearly back to normal.Meanwhile, A healthcare worker receives a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus as South Africa proceeds with its inoculation campaign at the Klerksdorp Hospital on Feb. 18, 2021.Manufacturers in waitingAdvocates say more people would get vaccinated if drug companies would relinquish control of their products.“We know that in India, in South Africa, in Senegal, in Thailand, there are producers that within six months could start making vaccines if the information about how to do so was shared with them,” Kavanagh said.Plus, he added, the vaccines were developed in a large part with public funding from taxpayers in the United States and Europe, which should limit drug companies’ rights to them.The conflict has echoes of the fight over HIV/AIDS drugs two decades ago. Over the vigorous opposition of drug companies and their host governments, several developing countries broke patents to produce lifesaving antiretroviral medications at much lower cost than the companies were charging.It ultimately opened the door for developing-world manufacturers to produce low-cost generic drugs that have helped control HIV/AIDS.Many say those lessons should be applied to COVID-19.“If a temporary waiver to patents cannot be issued now, during these unprecedented times, when will be the right time?” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on Twitter earlier this month.We need equal access to life-saving tools everywhere, if we are to end the #COVID19 pandemic. If a temporary waiver to patents cannot be issued now, during these unprecedented times, when will be the right time? Solidarity is the only way out. #VaccinEquityhttps://t.co/VTSholGOpZ— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 4, 2021Supply bottlenecksBut the pharmaceutical industry says revoking intellectual property will not get more shots in arms.“The bottlenecks are the capacity, the scarcity of raw materials, scarcity of ingredients, and it is about the know-how,” Thomas Cueni, head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), told Reuters.“A better approach is to continue the intense collaboration already taking place between companies, governments and other partners around the world,” Megan Van Etten, senior public affairs director at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an industry trade group, said in a statement.Rival companies have teamed up to increase supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.Earlier this month, Merck announced it would help to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in a deal brokered by the Biden administration. Sanofi is producing shots for Pfizer-BioNTech after its own vaccine suffered a setback. And AstraZeneca partnered with the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, to boost supplies of its vaccine.All told, the industry plans to manufacture 10 billion doses of vaccine this year, which would in theory be about enough to immunize the world’s entire adult population.Pharmaceutical companies say intellectual property protections were how the industry was able to produce safe and effective vaccines against a novel virus in less than a year.“Undermining the very policies that have helped research companies move so quickly against the pandemic won’t provide relief for people and will leave us all less prepared to confront future public health threats,” PhRMA’s Van Etten said.
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Facebook has scrapped plans to connect California, Taiwan and Hong Kong via a 12,000 kilometer underwater cable, citing tensions between the U.S. and China.
The social media giant told the Wall St. Journal, which broke the story, it was halting the project due to political pressure from the U.S. government, which noted potential national security concerns.
“Due to ongoing concerns from the U.S. government about direct communication links between the United States and Hong Kong, we have decided to withdraw our [Federal Communications Commission] application,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “We look forward to working with all the parties to reconfigure the system to meet the concerns of the U.S. government.”  
Facebook, along with several Chinese companies including China Telecom, applied for permits to start the cable in 2018. The cable would have sped up the flow of data across the Pacific.
This is not the first time a Pacific cable that included Hong Kong has been placed on hold. In September of 2020, Google and Facebook shelved the Pacific Light Cable Network that would have linked the U.S. with Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.  
Around the same time, Facebook and Amazon ditched a proposed cable link between San Francisco and Hong Kong called the Bay to Bay Express Cable. 
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Russia’s Internet regulatory body, Roskomnadzor, announced it had slowed down Twitter’s ability to function in Russia effective Wednesday — part of what authorities said was an initial penalty for the American social media platform’s failure to delete illegal content inside the country.According to a statement posted on Roskomnadzor’s website, 100 percent of mobile devices and 50 percent of stationary devices using Twitter would face a disruption in service in an effort to “protect Russian citizens.””The mechanism envisions slowing down the transfer of photo and video content without any limitations on text messages. Users will be able to exchange messages freely,” Roskomnadzor official Vadim Subbotin later clarified in comments to reporters.Subbotin added the restrictions would remain in place until Twitter complied with the request to remove offending content.Failure to do so, added Subbotin, could lead to a full blockage of Twitter inside the country.In its statement, Roskomnadzor said Twitter had failed to remove 3,168 tweets promoting drug use, child pornography, and teenage suicide and ignored “over 28,000 initial and repeated requests” to address content violations.There was no immediate comment from Twitter about the new restrictions.“Nobody has any desire to block anything,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov when asked about the issue in his daily call with journalists.“But taking measures that force the company to fulfill our laws is completely justifiable.”President Vladimir Putin had criticized the internet for preying on Russian youth during a meeting with young volunteers last week.“We all unfortunately know what the internet is and how it’s used to spread entirely unacceptable content,” said Putin, who argued the Web should be bound by “moral laws.”Kremlin(ru) goes darkThe moves against Twitter were quickly followed by news that a series of key Russian government websites — including the Kremlin’s main portal — were inaccessible to users.Other state websites that appeared to experience problems included the Interior Ministry, Russia’s Federal Council and Duma, the Ministry of Economic Development and even Roskomnadzor — the Internet governing body that announced the penalties against Twitter to begin with.Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development later clarified the problems had nothing to do with the actions against Twitter but were caused by technical issues at the state service provider Rostelecom.Yet it was an explanation that did little to tame speculation that something larger was unfolding online.The coming cyberwar?The move against Twitter marked the latest in a simmering battle between Russia’s government and global tech companies.The Kremlin has alleged that Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are platforms that promote content supportive of Russia’s opposition while penalizing Russian state media content.Earlier this month, Russia announced it was suing Twitter and four other global tech companies for failing to delete posts expressing support for protests against the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.  Artem Kozlyuk of the Internet rights advocacy group RoskomSvoboda called the government’s concerns about Twitter’s impact on the morality of Russian youth “nothing more than a cover.” “The real goal is to force western social media companies to limit access to political content — anything to do with calling people out to protest or visit an opposition website,”  Kozlyuk told VOA. “If Twitter or any of the other companies complied, they’d find the objections of the Russian authorities suddenly disappear.”Meanwhile, the problems with Russian government websites follow reports the Biden administration was preparing a cyber response —- both overt and covert — to what it insists is the Kremlin’s responsibility for the massive SolarWinds hack of U.S. government agency websites in 2020.Concerns over cyberattacks, and their fallout, have been a contentious aspect of the U.S.-Russian relationship since the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign — when the U.S. accused Russia of using cyber tools to interfere in the race.  In 2019, Russia passed a law in defense of a “sovereign internet” — a measure that includes a “kill switch” intended to isolate Russian infrastructure from the worldwide web, if attacked.Internet activists argue the action is just the latest in a series of laws intended to tighten government control of the internet and clamp down on free speech.But experts have long questioned whether Russia’s internet governing body was capable of carrying out its threats to block big tech or the internet as a whole.In 2019, Roskomnadzor was widely mocked for botching its efforts to block the social message app Telegram.  The effort to kill the service in Russia ended up disrupting service for hundreds of websites and commercial services, even as the app continued to function. On Wednesday, analysts suggested a similar dynamic was at play in the new fight between Russian censors and Twitter.“Russia’s slowing down of Twitter caused the outage of government websites,” explained Andrei Soldatov, a leading expert on Russian cybersecurity in a post to social media.“What was meant to be partly a nationwide test of the Sovereign Runet infrastructure, partly a warning to global platforms, (and partly a soothing message to Putin getting emotional), failed on all fronts.”As if to underline that fact, his message was posted to…where else? Twitter.Russia’s slowing down of Twitter caused the outage of govt websites.
What was meant to be partly a nationwide test of the Sovereign Runet infrastructure, partly a warning to global platforms, (and partly a soothing message to Putin getting emotional), failed on all fronts.
— Andrei Soldatov (@AndreiSoldatov) March 10, 2021
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Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded more than 116 million global coronavirus cases. The U.S. is on the verge of having 30 million infections, followed by India with 11 million and Brazil with 10.8 million.Earlier this week, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had callous words for fellow Brazilians unhappy with the president’s response to the pandemic.“Stop all this fussing and whining,” the president said. “How long are you going to keep on crying?” Bolsonaro was speaking in the Brazilian state of Goiás, where almost 9,000 people have died.Only the U.S. has more COVID deaths than Brazil. According to Hopkins, the U.S. has more than 522,000 COVID deaths, while Brazil has reported more than 262,000.Russia’s statistics agency said Friday more than 200,000 Russians diagnosed with COVID-19 have died, more than double the figure used by the government’s coronavirus task force.The figures released Friday from Rosstat, a government agency that releases coronavirus data infrequently, said it had recorded 200,432 deaths through January. Those figures include nearly 70,000 people who had the virus at the time of death, but whose main cause of death was not deemed to be COVID-19.The tally is significantly more the government’s coronavirus task force’s data, which had recorded 88,285 deaths as of Friday. The government’s task force does not count deaths in which the virus was present but is not ruled the main cause.Using the figures from Rosstat, Russia would have the third most COVID-19 fatalities in the world, behind only the United States and Brazil.Rosstat also reported Friday that Russia has recorded 394,000 more deaths since the start of the pandemic until the end of January than in the previous period — suggesting that coronavirus-related deaths in the country could be even higher.In another development Friday, the World Health Organization said investigators who conducted an inspection in China to determine origins of the COVID-19 virus would release a report on their findings in mid-March.Peter Ben Embarek, who led the mission, clarified at a regular coronavirus news briefing Friday in Geneva that an interim report would not be released as previously reported.“To clarify, there was never a plan for an interim report, first of all,” Embarek said. “It was hoped we would get a summary report out,” but “the director-general [Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] will receive that report from the team in the near future and we will discuss the recommendations.”The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday the WHO team decided not to release its interim account “amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington.”Another international group of scientists has called for the WHO to conduct a new inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. The scientists calling for a new probe said in an open letter Thursday that the WHO team “did not have the mandate, the independence, or the necessary accesses to carry out a full and unrestricted investigation.”The scientists also noted in their letter that the WHO investigators in China were accompanied by their Chinese counterparts.The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.Throughout his term, former U.S. president Donald Trump strongly suggested, without evidence, the coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.A global team of inspectors began its four-week investigation in Wuhan in January and finished it last month.Italy on Friday surpassed 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. The health ministry reported 24,036 new confirmed cases Friday, the third straight day this week that daily new caseloads exceeded 20,000 cases.The government said it would further tighten coronavirus restrictions in three of its 20 regions after health officials warned of the increase of cases of more contagious variants.France reported 23,507 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, which is down from the previous week, however officials said the number of people in intensive care with COVID-19 reached its highest level this year.Canada’s drug regulator announced Friday that it had approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, the fourth such inoculation to get approval. Canada has also approved vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.Mickey Mouse may once again scamper on Disneyland’s streets, according to California officials who said Friday the state’s theme and amusement parks could open as early as April 1.There are, of course, COVID-19 restrictions on the openings. The parks would open under restricted capacity. They would also have to be in a county that is not under certain constraints, designed to slow the coronavirus transmission rate.A purple county has the most restrictions due to its coronavirus rate of infection, under California’s color-code system. Disneyland is in a purple country, but at the present rate of transmission, officials expect the theme park would likely be eligible for reopening sometime in April.
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For more than a century, International Women’s Day has celebrated women’s achievements across the globe, overcoming persistent gender inequality. This year’s observance comes as the UN reports women, particularly women of color, face especially high rates of unemployment. VOA’s Esha Sarai has more.
Camera: Karen Sánchez and Rebaz Majeed
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