Month: September 2021

Funeral director Wayne Bright has seen grief piled upon grief during the latest COVID-19 surge. A woman died of the virus, and as her family was planning the funeral, her mother was struck down. An aunt took over arrangements for the double funeral, only to die of COVID-19 herself two weeks later. “That was one of the most devastating things ever,” said Bright, who also arranged the funeral last week of one of his closest friends. Florida is in the grip of its deadliest wave of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, a disaster driven by the highly contagious delta variant. While Florida’s vaccination rate is slightly higher than the national average, the Sunshine State has an outsize population of elderly people, who are especially vulnerable to the virus; a vibrant party scene; and a Republican governor who has taken a hard line against mask requirements, vaccine passports and business shutdowns. As of mid-August, the state was averaging 244 deaths per day, up from 23 a day in late June and eclipsing the previous peak of 227 during the summer of 2020. (Because of the way deaths are logged in Florida and lags in reporting, more recent figures on fatalities per day are incomplete.) Hospitals have rented refrigerated trucks to store more bodies. Funeral homes have been overwhelmed. This 2016 photo provided by Cristina Miles shows her and her husband, Austin, in Palm Coast, Fla. Cristina’s husband died after contracting COVID-19, and less than two weeks later, her mother-in-law succumbed to the virus.’Weird dream state’Cristina Miles, a mother of five from Orange Park, is among those facing more than one loss at a time. Her husband died after contracting COVID-19, and less than two weeks later, her mother-in-law succumbed to the virus. “I feel we are all kind of in a weird dream state,” she said, of herself and her three children. Hospitals have been swamped with patients who, like Miles’ husband and mother-in-law, hadn’t gotten vaccinated. In a positive sign, the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 in Florida has dropped over the past two weeks from more than 17,000 to 14,200 on Friday, indicating the surge is easing.  Florida made an aggressive effort early on to vaccinate its senior citizens. But Dr. Kartik Cherabuddi, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Florida, said the raw number of those who have yet to get the shot is still large, given Florida’s elderly population of 4.6 million. “Even 10% is still a very large number, and then folks living with them who come in contact with them are not vaccinated,” Cherabuddi said. “With delta, things spread very quickly.” Cherabuddi said there is also a “huge difference” in attitudes toward masks in Florida this summer compared with last year. This summer, “if you traveled around the state, it was like we are not really in a surge,” he said. FILE – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a news conference at Orlando Regional Medical Center, June 23, 2020, in Orlando, Fla.DeSantis’ stancesGovernor Ron DeSantis has strongly opposed certain mandatory measures to keep the virus in check, saying people should be trusted to make decisions for themselves. He has asserted, too, that the spike in cases is seasonal as Floridians spend more time indoors to escape the heat. At his funeral home in Tampa, Bright is working weekdays and weekends, staying past midnight sometimes. “Usually we serve between five and six families a week. Right now, we are probably seeing 12 to 13 new families every week,” he said. “It’s nonstop. We are just trying to keep up with the volume.” He had to arrange the burial of one of his closest friends, a man he had entrusted with the security code to his house. They used to carpool each other’s kids to school, and their families would gather for birthday and Super Bowl parties. “It is very, very difficult to go through this process for someone you love so dearly,” he said. Pat Seemann, a nurse practitioner whose company has nearly 500 elderly, homebound patients in central Florida, had not lost a single patient to COVID-19. Then the variant she calls “the wrecking ball” hit. In the past month, she lost seven patients in two weeks, including a husband and wife who died within days of each other. “I cried all weekend. I was devastated, angry,” she said. Elderly hit hardestOverall, more than 46,300 people have died of COVID-19 in Florida, which ranks 17th in per capita deaths among the states. The majority of the deaths this summer — like last summer — are among the elderly. Of the 2,345 people whose recent deaths were reported over the past week, 1,479 of them were 65 and older, or 63%. “The focus needs to be on who’s dying and who’s ending up in the hospital,” Seeman said. “It’s still going after the elderly.” But the proportion of under-65 people dying of COVID-19 has grown substantially, which health officials attribute to lower vaccination rates in those age groups. Aaron Jaggi, 35, was trying to get healthy before he died of COVID-19, 12 hours after his older brother Free Jaggi, 41, lost his life to the virus. They were overweight, which increases the risk of severe COVID-19 illness, and on the fence about getting vaccinated, thinking the risk was minimal because they both worked from home, said Brittany Pequignot, who has lived with the family at various times and is like an adopted daughter. After their death, the family found a whiteboard that belonged to Aaron. It listed his daily goals for sit-ups and push-ups. “He was really trying,” Pequignot said. 
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Some cities in Brazil are providing booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, even though most people have yet to receive their second jabs, in a sign of the concern in the country over the highly contagious delta variant.Rio de Janeiro, currently Brazil’s epicenter for the variant and home to one of its largest elderly populations, began administering the boosters Wednesday. Northeastern cities Salvador and Sao Luis started on Monday, and the most populous city of Sao Paulo will begin Sept. 6. The rest of the nation will follow the next week.France, Israel, China and Chile are among those countries giving boosters to some of their older citizens, but more people in those countries are fully vaccinated than the 30% who have gotten two shots in Brazil. A U.S. plan to start delivery of booster shots by Sept. 20 for most Americans is facing complications that could delay third doses for those who received the Moderna vaccine, administration officials said Friday.About nine out of 10 Brazilians have been vaccinated already or plan to be, according to pollster Datafolha. Most have gotten their first shot but not their second.Brazil’s cases and deaths have been falling for two months, with 621 deaths reported in the seven days through Sept. 2 — far below April’s peak of more than 3,000 reported deaths over a seven-day period. Older Brazilians have expressed concern about the efficacy of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine against the delta variant, prompting authorities to offer the booster shots.Diana dos Santos, 71, received two shots of the Sinovac vaccine even after President Jair Bolsonaro spent months publicly criticizing it. Dos Santos, who lives Rio’s low-income Maré neighborhood, is diabetic and was hospitalized for a heart condition. She refuses to leave home until she gets her booster.“I can’t go out like before and I’m still afraid of all of this,” dos Santos said. “I will feel safer (with a booster).”Because of the variant, some experts say the government should slow the rollout of boosters and focus on distributing second doses. Delta is the most contagious variant identified, and many studies have suggested that one dose doesn’t protect against it.Two shots provide strong protection, with nearly all hospitalizations and deaths among the unvaccinated.Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist and professor at the Federal University of Espirito Santo, said pushing boosters at this early stage recalls the lack of concern given the gamma variant that overwhelmed Amazonian city Manaus earlier this year, only to feed a new wave nationwide. Brazil has seen more than 580,000 deaths from COVID-19, making it home to world’s eighth-highest toll on a per capita basis.Elderly residents wait for a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, during a booster shot campaign for the elderly in long-term care institutions, at Casa de Repouso Laco de Ouro nursing home, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2021.“It seems we’re in the same movie, repeating the same errors,” Maciel said. “It’s only a matter of time until what’s happening in Rio leads to a greater number of more serious cases in the rest of the country.”The delta variant already is dominant in Rio de Janeiro state, detected in 86% of the samples collected from COVID-19 patients, according to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. Intensive care units have reached full capacity in eight municipalities, although only a small rise in deaths have been recorded so far.Authorities in Sao Paulo state expect a similar scenario within weeks. It registered its first confirmed death from the delta variant on Tuesday, a 74-year-old woman who had received two Sinovac shots.Globally, doubts have plagued Chinese vaccines, especially as the delta variant has gained hold in many countries. Chinese officials have maintained the vaccine protects against delta, particularly preventing hospitalizations and severe cases.Still, Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Aug. 25 that people aged 70 or older or who have a weak immune system will be eligible for a third dose, starting Sept. 15 — preferably with the Pfizer vaccine. He said that people over 18 will have received their first doses by then, although he didn’t address their vulnerability to the delta variant without a second shot.He also criticized governors and mayors who sought to deliver booster shots earlier, saying it could lead to vaccine shortages.Carla Domingues, former coordinator of Brazil’s national immunization program, agrees with the need to provide the elderly boosters, but not for people aged 70 and up right away. Shots should first go to nursing homes and people who are bed-ridden, she said, then people 80 and above, with the age slowly decreasing as supply allows.“Certainly, there will be problems with shortage, because there won’t be enough vaccine,” Domingues said.Japan and South Korea both wrestled with slow vaccine rollouts, and under half their populations are fully vaccinated; their governments are only planning booster shots in the fourth quarter of this year. Malaysia also is considering boosters, but Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the priority is those who haven’t received a first dose.Aloysio Zaluar, 84, is injected with a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a booster shot campaign for elderly residents in long-term care institutions in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 1, 2021.Thailand began giving booster shots even as most people wait to be vaccinated — but only for health and front-line workers who received two Sinovac shots. The decision came after a nurse died of COVID-19 in July.Russia, Hungary and Serbia also are giving boosters, although there has been a lack of demand in those countries for the initial shots amid abundant supplies.In addition to doubts over boosters, the issue is sensitive due to implications for global vaccine distribution. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for a moratorium on boosters “to allow those countries that are furthest behind to catch up.”Epidemiologist Denise Garrett, vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, which advocates for expanding global vaccine access, said in an interview there is no doubt about the need for two jabs, but she sees no scientific or moral justification for a third.“Authorities giving a third dose are prioritizing protection against light disease instead of shielding people in poor countries from death,” said Garrett, who is Brazilian. “That is shameful, immoral, and this vaccine inequity must end.”That doesn’t sway 97-year-old Maria Menezes, who wants to spend time outside her home where she has lived for the last seven decades in Rio’s western region. Her two daughters say Menezes wants to a booster shot.“She asked us to take her for the third vaccine,” said daughter Cristina França, 38. “It will be important to beef up her immunity to reduce her risks. Her life won’t change much after the third dose, because she is more frail now, but she would live with more calm.”
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A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday says the coronavirus can cause “severe illness” in children and adolescents.From late June to mid-August, when there was an “increased circulation” of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, weekly COVID-associated hospitalization rates for children and adolescents rose nearly fivefold. Hospitalization rates, however, were “10 times higher among unvaccinated than among fully vaccinated adolescents,” the study said.India’s health ministry said Saturday morning that 42,618 new COVID cases were reported in the previous 24-hour period and 330 deaths.India is second only to the United States in COVID tolls. India has almost 33 million COVID-19 infections and 440,225 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S., Johns Hopkins says, has nearly 40 million infections and close to 650,000 deaths. Public health officials have warned, however, that India’s tolls are likely undercounted.The COVID-related death of a woman in her 90s is the first COVID-related death in New Zealand in more than 200 days.In addition to COVID, doctors say the women had several underlying health problems.Fighter Oscar de la Hoya has been hospitalized with COVID-19, forcing him to drop out of a comeback fight scheduled for next month.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Saturday that it had recorded nearly 219.8 million global COVID infections and 4.5 million deaths. The center said 5.4 billion vaccines have been administered.
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Cuban authorities on Friday launched a national campaign to vaccinate children ages 2-18 against COVID-19, a prerequisite set by the communist government for schools to reopen amid a spike in infections.Children 12 and older will be the first to receive one of the two domestically produced vaccines, Abdala and Soberana, followed by younger kids.Schools have mostly been closed in Cuba since March 2020, and students have been following lessons on television. With the school year starting Monday, they will continue learning remotely until all eligible children are vaccinated.Laura Lantigua, 17, got the first of three injections at Saul Delgado high school in the Cuban capital, Havana.”I always wanted to be vaccinated,” Lantigua told AFP. She said that doctors measured her blood pressure and temperature before giving her the shot, then told her to wait for an hour to ensure she didn’t have any side effects.”I felt normal, fine,” Lantigua said.Late Friday, the Medicines Regulatory Agency (Cecmed) announced that it authorized the emergency use of the Soberana 2 vaccine for minors between the ages of 2 and 18.The composition of Cuban vaccines, which are not recognized by the World Health Organization, is based on a recombinant protein, the same technique used by the U.S. company Novavax.With the delta variant spreading across the island of 11.2 million, the country’s health care system has been pushed to the brink.Of the 5,300 novel coronavirus deaths recorded since the outbreak started, nearly half were in August, as were almost a third of all reported cases.The government said it plans to gradually reopen schools for in-person instruction in October after the vaccination campaign among children is completed.
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In the first report of its kind, the World Meteorological Organization examines the close link between air quality and climate change and how measures stemming from COVID-19 influenced air quality patterns in 2020.Government-imposed lockdown measures and travel restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 resulted in a marked improvement in air quality in many parts of the world. For example, the WMO said Southeast Asia experienced a 40% reduction in air particles in 2020.However, the chief of the WMO’s Atmospheric Environment Research Division, Oksana Tarasova, said the dramatic fall in emissions of key air pollutants was short-lived. She said city dwellers who reveled in seeing blue skies during periods of lockdown inactivity, had to again endure living under a pollution cloud once the cars started rolling again.WMO Chief of atmospheric and environment research division Oksana Tarasova attends a press conference Nov. 25, 2019 in Geneva.“As soon as mobility has increased, we are back to business as usual,” Tarasova said. “So, those improvements were not very long lasting. And that is why we always stress that the extreme measures which were taken under lockdown is not a substitute for long term policies.”During this same period, the WMO said extreme weather events fueled by climate and environmental change triggered unprecedented sand and dust storms and wildfires that affected air quality.In parallel with the human-induced experiment on lockdowns and travel restrictions, Tarasova said those, and other natural phenomena also were controlling air quality around the world.“There were several very strong events that happened in 2020 related to bio-mass burning where the smoke pollution from this burning bio-mass impacted air quality in large parts of Siberia, the United States,” Tarasova said. “Early in the year, there was an episode in Australia that caused dramatic deterioration of air quality in those parts of the world.”Smoke from wildfires is seen east of Hobart in the Australian island state of Tasmania Jan. 4, 2013.The episode Tarasova refers is to Australian wildfires.The WMO says changes in climate can influence pollution levels directly. It says the increased frequency and intensity of heatwaves may lead to greater accumulation of pollutants close to the surface. It notes the intense wildfires breaking out in many parts of the world and huge dust and sandstorms also worsen air pollution.The weather agency warns air pollution has significant impacts on human health. That is borne out by estimates from the latest Global Burden of Disease assessment. The data show global mortality from pollution nearly doubled from 2.3 million in 1990 to 4.5 million in 2019 — most due to particulate matter.  
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Technological advances in prosthetics have vastly improved the lives of many U.S. veterans and service members over the past 20 years. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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Amid the latest wave of COVID-19 infections, less than 1% of people in Africa’s most populated country, Nigeria, have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Nigerian authorities are scrambling for more vaccines but say misinformation and myths are discouraging uptake. Timothy Obiezu looks at efforts to dispel the rumors in this report from the capital, Abuja.
Camera: Emeka Gibson       Producer: Jason Godman
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The African Union has announced that Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines assembled in South Africa will no longer be exported to Europe and will instead be distributed among African countries.In addition, millions of J&J vaccines already shipped to Europe, but currently stored in warehouses, will be returned to South Africa, African Union COVID-19 envoy Strive Masiyiwa said Thursday.The deal between J&J and Aspen Pharmacare, the South African facility manufacturing the J&J vaccines that were sent to Europe, had received harsh criticism as less than 3% of the population of the African continent has been inoculated, compared to richer regions of the world that have begun or will soon begin booster shot campaigns.The World Health Organization has warned that the pandemic cannot be brought under control unless all the world’s regions are equitably vaccinated.Meanwhile, WHO has listed a new coronavirus strain as a “variant of interest.” The Mu variant is responsible for nearly 40% of the COVID cases in Colombia where it was first identified.Greek health care workers demonstrated Thursday against a COVID mandate that went into effect Wednesday.Under the new regulation, workers will be suspended without pay if they have not been inoculated or recovered from the coronavirus in the last six months.Musicals are back on Broadway, after an absence of more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Tony Award-winning Hadestown, a modern interpretation of the ancient Greek legend of lovers Orpheus and Eurydice, opened Thursday.Also, the musical Waitress began a limited run Thursday, starring singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles.Hamilton, The Lion King, and Wicked return to Broadway theaters Sept. 14.The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded 219 million COVID infections and 4.5 million coronavirus deaths.  The center said early Friday that 5.3 billion vaccines have been administered.  Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.  
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The COVID-19 pandemic has created a nurse staffing crisis that is forcing many U.S. hospitals to pay top dollar to get the help they need to handle the crush of patients this summer.The problem, health leaders say, is twofold: Nurses are quitting or retiring, exhausted or demoralized by the crisis. And many are leaving for lucrative temporary jobs with traveling-nurse agencies that can pay $5,000 or more a week.It’s gotten to the point where doctors are saying, “Maybe I should quit being a doctor and go be a nurse,” said Dr. Phillip Coule, chief medical officer at Georgia’s Augusta University Medical Center, which has on occasion seen 20 to 30 resignations in a week from nurses taking traveling jobs.“And then we have to pay premium rates to get staff from another state to come to our state,” Coule said.The average pay for a traveling nurse has soared from roughly $1,000 to $2,000 per week before the pandemic to $3,000 to $5,000 now, said Sophia Morris, a vice president at San Diego-based health care staffing firm Aya Healthcare. She said Aya has 48,000 openings for traveling nurses to fill.At competitor SimpliFi, President James Quick said the hospitals his company works with are seeing unprecedented levels of vacancies.“Small to medium-sized hospitals generally have dozens of full-time openings, and the large health systems have hundreds of full-time openings,” he said.The explosion in pay has made it hard on hospitals without deep enough pockets.Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly lamented recently that the state’s hospitals risk being outbid for nurses by other states that pay a “fortune.” She said Wednesday that several hospitals, including one in Topeka, had open beds but no nurses to staff them.In Kansas City, Missouri, Truman Medical Centers has lost about 10 nurses to travel jobs in recent days and is looking for travelers to replace them, said CEO Charlie Shields.He said it is hard to compete with the travel agencies, which are charging hospitals $165 to $170 an hour per nurse. He said the agencies take a big cut of that, but he estimated that nurses are still clearing $70 to $90 an hour, which is two to three times what the hospital pays its staff nurses.“I think clearly people are taking advantage of the demand that is out there,” Shields said. “I hate to use ‘gouged’ as a description, but we are clearly paying a premium and allowing people to have fairly high profit margins.”In Texas, more than 6,000 travel nurses have flooded the state to help with the surge through a state-supported program. But on the same day that 19 of them went to work at a hospital in the northern part of the state, 20 other nurses at the same place gave notice that they would be leaving for a traveling contract, said Carrie Kroll, a vice president at the Texas Hospital Association.FILE – In this Aug. 18, 2021, photo, a poster honoring medical and frontline workers hangs on a nursing station of an intensive care unit at the Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport, La.“The nurses who haven’t left, who have stayed with their facilities, they are seeing these other people come in now who are making more money. It provides a tense working environment,” Kroll said.The pandemic was in its early stages when Kim Davis, 36, decided to quit her job at an Arkansas hospital and become a travel nurse. She said she has roughly doubled her income in the 14 months that she has been treating patients in intensive care units in Phoenix; San Bernardino, California; and Tampa, Florida.“Since I’ve been traveling, I’ve paid off all my debt. I paid off about $50,000 in student loans,” she said.Davis said many of her colleagues are following the same path.“They’re leaving to go travel because why would you do the same job for half the pay?” she said. “If they’re going to risk their lives, they should be compensated.”Health leaders say nurses are bone-tired and frustrated from being asked to work overtime, from getting screamed at and second-guessed by members of the community, and from dealing with people who chose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask.“Imagine going to work every day and working the hardest that you have worked and stepping out of work and what you see every day is denied in the public,” said Julie Hoff, chief nurse executive at OU Health in Oklahoma. “The death that you see every day is not honored or recognized.”Meanwhile, hospitals are getting squeezed by the revolving door of departures and new hires from traveling agencies.Coule cited a recent example in which his hospital in Georgia hired a respiratory therapist through an agency to replace a staff member who had decided to accept a traveling gig. The replacement came from the same hospital where his respiratory therapist had just gone to work.“Essentially we swapped personnel but at double the cost,” he said.Patricia Pittman, director of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at George Washington University, said many nurses still harbor resentment toward their employers from the early stages of the pandemic, in part from being forced to work without adequate protective gear.“The nurses say, ‘Hey, if I am not going to be treated with respect, I might as well go be a travel nurse,’” she said. “‘That way I can go work in a hellhole for 13 weeks, but then I can take off a couple months or three months and go do whatever.’”
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Americans will likely have to get a third shot of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday at a White House press briefing.”I must say from my own experience as an immunologist, I would not at all be surprised that the adequate full regimen for vaccination will likely be three doses,” Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters.He said the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would make the final decision.Whether those who got the one-shot Johnson & Johnson will need boosters remains to be seen.Any booster for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines would be given between five and eight months after the second dose.White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients said that 175 million Americans were now fully vaccinated, an increase of 10 million from a month ago.”That’s a major milestone in our vaccination effort,” Zients said at the briefing.The seven-day rolling average on Thursday of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. was more than 150,000 per day, while hospitalizations were at 12,000 and deaths at 953, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.Fauci also addressed the so-called mu variant, which the World Health Organization added to its list of variants of interest Monday.”We’re paying attention to it — we take everything like that seriously — but we don’t consider it an immediate threat right now,” said Fauci, who also serves as White House chief medical adviser.First identified in Colombia, mu has been seen in at least 39 countries, WHO said.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 
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U.S. climate envoy John Kerry warned Thursday that Beijing’s coal-building spree could “undo” global capacity to meet environmental targets, after holding talks with top officials in China. Tensions between Beijing and Washington have soared in recent months, with the two sides trading barbs on China’s human rights record and its initial handling of the coronavirus. Tackling climate change is among a handful of issues where the two sides had struck notes of harmony. But Beijing has in recent months emphasized that environmental cooperation could be hurt by deteriorating Sino-U.S. relations. Kerry told journalists Thursday evening that the United States has made it “clear that the addition of more coal plants represents a significant challenge to the efforts of the world to deal with the climate crisis.” FILE – Workers put away equipment after coming out of the Datai coal mine in Mentougou, west of Beijing, Jan. 8, 2020.Chinese plans for new coal plants could “undo the capacity of the world to reach net-zero by 2050,” he said, adding that while they had “very constructive” talks, he also was “very direct” on the topic. Despite pledges to reach peak coal consumption before 2030, then move toward carbon neutrality. China brought 38.4 gigawatts of new coal-fired power into operation last year — more than three times the amount brought online elsewhere in the world. China has challenged the United States to fix relations with Beijing in order to make progress on climate change. Kerry urged the Chinese government, however, not to let environmental cooperation be affected by tensions between the world’s two biggest polluters, calling it a “global challenge.” “It is essential … no matter what differences we have, that we have to address the climate crisis,” he said. Foreign Minister Wang Yi had told Kerry earlier in the visit that cooperation on global warming could not be disentangled from broader diplomacy between the two countries. In a video call with the climate envoy, Wang accused Washington of a “major strategic miscalculation toward China,” according to the ministry statement. “It is impossible for China-U.S. climate cooperation to be elevated above the overall environment of China-U.S. relations,” Wang said. He added that “the ball is now in the United States’ court, and the U.S. should stop seeing China as a threat and opponent.” ‘China can do more’ Kerry visited Japan earlier this week before traveling to the northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin, in a tour aiming to drum up support for a major global summit to tackle pressing climate issues.  FILE – A coal-burning power plant can be seen behind a factory in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, October 31, 2010.The 26th edition of the U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties — COP26 — in Glasgow in November marks the biggest climate summit since the 2015 Paris negotiation. Kerry said he plans to meet with his Chinese counterparts again before the summit, to push for stronger emission reduction commitments.  The U.S .envoy has repeatedly urged China to step up efforts to reduce carbon emissions. “We have consistently said to China and other countries … to do their best within their given capacity,” Kerry said Thursday. “We think that China can do more.” The country is the world’s current largest emitter of carbon dioxide, followed by the United States, which has historically emitted more than any other nation to date. While Beijing has promised to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060, it continues to be heavily dependent on coal, which fuels nearly 60 percent of its energy consumption. “We have an opportunity to make a positive impact in Glasgow,” Kerry said. “It really depends on the choices that China makes at this point.” 
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The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that Virgin Galactic cannot launch anyone into space until an investigation is complete into a mishap that occurred during July’s flight with founder Richard Branson.The ban came as Virgin Galactic announced plans to launch three Italian researchers to the edge of space in a few weeks.The FAA said the rocketship carrying Branson and five Virgin Galactic employees veered off course during its descent back to New Mexico on July 11. The deviation put the ship outside the air traffic control clearance area.The FAA is overseeing the probe; it’s responsible for protecting the public during commercial launches and reentries. Crew safety, on the other hand, is outside its jurisdiction. Virgin Galactic insisted Thursday that Branson and everyone else on board were never in any added danger.”Virgin Galactic may not return the SpaceShipTwo vehicle to flight until the FAA approves the final mishap investigation report or determines the issues related to the mishap do not affect public safety,” the FAA said in a statement.Virgin Galactic acknowledged the space plane dropped below the protected airspace for 1 minute and 41 seconds. The spacecraft’s free-flying portion of the up-and-down flight lasted about 15 minutes and reached an altitude of 53.5 miles (86 kilometers).Virgin Galactic said high-altitude wind caused the change in flight path and insisted the two pilots “responded appropriately.” In a statement, the company said the flight was “a safe and successful test flight that adhered to our flight procedures and training protocols.””At no time were passengers and crew put in any danger as a result of this change in trajectory,” the company noted.Branson beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos — founder of Amazon and the rocket company Blue Origin — into space by nine days. Bezos launched July 20 with three others from West Texas.Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are vying to sell seats to tourists, scientists and anyone else looking to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Virgin Galactic’s rocketship is launched from an airplane, while Blue Origin’s capsule is hoisted by a reusable New Shepard rocket.Virgin Galactic is aiming for late September or early October for its next flight, with two Italian Air Force officers, an engineer for the National Research Council of Italy, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor and the rocketship’s two pilots. It will be the company’s first launch where researchers accompany their own experiments. The company plans to start flying ticket holders next year.Blue Origin has yet to announce a date for its next passenger flight, other than to say it will be soon.
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As officials assess the damage done by Hurricane Ida on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in the Northeast, forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center are staying busy watching Hurricane Larry grow stronger in the eastern Atlantic. At last report, forecasters said Larry was far out in the eastern Atlantic, still closer to Africa than the U.S. mainland. But the storm’s winds were already at 130 kilometers per hour, and forecasters said Larry would strengthen rapidly as it turned to the west-northwest over the next 24 hours or so. It was expected to become a major hurricane by late Friday.The forecast track put the storm on course for, but well south of, Bermuda by next Tuesday, when it could well be a Category 4 hurricane, with forecast winds of 206 kph.
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Ireland on Thursday slapped Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service with a record fine for breaching EU data privacy laws after European regulators demanded the penalty be increased.Ireland’s Data Protection Commission was entrusted with the case because Facebook’s European headquarters are situated in the country.”And following this reassessment the DPC has imposed a fine of 225 million euros ($267 million) on WhatsApp,” the commission said, by far the largest penalty it has ever issued to a company, dwarfing the 450,000-euro fine imposed on Twitter last year. As Ireland hosts the regional headquarters of a number of major tech players such as Apple, Google and Twitter, the DPC has been largely responsible for policing adherence to the EU’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) charter.But Ireland has come under pressure for not taking a firm enough line against tech giants, who are generally understood to be drawn to the country by its low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent.WhatsApp said it would appeal the decision.”We disagree with the decision today” it said in a statement, calling the penalties “entirely disproportionate.”‘Dissuasive fine’The DPC launched the WhatsApp probe in December 2018 to examine whether the messaging app “discharged its GDPR transparency obligations” with regard to telling users how their data would be processed between WhatsApp and other Facebook companies.In an initial finding submitted to other European regulators for approval last December, the DPC proposed imposing a fine of between 30 and 50 million euros, but a number of national regulators rejected the figure, triggering the launch of a dispute resolution process in June.Last month, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) instructed the DPC to increase the fine, with Germany’s regulator leading the calls for the penalty to be higher. The EDPB said that the fine had to “reflect a significant level of non-compliance which impact on all of the processing carried out by WhatsApp” in Ireland.The fine had to be “effective, dissuasive and proportionate,” it said. Hailed as a potent weapon to bring tech titans to heel, the GDPR endowed national watchdogs with cross-border powers and the possibility to impose sizeable fines for data misuse.But Germany’s data protection commissioner, Ulrich Kelber, in March wrote an open letter criticizing the DPC for the “extremely slow” way it handled GDPR complaints.
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The World Health Organization warns few governments are providing necessary care for many of the more than 55 million people living with dementia at a time when this debilitating brain condition is growing rapidly around the world.A stock-taking analysis of WHO’s 2017 Global Action Plan on Dementia shows few states are implementing measures for caring and treating people living with this condition.It finds only a quarter of countries worldwide have a national policy or plan for supporting people with dementia and their families.  It warns too many governments are unprepared to deal with this growing public health problem, which affects 55 million people globally – more than 60 percent in low-and-middle-income countries.The World Health Organization estimates the number of people with dementia will rise to 78 million by 2030 and an estimated 139 million by 2050.  WHO estimates the global cost of dementia also is expected to balloon from the present $1.3 trillion to $2.8 trillion by 2030.Technical Officer in WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, Katrin Seeher, said too many countries lack a basic comprehensive policy to respond to the challenges that lie ahead.“We also need to strengthen the health and the social care system in countries to ensure that there is universal access to dementia diagnosis but also to treatment and care.  And we especially need to reduce the gap that exists between high-income and low-and-middle income countries and between urban and rural areas,” said Seeher.Dementia is caused by a variety of diseases and injuries that affect the brain, such as Alzheimer’s disease or stroke. It mainly afflicts people over the age of 60 and can affect memory, other cognitive functions, and make it difficult to perform everyday tasks.Tarun Dua is Unit Head of WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Use. While there is no cure, she said reducing risk factors can potentially prevent up to 40 percent of dementia cases.“For example, healthy diet. Looking at the risk factors, which are the same risk factors for noncommunicable diseases, such as tobacco use or harmful use of alcohol.  Managing conditions like hypertension, diabetes, or depression—social isolation.  These are the things that we can do promote our brain health and decrease the cognitive decline and the risk for dementia,” said Dua.WHO reports people with dementia require primary health care, specialist care, community-based services, rehabilitation, long-term care, and palliative care. Health officials note dementia is not a normal part of aging.  But countries must be prepared to support and care for the increasing numbers of people that will be afflicted with this disabling condition in the years to come.
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