₦airaland Forum

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, said poor investment in healthcare infrastructure across board was a major impediment to effective healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
He pointed out that the ugly scenario was the brain driving medical tourism at a very high cost in the country.
Speaking at the opening of a three-day Bayelsa Health Summit in Yenagoa, Jonathan, who canvassed private sector investment to compliment government’s efforts, regretted that the nations Nigerians were travelling to for medicare depended largely on private sector-driven facilities.
He said this informed his signing of the National Health Bill but lamented, however, that the law had not been fully implemented by the current administration to improve healthcare service delivery in the country.
While commending the state government for organising the event, the ex-leader urged the Federal Government to stage a similar workshop to discuss the extant health law, as about 30 per cent of doctors in the country have little or no idea about the benefits of the piece of legislation assented to since 2014.
His words: “Many Nigerians travel abroad to seek medical attention. But if you go to the countries they travel to, you would discover that it is privately-owned hospitals that thrive in those countries. This was why I conceived the plan to build massive health facilities across the six geopolitical zones of the country while I was president.
“The plan was to bring back all Nigerian doctors from abroad. But to achieve this, we needed a law that would give the plan a solid foundation. As president, I signed many bills into law and three out of these bills still make me happy. They are the National Health Bill, FOI Bill and Local Content Bill.”
He continued: “Out of the three, the FOI and Local Content laws are doing well, but the impact of the National Health Law is yet to be felt by Nigerians. This is because 30 per cent of doctors in Nigeria know little or nothing about the law.”
In his remarks, Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, warned Nigerians that the nation remained under threat of a third COVID-19 wave, urging frontline health workers and citizens to be watchful.
He said although the country recorded major success in its response too the virus, the minister quickly added that the news of the havoc the disease was wreaking on India, Thailand, Argentina and Brazil should be disturbing to Nigerians.

In the first week of March, governors in Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Arizona, West Virginia and Connecticut announced significant loosening of statewide pandemic restrictions like mask mandates and indoor capacity limits.
These states joined several others in loosening statewide coronavirus restrictions in early 2021.
In 2020, some states, like Georgia and Alaska, chose never to implement statewide mask mandates. Last September, Florida became one the largest states to roll back Covid capacity restrictions when Gov. Ron DeSantis reopened bars and restaurants to full capacity.

I don't think it is time to relax the epidemic restrictions. Although the situation has improved after vaccination, it does not mean that Covid-19 has disappeared. There are still many people who have not been vaccinated or are afraid of being vaccinated.

The coronavirus is still raging across the world, and Nigeria is not immune to it. Yet, it often takes the death of a prominent person to alert Nigerians to its clear and present danger. The latest high-profile death was that of Yinka Odumakin, national publicity secretary of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, who died from COVID-19 complications on April 2. We will never know whether his death was preventable, yet evidence shows that COVID-19 mortality is avoidable.
Worldwide, illnesses, hospitalisations and deaths from the coronavirus have reduced due to the combination of strict observance of safety protocols, effective test, trace and isolate system and, ultimately, vaccination.
Countries, such as Israel and the UK, where each of these responses is robust and effective, are already easing social and economic restrictions.
By contrast, although Nigeria has no COVID-19 social or economic restrictions in place, none of the three counter- measures - public safety protocols; test, trace and isolate system; and vaccination - is effectively in place either!
Take adherence to safety protocols. A recent study by the UK's Office of National Statistics, ONS, found very high compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols in the UK, with 89 per cent of adults handwashing, 97 per cent using a face-covering and 86 per cent observing social distancing. But in Nigeria, thanks to widespread public apathy, the safety protocols are more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
In one editorial, this newspaper aptly highlighted the seriousness of the problem. It said: "Daily, the streets and markets are thronged by crowds that exhibit nonchalance for the safety protocols. Commercial vehicles are routinely crammed with passengers even as crowds of revellers gather at social events, all in disregard of recommended safety precautions" (Vanguard, February 2, 2021). Of course, such super-spreading events and behaviours would have caused unnecessary COVID-19 infections and deaths.
According to ReutersCOVID-19 Trackers, as of April 13 this week, Nigeria had 163,837 infections and 2,061 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began. Given that the source of the COVID-19 figures was, according to Reuters, the Ministry of Health, one must, considering Nigeria's huge data problem, take the figures with a pinch of salt.
Which leads us to the second element of the COVID-19 response: effective test, trace, isolate and cure system. Nigeria has no effective means of testing and tracing people with COVID-19 infections, and without an effective test and trace system, you can't know the number of COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, if the number of deaths is only derived from hospitalisations, what about the countless ordinary Nigerians who couldn't afford to go to a hospital and probably died from COVID-19 complications without hospitalisations?
Unfortunately, Nigeria's data problem and the absence of an effective test and trace system have led to dubious figures that suggest that COVID-19 infections and deaths are low in Nigeria and that they are even decreasing when these might not be so, thus lulling people into a false sense of protection. Sadly, it has often taken high-profile, coronavirus-related deaths, such as Odumakin's, to create public awareness about the ever-present and ever-deadly nature of COVID-19; but there are probably thousands of ordinary Nigerians whose deaths could have been prevented with an effective test, trace, isolate and cure system.
However, while adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols and a test, trace, isolate and cure system are powerful weapons in the war against COVID-19, the pandemic can only be defeated with effective vaccines. Hence, the world hailed the development of different vaccines because effective vaccines would prevent people from catching COVID-19 and, for those who catch it, would significantly reduce hospitalisations and deaths. Even as COVID-19 mutates, with new variants, vaccines are still the answer!
Thus, it's utterly inexcusable that Nigeria has failedabysmally to prioritise the purchase and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines; failed to give any urgency to vaccinating its citizens.
Leaving aside the fact that Nigeria has not developed and manufactured any COVID-19 vaccine that meets international standards, it's deeply embarrassing that, as Africa's largest economy and the world's 27th, it cannot make independent arrangements to buy its own vaccines and had to rely solely on complex, yet uncertain, collective arrangements with the African Union and the COVAX Facility, under the auspices of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
To be clear, the African Union and COVAX initiatives are commendable, and Nigeria should be part of them. But, with a population of over 200 million people, and given the need for mass vaccination to achieve herd immunity, Nigeria cannot rely on haphazard arrangements for the vaccination of its citizens. Yet, everything one hears about the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria hinges on vague statements about millions of vaccine doses that the African Union or COVAX would deliver to Nigeria later this year. So, where is the urgency?
But what about the doses already delivered to Nigeria, what's government doing with them? On March 2, Nigeria received 3.94million of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine under the COVAX Facility. Dr. Walter Mulombo, WHO Representative in Nigeria, said: "This is an epoch-making event." Yet, despite that superlative comment, only 964,387 doses were given as of April 6, representing 0.48 doses per 100 people.
According to Reuters, given the average doses of 58,335 that Nigeria administered daily, it would take 689 days, over two years, to administer doses for 10 per cent of the population. Again, where is the urgency?
President Muhammadu Buhari said on March 6 that he received his COVID-19 vaccination publicly to "demonstrate leadership". But what leadership? He has shown absolutely none on the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking for real leadership?
Just consider how President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have taken personal responsibility for the supply and rollout of vaccines in their countries, ensuring millions are vaccinated daily!
Sadly, in Nigeria, there's the unholy trinity of failure of leadership, failure of delivery and public apathy. But Nigeria won't be free of COVID-19 without mass vaccination. It mustn't take the death of another prominent Nigerian to wake up to that reality!

Chairman, Expert Review Committee on COVID-19, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, has established how COVID-19 impacts on education, technology and human development in Nigeria.
Tomori, who is also a virologist and pioneer, Redeemer’s University, provided reasons why COVID-19 has so far spared more African countries unlike what is happening in Europe, America and India.
Tomori, who is also a Fellow and Past President, Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), in a paper titled “Nigeria & COVID-19: Impact On Education, Technology And Human Development” delivered at the 12th Convocation lecture of Bell’s University of Technology (BELLSTECH) on Friday, April 9, 2021 at The Bellstech Convocation Ground, Ota, Ogun State, said: “So, why did we not see the predicted devastation? And what could have been responsible for the woeful failure of the predictions of doom? First these predictions were based not on science but on emotion, misconceptions, and incomplete knowledge of the disease in question and history of Africa’s unpreparedness in responding to disease outbreaks. Africa has a long history of perennial failure in controlling disease epidemics from yellow fever to Lassa and Ebola.
“However, at the time these doomsday predictions were made, very little was known about the COVID-19 disease caused by an evasive and an elusive virus, that will eventually demonstrate its unique ability to survive all that mankind threw at it. It was only much later as the disease spread throughout the world, that we began to know the spectrum of its infection and diversity of the symptoms of the disease. It also became clearer much later that the epidemiology of the disease could be altered by the demography of the location of the epidemic. Older people with comorbidities tend to suffer a more severe COVID-19 disease and die than the relatively younger population.
“The over 60-year-old population in Europe accounted for nearly 95 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in Africa, the median age is 19 years, with 60 per cent of the continent under 25 years of age. There is also the issue that we are not testing enough in Africa and this may account for the low number of cases detected. Africa’s testing rate per million of population is four-six times less than that of Europe or the US. The countries like Taiwan and New Zealand that successfully controlled COVID-19 without resorting to massive lockdown were testing three to five times as much as Nigeria did. In Africa, South Africa tested up to 20 times as much as Nigeria. Our testing rate is 37 times less than the testing average for Africa.
“There is also the issue of our living pattern and style in Africa – where daily businesses are carried out in a more open outdoor arena instead of the highly closeted offices and gathering places in the Western world.”
Tomori said there is no doubt that Africa was better prepared in handling the COVID-19 epidemic than it was for the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa According to the Director of Africa CDC, John Nkengasong, only two countries (South Africa and Senegal) were able to test for COVID-19 in in January 2020 before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Africa. However, he said, two months later through the support of Africa CDC, 43 countries were testing for COVID-19. Tomori said other areas where African countries quickly responded to the outbreak included the setting up of the COVID- 19 task force early in February 2020 by the Africa CDC, even before any case was reported in Africa.
The virologist said wrongly or otherwise, African countries locked down their countries as early as March 2020, within a month of reporting cases, in order to limit the spread of the virus. Tomori said given that more than 80 per cent of Africa’s population works in the informal sector, living on daily earnings, it was an unpopular but courageous decision by many Africa n leaders.
Tomori said the failure for the doomsday Africa COVID-19 prediction was a combination of what the African countries did in responding to the epidemic, and what, epidemiologically, the SAR-Cov-2 virus did not do. “It was expected that African countries would be unprepared and hapless and helpless, as usual in controlling the outbreak. But African countries responded as adequately as possible, to limit the spread and devastation of the epidemic. The virus was expected to spread quickly and widely causing severe disease that would overwhelm the healthcare system, leading to a large number of deaths. Certainly, the virus, epidemiologically, behaved differently in Africa,” he said.
Tomori said in considering the impact of COVID-19 on education, technology and human development, people must appreciate that they are dealing with an ongoing epidemic, the end of which they do not know. “We are dealing with an evasive, elusive and seemingly invincible enemy aided and abetted by our disdain of, as well as our disregard and disrespect for the enemy. During this epidemic, we have demonstrated an aversion to taking the basic non-pharmaceutical interventions- mask wearing, safe distancing avoidance of crowded places and washing of hands – required to rein in the enemy. But let us first assess the state of our nation, before COVID-19 came to knock in nails into the coffin of our education, technology and human development,” Tomori said.
Tomori said despite the relatively low number of cases and deaths, COVID-19 disease has serious and far- reaching impact on every aspect of their life and living – social education, economy and human development. Indeed, he said the impact of the disease would last long after we have brought it under control.
The virologist said the full impact of the disease – the depth, the height and the breath of COVID-19 impact on people’s life and livelihoods – will not be appreciated until much later. “Day by day, we will discover what devastation that COVID-19 has unleashed on our life. Unless we use the COVID-19 as an opportunity to positively turn our nation back to the path of development, we will continue to see deterioration in our development and advancement,” he said.

Only one county remains in the strictest section of California’s reopening road map, a heartening sign of progress in the battle against the coronavirus as businesses and other public spaces continue wider reopenings.
The lone remaining denizen of the purple tier is Merced County, according to state data released Tuesday. Inyo County had been keeping it company but officially moved into the less-restrictive red tier.
The recent exodus from the purple tier has been stunning. Thirty-four of California’s 58 counties were in that category on March 9. The month before, all but five counties were in the tier.
Also progressing this week are Kern and Lake counties, which moved from the red to the even-more-lenient orange tier, and Lassen County, which progressed all the way to the yellow tier, the least restrictive of the four categories in the color-coded reopening blueprint.
As counties move through the tier framework, they’re able to gradually reopen more types of businesses at greater capacity.

Los Angeles County public health officials recorded 546 new coronavirus cases and 10 related deaths on Sunday due to the continued decline in the spread of the virus.
Officials said both figures are underestimated because of reported delays over the weekend. They still welcome the encouraging trend of declining case rates, hospitalizations and deaths.

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has suspended its proposed industrial action in Kano State and accepted government’s position to revert March salaries to the old N18,000 minimum wage.
The state council of NLC had given the government seven days to pay the March salary with the N30,000 minimum wage scale or face indefinite strike by workers.
In a swift response, however, Kano government declared that it would not be able to pay the new wage for March, citing dwindling monthly federal allocation.
National President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, who disclosed the suspension of the strike while addressing journalists yesterday morning, declared that the decision was reached after an emergency meeting held with a government delegation led by Head of Service (HoS), Hajiya Binta Ahmed.
Wabba revealed that the resolutions, which led to the suspension, included government’s pledge to refund deductions, depending on increase in federal allocation accruable to the state.
Represented by Deputy National President, Najeem Yasin, the labour leader also cleared the insinuation that suggested government’s intention to renege from its position on the new wage.
At labour’s meeting with Kano government, it was reportedly resolved that March 2021 salary deductions at state and local council levels should be refunded to workers along with April or May 2021 salaries depending on increase in allocation for the period.
MEANWHILE, the ongoing industrial action in Taraba State has taken a different twist, as the workers have told Governor Darius Ishaku to stop hiding under the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) crisis to deny them their right of the new national minimum wage.
Making the call yesterday via a bulletin by the State Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (​SJPSNC), the workers said the lukewarm attitude of the government towards them had nothing to do with the pandemic.
Jointly signed by the SJPSNC chairman, Dame Buhari, and the secretary, Tukur Taji, they said “recklessness and wastage in managing the state’s resources” were beclouding the government from attending to the plight of the workers.
The workers, who decided to down tools, last month, were observed to have been denied their March salaries.

SAN FRANCISCO — California plans to lift most coronavirus restrictions on businesses and workplaces June 15, with officials saying enough people should be vaccinated by then to allow for life to almost get back to a pre-pandemic normal.
The mask mandate in the nation's most populated state will remain in effect, Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said Tuesday, and he cautioned that California will reopen more widely in mid-June only if vaccine supply remains sufficient and hospitalization rates remain stable and low.
“With more than 20 million vaccines administered across the state, it is time to turn the page on our tier system and begin looking to fully reopen California’s economy. We can now begin planning for our lives post-pandemic,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement released ahead of a news conference in San Francisco.

Before lifting the restrictions, the government should ensure that everyone is vaccinated, so as to reduce the infection rate and avoid another major outbreak.

The U.S. moved closer Thursday toward vaccinating 100 million Americans in a race against an uptick in COVID-19 cases that is fueling fears of another nationwide surge just as the major league baseball season starts and thousands of fans return to stadiums.
More than 99 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and more than 56 million people — 17% of the nation’s population — have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A total of 154 million vaccines had been administered as of Thursday. President Joe Biden’s new goal is to give 200 million vaccine doses during his first 100 days in office.
But coronavirus infections are inching up again. The country is averaging 64,000 cases per day this week, up from a daily average of 55,000 infections two weeks ago. Deaths have steadily been averaging about 900 a day.
Officials have warned that they could ban fans from ballparks if the numbers continue to rise. Even before the baseball season got underway Thursday, an opening game was postponed after a player tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Washington Nationals were scheduled to host the New York Mets on Thursday night, but after a Nationals player tested positive for COVID-19, the team canceled the game. It was not immediately rescheduled.
At American Family Field in Milwaukee, Tonia Smith said she didn’t have any safety concerns about returning to the stadium where the Brewers were facing off against the Minnesota Twins. The stadium limited attendance to about 16,000 fans — a quarter of its capacity.
“It was hard to judge how quickly to get here. It’s a different opening day experience. But just having those smells hit you, walking in and having that experience back, it’s invigorating,” said Smith, 45, of Sussex, Wisconsin.
In Chicago, officials warned that they will stop letting baseball fans into Wrigley Field and across town at Guaranteed Rate Field, as well as bars and restaurants, if COVID-19 cases keeps climbing.
The warning was included in a news release issued by the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications on Wednesday, a day before opening day for the Chicago Cubs. Both ballparks will be limited to 25% of their capacity when they open up to fans for the first time since 2019.
For Wrigley Field, that means little more than 10,000 fans in the stands. Many more are expected to watch the game from nearby bars and restaurants. Guaranteed Rate Field is home to the White Sox.
Meanwhile, states are doubling their efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible by expanding eligibility and touting the vaccines as essential to getting the country back to normal.
As of Thursday, anyone 50 or older is eligible for a vaccine in California, the country’s most populous state with 40 million people.
In Michigan, which has the country’s highest new case rate over the past week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer doubled the state’s daily COVID-19 vaccination goal to 100,000 shots as the state faces a third surge in cases.
Michigan’s direct allotment of doses will total about 620,000 next week, a record. That is 12%, or roughly 66,000, more than this week and includes a substantial boost in the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

In Nigeria, the sector suffered a huge blow as all tourist sites were shut down.
Since it broke out in China more than a year ago, the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has hit every aspect of life, halting progress in every human endeavour.
Total lockdowns, social distancing, wearing of facemasks and other measures taken to mitigate its spread have impacted negatively on all sectors of global economy with some suffering devastating blows.
Tourism, a gold mine that rakes in billions of dollars annually, appears worst hit as international travels were banned, while social gatherings and non-essential activities were grounded in most countries of the world.

Everton forward Iwobi tested positive before Saturday's 1-0 away win over Benin, and travelled back to Nigeria with the rest of the squad on Sunday.Alex Iwobi will not be available for Nigeria's final 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Lesotho after testing positive for COVID-19 , officials told AFP on Monday.
Everton forward Iwobi tested positive before Saturday's 1-0 away win over Benin, and travelled back to Nigeria with the rest of the squad on Sunday.
"Iwobi has left the camp," Eagles spokesman Babafemi Raji told AFP.
"Before he left, he did not show any symptoms, he was fine."
Iwobi, 24, has scored twice during the qualifying campaign for the delayed Cup of Nations, which will be hosted by Cameroon in January next year.
Nigeria's win over Benin guaranteed them top spot in Group L although they had already qualified before kick-off thanks to a goalless draw between Lesotho and Sierra Leone.
Gernot Rohr's side have 11 points from five matches and are seven points ahead of third-placed Sierra Leone, with the top two teams in the group qualifying for the tournament.
Nigeria host bottom side Lesotho in Lagos on Tuesday.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said the economic outlook is brightening thanks to the recent passage of his $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, and a majority of economists now expect growth this year to exceed six percent.
“Since we passed the American Rescue Plan, we’re starting to see new signs of hope in our economy,” Biden said during his first press conference since taking office in January. “Since it was passed, a majority ... of economic forecasters have significantly increased their projections on the economic growth that’s going to take place this year. They’re now projecting it will exceed 6% growth in GDP (gross domestic product).”
Indeed, that may understate how quickly the economy may grow this year as COVID-19 vaccine rollouts gather pace, allowing greater freedom of movement and activity, and as the stimulus bill boosts consumer spending.
Just last week, Federal Reserve officials signaled they expect growth of 6.5% this year, which if achieved would mark the fastest expansion since the 1980s, and some private forecasters have predicted the economy will grow in excess of 7% this year. That would mark a dramatic upward swing following the 3.5% contraction suffered in 2020, the steepest annual downturn in more than seven decades.
The first-term Democrat also pointed to signs of a recovering job market. The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell below 700,000 for the first time since the pandemic triggered a deep recession roughly one year ago.
“Just this morning, we learned that the number of people filing for weekly unemployment insurance fell by nearly 100,000 persons,” he said. “So there are still too many Americans out of work, too many families hurting, and we still have a lot of work to do, but I can say to the American people help is here, and hope is on the way.”
Biden went on to tout the infrastructure plan he is developing as a force for filling the massive holes remaining in the job market.
Roughly 9.5 million fewer Americans were working as of February than before the pandemic hit. Biden’s economics team is targeting a long-term plan in the range of $3-$4 trillion geared to repair crumbling roads and bridges, upgrade aging schools and invest in green technologies, which he said would help get many of those displaced workers back into jobs.
“How many schools where the kids can’t drink the water out of the fountains? How many schools are still in a position where there’s asbestos? How many schools in America are we sending our kids to that don’t have adequate ventilation? How many schools, buildings, office complexes are wasting billions of barrels of oil over time because they can’t hold in the heat or the air conditioning because it leaks through the windows that are so porous?” Biden asked rhetorically.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “There is so much we can do that’s good stuff, makes people healthier and creates good jobs.”
He dove into a litany of shortcomings in U.S. infrastructure that he said need addressing: 20% percent of flights were not on time because of shabby airports, six to 10 million homes in America still have lead pipes servicing their water lines, and there are over 100,000 well heads leaking methane.
“What are we doing?” Biden said. “We can put as many pipefitters and miners to work capping those wells at the same price that they would charge to dig those wells.”

Ongoing, and in some cases debilitating, problems with thinking affect a large majority of Covid-19 patients who were never sick enough to be hospitalized, according to a study published Tuesday in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.
The research, from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, is based on an analysis of 100 Covid-19 "long-hauler" patients whose symptoms have lasted at least six weeks. All originally had a mild illness: sore throat, cough, low-grade fever.
But after the acute infection cleared, 85 percent reported at least four lasting neurological problems that have affected their daily lives.
By far, the most commonly reported symptom was "brain fog," with 81 percent of respondents reporting ongoing issues with memory and thinking.
Sixty-eight percent said they had headaches, and more than half said they had problems with loss of taste and smell, numbness or tingling, and muscle pain.
Most were women, with an average age of 43. Less common symptoms included dizziness, blurred vision and tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
Symptoms tended to come and go over a period of months. Most patients improve over time, but not all. Just 64 percent said they felt better after five months, but the vast majority still reported "intense fatigue."
Patients "also had some respiratory problems, despite the fact they never had pneumonia or were hospitalized for low oxygen levels," said Dr. Igor Koralnik, a study author and chief of neuro-infectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine. Koralnik also oversees the facility's post-Covid clinic.
While this study was small, it illustrates what millions of people may be facing in the coming months. Of the more than 30 million Americans diagnosed with Covid-19, it's estimated that up to 30 percent could experience long-term symptoms. That's as many as 10 million people.
And a review of research published Monday found that long-term Covid-19 has the ability to affect many organs in the body, including the lungs, heart, kidneys and skin, as well as the gastrointestinal, nervous and endocrine systems.
Before their Covid-19 long-haul symptoms, 42 percent of the respondents had reported depression or anxiety, and 16 percent reported having had an autoimmune disease.
"We want to understand the most effective interventions for these patients," Koralnik said. "We're trying to devise the best ways to manage and treat these patients, but further research is necessary."

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has advised Nigerians to ensure the Astrazeneca vaccine being administered on them had the original label.
The agency said the warning was imperative to ensure people did not risk being vaccinated with fake Astrazeneca vaccine.
The position of NAFDAC is contained in a statement signed by the agency’s Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, on Sunday, in Abuja.
Adeyeye, explained that the original Oxford Astrazeneca University (AZOU) vaccine, had been contracted to India’s world largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SIIPL), to produce in large quantity.
“AZOU gave the license of its vaccine to Serum Institute of India PVT Ltd, (SIIPL), to manufacture this vaccine at a commercial scale. SIIPL is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world and the company got the license by signing the manufacturing agreement.
“SIIPL gave the vaccine the trade name COVISHIELD, it is the result of a cooperation and a technology transfer from AstraZeneca – University of Oxford to SIIPL.
“SIIPL is now the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally.
“More than 1.5 billion doses, which include Polio vaccine, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps and Rubella,” she said.

Dubai: Emirates airline on Wednesday said it was in talks with Nigerian authorities, a week after the carrier announced that flights from the African country would remain suspended until March 20.
“Emirates remains in close dialogue with the relevant regulators and authorities in Nigeria and we are fully committed to making progress on a resolution to ensure the continuation and expansion of our operations,” an airline spokesperson told Gulf News.
“Our highest priority continues to be the health and safety of our customers, employees, and the communities we serve both in Nigeria and across our network,” the spokesperson added.
Last week, Emirates said that flights from South Africa and Nigeria will remain suspended until March 20, in line with government directives that restrict the entry of travellers from these two countries in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The entry restrictions for passengers originating from or transiting through both these countries were earlier in force till March 10.
“Customers from both Abuja and Lagos will not be accepted for travel prior to or including this date. Passengers who have been to or connected through Nigeria in the last 14 days are not allowed entry into the UAE, whether terminating their journey in or connecting through Dubai,” the airline said in a statement earlier.
“Emirates flights from Dubai to Lagos and Abuja will continue to operate as per the normal schedule,” it added.

DEPTFORD, New Jersey — As many communities struggle with COVID-19, volunteers in Nigeria are stepping up to the challenge. In the Kano region, for example, community leaders spurred residents of the local communities to get tested for COVID-19. Lagos has hosted contact training programs to educate local communities. These programs have allowed members to care for their own community directly, which helped to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Volunteers in Nigeria have been trained to challenge dangerous misinformation and to provide help in contact tracing and testing.

As COVID-19 vaccines roll out across the U.S., more travelers are taking to the skies.
Friday marked the busiest day for the nation's airports since the middle of March 2020, when COVID-19 caused air travel to plummet.
About 1.36 million passengers passed through security checkpoints Friday, according to figures from the Transportation Security Administration. That is the highest volume since March 15, 2020, when checkpoints reported more than 1.5 million passengers.
But travel remains well below pre-COVID levels. In March of 2019, checkpoint traffic averaged more than 2 million passengers a day.
Friday's uptick comes as the total number of COVID-19 doses administered in the U.S. has climbed past 100 million and about 35 million people are now fully vaccinated. The U.S. is currently administering more than 2.3 million shots a day.
The high number of travelers also comes during a period when many students traditionally travel for spring break vacations.
Despite the growing number of vaccinated Americans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still advising people to "delay travel and stay home to protect yourself and others from COVID-19."
If people must travel, the CDC says they should get a vaccine, if possible, get tested for the virus less than three days before a trip, wear a mask and avoid crowds.
A sustained increase in air travel would be welcome news for the airline industry, which has been hammered by the pandemic.
But fears of new variants of the coronavirus may limit gains from increased vaccination. Some of those variants may be more contagious or less likely to be stopped by vaccines.
The proportion of Americans who feel the pandemic will get worse rose from 13.7% in late February to 16.3% in early March, according to survey data from Destination Analysts.
Before news of the variants arrived, "We were thinking everything was starting to go in the right direction," Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, told NPR's David Schaper.

We should be aware of the seriousness of the problem and reduce the mobility of personnel avoid virus infections.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria will offer a naira incentive to import U.S. dollars through certain licensed channels, the central bank said, in a push to shore up the country’s dollar supply.
Recipients of remittances from the Nigerian diaspora made through international money transfer operators licensed by the central bank will receive 5 naira ($0.0131) for every imported dollar, the regulator said in a statement dated Friday and sent on Saturday.
The scheme will run from March 8 to May 8, the bank said
Nigeria in November changed the currency of remittance payments to the U.S. dollar from naira, after the currency fell to a 3-1/2 year low of 500 naira to the dollar on the black market.
The bank said the change was to narrow the arbitrage whereby money transfer operators profited from unofficial channels.
Rising dollar demand has been putting pressure on the naira. Importers have scrambled for hard currency, while providers of foreign exchange, such as offshore investors, exited after the COVID-19 pandemic triggered an oil price crash.
Remittances or money transfers make up the second-largest source of foreign exchange receipts after oil revenues in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy. Around $26.4 billion was sent to Nigeria in 2019, according to the World Bank.

Vaccinating a large share of the planet’s population rapidly and effectively is a truly unique challenge, and it demands resources and partnerships from many, if not all, communities. The world’s large and diverse religious communities, too often sidelined in health and development forums, bring distinctive assets and should be involved right from the start. Religious communities offer high levels of trust, practical resources, and layers of commitment to equity.
Engaging religious actors and translating their broad appeal require a finely tuned appreciation for what COVID-19 vaccination engagement entails. We fear that religious actors’ considerable potential has not yet been sufficiently tapped in planning COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. But when religious roles are recognized, some forms of engagement could also do more harm than good, undermining years of relationship-building work in a rush for fast vaccine delivery.
Faith engagement in immunization is not new. Religious actors’ work around resistance against polio vaccination in northern Nigeria from 2003 to 2004 is one of the best-documented recent examples of the religious community addressing vaccination resistance and propelling uptake.
In that case, as in many others, religious arguments intertwined with social, economic, political, and cultural factors. Influential regional Muslim leaders propagated fear around the vaccine. But the sultan of Sokoto, a spiritual leader of Nigerian Muslims, prominently supported the oral polio vaccine and helped reverse the boycott.
Development actors such as UNICEF, long involved in routine immunizations, have undertaken social mobilization efforts with religious actors. When fully and appropriately engaged, religious actors can play game-changing roles in boosting immunization rates.
Information and misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines are already widespread, including through religious community networks. There have been reports of some religious resistance to the vaccines, while religious leaders elsewhere are speaking out forcefully for their fair and equitable distribution.
We urge thoughtful, intentional, and urgent engagement of religious networks in vaccination strategies and delivery. Our faith engagement experience in global health and development suggests several fundamental takeaways:
1. Context is everything. Religiously framed resistance is nearly always linked to other social, political, and economic factors. Unpicking these intersections is tricky, but necessary, to fully address vaccine hesitancy and resistance. Always investigate religious dynamics in planning and progress evaluations.
2. Building trust and relationships with religious actors is the starting point and endpoint. It is never too early — or too late — to start building those relationships. The critical first step is to listen and hear. It is essential to collectively identify and define common ground.
The primary goal is not necessarily to reach and change the minds of the most hard-line communities. Most religious believers are open to COVID-19 prevention methods and vaccinations. With the correct information and constructive engagement, they will participate in vaccine rollout.
3. Analyze assumptions and stereotypes. Religious communities are potential allies in vaccine rollout, but they may be sidelined for reasons that include stereotypes.
Religious communities are large and highly diverse, and people regularly disagree with each other within their traditions. Studies show wide variance with religious beliefs, both positively and negatively associated with vaccinations. Health and development staffers should not fall into the trap of stereotyping and assuming that “religion” is against vaccination or “religion” will always be a barrier — nor should acceptance be taken for granted.
4. Work equitably with religious networks, champions, and structures. Many religious communities are ready to correct misinformation and encourage COVID-19 prevention measures and vaccinations, and many have elaborated creative communication methods on COVID-19.
Partnerships to raise awareness and counter misinformation must be based on shared priorities and dialogue, not top-down messages handed over to religious leaders. Religious communities are not only recipients of information generated by health and development actors. Pay attention to how religious communities organize and work within those structures, rather than using different methods.
5.Religious hospitals, nurses, doctors, and administrators are significant assets. Religious health actors should be participants in the rollout. Likewise, even when not directly involved in health, religious actors could be involved. Examples include using religious buildings as vaccination sites or having religious personnel serve on task forces to decide vaccine prioritization and equity.
We urge concerted efforts by global health and development institutions involved in vaccine-demand generation, vaccine readiness and delivery, community engagement, and vaccine equity to join forces in looking thoughtfully and strategically to informed faith engagement as an integral and central part of global and national approaches, a central part of COVID-19 vaccine planning everywhere, in every country.
We recommend using these questions as an initial guide for context; utilizing this overview of religions, immunization, and global health for more supporting evidence; and finding out more about religious responses to COVID-19.

As the US ramps up its mass vaccination campaign, public health experts are warning against complacency — and a possible new surge in cases.
On Sunday, Dr. Michael Osterholm, who leads the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, compared the current US Covid-19 situation to “the eye of the hurricane” in an interview with host Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. Of particular concern, Osterholm said, are coronavirus variants that have higher transmission rates and are believed to be more deadly.
“It appears that things are going very well,” Osterholm said. “You can see blue skies. We’ve been through a terrible, terrible year. But what we know is about to come upon us is the situation with this B.1.1.7 variant ... we do have to keep America as safe as we can from this virus by not letting up on any of the public health measures we’ve taken.”
One of those public health measures has been increasingly successful of late: White House Covid-19 czar Jeff Zients told Meet the Press Sunday that a record 2.9 million Covid-19 vaccines were administered on Saturday, setting a new record for the third day in a row.
On average, Zients said, the US is now administering about 2.2 million shots per day, an increase of 1.3 million doses per day compared to mid-January levels.
And according to Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser on the White House Covid-19 response, a majority — 59 percent — of adults age 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, as have about 23 percent of all US adults.
Polling suggests that vaccine hesitancy is also falling in the US, even as vaccine supply increases. According to a new Pew Research Center poll Friday, a combined 69 percent of the US population has either already been vaccinated or plans to get a vaccine when one becomes available.
That’s a significant step up from November, when only 60 percent of American adults said they definitely or probably would get the vaccine when it became available, according to Pew, and even more so from the nadir of US vaccine confidence in September, when just 51 percent planned to get vaccinated. Public health experts believe 70 to 80 percent of Americans will need to be vaccinated for the US to have herd immunity.
Vaccine hesitancy fell even more sharply among Black Americans in the most recent Pew poll: 61 percent now say they have either already been vaccinated or plan to get a vaccine, compared to 42 percent in November.
Those stats are just the latest bit of good vaccine news in the US, following the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of a third vaccine for emergency use late last month, and President Joe Biden’s Tuesday announcement that the US was “on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May.”
On Saturday, Biden laid out an even more ambitious target, suggesting that the US could have enough vaccines by mid-May.
Biden also announced a new partnership between pharmaceutical giants Merck and Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday. The two companies are set to work together in order to step up production of Johnson & Johnson’s newly approved single-shot vaccine, which clinical trials have shown is highly effective at preventing hospitalization and serious illness from Covid-19.
And billions of federal dollars for vaccine distribution are almost on the way after the Senate passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Saturday along strict party lines. The bill will be back in the House this week for a final vote, and is expected to land on Biden’s desk for a signature soon afterward.
Combined, the vaccine news points to a far more optimistic trajectory for the country heading into spring and summer, as Dr. Anthony Fauci noted on Face the Nation Sunday.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued the most sweeping rollback of coronavirus restrictions of any U.S. state on Tuesday, lifting a mask mandate and saying most businesses may open at full capacity next week.
Abbott's executive order comes as many U.S. states and major cities see a sharp decline in coronavirus infections and hospitalisations begin to ease the unprecedented lockdowns put in place a year ago.
"It is now time to open Texas 100%," Abbott, a first-term Republican, told a news conference. He said the order would take full effect on March 10.
The order lifts all mask requirements statewide and forbids local authorities from penalising residents who do not wear a face covering. It removes all restrictions on businesses in counties without a high number of hospitalisations.
Local officials can still apply limits to businesses where hospitalisations remain high, according to the order, but were prohibited from mandating that they operate at less than 50% capacity.
The governor said he was able to lift the restrictions because Texas, the third most-populous U.S. state, had administered nearly 5.7 million vaccine shots to its 29 million residents.
According to Abbott's office, by the end of March every senior who wants a vaccine would be able to get one.
The decision puts Texas in conflict with U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat who has urged Americans to keep taking COVID-19 precautions, including wearing masks, until vaccinations have fully tamped down the virus.
Conflicting messages 
In remarks at the White House on efforts to step up vaccine production, Biden did not mention Texas. But the president appeared to be referring to Abbott's executive order when he urged Americans to continue wearing face protection. "Now is not the time to let up," he said. "I've asked the country to wear masks for my first 100 days in office. Now is not the time to let our guard down. People's lives are at stake."
Referring to Abbott's order on masks, White House COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt told CNN: "I hope the governor rethinks this. It's only a small piece of cloth that's needed. I don't think it affects the economy of the state."
As of Tuesday, 35 U.S. states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, still mandate that residents wear face masks in public. Mississippi also lifted its face-covering order on Tuesday.
More than 51 million Americans, or 15% of the total U.S. population, have been given at least one vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden said on Tuesday that through an agreement for Merck & Co Inc to help make rival Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, his administration had secured enough for every adult in the United States to be inoculated by the end of May.
COVID-19 infections have plummeted in recent weeks across much of the world, including the United States.
According to a Reuters tally, roughly 68,240 new cases have been reported on average each day this week, or 27% of the peak daily average reached on Jan. 7. The United States has recorded 28,681,793 infections and 513,721 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that effective immediately, bars, restaurants and other businesses can increase indoor capacity to 50% and remain open until 1 a.m.
"We have made incredible progress in recent weeks and months, and I thank our business community for their ongoing commitment to saving lives,” Lightfoot said in a written statement.

Faced with multiple allegations of sexual harassment, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday apologized for comments that "have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation" and, following pressure from fellow Democrats, agreed to refer the matter to the state attorney general's office.
"At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny," he said, adding, "I mean no offense and only attempt to add some levity and banter to what is a very serious business."
"I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended," he continued. "I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that."
The statement comes after former Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett, 25, told The New York Times that Cuomo made several inappropriate remarks about her sex life, which she said she interpreted as an overture. Cuomo denied the allegations, which NBC News has not independently reported, by saying he "never made advances toward Ms. Bennett nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate."
Bennett's allegation is the second a former aide has levied against Cuomo since December. Last week, Lindsey Boylan, a deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo from 2015 to 2018, expanded on a December tweet saying Cuomo "sexually harassed me for years." In an essay posted Wednesday on Medium, Boylan detailed her experience, which she said included an unwanted kiss from Cuomo. In a statement to NBC New York, Cuomo spokesperson Caitlin Girouard said, "There is simply no truth to these claims."
On Sunday, Cuomo said: "To be clear I never inappropriately touched anybody and I never propositioned anybody and I never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but these are allegations that New Yorkers deserve answers to."
The statement came amid a back-and-forth Sunday between the governor's office and New York Attorney General Letitia James over the parameters of an investigation into the matter. His office on Saturday appointed a former federal judge to review the allegations, but top Democrats, including James, said Cuomo hadn't gone far enough to ensure the independence of the inquiry into the claims.
The governor's office changed course Sunday morning, announcing that it was asking the state's attorney general and its chief judge to appoint an independent investigator to examine allegations of sexual harassment against him. But James said later Sunday that she didn't accept the proposal, as it wouldn't give her office full authority over the process.
"While I have deep respect for Chief Judge DiFiore, I am the duly elected attorney general and it is my responsibility to carry out this task," she said in a statement. "The governor must provide this referral so an independent investigation with subpoena power can be conducted." Janet DiFiore is chief judge of the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.
Just prior to the release of Cuomo's statement Sunday, Cuomo's office said that it would ask Attorney General Tish James to "select a qualified private lawyer to do an independent review of allegations of sexual harassment."
James confirmed later Sunday evening that the referral was "in line with our demands and New York state law."
"This is not a responsibility we take lightly," she said. "We will hire a law firm, deputize them as attorneys of our office, and oversee a rigorous and independent investigation."
Within the past 24 hours, a number of prominent Democrats had called for such an independent investigation following the allegations, criticizing the prob Cuomo initially announced.
"No, I wouldn't consider that to be independent," Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "It should be, I would say, the attorney general of New York."
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement, "Sen. Schumer has long believed sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated, and that allegations should be thoroughly and independently investigated."
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., on Sunday also called for "an independent, transparent and swift investigation into these serious and deeply concerning allegations." She later clarified that James' office should solely handle the review.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, tweeted Sunday: "Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett's detailed accounts of sexual harassment by Gov. Cuomo are extremely serious and painful to read. There must be an independent investigation — not one led by an individual selected by the Governor, but by the office of the Attorney General."
Speaking Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden believes Bennett and Boylan "should be treated with respect and dignity."
"There should be an independent review of these allegations," she said. "They're serious. It was hard to read that story as a woman. And that process should move forward as quickly as possible, and that's something we all support and the president supports."

As the nation takes on one of the largest logistical challenges in history with the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination program, many Americans have asked why Big Tech can't run the operation. If Amazon can deliver a phone charger in two days, why can’t it use its logistical prowess to speedily vaccinate a nation? With all of the data that Google collects about its users, why can’t it track down and identify who needs a vaccination?

That’s largely because when it comes to getting a phone charger delivered, a company like Amazon handles every step of the process, from taking the order to delivery. But when it comes to vaccine distribution, tech companies have learned they have far less control. The federal government is paying for the needed medication and is managing the supply to the states. Then, states, counties and corporations take over and figure out how to get vaccines into arms. So while Big Tech is certainly playing a role in the vaccine rollout, it’s not exactly how people may expect.

“We have the scale of this pandemic: you’re trying to vaccinate 300 million-plus people,” said J.T. Lane, the innovation officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a professional organization for public health officials. “That’s the biggest effort of our lifetime.”

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Take for example what recently happened in Iowa: It took just one week for the state to cancel its contract with Microsoft to run its vaccination booking system. But officials said it was not because Microsoft’s technology was insufficient. It was too difficult even for a tech giant like Microsoft to combine the patchwork of existing digital infrastructure across 99 counties.

“We understand and support the state of Iowa’s decision to optimize their existing system rather than building a different system across many of their existing platforms,” said Montana MacLachlan, a Microsoft spokesperson.

As Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said at a Feb. 17 news conference, “It would not be possible in a timely manner without significant disruption to their current systems, and we did not want to slow down the progress that we’re making.”

A look at funding reports from recent years will show a pattern of investor focus on sectors with the most perceived prospects for growth and prominence. We’ve seen eCommerce companies and financial services companies heavily dominate West Africa’s funding space in the last decade.
According to Techpoint Africa’s Nigerian Startup Funding Report 2020, Nigerian healthtech startups witnessed increased funding activity, coming second only to financial services startups in terms of funding size and the number of deals made in 2020.
For the period in question, these startups raised $32.5 million across seven deals, 404% higher than the entire disclosed record ($6.3 million) for 2019. This accounted for 26.8% of the total funding raised by Nigerian startups in 2020.
This increase in investment coincided with the advent of COVID-19 in Nigeria, and investors were seemingly willing to bet a lot more on healthtech companies than they have been willing to in the past.
As pointed out by various academic research, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country has been sorely lacking in standard healthcare infrastructure, and according to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) effective coverage index the country only provides effective essential healthcare services to 38.3% of its population.
The Financing Global Health Database 2019, reports that in 2017, the Nigerian government spent only $11 million on health, with out-of-pocket spending accounting for $60 million.
However, There’s been encouraging signs as Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire unveiled the Nigerian health sector roadmap in December 2020, which he claims will reduce the current imbalance between primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare among other things.
Putting some relevant questions aside, Nigeria has not faired too badly with COVID-19, but its health sector clearly needs major shaking up.
Thankfully, companies like 54gene, Helium health, Flying doctors, and Life Bank have been making great strides in the fight against COVID-19, and in the development of Nigeria’s health infrastructure as well as research and development.

While most Covid-19 vaccination clinics around the country are focused primarily on first responders, essential workers and seniors, the city of Detroit is now offering shots to residents who haven’t made vaccination priority lists almost anywhere else in the country.
Among them: Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, vision or hearing impairments, and other intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“I was surprised to see that and very happy,” said Bonnielin Swenor, an epidemiologist and the director of the Disability Health Research Center at Johns Hopkins University. “It means people in the disability community were listened to, were considered, and prioritization was revised in a way that is really remarkable.”
The city’s move will lead to more equity and access for people with disabilities that Swenor hopes other communities will emulate. “It has the potential to spark a really important change,” she said.
At the same time, the decision to prioritize people with conditions that aren’t necessarily known to increase the risk of dying from Covid-19 points to the difficult and delicate choices facing local and state policymakers in a country where vaccination criteria differ considerably from one community to the next.
In much of the country, two people with the same job, who are the same age and are in similar health, could face radically different odds of accessing the shots depending on where they live, where they get medical treatment and the political landscape in their state.
And within communities like Detroit, where people in their 20s with ADHD can now get vaccinated ahead of people in their 50s with chronic heart or lung conditions, it can lead to difficult questions about whose health should come first.
“These are the judgments that we are making every step of the way,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said during a news conference Wednesday as he announced that Detroiters 60 and older with serious physical health conditions could get vaccinated.
Some of the disabilities the city added earlier have been linked to higher risks of dying from Covid-19. Others, such as autism and ADHD, make it difficult to socially distance and wear a mask.
“When everybody in a particular category has had a chance to get a vaccine, we go to the next category,” Duggan said of a city effort to vaccinate 15,000 people a week using an eligibility list that now includes teachers, waiters, grocery clerks, clergy members, postal workers and the homeless. “We went to what we believe to be the next highest risk category.”
The push to prioritize people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Detroit came from advocates who flooded the mayor’s office with letters and blitzed local media to call attention to the extra challenges people with disabilities face as they try to avoid infection or get treated for Covid-19.
“People with disabilities are being left out of Covid vaccine rollouts and being left out of data collection when somebody contracts Covid, and that leads to disparities,” said Dessa Cosma, the executive director of Detroit Disability Power, a social justice organization that led the letter-writing campaign.
When Cosma heard that Duggan planned to announce, on Feb. 11, that adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities, along with their caregivers, would be added to the city’s vaccination list, she thought perhaps the mayor would narrow eligibility to people with conditions such as Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. Those disorders have been more conclusively linked to higher Covid-19 rates or deaths.
Instead, she was thrilled — and proud — to see that Duggan went broad, including all intellectual and developmental disabilities and specifically naming six conditions, in addition to Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. Among them were autism, Tourette syndrome, hearing and vision impairment, and ADHD, a neurological condition that affects nearly 5 percent of U.S. adults, causing impulsivity, hyperactivity and difficulty focusing.

Since everyone’s condition is unique, Cosma said, a broad definition is crucial to prevent “some very marginalized people from falling through the cracks.”
That broad definition sets Detroit apart.
Many states have adopted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines recommending that people with Down syndrome be prioritized, and others have prioritized people with developmental and intellectual disabilities who live in group homes. But just a handful of states, including New York, Delaware, Missouri and New Mexico, list people with disabilities among those eligible for a vaccination before the general public.
Among those states, none explicitly include ADHD or visual and hearing impairments among qualifying conditions, though people can make a case with a doctor’s note if they believe they should be eligible.
Even Michigan doesn’t include intellectual or developmental disabilities other than Down syndrome among its vaccination priorities. Detroit was able to include disabled residents because local communities “have the option to prioritize the groups within the guidance they feel are most at risk and at highest need of vaccination,” Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the state health department, said in an email.
When Duggan made the disability announcement last week, he touted the “overwhelming” need to reach people with conditions that make them more vulnerable to the virus. A spokesman said the city drew its list of diagnoses from the CDC’s definitions of developmental and intellectual disabilities.

ALBANY, N.Y. — A Democratic lawmaker says New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to “destroy” him during a private phone call last week for criticizing his handling of Covid-19 outbreaks at nursing homes.
Cuomo, who has long had a reputation for playing rough in politics, denied the allegation Wednesday, and fired back by calling the Assembly member a chronic liar.
The governor used a call with reporters to blast Assemblyman Ron Kim, of Queens, one of nine Democrats who signed a letter seeking support for a bill that would revoke the governor’s emergency powers related to the pandemic, which are set to expire this spring.
The letter, sent to Assembly members Tuesday, said Cuomo’s administration “deliberately covered up” the extent of the pandemic’s impact on nursing homes and assisted living facilities by publishing an incomplete accounting of the number of deaths, despite requests from lawmakers, reporters and the U.S. Department of Justice.
In recent weeks, the administration revealed that 15,000 long-term care residents have died, up from the 8,500 previously disclosed.
″(I)t is now unambiguously clear that this governor has engaged in an intentional obstruction of justice,” the letter said.
Cuomo said it’s a “lie” that he obstructed justice, and told reporters Wednesday that he had a “long hostile relationship” with Kim. The governor also accused Kim of being “unethical” for backing nail salon owners as lawmakers discussed safety and wage reforms of the industry in 2015. Kim had initially supported the reforms, but later opposed some of them after getting support from salon owners.
“I didn’t say anything about Assemblyman Ron Kim. He attacked me,” Cuomo said. “He attacked me and said that I obstructed justice in a letter.”
Kim told The New York Times and CNN on Wednesday that Cuomo called him on the phone Feb. 11 to shout at him about his comments on the nursing home issue.
“He goes off about how I hadn’t seen his wrath and anger, that he would destroy me and he would go out tomorrow and start telling how bad of a person I am and I would be finished and how he had bit his tongue about me for months,” Kim told The New York Times. “This was all yelling. It wasn’t a pleasant tone.”
Cuomo’s senior advisor, Rich Azzopardi, accused Kim of lying in a statement Wednesday.
“At no time did anyone threaten to ‘destroy’ anyone with their ‘wrath’ nor engage in a ‘coverup,’” wrote Azzopardi, who said he was on the phone call.
Kim has been a frequent critic of the administration on nursing home issues, including its months-long delay in releasing a full count of fatalities.
Cuomo on Monday said the state didn’t cover up deaths, but should have moved faster to release information. “No excuses: I accept responsibility for that,” he said at a news conference.
Last week, Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa told Democratic lawmakers that the administration took months to release data revealing how many people living at nursing homes died of COVID-19 because officials “froze” over worries the information was “going to be used against us.”
Kim said Wednesday the governor is now trying to distract the public from growing criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike about his administration’s handling and reporting of outbreaks.
“The governor can smear me all he wants in an effort to distract us from his fatally incompetent management,” Kim said in a statement.

Marc Wagner is a researcher and activist who has been living with HIV for 35 years. He is one of hundreds of HIV-positive people participating in clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines.

"I'm glad that I participated, that it led to the body of knowledge," he said.

But being a part of the vaccine trials was not always an option for him or the 1.2 million HIV-positive people in the U.S. They fought for it.

HIV is a lifelong infection that attacks the immune system. Once a death sentence, today there are many medications that can help people living with HIV keep their immune systems healthy and in check.

Still, people with HIV were initially excluded from COVID-19 vaccine trials -- as well as people undergoing cancer treatment, or anyone else with a compromised immune system.

"People with HIV were kind of thrown in the same pot," said Dr. Sharon Riddler, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "Many people have very well-controlled HIV. [Many people] really do have fine immune responses and would potentially be able to get this vaccine safely."

The pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna, which were the first to launch their trials back in July, initially excluded people living with HIV. But activists argued against their exclusion.

"There is a real concern with this new virus and the [greater] severity of the potential outcome [due to being HIV-positive], that I would be facing potential death after surviving so many years," said Wagner, who felt vaccination could be lifesaving.

Activists led by Lynda Dee, executive director of AIDS Action Baltimore, sent a letter to the National Institutes of Health arguing there was "no clinical justification" for excluding the HIV-positive population, and that people of diverse backgrounds -- including Black and Latino Americans more likely to be affected by HIV -- should be included in the trials.

On Aug 5. -- about a week after the letter was posted -- Moderna announced plans to drop the exclusion, saying the company had "heard the preference of the community." Pfizer also amended its protocol to include people living with HIV.

When a third company -- AstraZeneca -- launched its own vaccine trial in late August, the company included healthy HIV-positive participants from the start. Wagner volunteered for this trial. And Dr. Riddler, who was a clinical investigator for the AstraZeneca trial, credits activists for these changes.

Many would argue that HIV activism during the epidemic in the 1980s led to modern medications, hundreds of thousands living full lives and the ongoing search for a cure today.

"You know, for us, nationally, it has been a struggle from the beginning [of the HIV epidemic]," Wagner said. "They wanted to put us on an island and forget about us." He explained that it was the very fear of death that drove activists to take action.

"We needed to make sure that funding was there, the research was being done, the drugs were being developed, and that we weren't forgotten about early on," he said.

Beyond this activism saving the lives of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS, many widely used scientific techniques, such as PCR testing, came to be because of HIV/AIDS research.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, Moderna included 176 HIV-positive participants, and of these, one who received the placebo and zero who received the vaccine developed symptoms of COVID-19. Of the participants in the Pfizer trials, 0.3% were HIV-positive (120 individuals), but there is no published data on the efficacy and safety of the vaccine in this group.

And as far as the AstraZeneca vaccine trial and HIV-positive participants, Riddler said, "I think it will be a little while longer before we have a lot of information, but as far as I know, there have been no safety issues."

Riddler hopes that the inclusion of the HIV-positive population normalizes HIV as a health condition that shouldn't be ostracized. She said to Wagner, "My goal for you is for your condition to just be something you live with, that doesn't control your destiny."

Riddler also brought up that millions around the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are living with HIV/AIDS at a much greater proportion than that in the U.S. "This is another piece of the reason why it's really important to make sure drugs and vaccines are safe and effective," she said.

While vaccine companies initially hesitated at the potential risks of including HIV-positive patients, Wagner argued that research is the only way to move forward.

"I wouldn't be here 35 plus years later if I hadn't participated in all the research. Until we do this, we aren't going to have the answers," he said.

A big part of President Biden's coronavirus relief package is focused on children. The president says he wants to expand the federal child tax credit, which gives families money for each child they have — or at least reduces their taxes.
This change could help lift nearly 10 million children above the poverty line or get them closer to it, according to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
"You have 27 million children in our country who do not get the full maximum amount [of the tax credit] because their parents do not make enough money," says Chuck Marr, the center's director of federal tax policy, in an interview with NPR's Morning Edition.
Currently, he says, "the child tax credit is a $2,000 credit, and it's very simple for middle-class children and higher-income children. They just get $2,000 per year per child."
Unlike a tax deduction, a tax credit reduces the tax bill "dollar for dollar. And that's what makes it very powerful," Marr adds.
Biden proposes expanding the credit for low-income households and raising it to $3,000 per child and $3,600 for children under 6 years old.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki says Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic rescue plan would "reduce the number of kids living in poverty by 5 million this year and cut child poverty in half."

It has to be said that the national strength of the United States is indeed strong. After four years of Trump's profligacy, Mr. Biden can still provide huge assistance to the people concerned. We need to understand that for us, good policies and epidemic prevention measures are in line with the reality of our country. If politicians are irresponsible and we ordinary people are irresponsible, the result will be disastrous and our national strength will not be enough to support this "war".

A third coronavirus vaccine candidate has requested emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. Johnson & Johnson submitted its application Thursday for the company's single-dose inoculation.
In a statement released Thursday, the company said if emergency use is granted, it aims to supply 100 million doses in the first half of 2021. Unlike Pfizer and Moderna, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine can be stored for at least three months at 36-46 degrees Fahrenheit, compatible with standard vaccine distribution channels, the company said.
It has shown to be 66% effective overall in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 four weeks after the shot is administered. Johnson & Johnson said the vaccine was 72% effective in the United States, compared to 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa.
However, the vaccine is 85% effective in preventing severe forms of COVID-19. And the efficacy of the treatment increased over time, the company said, with no cases in vaccinated participants after 49 days.
"The potential to significantly reduce the burden of severe disease, by providing an effective and well-tolerated vaccine with just one immunization, is a critical component of the global public health response," said Paul Stoffels, Johnson & Johnson vice chairman of the executive committee and chief scientific officer. "Eighty-five percent efficacy in preventing severe COVID-19 disease and prevention of COVID-19-related medical interventions will potentially protect hundreds of millions of people from serious and fatal outcomes of COVID-19."
The FDA is expected to hold the first meeting of outside advisers on the application on Feb. 26. If the advisers favor the vaccine, a decision authorize its use could come very soon afterwards.

No fewer than 20 nationally known retailers have recently filed for bankruptcy.
J. C. Penney, Nieman Marcus and Pier 1 Imports are just a few. Now the once vaunted shopping malls you often found these chains inside of are getting hit hard as well.
There are implications the tough financial crisis could have on shoppers across the country and in Metro Detroit.
Malls started right in Metro Detroit during the 1950s and 1960s. The Taubman company built many of them including Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi.
But the industry is shifting, changing and owners are struggling to get customers in the door and more than that keep the doors open.
Fairlane Town Center once owned by mall company Starwood just handed the keys over to the bank.
“Its days as a super regional mall are long gone,” said retail analyst, Jim Bieri.
Partridge Creek, once a Taubman company center now owned by Starwood is without an anchor store.
“Can just as easily go to Somerset or Partridge Creek,” said Bieri while discussing east side shoppers.
Taubman recently sold Twelve Oaks Mall which has lost Sears and Lord and Taylor.
“Without department stores malls are threatened. Without them there are no malls in the present form,” he added.
Bieri leases rental space across Metro Detroit. He says over the years department stores eroded because of specialty brands starting stores, then outlets, then the big box stores took over hardware and furniture.
Meanwhile, many believe Amazon and other online retailers have changed the world.
He says Amazon attracts the highest income shoppers away from department stores, but in the end Bieri believes as outdated as they may seem, the old fashioned shopping mall is not destined to go the way of the dinosaur.
“It’s going to get worse, but shopping in malls are not going to go away. It’s going to be altered and you know the strong will survive and we might end up with six or four in the market, but they’re not going away,” he added.
One of the things Bieri does warn about shopping malls is the fact they are going to need massive amounts of investment to keep strong. But at the same time COVID created a massive pent up demand so the malls may just get the healthy cash infusion they need soon.

VS'It is an understatement to say that the health and economic crisis linked to Covid-19 is shaking Africa like other regions of the world even if the disaster forecasts have not, at least not yet, been verified on the ground. While the first case Covid-19 was detected in late February in Nigeria , the latest figures (as of 1 st January 2021) show 2,759,313 of confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 65,480 deaths on the continent, according to the CDC Africa , the most affected countries being South Africa , Egypt , Moroccoand Ethiopia. In the figures, Africa weighs for 17% of the world population but represents "only" 4% of infections and 3% of deaths in the world. In this context where vigilance is required more than ever, African health professionals have not suspended a trajectory espoused for a number of years to compensate for Africa's deficit in health infrastructure and nursing staff ( on average 2 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants): that of e-health.
An encouraging environment for African e-health
In view of the situation related to Covid-19, e-health really appears to be a solution adapted to the continent in terms of its responses to the challenges of territories not only remote but also difficult to access due to lack of roads and railways. and other infrastructure linking towns to villages, urban areas to rural areas. Some African start-ups, telecom operators and States have embarked on it, taking advantage of the accessibility of equipment linked to new digital technologies and with a high penetration rate. This is the case of smartphones that 45% of Africans own if we are to believe the latest figures in the mobile economy report. GSMA 2020. Enough to help accelerate the production of high impact e-health innovations for populations. Because in the current health and economic environment, the e-health sector, including both digital tools and telemedicine, the various consulting, sharing or support platforms, applications, connected objects at the service of health, etc., can help the continent to be more resilient in terms of health. And this reality has gradually imposed itself for a number of years.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York will lift restrictions on gatherings and some nonessential businesses across most of the state — except in parts of the greater New York City-area, including Washington Heights, the Bronx and Queens, and the Newburgh area upstate.
The new measures will eliminate harsher limits on indoor dining, gathering sizes and businesses like gyms, barbershops and hair salons. While indoor dining in New York City will remain closed for now, more details on how the state plans to reopen those businesses could come later this week, Cuomo said.
There is a concern that new, more contagious variants of the virus first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil could take hold and threaten the state’s ability to treat an influx of Covid-19 patients, Cuomo said.
“Yes, it creates anxiety, and all I can tell you is that we watch it and we adapt,” Cuomo said. “If it changes, we will change.”