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Teen Dies Minutes After Receiving Second Pfizer COVID Vaccine + More
Teen Dies Minutes After Receiving Second Pfizer COVID Vaccine Shot
International Business Times reported:
A teenage girl in Vietnam died less than half an hour after she received her second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the local medical center said.
The 9th grader, whose identity was not released by authorities, died Tuesday. She received her first Pfizer shot on Dec. 3, 2021, and experienced adverse reactions, including dizziness and difficulty breathing.
She received her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine Monday, and again developed adverse reactions such as tightness in her chest, dizziness, breathing difficulties and seizures, according to VN Express.
The girl received emergency treatment from medical officers at the vaccination site before being transferred to the Ha Hoa District medical center. Her condition rapidly deteriorated upon arrival at the hospital where she began to vomit blood. She later fell into a coma and died.
Preteens May Be Vaxed Without Parents Under California Bill
California would allow children age 12 and up to be vaccinated without their parents’ consent, the youngest age of any state, under a proposed bill late Thursday by a state senator.
Alabama allows such decisions at age 14, Oregon at 15, Rhode Island and South Carolina at 16, according to Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who is proposing the change. Only Washington, D.C., has a lower limit, at age 11.
Wiener’s bill would lift the parental requirement for that age group for any vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New York Medical Examiner Denies Report of Piling Bodies in Facilities Amid COVID Surge
New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner office is denying reports of backlogs within the office.
In a conversation with Newsweek, a spokeswoman for the office denied a report from the New York Post that was published on Thursday. The Post claims that a backlog of deaths at the Chief Medical Examiner’s office has resulted in hospitals having to deal with shifting dead patients around their facilities.
When contacted by Newsweek about the story, the Chief Medical Examiner’s Executive Director of Public Affairs Julie Bolcer disputed the claim, saying, “The medical examiner’s office does not have any backlogs, and we don’t have delays.”
Bolcer denied that there has been an overflow of bodies. In fact, the medical examiner’s office is creating more room to accommodate these deaths, which she said were due to a combination of a variety of factors.
A W.H.O. Panel Recommends Extending the Pfizer Vaccine to Children Ages 5 to 11
The World Health Organization, which has been resistant to endorse the wide use of booster shots and slow in recommending vaccinations for children, moved on Friday to revise its advice on both fronts, bringing its guidance closer to that of most wealthy nations, including the United States.
An advisory panel for the agency recommended expanding the use of a reduced dosage of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to children aged 5 to 11. It also recommended that frontline healthcare workers, older adults and those in other high-risk groups who have been inoculated be offered a booster dose four to six months after their initial doses.
The committee had already authorized boosters for those whose immune systems are diminished.
Two Families Fought Hospitals to Allow Alternative COVID Treatments, Now Their Loved Ones Have Died
Two men on ventilators — one in Florida and one in Arizona — died within 24 hours of each other, even as their families were still fighting with hospitals for the chance to try alternative treatments.
After all other treatments offered by the hospitals failed, both families had begged to try ivermectin and other alternative treatments for COVID-19, as outlined in a protocol by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance.
Daniel Pisano, 70, had been fighting for his life in Mayo Clinic Florida since Dec. 11. His battle ended late Jan. 19. Stephen Judge, 69, had struggled to overcome his illness in Banner Ironwood Medical Center in Queen Creek, Arizona, since Nov. 17. He died on Jan. 20.
Is COVID Retreating in the U.S.? Data Paints Encouraging Scenario
New coronavirus cases are falling in parts of the United States hit hardest by the fast-spreading Omicron variant, according to a Reuters analysis of public health data, offering an early indication the virus might once again be in retreat.
COVID-19 infections have decreased in 19 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, an analysis of the past week through Thursday compared with the prior week showed.
Patient Beware: Some States Are Still Pushing Outdated COVID Treatments
As the Omicron variant completes its sweep across the U.S., states with scarce supplies of monoclonal antibody therapies continue to use two treatments that federal health officials warn no longer work against the highly contagious version of the virus that causes COVID-19.
The antibody treatment now most recommended is sotrovimab from GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, and it’s in short supply.
The use of the newly ineffective treatments produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Co. is highest in a dozen states. Many hospitals and clinics are still infusing the costly treatments — often charging hundreds of dollars a session — that public health officials now say are almost certainly useless.
Here’s What We Know About ‘Stealth Omicron’ — the Fast-Moving Sub-Lineage of the Variant ‘Gaining Ground’ in Europe
The U.K. Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) announced Friday it is investigating a sub-lineage of the Omicron coronavirus variant — known as BA.2 and nicknamed by some scientists as “stealth Omicron” — that appears to be outpacing other forms of the variant around the world and is raising fears of an even more transmissible strain of the virus.
While cases are low in the U.K., BA.2 accounts for nearly half (45%) of Danish COVID-19 cases, according to Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut (SSI), part of its ministry of health, a jump from just 20% in the last week of 2021.
Aside from limited evidence on BA.2’s growth in some regions, there is not a lot of data on its behavior, including whether it is better able to evade immunity, causes more severe illness or how much more transmissible it might be over BA.1.
Hongkongers Launch Hamster Rescue Mission After COVID Cull Declared
Authorities and pet lovers in Hong Kong are locked in a game of cat and mouse, with citizens mounting a clandestine rescue operation for hamsters condemned to be euthanized over fears they could transmit COVID-19.
On Tuesday, government and health officials announced traces of the virus had been found on 11 hamsters, all in a pet shop where a 23-year-old staff member had fallen ill. They decided more than 2,000 of the imported animals, including any pets bought since Dec. 22, must be killed, and “strongly recommended” owners surrender their pets.
Residents sprung into action, offering to hide or adopt the doomed pets. Tens of thousands signed petitions, while others offered to fake backdated receipts to before Dec. 22, the Washington Post reported. Groups gathered outside collection facilities urging people not to hand over their animals.
Fauci Says FDA Could Authorize Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 5 Next Month + More
Fauci Says FDA Could Authorize Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 5 in the Next Month
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said the Food and Drug Administration could approve Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine for children under 5 years old in the next month.
Fauci said younger children will likely need three doses, because two shots did not induce an adequate immune response in 2 to 4 year olds in Pfizer’s clinical trials.
Pfizer plans to submit data to the Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2022 if the three-dose study proves successful, the company announced in December.
Pfizer said it did not identify any safety concerns with the 3-microgram vaccine doses in children 6 months to 4 years old.
Current Vaccines ‘Not Good Enough’ to End Pandemic — Infectious Disease Research Institute
The current generation of COVID vaccines is “not good enough” at blocking viral transmission to bring an end to the pandemic, Dr. Corey Casper, the chief executive officer of the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), said. The IDRI is a biotech non-profit based in Seattle that’s working on creating new treatments for infectious diseases, including COVID vaccines.
“They are having to be re-administered now in the United States every five months, so this is not a vaccine program that is going to get us out of this pandemic,” Casper said.
Scientists are now looking into developing T-cell vaccines, which intend to significantly reduce transmission of the virus as well as severe illness. A January study by Imperial College London found that those with higher numbers of T-cells were less likely to get COVID.
It’s a Terrible Idea to Deny Medical Care to Unvaccinated People
Matt Wynia, a doctor and ethicist at the University of Colorado, told me, “We don’t use the medical-care system as a way of meting out justice. We don’t use it to punish people for their social choices.”
The matter “is pretty cut-and-dry,” Sara Murray, a hospitalist at UC San Francisco, added. “We have an ethical obligation to provide care for people regardless of the choices they made, and that stands true for our unvaccinated patients.”
Unlike vaccine mandates, which limit the jobs unvaccinated people can hold or the spaces they can enter, withholding medical care would be a matter of life or death. And in such matters, medical care should be offered according to the urgency of a patient’s need, not the circumstances leading up to that need.
Aiming to Make CDC Nimble, Agency Director Has Rankled Many
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the top U.S. public health agency has been criticized as too slow to collect and act on new information.
Now, increasingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also being criticized for moving too fast.
One year into Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s tenure as director, her bid to make the CDC more agile is being challenged by political pressures, vocal scientists and the changing virus itself. In its haste, some experts say, the agency has repeatedly stumbled — moving too quickly, before the science was clear, and then failing to communicate clearly with local health officials and the public.
New Jobless Claims Keep Unexpectedly Spiking as Omicron Surge ‘Taints’ Economic Recovery
The number of new unemployment claims unexpectedly jumped for the third week in a row this month, adding to evidence suggesting the record wave of coronavirus cases this month — spurred by the rapidly spreading Omicron variant — has stunted the economic recovery.
“The future path of the pandemic remains highly uncertain, but the underlying job market narrative overall continues to be one of scarcity of available applicants and workers,” Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick said last week.
“The latest wrinkle — the high level of individuals testing positive, becoming ill or staying away from work — has added to supply-chain disruptions with inflation already running red-hot.”
Majority of Americans Think COVID Situation Is Getting Worse: Gallup
A majority of Americans say they feel that the COVID-19 pandemic is getting worse, according to a new Gallup poll released on Thursday.
According to the January Gallup poll, 58% of respondents said they felt the pandemic was getting a little or a lot worse, while just 20% said they felt the pandemic was improving and 22% said they thought the situation had stayed the same.
The level of pessimism surrounding the pandemic saw a sharp increase from when the poll was conducted in October, when 18% said they felt it was getting worse and 51% said it was getting better.
New Mexico Asks National Guard to Teach as COVID Shuts Schools
New Mexico on Wednesday asked National Guard members and state employees to volunteer as substitute teachers to keep schools and daycare centers open during a surge in COVID-19 infections.
State employees and Guard members who take up the call to teach will get their usual pay and be considered on administrative leave or active duty, respectively, according to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Some 60 schools in New Mexico have gone into remote learning since the winter break and 75 child daycare centers partially or completely closed as staff tested positive for COVID-19 or quarantined, according to a statement from the governor.
Europe Considers New COVID Strategy: Accepting the Virus
When the coronavirus pandemic was first declared, Spaniards were ordered to stay home for more than three months. For weeks, they were not allowed outside even for exercise. Children were banned from playgrounds, and the economy virtually stopped.
But officials credited the draconian measures with preventing a full collapse of the health system. Lives were saved, they argued.
Now, almost two years later, Spain is preparing to adopt a different COVID-19 playbook. Similar steps are under consideration in neighboring Portugal and in Britain. The idea is to move from crisis mode to control mode, approaching the virus in much the same way countries deal with flu or measles.
Valneva Says Early Studies Show COVID Vaccine Effective Against Omicron
French biotech firm Valneva (VLS.PA) said on Wednesday that preliminary studies showed that three doses of its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate neutralised the Omicron variant of the disease.
All of the serum samples tested presented neutralizing antibodies against the ancestral virus and Delta variant, it said, while 87% of samples did so against the Omicron variant.
Merck’s COVID Pill to Be Produced by More Than Two Dozen Drugmakers
Medicines Patent Pool, an organization supported by the U.N., announced on Thursday that over two dozen generic drug makers will soon begin producing Merck’s COVID-19 pill to make the treatment more accessible in developing countries.
The organization said that 27 generic drug makers would produce the pill for 105 developing countries. Specifically, agreements the companies signed allow them to make both molnupiravir’s raw ingredients as well as the final product.
Experts Declare ‘National State of Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health’+ More
Mental Health: Experts Declare ‘National State of Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health’
The issue is so dire that the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association — together representing more than 77,000 physician members and more than 200 children’s hospitals — recently declared a national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health and are calling on policymakers to join them.
“Children’s mental health is suffering. Young people have endured so much throughout this pandemic and while much of the attention is often placed on its physical health consequences, we cannot overlook the escalating mental health crisis facing our patients,” said American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Lee Savio Beers.
WHO Says No Evidence Healthy Children, Adolescents Need COVID Boosters
There is no evidence at present that healthy children and adolescents need booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a news briefing, she said that while there seems to be some waning of vaccine immunity over time against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus, more research needs to be done to ascertain who needs booster doses.
“There is no evidence right now that healthy children or healthy adolescents need boosters. No evidence at all,” she said.
New Data Show Those Who Recovered From COVID Were Less Likely Than Vaccinated to Get Infected During Delta Wave
New data released Wednesday showed that both vaccination and prior infection offered strong protection against infection and hospitalization from COVID-19 during the Delta wave — and that case and hospitalization rates were actually lower among people who had recovered from COVID-19 than among those who had been vaccinated.
The data, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health agencies in California and New York, are sure to inflame arguments from those who insist they don’t need to be vaccinated if they can show they’ve recovered from COVID-19.
More Than 1,200 Oakland Students Pledge to Stay Home Unless Schools Improve COVID Safety
More than 1,200 students in Oakland, California, have signed a petition saying they would stay home this week unless school administrators provide additional COVID protections, including more N95 masks, weekly testing and better social distancing — or a shift to virtual learning.
On Tuesday, three district campuses were closed because students and teachers, in solidarity, stayed home.
In recent weeks, students in New York City, New Jersey, Chicago, Washington DC and elsewhere have launched protests and petitions as well, demanding improved safety measures. Districts, meanwhile, have faced immense pressures from parents and politicians to keep school campuses open as the U.S. enters its third year of the pandemic.
Holes in the Social Safety Net Leave Millions Without Access to Needed Benefits
The pandemic has shone a bright light on our country’s social safety net.
Now, most of those benefits have ended or will soon: Over the summer, Americans lost federal protection from evictions and foreclosures. In September, pandemic unemployment insurance supplements expired nationwide, the expanded child tax credit followed suit at the end of the year and federal student loan payments, paused since March 2020, will resume in May.
Even with those benefits expiring, though, it seems that COVID-19 taught us a valuable lesson about how seriously we need to take our social safety net.
Biden Administration to Give out 400 Million Free N95 Masks
The Biden administration is planning to give out 400 million free N95 masks to Americans in the coming weeks, supplied from the country’s strategic stockpile as the nation is facing a record surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant.
The free masks will be made available to the public at thousands of local pharmacies and community health centers nationwide starting late next week, according to a White House official, and will mark “the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in U.S. history.”
COVID Lab-Leak Whitewash Has Been ‘the Death of Science’ Says Professor Who Found ‘Unique Fingerprints’
University of London professor Angus Dalgleish, who co-authored a paper in summer 2020 after spotting “unique fingerprints” in COVID-19 samples that point to genetic manipulation, says that he’s been the victim of a “disgusting whitewash,” and that anyone suggesting a non-natural origin for COVID-19 has been silenced by peers.
“This goes back to the days of Copernicus and Galileo — it is the death of science,” said the oncologist — who in 1984 discovered how HIV enters and kills cells.
Billionaire Soon-Shiong Launches 1 Billion-Dose Vaccine Plant in Cape Town
U.S. biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong launched a plant that will produce a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses a year in Cape Town by 2025, which would make it the biggest such factory in Africa and could help the least-vaccinated continent tackle the pandemic.
Soon-Shiong’s ImmunityBio Inc. is developing a messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, COVID-19 vaccine that it hopes will be used as a universal booster for earlier shots and may help end the pandemic by targeting the nucleocapsid protein at the core of the coronavirus, which is less prone to mutation than the spike proteins targeted by other shots.
WHO Urges Manufacturers to Provide COVID Vaccine Data
A World Health Organization committee urged COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers on Tuesday to provide it with the data it requires in order to list their shots for emergency use, saying the delays were affecting equitable vaccine access.
“The Committee recognized the challenges posed by some manufacturers’ delayed submission of vaccine data to WHO,” its Emergency Committee said in a statement, urging vaccine producers to supply the data as soon as possible.
The statement, the outcome of a closed-door meeting held last week, did not clarify which manufacturers had not yet submitted data.
USPS Free COVID Test Order Problems Reported as ‘Small Percentage’ Affected
President Joe Biden‘s administration soft-launched a website for Americans to order at-home tests on Tuesday, a day before the site’s official rollout.
COVIDTests.gov provides a link for people to access an order form run by the Postal Service, allowing them to order four tests for every residential address. The tests “are completely free” and orders will usually ship in 7 to 12 days, the federal website says.
Breastfeeding Study Finds That Mothers With COVID Didn’t Pass Infection to Babies Through Breast Milk
Breastfeeding while infected with COVID-19, or just after an infection, is unlikely to spread the virus from mother to child, scientists have said.
A small study from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found the breast milk of mothers with COVID-19 didn’t contain infectious virus particles and there was no “clinical evidence” of babies contracting the virus due to breastfeeding.
Other early research has found breastfeeding mothers that have had COVID-19 can pass antibodies to newborns, but it’s not yet clear if they give the baby any protection.
Djokovic Bets on a COVID Cure as He Quests for Tennis History
The pandemic has blocked Novak Djokovic’s march to tennis history, so the 34-year-old may be pinning his hopes on a cure for COVID to get his hands on another glorious grand slam before time runs out.
The Serbian superstar, who became a focus of the global vaccine debate over his failed attempt to enter Australia without being inoculated, holds a majority stake in a Danish biotech firm aiming to develop a treatment to counter COVID-19, the company’s CEO told Reuters.
China Uses Anal Tests to Detect Omicron as COVID Variant Spreads Before Winter Olympics
Chinese health authorities are ordering the use of controversial but more precise anal swabs to detect COVID-19 for a third year running as an Omicron cluster in Beijing grew to three people as of Wednesday.
China has deployed anal swabs in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai since 2020. In the capital, the method was used in combination with antibody tests as well as throat and nasal swabs to screen millions last winter.
While the approach isn’t considered practical for tracking larger clusters — an established method known as “pooling” is preferred — anal swabs are thought to be more accurate, especially in COVID hotspots.
Israeli Vaccine Study Finds People Still Catching Omicron After 4 Doses + More
Israeli Vaccine Study Finds People Still Catching Omicron After 4 Doses
A landmark Israeli trial is expected to show that four shots of vaccine didn’t stop infection by the Omicron variant, according to a study official.
While the extra dose — of either Pfizer or Moderna vaccine — seemed to have some effect, rates of infection in the study were not substantially different to those who had three doses of Pfizer, the study official said.
Gili Regev-Yochay, a lead investigator on the study, told reporters that “the vaccine is excellent against the Alpha and Delta,” but the study found that “for Omicron, it’s not good enough,” The Times of Israel reported Monday evening.
Kaiser Says Thousands in San Francisco Area May Have Received Low Dose of COVID Vaccine
Kaiser Permanente says thousands in the San Francisco area may have received a low dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said around 3,900 people who visited Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center on both Oct. 25 and Dec. 10 may have received 0.01 ml to 0.04 ml less than the recommended dose of 0.30 ml, a discrepancy it said is “not considered significant,” KTVU reported.
Kaiser said it consulted experts and found the slightly lower dosage wouldn’t affect protection against the virus, but offered for those who received the wrong dosage to come in for another shot, according to the local outlet.
Wealth of 10 Richest Men Doubled in Pandemic as 99% of Incomes Dropped: Oxfam
The 10 richest men in the world doubled their fortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic, a report published Monday by advocacy group Oxfam said, highlighting how the global health crisis has deepened the divide between the haves and have-nots as well as the need for policy intervention to address these “deadly” inequities.
While the wealth of the world’s 10 richest men more than doubled — increasing from approximately $700 billion to $1.5 trillion between March 2020 and November 2021 — the incomes of approximately 99% of people around the globe fell during that time, and more than 160 million people have been forced into poverty, the Oxfam report added.
The richest men were Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault & family, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer and Warren Buffett.
The calculations also indicate that the wealth of the world’s billionaires has increased more since COVID-19 began than it has in the last 14 years.
Moderna Hopes to Market Combined COVID and Flu Booster in 2023
Moderna hopes to market a combined booster vaccination for COVID-19, influenza and RSV — a common respiratory virus — as soon as the fall of 2023, CEO Stéphane Bancel said Monday.
Bancel, speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum, said the combination vaccine would enable people to get broad protection against illnesses caused by respiratory viruses ahead of the winter infectious season without having to obtain multiple jabs.
Bancel told investors last September that Moderna was working on a booster shot that would combine its mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, a vaccine it is developing against influenza and possibly a dose to treat respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
Fauci Says It’s Still an ‘Open Question’ Whether Omicron Spells COVID Endgame
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday it is still too soon to predict whether the Omicron COVID-19 variant will mark the final wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is an open question whether it will be the live virus vaccination that everyone is hoping for,” Fauci said via videoconference at The Davos Agenda virtual event.
The Omicron variant, while highly transmissible, has been found to be less severe than previous variants, sparking hope that it could hasten the end of the pandemic. Yet, Fauci said there is still no guarantee.
“I would hope that that’s the case. But that would only be the case if we don’t get another variant that eludes the immune response of the prior variant,” he said.
‘They Used Us as an Experiment’: Arkansas Inmates Who Were Given Ivermectin to Treat COVID File Federal Lawsuit Against Jail
A group of men detained at Washington County Detention Center in Arkansas say that the jail’s medical staff gave them the anti-parasite drug ivermectin last year, without their consent, to treat COVID-19, while telling them the pills were “vitamins.” On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of the inmates, filed a federal lawsuit against the jail and its doctor.
The lawsuit claims that medical staff at the jail gave the men ivermectin as early as November 2020, and that the men did not become aware of what the pill was until well after they received it. At a local finance and budget committee meeting last August, county sheriff Tim Helder confirmed that the facility’s doctor Dr. Robert Karas prescribed ivermectin.
Gary Sullivan, legal director of the ACLU of Arkansas, issued a statement saying that “no one — including incarcerated individuals — should be deceived and subject to medical experimentation.”
New York and Other Northeastern U.S. States See a Rapid Fall in COVID Cases
New York City and some northeastern U.S. states appear to be seeing rapid decreases in their numbers of COVID-19 cases in recent days, raising the possibility that the Omicron wave has now already peaked in some parts of America.
In New York City the rolling seven-day average of new cases was less than 28,000 a day on Jan. 16, down from an average of more than 40,000 on Jan. 9.
Similar patterns were being observed in the state as a whole and in other nearby regions.
Nets’ Star Irving Steadfast on Vaccine Despite Durant Injury
Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving insists an injury to teammate Kevin Durant won’t change his stance on not getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Irving, who only recently returned to action after a drawn-out stalemate over getting vaccinated, said Monday following a loss to the Cavaliers that he has no intention of getting the shot — and nothing will sway him.
With Durant potentially sidelined for six weeks with a knee injury suffered Saturday, Irving was asked if he’s feeling more pressure to get vaccinated. Irving made it clear he’s not been moved to act.
Passengers Stuck at Sea After Norwegian Cancels Caribbean Cruise Mid-Voyage Due to COVID
Norwegian Cruise Line canceled its Caribbean trip mid-voyage due to COVID-19, leaving travelers stuck at sea until the ship returns to New York.
The Norwegian Gem was on a 10-day sail but it was canceled and the ship docked in Philipsburg, St. Martin. It’s not clear what exactly led to the cancellation. The spokesperson said the ship would return to New York “shortly” but did not provide a date.
According to Cruise Industry News, all passengers on the Gem will receive a full refund.
Merck Signs Supply Deal With UNICEF for 3 Million Courses of COVID Pill
Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said on Tuesday they had signed an agreement with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to supply up to 3 million courses of their COVID-19 antiviral pill.
Merck would supply the pill, molnupiravir, to UNICEF through the first half of 2022 for distribution in more than 100 low- and middle-income countries upon regulatory authorizations, the companies said.
The pill received authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December and has also been authorized in several other countries including India, Mexico and the UK. Many countries have signed supply deals with Merck for the drug.
Hong Kong to Kill 2,000 Animals After Hamsters Get COVID
Hong Kong authorities said Tuesday that they will kill about 2,000 small animals, including hamsters, after several tested positive for the coronavirus at a pet store where an employee was also infected.
The city will also stop the sale of hamsters and the import of small mammals, according to officials from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. The pet shop employee tested positive for the Delta variant on Monday, and several hamsters imported from the Netherlands at the store tested positive as well.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, animals do not appear to play a significant role in spreading the coronavirus. But Hong Kong authorities said they are not ruling out transmission between animals and humans.
China Blames Packages From U.S., Canada, as Reason for COVID Spread
Chinese health authorities say international packages from the United States and Canada may be responsible for spreading the COVID-19 Omicron variant in parts of China, including Beijing.
Chinese officials say Beijing’s first case of the COVID-19 Omicron variant may be linked to a package received from Canada, however health experts are skeptical, the CBC reported.
Global health experts disagree with China’s reasoning for the COVID-19 infection. The World Health Organization said COVID-19 cannot multiply on surfaces like mail or food packages. The viruses “need a live animal or human host to multiply and survive,” the AP reported.
China Halts Winter Olympics Ticket Sales as Omicron Arrives in Beijing
China has announced that tickets to the Winter Olympics will no longer be sold to the general public, as the country’s capital recorded its first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Last fall, Beijing had already limited tickets to the Games to domestic spectators. On Monday, Beijing’s Winter Olympics Organizing Committee said this would be further restricted: Only certain approved groups will be allowed to watch the Olympics in person, after undergoing strict measures to prevent transmission of the virus.