https://www.voanews.com/z/6730 The latest news, information, guidelines, and outlook for the COVID-19 pandemic that's killed thousands of people and sickened millions of others around the world. https://www.voanews.com/Content/responsive/VOA/en-US/img/logo.png https://www.voanews.com/z/6730 en 2026 - VOA 60 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:01:57 -0400 Pangea CMS – VOA WASHINGTON — The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has "low confidence" in its own conclusion. The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump's pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director. The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency's assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory. Earlier reports on the origins of COVID-19 have split over whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, potentially by mistake, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is not likely to settle the debate. In fact, intelligence officials say it may never be resolved, due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities. The CIA "continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible," the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment. Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on fresh analyses of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific properties and the work and conditions of China's virology labs. Lawmakers have pressured America's spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic upheaval and millions of deaths. It's a question with significant domestic and geopolitical implications as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic's legacy. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Saturday he was "pleased the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the lab-leak theory is the most plausible explanation," and he commended Ratcliffe for declassifying the assessment. "Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world," Cotton said in a statement. China's embassy in Washington did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Chinese authorities have in the past dismissed speculation about COVID's origins as unhelpful and motivated by politics. While the origin of the virus remains unknown, scientists think the most likely hypothesis is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting another species, probably racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. In turn, the infection spread to humans handling or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019. Some official investigations, however, have raised the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Two years ago, a report by the Energy Department concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin, though that report also expressed low confidence in the finding. The same year then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency believed the virus "most likely" spread after escaping from a lab. Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, has said he favors the lab leak scenario, too. "The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense," Ratcliffe said in 2023. The CIA said it will continue to evaluate any new information that could change its assessment. https://www.voanews.com/a/cia-covid-likely-originated-in-a-lab-but-agency-has-low-confidence-in-report-/7950532.html https://www.voanews.com/a/cia-covid-likely-originated-in-a-lab-but-agency-has-low-confidence-in-report-/7950532.html Sat, 25 Jan 2025 20:28:11 -0500 COVID-19 PandemicUSAEast AsiaScience & HealthChina Newswebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) has recently spread widely across China, overwhelming hospitals and evoking memories of the COVID-19 outbreak. HMPV is not a new virus; it has been known for years and typically has a low mortality rate. Nevertheless, epidemiologists are calling for greater transparency about the spread of the virus to help contain infections. While the health care system is under strain, experts stress that there is no need for panic. They recommend the public follow basic protective measures, particularly during the Spring Festival travel period, to help curb further spread of the virus. Click here to read the full story in Mandarin. https://www.voanews.com/a/voa-mandarin-china-s-winter-surge-of-flu-like-hmpv-cases-raises-concerns-of-transparency-/7932775.html https://www.voanews.com/a/voa-mandarin-china-s-winter-surge-of-flu-like-hmpv-cases-raises-concerns-of-transparency-/7932775.html Sun, 12 Jan 2025 12:30:33 -0500 China NewsEast AsiaScience & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Chan-Long Ku) LONDON — There are certain phrases that Wachuka Gichohi finds difficult to hear after enduring four years of living with long COVID, marked by debilitating fatigue, pain, panic attacks and other symptoms so severe she feared she would die overnight. Among them are normally innocuous statements such as, "Feel better soon" or "Wishing you a quick recovery," the Kenyan businesswoman said, shaking her head. Gichohi, 41, knows such phrases are well-intentioned. "I think you have to accept, for me, it’s not going to happen." Recent scientific studies shed new light on the experience of millions of patients like Gichohi. They suggest the longer someone is sick, the lower their chances of making a full recovery. The best window for recovery is in the first six months after getting COVID-19, with better odds for people whose initial illness was less severe, as well as those who are vaccinated, researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States found. People whose symptoms last between six months and two years are less likely to fully recover. For patients who have been struggling for more than two years, the chance of a full recovery "is going to be very slim," said Manoj Sivan, a professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Leeds and one of the authors of the findings published in The Lancet. Sivan said this should be termed "persistent long COVID" and understood like the chronic conditions myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, or fibromyalgia, which can be features of long COVID or risk factors for it. Waning attention Long COVID, defined as symptoms persisting for three months or more after the initial infection, involves a constellation of symptoms from extreme fatigue to brain fog, breathlessness and joint pain. It can range from mild to utterly disabling, and there are no proven diagnostic tests or treatments, although scientists have made progress on theories about who is at risk and what might cause it. One British study suggested almost a third of those reporting symptoms at 12 weeks recovered after 12 months. Others, particularly among patients who had been hospitalized, show far lower rates of recovery. In a study run by the UK's Office for National Statistics, 2 million people self-reported long COVID symptoms this past March. Roughly 700,000, or 30.6%, said they first experienced symptoms at least three years previously. Globally, accepted estimates have suggested between 65 million and 200 million people have long COVID. That could mean between 19.5 million and 60 million people face years of impairment based on the initial estimates, Sivan said. The United States and some countries like Germany continue to fund long COVID research. But more than two dozen experts, patient advocates and pharmaceutical executives told Reuters that money and attention for the condition is dwindling in other wealthy countries that traditionally fund large-scale studies. In low- and middle-income countries, it was never there. "The attention has shifted," said Amitava Banerjee, a professor at University College London who co-leads a large trial of repurposed drugs and rehabilitation programs. He says long COVID should be viewed as a chronic condition that can be treated to improve patients' lives rather than cured, like heart disease or arthritis. 'Profoundly disabling' Leticia Soares, 39, from northeast Brazil, was infected in 2020 and has battled intense fatigue and chronic pain ever since. On a good day, she spends five hours out of bed. When she can work, Soares is a co-lead and researcher at Patient-Led Research Collaborative, an advocacy group involved in a review of long COVID evidence published recently in Nature. Soares said she believes recovery seldom happens beyond 12 months. Some patients may find their symptoms abate, only to recur, a kind of remission that can be mistaken for recovery, she said. "It's so profoundly disabling and isolating. You spend every time wondering, 'Am I going to get worse after this?'" she said of her own experience. Soares takes antihistamines and other commonly available treatments to cope with daily life. Four long COVID specialist doctors in different countries said they prescribe such medicines, which are known to be safe. Some evidence suggests they help. Others have less success with mainstream medicine. Gichohi's illness was dismissed by her doctor, and she turned to a functional medicine practitioner, who focused on more holistic treatments. She moved out of her hectic home city of Nairobi to a small town near Mount Kenya, policing her activity levels to prevent fatigue and receiving acupuncture and trauma therapy. She has tried the addiction treatment naltrexone, which has some evidence of benefit for long COVID symptoms, and the controversial anti-parasitic infection drug ivermectin, which does not but she says helped her. She said shifting from "chasing recovery" to living in her new reality was important. A piecemeal treatment approach is to be expected while research progresses, and perhaps longer-term, said Anita Jain, a long COVID specialist at the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, long-haulers face a new challenge with each spike in COVID cases. A handful of studies have suggested re-infection can exacerbate existing long COVID. Shannon Turner, a 39-year-old cabaret singer from Philadelphia, got COVID in late March or early April of 2020. She was already living with psoriatic arthritis and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, autoimmune diseases for which she regularly took steroids and an immunotherapy. Such conditions may increase the risk of developing long COVID, researchers say. This past summer, Turner got COVID again. Once again, she is extraordinarily tired and uses a walker for mobility. Turner is determined to pursue her music career despite ongoing pain, dizziness and a racing heart rate, which regularly land her in hospital. "I don't want to live my life in bed," she said.   https://www.voanews.com/a/many-long-covid-patients-adjust-to-slim-recovery-odds-as-world-moves-on/7864712.html https://www.voanews.com/a/many-long-covid-patients-adjust-to-slim-recovery-odds-as-world-moves-on/7864712.html Sat, 16 Nov 2024 01:30:00 -0500 Science & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Reuters) A regional public health department in Idaho is no longer providing COVID-19 vaccinations to residents in six counties after a narrow decision by its board. Southwest District Health appears to be the first in the nation to be restricted from giving COVID-19 shots. Vaccinations are an essential function of a public health department. While policymakers in Texas banned health departments from promoting COVID-19 vaccines and Florida's surgeon general bucked medical consensus to recommend against the vaccine, governmental bodies across the country haven't blocked the vaccines outright. "I'm not aware of anything else like this," said Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She said health departments have stopped offering the vaccine because of cost or low demand, but not based on "a judgment of the medical product itself." The six-county district along the Idaho-Oregon border includes three counties in the Boise metropolitan area. Demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the health district has declined — with 1,601 given in 2021 to 64 so far in 2024. The same is true for other vaccines: Idaho has the highest childhood vaccination exemption rate in the nation, and last year, the Southwest District Health Department rushed to contain a rare measles outbreak that sickened 10. On Oct. 22, the health department's board voted 4-3 in favor of the ban — despite Southwest's medical director testifying to the vaccine's necessity. "Our request of the board is that we would be able to carry and offer those [vaccines], recognizing that we always have these discussions of risks and benefits," Dr. Perry Jansen said at the meeting. "This is not a blind, everybody-gets-a-shot approach. This is a thoughtful approach." Opposite Jansen's plea were more than 290 public comments, many of which called for an end to vaccine mandates or taxpayer funding of the vaccines, neither of which are happening in the district. At the meeting, many people who spoke are nationally known for making the rounds to testify against COVID-19 vaccines, including Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist who sells "contagion emergency kits" that include ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — drugs that have not been approved to treat COVID-19 and can have dangerous side effects. Board Chairman Kelly Aberasturi was familiar with many of the voices who wanted the ban, especially from earlier local protests of pandemic measures. Aberasturi, who told The Associated Press that he's skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines and national public health leaders, said in the meeting and in an interview with the AP that he was supportive of but "disappointed" in the board's decision. He said the board had overstepped the relationship between patients and their doctors — and possibly opened a door to blocking other vaccines or treatments. Board members in favor of the decision argued people can get vaccinated elsewhere, and that providing the shots was equivalent to signing off on their safety. (Some people may be reluctant to get vaccinated or boosted because of misinformation about the shots despite evidence that they're safe and have saved millions of lives.) The people getting vaccinated at the health department — including people without housing, people who are homebound and those in long-term care facilities or in the immigration process — had no other options, Jansen and Aberasturi said. "I've been homeless in my lifetime, so I understand how difficult it can be when you're ... trying to get by and get ahead," Aberasturi said. "This is where we should be stepping in and helping. "But we have some board members who have never been there, so they don't understand what it's like." State health officials have said that they "recommend that people consider the COVID-19 vaccine." Idaho health department spokesperson AJ McWhorter declined to comment on "public health district business," but noted that COVID-19 vaccines are still available at community health centers for people who are uninsured. Aberasturi said he plans to ask at the next board meeting if the health department can at least be allowed to vaccinate older patients and residents of long-term care facilities, adding that the board is supposed to be caring for the "health and well-being" of the district's residents. "But I believe the way we went about this thing is we didn't do that due diligence." https://www.voanews.com/a/covid-19-shots-banned-at-public-health-district-in-idaho-likely-first-in-us-/7848342.html https://www.voanews.com/a/covid-19-shots-banned-at-public-health-district-in-idaho-likely-first-in-us-/7848342.html Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:49:00 -0400 Science & HealthUSACOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Geneva — The World Health Organization is warning that governments throughout the world are unprepared to combat the global surge of COVID-19, which is putting millions of people at risk of severe disease and death. “COVID-19 is still very much with us,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told journalists in Geneva Tuesday. “The virus is circulating in all countries. Data from our sentinel-based surveillance system across 84 countries reports that the percent of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 has been rising for several weeks,” she said. Not only is COVID-19 surging in many countries across seasons, she said, but at least 40 Olympic athletes have tested positive in Paris despite efforts by authorities to safeguard the venues against infectious disease circulation. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic as an international health threat on May 5, 2023. Since then, the U.N. agency has received scant official information from countries regarding the number of new infections and deaths, as well as other essential information. That has forced health agency officials to scroll through government websites, looking at ministry of health reports to ascertain monthly trends on hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 infections. “On the hospitalization rates, we have seen increases in the Americas. We have seen increases in Europe. In recent months, we have seen increases in the Western Pacific,” Van Kerkhove said. “Thirty-five countries out of 234 countries and territories are providing this information. … So about 15% of available countries and territories have that information to share with us.” Based on wastewater surveillance, WHO officials have determined that circulation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is 2 to 20 times higher than is currently being reported. “This is significant because the virus continues to evolve and change, which puts us all at risk of a potentially more severe virus that could evade our detection and/or our medical interventions, including vaccinations,” said Van Kerkhove. Over the last two years, she noted that there has been “an alarming decline in vaccine coverage,” especially among health workers and people over 60, “two of the most at-risk groups.” “I am concerned,” said Van Kerkhove. “With such low coverage, with such large circulation, if we were to have a variant that was more severe, then the susceptibility of the at-risk populations to develop severe disease is huge. It is huge in every country.” WHO officials observe that governments and their people have been lulled into a sense of complacency because the impact of COVID-19 is less now than it was during the pandemic. However, they also warn that could change for the worse as the immunity achieved through previous infections, and the protection achieved through vaccination, wears off. The WHO says countries could and should be doing much more to prevent the current global surge from turning into another full-blown pandemic. The global health agency is urging countries to continue to sharpen their pandemic preparedness, readiness and response systems “to be ready for surges of COVID-19 as well as other emerging and reemerging pathogens,” such as avian influenza H5N1, mpox and dengue. The WHO recommends that people in the highest risk groups receive a COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of their last dose. To increase uptake and protection, it recommends people get their COVID-19 shot in tandem with their seasonal flu shot. “Vaccination with any of the approved vaccines will protect against severe disease and death,” said Van Kerkhove. “It will lower your risk of developing severe disease. It will also lower your risk of developing post-COVID condition,” otherwise known as long COVID. https://www.voanews.com/a/who-governments-unprepared-to-combat-global-covid-19-surge/7732307.html https://www.voanews.com/a/who-governments-unprepared-to-combat-global-covid-19-surge/7732307.html Tue, 06 Aug 2024 15:23:48 -0400 COVID-19 PandemicScience & Healthwebdesk@voanews.com (Lisa Schlein) Taipei, Taiwan — China says the number of foreigners entering the country in the first half of 2024 leaped by more than 150%, a huge increase for the world’s second-largest economy as it continues to recover from the COVID pandemic. Although China’s state-run media touted the country's expanded visa-free policy as a key contributing factor, the numbers released last week tell only part of the story. The number of foreigners traveling to the country is a third of what it was in 2019. According to Chinese government statistics, 287 million people entered and left China between January and June of this year. Of those, 29.2 million were foreigners — about 10% of the total — and just 8.5 million used visa-free entry. In 2019, nearly 98 million foreign visitors entered and left China. When asked about the increase at a press conference earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said he was glad to see travel to China was becoming more popular and talked up the benefits of expanded visa-free travel. Late last year, China extended visa-free travel for up to 15 days to a dozen European countries. “As more and more countries benefit from the visa-free policy and as China adopts more measures to ease cross-border travel, ‘on-a-whim travel’ to China is becoming a reality,” Lin said. He also said the government expects more foreigners to travel to the country in the second half of the year. Tourism experts and observers, however, say that China's grim political atmosphere, post-pandemic safety concerns and the high cost of long-distance travel are still obstacles for foreign tourists hoping to visit the country. A German man who has lived in Shanghai for many years and did not want to be named in order to speak more freely with VOA said that since the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s international image has declined. “Even if European travelers are allowed to enter China without a visa, they may not be enthusiastic enough to do so,” he said. Tang, a Taiwanese tourism scholar who didn't want to be identified because of frequent travel to China, told VOA that because inbound statistics do not distinguish between tourism and business travel, government numbers can be misleading. He said travelers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan — who account for more than 40% of visitors — are mostly business travelers who would come to China regardless of the visa-free policy. Tang also said that high air ticket prices — brought on by pilot shortages, the failure to reinstate some popular routes and a general imbalance between supply and demand — are also hampering the recovery of long-distance tourism. In a further effort to boost tourism, China expanded the 15-day visa-free entry to travelers from New Zealand and Australia starting on July 1. China also has a 144-hour transit visa-free policy for 54 countries. However, Tang said China's visa-free policies are unlikely to have much of an impact, especially for U.S. and European travelers. To Europeans and Americans, he said, "China has the appeal of a mysterious and ancient country.”  But as far as that audience is concerned, he said, "the pandemic started in China. Have the concerns over China's tourism safety and health been addressed? That's the point." Lan, a Taipei-based overseas representative of a U.S. state-level tourism bureau who did not want to reveal her identity because she is not authorized to speak on the topic, said that while Chinese culture attracts foreign tourists, China's political atmosphere has long been a key factor that keeps foreigners away. "China has a good tourism environment, but in general, foreigners are less likely to agree with its politics," she said. Lan said that given political tensions between the United States and China, tourism between the two countries has reached a freezing point. In August 2023, China ended its stringent pandemic restrictions on group tours to most countries. The U.S. State Department’s current travel advisory for China is set at level three or “reconsider travel,” just one below its level four “do not travel” warning. Lan said that right now, Americans are reluctant to visit China and Chinese tourists are staying away from the U.S. resorts where they used to flock. VOA’s Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report. https://www.voanews.com/a/china-sees-more-foreign-visitors-but-far-fewer-than-before-covid/7696561.html https://www.voanews.com/a/china-sees-more-foreign-visitors-but-far-fewer-than-before-covid/7696561.html Sat, 13 Jul 2024 07:08:43 -0400 China NewsEast AsiaCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Lin Nai-Chuan) The World Health Organization said its ability to assess and manage the risk posed by H5N1 avian influenza — bird flu — cases around the world is hampered by limited surveillance of animal and human cases of the disease. At a news briefing at agency headquarters in Geneva on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the United States last week reported a fourth human case following exposure to infected dairy cows. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the patient was a worker on a dairy farm where cows had tested positive for the virus. The person had limited symptoms, was treated and recovered. No human-to-human transmission of the virus was reported. Tedros said Cambodia also reported two cases in children who had contact with sick or dead chickens. He said the WHO continues to assess the risk of bird flu to the public as low but said it is difficult to make accurate assessments when surveillance for influenza viruses in animals is so limited globally. “Understanding how these viruses are spreading and changing in animals is essential for identifying any changes that might increase the risk of outbreaks in humans, or the potential for a pandemic,” Tedros said. He called on all countries to strengthen influenza surveillance and reporting in animals and humans and to share virus samples with the WHO. Tedros also urged protection be provided for farm workers who may be exposed to infected animals. COVID-19 update At the same briefing, Tedros provided a brief update on COVID-19 cases globally. He said the virus continues to kill an average of 1,700 people per week worldwide. He also cited data showing vaccine coverage has declined among health workers and people over 60, two of the most at-risk groups for the virus. The WHO chief said the agency recommends people in the highest-risk groups receive a COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of their last dose. Monkeypox update Tedros also gave an update on MPox, formerly known as monkeypox, which he said remains a global threat with 26 countries reporting cases this month. He said an outbreak in Congo continues, with 11,000 total cases, including 445 deaths this year, with children most affected. South Africa has recently reported 20 cases, including three deaths, the first cases in that country since 2022. The cases were all men, and most of them self-identified as men who have sex with men. None had reported any history of international travel, which suggests the confirmed cases are a small proportion of all cases, and that community transmission is ongoing. https://www.voanews.com/a/who-limited-surveillance-hampers-bird-flu-risk-assessment-/7694342.html https://www.voanews.com/a/who-limited-surveillance-hampers-bird-flu-risk-assessment-/7694342.html Thu, 11 Jul 2024 14:45:40 -0400 Science & HealthUSAAfricaCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (VOA News) ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — On one side of the classroom, students circled teacher Maria Fletcher and practiced vowel sounds. In another corner, children read together from a book. Scattered elsewhere, students sat at laptop computers and got reading help from online tutors. For the third graders at Mount Vernon Community School in Virginia, it was an ordinary school day. But educators were racing to get students learning more, faster, and to overcome setbacks that have persisted since schools closed for the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago. America's schools have started to make progress toward getting students back on track. But improvement has been slow and uneven across geography and economic status, with millions of students — often those from marginalized groups — making up little or no ground. Nationally, students made up one-third of their pandemic losses in math during the past school year and one-quarter of the losses in reading, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard, an analysis of state and national test scores by researchers at Harvard and Stanford. But in nine states, including Virginia, reading scores continued to fall during the 2022-23 school year after previous decreases during the pandemic. Clouding the recovery is a looming financial crisis. States have used some money from the historic $190 billion in federal pandemic relief to help students catch up, but that money runs out later this year. "The recovery is not finished, and it won't be finished without state action," said Thomas Kane, a Harvard economist behind the scorecard. "States need to start planning for what they're going to do when the federal money runs out in September. And I think few states have actually started that discussion." Virginia lawmakers approved an extra $418 million last year to accelerate recovery. Massachusetts officials set aside $3.2 million to provide math tutoring for fourth and eighth grade students who are behind grade level, along with $8 million for literacy tutoring. But among other states with lagging progress, few said they were changing their strategies or spending more to speed up improvement. Virginia hired online tutoring companies and gave schools a "playbook" showing how to build effective tutoring programs. Lisa Coons, Virginia's superintendent of public instruction, said last year's state test scores were a wake-up call. "We weren't recovering as fast as we needed," Coons said in an interview. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has called for states to continue funding extra academic help for students as the federal money expires. "We just can't stop now," he said at a May 30 conference for education journalists. "The states need to recognize these interventions work. Funding public education does make a difference." In Virginia, the Alexandria district received $2.3 million in additional state money to expand tutoring. At Mount Vernon, where classes are taught in English and Spanish, students are divided into groups and rotate through stations customized to their skill level. Those who need the most help get online tutoring. In Fletcher's classroom, a handful of students wore headsets and worked with tutors through Ignite Learning, one of the companies hired by the state. With tutors in high demand, the online option has been a big help, Mount Vernon principal Jennifer Hamilton said. "That's something that we just could not provide here," she said. Ana Marisela Ventura Moreno said her 9-year-old daughter, Sabrina, benefited significantly from extra reading help last year during second grade, but she's still catching up. "She needs to get better. She's not at the level she should be," the mother said in Spanish. She noted the school did not offer the tutoring help this year, but she did not know why. Alexandria education officials say students scoring below proficient or close to that cutoff receive high-intensity tutoring help and they have to prioritize students with the greatest needs. Alexandria trailed the state average on math and reading exams in 2023, but it's slowly improving. More worrying to officials are the gaps: Among poorer students at Mount Vernon, just 24% scored proficient in math and 28% hit the mark in reading. That's far lower than the rates among wealthier students, and the divide is growing wider. Failing to get students back on track could have serious consequences. The researchers at Harvard and Stanford found communities with higher test scores have higher incomes and lower rates of arrest and incarceration. If pandemic setbacks become permanent, it could follow students for life. The Education Recovery Scorecard tracks about 30 states, all of which made at least some improvement in math from 2022 to 2023. The states whose reading scores fell in that span, in addition to Virginia, were Nevada, California, South Dakota, Wyoming, Indiana, Oklahoma, Connecticut and Washington. Only a few states have rebounded to pre-pandemic testing levels. Alabama was the only state where math achievement increased past 2019 levels, while Illinois, Mississippi and Louisiana accomplished that in reading. In Chicago Public Schools, the average reading score went up by the equivalent of 70% of a grade level from 2022 to 2023. Math gains were less dramatic, with students still behind almost half a grade level compared with 2019. Chicago officials credit the improvement to changes made possible with nearly $3 billion in federal relief. The district trained hundreds of Chicago residents to work as tutors. Every school building got an interventionist, an educator who focuses on helping struggling students. The district also used federal money for home visits and expanded arts education in an effort to reengage students. "Academic recovery in isolation, just through 'drill and kill,' either tutoring or interventions, is not effective," said Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district's chief education officer. "Students need to feel engaged." At Wells Preparatory Elementary on the city's South Side, just 3% of students met state reading standards in 2021. Last year, 30% hit the mark. Federal relief allowed the school to hire an interventionist for the first time, and teachers get paid to team up on recovery outside working hours. In the classroom, the school put a sharper focus on collaboration. Along with academic setbacks, students came back from school closures with lower maturity levels, principal Vincent Izuegbu said. By building lessons around discussion, officials found students took more interest in learning. "We do not let 10 minutes go by without a teacher giving students the opportunity to engage with the subject," Izuegbu said. "That's very, very important in terms of the growth that we've seen." Olorunkemi Atoyebi was an A student before the pandemic, but after spending fifth grade learning at home, she fell behind. During remote learning, she was nervous about stopping class to ask questions. Before long, math lessons stopped making sense. When she returned to school, she struggled with multiplication and terms such as "dividend" and "divisor" confused her. While other students worked in groups, her math teacher took her aside for individual help. Atoyebi learned a rhyming song to help memorize multiplication tables. Over time, it began to click. "They made me feel more confident in everything," said Atoyebi, now 14. "My grades started going up. My scores started going up. Everything has felt like I understand it better." https://www.voanews.com/a/most-us-students-are-recovering-from-pandemic-setbacks-but-millions-lag-/7639371.html https://www.voanews.com/a/most-us-students-are-recovering-from-pandemic-setbacks-but-millions-lag-/7639371.html Sun, 02 Jun 2024 03:39:15 -0400 USAStudent UnionCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Two years of negotiations ended Friday without a final draft of a global agreement on how to best handle the next pandemic that public health officials say is sure to come. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization was asked to write an agreement on how to respond to the inevitable next one and avoid the missteps and disparities of the last one. "We are not where we hoped we would be when we started this process," Roland Driece, co-chair of WHO's negotiating board for the agreement, said Friday. A final draft treaty was scheduled for presentation at next week’s World Health Assembly, the yearly meeting of health ministers in Geneva. "This is not a failure," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva after the talks ended. "We will try everything — believing that anything is possible — and make this happen because the world still needs a pandemic treaty," he said. The COVID-19 pandemic killed millions of people worldwide, broke health care systems and disrupted economies. Tedros described the immense disparity between rich and poor countries concerning access to vaccines and other necessities "a catastrophic moral failure." The WHO chief is, however, keeping hope alive that WHO will come up with a plan to more equitably address the next pandemic. "Many of the challenges that caused a serious impact during COVID –19 still exist," he said. Driece and Precious Matsoso, the co-chairs of the negotiating board, didn’t get into details about where the talks were stymied. But others pointed to differences about sharing information about pathogens, intellectual property rights and affordability of vaccines. According to reporting by The Associated Press, developing countries worried about providing virus samples to be used in developing vaccines, but then not being able to afford those vaccines. Some U.S. Republican senators protested to the Biden administration that the draft treaty contained "intellectual property rights" issues. And Britain said it would agree to the treaty only if "adhered to British national interest and sovereignty," the AP reported. Jaume Vida, a senior policy adviser with Health Action International told AFP that the negotiators will likely present "the skeleton of the instrument to the assembly," because "there is agreement on the principles and structure." Agence France-Presse said it saw a draft agreement of which a large portion was approved, but there were a number of other sections that had not been approved. "Perhaps the ambition of doing this in two years was a bridge too far, the fastest-ever negotiated U.N. treaty, Ellen ‘t Hoen, a lawyer with the Medicines Law and Policy NGO, told the French news agency. Some information in this came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.  https://www.voanews.com/a/who-negotiators-fail-to-draft-pandemic-treaty-/7626586.html https://www.voanews.com/a/who-negotiators-fail-to-draft-pandemic-treaty-/7626586.html Fri, 24 May 2024 22:43:52 -0400 Science & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (VOA News) Washington — In early 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a handful of citizen journalists emerged as voices from the epicenter. Among them was Zhang Zhan, then a 36-year-old former lawyer who bravely chronicled the unfolding crisis in the city where the virus first surfaced. Standing in front of a Wuhan train station in her final YouTube video on May 13, 2020, she voiced concerns about the human rights abuses she witnessed during the lockdown and criticized police involvement in enforcing containment measures. Following “this last video,” she vanished, according to Jane Wang, a U.K.-based activist who launched the Free Zhang Zhan campaign. “The date of her arrest should be 14th May, but it could have happened on the evening of the 13th, so we aren't sure,” Wang told VOA. “The time she spent on the train escorted by police to Shanghai from Wuhan is in between.” In December 2020, the Chinese government sentenced her to four years in prison for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” On Monday, Wang posted a 28-second video to X, formerly known as Twitter, in which Zhang confirmed her release from prison on May 13 and wished well to the people who were concerned about her well-being. “Hello, everyone, I am Zhang Zhan. At five o'clock in the morning on May 13, the police brought me to my brother's home in Shanghai. Thank you all for your help and concern for me. Hope everyone is well. I really don't have anything to say,” Zhang said in the video. The video came one week after Zhang was expected to be released from Shanghai Women’s Prison on May 13, but she did not publicly surface for several days. On May 17, the U.S. State Department issued a statement expressing concern about her disappearance after her apparent release. “The United States has repeatedly expressed our serious concerns about the arbitrary nature of her detention and authorities’ mistreatment of her,” the State Department said at that time. “We reiterate our call for the PRC [People's Republic of China] to respect the human rights of Ms. Zhang, including by immediately ending the restrictive measures that she and all journalists in the PRC face.” The State Department urged China to ensure the safety and freedom of journalists in the country, emphasizing the importance of enabling them to report freely. Additionally, the State Department’s recently released human rights report on China pointed out “serious restrictions” on freedom of expression and media, including criminal prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others.” It also cited the arrest of “countless citizens” for allegedly “spreading fake news.” Several other citizen journalists faced disappearances like Zhang’s and later were sentenced to prison for documenting the initial stages of the pandemic in China. Any expression of views differing from the government on pandemic-related matters continues to be a sensitive issue in China, according to Lin Shengliang, founder of the China Human Rights Accountability Database. “The Chinese authorities often resort to both soft and hard tactics to the parties involved in order to silence them,” Lin told VOA. According to Li Yong, a Wuhan citizen who shared the U.S. State Department’s statement on Zhang in a WeChat group, the Chinese State Security forces warned him not to share information about Zhang. “The local community’s state security officer said, ‘These posts are no longer allowed. Be silent. Things involving Zhang Zhan are not allowed [to be shared].’ Anyway, I promised not to post it again," Li told VOA. According to Li, he befriended Zhang when she came to Wuhan in 2020. “I advised her to take a step back [in her criticism of the government]. But she was a person of faith and was more persistent at that time,” Li said. According to Wang, the U.K.-based activist, Zhang is a “devoted Christian” who openly expressed her faith. “Her church was shut down [four years ago] and banned from gathering before she went to Wuhan,” Wang said. “It's a big question mark whether she [currently] is allowed to travel to another city or even attend a church gathering in Shanghai.” Wang said that Zhang’s situation may change “dramatically” when and if the authorities decide to step up surveillance against her. “Right now, guards are watching her apartment, and she is being followed everywhere, but she still can leave her flat and has her phone and WeChat account,” Wang said, citing a friend of Zhan’s, whose name she didn’t want to disclose for safety reasons. “The worst is for plainclothes [police] to break in and stay in the home, taking her phone away.” https://www.voanews.com/a/chinese-journalist-freed-after-four-years-in-prison-for-covid-reporting/7624437.html https://www.voanews.com/a/chinese-journalist-freed-after-four-years-in-prison-for-covid-reporting/7624437.html Thu, 23 May 2024 14:50:00 -0400 Press FreedomEast AsiaChina NewsCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Kasim Kashgar) BOSTON — Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and upended child care, the CDC says parents can start treating the virus like other respiratory illnesses. Gone are mandated isolation periods and masking. But will schools and child care centers agree? In case you've lost track: Before Friday, all Americans, including school children, were supposed to stay home for at least five days if they had COVID-19 and then mask for a set period of time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, with COVID deaths and hospitalizations dropping, the CDC says children can go back to school when their overall symptoms improve and they're fever-free for 24 hours without taking medication. Students are "encouraged" to wear a mask when they return. Still, the change may not affect how individual schools urge parents to react when their children fall sick. Schools and child care providers have a mixed record on following CDC recommendations and often look to local authorities for the ultimate word. And sometimes other goals, such as reducing absences, can influence a state or district's decisions. The result can be a confusing array of policies among states and districts, not to mention workplaces — confounding parents whose lives have long been upended by the virus. "This is so confusing," said Gloria Cunningham, a single mom in the Boston area. "I just don't know what I should think of COVID now. Is it still a monster?" Cunningham, who manages a local store for a national restaurant chain, said her company requires her to take off 10 days if she gets COVID-19. And the school system where her son is in second grade has still been sending home COVID test kits for kids to use before returning to school after long breaks. "I feel like we should just do away with anything that treats COVID differently or keep all of the precautions," she said. The public education system has long held varying policies on COVID. During the 2021-22 school year, 18 states followed CDC recommendations for mask-wearing in class. When the CDC lifted its masking guidelines in February 2022, states such as Massachusetts followed suit, but California kept the mask requirement for schools. And in the child care world, some providers have long used more stringent testing and isolation protocols than the CDC has recommended. Reasons have ranged from trying to prevent outbreaks to keeping staff healthy — both for their personal safety and to keep the day care open. Some states moved to more lenient guidelines ahead of the CDC. California and Oregon recently rescinded COVID-19 isolation requirements, and many districts followed their advice. In an attempt to minimize school absences and address an epidemic of chronic absenteeism, California has encouraged kids to come to school when mildly sick and said that students who test positive for coronavirus but are asymptomatic can attend school. Los Angeles and San Diego's school systems, among others, have adopted that policy. But the majority of big-city districts around the country still have asked parents to isolate children for at least five days before returning to school. Some, including Boston and Atlanta, have required students to mask for another five days and report positive COVID-19 test results to the school. Some school leaders suggest the CDC's previous five-day isolation requirement was already only loosely followed. Official policy in Burlington, Massachusetts, has been to have students stay home for five days if they test positive. But Superintendent Eric Conti said the real policy, in effect, is: "It's a virus. Deal with it." That's because COVID is managed at home, using the honor system. "Without school-based testing, no one can enforce a five-day COVID policy," he said via text message. Ridley School District in the Philadelphia suburbs was already using a policy similar to the new CDC guidelines, said Superintendent Lee Ann Wentzel. Students who test positive for COVID must be fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours before returning to school. When they come back, they must mask for five days. Wentzel said the district is now considering dropping the masking requirement because of the new CDC guidance. A school or day care's specific guidelines are consequential for working parents who must miss work if their child can't go to school or child care. In October 2023, during simultaneous surges of COVID, respiratory syncytial virus and influenza, 104,000 adults reported missing work because of child care issues, the highest number in at least a decade. That number has fallen: Last month, child care problems meant 41,000 adults missed work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Melissa Colagrosso's child care center in West Virginia dropped special guidelines for COVID about a year ago, she said. Now, they're the same as other illnesses: A child must be free of severe symptoms such as fever for at least 24 hours before returning to the center. "We certainly are treating COVID just like we would treat flu or hand, foot and mouth" disease, said Colagrosso, CEO of A Place To Grow Children's Center in Oak Hill. As for kids without symptoms who test positive for COVID? Most parents have stopped testing kids unless they have symptoms, Colagrasso said, so it's a quandary she has not encountered. Still, some parents worry the relaxed rules put their communities at greater risk. Evelyn Alemán leads a group of Latino and Indigenous immigrant parents in Los Angeles County. The parents she represents, many of whom suffer from chronic illnesses and lack of access to health care, panicked when California did away with isolation requirements in January. "I don't think they're considering what the impact will be for our families," she said of California officials. "It feels like they don't care — that we're almost expendable." Other impacts of the pandemic linger, too, even as restrictions are lifted. In Ridley, the Philadelphia-area district, more students are reclusive and struggle to interact in-person with peers, said Wentzel, the superintendent. Interest in school dances has plummeted. "Emotionally," Wentzel said, "they're having trouble." https://www.voanews.com/a/cdc-relaxes-covid-guidelines-will-schools-day-cares-follow-suit-/7510945.html https://www.voanews.com/a/cdc-relaxes-covid-guidelines-will-schools-day-cares-follow-suit-/7510945.html Sat, 02 Mar 2024 02:00:00 -0500 USAScience & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Blantyre, Malawi — The Malawi government and the World Health Organization launched a new COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Monday in 10 of the country’s 29 districts. This is partly in response to new cases confirmed in the past three weeks in several districts across the country. Nsanje District in southern Malawi currently leads in the number of COVID-19 cases recorded this year. George Mbotwa, spokesperson for the district health office, said the district has registered 17 new cases in the past three weeks and some are health workers. “Initially there were two, but we had up to eight cases that were health workers,” he said. “Some of them have now been confirmed as negative, and others are being followed up to ensure that they are fully recovered before they can resume work.” By Monday, Malawi cumulatively recorded 89,202 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 2,686 deaths, since the first cases were confirmed in the country in April 2020. Malawi’s Ministry of Health says the new vaccination campaign will help boost the number of people getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination rates in some areas of Malawi are as low as 40%. It also says the WHO-funded campaign would help avoid waste of the vaccine as was the case in 2020 when the government destroyed nearly 20,000 expired AstraZeneca doses. Many of those doses expired due to vaccine hesitancy amid concerns of its safety and efficacy. However, recent government public health campaigns on the importance of COVID-19 shots have helped defeat that hesitancy. Mary Chawinga, a mother of two of Machinjiri Township in Blantyre, said she has had the vaccine and is awaiting a booster. “And I am ready to take my children, because prevention is better than [a] cure they say,” Chawinga said. “You never know how the wave will be like this time around considering the way it was way back in 2020. We have had it in 2021, and now this is 2024.” Another mother of two, Habeeba Nyasulu, said she received the COVID-19 doses during the first campaign and encourages others to get the shot. “I know that we are not safe until everyone is safe,” she said. “So, let others also receive the vaccine. I know that the vaccine does not prevent us from getting infected, but it helps us when we contract it not to be critically ill.” Maziko Matemba is a community health care ambassador in Malawi, said the COVID-19 threat is still present in the country. “Malawi didn’t vaccinate a required number of people against COVID-19, because the targeted population was about 11 million Malawians,” Matemba said. “But we were less than half about 2 or 3 million Malawians who were able to get vaccinated.” Matemba said the country now needs to have the vaccine in the right places and encourage more people to get vaccinated. The Ministry of Health says the new campaign targets 10 of the country’s 29 health districts that have recently recorded new cases. These include Machinga, Blantyre, Dowa, Mzimba and Nsanje districts. https://www.voanews.com/a/malawi-launches-new-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-amid-rising-cases-/7462317.html https://www.voanews.com/a/malawi-launches-new-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-amid-rising-cases-/7462317.html Mon, 29 Jan 2024 18:14:14 -0500 AfricaScience & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Lameck Masina) WASHINGTON — When the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Danny Werfel met privately with senators recently, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee asked for his assessment of a startling report: A whistleblower estimated that 95% of claims now being made by businesses for a COVID-era tax break were fraudulent. “He looked at his shoes and he basically said, ‘Yeah,’” recalled the lawmaker who posed that question, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. The answer explains why Congress is racing to wind down what is known as the employee retention tax credit. Congress established the program during the coronavirus pandemic as an incentive for businesses to keep workers on the payroll. Demand for the credit soared as Congress extended the tax break and made it available to more companies. Aggressive marketers dangled the prospect of enormous refunds to business owners if they would just apply. As a result, what was expected to cost the federal government $55 billion has instead ballooned to nearly five times that amount as of July. Meanwhile, new claims are still pouring into the IRS each week, ensuring a growing price tag that lawmakers are anxious to cap. Lawmakers across the political spectrum who rarely agree on little else — from liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to conservative Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — agree it's time to close the program. “I don’t have the exact number, but it’s like almost universal fraud in the program. It should be ended,” Johnson said. “I don’t see how anybody could support it.” Warren added: “The standards were too loose, and the oversight was too thin." The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that winding down the program more quickly and increasing penalties for those companies promoting improper claims would generate about $79 billion over 10 years. Lawmakers aim to use the savings to offset the cost of three business tax breaks and a more generous child tax credit for many low-income families. Households benefiting from the changes in the child tax credit would see an average tax cut of $680 in the first year, according to an estimate from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The package was overwhelmingly approved by a House committee last week, 40-3, showing it has broad, bipartisan support. But passage through Congress is not assured because many key senators have concerns about aspects of the bill. Wyden said a strong vote in the House could spur the Senate into quicker action. Still, passing major legislation in an election year is generally a heavy lift. Under current law, taxpayers have until April 15, 2025, to claim the employee retention credit. The bill would bar new claims after January 31 of this year. It also would impose stiff penalties on those who are promoting the employer retention tax credit if they know or have reason to know their advice will lead to an underreporting of tax liabilities. When Congress created the tax break for employers at the pandemic’s onset, it proved so popular that lawmakers extended and amended the program three times. The credit, worth up to $26,000 per employee, can be claimed on wages paid through 2021. To qualify, generally businesses must show that a local or state government order related to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in their business having to close or partially suspend operations. Or the businesses must show they experienced a significant decline in revenue. Larry Gray, a certified public accountant from Rolla, Missouri, said he had concerns early on about how the program could be abused. “There was no documentation really to speak," and the IRS just sent out the checks, Gray said. “They just started printing the checks, and I believe Congress was wanting them to print the checks.” His hunch has proven correct, judging by the filings that he has reviewed. He has even lost clients who didn’t want to hear that they did not qualify when others were telling them they did. Generally, he said, the businesses that don’t qualify are failing to cite the government order that resulted in their closure or partial suspension. They are also routinely citing reasons for reimbursement that don’t meet the program’s criteria. For example, one company said it was struggling to find employees and had to raise wages as a justification for qualifying. “If I go through the narratives on the filings that I’m looking at, every business in America qualifies,” Gray said. The IRS paused accepting claims for the tax credit in September last year until 2024 due to rising concerns that an influx of fraudulent applications. At that point, it had received 3.6 million claims. Some fraud has been prolific. For instance, a New Jersey tax preparer was arrested in July on charges related to fraudulently seeking over $124 million from the IRS when he filed more than 1,000 tax returns claiming the employment tax credits. In an update issued Thursday about the program, the IRS said that it has thousands of audits in the pipeline and that as of Dec. 31, it has initiated 352 criminal investigations involving more than $2.9 billion in potentially fraudulent claims. Separately, it has opened nine civil investigations of marketers that potentially misled employers on eligibility to file claims. https://www.voanews.com/a/ending-covid-era-program-may-help-congress-expand-child-tax-credit/7459878.html https://www.voanews.com/a/ending-covid-era-program-may-help-congress-expand-child-tax-credit/7459878.html Sat, 27 Jan 2024 12:15:46 -0500 USACOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) geneva — The head of the U.N. health agency said Wednesday holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December, while hospital admissions during the month jumped 42% in nearly 50 countries — mostly in Europe and the Americas — that shared such trend information. "Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable deaths is not acceptable," the World Health Organization director-general told reporters from its headquarters in Geneva. He said it was “certain” that cases were on the rise in other places that haven't been reporting, calling on governments to keep up surveillance and provide continued access to treatments and vaccines. Tedros said the JN.1 variant was now the most prominent in the world. It is an omicron variant, so current vaccines should still provide some protection. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead at WHO for COVID-19, cited an increase in respiratory diseases across the globe due to the coronavirus but also flu, rhinovirus and pneumonia. “We expect those trends to continue into January through the winter months in the northern hemisphere,” she said, while noting increases in COVID-19 in the southern hemisphere — where it's now summer. While bouts of coughs, sniffling, fever and fatigue in the winter are nothing new, Van Kerkhove said this year in particular, "we are seeing co-circulation of many different types of pathogens.” WHO officials recommend that people get vaccinated when possible, wear masks and make sure indoor areas are well ventilated. “The vaccines may not stop you being infected, but the vaccines are certainly reducing significantly your chance of being hospitalized or dying,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, head of emergencies at WHO. https://www.voanews.com/a/nearly-10-000-died-from-covid-19-last-month-fueled-by-holiday-gatherings-new-variant-who-says-/7437761.html https://www.voanews.com/a/nearly-10-000-died-from-covid-19-last-month-fueled-by-holiday-gatherings-new-variant-who-says-/7437761.html Fri, 12 Jan 2024 14:07:58 -0500 Science & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Geneva — The head of the U.N. health agency said Wednesday holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month.  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December, while hospital admissions during the month jumped 42% in nearly 50 countries — mostly in Europe and the Americas — that shared such trend information.  "Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable deaths is not acceptable," the World Health Organization director-general told reporters from its headquarters in Geneva.  He said it was "certain" that cases were on the rise in other places that haven't been reporting, calling on governments to keep up surveillance and provide continued access to treatments and vaccines.  Tedros said the JN.1 variant was now the most prominent in the world. It is an omicron variant, so current vaccines should still provide some protection.  Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead at WHO for COVID-19, cited an increase in respiratory diseases across the globe due to the coronavirus but also flu, rhinovirus and pneumonia.  "We expect those trends to continue into January through the winter months in the northern hemisphere," she said, while noting increases in COVID-19 in the southern hemisphere — where it's now summer.  While bouts of coughs, sniffling, fever and fatigue in the winter are nothing new, Van Kerkhove said this year in particular, "We are seeing co-circulation of many different types of pathogens."  WHO officials recommend that people get vaccinated when possible, wear masks, and make sure indoor areas are well ventilated.  "The vaccines may not stop you being infected, but the vaccines are certainly reducing significantly your chance of being hospitalized or dying," said Dr. Michael Ryan, head of emergencies at WHO.  https://www.voanews.com/a/un-health-agency-holiday-gatherings-new-variant-have-driven-up-covid-cases-globally/7434556.html https://www.voanews.com/a/un-health-agency-holiday-gatherings-new-variant-have-driven-up-covid-cases-globally/7434556.html Wed, 10 Jan 2024 14:44:14 -0500 Science & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) Spanish health officials in at least five regions of the country are reintroducing masks in health care facilities and recommending their use elsewhere as cases of flu and COVID-19 are seeing a post-holiday spike. Health officials in the Valencia region — an area that includes popular tourist destinations — implemented mandatory masks rules in all health facilities after the rate of respiratory infections was found to be at 1,501 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Catalonia, Murcia, Aragon and Galicia have also reportedly issued similar mask rules. In an interview with the Spanish news agency, EFE, the vice president of Spain’s Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES), Pascual Piñera, said acute respiratory infections, specifically influenza A, are up 35% from a year ago and are putting a strain on emergency services in the country. Piñera blamed the spike in cases on social interaction that comes during the Christmas and New Year holidays and expects cases will continue to rise through the third week of January. Spain was among the last European countries to drop requirements to wear face masks following the COVID-19 pandemic, with people told to wear them on public transport until February last year and in health centers and pharmacies until July. Some information for this report was provided by Reuters. https://www.voanews.com/a/spain-health-officials-reinstate-masks-rules-in-some-areas-/7428595.html https://www.voanews.com/a/spain-health-officials-reinstate-masks-rules-in-some-areas-/7428595.html Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:31:10 -0500 EuropeScience & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (VOA News) NEW YORK — More U.S. hospitals are requiring masks and limiting visitors as health officials face an expected but still nasty post-holiday spike in flu, COVID-19 and other illnesses. While many experts say this season likely won't prove to be as deadly as some other recent winters, it still could mean hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and many thousands of deaths across the country. New York City last week instituted a mask mandate for the city's 11 public hospitals. Similar measures were ordered last week at some hospitals in Los Angeles and Massachusetts. Some hospitals reinstated masking rules for employees months ago, in anticipation of a seasonal rush of sick people. Flu and COVID-19 infections have been increasing for weeks, with high levels of flu-like illness reported in 31 states just before Christmas. Updated national numbers are to be released Friday, but health officials predict infections will grow in many states well into January. "What we're seeing right now, in the first week of January, is really an acceleration — of flu cases, in particular," said Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is some good news. Flu and COVID-19 cases may peak by the end of the month and then drop, Cohen said. Though the flu has been skyrocketing, this year's cases are being caused by a strain that usually doesn't cause as many deaths and hospitalizations as some other versions. What's more, signs suggest current flu vaccines are well-matched to the strain. "I don't think it's going to be overwhelming," said Dr. William Schaffner, Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert. He deemed the current season "moderately severe." The CDC is pointing the public to an agency website where people can look up their county, which can help them make decisions about whether to wear masks or take other precautions. Cohen urged people to get vaccinated and to seek treatment for flu and COVID-19. Vaccinations are down this year, officials say. About 44% of U.S. adults had gotten flu shots by Dec. 23, according to the most recently available CDC vaccination survey data. Only about 19% of U.S. adults were reported to have received an updated COVID-19 shot as of early December. COVID-19 cases are causing more severe disease than the flu but have been rising less dramatically. Health officials are keeping an eye on JN.1, a new version of the ever-evolving coronavirus. The omicron variant was first detected in the U.S. in September and just before Christmas accounted for an estimated 44% of COVID-19 cases. The JN.1 variant may spread easier or be better at evading our immune systems, but there is no evidence that it causes more severe disease than other recent variants, health officials say. Current evidence indicates vaccines and antiviral medications work against it. The CDC also has reported disappointing vaccination rates against another seasonal bug, respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. That is a common cause of mild cold-like symptoms, but it can be dangerous for infants and older people. RSV cases rose in the fall but appear to have plateaued and are even going down in some places, according to the latest data. At Hillsdale Hospital in southern Michigan, a 65% increase in respiratory illness activity in late December triggered a limitation to visitors in the birthing center. Only a spouse, a support person and grandparents can visit. They all must wear a mask and not show symptoms of sickness. The restriction is common for the hospital around this time of year, said Dr. Nichole Ellis, a pediatrician who is the hospital's medical chief of staff. But it's more difficult this season, she added. "In the past, we would have one … disease that we were tracking or monitoring at one time," Ellis said. "But now, babies and children will have multiple diseases at the same time. It's not that they just have RSV … but they're getting RSV and COVID at the same time, or influenza and RSV at the same time because all of the diseases are prevalent in our community." https://www.voanews.com/a/more-us-hospitals-requiring-masks-as-flu-covid-19-cases-surge-/7426123.html https://www.voanews.com/a/more-us-hospitals-requiring-masks-as-flu-covid-19-cases-surge-/7426123.html Wed, 03 Jan 2024 23:16:43 -0500 Science & HealthUSACOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) The COVID-19 pandemic affected students around the world, disrupting their studies and weakening their social skills. But the pandemic did generate some positive outcomes, say college counselors and international students who are back to in-person learning in the United States. VOA’s Laurel Bowman explores. Camera: Adam Greenbaum and Saqib Ul Islam. https://www.voanews.com/a/covid-19-effects-linger-among-international-students-in-us/7414340.html https://www.voanews.com/a/covid-19-effects-linger-among-international-students-in-us/7414340.html Wed, 27 Dec 2023 09:15:11 -0500 Student UnionUSAScience & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Laurel Bowman) When the coronavirus pandemic took hold in an unprepared U.S., states scrambled for masks and other protective gear. Three years later, as the grips of the pandemic have loosened, many states are now trying to deal with an excess of protective gear, ditching their supplies in droves. With expiration dates passing and few requests to tap into its stockpile, Ohio auctioned off 393,000 gowns for just $2,451 and ended up throwing away another 7.2 million, along with expired masks, gloves and other materials. The now expiring supplies had cost about $29 million in federal money. A similar reckoning is happening around the country. Items are aging, and as a deadline to allocate federal COVID-19 cash approaches next year, states must decide how much to invest in maintaining warehouses and supply stockpiles. An Associated Press investigation found that at least 15 states, from Alaska to Vermont, have tossed some of their trove of PPE because of expiration, surpluses and a lack of willing takers. Into the trash went more than 18 million masks, 22 million gowns, 500,000 gloves, and more. That's not counting states that didn't give the AP exact figures or responded in cases or other measures. Rhode Island said it got rid of 829 tons of PPE; Maryland disposed of over $93 million in supplies. "What a real waste. That's what happens when you don't prepare, when you have a bust-and-boom public health system," where a lack of planning leads to panicked over-purchasing in emergencies, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. "It shows that we really have to do a better job of managing our stockpiles." The AP sent inquiries about PPE stockpiles to all 50 states over the past several months. About half responded. States emphasize that they distributed far more gear than they discarded and have gone to great lengths to donate the leftovers. Washington state sent hundreds of thousands of supplies to the Marshall Islands last year, yet ended up throwing out millions more items after they expired. Many states are keeping at least a portion, and sometimes all, of their remaining protective gear. Some even plan to update their stockpiles. But others say the vagaries of the pandemic and the PPE supply left no choice but to acquire the items, and now to throw them out, however reluctantly. Expiration dates are set because materials can degrade and might not work as intended. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has set the fair market value of expired supplies at zero dollars. "Anytime you're involved in a situation where you're recalling how difficult it was to get something in the first place, and then having to watch that go or not be used in the way it was intended to be used, certainly, there's some frustration in that," said Louis Eubank, who runs the South Carolina health department's COVID-19 coordination office. The state has discarded over 650,000 expired masks. When the virus struck, demand skyrocketed for N95 masks, gloves and gowns. The U.S government's Strategic National Stockpile was underequipped, and states plunged into global bidding wars. The AP found in 2020 that states spent over $7 billion in a few months on PPE, ventilators and some other high-demand medical devices in a seller's market. Ultimately, the federal government paid for many of the supplies. "There was no way to know, at the time of purchase, how long the supply deficit would last or what quantities would be needed," Ohio Department of Health spokesperson Ken Gordon said. Ohio distributed more than 227 million pieces of protective equipment during the pandemic. But as the supply crunch and the health crisis eased, demand faded, especially for gowns. Now, "states, hospitals, manufacturers – everybody in the whole system -- has extra product," said Linda Rouse O'Neill of the Health Industry Distributors Association. Given the glut, stockpiled items are selling for bargain prices, if at all. Vermont got $82.50 for 105,000 boot covers and 29 cents apiece for thousands of safety goggles. Striking a balance between preparedness and surpluses is "a major dilemma" for governments, said Scott Amey of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group. And while politicians vowed in 2020 never to be caught off guard again, "memories are short, budgets are tight," Amey noted. In Wisconsin, a legislative committee axed from the budget $17.2 million that would have funded a warehouse with an ongoing 60-day supply of PPE for two years. The state Department of Health Services said it is now "demobilizing the warehouse" and trying to donate the supplies. Already, Wisconsin has tossed nearly 1.7 million masks and almost 1 million gowns. Minnesota's Department of Health was allocated some money this year for retaining and restocking PPE and is strategizing. For now, emergency response official Deb Radi says the agency expects to dispose of a few expiring gowns. The Health Industry Distributors Association recommends that product distributors maintain a 60-to-90-day supply to guard against demand spikes. But the group says it's probably unnecessary for everyone in the system — from manufacturers to doctors' offices — to have such a large cushion. Missouri's health department has maintained a 90-day supply, keeping even expired materials on the presumption that the federal government will OK their use in an emergency. That happened during COVID-19. "If you don't make the investment – and perhaps the investment that is never used – then you may not be prepared to assist the public when it's needed," Missouri health director Paula Nickelson said. Pennsylvania officials, by contrast, are aiming for a 15-day stockpile after frank conversations about what they can afford not only to keep, but to keep replacing as items expire, said Andy Pickett, the Health Department's emergency preparedness and response director. And Nevada can't give its aging PPE away fast enough. Department of Administration Director Jack Robb said the state is endeavoring to shed the supplies safely and without wasting money but already has discarded some. But Robb said officials "made the best decisions that they could" when confronted with a disease that has killed nearly 7 million people worldwide, including some of his close friends. "And I hope we never see anything like that again in our lifetime," he said. https://www.voanews.com/a/us-trashing-troves-pandemic-gear-as-huge-costly-stockpiles-expire/7408299.html https://www.voanews.com/a/us-trashing-troves-pandemic-gear-as-huge-costly-stockpiles-expire/7408299.html Sat, 23 Dec 2023 03:18:40 -0500 USAScience & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press) The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday classified the JN.1 coronavirus strain as a "variant of interest," but said it did not pose much threat to public health. "Based on the available evidence, the additional global public health risk posed by JN.1 is currently evaluated as low," WHO said. JN.1 was previously classified as a variant of interest as a part of its parent lineage BA.2.86. The United Nations agency said current vaccines continue to protect against severe disease and death from JN.1 and other circulating variants of the COVID-19 virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this month said that the subvariant JN.1 makes up about an estimated 15% to 29% of cases in the United States as of December 8, according to the agency's latest projections. It added that currently there is no evidence that JN.1 presents an increased risk to public health relative to other currently circulating variants and an updated shot could keep Americans protected against the variant. JN.1 was first detected in the US in September, according to the CDC. Last week, China detected seven infections of the COVID subvariant. https://www.voanews.com/a/who-classifies-jn-1-coronavirus-strain-as-variant-of-interest-/7404388.html https://www.voanews.com/a/who-classifies-jn-1-coronavirus-strain-as-variant-of-interest-/7404388.html Tue, 19 Dec 2023 13:13:44 -0500 Science & HealthCOVID-19 Pandemicwebdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)