Category Archives: Covid-19

Several local governments in China are planning to bar residents who havent been vaccinated against Covid-19 from accessing public venues, stirring controversy as the country makes a push for herd immunity.

In recent days, a dozen counties and cities in the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi set late-August deadlines for people 18 years or older to complete a two-shot vaccine regimen, according to similarly worded online statements. Many of them also set dates in late July by which unvaccinated people would be barred from entering schools, libraries, prisons, nursing homes and inpatient facilities at hospitals without a valid medical exemption.

Some of the localities attributed their new policies to national, provincial and municipal arrangements, without explaining whether they received a decree from the central government.

China is dealing with sporadic outbreaks of Covid-19 and authorities have been offering homegrown vaccines free of charge since last December.

The government notices have sparked online pushback from some Chinese and triggered a debateas in the U.S. and elsewhereabout whether people should be required to present proof of inoculation to travel, work or undertake other routine activities outside their home.

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Covid-19 Vaccines Are Becoming Mandatory in Parts of China - The Wall Street Journal

By Jennifer Couzin-FrankelJul. 13, 2021 , 2:35 PM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Sixteen pandemic months have felt disorienting and arduousbut along the arc of human history, COVID-19 marks just another inflection point. Epidemics have punctuated humanitys timeline for centuries, sowing panic and killing millions, whether the culprit was plague, smallpox, or influenza. And when infections abate, their imprints on society can remain, some short-lived and some enduring.

In a series of news articles over the coming months, Science will consider how a new normal is emerging in the scientific world. Of course, COVID-19 is still with us, especially outside the minority of countries now enjoying the fruits of widespread vaccination. Still, as the pandemic enters a different phase, we ask how research may be changing, how scientists are navigating these waters, and in what directions they are choosing to sail.

Although the past may not presage the future, epidemic history illuminates how change unfolds. Historians often say that what an epidemic will do is expose underlying fault lines, says Erica Charters, a historian of medicine at the University of Oxford who is studying how epidemics end. But how we respond is up to us. When we ask, How does the epidemic change society? it suggests theres something in the disease that will guide us. But the disease doesnt have agency the way humans do.

Past epidemics have spurred scientists and physicians to reconsider everything from their understanding of disease to their modes of communication. One of the most studied, the bubonic plague, tore through Europe in the late 1340s as the Black Death, then sporadically struck parts of Europe, Asia, and North Africa over the next 500 years. Caused by bacteria transmitted via the bites of infected fleas, the plagues hallmarks included grotesquely swollen lymph nodes, seizures, and organ failure. Cities were powerless against its spread. In 1630, nearly half the population of Milan perished. In Marseille, France, in 1720, 60,000 died.

Yet the mere recording of those numbers underscores how medicine reoriented in the face of the plague. Until the Black Death, medical writers did not routinely categorize distinct diseases, and instead often presented illness as a generalized physical disequilibrium. Diseases were not fixed entities, writes Frank Snowden, a historian of medicine at Yale University, in his bookEpidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present. Influenza could morph into dysentery.

The plague years sparked more systematic study of infectious diseases and spawned a new genre of writing: plague treatises, ranging from pithy pamphlets on quarantines to lengthy catalogs of potential treatments. The treatises cropped up across the Islamic world and Europe, says Nkhet Varlk, a historian of medicine at Rutgers University, Newark. This is the first disease that gets its own literature, she says. Disease-specific commentary expanded to address other conditions, such as sleeping sickness and smallpox. Even before the invention of the printing press, the treatises were apparently shared. Ottoman plague treatises often contained notes in the margins from physicians commenting on this or that treatment.

Plague and later epidemics also coincided with the rise of epidemiology and public health as disciplines, although some historians question whether the diseases were always the impetus. From the 14th to 16th centuries, new laws in the Ottoman Empire and parts of Europe required collection of death tolls during epidemics, Varlk says. Plague also hastened the development of preventive tools, including separate quarantine hospitals, social distancing measures, and, by the late 16th century, contact-tracing procedures, says Samuel Cohn, a historian of the Middle Ages and medicine at the University of Glasgow. All of these things that a lot of people think are very modern were being devised and developed back then. The term contagio took off, as officials and physicians sought to ascertain how plague was spread.

Cholera, caused by a bacterium in water, devastated New York and other areas in the 1800s. It gave rise not only to new sanitation practices, but also to enduring public health institutions. Statistics had proven what common sense had already known: In any epidemic, those who had the faintest chance of surviving were those who lived in the worst conditions, historian of medicine Charles Rosenberg, now an emeritus professor at Harvard University, wrote in his influential bookThe Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866. To improve those conditions, New York City created its Metropolitan Board of Health in 1866. In 1851, the French government organized the first in a series of International Sanitary Conferences that would span nearly 90 years and help guide the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948. Cholera was the stimulus for the first international meetings and cooperation on public health, Rosenberg says now.

Meanwhile, efforts to decipher disease continued: Although physicians who eyed germs as culprits remained a minority in the mid-1800s, disease was no longer an incident in a drama of moral choice and spiritual salvation, but a consequence of mans interaction with his environment, Rosenberg wrote. Fleas were identified as the carrier of plague during a global pandemic in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the concept of insects as vectors of disease has influenced public health and epidemiology ever since.

A curious mix of remembering and forgetting trails many epidemics. Some quickly vanish from memory, says David Barnes, a historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The 1918 flu, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide but was also overshadowed by World War I, is a classic example of a forgotten ordeal, he says. One would expect that that would be a revolutionary, transformative trauma, and yet very little changed in its wake. There was no vast investment in public health infrastructure, no mammoth infusion of money into biomedical research. Although the 1918 pandemic did help spur a new field of virology, that research advanced slowly until the electron microscope arrived in the early 1930s.

In contrast, the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s left a potent legacy, Barnes says. A new breed of patient-activists fought doggedly for their own survival, demanding rapid access to experimental treatments. They ultimately won the battle, reshaping policies for subsequent drug approvals. But, It wasnt the epidemic per sethe damage, the death toll of AIDSthat made that happen, Barnes says. It was activists who were organized and persistent, really beyond anything our society had ever seen.

Its through this lens of human agency that Barnes and other historians contemplate COVID-19s potential scientific legacy. The pandemic, like its predecessors, cast light on uncomfortable truths, ranging from the impact of societal inequities on health to waste in clinical trials to paltry investments in public health. Questions loom about how to buttress labsfinancially or otherwisethat were immobilized by the pandemic.

In COVID-19s wake, will researchers refashion what they study and how they work, potentially accelerating changes already underway? Or will what Snowden calls societal amnesia set in, fueled by the craving to leave a pandemic behind? The answers will come over decades. But scientists are beginning to shape them now.

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Will COVID-19 change science? Past pandemics offer clues - Science Magazine

SINGAPORE, July 14 (Reuters) - Guests began leaving a Genting Cruise Lines "cruise to nowhere" on Wednesday night after nearly 3,000 passengers and crew were confined to their staterooms through most of the day following the detection of a COVID-19 case onboard.

A 40-year-old passenger tested positive onboard and the result was confirmed after the person was taken to hospital once the ship docked early on Wednesday, the Singapore Tourism Board said, following the detection of the suspected case.

"The passenger was identified as a close contact of a confirmed case on land, and was immediately isolated as part of onboard health protocols," the board said in a statement.

Passengers said they found out about the suspected case in an announcement at around 1 a.m. and had been asked to stay in their rooms since.

The global cruise industry has taken a major hit from the coronavirus pandemic, with some of the earliest big outbreaks occurring on cruise ships in Asian waters.

Singapore, which has seen relatively few domestic COVID-19 cases, launched "round trips" on luxury liners in November, with no port of call during a few days of sailing.

Singapore reported 56 locally-transmitted coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the highest number of daily domestic infections recorded in about 10 months. Local media reported that the case on the ship was part of a growing cluster of COVID-19 infections associated with karaoke lounges.

The World Dream cruise liner had 1,646 passengers and 1,249 crew members on board and all, except essential service crew, had been required to remain in their staterooms with contactless meals sent to them, according to Dream Cruises, a part of Genting Cruise Lines.

The guest suspected of having COVID-19 had tested negative in a mandatory, pre-departure antigen rapid test before the ship set sail for a three-night cruise on Sunday.

The infected passenger's three travelling companions tested negative and were isolated while further contact tracing was being done, the tourism board said. Close contacts will be quarantined, it added.

'A BIT RARE TO HAPPEN'

A cruise ship is docked at harbour after turning back due to positive coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case on board, in Singapore July 14, 2021. REUTERS/Chen Lin

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Passenger Rishi Lalwani said he was surprised by the positive case, given the testing and social distancing measures in place for the cruise.

"The COVID situation in Singapore seemed largely contained so, yes, a case in a cruise of 1,700 guests seemed a bit rare to happen. Especially because there haven't been cases on cruises to nowhere for months," said Lalwani.

The cruises to nowhere, restricted to Singapore residents, have become popular during the pandemic with other travel opportunities very limited because of coronavirus restrictions.

Tan Choon Seng, 51, was on his third cruise this year with some friends when the bad news came through, but at least it was nearly the end of the holiday, he said.

"We are thankful that this happened at 1 a.m. so we were done with all the activities," Tan said in an online session with media organised by the operator. Tan said he was worried about any quarantine orders but would still go on a cruise again.

Except for the cancellation of World Dream's two-night voyage for Wednesday, all upcoming sailings were unaffected.

In December, passengers on Royal Caribbean's (RCL.N) Quantum of the Seas vessel were held in their cabins for more than 16 hours in Singapore after a suspected COVID-19 case on board.

But that turned out to be a false alarm.

All guests disembarking from the World Dream will be required to undergo the mandatory antigen rapid test at the cruise centre, Dream Cruises said in a statement.

Anson Lim, 46, who was on board to celebrate his birthday, said he wanted to take more precautions once ashore.

"I will go for an extra COVID-19 test on my own," he said.

Reporting by Chen Lin and Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Richard Pullin and Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Guests leave Singapore cruise after nearly 3000 confined onboard over COVID-19 case - Reuters

With coronavirus cases rising among the unvaccinated and efforts to get them shots lagging, there is growing belief in some public health circles that more aggressive tactics are needed to get more of the population inoculated.

California has already tried prizes and game show-style events to encourage people to get vaccinated. But 41% of Californians of all ages have yet to be inoculated. And two troubling and related trends are bringing calls for fresh thinking.

The coronavirus is spreading in California mostly among unvaccinated people. While cases and hospitalizations are still more than 93% lower than they were at the peak, new daily coronavirus cases have nearly tripled over the last month, from about 900 a day to more than 2,600 a day; hospitalizations have risen by nearly 75%, from 915 to 1,594.

Meanwhile, the pace of vaccinations continues to tail off. Only about 58,000 vaccine doses a day are being administered statewide, according to figures compiled by The Times. Though that average could rise as more data are reported, it wont come close to the peak of 400,000 a day.

The solution wont be easy, but officials and experts are pretty confident they know what will work.

First, sending trusted people in communities to advocate for vaccinations at events and doing door-to-door outreach can do wonders in convincing people to get vaccinated, said UC San Francisco epidemiologist Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo. Getting vaccines into the offices of primary care physicians, where doctors can answer patients questions directly, can help too.

Another strategy would involve new requirements to get vaccinated, such as at workplaces, Bibbins-Domingo said. Short of that, she said, employers could require unvaccinated workers to get tested daily an approach that has been used elsewhere around the world.

When being vaccinated becomes the more convenient of the two options, that will drive people to be vaccinated, Bibbins-Domingo said. You have to make it slightly less convenient to be unvaccinated at this point.

If you choose to get tested every day, because you dont believe in vaccination, that might be fine. But I think for some, being tested every day or being tested at some very regular interval might be that the thing that says: Well, yeah, when I look at the risk and benefits, the vaccine is looking a little bit better.

Fully vaccinated people do have very good protection against coronavirus infection and illness. Between Dec. 7 and June 7, unvaccinated people in L.A. County comprised 99.6% of its coronavirus cases, 98.7% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 99.8% of deaths.

Nonetheless, outbreaks can still be disruptive and a vaccinated persons chance of getting infected, while quite small, is worse if theyre around unvaccinated and infected people. At the state Capitol, 10 people have recently tested positive for the coronavirus, including some who were fully vaccinated.

Some health experts have suggested that even vaccinated people wear masks voluntarily in indoor public spaces when weekly case rates are high, which would reduce the risk of a breakthrough coronavirus infection.

San Francisco has been a leader in imposing vaccination requirements for certain workers.

Already, San Francisco has ordered all workers in high-risk settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes and residential facilities for the elderly, homeless and jails, to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 15. An exemption will be available for workers with valid religious and medical reasons, and they will be required to get tested for the virus weekly.

San Francisco has also ordered all 35,000 of its city workers including police, firefighters, custodians and clerks to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs, unless they have a religious or medical exemption, once a vaccine has been formally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Currently, all three available vaccines are being distributed under an emergency use authorization.

The University of California and California State University systems have also announced they will eventually require COVID-19 vaccinations for all students, faculty and staff on campus properties. Dozens of colleges nationwide have said theyll require vaccination for enrollment in the fall, including Yale, Princeton and Columbia.

Even if mandates ultimately become more commonplace, on-the-ground outreach is still essential, experts say. And there is good reason to believe more of it will help.

San Francisco, for instance, has one of the highest vaccination rates in California 75% of residents of all ages are at least partly vaccinated, and 69% are fully vaccinated. While the per capita case rate has increased, its still half of L.A. Countys. And while hospitalizations are up in L.A. County, they remain generally stable in San Francisco.

San Franciscos outreach to the hard-hit Latino community in particular has been a model, with 72% of Latino residents having received at least one dose a rate even better than white residents, 65% of whom are at least partially vaccinated. In much of the U.S., the vaccination rate for Latinos lags behind white residents.

There have been teams that go out to places like San Franciscos Tenderloin District, where they interact with people on the streets, in stores and churches to promote vaccinations and administer the shots.

And that kind of interaction can make the difference: Some people can work long hours, and having vaccination advocates make their pitch and answer questions causes someone to finally decide to take the shot, Bibbins-Domingo said.

Its also important that the people delivering the messages and shots are well trusted in the community.

It is the linking to the conversation to the actual getting of the shot and getting the shot from somebody you know and trust that are the one-two punch to get the job done. And it has been working, Bibbins-Domingo said.

Its just a slow strategy, she added. But there are no shortcuts. We have to double down on doing this again especially for people for whom there are some barriers, whether it is just having the conversation or mistrust.

Convincing younger adults by using some combination of the following messages can work: Infected people who were unvaccinated have a greater risk of long-term illness, and unvaccinated people are at greater risk of transmitting the virus to friends and family, including people who have compromised immune systems and might be more likely to get sick.

For many, the personal touch may also be vital especially when it comes to combating misinformation surrounding the shots. As Dr. Christina Ghaly, L.A. Countys health services director, noted Tuesday: Relationships really matter.

One-on-one conversations its very labor intensive, not always very fast, it takes time. But thats been the best thing that has really helped, she said.

In Santa Clara County, which also has a high vaccination rate and stable hospitalizations, officials identified census tracts with the lowest vaccination rates and focused on them to launch vaccination clinics. Theyve also focused on essential workers in industries like child care, education and agriculture, and have worked with unions and employers to reach more people.

In the Central Valley, UC Merced Community and Labor Center Executive Director Ana Padilla said there still needs to be better access to the vaccine and good information about it to people like agricultural workers, who are now working the busiest time of the year. She suggested that there be a greater effort to link trusted community-based groups to administer vaccines near work sites, which will be better equipped to answer questions from workers.

If you work 8 to 8 every single day of the week so that you have enough money to get through those hard winter months, you dont have the options [to seek vaccinations] that other folks might believe that you have, Padilla said.

L.A. County where 60% of residents of all ages have at least one dose, and 52% are fully vaccinated is taking a similar approach in focusing vaccination clinics in hard-hit areas. But L.A. County has a far more vast challenge its the nations most populous county, and blanketing the county with intense outreach efforts might be more difficult here.

Times staff writer John Myers and intern Melissa Hernandez contributed to this report.

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Unvaccinated may require tougher tactics amid COVID-19 surge - Los Angeles Times

A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in Springfield, Mo., in June. Vaccination rates in southern Missouri are low, a factor officials say is helping drive what's now the nation's largest outbreak. Nathan Papes/AP hide caption

A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in Springfield, Mo., in June. Vaccination rates in southern Missouri are low, a factor officials say is helping drive what's now the nation's largest outbreak.

In Springfield, Mo., firefighters are giving vaccine shots. Churches are scrambling to schedule vaccine clinics. Students and staff at summer school at the public schools are back to wearing masks.

Dozens of traveling nurses are due to arrive at one of the city's two biggest hospitals over the coming weeks; extra ventilators from around Missouri and Arkansas were transported to the other major hospital after it ran short over the July Fourth weekend.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in southwest Missouri and northern Arkansas has become the nation's largest and is mostly driven by the highly contagious delta variant. Officials warn it could continue to grow unchecked if vaccination rates stay low.

"We are truly in a very dangerous predicament," Springfield Mayor Ken McClure said Monday at a press conference. "While we are one of the unfortunate few early hot spots of the delta variant, we are not giving up. It is not too late. We need to stay the course."

In Missouri, the seven-day average of new cases is near 1,400 new positive cases each day, up more than 150% from a month ago. In Arkansas, that number is up 287%.

Caseload and hospitalization rates in the Ozarks region have reached levels not seen since the winter, officials said. In several counties across Missouri and Arkansas, caseloads have now reached or surpassed their winter peaks.

According to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the delta variant accounts for more than 73% of new cases in Missouri, by far the highest percentage of any state.

The Springfield-Greene County Health Department reported 17 new COVID-19 deaths in its most recent reporting period, which ended July 4. None had been fully vaccinated.

"Begging people to take the vaccine while there is still time. If you could see the exhaustion in the eyes of our nurses who keep zipping up body bags, we beg you," tweeted Steve Edwards, president and CEO of CoxHealth, a six-hospital system in southwest Missouri based in Springfield.

CoxHealth's hospital in Springfield was treating 125 COVID-19 patients as of Monday. The city's other major hospital, Mercy Hospital Springfield, reported 134 patients with COVID-19, including several children. More than 20 were on ventilators.

As a result of the influx, Mercy Hospital announced Sunday it was opening a sixth COVID-19 unit. Last year, it needed only five.

More than half of patients are from the rural counties around Springfield, according to Greene County health data.

There are few pandemic restrictions in place anymore in the southern part of Missouri, which is a haven for tourism in the summer. The lakes and rivers of the Ozarks attract tourists from around the region for camping, boating and lake house vacations. The city of Branson hosts dozens of live music shows every week. Memorial Day and July Fourth draw huge numbers of people to the area.

But many of the rural counties that make up this part of Missouri have among the lowest vaccination rates in the state. Overall, about 45% of Missourians have received their first shot, but in more than 20 counties in southern Missouri, fewer than a quarter of residents have done so.

"I think we were all hoping that we wouldn't see COVID much this summer, but it is definitely not the fact here in Springfield," said William Sistrunk, the lead infectious disease physician at Mercy Hospital, speaking to NPR.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signs legislation last month restricting local officials' ability to enact public health restrictions. David A. Lieb/AP hide caption

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signs legislation last month restricting local officials' ability to enact public health restrictions.

Gov. Mike Parson has encouraged Missourians to get the vaccine, as he has done. He lifted the state's pandemic restrictions in May and has been vocal about Missourians' right to reject the vaccine if they choose. In June, he signed a bill limiting local governments' ability to enact public health restrictions.

Parson said last week he would oppose a door-to-door vaccination campaign by government workers.

"We all should be working together trying to find a solution to get more vaccine in more people's arms, not trying to force people to take it, not trying to scare them into it. Just make sure that they understand the facts," Parson said, speaking to reporters in Kansas City.

Local officials in southern Missouri, especially Springfield, are taking a more active stand in encouraging vaccinations.

On Monday, the mayor and local health officials held a press conference at a church the city has partnered with to distribute vaccines, where they denounced misinformation and politicization about vaccines.

Asked about the cheers over low vaccination rates at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend, the county's acting health director said it was heartbreaking.

"To hear that people are cheering against the tool that can save lives when we're sitting in the middle of a crisis where people are dying it breaks my heart," said Katie Towns, acting director of the county's health department.

Vaccination rates have risen slowly but steadily in this part of Missouri. Mercy Hospital Springfield is seeing more demand for vaccination appointments in recent days, officials said, and is now vaccinating roughly 250 people per day, up from about 150 earlier in the summer.

"Gradually in the past week or couple weeks we have seen a small increase in the number of people who are interested. I think hopefully they're realizing this is a pretty serious situation," Dr. Nancy Yoon, chief medical officer for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, told NPR member station KCUR.

Now, the outbreak that began in the Ozarks has started to spread around the state. Case data and sewer surveillance are showing an uptick in the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas, state officials said. In St. Louis County, the county with the state's third-highest vaccination rate, cases are up 63% over the last two weeks.

"Unfortunately, Missouri turned out to be among those several states that do have those vulnerable spots," Dr. George Turabelidze, state epidemiologist at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, told St. Louis Public Radio. "Those are spots where people are under-vaccinated, where people have low natural immunity levels and [where] some communities assumed the pandemic was already behind us."

In Springfield, health care workers have braced for what they expect to be a long and challenging summer, as the number of people hospitalized in the county has persistently trended up.

"You feel like you're kind of beating your head on that proverbial brick wall trying to tell people, understand what we're seeing," Erik Frederick, chief administrative officer at Mercy Hospital, said in an interview with NPR.

"This is real. It's right here in front of us."

St. Louis Public Radio and KCUR contributed to this report.

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COVID Cases In Parts Of Missouri And Arkansas Surge To Levels Not Seen Since Winter - NPR

An employee wearing a protective mask, leaves a menu on a table at the beach bar of the Divani Apollon Palace hotel, on the first day of the opening of hotels in Greece, following a nationwide lockdown against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Athens, Greece, June 1, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

ATHENS, July 14 (Reuters) - Tourism is not to blame for a surge of COVID-19 infections in Greece, the tourism minister said on Wednesday after the government reintroduced restrictions aimed at saving the summer season.

Greece, which relies on tourism for a fifth of its economy, kicked off the season in May, hoping that revenue would reach about half of the record it saw in 2019 when more than 30 million people visited the country.

"The opening of tourism was done very carefully, in the first 10 days of July just 74 out of 105,609 samples taken at the country's entry points were positive, just 0.07%," Haris Theoharis told a Greek hoteliers conference.

"Our country does not have a problem with the opening of its borders," he said. "The rise in infections is not related to tourism."

The government is betting on at least a partial revival of its tourism sector this summer, but is worried about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

About 41% of Greeks are fully vaccinated so far. Tourists need to show they have been vaccinated or present a negative PCR test to enter the country.

Greece reported 3,109 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a level last seen in early April, bringing the total number of infections since the first case was detected in February last year to 444,783. COVID-19 related deaths have reached 12,806.

The country will require customers at indoor restaurants, bars and cafes to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, the government said on Tuesday, to combat a surge in infections. read more

"We can not allow deniers of science to lead our country into adventures," Theoharis said in reference to people still refusing to get vaccinated.

Reporting by George Georgiopoulos and Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Angus MacSwan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Tourism not contributing to surge of COVID-19 infections in Greece - Reuters

Medical student Camila Vernica Souza Freire

Brazilian medical student Camila Vernica Souza Freire is helping to research how the "infodemic" in science is similar to biological outbreaks, by analyzing behavior of the scientific publishing ecosystem during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Freire, who is currently a medical student at the Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health and a junior researcher at the Brazilian Metascience Research Group (BMRG), says that during the pandemic there was a deluge of research and with the sheer quantity of papers, it was hard to make sense of whether quality research was being done.

"Globally, we were fighting a deluge of low-quality evidence," she says, adding that the project she is a part of at the BMRG is focused on analyzing a year's worth of published papers to see what happened with the volume and quality.

What the COVID infodemic project headed by Gabriel de Arajo Grisi and Joo de Deus Barreto Segundo found was that the infodemic was not just a media buzzword, it was real.

"In this emergency, we've been given the false idea that we need to slow down the rigor, for example, the review process is faster for Covid-19 papers."

"It has been interesting to observe the volume of publications during the pandemic and how it might have shaped health care policies," she says, adding that together with the political context in Brazil, the epidemic of fake news and problematic actions by the federal government based on low-quality evidence, was crucial to motivate a better understanding of the behavior of these publications.

Freiregrew up in Salvador, Bahia and says her grandfather encouraged her curiosity about the world.

"Although my grandfather was not an academic man, he used to prompt my questions about the world, the universe and how things work," she says, "he really believed I was the smartest kid in the world... not true, but very cute of him."

She says that this lead to her decision to pursue an undergraduate degree in relating to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine. In the end, she chose medicine, but she was sure that research would be the path she wanted to take.

Freire says her mentor Luis Cludio Correia, who is also the advisor of the meta-science project, has helped her "visualize science through purpose" and learn the value of the communication of science.

She says researchers from low-income and developing countries face disparities, fewer incentives and fewer opportunities to work in science within their own geographic location and especially in science centers of global importance.

"There is evidence that research from the Global South is viewed with bias by researchers, clinicians and institutions around the world," she says.

Freire says that globally female researchers are striving for the same conditions, opportunities and relevance, so adding the challenges of the Global South on top of that make it an even bigger challenge.

"Women researchers from Global South must strive to continue working, despite the discouragement and the statistics of gender inequality in science that do not ease," she says.

Professor Dr. Luis Cludio Correia (closest to the door), with the members of the Brazilian ... [+] Metascience Research Group. Picture of my science group (BMRG).

Another young Brazillian making a difference is Ester Borges Santos, who is a researcher at Brazilian web governance and freedom of speech think-tankInternetLaband a computer teacher and coordinator at Minas Programam.

She and her colleagues at Minas Programam are aiming to create more opportunities for young black women by developing a welcoming, inclusive virtual study group on gender, race, and technology.

Originally posted here:

This Brazillian Med Student Is Unlocking Mysteries Of The Covid-19 Infodemic - Forbes

July 14, 2021

State grants will increase student engagement and support academic progress

Posted in: Homepage News, Science and Technology, University

Montclair State University will receive more than $1.4 million from the State of New Jersey to support programs that help address the impacts of COVID-19 on postsecondary students.

Governor Phil Murphy and Secretary of Higher Education Brian Bridges announced the grants July 12, with Montclair State among 35 public and public-mission private institutions receiving $30 million in state aid to implement vetted best practices that increase college completion, address barriers to student success, and develop sustainable systemic reforms.

In addition to a $100,000 grant to fight food insecurity among students, Montclair State was awarded:

These programs are designed to increase student engagement and support academic progress at a time when the challenges facing underrepresented and low-income students have been compounded by the global pandemic, explains President Susan A. Cole. Montclair State is steadfast in our resolve to meet those challenges in service to our students and the community.

Our institutions of higher education have provided a high quality of education to our students throughout the pandemic, despite challenging circumstances, said Governor Murphy. Supporting our institutions will continue to be a priority as they work to provide an equitable educational experience for students, prepare them for the jobs of the future and meet challenges ahead.

Through this critical federal funding, New Jersey is prioritizing students needs and ensuring our workforce will be ready to meet the challenges of tomorrows post-pandemic economy, said Secretary Bridges. We appreciate that institutions are committing to this challenge and look forward to learning from the innovative best practices implemented, as we strive to meet the states goal of 65 percent of residents earning a high-quality credential by 2025.

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University Awarded $1.4M To Address Impacts Of COVID-19 News Center - Montclaire News

A nurse holds a syringe containing a coronavirus vaccine made by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a unit of Sinopharm subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), at a vaccination center during a government-organized visit, in Beijing, China, April 15, 2021. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

BEIJING, July 14 (Reuters) - Several areas in China will start vaccinating teenagers this month against COVID-19, state media and local authorities said, as the country steps up its inoculation campaign.

China, which has managed to rein in domestic infections, has administered 1.4 billion vaccine doses, or two-fifths of the global total of 3.47 billion doses.

This month, the southwestern region of Guangxi and the city of Jingmen in the central province of Hubei will start vaccinating those aged between 15 and 17, and children between 12 and 14 in August, state media and local disease control officials said in reports on Tuesday.

By the end of October, authorities there aim to have fully vaccinated all eligible in the age group of 12 to 17.

China has approved two domestically developed vaccines, one produced by Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O) and the other produced by a Beijing firm affiliated with Sinopharm, for those aged between three and 17.

The world's most populous country, with a population of 1.4 billion, does not regularly disclose how many people have been fully vaccinated, but late last month a state broadcaster said the nationwide rate had exceeded 40%.

Several local authorities said this month that public places, from supermarkets to train stations, will check vaccination credentials and record personal details of unvaccinated visitors, to nudge more people to get doses.

China is expected to vaccinate at least 70% of target groups by the end of this year, Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, told the official Xinhua news agency last month, without giving details of the groups.

Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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China to start giving COVID-19 shots to teenagers this month - Reuters

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands skyrocketed by more than 500% over the last week, the countrys public health institute reported Tuesday. The surge follows the scrapping of almost all remaining lockdown restrictions and the reopening of night clubs in late June.

The weekly update showing that nearly 52,000 people in the Netherlands tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week came a day after caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for the June 26 lockdown relaxation and called it an error of judgment.

Rutte backtracked Friday and reintroduced some restrictions in an attempt to rein in the soaring infection rate. Bars again have to close at midnight, while discotheques and clubs were shuttered again until at least Aug. 13.

The Netherlands, along with other European nations, is facing a rise in infections fueled by the more contagious delta variant just as governments hoped to greatly ease or eliminate remaining pandemic restrictions during the summer holiday season.

With infections rising around France, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday cranked up pressure on people to get vaccinated and said special COVID passes would be required to go into restaurants and shopping malls starting next month.

The Dutch public health institute said that of the infections that could be traced to their source, 37% happened in a hospitality venue such as a bar or club. Infections among people ages 18-24 surged by 262%, followed by a 191% rise in 25-29 year-olds.

Despite the alarming rise in confirmed cases, hospital admissions increased by a modest 11%, or 60 COVID-19 patients, over the week, the institute said. Twelve of the admissions were to intensive care units.

More than 46% of the Netherlands adult population is fully vaccinated, and more than 77% of the countrys adults have had at least one shot. Health authorities said more than 1.3 million people would receive their first or second doses this week.

Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said Monday that the late June loosening of restrictions combined with a lack of social distancing and the delta variant has had, of course, an accelerating effect. You can unfortunately see that with hindsight.

Other countries in Europe are scrambling to accelerate coronavirus vaccinations in the hope of outpacing the spread of the more infectious delta variant.

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Dutch COVID-19 infections soar by 500% in a week - Associated Press