Month: September 2020

The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced charges against 345 people for committing over $6 billion in medical fraud. Those charged include more than 100 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who filed fraudulent claims to federal health care programs and private insurers, according to the Justice Department. The bulk of the fraud — $4.5 billion — was connected to telemedicine, which has surged during the pandemic. For example, the Cleveland Clinic went from averaging 5,000 telemedicine visits a month before the pandemic to 200,000 visits just in April, the Associated Press reported. “Telemedicine can foster efficient, high-quality care when practiced appropriately and lawfully. Unfortunately, bad actors attempt to abuse telemedicine services and leverage aggressive marketing techniques to mislead beneficiaries about their health care needs and bill the government for illegitimate services,” U.S. Health and Human Services Deputy Inspector General Gary Cantrell said in a statement. “Unfortunately, audacious schemes such as these are prevalent and often harmful.”  FILE – The U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building is seen in Washington, July 13, 2018.According to the Justice Department, some telemedicine company executives allegedly paid doctors and nurse practitioners to order unnecessary medical equipment, medical tests and pain medications without interacting with a patient or with only a brief telephone conversation with a patient they had never seen.  “Durable medical equipment companies, genetic testing laboratories, and pharmacies then purchased those orders in exchange for illegal kickbacks and bribes and submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and other government insurers,” according to a statement from the Justice Department. In addition to telemedicine fraud, other defendants were charged with more than $845 million worth of fraud related to substance abuse facilities, and more than $806 million was connected to other health care fraud, including the illegal distribution of opioids. “This nationwide enforcement operation is historic in both its size and scope, alleging billions of dollars in health care fraud across the country,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt said in a statement. “These cases hold accountable those medical professionals and others who have exploited health care benefit programs and patients for personal gain.” 
 
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Zimbabwe parks authority officials say they suspect a bacterial disease called hemorrhagic septicemia is behind the recent deaths of at least 34 elephants in the northwestern part of the country.The elephant deaths, which began in late August, come soon after hundreds of elephants died in neighboring Botswana in mysterious circumstances. Authorities subsequently blamed the deaths on toxins produced by another type of bacterium.FILE – A combination photo shows dead elephants in Okavango Delta, Botswana, May-June, 2020. (Photographs obtained by Reuters)Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority Director-General Fulton Mangwanya said Tuesday they have discovered 34 dead elephants, but suspect more may be found.  The elephants were found lying on their stomachs, suggesting a sudden death.Mangwanya said the dead elephants were discovered in an area between the Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls in west-central Zimbabwe, suggesting to him the outbreak has been isolated.Mangwanya said postmortems on some of the elephants showed inflamed livers and other organs. Samples have been sent to the UK and South Africa to confirm the type of disease.Experts say that Zimbabwe’s current elephant population could be close to 90,000.Elephants in Botswana and parts of Zimbabwe are at historically high levels — roughly half of the continent’s 400,000 elephants, according to estimates — but elsewhere on the continent, especially in forested areas, many populations are severely depleted, researchers say. 
 
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After consulting with Germany’s 16 regional governors, German Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday announced new restrictions on the size of gatherings to prevent the country’s coronavirus infection figures from accelerating.At a Berlin news briefing following her virtual meeting with the governors, Merkel said she wants to act regionally and address the virus where it is surging rather than shut down the whole country, which she said should be avoided at all costs.  “In order to achieve this, we must have minimum standards for certain frequencies of infections,” said Merkel.The German chancellor said in places where there are more than 35 new infections per 100,000 residents recorded in a week, the number of people attending gatherings at public or rented facilities should be limited to 50 and no more than 25 should attend events in private homes.She said that where infections hit at least 50 per 100,000 residents, those figures should be cut to 25 and 10 respectively.Merkel said she expects the rate of infection to rise as the change in weather means more people will spend time inside in the coming months. She said the number of daily infections could rise to 19,200 in three months if the rate of infection continues as it has over the past three months.  “This underlines the urgency for us to act,” said Merkel.The chancellor also discouraged travel to high risk areas in Europe in the coming months, saying staying in Germany was a good option. She said low risk European nations such as Italy might be a good option, noting the number of COVID-19 cases are very low there now and “they are acting very carefully.”Johns Hopkins University reports Germany has over 289,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and just over 9,450 deaths.
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The world recently reached a tragic milestone of one million known deaths linked to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.  Experts say more testing is key to combating the virus’s spread.  A biotech company in Taiwan has developed a robot capable of conducting thousands of COVID tests each day, making it possible to safely revive the economy.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.Camera: Reuters
Producer: Arash Arabasadi     
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Cancer experts in Ghana lament that little attention is paid to screening for colorectal cancer, leading to a high death rate for the disease, despite its relatively low occurrence. They hope the recent death of American actor Chadwick Boseman, the star of the Hollywood film “Black Panther,” might bring fresh awareness. Stacey Knott reports from Accra.By the time a patient comes to Dr. Clement Edusa with colon cancer, it is often too late. The medical director of the Sweden Ghana Medical Center will see cancer that has been misdiagnosed and spread, as the patient has sought out other treatments, including some from ill-equipped small clinics or herbalists. Edusa says while Ghana does not see many cases of colon cancer, as lifestyles change, he expects to see an increase, and there need to be systems in place to provide detection and affordable treatment. “Definitely, there is going to be an increase. But don’t forget that apart from that, you need to have a structure in place to do the screening,” said Edusa. “So, if you don’t have a national program which sort of pulls in the people to do the screening, you won’t get it early. So, you will have an increase in numbers and people coming late, and of course, more fatalities.” August 29th 2020 – Actor Chadwick Boseman has died at the age of 43. He was born on November 29th 1976 in Anderson, South Carolina and died of colon cancer on August 28th 2020 in Los Angeles, California.While fans have been mourning the loss of Boseman, who died of colon cancer a month ago, a beloved actor and preacher in Ghana also met this fate this year. Bernard Nyarko’s son Gideon says his dad’s illness was gradual. By the time he got his colon cancer diagnosis, doctors could do little, as it had spread.  “He went to the hospital, but they were not able to diagnose the main source of his illness,” said Nyarko. “They were linking it to other sorts of illnesses. It was later that we discovered it was colon cancer. That was 2019.”When Gideon saw images of Boseman’s weight loss, he saw the similarities of how his own father looked toward the end.Pedestrians look up at a mural by artist Shane Grammer of late actor Chadwick Boseman’s character T’Challa from the 2018 film “Black Panther,”, Sept. 8, 2020, in Los Angeles.He hopes both his father’s case and that of Boseman will create awareness of the need for early detection and better training in health services.
Some organizations in Ghana have taken up this mantle.Cancer Support Network Ghana tries to get cancer survivors to speak out to encourage others to go for screenings, to ultimately lower fatality rates in Ghana, says oncology nurse Eric Brobbey.“People think that when you have this cancer you’re going to die, but there are people who have lived for many years,” said Brobbey. “So, when they come out to share their stories, it encourages others to also seek treatment.”Ibrahim Rauf from the Zurak Cancer Foundation focuses on low-income communities, advocating prevention, education and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.“The lifestyles that expose people to cancers kind of run through, regardless of which cancer you are referring to,” said Rauf. “So, we might not be heavily focused on colon cancer now, but then we believe the awareness we are creating is giving people the opportunities to adopt lifestyles that save them from it.”The ultimate hope is that more people will be aware of the signs and risks of cancers, including colon cancer, and that eventually all screenings, diagnoses and treatments will be funded by the government. 
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The COVID-19 death toll has climbed to more than one million people worldwide.  And because of a recent surge of infections in many countries including in Europe and the United States, more coronavirus deaths are expected in the coming months. But there are also signs that death rates are dropping and people who contract the virus now are faring better than those infected early on.  VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo has more.Produced by:  Bakhtiyar Zamanov   
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By the time a patient comes to Dr. Clement Edusa with colon cancer, it is often too late.The medical director of the Sweden Ghana Medical Center will see cancer that has been misdiagnosed and spread, as the patient has sought out other treatments, including some from ill-equipped small clinics or herbalists.Edusa said while Ghana does not see many cases of colon cancer, as lifestyles change, he expects to see an increase, and there need to be systems in place to provide detection and affordable treatment.“Definitely, there is going to be an increase,” Edusa said. “But don’t forget that apart from that, you need to have a structure in place to do the screening. So, if you don’t have a national program which sort of pulls in the people to do the screening, you won’t get it early. So, you will have an increase in numbers and people coming late, and of course, more fatalities.”FILE – Chadwick Boseman poses in the press room at the American Music Awards on Nov. 24, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.While fans have been mourning the loss of American actor Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer a month ago, a beloved actor and preacher in Ghana also met this fate this year.Bernard Nyarko’s son Gideon said his dad’s illness was gradual. By the time he got his colon cancer diagnosis, doctors could do little, as it had spread.“He went to the hospital, but they were not able to diagnose the main source of his illness,” Nyarko said. “They were linking it to other sorts of illnesses. It was later that we discovered it was colon cancer. That was 2019.”When Gideon saw images of Boseman’s weight loss, he saw the similarities of how his own father looked toward the end.Gideon Kankam Nyarko with his late father, Ghanaian actor Bernard Nyarko who died this year of colon cancer. (Courtesy of Gideon Kankam Nyarko)He hopes both his father’s case and that of Boseman will create awareness of the need for early detection and better training in health services.Some organizations in Ghana have taken up this mantle.Cancer Support Network Ghana tries to get cancer survivors to speak out to encourage others to go for screenings, to ultimately lower fatality rates in Ghana, said oncology nurse Eric Brobbey.“People think that when you have this cancer you’re going to die, but there are people who have lived for many years, Brobbey said. “So, when they come out to share their stories, it encourages others to also seek treatment.”Ibrahim Rauf of the Zurak Cancer Foundation works to increase cancer awareness in low-income communities, in Accra, Ghana, Sept. 26, 2020. (Stacey Knott/VOA)Ibrahim Rauf from the Zurak Cancer Foundation focuses on low-income communities, advocating prevention, education and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.“The lifestyles that expose people to cancers kind of run through, regardless of which cancer you are referring to,” Rauf said. “So, we might not be heavily focused on colon cancer now, but then we believe the awareness we are creating is giving people the opportunities to adopt lifestyles that save them from it.”The ultimate hope is that more people will be aware of the signs and risks of cancers, including colon cancer, and that eventually all screenings, diagnoses and treatments will be funded by the government. 
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A team of scientists studying data from a satellite orbiting Mars say they have discovered evidence of several lakes of what they believe is salty, liquid water beneath the surface of the planet’s south pole.The discovery, detailed in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, expands upon a tentative finding in 2018, which was made using data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express satellite.A radar instrument known as the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) produced evidence of what astronomers believed was a large saltwater lake under the ice at Mars’s south pole, a finding that was met with excitement and some skepticism at the time.Since then, the same group of scientists examined 10 years’ worth of radar images sent from the spacecraft and found not only more evidence confirming the original salt lake, but enough for at least three more lying underneath the Martian surface.Confirming the existence of liquid water on Mars is significant, in that it could provide a possible habitat for life.The new evidence came after researchers examined over 100 radar images taken by the satellite from 2010 through 2019. The scientists saw what seemed to be several subglacial liquid bodies ranging in size from just over 19 kilometers across to as small as just under 5 kilometers.The average temperature on Mars is around minus 26 degrees Celsius, far too cold for water to remain liquid at the surface. But the researchers believe the lakes maintain their liquid state due to their high concentrations of salt. Some scientists believe Mars was once a wet, warm world and may even have hosted life forms at some point in its early history. But over time, the planet’s atmosphere was stripped away because it lacks a magnetic field like Earth’s, making it seemingly inhospitable.This latest discovery suggests that some pockets of the Martian terrain may be habitable and could contain some form of microbial life that escaped from the planet’s freezing surface to the waters beneath. 
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A British jet suit company has teamed with a paramedic service to test the flying suits’ capabilities for emergency use in Britain’s mountainous northern lake district.Gravity Industries released video Tuesday of a recent test of its jet suit in simulated rescue situations in northwest Britain’s vast Lake District National Park in Cumbria.The jet suit company teamed up with local paramedic team Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS), which says reaching walkers in distress is one of their biggest challenges.In one test simulation, a paramedic in a jet suit – which, in this case, was test pilot and Gravity Industries founder Richard Browning – was sent up a mountain in a scenario in which a 10-year-old girl had fallen from cliffs and sustained a serious leg injury.The paramedic, following coordinates given for the location of the casualty, follows a hiking trial up the steep, rocky terrain, traveling at about 51 kilometers per hour (kph) and reaches the scene in 90 seconds, traveling a distance that might have taken a rescuer as long as 25-30 minutes on foot.GNAAS director Andy Mawson, who reached out to Gravity Industries about using their jet suit for emergency services, says its lifesaving potential “is just huge.”The suit has an altitude limit of 3,658 meters, easily surpassing the height of the Lake District’s – and Britain’s – highest peak of 978 meters.Browning launched Gravity Industries in March 2017 and has since flown more than 100 flight events across 30 countries. 
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The number of people killed by COVID-19 has surpassed 1 million, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, which put the total number of infections worldwide at more than 33 million.    Lamenting what he called “an agonizing milestone,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the world to overcome the challenge presented by the pandemic and to learn from past mistakes made at the outset. “Responsible leadership matters,” Gutteres said. “Science matters. Cooperation matters — and misinformation kills.” COVID-19 is the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, late last year. As the pandemic reached the grim milestone, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said the actual toll is probably higher.     FILE – Coffins with the bodies of victims of coronavirus are stored waiting for burial or cremation at the Collserola morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Apr. 2, 2020.”If anything, the numbers currently reported probably represent an underestimate of those individuals who have either contracted COVID-19 or died as a cause of it,” Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergencies expert, said at a briefing in Geneva.  The one million fatalities are among the more than 33.2 million people around the world who have been sickened by the disease, and there are growing signs that many nations are about to experience a second wave of the outbreak, especially the United States, which leads the world with over 7.1 million total cases, including over 205,000 deaths. FILE – A caution tape is put up around the playground at Public School 33 following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, Sept. 27, 2020.Officials in New York City, the initial epicenter of the pandemic in the United States in March and April, are reporting a surge of new COVID-19 cases across the city after several months of decreasing numbers.  Officials are especially concerned with eight neighborhoods in the Brooklyn and Queens boroughs, some of them home to large Orthodox Jewish communities.  The increase comes as the city prepares to reopen its public schools to in-person instruction this week.  New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo also expressed concern Monday about a surge of new cases in two counties, Rockland and Orange, located north of New York City.  FILE – Dough Hassebroek walks his son Felix to Ardor School in Brooklyn, New York, Sept. 21, 2020.A new study released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the rate of infections in children ages 12 to 17 is about twice that in children between the ages of five to 11.  But the CDC study pointed out that the statistics were collected during a period when most students were not attending in-person classes, suggesting that the low number of confirmed cases in children result from a lack of testing.   The CDC also said young children often have mild symptoms, and may even be asymptomatic, which could also account for their low numbers of confirmed cases. “The American people should anticipate that cases will rise in the days ahead,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned on Monday.   More testing  U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday promised to make 150 million rapid COVID-19 tests available.  He said the “massive and groundbreaking expansion” of testing would help protect the elderly in nursing homes, allow schools to reopen more safely, and help get the economy back on track.     President Donald Trump leaves after an event about coronavirus testing strategy, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Sept. 28, 2020, in Washington.Trump had previously said he wanted to slow down testing because discovering more cases could make it appear the disease is spreading faster.    WHO announced that 120 million rapid diagnostic tests for the coronavirus will be made available to low- and middle-income countries.     WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor are working in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “make 120 million of these new, highly portable and easy-to-use rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests available over a period of six months.”          
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U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to distribute 150 million rapid coronavirus tests and urged governors to use them to reopen schools, amid reporting that a member of his coronavirus task force is concerned the president is receiving incorrect information about the pandemic.In a speech at the White House Rose Garden, Trump called the plan a “massive and groundbreaking expansion” of testing capability, “more than double the number of tests already performed.“Fifty million tests will go to protect the most vulnerable communities, which we’ve always promised to do, including 18 million for nursing homes, 15 million for assisted living facilities,10 million for home health and hospice care, hospice care agencies and nearly 1 million for historically black colleges and universities, and also tribal nation colleges,” Trump said.The administration is encouraging schools to use the rapid Abbott Laboratories tests, which deliver results in 15 minutes, to help restart and maintain in-person teaching so that parents can return to work.   “One hundred million rapid, point-of-care tests will be given to states and territories to support efforts to reopen their economies in schools immediately and fast as they can,” Trump said.   Last week Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden criticized Trump for not having a national standard to safely reopen schools and said that he had released a plan to do so in July.   Biden stressed that reopening schools should only be done with adequate protections including masks and sanitizing and based on health considerations such as the reinfection rate. “If it’s down below one then it’s rational that you can, with those protections, go ahead and open a school but watch it very closely. But it requires testing and tracing to make sure you’re still on course there,” Biden said. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing “Review of Coronavirus Response Efforts” on Capitol Hill, Washington, Sept. 16, 2020.‘Everything he says is false’  Trump’s announcement came amid reporting that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, suggested in a conversation with a colleague Friday that Dr. Scott Atlas, the newest member of the president’s coronavirus task force, is arming Trump with misleading data about the virus, including on the efficacy of masks and the potential benefits of herd immunity.   “Everything he says is false,” Redfield said during a phone call made in public on a commercial airline and overheard by NBC News.   The CDC did not dispute that Redfield was speaking about Atlas in the overheard conversation. “NBC News is reporting one side of a private phone conversation by CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield that was overheard on a plane from Atlanta Hartsfield airport. Dr. Redfield was having a private discussion regarding a number of points he has made publicly about COVID-19,” said a CDC spokesman in an email to NBC.   Atlas is a neuroradiologist with no background in infectious diseases or public health who was brought on to the White House task force in August. Before he joined the task force, Atlas was a frequent guest on Fox News, where he pushed to reopen the country and espoused views that more closely align with the president’s opinions on the pandemic. Trump invited Atlas to speak during the coronavirus testing announcement. Redfield was not present at Monday’s event, neither were two other members of the coronavirus task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx. 
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China in recent months has been injecting hundreds of thousands of people with three preliminary coronavirus vaccines that are being tested for safety and efficacy.While the world awaits a proven drug to fight the pandemic, at least three vaccine candidates have been given to front-line medical professionals, staff of state-owned companies, and government officials since July under an emergency use program approved by Beijing.China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm, has administered two experimental vaccine candidates to around 350,000 people outside its clinical trials, CNBG chairman Yang Xiaoming said recently. The company also donated 200,000 doses of one of the candidate vaccines that is still undergoing clinical trials in Wuhan, where the pandemic was first reported.Another drugmaker, Sinovac Biotech, has injected 90% of its employees and their family members, or about 3,000 people, Yin Weidong, the company’s CEO, said this month.”At present, tens of thousands of people in Beijing should have been vaccinated with Sinovac’s vaccine,” Yin told Chinese state media.Separately, Beijing also gave approval in June for members of the armed forces to receive an experimental vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company that is backed by the military.A man works in the packaging facility of Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech, developing an experimental coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, in Beijing, China, Sept. 24, 2020.Phase 3 trial importantForeign experts have criticized using the experimental vaccines before clinical trials have been completed.”It is reckless and dangerous to distribute a minimally tested vaccine about which nothing has been published,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.”Puts too many people at risk without opportunity to study safety and efficacy in a large group,” Caplan told VOA in an email.Vaccines usually require years of research and testing before being made available to the public. In Phase 3 trials, vaccines are generally given to thousands of people and tested for safety and efficacy.”Before the completion of Phase 3 trials, we cannot have full confidence in the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine,” Lawrence Gostin, professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told VOA.Under China’s law, vaccines developed for major public health emergencies can be deployed for urgent use if the National Medical Products Administration considers that the benefits of the treatment outweigh the risks.Experts say speeding up the process introduces more risk, which could undermine the vaccination effort in the long run.“This practice can backfire if the rushed process causes a widespread distrust of the vaccine when fewer people are willing to take the vaccine. Or it can cause severe damages when vaccine complications were warned, due to the rushed trials, “Dr. Jennifer Huang Bouey, an epidemiologist and China expert at the RAND Corporation, told VOA.Most candidates failCurrently, there are 42 vaccine candidates that are being tested on humans, 11 of them developed by Chinese companies.Nurse Isabelli Guasso administers China’s Sinovac potential vaccine for the COVID-19 to volunteer Dr. Luciano Marini, at the Sao Lucas Hospital of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil Aug. 8, 2020.According to the American Council on Science and Health, a research and education organization, vaccines for infectious diseases in clinical trials only have a 33.4% success rate, meaning that most of the vaccines that entered the stage of clinical trials will fail.China claims that so far, there have been no obvious adverse reactions among the people who were inoculated.”Tens of thousands of people vaccinated have traveled to countries and regions with high risks of COVID-19. No one has been infected so far, and this proved the effectiveness of the vaccines,” said Zhou Song, chief legal adviser of CNBG.A box for a COVID-19 vaccine is displayed at an exhibit by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China, Sept. 5, 2020.There are 11 candidates in Phase 3 trials, four of them are developed by Chinese companies. While Phase 3 is the final stage, it does not necessarily mean that successful results are imminent.A U.S. Food and Drug Administration study in 2017 found that vaccine candidates that had encouraging Phase 2 results could still fail. Of the 22 vaccines in Phase 3 trials that scientists studied, 14 of them did not confirm the effectiveness of the product that was indicated in Phase 2 trials. One vaccine in the study had a safety problem identified in Phase 3.”If the vaccine is ultimately proven to be poorly protective against the virus — which it may — they will have exposed many people to unnecessary risks and perhaps given people false confidence that they are protected, which undermines public health,” Dr. Charles Holmes, director of the Georgetown University Center for Innovation in Global Health, told VOA.Beijing’s global reachIt is possible that within weeks the world will see its first proven coronavirus vaccine, as some of the Phase 3 trials are expected to complete as early as November.China now has more candidates in the final stage of trial than any other nation and has been using the prospect of a vaccine’s discovery to shore up its global standing.Chinese vaccine developers are currently working with more than 40 countries and carrying out clinical trials in at least 10.The United Arab Emirates has recently approved a Chinese vaccine candidate for emergency use, making China the first nation to receive approval to deploy a COVID-19 candidate in a foreign country.Through various platforms like the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Beijing has promised to prioritize doses for dozens of countries. Officials are also claiming the countries’ vaccine makers are ramping up production.“Next year, our annual capacity will reach more than 1 billion doses,” said Zheng Zhongwei, director of the National Health Commission’s Science and Technology Development Center, at a news conference last Friday.A visitor wearing a face mask looks at a model of a coronavirus and boxes for COVID-19 vaccines at a display by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, Sept. 5, 2020.Despite Beijing’s asserted ability to develop and deliver vaccines, experts warned that China is not necessarily ahead in the global vaccine race.”Before a Phase 3 trial is completed and a manufacturing capacity is used, any country that has a promising vaccine candidate can be equally successful,” said Bouey.Gostin, who is also the director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, said China and its partner countries are exposing people to significant risk by deploying the vaccine before it has completed a large-scale placebo-controlled trial.”China is trying to exploit other countries, gaining political or commercial advantage in return for the vaccine,” Gostin said.In Indonesia, China’s Sinovac Biotech promised it would help Indonesia’s state-owned drugmaker Bio Farma produce at least 40 million doses of its potential vaccine before March 2021.Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, an academic at Universitas Islam Indonesia who researches China’s foreign policy in Indonesia, told VOA in an email that right now, there is little public attention on the risks of taking the experimental vaccine.”Most concerns are about whether the vaccine would work or not and if Indonesians have only become subjects of trial,” Rakhmat said.  
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U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday that Democratic lawmakers unveiled a new, $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which she said was a compromise measure that reduces the costs of the economic aid. In a letter to Democratic lawmakers released by Pelosi’s office, she said the legislation “includes new funding needed to avert catastrophe for schools, small businesses, restaurants, performance spaces, airline workers and others.” “Democrats are making good on our promise to compromise with this updated bill,” she said. “We have been able to make critical additions and reduce the cost of the bill by shortening the time covered for now.” Pelosi in recent days has said she thinks a deal can be reached with the White House on a new coronavirus relief package and that talks were continuing. But she also said that she would offer legislation if the impasse continued with the Trump administration over the size and shape of another relief package. She did not say when there would be a vote on the latest Democratic proposal. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, left, walk to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 5, 2020.Formal talks among Pelosi, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows aimed at hammering out a relief package broke down on Aug. 7 with the two sides far apart. Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke by phone on Sunday and again on Monday. They plan to speak again on Tuesday morning, her spokesman said. Pelosi and Schumer initially sought a $3.4 trillion relief package, then said they were willing to scale that back by at least a trillion dollars. But it was not clear whether the White House would consider the $2.2 trillion sum proposed in the new legislation. Meadows has said that Trump would be willing to sign a $1.3 trillion relief package. Pelosi also faces pressure from moderate House Democrats who say they want to see bipartisan aid proposals that have a chance of becoming law. The new proposal included $436 billion for state and local governments, as well as money for education, testing, airline industry workers and for a small business loan program known as the Paycheck Protection Program, a statement from House Democrats said. It would also provide a new round of direct payments to Americans of $1,200 per taxpayer and restore federal unemployment benefits of $600 a week through January. 
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New research suggests that taking hot baths, soaking in hot tubs or using saunas can prevent cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. The research was presented last week at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), held virtually this year. Hisayuki Katsuyama, co-author of the new study, is a physician at Kohnodai Hospital in Ichikawa, Japan. He says that while drug treatments have helped people with Type 2 diabetes live better, longer lives, daily habits such as diet and exercise are still important for these patients.  Katsuyama says he and his colleagues looked at previous research suggesting heat therapy, such as baths, hot tubs or saunas, can lower risks of fatal heart disease and stroke, along with having a lower body fat percentage, and thought it could be promising as a Type 2 diabetes treatment. To test the theory, the researchers recruited 1,297 patients with Type 2 diabetes who regularly visited an outpatient hospital unit in Ichikawa between October 2018 and March 2019. They documented their bathing habits and noted water temperature, frequency and duration of each session, as well as a variety of medical notes.  Across the board, people who bathed more often had lower body mass indexes (BMI), diastolic blood pressure and glycated hemoglobin, a key risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. In their presentation, the researchers say their findings suggest daily heat exposure by hot tub bathing can “contribute to improvements of glycemia, hypertension and obesity, and thus, can be a therapeutic option for patients with Type 2 diabetes.” In an interview, Katsuyama says he suspects patients may benefit from heat therapy in a way similar to the benefit they get from exercise. He says both seem to improve insulin sensitivity and enhance energy expenditure.  Other research suggests bathing increases blood circulation, body temperature and the production of nitric oxide in the body, which appears to confer the positive benefits. Katsuyama says more research is needed before more conclusions can be made. The study has not yet been published or peer reviewed.
 
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A Taiwan biotech company says it has developed a testing robot that can accurately process more than 2,000 coronavirus test results a day and is marketing the machine as a way for economies to get back up and running while still controlling the spread of the virus.The Taipei-based TCI company says its QVS-96 robot is the first fully automated virus scanner. It uses three robotic arms to manipulate large amounts of test specimens usually handled by multiple laboratory technicians.TCI chief supervisor Arvin Chen says the machine can process an initial round of 96 specimens in three-and-a-half hours, and, thereafter, can process 96 specimens every 60 to 70 minutes. The company says the QVS-96 achieves the same safety and quality standards as any laboratory.Chen suggests the QVS-96 could be deployed in major metropolitan airports, in places such as New York City or Singapore. He says with 100 of the robotic testing machines operating, “These airports can fully resume their flights and let the passengers travel safely and bring back the country’s economy.”TCI says the QVS-96 has also been programmed to detect the flu and differentiate it from the coronavirus which could be crucial in northern hemisphere nations in the coming months.The company recently announced a global distribution agreement to make the QVS-96 available worldwide. Earlier this year, the machine was officially registered with the U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationThe company says QVS-96 is currently being used in a selection of government agencies, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control and three hospitals in northern and central Taiwan.   
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The World Health organization says 120 million rapid diagnostic tests for the coronavirus will be made available to low- and middle-income countries as the world approaches a death toll of 1 million. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva on Monday that the tests would cost less than $5.  He said manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor are working in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “make 120 million of these new, highly portable and easy-to-use rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests available over a period of six months.” COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Monday that there were close to 1 million deaths worldwide. It said there are more than 33 million infections around the globe.  In India, the country’s confirmed coronavirus infection tally reached 6 million Monday, behind only the United States, where infections passed 7 million last week. India’s Health Ministry on Monday reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases over a 24-hour period, as well as 1,039 new confirmed deaths, taking total fatalities in the country to 95,542.  Surge expected in USIn the United States, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told NBC, “We’re nowhere near the end” of the coronavirus pandemic.FILE – Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a hearing on the federal government response to COVID-19, Capitol Hill, Washington, Sept. 23, 2020.Redfield also repeated his argument that wearing a mask can be just as effective as a vaccine. “If every one of us did it, this pandemic would be over in eight to 12 weeks,” Redfield said. A CNN investigation of Johns Hopkins data reveals the number of cases has increased by at least 10% from the previous week in 21 U.S. states.   Dr. Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, told CNN an expected “huge surge” in coronavirus infections in October in the United States is also expected to continue in November and December.   European countries debate next stepsMeanwhile, Europe is experiencing a new wave of coronavirus infections, leading some governments across the continent to reimpose restrictions on residents and businesses.FILE – A sign is placed across a closed road in London, Sept. 24, 2020, after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a range of new restrictions to combat the rise in coronavirus cases in England.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is warning that his country could see a “second wave.” He said Sunday that “swift and decisive action” must be taken to battle the virus.  Britain reported 4,044 new cases on Monday. The number of confirmed cases in the country now stands at more than 437,000, according to Johns Hopkins. In France, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the government has no plan to order a new nationwide lockdown, despite a rising number of coronavirus cases.  Patrick Bouet, head of France’s National Council of the Order of Doctors, told Journal du Dimanche Sunday “if nothing changes, France will face a widespread outbreak across its whole territory for several long autumn and winter months,” and the health system would crumble under the demands.    In Spain, Madrid authorities and the national government are clashing over the extent of the steps needed to control the outbreak of new infections in the capital region.  Spain’s Health Ministry Monday reported 31,785 new cases since Friday. 
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Officials in Australia’s Victoria state – considered the nation’s COVID-19 hotspot – reported five new cases Monday, the lowest case number in more than three months. At a news conference, Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters the state would immediately lift an overnight curfew that has been in place for the past month. He said beginning in October, most children will return to school, and many businesses, including manufacturing, construction and food processors can reopen, sending more that 125,00 people back to work.Andrews acknowledged the sacrifices people had made and said clearly their strategy had worked. As recently as early August new daily COVID-19 cases peaked at 725. But Andrews stressed the need to remain vigilant. “If we start doing things that we know deep down are not the right thing to do, then we can put at risk everything that we’ve built, everything that Victorians have given. I don’t want that to happen and I’m confident it won’t,” he said.Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, and surrounding parts of rural Victoria state were placed under strict “Level 4” lockdowns on Aug. 2, closing schools and non-essential businesses, imposing a nighttime curfew and prohibiting public gatherings.Many restrictions remain in place. Public gatherings of no more than five people from a maximum of two households will be allowed, and masks are still mandatory in public. But Andrews said a further easing could take place on October 19 if the average falls below five new cases per day.Overall, Australia has been one of the more successful nations in controlling the outbreak, with 27,000 total cases in a population of 25 million. Andrews said there are 359 active cases in Victoria.
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Must an observant Jew who has lost his sense of taste and smell because of COVID-19 recite blessings for food and drink? Can one bend the metal nosepiece of a surgical face mask on the Sabbath? May one participate in communal prayers held in a courtyard from a nearby balcony?
 
Months into the coronavirus pandemic, ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel are addressing questions like these as their legions of followers seek advice on how to maintain proper Jewish observance under the restrictions of the outbreak.
 
Social distancing and nationwide lockdowns have become a reality around the globe in 2020, but for religious Jews they can further complicate rites and customs that form the fabric of daily life in Orthodox communities. Many of these customs are performed in groups and public gatherings, making it especially challenging for the religious public to maintain its lifestyle.  
 
One religious publisher in Jerusalem released a book in July with over 600 pages of guidance from 46 prominent rabbis. Topics range from socially distanced circumcisions (allowed) to Passover Seders over Zoom (forbidden) to praying with a quorum from a balcony (it’s complicated).
 
One rabbi responded to a query about blessings on food for those who lost their sense of taste and smell due to the coronavirus. His ruling? Prayers are still required, for “even though one does not sense the flavor of the food, his intestines nonetheless benefit and are satisfied by the food and its nutrition.” He then launched into a two-page legal argument citing rabbinic sources from the Talmud on down.
 
The collection — titled “Havieni Hadarav,” Hebrew for “Bring me to his chambers” — is one of many pamphlets, books, radio and social media Q&As published in recent months addressing matters of halacha, or Jewish religious law, during the pandemic.
 
Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up a little over 10% of Israel’s 9 million citizens and adhere to a close observance of Jewish law. The foundations of halacha are built on the Torah’s commandments and prohibitions, and the Talmud, a codification of Jewish law written down over the course of the early centuries of the first millennium.
 
Orthodox Jewish practice is the byproduct of generations of rabbis issuing legal arguments and rulings. Their decisions, known as responsa, can sometimes be lenient and other times strict.  
 
“Every time a rabbi is asked a question, he has to essentially do what a judge would do, and bring up previous cases which he builds upon to come to his decision in this particular case,” said Issamar Ginzberg, a Jerusalem-based Hassidic rabbi. The method of questions and responses has underpinned centuries of the Jewish legal code.
 
There’s no way to say for sure how many people will follow this particular book’s rulings. But there are hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, and opinions by prominent rabbis often carry great significance in daily life within the community.  
 
“It’s more like a law textbook than a novel on the bestseller list,” said Ginzberg.
Rabbi Natan Feldman, head of the Tzuf Publishing House and editor of “Havieni Hadarav,” said the company has sold around 3,000 copies of the book, which meets “the need of the hour.”
 
“If people didn’t have it, they would err in all kinds of ways,” Feldman said. “It’s something with a lot of utility.”  
 
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox minority has been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with cities and neighborhoods where they live among the country’s current hot zones. Overall, Israel has recorded around 200,000 cases of the novel coronavirus and more than 1,300 deaths. The Health Ministry does not break down those numbers by population groups.  
 
Religious areas have been hard hit in part because they tend to be poorer and crowded, but also because of the tight-knit communal lifestyles, in which synagogues and seminaries play a central role. Some ultra-Orthodox schools have remained open in defiance of a nationwide lockdown imposed earlier this month to help clamp down on the country’s surge in new cases. While some rabbis have resisted orders to limit crowd sizes at prayers, especially for the current High Holiday season and this week’s gatherings for Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, the government has tried to work with religious leaders to spread the word on promoting public health regulations and restricting the sizes of prayer gatherings.
 
Many of the responsa contend with the complications of holding prayers — which traditionally require a quorum of 10 adult men — outdoors and in a manner that complies with social distance regulations. The rabbis offered differing opinions on what the law allows regarding participating in a minyan held in a communal courtyard from a balcony above.  
 
Innovation has helped overcome some of the challenges of the lockdown but has also raised additional concerns for observant Jews. For example, can one enter a hospital on the Jewish Sabbath if there is a thermal camera at the entrance that takes visitors’ temperatures?  
 
Activating such an electronic device could violate multiple prohibitions, so Rabbi Asher Weiss — a prominent ultra-Orthodox legal scholar involved in “Havieni Hadarav” — advised refraining from entering if only visiting a patient, but those in need of medical care ought not “avoid entering the hospital and endanger their lives.”
 
But the bottom line, written by Weiss in the book’s introduction, is that people must “take extra care to adhere to the instructions of qualified medical officials and the regulations of the Health Ministry and not violate them.”  
 
Weiss did not respond to interview requests.
 
For Feldman, the publishing head, the tome of coronavirus laws not only helps those who desire to adhere to halacha, it’s a reminder for the future of the tribulations Jews faced during this outbreak.
 
“If there should be, God forbid, another pandemic in the century to come, there will at least be a memory, some kind of necessity for the coming generations,” he said. 
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The World Health Organization reports tobacco kills 1.9 million people, or 20 percent of all those who die every year from coronary heart disease. In advance of World Heart Day (September 29), WHO, the World Heart Federation and the University of Newcastle Australia have released a new report warning of the dangers of tobacco-induced heart disease.Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death on Earth, killing an estimated 17.9 million people every year. The World Health Organization reports smoking and second-hand smoke are responsible for nearly two million of these deaths.Director for Health Promotion at WHO, Ruediger Krech said smokers should take heart. All is not lost. He told VOA even life-long smokers who quit their deadly habit can prevent dying prematurely from heart attack or stroke.“That’s the good news. If tobacco users take immediate action now and quit, then their risk of heart disease will decrease by 50 percent after one year of not smoking. So, you can, if you quit smoking now, you can have immediate health effects on that,” he said.Besides tobacco use, major risk factors for heart disease include lack of exercise, unhealthy diet, high blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity and being overweight.WHO also warns high blood pressure and heart disease increase the risk of severe COVID-19. Krech said people are beginning to understand that smoking during a raging pandemic is not a good idea.“There are about 400 million people who want to quit smoking because of COVID-19. They now realize that a pandemic like this which is in the respiratory tract actually—you are more vulnerable, and you will actually develop more severe symptoms,” he said.While it is not easy to quit smoking, tools such as nicotine patches are available to help. WHO warns against using smokeless tobacco, which every year, it says, causes around 200,000 deaths from coronary heart disease. It adds e-cigarettes also raise blood pressure, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease as well as COVID-19.Krech said governments can help people quit by creating communal smoke-free zones, banning tobacco advertising and raising taxes on these deadly commodities. 
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At a University of Maryland lab, people infected with the new coronavirus take turns sitting in a chair and putting their faces into the big end of a large cone. They recite the alphabet and sing or just sit quietly for a half hour. Sometimes they cough.The cone sucks up everything that comes out of their mouths and noses. It’s part of a device called “Gesundheit II” that is helping scientists study a big question: Just how does the virus that causes COVID-19 spread from one person to another?It clearly hitchhikes on small liquid particles sprayed out by an infected person. People expel particles while coughing, sneezing, singing, shouting, talking and even breathing. But the drops come in a wide range of sizes, and scientists are trying to pin down how risky the various kinds are.The answer affects what we should all be doing to avoid getting sick. That’s why headlines were made a few days ago when a U.S. health agency appeared to have shifted its position on the issue, but later said it had published new language in error.The recommendation to stay at least 6 feet (2 meters) apart — some authorities cite about half that distance — is based on the idea that larger particles fall to the ground before they can travel very far. They are like the droplets in a spritz of a window cleaner, and they can infect a person by landing on his nose, mouth or eyes, or maybe if they are inhaled.Smaller particlesBut some scientists are now focusing on tinier particles, the ones that spread more like cigarette smoke. Those are carried by wisps of air and even upward drafts caused by the warmth of our bodies. They can linger in the air for minutes to hours, spreading throughout a room and building up if ventilation is poor.The potential risk comes from inhaling them. Measles can spread this way, but the new coronavirus is far less contagious than that.For these particles, called aerosols, “6 feet is not a magic distance,” said Linsey Marr, a leading researcher who is studying them at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. But she says it’s still important to keep one’s distance from others, “the farther the better,” because aerosols are most concentrated near a source and pose a bigger risk at close range.Public health agencies have generally focused on the larger particles for coronavirus.That prompted more than 200 other scientists to publish a plea in July to pay attention to the potential risk from aerosols. The World Health Organization, which had long dismissed a danger from aerosols except in the case of certain medical procedures, later said that aerosol transmission of the coronavirus can’t be ruled out in cases of infection within crowded and poorly ventilated indoor spaces.FILE – A view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta.The issue drew attention recently when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted and then deleted statements on its website that highlighted the idea of aerosol spread. The agency said the posting was an error, and that the statements were just a draft of proposed changes to its recommendations.Dr. Jay Butler, CDC’s deputy director for infectious disease, told The Associated Press that the agency continues to believe larger and heavier droplets that come from coughing or sneezing are the primary means of transmission.Last month, Butler told a scientific meeting that current research suggests aerosol spreading of the coronavirus is possible, but it doesn’t seem to be the main way that people get infected. Further research may change that conclusion, he added, and he urged scientists to study how often aerosol spread of the coronavirus occurs, what situations make it more likely and what reasonable steps might prevent it.Marr said she thinks infection by aerosols is “happening a lot more than people initially were willing to think.”‘Superspreader’ eventsAs a key piece of evidence, Marr and others point to so-called “superspreader” events where one infected person evidently passed the virus to many others in a single setting.Butler said such events raise concern about aerosol spread but don’t prove it happens.There could be another way for tiny particles to spread. They may not necessarily come directly from somebody’s mouth or nose, said William Ristenpart of the University of California-Davis. His research found that if paper tissues are seeded with influenza virus and then crumpled, they give off particles that bear the virus. So people emptying a wastebasket with tissues discarded by somebody with COVID-19 should be sure to wear a mask, he said.Scientists who warn about aerosols say current recommendations still make sense.FILE – Public information messages are posted in Manchester, England, after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued new restrictions to slow the renewed spread of the coronavirus, Sept 22, 2020.Wearing a mask is still important, and make sure it fits snugly. Keep washing those hands diligently. And again, staying farther apart is better than being closer together. Avoid crowds, especially indoors.Their main addition to recommendations is ventilation to avoid a buildup of aerosol concentration. So, the researchers say, stay out of poorly ventilated rooms. Open windows and doors. One can also use air-purifying devices or virus-inactivating ultraviolet light.Best of all: Just do as much as you can outdoors, where dilution and the sun’s ultraviolet light work in your favor.”We know outdoors is the most spectacularly effective measure, by far,” said Jose-Luis Jimenez of the University of Colorado-Boulder. “Outdoors it is not impossible to get infected, but it is difficult.”FILE – In this July 15, 2020, photo, job seekers exercise social distancing as they wait to be called into the Heartland Workforce Solutions office in Omaha, Neb.The various precautions should be used in combination rather than just one at a time, researchers say. In a well-ventilated environment, “6 feet [of separation] is pretty good if everybody’s got a mask on” and nobody stays directly downwind of an infected person for very long, said Dr. Donald Milton of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, whose lab houses the Gesundheit II machine.Duration of exposure is important, so there’s probably not much risk from a short elevator ride while masked or being passed by a jogger on the sidewalk, experts say.Scientists have published online tools for calculating risk of airborne spread in various settings.At a recent meeting on aerosols, however, Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, noted that preventive steps can be a challenge in the real world. Keeping apart from other people can be difficult in homes that house multiple generations. Some old buildings have windows that were “nailed shut years ago,” he said. And “we have far too many communities where they simply don’t have access to clean water to wash their hands.”It might seem strange that for all the scientific frenzy to study the new coronavirus, the details of how it spreads can still be in doubt nine months later. But history suggests patience.”We’ve been studying influenza for 102 years,” said Milton, referring to the 1918 flu epidemic. “We still don’t know how it’s transmitted and what the role of aerosols is.”
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