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 Two-thirds of world leaders return to U.N. in person
As the coronavirus still rages amid an inequitable vaccine rollout,
only about a third of the 193 U.N. states are planning to again send
videos. The United States tried to dissuade leaders from coming to
New York in a bid to stop the U.N. General Assembly from becoming a
"super-spreader event."
A so-called U.N. honor system means that anyone entering the
assembly hall effectively declares they are vaccinated, but they do
not have to show proof. New York City has set up a van outside the
United Nations for the week to supply free testing and free shots of
the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Key data on U.S. J&J, Moderna boosters weeks away, Fauci says
Data needed to determine the advisability of booster shots of the
Moderna Inc and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines is just weeks
away, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci,
said on Sunday.
Health officials signaled they expected boosters would ultimately be
recommended for a broad swath of the population, but urged Americans
not to seek booster doses until they have FDA approval.
U.S. FDA advisers recommend boosters for 65 and above
Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted on Friday to
recommend COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for Americans 65 and older
and those at high risk of severe illness, after overwhelmingly
rejecting a call for broader approval.
The panelists suggested the evidence supporting broad approval was
inadequate, and they wanted to see more safety data, especially
concerning the risk of heart inflammation in younger people after
vaccination.
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 Cambodia bat researchers on
mission to track COVID-19 origin
Researchers are collecting samples from bats in
northern Cambodia in a bid to understand the
coronavirus pandemic, returning to a region
where a very similar virus was found in the
animals a decade ago. Two
samples from horseshoe bats were collected in 2010 in Stung Treng
province near Laos and kept in freezers at the Institut Pasteur du
Cambodge (IPC) in Phnom Penh. Tests done on them last year revealed
a close relative to the coronavirus that has killed more than 4.6
million people worldwide. Dr. Veasna Duong, head of
virology at the IPC, said humans were responsible for the
devastation caused by COVID-19, due to interference and destruction
of natural habitats.
Some U.S. hospitals forced to ration care
Surges in coronavirus cases in several U.S. states this week, along
with staffing and equipment shortages, are exacting a mounting toll
on hospitals and their workers even as the number of new admissions
nationwide ebbs, leading to warnings at some facilities that care
would be rationed.
In Alaska, the influx is so heavy that the state's largest hospital
is no longer able to provide life-saving care to every patient who
needs it due to the influx of COVID-19 hospitalizations, according
to an open letter from the medical executive committee of Providence
Alaska Medical Center this week.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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