A Wall Street Journal report says World Health Organization investigators who recently visited China to determine the origins of the emergence of the COVID-19 virus will not release a promised interim report of their findings.The Journal account, published Thursday, said the WHO team decided not to release its interim account “amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington.” Another international group of scientists has called for the WHO to conduct a new inquiry into COVID’s origins.The scientists calling for a new probe said in an open letter Thursday that the WHO team “did not have the mandate, the independence, or the necessary accesses to carry out a full and unrestricted investigation.”The scientists also noted in their letter that the WHO investigators in China were joined by their Chinese counterparts.A report in The Guardian says hospitals in Papua New Guinea have run out of money and are “shutting their doors” because of an uptick in COVID-19 cases. The country had registered 124 new coronavirus cases in all of February but had 108 new infections by March 4.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a public warning Thursday about thermal imaging devices or scanners used by many businesses to measure elevated temperature, a COVID symptom.The FDA alert said, “improper use of the systems may provide inaccurate temperature readings due to a variety of factors.” The agency also said it has sent “several Warning Letters” to companies that are “offering unapproved, uncleared, and unauthorized thermal imaging systems for sale.Auckland, New Zealand, is set to ease its seven-day lockdown on Sunday, moving from alert level three to alert level two because no new community coronavirus cases were recorded Friday. The rest of the country is scheduled to move to alert level one Sunday.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Friday there are more than 115 million global COVID cases. The U.S. remains at the top of the list with almost 29 million infections, followed by India with 11 million and Brazil with 10.7 million.
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Confidence in COVID-19 vaccines is growing, with people’s willingness to have the shots increasing as they are rolled out across the world and concerns about possible side effects are fading, a 14-country survey showed on Friday.Co-led by Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) and the polling firm YouGov, the survey found trust in COVID-19 vaccines had risen in nine out of 14 countries covered, including France, Japan and Singapore, which had previously had low levels of confidence.The latest update of the survey, which ran from Feb. 8-21, found that people in Britain are the most willing, with 77% saying they would take a vaccine designed to protect against COVID-19 if one was available that week.This is up from 55% in November, shortly before the first COVID-19 vaccine — co-developed by Pfizer- BioNTech — gained regulatory approval for use in Britain.People in France, Singapore and Japan remained among the least willing to have a COVID-19 vaccine, at 40%, 48% and 48%, respectively, but all three have seen confidence rising since November when only 25%, 36% and 39% of people were positive.The survey also found that worries over vaccine side effects have faded in the majority of countries, with fewer than half (45%) of all respondents currently reporting concern.Again, people in France, Singapore and Japan are currently most worried about side effects, with around six in 10 feeling concerned (56%, 59%, 61%), while Britain is the least concerned.The latest survey involved more than 13,500 people in Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and Sweden.
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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station this week built the bones for much-needed power upgrades.  Also, SpaceX took flight with and without success, and flaming space junk lights up Australian skies.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.
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Women’s rights activists in Kenya have welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden’s order revoking the ban blocking U.S. funding to women’s health organizations that provide abortion or abortion-related services. Critics say the so-called gag rule left women uninformed about safe options to end a pregnancy.  
   
Forty-five-year-old Najma Wangoi lost her sister in 2018 after she bought medicine from a drug store to induce an abortion and it led to her death.   
 
The mother of two says her sister didn’t know there was a better way to end a pregnancy.  
     
“She didn’t know because she bought those medicines for 3,500 shillings ($35). If she knew there was a place to do a safe abortion, she would still be alive. She should have explained her situation to the hospital, and she would have been treated,” Wangoi said.
     
Under the global gag rule, originally enacted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and revived by President Donald Trump, it became difficult for millions of women to seek abortion services at health centers receiving U.S. funds.    
 
The gag rule blocked U.S. government funding for organizations if they provided abortion services, counseling or referrals.   
 
The rule effectively shut down health clinics, as well as community sensitization programs about sexual and reproductive health.  
 
Boniface Ushie, researcher with the African Population and Health Research Center, says while the ban has now been lifted by U.S. President Joe Biden, it will not be enough to undo the effects it had on women’s health in Africa.  
   
“Lifting it is great, but it’s going to take a while for the impact of the global gag rule as instituted by Trump to begin to lift. So, it’s going to require a lot of funding. It’s going to require a lot of programs to undo what has been done over the past four years,” Ushie said.
 
Thirty-three-year-old Rose Akoth said she is lucky to be alive after taking tablets to abort a baby in 2019. After three days of pain, the fetus emerged but the placenta got stuck in her womb, requiring urgent medical attention.   
 
“I have a health problem now since I did the abortion because it didn’t come out well. These days my menstruation goes for a month and there is nothing I am using like family planning. My menstrual period goes on non-stop,” she said.  
   
Akoth, Wangoi and others hope that with the gag rule lifted, more women can be saved from abortion-related deaths and health crises.  
  
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The World Health Organization’s Europe director reported Thursday that new COVID-19 cases rose 9% to just over a million in the region last week.  
 
Hans Kluge said it was the first increase in new infections after six weeks of decline.
 
At a virtual news briefing from his headquarters in Copenhagen, Kluge told reporters that more than half the region saw increases in new cases.
 
Kluge said most of the resurgence was seen in central and eastern Europe, although new cases were also on the rise in several western European countries where rates were already high.  
 
 “Over a year into the pandemic, our health systems should not be in this situation. We need to get back to the basics,” he said.
 
He said the high rates of transmission and rapid spread of variants require increased vigilance, improved testing and isolation of cases, tracing and quarantining contacts, and care.  
 
Kluge said the so-called British variant has been reported in 43 of 53 countries in the region; the South African variant in 26 countries; and the variant originally identified in Brazil and Japan in 15 countries.  
 
The WHO Europe chief urged nations to accelerate the rollout of vaccines, saying they are already saving lives, with hospitalizations and deaths in most at-risk groups declining significantly.  
 
Kluge said 45 countries have started vaccinations in the European region.
 
He also called on leaders to reengage with their communities to counter “pandemic fatigue” to prevent people from putting aside preventative measures.
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The World Health Organization says COVID-19 vaccine distribution in African countries is accelerating and hopeful signs are emerging that a significant proportion of Africa’s population will be covered by the end of the year. Latest figures put the number of infections in Africa at more than 3.9 million, with 104,000 deaths.Data show the COVID-19 pandemic overall is on a downward trend in most countries on the continent. However, World Health Organization officials fear a resurgence of cases in the future as pressure increases to ease lockdown restrictions. They point to a recent rise of COVID-19 cases in 10 countries as a worrying sign.At the same time, the acceleration of vaccine distribution in Africa is giving rise to hope. WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said nearly 10 million vaccine doses have been delivered to 11 countries this week and she expects about half of all countries on the continent will receive COVID-19 vaccine deliveries in the coming weeks.She said most countries will have vaccination programs underway by the end of March. Moeti said the COVAX facility is targeting three percent of the population as it starts its vaccine rollout across Africa. But, she added, COVAX aims to increase that figure and cover 20 percent of the population by the end of the year.“We are very pleased that the African Union, working through its acquisition, vaccine acquisition task team has targeted ensuring that by the end of the year, sufficient vaccine has been procured and available to countries to cover 60 percent of the population,” she said.By the end of the year, Moeti said she hopes to reach a level of coverage in African countries that not only reduces severe illness and deaths but also starts to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.In other words, she said she hopes the continent will achieve so-called herd immunity. 
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Nearly 50 countries have either received or ordered at least one of the three Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccines, according to an Associated Press survey. More with VOA’s Mariama Diallo on the vaccine rollouts.
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U.S. President Joe Biden, while expressing frustration, has limited power to overrule decisions by state governors who are ending mask mandates and lifting other restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.”I think it’s a big mistake,” Biden told a small group of reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office when asked about Republican governors in Texas and Mississippi casting off restrictions and allowing businesses to reopen at full capacity.As the nation makes progress with vaccinations, “the last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, ‘Everything’s fine. Take off your mask. Forget it,’ ” added the president, a Democrat. “It still matters.”During the previous administration of Republican President Donald Trump, who downplayed the severity of COVID-19 despite eventually becoming infected himself, not wearing a mask became a political statement.Since taking office in January, Biden and top federal health officials repeatedly have emphasized mask wearing and social distancing while the country escalates the number of Americans being vaccinated against the virus.He noted during Wednesday’s brief interaction with reporters that he carries a card with the updated number of people in the country who have died because of the coronavirus.“As of yesterday, we had lost 511,874 Americans. We’re going to lose thousands more,” said Biden. “We’ll not have everybody vaccinated until sometime in the summer.”The president, urging people to frequently wash their hands, wear masks and maintain social distancing, added, “And I know you all know that I wish the heck some of our elected officials knew it.”FILE – In this image from video, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks during a briefing on the Biden administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jan. 27, 2021, in Washington.Earlier Wednesday, Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that “now is not the time” to lift COVID-19 restrictions.” Her comment came a day after Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared his state “100% open.”Texas, the second most populous state in the country, ranks 47th out of 50 for COVID-19 vaccinations per capita.At a virtual news briefing for the White House COVID-19 response,  Walensky said the next month or two would be pivotal in deciding the trajectory of the pandemic.While infection rates across the country have been leveling off, COVID-19 variants such as the highly transmissible so-called British strain are poised to surge, threatening to destroy what progress has been made, Walensky said.FILE – Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signs legislation at the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, June 30, 2020.In Mississippi on Tuesday, Governor Tate Reeves followed Texas’ move and lifted his state’s mask mandate and business restrictions.Under the U.S. Constitution and because of Supreme Court decisions, states — not the federal government — have primary authority to control the spread of dangerous diseases within their jurisdictions.“A federalist system means that the central government, the United States government, is a government of limited powers, and the states retain police powers, which historically has included public health,” explained Meryl Chertoff, an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University in Washington.The Commerce Clause, which gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, does allow the federal government to order quarantines and impose other health measures to prevent the spread of diseases from foreign countries, as well as between states. But that authority has never been affirmed by the courts, according to the American Bar Association.A year ago, at the start of the pandemic, Trump said he had discussed “a national lockdown” with advisers to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. Several days later, he dismissed the idea.“I think it was a political decision to leave these decisions to the governors in order to be able to allocate praise and blame,” Chertoff, the executive director of the Georgetown Project on State and Local Government Policy and Law, told VOA.Some authorities desired a powerful federal response, but an unprecedented executive order would likely have been challenged in the courts on constitutional grounds.FILE – Tenants’ rights advocates march from the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse, Jan. 13, 2021, in Boston. The protest called on the then-incoming Biden administration to extend the eviction moratorium initiated in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.Courts are currently considering the constitutionality of evictions amid the pandemic, which had been ordered halted by the CDC, a federal agency.“This is relevant to the mask mandates because it suggests that the courts are now starting to consider whether under provisions of the Public Health Services Act of 1944 … the authority of the federal government to act with respect to emergency public health situations is broader than has been previously acknowledged,” said Chertoff.She cautioned that those who want the president and the executive branch to have “a more muscular set of tools” to deal with an unprecedented public health crisis need to consider that once the federal government has such tools, “they will be around not just for the next four years, but for the next 40 years.”   
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The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday “now is not the time” to lift COVID-19 restrictions, one day after the governor of Texas announced the southern U.S. state was “100 percent open.”  At a virtual news briefing for the White House COVID-19 response, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the next month or two will be pivotal in deciding the trajectory of the pandemic.    FILE – In this image from video, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks during a briefing on the Biden administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jan. 27, 2021, in Washington. (White House via AP)On one hand, she noted infection rates across the country have been leveling off, but, she said, COVID-19 variants such as the highly transmissible so-called British strain, are poised to surge. This threatens to destroy what progress has been made.   Walensky also recognized that pandemic fatigue is winning out and people have begun ignoring measures that she says have successfully contributed to driving down U.S. infection rates.   The CDC director said this is occurring just as the United States begins a program to vaccinate the entire nation over the course of three or four months.  Walensky urged Americans to keep wearing masks and communities to encourage mask use. She advocated for precautions such as avoiding travel, crowds and to continue practicing personal hygiene, whether it is government-mandated or not.   Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott Tuesday lifted his state’s mask-wearing mandate, along with all other restrictions on businesses, saying Texas has mastered the daily habits necessary to avoid getting COVID-19. 
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The World Health Organization says one in 10 people worldwide is expected to suffer from hearing loss by 2050. But in the United States, health officials say around 20 percent of America’s adult population is already experiencing some level of hearing loss and the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the problem to a greater extent. As the country marks FILE – Director of Empowering Deaf Society Mangai Sutharsan, puts on a partially transparent mask following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Ilford, London, Britain, July 29, 2020.Experts are also worried about the next generation of Americans. While children with hearing problems often show poor school performance, hearing loss in teenagers has been on the rise.  Currently, one in five teens exhibits some level of loss, according to the Hearing Loss Association of America. This number has increased by more than 30 percent since the 1990s, which to some extent has to do with “listening to loud music,” Shoup said. About 466 million people worldwide struggle with disabling hearing loss, according to the WHO. By 2050, this number could rise to 900 million people. In 2007, the World Health Organization designated March 3 as World Hearing Health Day to raise awareness of the growing numbers of those suffering from hearing loss and the importance of hearing health care. FILE – Resound LiNX2 connected smart hearing aids are shown at ShowStoppers during the 2017 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 5, 2017.In 2017, the National Institute on Deafness & Other Communication Disorders, whisih is part of the National Institutes of Health, said that 48 million Americans suffer some type of hearing loss.  “The growing health problem of hearing loss is often unrecognized in U.S. adults, adolescents and children and it leads to a long list of problems including depression, isolation, academic delays, impaired communication and cognitive decline. We are grateful that this awareness day was created to shine a light on the significance of hearing loss,” said Shoup. Shoup is also the executive director of the Callier Center for Communication Disorders and a professor of speech, language and hearing in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas.  FILE – An employee of GN, the world’s fourth largest maker of hearing aids, demonstrates the use of ReSound LiNX in Vienna, Nov. 22, 2013.“We also look to this day to help educate the public on the importance of seeing an audiologist for professional evaluation and management of hearing and balance difficulties,” she said.   According to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, approximately 20 percent of American adults aged 20 to 69 have some trouble with hearing and approximately 28.8 million could benefit from the use of hearing aids.    Some signs of hearing loss may include:…  Suddenly having to turn up the volume of the television, radio, or stereo and having other family members complain that the volume is too loud. Difficulty understanding people speaking to you and asking people to repeat themselves. Difficulty with phone conversations and understanding the other person. Sudden inability to hear the door bell, the dog barking, and other household sounds. People telling you that you speak too loudly. Ringing in the ears.   
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Scientists are warning that a variant of the novel coronavirus that was first detected in Brazil could reinfect people already recovering from COVID-19.  The P.1 variant has spread to more than 20 countries since it was first detected last November in the Amazonian region city of Manaus.  A joint study by scientists in Britain and Brazil says the variant is 1.4 to 2.4 times more transmissible than the original version of the coronavirus.  Manaus was struck by an initial wave of COVID-19 infections in April and May of last year.  According to researchers, by October almost 80% of recovering coronavirus patients should have developed antibodies that would have made them immune to the virus. Peru will Receive a Second Vaccine Wednesday to Battle COVID-19Peru to receive the first batch of 50,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine Wednesday    But 25% to 61% of those who had recovered from a first bout of COVID-19 were reinfected with the P.1 variant, according to the study, which has not been peer-reviewed.Scientists are worried that new and more infectious variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could be resistant to vaccine now being distributed around the world.  But Nuno Faria, a virologist at Imperial College London who co-led the study, says it is too early to determine if the situation in Brazil with the P.1 variant will also occur elsewhere.  The release of the study on the P.1 variant coincided with official data from Brazil showing it had recorded its highest single-day number of COVID-19 deaths with 1,641.The COVID-19 pandemic has sickened more than 114.8 million people around the globe since it was first detected in central China in late 2019, including 2.5 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.The pandemic has also led to what the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has described as an “education emergency,” with more than 168 million children around the world locked out of the classroom for nearly a year.   UNICEF says 98 million children across Latin America and the Caribbean account for the majority of students who have missed in-person learning.  U.S. country music superstar Dolly Parton tried to inject hope and encouragement Tuesday as she was injected with her first dose of the Moderna vaccine. In a short video she posted on Twitter, the 75-year-old singer-songwriter received the vaccine at Vanderbilt University Health Center in Nashville, Tennessee.Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine. @VUMChealthpic.twitter.com/38kJrDzLqC— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) March 2, 2021Before getting the shot, Parton revamped one of her most famous songs, “Jolene,” to encourage viewers to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
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To mark World Hearing Day, the World Health Organization is calling for action to stem the epidemic of hearing loss, which currently affects 1.5 billion people globally.  A roadmap for action is contained in WHO’s first World Report on Hearing.     WHO officials warn nearly 2.5 billion people will be living with some degree of hearing loss by 2050 if nothing is done to prevent or mitigate this condition.  Nearly a third, they say will require hearing rehabilitation.   The personal and economic cost of this condition is huge.  Many people who are deaf or suffer from varying degrees of hearing loss are stigmatized and spend much of their lives in isolation.   Additionally, WHO reports unaddressed hearing loss costs the global economy nearly $1 trillion  each year.   WHO technical officer on ear and hearing care Shelly Chadha says much of this hearing loss can be prevented.   “Many of the causes, for example, hearing loss which is caused by listening to loud music over one’s headphones and earphones — this can be prevented.  As can be hearing loss, which is caused by loud noise in one’s workplace.  Other common causes of hearing loss — ear infections, rubella, meningitis — these are causes which can be prevented by established public health strategies.”     Chadha notes almost 60% of hearing loss in children is due to avoidable causes such as ear infections and birth complications.  She says solutions are available.  She says hearing technologies, such as hearing aids and cochlear implants accompanied by rehabilitative therapy can mitigate the adverse effects of hearing loss.   “Millions of people across the world are already benefiting from these interventions.  But they are a bit of an exclusive group because what we estimate is that across the world only about 17 percent of people who need these services actually are able to benefit from them,” she said.     People in low-income countries are the most underserved because they lack the specialists, audiologists and speech therapists who can provide the care required.  WHO says this gap can be closed by integrating ear and hearing care into national primary health care services.   WHO calls this a great investment, noting for every dollar invested in hearing loss care, governments can expect a return of nearly $16.  
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It’s the sort of chance that comes along just once in a blue Moon: a Japanese billionaire is throwing open a private lunar expedition to eight people from around the world. Yusaku Maezawa, an online fashion tycoon, was announced in 2018 as the first man to book a spot aboard the lunar spaceship being developed by SpaceX. Maezawa, who paid an undisclosed sum for the trip expected to launch around 2023, originally said he planned to invite six to eight artists to join him on the voyage.But on Wednesday, in a video posted on his Twitter account, he revealed a broader application process. “I’m inviting you to join me on this mission. Eight of you from all around the world,” he said. “I have bought all the seats, so it will be a private ride,” he added. Maezawa said his initial plan of inviting artists had “evolved” because he came to believe that “every single person who is doing something creative could be called an artist.” The Japanese entrepreneur said applicants would need to fulfill just two criteria: being ready to “push the envelope” creatively, and being willing to help other crew members do the same. In all, he said around 10 to 12 people will be on board the trip, which is expected to loop around the Moon before returning to Earth. The application timeline for spots on the trip calls for would-be space travelers to pre-register by March 14th, with initial screening carried out by March 21st. No deadlines are given for the next stages – an “assignment” and an online interview – but final interviews and medical checkups are currently scheduled for late May 2021, according to Maezawa’s website. Maezawa and his band of merry astronauts will become the first lunar voyages since the last US Apollo mission in 1972 – if SpaceX can pull the trip off.   Last month, a prototype of its Starship crashed in a fireball as it tried to land upright after a test flight, the second such accident, after the last prototype of the Starship met a similar fate in December. The company hopes the reusable, 394-foot (120-meter) rocket system will one day carry crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond. 
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Merck will help its pharmaceutical competitor Johnson & Johnson make the single-shot coronavirus vaccine. That was announced on Tuesday by President Joe Biden.VOA’s White House bureau chief Steve Herman was in the room when the president also said he wants every American educator to receive at least one vaccine dose by the end of this month, as part of the effort to get the country back to normal as quickly as possible.President Biden, speaking in the White House State Dining Room, says the cooperation among competitors to produce more doses and other actions will speed up the timeline by two months to have enough vaccine to inoculate every adult American.“Here’s what all this means – we’re now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May.”The president, in response to a reporter’s question, said he hopes that “by this time next year” or sooner, things will be back to normal.  
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Texas is lifting its mask mandate, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday, making it the largest state to no longer require one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of the coronavirus.The announcement in Texas, where the virus has killed more than 42,000 people, rattled doctors and big city leaders who said they are now bracing for another deadly resurgence. One hospital executive in Houston said he told his staff they would need more personnel and ventilators.Texas Governor Greg Abbott delivers an announcement in Montelongo’s Mexican Restaurant on March 2, 2021, in Lubbock. Abbott announced that he is rescinding executive orders that limit capacities for businesses and the state wide mask mandate.Federal health officials this week urgently warned states to not let their guard down, warning that the pandemic is far from over.Abbott, a Republican, has faced sustained criticism from his party in America’s biggest red state over the statewide mask mandate — which was imposed eight months ago — as well as business occupancy limits that Texas will also scuttle next week. The mask order was only ever lightly enforced, even during the worst outbreaks of the pandemic.”Removing statewide mandates does not end personal responsibility,” said Abbott, speaking from the crowded dining room of a restaurant in Lubbock, surrounded by several people not wearing masks.”It’s just that now state mandates are no longer needed,” he said.The repeals will take effect March 10.The full impact of Texas’ reversal was still coming into focus. Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, said he had no immediate plans to change the limits on fans at home games. Their biggest crowd so far this season was about 3,000 spectators.Restaurant owners began confronting whether they, too, would relax COVID-19 safeguards in their dining rooms. And school administrators scrambled to figure out how the end of the mask mandate would impact the state’s 5 million public school students.”While we’ve made significant progress, I’d hate to have that go away,” said Tinku Saini, the CEO of Tarka Indian Kitchen, which has locations across Texas. He said Abbott’s announcement left him with mixed feelings, and that he would now allow customers to go maskless but still require face coverings for staff and keep tables spread apart.Abbott joins a growing number of governors across the U.S. who are easing coronavirus restrictions. Like the rest of the country, Texas has seen the number of cases and deaths plunge. Hospitalizations are at the lowest levels since October, and the seven-day rolling average of positive tests has dropped to about 7,600 cases, down from more than 10,000 in mid-February.Only California and New York have reported more COVID-19 deaths than Texas.”Absolutely reckless,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, tweeted in response to Abbott’s announcement.Texas is doing away with the restrictions just ahead of the spring break holiday, which health experts worry could lead to more spread as people travel.”The fact that things are headed in the right direction doesn’t mean we have succeeded in eradicating the risk,” said Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor of integrative biology and director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium.She said the recent deadly winter freeze in Texas that left millions of people without power — forcing families to shelter closely with others who still had heat — could amplify transmission of the virus in the weeks ahead, although it remains too early to tell. Masks, she said, are one of the most effective strategies to curb the spread.The top county leader in Houston, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, called the announcement “wishful thinking” and said spikes in hospitalizations have followed past rollbacks of COVID-19 rules.”At worst, it is a cynical attempt to distract Texans from the failures of state oversight of our power grid,” said Hidalgo, a Democrat.Dr. Joseph Varon, chief medical officer at Houston’s United Memorial Medical Center, said he called the hospital’s top leaders immediately after Abbott’s announcement and said they will need more staff and ventilators.”I am just concerned that I am going to have a tsunami of new cases,” Varon said. “I truly hope I am wrong. But, unfortunately, history seems to repeat itself.”Early in the pandemic, Abbott stripped local officials of their power to implement tougher COVID-19 restrictions, but now says counties can impose “mitigation strategies” if virus hospitalizations exceed 15% of all hospital capacity in their region. However, Abbott forbade local officials from imposing penalties for not wearing a face covering.Retailers and other businesses will also still be allowed to impose capacity limits and other restrictions on their own.Abbott imposed the statewide mask mandate in July during a deadly summer surge. But enforcement was spotty at best, and some sheriffs refused to police the restrictions at all. And as the pandemic dragged on, Abbott ruled out a return to tough COVID-19 rules, arguing that lockdowns do not work.Politically, the restrictions elevated tensions between Abbott and his own party, with the head of the Texas GOP at one point leading a protest outside the governor’s mansion. Meanwhile, mayors in Texas’ biggest cities argued that Abbott wasn’t doing enough.Most of the country has lived under mask mandates during the pandemic, with at least 37 states requiring face coverings to some degree. But those orders are increasingly falling by the wayside: North Dakota, Montana and Iowa have also lifted mask orders in recent weeks.In Texas, it was only last week that emergency restrictions on restaurants and businesses were relaxed in the Rio Grande Valley, which has been walloped by the virus like few other places in America.”I appreciate Governor Abbott’s desire to return to normalcy, but I remained concerned that, at least in Hidalgo County, we may be moving too quickly,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez said. 
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U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck has agreed to help manufacture rival Johnson & Johnson’s new coronavirus vaccine to help speed production of millions of new doses of the single shots to inoculate more Americans in the coming months, White House officials said Tuesday.Johnson & Johnson has encountered unexpected production problems, even as it won emergency use approval last weekend for the vaccine. The company has manufactured 3.9 million doses so far, but says it is on pace to produce 100 million doses by the end of June.President Joe Biden is set to spell out details of the agreement between the two pharmaceutical companies later Tuesday. But officials familiar with the deal say Merck will use two sites in the U.S., one to help make the vaccine and the other to provide “fill-finish” services, the final stage in the production process in which the vaccine is placed in vials and packaged for distribution.The Merck agreement with its drug-making rival could sharply increase the number of doses Johnson & Johnson could make on its own, the officials said.  Merck failed in its efforts to develop its own coronavirus vaccine, but the company has made vaccines for a century. It is the sole U.S. supplier of the combination childhood vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella. It developed Gardasil, which protects against the human papillomavirus, while the Food and Drug Administration approved its Ebola vaccine in 2019.With the approval of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the U.S. now has three medical treatments to fight the spread of the virus, along with two-shot regimens produced by drug makers Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.Pharmacy technicians fill syringes with a COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation site in Portland, Maine, March 2, 2021.After the FDA’s approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the company said it would immediately ship nearly 4 million doses in the United States, and a total of 20 million by the end of March. That is 17 million less than originally expected although the company still says it expects to markedly increase its production pace in coming months.A top Johnson & Johnson executive told Congress last week that it hopes to manufacture 1 billion doses worldwide by the end of 2021.The mass inoculations in the U.S. are first targeting health care workers, older people living in nursing homes, such essential personnel as police and firefighters, teachers, people 65 and older and those with underlying health problems.U.S. health officials are hoping that the country’s sense of normalcy might return by the end of 2021, but that is dependent on the widespread vaccination of millions of adults and later, possibly children.  So far, 75 million vaccine doses have been administered to about 15% of the country’s adult population, with half that percentage receiving both shots of the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna regimens. About 1.7 million shots are being administered daily.The spread of the coronavirus has slowed in the U.S. But 50,000 or 60,000 new cases are still being diagnosed each day and another 1,500 people or so are dying.The U.S. has totaled more than 514,000 deaths and more than 28.6 million infections, both higher totals than in any other country, according to Johns Hopkins University. 
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The global COVAX vaccine distribution plan aims to deliver tens of millions of vaccine doses to low-income countries — many of them in Africa – in the coming months, top global health officials say, describing this as a turning point in the quest to quash the coronavirus pandemic.The world’s largest, fastest, and most ambitious vaccine drive delivered 11 million vaccine doses Tuesday to Angola, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria. Between now and the end of May, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the COVAX facility will deliver 270 million doses to 142 participating countries and economies.The global initiative was set up last April to ensure that poorer nations aren’t left out of the worldwide scramble for vaccine access. The program, which is projected to cost about $11 billion, is funded by donor nations, foundations and corporations. It is part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, a global collaboration that works on the development, production, and equitable access to tests, treatments, and vaccines.Last week, the West African nation of Ghana became the first to benefit from COVAX, receiving 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Among the first recipients were President Nana Akufo-Addo and the first lady, who received their shots on national television Monday in what he said was an effort to boost public confidence in the vaccine. Akufo-Addo plans to vaccinate the rest of his country by the end of the year, he said.  “The world has seen already the great value of the COVAX facility,” he told journalists via teleconference on Tuesday. “COVID-19 is a global problem. It requires a global solution. Unless every country is protected, no country will be safe. We all fell together. Let us all rise together.”Ivory Coast also launched its COVAX vaccination program this week.“We’ve now see Africa’s first vaccinations and the COVAX doses in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Truly moving ceremonies in both countries were held yesterday,” said UNICEF director Henrietta Fore. “But what took place on Monday is more than a feel-good story that speaks to our collective best natures. It is a necessary first step that speaks to our collective best interests. The only way out of this pandemic is to ensure vaccination is available around the globe and that people from less wealthy countries are not left behind in the race to be protected.”Tedros says while the vaccine deliveries are good news, he’s thinking much bigger.  “When the history of the pandemic is written, I believe that the accelerator and COVAX will be one of the standout successes,” he said. “This is an unprecedented partnership that will not only change the course of the pandemic, but will also change the way the world responds to future health emergencies.”Officials say the next step is to bring vaccine manufacturing to the continent. Currently, most vaccines available to the continent come from the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India. Akufo-Addo said Ghana is working on a plan to manufacture vaccines locally. And Dr. John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the African Union will meet next month to discuss how to do this as a continent.“All of that speaks to the need for our own ability to stand up and say that we, as the people, of 1.2 billion people, will continue to invest in our own health security, our economic security that increasingly is being threatened by covid-19,” he said. “It is this perspective that we look forward to working with all countries that will be receiving these COVAX vaccines to ensure that they are distributed effectively, [to] provide the appropriate support from the African CDC and partnerships that will enable us to distribute these vaccines in a timely fashion.”This vaccine rollout, Nkengasong said, is the first step in a thousand-mile journey. But in this voyage, he said, the African continent is — finally — keeping step with the rest of the world.   
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