China’s zero-COVID policy prompted hundreds of Chinese citizens to march in the streets in Guangzhou this week after hearing that ongoing lockdowns had been extended.

In videos shared on Chinese social media and later on Twitter, demonstrators were seen tearing down COVID lockdown barriers in the streets and chanting slogans such as “don’t test anymore” and “open up.”

Such protests in China are not unusual, according to Freedom House, a Washington-based watchdog organization. Its latest initiative, called China Dissent Monitor (CDM), is a database that tracks the frequency and type of dissent in China.

CDM’s report released this week documented 668 cases of dissent from June to September this year.

Issues that motivated dissent included stalled housing projects, job grievances, and COVID-19, among other reasons.

Most of the events happened offline, such as demonstrations and strikes. Only 5% of the dissent happened online. The report also found the dissent was geographically widespread. The report also noted the documented cases are “likely a drastic underrepresentation of dissent.”

According to the report, sources for the database include news reports, civil society organizations, and social media platforms based in China.

“There were 37 cases of dissent against COVID-19 restrictions, including large street demonstrations and online hashtag movements with hundreds of thousands of posts linked to at least 14 provinces or directly administered cities,” the report said.

“The project prioritizes capturing offline collective action in public spaces, though cases of less public and online dissent are also included to illustrate diversity among dissent actions,” the report said.

Numbers show Chinese continue to speak out

CDM’s data collection began in June 2022 and continued through the 20th Party Congress and the official beginning of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s third term, said Kevin Slaten, project lead for the China Dissent Monitor.

“It could be argued that this period is the height of digital and physical restrictions on dissent, especially if zero-COVID rules are also considered,” Slaten told VOA. “And yet, CDM documented hundreds of offline protest events and some large online dissent events.”

Despite ongoing efforts by China to silence organized protests, according to Slaten, people in China continue to speak out in the virtual and real worlds. However, he said the world outside China may not be aware of attitudes inside China.

“Citizens in China hold diverse views, like most places in the world,” Slaten said. “The one-party regime has used censorship, the Great Firewall, and concerted information operations internationally to paint a picture of Chinese people’s political attitudes for consumption by the rest of the world.”

“Three-fourths of the events (521) CDM documented between June and September were offline group demonstrations, marches, and obstruction of roads or pathways,” the report said.

According to the report, nearly 9,000 people have cumulatively participated in offline dissent.

“Among offline protest cases, 380 (60 percent) were actions of moderate size, with between 10-99 participants,” the report said. “While less frequent, it is notable that there were 47 large-scale events, with 100 to 999 participants.”

Twenty-five percent of dissent events documented by CDM faced mostly violent repression by the Chinese government or non-state actors.

“Companies (64 percent) and local governments (33 percent) are much more likely to be the target of dissent than the central government (3 percent),” the report said.

“The project documented 37 cases that led to some type of concession by the government or a company, such as local governments changing policies after citizens protested,” it said.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to multiple requests from VOA for a comment on the findings of the report.

Database created to fill information gap

According to the CDM’s report, the database was created because media restrictions and risks in China resulted in an information gap on dissent and protest in the country.

In a 2021 report by The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China on media freedom in the country, the number of foreign journalists forced out by Beijing is growing “due to excessive intimidation or outright expulsions, covering China is increasingly becoming an exercise in remote reporting.”

The report found 99% of the foreign journalists who responded to the survey said the conditions for reporters “did not meet what they considered to be international standards.” These journalists were regularly surveilled on the internet and in the real world in cities including Beijing and Shanghai, according to the report.

According to Slaten, the aim of the China Dissent Monitor is to give voice to the people within China so they can be heard outside of their country.

Wen Hao and Song Ren from VOA Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
…

Pfizer said Friday that its updated COVID-19 booster may offer some protection against newly emerging omicron mutants, even though it’s not an exact match.

Americans have been reluctant to get the updated boosters rolled out by Pfizer and rival Moderna, doses tweaked to target the BA.5 omicron strain that until recently was the most common type. With relatives of BA.5 now on the rise, the question is how the new boosters will hold up.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said their updated booster generated virus-fighting antibodies that can target four additional omicron subtypes, including the particularly worrisome BQ.1.1.

The immune response wasn’t as strong against this alphabet soup of newer mutants as it is against the BA.5 strain. But adults 55 and older experienced a nearly ninefold jump in antibodies against BQ.1.1 a month after receiving the updated booster, according to a study from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and the companies. That’s compared with a twofold rise in people who got another dose of the original vaccine.

The preliminary data were released online and haven’t yet been vetted by independent experts.

It’s not the only hint that the updated boosters may broaden protection against the still-mutating virus. Moderna recently announced early evidence that its updated booster induced BQ.1.1-neutralizing antibodies.

It’s too soon to know how much real-world protection such antibody boosts translate into, or how long it will last. Antibodies are only one type of immune defense, and they naturally wane with time.

The BA.5 variant was responsible for about 30% of new cases in the U.S. as of November 12, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but two new variants have been crowding out the once-dominant strain in recent weeks. The BQ.1.1. variant now accounts for 24% of cases, up from 2% in early October, and the close cousin BQ.1 accounts for 20% of cases.

The original COVID-19 vaccines have offered strong protection against severe disease and death, no matter the variant.

That’s a good reason to stay up to date on boosters, Dr. Kathryn Stephenson of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said earlier this week, ahead of Pfizer’s data.

“Any kind of boost really reduces your chances of getting very sick from COVID,” she said.

Updated boosters are available for anyone 5 or older, but only about 35 million Americans have gotten one so far, according to the CDC. Nearly 30% of seniors are up to date with the newest booster, compared with about 13% of all adults. 
…

As Americans head into the holiday season, a rapidly intensifying flu season is straining hospitals already overburdened with patients sick from other respiratory infections. 

More than half the states have high or very high levels of flu, unusually high for this early in the season, the government reported Friday. Those 27 states are mostly in the South and Southwest but include a growing number in the Northeast, Midwest and West. 

This is happening when children’s hospitals already are dealing with a surge of illnesses from RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, a common cause of cold-like symptoms that can be serious for infants and the elderly. And COVID-19 is still contributing to more than 3,000 hospital admissions each day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

In Atlanta, Dr. Mark Griffiths describes the mix as a “viral jambalaya.” He said the children’s hospitals in his area have at least 30% more patients than usual for this time of year, with many patients forced to wait in emergency rooms for beds to open up. 

“I tell parents that COVID was the ultimate bully. It bullied every other virus for two years,” said Griffiths, ER medical director of a Children’s Health Care of Atlanta downtown hospital. 

With COVID-19 rates going down, “they’re coming back full force,” he said. 

The winter flu season usually doesn’t get going until December or January. Hospitalization rates from flu haven’t been this high this early since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, CDC officials say. The highest rates are among those 65 and older and children under 5, the agency said. 

“It’s so important for people at higher risk to get vaccinated,” the CDC’s Lynnette Brammer said in a statement Friday. 

But flu vaccinations are down from other years, particularly among adults, possibly because the past two seasons have been mild. Flu shots are recommended for nearly all Americans who are at least 6 months old or older. 

Adults can get RSV too and that infection can be especially dangerous for older adults who are frail or have chronic illnesses, doctors say. There is not yet a vaccine against RSV although some are in development. 

One infectious-disease specialist urged Americans to take precautions before gathering for Thanksgiving, including avoiding public crowds, getting COVID-19 tests before they meet and wearing masks indoors — particularly if you are old or frail, or will be around someone who is. 

“Nobody wants to bring a virus to the table,” said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association this week urged the Biden administration to declare an emergency and mount a national response to “the alarming surge of pediatric respiratory illnesses.” An emergency declaration would allow waivers of Medicaid, Medicare or Children’s Health Insurance Program requirements so that doctors and hospitals could share resources and access emergency funding, the groups said in a letter. 
…

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope is finding bright, early galaxies that until now were hidden from view, including one that may have formed a mere 350 million years after the cosmic-creating Big Bang.

Astronomers said Thursday that if the results are verified, this newly discovered throng of stars would beat the most distant galaxy identified by the Hubble Space Telescope, a record-holder that formed 400 million years after the universe began.

Launched last December as a successor to Hubble, the Webb telescope is indicating stars may have formed sooner than previously thought — perhaps within a couple million years of creation.

Webb’s latest discoveries were detailed in the Astrophysical Journal Letters by an international team led by Rohan Naidu of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The article elaborates on two exceptionally bright galaxies, the first thought to have formed 350 million years after the Big Bang and the other 450 million years after.

Naidu said more observations are needed in the infrared by Webb before claiming a new distance record-holder.

Although some researchers report having uncovered galaxies even closer to the creation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago, those candidates have yet to be verified, scientists stressed at a NASA news conference. Some of those could be later galaxies mimicking earlier ones, they noted.

“This is a very dynamic time,” said Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, a co-author of the article published Thursday. “There have been lots of preliminary announcements of even earlier galaxies, and we’re still trying to sort out as a community which ones of those are likely to be real.”

Tommaso Treu of the University of California, Los Angeles, a chief scientist for Webb’s early release science program, said the evidence presented so far “is as solid as it gets” for the galaxy believed to have formed 350 million years after the Big Bang.

If the findings are verified and more early galaxies are out there, Naidu and his team wrote that Webb “will prove highly successful in pushing the cosmic frontier all the way to the brink of the Big Bang.”

“When and how the first galaxies formed remains one of the most intriguing questions,” they said in their paper.

NASA’s Jane Rigby, a project scientist with Webb, noted that these galaxies “were hiding just under the limits of what Hubble could do.”

“They were right there waiting for us,” she told reporters. “So, that’s a happy surprise that there are lots of these galaxies to study.”

The $10 billion observatory — the world’s largest and most powerful telescope ever sent into space — is in a solar orbit that’s 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. Full science operations began over the summer, and NASA has since released a series of dazzling snapshots of the universe.
…

A global wildlife summit in Panama took an important step Thursday toward upgrading protection for sharks, the ancient ocean vertebrates targeted for their fins used in a status-symbol soup. 

A committee voted to approve a proposal to include requiem and hammerhead sharks on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).   

The appendix lists species that may not yet be threatened with extinction but may become so unless their trade is closely controlled.   

The Wildlife Conservation Society, advocating for the sharks’ inclusion on the appendix, said the requiem shark family makes up at least 70% of the fin trade. 

According to Luke Warwick of the Wildlife Conservation Society, “we are in the middle of a very large shark extinction crisis.”  

He said sharks, which are vital to the ocean’s ecosystem, are “the second-most-threatened vertebrate group on the planet.”  

Shark fins — which represent a market of some $500 million per year — can sell for about $1,000 a kilogram in East Asia for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy.   

The requiem shark family includes species such as the tiger shark, silky shark and grey reef shark.   

Also before the CITES gathering underway in Panama City is the inclusion on Appendix II of freshwater stingrays and guitarfish, among other species.  

The conference is considering 52 proposals to amend protection levels for species that also include crocodiles, lizards, snakes, freshwater turtles and several species of plants and trees. 

A final decision will be taken at the closing meeting of the CITES conference of parties on November 25.   

CITES, in force since 1975, regulates trade in 36,000 species of plants and animals and provides mechanisms to help crack down on illegal commerce. It sanctions countries that break the rules. Its members include 183 countries and the European Union. 
…

Malawi is struggling to contain one of the worst cholera outbreaks in years. It has spread nationwide, killing more than 250 people and infecting more than 8,000.  Authorities and aid groups have stepped up cholera vaccination and hygiene campaigns, as Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre, Malawi.
…

Uganda’s tourism sector is once again being hit by effects from a deadly disease.  

In 2021, it was the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, it’s the Ebola outbreak, with 141 confirmed cases and 55 deaths.

President Yoweri Museveni said Tuesday in his address to Ugandans that he had been informed that tourists are canceling trips to the country and some had postponed hotel bookings. 

This comes as the outbreak has spread to a sixth district of Jinja in Eastern Uganda, a favorite destination for tourists. 

“This is most unfortunate and not necessary. As you have seen, Ebola, if you follow the guidelines, it will not get you. Uganda remains safe and we welcome international guests,” Museveni said. 

He also said lists of Ebola contacts are being provided to immigration officials to prevent the virus from spreading outside the country.  

December is usually one of the peak months for Uganda’s tourism industry. 

Scovia Kyarisima, executive director of Legends Gorilla Tours, a company that provides wildlife experiences for visitors, told VOA that several tourists have postponed their visits.  

“I’ve had so far five cancellations from online tourists,” she said. “And they have pushed it to June next year. They don’t say we are not going to come anymore. But they say, considering the situation that is on today, let’s push this to next year.” 

Before the pandemic, Uganda was getting a little over 600,000 tourists each year. That number nosedived to about 200,000 when COVID-19 hit in 2020, costing many Ugandans their jobs. 

Gessa Simplicious, public relations officer for the Uganda Tourism Board, said that in between the pandemic and the Ebola outbreak, the tourism industry was slowly climbing out of its downturn.  

He said industry operators, some of whom borrowed heavily to revamp their facilities, are now facing a crunch as tourism dries up again, while other wildlife destinations like Kenya and Tanzania remain unaffected by the Ebola outbreak.  

“And you see this Ebola is only isolating us as a country. So, it means, tourists can go elsewhere for the same thing and omit Uganda,” Simplicious said. 

The government has tightened measures in two of the most Ebola-hit districts of Mubende and Kasanda by extending a lockdown for another 21 days. It is also banning citizens from seeking treatment from traditional healers and trying to limit individuals’ movement in and out of the districts. 

 
…

Heavy rains behind floods that killed more than 600 people in Nigeria this year were about 80 times likelier because of human-induced climate change, scientists reported Wednesday.

The floods mainly struck Nigeria but also Niger, Chad and neighboring countries, displacing more than 1.4 million people and devastating homes and farmland in a region already vulnerable to food insecurity.

Researchers from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium said in a study that the floods, among the deadliest on record in the region, were directly linked to human activity that is exacerbating climate change.

They matched long-term data on climate, which shows the planet has warmed by about 1.2 degrees Celsius since 1800 as carbon emissions have risen, against weather events.

The heavy rainfall that sparked the floods was 80 times more likely because of “human-caused climate change,” according to their findings.

In addition, “this year’s rainy season was 20% wetter than it would have been without the influence of climate change,” they said.

“The influence of climate change means the prolonged rain that led to the floods is no longer a rare event,” the study found.

“The above-average rain over the wet season now has approximately a 1 in 10 chance of happening each year; without human activities it would have been an extremely rare event.”

More than 600 people were killed in Nigeria alone because of the floods from June to October this year, and nearly 200 in Niger and 22 in Chad.

The report comes as COP27 climate talks are under way in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, where developing nations are demanding rich polluters pay for climate-change linked calamities.

Africa is home to some of the countries least responsible for carbon emissions but hardest hit by an onslaught of weather extremes, with the Horn of Africa currently in the grips of a severe drought.

“This is a real and present problem, and it’s particularly the poorest countries that are getting hit very hard. So it’s clear that solutions are needed,” Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a WWA press conference.

The WWA publishes rapid-response reports following extreme climate events.

Their studies are not peer-reviewed, a process that can take months, but are widely backed by scientists.
…

After mechanical issues and inclement weather forced a series of delays, NASA’s Artemis 1 mission to the moon finally took off from Kennedy Space Center early Wednesday morning. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Florida. Camera: Adam Greenbaum
…

NASA’s new Artemis moon rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard early Wednesday.

The launch brings the United States a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago.

The moonshot follows nearly three months of vexing fuel leaks that kept the rocket bouncing between its hangar and the launch pad.

If all goes well with the three-week flight, the rocket will propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon.

The capsule will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific in December.  

NASA hopes to send four astronauts around the moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press.
…

Chinese authorities locked down a major university in Beijing on Wednesday after finding one COVID-19 case as they stick to a “zero-COVID” approach despite growing public discontent.

Peking University students and faculty were not allowed to leave the grounds unless necessary and classes on the main campus — where the case was found — were moved online through Friday, a university notice said. Still, some people could be seen entering and leaving the main campus Wednesday in the Chinese capital’s Haidian district.

Beijing reported more than 350 new cases in the latest 24-hour period, a small fraction of its 21-million population but enough to trigger localized lockdowns and quarantines under China’s “zero-COVID” strategy. Nationwide, China reported about 20,000 cases, up from about 8,000 a week ago.

Authorities are steering away from citywide lockdowns to try to minimize the impact on freedom of movement and a sagging economy. They want to avoid a repeat of the Shanghai lockdown earlier this year that paralyzed shipping and prompted neighborhood protests. Revised national guidelines issued last week called on local governments to follow a targeted and scientific approach that avoids unnecessary measures.

Peking University has more than 40,000 students on multiple campuses, most in Beijing. It was unclear how many were affected by the lockdown. The 124-year-old institution is one of China’s top universities and was a center of student protest in earlier decades. Its graduates include leading intellectuals, writers, politicians and businesspeople.

Lockdowns elsewhere have sparked scattered protests. Earlier this week, videos posted online showed crowds pulling down barriers in the southern city of Guangzhou in a densely built area that is home to migrant workers in the clothing industry.

Guangzhou, an industrial export hub near Hong Kong, reported more than 6,000 new cases in what is the nation’s largest ongoing outbreak. The pandemic led the Badminton World Federation to move next month’s HSBC World Tour Finals from Guangzhou to Bangkok, the federation announced this week.

Other cities with major outbreaks include Chongqing in the southwest, Zhengzhou in Henan province and Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia region in the north.

In Zhengzhou late last month, workers fled their dormitories at a sprawling iPhone factory, some climbing over fences to get out. Apple subsequently warned that customers would face delays in deliveries of iPhone14 Pro models.

Chinese officials and state media have stressed that the government is fine-tuning but not abandoning what it calls a “dynamic” zero-COVID policy, after rumors of an easing sparked a stock market rally earlier this month.
…