Medical Records Can’t Explain “Havana Syndrome,” A Buried CDC Report Says

The report, which has never been made public, found that mysterious illnesses in diplomats in Cuba could not be explained by their medical histories.

Dan Vergano BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on January 15, 2021, 

Anadolu Agency / Getty Images The US embassy in Havana

The "Havana syndrome" outbreak of mysterious injuries among US diplomats in Cuba can't be explained by their medical records, according to a 2019 CDC report buried by the agency and obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Starting in December of 2016, dozens of diplomats in Cuba and their families reported puzzling neurological injuries, often marked by buzzing noises followed by pain, vertigo, and difficulty concentrating. Described as a "health attack" by then–secretary of state Rex Tillerson, their symptoms led to a diplomatic rupture between the US and Cuba that has continued to worsen into the final days of the Trump administration.

Speculative news reports blamed mystery “sonic” weapons for the injuries, as well as crickets, pesticides, and mass hysteria. Similar injuries have since been reported among US diplomats in China and Canadian diplomats in Cuba.

In 2018, Congress demanded the CDC investigate the illnesses. The agency’s "Cuba Unexplained Events Investigation" was a first attempt to synthesize all the medical records of 95 US diplomats and family members who were evaluated for these injuries, gathered from the State Department, National Institutes of Health, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Miami doctors who treated them. The report, which was never made public, was obtained by BuzzFeed News via a Freedom of Information Act request.

The CDC report ultimately found that the diplomats’ medical histories alone could not explain their illnesses. Inconsistencies in their records, as well as long times between symptoms and medical tests, "hindered CDC's ability to discriminate patterns in the data," the report concluded.

"Essentially the CDC is saying that they have no idea what happened in Cuba," said UCLA neurologist Robert Baloh, who reviewed the report for BuzzFeed News. "CDC should have been called in at the beginning."



Jose Luis Magana / AP
Members of the Cuban delegation — from left: senior researcher Mitchell Joseph Valdes Sosa, Deputy Director for North America at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs Johana Tablada, and Pedro Antonio Valdes Sosa — speak during a news conference about the mystery illnesses at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, Sept. 13, 2018.

Investigators found 15 people suffered from a two-stage syndrome — often noises followed by immediate symptoms and then neurological injuries weeks later. Nine of those people reported improvement in their conditions over time, and none reported worsening. Another 31 more were "possible" cases, either lacking neurological symptoms or with an unclear starting point, and 49 were not likely cases.

“The only conclusion that seems clear is that a constellation of neurobehavioral symptoms was experienced among embassy personnel, but the underlying reasons for the symptoms are not known and the pattern of symptoms does not correspond to any known diseases,” said Brown University epidemiologist David Savitz.

Despite initially considering a case–control study comparing the injured people to their healthy counterparts at the embassy to figure out what had happened, the investigators concluded "misleading or obscured findings" could result because of the time elapsed since the symptoms were reported.


“One major obstacle is that people have trouble accurately remembering how things were for them months and especially years earlier,” said psychologist Noah Silverberg of the University of British Columbia, by email. His work on studying head injuries was cited by the CDC in its decision not to pursue a controlled study.

“People seeking medical care for these kinds of symptoms following a concussion often say that they did not have any headaches or difficulty concentrating before their injury, even though healthy (uninjured) people universally experience at least occasional headaches and difficulty concentrating,” said Silverberg. This greatly limited what the CDC could examine so long after the injuries were first reported.


CDC / Via beta.documentcloud.org
Front cover of CDC report

The existence of the completed CDC investigation was only revealed in a December National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, which concluded that pulsed radiofrequency waves were the “most plausible” explanation for the events. That led to criticism from experts in microwaves who saw no evidence supporting that finding, and those, like Baloh, who suggest mass psychology better explains the symptoms.

Although the CDC’s investigation was demanded by US lawmakers, and its conclusion says, “CDC is working with partners to disseminate findings from this investigation to the medical community and the public,” the report was only made available in redacted form, with some pages obscured under medical privacy claims. However, the December NASEM report on the illnesses cites some of the redacted CDC findings, including that 6 of the 15 people injured were still in rehabilitative therapy and 4 are still unable to work two years later.

The CDC declined to comment on the report or explain why it ultimately withheld the findings from the public.


BuzzFeed News / Dan Vergano
The US embassy in Havana

The report does clarify the exact sequence of events in Havana, reporting that only one person from the embassy, in late December of 2016, reported neurological symptoms such as dizziness and headaches after hearing noises. A second individual cited similar injuries in February of 2017, spurring the embassy to ask the rest of the personnel there whether they had experienced such symptoms, with some reporting similar experiences predating the first case. Experts in mass psychology have suggested the embassy primed the group to experience the symptoms after those first two reports, possibly triggering subsequent real injuries driven by group psychology.

Whatever the cause, “It is simply impossible to overcome the inherent limitations in the data,” said Savitz.

“Given the conspiracy era we're in, it is probably worth noting that the lack of a definitive answer is not some conspiracy of silence or effort by the State Department to hide something,” he added. “We simply do not know what caused the phenomenon, and it is not the case that it's known, or obvious, and is being suppressed.”

MORE ON THIS
Scientists Are Slamming A Report Saying Microwave Attacks Could Have Caused “Havana Syndrome” In US Diplomats Dan Vergano · Dec. 8, 2020

The US Government Botched Its Investigation Into The Mysterious Dan Vergano · May 29, 2019

“Sonic Attack” In Cuba, Emails Reveal
Conspiracy Theorists Are Embracing A Microwave Theory About US Diplomats Injured In CubaDan Vergano · Oct. 3, 2018


Dan Vergano is a science reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

Tintin comic book art breaks auction record at $3.1 million


PARIS — A Tintin drawing by the Belgian artist Herge sold Thursday in Paris for 2.6 million euros ($3.1 million), breaking the record for the most expensive comic book art in history.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The 1936 work in Chinese ink, gouache and watercolour was destined as a cover for “The Blue Lotus,” the fifth volume of the adventures of Tintin, a young reporter created by Herge.

The work features a red dragon on a black background by the frightened character's face. It never graced store shelves because it was deemed too expensive to reproduce on a wide scale, a victim of the artist's craftsmanship.

In “Blue Lotus,” Tintin travels to China during the 1931 Japanese invasion with his dog, Snowy, to investigate and expose Japanese spy networks, drug-smuggling rings and other crimes.

The record price set at Thursday's sale organized by the Artcurial auction house did not include auction fees. Work by Hergé, whose real name was Georges Remi, previously set the record for the most expensive pieces of comic book art with the front pages of Tintin comic books that also sold for 2.6 million euros, including auction fees.

The Associated Press

Fake US leg band gets pigeon a reprieve in Australia

CANBERRA, Australia — A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk has received a reprieve after a U.S. bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the U.S. state of Oregon, 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) away, two months earlier.

On that basis, Australian authorities on Thursday said they considered the bird a disease risk and planned to kill it.

But Deone Roberts, sport development manager for the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union, said on Friday the band was fake.

The band number belongs to a blue bar pigeon in the United States which is not the bird pictured in Australia, she said.

“The bird band in Australia is counterfeit and not traceable,” Roberts said. “They do not need to kill him.”

Australia's Agriculture Department, which is responsible for biosecurity, agreed that the pigeon dubbed Joe, after U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, was wearing a “fraudulent copy” leg band.

“Following an investigation, the department has concluded that Joe the Pigeon is highly likely to be Australian and does not present a biosecurity risk,” it said in a statement.

The department said it will take no further action.

Acting Australian Prime Minister Michael McCormack had earlier said there would be no mercy if the pigeon was from the United States.

“If Joe has come in a way that has not met our strict biosecurity measures, then bad luck Joe, either fly home or face the consequences,” McCormack said.

Martin Foley, health minister for Victoria state where Joe is living, had called for the federal government to spare the bird even if it posed a disease risk.

“I would urge the Commonwealth’s quarantine officials to show a little bit of compassion,” Foley said.

Andy Meddick, a Victorian lawmaker for the minor Animal Justice Party, called for a “pigeon pardon for Joe.”

“Should the federal government allow Joe to live, I am happy to seek assurances that he is not a flight risk,” Meddick said.

Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the emaciated bird in his backyard, was surprised by the change of nationality but pleased that the bird he named Joe would not be destroyed.

“I thought this is just a feel-good story and now you guys want to put this pigeon away and I thought it’s not on, you know, you can’t do that, there has got to be other options,” Celli-Bird said of the threat to euthanize.

Celli-Bird had contacted the American Racing Pigeon Union to find the bird’s owner based on the number on the leg band. The bands have both a number and a symbol, but Celli-Bird didn’t remember the symbol and said he can no longer catch the bird since it has recovered from its initial weakness.

The bird with the genuine leg band had disappeared from a 560-kilometre (350-mile) race in Oregon on Oct. 29, Crooked River Challenge owner Lucas Cramer said.

That bird did not have a racing record that would make it valuable enough to steal its identity, he said.

“That bird didn’t finish the race series, it didn’t make any money and so its worthless, really,” Cramer said.

He said it was possible a pigeon could cross the Pacific on a ship from Oregon to Australia.

“In reality, it could potentially happen, but this isn’t the same pigeon. It’s not even a racing pigeon,” Cramer said.

The bird spends every day in the backyard, sometimes with a native dove on a pergola.

“I might have to change him to Aussie Joe, but he’s just the same pigeon,” Celli-Bird said.

Lars Scott, a carer at Pigeon Rescue Melbourne, a bird welfare group, said pigeons with American leg bands were not uncommon around the city. A number of Melbourne breeders bought them online and used them for their own record keeping, Scott said.

Australian quarantine authorities are notoriously strict. In 2015, the government threatened to euthanize two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, after they were smuggled into the country by Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Faced with a 50-hour deadline to leave Australia, the dogs made it out in a chartered jet.

Rod McGuirk, The Associated Press

Islands of garbage threaten hydroelectric plant in Bosnia

You've probably heard of "garbage islands" floating in the massive Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but you've never seen a collection of trash — this size — on a comparatively teensy lake.

© AP Photo/Dragan Karadarevic A grey heron stands between dumped plastic bottles and barrels on the bank of the Potpecko Lake on the Lim river, near the city of Priboj, Serbia, on Jan. 5, 2021.

Serbia's Potpecko Lake has received a lot of attention during the past week after shocking footage showed the water's surface completely covered end-to-end by garbage, almost as far as the eye can see.

So where did all of this trash come from? Upstream from the lake, along the Lim river, are several landfills. Potpecko Lake is connected to the waterbody that uses the Višegrad Hydroelectric Power Plant dam, and as garbage piles up against it, locals, officials and activists alike are concerned that it could become clogged.

Activist Sinisa Lakovic estimates the pile of waste covers some 20,000 cubic metres, with most of the garbage originating at the landfills.

"This is not a recent problem, but rather a problem of several decades, caused by the unsanitary landfills," Sinisa, who lives in the nearby town of Priboj, told Reuters.

"This is an ecological disaster," added local resident Marko Karadzic.

The country's environment minister, Irena Vujovic, said a cleanup would start by Jan. 8, but as of this writing it's unclear if the process has begun.




Video: Islands of garbage threaten hydroelectric plant in Bosnia (KameraOne)


Authorities in Montenegro, where some of the landfills are located, had been invited to participate and "work out a long-term solution," she told national broadcaster RTS.

Serbia and other Balkan countries, still recovering from the wars and economic turmoil of the 1990s, have done little to tackle environmental issues, in part due to a shortage of funds.

Officials say that between 6,000 and 8,000 cubic metres of waste are pulled out of the river each year near Višegrad. Although the problem is not new, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro have done little to address the problem even as they seek to join the European Union.

An environmental activist from the Eco Center group, Dejan Furtula, said the garbage in the nearby Drina river is a hazard for the local community because waste removed from the river is dumped on a local landfill, which is often on fire and produces toxic liquid that flows back into the river

"We are all in danger here, the entire ecosystem," he said.

"Horrific and shameful," read a headline in Serbia's Blic daily newspaper last week, describing the Potpecko lake as a "floating landfill."

Both the Drina and the Lim rivers are known for their emerald colour and the breathtaking scenery along their banks. Running along the border between Bosnia and Serbia, the Drina is highly popular with river rafters in the region.

If the water stays in this condition, however, it may not be popular for much longer.

— With files from Reuters and The Associated Press

CEO OF CHINA INC.

Xi asks Starbucks' Schultz to help repair US-China ties

BEIJING — President Xi Jinping is asking former CEO Howard Schultz of Starbucks to help repair U.S.-Chinese relations that have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid a tariff war and tension over technology and security

.

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A letter from Xi to Schultz reported Friday by the official Xinhua News Agency was a rare direct communication from China's paramount leader to a foreign business figure. Schultz opened Starbucks' first China outlet in 1999 and is a frequent visitor.


Xi wrote to Schultz “to encourage him and Starbucks to continue to play an active role in promoting Chinese-U.S. economic and trade co-operation and the development of bilateral relations,” Xinhua reported. No text of the letter was released.

In a statement issued Friday, Schultz didn't directly address Xi's request to help repair relations, instead saying it was “a great honour” to receive the letter from China's president.

Schultz said Xi was replying to a letter Schultz recently sent him along with a Chinese-language edition of his book, “From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America.”

Xinhua reported that Schultz congratulated Xi on “the completion of a well-off society” under his leadership. Schultz didn’t release a copy of his letter to Xi, but he said he shared his respect for the Chinese people and culture.

In his statement, Schultz said he has formed many close relationships with Starbucks’ employees in China, which is Starbucks’ biggest market outside the United States. It has 4,700 stores and 58,000 employees in almost 190 Chinese cities.

“I truly believe Starbucks best days are ahead in China and that the values of creativity, compassion, community and hard work will guide the company toward an even greater business and community contribution, while continuing to build common ground for co-operation between our two countries,” Schultz said in his statement.

Starbucks said it had no comment. Schultz stepped down as Starbucks' CEO in 2017 and retired as chairman of the company in 2018. He briefly considered running for president as an independent in 2019.

Xinhua gave no indication whether the letter reflected an initiative to ask American corporate leaders to help change policy after President-elect Joe Biden takes office next week.

Economists and political analysts say Biden is likely to try to revive co-operation with Beijing over North Korea and other political issues. But few changes on trade are expected due to widespread frustration in Washington over China's human rights record and accusations of technology theft.

The Cabinet press office didn’t immediately respond to questions about what Xi wanted Schultz to do and whether he contacted other American business leaders.

Joe McDonald, The Associated Press

CENTRAL PLANNING

China builds hospital in 5 days after surge in virus cases
BEIJING — China on Saturday finished building a 1,500-room hospital for COVID-19 patients to fight a surge in infections the government said are harder to contain and that it blamed on infected people or goods from abroad.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The hospital is one of six with a total of 6,500 rooms being built in Nangong, south of Beijing in Hebei province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

China had largely contained the coronavirus that first was detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 but has suffered a surge of cases since December.

A total of 645 people are being treated in Nangong and the Hebei provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, Xinhua said. A 3,000-room hospital is under construction in Shijiazhuang.

Virus clusters also have been found in Beijing and the provinces of Heilongjiang and Liaoning in the northeast and Sichuan in the southwest.

The latest infections spread unusually fast, the National Health Commission said.

“It is harder to handle,” a Commission statement said. “Community transmission already has happened when the epidemic is found, so it is difficult to prevent.”

The Commission blamed the latest cases on people or goods arriving from abroad. It blamed “abnormal management” and “inadequate protection of workers” involved in imports but gave no details.

“They are all imported from abroad. It was caused by entry personnel or contaminated cold chain imported goods,” said the statement.

The Chinese government has suggested the disease might have originated abroad and publicized what it says is the discovery of the virus on imported food, mostly frozen fish, though foreign scientists are skeptical.

Also Saturday, the city government of Beijing said travellers arriving in the Chinese capital from abroad would be required to undergo an additional week of “medical monitoring” after a 14-day quarantine but gave no details.

Nationwide, the Health Commission reported 130 new confirmed cases in the 24 hours through midnight Friday. It said 90 of those were in Hebei.

On Saturday, the Hebei government reported 32 additional cases since midnight, the Shanghai news outlet The Paper reported.

In Shijiazhuang, authorities have finished construction of 1,000 rooms of the planned hospital, state TV said Saturday. Xinhua said all the facilities are due to be completed within a week.

A similar program of rapid hospital construction was launched by the ruling Communist Party at the start of the outbreak last year in Wuhan.

More than 10 million people in Shijiazhuang underwent virus tests by late Friday, Xinhua said, citing a deputy mayor, Meng Xianghong. It said 247 locally transmitted cases were found.

Meanwhile, researchers sent by the World Health Organization were in Wuhan preparing to investigate the origins of the virus. The team, which arrived Thursday, was under a two-week quarantine but was due to talk with Chinese experts by video link.

The team's arrival was held up for months by diplomatic wrangling that prompted a rare public complaint by the head of the WHO.

That delay, and the secretive ruling party’s orders to scientists not to talk publicly about the disease, have raised questions about whether Beijing might try to block discoveries that would hurt its self-proclaimed status as a leader in the anti-virus battle.

Joe McDonald, The Associated Press

Inside Israel's world-leading, controversial vaccination program

Israel is by far leading the world when it comes to vaccinating its population against COVID-19. Even as the country faces high rates of infection and is on lockdown, last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted: “We will be the first country in the world to emerge from the coronavirus.”

© Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images An Israeli woman gets vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Kupat Holim Meuhedet clinic vaccination center in Jerusalem, on Jan. 12, 2021.

More than 20% of its population of 9.29 million have so far received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which to date far outstrips the rates of vaccination in every other country in the world.

Since approving the vaccine the country has moved quickly, marshalling its emergency resources to great effect, yet the vaccination program -- spearheaded by Netanyahu himself -- is not without controversy, as the 5 million Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank have been excluded from the rollout.

Emergency footing

Israel possesses both a strong standardized public health system and a relatively small population. The U.S., meanwhile, has 64 health jurisdictions – each with their own rules and regulations -- and the best per capita vaccination rates have been seen in areas with smaller populations.

Even so, the rate of vaccination in Israel is astounding. Netanyahu announced on January 10 the objective to increase the pace of vaccinations to 170,000 daily, and said that 72% of people over the age of 60 have received their first dose. By March, he said, the government would “bring shipment after shipment and complete the vaccination of the over-16 population in Israel.” Then, the authorities will look to begin vaccinating under 16s if the research shows it to be safe. As of Friday morning, 170,000 Israelis have received their second booster shot -- part of the two-shot regimen the Pfizer vaccine requires.

"At the moment we are in a mighty race between two events: The spread of the disease and the distribution of the vaccines,” Netanyahu said. “We are ahead of the whole world in vaccines with the millions of vaccines that we have brought.”

Israel’s frontline healthcare workers have moved swiftly to vaccinate such large numbers in a short period of time.

While the majority of vaccinations are taking place outside hospitals at specialist centers staff continue to work flat out to both vaccinate the population and treat the steady influx of coronavirus patients.

At Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, which has been administering the vaccines for some time now, the staff is very much on emergency footing to vaccinate as many as possible.

“It’s like a mission, I’m doing injections for my friends and for my colleagues,” Vicky Greenberg, the head nurse at the hospital’s surgical intensive care unit, told ABC News.

“I really hope that in a few months we’ll be able to celebrate Pesach (Passover) with our families, not in Zoom like we did last year. I have to get married so I have to do it in May. It must work until May. Patient after patient for eight, nine hours a day.”

Prof. Joseph Klausner, Ichilov Hospital’s head of surgery, described the early success of Israel’s early vaccination program as a “combined effort.”

“On one hand, it is a relatively small community relative to the [United] States, for instance, so it's much easier to get there, to get to the population and get treatment in there. But definitely there was some effort directed towards to achieve this.”

Dr. Dalit Salzer, another doctor at the hospital, told ABC News she was “proud and excited” to be a part of the early vaccination efforts at the beginning of a 26-hour shift.

The hospital’s current CEO is also Israel’s former COVID commissioner, Prof. Ronni Ganzu, who has seen the challenges of leading a coronavirus response from a national and local levels. Both a strong public healthcare system and manifold experiences of political and military crises have helped mobilize the resources required to vaccinate so many, so quickly.

“We understand that in disaster, in emergency situation, we have a very short time to act,” Ganzu told ABC News. "And this is what we are really used to do. We are trained to do so, the energy they want to do to win the war, [we are] really looking forward to give the vaccine to as many as possible Israelis.”

Deals and data

The accelerated vaccination program is taking place at a time when the country is experiencing the highest rates of COVID-19 infection and mortality since the beginning of the pandemic . The country is in lockdown until January 21, even while rolling out its mass vaccinations, with 3,892 coronavirus deaths and 533,026 confirmed cases as of Friday, according to the Health Ministry.

The controversial Israeli prime minister has placed himself at front and center of the vaccination program’s success. He was the first Israeli to receive a jab, and over the weekend, with media present, he received his second. Netanyahu has boasted of a close relationship with Pfizer’s Chairman and CEO, Albert Courla, whom he describes as a “friend.”

© Miriam Elster/Pool Photo via AP Israeli Prime Minister Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receives the second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, Jan. 9, 2021.

The pair have had 17 conversations as of January 17, Netanyahu claimed last Sunday. Israel will share with Pfizer and with the entire world the statistical data that will help develop strategies for defeating the coronavirus,” as part of the agreement, Netanyahu said earlier this month.

“Pfizer and the Israeli Ministry of Health (MoH) have entered into a collaboration agreement to study the real-world impact of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine,” a Pfizer spokesperson told ABC News.

“This project will gather critical real-world epidemiological information that will enable real time monitoring of the evolution of the epidemic in Israel and evaluate the potential of a vaccination program using the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to trigger indirect protection and interrupt viral transmission.

“While this project is conducted in Israel, the insights gained will be applicable around the world and we anticipate will allow Governments to maximize the public health impact of their vaccination campaigns, determine potential immunization rates needed to interrupt transmission and ultimately help bring an end to the global COVID-19 pandemic.”

A report in Politico claimed that an off the record briefing from officials on January 5 had suggested Israel were paying Pfizer $30 per person, more than what is paid by some other countries. One report by an Israeli broadcaster claimed that the country had spent $47 per person , or $23.50 per dose, according to the Times of Israel.

That is more than what the U.S. government paid for their initial 100 million doses, $1.9 billion, which amounts to $19 per dose and $38 per person. The EU agreed to pay Pfizer/BioNTech $18.50 per dose, or $37 per person, according to Reuters.

“In order to conduct this project, the Israeli MoH will receive vaccine doses at a previously agreed price (which remains confidential),” the Pfizer spokesperson said.

© Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images People queue outside a Covid-19 mass vaccination center at Rabin Square in this aerial photograph taken in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 4, 2020.

Politics and Palestine

Israel’s vaccination policy has drawn the condemnation of human rights groups and the Palestinian National Authority, as the rollout does not include the more than 5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, many of whom travel into Israel for work.

The country is vaccinating Israeli residents in settlements in the West Bank, but not Palestinians who live there or in Gaza. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have said the exclusion means Israel is “ignoring its obligations” as an occupying force under international law and “exposes Israel’s institutionalised discrimination.”

There have been high rates of infections and death in the West Bank and Gaza, which is currently under a short term lockdown, and Amnesty called on Israel to “ensure that vaccines are equally provided to the Palestinians living under their control.”

“We condemn the racism of the occupation state, which boasts about the speed of vaccinating its citizens and neglecting the legal responsibility to provide vaccines to the people under occupation,” the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said this month.

But that, in the current climate, is unlikely to happen. Yuli Edelstein, the Israeli Health Minister, has said the priority is to vaccinate as many Israelis first before considering any shortage on the Palestinian side.

The Palestinian Authority is in negotiations with several other companies to procure their own vaccines. The Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has been registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The delivery of the vaccine will begin in February, according to Mai Kailleh, the Health Minister.

“I think there are definitely moral and legal obligations,” Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations and senior fellow at the think tank Chatham House, told ABC News. “Many of them work inside Israel or in the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. They move from one place to another. But it doesn't play to Netanyahu's base, and probably won't happen."

In the meantime, doctors in Gaza, hit badly by the first wave and now fearing the surge of a second, say the need for a vaccine is as acute as ever.

“We can say we are working in a comfortable situation, we are not under pressure anymore and I hope this will continue because there is always a fear of a second wave and usually it is an aggressive one,” Dr. Mohammed El Sheek Ali, the head of the Covid department at the European Gaza Hospital, told ABC News. “We need the vaccine and as soon as possible because we are facing a difficult situation in Gaza, we have a lack of resources.”

ABC News' Bruno Nota, Nasser Atta and Sohel Uddin contributed to this report.

THIRD WORLD USA 

Deep South falls behind in coronavirus vaccine drive

ATLANTA — The coronavirus vaccines have been rolled out unevenly across the U.S., but four states in the Deep South have had particularly dismal inoculation rates that have alarmed health experts and frustrated residents.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina, less than 2% of the population had received its first dose of a vaccine at the start of the week, according to data from the states and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As in other parts of the country, states in the South face a number of challenges: limited vaccine supplies, health care workers who refuse to get inoculated and bureaucratic systems that are not equipped to schedule the huge number of appointments being sought.

But other states have still managed — at their best — to get the vaccines into the arms of more than 5% of their populations.

Though it’s not clear why the Deep South is falling behind, public health researchers note that it has typically lagged in funding public health and addressing disparities in care for its big rural population.

"When you combine a large percentage of rural residents who tend to be the hard-to-reach populations and have lower numbers of providers with trying to build a vaccine infrastructure on the fly, that’s just a recipe for a not-so-great response,” said Sarah McCool, a professor in public health at Georgia State University.

In Georgia, the state’s rural health system has been decimated in recent years, with nine hospital closures since 2008, including two last year. Local health departments have become the primary vaccine providers in some locations, as officials work to add sites where doses can be administered.

“If we’re the only game in town, this process is going to take a long time,” Lawton Davis, director of a large public health district that includes Savannah, said at a news conference on Monday.

The district had to stop taking appointments in the face of an onslaught of requests after Georgia opened up the vaccine to people over 65. Other health districts in the state saw their websites crash.

Alabama and Mississippi have also been hit hard by rural hospital closures. Seven hospitals have shut down in Alabama since 2009 and six in Mississippi since 2005, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center. Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi ranked in the bottom five of U.S. states in their access to health care, according to a 2020 report from a not-for-profit foundation connected to insurance giant UnitedHealth.

But overall, experts say it's too early in the vaccine rollout to draw conclusions about the region's shortcomings, and they can't easily be attributed to a particular factor or trend.

“We’re sort of building this plane as we’re flying, and there are going to be missteps along the way,” said Amber Schmidtke, a microbiologist who has been following vaccine dissemination in the South.

Officials in the individual states have cited a number of challenges, but have also acknowledged shortcomings.

“We have too many vaccines distributed that are not in arms yet,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who noted that some hospitals in the state are not using their vaccine doses. He said that practice “has to stop.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp cited a similar challenge and warned providers holding on to vaccines that the state would take their unused doses even if that required “firing up” his pickup truck and doing it himself.

But in South Carolina, hospital officials say it is the state that has moved too slowly to expand access to the vaccinations, leaving them with unused doses. The state recently did offer the vaccine to those 70 and older.

Mississippi's Reeves said one of the biggest weaknesses in the state’s vaccination system is the federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens to administer vaccinations in long-term care facilities. The pharmacy chains have been slow in hiring enough people to do the work in Mississippi, the governor said.

CVS Health said in a statement that it has “the appropriate resources to finish the job" at long-term care facilities. Walgreens did not respond to an email.

During an online forum hosted by Jackson State University in Mississippi on Thursday, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who is Black, noted the reluctance of many African Americans to be vaccinated. He cited a general mistrust of medical systems stemming back to a now-defunct government study that started in the 1930s and left Black men untreated for syphilis for decades.

So far, only 15% of COVID-19 vaccinations in Mississippi have gone to Black people, who make up about 38% of the population, state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said during the forum.

Officials in all four states also said some health care workers — among the first groups eligible for a vaccine — are choosing not to get inoculated. And some stressed that states were dealing with limited supplies and high demand and implored people to be patient.

“Yes, the phone lines will be busy. Yes, the websites will certainly crash,” Kemp said Tuesday. “There are simply vastly more Georgians that want the vaccine than can get it today.”

Mississippi officials said the state's website and telephone hotline were overwhelmed after the governor announced Tuesday that vaccinations were available to people 65 or older or people who have underlying medical conditions.

Liz Cleveland, a 67-year-old retired state employee who lives in Jackson, waited hours on the website using her cellphone, computer and tablet only to encounter unknown errors.

“It’s like gambling. You may hit or you may bust,” Cleveland said.

About 2 a.m. Wednesday, she was finally able to book appointments for herself and her husband next week in Hattiesburg, which is 90 miles (145 kilometres) away. Mississippi officials said Thursday that they will open an additional drive-thru site for vaccinations soon in the state's largest county.

Alabama officials also have been inundated with requests for appointments since announcing the state will begin vaccinations for people over 75 next week. A state hotline received more than a million calls the first day it was open.

Celia O’Kelley of Tuscaloosa said she couldn’t get through to anyone to get an appointment for her 95-year-old mother.

“I am scared because Tuscaloosa is a hot spot,” she said.

___

Associated Press writers Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; and Michelle Liu in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Sudhin Thanawala, The Associated Press

Biden names scientific advisers and seeks to bring Eric Lander into cabinet

Joe Biden has named the geneticist Eric Lander as his top scientific adviser and will elevate the position to the cabinet for the first time, a move meant to indicate a decisive break from Donald Trump’s treatment of science.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters

The US president-elect vowed that “science will always be at the forefront of my administration” as he unveiled a science team headed by Lander as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. If confirmed by the Senate, he will sit in Biden’s cabinet.

A mathematician turned molecular biologist, Lander will be the first biologist in the role and would be the first in the cabinet.

A high-profile figure, he co-led the Human Genome Project and, since 2003, has headed the Broad Institute, which works on genome sequencing. He is a former adviser to former president Barack Obama, whose former top science official John Holdren said the “science polymath” was a “fabulous choice” to advise Biden.© Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters Eric Lander, seen in 2010.

Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Biden said Lander was “one of the most brilliant persons I know” and is someone who has “changed the course of human history” through his work to map the human genome.

Video: Biden reveals key members of science team (ABC News)

The president-elect said he hoped his science team would lead the way in everything from renewable energy to cancer research, something he said was “deeply personal” to him given the loss of his son Beau.

“Science is about discovery but also hope and that’s what in the DNA of America – hope,” Biden said. “I believe we can make more progress in the next 10 years than we’ve done in the last 50 years. We are going to lead with science and with truth and, God willing, this is how we are going to get over this pandemic and build back better than before.”

Science advocates who have long pushed for a scientific voice within the cabinet also welcomed Biden’s choice.

“Elevating this role to membership in the president’s cabinet clearly signals the administration’s intent to involve scientific expertise in every policy discussion,” said Sudip Parikh, the chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“Lander has the requisite skills for this critically important role that works across disciplines and federal agencies.”

Trump has caused despair among scientists, repeatedly dismissing basic understanding of the climate crisis, falsely claiming the Covid-19 pandemic would “just disappear” and sidelining or rejecting politically inconvenient evidence in governmental decision-making.

In a letter to Lander, Biden asked him and his team to help combat public health threats, address the impacts of the climate crisis and help the US be a leader in innovation.

Biden also said he wants Lander to go about his role by “working broadly and transparently with the diverse scientific leadership of American society and engaging the broader American public”.

The president-elect has also put forward the sociologist Alondra Nelson to be the deputy director for science and society, a new position. Frances Arnold, the first American woman to win the Nobel prize in chemistry, and Maria Zuber, a planetary scientist, will be co-chairs of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, has been asked to continue in the role.

TRUMP GIFTS PUTIN

Russia follows US in withdrawal from Open Skies Treaty

MOSCOW — Russia said on Friday that it will withdraw from an international treaty allowing surveillance flights over military facilities after the U.S. exit from the pact, compounding the challenges faced by the incoming administration of president-elect Joe Biden.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the U.S. withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty last year “significantly upended the balance of interests of signatory states,” adding that Moscow’s proposals to keep the treaty alive after the U.S. exit have been cold-shouldered by Washington’s allies.

The ministry said that Russia is now launching the relevant procedures to withdraw from the pact "due to the lack of progress in removing the obstacles for the treaty's functioning in the new conditions.” The Russian parliament, which ratified the treaty in 2001, will now have to vote to leave it.

The treaty was intended to build trust between Russia and the West by allowing the accord’s more than three dozen signatories to conduct reconnaissance flights over each other’s territories to collect information about military forces and activities. More than 1,500 flights have been conducted under the treaty, aimed at fostering transparency about military activity and helping monitor arms control and other agreements.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the Open Skies Treaty, arguing that Russian violations made it untenable for the United States to remain a party. The U.S. completed its withdrawal from the pact in November.

Russia denied breaching the treaty, which came into force in 2002. The European Union has urged the U.S. to reconsider and called on Russia to stay in the pact and lift flight restrictions, notably over its westernmost Kaliningrad region, which lies between NATO allies Lithuania and Poland.

Russia has argued that the limits on flights over Kaliningrad, which hosts sizable military forces, are permissible under the treaty’s terms, noting that the U.S. has imposed more sweeping restrictions on observation flights over Alaska.

As a condition for staying in the pact after the U.S. pullout, Moscow unsuccessfully sought guarantees from NATO allies that they wouldn't transfer the data collected during their observation flights over Russia to the U.S.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian parliament, said in televised remarks Friday that Russia could review its decision to withdraw if the U.S. decides to return to the pact, but acknowledged that the prospect looks “utopian.”

Moscow has warned that the U.S. withdrawal will erode global security by making it more difficult for governments to interpret the intentions of other nations, particularly amid Russia-West tensions after the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.

The demise of the Open Skies Treaty follows the U.S. and Russian withdrawal in 2019 from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

The INF Treaty, which was signed in 1987 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, banned land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres (310 to 3,410 miles), weapons seen as particularly destabilizing because of the shorter time they take to reach targets compared with intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The only U.S.-Russian arms control pact still standing is the New START treaty that expires in three weeks. Moscow and Washington have discussed the possibility of its extension, but have so far failed to overcome their differences.

Biden has spoken for the preservation of the New START treaty and Russia has said it's open for its quick and unconditional extension. But negotiating the deal before the pact expires on Feb. 5 appears extremely challenging.

New START was signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

Arms control advocates have warned that its expiration would remove any checks on U.S. and Russian nuclear forces, striking a blow to global stability.

Vladimir Isachenkov, The Associated Press