Inside the hospital sanitizing 2,000 disposable N95 masks for reuse by hospital workers each day

Shira Feder INSIDER•April 20, 2020

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Masks being sterilized at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

At the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, a non-profit hospital located in Boston, a team of researchers discovered they could use existing sterilization technology to decontaminate disposable personal protective gear (PPE) for reuse.

They are the only facility in the world sterilizing their N95 masks, face shields, and PAPR hoods in this way.

Using this technology, they can sterilize 2,000 N95 masks in two hours.

As N95 masks ran out across America, Melissa McCullough began to get concerned.

Patients from all over the world come to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston for cancer care, and the non-profit hospital employs over 5,000 people. But without access to the proper personal protective equipment, or PPE, McCullough knew they wouldn't be able to provide that care.

"We recognized that we had a supply chain problem," McCullough, the senior director of Environmental Health and Safety at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told Insider. "It was becoming particularly obvious to us that the supply chain was broken and it wasn't coming in."

So the research operations team at the hospital decided to test whether disposable N95 masks, used by medical workers to protect themselves from viruses like COVID-19, could be cleaned effectively enough to be reused. Two weeks later, their hunch was confirmed, and Dana-Farber became the only hospital in the world to use ionized hydrogen peroxide technology to sterilize PPE.

On April 20, Dana-Farber will begin decontaminating 2,000 masks a day with a two-hour sterilization process, and each formerly-disposable mask will be able to be reused five times. Here's what the process looks like.

The decontamination system was built into a room in the hospital.

The machine is manufactured by Tomi, an infectious disease control company based in Beverly Hills.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Prior to the pandemic, the Steramist ionized hydrogen peroxide system was used to sterilize anything coming into the hospital from the outside world, from garbage bags to sensitive experimental materials.

The machine sends a stream of hydrogen peroxide through a plasma arc, and delivers a misting solution of ionized hydrogen peroxide to everything in the room. The system was designed to work with the existing HVAC system, which shuts off when the machine is on, and aerates the room when the process is over.

McCullough doesn't know exactly how much the system costs, as it was built in with the rest of the building, but she says it's not cheap. She estimates that the misting solution alone costs about $250 per 2,000 masks.

The focus is on sterilizing N95 respirators, face shields, and PAPR hoods.

The world is facing an N95 mask shortage.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

For the experiment, Dana-Farber researchers had to see if the machine would work on face shields, N95 respirators, and PAPR hoods, which are powered air purifying respirators worn over the head. All of these items, which block coronavirus-laced droplets, are in high demand for healthcare workers at hospitals.

"Anyone who's going into a really hot environment with COVID-19 positive patients is wearing either a heavy duty N95 respirator and a face shield or a PAPR," said McCullough.

Researchers only tested the procedure on 12 N95 masks, as McCullough and her core team, who called themselves SEAL Team 9, "were very cognizant of the fact that these were precious materials," she said.

The materials were set up in the room for five days with biological indicators underneath them. If nothing grew on them, SEAL Team 9 would know that the masks had been sterilized.

The respirators had to be sent a testing facility that checked for filtration efficiency, to ensure the mist hadn't affected their ability to filter pathogens.

Ultimately, the team found that the PPE could be safely re-sanitized at least five times.

The system works because hydrogen peroxide reacts with air and turns to water.

There is a small but growing body of N95 decontamination research being conducted.
Dana Farber Cancer Institute

After the decontaminated N95 masks were rolled out, there was some apprehension from Dana-Farber staffers about whether they would really work.

"There was some concern, when you hear something's been treated with a chemical that you're going to put on your face," McCullough said.

Staffers were concerned because breathing in hydrogen peroxide in high concentrations can be damaging. "It kills pathogens, and it can also kill healthy cells," said McCullough. "A 3% hydrogen peroxide solution, you can buy at CVS and gargle. We're taking a 7.8% solution, and putting it into a mist in the air."

This kills pathogens because hydrogen peroxide reacts with air and turns to water and oxygen. "If you've ever left a bottle of hydrogen peroxide open in your medicine cabinet, when you come back, it will all react with air and turn to water," said McCullough.

To protect against residual hydrogen peroxide, McCullough and her team added extra time for the masks to air out.

Many researchers are rushing to find alternate ways to decontaminate N95 masks.

UV light and dry heat can also be used to decontaminate N95 masks.
Dana Farber Cancer Institute

McCullough says most other hospitals wouldn't be capable of doing this procedure, because they don't have a room dedicated to the sterilization of materials.

"You can do small numbers in a biosafety cabinet that's set up, or you can set up a room with a handheld version of the equipment that we have in the room," she said. "You can do this on individual pieces, but the amount of effort that it takes to do 10 pieces is equivalent to the amount of effort it takes for us to do thousand pieces."

Dana-Farber's decontamination system isn't the only one on the market. There's also the Battelle system, which recently received a $415 million contract from the Pentagon, although McCullough noted that their process takes eight hours to Dana-Farber's two.

Duke University has also announced plans to use hydrogen peroxide for mask decontamination at three of its hospitals.

According to the National Institutes of Health, UV light, dry heat, and ethyl alcohol can also be used to sanitize masks.

Hospital cleaners are on the frontlines, too—so why aren't they getting any credit?

Danielle Campoamor, Hello Giggles•April 22, 2020


I’m standing in my kitchen in Brooklyn, New York, diligently stirring a pot of chicken risotto I’m dangerously close to burning, when I hear the sound of New York City’s new 7:00 p.m. ritual: people from their windows, balconies, and stoops, cheering on the healthcare professionals, hospital cleaners, and other essential employees battling the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that, to date, has killed over 40,000 Americans. Sometimes the cheers are accompanied by songs, like “New York, New York.” Other times the cheers grow louder as an attempt to best the near-constant scream of sirens that permeate throughout the day; an audible act of defiance against a piercing reminder of the loss of lives happening around us.

But like the homemade signs my 5-year-old made that now hang in his bedroom window to show our appreciation to delivery people, sanitation workers, warehouse workers, doctors, nurses, and EMTs, there is one group of people contributing to the front line that are left out of the city’s 7:00 p.m. communal act of recognition: hospital cleaners.

As of April 14th, a reported 27 hospital workers have died from coronavirus (COVID-19), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the CDC’s count only included 16% of the country’s confirmed coronavirus cases. According to The Guardian’s reporting, the number of healthcare workers—including hospital cleaners—who’ve died is likely much higher, and in some states, like Utah, healthcare worker deaths make up 20% of all coronavirus fatalities.

The average yearly salary for an emergency room physician working in the United States is $287,049, and the average salary of a person who cleans hospital rooms in New York City is $33,442 a year. Yet the jobs they do have equal importance during a pandemic: both are on the frontlines, making it possible for people to seek vital care in the midst of a public health crisis that has strained an already broken healthcare system.

Cleaners and physicians are also both exposing themselves and their families to a virus that’s 10 times deadlier than the flu, but one is compensated far more than the other. While this is surely accounting for the work being done by doctors, and the years of intense schooling and training they’ve endured, it’s also a reminder of how little we value the people who make it possible for others—like doctors, nurses, and technicians—to do their jobs.

Hospital cleaners are also heroes !❤️ pic.twitter.com/NpOICG4gD5
— Scarlett Blossom (@mbethe_landile) April 19, 2020

Sadly, the U.S. has a long history of undervaluing and underpaying the very workers we are now desperately depending on. 

For example, the federal government hasn’t raised the national minimum wage since 2009. Instead of making expansions and allowances for things like hazard pay, the federal government is bailing out CEOs and billionaire moguls as they enjoy the comfort of their quarantine yachts. 

Shake Shack gave back their $10 million government loan, because it’s unnecessary, and during his daily coronavirus press conference President Donald Trump claimed Harvard would be returning their $8.7 million coronavirus federal aid, saying, “They shouldn’t be taking it. When I saw Harvard—they have one of the largest saw endowments anywhere in the country, maybe the world. They’re going to pay back the money.” The richest among us are making promises they cannot keep—like Elon Musk, who pledged 1,000 ventilators to the state of California but never delivered.

 Meanwhile, the people who barely make enough to keep up with the rising cost of living go to work and put their own health at risk to ensure people who are sick are cared for, and those who provide that care can do so safely, adequately, and as frequently as is necessary.

So if the doctors, nurses, and technicians are truly on the front lines, then the 4.4 million janitors and other hospital sanitation workers are the foundation on which they stand.

They’re entering “red zones” during a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment. They’re not only exposing themselves to the coronavirus, but to industrial-strength cleaning products and other sanitizers that can also be hazardous to their health. And somehow, they’re still smiling under their masks as they enter a room where patients are left to fight against a virus without a family member or friend by their side.

The majority of healthcare workers are women, and over 70% of healthcare workers who’ve contracted coronavirus are women. Many of the healthcare workers are also immigrants. For instance, Hunter Walker, a white house correspondent for Yahoo News, shared via Twitter a picture of his mother-in-law, a hospital cleaner from Peru, which she had posted online. In the post, she said, “This is my chance to thank New York for making my family’s dreams come true,” and shared a picture of her in full protective gear.
My mother-in-law is an immigrant from Peru working as a hospital cleaner near the center of the #coronavirus crisis in Westchester NY. She posted this photo and said, "This is my chance to thank New York for making my family's dreams come true." I love her a lot and am so proud. pic.twitter.com/fSuWt4MFVJ
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) April 4, 2020

It would be wrong to say these hospital cleaners and other front-line workers who are often overlooked—like public transportation workers, sanitation workers, warehouse employees, delivery drivers—are simply exposing themselves and potentially those they love to a deadly virus because they feel a moral obligation to give back to their communities. While that is undoubtedly true to some extent, continuing to work is also a necessity for many of these employees, and a one-time $1,200 check from the government will not suffice to keep them afloat. Undocumented immigrants won’t even receive a check. (Unless they live in California, where the state is giving their own stimulus checks to undocumented immigrants.)

Hospital cleaners deserve more than recognition and more than our nightly applause. They deserve hazard pay, which could increase their salaries by as much as $25,000. They deserve affordable health care that isn’t tethered to their employment status, paid sick leave and time off, and universal child care so that they can continue to protect their families when their shifts end.

But for right now, I guess taking the time to remember those who’s cleaning our hospitals every night at 7:00 p.m. is, at the very least, a start.

Cuomo calls on the federal government to provide hazard pay to frontline workers: 'Give them a 50% bonus'

Business Insider•April 20, 2020

Cuomo called on the federal government to provide hazard pay to frontline workers.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
At a press briefing on Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on the federal government to provide hazard pay to frontline workers, including hospital workers, transit employees, and those in the food service industry.

"Pay them what they deserve," Cuomo said. "Give them a 50% bonus."

Pointing to the high infection rates among black and Latino communities, Cuomo said that those numbers can be partly attributed to 40% of frontline workers being people of color.

As New York is seeing the spread of the coronavirus curb within its borders, the frontline workers responsible for running hospitals, food services, and transit while the rest of the state has been on lockdown should be rewarded, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.

At a press briefing, Cuomo proposed that the federal stimulus plan should include hazard pay for frontline workers, many of whom are people of color.

"Thanks is nice, but also recognition of their efforts and their sacrifice is also appropriate," Cuomo said. "They are the ones that are carrying us through this crisis, and this crisis is not over."

New York has seen lower hospitalization rates and fewer deaths from the coronavirus in recent days, pointing to the possibility that the state could be coming up on the other side of the virus' curve. Still, the state remains by far the epicenter of the coronavirus in the US in terms of the confirmed number of patients with COVID-19. New York had more than 248,000 cases as of Monday morning.

And the number of New Yorkers dying from the disease is still "horrifically high," Cuomo said. At least 478 COVID-19 patients in the state died on Sunday — 22 fewer than the day before. The total number of deaths in the state has risen to 12,654, according to Johns Hopkins.

'Pay them what they deserve'

About 40% of frontline workers are people of color, Cuomo said. In certain industries that number is higher. In public transit, that number is 45%, and among building workers, it's 57%.

"Two-thirds of those frontline workers are women. One-third come from low-income households," Cuomo said.

"Pay them what they deserve," he added. "Give them a 50% bonus."
—Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 20, 2020

"When you were home with your doors locked, dealing with cabin fever, they were out there dealing with the coronavirus, and that's why they are more infected," he went on.

These People Aren’t Freedom Fighters—They’re Virus-Spreading Sociopaths
The “liberate America” protesters claim they just want to make their own choices about their health and safety, but they really want to force others to risk their lives.

By Elie Mystal APRIL 21, 2020 THE NATION

ITS TIME TO GET BACK TO WORK IS PAINTED ON BACK OF TRUCKMen carrying a guns take part in a “reopen Pennsylvania” 

demonstration on April 20, 2020. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP via Getty Images)
WORK MAKES  YOU FREE

I’m going to make a confession: I am half inclined to let the fringe Republicans agitating to “liberate” America go out and catch Covid-19 and die in whatever way seems best to them. Safely ensconced in my house, living under the protection of a Democratic governor, I am not required to care about maskless fools in Ohio, frosting the statehouse windows with their communicable diseases.

In related news: I’ve never once cared about a recreational mountain climber who goes missing halfway up Mount Killayadumass. You pays your money, you takes your chances.

And yet, I care about the sherpas. I care about the impoverished community of workers who make their living propping up the rugged individualist fantasies of richer people, and who sometimes die in the process of making the mountain-climbing economy work.


It takes a village to climb a mountain, or to “open” an economy. The “liberate America” protesters—and calling them “protesters” is being generous to the small band of fake-news enthusiasts who have been deployed in battleground states to fight this newest front in the culture wars—seem to be under the impression that individual hardiness can protect them from Covid-19 and jump-start the economy. They claim to want the freedom to make their own choices about their health and safety during the pandemic, but what they really want is to force other people to risk their lives so the economy can rebound.

These protesters act like all they want is the liberty to, say, go to a baseball game this summer—without a mask, if that’s what their freedom-confederacy demands. But think about how many people will be forced to play by Republican death-cult rules if we reopen the stadiums. Concession stand workers and parking attendants will have to go back out in public, whether they feel safe or not, with or without access to personal protective equipment. Transit workers who are already feeling the brunt of keeping the “essential” economy going will be pressed into game-day schedules to shuttle people to and from the stadium. Police officers will be pulled off of more important duties to go to the ballpark and keep the peace. The only people who will have a “choice” about whether or not to risk their health are the fans, and most of the people protesting only want the stadiums open so they can catch a game on television.

It’s not just sports. There will be a disparate impact on the people who have to do the work versus the people who will benefit from the work in every industry Republicans are able to bully into reopening. Consumers will retain the freedom to make choices about where they’ll be most safe, but workers will lose that freedom.

Even David Frum understands that the health burden of reopening the economy will fall most heavily on the poorest workers who are the least able to protect themselves. Writing in The Atlantic, he points out that
if the reopening starts in May, it will be phased not by medical advice, but by the hard grammar of wealth and poverty: poorest first, richest last.

In the event of an early and partial reopening, the disparities can only widen. Those who can telecommute, who can shop online, or who work for health-conscious employers like public universities will be better positioned to minimize their exposure than those called back to work in factories, plants, and delivery services.

That’s not liberty; that’s wage slavery. People who cannot risk missing a paycheck or losing a job will be forced to risk their health, while people who can afford to shelter in place a little longer will have the “freedom” to do so.

That these protesters are couching their demand to force people back to work in the language of patriotism is a sick joke. Patriotism contemplates sacrificing your individual desires for the good of the country. Patriotism involves the idea of solidarity and self-sacrifice in the face of national danger.

But these protesters aren’t willing to sacrifice anything for the greater social good. They are literally unwilling to wear masks to help keep other Americans healthy, even when those other Americans are their fellow protesters. They are not willing to stay home to ease the burden on hero health care workers. They are not interested in channeling their cavalier attitude about being outside into ministering to the poor or the lonely, or even to cheering on first responders who are trying, with both hands, to keep communities together. All these people can think to do with all the time they evidently have on their hands is to tie up traffic and bitch and moan.

These people are not “patriots.” They’re punks. They’re selfish punks who spent all of their time pre-virus tooting about how they didn’t need to contribute to society in the form of taxes, and how they could hold out for years in their doomsday bunkers. But it turns out they couldn’t last four weeks without public meeting places and double-ply toilet paper.


None of this right-wing lunacy can be considered surprising if you consider its source. After all, these are the same so-called freedom-loving individuals who want the government to have so much power it can outlaw a woman’s autonomy over her own body. In The New York Times, Charlie Warzel called the “liberate” protests “the logical conclusion of the modern far-right’s donor-funded, shock jock–led liberty movement.”

The freedom to die is the only form of liberty Republicans want their base thinking about. And Covid-19 is only the latest pathogen. These people also want the freedom to die in mass shootings; the freedom to die from not being able to afford medicine; the freedom to not take the vaccines they can afford; and the freedom to drive 90 mph on a highway with no seat belt, without “the government” telling them to slow their roll.

It’s easy for these people to write off the death of 2 to 3 percent of the country’s population as an “appetizing” “trade-off,” because right-wing media has already conditioned these people to think that the death or suffering of millions is an acceptable price for Republican economic and social policies. These are the people who derisively call food assistance a government handout that’s bleeding the richest nation on earth, and who think women and children fleeing oppression and trauma are faking it. These are the people who oppose universal health coverage that doesn’t give a cut to insurance companies. These are the people who consistently vote against their own economic interests based on the mere promise that racial minorities will get it worse.

It’s a shame that the people most willing to defy social distancing are the least empathetic among us. Because people really concerned about freedom for everybody have a lot of reasons to take to the streets right now. We should be pressuring the government, demanding it provide the financial resources that would allow people to make their own choices about their health and safety. Nobody who can work from home should be forced back to work to chase a paycheck. Nobody who is sick should be forced out of their homes to work to make rent. People who have been laid off because of the pandemic need the full social safety net, including forbearance on rents and mortgages for the foreseeable future.

We ask soldiers and firefighters and reality TV crab fishermen to risk their lives to go to work. Nobody working at a damn chicken plant should be asked to make the same choice.

Philosophically, I’m okay with right-wing agitators’ going out there and getting the coronavirus at a protest, if they want to. Maybe I’m a bad person, but I just don’t have the emotional energy to care about the latest wound Republicans have decided to self-inflict in their never-ending quest to “own the libs.”

But they must not be allowed to infect everybody else. My freedom to live is every bit as important as their freedom to die.


Elie Mystal is The Nation’s Justice Correspondent—covering the courts, the criminal justice system, and politics—and the force behind the magazine’s monthly column “Objection!” He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. He can be followed @ElieNYC.

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER
Director of U.S. agency key to vaccine development leaves role suddenly amid coronavirus pandemic


By NICHOLAS FLORKO APRIL 21, 2020

Rick BrightHHS

WASHINGTON — Rick Bright, one of the nation’s leading vaccine development experts and the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, is no longer leading the organization, officials told STAT.

The shakeup at the agency, known as BARDA, couldn’t come at a more inopportune time for the office, which invests in drugs, devices, and other technologies that help address infectious disease outbreaks and which has been at the center of the government’s coronavirus pandemic response.

Bright, whose departure was confirmed by three industry sources and two current Trump administration sources, will instead move into a narrower role at the National Institutes of Health. Gary Disbrow, Bright’s former deputy at BARDA, will serve as the acting director of the office, an HHS spokesperson confirmed to STAT.

BARDA was expected to play an even larger role in the coming months; Congress more than tripled BARDA’s budget in the most recent coronavirus stimulus package. Already, the office has a role in some of the splashiest Covid-19 projects, including partnerships with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Therapeutics, both of which are developing potential Covid-19 treatments.

BARDA has been plagued with management issues virtually since its creation in 2006, with much of the criticism aimed at a contracting department that some say is unresponsive to industry partners. The office has only had two permanent directors since its creation in 2006. Bright has led the organization since 2016.

The BARDA director position is not a Senate-confirmed position. It reports directly to the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

None of the sources articulated the reason for Bright’s departure, though several mentioned recent chafing between Bright and Bob Kadlec, the current HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

An HHS spokesperson confirmed that Bright will begin working out of NIH. An NIH spokesperson later clarified that Bright will work on diagnostics.

“Dr. Rick Bright will transfer the skills he has applied as Director of the [BARDA] to the [NIH]. … Dr. Bright brings extensive experience and expertise in facilitating powerful public-private partnerships that advance the health and well-being of the American people,” the HHS spokesperson said.

Bright did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bright’s career has largely centered around vaccine and drug development. His work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focused on influenza viruses, antiviral drugs and tests. He has also worked in the biotechnology industry and served as an advisor to the World Health Organization. Before becoming BARDA director, he led the agency’s Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division.

Lev Facher contributed reporting.

Correction: An earlier version of this story suggested Bright would oversee an NIH public-private partnership; An NIH spokeswoman later said he will not be involved with that effort.

About the Author
Nicholas Florko
Washington correspondent
Nicholas Florko is a Washington correspondent for STAT, reporting on the the intersection of politics and health policy. He is the author the newsletter "D.C. Diagnosis."
nicholas.florko@statnews.com
@NicholasFlorko


COMMENTS

I thought he had such a bright future at the agency
Michael Welch
APRIL 21, 2020 AT 4:05 PM


I’m sure Andy Slavitt will have something to say about this on Twitter.
Maya Ayala
APRIL 21, 2020 AT 3:54 PM


It would be nice if the federal government funded research at universities — both funding programs and especially scholarships for post-graduate research students. Such funding should be contingent upon the university not retaining a patent on those findings. The feds should make that information available for ALL companies to develop treatments for medical purposes.
Jim Croft
APRIL 21, 2020 AT 3:49 PM


So a good civil servant is a wasteful one. Was Edison or Salk greedy ?
Congress couldn’t oversight a lemonade stand let alone something complicated like keeping liter off the streets.
Penn Gwinn
APRIL 21, 2020 AT 3:41 PM


“splashiest Covid-19 projects, including partnerships with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Therapeutics, ”
Maybe BARDA should invest in University research projects that aren’t so interested in profits, but in learning, research and finding a solution to the problem without profit in mind.
Tim Cole
APRIL 21, 2020 AT 3:35 PM


I hate to see a good civil servant sidelined by Bob Kadlec’s insatiable greed. Where the hell is the Congressional oversight?
Tony
APRIL 21, 2020 AT 4:15 PM


. . . absent . . . I am getting the feeling that the American people have allowed our complacency to be abused by “our elected servants” and those “servants” know it . . .

April 21 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1509, Henry VIII became king of England after his father, Henry VII, died.

In 1836, with the battle cry "Remember the Alamo!" Texas forces under Sam Houston defeated the army of Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at San Jacinto, Texas, opening the path to Texas independence.

In 1913, California state Sen. Ernest S. Birdsall of Placer County stated in an interview with United Press that the citizens of California demanded the prohibition of "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning farm land. The California Alien Land Law of 1913 was aimed at discouraging immigration to the state.

In 1918, Manfred von Richthofen, German World War I flying ace known as "The Red Baron," was killed by Allied fire over Vaux-sur-Somme, France.

In 1954, U.S. Air Force planes began flying French troops to Indochina to reinforce Dien Bien Phu. The city later fell to communist Viet Minh forces.

In 1960, Brasilia was inaugurated as Brazil's capital, moving the seat of government from Rio de Janeiro.

In 1967, a Greek army coup in Athens sent King Constantine into exile in Italy.

In 1975, Nguyen Van Thieu resigned as president of South Vietnam after denouncing the United States as untrustworthy. His replacement, Tran Van Huong, prepared for peace talks with North Vietnam as communist forces advanced on Saigon.


UPI File Photo

In 1987, the bombing of a bus terminal in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killed 127 people and injured 288.

In 1992, gas explosions ripped through the historic center of Guadalajara, Mexico, killing more than 200 people and injuring hundreds of others.

In 2005, the U.S. Senate approved the nomination of John Negroponte to be the nation's first national intelligence director.


File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

In 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a link had been found between contaminated drug thinners from China and 81 deaths in the United States.

In 2011, John Ensign, R-Nev., resigned his U.S. Senate seat amid a budding ethics scandal. Ensign admitted an affair with his former campaign treasurer earlier and had been under Republican pressure to step down.

In 2017, a Taliban attack on Camp Shaheen near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, left more than 100 Afghan soldiers dead and dozens injured.

In 2019, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky defeated incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine's presidential runoff election.

File Photo by Stepan Franko/EPA-EFE

On April 21, 1918, Manfred von Richthofen, German World War I flying
 ace known as "The Red Baron," was killed by Allied fire over
Vaux-sur-Somme, France. File Photo by C.J. von Duhren

WWI PHOTO DOES NOT HAVE A MORAY PATTERN WHEN YOU EXPAND IT 
IT REMAINS SHARP AND IN FOCUS.

BUT OF COURSE I REALLY POSTED THE BARON'S PICTURE SO I COULD POST THIS SNOOPY TUNE TOON
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=WWI

Palestinian leaders warn Israel's new gov't against more annexation

ILLEGAL Israeli settlements are seen on the hilltops above the Palestinian village of Jaba in the West Bank on February 13. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

April 21 (UPI) -- Palestinian leaders reacted with dismay to a coalition government deal struck by Israel's two main political blocs, warning Tuesday it could spell the end of any two-state solution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party and Benny Gantz's Blue and White Party signed the agreement Monday in Jerusalem, under which Netanyahu will remain prime minister for 18 months and will be succeeded in the post by Gantz in October 2021.

The agreement ended 17 months of failed negotiations that resulted in three different elections, two last year and the most recent last month.

Under the deal, an annexation by Israel of 30 percent of what's known as "Area C" in the West Bank could begin as soon as July.

RELATED Netanyahu, Gantz sign deal to form unity government in Israel

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking to cabinet members in teleconference Monday, cautioned the Israeli coalition against new annexations.

Palestinian Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat warned that any annexation by the new government "means the end of any possibility for a negotiated solution."

"It is an international responsibility to hold the new Israeli government accountable and to demand full implementation of its obligations under international law and signed agreements," he said in a statement.

RELATED Netanyahu to approve 3,500 Jewish homes on disputed 'E1' land

The Israeli coalition has two options, he added -- either "open the doors for a meaningful peace process" or further "jeopardize any hope for peace."

PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi also blasted the coalition deal.

"The Israeli political establishment has united on the agenda of permanent colonization and annexation," she said, adding that "it is now very clear that Israeli political parties are unequivocally committed to the entrenchment and permanence of the conflict" with the backing of the Trump administration.

RELATED Netanyahu: Israel to build 4,000 new Jerusalem homes despite opposition

Gantz and Netanyahu support U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan, which calls for swapping occupied West Bank territory for a future Palestinian state. That proposal has been rejected by Palestinian leaders.

WFP: More than a quarter-billion face starvation due to coronavirus crisis
A Palestinian doctor checks the body temperature of a child at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees school at the Khan Youns refugee camp in southern Gaza on March 18. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo

April 21 (UPI) -- The global coronavirus crisis will push more than a quarter of a billion people into possible starvation if vital aid doesn't reach the most at-risk communities, the World Food Program said Tuesday.

The WFP said in its annual report the pandemic could affect more than 265 million people by the end of 2020 without key humanitarian relief in those areas, particularly in low and moderate-income countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The 240-page report will be presented Tuesday to the United Nations Security Council.

"These new projections show the scale of the catastrophe we are facing," WFP Chief Economist Arif Husain said in a statement. "We must make sure that tens of millions of people already on the verge of starvation do not succumb to this virus or to its economic consequences in terms of loss of jobs and incomes.

RELATED UNICEF seeks $93M for poor children in war-torn Mideast, North Africa

"Just like in developed nations, governments are doing all they can to assist their people. We need to do the same for tens of millions of people."

The U.N. agency said the new numbers are up sharply from its earlier Global Report on Food Crises, which said 135 million people were at a crisis point last year. The WFP gathered its data before the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic arrived.

The WFP report said conflict zones, where social distancing and avoiding large gatherings are not an option in cramped refugee camps, are of particular concern and countries like Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen could become even greater hot spots for hunger.

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"These countries may face an excruciating trade-off between saving lives or livelihoods or, in a worst-case scenario, saving people from the coronavirus to have them die from hunger," the report said. "To prevent these tens of millions of people already facing food crises from succumbing to the virus or to its economic consequences, all actors need to mobilize and coordinate along a set of operational and strategic priorities."

The WFP projects $350 million in relief aid is needed immediately, but only about a quarter of that amount has been earmarked for the agency.

North Korea tech workers earn $20M for regime, U.N. report says

North Korean companies under U.N. Security Council sanctions are active overseas, a new report says. 

April 21 (UPI) -- North Korea is deploying freelance IT workers around the world to earn foreign currency for the regime, according to a recent report from the United Nations Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee.

The annual report from a panel of eight experts covers the period from Aug. 3, 2019 to Feb. 7, 2020. As Pyongyang adjusts to conditions under heavy sanctions, the regime could be turning to more creative ways to circumvent the economic embargoes, according to Voice of America's Korean service on Tuesday.

The 267-page report includes evidence North Korea has been deploying high-skilled workers in IT and construction, mainly to China, but also to Vietnam, where Kim Jong Un met with U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019.

The Vietnam-based North Koreans are affiliated with the Sobaeksu Trading Co. Other IT workers service customers in China, Russia, Canada and the United States on an online basis, and without revealing their identities to clients, according to the U.N. report.

North Korean IT workers earn an average of $5,000 per month. Of that amount, workers are obliged to submit about $1,700 to the North Korean government. Annually the state makes about $20.4 million from tech workers, the report says.

Construction is another significant source of income for Pyongyang. The Mansudae Overseas Development Group, currently under U.N. sanctions, has been active in Senegal. The North Korean enterprise has been involved in public construction and building factories for major food processors, according to the report.

China is a receiving point for North Korean nationals, despite international laws against North Korean guest workers. The world's second-biggest economy has hosted 2,000 North Korean nationals who stay on short-term visitor visas.

North Korea's Choson Computer Center, also known as Korea Computer Center, is the ultimate company responsible for operations at the Dandong Haotong Commercial Trading Co. North Korea's military is also overseeing the operations of the Yanbian Unsong Network Technology Co. in China's northeast, the report says.

North Korea's athletes abroad also earn income for the regime. Football players in Austria and Italy have been bringing in foreign currency used toward nuclear and ballistic missile programs, according to Yonhap.

WHO: Coronavirus likely came from animal, not a laboratory

By Don Jacobson & Darryl Coote

Pedestrians in Beijing, China, continue to wear face masks on Tuesday although the government has declared the coronavirus threat has largely passed. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

April 21 (UPI) -- The coronavirus disease that's disrupted life for billions of people around the world probably came from an animal and was not created in a laboratory, the World Health Organization said in an update Tuesday.

All evidence so far has indicated COVID-19 was not "manipulated or constructed" in a lab or anywhere else, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters at a briefing in Geneva.

"It is probable, likely that the virus is of animal origin," she said.

Chaib said the WHO's analysis concluded there had "certainly" been an intermediate animal host, most likely bats, by the time the virus infected humans.

By Tuesday, the number of cases reported worldwide so far approached 2.5 million and the death toll was close to 172,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the most cases, 788,000.

Earlier, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that his nation will move to gradually lift its lockdown starting May 4. He promised details of the plan by the end of this week and "a reasonable prediction."

"Let's stop being strict with our country," he wrote in a Facebook post. "The whole world is struggling. We can be proud of how we are facing this very hard test."
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Italy's population of 60 million were placed under lockdown March 9 when it had fewer than 10,000 cases. Restrictions were tightened two weeks later to prohibit movements within Italy and close all non-essential businesses.

Conte said his government can't "abandon the line of maximum caution" to "indulge" public opinion, industry and companies that have demanded the lockdowns be lifted.

"We need to reopen on the basis of a program that will consider all details and cross-cross all the data."
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In Spain, organizers on Tuesday canceled the San Fermin Fiesta this summer in Pamplona, best known for its "running of the bulls." The annual event typically attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. Organizers said it's not possible to stage the festival safely this year.

In Germany, officials said the famed Oktoberfest has also been canceled. It was scheduled to start Sept. 18.

Bavarian Minister President Markus Soder and Munich's Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter said staging the festival would be too risky.
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"We are living in different times," he said. "And living with corona means living carefully."