NORTHERN IRELAND

PSNI heavily criticised for actions at Black Lives Matter protests

The Police Ombudsman has heaped criticism upon the PSNI for the way it policed Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations during the summer.

The police’s actions “gave rise to claims of unfairness and discrimination... these concerns are in my view cogent, have substance and are justified”.

By Adam Kula
Tuesday, 22nd December 2020

Demonstrators at the Londonderry rally on June 6

The protests, which took place in central Belfast and Londonderry on June 6, saw 71 fines handed out to people deemed to be in breach of coronavirus restrictions (57 in Londonderry, 14 in Belfast).

The orginisers had decided to stage the events in the wake of an earlier BLM rally in Belfast on June 3, which police estimated drew around 2,000 people – although the PSNI decided not to take any action over that event.

In the days leading up to June 6, the force – alongside Arlene Foster, Michelle O’Neill, Naomi Long and Robin Swann – sought to dissuade protestors from repeating the June 3 gatherings.

Image from Londonderry's city walls of the June 6 gathering

THEY HAVE SECURED THE CANNONADE

Organisers pressed ahead regardless, stressing they would ask people to social distance.


At the time, gatherings of more than six people (except from the same household) were prohibited.


Movement was also restricted without reasonable excuse.


Police were empowered to order people to disperse, and if they did not, police had the power to remove them.

Image from the Belfast June 3 rally

The police had no power to enforce social distancing at the events.

The ombudsman subsequently received “concerns” about the consistency of approaches in Belfast and Londonderry on June 6.

Such concerns intensified following a demonstration under the banner of “Protect Our Monuments” at Belfast City Hall on June 13 (a gathering largely seen as a reaction to BLM demands to tear down statues of historic figures).

It was said by BLM supporters that the “Protect Our Monuments” demo was policed in a far more hands-off fashion than either of the BLM protests, with no fines handed out.

The ombudsman’s report said that at the Londonderry BLM protest on June 6, the police had issued three public announcements to demonstrators that they would hand out fines to them, but that the protestors did not disperse.

The report also found police there had been “courteous” and that some had been captured on video “expressing support and understanding for the principles underpinning the protest”.

Protestors there numbered between 500 and 1,200.

In Belfast on the same day, officers had been briefed that the “threshold for arrest was high” and were told that the BLM protestors were not to be arrested for failure to provide personal details

The ombudsman described officers’ demeanour as “friendly and courteous” (at one point four officers even backed off from arresting a suspect who had become “aggressive” after a crowd assembled around the man, who then applauded as the officers retreated).

Two tannoy warning were made, but the crowd stayed.

Around 1,000 people were at the Belfast protest.

At the “Protoect Our Monuments” demonstration in Belfast on June 13, there were abut 300 people by police estimate (by that stage, gatherings of up to 10 people were permitted, rather than six).

The ombudsman found that “there was no evidence of imminent enforcement action” at the June 13 rally, “in contrast” with the BLM ones.

She said police seemed to have been “learning” from the June 6 demos “that enforcement was not an effective means of achieving crowd dispersal at large gatherings”.

THE OMBUDSMAN’S CONCLUSIONS:

> The ombudsman’s conclusions make reference to the UN Convention on Human Rights (to which the UK is signatory), saying that when it came to the BLM protests, “PSNI failed to demonstrate regard to Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 11 (right to protest and right to peaceful assembly and association)”.


> They also “failed to have regard to the approach of other UK Police Forces and to the organisers’ proposals for safe protests and social distancing”.


> The ombudsman also found that the “PSNI did not exploit opportunities to constructively engage with the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities involved with ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests... this exposed an historic gap in strategic relationships with these communities”.

She said the PSNI also “failed to have regard to the following matters...

> “The international and domestic context of ‘Black Lives Matter’. Namely, the public response to police use of lethal force against George Floyd and other members of the black community in the USA and wider concerns of racial inequality”

> “Constructive engagement with the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities prior to the protests on 6th June.

> “The diverse nature of those who were likely to attend the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests on 6th June 2020.”

> She said that the fact police had warned the organiser of the Londonderry protest that they were at risk of prosecution under the coronavirus laws “further inhibited the opportunity for engagement with these communities”.

> Perhaps the key element of her findings is this:

The police’s actions “gave rise to claims of unfairness and discrimination... these concerns are in my view cogent, have substance and are justified”.

However she adds: “I believe that this unfairness was not intentional... Rather PSNI failed to balance Human Rights with the public health considerations and requirements of the Regulations.

“Confidence in policing of some within the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities of Northern Ireland has been severely damaged by the PSNI’s policing of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests.”


PSNI RESPONDS TO REPORT:

The ombudsman notes that the PSNI’s believed the coronavirus laws “and public health considerations... took primacy over the protesters’ rights under Article 10 and 11”.

Reacting to the report, the PSNI issued this statement from Chief Constable Simon Byrne: “The report from the Police Ombudsman provides an important commentary about pressures arising from the policing operation on two days in June this year in unique and novel circumstances, using policing powers derived from

emergency public health Regulations.

“From the outset, both personally and as an organisation, we were alive to the widespread revulsion at the events that led to the death of George Floyd in the USA.

“We tried our best to respect the public health requirements of the Northern Ireland Executive to save lives and at the same time deal with public outcry triggered by this awful death.

“We operated within the legal framework available to us at the time, but the Ombudsman is clear that whilst unintentional, we got that balance procedurally wrong.

“As is only prudent and as the Ombudsman herself says in her comprehensive report, we will now seek to embrace the lessons learned and carefully consider her specific recommendations about policy, practice and procedural fairness.

“Our first step has already been to announce our new Community Relations Taskforce to help us do just that.

“We will provide more details about this early next year.

“We will have to review this report in concert with the earlier report from the Policing Board and I will report our next steps further in January.

“However, it is clear to me that some members of the Black and Minority Ethnic Community have been frustrated, angry and upset by our policing response and our relationship with them has suffered.

“For that I am sorry, and I am determined in that regard to put things right.”

Further coverage:

Click here: Justice Minister Naomi Long silent over Black Lives Matter call to defund police and founders’ praise for wanted terror figure

Click here: ‘Thousands of Northern Irish people were murdered and their crimes are unsolved – their lives matter too’

Click here: Black Co Down clergyman: Having a grievance is no excuse for endangering people with mass protests

Click here: Bobby Storey funeral controversy – ‘Inconsistent’ police should quash our fines, says Black Lives Matter supporter


Click here: SDLP figures shy away from backing party colleague’s demand for PSNI to be condemned over George Floyd rally


Click here: Black Lives Matter advocate says DUP MP ‘must recognise his role in an overall system of anti-black oppression’

After Trump Blocked UN Inquiry of Racist Violence, NGOs Are Conducting Their Own

Portland police disperse a crowd of protesters past a mural of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor on September 26, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.

NATHAN HOWARD / GETTY IMAGES

BYMarjorie Cohn, Truthout

PUBLISHED December 22, 2029




PART OF THE SERIES
Human Rights and Global Wrongs

Shortly after the public lynching of George Floyd, the U.S. Human Rights Network and the ACLU organized an international coalition of more than 600 organizations and individuals to urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to convene a commission of inquiry to investigate systemic racism and police brutality in the United States. George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, addressed the Council by video, stating, “You in the United Nations are your brothers’ and sisters’ keepers in America.” He implored the UN, “I’m asking you to help us — Black people in America.”

However, the Trump administration lobbied heavily against this investigation, objecting to limiting the inquiry to the U.S. The Council subsequently declined a request by a group of African countries within the Council to establish the inquiry commission. “The outcome is a result of the pressure, the bullying that the United States did, assisted by many of its allies,” said Jamil Dakwar, the ACLU’s human rights program director.

But the Council did task the High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet with preparing a report by June 2021 on “systemic racism, violations of international human rights law against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement agencies, especially those incidents that resulted in the death of George Floyd and other Africans and people of African descent, to contribute to accountability and redress for victims.” In Resolution 43/1, the Council did not limit the subject matter of the report to violations in the United States

To assist in the preparation of Bachelet’s report, the Council called for input from several entities, including nongovernmental organizations.

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers, National Conference of Black Lawyers and National Lawyers Guild responded to that call by establishing their own International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States.

Rutgers University law professor emeritus Lennox Hinds, who conceived of the idea for the commission, told Truthout, “This International Commission of Inquiry is an attempt to give voice to the international outrage resulting from the public lynching of George Floyd and to expose the racist and systemic nature of police violence against people of African descent in the United States and to hold the U.S. government accountable before the international community.”

Twelve commissioners, including prominent judges, lawyers, professors, advocates and UN special rapporteurs from Pakistan, South Africa, Japan, India, Nigeria, France, Costa Rica, the United Kingdom and the West Indies will hold public hearings from January 18 to February 6.

The commission will hear evidence in 50 cases of police violence that occurred throughout the United States from 2010-2020, including the killings of George Floyd, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and Tamir Rice. Many resulted in the deaths of unarmed or nonthreatening African Americans.

Although the commission won’t have the money and resources a UN investigation would have commanded (were it not for Trump’s obstruction), the scope of this inquiry will go beyond the Council’s resolution by giving voice to the families of Black victims of police brutality.

Testimony of victims’ lawyers and family members, community representatives and acknowledged experts will occur in 25 cities via Zoom. The commissioners will prepare a report for submission to the UN high commissioner and the public by the end of March. They will be assisted in the hearings and preparation of their report by a team of four rapporteurs, including this writer. Students and faculty from Rutgers Law School will provide research support.

The commissioners will ask the UN high commissioner to use our report to inform her report to the Council. We will also publicize our report widely in the United States and throughout the world for people to use in litigation and advocacy.

This will be a thorough investigation of anti-Black violence perpetrated by police in the United States. It will examine: 1) Cases of victims of police violence, extrajudicial killings and maiming of people of African descent and entrenched structural racism in police practices throughout the U.S.; and 2) The structural racism and bias in the criminal “justice” system that results in the impunity of law enforcement officers for violations of U.S. and international law.

The commission will analyze whether several instances of police violence against African Americans violated international law. A 2020 study of the 20 largest cities in the United States found none whose lethal force policies complied with international human rights law and standards.

Finally, the commission will consider the lack of accountability for violations of human rights, and recommend effective measures to end impunity in the future.

Treaties the United States ratifies become part of U.S. law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. They are the “supreme law of the land.” The U.S. has ratified three human rights treaties that enshrine the right to life, the right to be free from torture and the right to be free from discrimination. All three require effective measures be taken for violations of the rights protected by those treaties.

During the hearings, the testimony will describe instances of police violence that deprived African Americans of the right to life, and the rights to be free from torture and discrimination.

“We want the [UN] high commissioner [Michelle Bachelet] to actually use this report,” said Kerry McLean, a member of the steering committee that is establishing the commission. “She’s not doing hearings, so we’re doing hearings.”

The hearings will be accessible to the public. The report and findings of the commission will be published in English.

THIRD WORLD USA

Rural America’s hidden hunger: Mobile food banks travel for hundreds of miles to reach ‘food deserts’

Families are starving in ‘the breadbasket of America’, Richard Hall reports from Williston, North Dakota

“Sometimes I don’t understand either,” she says, looking out at the hundreds of cars lined up, “because it’s like how in the United States can we have this many hungry people?”


Barbara Doughtie loads boxes of food onto her truck at a mobile food bank in Williston, North Dakota
(Richard Hall/The Independent )

The cars arrive just as the sun is setting over the town of Williston, North Dakota. Hundreds of them roll slowly into the gravel parking lot of the Upper Missouri Valley Fairgrounds under a burning orange glow. They park dutifully in rows and wait with engines running and heaters on. In some of them, children crawl restlessly on the back seats. Others have come alone, straight from work.

Soon after a large white truck arrives. It has made a six-hour journey across the entire length of the state from Fargo with its precious cargo. In this isolated town, the food bank comes to them.

Hunger is rising in rural America. Travelling food banks like this one have become increasingly common since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. They aim to service so-called “food deserts” – isolated areas far from organisations and charities that support people in need.

The Great Plains Food Bank, which covers North Dakota and western Minnesota, says it has seen a nearly 50 per cent increase in people seeking its help since March, when the economic downturn sparked by the pandemic began to bite. That rise has been particularly pronounced in rural towns like Williston.

“In the rural economy, if they're losing hours or have been laid off, there isn’t always somewhere else for them to go and work and get employed very quickly. So they’re really struggling,” says Melissa Sobolik, the organisation’s president.

What makes the rise in North Dakota so jarring is that the state has historically had low food insecurity. The Red River Valley is nicknamed the “breadbasket of America” for its abundance of wheat farms. That history and tradition has clouded the difficulties faced by many families today. “I grew up on a farm and there’s definitely a mindset when you’re a farmer and you grow food that, if you feed the world, you don’t expect that you need help feeding your own family,” says Sobolik.

“I think that it has always been a little under-reported in North Dakota because people don’t want to admit that they needed the help or that they didn’t perceive themselves as food insecure if they got help from family or friends.

“When people think of hunger, they think it’s an urban problem. They’re maybe thinking of homeless people and they’re also seeing big long lines in urban areas on the news,” she adds.

Hunger hits rural America

As the evening light dims further still, a team of volunteers unloads the cargo from the truck and begins to form an assembly line. The food packages, sourced from vendors in Fargo, are made up of simple staples; eggs, milk, potatoes, fruit and vegetables.

While one team unloads, another fans out into the field of vehicles to ask each waiting driver how many boxes they need. A number is drawn on the windscreen so they can glide through the assembly line without leaving their car when their time comes. They open their trunk and the food goes in.

The length of the lines at the food bank have grown and shrunk through various stages of the pandemic. Rachel Monge, a regional coordinator for the food bank who is overseeing the operation in Williston, says there was a surge of people seeking food assistance in March when the coronavirus first arrived in North Dakota. Over the summer, a combination of falling infections, unemployment benefits and stimulus checkers saw the lines grow shorter. But as winter came around and coronavirus cases rose again, so did the lines.

“Now we’re really seeing it ramp up again,” she says. “A lot of people were expecting to go back to their jobs and still haven’t because the numbers for Covid numbers have increased.”

A volunteer loads food onto a truck at a mobile food pantry run by the Great Plains Food Bank in Williston, North Dakota
(Richard Hall/The Independent)

Williston was already struggling before the pandemic arrived. The town witnessed an oil boom between 2006 and 2012, which fuelled rapid growth as workers came from across the country for high wages. When that boom ended, jobs began to retreat.

Here in Williston, the Great Plains Food Bank would typically deliver food to around 300 families; that has now risen to above 800. The food bank runs similar mobile deliveries to rural areas across the state, which are seeing a marked rise in hunger. When it finished its delivery here, the white truck went on to a nearby town to deliver 200 more boxes. Many are using the service for the first time.

Feeding America, the country’s largest hunger relief organisation, released a report this summer that food insecurity had risen by 77 per cent in North Dakota, albeit from a low starting point. Three of the five top counties with the largest increase were found in rural parts of the state – Burke County (157 per cent), Renville County (131 per cent), and Dickey County (127 per cent).

Researchers cited a host of reasons why rural communities were particularly hard hit by hunger during the pandemic, among them isolation, higher rates of unemployment, lack of access to grocery stores and higher food prices.

But even when food banks do come to these towns, people are unsure if they are eligible. It is an unfamiliar problem, according to Monge.

“I heard from a lady the other day, she said she lives 13 miles out in this rural community and she’s like: ‘Who is this for? Can I come?’ She says she often needs to not buy medication for her inhaler to make her food budget last. So here was this lady calling to see if she could come and I was like, oh my gosh, you should be first in line.”

There is no one type of person who uses the food bank. For some, it is a desperately needed lifeline. For others, it is a little extra help.

“Hunger doesn’t have a face,” says Monge. “Most often it’s hard-working people. It’s people with jobs. Oftentimes four-person families that don’t make enough or they only have one car so only one person can work because there’s not good enough public transportation.”

Deidra Heid, 29, and her two children, wait in line at a mobile food bank in Williston, North Dakota
(Richard Hall/The Independent )

For 29-year-old army veteran Deidra Heid, who is waiting in the queue as her two children climb around in the back, it wasn’t just one thing that brought her here.

She and her husband left the military in 2017 and he was offered a job in the oil industry in Williston. They moved from Georgia, where they were stationed, but when the pandemic hit his hours were cut dramatically. To make matters worse, he was forced to quarantine after coming into contact with someone who contracted Covid.

“We didn’t have the means to really quarantine because I have to watch out for our daughter. You can’t just tell people with kids to do that. She’s five, and I had to pull her out of school. It’s just a lot,” she says.

Heid enrolled in college to pursue a criminal justice degree, leaving her husband as the family’s sole breadwinner. So his work trouble put them in a bind.

“Just that little two weeks set us back,” she says. “It’s just stress coming from everywhere. I’m smiling right now to keep from crying, but it’s been real bad.”

Once the assembly line is up and running, the volunteers move quickly to finish before night falls. The lines snake so far back that cars cover both sides of the road that runs through the large parking lot. Some are occupied by a single driver, others by whole families.

Barbara Doughtie is here with several trucks to pick up for 60 people at her housing authority, most of whom are seniors or people with disabilities who can’t go out.

“There are jobs here but a lot of them are part-time. They aren’t full-time anymore. Everybody needs help. The pandemic has cut everybody down,” she says. “Everybody uses the Salvation Army food bank. Everybody. It’s full every day.”

“Nobody goes out as much as they do. They don’t shop as much as they used to. This helps us because we don’t have to get out of our vehicles,” she adds.

Maria Adkins, 30, is waiting with her four children. She has a similar story of a temporary setback that put her on the back foot.

“Right now money is a little tight. We got pay cuts, then we lost a job – my husband was out of work for three weeks. And that’s on top of other issues, like we just had a fire in our house. We lost a lot of stuff,” she says.

“So this food, it helps, especially when you’ve got young kids,” she adds.

The lines snake so far back that cars cover both sides of the road that runs through the large parking lot
(Richard Hall/The Independent)

The pandemic has had a dramatic impact on food security across the country. According to Feeding America, the United States was witnessing the lowest levels of hunger in more than 20 years prior to coronavirus, with around 35 million people considered food insecure (defined as someone who faces the disruption of food intake because of lack of money).

But due to Covid-19, the organisation projects that more than 50 million people, including 17 million children, may experience food insecurity in 2020.

While many have placed their hopes on the rollout of vaccines to alleviate the economy and get people back to work, no one is sure how long the hunger crisis will last. One of the concerns hunger relief groups have is that the issue will become less salient politically when the pandemic is over.

“There is a big focus within the government right now to make sure that food banks are getting additional food to meet the increased need,” Sobolik says. “At some point that’s going to stop and we are very fearful that once we lose those government commodities we are going to have a food shortage, and we are going to have to make some very tough decisions about who may get food, who doesn’t.”

Monge, the regional coordinator, thinks the pandemic has been an eye-opening experience for many across the state.

“I think there’s a lot of people in rural North Dakota towns that feel that hunger doesn’t happen here. I hear that from time to time. We’ll have a mobile food pantry there and I’ll hear, ‘I just can’t believe that all these people are here. I can’t believe they are all lined up,” she says.

“Sometimes I don’t understand either,” she says, looking out at the hundreds of cars lined up, “because it’s like how in the United States can we have this many hungry people?”

Covid Killing in Rural U.S. Faster Than in Big Cities


Nic Querolo, Bloomberg News



(Bloomberg) -- Nine months after arriving in the most densely populated parts of the U.S., the fatal effects of the coronavirus are spreading more in its remote corners.

Covid-19 is now killing in rural areas at a faster clip than anywhere else. As of last week, there were 109 cumulative deaths per 100,000 residents in “non-core” counties, the least-populated classification, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s higher than large central metro areas such as New York City and Seattle, which until days ago had recorded the highest death rates since the beginning of the pandemic.

Rural areas, where 46 million Americans live, are prone to outsize impacts from the virus. Compared with urban hubs, residents there are older, more likely to suffer from underlying chronic illness or disability, and their hospitals are smaller and more sparse. Many of those facilities were at risk of closing even before the pandemic.

Over the last week, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa reported some of the highest death rates when scaled for population. New cases were worst in Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma.


Nationally, the U.S. posted 194,988 new Covid-19 cases, Covid Tracking Project data show. There have been at least 317,684 deaths attributed to the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

According to Covid Tracking Project data:
Tennessee, Oklahoma and California had among the highest new cases per million people.
Tennessee also reported a single-day case record on Sunday.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

 

New coronavirus variant: What is the spike protein and why are mutations on it important?

by Connor Bamford, The Conversation

Say hello to Spike. Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, CC BY-SA

The emergence of a new variant of coronavirus has sparked renewed interest in the part of the virus known as the spike protein.

The new variant carries several peculiar changes to the spike protein when compared to other closely related variants—and that's one of the reasons why it's more concerning than other, harmless changes to the virus we have observed before. The new mutations may alter the biochemistry of the spike and could affect how transmissible the virus is.

The spike protein is also the basis of current COVID-19 vaccines, which seek to generate an immune response against it. But what exactly is the spike protein and why is it so important?

Cell invaders

In the world of parasites, many bacterial or fungal pathogens can survive on their own without a host cell to infect. But viruses can't. Instead, they have to get inside cells in order to replicate, where they use the cell's own biochemical machinery to build new virus particles and spread to other cells or individuals.

Our cells have evolved to ward off such intrusions. One of the major defenses cellular life has against invaders is its outer coating, which is composed of a fatty layer that holds in all the enzymes, proteins and DNA that make up a cell. Due to the biochemical nature of fats, the outer surface is highly negatively charged and repellent. Viruses must traverse this barrier to gain access to the cell.

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus molecule. Credit: Klerka/Shutterstock

Like cellular life, coronaviruses themselves are surrounded by a fatty membrane known as an envelope. In order to gain entry to the inside of the cell, enveloped viruses use proteins (or glycoproteins as they are frequently covered in slippery sugar molecules) to fuse their own membrane to that of cells' and take over the cell.

The spike protein of coronaviruses is one such viral glycoprotein. Ebola viruses have one, the influenza virus has two, and herpes simplex virus has five.

The architecture of the spike

The spike protein is composed of a linear chain of 1,273 amino acids, neatly folded into a structure, which is studded with up to 23 sugar molecules. Spike proteins like to stick together and three separate spike molecules bind to each other to form a functional "trimeric" unit.

The spike can be subdivided into distinct functional units, known as domains, which fulfill different biochemical functions of the protein, such as binding to the target cell, fusing with the membrane, and allowing the spike to sit on the viral envelope.

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus molecule. Credit: Klerka/Shutterstock

The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is stuck on the roughly spherical viral particle, embedded within the envelope and projecting out into space, ready to cling on to unsuspecting cells. There are estimated to be roughly 26 spike trimers per virus.

One of these functional units binds to a protein on the surface of our cells called ACE2, triggering uptake of the virus particle and eventually membrane fusion. The spike is also involved in other processes like assembly, structural stability and immune evasion.

Vaccine vs spike protein

Given how crucial the spike protein is to the virus, many antiviral vaccines or drugs are targeted to viral glycoproteins.

For SARS-CoV-2, the vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna give instructions to our immune system to make our own version of the spike protein, which happens shortly following immunization. Production of the spike inside our cells then starts the process of protective antibody and T cell production.

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  The SARS-CoV-2 virus is changing over time. Credit: NIAID-RML, CC BY

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  The spike protein is made up of different sections that perform different functions. Credit: Rohan Bir Singh, CC BY

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  The SARS-CoV-2 virus is changing over time. Credit: NIAID-RML, CC BY

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  The spike protein is made up of different sections that perform different functions. Credit: Rohan Bir Singh, CC BY

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One of the most concerning features of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is how it moves or changes over time during the evolution of the virus. Encoded within the viral genome, the protein can mutate and changes its biochemical properties as the virus evolves.

Most mutations will not be beneficial and either stop the spike protein from working or have no effect on its function. But some may cause changes that give the new version of the virus a selective advantage by making it more transmissible or infectious.

One way this could occur is through a mutation on a part of the spike protein that prevents protective antibodies from binding to it. Another way would be to make the spikes "stickier" for our cells.

This is why new mutations that alter how the spike functions are of particular concern—they may impact how we control the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The new variants found in the UK and elsewhere have mutations across spike and in parts of the protein involved in getting inside your cells.

Experiments will have to be conducted in the lab to ascertain if—and how—these mutations significantly change the spike, and whether our current control measures remain effective.

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Explore further

COVID-19 vaccines focus on the spike protein – but here's another target

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Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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To defeat the virus anywhere, we must defeat it everywhere

Lisa Nandy LABOUR MP



The director general of the World Health Organisation earlier this year said: “The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself. Rather, it is the lack of leadership and solidarity at the global and national levels.” After the global financial crash in 2008, thanks in no small part to the leadership shown by Gordon Brown, world leaders came together to stem global economic haemorrhaging and take action to protect jobs, pensions and life savings. This time, that sort of leadership has been desperately lacking.

At the outset of the pandemic, a chaotic scramble to procure personal protective equipment saw governments compete with each other, pushing up prices. Tensions between China and the USA created a toxic environment for cooperation across borders, while the US withdrew entirely from the WHO. Vaccine nationalism rose as countries scrambled to buy up doses for their own citizens 12 months in and the global economic plan remains inadequate while UK leadership has been lacking.

The greatest challenge in 2021 will be the manufacture and distribution of a vaccine around the world. If we do not succeed, not only will we fail in our moral duty to some of the poorest people in the world but the health and economic fallout will be prolonged in every part of the world. To defeat the virus anywhere, we must defeat it everywhere.

That is why 2021 must be the year that the UK ends a decade of global retreat and drives a renewed international effort to tackle Covid, starting with a more just vaccine distribution to shorten the global crisis and aid the economic recovery of all countries. We will all be safest when every country can fight that pandemic with the best tools available.

One of the key challenges is funding. The UN initiative to develop, produce and fairly distribute tests, treatments and vaccines against Covid-19 is facing a £28bn budget shortfall. Part of this is an unprecedented global agreement (COVAX) on vaccine production and distribution that has brought together poorer and richer countries on an equal footing in pursuit of equitable access. But the government quickly needs to step up diplomatic efforts to ensure it is a success.

COVAX needs adequate funds to manufacture and distribute sufficient quantities of the vaccine. The UK should also be working to persuade all countries to do their part. However, the decision to abolish a longstanding commit to spending 0.7% of GNI on aid has eroded Britain’s moral authority at precisely the moment it is needed. With the election of Joe Biden, the USA may step forward, rejoining not only the World Health Organisation but possibly becoming full participants in the COVAX initiative too. We should be reaching out to President-Elect Biden to try to secure a change of course from the USA.

Second, we need to ensure intellectual property works for public health, starting with fair and transparent pricing. AstraZeneca have said their vaccine developed with Oxford will be available not for profit, at least during the duration of the pandemic, but there are many other barriers among different vaccines to scaling up production and distribution to the level it needs to be, including pricing and licensing. It would be a disaster if poorer countries and poorer citizens were cut off from access because they cannot afford to pay. By taking steps on this ourselves, we can light the way to ensure others follow suit.

Ours is a country where brilliant scientists came together with their international counterparts to pioneer treatments and vaccines. It’s a country with the sort of universal healthcare system, free at the point of use, which is a distant dream for so many people across the world. Yet we have a government with so little competence, energy or foresight that we end this year with one of the highest death tolls in Europe, the worst recession of any major economy and a sense amongst our allies abroad that we are absent from the biggest global challenge of my lifetime. For all of our sakes, 2021 has got to be the year that changes.

Lisa Nandy is Shadow Foreign Secretary, Labour MP for Wigan 

and co-founder of Centre for Towns.

all articles by Lisa Nandy

LABOUR LIST

Christmas comes early as Health Canada authorizes Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

Canada to receive Moderna vaccine in coming days

Canada is expected to begin receiving shipments of the recently approved Moderna vaccine within the next 48 hours.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, December 23, 2020 

OTTAWA -- Canadians received an early Christmas present on Wednesday as Health Canada declared a new COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. biotech firm Moderna safe for use, paving the way for a second inoculation to start arriving in the country in the coming days.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed the move during a news conference in which he also announced that Canada will receive more doses next month of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine than previously expected, after it was approved by Health Canada on Dec. 9.

Between the early doses already in the country, and the shipments now scheduled, Canada should have at least 1.2 million doses from Pfizer and Moderna delivered by Jan. 31, Trudeau said outside his Ottawa home.


PHOTOS

FILE - In this Monday, May 18, 2020, file photo, a sign marks an entrance to a Moderna, Inc., building, in Cambridge, Mass. Moderna Inc. says it will ask U.S. and European regulators to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine as new study results confirm the shots offer strong protection. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes, File)

Yet it wasn't all good news as the surge in new COVID-19 cases continued across much of the country, with Quebec reporting another new daily record. Quebec reported 2,247 new infections -- one day after it posted 2,183 new cases, which was a record at the time.

Meanwhile, Ontario was preparing for a provincewide lockdown on Boxing Day.

Trudeau also announced Canada was extending a ban on flights from Britain for another two weeks to Jan. 6 as the United Kingdom struggles with a new strain of COVID-19 that experts suggest is more contagious than other variants.

The prime minister also committed another $70 million to help the Canadian Red Cross as it faces growing demand for help from long-term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec that have been overwhelmed by the pandemic.

"The Red Cross has done outstanding work over the last year to keep people safe," Trudeau said. "As we deal with this second wave, we need their expertise more than ever."

Hours before the prime minister addressed Canadians, Health Canada announced that it had approved the Moderna vaccine following rigorous testing, with up to 168,000 doses set to be delivered by the end of December.

"After assessing all the data, we concluded that there was strong evidence that showed the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the potential risks," Health Canada's chief medical officer Dr. Supriya Sharma told a news conference in Ottawa.

"Today's authorization is one more tool in our toolbox to bring COVID-19 under control."

While the Pfizer vaccine has already started to be distributed in different cities across Canada, Sharma indicated the Moderna inoculation will likely be distributed to more remote communities.

That is because it does not require the same level of extreme-cold storage as the Pfizer version.

"Since many Canadians live outside major urban areas, this vaccine can be used in communities that haven't had access to COVID-19 vaccines to date," Sharma said.

The first doses are prioritized for front-line health staff, residents and workers in long-term care, adults in remote Indigenous communities, and seniors over the age of 80 living in the community.

Yukon's minister of health said Wednesday that immunization clinics will begin in the territory in the first week of January.


Pauline Frost described the Moderna approval as the "exciting news Yukoners have been waiting for."

She said delivery of 7,200 doses, expected by the end of this month, will be enough to allow 3,600 residents of the territory to receive the two doses needed to provide immunity against the virus.

Canada is to get 40 million doses of Moderna's vaccine in 2021, enough to vaccinate 20 million people, or about two-thirds of the Canadian adult population.

The vaccine is not yet recommended for use on children as tests on adolescents only began in December and tests on children younger than 12 won't begin until next year.

Moderna will have to continue to provide information to the regulator on the safety of the vaccine, Sharma said.

People with severe allergies have been advised against getting the Pfizer vaccine after several people in the United Kingdom had reactions to the inoculation. Sharma said the same advice is being given for the Moderna inoculation.

Canada's doses of the Moderna vaccine are being made in Europe.

Two more vaccines are being reviewed by Health Canada, one from AstraZeneca and the other from Johnson and Johnson, Sharma said, but more information is needed before they can be approved.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2020.

 

Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine submitted for UK approval

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The University of Oxford and drug manufacturer AstraZeneca have applied to the UK health regulator for permission to roll out their COVID-19 vaccine, Health Minister Matt Hancock said Wednesday.

"I'm delighted to be able to tell you that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine developed here in the UK has submitted its full data package to the MHRA for approval," he said.

"This is the next step towards a decision on the deployment of the vaccine," the health minister added at a press conference where he announced Britain would impose travel restrictions on South Africa to curb the spread of another new, more transmissible strain of the coronavirus.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first coronavirus shot to be authorised for use by the UK's independent medicines regulator and has been given to 500,000 of the country's most vulnerable people since its rollout last month.

The bulk of Britain's vaccine requirements are expected to be met by the jab developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, as the government has ordered 100 million doses.

TORONTO DEATH OF ACTIVIST SPARKS QUESTIONS

Scientist working on covid vaccine found dead with stab wounds after fall from building

Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kagansky was best known for his work on fighting cancer. He fell from the 14th floor window of a residential tower block in just his underwear

By
Kelly-Ann Mills
21 DEC 2020

A top scientist who was ‘working on a Covid-19 vaccine’ has been found dead in suspicious circumstances.

Biologist Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kagansky, who had close links with Edinburgh University, was reported to have fallen in his underwear from a 14th floor window of a high rise residential building in St Petersburg, Russia.

The 45-year-old, best known for his work on fighting cancer, had a stab wound on his body, according to Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a murder probe and a 45-year-old male suspect has been detained.

Dr Kagansky - an assistant professor in Vladivostok - had been working in Edinburgh for 13 years until at least 2017.

Alexander Kagansky was found dead (Image: Alexander Kagansky)    

Russian scientist 'working on Covid-19 vaccine' falls to his death from 14th floor window 'in his underwear after being stabbed' in latest mysterious violent death linked to coronavirus
Biologist Alexander 'Sasha' Kagansky, 45, was found dead in St Petersburg 

His death comes as six Russians plunged to their deaths from hospital windows earlier this year in Covid-related deaths

74-year-old Nadezhda Salkova fell from a fourth-floor hospital window in June
Ten days earlier a 68-year old man plunged to his death from a Yaroslavl hospital 

By WILL STEWART IN MOSCOW FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 21 December 2020

A top Russian scientist with close links to Edinburgh University who was 'working on a Covid-19 vaccine' has been found dead in suspicious circumstances in St Petersburg.

Biologist Alexander 'Sasha' Kagansky, 45, best known for his work on fighting cancer, was reported to have fallen in his underwear from a 14th floor window of a high rise residential building.

He also had a stab wound on his body, according to Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK).

The death follows six Russians plunging to their deaths from hospital windows earlier this year. 

Five of the victims were being treated for coronavirus whilst one victim was a doctor who had complained about PPE shortages. Another doctor fell from a hospital window, but he survived and remains in hospital with head injuries.

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Biologist Alexander 'Sasha' Kagansky, 45, best known for his work on fighting cancer, was reported to have fallen in his underwear from a 14th floor window of a high rise residential building

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a murder probe into the death of Dr Kaganksy and a 45-year-old male suspect has been detained.

The suspect, who is reportedly a friend of Dr Kaganksy, has claimed that the biologist was in a mentally unstable state before his death and injured himself with a knife, reports Bild. 

He claimed that Dr Kaganksy jumped from the balcony when he tried to take the weapon from him. 

Dr Kagansky - an assistant professor in Vladivostok - had been working in Edinburgh for 13 years until at least 2017.

He was lately Director of the Centre for Genomic and Regenerative Medicine at Russia's Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, where he continued research collaboration with the Scottish university.

MK reported that the academic had been 'developing a vaccine against coronavirus' and that he died 'under strange circumstances'.


Dr Kaganksy's death brings the number of coronavirus-linked window falls in Russia to eight, all but one of them fatal

The report gave no further details about which of a number of international Covid-19 vaccines he was supposed to have been working on.

He had gone to St Petersburg to visit the graves of his relatives, and had gone to see an old school friend named Igor Ivanov, said one account.

Police believe there was a 'scuffle' before Kagansky fell, according to a report.

His body was found by a woman resident under a block on Zamshin Street in Russia's second city in early afternoon yesterday (SAT). Law enforcement are investigating the circumstances of his death, say reports.

The committee said today a St Petersburg resident, aged 45, had been detained as a suspect, and a criminal case for murder had been opened following the discovery of the body 'with signs of a violent death'.

Russia's mysterious covid death victims 

Natalya Shcherbakova, 45 – believed to have fallen to her death after the drugs used to treat her coronavirus altered her state of mind.

Dr Yelena Nepomnyaschchava, 47 – fell to her death after complaining about 'acute shortage' of PPE

Dr Natalya Lebedeva, 48 – fell to her death while being treated for Covid-19 after she was 'unfairly blamed' for the spread of coronvairus at her clinic 

Nadezhda Salkovae, 74 – fell to her death while being treated for Covid-19

An unidentified man, 68, fell to his death while being treated for Covid-19 in intensive care 

Another man, 49, fell to his death while being treated for Covid-19 

SURVIVED: Dr Alexander Shulepov, 37 – remains in hospital with head injuries after plunging from a second floor window after complaining about PPE shortages and being made to work despite suffering from the virus

Between 2005 and 2012, Dr Kaganksy worked at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, as a postdoctoral research associate then a senior research associate.

He had recently received a Russian grant to study new ways of diagnosing and treating malignant brain tumours.

He was an advocate of research into the uses of herbs and mushrooms as potentially offering solutions in treating cancers. Earlier he had studied and worked in the US.

In 1991 as the USSR collapsed he was the first Russian delegate to the European Youth Parliament. He was also a member of Young Academy of Scotland.

Dr Kaganksy's death brings the number of coronavirus-linked window falls in Russia to eight, all but one of them fatal. 

Nadezhda Salkova, age 74, fell in June from a fourth floor window of Semashko Hospital in Moscow where she was undergoing treatment for coronavirus.

She had been alone in a hospital room where she had been undergoing treatment for nearly three weeks, and the circumstances of her 40ft fall are under investigation by police. 

Family members of other victims have suggested coronavirus sufferers are experiencing suicidal thoughts from drugs used to treat them, causing them to try and kill themselves. 




Relatives say Mrs Shcherbakova - a police forensic officer who fell sick at work - was not suicidal and suspect an antibiotic she was given is to blame

Ten days earlier, a 68-year-old man suffering from Covid-19 plunged to his death from a window in the intensive care ward of Veterans' Hospital in Yaroslavl.

It has also emerged that a man, 49, with confirmed coronavirus fell 60ft from the window of a Moscow perinatal hospital which was reassigned to treat pandemic victims.

The family of police lieutenant-colonel Natalya Shcherbakova, 45, who died after a 50ft fall on 30 May, believe that drugs used to treat her coronavirus may have altered her state of mind.

She and her widower Konstantin were both senior police forensic experts, and her distraught family have called for checks on the medicines and their mind-changing impact.


Mrs Shcherbakova fell from the fifth floor of this hospital, crashing through mosquito netting before suffering fatal injuries as she hit the ground

Her death comes after two coronavirus medics - Yelena Nepomnyashchaya (left) and Natalya Lebedeva (right) - also fell to their deaths from hospital windows

What is levofloxacin?

Levofloxacin is an antibiotic that is used to treat infections of bones, joints, ears and airways.

The drug has common side-effects that are often seen with antibiotics - including diarrhea, rashes, dizziness and heartburn.

However, it can also interfere with the nervous system of patients and cause a range of rare but mind-altering effects.

These include hallucinations, anxiety, paranoia and suicidal thoughts or behaviours. 

Patients with a history of mental illness are considered more likely to suffer from these effects.

People with a history of seizures are also asked to inform their doctor, because the medication could also put them at risk of suffering more. 

Shcherbakova had told a family member she was horrified about earlier Covid-19 hospital fall cases - all involving medics - and could not understand why they were happening.

Then she plunged to her death in exactly the same way.

Her family - including widower Konstantin, 61, and their twin daughters, 19 - are now seeking urgent answers about her death, which they say may have been caused by antibiotic levofloxacin that she was given before her fall. 

The forensic expert began feeling 'anxious that she could die' and in phone calls to her family 'her mood was going downhill'.

Yet a doctor told one of her daughters, who expressed concern at her mood swings, that she was not in danger.

'She is completely fine, are you mad?' said the medic.

On May 31, shortly before falling from the window, she had made herself a cup of tea and managed to eat, she told one of her daughters.

At 7.44pm she informed her family she was being put on a drip, a procedure which should have taken two hours. She was briefly online at 8.37pm.

At 11pm her husband and one daughter took a call from the hospital saying: 'You know, she jumped from the fifth floor….'

She died soon afterwards despite attempts to save her. 

She was 'happily married', close to her daughters, and a respected forensic specialist consulted by experts from across Russia. 


Natalya Shcherbakova, 45, fell 50ft to her death from a hospital window in Moscow on May 31 while being treated for coronavirus

The family have been told that she was being treated with antibiotic Levofloxacin.

The powerful antibiotic can be used to treat pneumonia, but in rare cases can interfere with the nervous system and cause serious psychological side effects.

These can include hallucinations, paranoia, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

It is not known if other hospital window victims were treated with this same drug. 

Dr Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, 47, a mother of two from a medical family, sustained fatal injuries after falling 50ft from a window at her Krasnoyarsk hospital.

She fell soon after complaining of an 'acute shortage' of PPE and died on 1 May, the only one of the victims who was not known to be suffering from coronavirus.

Dr Natalya Lebedeva, 48, was hospitalised with Covid-19 when she plunged 60ft to her death on 24 April after she was 'unfairly blamed' for the spread of coronavirus at her clinic in Star City, near Moscow, the training centre for cosmonauts.


The Moscow State Clinical Hospital where Natalya Shcherbakova was treated for Covid-19 

Dr Alexander Shulepov, 37, remains in hospital with head injuries after plunging from a second floor window sustaining skull fractures.

He was diagnosed with Covid-19 and had complained about PPE shortages and being made to work despite suffering from the virus.

His wife Maria Shulepova was banned from speaking to the media over the incident.

Lt Col Shcherbakova had been treated for coronavirus with antibiotic Levofloxacin, a drug which can trigger 'suicidal thoughts and attempts' as rare side effects, according to Russian sources.

Her family were told there were also traces of an unnamed antidepressant in her blood.

Close medical observation for two hours after taking this drug was recommended, her relatives were informed, but she had not been put under any supervision, say sources.

She is known to have been on a drip shortly before her fall.

Alexander Shulepov (left) also suffered severe head injuries after falling from a hospital window after criticising the Russian government's response to coronavirus