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Friday, February 19, 2021
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/science/antimicrobial-resistance-and-covid-19-implications/article/585656#ixzz6mvo7324h
Coronavirus pandemic: Some of the wealthiest countries pledge to share vaccines
Issued on:
French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed that rich Western countries transfer 3-5 percent of their stock of Covid-19 vaccines to Africa, in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday. With developing countries struggling in the race to vaccinate their populations against the coronavirus, Macron argued that failure to share the vaccine would exacerbate global inequality. FRANCE 24's International Affairs Editor Armen Georgian tells us more.
U.N. chief calls for global vaccine plan, says rollout 'widely uneven'
FEB. 18, 2021
A health care worker administers the coronavirus vaccine to a school staff member in Medina, Ohio, Feb. 4. Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 17 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged for the creation of a global vaccination plan while chastising the "widely uneven and unfair" distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Guterres, speaking before the U.N. Security Council in a virtual meeting on Wednesday, said the recent rollout of vaccines has given hope to the world but 10 countries account for 75% of all vaccines while more than 130 nations have yet to receive a single dose.
"At this critical moment, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community," he said. "We must ensure that everybody, everywhere, can be vaccinated as soon as possible."
Guterres warned if the virus is allowed to spread anywhere in the world it will mutate and keep everyone at risk as the new variants may be more communicable and more deadly while possibly threatening the effectiveness of the vaccines already developed.
RELATED Reports: North Korea ignored China, Russia COVID-19 vaccine offers
"The world urgently needs a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities," he said.
The G20 wealthy nations should establish an emergency task force to create, coordinate, implement and finance this plan, he said.
"I am ready to galvanize the full United Nations System in support of this effort," he said.
RELATED Japan begins COVID-19 vaccinations as cases rise
The call was made nearly three months after Britain inoculated the first person against the coronavirus.
The virus, which first emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, has infected more than 109 million people, including 2.4 million who died, according to a live map of the disease by Johns Hopkins University.
FEB. 18, 2021
A health care worker administers the coronavirus vaccine to a school staff member in Medina, Ohio, Feb. 4. Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 17 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged for the creation of a global vaccination plan while chastising the "widely uneven and unfair" distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Guterres, speaking before the U.N. Security Council in a virtual meeting on Wednesday, said the recent rollout of vaccines has given hope to the world but 10 countries account for 75% of all vaccines while more than 130 nations have yet to receive a single dose.
"At this critical moment, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community," he said. "We must ensure that everybody, everywhere, can be vaccinated as soon as possible."
Guterres warned if the virus is allowed to spread anywhere in the world it will mutate and keep everyone at risk as the new variants may be more communicable and more deadly while possibly threatening the effectiveness of the vaccines already developed.
RELATED Reports: North Korea ignored China, Russia COVID-19 vaccine offers
"The world urgently needs a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities," he said.
The G20 wealthy nations should establish an emergency task force to create, coordinate, implement and finance this plan, he said.
"I am ready to galvanize the full United Nations System in support of this effort," he said.
RELATED Japan begins COVID-19 vaccinations as cases rise
The call was made nearly three months after Britain inoculated the first person against the coronavirus.
The virus, which first emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, has infected more than 109 million people, including 2.4 million who died, according to a live map of the disease by Johns Hopkins University.
Experts: COVID-19 genetic testing must be bolstered to slow new strain spread
Experts said Thursday that researchers need to do more genomic sequencing of COVID-19 patient samples to track the spread of new coronavirus strains -- which appear to spread faster, and could delay herd immunity.
RELATED Fauci: New COVID-19 variants 'challenging,' but vaccines will help
Although new variants or strains of the virus may not necessarily cause more severe symptoms of COVID-19 or render existing vaccines useless, research suggests they spread much faster, virologist Andy Pekosz said.
"And more cases means there will be more sick people," said Pekosz, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, during a conference call with reporters.
All viruses mutate, and the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, is no exception.
RELATED Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine effective in blocking new strains
In January, the CDC predicted that the B.1.1.7, or British, variant could become the "predominant" one circulating in the United States by the end of March.
Through Tuesday, just over 1,200 known U.S. cases were caused by the variant, said Gronvall, an associate professor of environmental health and engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The CDC reported 19 cases of the B.1.351, or South African, variant and one case of the P.1, or Brazil, variant reported in the United States so far.
However, those could be significant underestimates, given the lack of genetic testing currently being done, Gronvall said.
"We have not done a great job of sequencing the clinical isolates to this point [so] it's fully possible there are more of these variants, as well as other variants, out there," Gronvall said.
A report issued earlier this week by Pekosz and Gronvall's colleagues at Johns Hopkins calls for a national genomic surveillance strategy to better identify new strains of the coronavirus and contain outbreaks.
Although research to date suggests that the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are effective against the so-called "U.K. variant," the studies have been limited in size and scope.
Still, immunity derived from prior exposure to other strains of the coronavirus, or from vaccination, should continue to "lower the number of people susceptible to the virus and reduce the spread of the virus" in the United States, Pekosz said.
"The variants aren't magic -- masks still work, the tests still work [and] research indicates the vaccines ... still work," Gronvall said.
Experts said Thursday that researchers need to do more genomic sequencing of COVID-19 patient samples to track the spread of new coronavirus strains -- which appear to spread faster, and could delay herd immunity.
File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The United States must continue to ramp up surveillance efforts designed to spot new variants of the coronavirus to contain the pandemic, experts said Thursday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently expanded screening of virus samples for new genetic mutations that may affect how quickly it spreads and whether vaccines will work against it.
Through early January, just 0.3% of 18.2 million samples, or around 51,000, collected from U.S. COVID-19 patients underwent genomic sequencing -- genetic analysis designed to spot mutations or changes in the virus DNA -- according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
As of this week, the CDC said it is analyzing about 4,500 of the roughly 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 identified each day.
Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The United States must continue to ramp up surveillance efforts designed to spot new variants of the coronavirus to contain the pandemic, experts said Thursday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently expanded screening of virus samples for new genetic mutations that may affect how quickly it spreads and whether vaccines will work against it.
Through early January, just 0.3% of 18.2 million samples, or around 51,000, collected from U.S. COVID-19 patients underwent genomic sequencing -- genetic analysis designed to spot mutations or changes in the virus DNA -- according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
As of this week, the CDC said it is analyzing about 4,500 of the roughly 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 identified each day.
RELATED Fauci: New COVID-19 variants 'challenging,' but vaccines will help
Although new variants or strains of the virus may not necessarily cause more severe symptoms of COVID-19 or render existing vaccines useless, research suggests they spread much faster, virologist Andy Pekosz said.
"And more cases means there will be more sick people," said Pekosz, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, during a conference call with reporters.
All viruses mutate, and the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, is no exception.
RELATED Experts: COVID-19 variants may stall herd immunity, but double-masking could help
Tracking how these mutations affect spread of the virus or how it evades the immune system once people have been exposed or vaccinated, however, requires broad-based genomic sequencing, according to Pekosz.
Although that effort has been ramped up dramatically in recent weeks with the emergence of the more contagious strains, it is still not sufficient to contain them, said Pekosz and his colleague, immunologist Gigi Gronvall, who also was on the call.
Britain has sequenced more than 7% of collected samples, Johns Hopkins experts estimate.
Tracking how these mutations affect spread of the virus or how it evades the immune system once people have been exposed or vaccinated, however, requires broad-based genomic sequencing, according to Pekosz.
Although that effort has been ramped up dramatically in recent weeks with the emergence of the more contagious strains, it is still not sufficient to contain them, said Pekosz and his colleague, immunologist Gigi Gronvall, who also was on the call.
Britain has sequenced more than 7% of collected samples, Johns Hopkins experts estimate.
RELATED Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine effective in blocking new strains
In January, the CDC predicted that the B.1.1.7, or British, variant could become the "predominant" one circulating in the United States by the end of March.
Through Tuesday, just over 1,200 known U.S. cases were caused by the variant, said Gronvall, an associate professor of environmental health and engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The CDC reported 19 cases of the B.1.351, or South African, variant and one case of the P.1, or Brazil, variant reported in the United States so far.
However, those could be significant underestimates, given the lack of genetic testing currently being done, Gronvall said.
"We have not done a great job of sequencing the clinical isolates to this point [so] it's fully possible there are more of these variants, as well as other variants, out there," Gronvall said.
A report issued earlier this week by Pekosz and Gronvall's colleagues at Johns Hopkins calls for a national genomic surveillance strategy to better identify new strains of the coronavirus and contain outbreaks.
Although research to date suggests that the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are effective against the so-called "U.K. variant," the studies have been limited in size and scope.
Still, immunity derived from prior exposure to other strains of the coronavirus, or from vaccination, should continue to "lower the number of people susceptible to the virus and reduce the spread of the virus" in the United States, Pekosz said.
"The variants aren't magic -- masks still work, the tests still work [and] research indicates the vaccines ... still work," Gronvall said.
SYSTEMIC RACISM
Study: Black, Hispanic seniors in U.S. far less likely to get flu vaccine each year
Older Black and Hispanic people in the U.S. are less likely to be vaccinated against the flu than older White and Asian people, a new study has found. Photo by marcolohpsoares/Pixabay
Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Less than one-third of Black and Hispanic seniors in the United States received the flu vaccine in the 2015-16 winter season, according to a study published Thursday by Lancet Healthy Longevity.
This compares to nearly half of all White and Asian seniors being vaccinated against the flu in winter 2015-16, the most recent year for which data was available, researchers reported.
Across all older adults covered by Medicare, the government-run health insurance provider for seniors, 48% received any form of flu vaccine during that year's flu season.
The lower vaccination rates among some people of color highlight race-based disparities in access to healthcare in general, and vaccination services in particular, researchers said.
RELATED Experts: Vaccines likely to be effective against new COVID-19 variants
"Our finding ... rules out the often-cited justifications for inequities in vaccine uptake, such as higher levels of vaccine hesitancy and distrust of public institutions among minority groups," study co-author Salah Mahmud said in a press release.
"Rather, our study points to deeply rooted structural deficits that systematically hamper access to influenza vaccination, which may be have serious implications for our ability to effectively roll out the COVID-19 vaccination program," said Mahmud, a professor of community health sciences and pharmacy at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada.
This year, the annual flu shot was recommended for all people in the United States due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In normal flu seasons, vaccination rates are generally less than 50% of the total population, based on agency estimates
.
RELATED Researchers close in on 'universal' flu vaccine as COVID-19 fight takes priority
For this study, Mahmud and his colleagues reviewed vaccination records for roughly 26.5 million Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older in the United States during the 2015-16 flu season.
Among Medicare beneficiaries, 29% of those who identified as Hispanic and just under 33% of those who identified as Black received the annual shot.
Forty-eight percent of Asian beneficiaries and 49% of White beneficiaries were vaccinated against the flu.
RELATED Researchers close in on 'universal' flu vaccine as COVID-19 fight takes priority
For this study, Mahmud and his colleagues reviewed vaccination records for roughly 26.5 million Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older in the United States during the 2015-16 flu season.
Among Medicare beneficiaries, 29% of those who identified as Hispanic and just under 33% of those who identified as Black received the annual shot.
Forty-eight percent of Asian beneficiaries and 49% of White beneficiaries were vaccinated against the flu.
RELATED COVID-19 protection measures likely limiting flu spread
Even among those vaccinated, there were racial and ethnic inequities in access to the high-dose flu shot, which is recommended for people older than 65 because of their increased risk for severe illness from the virus.
Nearly 54% of White seniors received the high-dose flu shot compared with 38% Hispanic seniors, 41% Black seniors and 40% of Asian seniors.
These inequities persisted after accounting for region, income, chronic health conditions and patterns of healthcare use among beneficiaries included in the analysis, the researchers said.
Racial and ethnic minorities were up to 32% less likely to receive the high-dose vaccine compared to White people.
The findings point to "systemic failings" that must be addressed to increase vaccine uptake, particularly for COVID-19, which has disproportionately affected Black Americans and other minorities, the researchers said.
"These findings are alarming because they point to a level of disparity that can hamper efforts to reduce the burden not just of flu, but for other vaccine-preventable diseases," study co-author Laura Lee Hall said.
While there is a variety of factors that figure in to why people of color may face more challenges in terms of accessing healthcare, "these factors are themselves the results of deeply ingrained discrimination and implicit bias in the health system and broader society," said Hall, president of the National Minority Quality Forum's Center for Sustainable Health Care Quality and Equity.
POLITICAL ECOLOGY
Deepwater Horizon spill has long-term effects on dolphins' immune systems
Scientists have been regularly capturing, sampling and releasing bottlenose dolphins exposed to the Deepwater Oil spill in 2010, and report that the immunological effects on the mammals can still be seen -- even in younger dolphins. Photo by Todd Speakman
Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Ten years after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering the largest marine oil spill in history, dolphins are still experiencing the immunological effects of exposure, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
The new research is only the latest study to show the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill were larger and longer-lasting than previously estimated -- capable of disrupting entire food webs and even affecting animals on land.
Over the last decade, researchers have been regularly capturing, sampling and releasing bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, where oil exposure was extensive.
Researchers compared levels of cytokines -- immunological proteins -- in dolphins from Barataria Bay with the immune system profiles of dolphins in Sarasota Bay, which remained oil-free.
RELATED Survey shows pollution in Gulf 10 years after Deepwater Horizon spill
In the new study, researchers even found evidence that dolphins born after the oil spill host cytokine communities similar to their parents.
Scientists were able to replicate the immunological effects of oil exposure in the lab using mice models.
They were also able to show oil exposure influenced the immune systems of the next generation of mice, even though the newborn mice were unexposed.
RELATED On This Day: Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes
"The parallel between findings in dolphins exposed following the Deepwater Horizon spill and laboratory mice experimentally exposed to oil was impressive and really helped build the weight of evidence between oil exposure and specific effects on the immune system," corresponding author Sylvain De Guise said in a news release.
"However, the long-term effects and potential for multigenerational effects raise significant concerns for the recovery of dolphin populations following the spill," said De Guise, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Connecticut.
Deepwater Horizon spill has long-term effects on dolphins' immune systems
Scientists have been regularly capturing, sampling and releasing bottlenose dolphins exposed to the Deepwater Oil spill in 2010, and report that the immunological effects on the mammals can still be seen -- even in younger dolphins. Photo by Todd Speakman
Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Ten years after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering the largest marine oil spill in history, dolphins are still experiencing the immunological effects of exposure, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
The new research is only the latest study to show the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill were larger and longer-lasting than previously estimated -- capable of disrupting entire food webs and even affecting animals on land.
Over the last decade, researchers have been regularly capturing, sampling and releasing bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, where oil exposure was extensive.
Researchers compared levels of cytokines -- immunological proteins -- in dolphins from Barataria Bay with the immune system profiles of dolphins in Sarasota Bay, which remained oil-free.
RELATED Survey shows pollution in Gulf 10 years after Deepwater Horizon spill
In the new study, researchers even found evidence that dolphins born after the oil spill host cytokine communities similar to their parents.
Scientists were able to replicate the immunological effects of oil exposure in the lab using mice models.
They were also able to show oil exposure influenced the immune systems of the next generation of mice, even though the newborn mice were unexposed.
RELATED On This Day: Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes
"The parallel between findings in dolphins exposed following the Deepwater Horizon spill and laboratory mice experimentally exposed to oil was impressive and really helped build the weight of evidence between oil exposure and specific effects on the immune system," corresponding author Sylvain De Guise said in a news release.
"However, the long-term effects and potential for multigenerational effects raise significant concerns for the recovery of dolphin populations following the spill," said De Guise, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Connecticut.
Depleted uranium munitions didn't cause Gulf War Illness, study says
The Super Pull Apart Machine (SPAM) dissassembles depleted uranium rounds at the Tooele Army Depot at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois.
RELATED Iran to limit inspections if U.S., other nations don't comply with nuclear deal
"That depleted uranium is not and never was in the bodies of those who are ill at sufficient quantities to cause disease will surprise many, including sufferers who have, for 30 years, suspected depleted uranium may have contributed to their illness," Parrish said in a press release.
The military has used deployed uranium for tank armor and munitions since the 1990s.
THEY ARE ADMITTING THESE VETS WERE POISIONED
The National Academy of Medicine has released numerous Department of Veterans Affairs-supported reports on possible causes of the illness, and researchers have noted that Gulf War veterans were exposed to a long list of hazards not seen in previous conflicts, making it difficult to single out a cause.
The Super Pull Apart Machine (SPAM) dissassembles depleted uranium rounds at the Tooele Army Depot at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois.
Photo by Sal (Tony) Lopez/Joint Munitions Command
Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Veterans with Gulf War Illness don't have any more depleted uranium in their bodies than veterans of the same conflict who never got sick, a new study says.
The study, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, is the first to investigate the link between depleted uranium from exploding munitions and Gulf War Illness, a chronic multi-symptom illness afflicting about 25% of those who served in the 1991 Gulf War.
Some sufferers from the syndrome have long suspected they got it from uranium in exploded munitions.
But Robert Haley, M.D., director of the division of epidemiology at University of Texas Southwestern, and Randall Parrish, Ph.D., professor of isotope geology at the University of Portsmouth in England, found no differences in the secretion of uranium isotopic ratios from those meeting the criteria for the illness and from Gulf War veterans in the control group.
Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Veterans with Gulf War Illness don't have any more depleted uranium in their bodies than veterans of the same conflict who never got sick, a new study says.
The study, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, is the first to investigate the link between depleted uranium from exploding munitions and Gulf War Illness, a chronic multi-symptom illness afflicting about 25% of those who served in the 1991 Gulf War.
Some sufferers from the syndrome have long suspected they got it from uranium in exploded munitions.
But Robert Haley, M.D., director of the division of epidemiology at University of Texas Southwestern, and Randall Parrish, Ph.D., professor of isotope geology at the University of Portsmouth in England, found no differences in the secretion of uranium isotopic ratios from those meeting the criteria for the illness and from Gulf War veterans in the control group.
RELATED Iran to limit inspections if U.S., other nations don't comply with nuclear deal
"That depleted uranium is not and never was in the bodies of those who are ill at sufficient quantities to cause disease will surprise many, including sufferers who have, for 30 years, suspected depleted uranium may have contributed to their illness," Parrish said in a press release.
The military has used deployed uranium for tank armor and munitions since the 1990s.
THEY ARE ADMITTING THESE VETS WERE POISIONED
The National Academy of Medicine has released numerous Department of Veterans Affairs-supported reports on possible causes of the illness, and researchers have noted that Gulf War veterans were exposed to a long list of hazards not seen in previous conflicts, making it difficult to single out a cause.
RIGHT WING BUDDHIST Monks target vehicles parked in protest against Myanmar's coup
Suspected culprits have included physical and psychological stresses of war, pesticide or nerve gas exposure, pyridostigmine bromide pills taken by troops to protect against nerve agents, vaccinations for in-theater infections and toxins and exposure to downwind oil and smoke that spewed for months from hundreds of burning oil wells -- as well as depleted uranium munitions.
Symptoms of GWI are similar to those associated with autonomic nervous system abnormalities and dysfunction of the brain's cholinergic system and include fatigue, fever, night sweats, memory and concentration problems, diarrhea, sexual dysfunction and chronic body pain.
Suspected culprits have included physical and psychological stresses of war, pesticide or nerve gas exposure, pyridostigmine bromide pills taken by troops to protect against nerve agents, vaccinations for in-theater infections and toxins and exposure to downwind oil and smoke that spewed for months from hundreds of burning oil wells -- as well as depleted uranium munitions.
Symptoms of GWI are similar to those associated with autonomic nervous system abnormalities and dysfunction of the brain's cholinergic system and include fatigue, fever, night sweats, memory and concentration problems, diarrhea, sexual dysfunction and chronic body pain.
COLONIALIST RACISM
Food poverty plagues foreign students in UK during pandemicIssued on: 19/02/2021 -
UK food banks have become a lifeline for foreign students impoverished by the pandemic
TOLGA AKMEN AFP
London (AFP)
On a recent rainy evening in East London, dozens of young people lined up outside a cramped community hub to collect rice, vegetables and other food essentials.
In the line were foreign students who came to Britain to pursue their dreams of higher education, but have found themselves plunged into pandemic-driven poverty.
"Finding food here is hard -- prices are higher compared to India," said Jay Patel, an Indian student among those waiting outside the Newham Community Project, a local charity handing out the foodstuffs.
The 19-year-old, who is studying at the University of Greenwich in southeast London, said he has been unable to get a part-time job during the health crisis and could not ask his family back in India for money.
The food bank, which conducts the handouts three nights a week, has become a lifeline for Patel and other foreign students facing a similar plight.
"I actually arrived at the wrong time," he added of coming to the UK.
"It's a very difficult situation. Without this support, I guess we would have to start starving."
Britain -- which is among the hardest hit countries in Europe from the coronavirus, registering nearly 120,000 deaths and severe economic fallout -- is a popular destination for foreign students.
Repeated lockdowns across the country, requiring all hospitality venues and non-essential retail shops to close, have led to millions losing their jobs.
Students, who often work in low-pay roles in restaurants, bars and stores, have struggled in particular.
- 'Enormous' need -
Despite frigid temperatures and driving rain, the line outside the Newham Community Project remained long throughout the evening until the doors closed at 11:00 pm.
Volunteers have become familiar with some of the regulars, who have been visiting the food bank every week for more than six months.
Inside, they busily pack bags with the packets of rice and other essentials, including ingredients to make vegetarian or halal meals.
The grassroots organisation, first formed in 2008 to help the neediest in Newham -- one of the more deprived areas of the British capital -- began its food distribution efforts during the first lockdown last April, when Ramadan began.
"We started with about 20 food packs a day but slowly, within a couple of weeks, we were getting 800 students," said manager Elyas Ismail.
"We saw the need was enormous, so we've just decided to carry on. And the numbers have just been basically increasing every week."
Ismail estimated he now helps around 2,000 households weekly -- including some groups of up to 15 students crowded into single flats, given London's high rental costs.
The majority of foreign students in Britain are non-European, with more than 400,000 coming in 2020, mostly from China and India, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
At the Newham food bank, almost all are from India.
Ismail noted they are typically from poor families. Often their parents sold jewellery and other possessions of value to fund their children's relocation to the UK.
Volunteer Aamena Ismail, 21, added that their student visas do not allow them to access any government support.
"It's honestly heartbreaking, they come in hoping for a better life," she said.
"The UK government needs to take into account that this policy is just unfair."
- 'Not worth it' -
Alpef Shaik, 23, is one such student who came to Britain to fulfil the dream of his uneducated parents that he get "a better education" for himself.
Six months after his arrival to complete a masters course at the University of East London, the pandemic hit and resulting lockdowns began.
"Things changed very much and it got worse, worse, worse," he told AFP, noting it scuppered his studies and part-time job.
Shaik said the costs of living and studying in the UK were now "not worth it".
"I'm paying for a Rolls-Royce and I'm getting an old normal Toyota car," he added.
Mohammed Ahmed, 25, came to London to support his wife, who is studying at the private BPP University, but now also fears their future is in jeopardy.
"Due to this pandemic situation, we can't fulfil our expectations," he said.
"If the situation continues like this, I'll need to go back to my country, because we can't survive."
© 2021 AFP
London (AFP)
On a recent rainy evening in East London, dozens of young people lined up outside a cramped community hub to collect rice, vegetables and other food essentials.
In the line were foreign students who came to Britain to pursue their dreams of higher education, but have found themselves plunged into pandemic-driven poverty.
"Finding food here is hard -- prices are higher compared to India," said Jay Patel, an Indian student among those waiting outside the Newham Community Project, a local charity handing out the foodstuffs.
The 19-year-old, who is studying at the University of Greenwich in southeast London, said he has been unable to get a part-time job during the health crisis and could not ask his family back in India for money.
The food bank, which conducts the handouts three nights a week, has become a lifeline for Patel and other foreign students facing a similar plight.
"I actually arrived at the wrong time," he added of coming to the UK.
"It's a very difficult situation. Without this support, I guess we would have to start starving."
Britain -- which is among the hardest hit countries in Europe from the coronavirus, registering nearly 120,000 deaths and severe economic fallout -- is a popular destination for foreign students.
Repeated lockdowns across the country, requiring all hospitality venues and non-essential retail shops to close, have led to millions losing their jobs.
Students, who often work in low-pay roles in restaurants, bars and stores, have struggled in particular.
- 'Enormous' need -
Despite frigid temperatures and driving rain, the line outside the Newham Community Project remained long throughout the evening until the doors closed at 11:00 pm.
Volunteers have become familiar with some of the regulars, who have been visiting the food bank every week for more than six months.
Inside, they busily pack bags with the packets of rice and other essentials, including ingredients to make vegetarian or halal meals.
The grassroots organisation, first formed in 2008 to help the neediest in Newham -- one of the more deprived areas of the British capital -- began its food distribution efforts during the first lockdown last April, when Ramadan began.
"We started with about 20 food packs a day but slowly, within a couple of weeks, we were getting 800 students," said manager Elyas Ismail.
"We saw the need was enormous, so we've just decided to carry on. And the numbers have just been basically increasing every week."
Ismail estimated he now helps around 2,000 households weekly -- including some groups of up to 15 students crowded into single flats, given London's high rental costs.
The majority of foreign students in Britain are non-European, with more than 400,000 coming in 2020, mostly from China and India, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
At the Newham food bank, almost all are from India.
Ismail noted they are typically from poor families. Often their parents sold jewellery and other possessions of value to fund their children's relocation to the UK.
Volunteer Aamena Ismail, 21, added that their student visas do not allow them to access any government support.
"It's honestly heartbreaking, they come in hoping for a better life," she said.
"The UK government needs to take into account that this policy is just unfair."
- 'Not worth it' -
Alpef Shaik, 23, is one such student who came to Britain to fulfil the dream of his uneducated parents that he get "a better education" for himself.
Six months after his arrival to complete a masters course at the University of East London, the pandemic hit and resulting lockdowns began.
"Things changed very much and it got worse, worse, worse," he told AFP, noting it scuppered his studies and part-time job.
Shaik said the costs of living and studying in the UK were now "not worth it".
"I'm paying for a Rolls-Royce and I'm getting an old normal Toyota car," he added.
Mohammed Ahmed, 25, came to London to support his wife, who is studying at the private BPP University, but now also fears their future is in jeopardy.
"Due to this pandemic situation, we can't fulfil our expectations," he said.
"If the situation continues like this, I'll need to go back to my country, because we can't survive."
© 2021 AFP
LIKE KATRINA
Black, Hispanic communities suffer unforgiving Texas storm
By Alexa Ura & Juan Pablo Garnham, The Texas Tribune
FEB. 19, 2021 /
Marleny Almendarez, 38, with her niece Madelyne Hernandez, 3, and two boys, Aaron Hall, 11, and Matthew Hall, 14, stand outside their home in Dallas on Thursday. The family spent two nights at a mobile warming station to avoid the cold temperatures. Photo by Ben Torres for The Texas Tribune
Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Neighborhoods across Texas -- some lined with million-dollar homes, others by more modest dwellings -- went cold and dark for days as the state struggled to keep the power on during a dangerous winter storm. But while the catastrophe wrought by unprecedented weather was shared by millions left shivering in their own homes, the suffering was not equally spread.
For low-income Texans like Marleny Almendarez, a single mother of two without reliable income to pay the bills, surviving the massive weather event was made harder by financial and structural imbalances that almost ensure the most marginalized Texans bear the heaviest burdens of natural disasters.
As darkness enveloped her freezing home for a second night Tuesday, Almendarez was prepared to sleep in her car with her kids.
They had made it through Monday night huddled under as many blankets as she could find, in an aging home where three family generations live -- eight people total -- in the majority Hispanic and Black neighborhood of Pleasant Grove in Dallas. The house was so cold that her pet parrot froze to death overnight.
RELATED Storm moves northeast as Texas reels from rare winter gut punch
"I grabbed all my stuff and said 'We are leaving, I'm not going to sleep under 38 degrees again,'" she said in Spanish. "This is a house that is not in very good conditions, it's an old house. We spend a lot on electricity because it's not well insulated."
On Tuesday night, she traded her plans to spend the night in her red 2001 Toyota Corolla for a nearby charter bus that the city set up as a mobile warming station. Finally, they were warm and Almendarez was able to charge her drained cellphone.
Even in her desperation to keep her children safe, she was worrying about how the family would keep the lights on at home after power was finally restored.
RELATED Sen. Cruz says Cancun trip was 'mistake' during Texas freeze
In the last year, some members of her household lost their jobs to the coronavirus pandemic. They all contracted the virus in July after her mother was infected while cleaning homes to help pay the bills. Almendarez, recovering from a 2017 aneurysm that forced her to relearn how to speak and recover mobility in her body, started picking up babysitting and cleaning gigs in the summer after they went into debt to cover their utilities.
The storm and the outages were simply an added layer of pain onto what has been a hellish year for Hispanic families in her neighborhood and across the state.
"It has been infinite sadness. Many people have lost their jobs, have lost relatives and you feel helpless, not being able to do anything," she said.
RELATED Biden orders FEMA to deliver generators, other supplies to Texas
Low-income Texans of color bore some of the heaviest weight of the power outages as the inequities drawn into the state's urban centers were exacerbated in crisis. And more impacted by unemployment and devastation of the pandemic, their troubles won't end after the storm clears and the heat is running again in their homes.
As temperatures dropped into single digits in Austin, electricity was kept on in neighborhoods sharing circuits with critical facilities like hospitals -- facilities less commonly found in poor communities or those whose residents are predominantly Black and Hispanic.
While some Texans escaped to nearby hotels, those who could never afford that option watched the food in their refrigerators -- and the precious dollars spent on it -- spoil.
Cities rushed to set up warming centers to offer cold residents some respite. But with public transportation shut down, those without their own cars were left further out in the cold.
Desperate but too poor to escape the cold, some San Antonio residents with cars relied on local mutual aid organizations for funds to get enough gas in their tanks to relocate.
And even as they endured a crisis brought on by weather, low-wage workers and families without a financial safety net are bracing for the next emergency -- how will they make ends meet when they've been unable to get to work.
"It's short of a nightmare," said Letitia Plummer, a city council member in Houston where about 60% of homes and businesses were without power during the storm. "We are already poor and our communities are already devastated in many ways. ... We are always in a disadvantage, so when one incident happens, it makes us fall so much harder."
Local leaders, particularly those representing mostly Black and Hispanic communities, pointed out that neighborhoods with mostly Black and Hispanic residents tend to have older homes with bad insulation, leaking roofs and older pipes that make them less likely to withstand extreme weather. In the case of Almendarez, this has led to power bills of up to $500 during the summer.
With the state's food supply chain also buckling under the storm's strain, those local leaders are worried about the fallout for areas that lack grocery stores and pharmacies. Plummer said during the storm, the few store shelves in those neighborhoods emptied fast and older people had trouble finding medication.
It's what Jill Ramirez, the CEO of the Latino HealthCare Forum, describes as "chickens coming home to roost" in tragic times.
"When you didn't invest in the whole community equally, then you're going to see the disparity when we get into situations like this," said Ramirez, whose nonprofit typically focused on community-based health outreach has in recent days been trying to connect low-income Texans -- many of them Spanish speakers -- with help to make it through the cold. "Everything is hooked up again to the same inequity."
In the Houston neighborhood of Independence Heights, a historically Black community that is slowly attracting White residents, Tanya Debose surveyed her neighbors over social media to see how they were weathering the storm. She found that while some of her White neighbors had generators on hand or booked hotel rooms, most of her Black and brown neighbors were still in the dark.
"It's very clear who is in the deep now," Debose, the executive director of the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council, said Wednesday before power began to be restored more broadly across the state.
On top of these challenges, some communities had to endure the cold temperatures with little or no information about what was going on and what options they had to solve their problems.
"Nothing was translated or targeted to our non-English speaking communities. That's an easy fix and I feel that more needs to be done there," said Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua, whose district includes Hispanic and Black neighborhoods in the southeast part of the city.
In the days after widespread power outages roiled the state, community advocates and local leaders repeatedly drew the parallels between what they'd learned so far about the storm's toll on Texans of color and the pandemic's disproportionate devastation on mostly Black and Hispanic communities. Even as more than half of the deaths due to COVID-19 have been Black or Hispanic people, advocates have reported that these communities have fallen behind in the vaccination efforts.
"We know that historically the communities that are marginalized tend to be the ones that are hit the hardest, whether we talk about COVID-19 or power outages," said Jaime Resendez, a city council member who represents the predominantly Hispanic southeast portion of Dallas. "If history serves as a guide, these communities could also be the last ones to get the attention and service that they need."
Without steady power in her apartment for more than 24 hours, Mercedes Matute's refrigerator stood empty by Tuesday after they ran out of food and couldn't find more than some Cheetos and sodas in one of the few open stores in her neighborhood.
The 48-year-old fast-food worker in Houston had been struggling to cover her bills with the wages she was making during her roughly three-hour shifts. She had managed to pay this month's rent, but with the restaurant where she works shut down during the storm, she isn't sure she'll have enough money to do so in March
For now, her most immediate concern is figuring out how to keep her four grandchildren, who live with her, fed the rest of the month.
"Between light, rent, the car's license and the insurance, I'm left with nothing. Thankfully, we have food stamps, but we are out until the next month," Matute said. "I can hold it and be hungry all day, maybe two days, but not the kids. They need food."
Mandi Cai and Carla Astudillo contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune. Read the original here. The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
By Alexa Ura & Juan Pablo Garnham, The Texas Tribune
FEB. 19, 2021 /
Marleny Almendarez, 38, with her niece Madelyne Hernandez, 3, and two boys, Aaron Hall, 11, and Matthew Hall, 14, stand outside their home in Dallas on Thursday. The family spent two nights at a mobile warming station to avoid the cold temperatures. Photo by Ben Torres for The Texas Tribune
Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Neighborhoods across Texas -- some lined with million-dollar homes, others by more modest dwellings -- went cold and dark for days as the state struggled to keep the power on during a dangerous winter storm. But while the catastrophe wrought by unprecedented weather was shared by millions left shivering in their own homes, the suffering was not equally spread.
For low-income Texans like Marleny Almendarez, a single mother of two without reliable income to pay the bills, surviving the massive weather event was made harder by financial and structural imbalances that almost ensure the most marginalized Texans bear the heaviest burdens of natural disasters.
As darkness enveloped her freezing home for a second night Tuesday, Almendarez was prepared to sleep in her car with her kids.
They had made it through Monday night huddled under as many blankets as she could find, in an aging home where three family generations live -- eight people total -- in the majority Hispanic and Black neighborhood of Pleasant Grove in Dallas. The house was so cold that her pet parrot froze to death overnight.
RELATED Storm moves northeast as Texas reels from rare winter gut punch
"I grabbed all my stuff and said 'We are leaving, I'm not going to sleep under 38 degrees again,'" she said in Spanish. "This is a house that is not in very good conditions, it's an old house. We spend a lot on electricity because it's not well insulated."
On Tuesday night, she traded her plans to spend the night in her red 2001 Toyota Corolla for a nearby charter bus that the city set up as a mobile warming station. Finally, they were warm and Almendarez was able to charge her drained cellphone.
Even in her desperation to keep her children safe, she was worrying about how the family would keep the lights on at home after power was finally restored.
RELATED Sen. Cruz says Cancun trip was 'mistake' during Texas freeze
In the last year, some members of her household lost their jobs to the coronavirus pandemic. They all contracted the virus in July after her mother was infected while cleaning homes to help pay the bills. Almendarez, recovering from a 2017 aneurysm that forced her to relearn how to speak and recover mobility in her body, started picking up babysitting and cleaning gigs in the summer after they went into debt to cover their utilities.
The storm and the outages were simply an added layer of pain onto what has been a hellish year for Hispanic families in her neighborhood and across the state.
"It has been infinite sadness. Many people have lost their jobs, have lost relatives and you feel helpless, not being able to do anything," she said.
RELATED Biden orders FEMA to deliver generators, other supplies to Texas
Low-income Texans of color bore some of the heaviest weight of the power outages as the inequities drawn into the state's urban centers were exacerbated in crisis. And more impacted by unemployment and devastation of the pandemic, their troubles won't end after the storm clears and the heat is running again in their homes.
As temperatures dropped into single digits in Austin, electricity was kept on in neighborhoods sharing circuits with critical facilities like hospitals -- facilities less commonly found in poor communities or those whose residents are predominantly Black and Hispanic.
While some Texans escaped to nearby hotels, those who could never afford that option watched the food in their refrigerators -- and the precious dollars spent on it -- spoil.
Cities rushed to set up warming centers to offer cold residents some respite. But with public transportation shut down, those without their own cars were left further out in the cold.
Desperate but too poor to escape the cold, some San Antonio residents with cars relied on local mutual aid organizations for funds to get enough gas in their tanks to relocate.
And even as they endured a crisis brought on by weather, low-wage workers and families without a financial safety net are bracing for the next emergency -- how will they make ends meet when they've been unable to get to work.
"It's short of a nightmare," said Letitia Plummer, a city council member in Houston where about 60% of homes and businesses were without power during the storm. "We are already poor and our communities are already devastated in many ways. ... We are always in a disadvantage, so when one incident happens, it makes us fall so much harder."
Local leaders, particularly those representing mostly Black and Hispanic communities, pointed out that neighborhoods with mostly Black and Hispanic residents tend to have older homes with bad insulation, leaking roofs and older pipes that make them less likely to withstand extreme weather. In the case of Almendarez, this has led to power bills of up to $500 during the summer.
With the state's food supply chain also buckling under the storm's strain, those local leaders are worried about the fallout for areas that lack grocery stores and pharmacies. Plummer said during the storm, the few store shelves in those neighborhoods emptied fast and older people had trouble finding medication.
It's what Jill Ramirez, the CEO of the Latino HealthCare Forum, describes as "chickens coming home to roost" in tragic times.
"When you didn't invest in the whole community equally, then you're going to see the disparity when we get into situations like this," said Ramirez, whose nonprofit typically focused on community-based health outreach has in recent days been trying to connect low-income Texans -- many of them Spanish speakers -- with help to make it through the cold. "Everything is hooked up again to the same inequity."
In the Houston neighborhood of Independence Heights, a historically Black community that is slowly attracting White residents, Tanya Debose surveyed her neighbors over social media to see how they were weathering the storm. She found that while some of her White neighbors had generators on hand or booked hotel rooms, most of her Black and brown neighbors were still in the dark.
"It's very clear who is in the deep now," Debose, the executive director of the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council, said Wednesday before power began to be restored more broadly across the state.
On top of these challenges, some communities had to endure the cold temperatures with little or no information about what was going on and what options they had to solve their problems.
"Nothing was translated or targeted to our non-English speaking communities. That's an easy fix and I feel that more needs to be done there," said Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua, whose district includes Hispanic and Black neighborhoods in the southeast part of the city.
In the days after widespread power outages roiled the state, community advocates and local leaders repeatedly drew the parallels between what they'd learned so far about the storm's toll on Texans of color and the pandemic's disproportionate devastation on mostly Black and Hispanic communities. Even as more than half of the deaths due to COVID-19 have been Black or Hispanic people, advocates have reported that these communities have fallen behind in the vaccination efforts.
"We know that historically the communities that are marginalized tend to be the ones that are hit the hardest, whether we talk about COVID-19 or power outages," said Jaime Resendez, a city council member who represents the predominantly Hispanic southeast portion of Dallas. "If history serves as a guide, these communities could also be the last ones to get the attention and service that they need."
Without steady power in her apartment for more than 24 hours, Mercedes Matute's refrigerator stood empty by Tuesday after they ran out of food and couldn't find more than some Cheetos and sodas in one of the few open stores in her neighborhood.
The 48-year-old fast-food worker in Houston had been struggling to cover her bills with the wages she was making during her roughly three-hour shifts. She had managed to pay this month's rent, but with the restaurant where she works shut down during the storm, she isn't sure she'll have enough money to do so in March
For now, her most immediate concern is figuring out how to keep her four grandchildren, who live with her, fed the rest of the month.
"Between light, rent, the car's license and the insurance, I'm left with nothing. Thankfully, we have food stamps, but we are out until the next month," Matute said. "I can hold it and be hungry all day, maybe two days, but not the kids. They need food."
Mandi Cai and Carla Astudillo contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune. Read the original here. The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
END IRAN SANTIONS NOW
The United States on Thursday said it was ready to talk to Iran about both nations returning to a 2015 agreement that aimed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, seeking to revive a deal that Washington itself abandoned nearly three years ago. FRANCE 24's Chief Foreign Editor Rob Parsons tells us more.
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