Announcing Green Horizons, a Trailblazing Cannabis Cultivation and CPG Brand Campus

Green Horizons’ State-of-the-Art Cannabis Cultivation and CPG Brand Campus is on Track to Make Coachella Valley to Cannabis What Silicon Valley is to Tech

GREEN HORIZONS’ CULTIVATION CAMPUS

The state of the art facility will feature scaled cannabis cultivation alongside CPG brand development

COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif., April 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today Green Horizons announced plans for its massive, trailblazing Canna-Campus in Coachella Valley, which broke ground late last year and is under construction. The first-of-its-kind facility will feature scaled cannabis cultivation alongside CPG brand development, positioning the Company to become one of the largest vertically integrated brand platforms in the world. Green Horizons will also offer campus tours, education and workshops to outside visitors.

Green Horizons is launching the first 226,787 sq. ft. of its campus with options to scale to 1,000,000 sq. ft. as market conditions dictate. Phase I of the Green Horizons campus will consist of 101,787 sq. ft. of a state-of-the-art, sealed, Class “A” automated light deprivation greenhouse. Phase II adds an additional 125,000 sq. ft. that will serve as the Company’s corporate headquarters as well as its brand incubator, along with additional light deprivation greenhouse cultivation space.

Green Horizons’ mission is to fuel a portfolio of in-house brands with in-house supply to guarantee consistency and uniformity. Combining the management team’s track record of cultivation excellence with the Company’s high-tech sun powered cultivation facilities, Green Horizons aims to redefine the cultivation landscape to create a blue ocean of top shelf flower at greenhouse COGS. In leveraging its low-cost basis, Green Horizons will be able to continue scaling as commoditization exerts downward pressure on higher cost producers.

The Company will be formally announcing their much-anticipated debut brand, a crossover from the fashion world, which will launch in Q3 of 2022, to be followed by a value brand paying homage to the Coachella Valley, anticipated in summer 2023. Upon completion of the facility, the brands will be exclusively powered by proprietary genetics bred in-house by the Company, a cornerstone differentiator for all Green Horizons portfolio brands.

“The Coachella Valley is the perfect place to build a world class cultivation and CPG brand campus at this scale,” said Carlos “Los” Arias, Chief Executive Officer of Green Horizons. “Coachella has long been a stalwart agricultural community, and I am honored to now help make Coachella a global cannabis destination. Being built to last is more important than being first, and we’re just getting started.”

Green Horizons was co-founded by Arias and Michael C. Meade. Arias leads the Company’s vision to create culturally relevant brands that bring people together. Known for his high vibrational presence, Arias is an exemplar of community-minded collaboration that serves as the bedrock of the Company’s culture. Meade serves as Green Horizons’ President and largest investor. Through an unrelated entity, Meade is developing Coachella Cann Park, which is being leased to Green Horizons. Meade’s development company has secured an $18.5M construction loan from Innovative Industrial Properties to fund construction of the property.

Arias and Meade are joined by founding investor Star Branding Investment Group, LLC, which brings its global entrepreneurial prowess to Green Horizons, drawing on its success in building global brands and experience in a wide range of operational matters. Brought together, Green Horizons and its principals have the requisite capabilities in-house to scale a profitable cultivation and CPG enterprise, synchronizing facility operations expertise and global brand prowess.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Green Horizons recognizes the privilege to work within the legal cannabis space and is committed to positive social change at the local level.

Education is a pillar of the Company. With a mission to destigmatize cannabis through education and transparency, Green Horizons will open its doors to offer campus tours to outside visitors, along with workshops and educational programs for the community and those interested in learning more about the cannabis plant and the industry.

The Company is partnering with the City of Coachella in launching the Build the Valley Initiative, which will consist of two prominent initiatives: first, building infrastructure for the community; and second, advocacy for expungement and job creation for which Green Horizons will create a dedicated Coachella Valley program. In addition to their local community activism, Green Horizons is also invested in the sustainable future of the cannabis industry and is a member of an industry task force, comprised of top operators, financiers and attorneys, whose aim is to eradicate the use of plastics in the cannabis supply chain.

ABOUT GREEN HORIZONS

Green Horizons is a next gen, vertically integrated cannabis company that builds CPG brands. With world class facilities to fuel globally relevant brands, the Company’s aim is to crossover and create meaningful brands that bring people together. www.greenhorizons.io

ABOUT CARLOS “LOS” ARIAS, J.D.

CO-FOUNDER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF GREEN HORIZONS

Arias is regarded industry wide as a plant medicine expert, honed from his Cuban/Brazilian lineage and years of dedication to studying and working with medicinal plants all over the world. A lawyer by training, Arias is responsible for the Company’s key strategic partnerships.

ABOUT MICHAEL C. MEADE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF COACHELLA CANN PARK, CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF GREEN HORIZONS

In addition to securing the first issued cannabis licenses in Riverside County 15 years ago for cultivation and retail, Meade went on to build a cannabis real estate empire in the desert valley, fueled by Wilson Meade commercial brokerage and Desert Rock Development.

ABOUT STAR BRANDING INVESTMENT GROUP

Star Branding Investment Group, LLC is a private investment vehicle founded by Mr. Tommy Hilfiger and Mr. Joe Lamastra, through which it, and its subsidiaries seek investments in businesses across a broad range of industries.

For media inquiries please contact: press@weareprismatics.com

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Zoom Announces New Education Features, Enhancing Hybrid Learning Experience for Educators and Students

Zoom responds to educator requests with debut of virtual background support for Chromebooks, video messages in Zoom Chat, Breakout Rooms enhancements, and Anywhere Polls

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) today announced, at the CoSN2022 national conference, new features for education in response to requests from teachers and administrators. These features span Zoom’s Chat and Meetings offerings and are designed to support teachers who need to engage and manage students joining class remotely or submitting homework assignments.

Virtual Background & Blur for Chromebooks
Chromebooks are a popular choice for students and teachers. Virtual background and blur are now available for Zoom for Chrome Progressive Web Application (PWA) users. Zoom developed this capability after requests from various education customers, including Clayton County Public Schools, one of the 100 largest school districts in the United States, serving more than 52,000 students in Georgia.

“Virtual background and blur for Chromebooks are extremely beneficial to our students and teachers. Many students were reluctant to turn their cameras on before this feature enhancement,” said Rod Smith, Chief Technology Officer, Clayton County Public Schools.

Breakout Rooms Enhancements
Breakout Rooms, a popular education feature, also received enhancements in this latest release. Program Audio allows meeting hosts to share content with audio to Breakout Rooms, adding the ability to share videos with audio. With the LTI Pro integration enhancement, educators can populate Breakout Rooms from the course roster. This can be used to assign Breakout Rooms in advance, then automatically sort students into Breakout Rooms.

Additional Features for Chat and Waiting Room
Other new features include sending audio and video messages into Zoom Chat, and the ability to rename participants in the Waiting Room. Asynchronous video allows users the time to consider their responses and then record as needed to provide thoughtfully crafted responses. Users can click “video” at the bottom of the chat client and record up to a 3-minute video message that goes directly into the out-of-meeting chat channel. This is useful for situations such as students submitting brief video assignments. Renaming participants before they join the meeting can be useful for attendance taking where students may be using shared devices, for creating an anonymous student group, or for affirming gender identity.

Anywhere Polls
Anywhere Polls will allow polling content to live in a central repository that can be accessed from any meeting on an account, instead of being associated with a particular meeting. This will make it easier for instructors to reuse polls and will also be beneficial for grading. This feature will be available soon.

“We’re looking forward to the Anywhere Polls feature,” said John J. “Ski” Sygielski, Ed.D., President and CEO of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College. “The polling enhancements will make it simpler for large groups of students to provide feedback across the College. It will be easier than ever for instructors to replicate content for each course.”

“Delivering happiness to our customers is the core of what we do at Zoom,” said Johann Zimmern, Global Education Strategy Lead, Zoom. “We work closely with our global K-12 and higher education customers, taking their requests into account and involving them in feature development. As a direct result of this, Zoom developed these exciting new features for education.”

For more details about Zoom’s new education features, please see our blog here.

About Zoom
Zoom is for you. Zoom is a space where you can connect to others, share ideas, make plans, and build toward a future limited only by your imagination. Our frictionless communications platform is the only one that started with video as its foundation, and we have set the standard for innovation ever since. That is why we are an intuitive, scalable, and secure choice for large enterprises, small businesses, and individuals alike. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Visit zoom.com and follow @zoom.

Zoom Public Relations
Beth McLaughlin
PR Specialist
press@zoom.us

Anúncio de lançamento do Green Horizons, um Cultivo de Cannabis Pioneiro e o Campus da Marca CPG

Cultivo de Cannabis de última geração da Green Horizons e campus da marca CPG está no caminho certo para fazer com que o Vale de Coachella represente para a Cannabis o que o Vale do Silício representa para a tecnologia

CAMPUS DE CULTIVO DA GREEN HORIZONS

A instalação de última geração terá cultivo de cannabis em escala, juntamente com o desenvolvimento da marca CPG

COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif., April 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A Green Horizons divulgou hoje seus planos para o enorme e pioneiro Canna-Campus no Vale de Coachella, cuja construção teve início no final do ano passado. A primeira instalação deste tipo contará com cultivo de cannabis em escala, juntamente com o desenvolvimento da marca CPG, posicionando a Empresa para se tornar uma das maiores plataformas de marca verticalmente integradas do mundo. A Green Horizons também oferecerá tours pelo campus, educação e workshops para visitantes.

A Green Horizons está inaugurando os primeiros 226.787 pés quadrados do seu campus de última geração com opções para alcançar até 1.000.000 pés quadrados conforme as condições de mercado exigirem. A Fase I do campus Green Horizons consistirá em uma estufa automatizada de 101.787 pés quadrados de privação de luz de última geração, selada, Classe “A”. A Fase II adiciona 125.000 pés quadrados que servirão como sede corporativa da Empresa, bem como a incubadora da marca, juntamente com espaço de cultivo de estufa de privação de luz adicional.

A missão da Green Horizons é alimentar um portfólio de marcas internas com fornecimento interno para garantir consistência e uniformidade. Combinando o histórico de excelência de cultivo da equipe de gerenciamento com as instalações de cultivo de alta tecnologia da empresa, a Green Horizons visa redefinir a paisagem de cultivo para criar um oceano azul de flores de prateleira superior em COGS de estufa. Ao alavancar sua base de baixo custo, a Green Horizons poderá continuar a escalar à medida que a mercantilização exercer pressão sobre os produtores de custo mais alto.

A empresa anunciará formalmente sua tão esperada marca de estreia, um crossover do mundo da moda, que será lançado no terceiro trimestre de 2022, a ser seguido por uma marca de valor que homenageia o Vale de Coachella, previsto para o verão de 2023. Após a finalização da construção da instalação, as marcas serão alimentadas exclusivamente pela genética proprietária criada internamente pela Empresa, um diferenciador fundamental para todas as marcas do portfólio da Green Horizons.

“O Vale de Coachella é o lugar perfeito para a criação de um cultivo internacional e um campus da marca CPG nesta escala”, disse Carlos “Los” Arias, Diretor Executivo da Green Horizons. “Coachella tem sido uma comunidade agrícola forte há muitos anos, e tenho a honra de agora ajudar a tornar o Coachella um destino global de cannabis. A longevidade é mais importante do que o pioneirismo, e estamos somente no começo.”

A Green Horizons foi cofundada por Arias e Michael C. Meade. Arias lidera a visão da Empresa de criar marcas culturalmente relevantes que unam as pessoas. Conhecido por ser uma pessoa vibrante, Arias é um exemplo de colaboração com a comunidade que serve como a base cultural da Empresa. Meade atua como Presidente e maior investidor da Green Horizons. Por meio de uma entidade não relacionada, a Meade está desenvolvendo o Coachella Cann Park, que está sendo arrendado para a Green Horizons. A empresa de desenvolvimento de Meade conseguiu um empréstimo de US $ 18,5 milhões da Innovative Industrial Properties para financiamento da construção da propriedade.

Arias e Meade se juntam ao grupo investidor fundador Star Branding Investment Group, LLC, que traz sua força empreendedora global para a Green Horizons, aproveitando seu sucesso na construção de marcas globais e experiência em uma ampla gama de questões operacionais. Juntos, a Green Horizons e seus principais têm os recursos necessários internos para escalar um cultivo lucrativo e uma empresa de CPG, sincronizando a experiência em operações de instalações e as forças globais da marca.

JUSTIÇA SOCIAL

A Green Horizons reconhece o privilégio de trabalhar dentro do espaço legal da cannabis e está concentrada nas mudanças sociais positivas a nível local.

A educação é um pilar para a Empresa. Com a missão de destigmatizar a cannabis através da educação e transparência, a Green Horizons abrirá suas portas para oferecer tours pelo campus para visitantes, juntamente com workshops e programas educacionais para a comunidade e aqueles interessados em aprender mais sobre a planta e a indústria de cannabis.

A Empresa fez parceria com a Cidade de Coachella no lançamento da Iniciativa Construa o Vale, que consistirá em duas etapas: primeiro, a construção de infraestrutura para a comunidade; e segundo, a defesa da expurgação e criação de empregos para os quais a Green Horizons criará um programa dedicado ao Vale de Coachella. Além do seu ativismo comunitário local, a Green Horizons também investe no futuro sustentável da indústria de cannabis e é membro de uma força-tarefa da indústria, composta por operadores, financiadores e advogados de alto nível, cujo objetivo é erradicar o uso de plásticos na cadeia de fornecimento de cannabis.

SOBRE A GREEN HORIZONS

A Green Horizons é uma empresa de cannabis de próxima geração, verticalmente integrada, que constrói marcas de CPG. Com instalações de categoria internacional para alimentar marcas globalmente relevantes, a Empresa tem o objetivo de cruzar e criar marcas significativas que unam as pessoas. www.greenhorizons.io

SOBRE CARLOS “LOS” ARIAS, J.D.

COFUNDADOR, DIRETOR EXECUTIVO DA GREEN HORIZONTS

Arias é considerado em toda a indústria como um especialista em medicina vegetal, aperfeiçoado a partir da sua linhagem cubana/brasileira e anos de dedicação ao estudo e trabalho com plantas medicinais em todo o mundo. Com formação em advocacia, Arias é responsável pelas principais parcerias estratégicas da Empresa.

SOBRE MICHAEL C. MEADE

DIRETOR EXECUTIVO DA COACHELLA CANN PARK, COFUNDADOR E PRESIDENTE DA GREEN HORIZONS

Além de garantir as primeiras licenças de cannabis emitidas no condado de Riverside há 15 anos para cultivo e varejo, Meade passou a construir um império imobiliário de cannabis no vale do deserto, alimentado pela corretagem comercial Wilson Meade e Desert Rock Development.

SOBRE O STAR BRANDING INVESTMENT GROUP

O Star Branding Investment Group, LLC é um veículo de investimento privado fundado pelo Sr. Tommy Hilfiger e pelo Sr. Joe Lamastra, através do qual ele e suas subsidiárias buscam investimentos em negócios em uma ampla gama de indústrias.

Para perguntas da mídia contate: press@weareprismatics.com

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Green Horizons annonce un campus pionnier de culture du cannabis et de produits de marque emballés

Le campus de culture du cannabis et de produits de marque emballés de pointe de Green Horizons est sur la bonne voie pour faire de la Coachella Valley pour le cannabis ce que la Silicon Valley est à la technologie

CAMPUS DE CULTURE DE GREEN HORIZONS

L’installation de pointe comprendra une culture du cannabis à grande échelle parallèlement au développement de produits de marque emballés

COACHELLA VALLEY, Californie, 11 avr. 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Green Horizons a annoncé aujourd’hui les plans pour son immense campus de cannabis pionnier dans la Coachella Valley, dont la construction a débuté l’année dernière et est encore en cours. La première installation en son genre comprendra une culture du cannabis à grande échelle parallèlement au développement de produits de marque emballés, positionnant la société comme l’une des plus grandes plateformes de marques verticalement intégrées au monde. Green Horizons proposera également des visites du campus, des formations et des ateliers aux visiteurs extérieurs.

Green Horizons lance le premier site d’une superficie approximative de 21 000 m² de son campus ultramoderne avec la possibilité d’atteindre jusqu’à 93 000 m² selon les besoins du marché. La phase I du campus Green Horizons comprendra une superficie approximative de 9 500 m² avec une serre de privation de lumière automatisée de classe « A », scellée et à la pointe de la technologie. La phase II ajoute une superficie de 11 500 m² supplémentaires qui tiendra lieu de siège social de la société ainsi que d’incubateur de marque et d’espace supplémentaire de culture en serre à privation de lumière.

La mission de Green Horizons consiste à alimenter un portefeuille de marques internes avec un approvisionnement interne pour garantir la cohérence et l’uniformité. Combinant l’expérience de l’équipe de direction en matière d’excellence de la culture avec les installations de culture solaire de haute technologie de la société, Green Horizons vise à redéfinir le paysage de la culture afin de créer un océan bleu de fleurs de haut niveau dans la serre COGS. En tirant parti de sa base à faible coût, Green Horizons sera en mesure de continuer à s’étendre alors que la marchandisation exerce une pression à la baisse sur les producteurs à coûts plus élevés.

La société annoncera officiellement sa première marque très attendue, un dérivé du monde de la mode, qui sera lancée au troisième trimestre 2022, suivie d’une marque de valeur rendant hommage à la Coachella Valley, prévue pour l’été 2023. Une fois l’installation achevée, les marques seront exclusivement alimentées par une variété génétique brevetée cultivée en interne par la société, un facteur de différenciation essentiel pour toutes les marques du portefeuille de Green Horizons.

« La Coachella Valley est le lieu idéal pour construire un campus de culture et de produits de marque emballés de classe mondiale à cette échelle », a déclaré Carlos « Los » Arias, président-directeur général de Green Horizons. « Coachella abrite depuis longtemps une communauté agricole dynamique, et je suis honoré d’aider à faire de la vallée une destination mondiale du cannabis. Être construit pour durer est plus important que d’être le premier, et nous n’en sommes qu’au début. »

Green Horizons a été cofondée par M. Arias et Michael C. Meade. M. Arias mène la vision de la société visant à créer des marques culturellement pertinentes qui rassemblent les gens. Connu pour sa forte présence remarquée, M. Arias est un exemple de collaboration communautaire qui sert de fondement à la culture de la société. M. Meade est le président et le plus grand investisseur de Green Horizons. Par le biais d’une entité non liée, il développe le Coachella Cann Park, qui est loué à Green Horizons. La société de développement de M. Meade a obtenu un prêt à la construction de 18,5 millions de dollars auprès d’Innovative Industrial Properties pour financer la construction de la propriété.

MM. Arias et Meade sont accompagnés par l’investisseur fondateur Star Branding Investment Group, LLC, qui apporte ses compétences entrepreneuriales mondiales à Green Horizons, en s’appuyant sur son succès dans la construction de marques mondiales et son expérience dans un large éventail de questions opérationnelles. Ensemble, Green Horizons et ses directeurs disposent des capacités requises en interne pour développer une entreprise de culture et de produits emballés rentable, synchronisant l’expertise des opérations des installations et le talent de la marque mondiale.

JUSTICE SOCIALE

Green Horizons est consciente du privilège de travailler dans l’espace légal du cannabis et s’engage à apporter des changements sociaux positifs au niveau local.

L’éducation est un pilier de l’entreprise. Avec la mission de destigmatiser le cannabis par l’éducation et la transparence, Green Horizons ouvrira ses portes pour offrir des visites de campus aux visiteurs extérieurs, ainsi que des ateliers et des programmes éducatifs pour la communauté et les personnes qui souhaitent en savoir plus sur l’usine de cannabis et l’industrie.

La société s’associe à la ville de Coachella pour lancer l’initiative Build The Valley, qui consistera en deux initiatives importantes : premièrement, la construction d’infrastructures pour la communauté ; et deuxièmement, la défense de la radiation et la création d’emplois pour lesquelles Green Horizons créera un programme dédié à la Coachella Valley. Outre son activisme communautaire local, Green Horizons est également impliquée dans l’avenir durable de l’industrie du cannabis et est membre d’un groupe de travail de l’industrie, composé d’opérateurs, de financiers et d’avocats de premier plan, dont l’objectif est d’éliminer l’utilisation de plastiques dans la chaîne d’approvisionnement en cannabis.

À PROPOS DE GREEN HORIZONS

Green Horizons est une société de cannabis de nouvelle génération verticalement intégrée qui crée des marques de produits emballés. Avec des installations de classe mondiale pour alimenter des marques pertinentes à l’échelle internationale, l’objectif de la société est de croiser et de créer des marques significatives qui rassemblent les gens. www.greenhorizons.io

À PROPOS DE CARLOS « LOS » ARIAS, J.D.

CO-FONDATEUR, PRÉSIDENT-DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL DE GREEN HORIZONS

M. Arias est reconnu au sein de l’industrie pour son expertise en médecine des plantes, affûtée par son ascendance cubaine/brésilienne et ses années de dévouement à étudier et travailler avec des plantes médicinales dans le monde entier. Avocat de formation, M. Arias est responsable des partenariats stratégiques clés de la société.

À PROPOS DE MICHAEL C. MEADE

PRÉSIDENT-DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL DE COACHELLA CANN PARK, CO-FONDATEUR ET PRÉSIDENT DE GREEN HORIZONS

En plus d’obtenir les premières licences de cannabis délivrées dans le comté de Riverside il y a 15 ans pour la culture et la vente au détail, M. Meade a poursuivi la construction d’un empire immobilier du cannabis dans la vallée du désert, alimenté par le cabinet de courtage commercial Wilson Meade et Desert Rock Development.

À PROPOS DE STAR BRANDING INVESTMENT GROUP

Star Branding Investment Group, LLC est un véhicule d’investissement privé fondé par M. Tommy Hilfiger et M. Joe Lamastra, par le biais duquel ses filiales et lui recherchent des investissements dans des entreprises opérant dans un large éventail de secteurs.

Pour toute demande d’ordre médiatique, veuillez contacter : press@weareprismatics.com

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With COVID Mission over, Pentagon Plans for Next Pandemic

WASHINGTON — A COVID-19 patient was in respiratory distress. The Army nurse knew she had to act quickly.

It was the peak of this year’s omicron surge and an Army medical team was helping in a Michigan hospital. Regular patient beds were full. So was the intensive care. But the nurse heard of an open spot in an overflow treatment area, so she and another team member raced the gurney across the hospital to claim the space first, denting a wall in their rush.

When she saw the dent, Lt. Col. Suzanne Cobleigh, the leader of the Army team, knew the nurse had done her job. “She’s going to damage the wall on the way there because he’s going to get that bed,” Cobleigh said. “He’s going to get the treatment he needs. That was the mission.”

That nurse’s mission was to get urgent care for her patient. Now, the U.S. military mission is to use the experiences of Cobleigh’s team and other units pressed into service against the pandemic to prepare for the next crisis threatening a large population, whatever its nature.

Their experiences, said Gen. Glen VanHerck, will help shape the size and staffing of the military’s medical response so the Pentagon can provide the right types and numbers of forces needed for another pandemic, global crisis or conflict.

One of the key lessons learned was the value of small military teams over mass movements of personnel and facilities in a crisis like the one wrought by COVID-19.

In the early days of the pandemic, the Pentagon steamed hospital ships to New York City and Los Angeles, and set up massive hospital facilities in convention centers and parking lots, in response to pleas from state government leaders. The idea was to use them to treat non-COVID-19 patients, allowing hospitals to focus on the more acute pandemic cases. But while images of the military ships were powerful, too often many beds went unused. Fewer patients needed non-coronavirus care than expected, and hospitals were still overwhelmed by the pandemic.

A more agile approach emerged: having military medical personnel step in for exhausted hospital staff members or work alongside them or in additional treatment areas in unused spaces.

“It morphed over time,” VanHerck, who heads U.S. Northern Command and is responsible for homeland defense, said of the response.

Overall, about 24,000 U.S. troops were deployed for the pandemic, including nearly 6,000 medical personnel to hospitals and 5,000 to help administer vaccines. Many did multiple tours. That mission is over, at least for now.

Cobleigh and her team members were deployed to two hospitals in Grand Rapids from December to February, as part of the U.S. military’s effort to relieve civilian medical workers. And just last week the last military medical team that had been deployed for the pandemic finished its stint at the University of Utah Hospital and headed home.

VanHerck told The Associated Press his command is rewriting pandemic and infectious disease plans, and planning wargames and other exercises to determine if the U.S. has the right balance of military medical staff in the active duty and reserves.

During the pandemic, he said, the teams’ make-up and equipment needs evolved. Now, he’s put about 10 teams of physicians, nurses and other staff — or about 200 troops — on prepare-to-deploy orders through the end of May in case infections shoot up again. The size of the teams ranges from small to medium.

Dr. Kencee Graves, inpatient chief medical officer at the University of Utah Hospital, said the facility finally decided to seek help this year because it was postponing surgeries to care for all the COVID-19 patients and closing off beds because of staff shortages.

Some patients had surgery postponed more than once, Graves said, because of critically ill patients or critical needs by others. “So before the military came, we were looking at a surgical backlog of hundreds of cases and we were low on staff. We had fatigued staff.”

Her mantra became, “All I can do is show up and hope it’s helpful.” She added, “And I just did that day after day after day for two years.”

Then in came a 25-member Navy medical team.

“A number of staff were overwhelmed,” said Cdr. Arriel Atienza, chief medical officer for the Navy team. “They were burnt out. They couldn’t call in sick. We’re able to fill some gaps and needed shifts that would otherwise have remained unmanned, and the patient load would have been very demanding for the existing staff to match.”

Atienza, a family physician who’s been in the military for 21 years, spent the Christmas holiday deployed to a hospital in New Mexico, then went to Salt Lake City in March. Over time, he said, the military “has evolved from things like pop-up hospitals” and now knows how to integrate seamlessly into local health facilities in just a couple days.

That integration helped the hospital staff recover and catch up.

“We have gotten through about a quarter of our surgical backlog,” Graves said. ”We did not call a backup physician this month for the hospital team … that’s the first time that’s happened in several months. And then we haven’t called a patient and asked them to reschedule their surgery for the majority of the last few weeks.”

VanHerck said the pandemic also underscored the need to review the nation’s supply chain to ensure that the right equipment and medications were being stockpiled, or to see if they were coming from foreign distributors.

“If we’re relying on getting those from a foreign manufacturer and supplier, then that may be something that is a national security vulnerability that we have to address,” he said.

VanHerck said the U.S. is also working to better analyze trends in order to predict the needs for personnel, equipment and protective gear. Military and other government experts watched the progress of COVID-19 infections moving across the country and used that data to predict where the next outbreak might be so that staff could be prepared to go there.

The need for mental health care for the military personnel also became apparent. Team members coming off difficult shifts often needed someone to talk to.

Cobleigh said military medical personnel were not accustomed to caring for so many people with multiple health problems, as are more apt to be found in a civilian population than in military ranks. “The level of sickness and death in the civilian sector was scores more than what anyone had experienced back in the Army,” said Cobleigh, who is stationed now at Fort Riley, Kansas, but will soon move to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

She said she found that her staff needed her and wanted to “talk through their stresses and strains before they’d go back on shift.”

For the civilian hospitals, the lesson was knowing when to call for help.

“It was the bridge to help us get out of omicron and in a position where we can take good care of our patients,” Graves said. “I am not sure how we would have done that without them.”

Source: Voice of America

WHO Says It Is Analyzing Two New Omicron COVID Sub-variants

The World Health Organization said on Monday it is tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible omicron strain of the coronavirus to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous.

It has added BA.4 and BA.5, sister variants of the original BA.1 omicron variant, to its list for monitoring. It is already tracking BA.1 and BA.2 — now globally dominant — as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3.

The WHO said it had begun tracking them because of their “additional mutations that need to be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential.”

Viruses mutate all the time but only some mutations affect their ability to spread or evade prior immunity from vaccination or infection, or the severity of disease they cause.

For instance, BA.2 now represents nearly 94% of all sequenced cases and is more transmissible than its siblings, but the evidence so far suggests it is no more likely to cause severe disease.

Only a few dozen cases of BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported to the global GISAID database, according to WHO.

The UK’s Health Security Agency said last week BA.4 had been found in South Africa, Denmark, Botswana, Scotland and England from Jan. 10 to March 30.

All the BA.5 cases were in South Africa as of last week, but on Monday Botswana’s health ministry said it had identified four cases of BA.4 and BA.5, all among people aged 30 to 50 who were fully vaccinated and experiencing mild symptoms.

Source: Voice of America

World Food Programme Madagascar 2021 Annual Country Report

2021 highlights

WFP reached over 1.7 million food insecure people through activities implemented under the five strategic outcomes of its country strategic plan: crisis response, school feeding, nutrition, support to smallholder farmers facing climate shocks, and emergency preparedness.

Food assistance provided by WFP played a key role in averting catastrophe in drought-affected southern Madagascar. Furthermore, WFP was the largest provider of school meals in this part of the island.

WFP continued to strengthen its partnerships with the Government, local communities, and other UN agencies, helping to advance policies and progress towards the SDGs.

Cross cutting results

While women face inequal challenges in Madagascar, in line with the corporate Gender Action Plan, WFP is committed to integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment in all its work in the country.

In 2021, WFP continued to implement and strengthen protection considerations to place the population, communities, and affected individuals at the heart of its activities in Madagascar. Affected populations benefit from WFP programmes in a manner that ensures and promotes their safety, dignity and integrity as well as their hunger needs.

In Madagascar, WFP is implementing a range of activities that help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate shocks.

WFP is also greening its operation through the setting-up of a water irrigation project and the installation of solar-power water systems in its suboffices.

Source: World Food Programme