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The White House says about 10% of eligible kids aged 5 to 11 have received a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine since its approval for their age group two weeks ago.

At least 2.6 million kids have received a shot, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday, with 1.7 million doses administered in the last week alone, roughly double the pace of the first week after approval. It’s more than three times faster than the rate adults were vaccinated at the start of the nation’s vaccination campaign 11 months ago.

Zients said there are now 30,000 locations across the country for kids to get a shot, up from 20,000 last week, and that the administration expects the pace of pediatric shots to pick up in the coming days.

Kids who get their first vaccine dose by the end of this week will be fully vaccinated by Christmas, assuming they get their second shot three weeks after the first one.

Pace varies among states

State-by-state breakdowns of doses given to the age group haven’t been released by the White House or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but figures shared by states show the pace varies. About 11% to 12% of children in that age group have received their first doses in Colorado, Utah and Illinois, but the pace is much slower in places like Idaho (5%), Tennessee (5%) and Wyoming (4%), three states that have some of the lowest rates of vaccination for older groups.

The White House was stepping up its efforts to promote kid vaccination, with first lady Jill Biden and the singer Ciara taping a video Wednesday encouraging shots for kids.

The first lady also visited a Washington pediatric care facility along with Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, the Washington Mystics’ Alysha Clark and the Washington Wizards’ Thomas Bryant.

“You’re the real heroes,” Biden told newly vaccinated kids. “You have your superpower and now you’re protected against COVID.”

Biden also warned parents against misinformation around the vaccines and emphasized their safety.

“I want you to remember and share with other parents: The vaccine protects your children against COVID-19,” she said. “It’s been thoroughly reviewed and rigorously tested. It’s safe. It’s free, and it’s available for every single child in this country 5 and up.”

Source: Voice of America

U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced Friday its new COVID-19 pill showed an 89% reduction in risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization or death in clinical trials and they plan to submit the drug to U.S. regulators for emergency use approval.

In a release Friday, Pfizer said the latest clinical trials of its pill, Paxlovid, featured a randomized, double-blind study of non-hospitalized adult patients with COVID-19 who are at high risk of progressing to severe illness.

The company said interim analysis of the oral antiviral showed an 89% reduction in risk compared to a placebo in patients treated within three days of symptom onset.

Pfizer said it has received an independent data monitoring committee recommendation to pause enrollment in the Phase 3 trial due to the overwhelming efficacy demonstrated in the latest results.

The company plans to submit the data as part of its ongoing application to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization as soon as possible.

Pfizer is now the second drug manufacturer to develop an oral treatment for COVID-19. U.S. company Merck last month introduced its COVID-19 pill, which clinical studies showed to provide a 50% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19. It has been submitted to the FDA, and the federal agency is scheduled to rule on it late this month.

Currently, all COVID-19 treatments approved in the United States require injection or intravenous drip. Pills have the advantage of being distributed by pharmacies and taken at home.

Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved Merck’s pill, known as Molnupiravir, Thursday. The European Union’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said it would speed up its review of the Merck pill, and is prepared to give advice to individual EU member states so they can make the pill available for emergency use ahead of the EMA authorization.

When Merck’s pill was submitted for approval last month, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said the U.S. government had already arranged to buy 1.7 million doses of the pill, with an option to acquire more if needed.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — The United States is donating 17 million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the African Union, bringing the total American donation to the continent to 67 million doses.

The U.S. previously donated 50 million doses to the AU, which has 55 member states, including some of the world’s poorest nations. The new tranche of 17 million will be delivered to the African Union in the “coming weeks,” the White House said in a statement Thursday.

“We’re continuing our shared fight against COVID,” Biden said Thursday, during a meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. “The United States, we’ve donated 2.8 million doses of vaccine to Kenya as part of 50 million doses we’ve donated to the African Union. And I’m proud to announce that today, that we’re making additional, historic, one-time donation and 17 more million doses of the J&J vaccine to the AU.”

Kenyatta said the United States “has done its best to step up, in terms of not only helping Kenya, but with the African continent, in general, with regard to access to vaccines.”

The White House said it chose the one-dose vaccine for its unique advantages.

“(The) J&J vaccine is in high demand and short supply in Africa and elsewhere around the world,” the White House said. “Single-dose administration, long shelf life and easy cold chain make this vaccine an asset to global vaccine programs.”

That vaccine has not been as popular in the U.S. as its two-dose counterparts.

Any new vaccines are likely to be welcomed, after the World Health Organization said Thursday that its assessment found that six out of seven COVID-19 infections are not being detected on the African continent. WHO estimates there are 59 million cases in Africa — far more than the reported number of cases, which stands at 8 million.

But health advocates say more needs to be done.

“Speed matters as we fight this pandemic, and Africa urgently needs more doses to stem the overwhelming impacts of COVID-19. This donation is another example of U.S. leadership on the global response and is a step in the right direction in closing the vaccine access gap,” said Sarah Swinehart, senior communications director for North America at the ONE Campaign, a group that advocates to address extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.

“As we continue to work towards the goal of getting 70% of the world vaccinated, all wealthy countries must be bolder and more ambitious. This will require more doses and more money to get those doses into arms.”

The White House has countered criticism over its push for already vaccinated Americans to receive boosters when many people across the planet have yet to receive a single dose.

“With this donation, the U.S. will be giving away over half of the J&J vaccines purchased by the U.S. for its domestic program,” it said in Thursday’s statement.

The announcement coincided with Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with an African leader. Kenyatta met with Biden in the Oval Office to discuss a range of topics, including democracy and human rights issues, as well security, accelerating economic growth and addressing climate change.

Source: Voice of America

BOULDER, Colo. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Inscripta, Inc., the digital genome engineering company, today announced that it has granted a non-exclusive license to Hunterian Medicine®, a gene-editing and gene therapy company, for access to the MAD7™ nuclease, one of several CRISPR nucleases in Inscripta’s MADzymes™ family of enzymes. Inscripta has introduced a new commercial licensing model for biopharma companies that further democratizes access to CRISPR-based gene-editing.

“The vast therapeutic potential of gene-editing has one primary barrier: Delivery. Hunterian solved this problem by enabling CRISPR systems to fit inside a single AAV, the gold standard for gene delivery”

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Under the terms of its license, Hunterian will have the right to use the MAD7 nuclease or improved MADzyme nucleases in its gene-editing programs to develop human therapeutics. This complements Hunterian’s proprietary technology that enables in vivo delivery of CRISPR via a single adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector.

Hunterian is the first biopharmaceutical organization to license the MAD7 nuclease under Inscripta’s commercial licensing program. Inscripta originally released the MAD7 nuclease free for academic and commercial R&D in 2017. Today’s announcement represents an extension of Inscripta’s licensing program to expand access to CRISPR and address limitations in CRISPR-based therapeutic development and commercialization.

“The vast therapeutic potential of gene-editing has one primary barrier: Delivery. Hunterian solved this problem by enabling CRISPR systems to fit inside a single AAV, the gold standard for gene delivery,” said Dr. Vinny Jaskula-Ranga, President and CEO of Hunterian Medicine. “Inscripta is similarly reducing barriers to innovation by providing access to its MAD7 nuclease and other improved MADzyme nucleases. For therapeutic indications, MAD7 is a particularly important alternative to commonly used Cas9 nucleases given that it has significantly fewer off-target effects.”

“Gene-editing has demonstrated vast potential for breakthrough innovation in multiple industries. We see incredible opportunity and potential for CRISPR in therapeutic applications; however, we constantly hear biopharma companies talk about limitations in their access,” said Sri Kosaraju, President and CEO of Inscripta. “By providing more flexible access to MADzyme nucleases to companies such as Hunterian, Inscripta believes that we can help drive scientific progress and expand the use of CRISPR across more application areas and industries in the bioeconomy. We look forward to working with Hunterian to enable their AAV-based gene-editing programs to address significant unmet medical needs.”

About MADzymes

Inscripta developed the Madagascar family of nucleases (“MADzymes™”) and released the MAD7 nuclease in December 2017 to both commercial and academic researchers — without licensing fees or reach-through royalties for most applications — to improve access to CRISPR. Royalty-bearing commercial licenses apply only in a few scenarios where the MAD7 nuclease is used on a continuous basis for manufacturing or if a product physically contains the MAD7 nuclease. Since 2017, the MAD7 nuclease has been adopted widely, and multiple publications detail the use of MAD7 in microbes, plants, mammalian cell lines, stem cells, and animal models. Inscripta continues to innovate and find new and improved MADzyme nucleases, including higher-fidelity MAD7 nuclease variants, and is licensing the MAD7 nuclease commercially, including licensing for therapeutic uses in gene and cell therapy. For more information about licensing MADzymes, please visit inscripta.com/mad7.

About Inscripta

Inscripta is a life science technology company enabling scientists to solve some of today’s most pressing challenges with the first benchtop system for genome editing. The company’s automated Onyx™ platform, consisting of an instrument, consumables, assays, and software, makes CRISPR-based genome engineering of microbes accessible to any research lab. Inscripta supports its customers around the world from facilities in Boulder, Colo.; San Diego and Pleasanton, Calif.; and Copenhagen, Denmark. To learn more, visit Inscripta.com and follow @InscriptaInc.

About Hunterian Medicine®

Hunterian Medicine, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a laboratory in the LifeBridge Health BioIncubator in Baltimore, Maryland, is a pre-clinical gene-editing and gene therapy company working to cure genetic diseases using its innovative in vivo delivery technology, which can deliver the commonly used SpCas9, high-fidelity variants, Cas12a, PAM variants and many other systems through a single adeno-associated virus (AAV). The company’s platform technology provides a solution to the AAV gene delivery problem for key areas of (1) CRISPR gene-editing and (2) gene therapy applications. The company is developing a pipeline of gene-editing and gene therapy therapeutics to address diseases of significant unmet need. For more information, please visit www.hunterian.com.

Source: Business Wire

Amazon.com Inc.’s livestreaming e-sports platform Twitch said Wednesday that it had been hit by a data breach. It gave no details.

An anonymous hacker claimed to have leaked Twitch data, including information related to the company’s source code, clients and unreleased games, according to Video Games Chronicle, which first reported the news of the hack.

Twitch confirmed the breach and said its “teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this.”

The company declined to comment further and said ((https://twitter.com/Twitch/status/1445770441176469512)) it would “update the community as soon as additional information is available.” Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The hacker’s motive was to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space,” according to the Video Games Chronicle report.

About 125GB of data was leaked, including information on Twitch’s highest-paid video game streamers since 2019, such as a $9.6 million payout to the voice actors of popular game “Dungeons & Dragons” and $8.4 million to Canadian streamer xQcOW, the report said.

“Twitch leak is real. Includes significant amount of personal data,” cyber security expert Kevin Beaumont tweeted.

Twitch, which has more than 30 million daily visitors on average, has become increasingly popular with musicians and video gamers. They interact with users while live streaming content.

The platform, which was boycotted earlier this year by users for not doing enough to block harassment, previously made a move to ban users for offenses such as hate-group membership and credible threats of mass violence.

Source: Voice of America

(Seychelles News Agency) – The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has given its commitment to support the ‘Great Blue Wall Initiative,’ a regionally connected network to develop a regenerative blue economy.

The Great Blue Wall Initiative is a project for the western Indian Ocean countries that intends to adopt an action-driven, oriented and focused approach.

Under the project, seascapes and conservation/restoration sites will be identified based on country priorities, opportunities, existing efforts, local partners’ needs, and availability of funding as well as on the already available science and knowledge.

As such, the Great Blue Wall initiative The IUCN and its partners’ endorsement was announced as one of the key commitments to action at its World Congress, in Marseilles, hosted by France this week.

Initiated by the regional director of IUCN, Thomas Sberna, the project is supported by James Michel, a former President of Seychelles, and the founder and executive chairman of the James Michel Foundation.

Michel took part in a high-level dialogue organised by the IUCN.

“The Great Blue Wall initiative represents a unique opportunity to move forward at an unprecedented speed. Now is the time with the support of our partners to make it a reality. Subsequently, a wave can embrace the wider world. As a supporter, a world influencer and an advocate of the Blue Economy, I today pledge my full support for this visionary initiative,” said Michel.

The western Indian Ocean provides food security, sustains economic growth, regulates the climate, and provides livelihood opportunities for coastal communities across 10 countries – Comoros, France, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, and Tanzania.

Michel said that the Great Blue Wall Initiative provides a great opportunity if not a moral compass to act as a global champion for the cause and pave the way towards a blue future.

“The Great Blue Wall presents a first of its kind. It is a unique approach for the region, Africa and the world subsequently. It promises to play an instrumental role in helping to achieve a nature-people-positive world. A planet in balance. I believe it can be achieved provided there is political will. Let us make it happen, let us make history, let us make the future,” he added.

Former president James Michel has been advocating for a sustainable Blue Economy architecture for small islands and coastal states since 2010.

He said that when he started it was often a lonely journey plagued with a constant feeling of a lonely voice in the vast ocean.

“Look at us today! Today, it is embraced by the world. The Blue Economy is seen as a driver of conservation and development. We are unlocking its full potential – it can be sustainable, regenerative and people-centre,” said Michel.

He talked about the various initiatives Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, has made which included the world’s first debt for nature swap, a financial architecture to alleviate the debt trap and fund ocean protection and climate mitigation.

Michel concluded in saying that “I see the ocean as the medium of life, and the future of civilisation. I see our great seas as a place that holds the world’s shares of Earth’s natural resources. I see the extent of care that is required to use this precious resource without having to disturb nature’s balance. Above all, way back then, 11 years ago, I saw the architecture of the blue economy concept as the saviour of our planet. Today, this reality is being talked about in the world.”

Source: Seychelles News Agency

STATEMENT BY MAMI MIZUTORI, SECRETARY-GENERAL SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AT LAUNCH OF WMO ATLAS OF MORTALITY AND ECONOMIC LOSSES FROM WEATHER, CLIMATE AND WATER EXTREMES

I would like to applaud my WMO colleagues under the leadership of Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas for producing this timely review of mortality linked to extreme weather events over the last 50 years.

More lives are being saved thanks to early warning systems. We see evidence of this right across the world from the Gulf of Mexico to the Bay of Bengal. Thanks to advances in meteorology, satellite imagery and stronger risk governance, disasters that in the past, would have taken thousands of lives no longer do so.

However, it is also true that the numbers of people affected by disasters is increasing due to population growth in hazard-exposed areas and the growing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.

July was the hottest month since records began. There are more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than ever before. The climate emergency is manifesting itself in many unprecedented events around the globe which threaten human health and safety and erode our quality of life.

Last year 31 million people were displaced by disasters. Pre-COVID an estimated 26 million people were pushed into poverty every year by disasters. The pandemic combined with extreme weather events including drought is having devastating effects on global hunger and poverty. 2.3 billion people lacked adequate year-round access to food in 2020.

The overlap of the COVID-19 pandemic with extreme weather events during the last 18 months, demonstrates the need for greater investment in disaster risk reduction and a multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management.

In recent days, we have had a vivid example of the benefits of investing in disaster risk reduction.

On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans and much of Louisiana faced its greatest challenge when Category 4, Hurricane Ida, made landfall.

The difference this time was that over the last 16 years the city embarked on one of the largest public-works projects in the world.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, the city designed a new Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System which required an investment of $14.5 billion in gates, flood walls and levees that would protect it against another once-in-a-century storm.

One dreads to think of the loss of life and destruction of critical infrastructure that would have ensued in recent days if this system had not been completed three years ago.

Of course, great economic loss and damage to public utilities has resulted from this hurricane but the essential lesson is that the investment in disaster resilient infrastructure has mean that major loss of life has been averted and the extent of economic losses has been mitigated considerably.

I have no doubt that New Orleans and the State of Louisiana will process the learning from this latest disaster and build back better to be even more resilient in the face of the next major hurricane.

Developing countries are not so fortunate when it comes to the resources available to them for investment in disaster resilient infrastructure and multi-hazard warning systems which, together, can both save lives and reduce disruption to everyday life including access to work, schools and health services.

As the Atlas highlights only half of the 193 WMO members have multi-hazard early warning systems and there are severe gaps in weather and hydrological observing networks in Africa, parts of Latin America and in Pacific and Caribbean island states.

Disasters impact developing countries disproportionately resulting in higher loss of life, and greater numbers of people injured, and left displaced and homeless. Their economic losses are also higher as a percentage of GDP.

Many of them struggle to find the resources to implement their national strategies for disaster risk reduction which are a key element of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global plan to reduce disaster losses agreed by UN Member States,

There is no vaccine against poverty. International cooperation to developing countries is essential if many of them are to survive the climate emergency and adapt to the challenges of a warming world which they have done little to create.

The G20 countries must step up to the plate, not only to deliver on their promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but to provide financial, technological and capacity building support to developing countries that are struggling to cope with rising sea levels, warming seas, erratic rainfall and the constant threat of extreme weather events.

International cooperation for developing countries will be the theme of this year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on 13 October. It will be an opportunity to turn the spotlight on the need to strengthen disaster risk governance in developing countries and increase the availability of multi-hazard early warning systems and public access to disaster risk information. For more information on the WMO Atlas visit https://bit.ly/3BsCH8c

Source: UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction