health
US Hospitals run low on nurses as they get swamped with COVID
The rapidly escalating surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff in virus hot spots that can no longer keep up with the flood of unvaccinated patients and are losing workers to burnout and lucrative out-of-state temporary gigs.
Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oregon all have more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic, and nursing staffs are badly strained.
In Florida, virus cases have filled so many hospital beds that ambulance services and fire departments are straining to respond to emergencies. Some patients wait inside ambulances for up to an hour before hospitals in St. Petersburg, Florida, can admit them — a process that usually takes about 15 minutes, Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton said.
One person who suffered a heart attack was bounced from six hospitals before finding an emergency room in New Orleans that could take him in, said Joe Kanter, Louisiana’s chief public health officer.
Read:COVID vaccines to be required for military under new US plan
“It’s a real dire situation,” Kanter said. “There’s just not enough qualified staff in the state right now to care for all these patients.”
Michelle Thomas, a registered nurse and a manager of the emergency department at a Tucson, Arizona, hospital, resigned three weeks ago after hitting a wall.
“There was never a time that we could just kind of take a breath,” Thomas said Tuesday. “I hit that point … I can’t do this anymore. I’m so just tapped out.”
She helped other nurses cope with being alone in rooms with dying patients and holding mobile phones so family members could say their final goodbyes.
“It’s like incredibly taxing and traumatizing,” said Thomas, who is unsure if she will ever return to nursing.
Miami’s Jackson Memorial Health System, Florida’s largest medical provider, has been losing nurses to staffing agencies, other hospitals and pandemic burnout, Executive Vice President Julie Staub said. The hospital’s CEO says nurses are being lured away to jobs in other states at double and triple the salary.
Staub said system hospitals have started paying retention bonuses to nurses who agree to stay for a set period. To cover shortages, nurses who agree to work extra are getting the typical time-and-a-half for overtime plus $500 per additional 12-hour shift. Even with that, the hospital sometimes still has to turn to agencies to fill openings.
“You are seeing folks chase the dollars,” Staub said. “If they have the flexibility to pick up and go somewhere else and live for a week, months, whatever and make more money, it is a very enticing thing to do. I think every health care system is facing that.”
Nearly 70% of Florida hospitals are expecting critical staffing shortages in the next week, according to the Florida Hospital Association.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday that state employees must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or six weeks after a COVID-19 vaccine receives full federal approval, whichever is later. Her office planned to announce a statewide indoor mask requirement on Wednesday.
“Oregon is facing a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations — consisting overwhelmingly of unvaccinated individuals — that is quickly exceeding the darkest days of our winter surge,” Brown said. “When our hospitals are full, there will be no room for additional patients needing care.”
Read:US now averaging 100,000 new COVID-19 infections a day
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday directed state officials to use staffing agencies to find additional medical staff from beyond the state’s borders as the delta variant overwhelms its present staffing resources. He also has sent a letter to the Texas Hospital Association to request that hospitals postpone all elective medical procedures voluntarily.
Parts of Europe have so far avoided a similar hospital crisis, despite wide circulation of the delta variant, with help from vaccines.
The United Kingdom on Monday had more than 5,900 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, but the latest surge has not overwhelmed medical centers. As of Tuesday, the government said 75 percent of adults have been fully vaccinated.
The same was true in Italy, where the summer infections have not resulted in any spike in hospital admissions, intensive care admissions or deaths. About 3,200 people in the nation of 60 million were hospitalized Tuesday in regular wards or ICUs, according to Health Ministry figures.
Italian health authorities advising the government on the pandemic attribute the relatively contained hospital numbers to the nation’s inoculation campaign, which has fully vaccinated 64.5% of Italians 12 years of age or older.
The U.S. is averaging more than 116,000 new coronavirus infections a day along with about 50,000 hospitalizations, levels not experienced since the winter surge. Unlike other points in the pandemic, hospitals now have more non-COVID patients for everything from car accidents to surgeries that were postponed during the outbreak.
That has put even more burden on nurses who were already fatigued after dealing with constant death among patients and illnesses in their ranks.
“Anecdotally, I’m seeing more and more nurses say, ‘I’m leaving, I’ve had enough,’” said Gerard Brogan, director of nursing practice with National Nurses United, an umbrella organization of nurses unions across the U.S. “’The risk to me and my family is just too much.’”
Hawaii is seeing more new daily virus cases than ever.
In a Honolulu hospital’s emergency department, patients have had to wait for beds for more than 24 hours on gurneys in a curtained-off section because there’s not enough staff to open more beds, nurse Patrick Switzer said.
“Somebody who’s been sitting in the emergency room for 30 hours is miserable,” he said.
He described being “in this constant state of anxiety, knowing that you don’t have the tools that you need to take care of your patients because we’re stretched so thin.”
Read:Shots give COVID-19 survivors big immune boost, studies show
COVID-19 hospitalizations have now surpassed the pandemic’s worst previous surge in Florida, with no signs of letting up, setting a record of 13,600 on Monday, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. More than 2,800 required intensive care. At the height of last year’s summer surge, there were more than 10,170 COVID-19 hospitalizations.
At Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, Florida, the number of COVID-19 patients has doubled each week for the past month, wearing down the already short staff, said Penny Ceasar, who handles admissions there.
The hospital has converted overflow areas to accommodate the rise in admissions. Some staffers have fallen ill with COVID-19.
“It’s just hard. We’re just tired. I just want this thing over,” Ceasar said.
COVID vaccines to be required for military under new US plan
Members of the U.S. military will be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine beginning next month under a plan laid out by the Pentagon and endorsed by President Joe Biden. In memos distributed to all troops, top Pentagon leaders said the vaccine is a necessary step to maintain military readiness.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the mid-September deadline could be accelerated if the vaccine receives final FDA approval or infection rates continue to rise.
“I will seek the president’s approval to make the vaccines mandatory no later than mid-September, or immediately upon” licensure by the Food and Drug Administration “whichever comes first,” Austin said in his memo sent Monday, warning them to prepare for the requirement.
The Pentagon plan provides time for the FDA to give final approval to the Pfizer vaccine, which is expected early next month. Without that formal approval, Austin needs a waiver from Biden to make the shots mandatory, and Biden has already made clear he supports it.
Read:US now averaging 100,000 new COVID-19 infections a day
Austin’s decision reflects similar moves by governments and companies around the world, as nations struggle with the highly contagious delta variant that has sent new U.S. cases, hospitalizations and deaths surging to heights not seen since last winter. The concerns are especially acute in the military, where service members live and work closely together in barracks and on ships, increasing the risks of rapid spreading. Any large virus outbreak in the military could affect America’s ability to defend itself in any security crisis.
Austin warned that if infection rates rise and potentially affect military readiness, “I will not hesitate to act sooner or recommend a different course to the President if l feel the need to do so. To defend this Nation, we need a healthy and ready force.”
In a statement Monday, Biden said he strongly supports Austin’s message to the force and the plan to add the COVID vaccine “to the list of required vaccinations for our service members not later than mid-September.”
Biden said the country is still on a wartime footing and “being vaccinated will enable our service members to stay healthy, to better protect their families, and to ensure that our force is ready to operate anywhere in the world.”
Austin’s memo, which went out Monday, was followed quickly by one from Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“The Secretary of Defense intends to mandate vaccinations for all Service members in the coming weeks,” said Milley, adding that the military’s medical professionals recommended the move. At the bottom of his message, Milley scrawled a handwritten note: “Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is a key force protection and readiness issue.”
The decision comes a bit more than a week after Biden told defense officials to develop a plan requiring troops to get shots as part of a broader campaign to increase vaccinations in the federal workforce.
More broadly, the COVID-19 crisis has worsened around the country, with hospitals experiencing deeper strain in unvaccinated areas of the South. Mississippi reported that 35 medical centers are completely out of intensive care unit beds, Arkansas topped its pandemic record for COVID admissions, and the average number of people hospitalized nationwide has returned to levels not seen since February. More patients are being parked in emergency rooms while they wait for beds to open up and the average number of daily deaths is now above 500.
The country is averaging about 108,000 new infections and 700,000 vaccines administered a day.
Austin said the military services will have the next few weeks to prepare, determine how many vaccines they need, and how this mandate will be implemented. The additional time, however, also is a nod to the bitter political divide over the vaccine and the knowledge that making it mandatory will likely trigger opposition from vaccine opponents across state and federal governments, Congress and the American population.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that he believes the military has enough vaccines to meet the requirements. He added, “You can consider this memo not just a warning order to the services but to the troops themselves.”
Read:Thousands jam Philippine vaccination sites over false news
Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said vaccines have proven effective.
“Some may try and criticize the Secretary’s decision, using anti-vax arguments that are not supported by facts or science to politicize the conversation. These desperate attention seekers must be ignored,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said the vaccine will help protect troops who live in cramped conditions and don’t have the option to telework.
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., however, said Austin should not mandate a vaccine that doesn’t have full FDA approval. “Wearing our country’s uniform does not mean our service members sign away the right to make personal medical decisions,” he said.
The decision will add the COVID-19 vaccine to a list of other inoculations that service members are already required to get. Depending on their location, service members can get as many as 17 different vaccines.
Austin’s memo also said that in the meantime, the Pentagon will comply with Biden’s order for additional restrictions on unvaccinated federal personnel, including masks, social distancing and travel limits.
According to the Pentagon, more than 1 million troops are fully vaccinated and another 237,000 have received one shot. But the military services vary widely in their vaccination rates.
The Navy said that more than 74% of all active duty and reserve sailors have been vaccinated with at least one shot. The Air Force, meanwhile, said that more than 65% of its active duty and 60% reserve forces are at least partially vaccinated, and the number for the Army appears closer to 50%.
Military officials have said the pace of vaccines has been growing across the force, with some units — such as sailors deploying on a warship — seeing nearly 100% of their members get shots. But the totals drop off dramatically, including among the National Guard and Reserve, who are much more difficult to track.
Some unvaccinated troops have said they’d get the shot once it’s required, but others are flatly opposed. Once the vaccine is mandated, a refusal could constitute failure to obey an order and may be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Army guidance, for example, includes counseling soldiers to ensure they understand the purpose of the vaccine and the threat the disease poses. The Army also notes that if a soldier “fails to comply with a lawful order to receive a mandatory vaccine, and does not have an approved exemption, a commander may take appropriate disciplinary action.”
Military service officials says the don’t have data on the number of troops who have refused other mandated vaccines, such as anthrax, chicken pox or flu shots over the past decade or more. And they weren’t able to provide details on the punishments service members received as a result of the refusal.
Read:US plans to require COVID-19 shots for foreign travelers
Officials said they believe few troops have refused other mandated vaccines, and the discipline can vary.
Also, service members can seek an exemption from any vaccine — either temporary or permanent — for a variety of reasons including health issues or religious beliefs. Regulations say, for example, that anyone who had a severe adverse reaction to the vaccine can be exempt, and those who are pregnant or have other conditions can postpone a shot.
Navy officials said last week that there has been only one case of COVID-19 hospitalization among fully vaccinated sailors and Marines. But, the Navy said there have been more than 123 hospitalizations in a similar group of unvaccinated sailors and Marines.” It said fewer than 3% of its immunized troops have tested positive for COVID-19.
The other military services did not provide similar data.
54 lakh more vaccine doses to arrive by Aug 15: Minister
Some 54 lakh more vaccine doses will arrive in Bangladesh by August 15 as the government has geared up its vaccination campaign, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday.
“Some 34 lakh doses of vaccine under Covax facility will arrive between August 9-10 to August 15 in addition to 10 lakh doses, purchased from China. Another 10 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine will arrive as a gift,” he said.
Read: Moderna says vaccine 93% effective but seeks 3rd-shot in fall
The health minister revealed the information while talking to reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat.
This will help the country make the ongoing vaccination drive more dynamic, he said, adding, “We’ve started a successful vaccination drive that actually began on August 7.”
Zahid Maleque said rural people are taking jabs in a festive mood as long queues are seen during vaccination. “We’ve planned to vaccinate 600 people in each union but people are overcrowding the vaccine centres,” he added.
Read: Dr Zafrullah describes how Bangladesh can go for low-cost vaccine production
Minister Maleque said, “Those who’ve failed to take shots in their arms got that the following day. Besides, the remote areas have also been brought under immunisation drive as they’re interested in taking shots now.”
He said the vaccination drive in municipality areas will continue alongside the routine vaccination 30 lakh people have been brought under the mega vaccination process. “We’ve got approval to procure 6 crore more doses of vaccine from China.”
Read: Covid vaccine seekers overwhelm Suhrawardy Hospital; chaos all around
As the ruthless Delta variant of Covid-19 keeps spreading like wildfire, Bangladesh on Saturday kicked off another phase of its mass vaccination drive aimed at inoculating 35 lakh people in six days.
Covid jabs will be administered simultaneously in 4,600 unions, 1,054 municipality areas and 433 wards of the city corporations, Director General of Health Services Dr ABM Khurshid Alam told the media on Friday.
Canada begins allowing vaccinated US citizens to visit again
Canada on Monday is lifting its prohibition on Americans crossing the border to shop, vacation or visit, but the United States is keeping similar restrictions in place for Canadians, part of a bumpy return to normalcy from COVID-19 travel bans.
U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents must be both fully vaccinated and test negative for COVID-19 within three days to get across one of the world’s longest and busiest land borders. Travelers also must fill out a detailed on application on the arriveCAN app before crossing.
Read:Tribe claims remains of kids who died at assimilation school
Even though travelers have to register, the Canada Border Services Agency won’t say how many people they are expecting to enter Canada for the reopening. But travelers should plan for the possibility of additional processing time at the border.
“CBSA will not compromise the health and safety of Canadians for the sake of border wait times,” agency spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy said in a statement.
While the Canada Border Services Agency won’t say how many people it’s expecting, Garnet Health, an Essex, Vermont-based company that offers same-day COVID-19 testing, has seen the number of tests it performs more than triple in recent weeks. The increase coincides with Canada’s decision last month to drop a two-week quarantine requirement for its citizens when they return home from the U.S.
“I imagine once that border opens, we are going to see lots of people,” said Chelsea Sweeney, the company’s director of business development.
The U.S.-Canada border has been closed to nonessential travel since March 2020 to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The U.S. has said it will extend its closure to all Canadians making nonessential trips until at least Aug. 21, which also applies to the Mexican border. But the Biden administration is beginning to make plans for a phased reopening. The main requirement would be that nearly all foreign visitors to the U.S. will have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
But Canadians aren’t waiting for reciprocal rules.
Joel Villanueva, owner of Primo’s Mexican Grill in White Rock, British Columbia, about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) north of the U.S. border, is more than ready for Americans to return.
Read:Canadian Indigenous group says more graves found at new site
“Let’s get this thing going,” he said. “A lot of our customers are from the United States, and we are literally minutes from across the border. We welcome our Americans, and we depend on their foot traffic.”
Villanueva said he supports people coming who are fully vaccinated and doesn’t think there will be a rush of Americans initially. But if his restaurant and dozens of others along the waterfront could fill some tables with U.S. visitors every day for the rest of the summer, it would be a big financial boost, he said.
Near the border in Washington state, Blaine Chamber of Commerce board member Carroll Solomon called the reopening a step in the right direction for businesses. But she also said it was somewhat concerning because of an increase in COVID-19 cases nationwide as the highly contagious delta variant spreads.
“For people who need to get up there (to Canada) for family reasons, it’s wonderful,” said Solomon, who also volunteers at the Blaine Visitor Information Center.
With all the hoops people need to jump through — being fully vaccinated, getting tested for COVID-19 and uploading that information to an app — she doesn’t think that people will be going to Canada for many day trips.
“I have a lot of friends on the Canadian side and would love to go have lunch with somebody, but you can’t just do that; you have to plan days in advance to make sure you can get through,” Solomon said.
It’s going to be an event for the Blaine area when Canadians can come down on a regular basis, she said.
As far as returning to the United States from Canada, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Jason Givens said there’s no requirement to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.
Read:Unmarked graves found at another Indigenous school in Canada
“CBP officers have been processing essential travel throughout the pandemic and remain ready and able to process American citizens and permanent residents returning from Canada,” Givens said by email.
Steve Blake, who lives in Stanstead, Quebec, just across the border from Derby Line, Vermont, is hoping his siblings living in the United States will be able to visit Canada soon so they can hold a memorial service for their mother who died in early 2020, just before the pandemic closed the border. But given the requirements, he doesn’t know how quickly that will happen.
“I’d like it to be sooner rather than later,” he said.
1 Chicago officer killed, 1 wounded in traffic stop shooting
A 29-year-old female police officer in Chicago was killed and another officer was seriously wounded in an exchange of gunfire during a traffic stop, officials said Sunday, the city’s mayor later citing the shooting as a reason for Chicagoans to work together to stem violence.
The officer killed Saturday night was identified as Ella French, according to a post on the Chicago Police Department’s Facebook page Sunday evening. French’s death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty since 2018 and the first female officer fatally shot on the job in 33 years.
Read: Pentagon on lockdown after shooting near Metro station
“We will never forget the true bravery she exemplified as she laid her life down to protect others,” the department said of French on Facebook, adding that fellow officers will “grieve the loss of this hero.” The department also requested support for French’s “wounded partner, who is in the hospital fighting for his life.”
At a Sunday news conference, Mayor Lori Lightfoot urged Chicagoans to end the acrimony between ardent police proponents who say officers are hampered by overly burdensome rules and staunch critics who say officers act with impunity.
“Stop. Just stop,” she said. “This constant strife is not what we need in this moment.”
The shooting of the officers occurred on another violent summer weekend in the nation’s third largest city, with at least 64 people shot, 10 fatally, by afternoon Sunday, ABC7 in Chicago reported.
“The police are not our enemies,” Lightfoot added at the news conference. “We must come together... We have a common enemy: It’s the guns and the gangs.”
Officers had stopped a vehicle with two men and a woman inside just after 9 p.m. on Chicago’s South Side, when a male passenger opened fire, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said during the same news conference.
Read:8 dead in shooting at rail yard serving Silicon Valley
Officers returned fire, striking the passenger who appeared to fire at them, said Brown. He did not release the condition of that man. All three are in custody, but no charges had been filed, he said.
Police also did not identify the three who have been arrested.
When asked about the condition of the injured officer, Brown responded, “Critical. We need your prayers.”
The superintendent said it was too soon to say why the vehicle was stopped and what might have happened just before the shooting began. He said available evidence included police body camera footage. A gun was also recovered at the scene.
A large crowd of officers gathered outside the hospital’s ambulance entrance overnight, some hugging and praying, as Lightfoot first addressed the shooting to reporters nearby. Lightfoot said the officer who died “was very young on the job, but incredibly enthusiastic to do the work.”
The last Chicago officer shot to death in the line of duty was 28-year-old Samuel Jimenez, who was killed after responding to a shooting at a hospital on Nov. 19, 2018.
Read:Police: 9 wounded in Providence, Rhode Island, shooting
Two officers, Conrad Gary and Eduardo Marmolejo, died when they were struck by a train while pursuing a suspect on Dec. 17, 2018. The department also considers the COVID-19 deaths of four officers last year line-of-duty deaths.
The last female officer shot to death in the line of duty was Irma Ruiz, who was shot inside an elementary school in 1988.
China punishes 30 officials for pandemic failing
More than 30 Chinese officials have been fired or received other punishments over accusations they failed to respond properly to the latest surge of the coronavirus in the country.
Among those fired were a vice mayor, heads of city districts and health commissions, and staff in hospital management, airport and tourism departments.
Read:China pledges 2 billion vaccines globally through year’s end
China’s National Health Commission on Monday announced 94 new cases of domestic transmission had been recorded over the previous 24 hours.
The latest outbreak is linked to the airport in the eastern city of Nanjing. The highly contagious delta variant spread among airport workers and has since spread from tropical Hainan province in the south to Inner Mongolia in the far north.
Read:Thousands jam Philippine vaccination sites over false news
The outbreak has prompted renewed travel restrictions, community lockdowns and the sealing off of the entire city of Zhangjiajie, with a population of 1.5 million.
Dengue surge in Bangladesh: 224 more hospitalized in 24 hrs
As many as 224 new patients were hospitalized in 24 hours till Sunday morning amid a growing concern over a spike in dengue cases.
Since August 1, the country has been seeing over 200 dengue cases every day adding worries to the already overburdened health sector with Covid-19 patients.
Read: BGMEA issues guidelines on prevention of dengue, chikungunya
Of the new dengue cases, 211 were reported in Dhaka while the remaining 13 from outside the division, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
According to the (DGHS), 946 patients are currently receiving treatment at different hospitals across the country. Of them, 900 patients were reported to be admitted to hospitals in Dhaka and the rests in other divisions.
Some 4,543 patients have been admitted to different hospitals with dengue since January and 3,587 of them have been released after they recovered.
So far, 10 suspected deaths caused by dengue were reported to the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) but none of them had been reviewed and confirmed yet, said the DGHS.
Read:Dengue surge in Bangladesh: 204 more hospitalized in 24 hrs
Dengue fever was first reported in Bangladesh in 2000, claiming 93 lives that year. In the year that followed, the country learned to deal with the disease much better.
The fatalities had almost fallen to zero at one stage, before surging again in 2018, leading to the severe outbreak the following year.
Rajshahi sees 18 more Covid deaths in 24 hrs
Eighteen more people died of Covid-19 and related complications at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) in the past 24 hours, health officials said on Sunday.
Six of them died of Covid-19, while 10 died with symptoms of the virus and the remaining three due to post-corona complications, said hospital director Brigadier General Shamim Yazdani.
Read: 15 more die of Covid at Rajshahi hospital
Of the deceased, 10 were from Rajshahi district, three from Natore, two from Chapainawabganj and one each from Naogaon, Pabna and Kushtia districts.
Besides, 52 people have been admitted to the corona unit of the hospital in the past 24 hours. On the other hand, some 42 people were discharged from the hospital after recovery during the period.
Read: Rajshahi hospital logs 14 Covid deaths in 24 hours
Currently, 405 patients are undergoing treatment at the hospital which has 513 beds. Of them, 20 are being treated in the ICU, said the hospital director.
Of the admitted patients, 212 have tested positive for Covid-19, while 123 are with symptoms and 70 have post-Covid health complications.
Once lagging, Europe catches up to the US in vaccinations
Despite a sluggish start, the European Union’s COVID-19 vaccination drive has caught up to that of the United States, where the slowdown of the country’s once-vaunted campaign has contributed to the virus’s deadly comeback.
In mid-February, less than 4% of people living in the 27-nation EU were at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus, compared with nearly 12% in the U.S, according to Our World in Data, an online science publication connected to the University of Oxford.
Read:Pizza for shots: UK targets young with vaccine incentives
Now the EU has surpassed the U.S. by that same measure, with some 60% of the bloc’s residents receiving at least one dose, versus less than 58% of Americans.
In Italy, where roughly 63% of people 12 and older are fully protected, Premier Mario Draghi took a victory lap this past week.
“I said that I don’t want to celebrate successes, but it must be said that Italy has inoculated more doses per 100 inhabitants than France, Germany, the United States,” he said as the country’s vaccine verification program went into effect Friday.
People in Italy must now show proof they have had at least one vaccine dose, recovered from COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus if they want to dine indoors, use gyms or go to concerts, theaters, museums and tourist sites such as the Colosseum.
European authorities attribute success in Italy and elsewhere to nationalized health care and a history of public confidence in the safety of immunizations.
The EU’s slow process for approving the vaccinations set the bloc back at the beginning, but that is now paying dividends because it is instilling more confidence in the rapidly developed formulas, said Dr. Peter Liese, a European Parliament member from Germany.
While the U.S. and Britain issued emergency authorizations of vaccines to get shots into arms quickly, the EU went through the longer process of granting full approvals, putting it weeks behind.
“I am convinced that we have a good argument to explain to people still hesitating that the vaccine was properly tested in Europe,” Liese said recently. “Now it becomes clear that not only the pace of vaccination in the first months but also the long-term strategy is important.”
The turnaround in Spain has been pronounced. In mid-April, when nearly a quarter of all Americans were fully vaccinated, only 7% of Spaniards were similarly protected, according to Our World in Data. Now, nearly 60% of Spain’s roughly 47 million people are fully vaccinated, while about half the U.S. is.
Portugal, with around 10 million people, had fully vaccinated around a third of its population by the end of June. Now officials say it is on track to reach 70% by the end of the summer.
Read:UK recognises Bangladesh's Dr Jara as 'Vaccine Luminary'
Like the American vaccination drive, the European Union effort started around Christmas and struggled to meet initial demand. But it quickly turned into a major political embarrassment for European officials, as the U.S. and Britain jumped ahead.
The major factor holding back the EU initially was its decision to purchase vaccines as a bloc instead of as individual countries. The move ensured smaller member nations weren’t left out, but it ended up taking more time to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, said Giovanna De Maio, a visiting fellow in international relations at George Washington University.
The U.S. was also more efficient in distributing the vaccine, quickly setting up large-scale vaccination sites and also supplying shots to neighborhood pharmacies, groceries and other places, while the EU initially focused on hospitals and other medical facilities, she said.
EU nations were also overly confident manufacturers would deliver. As it turned out, Astra-Zeneca failed to produce its shots on time and delivered a paltry number of doses. Concerns over its safety and effectiveness also contributed to vaccine skepticism. But with the major rollout of the Pfizer shot, things turned around.
Meanwhile, the U.S. vaccination effort peaked and then dropped off dramatically in the face of significant hesitancy and outright hostility, fueled by misinformation and partisan politics.
As of the end of July, the U.S. was dispensing under 600,000 shots a day on average, down from a peak of over 3.4 million a day in April. The highly contagious delta variant has sent new daily cases soaring over the past month to levels not seen since February. The vast majority of those hospitalized were not vaccinated.
Still, not all is well within the EU. Discrepancies between member states are huge. For example, in the Netherlands, 85% of adults have received at least one dose. In Bulgaria, it is less than 20%.
There are also troubling signs that Europe’s campaign is losing steam.
In Germany, where 54% of the population is fully vaccinated, the number of shots being dispensed per day has declined from more than 1 million in May to about 500,000.
Officials there have begun pushing for more vaccinations at megastores and in city centers and are offering incentives. A vaccination drive in Thuringia state included free bratwurst, while sites in Berlin planned to have DJs play music this weekend in hopes of encouraging young people to get inoculated.
Read:UK urges commitment to vaccinate the world by end of 2022
De Maio said she believes nationwide vaccine mandates like her native Italy’s Green Pass program could help EU nations avoid America’s fate.
“European politicians see it coming and they’re taking these measures,” she said of the potential for vaccination efforts to stall in Europe. “They’re desperate trying to avoid that because Europe can’t afford another lockdown, given the big economic toll COVID has already taken.”
Is it tackling dengue or tackling Porimoni?
After a great deal of drama that began many weeks ago when Porimoni barged into the Boat Club at late hours and got involved in a famous escapade down to yesterday’s Live FB broadcast as RAB was at her door, she is full of drama and theatre. It’s all very exciting and interesting but at the end of the day she is in jail, accused of having liquor bottles, drugs consuming apparatus etc .
She was the latest in the line of ladies and gents being reined in who were broadly speaking, part of Dhaka’s sleaze society on such charges. These people live off the excesses of the upper class but wanted to take more advantage and got whacked. Fine, it’s an Inner Party Conflict even if this is not a political party but a socio-cultural one.
Read:Dhallywood actress Pori Moni detained from Banani residence
But it has nothing to do with us. By making it a national emergency when we are being ravaged by Covid and its variants and joined by dengue, we do mind the priority list. It’s our life and death. We don’t mix with them, don’t drink, dance, do drugs etc. We have no embarrassing footage to be blackmailed by so please try to stop convincing us that managing Porimonis matters more than managing the virus.
Dengue is hitting badly
Dengue has silently crept in and has started to take a huge toll. Every day, the death rates are climbing and there is little chance that it is going to go down. The health sector’s performance is dismal as far as corona goes and public confidence is low. The much ballyhooed public immunization week was reduced to a day showing that poor planning and performance is endemic and needs immediate fixing. This should be the priority and not arresting a few people linked with DJ parties thrown by the rich or attended by them.
I think the month of August is a month of great pain and suffering for all and shows how fragile life can be. It’s also a time to reflect on the way people's lives can be better. It’s not going to be done by arresting Porimoni or her crowd. It can only happen when we can get our priorities right.
Read:Dengue alert: CU survey team finds Aedes larvae at 15 spots in Chattogram
Today’s biggest crisis is the health one followed by the economic one and that needs attention. At this point nobody cares who is drinking or smoking what. They can all go to hell.
What we all are looking for is safety and the GOB can give us that by paying attention to some flying insects and the all-pervasive virus. Please get your priorities in line with the people.