Category: Sports

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

John Bryan Ulanday – Philstar.com November 16, 2021 | 3:59pm MANILA, Philippines – A new avenue in the campus sports scene has emerged with the birth of the Collegiate Center for Esports (CCE) aiming to cater scholarship opportunities and career paths for aspiring students through the booming online gaming sport. Composed of 10 established colleges and universities as pioneer members, CCE has announced its arrival in the collegiate sports industry last week with a launching event of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Varsity Cup (MVC) featuring renowned basketball players. NCAA rivals Letran, led by Se… Continue reading “NCAA basketball players help unveil new college esports school”

Seats are once again packed at professional baseball games in South Korea. Just as in pre-pandemic times, fans can drink beer and eat fried chicken. They can clap their hands, stomp their feet, and wave inflatable noisemakers to support their team.

What they are not allowed to do, though, at least not yet, is shout or sing fight songs, a key feature of Korean baseball crowds.

“If you shout a lot, the virus will leak through your mask,” Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum pleaded with fans on a radio show this week, after crowds were seen as being too vocally supportive of their teams during tense playoff games.

It is a microcosm of how life is going in South Korea: basically, things are returning to normal, but they are not quite there yet.

Although South Korea never locked down during the coronavirus pandemic, it was never fully open either, especially as the country has battled a fourth wave of infections since July.

However, starting this week, the government rolled out the first step of its “living with COVID-19” plan. Bigger crowds can now gather in Seoul. Restaurants and cafes, including those that serve alcohol, are no longer subject to a nighttime curfew. Sports fans have returned to stadiums and arenas.

Barring setbacks, South Korea will phase out all social distancing rules by the end of February, two years after the country experienced one of the world’s first COVID-19 outbreaks.

South Korea’s COVID-19 approach has unquestionably been a success so far. It is one of very few countries to avoid both mass lockdowns and mass deaths.

Now, after outperforming its global peers at nearly every stage of the pandemic, South Korea hopes it can demonstrate how to live with COVID-19.

A cautious opening

For starters, few in South Korea are declaring victory. That is in contrast to countries such as the United States and Britain, where leaders announced independence from the virus and quickly eased social distancing, only to see the delta variant sweep through their populations, killing tens of thousands more in each country.

“The goal here is to set up a system where the government can relax the restrictions, but at the same time has criteria for moving back,” said Jerome Kim, director-general of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul.

There are good reasons for caution. Although over 75% of South Koreans are vaccinated, the number of daily confirmed COVID-19 cases has not fallen since the fourth wave began.

“We do, I think at this point, have a realization that the vaccines are doing what they’re supposed to do, which is preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death. But they don’t necessarily prevent infection,” Kim said.

Officials have repeatedly warned the opening up could be reversed. And they say some precautions, such as mandatory facemasks, may be around for the foreseeable future.

South Koreans seem receptive. According to a recent poll by Seoul National University, about 49% of South Koreans have mixed feelings about the loosened restrictions. Twenty-seven percent think it will be impossible to ever stop wearing masks, according to a survey by Gallup Korea.

Getting public support

Unlike many countries, South Korea has seen almost no domestic backlash to its pandemic approach.

Businesses largely complied with mandatory curfews. There has been no successful anti-vaccine movement. Virtually everyone wears masks, even when running alone outside on empty paths.

That public buy-in has been at the heart of South Korea’s COVID-19 success, according to public health experts. Not only has it given authorities more anti-pandemic tools, those tools are less coercive and more precise.

For instance, no vaccine mandates have been necessary; about 90% of adults have received the COVID-19 vaccine. Mass lockdowns, too, are unheard of; during the pandemic it has always been possible to go shopping or eat at a restaurant.

Perhaps the most invasive tool is South Korea’s system of contact tracing.

Using cellphone, credit card, and other personal data, authorities can quickly determine where those infected with COVID-19 have gone and who they may have contacted.

The contact tracing only became possible after South Korea’s National Assembly loosened privacy laws following a public outcry over the government’s handling of a deadly 2015 outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS.

“I think there are a number of choices that people here have made in order to have freedom, which is really what it is,” Kim said.

Moving ahead

As South Korea makes the transition toward living with the virus, it will continue to use many of those same tools, which have become a part of daily life.

Customers at every restaurant in Seoul are required to check in either via their phones or on a sign-up sheet at the counter. Temperature checks remain at the entrance of almost every business. Soon, electronic vaccine passes will be required to enter sporting events, concerts, and other large venues.

Some health experts caution that new standards may be necessary for defining COVID-19 success, though.

While many news outlets continue to focus on the number of confirmed daily cases, it will soon be important to pay attention to more meaningful measurements, such as the number of intensive care unit beds available or the number of serious illnesses.

“Even if there are 10,000 confirmed cases, it will still be more important to know the number of serious cases or what the fatality rate is,” said Chun Eun-mi, a respiratory disease specialist at Ewha Womans University Medical Center in Seoul.

Experts also warn inconsistencies may need to be addressed as authorities figure out the best path to follow.

During a previous round of social distancing, many South Korean newspapers mocked the strangely specific guidelines for Seoul fitness centers, which were prohibited from playing music with a tempo higher than 120 beats per minute. Joggers were also prevented from running faster than 6 kph on the treadmill.

More recently, Korean baseball fans are the ones questioning the rules against cheering. Why are they allowed to attend baseball games, they ask, but remain forbidden to vocally support their team?

South Korean officials insist that cheering may be allowed during future rounds of opening up.

For now, South Korea’s prime minister asked fans, “please reduce your shouts by just a little.”

Source: Voice of America

Facebook announced Thursday it was changing its name to Meta, rechristening itself as a digitally innovative company moving beyond 2D screens even as insider revelations paint the tech giant as apathetic toward hate speech, misinformation and mental health.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during Thursday’s livestreamed augmented reality and virtual reality (VR) conference that Facebook’s name change reflects a shift beyond its scrollable social media feed.

“The next platform in medium will be even more immersive,” he said. “An embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse.”

Zuckerberg said he was inspired by the classics. “Meta,” he said, comes from the Greek word for “beyond.” Facebook-owned apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger will still figure into the company’s mission, but as it builds out its VR vision, Facebook has found “a new North Star to help bring the metaverse to life,” Zuckerberg said.

Facebook has been the subject of intense scrutiny since Frances Haugen, a former employee, leaked a trove of internal documents now known as the Facebook Papers. According to The New York Times, Haugen has made the rounds with lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and Europe, arguing for tighter controls on the rapidly growing company.

As part of its rebranding, Facebook will develop a newly immersive VR option. Digital avatars will be “living 3D representations” of users, Zuckerberg said, which will allow people to work, play games and socialize together. Users can customize their experience with virtual items and cosmetics, integrate non-Facebook applications such as Dropbox and Slack, and meet friends and coworkers remotely.

This social platform, called Horizon, will be accessible through Facebook’s Oculus Quest, the company’s VR headset. Privacy and safety will be key features of the metaverse: Users can block people and “teleport to a private bubble to be alone,” Zuckerberg said.

Horizon will take a four-pronged approach to privacy, according to Zuckerberg, with its Responsible Innovation Principles: “Never surprise people,” “Provide controls that matter,” “Consider everyone” and “Put people first.” It’s reminiscent of Google’s founding rule, “Don’t be evil,” but critics say Facebook has done a poor job in the past of protecting users’ private data.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the metaverse’s sci-fi sound but predicted it would be mainstream within a decade. In that time, he hopes the metaverse will reach 1 billion users, facilitate billions of dollars’ worth of e-commerce and support millions of new jobs, according to his keynote address at Thursday’s virtual conference.

Source: Voice of America

President Joe Biden on Friday signed legislation that will provide financial support to U.S. government employees believed to be suffering from the so-called Havana syndrome, mysterious health incidents that have affected American intelligence officers, diplomats and other personnel around the world.

“Today, I was pleased to sign the HAVANA Act into law to ensure we are doing our utmost to provide for U.S. Government personnel who have experienced anomalous health incidents,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

The Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks Act, or HAVANA Act, was passed unanimously by the Senate on June 7 and the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

In his statement, Biden acknowledged that American civil servants, intelligence officers, diplomats and military personnel around the world have been affected by “anomalous health incidents,” and some are struggling with debilitating brain injuries that have curtailed their careers. He vowed to commit the full resources of the U.S. government to provide medical care to victims and determine what causes it and who is responsible.

The Havana syndrome — a set of ailments that includes migraines, nausea, dizziness, tinnitus, visual and hearing problems, vertigo, memory lapses, and even mental breakdown — became public in 2016 after dozens of diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Havana complained of the symptoms. Since then, other U.S. personnel in China, Russia, Poland, Austria and other countries have reported similar symptoms.

Robyn Garfield, an advocate for Havana syndrome victims, welcomed the signing but said much more needs to be done. As a Commerce Department officer, Garfield was evacuated from Shanghai, China, with his wife and two children in June 2018 after experiencing symptoms.

“We remain deeply concerned by the continued disparity in treatment and support among different agencies of our government,” Garfield said in a statement to VOA. “In concert with implementation of the HAVANA Act, we urge the Administration to adopt a uniform diagnostic and treatment protocol across agencies to ensure that all who serve, and their families, have access to the best possible care.”

Garfield said that for too long, too many victims have faced skepticism and have been treated as adversaries instead of partners by the agencies they worked for. “That needs to stop.”

While the cause of Havana syndrome remains under investigation by the intelligence community, a 2020 National Academy of Sciences report concluded that “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining” these anomalous health incidents.

Dr. David Relman, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University who chaired the committee that produced the report, welcomed the legislation.

“This is good news. This has been a long time— too long, in coming,” Relman said in a statement to VOA. “The public needs to acknowledge the many sacrifices by these folks, and their families, who serve our nation in so many ways.”

Frustrated victims

Several diplomats and government personnel who believe they are suffering from Havana syndrome expressed their frustration over having to fight a skeptical bureaucracy when reporting incidents and finding care.

“How are we going to take care of ourselves, our family and our kids?” said one civil servant who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity.

They also complain that government acknowledgement of their suffering differs according to the country where the incident happened.

“The people who were impacted in Cuba all got plaques saying you were attacked,” said one diplomat who also asked not to be named. “The people in China — only one person has been acknowledged by the State Department to have been impacted in some way.”

The White House denied the accusation when asked by VOA.

“Our objective and the president’s commitment is to standardizing the reporting process, is to ensuring we’re improving the quality and speed of medical care, is to ensuring every case that comes forward is taken seriously, treated seriously,” said press secretary Jen Psaki.

“That has not always been the case, but that is our objective and the commitment of this administration,” Psaki added. She pointed out that Biden was the first president to acknowledge the existence of Havana syndrome and underscored that steps were being taken to coordinate reporting among the different agencies.

New cases

On the same day Biden signed the bill, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that German police were investigating several cases of “alleged sonic weapon attack on employees of the U.S. Embassy” in Berlin.

In August, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ flight from Singapore to Vietnam was delayed by several hours after reports of a “possible anomalous health incident,” according to the State Department.

The legislation that Biden signed authorizes the CIA director and the secretary of state to provide injured employees with additional financial support for brain injuries. The CIA and State Department would be required to create regulations detailing fair and equitable criteria for payment and report to Congress on how this authority was being used.

The bill was authored by Senator Susan Collins of Maine and co-sponsored by Senators Mark Warner, Marco Rubio and Jeanne Shaheen.

“These Americans who experienced traumatic brain injuries from likely directed energy attacks while serving our country should have been treated the same way we treat a soldier who suffered a traumatic brain injury on the battlefield,” said Collins in a statement released after the signing.

“Now that the HAVANA Act has been signed into law, Havana syndrome victims will finally receive the financial assistance and medical support that they deserve,” Collins said. “As we continue our efforts to support victims, we must also redouble our whole-of-government approach to identify and stop the heartless adversary who is harming U.S. personnel.”

Marc Polymeropoulos, a 26-year veteran of the CIA, was forced to retire in 2019 after being hit by a suspected directed energy attack in Moscow in late 2017. He welcomed Biden’s announcement.

“The signing of the Havana Act is a watershed moment for the victims. It is an acknowledgement from the (U.S. government) that the attacks are real, and an admission that the (U.S. government) for a long time has not treated victims properly,” he told VOA in a statement. “I am very thankful to Congress, on both sides of the aisle, who has championed the victims’ cause, as well as the Biden administration — for finally acting to provide financial relief to those with terrible injuries.”

It is unclear just how many people have fallen victim to Havana syndrome, but various media reports estimate as many as 200 Americans around the world have come forward to describe symptoms.

Source: Voice of America