New Coronavirus News from 30 Jan 2022

Israel’s global coronavirus diplomacy efforts are bearing fruit [The Jerusalem Post, 30 Jan 2022]

By DANIEL MERON

Israel is eager to join hands with the international community in order to effectively address the current global pandemic challenge, as well as the ones to come.

Two years into the pandemic, nations across the globe are still struggling to cope with the profound challenges that coronavirus poses. Israel is proud to be one of the countries on the front lines of responding to this unprecedented public health crisis.

Israel’s unique ability to deal with emergencies, improvise, and respond quickly and flexibly have all factored into its success in coping with the pandemic. With its rapid vaccine rollout last year, Israel was widely praised for delivering the world’s fastest vaccination campaign in the first half of 2021 and as the first country to give booster shots to the public, Israel has important lessons to share. Therefore, it makes sense that the world looks to Israel as a go-to expert on how to manage the pandemic. Moreover, a core Jewish value teaches we must help the needy during difficult times, as well as those in need of medical care. Consequently, it is natural that Israel has gone to great lengths to support its friends in the international community.

Israel has been heavily involved on the international coronavirus diplomacy scene, collaborating and exchanging information with countries around the world in order to save lives and help its partners cope with the public health crisis. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been at the forefront of this effort, leading the push to donate masks, respirators, and other essential medical equipment to countless countries. When India was being ravaged by a severe wave of coronavirus in April of last year, Israel sent entire planeloads filled with respirators and medical aid. When Romania was grappling with a crisis in November, we sent a team of five of our top medical experts to share Israel’s experience in coping with similar such crises it had experienced in its hospitals. In Ghana, the Israeli embassy mobilized to produce and distribute masks to local medical teams. At the initiative of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Israel has also committed to donate over a million vaccine doses to African nations.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry Agency for International Cooperation (MASHAV) has several aid and cooperation campaigns currently active around the world. It is in the midst of its Better Together initiative, which has seen assistance packages containing hundreds of kilos worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) gear, syringes, medications, and more sent to medical staff in 52 countries across the globe, including Kenya, Peru and Bulgaria. MASHAV has brought medical staff and administrators from Tanzania, Rwanda, Guatemala, and many others to Israel for world-class seminars and lectures. Israel’s not-for-profit sector has similarly mobilized to assist the international community. IsraAID, one of Israel’s leading NGOs, just finished a six-month project in Eswatini, where an Israeli team set up and managed an operations center for distributing vaccines, training medical staff and more.

Exchanging information is key to managing the pandemic and the information that Israel has shared on its vaccine campaign and booster shots has undoubtedly saved lives. Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the US government, praised Israel’s vaccine rollout and named Israel as the leading example of where you should want to be on coronavirus vaccines, and often refers people to how successful the Israelis have been in getting virtually every age group to receive booster shots. Senior Israeli Health Ministry officials have played a key role in the effort to exchange information and to this end the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have held joint discussions with Germany, South Korea, the United States and several state health commissioners on Israel’s insights and best practices on the latest outbreak, including its experience with administering vaccine boosters. As well, Australia shortened its waiting period for the booster shot and its mandatory quarantine period following information shared by Israel during a briefing with senior officials down under.

As well, Israel’s innovative digital healthcare and telehealth systems have served as an example for others. Israel has been widely credited with revolutionizing the way the world thinks about health and has positioned itself at the forefront of the effort to create a data-centric system of medicine. In fact, the Israeli national healthcare system’s already-sophisticated level of digitization was one aspect that helped make the country’s ambitious vaccination drive so successful. Moreover, the emergence of COVID-19 brought the topic of telemedicine to the fore of the global tech discourse and Israel has made it a priority to be a leader in this field.
HealthIL is a non-for-profit digital health innovation ecosystem, a joint venture of the Israel Innovation Institute, Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Digital Israel at the Ministry of Social Equality, and seeks to improve healthcare by supporting innovation in the field, bridging the gap between the tech community and the public health sector. By centralizing I
Israel’s global healthcare innovation ecosystem, HealthIL is bringing Israeli health tech to the world by collaborating across organizations, connecting demand and supply, and streamlining innovation change management.

Israel is eager to join hands with the international community in order to effectively address the current global pandemic challenge, as well as the ones to come. Ultimately, the world will only succeed in collectively overcoming this pandemic if we work together and cooperate.
Moreover, health cooperation during the coronavirus crisis has served as an important bridge between nations and for peace. It is Israel’s hope that Omicron will be the last of the pandemic and we are looking forward to continuing to share our insights and experiences with the world in all spheres of crisis management and public health.

Israeli boy, 11, has caught 3 different coronavirus strains [The Times of Israel, 30 Jan 2022]

Alon Helfgott has officially been infected with Alpha, Delta, and now Omicron; says he’s been in quarantine 3-4 times since start of school year

In a relatively rare case, an 11-year-old Israeli boy has been infected with three different coronavirus variants.

After it was confirmed this week that Alon Helfgott from the central Israel city of Kfar Saba is positive for the virus, he has now officially been infected with the Alpha, Delta and Omicron strains.

“I’m fine, feeling pretty healthy, without so many symptoms,” he told Channel 12 news on Sunday.

Compared to the previous strains, which Helfgott said he experienced with pretty serious symptoms, this time he does not feel that sick.

“In the Alpha [infection], I suffered from a high fever,” he said.

Despite his thorough experience with quarantine, the 11-year-old stated that boredom manages to overcome everything.

“My mother bought me some sweets at the supermarket and I hope I get more things,” Helfgott said, adding that around 10 out of his 27 classmates are also currently ill with COVID-19.

“I miss being with friends, because the truth is there is nothing to do. You’re shuttered at home and do nothing.”

Helfgott said that since the start of the school year, he was forced to enter quarantine “between three and four times.”

“I try to pass the time in bed or on the phone. There are really no things to do,” he said.

With his birthday coming up on Wednesday, the day in which he is expected to be released from quarantine, Helfgott made a wish to “stay healthy and not get infected again.”

New Coronavirus News from 30 Nov 2021b

Hope for Carnival comeback amid Brazil’s COVID-19 success [DW (English), 30 Nov 2021]

After being battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, infections in Brazil are falling due to high vaccination rates. Some here are even hoping the country can hold its iconic Carnival again.
But, experts urge caution.

Brazil has vaccinated over 75% of its population at least once, the seven-day incidence rate has dropped to just 30 and some intensive care units (ICUs) in major cities don't have a single COVID-19 patient. All this comes at a time when Carnival celebrations are set to begin in February with pressure building on the government not to skip the iconic event after it was cancelled last year.

Brazil's fight against the coronavirus is impressive and it shows that countries like Germany can learn a lot from it about tackling the pandemic. That's despite the fact that Brazil has been hit harder by the coronavirus than almost any other country, with more than 614,000 COVID-19 deaths — the third-highest death toll in the world after the US and India.

First Carnival cancellations, others still hopeful
It's because of that painful experience that 58 cities in the state of Sao Paulo have now pulled the plug and canceled Carnival celebrations yet again over fear of COVID-19 outbreaks. They include Salvador, Botucatu, Sorocaba, and Poá e Suzano.

But many Brazilians are still hoping all is not lost. In Recife, Belo Horizonte and Rio De Janeiro, a newly created committee is to take a final decision in the next few weeks on whether to go ahead with celebrations for Brazil's annual highlight.

"In countries like Germany, the vaccine arrived very quickly and now there are problems getting it to all parts of the population. Here it was the opposite: We had no access to the vaccine in Brazil at first and then a population that wanted to be vaccinated as soon as possible," epidemiologist Ricardo Palacios said. "But we're watching the anti-vaccination protests in Europe with great concern, because they could present us with a new wave when they come to Brazil for Carnival."

More than two million tourists usually descend on Rio for the festivities, partying at close quarters.

High trust levels in the vaccine
Palacios, who was born in Colombia, is one of Latin America's leading epidemiologists and is well known for his work at the Butantan Institute, a prominent, state-owned research center. Palacios also led the internationally acclaimed "Project S." The title refers to an experiment in the small town of Serrana in southern Brazil — population 45,000 At the beginning of the year, Serrana became the first town in the world to be completely vaccinated.

Now, the whole of Brazil is in the process of becoming a model — with a 98% rate for first-time vaccinations among adults in Sao Paulo and 95% in Rio. Moreover, neither of the two megacities have recorded a single COVID-19 death in days.

"Brazil has had a vaccination program for more than five decades that delivers an enviable amount of vaccines to the population," Palacios said. "Brazil's success has to do with government research facilities such as Butantan or Fiocruz on the one hand, and a population that trusts the vaccine on the other. And we have a society here that thinks more collectively, rather than individualistically, as is the case in Europe."

Vaccine success despite Bolsonaro
Brazil's vaccination success is all the more astonishing given that its 212 million inhabitants have one the world's biggest COVID-19 skeptics as their president, Jair Bolsonaro. He has downplayed the pandemic, he's said COVID-19 is a "sniffle," he's made fun of mask wearers and seriously claimed that vaccinations could turn people into crocodiles. The far-right president also blocked contracts with vaccine manufacturer Pfizer for months.

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, unfortunately, the coronavirus has been politicized here," said epidemiologist Julival Ribeiro. "We have made great improvements in vaccination in recent months but we also have a president and many authorities and doctors who still doubt the effectiveness of the vaccine," he said.

Expert urges caution
The epidemiologist works at the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases (SBI) and has been tirelessly fighting science deniers like Bolsonaro since the beginning of the pandemic.

Ribeiro seems to have won the battle: In Brazil, even theaters, museums and supermarkets are being converted into vaccination centers and roads are being closed for this purpose. With a death rate of one for every 350 inhabitants, almost every Brazilian has lost someone close to him or her. Ultimately, that has even led supporters of the president to now seek vaccination in droves.

"Now we need the vaccine to be quickly approved for 5-to-11-year-olds," Ribeiro said. Brazil, unlike Germany, has been planning booster vaccinations for a long time and problems with scheduling are unheard of.

Year after year, the country manages to vaccinate 80 million people against influenza in a record six weeks. But the epidemiologist nevertheless warns that Carnival should not be allowed to ruin the hard-won successes in the fight against the pandemic.

Party only if you're vaccinated
"As long as all the countries of this world do not understand pandemic control as a joint task, we will always have to respond to new waves of the coronavirus,” Ribeiro said. "My fear is that at some point a variant will emerge that can evade our vaccines. And then we'll have to start all over again."

The future of Rio's Carnival in 2022 is hanging by a thread, even if politicians like the city's health minister, Daniel Soranz, are determined to maintain hope. He recently announced the biggest carnival celebration in history.

But Soranz made one thing unmistakably clear: If the party actually takes place, every visitor will need something more than a costume — a vaccination certificate.

Petition: Stop Tiger Temple from Reopening [One Green Planet, 30 Nov 2021]

By Jareb Gleckel

While drama-seeking Americans were trapped at home during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tiger King became all the rage in the United States. But before people became obsessed with nefarious U.S. breeders like Joe Exotic and Doc Antle, Tiger Temple in Thailand was known as the epicenter of cruelty.

In 2016, Time magazine called Thailand’s Tiger Temple a “special sort of gruesome.” Despite its claims of being a sanctuary, owners kept Tigers locked in cages for 20-21 hours a day. Many suffered from zoochosis. And it took years to rescue 147 tigers from the facility.

In April 2015, following widespread allegations of illegal Tiger breeding and trafficking, a team of 400 department staff, police and soldiers retrieved several moon bears that Tiger Temple was keeping without permits. Then, in 2016, Thailand’s Department of National Parks (DNP) began a drawn-out raid. On the first day, the department successfully rescued 5 out of 147 tigers. On the third, the Department found forty frozen dead baby tigers, a baby bear and a baby binturong, all under a week old. The remainder of the rescue revealed 1,500 amulets and a myriad of other trinkets.

Sadly, even after the rescue, the government retained the tigers in captivity, unable to find adequate sanctuaries for so many animals. After living in such poor conditions, the majority of the tigers continued to suffer—many from genetic defects due to inbreeding. Eighty-six died from a disease outbreak two years ago.

Despite the evidence of cruelty and the years of heinous publicity, the owners of Tiger Temple are planning to reopen a new facility. Please sign this petition to stop the gruesome business before it starts.

South Korea reports daily record of over 5,000 new Covid-19 infections [CNBC, 30 Nov 2021]

South Korea reported a new daily record of 5,123 new coronavirus cases, as the country battles to contain a sharp rise in patients with severe symptoms and stave off the omicron, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Wednesday.

The government on Monday shelved plans to further relax Covid-19 curbs due to the strain on its healthcare system from rising hospitalizations and deaths as well as the threat posed by the new variant.

Hospitals were treating a record number of 723 patients with severe Covid-19 that require ICU beds, as the authorities scrambled to secure more. The severe cases have seen a steep rise compared to just under 400 in early November.

Over 84% of the severely ill Covid-19 patients were aged 60 and above. Experts had pointed to waning antibody levels from the vaccines and urged the elderly to get booster shots.

Authorities will mobilize the administrative structure to secure hospital beds, at least an additional 1,300 by mid-December, Interior and Safety Minister Jeon Hae-cheol told a Covid-19 response meeting.

He also called for tighter virus prevention measures to head off omicron, after suspected cases entered the country from Nigeria.

South Korea has not reported any confirmed omicron cases so far.

Tuesday's new cases bring the coronavirus infections in the country to 452,350 cases, with 3,658 deaths. Despite the rising hospitalization rate, the mortality rate remains relatively low at 0.81%, KDCA data showed.

South Korea has fully vaccinated nearly 80% of its 52 million people, while the boosters for adults aged 18 to 49 only begin this Saturday.

Omicron variant was detected in the Netherlands before S. Africa flights [Reuters, 30 Nov 2021]

AMSTERDAM, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The COVID-19 Omicron variant was detected in the Netherlands before two flights arrived from South Africa last week carrying the virus, Dutch health officials said on Tuesday.

At least 14 people on flights from Johannesburg and Capetown arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Nov. 26 carrying the new variant, the National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said.

"We have found the Omicron coronavirus variant in two test samples that were taken on Nov. 19 and Nov. 23," the RIVM said. "It is not clear yet whether these people have visited Southern Africa."

The discovery of Omicron has sparked worries around the world that it could resist vaccinations and prolong the nearly two-year-old COVID-19 pandemic.

Some 61 out of the more than 600 passengers on the South Africa flights tested positive for COVID-19 and went into quarantine after arriving last Friday.

Dutch authorities are also seeking to contact and test some 5,000 other passengers who have travelled from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia or Zimbabwe.

In the Netherlands, tougher COVID-19 measures went into effect on Sunday to curb record daily infection rates of more than 20,000 and ease pressure on hospitals.

What Could Be The Economic And Political Cost Of Omicron Spread In India? [Outlook India, 30 Nov 2021]

Omicron scare is already visible in the industry with many customers cancelling their flights scheduled for December as state governments mull stricter travel rules to stop the variant’s spread.

There is panic all around the world due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID. In the coming days, if it turns out to be as dangerous as the Delta variant, the world economy could face another recession, impacting India as well.

Is there enough fiscal and monetary space available with the policymakers to deal with another lockdown-inducing situation in the coming months?

Let’s first look at the areas that the Omicron variant will hit if it leads to another lockdown. Supply Chain Bottlenecks

COVID-related lockdowns have led to stranded cargo ships around the world, leading to a shortage of several important goods and commodities.

India has struggled to source semiconductors or chips for its automobile industry which, in turn, has forced automakers like Maruti Suzuki and others to bring down their production capacity. In October, passenger vehicle sales stood at 2,58,774 units—21 per cent lower on a year-on-year basis. India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, registered a 33 per cent decline in sales.

The other area where the supply chain constraints have hit India the most is the price of crude oil which has hovered around $70 a barrel. High fuel and other commodity prices took India’s wholesale price inflation to 12.54 per cent in October and it will eventually begin to spill over to consumer price index inflation as well.

Impact on Travel Industry
So far, the biggest impact of COVID-19 has been on the travel and tourism industry. The sector employs 31.8 million people or 7.3 per cent of total employment in India.

The fear of Omicron is already visible in the industry with many customers cancelling their flights scheduled for December as state governments mull stricter travel rules to stop the variant’s spread. InterGlobe Aviation (operator of IndiGo, India’s largest domestic airline) saw its stock price touching a 52-week high of Rs 2,380 on November 16, 2021, crashed by 18 per cent by 29 November.

In a recent interview with Outlook Business,Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) President Vineet Agarwal said that the travel and tourism industry will be the most impacted in case of a third wave in the country even as other industries have learnt to deal with lockdowns in the previous waves.

Revision of GDP Growth And Fiscal Deficit Targets
There have been quite a few revisions of the GDP growth projections this year. The RBI recently maintained its GDP growth forecast for FY22 at 9.2 per cent. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, however, has also cautioned against the downside risks to these projections. “The impact of elevated input costs on profit margins, potential global financial and commodity markets volatility and resurgence in COVID-19 infections, however, impart downside risks to the growth outlook," Das had said in October this year.

In case India witnesses a third wave due to the spread of the Omicron variant in the coming months, it can lead to a downward revision of India’s growth projections in the last quarter of the current financial year.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee had said in August that a third wave of COVID-19 will pull India’s GDP growth down by two and a half percentage points to around 7 per cent.

Political Disruption
The BJP-led central government was at the receiving end in April this year when hospitals were choking with patients and crematoriums with dead bodies during the second wave of COVID-19. Its immediate impact was visible in the West Bengal assembly elections where the BJP lost in a one-sided electoral fight.

The coming months will see two important elections in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. In case the Omicron variant leads to casualties like the ones witnessed during the last COVID-19 wave in India, its immediate cost could come in the form of the BJP’s defeat in Uttar Pradesh, a state that sends 80 MPs to the Parliament.

How delicate the BJP’s position in Uttar Pradesh is can be gauged from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to repeal the farm laws passed in the Parliament last year as opinion polls in the state suggested anti-BJP sentiment among the farmers.

No case of Omicron in India yet, Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tells Parliament [The Indian Express, 30 Nov 2021]

Mandaviya also said that the central government has issued an advisory based on the global developments related to the new variant and is keeping a keen watch on ports.

The new Covid-19 variant Omicron has not been reported in India yet, Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed Parliament on Tuesday.

“The Omicron variant has been detected in 14 countries so far. There is no case of Omicron in India yet. We are immediately checking suspicious cases and conducting genome sequencing. We are also taking all possible precautions,” he said in the Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session of Parliament.

Mandaviya also said that the central government has issued an advisory based on the global developments related to the new variant and is keeping a keen watch on ports.

Speaking during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, the minister added that studies are being conducted on the Omicron.

Stressing on the need to take all precautions, Mandaviya said, “We have learnt a lot during the pandemic. We have resources and labs to check. All measures have been taken to ensure this variant does not reach the country”.

Earlier in the day, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a review meeting with states and UTs and advised them to ramp up testing for early identification and management of cases.

While underlining that the new variant doesn’t escape RT-PCR and RAT tests, Bhushan asked states and UTs to ensure adequate infrastructure and supervised home isolation.

The ministry has asked all states and UTs to focus on intensive containment, active surveillance, enhanced testing, monitoring of hotspots, increased coverage of vaccination and augmentation of health infrastructure.

In a letter to states and UTs on November 28, Bhushan also stressed on rigorous surveillance of international passengers, ensuring prompt dispatch of samples for genome sequencing and strict enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour to effectively manage this variant of concern (VoC).

The B.1.1.529 Covid variant or Omicron, first detected in South Africa last week, was designated by the World Health Organization as a ‘variant of concern’, the health body’s top category for worrying coronavirus variants.

WHO has further said that it is likely to spread internationally and poses a very high risk of infection surges that could have “severe consequences” in some places.

Omicron blows off all itineraries, fliers and travel companies left stranded [Economic Times, 30 Nov 2021]

ByAnirban Chowdhury

The government’s announcement on resuming international flights and subsequent retrieval of it on concerns about a new coronavirus variant have got travellers, airlines and travel companies in a tizzy even as airlines have started flights to Singapore under a new deal.

Portals such as Cleartrip and Ixigo said they are flooded with passenger queries on new testing and quarantine rules in India and possibilities of travel bans by other countries.

“We have seen a spurt in queries on international travel over the last few days,” Prahlad Krishnamurti, chief business officer at travel portal Cleartrip, told ET. “We expect this to persist over the next few weeks as governments adapt their rules based on the impact of the new variant being reported.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed the Omicron mutation, first detected in South Africa, as ‘variant of concern’ that poses “very high” global risk, prompting several countries to impose travel restrictions.

Meanwhile, IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and Singapore Airlines on Monday resumed daily flights between India and Singapore under the new ‘vaccinated travel lane’ (VTL) agreement – a Singapore initiative that allows vaccinated travellers to enter both countries quarantine- free. Singapore, though, deferred VTL deals with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on concerns about the Omicron.

The travel industry has adopted a wait and watch stance over the new development.

“This is a reality, the new normal that we will all have to accept. As not enough data is available on the new variant, we are awaiting more details from our health authorities,” said Madhavan Menon, chairman and managing director of Thomas Cook, India. “While we have received a couple of cancellations, this is clearly not a trend.”

Rajesh Magow, group CEO of Makemytrip, said it is too early to assess and quantify the potential impact on international travel from India. “At MakeMyTrip, we are continuing to keep a close watch on the evolving travel guidelines and we would encourage travellers to adhere to all travel protocols and practice COVID-safe behaviour at all times,” he said. “Our teams are working closely with airline partners to ensure that guidelines for domestic and international travel are updated real time on the website and the app.”

An executive working for a travel and tours company said they were getting cancellations for South Africa and queries on protocol changes for other countries. “Travellers are asking us for updates and about changes in protocols in other countries. We are trying to apprise them of our flexible terms and policies in case they would like to change their plans.”

On Sunday, the government tightened rules for incoming international passengers and decided to review its plan to resume international flights from December 15 that it had announced on Friday.

According to the latest guidelines, all incoming passengers will have to submit travel plans for the next 14 days and upload a negative Covid-19 report on a state-run portal that maintains real-time air travel data.

Passengers from 14 countries including the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel will have to undergo RT-PCR test on arriving.

Meanwhile, Japan has shut its borders on air travel, while many countries including Mauritius have tightened restrictions on travellers from South Africa.

SINGAPORE DEAL
Under the new VTL agreement with Singapore, Air India will operate seven flights a week from Delhi and two from Mumbai, Vistara will operate two flights from Mumbai, and Indigo will operate seven flights from Chennai. Singapore Airlines will start daily VTL services from Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.

SIA will also resume non-VTL services daily from Kolkata, four times weekly from Bengaluru, three times weekly from Hyderabad and Kochi, and once a week from Ahmedabad, an airline spokesperson said.

Airline executives reported a rise in bookings and “healthy loads” on flights.

FINGERS CROSSED
Detection of the Omicron variant comes at a time when travel demand has been on the rise.

“Pent up travel demand continues to be strong despite high occupancy and rates/air fares, and our domestic demand is even higher than pre-pandemic levels,” said Menon of Thomas Cook. “With a calibrated reopening of international commercial flights, we look forward to increased capacity and rationalisation of fares – creating a healthy pipeline towards recovery in 2022.”

Top India executive at a European carrier that operated more than 50 weekly flights to India before the pandemic said, “Demand has been consistently growing since August.” He said the government is “being prudent” in restricting travel instead of shutting it down again. Even if international travel were to resume today, going back to pre-Covid capacity would take more than a year, he said.

An executive working for a top hotel chain that runs hotels in India and overseas locations such as Maldives, the UK, South Africa and the UAE said considering the year-end season, the demand was exceeding even pre-Covid levels in some destinations over the last weekend.


"We don't know what happens to that demand now,” the person said. “We will probably get more clarity in the next 48 hours if more countries announce curbs or more Indian states revise guidelines.”

Vishal Lonkar, general manager for brand development at Renest Hotels & Resorts, said it was hoping that IT companies will open up in January and expats will return to Bengaluru where the chain owns and operates Howard Johnson by Wyndham hotel under a franchising arrangement with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. “We do not see that happening now in December-January, till we have more information on this new variant and its spread,” he said.

Renest runs hotels under other arrangements in locations such as Jaipur, Shirdi, Tirupati, Bandhavgarh and Kolkata.

Rohit Chopra, regional director for sales and distribution at Accor for India and South Asia, said the chain has been vigilantly monitoring the situation evolving around the new Omicron variant for the last 72 hours, and has witnessed no direct impact in terms of cancellations or changes in bookings in India so far. “Travelers are going to be watchful of quarantine requirements which may be put in place again for interstate travel within India,” he said. “The situation is still evolving and we will know more in the next week or so.”

Quixplained: Why Omicron is high risk, what you should do [The Indian Express, 30 Nov 2021]

The World Health Organization has classified a new variant of the novel coronavirus, which belongs to a lineage named B.1.1.529, as a ‘variant of concern’, and named is Omicron. This variant was first identified by scientists in South Africa, but has spread to nearly a dozed countries including Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Hong Kong, Botswana and Belgium.

So, what is different about Omicron and why is it deemed a high risk? Do vaccines work against it? What should you do? Take a look:

The emergence of the new variant shows once again that the pandemic is far from over — and Covid-appropriate behaviour is critical for breaking the chain of transmission: masking, social distancing, good ventilation in all shared spaces, and washing or sanitising hands and surfaces regularly.

The missing 'S' in Omicron can help India avoid disaster [Economic Times, 30 Nov 2021]

A complete RT-PCR report for Covid-19 includes that of the 'N', 'S', 'E', and 'ORF' genes. An indirect way of knowing whether someone has the new variant Omicron is to check for the absence of the 'S' gene while other genes being present, Maharashtra state task force member Dr Shashank Joshi told TOI.

Health experts want laboratories to conduct RT-PCR tests in whole for all the three genes amid the emergence of the Omicron variant, especially for international travellers. Unfortunately, not all laboratories conducting RT-PCR tests are checking for the ‘S’ gene, Joshi said.

The task force member says a directive may come for all laboratories soon to check for the 'S' gene in particular, as its deletion is a red flag for Omicron ahead of genome sequencing.

“PCR tests are under development to test for this variant without the need for full sequencing” a World Health Organisation (WHO) statement read.

The Centre on Tuesday extended the nationwide COVID-19 containment measures till December 31 in view of the emergence of Omicron in some countries and asked States to be vigilant.

Dr Rahul Pandit, a member of the state task force and also the national Covid task force, told TOI that with Omicron being stated as a 'cause for concern' across the world, maintaining caution was instrumental.

India logged 6,990 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 551 days, taking the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,45,87,822, while the active cases have declined to 1,00,543, the lowest in 546 days, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Tuesday.

Omicron variant may have reached Europe earlier than thought [The Seattle Times, 30 Nov 2021]

By CARLA K. JOHNSON

BRUSSELS (AP) — Brazil and Japan joined the rapidly widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant Tuesday, while new findings indicate the mutant coronavirus was already in Europe close to a week before South Africa sounded the alarm.

The Netherlands’ RIVM health institute disclosed that patient samples dating from Nov. 19 and 23 were found to contain the variant. It was on Nov. 24 that South African authorities reported the existence of the highly mutated virus to the World Health Organization.

That indicates omicron had a bigger head start in the Netherlands than previously believed.
Together with the cases in Japan and Brazil, the finding illustrates the difficulty in containing the virus in an age of jet travel and economic globalization. And it left the world once again whipsawed between hopes of returning to normal and fears that the worst is yet to come.

The pandemic has shown repeatedly that the virus “travels quickly because of our globalized, interconnected world,” said Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health. Omicron demonstrates that until the vaccination drive reaches every country, “we’re going to be in this situation again and again.”

Brazil, which has recorded a staggering total of more than 600,000 COVID-19 deaths, reported finding the variant in two travelers returning from South Africa — the first known omicron cases in Latin America. The travelers were tested on Nov. 25, authorities said.

Japan announced its first case, too, on the same day the country put a ban on all foreign visitors into effect. The patient was identified as a Namibian diplomat who had recently arrived from his homeland.

France likewise recorded its first case, in the far-flung island territory of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Authorities said the patient was a man who had returned to Reunion from South Africa and Mozambique on Nov. 20.

Much remains unknown about the new variant, including whether it is more contagious, as some health authorities suspect, whether it makes people more seriously ill, and whether it can thwart the vaccine.

But a WHO official said that given the growing number of omicron cases in South Africa and neighboring Botswana, parts of southern Africa could soon be witnessing a steep rise in infections.

“There is a possibility that really we’re going to be seeing a serious doubling or tripling of the cases as we move along or as the week unfolds,” said Dr. Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, a WHO regional virologist.

Cases began to increase rapidly in mid-November in South Africa, which is now seeing nearly 3,000 confirmed new infections per day.

As of Tuesday, 44 cases of omicron were reported across 11 European Union nations, said the EU’s European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, adding that the majority involved a history of travel to Africa. Outside the EU and southern Africa, omicron infections have turned up in such places as Australia, Canada, Britain and Israel.

American disease trackers said omicron could already be in the United States and probably will be detected soon.

“I am expecting it any day now,” said Scott Becker of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. “We expect it is here.”

While the variant was first identified by South African researchers, it is unclear where and when it originated, information that could help shed light on how fast it spreads.

The announcement from the Dutch on Tuesday could shape that timeline.

Previously, the Netherlands said it found the variant among passengers who came from South Africa on Friday, the same day the Dutch and other EU members began imposing flight bans and other restrictions on southern Africa. But the newly identified cases predate that.
NOS, the Netherlands’ public broadcaster, said that one of the two omicron samples came from a person who had been in southern Africa.

Belgium reported a case involving a traveler who returned to the country from Egypt on Nov. 11 but did not become sick with mild symptoms until Nov. 22.

Many health officials tried to calm fears, insisting that vaccines remain the best defense and that the world must redouble its efforts to get the shots to every part of the globe.

Emer Cooke, chief of the European Medicines Agency, said that the 27-nation EU is well prepared for the variant and that the vaccine could be adapted for use against omicron within three or four months if necessary.

England reacted to the emerging threat by making face coverings mandatory again on public transportation and in stores, banks and hair salons. And one month ahead of Christmas, the head of Britain’s Health Security Agency urged people not to socialize if they don’t need to.

After COVID-19 led to a one-year postponement of the Summer Games, Olympic organizers began to worry about the February Winter Games in Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said omicron would “certainly bring some challenges in terms of prevention and control.”

World markets seesawed on every piece of medical news, whether worrisome or reassuring. Stocks fell on Wall Street over virus fears as well as concerns about the Federal Reserve’s continued efforts to shore up the markets.

Some analysts think a serious economic downturn will probably be averted because many people have been vaccinated. But they also think a return to pre-pandemic levels of economic activity, especially in tourism, has been dramatically delayed.

New Coronavirus News from 31 Jan 2022

BA.2 Subvariant Known as ‘Stealth Omicron' Detected in Wisconsin [NBC Chicago, 31 Jan 2022]

The World Health Organization classifies omicron overall as a variant of concern, but it doesn’t single out BA.2 with a designation of its own.

The new BA.2 omicron subvariant, regularly referred to as "stealth omicron," has been reported in Wisconsin, according to a Milwaukee County health official.

Dr. Ben Weston, chief health policy adviser for Milwaukee County tweeted Monday that BA.2 had been detected in the state, noting it is 1.5 times more transmissible than the original omicron strain but doesn't appear to be more severe.

It's unclear where exactly in the state the case was reported.

This version of the coronavirus has been detected in more than 40 countries and is widely considered stealthier than the original version of omicron, BA.1, hence its name. Particular genetic traits make BA.2 somewhat harder to detect, health officials have said.

The World Health Organization classifies omicron overall as a variant of concern, but it doesn’t single out BA.2 with a designation of its own. Given its rise in some countries, however, the agency says investigations of BA.2 “should be prioritized."

An initial analysis by scientists in Denmark shows no differences in hospitalizations for BA.2 compared with the original omicron. Scientists there are still looking into this version's infectiousness and how well current vaccines work against it. It's also unclear how well treatments will work against it.

Doctors also don’t yet know for sure if someone who’s already had COVID-19 caused by omicron can be sickened again by BA.2. But they’re hopeful, especially that a prior omicron infection might lessen the severity of disease if someone later contracts BA.2.

Different Takes: Will Covid Follow In Footsteps Of 1918 Influenza?; How Linked Is Race To Covid Outcomes? [Kaiser Health News, 31 Jan 2022]

The New York Times: What We Can Learn From How The 1918 Pandemic Ended Most histories of the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide say it ended in the summer of 1919 when a third wave of the respiratory contagion finally subsided. Yet the virus continued to kill. A variant that emerged in 1920 was lethal enough that it should have counted as a fourth wave. In some cities, among them Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Kansas City, Mo., deaths exceeded even those in the second wave, responsible for most of the pandemic’s deaths in the United States. This occurred despite the fact that the U.S. population had plenty of natural immunity from the influenza virus after two years of several waves of infection and after viral lethality in the third wave had already decreased. (John M. Barry, 1/30)
The Atlantic: Race-Based Rationing Of COVID Treatment Is Real—And Dangerous In a series of articles this month, The Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium reported that hospitals in Minnesota, Utah, New York, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin have been using race as a factor in which COVID-19 patients receive scarce monoclonal-antibody treatments first. Last year, SSM Health, a network of 23 hospitals, began using a points system to ration access to Regeneron.
The drug would be given to patients only if they netted 20 points or higher. Being “non-White or Hispanic” counted for seven points, while obesity got you only one point—even though, according to the CDC, “obesity may triple the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection.” Based on this scoring system, a 40-year-old Hispanic male in perfect health would receive priority over an obese, diabetic 40-year-old white woman with asthma and hypertension. (Shadi Hamid, 1/30)

NBC News: Covid-19 Omicron Variant Might Be Weaker, But 'Letting It Rip' Is Not A Smart IdeaHave you reached your breaking point with the pandemic? Are you ready to throw up your hands, let down your guard and accept that you’ll probably get Covid-19? Many Americans are openly wondering if this is the way to go. The U.K., Netherlands, France and several other E.U. countries are rolling back most of their Covid restrictions, and Australia, until now a global model for Covid mitigation, has flipped its approach from a “zero Covid” strategy to just “let it rip.” Many pundits, politicians and others are publicly saying that they are “over” Covid. You know who else is over Covid? The nearly 16,000 people who died from the virus between Jan. 19 and Jan. 25. (Brian Castrucci and Beth S. Linas, 1/28)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

Israeli Covid expert panel recommends expanding 4th vaccine to all adults over 18 [Jewish News, 31 Jan 2022]

Health Ministry announced the preliminary results of a study which showed the fourth vaccine tripled protection against serious illness and doubled protection against Omicron

A panel of experts that advises Israel’s Health Ministry on matters related to the coronavirus is recommending that all adults over the age of 18 be offered a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine, The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.

On Sunday, the Health Ministry announced the preliminary results of a study which showed that the fourth vaccine dose tripled protection against serious illness and doubled protection against an infection with the Omicron variant compared to those who received only three shots. The study included 400,000 adults who received a fourth dose and 600,000 who received three doses.

Those results contrasted with a less promising announcement last week from the Sheba Medical centre, which is studying the effects of a fourth dose of the vaccine.

“We see an increase in antibodies, higher than after the third dose,” Gili Regev-Yochay, a top researcher from the hospital, said, according to The Times of Israel. “However, we see many infected with Omicron who received the fourth dose. Granted, a bit less than in the control group, but still a lot of infections,” she added.

The advisory panel’s recommendation would have adults over the age of 18 receive a fourth shot at least five months after receiving their third shot or recovering from the virus. The recommendation is subject to approval by the Health Ministry’s director-general.

Israel is believed to be reaching or approaching the peak of its Omicron wave, with over 83,000 new cases reported on Sunday alone. More than half a million people in Israel are currently infected with the virus.

Israel began offering a fourth dose of the vaccine to adults over the age of 60 earlier this month despite minimal data showing that a fourth dose would increase immunity to the virus.

Israel was also the first country to administer a third coronavirus vaccine, a practice which became widespread in the face of waning immunity and the lowered effectiveness of just two shots in preventing an infection from Omicron.

More than 600,000 Israelis have received a fourth coronavirus vaccine and nearly 4.5 million have received a third vaccine dose.

What is the future of the pandemic? Experts weigh in [Israel Hayom, 31 Jan 2022]

In a post-pandemic world, will the Green Pass and other measures such as airport PCR testing still be necessary?

Public health and policy experts predict how society will function after we exit coronavirus emergency

The World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, and eventually the UN public health agency will announce that the illness has entered an endemic stage.

This will happen when there is enough confidence that Covid-19 has become more predictable and manageable.

It can be hard to imagine what a post-pandemic world will look like as casualties continue to mount with 373 million cases and 5.66 million deaths over the past two years, according to the website Our World in Data.

Public health and policy experts gave i24NEWS some perspective on what the endemic phase of the coronavirus in Israel and beyond could entail while cautioning that the fight against the disease will continue long after the pandemic is officially over.
Will we still wear masks?
Once only common in certain east Asian countries, face coverings have become ubiquitous in Western societies as protection against airborne viral spread.

But will masks still be used in the months and years after the pandemic?
"I am sure that 'normality' and closeness which are so important for us will drive us eventually to throw away the masks and to give up social distancing," said Dr. Itzchak Levy, head of Sheba Medical Center's Infectious Disease Institute and post-corona clinic.

However, Levy predicts that mask-wearing won't entirely disappear as the public has increased its level of awareness of the dangers of infectious diseases and pandemics, so during the winter months masks could still be worn in closed spaces.

Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, an epidemiologist and head of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's School of Public Health, told i24NEWS that masks could still be used for people at elevated risk of respiratory illness when local outbreaks occur.

"When you don't have widespread community transmission it doesn't make sense to wear masks," Davidovitch said.

Will the Green Pass go away?
Amid the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant, Israel's Health Ministry is mulling reducing or removing entirely the Green Pass rules that allow entry to many public places to those who are vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19.

In a post-pandemic world, will the Green Pass and other measures such as airport PCR testing still be necessary?

"I don't think that in the future [the Green Pass] is something that is going to be used," Davidovitch said.

However, Davidovitch emphasized that digitally storing vaccination status and other medical information on a mobile device could still be presented in certain situations, especially when traveling and in need of emergency medical care.

"It will be great that people will have the vaccination status on their cellular phone. We can maybe use these applications to introduce all our vaccination history," the professor said.

What about other public health measures?
Israel recently shortened the COVID-19 quarantine period from seven to five days and ended isolation for children exposed to a coronavirus carrier despite concerns over pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS).

Experts interviewed by i24NEWS agreed that in the eventual post-pandemic world, the isolation and testing schemes will not be as prominent.

"The moment is indeed coming soon where we will no longer feel the need for special rules about isolating people who have been merely exposed to Covid, or for testing people for Covid. The need for such isolation and testing was real, but it may be getting less relevant as time goes on," said Adam Rose, associate professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Braun School of Public Health.

Will the massive temporary PCR testing complex at Ben Gurion Airport be dismantled during the endemic phase?

"Airport PCR tests will go away very soon I believe," Levy said.

So, if there is no going back to life before Covid, what can society do to better manage the disease during the endemic phase and prevent another pandemic?

"An endemic is very tricky because if we mean by it that we are going to return to be very passive like we were against influenza and other upper respiratory infections, I think this will be really frustrating," Davidovitch said.

Demand for at-home rapid antigen tests has surged during the omicron outbreak, and Davidovitch doesn't see why home testing cannot be a regular feature of post-pandemic societies to help prevent local transmission so when people are sick, they stay home.

"There might be the option for us buying home tests and when we don't feel well staying at home and maybe we can have a kit that can be used not just for Covid but also for influenza and other illnesses."

Historically societies have changed after experiencing a pandemic, according to Meir Rubin, executive director of the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, and he believes that we are on the cusp of a major change after we exit the Covid pandemic.

For example, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the need for advanced indoor air filtration systems, and this presents a massive opportunity to clean the air we breathe.

"We have a chance to change for the better with clean water, food and air. Clean air is a necessity – every house should have HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters. Cleaning the air that we breathe will help against other viruses," Rubin explained.

"Also have compassion for each other," Rubin added. "And care about kids."

COVID-19: 74,312 new cases, 1,099 in serious condition [The Jerusalem Post, 31 Jan 2022]

By SHIRA SILKOFF

Serious cases now stand at 1,099, with 241 people on ventilators and 20 on ECMO machines. 332 people are in critical condition.

A total of 74,312 new daily coronavirus cases were recorded on Sunday, a significant increase from the previous day’s total of 49,371. Of some 250,000 tests taken on Sunday, both PCR and antigen, 29.73% returned positive results.

Serious cases now stand at 1,099, with 241 people on ventilators and 20 on ECMO machines. 332 people are in critical condition. To date, 8,724 people have died of COVID-19 in Israel since the start of the pandemic.

Of those currently hospitalized in serious condition, 520 are vaccinated, 117 are partially vaccinated, 427 are unvaccinated, and the status of the remainder is unknown. The majority of serious cases are being reported in people age 60 and over.

There are currently 421,490 active cases in Israel, according to a Monday morning update from the Health Ministry. Overall, there have been 2,852,995 reported cases in Israel since the start of the pandemic, approximately 31% of the population.

Currently, around 108,000 people are self-isolating, roughly 7,500 of whom are health workers.

Coronavirus Czar Prof. Salman Zarka held a press conference on Monday afternoon, answering questions relating to the new school testing system, Israel's fight against the virus, and the overcrowding in hospitals.

Asked if the government would consider putting new restrictions in place given the high number of serious cases and the pressure the current wave is putting on the healthcare system, Zarka answered in the negative.

"I don't want to stop the lives of everyone on the outside [of the hospital]," he said, adding that the number of serious cases is expected to soon peak and then gradually decrease. "We want everyone to be aware of the high danger that the virus presents. The way to protect ourselves is by wearing masks, over the mouth and over the nose, to avoid crowded spaces...these are the steps that we should be taking these days to prevent high infection rates."

Zarka continued, explaining why he did not believe that harsher restrictions would be the right choice at this stage in the pandemic.

"I believe in finding the middle ground between the pandemic and our lives. God forbid that two years into the pandemic we should be in lockdown...we must learn to live alongside it.

"I think that the new system implemented in schools is exactly that, learning to live alongside the coronavirus."

Brazil’s battle against Covid quack remedies [Financial Times, 31 Jan 2022]

by Bryan Harris and Carolina Ingizza

Misinformation on remedies, seeded by officials and fuelled via social media, has had dire consequences for public health

The darkest moment of Brazil’s Covid-19 crisis struck a year ago. Just days after Latin America’s largest nation celebrated the start of 2021, a new strain of coronavirus took hold in the Amazonian city of Manaus, triggering a surge in cases that overwhelmed hospitals and cemeteries. As oxygen supplies ran out, television cameras captured patients gasping for breath and succumbing to asphyxiation. It was as if “they were drowning”, President Jair Bolsonaro said at the time. Although the Brazilian air force was dispatched to deliver oxygen cylinders to the stricken rainforest city, government health officials in Brasília offered an alternative recommendation promoted on social media: patients should take what they called “early treatment” medicines, including anti-parasitic drugs such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. The official recommendation to adopt the drugs, which have no proven effectiveness against Covid-19, was among the most egregious promotions of quack remedies by Brazilian authorities to date — but it was not the first nor the last. Ever since Covid-19 began to spread, the Bolsonaro administration has promoted the cocktails of medicines — known locally as the “Covid Kit” — as part of a misinformation campaign aimed at downplaying the risks of the pandemic. The rightwing populist leader has twice used speeches at the UN General Assembly to tout the drugs. When Bolsonaro himself contracted Covid-19, he posted videos to millions of followers on social media of him taking chloroquine, which is typically used as an antimalarial. He fired one health minister who refused to promote the drug, while another quit less than a month into the job. The campaign’s results have been clear, health experts say: it caused the death of tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of Brazilians.

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“Brazil is a tragic case. We had misinformation being blatantly spread by our authorities,” says Caio Machado, head of the Vero Institute, which tracks misinformation in Brazil. “Bolsonaro was the source of many of the main conspiracy theories that went around. But he brought in all the institutions, he orchestrated the campaigns from the high ranks. It was part of the official narrative. That is why Brazil is one of the worst Covid cases.” More than 600,000 Brazilians have died from Covid-19 — the second-highest number in the world, after the US. Researchers say the bulk of these deaths should not have occurred. In testimony to a congressional inquiry on the government’s handling of Covid-19, Pedro Hallal, an epidemiologist from the Federal University of Pelotas, said that as many as 80 per cent of deaths could have been avoided if the government had supported conventional measures, such as social distancing and mask use, and had not propagated quack treatment theories. “We know many of the 600,000 deaths are mainly due to these kinds of things. It is not just the disease [killing us],” says Luana Araujo, a public health consultant at Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo, who testified at the congressional inquiry.

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Bolsonaro latched on to the Covid Kit at the beginning of the pandemic because he refused to countenance lockdowns, which he said curtailed liberties and would cause hardship for many people. Drugs such as chloroquine would allow the economy to remain open, he claimed. The message was spread publicly, often in official speeches. But it took root in social media, particularly messaging apps such as Telegram, which critics say do little to regulate misinformation. A multitude of groups sprang up, often with thousands of members, to discuss where to buy “early treatment” drugs and what the side effects were. Covid pinpointed our education problems and showed how easy it is to manipulate a desperate population Luana Araujo Decoupled from science, the issue became a political banner for Bolsonaro’s millions of supporters. “You have to remember that Bolsonaro and his camp had really worked to delegitimise the mainstream press in recent years,” says David Nemer, a Brazilian assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. “So, when the press reported that these drugs were ineffective, they said it was just the media lying again. They create their own truths. They only believe what comes from channels they trust.” Daniela Braga, a 39-year-old baker from Rio de Janeiro, is one such believer. She says she trusts the drugs because the president vouched for them. She takes ivermectin for three consecutive days every two months because she believes it is a prophylactic. She took chloroquine when she contracted a mild case of Covid-19. Her mother and stepfather use both drugs as prophylactics. “They go everywhere — they enter supermarkets, malls, everything. And they didn’t get contaminated,” Braga says. Public health experts say this mentality is often the real risk of the drugs, not necessarily the side-effects, which in the case of chloroquine can include heart rhythm problems. Having taken the medicines, users feel emboldened to disregard other precautionary measures. “They don’t use masks, they go to crowded places — it is even to the point where they don’t take the vaccine,” says Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was Brazil’s health minister at the beginning of the pandemic but was fired following tensions with Bolsonaro over how to respond to the disease.

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Speaking to local media, Christos Christou, international president of medical aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières, said no other country had demonstrated the same predilection towards quack remedies as Brazil. His message is borne out in research on the impact of misinformation. In a comparative study of 70 countries, Caio Machado found that in Brazil — as well as India — misinformation lingered longer and resonated more in the public debate. “Brazil and India were way out there — completely separated,” he says. “While other countries had peaks with misinformation — things appeared and would move on — in Brazil we kept fighting chloroquine.” He adds that it was because “people had a political affiliation to chloroquine”. Araujo says Brazil is fertile ground for misinformation because of decades of neglect of investment in education. “Our education was never a priority for any government,” she says. “The Covid crisis only pinpointed how deep our educational problems are and how difficult it is for many people to understand basic concepts. Worse than that, it highlighted how easy it is to manipulate a desperate population. “Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 as a saviour figure because most people were not satisfied with the previous governments. When you have a figure of power like that, and add it to a population with a low education, along with a global crisis, which naturally generates a lot of questions, that is a very complicated scenario.”

Despite the impact of misinformation on the country’s Covid-19 response, experts have been heartened by the failure of the anti-vaccination movement in Brazil — widely attributed to the nation’s longstanding prowess in not only distributing jabs, but promoting their use through public campaigns. Although Bolsonaro has himself publicly refused to be vaccinated, the number of doses administered in Brazil is the fourth-largest of any country, according to Our World in Data figures. The city of São Paulo says it has vaccinated its entire adult population. “Brazil had a long culture of getting people vaccinated. It is something that society embraced well,” says Nemer. “Even those who aligned themselves with the right saw the amount of fake news circulated about [this] and saw there was something wrong here. That helped create some media literacy towards misinformation. [But] I don’t think it is enough to change ideology.” Thatyana Borges Machado, a nurse in Manaus, says sometimes the pregnant women she cares for are unvaccinated because they are “afraid that the vaccine will alter their DNA”.

“Usually, they don’t have much education and have little access to information,” she says. “I tell them that they have to be afraid of not taking the vaccine — the baby doesn’t choose whether to take it or not, but they can choose to save their own life and the baby’s life. In the next appointment, they come back vaccinated.”

New Coronavirus News from 1 Feb 2022

U.S. CDC warns against travel to Mexico, Brazil, Singapore over COVID-19 [Reuters, 1 Feb 2022]

by David Shepardson & Jonathan Oatis

WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday advised against travel to a dozen destinations, including Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, Ecuador, Kosovo, Philippines and Paraguay.

The CDC now lists nearly 130 countries and territories with COVID-19 cases as "Level Four: Very High." It also added Anguilla, French Guiana, Moldova and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday to its highest level.