Madison had been considering the move to a fully fine-free model since 2019, and in August ended most fines and zeroed out overdue accounts, ending the use of a collection agency. The library had been charging 25 cents a day for overdue adult items.
The …
Madison woman returns library book after 63 years
Music emanates from soul, not religion: Pt Hariprasad
Lucknow: “As artists, singers, flautists, we never see any differences due to religion with our counterparts,” said Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia on being asked about the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb and his experience of performing with other artists during a panel discussion with author-biographer Sathya Saran and singer Rekha Bharadwaj on the concluding day of Metaphor The Lucknow Lit Fest on Thursday.
“Mujhe ye koi bataa de hum mein se kaun alag hai (Tell me who among us is different). Music brings us together, we perform at a temple as well as gurdwara. We are all alike. Music, or any form of art, doesn’t come out of religion, it comes from our soul and experiences,” he added.
They discussed Chaurasia’s autobiography ‘Breath of Gold’ penned by Sathya Saran, and the musician’s life and trysts. Coming from a family of ‘pehelwans’, Chaurasia picked the path of music at a young age. Now 82, he says his ability to adapt, learn, and re-learn made him the artist he is. Sharing a personal anecdote when he was spotted by legendary music composer Baba Allauddin Khan, who asked him to come to Maihar but the fear of his father not allowing him to take music lessons stopped him. Khan told him to find his daughter Annapurna Devi if he ever wanted to learn music. “It took me three years to convince her to teach me. I would learn from her and take lessons late at night after finishing my film recordings,” he added.
He also spoke of his love for spiritual places, which inspire him to create music, and the power of meditation, which has become the most serene and quintessential element of his daily life.
ABC casts light on Bahá’í community-building efforts in Sydney neighborhood
The article highlights the vibrant community life that is taking shape through gatherings for prayer, discussion, and music, which has recently given rise to an initiative, titled “Manifold”, to produce songs that express the youth’s highest aspirations for their society.
Speaking with the Bahá’í World News Service, Siobhan Marin, the journalist who wrote the article, shares her motivation for covering the story: “It’s always a joy to travel to different parts of Sydney and to meet communities who aren’t often represented in the news with the aim of sharing their story.”
Ms. Marin explains that this neighbourhood had recently been negatively portrayed in the media, and her hope is to offer something different. “I was interested in how the local community, particularly youth, are using music and social activities to change the narrative.
“It struck me that the members of Manifold, and others in the community, are not only demonstrating a more positive pathway to youth—one that doesn’t involve drugs, alcohol or violence—they’re also highlighting the goodness that already exists in the area. It was heartwarming to hear about efforts to help younger generations flourish.”
She adds: “And, from the sounds of it, these efforts are not only benefiting kids in the community, they’re also strengthening social cohesion and a sense of pride and respect for the area—amongst the older generations, too.”
The article may be read on the ABC website.
First ancient Bible texts found in 60 years in Dead Sea Scrolls discoveries
Israeli researchers have unveiled dozens of newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments of biblical texts dating back nearly 2,000 years, the first such find in 60 years.
The fragments are thought to have been hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome, have been found in an Israeli desert, NBC News reported on March 16.
The Israel Antiquities Authority announced that a four-year archaeological project uncovered portions of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, including the books of Zechariah and Nahum.
It was the first such discovery in 60 years.
Most of the scroll fragments are Greek translations of the books of Zechariah and Nahum from the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, and are written in two scribal hands, The Times of Israel reported.
Only the name of God is written in Hebrew in the texts.
The fragments from the Prophets have been identified as coming from a larger scroll that was found in the 1950s, in the same “Cave of Horror” in Nahal Hever, which is some 80 meters (260 feet) below a cliff top.
The Israel Antiquities Authority press release said, the cave is “flanked by gorges and can only be reached by rappelling precariously down the sheer cliff.
In addition to the new biblical scroll fragments from the Books of the Minor Prophets, the team excavated a huge 10,500-year-old perfectly preserved woven basket, the oldest complete basket in the world.
There was also a 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child, tucked into its blanket for a final sleep.
A CT scan revealed the child’s age was between 6 and 12 — with the skin, tendons and even hair partially preserved, NBC reported.
Among the recovered texts, which are all in Greek, is Nahum 1:5–6, which says: “The mountains quake because of Him, And the hills melt.
“The earth heaves before Him, The world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His wrath? Who can resist His fury? His anger pours out like fire, and rocks are shattered because of Him.”
Since 2017, the IAA has spearheaded an unprecedented rescue operation to salvage ancient artifacts from caves throughout the Judean Desert.
That effort stems from rampant looting that has occurred in the area since the much-heralded — and lucrative — discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Bedouin shepherds some 70 years ago, said the IAA.
“The desert team showed exceptional courage, dedication and devotion to purpose, rappelling down to caves located between heaven and earth, digging and sifting through them, enduring thick and suffocating dust, and returning with gifts of immeasurable worth for mankind,” said Israel Antiquities Authority’s director Israel Hasson, who led the widespread rescue operation, in the IAA press release.
With motive still disputed, some point to shooting suspect’s religion, shame
The Georgia man accused of killing eight people at three Atlanta-area spas was, on the surface, like legions of other young men spread out across the South — involved in his church, devoted to his family, and a hunter.
It wasn’t until after Robert Aaron Long, 21, was arrested Wednesday that a secret he considered shameful came spilling out.
“He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction,” Cherokee County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker said.
The spas that Long allegedly targeted — and the mostly-Asian women who worked there and were killed there — were “a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate,” Baker said.
Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said Wednesday that Long, who has been charged with eight counts of murder, “may have frequented some of these places in the past.”
In an interview later with CNBC’s Shepard Smith, Reynolds said it doesn’t appear Long had any prior brushes with the law and they’re not aware if he’s ever been treated for sex addiction.
“I know he’s gone through a mental health evaluation here at the jail, that’s just standard protocol, but anything prior to that is still part of the investigation and, quite frankly, I don’t know,” he said.
So far, investigators have downplayed suggestions the shootings were also motivated by racial hatred. But at a time of rising anti-Asian American violence, which critics say former President Donald Trump fanned by insisting on calling Covid-19 the “China virus,” few were buying that assertion. Officials said that based on what Long told investigators, the attacks Tuesday did not appear to be motivated by race.
“It’s clear to me that his targets were no accident,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said Thursday on MSBNC.
March 18, 202106:44
Baker himself is now under fire for promoting T-shirts with anti-Asian themes in the past. Reynolds defended Baker and said Thursday in a statement, “his personal ties to the Asian community and his unwavering support and commitments to the citizens of Cherokee County are well known to many.”
The tragic chain of events started around 5 p.m. Tuesday when four people were killed near Acworth in Cherokee County, authorities said. Less than an hour later, four women were killed in two shootings in Atlanta in Fulton County.
Long was arrested after his parents saw a photo of him released by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office as a suspect and notified the authorities.
His arrest stunned the tight-knit congregation at the Crabapple First Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, which the suspect attended and where his father is an important lay leader, according to The Washington Post.
“We are grieved to hear the tragic news about the multiple deaths in the Atlanta area,” said a statement signed by the “elders of the Crabapple First Baptist Church.” It said, “We are heartbroken for all involved. We grieve for the victims and their families, and we continue to pray for them. Moreover, we are distraught for the Long family and continue to pray for them as well.”
Elder Jerry Dockery and other church leaders have not responded to requests for comment.
Long, who went by his middle name Aaron and is from Woodstock, Georgia, was described on the church website as a member of the Student Ministry Team.
His former youth minister, Brett Cottrell, told The Washington Post that Long was part of a high school group that met for Bible study once a week and that he helped run a backyard Bible club with songs and games for children.
Cottrell, who has not led the youth ministry since 2017, said he’s not sure how involved Long has been with the church now. But he said the Long family regularly attended Sunday services. He said the congregation was mostly white, but there were a few Asian American and Black members.
“There’s nothing that I’m aware of at Crabapple that would give approval to this,” Cottrell told the Post of the shootings. “I’m assuming it’s as shocking and numbing to them as it has been to me.”
Long’s former classmate at Sequoyah High School in Canton recalled that he brought a Bible to school every day and would walk around holding it in his hands.
He was “super nice, super Christian, very quiet,” Nico Straughan, 21, told The Associated Press. “He went from one of the nicest kids I ever knew in high school to being on the news yesterday.”
In a Facebook post that was seen by The Daily Beast and has since been taken down, Long described how he came to Jesus in the seventh grade after hearing the biblical story about the prodigal son at a Christian youth group meeting. And in an Instagram post that has also been taken down, Long described his world this way:
“Pizza, guns, drums, music, family, and God,” it said on the tagline, The Daily Beast reported. “This pretty much sums up my life. It’s a pretty good life.”
But Long also had an interest in bow hunting and a photograph of him posing with a freshly killed deer was posted on the website of Backwoods Bowstrings, an archery business located in Woodstock.
Business owner Shannon Gott, 54, said Long came into the store about once a year to buy arrows and other gear. He said that his photo wound up on the site last year because they encourage customers to send them shots of successful bow hunts.
“I don’t want to be associated with this idiot in any way, nor my people associated with him,” Gott said.
Gott, who later removed the photo from the site, said he intends to post an apology on Facebook “to the families that this affected.”
“We have now taken it down and we will post nothing else from this person,” he said.
The apology went up Thursday.
“Backwoods Bowstrings sincerely regrets the loss associated with one of our previous customer’s actions, and apologizes for any grievance had from having this deer harvest photo in our social media galleries,” the statement, in part, read.
AstraZeneca declared safe by European Union regulator
After much debate, the European Union’s medicines regulator has concluded that the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is safe to use after several EU countries suspended their rollouts following reports that it could be linked to blood clots, CNN reports.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA)’s executive director Emer Cooke announced that the agency had “come to a clear scientific conclusion: this is a safe and effective vaccine.”
Cooke went on to explain that the group did not find that the vaccine causes clotting, adding that it could not rule out definitively a link to a rare blood clotting disorder, of which seven cases have been reported out of 20 million doses given in the UK. But she said the benefits of using the vaccine outweighed the risk.
The agency’s approval of the vaccine comes after more than a dozen European countries halted their use of the vaccine, citing reports of a handful of patients across Europe who developed clotting after being inoculated.
Most of the countries agreed to wait for the EMA’s green light before resuming rollouts, but concerns remain about the impact of the suspensions on vaccine hesitancy across the continent.
“I want to reiterate that our scientific position is this: this vaccine is a safe and effective option to protect citizens against COVID-19,” Cooke said at a press conference Thursday.
“It demonstrated that at least 60% efficacy in clinical trials and preventing coronavirus disease, and in fact the real world evidence suggests that the effectiveness could be even higher than that.”
The group said it recommended raising awareness of blood clot reports so these cases could be analyzed further. But they added that such reports were rare, and that more than 7 million people have received the vaccine in the EU.
“The committee also concluded that the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events, or blood clots,” Cooke said.
Nearly all of western Europe had temporarily stopped using the shot in recent days, even amid a third wave of coronavirus infections across the region, after a small number of reports of clots emerged.
The deaths of three individuals, a person in Austria, a woman in Denmark, and a third patient in Norway, led to the suspensions. But the decisions were criticized by many in the medical community, and other countries continued to back the use of the vaccine — including the UK, which has given out more than 11 million AstraZeneca doses so far.
In the EU, leaders now face the question of how to rebuild any trust in the AstraZeneca vaccine that has been lost over the past week. The bloc’s rollout of the jab has stumbled from one obstacle to another since it was approved for use in January, with governments scrambling to secure limited supplies of the jab while simultaneously casting doubts over its efficacy and safety.
Milan’s largest vaccine center told CNN it would resume AstraZeneca vaccinations Friday if given the green light from the EMA. It would also overbook appointments so as to make up for the shortfalls of the past few days. Ireland’s Prime Minister had earlier told CNN he hoped his country could “catch up fairly quickly” once the vaccination program resumed.
But experts say some damage has already been done when it comes to public perception of a potentially life-saving vaccine.
For example, in France, an Elabe poll showed this week that only 22% of the population now trusts the AstraZeneca vaccine. Remi Salomon, a senior French hospitals official, told BFM TV on Thursday that “people are being overly cautious” in the country and that he feared “people will not interpret” the suspensions in “the right way.”
“A scare like this has the potential to increase vaccine hesitancy,” Michael Head, senior research fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton in Britain, told CNN earlier in the week. “These vaccines are to protect against a pandemic virus. There is an urgency to the rollout.”
R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe Reflects On Audience Reaction To ‘Losing My Religion’
R.E.M‘s Michael Stipe recalls that the audience’s response to the band’s cult hit “Losing My Religion” was the “most powerful feeling” of his life.
“You felt it before you saw it,” singer Stipe told Apple Music Hits in a recent interview. “The energy coming off of an audience, a large audience in an outdoor arena, with the first notes, those first da, da, da, da and the place would just explode with energy.”
“We got all that being onstage, being elevated, being the center of attention. It all came right towards us. It was the biggest shot in the arm, the biggest jolt of adrenaline – the most powerful feeling that I think I’ve ever felt,” he added.
“Losing My Religion” was the first single from R.E.M’s 1991 album Out of Time. The song became R.E.M.’s highest-charting hit in the U.S., reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Fellow bandmate Mike Mills added, “Honestly, I’m getting chill bumps just thinking about it now because there was so much joy. I mean, by starting that song and playing that song, you’ve made so many people so very happy that it was just a pleasure to do it. To be able to raise everyone’s energy level and enjoyment level that much, it’s still thrilling to think about.”
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Billions without clean water and sanitation, a ‘moral failure’
Billions without clean water and sanitation, a ‘moral failure’: UN General Assembly President
For Volkan Bozkir, the discussion was long overdue, given statistics such as three billion worldwide still lack basic handwashing facilities, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today’s discussion on water & the #GlobalGoals is long overdue; while water is integral to sustainable development, the fact is that we are nowhere near achieving the goals we have set out. We must focus on tangible, concrete actions that deliver for the people of the world. pic.twitter.com/ptVujoxaQE
— UN GA President (@UN_PGA) March 18, 2021
“If I may be candid: it is a moral failure that we live in a world with such high levels of technical innovation and success, but we continue to allow billions of people to exist without clean drinking water or the basic tools to wash their hands,” he said.
No excuse for action
The meeting centred around implementation of the water-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, the blueprint for a better, more sustainable world. It promises to leave no one behind, with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 specifically addressing access to water and sanitation.
Additionally, the UN General Assembly has declared 2018 to 2028, the Water Action Decade, which also addresses the increased global pressure on water resources, and exacerbated risk of droughts and floods.
Mr. Bozkir said the fact that during the pandemic, billions have not had basic handwashing facilities, while health workers in some of the Least Developed Countries do not have running water, represents a “stark example of global inequality” that requires action.
“While we cannot go back and change what has happened, we must acknowledge our failings and use this opportunity to root out the systemic gaps that have allowed the crisis to flourish”, he said.
“When the next global pandemic or crisis strikes, and we know that it will, we will have no excuse for having not acted now.”
The UN Deputy Secretary-General underscored just how far off the world is from achieving SDG 6. Amina Mohammed told the meeting the current rate of progress would have to quadruple to meet the 2030 deadline.
Address unequal access
“Moreover, the planetary crisis, including the interlinked threats of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, will increase water scarcity”, she added. “By 2040, one in four of the world’s children under 18 – some 600 million – will be living in areas of extremely high-water stress.”
Ms. Mohammed highlighted three imperatives for countries, urging them to use their pandemic recovery plans to invest in the SDGs and to address the unequal access to water and sanitation.
She also asked governments to “raise ambition on climate action”, given that 90 per cent of natural disasters are water-related, such as floods, which can contaminate water sources.
Women and girls affected
Her final point was a call for gender equality, including in decision-making.
“Women and girls suffer disproportionately when water and sanitation are lacking, affecting health and often restricting work and education opportunities. But women are also the backbone of agriculture and key stewards of natural resources”, Ms. Mohammed said.
“The COVID-19 response has highlighted the power of women’s leadership. Let’s draw on this experience as policies are put in place to build a green economy.”
Resources under stress
With the legal right of all to safe drinking water universally recognized, the international community must focus on fully implementing this fundamental right for everyone on the planet, said Munir Akram, President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
He expressed concern that by 2050, more than half the global population will be at risk due to stress on the world’s water resources.
“Desertification alone threatens the livelihoods of nearly one billion people in 100 countries. Intense water scarcity may displace as many as 700 million people by 2030”, he warned.
With 40 per cent of the world’s population living within shared river basins, Mr. Akram emphasized the importance of effective trans-boundary water corporation, stating that without it “inclusive sustainable development is severely curtailed, and the potential for threats to peace and security are ever present.”
At home and in the world
Officials from more than 90 countries took part in the General Assembly meeting, including Heads of State who addressed the gathering through pre-recorded speeches.
Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a UN specialized agency, encouraged them to view the global water crisis as an issue that is closer to home.
If water supply to our own homes fails, fixing it would be a “an absolute top priority”, he said in a video message. The same would apply to our toilets and sewerage systems.
“We need to do on a global scale what we would do in our own homes”, said Mr. Houngbo, who also chairs UN-Water, a coalition of UN entities and international partners working on water and sanitation issues.
“The world is getting smaller and our lives are all connected. And the COVID crisis has shown this to be true.”
an environmental crisis in waiting
Representative Sonam Tsering Frasi, Office of Tibet, London speaking at the discussion titled ‘Tibet: an environmental crisis in waiting’ organised by the Democracy Forum.
London: Representative Mr. Sonam Tsering Frasi, Office of Tibet, London was invited by Lord Bruce, President of the Democracy Forum to give introductory remarks in a virtual panel discussion organised by the Democracy Forum. Watch here.
The discussion entitled “Tibet: an environmental crisis in waiting” was broadcast live on Tuesday, 16 March 2021, between 2-4pm UK time and 7.30-9.30 India time chaired by Humphrey Hawksley, author & former BBC Asia Correspondent and joined by panellists, Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha, senior fellow/Head of Tibet Environment Desk, Tibet Policy Institute, Dharamsala, India, Dechen Palmo, Environment researcher at Tibet Policy Institute, India, John H. Knox, Henry C. Lauerman Professor of International law, Wake Forest University and former UN special rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment and Christa Meindersma, Director of Advocacy & communication, International Campaign for Tibet, Europe.
Lord Bruce, President of the Democratic Forum extended a warm welcome to the team of experts and panellists for agreeing to participate in the public event discussing a topic of such profile importance organised by the Forum. He mentioned a view of crises facing Tibet today was clearly enunciated at the Paris climate summit in 2015, highlighting a recorded message for the summit from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Lord Bruce, President of the Democratic Forum addressing the panel.
“Tibet is the roof of the world, the third pole. Once its ecology is damaged, it would take a longer time to recover”, he emphasised the impact of the plateau on the lives of billions of people in China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. This is not a question of one nation or two nations. This is nothing less than the survival of humanity. Mr Bruce highlighted the importance of the preservation of Tibet’s rivers and informed data and report from the Tibet Policy Institute and UN team on China’s mismanagement of Tibet’s resources which led to the rising temperature faster than the global average causing flood in the country. Finally, he shared his anxiety about glaciers facing an awful scenario and assuming the audience will draw their own conclusion after listening to the speakers.
Representative Sonam Tsering in his introductory remarks said The Tibetan Plateau is called the Third Pole because its glaciers, ice fields and permafrost, contain the largest deposits of freshwater sources outside the two polar regions. Many of the most famous rivers of Asia flow out of Tibet, making Tibet, the water tower or the water reservoir for a very large part of the Indian subcontinent and the whole of South-East Asia. The Crisis in environmental issues in Tibet has adversely impacted the Tibetans already. The Chinese Communist State in the name to protect the headlands of rivers that feed the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong have involved the uprooting, relocation and settlement of thousands and thousands of Tibetan nomads. Regardless of any political or cultural view, the environmental impact of the Tibetan Plateau – the Third Pole – is one of the key issues of our time. To mitigate and plan for such a future, requires a sustained international response focused on the preservation of the Tibetan Plateau as well as on the question of Tibet’s sovereignty.
Professor John H. Knox during the discussion.
Professor John H. Knox, in his remarks, said that the core of the rights-based approach to environmental protection is to the protection of the rights of environmental human rights defenders. That is those who work to protect the only right is to protect the right of others. This means that China like every other country has an obligation to protect the rights of those who criticise its policies. Not to detain them or prosecute them for peaceful actions and protest. An obligation to investigate and punish actions taken to persecute them. Unfortunately, these rights are often not protected in many countries perhaps most countries in the world. Environmental defenders are often at great risk. In recent years, UN special rapporteurs said multiple communications to china raising concerns about critical allegations that Tibetans should protest against mining and other environmental issues as well as other human rights issues such as rights to teach Tibetan language in school.
Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha, senior fellow/Head of Tibet Environment Desk, Tibet Policy Institute in Dharamsala in his presentation mentioned that Tibet is called the Third pole because the Tibetan plateau is home to the third-largest concentration of ice beside the north and south pole with 46000 glaciers on the plateau.
He further stressed that because of the large presence of ice on Tibet’s plateau, it also influences climate condition across Asia and as far as Europe and North America. He mentioned that there are some scientific findings that the intensity of the monsoon is influence by what’s happening in the Tibet plateau and also recent increase in heatwave across Europe is also due to the loss of glacier on the Tibet plateau. This means the importance of the Tibet plateau is not only across Asia but also for Europe and America.
Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha, Head of Tibet Environment Desk, Tibet Policy Institute presents on the global significance of the Tibetan plateau.
Dechen Palmo, an Environment researcher in her presentation mentioned the increased number of dams built in China and Tibet. According to the International Commission on large dams, China has 23,841 large dams, accounting for 41% of the world total dams. China is one of the three countries in the world that voted against the convention on the law of Non-Navigational Uses of international watercourses adopted by the UN general assembly in 1997.
Mrs Palmo particularly spoke about the importance of the Mekong river in Tibet, the longest river in south-east Asia and the flow of the river dropped due to China’s construction of dams.
Christa Meindersma from ICT Europe said climate change is inextricably linked to biodiversity loss on the Tibetan plateau. The Tibetan plateau encompasses three biodiversity hotspots. We find as the earth’s most biologically rich but threatened regions. Divers of climate change such as extractive industries, pollution, infrastructure development, damming to the exclusion of Tibetan nomads as well as the effect of climate change including the certification grassland degradation and water shortage also lead to biodiversity loss. The global environmental governance report 2020 stresses that climate change and biodiversity loss are on the same side of a coin. And point to the need for a coherent approach to avoid climate action having unintended negative consequences for biodiversity.
Finally, Barry Gardiner MP and chair of The Democracy Forum in his closing remark said ‘we failed to hold the loss of biodiversity in 2010, we failed in 2020 and here we are beginning in a new decade and China is really committed to setting in place a target that doesn’t fail. Now there are two ways you can do that. You can either reduce the aspiration level of the target themselves so they are easy to meet. We do need very serious diplomatic engagement with China at an early stage in order to ensure that there is real cooperation that we bring to COP15 and they bring to COP26 in return. I think we need to be looking for areas where we can engage together because this is critical’.
- filed by Office of Tibet, London
Dechen Palmo, an Environment researcher presents the threat of China excessive damming.
Christa Meindersma, Director of Advocacy and Communications, ICT Europe speaks on the impact of biodiversity.
Barry Gardiner MP and chair of The Democracy Forum speaks on need for diplomatic cooperation with China.
WHO European Region: COVID-19 case incidence on the rise as deaths edge towards 1 million
Press statement by Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe
18 March 2021
Last week marked 1 year since WHO announced that the Public Health Emergency of International Concern declared on 30 January 2020 represented the first ever pandemic caused by a coronavirus.
Since then, we’ve seen nearly 42 million cases in this region alone, and more than 120 million globally. But we’ve also seen giant scientific leaps and the introduction of effective tools that give us power over the virus, when used.
The power of the collective. The heroism of our frontline. When I look back at the past year, I see remarkable attributes we have all expressed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Ultimately, our behaviour is saving lives.
The danger, however, is still clear and present.
The current situation is most acute in parts of the Region that were successful in controlling the disease in the first 6 months of 2020. It is in central Europe, the Balkans and the Baltic states where case incidence, hospitalizations and deaths are now among the highest in the world.
Case incidence continues its increasing trend, and is moving eastwards. We have now seen 3 consecutive weeks of growth in COVID-19 cases with over 1.2 million new cases reported last week across Europe.
Last week, deaths in the Region surpassed 900 000. Every week, more than 20 000 people across the Region lose their lives to the virus. The number of people dying from COVID-19 in Europe is higher now than it was this time last year, reflecting the widespread hold this virus has.
We are yet to see the widespread health impact and benefits of vaccines, which I can also assure you will come. But for now, we need to remain steadfast in our application of the full range of tools to respond.
Some 48 out of 53 European countries or territories have reported the B.1.1.7 variant of concern, which is gradually becoming predominant in our region. And yet, in the context of this faster spreading variant, several countries – including but not limited to Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom – have rapidly reduced transmission with public health and social measures to levels that can, and must, be kept low.
Five countries in the Region have received vaccines from the COVAX Facility – fair and equitable access to vaccines, the overarching concept of COVAX, is happening in reality. The gap in access to vaccines in our region is narrowing, yet inequity persists, with all high-income countries having rolled out vaccination, but only 60% of middle- and lower-income countries having done so.
As of today, a total of 46 countries in the Region have administered more than 107 million doses of vaccine. Three percent of the population in 45 countries have received a completed vaccination series, and data from 23 countries indicates that 51% of health workers have received at least 1 dose.
While 27 countries are currently in a partial or full nationwide lockdown, 21 are gradually easing restrictive measures. Some are doing so based on the assumption that increasing vaccination uptake in countries would immediately lead to an improved epidemiological situation. Such assumptions are too early to make.
Let there be no doubt about it, vaccination by itself – particularly given the varied uptake in countries – does not replace public health and social measures.
With vaccination coverage in the Region ranging from less than 1% to 44%, it is also far too early to demonstrate the effect of vaccines on overall COVID-19 hospitalization and deaths. Nonetheless, early data from Israel, Scotland and the UK, linked to effectiveness against severe disease by the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines, is promising and show lives are being saved.
As vaccine uptake increases, their broader impact will become visible, and studies like these will guide policy and improve our understanding of how the different vaccines contribute to our response. We welcome these studies, stressing that the available data is limited – and that further research is urgently needed.
The WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control have developed a robust protocol to study vaccine effectiveness in community settings to allow effective comparison of the results between countries.
A number of countries in the Region have temporarily suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precautionary measure, based on reports from a few countries of rare blood coagulation disorders in persons who had received the vaccine. The detection, investigation and assessment of these cases is a testimony to strong surveillance and regulatory mechanisms.
In vaccination campaigns, it is routine to signal potential adverse events. This does not necessarily mean that the events are linked to the vaccination.
Venous thromboembolism is the third most common cardiovascular disease in the world. It happens in populations regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. COVID-19 vaccination will not reduce illness or deaths from other causes.
As of now, we do not know whether some or all of the conditions have been caused by the vaccine or by other coincidental factors. WHO is assessing the latest safety data, and once completed, the findings will be made public. At this point in time, however, the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine far outweigh its risks – and its use should continue, to save lives.
Vaccines work, and will eventually allow a return to a new normal. But for that to happen, we need to rely on science and have confidence in the incredible protection afforded by vaccines against all vaccine-preventable diseases, including COVID-19.
Meanwhile, we have one eye fixed on the future. This week, the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development, chaired by Professor Mario Monti, issued a call to action – to rethink policy priorities in the light of pandemics, to fix the fractures and address the conditions that allowed COVID-19 to happen. This is a concrete step towards making health a centrepiece of society, preparing for future health emergencies and making sure that the notion of health as peripheral is a thing of the past.
Stay safe. Thank you.
