Vaccine inequity: Inside the cutthroat race to secure doses
PARIS (AP) â No one disputes that the world is unfair. But no one expected a vaccine gap between the global rich and poor that was this bad, this far into the pandemic.
Inequity is everywhere: Inoculations go begging in the United States while Haiti, a short plane ride away, received its first delivery July 15 after months of promises â 500,000 doses for a population over 11 million. Canada has procured more than 10 doses for every resident; Sierra Leoneâs vaccination rate just cracked 1% on June 20.
Itâs like a famine in which âthe richest guys grab the baker,â said Strive Masiyiwa, the African Unionâs envoy for vaccine acquisition.
People gather for a rally in Tokyo’s Shinjuku shopping district on July 18 to protest against the Olympics starting from July 23. (AP Photo)
Two South African soccer players became the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19, and other cases connected to the Tokyo Games were also confirmed Sunday, highlighting the herculean task organizers face to keep the virus contained while the world s biggest sports event plays out.
The positive tests came as some of the 11,000 athletes and thousands more team officials expected from across the globe began arriving, having traveled through a pandemic to get to Tokyo.
Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western US
BLY, Oregon (AP) â The largest wildfire in the U.S. torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of dozens of major blazes burning across the West as critically dangerous fire weather loomed in the coming days.
The destructive Bootleg Fire just north of the California border grew to more than 476 square miles (1,210 square kilometers), an area about the size of Los Angeles.
Erratic winds fed the blaze, creating dangerous conditions for firefighters, said John Flannigan, an operations section chief on the 2,000-person force battling the flames.
âWeather is really against us, he said. Itâs going to be dry and air is going to be unstable.â
Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western US
BLY, Oregon (AP) â The largest wildfire in the U.S. torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of dozens of major blazes burning across the West as critically dangerous fire weather loomed in the coming days.
The destructive Bootleg Fire just north of the California border grew to more than 476 square miles (1,210 square kilometers), an area about the size of Los Angeles.
Erratic winds fed the blaze, creating dangerous conditions for firefighters, said John Flannigan, an operations section chief on the 2,000-person force battling the flames.
âWeather is really against us, he said. Itâs going to be dry and air is going to be unstable.â
By Syndicated Content
Jul 18, 2021 | 8:03 PM
TOKYO (Reuters) – Two-thirds of people in Japan do not believe the country can host a safe and secure Olympics amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey published by the Asahi newspaper just four days before the opening ceremony in Tokyo.
In the poll, 68% of respondents expressed doubt about the ability of Olympic organisers to control coronavirus infections, with 55% saying they were opposed to the Games going ahead.
Three-quarters of the 1,444 people in the telephone survey said they agreed with a decision to ban spectators from events.
As COVID-19 infections rise in Tokyo, forcing the government into a fourth state of emergency, public concern has grown about hosting an event that is bringing tens of thousands of overseas athletes, officials and journalists into Japan’s capital.