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Rabu, 19 Agustus 2020

Australia hails vaccine deal as virus surge abates - CNA

SYDNEY: A fresh outbreak of infections in Australia's coronavirus hot zone of Victoria eased further on Wednesday (Aug 19), while the country agreed a deal to secure a potential COVID-19 vaccine that it plans to roll out cost-free to citizens.

Australia has signed a deal with British drugmaker AstraZeneca to produce and distribute enough doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine for its population of 25 million, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said late on Tuesday.

READ: Australia signs deal with AstraZeneca for possible COVID-19 vaccine

"Should we be in a position for the trials to be successful, we would hope that this would be made available early next year. If it can be done sooner than that, great," Morrison said on Wednesday.

All Australians will be offered doses but a medical panel will determine the priority list of vaccine recipients.

"Naturally you would be focusing on the most vulnerable, the elderly, health workers, people with disabilities in terms of the speed of roll out," Health Minister Greg Hunt told Sky News.

Health authorities would also have to take into account where the highest risk of transmission is and how the vaccine works in different age groups when deciding who should get it first, Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton said.

"If it does work and it's 80 to 90per cent effective, then absolutely it will be a game changer," Sutton said, although he cautioned that broad testing was still at a preliminary stage. "So we shouldn't hang our hats on a single vaccine."

AstraZeneca last month said good data was coming in so far on its vaccine for COVID-19, already in large-scale human trials and widely seen as the front-runner in the race for a shot against the novel coronavirus.

The vaccine, called AZD1222, was developed by Britain's University of Oxford and licensed to AstraZeneca.

READ: EU agrees first COVID-19 vaccine deal with AstraZeneca in WHO blow

Morrison said Australia was also looking for other vaccine deals, including with the University of Queensland and its partner, Australian firm CSL.

CSL estimates first doses of the University of Queensland vaccine will be available for emergency use by the middle of 2021, Chief Executive Paul Perrault told reporters on Wednesday.

CSL said its first priority would be manufacturing the UQ vaccine, but it was also in talks to help AstraZeneca manufacture its vaccine.

Morrison said Australia is also talking to its Pacific neighbours, including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, about supplying vaccine.

A flare-up in infections in Australia's second most populous state of Victoria forced authorities two weeks ago to impose a nightly curfew and shut large parts of the state's economy.

The state has seen a slowdown in new cases in recent days, allaying fears of a nationwide second wave.

There were 12 deaths and 216 new cases in the past 24 hours, down from more than 700 infections two weeks ago. There were just 12 new cases in three other states.

Despite the surge in the past month, Australia has avoided the high casualties of other nations with just under 24,000 infections and 450 deaths from the virus.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2020-08-19 06:22:30Z
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COVID-19 vaccine should be mandatory in Australia: PM Morrison - CNA

SYDNEY: Australia should make any coronavirus vaccine compulsory for its 25 million citizens bar medical exemptions, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday (Aug 19), wading into a heated ethical debate.

After reaching a deal for the country to manufacture a "promising" vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, Morrison said getting the jab should be "as mandatory as you can possibly make it".

"There are always exemptions for any vaccine on medical grounds, but that should be the only basis," he told radio station 3AW in Melbourne.

Anticipating a backlash from vocal anti-vaccine activists, Morrison said the stakes were too high to allow the disease to continue unchecked.

"We're talking about a pandemic that has destroyed the global economy and taken the lives of hundreds of thousands all around the world," he said, while stressing the government has not yet made a decision.

READ: COVID-19 infections in Australia hit one-month low

The Australian government estimates that up to 95 per cent of the population would need to be immune to the virus for it to be eradicated.

"We need the most extensive and comprehensive response to this to get Australia back to normal," Morrison said, after announcing the vaccine would be free to all Australians.

The country already has "no jab, no play" rules that mean kids have to receive vaccines for diseases including polio and tetanus to enrol in kindergarten or school.

READ: Australia's New South Wales bans recorder recitals, school choirs to curb spread of COVID-19

But debate still rages about whether those rules impinge on personal freedoms, and hardline anti-vaxxers flood online forums with conspiracy theories and misinformation about the risks.

The coronavirus pandemic - which has killed more than 400 Australians - has coincided with a sharp uptick in online misinformation, speculation and opposition to vaccines - something experts have dubbed an "infodemic".

READ: WHO warns people under 50 driving virus spread in Asia-Pacific

No effective vaccine for coronavirus has yet been released, although Morrison said he was optimistic one could be developed by early next year, with manufacturing taking just a few months more.

"As soon as we get the recipe we'll be making it," he said.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2020-08-19 03:20:58Z
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Selasa, 18 Agustus 2020

Democrats nominate Joe Biden for president, vowing he will end Trump 'chaos' - CNA

WASHINGTON: Democrats formally nominated Joe Biden for president on Tuesday (Aug 18), with elder statesmen and rising stars promising he would repair a pandemic-devastated America and end the chaos of Republican President Donald Trump.

The convention's second night, under the theme "Leadership Matters", aimed to make the case that Biden would represent a return to normalcy.

READ: Trump lashes out at Michelle Obama after convention takedown

"At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command centre," former US President Bill Clinton said in a prerecorded video.

"Instead, it's a storm centre. There's only chaos. Just one thing never changes - his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame."

With the four-day convention largely virtual due to the coronavirus, delegates from around the country cast votes remotely to confirm Biden as the nominee.

In clips from around the country, Democrats of all stripes explained why they were supporting Biden while putting their own state-specific spin on the proceedings, from a calamari appetiser in Rhode Island to a herd of cattle in Montana.

Following his home state of Delaware, which went last in his honor, Biden appeared live for the first time at a Delaware school, where his wife, Jill, was set to deliver the night's headline address later in the evening.

"Thank you very, very much from the bottom of my heart," said Biden, who will deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday. "It means the world to me and my family."

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and running mate Senator Kamala Harris are seen on screen at virtual 2020 Democratic Convention hosted from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The programme started by showcasing some of the party's rising politicians. But rather than a single keynote speech that could be a star-making turn, as it was for then-state Senator Barack Obama in 2004, the programme featured 17 stars in a video address, including Stacey Abrams, the one-time Georgia gubernatorial nominee whom Biden once considered for a running mate.

"America faces a triple threat: A public health catastrophe, and economic collapse and a reckoning with racial justice and inequality," Abrams said.

"So our choice is clear: A steady experienced public servant who can lead us out of this crisis just like he's done before, or a man who only knows how to deny and distract."

REPUBLICANS SPEAK

As they did on Monday's opening night, Democrats featured a handful of Republicans who have crossed party lines to praise Biden, 77, over Trump, 74, ahead of the Nov 3 election.

Cindy McCain, widow of Republican Senator John McCain, was scheduled to appear in a video talking about her husband's long friendship with Biden, according to a preview posted online. Trump clashed with McCain, who was the Republican nominee for president in 2008, and the president criticised McCain even after his 2018 death.

READ: Michelle Obama launches scathing attack on Trump's leadership, says Biden will end the chaos

Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star general who endorsed Biden in June, was one of several national security officials due to speak on the Democrat's behalf.

"Our country needs a commander in chief who takes care of our troops in the same way he would his own family," he said.

“He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots. He will make it his job to know when anyone dares to threaten us. He will stand up to our adversaries with strength and experience. They will know he means business.”

Democratic former Secretary of State John Kerry said of Trump: "When this president goes overseas, it isn’t a goodwill mission, it’s a blooper reel. He breaks up with our allies and writes love letters to dictators. America deserves a president who is looked up to, not laughed at."

READ: Drawing criticism, Trump says he will accept Republican nomination 'live from the White House'

Biden's vice presidential pick, Senator Kamala Harris, will headline Wednesday night's programme along with Obama.

Without the cheering crowds at the in-person gathering originally planned for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, TV viewership on Monday was down from 2016. But an additional 10.2 million people watched on digital platforms, the Biden campaign said, for a total audience of nearly 30 million.

Aiming to draw attention away from Biden, Trump, trailing in opinion polls, held a campaign rally in Arizona, a hotly contested battleground state that can swing to either party and play a decisive role in the election.

The convention was being held amid worries about the safety of in-person voting. Democrats have pushed mail-in ballots as an alternative and pressured the head of the US Postal Service, a top Trump donor, to suspend cost cuts that delayed mail deliveries.

Bowing to that pressure, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy put off the cost-cutting measures until after the election.

Hours before his speech, the president said a massive shift to mail-in voting could cause so many problems officials might have to hold another election, a far-fetched possibility given that a national US election "re-do" has never occurred and Trump lacks the authority to order one.

Other Democratic speakers on Tuesday included US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading liberal figure known as AOC.

The Republican National Convention, also largely virtual, takes place next week. Trump will give his acceptance speech at the White House, despite criticism he is politicising the presidential residence.

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2020-08-19 03:11:10Z
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Trump lashes out at Michelle Obama after convention takedown - CNA

MILWAUKEE: US President Donald Trump lashed out at former first lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday (Aug 18) after she delivered a scathing takedown of his leadership on the opening night of the Democratic convention.

"I thought it was a very divisive speech, extremely divisive," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"Frankly, I would not even be here if it wasn't for Barack Obama," he said. "I would be building buildings someplace and having a good time."

In her pre-taped remarks to the convention - which has gone almost entirely online because of the coronavirus pandemic - Michelle Obama urged Americans to rally behind Democrat Joe Biden, her husband Barack Obama's former vice-president, in November's presidential election.

Biden "will tell the truth, and trust science", she said in a jab at Trump, who has been accused of ignoring the advice of scientists on how to respond to a health crisis that has left some 170,000 Americans dead and millions without jobs.

Former first lady Michelle Obama said "Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country". (Photo: AFP/Handout)

In unprecedented criticism of a sitting US president by a former first lady, she painted Trump as a man who lacks the competence, character and decency for the job.

"Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership, or consolation, or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division and a total and utter lack of empathy," she said.

"Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country," she said. "He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head.

"He cannot meet this moment."

After a night of hard-hitting attacks on Trump from Michelle Obama, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and others, including several Republicans, the convention is to feature remarks on Tuesday by two former presidents - Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

'LONGEST POLITICAL TV AD EVER'

Jill Biden, the candidate's wife, is also scheduled to speak along with New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising star in the progressive wing of the party.

Former president Obama will speak on Wednesday along with 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Biden's running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris.

Former US president Bill Clinton is to address the second night of the Democratic convention. (Photo: AFP/POOL)

The convention is to culminate on Thursday when the 77-year-old Biden will formally accept the Democratic nomination and deliver his acceptance speech.

US presidential nominating conventions are traditionally raucous events featuring rousing speeches, balloons and confetti and thousands of delegates from around the country.

But the Democratic convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and next week's Republican event in North Carolina have been forced to go almost entirely online because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Larry Saboto, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, gave the Democrats' virtual convention a thumbs-up after the first day.

"This show, this longest political TV ad ever, isn't designed for the junkies but for people who dip in for 10 minutes before going back to Netflix," Sabato said. "And that's smart."

Actress Eva Longoria served as the emcee on the opening night. (Photo: AFP/Handout)

Biden is leading Trump in the polls ahead of the Nov 3 election and the Republican incumbent has been desperately seeking to persuade Americans that the COVID-19 crisis is behind them and that the situation is improving.

"My Administration and I built the greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved millions of lives, and now am building an even greater economy than it was before," Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

READ: Drawing criticism, Trump says he will accept Republican nomination 'live from the White House'

Trump also continued his attacks on mail-in voting, insisting without proof that it was "going to be a disaster the likes of which our country has never seen.

"It'll end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome," he said. "They'll have to do it again and nobody wants that. And I don't want that."

Trump has threatened to block extra funding that Democrats say is urgently needed to allow the US Postal Service to process millions of ballots.

While Democrats hold their convention, Trump has been visiting battleground states.

He visited Minnesota and Wisconsin on Monday and plans to go to Iowa and Arizona on Tuesday.

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2020-08-18 17:12:11Z
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Trump erupts angrily at Michelle Obama's convention takedown - The Straits Times

MILWAUKEE (AFP) - President Donald Trump erupted angrily on Tuesday (Aug 18) after former first lady Michelle Obama said he was "in over his head" in a blistering speech at the Democratic convention.

Mrs Obama's keynote speech on the first night of the convention to nominate Mr Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate hammered at Mr Trump as a hapless, divisive leader who has not measured up to the challenge of taking on the Covid-19 pandemic and mass economic fallout.

Mr Trump waited until early on Tuesday to respond, launching a broadside that also attacked his predecessor Barack Obama and Mr Biden, who served as Mr Obama's vice-president for two terms.

"Somebody please explain to @MichelleObama that Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House, if it weren't for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama," Mr Trump wrote.

"Biden was merely an afterthought, a good reason for that very late & unenthusiastic endorsement."

Mr Trump, who had been running on the strong US economy until the coronavirus shutdown pushed millions of people into unemployment, repeated assurances that the situation is rapidly improving.

Polls show Mr Biden currently ahead of Mr Trump in the Nov 3 election. The Republicans will have their convention to nominate Mr Trump for a second term next week.

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2020-08-18 13:09:02Z
52781004151232

New virus strain genetically more fit, not more transmissible or deadly: Expert | THE BIG STORY - The Straits Times

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2020-08-18 10:04:25Z
52781004208407

Surge in cases in countries that contained coronavirus in early months signals move to new phase, says WHO - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - The recent surge in Covid-19 cases in countries that had managed to contain the pandemic in its early months actually marks their move to a new phase for which they are better prepared, said a senior World Health Organisation official.

Dr Takeshi Kasai, WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific, said at a virtual press conference on Tuesday (Aug 18): "What we are observing is not simply a resurgence. We believe it's a signal that we've entered a new phase of the pandemic in the Asia Pacific.

"In this phase, countries are increasingly able to minimise large-scale disruptions to people's lives and economies."

Countries such as Japan, Vietnam, South Korea and Australia had moved quickly to contain Covid-19 in the early months of the epidemic, but are now fighting new surges.

In some cases, the second wave is larger than their initial outbreaks, said Dr Kasai.

The surge in cases comes because countries have relaxed their earlier stringent measures as they move towards reopening their economies.

He said these countries "will need to deal with multiple increases or surges, but in a sustainable way".

They need to have "earlier targeted response" to prevent "big disruptions to the economy and people's lives".

They should continue to improve their healthcare system, and protect the vulnerable.

And people in these countries need to "maintain their healthy behaviour, not just protecting themselves, but their family, communities", and for businesses to find ways to operate, while minimising the risk of the virus spreading.

Dr Kasai said: "By combining early detection and rapid response to emerging infections, and people sticking to the prevention measures that are part of the new normal, many (countries) are now detecting outbreaks earlier and responding to them faster, with more targeted intervention."

This agile approach will help them to restore their health systems, societies and economies.

Dr Kasai added: "The direction that the epidemic now takes depends on the actions of governments and people across the region."

The WHO's Western Pacific region includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Pacific island states, among others.

Asked about moves by some countries to open up for international travel, which has practically come to a standstill, Dr Kasai said countries should adopt "a risk-based approach".

They need to look at where people are travelling to and from, and the status of the outbreak in those countries.

Other considerations include the kind of people coming into the country, and the control or intervention that can be put in place.

He said: "This requires continuous information sharing and assessment, and dialogue between the countries."

Meanwhile, countries planning to open up "need to continue to improve their surveillance system, and share that information".

They must come up with an agreement with the other countries that allow travel on how to manage those who are travelling, so any problems are spotted and dealt with as early as possible.

On the effect of mutation of the coronavirus, Dr Kasai said that based on the thousands of gene sequences available, this is a relatively stable virus, and will not affect work on a vaccine.

He said the "significant investments in health emergency preparedness made over several years" by countries in the region are paying off, and is one reason for the comparatively low Covid-19 numbers here.

One lesson learnt during the pandemic is that a country's response capacity has to be scalable, to match the size of the outbreak.

Dr Kasai concluded: "Covid-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future. We know it's a long and difficult stretch, and we will face setbacks. But we must keep trying, learning and doing it together.

"How we fare is up to each and every one of us. If we make the right choices every day, we will come out of this as safe and as strong as possible."

Rabu, 19 Agustus 2020

Selasa, 18 Agustus 2020

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