Coronavirus: How India is readying for its massive vaccine drive
An Indian health worker mocks the vaccination process during a dry run of Covid-19 vaccination inside a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Rajawadi Hospital, in Mumbai, India, 08 January 2021.
On 16 January, India will begin what will be one of the world's biggest inoculation programmes, aimed at protecting its 1.3 billion people from Covid-19.
The government plans to vaccinate 300 million people by early August. It will begin with an estimated 10 million health workers, followed by policemen, soldiers, municipal and other frontline workers.
Next in line for the jab would be people aged over 50 and anyone under 50 with serious underlying health conditions.
India has recorded the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world, after the US. Since the pandemic began it has confirmed more than 10.3 million cases and over 150,000 deaths.
The country's drugs regulator has given the green light to two vaccines - Covishield that has been developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford University and Covaxin by local firm Bharat Biotech.
Last week, health officials staged mass trials at vaccination centres across the country, like this one in the northern city of Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama's home in exile.
Government schools, community centres and hospitals have been converted into temporary vaccination centres.
Health workers are visiting homes in the remotest parts of India to inform people about the vaccination, like this meeting in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
Health activists Seema Pal and Rama Negi say they have also been busting misinformation about the vaccine in Uttarakhand.
Doctors are conducting training for vaccinators and health workers across India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said "priority will be given to our brave doctors, healthcare workers [and] frontline workers".
Kiran Mal (sitting), a female health worker, is among India's 154,000 nurses and midwives who will be deployed to give Covid-19 vaccines.
India is likely to gain from its experience of running the world's biggest immunisation programme - it inoculates more than 40 million newborns and pregnant women against 12 diseases every year - for the Covid vaccination programme. Here, Ms Mal is giving a tetanus jab to a woman.
Special vans, like this one in the southern city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), will be deployed all over the country to distribute the vaccines.
Health officials at a government hospital in Bengaluru check refrigerators which will be used to store vaccines. Across India, some 29,000 cold storage facilities would be used for the purpose - nearly all vaccines need to be transported and distributed between 2C and 8C in what comprises the so-called cold chain.
Posters detailing guidelines have been put up at several centres like this one in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) during mock vaccination exercises.
Due to events that have transpired in recent weeks, experts familiar with the transition process have abandoned hope that this one will get less rocky.
An Arizona man who took part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns made his first court appearance Monday. A judge scheduled a detention hearing Friday for Jake Chansley, who has been jailed on misdemeanor charges since surrendering to authorities over the weekend in Phoenix. Chansley was inside the Capitol and on the Senate dais as he carried a U.S. flag on a pole topped with a spear.
President-elect Joe Biden has said he'll get "at least 100 million COVID vaccine shots into the arms of the American people" during his first 100 days. But before his term begins, some advisers are reportedly worried this promise will ultimately be broken.Biden has "grown frustrated with the team in charge of plotting his coronavirus response" as there is increasing concern among some of his advisers that the 100 million vaccinations in 100 days goal won't be met, Politico reported on Monday."While some Biden advisers insist it's possible to make good on the 100-million vow, others are privately worried that the federal response is already so chaotic that it will take a herculean effort to pull it off," according to the report.Biden reportedly confronted COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients and his deputy to tell them "their team was underperforming," Politico says. Transition officials blame a "lack of long-term planning" by the Trump administration, which didn't come close to meeting its goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of 2020, as the vaccine rollout got off to a far slower-than-expected start in the United States."They're inheriting a mess," former Obama administration acting Medicare and Medicaid chief Andy Slavitt told Politico. "I think they're uncovering how bad it is."Biden, Politico notes, has suggested that whether the 100 million vaccinations goal is reached will be dependent on further COVID-19 relief legislation, previously saying "if Congress provides" additional funding for state and local governments, "we'd be able to meet this incredible goal." But Politico writes that some in the transition are "questioning whether Biden's first big pandemic pledge placed too much confidence" in the Trump administration, and allies are warning transition officials about "the overriding political consequences of breaking one of Biden's first major promises." Read more at Politico.More stories from theweek.com What Mike Pence should learn from Judas Trump is reportedly 'gutted' about losing PGA Championship Ken Jennings says 'no one will ever replace' Alex Trebek in debut as Jeopardy! guest host
Two newly-elected Black Republican congressmen signed up in support of the attempted Trump coup and overturn the 2020 presidential election — now it is time for them to resign. The two House members are Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), the former NFL player with ties to the QAnon pro-Trump conspiracy cult, and Byron Donalds (R-FL), a Black conservative and former Tea Party activist.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appear to have come to a détente after nearly a week of silence, anger and finger-pointing. The two met Monday evening in the Oval Office and had a “good conversation,” according to a senior administration official. It was their first time speaking since last Wednesday, when Trump incited his supporters to storm the Capitol building as Pence was presiding over certification of November's election results.
The office of Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is grappling with discontent in his ruling coalition, denied on Monday that he was undergoing treatment for cancer. Muhyiddin was declared free of cancer in June after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018. "Rumours saying that the prime minister requires treatment for cancer are not true and are ill intentioned," Muhyiddin's office said in a statement.
Members of Congress are to get additional protection as they travel to and from Washington after a series of confrontations. Capitol Police will be stationed at three regional airports through Inauguration Day, January 20, as a precaution amid fears that politicians could be vulnerable without extra security. Members of Congress have been asked to submit their travel plans to security officials to make it easier to provide protection. With security being stepped up after last week’s assault on the Capitol, protecting members of Congress in Washington DC should be straightforward. But they are far more vulnerable when they are travelling on their own. A safety memorandum, which was obtained by the political website, Politico, was sent to members of Congress and their staff on Saturday night. The deployment of officers was intended to “assist with security coordination.”
After video of unruly Trump supporters harassing lawmakers in airports and reports of distruptions on flights to and from Washington the same week Trump loyalists descended on D.C. and stormed the Capitol, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration vowed to take "strong enforcement action" . In a statement over the weekend, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said quote, "I expect all passengers to follow crew member instructions, which are in place for their safety and the safety of flight." Earlier this week, the flight attendants union said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol should not be allowed to depart Washington on commercial flights after exhibiting quote "mob mentality behavior" on flights into the region. Alaska Airlines said on Friday it banned 14 passengers from future travel with the carrier after a number of passengers were quote "non-mask compliant, rowdy, argumentative and harassed our crew members" on a flight from Washington to Seattle last Thursday. American Airlines temporarily halted alcohol service on flights departing and arriving in Washington after last Wednesday's events. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was harassed on Friday by supporters of Trump and called a "traitor" at Washington's Reagan National Airport before departing on a flight.
Oman’s sultan announced a shake-up of the Gulf country’s constitution on Monday with changes that include the appointment of a crown prince for the first time and steps to boost government transparency, the state-run news agency reported. The move, one year after the death of Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who pulled Oman into modernity and deftly navigated the region’s sectarian and political divides, comes as the government faces growing pressures at home. The constitutional amendments bring iconoclast Oman into closer conformity with other Gulf sheikhdoms and dispel fears of any destabilizing succession crisis in the future.
Twitter descended into total chaos Monday afternoon as a government website suggested President Trump's term was coming to an imminent end, and it sounds like it was all because of a rogue staffer.On Monday afternoon, Twitter users noticed a head-turning biography page for President Trump on the State Department website that declared "Donald J. Trump's term ended on" Jan. 11. Yes, that would be Jan. 11 as in today, more than a week before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. The site also claimed Vice President Mike Pence's term was ending Monday.As Twitter collectively raised its eyebrows and pondered wild theories that Trump would soon announce his resignation, BuzzFeed News came along with more information, reporting that a "disgruntled employee" at the State Department changed the pages. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has now ordered an internal investigation, according to the report."It's 100 percent not a hack," a diplomat told BuzzFeed. Links to the page on the State Department website now lead to a message that says "We're sorry, this site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again in a few moments."> Hey, @StateDept, what do you know that the rest of us don't?> > "Donald J. Trump's term ended on 2021-01-11 19:49:00." pic.twitter.com/Ntl1BSqsb9> > — Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 11, 2021Whoever this disgruntled employee might be, if their goal was to sow chaos, confusion, and plenty of memes that derailed just about everyone's Twitter feed for a good half-hour, well, mission accomplished.More stories from theweek.com What Mike Pence should learn from Judas Trump is reportedly 'gutted' about losing PGA Championship Biden reportedly 'frustrated' with his coronavirus team as advisers worry 100 million vaccinations goal won't be met
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Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) posted a video Sunday about Wednesday's assault on the U.S. Capitol, and he made some not-so-subtle comparisons to the Nazis. He said the "Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys" had terrorized and rampaged against the Jews in the 1938 "Night of the Broken Glass," or Kristallnacht, and "Wednesday was the Day of Broken Glass right here in the United States. The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol. But the mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol, they shattered the ideas we took for granted."Then Schwarzenegger got personal, noting that he was born in 1947 Austria, "in the ruins of a country that suffered the loss of its democracy." He shared a "painful story" about his father — and the other war-torn fathers who lived next door — getting drunk and beating their families."Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men drinking away their guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history," Schwarzenegger said. "Not all of them were rabid anti-Semites or Nazis. Many just went along, step by step, down the road. They were the people next door," and they got violently drunk because "they were in physical pain because of the shrapnel in their bodies and in emotional pain from what they saw or did. It all started with lies, and lies, and lies, and intolerance.""President Trump sought to overturn the results of an election, and of a fair election!" Schwarzenegger said. "He sought a coup by misleading people with lies. My father and our neighbors were misled also with lies, and I know where such lies lead." He called "a number of members of my own party" spineless cowards and said while Trump is "a failed leader" who "will go down in history as the worst president ever," the elected leaders who "enabled his lies and his treachery" should remember that patriotism means to stand by the country, not the president.The video could have gone off the rails when Schwarzenegger pulled out out his sword from Conan the Barbarian, but he used it to illustrate a hopeful message about the strength and resilience of American democracy.More stories from theweek.com What Mike Pence should learn from Judas Trump is reportedly 'gutted' about losing PGA Championship Biden reportedly 'frustrated' with his coronavirus team as advisers worry 100 million vaccinations goal won't be met
At the heart of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was a lie, one that was allowed to fester and flourish by many of the same Republicans now condemning President Donald Trump for whipping his supporters into a frenzy with his false attacks on the integrity of the 2020 election. Each time Trump promoted a conspiracy theory or openly flirted with extremist groups, Republicans assumed there were still some limits to how far he and his most loyal supporters would go.
