Category:

Disaster & Management

US pharma cos protected from COVID vaccine liability

Pandemic-related claims for vaccines will be routed to a rarely used USA federal program set up to encourage drugmakers to help combat public health emergencies. It spares pharmaceutical and device makers from costly liability lawsuits in exchange for taxpayers compensating injured patients — though it doesn’t guarantee there’s funding to do so.“We want people vaccinated and we don’t want to expose pharmaceutical companies to the kind of liability that they would otherwise have,” said Brent Johnson, a partner with Holland & Hart, who defends corporate clients. “That’s the price we’re willing to pay to get rid of this horrible coronavirus problem.”

read more

Lebanon’s insurance claims from Beirut port blast total $425 million, so far

Caretaker Economy Minister Raoul Nehme said 2,500 claims have been filed, according to the presidency’s Twitter account. The ministry expects claims to reach 10,000

Insured losses from the Beirut port warehouse explosion are likely to total around $3 billion, similar to those from an explosion at the Chinese port of Tianjin in 2015, industry sources and analysts say.

read more

“Covid warriors will be first to get vaccinated, once we get it”: MoS Health

Phase 1 and 2 human clinical trials of two of the vaccine candidates, developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and Zydus Cadila Ltd, are currently underway.

The Serum Institute of India has been permitted to conduct Phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the third vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University. The Pune-based institute has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing the vaccine.

read more

USFDA clears simple saliva test for faster detection of COVID-19

With the FDA’s emergency use authorisation, the testing method is immediately available to other diagnostic laboratories that want to start using the new test, which can be scaled up quickly for use across the nation and, perhaps, beyond in the coming weeks, researchers said
”This is a huge step forward to make testing more accessible,” said Chantal Vogels, a Yale postdoctoral fellow, who led the laboratory development and validation along with Doug Brackney, an adjunct assistant clinical professor.

read more

Coronavirus: Lockdown in Maharashtra will be lifted in stepwise manner: Uddhav Thackeray

“The state government’s ‘Mission Begin Again’ initiative is being implemented step-by-step. The momentum of chase the virus campaign should not stop since the threat of the virus still persists, and monsoon is still active in the state. We have to be careful about rain-related ailments as well,” CM Uddhav Thackeray said.

read more

Obesity raises the risk of death from COVID-19 among men

Obesity and the coronavirus are a dangerous combination for a number of reasons.

Obesity causes restricted breathing, making it more difficult to clear pneumonia and other respiratory infections. Fat is biologically active and a source of pro-inflammatory chemicals, promoting a state of chronic inflammation in the body even before COVID-19 sets in. Obesity causes metabolic changes and abnormalities, even in the absence of diabetes.

read more

‘Canary in the coal mine’: Greenland ice has shrunk beyond return,study finds

That melting is already causing global seas to rise about a millimeter on average per year. If all of Greenland’s ice goes, the water released would push sea levels up by an average of 6 meters — enough to swamp many coastal cities around the world. This process, however, would take decades
The Arctic has been warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the world for the last 30 years, an observation referred to as Arctic amplification. The polar sea ice hit its lowest extent for July in 40 years.

read more