COVID-19
FDA Clears Pfizer Vaccine For Public Distribution
Source: MORRY GASH / Getty It looks like outside may be opening up sooner than expected after the FDA clears a new COVID-19 vaccine. According to the New York Times, the Food and Drug Administration has officially approved the vaccine for the coronavirus after hearing the research materials and answering questions from Pfizer’s vaccine experts. BREAKING: F.D.A. Advisory Panel Gives Green Light to Pfizer Vaccine https://t.co/lHfKqgPgk4 — Virginia Hughes (@virginiahughes) December 10, 2020 The FDA did report that there are some problems with the vaccine, some have had allergic reactions to it when being vaccinated in the U.K. Some people develop a fever for a few days as well as discomfort around the injection site. However, the FDA ruled that the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the pro...
Germany to close most shops from December 16-January 10 – draft proposal
Germany is planning to close most shops from Wednesday until Jan. 10 as it tightens coronavirus restrictions and tries to rein in the spread of the disease, according to a draft government proposal seen by Reuters on Sunday. The draft was prepared head of a meeting later in the day between Chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders. She has favoured stricter pan-German measures but was previously unable to get agreement from the nation’s 16 states. However, some states have since clamped down on their own, and momentum supporting stricter harmonized measures has been building. The draft proposal would allow only essential shops such as supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as banks, to remain open. Schools will also be basically closed during the period, and employers will be asked to close...
US country music star Charley Pride dies of coronavirus
US country music star Charley Pride has died of complications from Covid-19 at the age of 86, his family said Saturday in a message posted to the singer’s website. Pride’s “rich baritone voice and impeccable song-sense altered American culture,” the statement read further. Born a sharecropper’s son in Sledge, Mississippi, on March 18, 1934, Pride became US country music’s first Black superstar and the first Black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Between 1967 and 1987, Pride delivered 52 Top 10 country hits, won Grammy awards, and became RCA Records’ top-selling country artist. His best-known songs include “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” and “Please Help Me I’m Falling.” He won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award in 1971, its top male vocalist prize in 1971 a...
Lagos governor goes into isolation after close aide tests positive for coronavirus
After one of his closest aides tested positive for COVID-19, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has gone into self-isolation immediately. Professor Akin Abayomi, the state’s Commissioner for Health, in a statement Friday, said: “Mr. Governor and other members of his team will be tested by the Lagos State biobank today but will remain in isolation until the results of the tests are available. “We are seeing slightly increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases in clusters in Lagos and all Lagosians should adhere to the prescribed advisories of safe distancing, good hand and respiratory hygiene and avoidance of unnecessary gatherings.” He stressed that “this is not the first time Mr. Governor is having the COVID-19 test. He has had at least three since May when he announced that 1...
Rick Rubin Charged with Breaking Hawaii’s COVID-19 Quarantine Protocols
Famed producer Rick Rubin has been charged with violating Hawaii’s COVID-19 quarantine protocols, according to the local Kauai newspaper The Garden Island. His next court date is February 9th, 2021. Kauai County and the state of Hawaii require off-island visitors to quarantine for 14 days. But on September 2nd, Rubin was spotted walking along Anini Beach near his resort before his two-week isolation had ended. The beach was empty, and Rubin was alone except for a member of the paparazzi that had reportedly been following him since his arrival on the island. A passerby took a cell phone video and reported Rubin to the authorities. The infraction carries a maximum fine of $5,000 and potential jail time. Since Rubin was strolling on a deserted beach, and not hosting superspreader parties...
NCDC: Many health workers still doubt existence of coronavirus
Oladipo Ogunbode, assistant director, department of prevention programmes and management, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says it is surprising that health workers still doubt the existence of COVID-19. According to newsmen, Ogunbode stated this on Thursday in Abuja while speaking at a conference to mark the 2020 health week, themed: “Outbreak of Disease in Nigeria: Are We Ready?” Ogunbode said it is hard to understand how health workers who had come in contact with victims of COVID-19 in the line of duty, still doubted the existence of the virus. “Health workers should create awareness on COVID-19, but many of them still doubt its existence. We must work hard to remove such doubt,” he said. “It’s amazing and inexplicable for medics to doubt the fact that the pandemic was a real...
Canada approves Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine
Canadian health officials have authorised the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, hailing the development as a “critical milestone” and paving the way for the inoculant to be administered across the country. The authorisation on Wednesday comes a day after the United Kingdom became the first country to begin giving the vaccine to the public. Emergency use authorisation (EUA) is also pending in the United States, with officials saying the first doses could be administered as early as next week. The US Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to consider its EUA on Thursday. Bahrain has also authorised the vaccine for public use. “Canadians can feel confident that the review process was rigorous and that we have strong monitoring systems in place,” Health Canada, the department responsible fo...
UNICEF embarks on coronavirus sensitisation tour of Abia
The United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has appealed to the Abia state government, parents and school authorities in the state to ensure that their children and wards adhere strictly to all COVID-19 protocols in order to avoid the ugly experience of getting another round of Covid-19. According to the world body, the effect of COVID-19 second phase in Europe and Asia has been devastating, pointing out that though Africa has been lucky to have recorded fewer casualties, government, parents and teachers cannot continue to depend on luck to survive the pandemic. The Desk Officer of UNCEF, Mr Okezie Nkpa who made the appeal when UNICEF, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and some media personnel staged a sensitization tour of some schools in Abia South, Abia Central and Abia Nort...
COVID Crazy: Ohio Nightclub Fined For Hosting Trey Songz Show With No Social Distancing
Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz Die hard Trey Songz fans looked contamination in the face and didn’t blink once. He recently performed a live set in the Midwest and faced a mask less crowd. As spotted on NBC News the Petersburg, Virginia native took the stage at Club Aftermath on Saturday, December 5. While Covid-19 continues to spike throughout the country this performance threw care to the wind as the staff clearly did not enforce any social distancing policies. Photos from the event show hundreds of patrons standing very closely together. To add yet another jarring layer to the scene PPE was not enforced even with close to 500 people in the house. This high profile event landed on the Ohio Investigative Unit’s radar and naturally they spot checked the show. The agents state...
You Can Now Look Like a Dystopian Daft Punk With This Full-Face Modular Mask
We are inching closer and closer to real-life Black Mirror episodes. Thanks to a company called Blanc, you’ll soon be able to walk to your local grocery store, grab some dino nuggets (admit it, you still eat them), and have a lovely chat with the cashier—while wearing a Daft Punk-themed face mask. Led by two entrepreneurs and a team of product designers, engineers, and scientists, Blanc has produced what they deem to be the world’s first full-face modular mask. The HEPA-enabled mask covers and conceals the wearer’s entire face, keeping it completely anonymous while protecting their eyes, nose, and mouth from COVID-19 exposure. The cyberpunk-inspired shield, which looks as if it were plucked out of a Tron film, is currently in production and raising funds via a K...
The COVID-19 Impact on Publishers and Songwriters—A Look Ahead to 2021
This story was co-written with Amanda Montgomery and Laura Veras. In today’s marketplace, there is no doubt that one of the toughest avenues to establish a viable career is as a songwriter. The 9.1c mechanical royalty—which has not been adjusted for inflation since 2006—has become less significant due to the emergence of streaming and the plunge of physical sales and downloads. Now, the impact of COVID-19 has contrived new challenges for songwriters and their publishers to tackle as alternative revenue streams, such as touring, continue to erode in the virus’ wake. To give a general idea of how COVID-19 has trickled down to the publishing community, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) projected that global music publishing collections will fa...
Nigerian government commences N30,000 grants to Uber drivers, Keke NAPEP riders
The federal government has commenced the disbursement of N30,000 grants for transporters as a measure to support those affected by COVID-19 pandemic under its economic sustainability plan (ESP). This was disclosed in a statement signed by Laolu Akande, senior special assistant to the vice president on media and publicity, on Sunday. The funds are being disbursed under the federal government’s micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) survival fund scheme for artisans and transporters. The transport support track opened on November 30, 2020, after the artisans’ support track launched on October 1, 2020. According to the statement, the artisans track is under federal government’s survival fund, while the transport track is a different scheme also under the same fund. Those to benefit from th...
