World News Flash
UNITED STATES
On March 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is announcing a virtual meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on Wed., April 6, to discuss considerations for future COVID-19 vaccine booster doses and the process for selecting specific strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus for COVID-19 vaccines to address current and emerging variants.
Along with the independent experts of the advisory committee, representatives from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health will participate in the meeting.
“As we prepare for future needs to address COVID-19, prevention in the form of vaccines remains our best defense against the disease and any potentially severe consequences,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “Now is the time to discuss the need for future boosters as we aim to move forward safely, with COVID-19 becoming a virus like others such as influenza that we prepare for, protect against, and treat.
“Bringing together our panel of expert scientific external advisors in an open, transparent discussion about booster vaccination is an important step to gain insight, input and expert advice as we begin to formulate the best regulatory strategy to address COVID-19 and virus variants going forward.”
The April 6 VRBPAC meeting is intended to assist the agency in developing a general framework that will inform its regulatory decision-making on what might warrant updating the composition of COVID-19 vaccines to address specific variants, as well as timing and populations for COVID-19 vaccine booster doses in the coming months.
No vote is planned at this meeting and there will not be any discussion of any product-specific applications.
The FDA intends to make background material available to the public, including the meeting agenda and committee roster, no later than two business days before the meeting.
In general, advisory committees include a Chair, members with scientific, medical and public health expertise and a consumer and industry representative.
The FDA intends to livestream the VRBPAC meeting on the agency’s YouTube channel Disclaimer; the meeting will also be webcast from the FDA website.
EUROPE
MILLIONS DISPLACED BY WAR IN UKRAINE
As the total forced to flee their homes in Ukraine rises above 10 million, attacks on healthcare facilities there due to Russia’s continuing bombardment are averaging more than two per day, the UN warned on March 21.
“We, along with our partners, remain deeply concerned over the impact of reported fighting on civilians trapped in cities in eastern, northeastern and southern Ukraine, including in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Izyum, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, and Mariupol,” said UN Spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, briefing correspondents at UN Headquarters in New York.
Since Feb. 24 when the invasion began, more than 10 million people have now been forced from their homes in search of safety and security – nearly a quarter of the population of Ukraine.
This includes an estimated 6.5 million men, women and children who are internally displaced, said UN migration agency, IOM, on Monday, and nearly 3.5 million people who have crossed international borders out of Ukraine as refugees, according to UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
IOM’s data show that 13.5 percent of those newly displaced had already had prior experience with displacement during 2014 and 2015, when Russia’s military annexed the Crimea from Ukraine, and backed separatist militants in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Dontetsk.
“Many of those displaced are particularly vulnerable, pregnant and breastfeeding women, elderly persons, those with disabilities, chronic illnesses and people directly affected by violence,” reported IOM. More than 60 percent of heads of households surveyed, are accompanied by children, and more than 53 percent of internally displaced people are women.
The agency said the most pressing needs include medicines, health services and financial resources. Some 186,000 of the displaced are third country nationals.
“The scale of human suffering and forced displacement due to the war far exceeds any worst-case scenario planning,” says IOM Director General António Vitorino.
“Responding to the needs of those internally displaced and stranded within Ukraine is our top priority. Our teams have been reaching thousands of people with essential aid, but we need hostilities to cease, in order to be able to reach people in severely affected areas.”
Humanitarian organizations are concerned about the risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation and IOM has scaled up its trafficking prevention measures, providing verified and safe information to refugees and third-country nationals on the move.
The World Health Organization says it has verified six additional reports of attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine on March 20, Mr. Dujarric said.
“As of March 20, WHO has verified 52 attacks on health care in 25 days. WHO notes that this is more than 2 attacks per day, stressing that this, of course, is unacceptable and that health care must always be protected,” added the UN Spokesperson.
ASIA
NORTH KOREA TIGHTENS GRIP ON CITIZENS
In North Korea – also known as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK) – human rights violations remain systematic, and the authorities’ grip on the population has “tightened,” the Human Rights Council heard on March 21.
The forum’s UN-appointed independent expert Tomas Quintana, reported that the situation had worsened as a result of COVID-19 prevention measures, exacerbating a suspected humanitarian crisis.
More than 10 million people – more than 40 percent of the country – are also food insecure and fewer that three in 10 infants receive a minimum acceptable diet, said Mr. Quintana.
“Draconian measures have further strengthened the State’s control over the population, such as the policy of shooting individuals who attempt to enter or leave the country” without permission, said the expert, in reference to buffer zones set up on the border with China and Russia.
Mr. Quintana, whose official title is Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK, told the Geneva forum that new legislation introduced in December 2020 in an attempt to keep the coronavirus at bay, had allowed for “grossly disproportionate punishments – including the death penalty – for accessing forbidden information, particularly of foreign content.”
The alert follows concerns already raised by the Special Rapporteur about the country’s “coercive system of governance” that deprived people of their fundamental freedoms.
“This situation has not improved during the time of my mandate,” he said. “On the contrary, control over the population has further tightened, particularly since the beginning of 2020 in the context of COVID-19 prevention measures. The prolonged border closures and restrictions on movement in-country have decimated the market activity that has become essential for the general population to access basic necessities.”
Although present at the Human Rights Council, North Korea’s representative declined to respond to the allegations.
Listing some of the abuses faced by the country’s people, Mr. Quintana highlighted arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment, restrictions on freedom of expression, religion and thought, access to information, freedom of movement and forced labor.
Camps for political prisoners – known as kwanliso – “represent the worst excesses” of the DPRK’s control of the population, who fear arbitrary detention and mistreatment in far-flung locations, the rights expert continued.
Noting that in 2021 President Kim Jong UN had acknowledged that the country faced some of its worst-ever difficulties, Mr. Quintana explained that there had been no reform of the public distribution system to provide adequate and nutritious food for the most vulnerable populations.
AFRICA
LIBYAN COAST PROVES DEADLY FOR MIGRANTS
Over the past two weeks, at least 70 migrants have gone missing at sea and are presumed dead off the coast of Libya, the UN migration agency said on March 17.
“I am appalled by the continuing loss of life in the Central Mediterranean and the lack of action to tackle this ongoing tragedy,” said Federico Soda, Libya Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
On March 12, a boat reportedly carrying 25 migrants capsized near the Libyan coast of Tobruk and while authorities rescued six people and recovered seven bodies, 12 others remain missing.
The latest incident brings the total number of migrants reported dead or missing in the Central Mediterranean up to 215 this year, according to IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
Libya has long been a springboard for people fleeing from countries ravaged by war and poverty with the hope of reaching Europe for a better life.
IOM continues to call for concrete action to reduce the deaths in the central Mediterranean route through proactive, dedicated search and rescue missions along with a safe disembarkation mechanism, in accordance with international law.
“More than half of this year’s deaths have been recorded near the Libyan coast,” said the IOM official.
The most recent shipwreck follows devastating reports of Feb. 27 incident in which a fiberglass boat left Sabratah port and was capsized by waves just four hours later.
While 15 bodies, including one baby, were washed ashore over the following days, no survivors were found, and some 35 migrants are still missing.
“Each missing migrant report represents a grieving family searching for answers about their loved ones,” Mr. Soda reminded.
