Virus-hit Iran says masks compulsory from next week

Yahoo – AFP, Amir Havasi, June 28, 2020

Iran announced new measures to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus as
 the country counted 144 new fatalities, its highest death toll for a single day
in almost three months (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

Tehran (AFP) - Iran said Sunday it will make mask-wearing mandatory in certain areas and has allowed virus-hit provinces to reimpose restrictions, as novel coronavirus deaths mounted in the Middle East's worst-hit country.

The new steps were announced as Iran counted 144 new fatalities from the COVID-19 disease, its highest death toll for a single day in almost three months.

The Islamic republic has refrained from enforcing full lockdowns to stop the pandemic's spread, and the use of masks and protective equipment has been optional in most areas.

President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would have to live with the virus for the "long haul", as he announced the latest measures to combat it.

Mask-wearing would be "obligatory in covered spaces where there are gatherings", he said during a televised meeting of the country's anti-virus taskforce.

According to him, the measure would come into force as of next week, continue until July 22 and would be extended if necessary.

Rouhani said the health ministry had devised "a clear list" of the types of spaces and gatherings deemed high-risk, but he did not elaborate.

He also did not say what the penalty would be for those who fail to observe the measure.

According to deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi, services would not be provided to those without masks in areas such as government organisations and shopping malls.

But implementing the measure may be difficult, as according to Tehran's mayor, many do not wear masks in places like the capital's public transport network, where it is already mandatory.

"Fifty percent of metro passengers wear masks... and even fewer in buses," Mayor Pirouz Hanachi was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency.

"We can't forcefully confront people without masks," he added.

Mask-wearing will be obligatory in covered spaces and gathering places, Iranian 

authorities announced after a rise in virus cases (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

'Red' counties

Iran reported its first COVID-19 cases on February 19 and it has since struggled to contain the outbreak.

The health ministry on Sunday announced 144 virus deaths in the past 24 hours, its highest for a single day since April 5, raising the total to 10,508.

Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari also raised total confirmed infections to 222,669, with 2,489 new cases during the same period.

Official figures have shown an upward trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.

"Considering the rising numbers, I plead with you to definitely use masks outside and in covered places," Lari said.

Iran closed schools, cancelled public events and banned movement between its 31 provinces in March, but the government progressively lifted restrictions from April to try to reopen its sanctions-hit economy.

The economy is starting to suffer under the pressures of the health crisis.

The country's currency, the rial, has hit new lows against the US dollar in recent days, mostly over border closures and a halt in non-oil exports, according to analysts.

The increasing virus caseload has seen some previously unscathed provinces classified as "red" -- the highest level on Iran's colour-coded risk scale -- with authorities allowing them to reimpose restrictive measures if required.

According to Rouhani, the measure would also be extended to provinces with "red" counties.

"Any county that is red, its provincial (virus) committee can propose reimposing limitations for a week", which could be extended if needed, he said.

The government launched an "#I wear a mask" campaign on Saturday and pleaded with Iranians to observe guidelines aimed at curbing infections.

One Iranian is infected with COVID-19 every 33 seconds and one dies from the disease every 13 minutes, Harirchi said on Saturday.

Zanjan county in northwestern Iran has already reimposed restrictive measures for two weeks, its governor said in a televised interview.

It followed a "certain indifference from Zanjan residents and as the number of our (virus) deaths picked up again in recent weeks," said Alireza Asgari.

The limitations include closing wedding halls and a ban on funeral events held at mosques, as they can lead to large gatherings, he added.

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Bayer pays $10 bn to settle weedkiller cancer cases

Yahoo – AFP, Michelle FITZPATRICK, Jun 24, 2020

Roundup weedkiller. The deal relieves a major headache for Bayer, going on since
it bought US firm and Roundup maker Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018
(AFP Photo/Odd ANDERSEN)

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - German chemical giant Bayer said on Wednesday it had agreed to pay more than $10 billion to end a wave of lawsuits from Americans who say their cancers were caused by its Roundup weedkiller.

The deal relieves a major headache for Bayer, which has been going on since it bought US firm and Roundup maker Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.

"The Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end," said CEO Werner Baumann in a statement.

At the same time Bayer announced it had also agreed separate multi-million-dollar payouts to resolve longstanding legal issues involving other Bayer products, as the group tries to turn the page on its courtroom dramas.

Bayer's share price climbed nearly six percent to 74.06 euros in after-hours trading following the surprise announcement.

The Roundup deal would bring closure to around 75 percent of current litigation that involves roughly 125,000 filed and unfiled claims, the statement said.

It would also settle about 95 percent of the cases currently set for trial and establish "key values and parameters" to resolve the remainder of the claims, Bayer added.

- 'Hard-fought battle' -

Roundup is a flagship Monsanto product containing glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller that tens of thousands of plaintiffs say caused their illness -- with many suffering from the blood cancer non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Bayer suffered a clutch of financially painful setbacks in first-instance US court rulings last year, although the amounts awarded were later reduced.

The legal woes have weighed heavily on the group's share price with many observers and investors questioning the wisdom of the Monsanto takeover.

Jennifer Moore, a lawyer representing several Roundup plaintiffs, welcomed the deal.

"This settlement is significant for our clients because this has been a long, hard-fought battle and it brings justice for our clients," she told AFP.

Bayer maintains that scientific studies and regulatory approvals show Roundup's main ingredient glyphosate is safe, but said when it released first-quarter earnings data in April that it "continues to engage constructively in the mediation process".

The settlement announced on Wednesday consists of a payment of $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to resolve the current Roundup litigation, Bayer said, and $1.25 billion to address potential future litigation.

Bayer stressed that the agreement would not cover three cases currently going through the appeals process.

They include the landmark first Roundup case brought by school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson who was eventually awarded $78.5 million.

Dicamba deal

In the same statement, Bayer said it would pay $820 million to settle decades-old complaints over Monsanto-made toxic chemicals known as PCBs that caused water contamination.

It also agreed to settle US lawsuits involving dicamba herbicide which has been blamed for wrecking crops in America, by drifting on to plants unable to resist it.

The group said it would pay up to $400 million to resolve pending claims in Missouri for the 2012-2015 crop years.

Bayer said it expects co-defendant BASF -- which also manufacturers a type of dicamba -- to contribute towards the settlement.

It comes after a US jury in February awarded $265 million to Missouri peach farmer Bill Bader who accused the two companies of encouraging farmers to use the weedkiller irresponsibly.

Bayer said the Bader case was not included in the proposed settlement.

"The company believes the verdict in Bader Farms is inconsistent with the evidence and the law and will continue to pursue post-trial motions and an appeal, if necessary," it said.

Bayer said it would make the first cash payments related to the mass settlements starting this year. Part of the funds will come from the sale of its profitable animal health unit.

"All three settlements are in the best interest of the company and our stakeholders," said supervisory board chairman Norbert Winkeljohann.

As doctors go virtual, pandemic turbocharges telemedicine

Yahoo – AFP, Kelly MACNAMARA, June 2, 2020

Governments and private firms have set up telemedicine clinics for patients who
suspect they have the new coronavirus (AFP Photo/Alexander NEMENOV)

Will visiting the doctor ever be the same again?

In a matter of weeks, the coronavirus pandemic sparked a technological revolution in healthcare systems across the world that might otherwise have taken years.

Spurred on by fears of contagion in wards and waiting rooms, many health practitioners are replacing the face-to-face meetings that have always underpinned general practice, with patient consultations by telephone and online video apps.

Some of the most radical changes have been in primary healthcare, where doctors have often faced shortages of protective equipment, but specialists in everything from mental health to eye care have also turned to technology to treat patients at a distance.

"General practice has undergone significant changes in the way GPs and our teams have delivered patient care during the pandemic -- and the speed in which these changes were implemented has been remarkable," Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of Britain's Royal College of GPs told AFP.

As the virus spread, health authorities in the UK, Europe and elsewhere updated guidance on everything from data protection to how to build trust remotely.

The United States rolled back restrictions on access to telemedicine, and eased privacy regulations to allow people to use platforms like Skype and FaceTime.

"People are now seeing this model, which we thought would take years and years to develop. And it's probably been accelerated by a decade," Chris Jennings, US policy consultant and former White House health care adviser told STAT news recently.

Globally, 58 percent of surveyed countries are now using telemedicine, the World Health Organization said Monday, adding the figure was 42 percent among low income nations.

Layla McCay, a director at the NHS Confederation representing British healthcare services, told AFP that most of the UK's 1.2 million daily face-to-face primary care consultations were done remotely "in the space of weeks".

But there were challenges.

"My first video consultation was a mess. Builders were drilling, the microphone failed, a colleague walked in, and lockdown was imminent," Camille Gajria, a doctor and clinical teaching fellow at Imperial College London, told the British Medical Journal.

She said teleconsultations can be efficient but warned of "cognitive bias" -- a doctor, for example, might assume that a child playing in the background is the one being discussed.

Hospitals like this one in Mexico have used online video platforms to let COVID-19 

patients communicate remotely with their families (AFP Photo/ULISES RUIZ)

There are also concerns that vulnerable patients might find it difficult to talk about mistreatment at home, while elderly people could struggle to navigate unfamiliar technology.

Remote medicine

Telemedicine may seem like a product of the internet age, but it has been around for decades, developing alongside communication technology.

One big leap came during the space race of the 1960s, when scientists worried about the effect of zero gravity on the human body. Would it impede blood circulation or breathing?

To find out, both the US and Soviet Union conducted test flights with animals hooked up to medical monitoring systems that transmitted biometric data back to scientists on Earth. Later, longer missions meant astronauts needed systems that could diagnose and help treat medical emergencies.

NASA went on to develop terrestrial telemedicine, including a project to provide healthcare to the isolated Tohono O'odham reservation in Arizona, as well as disaster response in the 1985 Mexico City and 1988 Armenia earthquakes.

While the coronavirus pandemic has driven sweeping changes in the way many people see their local doctor, it has also highlighted the role telemedicine can play in connecting clinicians with remote communities.

In India, which has just 8.6 medical workers per 10,000 people according to 2018 WHO figures, the majority of doctors are concentrated in urban centres, while some 70 percent of people live in rural areas.

Ayush Mishra, founder of the telehealth provider Tattvan, said this means people outside bigger towns are often forced to seek medical advice from overstretched or ill-qualified practitioners.

His business, one of a growing number of telehealth providers in India, operates 18 clinics, mostly ATM-style booths that are manned by a medical assistant who can take vital measurements and linked with doctors in private hospitals in larger towns.

The firm languished in a legal grey zone for years until the coronavirus crisis spurred the government into broadening regulatory approval for virtual consultations. Now he hopes to open hundreds of clinics around the country.

Mishra traces his enthusiasm for telemedicine to a horrific motorbike accident when he was a biomedical engineering student in the northern city of Jaipur.

Governments and private firms have set up telemedicine clinics for patients 

who suspect they have the new coronavirus (AFP Photo/Alexander NEMENOV)

Severely injured, he was driven ten hours to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh, before falling into a coma as a local doctor performed surgery.

His family was overwhelmed by "panic" until his father spoke by telephone to a surgeon at a hospital in Delhi, enabling them to arrange treatment in the city.

Mishra lost his leg, but told AFP the experience inspired him to want to equalise medical access for people in smaller towns.

"You need to be able to offer this access -- it's a human right," he said.

Not going back?

Internet-connected thermometers, pulse oximeters to measure oxygen levels, and smart devices that monitor vital signs are all widening the scope of what is possible in remote medicine.

In an April article for JAMA Neurology, experts from the Netherlands and US said telemedicine could be a useful tool for in-home training, such as activities for survivors of stroke. Patients, they noted, could be monitored via sensors in watches or phones.

"We hope that this current COVID-19 crisis will soon be resolved. However, it is as the old saying goes: 'never waste a good crisis'," they said.

"Telemedicine for chronic neurological disorders should become part of the new normal rather than the exception."

Marshall said there are still many routine procedures -- vaccinations, blood tests and physical examinations -- that cannot be done remotely.

"Those living with multiple conditions and other complex health needs really benefit from seeing their doctor in person -- and this is helpful for the GP, as well," he said.

But he added that research supports the use of remote consultations for patients with simple conditions, or who have "transactional" needs like a repeat prescription.

Many say they want at least some of the changes to stay.

"It has certainly turbocharged the digital transition nationally," said McCay of the NHS Confederation.

"Lots of feedback from our members shows the culture has fundamentally changed, and clinicians who were perhaps previously resistant to digitisation are now realising its benefits."

"We can't go backwards," she added.

US pharma firm signs deal with Dutch researchers for coronavirus medicine

DutchNews, May 31, 2020

Illustration: Depositphotos.com

A big US pharmaceuticals company has partnered up with a Dutch researchers to develop a medicine from an antibody which can block infection by coronavirus. 

Erasmus university researcher Frank Grosveld told NOS radio on Sunday evening that the company, which he declined to name, would carry out mass production of a medicine deriving from the antibody after initial trials on animals proved positive. 

‘We have been negotiating for a while with several pharmaceuticals companies and have now reached agreement with one which will produce a medicine in line with protocols’ he said. ‘It will first have to be tested on a number of volunteers and then we can start treating patients.’ 

The company has said it will take five or six months before the medicine has been developed, Grosveld said. 

The Dutch team, which is based in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, did receive a grant of ‘several hundred thousand euros’ to carry out the initial research, Grosveld said. 

Asked if this meant that the Netherlands would get a cheap deal on the eventual medicine, Grosveld said he hoped so, but he did not know. 

In an earlier interview, team leader Berend Jan Bosch said that the patent would remain in the hands of the researchers, while the pharmaceuticals company in question will take a licence to the antibody. 

Two uses 

The antibody has been shown to both inhibit development of coronavirus in hamsters and to combat the disease in animals which have already been infected.

‘This mean that the antibody protects in living organisms, which means we can go through to the next stage in the research, with the US pharmaceuticals company,’ Grosveld said. 

The team first went public with their finding in mid March. The antibody, a remnant of earlier research into coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, was found in a freezer at the Utrecht university lab for animal science. 

The presence of the old material meant the team had a head start in the international scramble to find a medicine or vaccine to combat the virus which has killed 370,000 people worldwide so far.

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