Archives for March 2021

BEIJING (AP) — The foreign ministers of China and Russia affirmed their countries’ close ties at a meeting Tuesday, amid intense criticism and new Western sanctions against them over human rights.

Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov rejected outside sniping at their authoritarian political systems and said they were working to further global progress on issues from climate change to the coronavirus pandemic.

At their initial meeting in the southern Chinese city of Nanning on Monday, Wang and Lavrov accused the U.S. of interference in other countries’ affairs and urged it to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement, something that President Joe Biden’s new administration has approached cautiously. Russia and China both maintain close relations with Tehran, with which they share a firm approach against any political opposition.

The two officials continued that rhetoric at a news conference on Tuesday, where Wang sharply criticized coordinated sanctions brought by the European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States against Chinese officials over human rights abuses in China’s far western Xinjiang region.

“Countries should stand together to oppose all forms of unilateral sanctions,” Wang said. “These measures will not be embraced by the international community.”

Lavrov said sanctions were drawing Russia and China closer together and accused the West of “imposing their own rules on everyone else, which they believe should underpin the world order.”

“If Europe broke these relations, simply destroying all the mechanisms that have been created for many years … then, probably, objectively, this leads to the fact that our relations with China are developing faster than what’s left of relations with European countries,” Lavrov said.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the two ministers said no country should seek to impose its form of democracy on any other.

“Interference in a sovereign nation’s internal affairs under the excuse of ‘advancing democracy’ is unacceptable,” the statement said.

China says members of the Uyghur and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang have voluntarily taken part in job training and de-radicalization courses, denying charges that more than 1 million have been locked up in prison-like reeducation camps where they are forced to reject their native culture and pledge loyalty to the ruling Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. Media outlets, foreign governments and activist groups say abuses, including forced labor and coerced birth control, are ongoing.

China responded immediately Monday to the EU’s move by imposing sanctions on 10 European individuals and four institutions that it said had damaged China’s interests and “maliciously spread lies and disinformation.” The individuals were barred from visiting mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao and banned from engaging in financial dealings with Chinese institutions.

Xinjiang had experienced anti-government violence, but Beijing claims its massive security crackdown brought peace in recent years.

China and Russia were rivals for leadership of the communist world during the Cold War but have built a strong relationship in recent years based on opposition to the U.S.-led liberal order, as well as cooperation in military affairs, technology and trade in natural resources. China’s ruling Communist Party allows no political opposition and keeps a tight hold on civil society, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin has cracked down heavily on citizens calling for a more open system.

Russia has been under Western sanctions for years over its seizure of the Crimea, support for separatists in Ukraine and attacks on government critics.

The new EU sanction system imposed on China is similar to the Magnitsky Act — Obama-era legislation that authorizes the U.S. government to sanction those it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets and ban them from entering the United States.

China and the U.S. held contentious talks last week, while U.S.-Russia relations took a severe hit on Thursday after Putin shot back at Biden’s description of him as a killer.

Also Tuesday, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta said in a joint statement that they shared concerns about the rights situation in western China and joined in calls for an independent inquiry.

“Today, we underscore the importance of transparency and accountability, and reiterate our call on China to grant meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang for United Nations experts, and other independent observers,” the statement said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that a united response “sends a strong signal to those who violate or abuse international human rights, and we will take further actions in coordination with likeminded partners.”

China recently put on trial two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in apparent reprisal for Canada’s detention in December 2019 of Meng Wanzhou, an executive of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. No verdicts have been announced. The U.S. wants Meng extradited to face fraud charges, enraging China, which views her detention as politically motivated.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denied any connection between his country’s support for the sanctions action and the fates of Spavor and Kovrig, according to Canadian broadcaster CTV. China has accused Spavor and Kovrig of working together to steal Chinese state secrets, but has offered no details and barred media and diplomats from the proceedings.

“We’ve been deploring the arbitrary detention of the two Michaels (Kovrig and Spavor) for a long time and we’ve been working with our allies around the world on this issue,” Trudeau told CTV. “On an unrelated issue, we along with our international allies are very concerned about the situation facing Muslim minorities in western China.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — AstraZeneca may have included “outdated information” in touting the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine in a U.S. study, federal health officials said Tuesday in an unusual public rift that could further erode confidence in the shot.

In response, AstraZeneca said that it is working on more up-to-date information and that the more recent findings are consistent with the earlier ones. It promised an update within 48 hours.

It was not clear exactly what concerns U.S. health officials have. But the unprecedented tension erupted just hours after AstraZeneca released information it hoped would help settle lingering questions about the effectiveness of a vaccine that is being widely used in Europe and other parts of the world and is about to be considered for use in the U.S.

The company announced on Monday that a predominantly U.S. study of 32,000 volunteers showed its vaccine was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease. It also stressed there were no severe illnesses or hospitalizations among volunteers given the vaccine, compared with five cases among those given dummy shots.

But shortly after midnight, the National Institutes of Health issued a statement saying the independent monitors that oversee the study had “expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.”

The NIH urged the company to “ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible.”

Outside experts were surprised and puzzled by the spat. But they noted that ultimately the Food and Drug Administration will scrutinize all the data before deciding whether AstraZeneca’s vaccine can be rolled out in the U.S.

“It would seem that whatever this communication misstep is, at the end of the day the data will have to stand for itself,” said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief.

The NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the incident “really is what you call an unforced error” and that he expects the discrepancy to be straightened out.

Fauci also said the episode shows the U.S. regulatory system is working: “The data and safety monitoring board picking up this discrepancy was an example of a safeguard.”

But that nitty-gritty seldom is seen by the public, something now exposed by the extraordinary microscope being applied to development of the world’s COVID-19 vaccines.

Every vaccine trial is overseen by a “data and safety monitoring board,” or DSMB. These boards include scientists and statisticians who are experts in their fields but have no ties to either the government or the vaccine makers.

In the AstraZeneca study, just like studies of the other vaccines in use, some participants get the real vaccine and the rest get dummy shots, and neither they nor their doctors know which is which. Only the DSMB has the power to unlock the code of who got which and peek at how the volunteers are faring before a study is finished.

The DSMB watches for safety concerns and also deems when the study has met pre-determined endpoints showing it’s time for an effectiveness calculation. It was the NIH-appointed DSMB that raised the concerns about AstraZeneca’s data.

On Tuesday, AstraZeneca said that the data it first released included COVID-19 cases that occurred up to Feb. 17, as the study rules specified, and that it is continuing to analyze cases that have occurred since then. It said a preliminary analysis of more recent data was consistent with what it had already reported.

It is common for companies developing COVID-19 vaccines to release early data and to continue studying results as they come in.

Some experts had hoped that Monday’s AstraZeneca announcement would help rebuild public confidence in the shot around the world.

The vaccine is used widely in Britain, across the European continent and in other countries, but its rollout was troubled by inconsistent study reports about its effectiveness, and then last week a scare about blood clots that had some countries temporarily pausing inoculations.

The U.S. study findings announced by AstraZeneca were consistent with studies from elsewhere — and real-world use in Britain — that found the vaccine offers good protection against the worst COVID-19 has to offer. But company executives refused repeated requests from reporters to provide a breakdown of the 141 COVID-19 cases it was using to make the case for the shot’s effectiveness.

The company has said it aims to file an application with the FDA in the coming weeks.

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LONDON (AP) — The U.K. has a lot to reflect on.

A year to the day since Prime Minister Boris Johnson first put the country under lockdown to slow the fast-spreading coronavirus, Britain paused Tuesday to remember those who have died after contracting COVID-19 and reflect on a 12-month period that has turned life upside down.

The U.K. has registered more than 126,000 virus-related deaths, the highest pandemic death toll in Europe and one of the highest in the world. The country has spent much of the past year in period of lockdown.

The country observed a minute’s silence at noon to remember the dead as part of a national day of reflection organized by the end-of-life charity Marie Curie. Later, people are being encouraged to stand on their doorsteps at 8 p.m. with phones, candles and flashlights to signify a “beacon of remembrance.”

Johnson thanked the British public for their “courage, discipline and patience.”

“For the entire British people it has been an epic of endurance and privation,” Johnson said at a televised news conference. “Of children’s birthday parties canceled, of weddings postponed, of family gatherings of all kinds simply deleted from the diary.

“And worst of all in that time we’ve suffered so many losses. And for so many people, our grief has been made more acute because we have not been able to see our loved ones in their final days, to hold their hands or even to mourn them together.”

Queen Elizabeth II sent a bouquet of flowers to London’s St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, where her husband, Prince Philip, was recently treated for a heart condition.

“As we look forward to a brighter future together, today we pause to reflect on the grief and loss that continues to be felt by so many people and families, and pay tribute to the immeasurable service of those who have supported us all over the last year,” she said in an accompanying note.

London’s skyline will turn yellow when landmarks including the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium light up at nightfall. Other notable buildings that will be illuminated include Cardiff Castle and Belfast City Hall. Churches and cathedrals plan to toll bells, light thousands of candles and offer prayers.

Few foresaw the scale of death and grief to come when Johnson, in a prime-time televised address on March 23, 2020, issued a “very simple instruction” for people to stay at home.

Johnson, who within days of issuing the stay-at-home order was hospitalized in intensive care with the virus, has faced criticism for delaying the first lockdown. Italy had been the first European country to go into lockdown earlier in March 2020, followed by most of the rest of the continent.

The delay, many argue, led to the U.K. recording the most deaths in Europe during the first wave of the pandemic, despite the valiant efforts of people working in the National Health Service, which has endured its most difficult period since its creation just after World War II.

Further delays in reimposing nationwide lockdowns following the easing of restrictions over the summer and fall have similarly been blamed for exacerbating Britain’s high coronavirus death toll, especially this year, when a new, more contagious variant of the virus first identified in southeast England became the dominant strain.

Calls are growing, particularly among bereaved families, for the government to back a public enquiry into its handling of the pandemic. Johnson has said one will come but that it would be a distraction now.

Beyond the devastating death toll, the pandemic has affected every aspect of day-to-day life, most evident in the boarded-up shops and the eerily quiet city centers.

Children have spent many months cooped up at home with their often-agitated parents and siblings also struggling to deal with the realities of life under lockdown.

The pandemic has also battered the British economy, which suffered its deepest recession in more than 300 years. Pubs, restaurants, theaters, hair salons and all stores selling nonessential items such as books and footwear have spent much of the past year closed.

The economy remains almost 10% smaller than it was just over a year ago and there are fears that many businesses won’t able to survive for long once the government starts withdrawing its unprecedented financial support.

There is some hope that the rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines — more than half the adult population has already had one of the two doses they need — will allow lockdown to be eased in the coming weeks.

Johnson insists his government’s plan to lift restrictions in England will be guided by “data, not dates,” but that life could be very much more normal by the height of summer. The other nations of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have outlined similar plans.

But confirmed cases are again increasing in much of Europe, and Johnson said Monday that Britain would also likely face a new wave of the pandemic.

“Previous experience has taught us that when a wave hits our friends, it washes up on our shores as well,” he said.

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/hub/understanding-the-outbreak

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