BASSETERRE, St. Kitts — Following the official opening of their headquarters in Phillip’s Village, the Explorer’s Youth Clubs now have a permanent place to call home.

The new 10,420 square foot building was opened by Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr. The Honourable Timothy Harris, at a December 31 ceremony. It features a number of amenities for the members of the 12 Explorers Clubs across St. Kitts. Each club is expected to have weekly sessions there when the threat of COVID-19 ends.

Project Engineer, George Gilbert of the Public Works Department, congratulated Myron Percival and his company, M&D Construction for the excellent work in building the $2.47 million facility. Gilbert said that the sleeping rooms with accompanying bathrooms for males, females, and staff will allow camping events. Also featured are a recreation room, offices, a common dining room and kitchen, and a laundry area. There are three 500 gallon water storage tanks on the roof.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Harris referred to the incredible growth of the Explorers Movement, which started in July 2017 with the launch of the Mol-Phil group. Since then, other communities have joined including Tabernacle, Shadwell, Cayon, Newtown, Lodge, Old Road, Dieppe Bay, St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s, Trinity, and Newton Ground.

Dr. Harris said that there are over 1,200 Explorers. He expects the numbers to continue growing as other communities have signalled an eagerness to establish clubs.

“This is a legacy development in the context of law and order in our country,” said the Prime Minister. “This is a legacy initiative that generations after us will speak to as being an important stabilizer of our society and contributing to the advancement of St. Kitts and Nevis.”

He said the government remains committed to the empowerment of young people as well as the rule of law within society. This is reflected in the record amounts allocated to related ministries for the 2021 fiscal year.

The Ministry of National Security was allocated more than $86.1 million. The Ministry of Education received over $103 million, while the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture was allotted over $10 million.

Prime Minister Harris appealed to parents, businesses, and other stakeholders to join with the government in building a stronger and safer future for all.

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GENEVA -– The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed the Comirnaty COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for emergency use, making the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the first to receive emergency validation from WHO since the outbreak began a year ago.

The WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine. It also enables UNICEF and the Pan-American Health Organization to procure the vaccine for distribution to countries in need.

“This is a very positive step towards ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines. But I want to emphasize the need for an even greater global effort to achieve enough vaccine supply to meet the needs of priority populations everywhere,” said Dr. Mariângela Simão, WHO Assistant-Director General for Access to Medicines and Health Products. “WHO and our partners are working night and day to evaluate other vaccines that have reached safety and efficacy standards. We encourage even more developers to come forward for review and assessment. It’s vitally important that we secure the critical supply needed to serve all countries around the world and stem the pandemic.”

Regulatory experts convened by WHO from around the world and WHO’s own teams reviewed the data on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine’s safety, efficacy and quality as part of a risk-versus-benefit analysis. The review found that the vaccine met the must-have criteria for safety and efficacy set out by WHO, and that the benefits of using the vaccine to address COVID-19 offset potential risks.

The vaccine is also under policy review WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) will convene on January 5, 2021, to formulate vaccine specific policies and recommendations for this product’s use in populations, drawing from the SAGE population prioritization recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines in general, issued in September 2020.

The Comirnaty vaccine requires storage using an ultra-cold chain; it needs to be stored at -60°C to -90°C degrees. This requirement makes the vaccine more challenging to deploy in settings where ultra-cold chain equipment may not be available or reliably accessible. For that reason, WHO is working to support countries in assessing their delivery plans and preparing for use where possible.

How the emergency use listing works

The emergency use listing procedure assesses the suitability of novel health products during public health emergencies. The objective is to make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics available as rapidly as possible to address the emergency while adhering to stringent criteria of safety, efficacy and quality. The assessment weighs the threat posed by the emergency as well as the benefit that would accrue from the use of the product against any potential risks.

The EUL pathway involves a rigorous assessment of late phase II and phase III clinical trial data as well as substantial additional data on safety, efficacy, quality and a risk management plan. These data are reviewed by independent experts and WHO teams who consider the current body of evidence on the vaccine under consideration, the plans for monitoring its use, and plans for further studies.
Experts from individual national authorities are invited to participate in the EUL review. Once a vaccine has been listed for WHO emergency use, WHO engages its regional regulatory networks and partners to inform national health authorities on the vaccine and its anticipated benefits based on data from clinical studies to date.

In addition to the global, regional, and country regulatory procedures for emergency use, each country undertakes a policy process to decide whether and in whom to use the vaccine, with prioritization specified for the earliest use. Countries also undertake a vaccine readiness assessment which informs the vaccine deployment and introduction plan for the implementation of the vaccine under the EUL.

As part of the EUL process, the company producing the vaccine must commit to continue to generate data to enable full licensure and WHO prequalification of the vaccine. The WHO prequalification process will assess additional clinical data generated from vaccine trials and deployment on a rolling basis to ensure the vaccine meets the necessary standards of quality, safety and efficacy for broader availability.

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ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands — The Caribbean Perspectives – A Leadership Research Publication of the Eastern Caribbean Centre, University of the Virgin Islands, features Kittitian Luminaries’ work.

Featured in the recently published issue of Caribbean Perspectives under the theme, “Female Leadership in the 20th and 21st Century Caribbean,” are Kittitians; Advisor with responsibility for OAS National Offices in the Americas at the Organization of American States Her Excellency Jacinth Henry-Martin, International Relations and National Security Specialist Dr. Mutryce A. Williams and Attorney Talibah V. O. Byron.

Dr. Williams’ submission is titled “Inspiring a New Generation of Female Political Leadership across the Caribbean.” Attorney Byron’s work is titled “The Case for More Leaders in the Caribbean.”

Common threads woven throughout the three submissions are the need for Caribbean women to ‘stop leading from behind, stop sacrificing their expertise, skills set and often their truth in campaigning, coordinating, and negotiating to win elections often for a full slate of men.’ The authors also highlighted the need to ‘question and challenge the structural, societal, political, economic, and cultural constraints that have and continues to prevent women from aspiring not only to political office but to the highest office in their respective countries.’

Editor of the publication Dr. Frank L. Mills, in his editorial noted, “This issue of Caribbean Perspectives shares the views of five prominent Caribbean females, all leaders in their own rights, and who are proponents of the views of charismatic Caribbean leaders who articulate their vision with clarity, decisiveness, courage, passion, and humility.”

Also featured in this issue of UVI’s Caribbean Perspective Leadership Research Publication is Nandi Sekou Esq. who is of Kittitian descent, and Dr. Valerie Knowles Combie. Attorney Sekou’s submission is titled, “Caribbean Women of Consequence: New Leadership for the 21st Century. Dr. Knowles Combie’s work is titled “Biblical Female Leaders: Trailblazers for 21st Century Women.”

Caribbean Perspectives is a product of the Eastern Caribbean Centre (ECC). The ECC is a resource organization that conducts research and associated training, technology transfer, and information dissemination, responsive to development of issues in an evolving U.S. Virgin Islands and applicable to small island communities. It conducts and sponsors research in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the rest of the Eastern Caribbean and disseminates information to enhance the contributions of scientific inquiry to human well-being in the Caribbean region.

Founded in 1962, UVI is a public, co-ed, land-grant HBCU (Historically Black College and University) in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Approximately 2,500 students are enrolled on the two campuses: the Albert A. Sheen Campus on St. Croix and the St. Thomas campus. The institution offers 47 undergraduate and graduate degree programs across its five colleges and schools.
UVI boasts more than 7,000 alumni who excel as physicians, attorneys, judges, politicians, university administrators, teachers, nurses, and many other professionals. Among the many accomplished former UVI students are two Rhodes Scholars and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Dr. Mutryce A. Williams

Attorney Talibah V.O. Byron

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The general public is asked to note that Synergy Engineering Limited out of Jamaica, along with several local partners, commenced work on phase two of the Traffic Lights Project on Monday, December 28, 2020. Traffic lights will be installed at the following junctions/areas:

– Wellington Road and Leonard Dickson Street;

– Bird Rock Road and the Bay Road;

– Sandown Road and the Bay Road;

– The Bay Road and the roundabout in the vicinity of The Sands Complex;

– The Bay Road in the vicinity of the roundabout on Port Zante (west);

– College Street Ghaut and the Bay Road;

– Upper College Street Ghaut and Cayon Street.

As a result of the work being done, there will be some obstructions to the flow of traffic and some parking spaces will be occupied. Motorists and pedestrians are asked to proceed with caution in these areas. The project is expected to be completed in April 2021.

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DECEMBER 31st, 2020–(Daily Mail)–Are the United States falling at the final hurdle? The “Warp Speed” chief has admitted that just 2.6m Americans have been vaccinated instead of 20m target – despite 12m doses sitting in freezers across the states

The US has only administered about 10 percent – less than 2.6million – of the 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine it promised to give to Americans by the end of 2020, despite having distributed more than 12million doses to states and territories.

CDC data reveal that as of 9am ET on Wednesday, fewer than 2.6million people had received their first doses of Moderna or Pfizer’s vaccines – both of which are difficult to ship and handle because they need to be stored at freezing temperatures.

The bottleneck is caused by officials on state and federal level who have failed to create plans to get those shots into the arms of Americans according to a former FDA official who told DailyMail.com that the failure is akin to dropping the baton on the last leg of the vaccine race.

The hold-ups came as the US set yet another grim record for the deadliest day yet with 3,903 deaths recorded in a single day on Wednesday – and a new mutant ‘super strain’ of the virus was detected in southern California and Colorado.

While Americans continue to wait to be vaccinated, the UK on Wednesday authorized a vaccine by AstraZeneca that will almost certainly accelerate vaccine distribution there because it is cheaper, far easier to ship, handle and store than the Pfizer and Moderna alternatives.

Yet US regulators have no intention of approving the more efficient shot until April – two months after AstraZeneca’s US trial will have enough data to prove to the FDA that it works. Other trials have already shown that AstraZeneca’s $4 vaccine is safe and about 70 percent effective – well above the efficacy the FDA said it will require to approve a vaccine.

But in the US, federal government has punted distribution plans almost entirely to states, where health departments are already stretched thin by surging COVID-19 cases. The result is a helter-skelter patchwork of last-minute plans that look vastly different from state to state, bumping drug addicts and prisoners to the front of the line in some places, while in others, like Florida, elderly Americans are camping out in lawn chairs overnight in a bid to get vaccinated.

Others say essential workers and the aged are being told to ‘call around’ to see if they can get a vaccine.

As anger mounted that only about 230,000 Americans are getting vaccinated a day, President Trump tweeted on Wednesday that states had the doses and needed to ‘get moving!’. Even Operation Warp Speed’s chief scientist Dr Moncef Slaoui admitted. that the US vaccine roll-out ‘should be better’.

There were more than 3,903 deaths in 24 hours on Wednesday – the highest since the start of the pandemic. It is the ninth time this month that single-day fatalities have exceeded 3,000 – numbers never seen in the U.S. before December. Hospitalizations soared to a new high too, with 125,220 Americans with coronavirus in inpatient treatment.

In the past 48 hours, 461,982 vaccines have been given – about 230,000 a day.

‘We agreed that the number is lower than what we hoped for,’ said co-chief of Operation Warp Speed Dr Moncef Slaoui during a Wednesday briefing.

‘We know that it should be better and we are working hard to make it better,’ he added, of the distribution process.

At least 11.45 million doses have been distributed and the federal government has allocated just shy of 20 million doses to be distributed by the end of next week.

But that has not translated to shots in arms.

The vaccine roll-out in the US lags behind other wealthy nations. In the 16 days since the U.S. began vaccinating people, 2,589,125 Americans have gotten their first dose.

That means an average of about 40 out of every 100,000 people in the US are getting vaccinated a day, compared to 60 per capita in the UK, which approved the Oxford University-developed vaccine made by AstraZeneca on Wednesday.

Dr Slaoui said that vaccine – which is more easily distributed because it can be shipped and stored at refrigerator temperatures – likely won’t be authorized until April.

US regulators have faced broad criticism – including from President Trump – for dragging their feet on vaccine approvals while thousands of Americans die of COVID-19 each day.

It seems that the harsh words have done little to hurry the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) up.

AstraZeneca expects to have results from its ongoing US vaccine trial by February – yet Operation Warp Speed says it doesn’t expect the shot to get authorized for another two months thereafter.

It remains unclear why. The vaccine was at least 70 percent effective in trials. Data published in the Lancet gave rise to no major concerns over side effects or safety (despite trials being paused in September after two participants developed neurological issues, both of which were ultimately deemed unrelated to the jab).

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BEIJING, China–December 30th, 2020–China on Thursday announced that it has granted market approval attached with conditions for its first homemade COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed by Sinopharm, marking a monumental step in the battle against the pandemic that has killed 1.79 million globally.

The inactivated vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute under Sinopharm’s subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), got official authorization from China’s National Medical Products Administration on Wednesday, Chen Shifei, deputy head of the National Medical Products Administration, said at Thursday’s press conference.

The move came one day after the institute announced that the vaccine showed 79.34 percent efficacy and a 99.52 percent antibody positive conversion rate, according to interim results of the Phase III clinical trials.

The results are better than the 50 percent standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese authorities, according to the institute. The vaccine also showed a good safety level, its producers noted.

A vaccine has to undergo strict review by each country’s national drug administration before being authorized for public use. All data and processes are reviewed by professional third-party committees, CNBG’s chairman Yang Xiaoming told the Global Times in a recent exclusive interview.

Yang was inoculated with a CNBG vaccine in March with hundreds of his colleagues. He said they had tested the level of antibodies six months after vaccination and the results were good.

Yang noted that data on safety and efficacy collected so far in the Phase III clinical trials is better than expected

Reported side effects of the vaccines are also milder than expected, Yang said. The side effects of CNBG’s inactivated vaccines include aches or redness at the injection site, fever, muscular soreness, sickness and headache.

A representative of Sinopharm told the Global Times on Wednesday that the interim results are mainly based on data from trials conducted in the United Arab Emirates, the vaccine’s largest test base. The Chinese regulator uses a very rigorous standard – stronger even than the international criteria – in reviewing the number of confirmed infected cases in the double-blind placebo-controlled trials for understanding the efficacy of the vaccine.

The Beijing institute’s vaccine was approved in the UAE and Bahrain earlier this month.

Sinopharm’s two inactivated vaccines have been administered to nearly 1 million people for emergency use and no serious adverse reactions have been reported. About 70,000 volunteers have participated in the phase-III clinical trials in more than 10 countries.

Tao Lina, a vaccine expert in Shanghai, said that the approval demonstrated that China has created a “miracle” by creating a vaccine within one year.

Pfizer and Moderna have announced 95 percent efficacy for their mRNA vaccines, which was beyond predictions and drove up the public’s expectation for Chinese inactivated vaccines.

Tao noted that despite the high efficacy, the US mRNA vaccines have shown more side effects as well as acute allergy occurrences. The mRNA vaccines also have more strict requirements for transportation.

Tao suggested that the inactivated and mRNA vaccines can both help human beings to resist the novel coronavirus. But both are early-stage products and more improved ones are expected, which will offer more balance between efficacy, safety and transportation requirements.

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AUCKLAND, New Zealand–January 1st, 2021–Happy muted New Year! New Zealand and the Pacific Islands are first to ring in 2021 as countries around the world prepare to send off a year blighted by the global pandemic with pared-down celebrations

With virtual parties, socially-distanced firework displays and the hope of better days to come, the world has begun bidding good riddance to the year of the pandemic today and greeting the dawn of 2021.

Unmourned but never to be forgotten, 2020 started passing into history in Kiribati and Samoa at 10am GMT and New Zealand at 11am – with the last Pacific islands set to cross the invisible threshold 25 hours later.

In New Zealand and Australia, two of the first countries to reach midnight and also two of the most successful in fending off the worst of Covid-19, life was normal enough for some crowds of revellers to gather on waterfronts in Auckland and Sydney to mark the new year.

But for most of the world’s seven billion people, a grinding year is ending with typically scaled-back festivities, with fireworks, pyre burnings and live performances set to be watched from home or cancelled altogether.

From France to Latvia to Brazil, police and military personnel are being deployed to enforce night-time curfews and bans on large gatherings are enforced, with much of the world still in lockdown and the vaccine race only just beginning.

Although the Pacific islands were spared the worst ravages of the pandemic, border restrictions, curfews and lockdowns meant this New Year’s Eve was still a little different.

At the palm-fringed Taumeasina resort in Samoa, manager Tuiataga Nathan Bucknall was pleased to be open without a limit on guest numbers, but thanks to a state of emergency stopped serving alcohol at 11 pm.

In harder-hit countries such as Italy – where shocking images of makeshift morgues and exhausted medics first awoke the world to the horror of the pandemic last spring – curfews and lockdowns are still in force.

In London, American singer-songwriter Patti Smith will ring in the New Year with a tribute to NHS workers who have died from Covid-19, projected on the screen at Piccadilly Circus and streamed on YouTube.

And in New York, the famous ball-drop in Times Square will unfold this year without the usual throngs of cheering revelers. Police will block off the area so that spectators cannot even get a glimpse.

Since it surfaced in China in late 2019, the coronavirus has infected more than 80million people and led to nearly 1.8million deaths, the majority of them in Europe and the Americas.

Although mass vaccination efforts have begun in many countries in recent weeks, offering hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight, it is likely to be months before normal life can return in most of the world.

In China, where the Lunar New Year generally takes precedence over January 1, a countdown ceremony will take place in Beijing with just a few invited guests while other planned events have been cancelled.

Hong Kong, with its British colonial history and large expatriate population, has usually seen raucous celebrations along the waterfront and in bar districts.

For the second year running, however, New Year’s Eve fireworks have been cancelled, this time over coronavirus rather than public security concerns.

In Japan, some people skipped what is customarily a chance to return to ancestral homes for the holidays, hoping to lessen health risks for extended families.

Rural restaurants saw business drop, while home deliveries of traditional New Year’s ‘good luck’ food called ‘osechi’ boomed.

Emperor Naruhito is delivering a video message instead of waving from a window with the imperial family as cheering crowds visit the palace.

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