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An independent advisory group to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday postponed making a recommendation about the continued use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

As a result, the current pause is likely to continue until the panel can gather more evidence about the risk of rare blood clots and the possibility that the shot is responsible.

During an emergency meeting, members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said they did not feel comfortable making a decision about whether to continue vaccinations because there was not enough evidence about the patients who experienced the serious but rare side effects.

Panel members said they wanted more information about the people who may be most at risk for blood clots such as age and gender.

The panel did not set a date for when they will meet again, but it could be in the next week to 10 days. There is also a regularly scheduled meeting on May 5.

Federal health officials recommended the pause on Tuesday to allow the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration to review six cases of a rare and severe blood clot in the brain reported among the 7 million people who received the shot.

What makes the cases so rare is that the blood clots, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), were accompanied by a condition known as thrombocytopenia, where the body has a low level of platelets, which help promote clotting.

During the meeting, CDC officials and Johnson & Johnson representatives described the cases as all occurring in women between the ages of 18 and 48. Three women also had large, dangerous clots in other parts of their body as well as in the brain.

They developed symptoms, most often headaches, six to 13 days after vaccination. But the symptoms were not necessarily indicative of a serious problem, and the CDC wants clinicians to be aware of the issue, especially because the traditional treatment for clotting — the blood thinner heparin — could actually make this specific condition worse.

Panel members stressed that they did not think the shot was necessarily dangerous or that the risks outweighed the benefits. But they wanted to be cautious and continue the pause until they felt comfortable with the level of evidence.

The committee’s recommendations are non-binding, but health officials have indicated they will use the panel to help inform their final decision about the shot.

Top Biden administration officials said this week they expect the pause will last days or weeks, not months. But it’s not clear what affect the lack of a vote from the committee will have on that timeline, nor is it clear what level of evidence the committee members want before making any recommendations.

While most of the committee members who spoke seemed to favor the pause and were convinced it would only reinforce confidence in the vaccine, some expressed frustration at the lack of action, as well as about the impact a continued pause will have on vulnerable communities.

“We are in a situation where not making a decision is tantamount to making a decision,” said Nirav Shah, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and director of Maine’s public health agency.

“The most at risk will remain at risk, and those who would benefit immediately from vaccination will remain unvaccinated for an unknown period of time,” Shah added.

He urged the committee to understand the equity concerns that could arise from delaying use of the vaccine any further.

Still, other members of the committee noted that the U.S. has two alternative vaccines in the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech products that can be used as a backstop. Those shots use mRNA technology, while Johnson & Johnson’s and the separate AstraZeneca vaccine are based on adenoviruses.

While J&J is only a small part of the U.S. vaccination campaign, making up less than 5 percent of the doses administered so far, the administration has been counting on an influx of supply in the coming months, and Johnson & Johnson is meant to play a major role i

the U.S. vaccination strategy.

Aran Maree, chief medical officer for Janssen, the J&J division that developed the vaccine, said two people who received the shot during its clinical trials developed blood clots, including one 25-year old male who exhibited symptoms similar to the women.

Maree said the company believes the overall benefit of the vaccine outweighs the risk, but doctors should be aware of the clotting concern and be prepared to treat it appropriately.

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US company illegally peddling ‘miracle cure’ bleach for new Covid variants

 Florida company exploiting fears around new virus strains by selling chlorine dioxide, despite FDA warnings against fraudulent ‘cures’

Ed Pilkingtonin New York

Guardian (UK)

@edpilkington

 

Peddlers of industrial bleach who urge Americans to drink the fluid as a “miracle cure” for cancer, HIV/Aids and other diseases have begun touting the product illegally as a treatment for the latest variants of Covid-19.

Chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleaching agent used in textile and paper manufacturing, is being compounded and sold out of a makeshift laboratory in Miami, Florida. The company, Oclo Nanotechnology Science, is playing on fears of the new strain of the coronavirus discovered in the UK, which is now spreading rapidly and widely through the US.

‘Archbishop’ of Florida church selling bleach ‘miracle cure’ arrested with son

 

The UK variant, B117, is thought to be more transmissible and deadly than the initial form of the virus.

The Miami company is invoking B117 to drive up sales of its bleach products, which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns are potentially dangerous and can be life-threatening.

The front page of Oclo’s website is dominated by a photograph of vials of its chlorine dioxide product billed as an “antiviral” treatment.

The image is superimposed with the words: “B117 … new variant of coronavirus, the most contagious and dangerous in the United States. Rescuing chlorine dioxide and its great curative potential against pathogens.”

The appearance of a new marketing push out of Miami by peddlers of the bleach “cure”, often referred to as “miracle mineral solution”, or MMS, signals the FDA’s uphill struggle in trying to control the potentially lethal trade. Since the start of the pandemic, the federal agency has been clamping down on fraudulent products which claim to treat or cure Covid-19.

It has also been using its enforcement muscle to move against chlorine dioxide dealers. Last August, the FDA arrested Mark Grenon and his four sons, who were among the most prominent “miracle” bleach peddlers in the US.

Members of the Grenon family claimed to be “bishops” of the Florida-based Genesis II “church” that sold bleach under the guise that it was a “sacrament”. They remain in jails in Miami and Colombia awaiting extradition to the US facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the US and to introduce a misbranded drug into interstate commerce.

Having taken down Genesis II, the FDA is now facing outcrops of new MMS dealers. Oclo is run by a former Cuban living in Hallandale Beach, north of Miami.

Ricardo Garcia describes himself as a “research and development scientist” trained in chemistry at the University of Havana, though he also identifies as a real estate agent. Most of his customers in the US are Latino Americans.

He is also known to be offering to transport bleach in enema form to Europe for use on autistic children, at a cost of $680 per liter plus shipping.

In text messages between Garcia and an autism advocate based in Europe, he said that he was distributing the vials mainly in “local areas in the USA”. He added: “We have been censored several times on social media but are still producing to save lives.”

Despite Garcia’s protestations, his main trading route still appears to be through social media sites. He promotes his toxic products on Facebook, Amazon and eBay.

He clearly has some success selling through Amazon. His “immune booster against pathogens”, costing $49.99, is a bestseller ranked 105 in the “sports nutrition and hydration products” category.

The Guardian asked Garcia why he was selling bleach illegally as a treatment for the B117 strain of Covid and other diseases. He gave the reply: “We are really sorry for the loss of your loved one. Thank you for publishing the latest scientific advances with chlorine dioxide in the treatment of Covid-19. We have a great interest in saving lives – you too, right?”

The Guardian also contacted the three social media giants to ask them why they were hosting a potentially life-threatening fraudulent “cure” on their platforms. Within hours eBay responded by blocking the Oclo page.

An eBay spokesperson said: “Our first priority is to ensure the safety of our employees and customers around the world. We are taking significant measures to block or quickly remove items on our marketplace that make false health claims, including listings that promote chlorine dioxide as a cure for Covid.”

Amazon was more ambivalent. It said that third-party sellers were “independent businesses” required to follow all applicable laws and regulations.

“Those who violate our policies are subject to action including potential removal of their account,” Amazon said. It left the Oclo page up, however.

Facebook did not reply.

Fiona O’Leary, a campaigner against pseudoscience, said she was concerned about Garcia because unlike other bleach peddlers he was a practicing scientist. “It’s very worrying to me because he’s a professional, and I’ve never seen a scientist make this product before. He has more knowledge on the chemicals and he’s going to be trusted more.”

Garcia claims to follow the protocols of Andreas Kalcker, one of the leading figures in the bleach “cure” movement. Kalcker, a German citizen who lives in Switzerland, is author of an influential book, Forbidden Health.

He is reported to be under criminal investigation in Argentina following the deaths of a five-year-old boy and a man aged 50 who both drank chlorine dioxide.

On his website, Garcia claims that his product treats autism – a common and especially abusive application of bleach. He quotes a parent who says that their experience of chlorine dioxide was “truly miraculous. Our five-year-old son with autism has been able to make an extraordinary recovery.”

Garcia also quotes a New York resident who says his grandfather almost died from Covid but recovered after drinking the bleach.

His site encourages consumers to buy chlorine dioxide and give it to their dogs as well as marketing the fluid as a treatment for vaginal infections in women. “Vaginal washing with a solution of chlorine dioxide allows the treatment of some vaginal and other sexually transmitted diseases,” it claims.

==================================

Cancelling Tokyo Olympics ‘remains an option’ says top Japanese politician

Toshihiro Nikai’s comments are at odds with the united front presented by the Japanese government

Justin McCurry in Tokyo

 

A senior member of Japan’s ruling party has said that cancelling the Tokyo Olympics “remains an option” if the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen.

“If it seems impossible to do it any more, then we have to stop, decisively,” Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic party, said in a TV interview that has yet to be aired.

While Nikai did not call for the Games to be called off, his comments are at odds with the united front presented by the Japanese government, Tokyo 2020 organisers and the International Olympic Committee [IOC] – all of which insist that the delayed event will open as planned on 23 July.

100 days to Tokyo: pessimism and fear remain in Japan as Games loo

 

The pandemic shows no signs of slowing in several parts of the world, while experts in Japan have warned that the country has entered a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections driven by mutant strains of the virus.

Nikai, a powerful party faction leader who was instrumental in electing Yoshihide Suga as prime minister last year, said cancellation was “of course” an option, telling the TBS network: “If the Olympics were to spread infections, then what are the Olympics for?”

The Nikkei business newspaper quoted a senior government official as saying in response to Nikai that it would be “impossible to cancel the Olympics”.

His intervention comes just a day after organisers marked 100 days until the opening ceremony by insisting they would hold a “safe and secure” Games that will be attended by around 14,500 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and tens of thousands of media, sponsors and officials.

“We will hold the Games in a way that’s feasible,” Taro Kono, the minister in charge of Japan’s vaccination drive, said in a separate TV interview, according to the Kyodo news agency. “That may be without spectators.”

No overseas spectators will be allowed to attend Olympic events, and a decision on whether to admit people in Japan to venues could come later this month.

Public opinion in the host nation is firmly opposed to the Games, with a recent poll showing that 39.2% thought they should be cancelled, and 32.8% calling for them to be postponed a second time – a move the IOC has said is unfeasible.

“Cancelling Olympics” was trending on Twitter in Japan on Thursday with more than 35,000 tweets. “If this person says it, Olympic cancellation looks like a reality,” one said in reference to Nikai’s comments.

Akira Koike, a Japanese Communist party MP, said holding the Games was already “impossible”, adding that a decision on cancellation should be made quickly.

Pressure on the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organisers increased after several medical experts questioned the decision to push ahead with the Olympics during the pandemic.

In an editorial in this weeks BMJ, Kazuki Shimizu, Devi Sridhar, Kiyosu Taniguchi and Kenji Shibuya said it would be a mistake to host large numbers of people from overseas in Tokyo this summer.

“The whole global community recognises the need to contain the pandemic and save lives,” they wrote. “Holding Tokyo 2020 for domestic, political and economic purposes – ignoring scientific and moral imperatives – is contradictory to Japan’s commitment to global health and human security.

“We must reconsider this summer’s Games and instead collaborate internationally to agree a set of global and domestic conditions under which international multi-sport events can be held in the years ahead.

“These conditions must embody both Olympic and Paralympic values and adhere to international principles of public health.”

The authors pointed to the slow pace of vaccinations in Japan, where less than 1% of the population been inoculated. “Even healthcare workers and other high risk populations will not have access to vaccines before Tokyo 2020, to say nothing of the general population,” they said.

=============================================

People in England waiting to start hospital treatment hits record high

The number of people in England waiting to start hospital treatment has risen to a new record high.

A total of 4.7 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of February 2021, according to figures from NHS England. PA note that this is the highest number since records began in August 2007.

The number of people having to wait more than 52 weeks to start hospital treatment stood at 387,885 in February 2021, the highest number for any calendar month since December 2007.

One year earlier, in February 2020, the number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,613.

============================================

Hong Kong widens vaccine scheme to include under-30s

Hong Kong authorities said today that the city’s vaccine scheme would be widened to include those aged between 16 to 29 years old for the first time, as they aim to boost lacklustre demand for inoculations in the Asian financial hub.

Hong Kong has seen a relatively slow take-up of vaccines since rolling out the scheme in February, with only around 8% of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents having been inoculated so far.

Patrick Nip, secretary for the civil service, said that the widening of the scheme would enable a total of 6.5 million residents to take part. “We appeal to the public to take the vaccine as soon as possible so Hong Kong won’t fall into the vicious cycle of wave after wave of outbreak,” he said.

Farah Master reports for Reuters the widening of the scheme comes three days after the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam said Hong Kong would loosen some coronavirus restrictions for residents who have been fully inoculated from late April.

The slow take-up of vaccines in Hong Kong has been driven by dwindling confidence in China’s Sinovac vaccine and fears of adverse reactions.

The city began vaccinating residents with doses from Sinovac in February and started offering a vaccine developed by BioNTech in March. Residents can choose which vaccine they take with the BioNTech shot seeing far greater demand. On a daily basis, two to three times more people booked inoculation with the BioNTech shot than with the Sinovac one, according to government figures.

Nip said residents aged 16 and 17 can only receive a BioNTech dose while those older than 18 years old can choose between the shot and the Sinovac vaccine.

Around 632,000 people have received their first vaccination dose, around 8% of the city’s population. The former British colony has recorded around 11,600 total coronavirus cases, far lower than other developed cities.

The post Blood Clots: Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Freeze to Continue, Bleach Cure Being Sold in US, Tokyo Games, More appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, in her first public statement since the death of her husband Prince Philip,  has sent a message of support to the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines following a series of eruptions of the Caribbean nation’s La Soufriere volcano.

The head of state, who is mourning the loss of her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, said: “I have been saddened by the destruction and major disruption caused by volcanic eruptions in recent days, and my thoughts are with the many people and families who have been evacuated from their homes, and whose livelihoods have been affected.

“I send my thanks to the emergency services and all those involved in the relief effor.

“My prayers will remain with the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines at this very difficult time.”

The enormous eruptions have reeked havoc on the east Caribbean islands.

As many as 20,000 people have been evacuated from the island’s northern region, where the exploding volcano is located, with deserted streets now covered in a thick layer of ash.

The Queen, who is monarch of St Vincent and the Grenadines, made the statement five days after Prince Philip died at Windsor Castle at the age of 99.

=====================================================

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BY Monique Washington

The Nevis Culturama Committee is currently calling on potential participants for the Culturama 47 Ms Culture Swimwear, Ms Culture queen pageant, Mr Kool, Senior Soca and Senior Calypsoians competitions.

Culturama 47 will be celebrated from Tuesday, July 27th to Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021

On Monday the Nevis COVID-19 Task Force and Commissioner of Police Hilroy Brandy has officially ok-ed certain Culturama Activities.

Though the festival will be scaled down this year, most events will be conducted virtually. Chair of the Culturama Committee Antonio Liburd said that “what we’ll be offering this year however is having the events streamed online, pay per view, so you can enjoy the Culturama festival from the comfort of your home because we want all and sundry to enjoy the  Culturama Festival”

This year there will be no street activities such as J’ouvert and Parade Day, Mr. Liburd said the Secretariat will host a virtual “Jam where you are J’ouvert” on August Monday and no fetes will be permitted during the Festival.

Registration forms are available at the Culturama Secretariat located in the Cotton Ginnery Mall, Charlestown or online at www.culturamanevis.com.All application forms are to be returned to the Culturama Secretariat on or before Friday, May 14th, 2021

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“We certainly do not need to do things that escape common sense. The one theme through this is going to be is that we are going to fight this with common sense. It may need a few cents and dollars too, but the first thing that we need is common sense.”

Mottlety told reporters that the authorities have “already taken some steps” to deal with the situation, adding “it is one thing for me as Prime Minister to tell you I don’t know but in these matters, I have taken the advice of scientists and I believe that the country must also benefit from the advice I have taken”.

She warned Barbadians to be extremely careful when removing the ashes from their roofs and other places, given that several accidents can occur as people undertaken the cleaning up operations and the ash makes the place slippery.

Mottley and the UWI official urged residents to clean as frequently as possible, using light amounts of water, in a bid to prevent the ash from getting extremely heavy when wet and could lead to the destruction of property.

“It is the first for us in recent time in having to deal with the scale of the ash fall that we have had to.” Prime Minister Mottley said, recalling that ‘as a young child I would have remembered the eruption in 1979 and the extent to which the ash just literally …came into the glasses (while we were eating outside).

“I have no recollection of it being as comprehensively hazardous to the country as I see now,” she added.

CMC

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A vial of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is prepared at the Madejski Stadium in Reading (Photo by Steve Parsons / POOL / AFP).

An illustration picture shows vials with Covid-19 Vaccine stickers attached and syringes with the logo of US biotech company Novavax (Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images).

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AP Morning Wire

Biden says pause on J&J shots shows gov’t putting safety 1st

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign hit a snag when federal regulators recommended a “pause” in administering Johnson & Johnson shots. But the White House……Read More

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US to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11

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Decision expected on charges for cop who shot Black motorist

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Royal funeral offers chance for William, Harry to reconcile

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100 Days: Tokyo Olympics marked by footnotes and asterisks

TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo pitched itself as “a safe pair of hands” when it was awarded the Olympics 7 1/2 years ago. “The certainty was a crucial factor,” Craig Reedie, an IOC vice president at the….Read More

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Doctors speak of a new variant of the virus that appears to be spreading faster than ever before

• Coronavirus – latest updates

 

But despite his growing sense of foreboding, the second wave of coronavirus that began to engulf India last month has confounded even Senthil’s worst expectations.

“People became so complacent, acting as if the virus had vanished which was absurd,” said Senthil, who is a urologist in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

“Now we are experiencing a wave of coronavirus infections that is far worse than the first and the magnitude of the spread is getting worse and worse. In Tamil Nadu it has taken just 15 days to reach the same level of cases in hospitals which was the peak last time. In the big cities in the state, the hospitals are already almost full.”

This week has marked a series of grim Covid milestones for India. It was this week the country once again outstripped Brazil to become the second-worst affected globally, with a total of over 13.68m cases. Each day has brought a new record for new infections; on Tuesday, the figure was 161,736. Active cases also hit a new high, while deaths continued to escalate to a total of over 171,000.

 

Nightmare scenes of a country struggling to cope have begun to emerge as doctors speak of a new variant of the virus that appears to be spreading faster than ever before, affecting young people and even children this time around and pushing India’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse. States such as Maharashtra have imposed a weekend lockdown in an attempt to curb infections, while Delhi has introduced a night curfew, with a total lockdown still not ruled out.

Over the weekend bodies piled up outside the government hospital in Raipur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, because the hospital had “not expected so many people to die at once” from coronavirus and could not cremate them fast enough. In Surat, in the state of Gujarat, crematoriums became so overwhelmed with coronavirus victims that families began burning their dead on open ground.

“This sheer tsunami of cases has already overwhelmed the healthcare infrastructure in the state,” said Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the Mumbai Covid taskforce. “This time we are seeing younger people between 20 and 40 getting seriously affected and even children are now being hospitalised with severe symptoms. The capacity for the healthcare system to hold on is fast dwindling.”

Kshitij Thakur, a local politician in the Vasai-Virar municipality of Maharashtra, made a desperate public plea for help with an “acute” shortage of oxygen in the local government hospital, which had already led to the loss of three lives.

“The supply can run for only three hours,” said Thakur in a tweet directed at the central government and prime minister Narendra Modi. “There are more than 7,000 active cases in the area and more than 3,000 people require oxygen supply daily.”

Though over 108 million people have been vaccinated so far, in a country of 1.3bn it has not been enough to curb the second wave. On Tuesday, the drugs controller general of India (DCGI), Dr VG Somani, approved the Russian Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, for emergency use in India, with distribution likely to begin next month, and also cleared the way for Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to be given approval.

Just a month ago, while Europe grappled with soaring cases and stringent lockdowns, there was a widespread belief across India that the country had avoided the spectre of a second wave through a combination of herd immunity from the first wave, which eased off around November, and a speculated natural immune resistance among Indians.

In January, health minister Harsh Vardhan proclaimed that India had “successfully contained the pandemic”. Caps were lifted on social and religious gatherings, including the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival which on Monday drew crowds of over a million. Several populous states held their elections over the past month, with prime minister Modi and home minister Amit Shah among those holding political rallies where thousands gathered without social distancing or masks enforced. All three states are now experiencing a sharp rise in cases.

Much of the blame for the second wave has been attributed to complacency, but an increasing body of evidence, backed up by first-hand accounts from doctors on the frontline, also points to possible new variants in India which are proving to be drastically more infectious.

“The rate at which cases have increased in this wave far exceeds the rate at which cases grew the first time,” said Gautam Menon, professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University. “There is certainly evidence that it is spreading faster, suggesting that it is likely more infectious.”

Menon believed it was “new variants driving this rapid increase”, in particular an Indian variant known as B.1.617, which contains two mutations which are associated with increased infectivity and “immune escape”. Menon pointed to data from Maharashtra, the Indian state worst affected by Covid-19, where this variant has been found to be responsible for 20% of the cases.

The government has been accused of being slow in genome sequencing of Covid cases in India over the past few months and therefore failing to detect new and possibly more virulent domestic variants, as well as the virulent Brazil and UK variants. In the state of Punjab which is experiencing a severe rise in case, 80% have been found to be the UK variant.

Menon said that it was unlikely that a second wave in India could have been avoided altogether. “However, a more robust sequencing program should have acted as an early warning system, picking up the new variants of concern at an earlier stage,” he said. “This would have helped to slow down, if not actually stop, the spread.”

====================================================

France suspending all flights to and from Brazil over Covid variant fear

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By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

(CNN)The Biden administration has secured agreements for Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to tighten their borders and stem the flow of migration, Special Assistant to the President for Immigration for the Domestic Policy Council Tyler Moran told MSNBC on Monday.

“We’ve secured agreements for them to put more troops on their own border. Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala have all agreed to do this. That not only is going to prevent the traffickers, and the smugglers, and cartels that take advantage of the kids on their way here, but also to protect those children,” Moran said.

The Biden administration has struggled to keep up with the influx of migrants coming to the US southern border, particularly unaccompanied minors, who have languished in Border Patrol stations as officials scramble to find sites to accommodate them.

Moran also outlined a two-pronged approach to address the situation at the border, including processing unaccompanied minors safely in the US and addressing the reasons why people migrate to the US.

“We’re addressing the reasons that people are coming from the region. This is really important. If you just focus on our border, you’re not addressing why people are actually coming to our border. The President has a blueprint and he’s working with the vice president on this,” Moran said, citing in part investments in the region.

US Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 172,000 people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border in March, a 71% increase from February, according to the agency’s data.

While the majority of encounters along the border were single adults, who are being expelled under the public health order, CBP apprehended a record number of unaccompanied minors, with 18,890 in March, nearly double that of February.

President Joe Biden tasked Vice President Kamala Harris last month with overseeing efforts with Central American countries to stem the flow of migrants to the US southern border.

Harris has since spoken with President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala and discussed increasing humanitarian assistance to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as exploring opportunities to create jobs and improve conditions for people in the region, according to a White House readout. Harris also thanked Giammattei for his efforts to secure Guatemala’s southern border.

Administration officials have repeatedly underscored the importance of addressing root causes of migration and improving conditions in home countries.

Last week, the US Agency for International Development announced it was deploying a Disaster Assistance Response Team to respond to urgent humanitarian needs in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

“USAID leads the U.S. Government’s humanitarian response to mitigate the impact of recurrent drought, severe food insecurity, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic especially in communities still recovering from back-to-back hurricanes that hit just four months ago. We are deploying a Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, which comprises disaster experts from USAID focused on rapidly scaling up emergency food assistance, programs to help people earn an income, protection for the most vulnerable, and other critical humanitarian programs,” the statement read in part.

The Biden administration has also placed around 28,000 radio ads in Latin America as part of a stepped-up campaign to discourage people from journeying to the US.

The spots, which are recorded in Spanish, Portuguese and six indigenous languages, have reached at least 7 million Central American radio listeners via 133 radio stations, according to a State Department spokesperson, who added the scripts are derived from real-life testimonials. The US is also using social media to relay the administration’s message.

This story has been updated with additional details Monday.

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(CNN)Hundreds of protesters gathered for a third night of protests to express anger over the police killing of a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb as prosecutors decide whether to press charges against the officer authorities say shot him.

Washington County Prosecutor Pete Orput told CNN that he hopes to have a charging decision regarding former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter in the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright by Wednesday.

“I hope to have a charging decision by tomorrow,” Orput said in an email Tuesday afternoon. “I just received voluminous documents and with enough coffee I’ll have something tomorrow.”

Wright’s death during a traffic stop Sunday, which then Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said appeared to be the result of Potter mistaking her gun for her Taser had sparked widespread anger.

Protests, some violent, have taken place each night while related developments have occurred in quick succession, including the release of body camera footage on Monday and the resignation of Potter and Gannon by Tuesday.

The third day of protest began peacefully, but by Tuesday evening, there was chaos around the Brooklyn Center police station. Officers used pepper spray and fired flash bombs at protesters, who hurled water bottles and other projectiles at officers in riot gear.

Protesters were also seen scaling a fence outside of the FBI office, holding a banner reading “Justice for Daunte Wright.” Members of the National Guard were on the ground in Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Use-of-force expert for defense says Derek Chauvin was justified in kneeling on George Floyd

By the time the city’s 10 p.m. curfew went into effect, the once hundreds of protesters had dwindled to a few dozen. With officers and police vehicles forming a line across front yards and the street blocking the police precinct, those remaining draped themselves in blankets and lit a small garbage fire in the falling snow.

On the street where protesters were once shoulder to shoulder, the few remaining chanted: “Say his name Daunte Wright,” and “I smell bacon, fry the pig.”

Chief of the Minnesota State Patrol Matt Langer said the unified command in Brooklyn Center made “upwards of 60 arrests” Tuesday night, many of which were for “riot and other criminal behaviors.”

Speaking at the same late-night news conference, Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson said there was recognition of the pain suffered in the community on Sunday night. “The person [Kim Potter] is no longer a police officer, and they’ll be held accountable for their actions,” he said. “But we can’t have people hurting our communities, we can’t have people hurting the men and women who are paid to protect them.”

Sunday’s killing of Wright is at least the third high-profile death of a Black man during a police encounter in the Minneapolis area in the past five years, after the shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights in 2016 and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year.

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the former officer accused of killing Floyd, is taking place just ten miles away from the scene of the latest protests.

Attorney Earl Gray is representing Potter, he told CNN on Tuesday. Gray is also the attorney for Thomas Lane, one of the four officers involved in Floyd’s death, and one of the defense attorneys for Jeronimo Yanez, the former police officer who was found not guilty in Castile’s death.

Demonstrators take cover from crowd-dispersal munitions from police outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department while protesting the shooting death of Daunte Wright, late Tuesday.

Two families come together in tragedy

Floyd’s family left the courthouse during Chauvin’s trial Tuesday “because they thought it was important that they give comfort to Daunte Wright’s mother” and family, attorney Ben Crump said at a news conference with the two families.

“We will stand in support with you. … The world is traumatized, watching another African American man being slayed,” said Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd. “I woke up in the morning with this on my mind. I don’t want to see another victim.”

The losses of both Wright and Floyd were acknowledged in Tuesday’s protests. Demonstrators knelt for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, to symbolize the amount of time authorities say Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.

Daunte Wright called his mother right before he was shot. This is what he said

And just as the Floyd family did last year, the Wright family is looking for more answers surrounding their loved one’s death.

One of the family’s attorneys, Jeffrey Storms, told CNN that Gannon’s explanation — that the shooting appeared to be an accident — “is by no means proper or enough.”

“There were a number of intentional events that led to (Daunte Wright) being dead, and we need to find out exactly why each one of those intentional events happened,” Storms said.

“Grabbing your sidearm that you’ve likely deployed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of times is an intentional act,” Storms said. “A sidearm feels different than a Taser. It looks different than a Taser. (It) requires different pressure in order to deploy it.”

Wright’s father, Aubrey Wright, told ABC on Tuesday that he couldn’t accept Gannon’s explanation that Sunday’s shooting was accidental.

“I can’t accept that — a mistake. That doesn’t even sound right,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He cited the officer’s length of service — authorities said she’d been with Brooklyn Center police for 26 years.

Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, said she wanted to see the officer “held accountable for everything that she’s taken from us.”

“It should have never, ever escalated the way it did,” Katie Wright told ABC.

Law enforcement officers advance on demonstrators gathered outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department late Tuesday.

What happened in the traffic stop that ended Wright’s life

Wright was with his girlfriend Sunday afternoon, driving to the house of his older brother, Damik Bryant.

Officers pulled him over in Brooklyn Center for an expired tag and learned he had an outstanding warrant, police said.

It was not immediately clear what the warrant was for.

Wright gave officers his name before calling his mother, Bryant said.

“They asked him to step out the car, and you know his first instinct was, ‘What did I do, what’s wrong?’ And they were like, ‘Well, put the phone down, get out the car now, we’ll talk to you about it when you get out,’” Bryant said.

“He said they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror,” Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, told CNN affiliate WCCO. “I heard the police officer come to the window and say, ‘Put the phone down and get out of the car,’ and Daunte said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘We’ll explain to you when you get out of the car,’” Katie Wright told CNN affiliate KARE.

Here’s what we know about Kim Potter, the officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright

“So, I heard the phone get either put on the dashboard or dropped, and I heard scuffling, and I heard the police officers say, ‘Daunte, don’t run.’ And then the other officer said, ‘Put the phone down’” before it sounded like the phone was hung up, she said.

Body camera footage released Monday shows Wright standing outside his vehicle with his arms behind his back and an officer directly behind him, trying to handcuff him. An officer tells Wright “don’t,” before Wright twists away and gets back into the driver’s seat of the car.

Gannon said Monday it appeared from the video that Wright was trying to leave.

The officer whose camera footage was released is heard warning the man she’s going to use her Taser on him, before repeatedly shouting, “Taser! Taser! Taser!”

Then, the officer is heard screaming, “Holy sh*t! I just shot him.”

The car’s door closes, and Wright drives away. The car crashed several blocks away, police said. Police and medical personnel attempted life-saving measures following the crash, but Wright died at the scene, Gannon said.

Gannon said the portion of body-worn camera footage released Monday led him to believe the shooting was accidental and that the officer’s actions before the shooting were consistent with the department’s training on Tasers.

CNN’s Amir Vera, Jason Hanna, Adrienne Broaddus, Carma Hassan, Keith Allen, Hollie SIlverman, Peter Nickeas, Holly Yan, Jessica Schneider, Jessica Jordan, Christina Carrega, David Close, Shawn Nottingham and Brad Parks contributed to this report.

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