(CNN) Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is calling on US President Joe Biden to ensure vaccine equity, in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

Speaking from Sao Paulo, Brazil, da Silva said the US has a surplus of vaccines and suggested the excess could be donated to countries in need.

“One suggestion that I would like to make to President Biden through your program is: it’s very important to call a G20 meeting urgently,” da Silva told Amanpour. “It’s important to call the main leaders of the world and put around the table just one thing, one issue. Vaccine, vaccine and vaccine!”

He added, “The responsibility to international leaders is tremendous so I’m asking President Biden to do that because I can’t … I don’t believe in my government. And so, I couldn’t ask for that for Trump, but Biden is a breath for democracy in the world.”

In da Silva’s first interview since a Supreme Court justice annulled his 2017 convictions of

corruption and money laundering last week, the former leader also said he would not decline an invitation to run in the country’s presidential election next year.

“When it comes the moment to run for the elections, and if my party and the other allied parties understand that I could be the candidate, and if I’m well and my health with the energy and power that I have today, I can reassure you that I will not deny that invitation, but I don’t want to talk about that. That’s not my main priority. My main priority now is to save this country,” da Silva said.

The South American nation has been setting record daily virus deaths repeatedly in recent days as another brutal wave of Covid-19 sweeps the country. The resurgence has overwhelmed medics fighting on the pandemic’s frontline with an increasing number of hospitals across the country reaching capacity.

On Tuesday, Brazilian Health Ministry research institution Oswaldo Cruz Foundation called the current emergency in the country “the greatest health and hospital collapse in the history of Brazil.”

Da Silva, 75, was convicted on corruption and money laundering charges three years ago stemming from a wide-ranging investigation into the state-run oil company Petrobras, dubbed “Operation Car Wash.”

But in a surprise move last Monday, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge annulled his convictions and ordered that the cases be processed again at the Federal Court of Brasilia. If the ruling is upheld — and if Lula is not re-convicted before the candidacy filing deadline — he would technically be able to stand for office again and challenge current President Jair Bolsonaro in 2022 .

Political clash on the horizon?

Da Silva, who helped found the left-wing Workers Party, has largely refused to be drawn on running for office, saying last Wednesday that he “doesn’t have time to think about candidacy in 2022.”

However, the former President — better known as Lula — has launched a scathing attack on Bolsonaro, telling Brazilians last week not to “follow any stupid decision by the President and the Minister of Health” and urging people to get vaccinated. He also condemned the current administration’s handling of the pandemic, saying many deaths from the virus “could have been avoided.”

“If we had a president who respected the population, he would have created a crisis committee to guide the Brazilian society on what to do every week,” the ex-president added.

Bolsonaro defended his handling of the healthcare crisis in the face of da Silva’s remarks, telling CNN Brasil last week that his government empowered local officials and arguing that imposing lockdown measures — which he has refused to do — would only “lead the citizen to a situation of poverty.”

Bolsonaro has previously said he hoped Brazil’s Supreme Court would restore da Silva’s convictions, and accused his predecessor of 2022 ambitions. “Former President Lula is now starting his campaign. Because he has nothing good to show and this is the [Workers Party] rule, their campaign is based on criticizing, lying and misinforming,” he said.

While the elections are still 18 months away, Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak will likely play into voter’s sentiments. Bolsonaro’s disapproval ratings reached their highest level to date at 54%, according to the Datafolha polling institute’s latest survey results issued on Wednesday.

Brazil has the second-highest numbers of Covid-19 in the world with 11,603,535 cases and 282,127 coronavirus-related deaths as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Hospitals are swamped with cases across the country. The latest analysis from CNN shows that ICU occupancy rates in 25 out of Brazil’s 26 states plus its federal district are at or above 80%. Of those, 14 states have ICU occupancy rates at or above 90% which puts them at imminent risk of collapse.

On Tuesday, the governor of Brazil’s second most populous state, Minas Gerais, said the health system simply could not support new patients.

“I don’t want Minas Gerais to become a horror movie,” Romeu Zema said in a press conference to announce the implementation of the “purple phase” across the state, the most restrictive of the Minas Gerais plan to handle the pandemic.

“Any new infected (person) can mean one more death because the state does not have the capacity to take in new patients,” said Zema.

Bolsonaro’s crisis management under fire

Since the beginning of Brazil’s vaccination campaign on January 17, the country has administered more than 12.5 million vaccine doses across its population of over 211 million. More than 9 million people have received at least one dose while just over 3 million people have been given a second dose, according to the latest data from the country’s health ministry.

As the country’s coronavirus spread outpaces its vaccination rollout, criticism is mounting. According to the same Datafolha institute’s poll, which interviewed 2,023 people by telephone on March 15 and 16, 54% of Brazilians found Bolsonaro´s performance bad or awful — up from 48% in late January.

The poll report also said 43% of Brazilians blame Bolsonaro while 20% blame their state governors for the current state of the pandemic in Brazil.

Regarding Bolsonaro´s presidency, 44% of those polled think it is bad or awful, four points higher than in the last poll, and the highest since he took office in January of 2019. Thirty percent of the respondents judge Bolsonaro´s rule as good or great and another 26% see it as regular.

Bolsonaro this week appointed a new health minister — the fourth in a year — as ICU and mortality rates skyrocketed. The new minister, cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga, replaces army general Eduardo Pazuello, but there is little sign of any change in the administration’s approach to the crisis.

On Tuesday, Queiroga in an interview with CNN Brasil echoed the President in saying that lockdowns only apply in “extreme situations” and would not be imposed by the federal government.

Journalists Rodrigo Pedroso and Marcia Reverdosa contributed to this report from Sao Paulo, Brazil. CNN’s Caitlin Hu also contributed from New York, Matt Rivers from Rio De Janeiro and Vasco Cotovio from London. CNN’s Lauren Said-Moorhouse wrote from London

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Guardian (UK)  Delaying the winter lockdown caused up to 27,000 extra deaths in England, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has claimed as it accused the government of a “huge mistake” which should be central to any public inquiry into the UK’s handling of the pandemic.

In an assessment of policy over the last year, it said delaying the start of the latest lockdown until January, despite evidence of fast-rising cases before Christmas, led to around a fifth of all fatalities caused by the virus. It said these could have been avoided if restrictions were put in place quickly enough to prevent the death rate rising from early December.

While it praised the vaccination programme – delivering jabs three times faster than Europe – and financial support for firms and workers which has included £6,700 for every household on average, it said mistakes on lockdowns were repeated “three tragic times”. It added that allowing extra deaths did not limit economic impacts, but rather increased them, because it only precipitated longer and more onerous lockdowns.

“Going timidly and late on lockdowns has been a disaster – causing many thousands of avoidable deaths,” said Mike Brewer, chief economist at the foundation. “Furthermore, delays to restrictions have meant them needing to be tougher and longer-lasting than in other countries, thereby worsening the economic damage.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has touched everyone, but lower-income families have borne the brunt of the crisis in terms of their lives and livelihoods. This shouldn’t be forgotten as we look to rebuild post-pandemic Britain.”

The report details how when Italy announced a national lockdown on 9 March 2020, Boris Johnson waited two weeks before doing the same in the UK. In September after cases started rising again and the government’s scientific advisers urged a circuit breaker lockdown, the government did not introduce an England-wide lockdown for over five weeks and this winter “the pattern of letting the caseload surge before acting” was repeated.

“Christmas was ‘semi-cancelled’, with reduced or no inter-household contact allowed, only on 19 December,” the foundation said. “And, despite still-surging numbers, a full return to national lockdown was not announced until 4 January, by which point we were seeing over 50,000 cases a day across the UK.”

Labour calls for full Covid public inquiry starting in June

 

Economic policy was far more successful, the thinktank said.

Crisis-related spending totalling £340bn has meant that “the worst recession for 300 years has seen the smallest rise in unemployment of any recession in living memory”.

It added: “Amazingly, household income has been broadly similar in 2020 to its 2019 level in aggregate, despite GDP falling by almost 10%.”

However it said the most “glaring failure of economic policy” was on sick pay, which still means 2 million low-earners receive only £96 a week if they are sick. This meant the incomes of people being asked to stay at home to save lives were not protected, which undermined the stay at home message, limited the effectiveness of the test-and-trace system and increased infections.

Downing Street has been approached for comment.

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Biden administration invests $10B in school COVID-19 testing program

The Biden administration is investing $10 billion to ramp up COVID-19 testing in schools in an effort to increase testing across the country and help schools reopen for in-person learning.

The funding comes from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and will be distributed to states and certain cities next month by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) as part of a strategy to help get schools open in the remaining months of this school year.

The CDC and state and local health departments will provide technical assistance to states and schools setting up and implementing these programs.

The money will be used to provide diagnostic tests to symptomatic teachers, staff and students, as well as “serial screening” for those who don’t have symptoms but might have been exposed to an infectious person. The idea behind serial screening testing is to help schools identify asymptomatic people who may be contagious so that prompt action can be taken to prevent transmission

Backstory: Biden has put a major focus on reopening schools this year. He urged states to prioritize teachers for vaccinations and school staff to get at least one shot by the end of March.

Questions raised: But the guidance from CDC about reopening schools does not say testing or screening is a priority. CDC says schools should offer referrals to diagnostic testing for symptomatic students and staff at all levels of community spread, but there’s not a whole lot of data showing the benefits of screening. CDC recommends it as a complementary strategy to other mitigation measures.

What does it mean? With some teachers’ unions still resisting in-person learning even after being prioritized for vaccinations, it’s not clear these extra steps will help.

CDC addresses vulnerable communities 

Included in the funding announcement for schools was a $2.25 billion initiative to address health equity issues. The grant, funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will expand health services to help reduce COVID-19 health disparities.

CDC said the funding is the agency’s largest investment to date to support communities affected by COVID-19-related health disparities.

The two year grants will go to 108 public health departments for bolstered COVID-19 testing and contact tracing capabilities in underserved communities and populations, including racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural areas.

“Everyone in America should have equal opportunity to be as healthy as possible,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “This investment will be monumental in anchoring equity at the center of our nation’s COVID-19 response—and is a key step forward in bringing resources and focus to health inequities that have for far too long persisted in our country.”

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WHO: AstraZeneca vaccine benefits outweigh risk

The latest development in the overseas AstraZeneca saga: The World Health Organization on Wednesday recommended that nations continue using the vaccine against the coronavirus created by Oxford University and the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, after some European countries halted its use over safety concerns. The vaccine is not currently approved for use in the U.S.

In a statement, the WHO said its Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety was assessing safety data, and that it was staying in touch with the European Medicines Agency, the European Union’s version of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Backstory: About a dozen nations, mostly in Europe, have paused their use of AstraZeneca vaccines after a few people who received the shot developed dangerous blood clots.

However: The WHO said blood clots are common, and that vaccination campaigns should continue.

“Vaccination against Covid-19 will not reduce illness or deaths from other causes. Thromboembolic events are known to occur frequently. Venous thromboembolism is the third most common cardiovascular disease globally,” the agency said. “At this time, WHO considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.”

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An ominous trend: German COVID-19 cases rise amid AstraZeneca vaccine suspension

Coronavirus infections are on the rise in Germany as the country has joined more than a dozen European nations in suspending the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine over concerns of blood clots.

The Robert Koch Institut, Germany’s center for infectious diseases, on Tuesday reported about 83.7 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, a jump from 68 just one week prior. The institute said that this number could reach 200 by mid-April.

Possible third wave: Dirk Brockmann, a Robert Koch Institut epidemiologist, told Germany’s ARD television that the spike in cases indicates a third wave of COVID-19 in the country that was initially praised for its early response to the pandemic.

Brockmann specifically attributed the increase to the government’s easing of nationwide safety restrictions even as a new more transmissible variant has spread throughout the country.

Experts warn that the increased rate of infection, as well as the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine, could delay the country’s progress toward reaching herd immunity.

FDA official: US AstraZeneca stockpile not in danger of expiring

While Europe simultaneously wrestles with national vaccine suspensions and AstraZeneca’s own delivery shortages, the US is still sitting on a pile of tens of millions of doses. They aren’t going anywhere, and a top health official Wednesday said they’re not in danger of expiring.

“I do not believe we are at risk of throwing this out at any time in the near future,” Peter Marks, the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine center, told a House panel.

The federal government preordered 300 million doses of the vaccine under the Trump administration, but issues with clinical trials have held up its authorization and the FDA is still waiting on additional data.

Officials have said the stockpile is intended to make it easier to quickly distribute the vaccine across the country if the company receives FDA clearance in the coming weeks.

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One month after commencing the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the Ministry of Health said that over 8,000 people in Grenada have been inoculated.

The country’s goal is to have 60% of the 112,000 population be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine by June/July 2021.

“To date, we have recorded 8,606 people who received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine,” said Health Minister Nickolas Steele who was among the first policymakers to be inoculated with the vaccine. Steele is scheduled to receive his second dose by the end of the month.

At present, the vaccine is available at health centres and other sites set up at strategic locations that are deemed as easily accessible for citizens. “Some days are busier than others, but there is a constant flow of citizens at the vaccination sites,” Steele disclosed.

Steele has, however, expressed disappointment with the number of healthcare workers who are either delaying or refusing to be vaccinated, while at the same time administering the vaccine to those who are choosing to obtain the added protection.

“I think that is unacceptable. They are the ones that have the information, know the benefits of vaccination, have access to all of the proper information if they so choose, so they can make an informed decision as opposed to an emotional decision,” Steele said. “It is worrying that healthcare providers interacting with Covid-19 positive cases or elderly citizens would not want the added protection for them and those in their care…I cannot contemplate how someone, who is on the frontline would contemplate not being vaccinated.”

Scientific research and review have concluded that the vaccine does not stop transmission, but it reduces the possibility of developing severe Covid-19 infection, especially for those with underlying medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Grenada is scheduled to receive 45,600 vaccines through the COVAX facility as well as receive thousands of free vaccines from the Government of India. The Indian Government has donated 500,000 vaccines for sharing among Caricom members.

Grenada, as of March 15, 2021, recorded 154 Covid-19 cases since the first confirmation were announced on 22 March 2020. Only 2 according to the island’s dashboard are currently classified as active. The 2 active cases, both in self-isolation, are incoming passengers who were each on commercial flights from the United States and Jamaica respectively.

CMC

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Haiti President Jovenel  Moise has asked UN Secretary-General António Guterres for assistance in his nation’s fight against terrorism and lawlessness.

This came after his appeal to the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, Mr. Luis Almagro for technical support in the same fight.

“This Tuesday, March 16, I had an interview with UN Secretary-General António Guterres. I asked the UN for technical and logistical support for the PNH, in order to combat banditry in Haiti and strengthen the poverty reduction program.

“During the said meeting, the UN Secretary General António Guterres and I discussed the issue of the inter-Haitian national dialogue. I remain convinced that through this dialogue we will manage to resolve the current crisis and together build a more just, united and prosperous Haiti,” Moïse said.

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A series of shootings at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area have left eight people dead, the majority of them women of Asian descent, leading to fears the killer had a racial motive.

A 21-year-old man, Robert Aaron Long, is a suspect in the shootings, and was taken into custody in south-west Georgia about 150 miles (240km) from the city after his car was intercepted by police after a manhunt.

The killings occurred amid a rising number of attacks on Asian Americans across the US since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Six of those killed were Asian while two were white.

“It appears that they may be Asian,” Atlanta’s police chief, Rodney Bryant, said, with South Korea’s foreign ministry adding in statement on Wednesday that its diplomats in Atlanta had confirmed from police that four of the victims who died were women of Korean descent.

The shootings – all believed to have been carried out by a single gunman – began at about 5pm, when five people were shot at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor in a strip mall near a rural area in Acworth, Cherokee County, about 30 miles (50km) north of Atlanta. According to the local county sheriff’s office spokesman, Jay Baker, two people died at the scene and three were transported to a hospital, where two of them also died.

The next shooting took place at 5.50pm when police in the Buckhead neighbourhood of Atlanta, responding to a call of a robbery, found three women dead from apparent gunshot wounds at Gold Spa.

While they were at that scene, they learned of a call reporting shots fired at another spa across the street, Aromatherapy Spa, and found a woman who appeared to have been shot dead inside.

The suspect’s car was caught on camera in the Acworth shooting, seen pulling up to the business at about 4.50pm, minutes before the attack. Baker said the suspect was taken into custody in Crisp County.

Police said video footage also showed the suspect’s vehicle in the area of the Atlanta spas at about the time of those attacks as well. That, as well as other video evidence, “suggests it is extremely likely our suspect is the same as Cherokee County’s, who is in custody”, Atlanta police said in a statement.

The FBI spokesperson Kevin Rowson said the agency was assisting Atlanta and Cherokee County authorities in the investigation.

Long was arrested after state troopers performed a pursuit intervention technique, a move “which caused the vehicle to spin out of control”, Hancock said. Long was then taken into custody “without incident”.

“Our entire family is praying for the victims of these horrific acts of violence,” Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, said on Tuesday evening on Twitter. “Once again we see that hate is deadly,” Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia tweeted.

The Stop AAPI Hate group issued a statement saying that many in the Asian American community had felt targeted over the past year.

“The reported shootings of multiple Asian American women today in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy – for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the Asian American community, which has been reeling from high levels of racist attacks over the course of the past year,” it said.

“This latest attack will only exacerbate the fear and pain that the Asian American community continues to endure.”

On Tuesday evening, Long’s Facebook page appeared to have been removed from the site. A Facebook video, first reported by the Daily Beast, featuring Long at his local church, the Crabapple First Baptist church, had also been removed.

According to the Daily Beast, the 2018 video showed Long talking about his journey towards baptism. “As many of you may remember, when I was eight years old I thought I was becoming a Christian, and got baptized during that time. And I remember a lot of the reason for that is a lot of my friends in my Sunday school class were doing that,” Long is quoted as saying.

On Friday evening police released a booking photo of Long dressed in an anti-suicide smock.

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BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela (AP) — Samuel Andrés Mendoza carefully chooses from dozens of colored pencils spread out on his kitchen table, humming a reggaeton song as he deftly applies contrast to the Dragon Ball anime character taking shape on his sketch pad.

It is not just a pastime anymore for the 14-year-old. Without his mother’s knowledge, he began selling his drawings on his Twitter page to help the family get by and to pay for a special diet doctors say he needs in Venezuela’s troubled economy.

“Hi. I’m Samuel, I’m selling my drawings for $1 to help my mom with my diet, buy her a house and a shop so she won’t work on the street and get sick with COVID-19 and buy peanut butter for me. Thank you, sir and madam,” he tweeted along with photos of four drawings.

It caught the eye of many and he now has more than 15,000 followers, selling dozens of drawings he has worked up at a table between a worn-out couch and a rusting refrigerator in the small family home in Barquisimeto, about five hours west of Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.

“The truth is I did not know that I was going to draw like that, but time has passed, and I have managed to paint for real,” Samuel said this month, showing his finished drawing of Dragon Ball’s Goku. “And here it is.”

In a crisis-wracked country where workers earn an average of $2 per month, his sales can make a big difference for a family budget strained by his need for high-protein foods to deal with a form of malnutrition.

Like millions of other Venezuelans, Samuel and his mother, Magdalena Rodríguez, emigrated in search of better conditions. They went to Colombia in 2019 when widespread power outages hit her homeland just as she learned of her son’s diagnosis.

But they came home in December after she lost her job and found increasing prejudice against the growing number of Venezuelan migrants.

The mother of three now sells snacks from a table in Barquisimeto’s main plaza. She also found work as a cleaner. Still, it has been difficult to afford the relatively expensive high-protein foods needed by her son, who also has a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, a broad branch of the autism spectrum.

“It’s not easy,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, 38, discovered Samuel’s effort when he asked for her bank account information so that people could pay for his work.

Samuel, who said he began drawing at age 5, has an inclination for anime characters, but has also portrayed soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and the animated SpongeBob SquarePants.

Venezuelan artist Oscar Olivares, who runs an art academy, saw Samuel’s tweets and gave him a scholarship to study drawing. Social media followers have also gifted him a laptop, a set of artists’ pencils — and peanut butter, a good source of protein.

Samuel, who said he may raise his prices as his skills advance, would like to make YouTube-style videos about videogames when he grows up.

“I’m proud of him, really. I don’t have words,” Rodríguez said. “But I do feel angry sometimes, I feel helpless, because I think that at his age, he should be studying, learning, and not wanting to work to help me, when I’m the one who has to do everything possible to give them comfort and nourishment.”

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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.

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