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No extra COVID booster needed for medium-risk adults, says WHO

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No extra COVID booster needed for medium-risk adults, says WHO

WHO recommends major doses and a primary booster in wholesome adults, kids and adolescents with comorbidities.

The World Well being Group (WHO) says it now not recommends extra COVID-19 vaccine booster doses for normal, medium-risk adults, because the profit is marginal.

For individuals who have obtained their major vaccination course and one booster dose, there isn’t any danger in having additional jabs, however the returns are slight, the WHO’s vaccine consultants stated on Tuesday.

The UN well being company’s Strategic Advisory Group of Specialists on Immunization (SAGE) issued up to date suggestions after its common biannual assembly. Its new recommendation displays the impression of the dominant Omicron variant of the virus and high-level immunity now achieved within the inhabitants via an infection and vaccination, the WHO stated.

SAGE got here up with three new, simplified precedence classes for COVID-19 vaccination: excessive, medium and low, based mostly on the danger of extreme illness or loss of life.

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It additionally really useful extra booster pictures after the primary one just for folks on the highest danger of creating extreme COVID-19 illness. They embrace older adults; youthful adults with comorbidities corresponding to diabetes; folks with immunocompromising situations like HIV; pregnant ladies; and front-line healthcare employees.

The medium-risk group contains wholesome adults, normally beneath 60, and kids and adolescents with comorbidities. SAGE recommends a major collection and a primary booster dose.

“In the case of the medium-risk group, extra booster doses … are now not really useful,” stated SAGE chair Hanna Nohynek.

“The vaccine is protected and it’s environment friendly towards critical illness and loss of life,” she stated, noting that for the medium-risk group, whereas there was no hurt in having one other shot, “the good thing about these extra boosters is definitely fairly marginal”.

Burden increased in infants

The low-risk group contains wholesome kids and adolescents aged six months to 17 years.

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Whereas major and booster doses are protected and efficient for this group, contemplating the low burden of COVID-19 illness, SAGE stated international locations’ vaccination choices must be based mostly “on contextual components” corresponding to well being programme priorities and cost-effectiveness.

“Although low total, the burden of extreme COVID-19 in infants beneath 6 months continues to be increased than in kids aged 6 months to five years,” it stated.

Vaccinating pregnant folks – together with with a further dose if greater than six months have handed because the final dose – protects each them and the fetus, whereas serving to to scale back the chance of hospitalisation of infants for COVID-19.

As for the impression of COVID-19 vaccines on lengthy COVID, or post-infection situations, “the proof on the extent of their impression is inconsistent”, stated SAGE.

Practically 13.3 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered world wide.

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WHO searching for new vaccines

WHO vaccines chief Kate O’Brien stated that with the Omicron variant, the present vaccines present excellent immunity towards extreme illness, however “frankly they don’t final very lengthy for the efficiency that they do have towards delicate illness or an infection”.

The WHO is searching for new COVID-19 vaccines that cowl a broad spectrum of variants, have longer sturdiness and higher efficiency towards an infection and transmission.

Additionally it is searching for vaccines that transfer on from injection strategies and extremely chilly chain storage, O’Brien stated, citing nasal, oral and pores and skin patch vaccine strategies.

Talking of two nasally-administered vaccines, notably one being utilized in China, SAGE govt secretary Joachim Hombach stated: “We all know that they’re immunogenic … however what we actually want is information that truly research the impression on transmission – as a result of that might certainly make a significant distinction.”

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Police charge three people with death of One Direction star Liam Payne

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Police charge three people with death of One Direction star Liam Payne

Toxicology tests show One Direction star had cocaine, prescription drugs and alcohol in his system.

Three people have been charged over the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne’s death, according to the Argentine prosecutor’s office.

Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he died, authorities said in a statement.

They have charged someone close to Payne, a hotel employee, and a suspected drug dealer, it was announced on Thursday.

All three are accused of playing a role in giving Payne the drugs. The person who was visiting with Payne is also charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death”, authorities said. They are not naming those who have been charged.

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Fall from balcony

Payne, who had a child, died at the age of 31 after falling from a third-floor balcony on October 16 in Buenos Aires. He died from multiple injuries caused by the fall. His body was found in the hotel’s internal courtyard.

Payne was a member of the popular boy band One Direction, formed in 2010 after its members, Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, had auditioned as solo acts for the television show The X-Factor.

The band was created by the show’s judge, Simon Cowell and shot to international fame. The group had been on hiatus since 2016 as the band members pursued solo careers.

‘Breakdown’

Initial police investigations showed Payne was alone in his room and experiencing a “breakdown”.

Following his death, police found substances in his hotel room, such as packs of clonazepam, a central nervous system depressant, energy supplements and other over-the-counter drugs strewn among his belongings.

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Authorities also recovered a whiskey bottle, lighter and mobile phone from the internal courtyard where Payne’s body was found.

In recent years, Payne had acknowledged struggling with alcoholism, saying in a YouTube video posted in July 2023 that he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment.

Payne’s death sparked an outpouring of grief from his fans and fellow band members.

The Casa Sur hotel in Buenos Aires, where he died, has become a place for Payne’s fans to pay their respects. They have left flowers, candles and photos of the singer in a makeshift shrine around a tree at the hotel’s entrance.

Payne had travelled to Argentina to see former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan in concert two weeks before he died.

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French Watchdog Probes Polymarket, Where Trader Won Big on Trump Bet

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French Watchdog Probes Polymarket, Where Trader Won Big on Trump Bet
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s gambling regulator said on Thursday it was examining whether Polymarket, the platform where a French trader placed a successful multi-million dollar bet on Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election, complies with French laws. “We are currently examining its …
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Israel takes hard line against terrorists, allowing deportation of family members

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Israel takes hard line against terrorists, allowing deportation of family members

A new law in Israel allows for the deportation of family members of Palestinian attackers, including Israelis, to the Gaza Strip or another location.

Passed by Israel’s parliament, known officially as Knesset, early on Thursday with a 61-41 vote, the law was championed by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his far-right allies. Deportation of a terrorist’s immediate family member could be ordered by the interior minister authority following a hearing, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Family members who had advance knowledge of an attack and failed to report it to police or “expressed support or identification with an act of terrorism or published words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for an act of terrorism or a terrorist organization” would be subject to the law, The Times of Israel reports. 

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the opening of the 25th Knesset session marking the anniversary of the “Iron Swords” war, in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (Debbie Hill/Pool Photo via AP)

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They would be deported for a period of seven to 20 years. The Israel-Hamas war is still raging in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed and most of the population has been internally displaced, often multiple times. 

Legal experts believe that any attempt to implement the law would likely lead to it being struck down by Israeli courts.

Anti-Netanyahu protesters

Police disperse people protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, near the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

“The bottom line is this is completely nonconstitutional and a clear conflict to Israel’s core values,” Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former international law expert for the Israeli military, told the Associated Press. 

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Israel and Hezbollah conflict

Israeli forces monitor activity in the Gaza strip. (IDF)

It is unclear if the law will apply in the occupied West Bank, where Israel already has a long-standing policy of demolishing the family homes of attackers. Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years.

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Palestinians living in Israel make up around 20% of the country’s population. They have citizenship and the right to vote but face widespread discrimination. Many also have close family ties to those in the territories and most sympathize with the Palestinian cause.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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