Life

27, August 2021

Covid-19: Has Delta killed the herd immunity dream? ⁰

As the Delta variant continues its global surge, experts are questioning whether the long-held goal of achieving herd immunity from Covid-19 through vaccination is still viable.

Herd immunity is achieved when a certain threshold of the global population has either been inoculated against a pathogen or has recovered from infection.

But whether or not it is achievable with Covid-19, with the regular emergence of more infectious strains, is up for debate.

“If the question is ‘will vaccination alone allow us to dampen and control the pandemic?’ the answer is: no,” epidemiologist Mircea Sofonea told AFP.

He said herd immunity hinged on two basic factors.

“That’s the intrinsic infectiousness of the virus and the efficacy of vaccines to protect against infection. And at the moment, that efficacy isn’t there.”

Delta has shown to be roughly 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and up to twice as infectious as the original strain that emerged in late 2019.

The more effective the virus becomes at infecting people, the higher the herd immunity threshold becomes.

“Theoretically, it’s a very simple calculation to make,” said epidemiologist Antoine Flahault.

For the original virus, which had a reproduction rate between zero and three — meaning each infected person infects up to three others — herd immunity could have been achieved with around 66 percent of people immunised, Flahault told AFP.

“But if the reproduction rate is eight, as with Delta, that puts us closer to 90 percent,” he said.

Were vaccines 100 percent effective at stopping Delta infections, that 90 percent could conceivably be possible. Unfortunately, they aren’t.

– Waning immunity? –

According to data published this week by US authorities, the efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines at preventing infection has fallen from 91 percent to 66 percent since Delta became the dominant variant.

And studies have shown that the vaccine efficacy against infection with Delta falls over time — one of the reasons why several countries are now readying for an autumn third shot, or “booster”, vaccination campaign.

With all this taken into account, absent other health measures such as mask-wearing or social distancing, Sofonea said it would take more than 100 percent of people to be vaccinated in order to guarantee transmissions end — an obvious impossibility.

“The Delta variant will still infect people who have been vaccinated and that does mean that anyone who’s still unvaccinated, at some point, will meet the virus,” Andrew Pollard, director of Britain’s Oxford Vaccine Group, told lawmakers this month.

– ‘Mythical’ –

But even if, as Pollard termed it, the “mythical” aim of herd immunity is no longer in play, experts stressed that getting vaccinated remained paramount.

As with vaccines against other, now-endemic diseases such as measles and influenza, the Covid vaccines offer excellent protection against severe illness.

“What scientists are recommending is to get the maximum number of people protected” through vaccination, said Flahault.

Eventually, of course, all pandemics end.

Sofonea said it would still be possible that Covid would become another endemic disease over time, “just not with vaccines alone”.

He envisioned a near future where “masks and social distancing continue in certain regions” in order to limit transmission and, ultimately, severe illness.

“During the AIDS pandemic, when scientists said we needed to wear condoms, lots of people said: ‘OK, we’ll do it for a while’,” said Flahault.

“And in the end they kept on using them. It could well be that we will continue using masks in enclosed spaces and on transport for quite some time.”

Source: AFP

25, August 2021

Cash-for-marks scandal rocks Buea University, lecturers implicated! ⁰

Cameroonian Universities under the Biya Francophone regime are rife with corruption and several instances of moral turpitude. The University of Buea (UB) is not immune from this vice; a recent press release linked to the revaluation of answer sheets attests.

Under the ruling CPDM crime syndicate, lecturers who took bribes and corrected the marks of dozens of students including those who had sex with under-aged female students have often escaped with a lenient punishment or go scot-free making the mark tampering scheme to flourish in the University of Buea.

Prof Ngomo Horrace Manga, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea is leading the investigation this time around pertaining to the final-semester examination involving money being transferred via MTN services to UB lecturers.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the first step in the process is for the lecturers to humiliate the students who do not clear the exam. After that the lecturers comforts them and says he would be able to help. He eventually takes a bribe and changes the marks.

The Vice Chancellor’s communiqué made public evidence collected from several students when the irregularity was brought to light.

It is estimated that some one hundred students benefitted from the cash-for-marks scam scheme.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Mukake Stephen in Buea

18, August 2021

Pope Francis appears in video promoting Covid-19 jabs as ‘act of love’ ⁰

Pope Francis said getting the coronavirus vaccine was “an act of love” Wednesday, as the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics joined a campaign to boost confidence in Covid-19 jabs.

“Thanks to God and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from COVID-19,” Francis said in a message for the US-based “It’s Up to You” initiative.

“They grant us the hope of ending the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we work together,” he said in the video, aimed at communities disproportionately affected by the virus in North, Central and South America.

“Being vaccinated… is an act of love,” the 84-year old said.

“And contributing to ensure the majority of people are vaccinated is an act of love. Love for oneself, love for one’s family and friends, love for all people“.

Coronavirus has killed at least 4,370,427 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data.

Despite mass vaccine campaigns, conspiracy theories and distrust of governments or pharmaceuticals are fuelling transmission of the virus.

In the US, the worst-affected country in terms of Covid-19 deaths, the vast majority of new fatalities and serious cases are among the unvaccinated.

Francis was joined by cardinals and archbishops from Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Peru for the campaign by the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

(AFP)

17, August 2021

2021 SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION LAUNCH ⁰

Today, SOBA UK announced the 2021 Annual Residential Convention, officially known as the SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION LAUNCH.

Currently in development, the 2021 SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION LAUNCH opens in a new tab and is being directed to “Appreciating Community Spirit”.

Poised to be the first major African event in the UK after the Covid-19 pandemic, SOBANS have developed the Annual Residential Convention Launch to address systemic diversity and equity issues deep within the Sasse Old Boys.

Below is the official statement from the SOBA UK leadership

We trust that you and your family are keeping well.

We are delighted to announce the 2021 SOBA UK Annual Residential Convention to be held at The Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trent, from 15th to 17th October 2021. St George’s Park is the Home of the England National football teams and is a magnificent venue for Sobans, their families, and guests to have a great get away and the ultimate event experience over two days.

In 2018, SOBA UK selected St George’s Park and delivered one of its most successful conventions. The feedback from our guests were excellent and we hope to surpass that experience again this year. Some facts about The Hilton at St George’s Park are in the attached 3-paged flyer accompanying this launch

Covid-19 measures

In July, the UK Government lifted all lockdown restrictions relating to social gatherings. This has allowed SOBA UK and the Hilton to proceed with this convention. However, SOBA UK will seek to provide reasonable safety measures and encourages all guests to take the necessary Covid-19 measures, in line with government advice.

We encourage our guests to take their double vaccine jabs and/or take a Covid test prior to the event. The capacity at the event will be limited to 250 places to allow for sufficient distancing and guests will have access to hand sanitisers and temperature checks at entry. In addition, the gala event will start at 4.30pm and finish at 2.30am, to adjust to the new normal.

Convention theme

The theme of this year’s Convention is “Appreciating Community Spirit”, reflecting on the difficult year we have had as a community due to the Covid-19 pandemic, those who have suffered illness or lost loved ones, and on how we have missed the company of each other. This theme also extends to our communities in Cameroon who have benefitted from our collective kindness here in the UK from past fundraising initiatives. Our fundraising focus this year is equipping the Sasse College library. We will be looking to assist where possible and we look forward to your generous support. We will supplement our usual fundraising event at the gala with a GoFundMe campaign, which will be launched in the coming week.

We have allowed free time on the Saturday 16th October up to 4pm for Soban parents to spend quality time with their families at the venue. This has been made possible by moving our Annual General Assembly Meeting to take place virtually and a week prior to the convention.

We will make available the services of a children entertainer on the day on the Saturday 16th.

We will also be making available a nanny service (for a fee and subject to demand) on the Saturday night whilst parents attend the convention ball at the Sir Bobby Robson Ballroom. Please confirm upon booking your ticket the number of children in your party.

Given the early gala start time, we recognise the need to provide dinner for our children and we will be providing each family with snacks. Please confirm upon booking your ticket if you will require the snack and the number of children in your party.

We will make available the services of a children entertainer on the day on the Saturday 16th.

We will also be making available a nanny service (for a fee and subject to demand) on the Saturday night

whilst parents attend the convention ball at the Sir Bobby Robson Ballroom. Please confirm upon booking your ticket the number of children in your party.

Ticket price

SOBA UK always seeks to deliver great value events at competitive prices to our guests. However, following the year and half long pandemic shutdowns hotel venues have significantly increased their prices but we have modestly reflected these increased costs in our ticket prices. Our price will be £100 for a standard ticket with an early bird discount of £50 to a table of 10 guests which ends on 25th September. Please contact our sales agents for more details – contact and payment details are on the attached flyer.

Hotel rooms

There are limited rooms available, and rooms can only be purchase via the link provided below. The hotel is already sold out for Saturday 16th October, except for the rooms allocated to our guests. Please book your room as soon as possible. We expect the demand for hotel rooms to be very high for those seeking to stay at the venue. CLICK HERE TO OPEN HOTEL BOOKING LINK

On behalf of all Sobans in the UK, we say a big thank you in advance for your continued support of SOBA UK.

We encourage you to buy your tickets as soon as possible and begin your planning for the convention.

We look forward to welcoming you and your families at The Hilton at St George’s Park.

Kind regards

Franklin Egbe

President, SOBA UK On behalf of the SOBA UK Event Management team

4, August 2021

Nkotti François has died ⁰

Makossa legend and leader of the renowned group “Black Styl” Nkotti François has died today August 4, 2021 in the Douala General Hospital.

Desto as he was often referred to by his colleagues and fans all over the world, celebrated his 50 years of musical career recently and published an autobiographical book that traces his long and rich musical career with the likes of Toto Guillaume, Emile Kangue, Ake Loba, and Monie Miller.

Nkotti François was one of the patriarchs of Makossa who successfully recorded several albums with more than 150 songs.

He created the national song contest which has become today “Mutzig star”. He was also an economic actor with the Musical, Artistic, Industrial and Commercial Fair of Cameroon (Fomaric) of which he was the boss for over twenty years.

A multidimensional man, Nkotti François was also a militant of the ruling CPDM party and was elected mayor in (2002-2013) of the Bonalea district, Moungo Division in the Littoral region.

By Fon Lawrence

4, August 2021

Man dresses as a woman to sit exams on behalf of girlfriend ⁰

A Senegalese student was detained Monday after he disguised himself as a woman in a bid to sit for national examinations on behalf of his girlfriend.

The student, enrolled in a university in the north of the country, and his girlfriend “were placed under arrest on Monday evening.

They will be tried on Thursday with his girlfriend for “exam fraud”, their lawyer said Tuesday.

“The couple is to be “tried on (Thursday) August 5 for exam fraud and complicity in fraud”, by the court of Diourbel,” the prosecutor said.

The student, whose age was not disclosed, had moved to Diourbel to take the exams for his girlfriend, a student in a high school in this city, according to the prosecution.

Photos posted on social networks depicted him wearing a red dress with black patterns, wearing a veil with the same colors and a black shawl, to deceive the invigilators.

He was surprised on Saturday, the third day of the exam, during the English test, by the supervisors, who according to the press, noticed that something was wrong with his attire.

They then reported him to the police who arrested him and his girlfriend who was waiting for him in a hostel in the city, according to the same source.

Source: Africa News

1, August 2021

Kassav: Musicians worldwide mourn passing of Jacob Desvarieux ⁰

Tributes are pouring in for Guadeloupean musician Jacob Desvarieux, co-founder of the band Kassav’ who died at the age of 65 on Friday after catching Covid. He shot to fame in the 1980s with the invention of ‘zouk’ – bringing the fast, catchy sounds of the Caribbean to the world.

Local media in the French territory of Guadeloupe announced his death late on Friday, prompting an outpouring of grief.

“A giant of zouk music. An unparalleled guitarist. An emblematic voice of the West Indies. Jacob Desvarieux was all of these things at once,” French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted.

In poor health after undergoing a kidney transplant, the singer and guitarist was taken to hospital in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe’s largest city, on 12 July after catching Covid-19.

“The West Indies, Africa and music have just lost one of their greatest ambassadors,” tweeted Senegalese music star Youssou N’Dour.

“Jacob, thanks to your art, you brought the West Indies and Africa closer together. Dakar where you once lived mourns you. Farewell friend.”

A successful experiment

Desvarieux told French daily Liberation in 2016 that his band Kassav’ started out in Paris as an experiment.

“We wanted to find a soundtrack that would combine all the previous (Caribbean) traditions and sounds, but that would be exportable everywhere,” he said.

And so zouk was born, rising to global fame, particularly in France and on the African continent where people partied to its festive rhythm.

“We questioned our origins through our music,” Desvarieux told Liberation. “What were we doing here, we who were black and spoke French?”

Kassav’ rose to prominence along with the increasing popularity of world music in the 1980s.

Modern twist

The brainchild of Guadeloupean artists Pierre-Edouard Decimus and Freddy Marshall, the band was founded in 1979 with Desvarieux, who was born in Paris and had been influenced by guitarists Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix.

The band’s base style is gwo ka, a kind of Guadeloupean drumming music, topped up with ingredients from all over the Caribbean and a modern twist.

Kassav’s first album was released in 1979, and the band reached its peak popularity at the end of the 1980s.

It signed a contract with the multinational CBS record label, and was praised by jazz legend Miles Davis.

Since then, zouk music’s popularity has waned but Kassav’ continues to attract crowds at its concerts.

Source: RFI

31, July 2021

Covid-19: WHO sounds alarm on Delta as China outbreak spreads ⁰

Mushrooming outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant prompted China and Australia to impose stricter Covid-19 restrictions on Saturday as the WHO urged the world to quickly contain the mutation before it turns into something deadlier and draws out the pandemic.

China’s most serious surge of coronavirus infections in months spread to two more areas Saturday — Fujian province and the sprawling megacity of Chongqing.

More than 200 cases have been linked to a Delta cluster in Nanjing city where nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive, with the outbreak spanning Beijing, Chongqing and five provinces as of Saturday.

The nation where the disease first emerged has rushed to prevent the highly transmissible strain from taking root by putting more than one million people under lockdown and reinstituting mass testing campaigns.

Worldwide, coronavirus infections are once again on the upswing, with the World Health Organization announcing an 80 percent average increase over the past four weeks in five of the health agency’s six regions, a jump largely fuelled by the Delta variant.

“Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge,” the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference.

He stressed that the “game plan” still works, namely physical distancing, wearing masks, hand hygiene and vaccination.

But both high- and low-income countries are struggling to gain the upper hand against Delta, with the vastly unequal sprint for shots leaving plenty of room for variants to wreak havoc and further evolve.

In Australia, where only about 14 percent of the population is jabbed, the third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state were to enter a snap Covid-19 lockdown Saturday as a cluster of the Delta variant bubbled into six new cases.

“The only way to beat the Delta strain is to move quickly, to be fast and to be strong,” Queensland’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles said while informing millions they will be under three days of strict stay-at-home orders.

‘The war has changed’

The race for vaccines to triumph over variants appeared to suffer a blow as the US Centers for Disease Control released an analysis that found fully immunised people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant can spread the disease as easily as unvaccinated people.

While the jabs remain effective against severe disease and death, the US government agency said in a leaked internal CDC document “the war has changed” as a result of Delta.

An analysis of a superspreading event in the northeastern state of Massachusetts found three-quarters of the people sickened were vaccinated, according to a report the CDC published Friday.

The outbreak related to July 4 festivities, with the latest number of people infected swelling to 900, according to local reports. The findings were used to justify a return to masks for vaccinated people in high-risk areas.

“As a vaccinated person, if you have one of these breakthrough infections, you may have mild symptoms, you may have no symptoms, but based on what we’re seeing here you could be contagious to other people,” Celine Gounder, an infectious diseases physician and professor at New York University, told AFP.

According to the leaked CDC document, a review of findings from other countries showed that while the original SARS-CoV-2 was as contagious as the common cold, each person with Delta infects on average eight others, making it as transmissible as chickenpox but still less than measles.

Reports from Canada, Scotland and Singapore suggest Delta infections may also be more severe, resulting in more hospitalisations.

Asked if Americans should expect new recommendations from health authorities or new restrictive measures, US President Joe Biden responded, “in all probability,” before leaving the White House by helicopter for the weekend.

He did not specify what steps could be taken.

Source: AFP

26, July 2021

Malaysian doctors stage walkout amid worsening Covid outbreak ⁰

Hundreds of junior doctors at state-run Malaysian hospitals staged walkouts Monday demanding better conditions as the country faces its worst coronavirus outbreak yet.

Dressed in black and holding signs with slogans including “equal pay, equal rights, equal opportunity” and “we are your future specialists”, they protested at medical facilities nationwide.

The doctors are on contracts for a set period and say their treatment is worse than that of permanent government staff, even as they have found themselves on the frontline of the fight against Covid-19.

They complain of a lack of job security, poor benefits and that very few are eventually offered permanent positions.

We want “equal rights, to be a permanent doctor,” said a medic at a government hospital that treats virus patients outside Kuala Lumpur.

“We would definitely not be here if we were treated fairly… we should be appreciated for what we do,” the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

The medic was among dozens who took part in the action at the hospital, which lasted around half an hour.

Local media reported that several hundred participated across the country, but some doctors complained they were threatened by police and senior hospital staff in a bid to halt the protests.

Those involved said senior doctors took over their duties before they walked out, to ensure that patient care was not jeopardised.

Malaysia is currently battling its most serious outbreak, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant. Officials have reported over one million cases and about 8,000 deaths.

There are over 23,000 doctors on these contracts in Malaysia — about 45 percent of the total medical doctors in the public healthcare system, according to official estimates.

Last week, the government said it would extend junior doctors’ contracts for up to four years in a bid to forestall the protests.

But they stopped short of offering permanent jobs, and the organisers of Monday’s walkout criticised the move as “short-sighted”.

AFP

22, July 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Church schools targeted in Ambazonia ⁰

Schoolchildren are deliberately attacked, abducted and killed in Cameroon’s increasingly violent Anglophone crisis. An independent investigation has verified 13 recent attacks using satellite images, finding both government soldiers and armed separatist groups responsible. Catholic and Presbyterian-run institutions are among the schools targeted by all sides in the conflict. It is thought that two hundred schools have been attacked or set on fire since 2018.

In 2016, the Francophone-dominated government of President Paul Biya tried to impose a French curriculum on English-speaking schools, while demanding that the French legal system replaced English Common Law in courts in the Anglophone regions of North West and South West.

In response, armed groups demanding an independent Anglophone nation called Ambazonia called for a boycott of schools and a weekly “ghost towns” that shuttered the economy. A warning from the Ambazonian Restoration Forces appeared on Facebook in August 2019, telling parents not to send their children to school, saying, “You will have only yourselves to blame.”

After the attacks began, parents withdrew their children, forcing education in the Anglophone regions to cease. The UN estimates that one million youngsters (out of a total Anglophone population of six million adults and children) have been out of school for almost four years. The Cameroon ministry of basic and secondary education recently announced that 70,000 children have now returned and 400 schools have reopened. However, it is understood that those schools are in towns and cities, whereas institutions in more remote areas are reluctant to reopen for fear of attack.

The Bellingcat report draws on years of research by the Cameroon Anglophone Database of Atrocities, working with the Berkeley Human Rights Center. Many of the attacks have taken place in the diocese of Bamenda which is twinned with the UK diocese of Portsmouth. St Augustine’s Secondary College in Kumbo was attacked in May 2020; in October 2020, men on motorcycles armed with machetes and guns killed seven children and wounded a dozen at Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba; and in January 2021, the Presbyterian secondary school in Mankon, Bamenda was torched.

A Presbyteran school in Nkwen near Bamenda was subject to two attacks in 2018 during which almost 100 teachers and children were abducted, interrogated and held for ransom. They were eventually released unharmed. In November 2020, the students and teachers at Kulu memorial College were forced to strip and then run into the bush before the building was burned. In the North West region, the wing of a Catholic school in Kambe was burned in February 2021.

Bellingcat is an independent international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists. It’s report, “How Schoolchildren became Pawns in Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis,” is based on painstaking work by volunteers at the Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities and the Berkeley Human Rights Center, videos posted on social media by civilians, soldiers and armed groups, and opensource material and satellite imagery.

The Bellingcat report quotes teachers who “walk a thin line” between the armed separatists enforcing the boycott and the government security services which are trying to end the ban. In addition, teachers say they are targeted by criminal gangs extorting money. The Voice of America quotes Nji Samuel Kale of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, saying, “The community and the Christians help us run the schools. The teachers, we must attest, they have been enduring a lot. They have shown a lot of resilience.”

Most of the separatist leaders live overseas, meaning that their children are not missing school. They refuse to back down unless they are seen to win concessions from the government. Meanwhile the Swiss Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue continues to offer to host inclusive peace talks. Both the government and armed separatist groups have declined to participate.

Before he died earlier this year, Cardinal Christian Tumi warned that violently enforcing the schools boycott was turning the Anglophone population against the separatists. He mentioned a girl whose hand was amputated by separatists as she went to sit her exams. Cardinal Tumi was kidnapped and interrogated by an armed Anglophone group in November 2020. He was later released unharmed but died in April 2021, age 90.

Historically, the Catholic Church, as well as Anglican and Presbyterian missions, have run schools and clinics across Africa in the absence of comprehensive, good quality education and health provision by governments. In addition, faith-based entities are estimated to provide between 30% and 70% of health services. There are no reliable figures for how many schools are provided by faith groups on the continent.

Source: Independent Catholic News