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Swedish Firm Says Covid Test Database Breached

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The Swedish firm's database contained patient data, including COVID-19 test results (Representational)
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Stockholm:
A Swedish information technology firm said on Tuesday a database containing patient data, including COVID-19 test results, had been breached but it was unclear if any contents had leaked.
InfoSolutions said in a statement that it had identified a breach last week but it had since "identified and solved what made the intrusion possible.
"It cannot be ruled out that personal data has been read, but InfoSolutions considers the risk to be very low," it said, adding that no information had been lost or altered.
The firm provides digital journals, including test results, for 15 of Sweden's 21 regions on behalf of the Public Health Agency, which has twice shut the database in recent months and reported suspected breaches to the police.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/swedish-firm-says-covid-test-database-breached-2470220">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/swedish-firm-says-covid-test-database-breached-2470220</a>

news world Swedish Firm Says Covid Test Database Breached

The Swedish firm's database contained patient data, including COVID-19 test results (Representational) Stockholm: A Swedish informa...

Google To Soon Face Lawsuit Over Play Store From US States: Sources

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Google already faces a federal lawsuit brought by the Justice Department last year (File).
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Washington:
A group of state attorneys general may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc's Google as early as next week, accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mobile app store, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Google's management of its Play Store for Android devices, according to one source. The lawsuit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed, but seems close again, the sources said.
The investigation by the state attorneys general is being led by Utah, Tennessee, North Carolina and New York. It is unclear how many states will participate.
Two sources said the case is likely to be filed in federal court in Northern California, where related cases are being heard. These include a lawsuit that video game maker Epic Games Inc filed against Google last year, accusing it of having anti-competitive app store rules. It is expected to go to trial in 2022.
There also are two proposed class-action lawsuits over the Play Store before the same judge. If the states want to participate in depositions and other pre-trial activities, they would have to file fairly soon, one source said.
Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month.
A Google spokesperson defended their app store as open.
"Android is the only major operating system that allows people to download apps from multiple app stores. In fact, most Android devices ship with two or more app stores preinstalled. They can also install additional app stores or apps directly from their browser if they choose," the spokesperson said.
Google was originally seen as more open in how it ran its app store than Apple but has tightened rules recently and increased enforcement of those rules.
The lawsuit is expected to focus on Google's requirement that some apps use the company's payment tools to sell subscriptions and content and pay Google as much as 30% of sales, according to two sources.
App makers like music streaming service Spotify Technology SA and dating services giant Match Group, which owns the Tinder app, have long accused both Google, as well as Apple, of being anti-competitive in demanding mandatory revenue sharing.
This latest lawsuit is being planned at a time of unusually vigorous debate over whether federal antitrust enforcement is too lax. Many people, including Senator Amy Klobuchar who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel, have pressed for tougher enforcement.
Google already faces a federal lawsuit brought by the Justice Department last year and related antitrust cases brought by two separate groups of attorneys general. One is led by Texas and focused on advertising while the other targets Google's alleged efforts to extend its dominance in search to newer markets, like voice assistants.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/google-to-soon-face-lawsuit-over-play-store-from-us-states-sources-2470217">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/google-to-soon-face-lawsuit-over-play-store-from-us-states-sources-2470217</a>

news world Google To Soon Face Lawsuit Over Play Store From US States: Sources

Google already faces a federal lawsuit brought by the Justice Department last year (File). Washington: A group of state attorneys gener...

US Experts To Review Heart Problems Among Teens After Covid Shots

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The Pfizer vaccine is currently the only shot authorized in adolescents aged 12 and up.
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Washington, United States:
A panel of experts convened by the top US health agency will hold a meeting Wednesday to review data surrounding more than 300 confirmed cases of heart muscle inflammation among adolescents and young adults after receiving mRNA Covid vaccines.
The committee, hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will hear a risk-benefit analysis as researchers explore whether the shots can cause myocarditis, as well as cases of inflammation of the heart lining, pericarditis. 
Israel first was the first country to identify a possible link.
"These cases are rare, and the vast majority have fully resolved with rest and supportive care," said CDC director Rochelle Walensky last week ahead of the meeting, which was initially scheduled for last Friday but postponed because of a new public holiday.
The cases that have been confirmed were investigated following initial reports to vaccine safety monitoring systems, and come from more than 20 million adolescents and young adults that have been vaccinated, added Walensky.
While 300 out of 20 million is a small number, it is still likely higher than what would otherwise be expected for the age group.
A previous meeting on the issue convened on June 10 by the Food and Drug Administration heard that most of the cases were among young men and occurred within a week of the second dose.
The new CDC hearing will dive deeper into updated data that has been independently verified, rather than being self-reported.
Mostly mild cases
Lorry Rubin, director of pediatric infectious diseases at Cohen Children's Medical Center told AFP: "I'm concerned, but I'd emphasize that cause and effect has not yet been established."
He said that his own hospital had seen a few cases of adolescent males developing chest pain a day or two after the second dose of an mRNA vaccine.
The Pfizer vaccine is currently the only shot authorized in adolescents aged 12 and up.  
"On the other hand, the cases have been relatively mild," added Rubin, with the patients returning to normal within a few days after treatment with medicine like ibuprofen.
Myocarditis is known to be seasonal, with higher incidence in summer months potentially linked to enteroviruses, and is estimated to affect one per 100,000 children per year.
Even if a causal link to the vaccines is established, Rubin said it should be weighed against the risks to children from Covid. 
While children are less affected than adults, the virus has still hospitalized more than 3,000 children in the United States over the course of the pandemic, and led to more than 300 deaths, according to official data. Some 2,700 people under-30 have died from Covid. 
"We've actually had more kids infected with Covid that we know who have had long term impacts, some of whom have been quite ill with cardiac symptoms in the hospital," stressed Lee Savio Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Other experts have adopted a more cautious line. 
Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases and public health expert at the University of California San Francisco, said that the United States had gone beyond some other countries' recommendations on vaccinating teens.
These include Germany and Israel, which only recommend vaccinating adolescents who are at high risk, while Britain is still examining the data and hasn't yet reached a decision.
"It's a new vaccine, it's been increasingly elevated as a concern, and all other countries except for us have done something that errs on the side of safety," she told AFP, adding she was holding off having her 13-year-old child receive a second dose until she learns more.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-us-experts-to-review-heart-problems-among-teens-after-covid-shots-2470216">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-us-experts-to-review-heart-problems-among-teens-after-covid-shots-2470216</a>

news world US Experts To Review Heart Problems Among Teens After Covid Shots

The Pfizer vaccine is currently the only shot authorized in adolescents aged 12 and up. Washington, United States: A panel of experts c...

Twin Joy As Tokyo Panda Gives Birth To Two Cubs

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Officials said they are currently doing their best to protect and observe the mother and babies.
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Tokyo, Japan:
A panda at Tokyo's Ueno zoo gave birth to twins on Wednesday, weeks after news of Shin Shin's pregnancy sent stocks in nearby restaurants soaring.
The two bundles of joy were born in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the zoo said in a statement, adding that it had not yet confirmed the sex of the pair.
"Officials are currently doing their best to protect and observe the mother and babies," the statement added.
The zoo is set to give a press conference later Wednesday morning and release images of the tiny additions.
Mother Shin Shin sparked a rally in stocks of eateries near the zoo earlier this month when her suspected pregnancy was announced, with investors anticipating a visitor boom to the area after the delivery.
Shares in one Chinese restaurant nearby spiked nearly 30 percent on the pregnancy and was up around 6.4 percent in early trade Wednesday.
Zookeepers had been on alert for a possible pregnancy after Shin Shin and partner Ri Ri mated in early March.
The pair are also parents of a female panda, Xiang Xiang, that was born in June 2017 and became a massive draw for the zoo.
She was scheduled to be repatriated to China two years after her birth, but Japanese officials successfully negotiated to extend her stay.
She is now set to return to China at the end of the year.
Japanese media have been offering regular updates on the pandas at Ueno, which in non-pandemic times draw huge crowds of domestic and foreign tourists.
It is estimated that there are around 1,800 giant pandas left in the wild, living mainly in bamboo forests in the mountains of China, according to environmental group WWF.
Around 600 more live in zoos and breeding centres around the world.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies giant pandas as "vulnerable".
The black and white mammals are immensely popular around the world and China loans them out as part of a "panda diplomacy" programme to foster foreign ties.
The bears are notoriously bad at reproducing, but the last year has seen several born at facilities around the world.
In early June, a panda in Malaysia gave birth to its third cub during its stay there.
And a newborn in Washington DC has enthralled Americans since its birth in August 2020, with over a million people tuning in within just months to watch Xiao Qi Ji -- Little Miracle -- on a "Panda Cam".
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/twin-joy-as-tokyo-panda-gives-birth-to-two-cubs-2470215">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/twin-joy-as-tokyo-panda-gives-birth-to-two-cubs-2470215</a>

news world Twin Joy As Tokyo Panda Gives Birth To Two Cubs

Officials said they are currently doing their best to protect and observe the mother and babies. Tokyo, Japan: A panda at Tokyo's U...

Countries Relying On Chinese Vaccines Reporting Covid Surge: Report

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Countries Relying On Chinese Vaccines Reporting Covid Surge: Report" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/m24odnso_china-vaccine-generic-bloomberg_625x300_28_May_21.jpg" title="Countries Relying On Chinese Vaccines Reporting Covid Surge: Report" /></div>
Chinese companies have not released much clinical data of their vaccines. (File)
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Washington:
Countries like Mongolia, Seychelles and Bahrain had relied on the easily accessible Chinese COVID-19 vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic and bring back normalcy. These countries are now battling a surge in infections.
Examples from several countries suggest that the Chinese vaccines may not be very effective at preventing the spread of the virus, particularly the new variants, reported The New York Times (NYT).
In Seychelles, Chile, Bahrain and Mongolia, about 50 to 68 per cent of the populations have been fully inoculated with Chinese vaccines, outpacing the United States, according to Our World in Data, a data-tracking project. They are also among the top 10 countries with the worst COVID-19 outbreaks as recently as last week.
"If the vaccines are sufficiently good, we should not see this pattern," said Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. "The Chinese have a responsibility to remedy this."
Amid uncertainty over how countries with relatively high inoculation rates are suffering new outbreaks, scientists have pointed out to relaxing of social controls and careless behaviour.
Israel, which has the second-highest vaccination rate in the world with shots from Pfizer after Seychelles, reports 4.95 new COVID-19 cases per million. On the other hand, Seychelles, which relied mostly on Sinopharm, that number is more than 716 cases per million.
China, as well as the more than 90 nations that have received the Chinese shots, may end up as a country that is fully vaccinated but partly protected from the virus, contending with rolling lockdowns, testing and limits on day-to-day life for months or years to come. Moreover, economies could remain held back, reported NYT.
Beijing saw its vaccine diplomacy as an opportunity to emerge from the pandemic as a more influential global power. China's top leader, Xi Jinping, pledged to deliver a Chinese shot that could be easily stored and transported to millions of people around the world.
Mongolia, relying on Chinese aid, quickly rolled out an inoculation program and eased restrictions, vaccinating 52 per cent of its population. However, it recorded 2,400 new infections on Sunday, quadrupling from a month before.
In a statement, China's Foreign Ministry said it did not see a link between the recent outbreaks and its vaccines. It cited the World Health Organization as saying that vaccination rates in certain countries had not reached sufficient levels to prevent outbreaks, and that countries needed to continue to maintain controls, according to NYT.
"Relevant reports and data also show that many countries that use Chinese-made vaccines have expressed that they are safe and reliable, and have played a good role in their epidemic prevention efforts," the ministry said.
While the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have efficacy rates of more than 90 per cent, China's Sinopharm vaccine has an efficacy rate of 78.1 per cent and the Sinovac vaccine has an efficacy rate of 51 per cent.
Moreover, the Chinese companies have not released much clinical data to show how their vaccines work at preventing transmission. Data on breakthrough infections has not been made available, either, though a Sinovac study out of Chile showed that the vaccine was less effective than those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna at preventing infection among vaccinated individuals.
William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University, said the efficacy rates of Chinese shots could be low enough "to sustain some transmission, as well as create illness of a substantial amount in the highly vaccinated population, even though it keeps people largely out of the hospital".
Despite the spike in cases, officials in both the Seychelles and Mongolia have defended Sinopharm, saying it is effective in preventing severe cases of the disease.
Nikolai Petrovsky, a professor at the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University in Australia, said that with all of the evidence, it would be reasonable to assume the Sinopharm vaccine had minimal effect on curbing transmission. He said that a major risk with the Chinese inoculation is that vaccinated people may have few or no symptoms and still spread the virus to others.
In Indonesia, where a new variant is spreading, more than 350 doctors and healthcare workers recently came down with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated with Sinovac, according to the risk mitigation team of the Indonesian Medical Association.
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were the first two countries to approve the Sinopharm shot, even before late-stage clinical trial data was released. Since then, there have been extensive reports of vaccinated people falling ill in both countries, NYT reported.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-countries-relying-on-chinese-vaccines-reporting-covid-surge-report-2470214">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-countries-relying-on-chinese-vaccines-reporting-covid-surge-report-2470214</a>

news world Countries Relying On Chinese Vaccines Reporting Covid Surge: Report

Chinese companies have not released much clinical data of their vaccines. (File) Washington: Countries like Mongolia, Seychelles and Ba...

Media, Fact Checkers Censor Crime Reporting After Juneteenth Violence

The British government has claimed that it intends to send private security contractors to knock on the doors of anyone returning from holidays to make sure they are quarantining upon their return, as required by law.
Home Secretary Priti Patel <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9597685/Priti-Patel-reveals-plans-10-000-quarantine-checks-day.html">announced Wednesday</a> that those returning from destinations that have not been added to the government’s ‘green list’ should expect to be checked on at their homes.
The warning comes after the government lifted international travel restrictions on Monday, allowing people to go on holiday, but with extensive caveats.
Patel claimed that 10,000 checks will be conducted every day by private contractors hired <a href="https://www.mitie.com/all-services/security-fire/?filter-service=security-and-fire&filter-search=">via the firm Mitie</a>, and if people are found to be flouting quarantine or acting noncompliant, police will be called to deal with them, with the authorisation to issue fines of up to £10,000.
The government has decreed that a negative PCR test and ten day quarantine is required for anyone returning from countries it has not deemed to be completely safe to visit, including the popular destinations of The U.S., France, Spain and Greece.
Those returning will then have to take a further two PCR tests (at their own expense) and test negative to be allowed out of their houses after the ten day period.
“People will not go unchecked,” Patel threatened. adding “Significant resources have been put in place – millions of pounds – in terms of the follow-up checking of people around their testing and making sure they stay at home. It has been stepped up.”
Discouraging travel to so called ‘amber list’ countries, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-travel-expect-knock-on-the-door-when-you-return-from-amber-countries-priti-patel-warns-12311649">told Sky News</a> Thursday that “You’ve got to quarantine. People will come to your house to check your quarantine. It’s expensive. We’re not at the stage of saying to people, go to those places on holiday. Please don’t.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock also claimed that the door to door checks are already underway, with 30,000 being conducted last week.
Boris Johnson told MPs yesterday that visits to medium-risk destinations are only acceptable in ‘extreme circumstances’. 
The announcement came after millions of people had already booked trips to the destinations, and in many cases have already arrived there, prompting fury from travellers, airlines and booking agents.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, of Advantage Travel Partnership described the government’s actions as “typical nanny state tactics.”
She added “Surely the British public can make up their own mind if they wish to quarantine in order to visit an amber country. As long as protocols are followed, testing is in place and rules in the destination are adhered to we see no reason why we cannot be allowed to travel safely to amber destinations for leisure. Otherwise, make those amber countries red.”
In related news, it has been revealed that UK ‘Covid passports’ officially rolled out for use during international travel <a href="https://summit.news/2021/05/20/privacy-watchdog-uk-covid-passport-small-print-says-it-will-be-used-domestically/">will eventually be used domestically</a> to restrict the movement of the population, according to the small print on the NHS website.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/22/media-fact-checkers-censor-crime-reporting-after-juneteenth-violence/">https://summit.news/2021/06/22/media-fact-checkers-censor-crime-reporting-after-juneteenth-violence/</a>

revolution summit Media, Fact Checkers Censor Crime Reporting After Juneteenth Violence

The British government has claimed that it intends to send private security contractors to knock on the doors of anyone returning from holid...