Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
No Radiological Hazards As Chernobyl Detectors Restart
Reuters: Chernobyl Radiation Detectors Back Online, Levels Normal — IAEA
Radiation detectors in the Exclusion Zone around Ukraine's defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant are back online for the first time since Russia seized the area on Feb. 24, and radiation levels are normal, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday. "Most of the 39 detectors sending data from the Exclusion Zone ... are now visible on the IRMIS (International Radiation Monitoring Information System) map," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. "The measurements received so far indicated radiation levels in line with those measured before the conflict." (6/7)
NBC News: Ukraine Sounds Alarm About Possible Cholera Outbreak In Russian-Occupied Mariupol
Mariupol, the Ukrainian city relentlessly bombed and besieged by Russian forces for months, could now be facing a deadly cholera outbreak, local officials have warned. An adviser to the occupied port city’s mayor said Tuesday that its drinking water had been contaminated by decomposing garbage and corpses, increasing the risk of a cholera outbreak. (Talmazan, 6/7)
CNN: Singapore's Dengue 'Emergency' Is A Climate Change Omen For The World
Singapore says it is facing a dengue "emergency" as it grapples with an outbreak of the seasonal disease that has come unusually early this year. The Southeast Asian city-state has already exceeded 11,000 cases -- far beyond the 5,258 it reported throughout 2021 -- and that was before June 1, when its peak dengue season traditionally begins. Experts are warning that it's a grim figure not only for Singapore -- whose tropical climate is a natural breeding ground for the Aedes mosquitoes that carry the virus -- but also for the rest of the world. That's because changes in the global climate mean such outbreaks are likely to become more common and widespread in the coming years. (Chen, 6/6)
Bloomberg: China Fears Wind Is Blowing Covid Virus In From North Korea
Officials in a Chinese city on the border with North Korea say they can’t figure out where persistent new Covid-19 infections are coming from -- and suspect the wind blowing in from their secretive neighbor. Despite being locked down since the end of April, daily cases have been trending up in Dandong, a city of 2.19 million. Most of the infected people found in the community during the past week hadn’t been outside of their housing compounds for at least four days prior to their diagnosis, according to the city’s Center for Disease Control. (6/7)
Reuters: COVID Vaccine Rights Waiver Within Reach, WTO Chief Says Ahead Of Meeting
An international agreement on waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines is within reach ahead of a global trade meeting next week, the head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday. In a telephone interview, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also said an agreement could be reached on fishing subsidies in time for the meeting, when 120 trade ministers from around the world gather at the body's Geneva headquarters. (Farge, 6/8)
The Washington Post: ‘Needle Spiking’ Reports Grow In France, Belgium And Britain
She had eagerly looked forward to going home for the holidays and reuniting with friends over dinner and drinks. Instead, Eva Keeling, 19, says, she wound up injected by a stranger with a needle, leaving her unable to speak or function while at a bar in her hometown of Stafford, in northern England. “We went outside [the bar] for some fresh air … then I ended up losing all control of my body, the ability to walk, hold my head up, I couldn’t talk — I was projectile vomiting everywhere,” Keeling told The Washington Post. (Suliman and Francis, 6/7)
