Germany restricts AstraZeneca vaccine in people under 60
German health officials agreed Tuesday to restrict the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in people under 60, amid fresh concern over unusual blood clots reported in a tiny number of those who received the shots.
Health Minister Jens Spahn and state officials agreed unanimously to only give the vaccine to people aged 60 or older, unless they belong to a high-risk category for serious illness from COVID-19 and have agreed to take the vaccine despite the small risk of a serious side effect. The same option will be available to anyone who gets the shot at their doctor, which will start to become possible later this month.
“In sum it’s about weighing the risk of a side effect that is statistically small, but needs to be taken seriously, and the risk of falling ill with corona,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin.
The move follows the recommendations of Germany’s independent vaccine expert panel and comes after the country’s medical regulator released new data showing a rise in reported cases of an unusual form of blood clot in the head known as sinus vein thrombosis in recent recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The news is a further blow to the vaccine, which is critical to Europe’s immunization campaign and a linchpin in the global strategy to get shots to poorer countries. It comes less than two weeks after the EUdrug regulator said the vaccine does not increase the overall incidence of blood clots following a similar scare.
The European Medicines Agency said at the time that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks, but it could not rule out a link between the shot and some unusual kinds of clots.
Gaetz investigated: Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and a close ally of former President Donald Trump, is being investigated by the Justice Department over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him, according to three people briefed on the matter.
Investigators are examining whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, the people said.
It was not clear howGaetz met the girl, believed to be 17 at the time of encounters about two years ago that investigators are scrutinizing, according to two of the people.
The investigation was opened in the final months of the Trump administration under Attorney General William Barr, the two people said.
No charges have been brought against Gaetz, and the extent of his criminal exposure is unclear.
Texas DACA case: A federal judge did not rule Tuesday on a closely watched case over the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which confers limited protections on hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought into the U.S. as children.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen set an early April deadline for lawyers on both sides to provide more information.
Texas heads a coalition of Republican-led states that want Hanen to invalidate the DACA program, instituted in 2012 by former President Barack Obama. Defending the program is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a group of Democrat-led states.
DACA recipients are granted a two-year reprieve from deportation that can be extended and receive a work permit and a Social Security number. The more than 600,000 people currently in the program must meet several requirements, including having no criminal record.
But the program remains on potentially precarious ground. Lawyers for Texas on Tuesday pushed Hanen to quickly invalidate DACA.
BlackHills blaze: High winds Tuesday hampered firefighters battling wildfires in the Black Hills of South Dakota that have forced the evacuations of more than 400 homes and closed the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Three separate wildfires were burning near Rapid City, with the largest near Schroeder Road in the Nemo area. That fire has burned nearly 3 square miles. Two smaller blazes were burning southwest of Rapid City, near Keystone, leading Mount Rushmore National Memorial to close through at least Wednesday, as well as surrounding roads.
The Schroeder Road fire has not grown considerably since Monday, U.S. Forest Service support services specialist Halley Legge said Tuesday. At least one home has been destroyed, officials said. No injuries have been reported.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who traveled to Rapid City on Monday to oversee the response, said the fire started on private property. “There have been losses and that is tragic,” she said.
Trump appeal tossed:
Former President Donald Trump could face questioning under oath about a former “Apprentice” contestant’s sexual assault allegations against him, following a ruling from New York’s highest court Tuesday.
Evidence-gathering has been on hold in Summer Zervos’ defamation lawsuit since Trump asked the high court last year to declare the that the presidency protected him from being sued in state courts. In a one-sentence ruling, the Court of Appeals tossed Trump’s appeal as moot now that he’s out of the White House.
Lawyers for the woman, Summer Zervos, had asked the high court to nix the appeal and return her defamation suit to a trial court for both sides to continue pretrial evidence-seeking that could eventually enable Zervos’ lawyers to quiz Trump under oath, and his to question her. Deadlines for such questioning, known as a deposition, had been set for last year before Trump appealed to the high court.
“Now a private citizen, the defendant has no further excuse to delay justice for Ms. Zervos, and we are eager to get back to the trial court and prove her claims,” lawyers Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza said in a statement Tuesday.
Hong Kong elected seats:
China has slashed the number of directly elected seats in Hong Kong’s legislature in a setback for the territory’s beleaguered democracy movement.
The changes were announced Tuesday after a two-day meeting of China’s top legislature.
The legislature will be expanded to 90 seats, and only 20 will be elected by the public. Currently, half of the 70-seat legislature is directly elected.
The move is part of a two-phase effort to rein in political protest and opposition in Hong Kong, which is part of China but has had a more liberal political system as a former British colony. China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong last year and is following with a revamp of the electoral process.