S Korea says leaflets sent by defectors unlikely to be cause of Covid in N Korea

 South Korea's unification ministry said on Friday there is "no possibility" of Covid-19 entering North Korea via contaminated balloons sent by activists in the South.

North Korea said earlier in the day the country's first outbreak began with patients touching "alien things" near the border with South Korea, apparently shifting blame to its neighbour for the wave of infections that hit the isolated country.

The North's state media did not directly mention South Korea, but North Korean defectors and activists have for decades flown balloons from the South across the heavily fortified border, carrying leaflets and humanitarian aid.

https://www.tbsnews.net/coronavirus-chronicle/s-korea-says-leaflets-sent-defectors-unlikely-be-cause-covid-n-korea-450806

Ala. cites SCOTUS abortion ruling in treatments for transgender youth

 Days after the Supreme Court ruled that states can prohibit abortion, Alabama has seized on the decision to argue that the state should also be able to ban gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender youth.

The case marks one of the first known instances in which a conservative state has tried to apply the abortion ruling to other realms, just as LGBTQ advocates and others were afraid would happen.

Critics have expressed fear that the legal reasoning behind the high court ruling could lead to a rollback of decisions involving such matters as gay marriage and birth control.

The state is asking a federal appeals court to lift an injunction and let it enforce an Alabama law that would make it a felony to give puberty blockers or hormones to transgender minors to help affirm their gender identity.

In its historic ruling last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court said terminating a pregnancy is not a fundamental constitutional right because abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution and is not "deeply rooted in this nation's history and tradition."

In a brief filed Monday, the Alabama attorney general's office argued similarly that gender transition treatments are not "deeply rooted in our history or traditions," and thus the state has the authority to ban them. Alabama contends such treatments are dangerous and experimental, a view disputed by medical organizations.

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said it is the first case he is aware of in which a state cited the abortion ruling on another issue, but added, "It won't be the last."

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion that the abortion ruling should not cast "doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion." But Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the same legal reasoning should be used to reconsider high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraceptives.

"It is no surprise that Alabama and other extremely conservative states are going to take up that invitation as forcefully as they can," Minter said. "Justice Thomas' concurrence was a declaration of war on groups already under attack, and we expect the hostility to be escalated."

He said a rethinking of such constitutional protections could affect things like birth control and parental rights.

"They are not just talking about LGBT people," Minter said.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall was unavailable for comment Thursday, a spokesman said.

Jeff Walker, who has a 15-year-old transgender daughter, said this spring that it felt as if Alabama were attacking families like his with legislation targeting transgender kids' medication and dictating their choice of school bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams. He said the state's argument in this case is worrisome for everyone.

"I think everyone should be concerned by the wording of this appeal. By this logic, any health care the state feels isn't in line with its morals or beliefs should be banned," Walker said.

The Alabama case could become be an early test of where judges stand on the scope of the abortion ruling. The appeals court granted the state's request for an expedited schedule for submitting briefs, and a decision could come as early as this fall.

While Alabama was already appealing the injunction in the transgender medication case, the state quickly incorporated the abortion decision into its filing.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey this spring signed the law making it a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison to dispense certain medication to minors to help with their gender transition.

A federal judge in May issued a preliminary injunction blocking the measure, siding with parents who said the law violates their children's rights and their own rights to direct their youngsters' medical care.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alabama-transgender-healthcare-abortion-ruling-roe-v-wade/

Abortion drug maker says Mississippi can't ban pill despite Supreme Court ruling

 The maker of a drug used in medication abortions has told a federal judge that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling eliminating the nationwide right to abortion does not allow Mississippi to stop it from selling the pills in the state.

GenBioPro Inc, which makes a generic version of the drug mifepristone, said in a Thursday filing in Jackson, Mississippi federal court that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug should override any state ban.

The Las Vegas-based company sued the state in 2020 to challenge regulations that restricted medication abortion specifically. Mississippi is now set to ban nearly all abortions under a 2007 "trigger law" following the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, which overturned its landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade establishing a constitutional right to abortion.

GenBioPro said that law will create a "that-much more direct and glaring conflict" with the FDA. It cited U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland's statement last week that states "may not ban mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA's expert judgment about its safety and efficacy."

Mississippi said in an opposing filing that "the legal landscape following Dobbs has shifted overwhelmingly in favor of the state's authority to regulate or prohibit abortion," and that there was no evidence that Congress ever intended the FDA to restrict states' ability to regulate abortion.

The U.S. Department of Justice has not intervened in the case, and declined to comment on it Friday.

Bans and restrictions on abortion are now taking effect or are poised to do so in 22 states, including 13 like Mississippi with so-called "trigger" laws designed to take effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy research group.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/abortion-drug-maker-says-mississippi-171739551.html

North Korea Blames 'Alien Things' From South For COVID-19 Outbreak

 North Korea said Friday it had discovered the source of its ongoing outbreak of COVID-19: residents who came into contact with “alien things” along its border with South Korea.

The country’s state media said North Korean health authorities believe the outbreak began when two people — an 18-year-old soldier and 5-year-old child — were exposed to the virus by balloons. Pyongyang said the balloons were flown from South Korea, a deeply unlikely method of transmission but one experts say is in line with the North’s efforts to keep up the antagonistic relationship between the two nations, Yonhap News reported.

The country issued a directive that authorities “vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons in the areas along the demarcation line and borders.”

Activists in South Korea have flown balloons across the border with North Korea to distribute propaganda leaflets. But the South Korean government quickly moved to say even if balloons had reached the north, there is no chance they may have spread the virus, The Associated Press reports.

The country, which had largely succeeded in keeping the coronavirus at bay by effectively sequestering itself from the rest of the world, announced its first official COVID-19 case on May 12. Experts say cases have since exploded across the nation, which is largely unvaccinated against the virus.

North Korea has now reported about 4.7 million cases of fever, but only a small fraction of those have been identified as COVID-19. The nation says just 73 people have died from the disease, an extremely low fatality rate that would be unlikely given North Korea’s health system.

The country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has described the coronavirus outbreak as the greatest “turmoil to fall on our country since the founding,” according to state media.

Still, North Korea on Thursday rejected offers of humanitarian aid from the United States. The country’s foreign ministry said any offers were merely a “scheme to realize a foul political purpose,” Yonhap reported. (The Washington Post notes the country is suspected to have received some aid from China).

“The U.S. is trying to evade the international society’s criticism by speaking of humanitarian aid while attempting to isolate and squeeze us to death,” state media said.

https://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-blames-alien-things-072758755.html

Omicron-specific COVID shots could increase protection as boosters: European regulators

 Coronavirus vaccines tweaked to include the Omicron variant strain can improve protection when used as a booster, the European Medicines Agency and other global health regulators said on Friday.

Following a meeting on Thursday, the EMA said global regulators had agreed on key principles for updating COVID-19 shots to respond to emerging variants.

While the existing coronavirus vaccines continue to provide good protection against hospitalization and death, the group said, vaccine effectiveness has taken a hit as the virus has evolved.

As such, an Omicron-specific or bivalent booster - meaning a vaccine that includes both the new strain and the original coronavirus strain - could "increase and extend" protection, a statement from the EMA said.

The statement refers specifically to the mRNA vaccines. Both Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc have been testing retooled versions of their vaccines to include the Omicron variant.

Vaccines which include other variants, for example the Beta variant, might also be considered for use as boosters if clinical trial data demonstrate an adequate level of neutralization against Omicron and other variants of concern, the statement said.

It follows guidance from the World Health Organization that Omicron-specific boosters could restore protection against emerging strains of the coronavirus.

But it stops short of the position of the regulator in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which said on Thursday that it would seek the inclusion specifically of the newer BA.4 and BA.5 strains of Omicron, currently driving a surge in new infections globally, in any new shots for use domestically.

On Tuesday, the head of a WHO advisory committee that has considered the modified shots said the group preferred BA.1-based boosters, arguing that the variant is more distinct and could generate a broader response than the more recently circulating subvariants.

Top U.S. FDA official Peter Marks said in an interview that regulators from other countries were seriously considering using new boosters based on the BA.1 Omicron variant that caused the massive surge in cases last winter, because those shots can be available sooner than the BA.4/5 based booster the United States plans to use.

The EMA said it would provide more details in coming days.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/omicron-specific-covid-shots-could-increase-protection-as-boosters-european-regulators-1.5971024

Biden predicts states will ban women from traveling for abortion

 President Joe Biden on Friday predicted some states will try to prevent women from crossing state lines to seek an abortion but pledged to protect women's rights to travel to seek such services.

He said the federal government will also protect women seeking the abortion pill from another state if their home state bans the medication.

The U.S. Supreme Court voted June 24 to overturn the 1973 landmark ruling of Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. Biden, who called it "a terrible, extreme decision" Friday, reiterated his pledge to protect women's ability to travel across state lines to obtain abortion services.

"As I said last week: This is not over," Biden said Friday. "Last week, I announced two specific actions. First, that if extremist governors try to block a woman from traveling from her state that prohibits her from seeking medical help she needs, to a state that provides care, the federal government will act to protect her bedrock right through the attorney general's office," he said.

Biden also repeated his call for Americans to vote more Democrats into Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. He's seeking to have federal abortion rights codified into law, but in order to do so, Democratic senators would have to get past the filibuster, which would block the legislation from passing with a simple majority.

"The choice is clear: We either elect federal senators and representatives who will codify Roe or Republicans ... who will try to ban abortions nationwide," he said.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/07/01/President-Joe-Biden-abortion-governors/2671656702553/

Agnelli's Exor to invest 833 million euros for 10% stake in France's Institut Merieu

 

Italy's Agnelli family will invest 833 million euros ($865 million) through its holding company Exor to buy a 10% stake in French privately-held healthcare group Institut Merieux, the companies said in a joint statement on Friday.

The deal marks the first major international move into the healthcare business for Exor, which will soon have 9 billion euros ($9.6 billion) to invest after the closing of the sale of Bermuda-based reinsurer Partner Re, expected soon.

Exor will acquire the stake in Institut Merieux - which controls five companies in different healthcare businesses, including Paris-listed bioMerieux - through a reserved capital increase.

The deal is expected to be completed during the summer.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/BIOMERIEUX-37839085/news/Agnelli-s-Exor-to-invest-833-million-euros-for-10-stake-in-France-s-Institut-Merieux-40879021/