Ontario reports first death from measles in over a decade

An Ontario child under the age of five has died of measles, the first such case in the Canadian province in more than a decade, according to the provincial health agency.

The child required hospitalization and was not vaccinated against the highly infectious respiratory virus, Public Health Ontario (PHO) said in a statement on Thursday, without specifying when or where the child died, or their actual age.

For the period between Jan. 1, 2013 and this week, there had not been a single measles-related death recorded in the province.

Measles, a highly contagious, airborne virus that mostly affects children under five years old, can be prevented by two doses of vaccine and more than 50 million deaths have been averted since 2000, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed "growing vaccine hesitancy" over the past decade around North America and the world for some of the recent outbreaks of preventable childhood illnesses.

"My best advice to all families is to listen to your physicians, talk with your doctors about what vaccinations are right for their kids .. this is a tragedy that nobody wants to see. I can't imagine what that family is going through right now," Trudeau told reporters in Winnipeg.

In February, the WHO warned that more than half the world's countries will be at high or very high risk of measles outbreaks by the end of the year unless urgent preventative measures were taken.

Ontario, Canada's most populous province, has reported 22 cases of measles so far this year, with the source of infection in 15 attributed to travel, PHO said. Ontario reported some 101 cases between 2013 and 2023.

Canada eradicated measles in 1998 thanks to high immunization coverage, according to the federal health agency. As a result, measles cases in Ontario are predominantly associated with travel, often referred to as “measles importations", the PHO said.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ontario-reports-first-death-measles-162845581.html

Vietnam forfeits billions of dollars in foreign aid amid anti-graft freeze, document says

 ietnam forfeited at least $2.5 billion in foreign aid over the last three years and may lose another $1 billion because of administrative paralysis, the United Nations, the World Bank and Western donors told the government in a letter seen by Reuters.

The previously unreported figures from the unpublished document, dated March 6, highlight frustration among foreign investors over regulatory hurdles and lengthy approval procedures that have caused prolonged deadlock as the Communist-ruled country is gripped by an escalating anti-corruption campaign and political turbulence.

"Approximately $1 billion in development funding is awaiting approval, with an additional $2.5 billion returned due to funding expirations," said the letter, sent to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh - effectively signalling potential losses worth nearly 1% of the country's gross domestic product.

The expired funding could delay much-needed projects, such as infrastructure upgrades, and donors stressed in the letter that much more may have been lost in additional funds that have been "deterred by the protracted approval processes".

Two senior foreign officials interviewed by Reuters directly linked the administrative hurdles to the "blazing furnace" anti-graft drive, echoing similar comments from other diplomats and officials in recent months.

The anti-graft drive has created a sort of paralysis, in which bureaucrats are slow to approve or advance initiatives because they fear accidentally violating complex regulations.

Amid those constraints, the country is struggling to spend even its own public funds, having failed to invest about $19 billion from 2021 to 2023, one-quarter less than it had planned, according to the finance ministry.

The letter was sent by the heads of the U.N. and World Bank in Vietnam and is co-signed by 18 ambassadors, including from the United States, the European Union and Japan, and the head of the Asian Development Bank in the country.

Vietnam's prime minister's office and the investment ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.N. and the World Bank said they kept working closely with the government on projects, with the U.N. acknowledging in a statement to Reuters that there were "challenges" for the use of funding.

POWER CONUNDRUM

Vietnam has made significant commitments to reduce its use of coal in exchange for Western climate funding, but a year and a half after a deal with Group of Seven (G7) nations was announced, no funds have been disbursed, while Vietnam is boosting its coal imports to avert power shortages in foreign-invested factories.

After multiple requests from donors, the government established a working group on the issue and instructed officials to review some regulations that hamper access to funds, one foreign official involved in the discussions told Reuters, noting that no deadline was set to complete the process.

The power grid, crucial infrastructure for the country, has been deemed in need of upgrades, and large amounts of foreign funds are available for the work. However, existing rules prevent the state-owned network operator from accessing that money at least until 2027 because of financial issues, the official said as an example of the deadlock.

Donors' frustration is leading to decisions that could reduce future assistance to Vietnam.

The World Bank, for instance, says it will merge its Hanoi office from July with operations in Cambodia and Laos to improve "management efficiency", a move that could lead to a shift in focus.

Vietnamese officials have urged foreign donors to reduce the costs of their funds, which come mostly in loans, often at market prices. But the country has also forfeited large amounts of grants, Western officials said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-vietnam-forfeits-billions-dollars-031419712.html

Despite consumer watchdog's US Supreme Court win, agency powers still on chopping block

 The U.S. Supreme Court's decision safeguarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - the nation's consumer finance watchdog - earned plaudits from supporters of robust federal regulation. But their praise for the court may prove short-lived.

Powered by its 6-3 conservative majority, the court has emerged in recent years as something of an ally in what has been called the "war on the administrative state," a longstanding conservative effort to weaken federal agencies that regulate key aspects of American business and life.

The court on Thursday upheld the CFPB's funding mechanism - drawing money annually from the Federal Reserve rather than from budgets passed by Congress - in a challenge by the payday loan industry, handing a win to President Joe Biden's administration and a setback to the agency's conservative critics.

Despite that ruling, pending decisions in cases that the justices heard during their current term, which began in October, could substantially curb federal agency powers in areas ranging from finance to fish conservation. Those rulings are expected by the end of June.

"It's always perilous to predict the outcome of Supreme Court decisions, but I anticipate the agencies will still face a net-loss record this year at the court," George Mason University law professor Jennifer Mascott said after the CFPB ruling.

The 7-2 decision, authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, reversed a lower court's ruling that the CFPB's funding design violated a provision of the U.S. Constitution called the "appropriations clause," giving Congress the power of the purse.

Afterward, Biden lauded the work being done by the agency, blasted its Republican critics and said the CFPB's "strong record of consumer protection will not be undone."

Brianne Gorod, chief counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center liberal legal group, welcomed the CFPB ruling but emphasized that the challenge to the agency represented just one front in a "multifaceted conservative attack on the ability of the federal government to function effectively."

"The full story regarding this court and whether it is willing to enable the conservative attack on the administrative state very much remains to be written," Gorod said.

Key rulings are pending in cases involving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The justices on Nov. 29 heard arguments over the legality of proceedings conducted by in-house judges at the SEC to enforce investor-protection laws. The challenge was brought by a Texas-based hedge fund manager who the SEC fined and barred from the industry after determining he had committed securities fraud.

Biden's administration appealed a lower court's decision striking down the SEC enforcement proceedings at issue for violating the right to a jury trial and infringing on presidential and congressional powers under the Constitution.

'CHEVRON DEFERENCE'

The justices heard arguments on Jan. 17 in lawsuit by fishing companies over a government-run program to monitor for overfishing of herring off New England's coast.

The case is particularly important because the companies have asked the court to rein in or overturn a precedent established in 1984 that calls for judges to defer to federal agency interpretation of U.S. laws deemed to be ambiguous, a doctrine called "Chevron deference."

Some legal scholars have said that a ruling limiting or eliminating Chevron deference would likely harm Democratic presidential administrations more than Republican ones, as Democrats are typically more interested in regulating industry.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley Law School, said CFPB's legal victory should not be seen as predictive of how the court will rule in other cases testing agency powers.

"I think this was the most radical of the administrative law decisions (by lower courts) being reviewed by the court this term because it involved changing a way of funding agencies that has been used since the time of George Washington," Chemerinsky said of the CFPB ruling by the conservative-leaning New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Regarding the cases involving the SEC's authority and Chevron deference, Chemerinsky added: "Those issues are quite different and involve administrative law issues much more generally."

In the EPA-related case, the court on Feb. 21 heard arguments in a bid by Republican-led Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia and several energy companies to block a regulation issued by the agency aimed at reducing ozone emissions that may worsen air pollution in neighboring states.

The plaintiffs are seeking to avoid complying with the EPA's "Good Neighbor" plan restricting ozone pollution from upwind states, while they contest its legality in a lower court.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/despite-consumer-watchdogs-us-supreme-100330876.html

CDC to end free COVID vaccine program for uninsured early

A federal program providing free COVID-19 vaccines to uninsured and underinsured adults is shutting down this summer, before the fall rollout of updated vaccines to fight against the latest variants. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said its Bridge Access Program will end in August because of a lack of funding. The program has provided more than 1.4 million free COVID-19 vaccines since it launched in September 2023 at a cost of more than $1 billion. 

The Bridge Access Program was meant to be temporary and was originally scheduled to end in December 2024.  

COVID-19 vaccines were available on the commercial marketplace for the first time last fall, as the federal government stopped distributing them once the public health emergency ended.  

Most private insurance companies cover the shot for free, but there are 25 million to 30 million adults without health insurance and additional adults whose insurance does not cover all COVID-19 vaccine costs. The Bridge program allowed CDC to purchase the vaccines from the manufacturers and distribute them to state and local health departments as well as pharmacies, where they’d be made available for the uninsured.

The fiscal 2024 government funding bill rescinded $4.3 billion in COVID-19 funding that was never obligated, and a CDC spokesperson indicated the agency had been using some of it to run the Bridge program.  

“Due to Congressional rescissions of COVID-19 funds in the FY 2024 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, difficult decisions had to be made about the future of CDC activities supported by those funds,” David Daigle told The Hill in an email. 

As a potential replacement, the CDC is advocating for a Vaccines for Adults proposal that was included in President Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget request. If enacted, it would give uninsured adults free access to recommended vaccines, similar to the successful Vaccines for Children program. The White House requested $25 billion over a decade to fund it.  

But even if the program is included, the appropriations process won’t be complete in time for a fall vaccine rollout.  

Until August, people can find where to locate a free COVID-19 Bridge vaccine at vaccines.gov.  

“After August, there may be a small amount of free vaccine available through health department immunization programs, but supply would be very limited. We don’t yet know if the manufacturers will have patient assistance programs,” Daigle said.  

The Food and Drug Administration is meeting in early June to discuss which new COVID-19 variants the fall vaccines will target.  

But vaccination rates remain low. According to the latest federal estimates from the beginning of May, just 22.5 percent of adults reported received a 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine since they began rolling out in mid-September 2023. 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4670459-cdc-ending-free-covid-vaccines-uninsured/

El-Erian Says Fed’s Higher-for-Longer Rates U-Turn Is at Odds With Market

• Fed’s 2% inflation target is ‘totally arbitrary’: El-Erian
• Real economy, not inflation, will force Fed to pivot, he says

The Federal Reserve’s delay of interest-rate cuts in a bid to temper inflation runs the risk of falling behind the curve, according to Mohamed El-Erian.

“The Fed pivoted on the basis of data. It was the opposite of the pivot that they did in December — now they have to do a U-turn,” El-Erian, the president of Queens’ College, Cambridge and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, told Bloomberg Television on Friday. “As they are doing the U-turn and stay higher for longer, the market is going the other way.”

 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-17/el-erian-says-fed-s-higher-for-longer-u-turn-at-odds-with-market

Fed Chair Powell tests positive for COVID-19, working from home

 Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and is currently working from home, a Fed spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

"Chair Powell tested positive for COVID-19 late yesterday and is experiencing symptoms." He is working from home and staying away from others, the statement said, as per guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The announcement follows a trip to Europe this week in which Powell, 71, appeared on Tuesday on stage at an event with Dutch central bank president Klaas Knot in Amsterdam.

Powell last tested positive for Covid in January 2023. There was little reaction in financial markets after the Fed's announcement of Powell's latest COVID-19 infection. The next scheduled Fed policy meeting is not until June 11-12.

Powell, who was due to give commencement remarks in person on Sunday at Georgetown Law School, will now deliver them via

prerecorded video, the statement said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fed-chair-powell-tests-positive-155722942.html

Cano Health Wins Creditor Support to Cut Debt, Exit Bankruptcy

• Senior lenders would take ownership under plan to reorganize
• Bankruptcy judge agrees to send proposal to creditors for vote

Cano Health Inc. won support from lower-ranking creditors for a plan to slash about $1 billion in debt and exit bankruptcy under new owners.

At a court hearing Friday morning, the company and the official committee of unsecured creditors announced the deal, which calls for senior lenders owed about $974 million to take ownership of the Miami-based healthcare company in exchange for canceling most debt.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-17/cano-health-wins-creditor-support-to-cut-debt-exit-bankruptcy