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[01/19/24]More work to be done on climateDuring the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as COP28, Cedric Schuster, Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment and the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, called the draft of the final agreement “death certificate” of small island nations. A statement delivered by the Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, on behalf of what is known as the umbrella group of countries, echoed that they will not be a co-signatory to “death certificates for small island states,” and demanded a stronger agreement of COP28 to deal with fossil fuels and address the climate crisis. It made us feel like islanders’ voices have finally been heard by our allies, but we also understand that, regarding climate action, we are not exactly there and there is more work to be done.
Please check out the monthly column in the Guam Daily Post contributed by President of Guahan Global Foundation Edward Lu regarding COP28’s result:https://www.postguam.com/forum/featured_columnists/more-work-to-be-done-on-climate/article_8e857cf0-9a26-11ee-8f45-87ebc8aff4d6.html
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More work to be done on climate
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
Guahan Global Foundation
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June 6, 2023Steven LeFever getting help from around the world for Guam typhoon relief
We sincerely ask for your support to a typhoon relief project for Guam, organized by Steven LeFever, a writer, actor and filmmaker originated in Guam and now based in Japan.
100% profits of your purchases thru the website of his design will be donated to Guam to help victims of typhoon Mawar, which directly hit and severely damaged the island of Guam.
Please check out pictures below for more info. Please do visit Steven’s website and offer your help: https://lefever.myspreadshop.com/
More info about the typhoon: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/01/perfect-storm-of-chaos-a-week-after-typhoon-mawar-most-of-guam-still-without-basic-services
Steven’s website provides worldwide shipping. That means you can help from every part of the world. Please do take action for this good cause.
We also want to share Steven’s Facebook post regarding this initiative as the following:
To my friends and family from Guam currently living overseas, and to my friends with whom their only connection to Guam is through me @lesteze //
What began as LeFever family reunion t-shirt designs, is slowly turning into a purpose I hope to fulfill.
https://lefever.myspreadshop.com/
Starting off w 10 designs by my wife and son Chisato and Airi (and a photo I took of the Milo bubb ), I've curated them into 500+ various LeFever clothing items, and I plan for 100% of proceeds to go towards communities affected by supertyphoon Mawar, which recently devastated Guam and the neighboring islands.
It's been over 20 years since the last supertyphoons Paka and Pongsona. I remember those nights, both experiences uniquely traumatic. And to follow; no power and water for weeks// with the only thing to look forward to, then and now, being the gorgeous stars. Clear ethereal nights that can ground and prepare human will to begin taking steps forward again.
Though recovery will take months perhaps leading into years, perhaps allow this return to form be a chance to once again stop and smell the guasali. The tiny essences in life we once loved yet lost sight of along the way.
Many lucky stars to count for what we still have. Health. Nature. Conversation. Connection. And support by thy fellow human.
If you are able to, and want to, you can help me give support through LeFever apparel, or donate direct via paypal - lefevergives@gmail.com
Thank you for reading, maybe sharing, and above all, for being both part of my life, and my life/// onelove
mangåffa = everything
///
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Steven LeFever getting help from around the world for Guam typhoon relief
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Guahan Global Foundation
P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA
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(02/20/2023)Mr. Edward Lu, president of Guhan Global Foundation and our director of Public Health Office, wrote an article for the Guam Daily Post in February 2023 to encourage people joining a nine-month health campaign from February, the American Heart Month, to October and being able to welcome a healthier World Diabetes Day in November.Please check out the article:https://www.postguam.com/forum/featured_columnists/american-heart-month-to-world-diabetes-day/article_dcf6c854-ad9a-11ed-acc0-9ba3d63d6df9.htmlSome resources mentioned in the article are listed below:Sign up 28-day Healthy Heart Challenge:https://www.nwhealthin.com/heart-challenge12-week Total Lean Challenge:https://gncguam.net/2021/05/13/total-lean-challenge-12-week-healthy-weight-loss-program/Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes:https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/education/TLC-Therapeutic-Lifestyle-Changes-Lower-Cholesterol
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From American Heart Month to World Diabetes Day
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(01/17/2022)Did G20 learn lessons from the Delta?
When the world welcomed 2022, many people were actually calling the new year “pandemic year 3.” If we have had it enough and do not want “pandemic year 4,” year 5 or year 6, let’s encourage Indonesian government step forward with its Group of 20 (G20) presidency to call for an international campaign helping people around the globe fearlessly live with the coronavirus and adopt the new normal as soon as possible.
Quite a number of public health experts had advised before COVID vaccines became available that the human society was inevitably going to live with the coronavirus for a while and only sustainable measures would help everybody get through the pandemic. Unfortunately, most governments , with certain high-profile scientists and celebrities, put so much faith in lockdowns and looked forward to seeing COVID vaccines would work perfectly like a silver bullet even though, at that time, almost every vaccine developer was apparently targeting at lowering the numbers of severe patients and death victims instead of guaranteeing no infections after getting vaccinated.
The Delta variant’s attack last summer was a wake-up call. Many countries, after enjoying reopening and sort of returning to normal brought by successful vaccine rollouts, experienced the Delta variant of the coronavirus caused a new wave of case surge, made hospitals overwhelmed again, and, sadly, took many people’s lives. It was the time that people started being familiar with a term called “breakthrough infections.”
For example, Singapore surprisingly reported 28,901 new infections and 40 deaths in September 2021 after the vaccination rate was beyond 80%. Their COVID death number was zero in September 2020 when there was no CIVID vaccine at all. The epidemiological investigation and laboratory results concluded the changed situation was mainly caused by the Delta variant.
Singapore was not the only place having a bad September last year. As of 31 August 2021, 80.43% of the residents 12 years and older were fully vaccinated, but Guam, an US island territory in the Pacific reported 47 COVID-related fatalities in September 2021. The figure was higher than the death number of 39 reported in September 2020 when no vaccine was available at that time.
With almost the same land size, Guam is home of less than 200 thousand residents and Singapore has a population of 5.7 million. It means the highly-contagious Delta variant was influencing everywhere, no matter a busy and crowded city or a relaxed and rural place. In addition, obviously, vaccines alone are not suppressing the coronavirus. Europe’s experience reminded that nobody should drop his/her guard even thought the population reached a high vaccination rate.
European Union has been leading its member states to keep precautions and try reopening in a gradual way. The continent has maintained a basically downward curve of infections as well as hospitalizations and deaths since its successful vaccine rollouts in association with well-managed medical capacity, even though the Delta variant did make a noticeable, but not really harmful, spike.
However, it seemed that most parts of the world did not learn lessons from the Delta and implement proper measures when the Omicron came. The World Health Organization did not wait for sufficient morbidity and fatality data to be collected. Its warning message on the Omicron variant released late November last year triggered many countries’ panicked decisions of tightening COVID restrictions. It’s sad that South Africa’s variant identification efforts, which should have been appreciated, made its people punished by the almost worldwide travel ban.
The wait wasn’t even long. Before last Christmas, at least three scientific researches caught the media’s attention and proved the Omicron variant may be much more contagious but it’s mostly causing mild cases. However, the chaos has hurt people. For example, Guam, which finally saw a little bit tourism recovery last November, immediately suffered from more than 5000 travel booking cancellations right after the Omicron panic widely spread.
More variants will definitely come and we definitely do not want more chaos. While the Omicron has shown the new variants in the future are very likely to be less lethal and the COVID vaccines are actually promisingly reducing severe cases, plus the antiviral medicines are available, the whole world really needs a leadership that urges every jurisdiction to guide people fearlessly living with the virus by using more appropriate strategies to respond to every emerging variant.
Let’s try to recall whether the system was encouraging people to get tested during the flu season to try to contain flu viruses. Were we worried so much when we experienced flu-like symptoms or got diagnosed as having flu? Wasn’t the goal of flu control to avoid severe complications and save people’s lives? The best tools helping us achieve the goal are always personal hygiene and flu vaccines although so-called “breakthrough infections” did happen to flu vaccines as well.
COVID is not flu, but flu control experience could apply to COVID response, especially to the current situation of “pandemic year 3,” a year that G20 presidency returns to Asia, where people totally have no issue with wearing a mask and helped prove this measure could effectively prevent COVID spread. Indonesian government needs to work with its G20 partners and make history.(Published in The Jakarta Post on January 11, 2022)
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Did G20 learn lessons from Delta variant?
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Vaccines alone won't suppress COVID surge
The recent wave of COVID infections since August is not the first frightening surge in Guam. The island community experienced something similar last August and September, and actually the situation was even getting worse in the fourth quarter.
While vaccines have been rolled out and, as of Aug. 31 this year, 80.43% of Guam residents 12 years and older were fully vaccinated, our island reported a total of 47 COVID-related fatalities in September, which was surprisingly higher than the death number of 39 reported last September, when no vaccine was available at that time.
Obviously, vaccines alone aren’t suppressing the surge.
Guam is not the only place having a bad September. Singapore reported 28,901 new infections and 40 deaths in the month after the vaccination rate was, exactly like Guam, beyond 80%. Their COVID death number was zero last September. The epidemiological investigation and laboratory results concluded the changed situation was mainly caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus.
So, Guam and Singapore have been using the same effective vaccines, have reached the same high vaccination coverage, and then encountered the same more contagious variant. However, Guam, with less than 200 thousand residents, relatively reported much more COVID deaths (47) than Singapore, with a population of 5.7 million, did (40) this September. It is very likely that, under the same conditions, Guam had more severe cases than other places. Perhaps that consequently resulted in more fatal tragedies.
Of the 60 COVID patients in the hospital on Oct. 7, five were children, ranging in ages of 1 day old to 8 years old. However, the worldwide data show that children usually do not develop serious illness once they are infected with the coronavirus. More information, therefore, is needed. For example, if these little patients have any underlying health conditions, to help Guam figure out the factors.
For adults, Guam also needs to investigate if the high prevalence of obesity, diabetes, renal issues and heart disease might be the reason why Guam is, relatively, having more severe COVID cases than other places. If it is the case, the system has to pay a bit more attention to the control and prevention of those chronic diseases and consider it an important part of the long-term strategy in the post-COVID era.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien-Loong emphasized in his Oct. 9 national address: “When the number of cases grows very large, even 2% of a very large number will translate to many patients needing hospital and ICU beds. Our healthcare system would rapidly be overwhelmed.”
Singapore therefore further expands health care capacity and strengthens case management so that they can “better identify COVID patients with mild symptoms to recover at home” and make sure the system can “properly care for those who fall seriously ill” as well as continue to attend to many non-COVID patients who also have urgent medical needs.
It seems Guam needs to do what Singapore is doing now. Guam also needs to learn from Palau’s effort to promote a healthy new normal after their vaccination coverage reached 80%. Thoroughly adjusting to the new normal might be the reason why Palau is still a paradise of extremely low COVID risk. Guam should take its inspiration from the neighboring island’s success.
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Vaccines alone won't suppress COVID surge
2024-06-29
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（October 7, 2021)Chronic Care Key for COVID Mitigation
If the most important goal of COVID response is to save lives, it seems the key for COVID mitigation should be extra care for people with underlying medical conditions in addition to vaccine rollouts.
Many people in our island community have noticed the surge of COVID infections since August. It is actually much more important to look into the COVID death number in September. While vaccines have been rolled out and, as of August 31, 80.43% of Guam residents 12 years and older is fully vaccinated, our island reported a total of 47 COVID deaths in September this year, which was surprisingly higher than the number of 39 reported last September when no vaccine was available at all at that time.
COVID deaths, Sep. 2020 vs Sep. 2021
Sep. 2020
vs
Sep. 2021
39 deaths
47 deaths
32 Unvaccinated
68%
9 vaccinated
19%
6 Unknown
13%
No Vaccine
available
Vaccines available and
as of Aug. 31, 80.43% of the eligible (12 & over) is fully vaccinated.
Not only the case-control clinical trials but also the piling data and experience from the real world have proven the COVID vaccines are promisingly effective in reducing the risk for severe illness and, most importantly, deaths once people get infected. After Guam’s vaccination rate was over 80%, it is reasonable to expect that, at least, we should have seen less fatal tragedies. Many people may wonder if it was the Delta variant of the coronavirus causing the worse situation this September than last September. However, most of scientific evidence show that the Delta variant is definitely more contagious but not more deadly than the original strain, which was dominant last year.
In fact, Guam’s September scenario this year provides a preliminary evidence rejecting the so-called “herd immunity” hypothesis, which many experts have been emphasizing after the vaccines became available, suggesting a high, 70 to 80 percent, vaccine coverage would protect the whole population including unvaccinated people. There were as many as 32 unvaccinated individuals died from COVID in September after Guam’s vaccine coverage was beyond 80%. The number told us the COVID vaccine may be not like the one against smallpox, with which the importance of herd immunity was first recognized. It seems more like a flu shot, which is functioning as an individual protection instead of being designed to pursue herd immunity. The unvaccinated people, therefore, are not going to be protected even after more than 80% of the eligible in the community was vaccinated.
Given the COVID vaccine seems more like a protection shot for every individual only, getting vaccinated or not could be a matter of personal choice. However, before deciding to stick with your “no COVID vaccine” decision, it is worth to notice that Guam’s 192nd COVID-related fatality was only 53 years old and he did not have any other medical conditions. He was not vaccinated and pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital on September 26.
The 185th fatality was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital too. He wasn’t vaccinated either. He was only 56 years old and also did not have underlying medical concerns.
As for 9 vaccinated COVID deaths in September, it is sad that they still lost their lives in spite of all efforts they made. It is very important to learn lessons from these cases to find solutions to avoid this kind of sadness.
Excluding one case with unknown records of comorbidity, the remaining eight vaccinated COVID-related fatalities were distributed to different age groups, meaning not only the seniors have the risk. But, all of them had underlying medical conditions. So, in addition to offering vaccines, it is very likely that an extra amount of time and effort to take good care of chronic disease patients is necessary.
Vaccinated COVID deaths in Sep. 2021
Age
Comorbidity
Under 40
1
Yes
8
40-49
1
No
0
50-59
1
Unknown
1
60-69
3
Over 70
3
Almost everybody in Guam is no stranger to chronic diseases. Many of our friends and family members are suffering from diabetes and kidney disease. Stroke and heart attack took the lives of our loved ones very often. Most of chronic patients regularly visit their physicians. If clinics could have designated personnel contact their regular chronic patients and remind them the risk for COVID complications, it could be very helpful.
While the high prevalence of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illness could be the main factors affecting Guam’s COVID mitigation, perhaps it is time that we should have an islandwide health campaign to not only minimize COVID impact but also solve the island’s long-time health issue. For example, a raffle offering people who lost weight, improved blood sugar, or lowered blood pressure a chance to win a car or cash would be nice. A healthier island could be the most precious treasure that Guam eventually gets from the painful pandemic.
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Chronic Care Key for COVID Mitigation
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(August 25, 2021)There Is Not Any Zero COVID Risk Place
Many worldwide well-known experts and celebrities emphasized last year that vaccines would be the only solution to eradicate the COVID pandemic. Guam’s recent case surge and Palau’s latest confirmed cases flying in from Guam have proven “the wonder shot” theory may be not so right.
Government of Guam declared on July 29 that 80% of adults over 18 has been fully vaccinated and lifted all restrictions but mask mandate the next day. Unfortunately, Guam island community noticed the tested positive cases went up in the second week of August, followed by significant hospitalization increase. Although most of confirmed cases and hospitalized patients are unvaccinated individuals, obviously the Guam scenario does not support the so-called “herd immunity” hypothesis, which suggests a high vaccine coverage would protect the whole population including unvaccinated people.
Guam is actually not the only evidence that rejects the herd immunity hypothesis. Many overwhelmed hospitals in the US are recently also showing the world that the pursuit of herd immunity does not seem so realistic. In addition, research findings from the US, the UK and Israel have proven the current vaccines are very effective in reducing severe illness and deaths, however, instead of preventing infections. That is why many breakthrough cases have been seen around the world.
So, no COVID vaccines are the silver bullet. A high vaccine coverage, even like what Palau has achieved, may be still not the indestructible shield. Palauans should not consider the country a “zero” risk place, although Palau’s COVID risk is absolutely extremely low. Nobody should drop his/her guard, especially when many countries in the world are trying to find a proper reopening strategy after suffering from the impact of lockdown measures for more than one year.While the whole world is not able to eradicate the coronavirus so far and no country can afford the lockdown any more either, Palauans are lucky to have a wise leader, Mr. President Whipps, leading the country’s reopening in a practical and vigilant way. What he needs most for the task is actually people’s support, which includes thoroughly following all preventive measures and immediately adapting to the healthy new normal. The impressively high vaccine coverage has offered Palauans confidence. Every Palauan’s a bit more contribution to the pandemic response could make Palau proud of being a role model for reopening in the post-COVID era.
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There Is Not Any Zero COVID Risk Place
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（August 12, 2021)Forget CAR score. Secure medical capacity and diabetic care
Guam island community noticed the so-called CAR (COVID-19 Area Risk) Score has increased. It seems the CAR Score is mainly attributed to the number of new infections. Given Guam’s high vaccination coverage, the hospitalization number is actually a better indicator to monitor in the post-COVID era.
The coronavirus causing COVID-19 is doubtlessly a highly contagious pathogen. Research findings from the US, the UK, Israel and other countries have proven the current vaccines are very effective in reducing transmission, severe illness and deaths, however, instead of preventing infections. That is why many breakthrough cases have been seen around the world. The number of new infections is therefore not the most appropriate indicator to monitor the pandemic, and the hospitalization number is, especially after the COVID vaccines rolled out.
So, in the Asia-Pacific, Australia and Singapore have announced their new response strategies of treating COVID like the flu. Singapore also decided to stop counting COVID cases. In Europe, the British government declared they would live with COVID like the flu even if cases keep soaring. These countries are focusing on vaccine rollouts and carefully keeping an eye on COVID hospitalizations.
In Guam, 122 COVID deaths were reported in 2020. After vaccine rollouts started last December, the death number was 12 in the first quarter of this year and six in the second quarter. The daily hospitalization number has been kept at less than 10 for several months. Obviously, successful vaccine rollouts have helped Guam reduce severe cases and deaths. What the island community now really needs to pay attention to is the hospitalization trend and whether our medical capacity is sufficient to deal with any possible increase of hospitalized patients if new variants of the coronavirus or any other emerging diseases hit our island.
In the past year, Guam residents were so frightened by the overwhelmed health care system, especially the island’s only public hospital. While we finally get a break, our island community definitely wants to see the government invest more in the hospital, especially in the intensive care unit. It is great to know Guam Memorial Hospital has established a telemedicine platform to bring the help of critical care physicians from the states, according to the hospital’s press release last week.
Every Guamanian also needs to understand that, because preventing infections is not really one of the main benefits the current COVID vaccines could offer, we should not drop our guard. Let’s live with the healthy new normal of good hygiene. People with diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease or lung disease must well manage those underlying medical conditions because they usually cause severe complications once chronic patients get infected.
Finally, another important lesson Guam has to learn from the pandemic is that a more advanced disease surveillance system, probably with help of genetic and digital technologies, is necessary for Guam. We need a system to find suspicious cases early, identify possible pathogens timely, manage infections and trace contacts efficiently when new variants of the coronavirus or any other emerging diseases come. Once again, while we finally get a break, what we should do is the preparedness for future threats.
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Forget CAR score. Secure medical capacity and diabetic care
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(April 14, 2021)Together Guam and Taiwan can make a difference in world healthTaiwanese are suffering from the Hualien train accident. Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero mentioned in her kind letter to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen that Taiwan has relentlessly supported Guam’s COVID-19 response. Beyond sharing best practices, Taiwan’s utmost generosity and kindness during the global pandemic were also emphasized in the letter. A hearing for Resolution No. 53-36, which would provide legislative endorsement of Taiwan's bid for observer status at the World Health Organization’s 2021 annual assembly, highlighted the assistance that Taiwan provided throughout the pandemic. This included the procurement of 200,000 masks among other medical supplies, and help chartering flights to provide Guam residents off-island care during the health crisis. It also draws attention to education provided by Taiwanese physicians prior to the pandemic.The pandemic is obviously not over yet. After receiving lots of help from off-island, Guam is actually able to offer assistance back in the continuing fight against COVID-19 around the world. For example, Guam’s pretty nice vaccine rollout experience.When the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine arrived on December 14 last year, Guam had 25 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Two months later, although only 9.5% of Guam’s population has been fully vaccinated, the hospitalizations dropped to 5 and the island was moving to PCOR3, which allowed most businesses and activities to operate at moderate restrictions.After a considerable percentage of at-risk people got vaccinated, Guam decided to lower the vaccine age to 16 years old on March 22. At that time, the COVID-19 hospitalization has dropped again to only 1 patient at the hospital.Thus, combining Taiwan’s successful response before COVID-19 vaccines became available and Guam’s experience of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, Guam and Taiwan could create a very comprehensive protocol helping many countries that are still being trapped in this public health crisis, for example, Philippines, Japan, Korea and many others in different regions.In addition to the pandemic, COVID-19 also reveals the importance of prevention and control of diabetes, heart disease and lung problems because these underlying health conditions increase people’s risk for severe COVID-19 illness and death. Learning from Taiwan’s experience in community health, Guam can not only improve its prevalence of diabetes and heart disease but also show its neighbors and the world a healthy life-changing model that would be extremely important in the post-pandemic era.The best platform to make all of these happen is the World Health Organization (WHO). Unfortunately, WHO has refused to grant Taiwan an observer status, which Taiwan used to own, at its annual assembly since 2017. Government of Guam can work together with the US Federal Government to support Taiwan to resume the observer status at the May 24 to June 1 World Health Assembly this year. It is absolutely a right thing to do.In our region, Guam should urge WHO’s Western Pacific Regional Office in the Philippines to immediately amend its improper approach that refused to contact or interact with Taiwan. As a result, Taiwan was unable to obtain information about the pandemic and related data issued by the office, and also unable to participate in meetings organized by the office. Many countries in the region therefore lost their opportunity to closely learn relevant public health practices from Taiwan. That is obviously a huge mistake the office really has to fix and Guam can urge them to do it right away.
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Together Guam and Taiwan can make a difference in world health
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(January 21, 2021)Herd Immunity May Not the Goal COVID Vaccination Should Pursue
After COVID vaccines were finally available, some officials and experts started worrying about the percentage of people getting vaccinated. Their concerns are mainly related to herd immunity that most previous vaccination programs tried to achieve. However, COVID vaccination may need to pursue a different public health objective.
According to the University of Oxford Vaccine Knowledge Project, when a high percentage of the population is vaccinated, it is difficult for infectious diseases to spread, because there are not many people who can be infected. For example, if someone with measles is surrounded by people who are vaccinated against measles, the disease cannot easily be passed on to anyone, and it will quickly disappear. This is called herd immunity.
The governments that are distributing and administering COVID vaccines have to notice that herd immunity is not the only model to eradicate an pandemic. For example, the WHO (World Health Organization) was able to declare an end to the global 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic on August 10, 2010, although, according to the report released by the US CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), the overall vaccination coverage in the US was only 27%.
The novel influenza A (H1N1) virus was identified in April 2009. On September 15 that year, four vaccine manufacturers received approval from the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for use of the specific monovalent (H1N1) pdm09 vaccine in the prevention of influenza caused by the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus. Since the pandemic was associated with a threefold higher level of hospitalizations and deaths among people aged less than 65 compared with previous influenza seasons, the vaccination program prioritized five target groups – pregnant women, people who live with or provide care for infants younger than 6 months, health–care and emergency medical services personnel, children and young adults aged 6 months to 24 years, and people aged 25 to 64 years who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza–related complications.
The US CDC’s report showed that, from October 2009 through May 2010, there were 34.2% of people in the target groups getting vaccinated. Among people of non-target groups, the vaccination coverage for people aged 25 to 64 was 16.7% and for those aged over 65, 28.8%.
In fact, in the University of Oxford’s press release regarding its COVID vaccine’s emergency use authorization, they mentioned the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) will “publish its latest advice for the priority groups to receive this vaccine, with this announcement indicating that the JCVI has advised the priority should be to give as many people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection, and everyone will still receive their second dose within 12 weeks of their first, an approach the JCVI believes will maximise the benefits of this vaccine, ensuring at-risk people are able to get meaningful protection and ease the pressure on the UK National Health Service.” They did not address herd immunity.
Therefore, taking care of the at-risk people, once again, ought to be the main task after the COVID vaccines became available, instead of paying too much attention to the overall vaccination coverage rate and arguing with the anti-vaxxers. Once fewer at-risk people develop severe illness and hospitals are no longer overwhelmed, the whole world will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The COVID vaccines’ effectiveness data supporting the emergency use authorization actually show that vaccines are significantly effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease and severe illness among the clinical trial participants. Every regulatory body also reminds that data are not available to make a determination about how long the vaccine will provide protection, nor is there evidence that the vaccine prevents transmission of the coronavirus from person to person. It implies the most relevant goal of COVID vaccination for now should be to protect at-risk groups from sickness, instead of pursuing herd immunity.
Since COVID’s highly contagious nature, it could be very difficult to achieve a containment goal and mitigation might be a better mindset to respond to the pandemic. Many countries had paid the price for inappropriate response strategies last year. Several conceptual errors are still keeping many governments trapped in this public health crisis. While COVID vaccines are finally available, governments of main countries really need to use vaccines as a powerful tool and do their best to convince and help at-risk people getting vaccination to bring the whole world to get through the pandemic as soon as possible.(Published in the South China Morning Post on January 20, 2021)
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Herd Immunity May Not the Goal COVID Vaccination Should Pursue
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
Guahan Global Foundation
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(July 10, 2020)Only Sustainable Measures Are Helping COVID-19 ControlThe whole world has surely noticed that China, Australia and the United States are having COVID-19 community spread again. While several places are locked down again, it is time that every government honestly informs people that we are inevitably going to live with the coronavirus for a while. Only sustainable measures, which is absolutely not another lockdown, can really help everybody get through it together.After some restrictions were lifted in May or June, many people might think the coronavirus has gone and it’s not necessary any more to strictly practice social distancing, to wear a face covering in public and to wash hands that often. It is highly likely to be the reason why a number of places are having the second wave. Every government should learn the lesson and offer people proper information about the current status of the pandemic to at least have the majority of people keep practicing the precaution measures to maintain a flat, or downward, infection curve.Taiwan, with more than 23 million citizens, has not reported any domestic COVID-19 cases since April 13. Even though, its nationwide health education system kept reminding people in the whole month of May to maintain social distancing, to wear a mask in public and to practice good personal hygiene. Taiwanese government is therefore confident to announce on June 17 that they will ease quarantine regulations exclusively for visitors from 11 low-risk countries and areas, including New Zealand, Australia, Macau, Palau, Fiji, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand, Mongolia and Bhutan.Although there have been more than 350 import cases challenging Taiwan’s public health system since the country encountered the first one from China on January 21, Taiwanese government has never enforced any lockdown or stay-home orders. With no lockdown, as of July 9, only 55 domestic cases have been reported and 7 patients sadly died in Taiwan. Apparently, Taiwan has been showing the world a relevant example of the sustainable way that people can fearlessly live with the coronavirus in the long run.A number of solid research findings have also offered evidence to prove there are effective protection measures helping people live with the coronavirus before vaccines are available. For example, a meta-analysis report published on June 1 in The Lancet showed 1-meter social distance significantly reduced the chance of human-to-human transmission to 2.6% from 12.8% with no social distancing intervention. Face masks also helped lower the chance from 17.4% to 3.1%. Eye protection decreased the chance to 5.5% from 16%. (Ref. 1)An analysis published on June 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science analyzed data from three epicenters - Wuhan (China), Italy and New York City - and proved that mandated face covering “alone” significantly reduced the number of COVID -19 infections. The researchers concluded that wearing of face masks in public corresponds to the most effective means to prevent human-to-human transmission, and this inexpensive practice, in conjunction with simultaneous social distancing, quarantine, and contact tracing, represents the most likely fighting opportunity to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. (Ref.2)There are, of course, studies showing lockdowns help as well. The journal Nature published two scientific articles on June 8, which support the effect of large-scale lockdowns. One of the researches examined data from 11 European countries and showed that lockdowns effectively slowed the pandemic and saved 3.1 million lives. (Ref. 3) (Ref. 4)However, many people were probably willing to sacrifice their freedom and convenience for saving lives in March and April and hoping everything would be fine after the pandemic ended. In May, especially late May, "lockdown fatigue" has emerged. It seems less people are comfortable in June with the all-or-nothing nature of strict lockdowns because many people have started noticing the huge uncertainty for the future after three-month lockdowns.In fact, at least two "excess deaths" analyses based on statistics of EuroMOMO, the European morality monitoring activity, have shown that the strictness of a country’s lockdown measures had little associations with its fatality of COVID-19. These analyses concluded that it’s better to respond quickly, with proper testing and tracing protocols, rather than replying on strict lockdowns. (Ref.5) (Ref.6)The biggest myth about lockdown is to believe it is the only solution when the epidemic gets worse. In fact, lockdown is a measure to lock the seriously-affected area in order to protect people in other areas. When SARS hit Taiwan 17 years ago, the health authority there locked a hospital where a serious nosocomial infection occurred to protect the community outsides. When Wuhan became a miserable epicenter of China in January, Chinese government issued a lockdown order in Wuhan to avoid the coronavirus from further spreading to other cities and provinces. To live with the coronavirus, in addition to people’s good personal hygiene and social distancing practice, since COVID-19 is highly contagious and an increased testing capacity will definitely find more infections, government officials have to learn that the number of positive cases is not an optimal indicator to monitor pandemic control and hospitalization is. Singapore is the best example regarding this. As of July 9, this city state, with 6 million residents, has reported 45,423 positive cases through its aggressive testing protocol. But Singaporeans did not panic. They watched hospitalization rate carefully. Their well-prepared medical system has controlled the death toll as low as 26.In addition, the public health system needs to offer extra care to the elderly, especially those who live in nursing homes, to avoid the mistakes many countries have made in the past several months, which caused a lot of deaths among the seniors. The system also needs to remind the other high-risk group - people with underlying medical conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes and lung disease - to try their best to get their chronic illness under control before the coronavirus hits our community again.Ref. 1 The Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltextRef. 2 Proceedings of the National Academy of Science:https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/10/2009637117Ref. 3 Nature:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2404-8Ref. 4 Nature:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2405-7Ref. 5 The Economist:https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19-excess-deaths-across-countriesRef. 6 Bloomberg:https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-opinion-coronavirus-europe-lockdown-excess-deaths-recession/
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Only Sustainable Measures Are Helping COVID-19 Control
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
Guahan Global Foundation
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(May 22, 2020)Sweden and Taiwan Are Showing the World a Sustainable Way to Fearlessly Live with the CoronavirusAn article on the website of science journal Nature mentioned that 22 scientists wrote to the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter in April criticizing Sweden's no-lockdown response to COVID-19. Our evidence-based analysis actually shows that lockdown is not a one-size-fits-all measure and Sweden is truly showing the world a sustainable way for everybody to fearlessly live with the virus, which is an inevitable situation we all need to face and accept for a while.The biggest myth about lockdowns is that they are the only solution when an epidemic worsens. In fact, a lockdown is a measure to cordon off a seriously-affected area so that people in other areas are protected. When SARS hit Taiwan 17 years ago, the health authority locked down a hospital, where a serious nosocomial infection occurred, to protect the community. When Wuhan became a miserable epicenter of China in January, Chinese government issued a lockdown order to prevent the coronavirus from further spreading to other cities and provinces.Italian officials misunderstood the lockdown measure. Italy was the first country in Europe to enforce a lockdown order, starting from the north and then spreading nationwide. However, unfortunately, Italy also became the first country in the world to have death toll that surpassed China's on March 19.The lockdown measure was also misunderstood in New York State of the United States. While California and Washington States, on the West Coast, were piling confirmed cases in February, New Yorkers seemed to think they had nothing to do with the virus at all. The Wall Street Journal reported that hospitals in New York did not well plan coordination until the death toll topped 1200. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a “stay home” order on March 20 and enforced strict measures, but, unfortunately, New York became the US state that reported the greatest number of deaths from COVID-19.Belgium seemed to rush into a lockdown as well, but forgot to take care of the high-risk elderly. The BBC reported on May 2 that, out of Belgium's 7,703 deaths, 53% have been in care homes. Belgian Officials told BBC that poor preparation left care home staff lacking personal protective equipment (PPE) and that allowed the virus to spread quickly.An analysis done by Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel, an Israeli top scientist, has shown that the novel coronavirus would run its full course of epidemic no matter if there is a lockdown or any similar restrictions in place. One price of chaotic restrictions – which the whole world must pay for - is the collapse of supply-chains. This has sadly led to many frontline medical personnel having to fight the coronavirus without personal protective equipment (PPE).We think that a “flu-like epidemic control” better describes Sweden's COVID-19 response strategy. Although COVID-19 is not flu, the coronavirus appears to be highly contagious and has a transmission pattern similar to a flu pandemic, with so many countries worldwide reporting confirmed cases. The most relevant and sustainable measures for most countries are therefore flu control protocols.In the end of January, Germany’s first two cases contracted the virus from a colleague who flew in from Shanghai to join the company’s workshop. Soon after, two other colleagues, who had not had contact with the Chinese visitor, tested positive for the coronavirus. This cluster has preliminarily showed the virus could be easily transmitted from human to human - very similar to an influenza virus. At the same time, those German patients’ very mild flu-like symptoms were noticed.Singapore and Japan offered significant evidence of a larger scale in February. As of February 29, Singapore had reported 93 cases, including five clusters and quite a number of patients whose source of infection could not be traced. It was showing that the coronavirus could easily spread within a community, just like what an influenza virus can do.By February, Japan had confirmed more than 250 cases - excluding the cruise line’s cases. Most of those infected had flu-like symptoms only, while six older patients died of pneumonia. So, in Japan, the virus was also showing a flu-like epidemic, which usually brings senior people a higher risk for developing severe illness and causing fatality.Therefore, the frighteningly high death toll number in China and Italy could be the result of a medical system collapse caused by too many patients rushing to hospitals, which is the scenario usually observed during a flu pandemic. Unfortunately, most people seem too nervous to notice the virus' “flu-like epidemic pattern”, so they rushed into lockdowns and emotionally criticized that countries without strict restrictions are risking people's lives. If the world's leading countries, or international organizations, stepped forward in March to coordinate a global force to battle the pandemic with measures derived from flu control protocols, the whole story would be different now.Taiwan's success story offers an example of effective control protocols that combines an existing flu-like disease surveillance system, previous SARS control experience, and no strict lockdowns. The surveillance system asks clinics and hospitals to cooperate by reporting patients with flu-like symptoms for virus testing and early treatments. Taiwan also asks infected people and their contacts must undergo a home or facility quarantine, as well as reminds healthy people to practice good hygiene all the time to flatten the epidemic curve, but has never seriously disrupted people's daily routines. For example, many people in Taipei still commute by train every day. As of May 12, Taiwan, with a population of 23 million citizens, had reported 6 deaths from COVID-19 and less than 500 confirmed cases, while New York State, having its 19 million residents under strict lockdowns, has reported more than 27,000 deaths.In addition, Taiwanese have been promptly wearing a mask since the middle of January even though experts could not agree on whether it helped at that time. Taiwanese government also coordinated mask manufacturers to increase production capacity to meet people’s demands of purchasing masks. In contrast, most of western countries did not add wearing a mask to their COVID-19 control guidelines until April.The only thing that Sweden needs to worry about is the high number of deaths form COVID-19 at nursing homes. If nearby hospitals have spare capacity, it would be better to move nursing home residents to hospitals, and thoroughly clean and sanitize affected nursing homes. Sweden also needs to learn that Taiwan's experience has proved wearing a mask can be an effective extra precaution, especially for countries trying to avoid stricter restrictions. People do not need a surgical mask. Cloth masks work well, too. The more Swedes wear a mask, the more effective Sweden's COVID-19 control measures will appear to the world.
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Sweden and Taiwan Are Showing the World a Sustainable Way to Fearlessly Live with the Coronavirus
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
Guahan Global Foundation
P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA
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(April 22, 2020)Study Germany’s and Taiwan’s Success to Form a Reopening StrategyWhy does Germany close dining and entertainment businesses only while France, Italy and Spain enforce nationwide lockdowns? Why are people in Taipei keeping daily life while Singapore closes schools and businesses and asks citizens to stay home till June 1?The most important lesson we should learn from Germany is to stop being worried about the number of confirmed cases. Due to the coronavirus’ highly contagious nature and the country’s massive testing policy, Germany is certainly finding a lot of COVID-19 cases. The focus therefore ought to be mild cases’ quarantine and severe cases’ medical treatment. Germany did it right, so their domestic patients got well treated and they have been taking care of patients flown in from other European Union member countries.While many countries have been calling for flattening the epidemic curve, as of April 13, Taiwan, with a population of 23 million citizens, reported 6 deaths from COVID-19 and only 273 patients who are still hospitalized. Taiwanese have been promptly wearing a mask since the middle of January even though many experts did not agree it could help at that time. Taiwanese government also coordinated mask manufacturers to increase productivity to meet people’s demands of purchasing masks. In contrast, most of western countries did not add wearing a mask into COVID-19 control guidelines until April.It definitely makes a lot of sense that the governors who want to lift the restrictions do their researches on the experiences of those countries that have never place any restriction order during the pandemic to form a relevant and sustainable exit strategy. We are glad to see Mr. Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted California’s “flatten the curve” graph on April 11, which showed California has used “hospitalization rate” to replace “infection rate”, or confirmed cases, to monitor the epidemic curve. We would like to acknowledge California for its action of bringing COVID-19 control to a right track and to carefully thinking of its reopening plan.We also want to remind that it is better to still suggest the elderly should spent most of time at home during the early stage of the reopening. People with underlying medical conditions, who have a relatively higher risk of developing severe illness once contracting the virus, should be told to thoroughly practice good hygiene and to pay more attention to having their chronic diseases under control.Data showed more than 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment since state-mandated lockdowns have been enforced. The spike in new jobless claims is believed to result from the lockdowns that have kept Americans from their workplaces and forced many companies to shutter or to lay off employees. With wearing a mask in public as a careful precaution measure, healthy young and middle-aged adults should be allowed to resume daily routines as soon as possible to avoid households’ miserable financial consequences of workplace shutdown. Probably it’s time for some states to ease lockdowns or any other similar restrictions with a carefully-formed exit strategy.
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Study Germany's and Taiwan's Success to Form a Reopening Strategy
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
Guahan Global Foundation
P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA
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(April 13, 2020)Don’t Have Everybody “Stay Home” Too LongEuropean Commission announced a concept of short-time work on April 1 as an initiative of helping people keep their jobs and go back to full work as soon as the lockdown will be over. We welcome this initiative and would like share our evidence-based analysis reminding that healthy adults should be allowed to resume their daily lives as soon as possible to have a fully-operated system efficiently tackle the pandemic.New data in the U.S. showed 17 million Americans filed for unemployment in the past four weeks. The spike in new jobless claims is believed to result from the pandemic control lockdowns that have kept Americans from their workplaces and forced many companies to shutter or to lay off employees. We all know that unemployment could not only affect people’s finance but also ruin their ability of taking care of their health.In addition, the “stay-home” order in some states within the U.S. has also affected certain senior care operations, for example, free meal delivery to the seniors got delayed or rerouted, while the elderly is actually a group of people who need extra care most during the pandemic. It is better that healthy adults are allowed to resume their routines soon to help the community get back to normal early.According to a report published by Italy National Health Institute on March 17, 96.3% of fatal victims in Italy were patients over 60 years old. 99.2% of Italy’s coronavirus fatalities were people with at least one chronic medical condition, such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. Based on the demographic, we suggest the system should have the vulnerable stay home and, more importantly, offer them extra care. Young and middle-aged adults without serous health conditions should keep their routines to maintain the community’s full operations and, in addition, to help many households avoid the miserable economic consequences of workplace shutdown.Only when the system is fully-operated, we are able to take good care of the vulnerable and to end the pandemic. It is worth to notice that Hong Kong and Taiwan seem to have contained the spread pretty well and Japan and South Korea have been seeing a good trend of calming down the epidemic. All countries mentioned above did not place a nationwide lockdown or “stay-home” order at all.Germany has not shut down daily life either. Only food and entertainment outlets have been closed since the end of March. Germany has been conducting intensive testing and strictly quarantined sick people and their contacts. It has also got the medical system ready for a pandemic. Therefore, as of April 12, Germany has 127,459 confirmed case and 2,996 deaths recorded. Its case fatality rate (CFR) is 2.35% and this figure is considerably lower than fellow EU members Spain (10%), France (10.8%) and Italy (12.7%). More impressively, Germany has started taking care of patients flown from Italy and France.What Germany is doing is actually flu control protocols. Although COVID-19 is not flu, the coronavirus appears to be showing its highly contagious nature and “flu-like pandemic pattern” after so many countries around the world reported cases. Thoroughly follow “modern” flu control protocols is therefore the most relevant and sustainable measure for most countries.What does “modern” flu control protocols mean? The protocols should include a surveillance network that asks clinics and hospitals to report patients with flu-like symptoms for further virus testing and early advanced treatments. Furthermore, It adjusts resource allocation to help medical community get ready for a huge amount of patients to save the vulnerable, and reminds healthy people to practice good hygiene all the time as well as implements home or institutional quarantine on sick people and their contacts to flatten the epidemic curve.Lockdown was probably working well during the 1918 flu pandemic, but not now. Lockdown probably helped China, but it does not fit all countries. We are looking forward to seeing European Commission helps its member countries ease their lockdowns as soon as possible. We are also hoping the EU shows the world a good leadership and helps countries in other regions copy with the pandemic together in the near future.
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Don’t Have Everybody “Stay Home” Too Long
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
Guahan Global Foundation
P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA
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(March 16, 2020)A Global Force to Handle COVID-19 with Flu Control Protocols is RequiredAs COVID-19 is becoming a global issue, most people seem too nervous to notice that the virus is actually showing its flu-like epidemic pattern while more countries reported more cases around the world. Based on the pattern observed, the epidemic could be ended if an international organization steps forward to coordinate a global force to thoroughly implement flu control protocols in most of countries as soon as possible.In the end of January, Germany’s first two cases contracted the virus from a colleague who flew in from Shanghai to join the company’s workshop, and then another two colleagues who did not contact the Chinese visitor were tested positive as well soon. This cluster has preliminarily showed the human-to-human transmission of the virus could be very easy, and very similar to what the flu virus does. At the same time, those German patients’ very mild flu-like illness was noticed.Singapore and Japan offered significant evidence of a larger scale in February. As of February 29, Singapore reported 93 cases, including five clusters and quite a number of patients whose source of infection is not known. It was showing that the spread of the virus could easily happen in the community, exactly like what the flu virus can do. And, just like those German cases, patients in Singapore were fighting with flu-like symptoms only, no severe cases reported.Excluding the cruise line’s cases, Japan had found more than 250 cases in different cities and prefectures in February. Most of infected people had flu-like symptoms only and six elderly patients died from pneumonia. So, in Japan, the virus was also showing a flu-like epidemic, which usually brings senior people a higher risk of severity and fatality.In addition, A BMJ, originally called British Medical Journal, article published on February 18 offers evidence from comparison of case fatality rate (CFR), which is the ratio of deaths from a certain disease to the total number of people diagnosed with this disease for a certain period of time representing a measure of disease severity. SARS had a CFR of around 10%. MERS killed 34%. COVID-19’s overall CFR was around 2%. A collaboration of Hong Kong University and Harvard University also estimated the CFR of COVID-19 is around 1.4%.Therefore, the COVID-19 virus turns out to be mostly causing flu-like illness only. It does not seem to be a SARS-like or MERS-like super killing bug of the new decade. The scaring death toll number in China could be the result of a medical system collapse caused by too many patients rushing into hospitals, which is the scenario we usually saw during a flu pandemic. So, countries with increasing death tolls, such as Italy and Iran, need international aids.Although The CFR number of COVID-19 mentioned above is lower than SARS’s and MERS’s, most experts agree the CFR of a seasonal flu is around 0.1% only. Therefore, we still have to take the virus seriously, most importantly, with a right strategy.Based on its flu-like epidemic pattern, the goal of a global response to COVID-19 should change from containment to mitigation, for example, helping the elderly and people with underlying health conditions to avoid death tragedies. Don't waste resources on finding asymptomatic infections. Make sure that medical institutions are ready for a huge amount of patients. Remind Healthy people to wash hands more often and sick people to stay home. Besides these, Taiwan’s recent experience shows that wearing a mask is an effective extra precaution.Excluding three small clusters with the index case contracting the virus in January, Taiwan did not report any new domestic case after January 31 until a local woman was tested positive on February 28. Besides washing hands, it is worth to notice that the majority of Taiwanese have been promptly wearing a mask since the epidemic started scaring people in the beginning of January, even though many experts claimed that wearing a mask is not necessary at that time. Although the shortage of surgical masks had caused chaos, the chaotic situation is believed to become a reminder of having most Taiwanese practice good personal hygiene all the time, which is the main preventive measure before we have vaccines and new drugs.The researches on the virus take time and epidemic control can’t wait. It is necessary to find clues through the epidemiological analysis on the reported cases to help form the proper response strategy. The best solution for now is to follow flu control measures strictly, including public education of good personal hygiene, home or institutional quarantine on sick people, and a flu surveillance network that asks clinics and hospitals to report patients with flu-like symptoms for further virus testing and early advanced treatment, plus a few extra precautions, such as wearing a mask and maintaining healthy immune defense, to carry everybody through. The world's leading countries should drive a force to push flu control protocols and call for all countries to move forward in the same direction for a sooner ending of the epidemic.
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A Global Force to Handle COVID-19 with Flu Control Protocols is Required
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
Guahan Global Foundation
P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA
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Guahan Global Foundation
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February 7, 2020Good Hygiene Practice Has Shown its Power on Coronavirus PreventionWhile more import and domestic cases were reported in different countries around the world, public health experts got the chance to learn more about the coronavirus that causes an outbreak of pneumonia-like disease, and predict the epidemic.So far, the majority of infected people outside China have very mild symptoms. What they are experiencing is an illness similar to flu. That means the virus can do human to human transmission, but it does not always cause severe illness and lead to death everywhere.Germany’s first four domestic cases gave the world the best example. Bavaria health officials said on January 28 that the first case had contracted the disease from a Chinese colleague who had visited the area for a company workshop a week ago. Another three patients were "connected" to the first case. Four cases work together in the company and their illness was very mild.The most dangerous place is Wuhan city in China, where the virus originated. That is why Japan’s charter flight has evacuated its citizens who work or live in Wuhan. Many other China’s cities and villages are affected as well because people were moving around for their lunar new year plan before some places got locked down by Chinese government for outbreak control purposes. That is why Palau only blocks flights from China and does not block other countries.The reason why China’s epidemic looks much more serious than the rest of the world, for example, the virus led to more death in China, might be related to certain personal hygiene issues, poor performance of outbreak response system and insufficient medical support in many rural areas. However, Chinese government has been making a lot of efforts to control the epidemic, including the lockdown of the seriously affected areas, suspension of outbound tour group and so on, so we believes it is very likely that China would see a trend of calming down in one or two weeks.Regarding China's epidemic control measures, we want to remind Chinese government to take good care of people's medical needs and human rights especially in the lockdown areas. We also think it is the best time that Chinese government encourages its citizens to practice better personal hygiene from now on to enhance disease prevention and public health in the country.It is worth to notice that Taiwan has not reported any domestic case for a week since the government confirmed the second one on January 30, although there are still import cases reported. We believe it means that Taiwan people's good personal hygiene practice in the past several weeks, for example, wearing a mask and washing hands more often, has shown its power of blocking the transmission of the virus in the community. We suggest that other governments, for example, Hong Kong. Macau, Japan, Thailand and Singapore, should promote good personal hygiene harder to avoid the coronavirus spread among its citizens and visitors.
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Good Hygiene Practice Has Shown its Power on Coronavirus Prevention
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
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Guahan Global Foundation
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September 20, 2019Don’t Solely Rely on Insecticide & RepellentBy Edward Lu (The Director of Public Health Office for HSVG Mission)Many Guam residents are actually looking for mosquito repellent this week. Obviously, the first locally acquired dengue fever case in the last 75 years detected last week, followed by the second one confirmed this Wednesday, is shaking the community.The Public Health, the EPA and the mayor offices are doing the right things to institute many community-wide measures to avoid more cases. However, the public should be well informed that, according to the neighbor countries’ experience, eliminating breeding sites is the most effective way to prevent dengue. People in the community need to search for potential breeding sites, remove standing water in containers and garbage such as tires, and clean the containers, along with improving environmental and household sanitation.Let’s take Taiwan as an example. The south part of the island state usually has dengue outbreak of different scales every summer. In addition to spraying insecticide done by local health authority and EPA, the mayor offices over there usually visit every household to remind residents to take action to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.Senators could join the task force as well. It is exactly what Taiwan’s local senators are doing every summer. If residents need help clean the house or remove standing water during the period of dengue outbreak, a local senator’s team is usually there with their people. In addition, Taiwan CDC takes every dengue case seriously, no matter it is locally acquired or imported because increasing imported cases are one of the most important risk factors that could trigger a local outbreak especially when the neighbor countries has already shown an epidemic. In May, Taiwan CDC has warned there have been more cases of imported dengue this year, the most in the period for 10 years. The agency has been closely monitor mosquito density islandwide since then, so the dengue situation is being controlled pretty well in Taiwan so far this year.Many Guam residents travel back and forth between Guam and the Philippines, where has reported over 600 death cases of dengue in August. Guam’s first case was detected with dengue virus type III, the same type of dengue virus causing outbreak in the Philippines. Therefore, it is highly likely that the number of imported cases have increased and, along with a higher mosquito density, it transmitted the virus in the community. Guam’s Public Health has to learn the lesson and start sharing information about the number of imported dengue cases and community’s mosquito density data for the public’s awareness to avoid the panic caused by breaking news of local cases.******We sent this article to Guam Daily Post. It was published on the forum page on September 20, 2019.
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Advice on Guam's Dengue Control
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Guahan Global Foundation
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Guahan Global Foundation
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(August 28, 2018)
To help people enhance fitness and wellness, HSVG officially starts a brand new program called TLC x TLC. This program combines “Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes”, created by US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and “Total Lean Challenge”, developed by GNC, to guide people who want to develop body and promote health to properly reach their goals.
Our Green Project team, led by our nutritionist and Director of Public Health Office Edward Lu, has studied the both TLC programs mentioned above and tested the synergy of combining them for a couple of years. “What we found is the evidence-based educational information of Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes really motivated most participants to stay with GNC's 12-week Total Lean Challenge training. The synergy of healthy eating and physical training working together can help people not only lose fat and get a better physique, but also fix metabolic disorder and chronic inflammation to get healthier.” Lu said.
Based on our studies and experiences, we decided to officially encourage people to make a plan for GNC's 12-week Total Lean Challenge training and, at the same time, follow the guidelines provided by NIH's Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes program to eat healthy, increase physical activity, and reach weight-loss goal. You can find the details of the training and the program from the links below:
Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes:
www.nhlbi.nih.gov/files/docs/public/heart/chol_tlc.pdf
Total Lean Challenge:
https://gncguam.net/2021/05/13/total-lean-challenge-12-week-healthy-weight-loss-program/
(Photo: Screenshot of NIH on-line booklet)(Photo: Screenshot of GNC TLC video)
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HSVG Officially Starts TLC x TLC Program
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Guahan Global Foundation
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We, in association with Saporo Entertainment, filmed 2017 Madam International Ball of International Women's Club Guam and made a "micro documentary". This effort is for joining Chevening Diversity Film Festival, which fosters cultural and religious tolerance. Please check out the linked youtube video above to see how this film shows the world that people of different cultures and different religions can live together, have fun together, and make our community better together.
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Cultural Diversity Film: 2017 Madam International Ball
2024-06-29
2025-06-29
Guahan Global Foundation
P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA
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Guahan Global Foundation
P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA
(Jan. 18, 2016)We, HSVG mission, noticed from the news that South Korea's JYP Entertainment had TWICE member Tzuyu CHOU, aged 16 only, apologize for holding a flag of Taiwan, where she is originally from, after causing boycotts from China. In the apology video JYP Entertainment released at YouTube, Tzuyu CHOU looked extremely tired and somber. We highly suspect that this case is related to teen abuse, or, more precisely, emotional abuse. We have asked JYP Entertainment to correct its inappropriate supervision on Tzuyu CHOU and provide Tzuyu CHOU with adequate care of mental health immediately.
We have also sent messages to Mr. Minister Chin-youb CHUNG of South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare requesting the Ministry monitor if JYP Entertainment takes any improvement action on Tzuyu CHOU case and investigate the health and welfare status of Tzuyu CHOU from 2012 to the present since she started the training with JYP Entertainemnt when she was 13.
A message sent to Mr. Minister Been-huang CHIANG of Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare requests the Minitry collaborate with its South Korea's counterpart to ensure JYP Entertainment's improvement actions and take good care of Tzuyu CHOU's emotional needs. In addition, we also remind Taiwan to investigate if Tzuyu CHOU's parents are violating Taiwan's child & teen welfare laws because we learn that she left Taiwan and started JYP Entertainemnt's training in South Korea when she was 13 only.
Emotional abuse is the emotional maltreatment of a child/teen, causing severe and adverse effects on child's/teen's emotional development. Examples of emotional abuse include: conveying to a child/teen that they are valued only when they meet the needs of another person; not giving the child/teen opportunities to express their views; interactions beyond a child's/teen's developmental capability. Researches show emotionally abused and neglected teens did express more internalizing features, such as being withdrawn, anxious, depressed, angry, experiencing post-traumatic stress symptoms, or sexual concerns than teens who had not maltreated. And they were three times more likely to express suicide ideation than teens at risk of other types of abuse or neglect.
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Tzuyu CHOU Case Related to Teen Abuse
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When students are going back to school after summer break, International Women's Club of Guam donates 64 schoolbags with school supplies to students in need at Talofofo Elementary School on August 19, 2015. Talofofo Elemetary School is located at Talofofo village in the south of Guam and has around 200 students.
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IWC Guam Donates Schoolbags to Talofofo
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Guahan Global Foundation
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(June 17, 2015)A red flag went up at Guam International Airport on June 12 when a visitor from South Korea tried to board a Jeju Airlines flight back to Korea. The South Korea government placed him on a watch list because he was treated for a broken finger at a hospital in South Korea where they were treating a MERS patients.
It's unclear how the Korean man was allowed to board a plane to Guam despite being on the watch list. Shortly after 11 p.m., CDC officials contacted local health officials regarding the tourist. Guam's pandemic alert systems went into place immediately. He and his family were contained, and doctors confirmed he does not have the virus.
Please refer to the press release from the Governor of Guam below:
UPDATE: No MERS here. Enjoy this sunny day in good health.
A release from the Governor of Guam w Contact Julius Santos at 475-9379 or Julius.Santos@Guam.gov
There are no cases of MERS on Guam.
Those spreading false information should be taken to task for causing panic and fear among families and tourists. There was one man, a visitor from South Korea, who was checked and does not have MERS. A red flag went up yesterday when he tried to board a Jeju Airlines flight back to Korea. The island's pandemic alert systems went into place immediately, he and his family were contained, and doctors confirmed he does not have the virus.
As a precaution, doctors are watching this man in quarantine. His family went back to Korea. The man has no symptoms. He is contained, doesn't even have a cold, isn't coughing or sneezing, has no fever, and IS NOT contagious. There is no danger of public exposure.
The government of Guam and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are working together out of an abundance of caution to keep the people of Guam and all her visitors safe and healthy.
The South Korea government placed him on a watch list because he was treated for a broken finger at a hospital in South Korea where they were treating a MERS patients.
Public Health officials on Guam are working with Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Hawaii, Atlanta and South Korea. Shortly after 11 p.m. yesterday, CDC officials contacted local health officials regarding the tourist. They want to confirm his proximity to the MERS patients at the South Korea hospital where he was treated as an outpatient.
It is important to note that these measures are precautionary and that NO case of the virus has been reported on island.
What you can do to help keep you and your family safe
The public is urged to practice routine precautions that help prevent the spread of any type of respiratory illness, including MERS-CoV:
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, and help young children do the same;
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then throw the tissue in the trash;
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands;
• Avoid personal contact, such as kissing, or sharing cups or eating utensils, with sick people; and
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and objects, such as doorknobs.
When Should Someone See a Health Care Provider?
You should see a healthcare provider if you develop a fever and symptoms of lower respiratory illness, such as cough or shortness of breath, within 14 days after traveling from countries in or near the Arabian Peninsula or South Korea. Make sure to tell the healthcare provider about your recent travel.
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Related news:
Guam airport Ready for MERS: Agency says it's following CDC guidelines
http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2015/06/15/guam-airport-ready-for-mers-agency-says-its-following-cdc-guidelines-0616/71242380/
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No MERS on Guam, a Korean Visitor Caused Fear Though.
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Vitamin E is far from an Alzheimer's cure, but a new study published in December 2013 by the Journal of the American Medical Association finds it allowed trial participants to get less help from caregivers and therefore retain more independence longer.
USA Today had this report. Please take a look at the webpage below:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/31/alzheimers-vitamin-e/4223415/
University of Oxford scientists found in a study that taking B vitamins slowed the rate that the brain shrank in elderly people who had trouble remembering. It was published in May 2013 and may guide further research into Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about this study, please check out the following webpage of Bloomberg's report:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-20/vitamins-that-cost-pennies-a-day-seen-delaying-dementia.html
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Vitamins & Alzheimer's Disease
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The New York Times reported that dietary supplements account for nearly 20 percent of drug-related liver injuries that turn up in hospitals, up from 7 percent a decade ago, according to an analysis by a national network of liver specialists.
The new research, presented at a conference in Washington in November 2013, was produced by the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network, which was established by the National Institutes of Health to track patients who suffer liver damage from certain drugs and alternative medicines. It includes doctors at eight major hospitals throughout the country. When the network began tracking liver injuries in 2004, supplements accounted for 7 percent of the 115 severe cases. But the percentage has steadily risen, reaching 20 percent of the 313 cases recorded from 2010 to 2012.
The report emphasized that the research included only the most severe cases of liver damage referred to a representative group of hospitals around the country, and the investigators said they were undercounting the actual number of cases.
Those patients included dozens of young men who were sickened by bodybuilding supplements. Tests showed that a third of the implicated products contained steroids not listed on their labels.
A second trend emerged when the investigators studied 85 patients with liver injuries linked to herbal pills and powders. Two-thirds were middle-aged women, on average 48 years old, who often used the supplements to lose weight or increase energy. Nearly a dozen of those patients required liver transplants, and three died.
One product that patients used frequently was green tea extract, which contains catechins, a group of potent antioxidants that reputedly increase metabolism. The extracts are often marketed as fat burners, and catechins are often added to weight-loss products and energy boosters. Most green tea pills are highly concentrated, containing many times the amount of catechins found in a single cup of green tea, Dr. Bonkovsky, an investigator with the network, said. In high doses, catechins can be toxic to the liver, he said, and a small percentage of people appear to be particularly susceptible.
The New York Time article also said that Americans spend an estimated $32 billion on dietary supplements every year, attracted by unproven claims that various pills and powders will help them lose weight, build muscle and fight off everything from colds to chronic illnesses. About half of Americans use dietary supplements, and most of them take more than one product at a time. But the supplement business is largely unregulated. In recent years, critics of the industry have called for measures that would force companies to prove that their products are safe, genuine and made in accordance with strict manufacturing standards before they reach the market.
However, the article added that a federal law enacted in 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, prevents the Food and Drug Administration from approving or evaluating most supplements before they are sold. Usually the agency must wait until consumers are harmed before officials can remove products from stores. Because the supplement industry operates on the honor system, studies show, the market has been flooded with products that are adulterated, mislabeled or packaged in dosages that have not been studied for safety.
Since 2008, the F.D.A. has been taking action against companies whose supplements are found to contain prescription drugs and controlled substances, said Daniel Fabricant, the director of the division of dietary supplement programs in the agency’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. For example, the agency recently took steps to remove one “fat burning” product from shelves, OxyElite Pro, that was linked to one death and dozens of cases of hepatitis and liver injury in Hawaii and other states.
HSVG wholesome would like to take this opportunity to remind vitamin shoppers to take a look at our webpage www.hsvg.org/hot_cg1990.html to see which brands and products are in the list of HSVG wholesome certification. The certified brands and products were reviewed carefully and were ensured safe and of good quality by HSVG wholesome.
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Spike in Harm to Liver Is Tied to Dietary Supplements
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The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at NIH (National Institute of Health) recently published information about if dietary supplements help control type 2 diabetes. Overall, they concluded there is not enough scientific evidence to show that any dietary supplement can help manage or prevent type 2 diabetes.
Minerals
Magnesium is essential to the body’s ability to process glucose. Magnesium deficiency has been associated with diabetes. A large 2007 clinical trial, found an association between a higher intake of cereal fiber and magnesium and a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
If you have too little chromium in your diet, your body can’t use glucose efficiently. However, studies, including a 2007 systematic review, have found few or no benefits of chromium supplements for controlling diabetes or reducing the risk of developing it. In addition, Chromium supplements may cause stomach pain and bloating.
Herbs
A 2012 systematic review of 10 randomized controlled trials did not support using cinnamon for type 1 or type 2 diabetes. In addition, When researchers tested samples of the common spice cassia cinnamon for sale at grocery stores in Europe, they found many samples contained coumarin, a substance that may cause or worsen liver disease in people who are sensitive.
A few studies have examined the herbs Asian ginseng and American ginseng and their effects on controlling glucose levels. Currently, research reviews and clinical trials show that there is not enough evidence to support the use of the herbs Asian ginseng and American ginseng for diabetes.
NCCAM emphasized that interactions between herbs and conventional diabetes drugs have not been well studied and could be a health risk.
Other Supplements
Alpha-lipoic acid and vitamin E supplements taken separately or in combination did not improve cholesterol levels or the body’s response to insulin in a 2011 clinical trial of 102 people with type 2 diabetes.
A 2011 clinical trial of 467 participants with type 2 diabetes found that 600 milligrams of alpha-lipoic acid daily did not prevent diabetic macular edema, an eye condition that causes blurred vision. High doses of alpha-lipoic acid can cause nausea, upset stomach, fatigue, and insomnia.
A 2012 study that combined a meta-analysis and a systematic review looked at the possible link between eating seafood or plants with omega-3s and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The study found little evidence that these dietary sources of omega-3s affected the risk of developing diabetes.
Omega-3 supplements may extend bleeding time. Besides, Omega-3 supplements usually do not have negative side effects. When side effects do occur, they typically consist of minor gastrointestinal symptoms, such as belching, indigestion, or diarrhea.
The evidence is still preliminary on the effects on diabetes of polyphenols—antioxidants found in plant-based foods such as fruits, grains, and vegetables.
Source: NCCAM Clinical Digest
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/diabetes-science.htm?nav=upd
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Type 2 Diabetes and Dietary Supplements: What the Science Says
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China is on high alert over a new bird flu called H7N9. GNC China branch has officially suggested Chinese customers should take vitamin C, echinacea, multivitamin, spirulina and soy protein or whey protein to promote natural resistance.If you are going to China, please also think about this advice.
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Bird Flu Prevention Advice from GNC China
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