Franch Covid-19: Scientists seek to reassure public on Pfizer’s vaccine safety after rare side effect
France's football league is terminating its deal with troubled TV partner Mediapro after a bitter two-month standoff over the rights for Ligue 1, a source with knowledge of the contract said Friday.
A representative of the Polisario movement said it "regrets highly" the US change in policy, which it called "strange but not surprising".
"This will not change an inch of the reality of the conflict and the right of the people of Western Sahara to self determination," the Polisario's Europe representative Oubi Bchraya said.
Trump announces Israel-Morocco to normalize relations
The Trump White House has also tried to get Saudi Arabia to sign on to a normalisation deal with Israel, believing if the Saudis agreed other Arab nations would follow, but the Saudis have signalled they are not ready.
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The decision is likely to send financial shockwaves through France's top-flight league.
The Chinese-Spanish broadcaster, which has suffered severe financial problems, acquired 80 percent of the rights for 800 million euros ($970 million) a year to broadcast from this season, a record for French football.
But since October, Mediapro has been in negotiations with the league (LFP), pushing for a reduction in the amount it pays.
The source said LFP's board met on Friday to discuss the decision, which must still be approved by a commercial court.
Many observers believe Mediapro overstretched itself in making the offer. In October, its boss Jaume Roures said Telefoot had 600,000 subscribers, far short of the 3.5 million that it had built into its business model.
A journalist working for Telefoot, the channel that Mediapro created to show Ligue 1, told AFP that the channel's director general Julien Bergeaud had addressed employees on Friday in a video call.
"Bergeaud told us it's over - he was very emotional and on the verge of tears," the journalist, who asked not to be identified, said.
Mediapro declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
French broadcaster Canal Plus, which already shows a limited number of Ligue 1 matches, is believed to be waiting in the wings to make an offer to take over Mediapro's matches, although its offer will likely be considerably lower than Mediapro offered.
UK regulators have issued precautionary advice after two British healthcare workers developed a severe allergic reaction to the new Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech. Scientists have been quick to reassure the public that the vaccine is safe, saying that while reactions to new vaccines can occur, severe reactions are rare.
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The British vaccination campaign against Covid-19 had barely begun when it hit its first snag.
On 9 December Two staff working for the British National Health Service (NHS) had an allergic reaction after they received the vaccine developed by Pfizer in collaboration with BioNTech. Both were treated quickly and were recovering well, authorities in the UK confirmed.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has since issued a precautionary warning, advising people not to get inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine if they have a history of acute allergic reactions.
An advisory panel of US experts said Thursday they would follow Britain’s lead with an allergy warning after recommending emergency approval there for the Pfizer vaccine.
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A rare side effect
"This is appropriate advice,” Dr Louisa James, an immunology researcher at Queen Mary University in London, told FRANCE 24. "We now know that the two people concerned had a medical history and carried treatment to deal with strong allergic reactions."
The two healthcare workers were carrying Anapen, an emergency treatment of adrenaline injected into the body in case of anaphylactic shock, which manifests as a severe allergic reaction.
According to Allergy UK, one in 1,000 people are at risk of anaphylactic shock after exposure to an allergen they have a sensitivity to. This type of allergic response "affects the cardiovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems and causes severe skin rashes. The blood pressure can drop and breathing can become difficult," Professor Saad Shakir, director of the Drug Safety Research Unit, a British health NGO, said in an interview with the Science Media Centre website.
In the case of the two NHS workers, however, neither had anaphylaxis, which is a more extreme reaction that can even be fatal. "It appears to be an anaphylactoid or pseudo-anaphylactic reaction, which leads to similar but less severe symptoms," Professor Shakir explained.
Anaphylactoid reactions are linked to certain foods or medicines but also vaccines, including the annual flu jab.
"Cases of severe allergic reactions have been reported for all vaccines, but they remain rare," Nilsson Lennart, a researcher at the Linköping Allergy Centre in Sweden and the author of a 2017 study on vaccines and allergies, told FRANCE 24. He added that cases of anaphylactic shock typically occur at a rate of 1.5 for every one million doses of vaccine administered.
Finding the cause
SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/after-2-film-complet/?page=1&size=20
The pharmaceutical industry widely recogises the risk of allergic reaction and Pfizer knew it existed in the case of its Covid-19 vaccine.
"The data published by the laboratory indicate that about 0.6% of patients had some form of allergic reaction after administration of the dose during phase three clinical trials," said Professor Stephan Evans, a pharmacoepidemiology researcher in the Department of Medical Statistics at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London.
SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/mulan-streaming-vf-film-gratuit/?page=1&size=20
Pinpointing exactly what led to the allergic reaction may have its challenges as the Pfizer vaccine employs completely new technology, with no precedent for comparison. Yet investigations may lead to an ingredient commonly used in older vaccines.
"These kinds of side effects are known to be possibly linked to ingredients used to stabilise vaccines, such as polyethylene glycol [a gel used to thicken certain fluids in drugs or cosmetics]," Dr James said.
SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/tenet-streaming-vf-film-gratuit/?page=1&size=20
Indeed, Pfizer had disclosed it used one of these ingredients when it publicly released data on its vaccine.
Scientists agree that what may appear as an initial mishap does not portend safety issues for the Pfizer vaccine, or the other contenders poised for rollout.
"One has to remember that even things like marmite [spread] can cause unexpected severe allergic reactions," Professor Evans said.
SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/borat-2-streaming-vf-film-gratuit/?page=1&size=20
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Vaccine scepticism, nonetheless, remains a concern, and the scientific community will have to be vigilant and transparent in its messaging on efficacy and safety if it is to mitigate vaccine hesitancy. Publishing data by independent scientific and medical journals is one strategy.
In additional data released in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, Pfizer and BioNTech said the vaccine was 95% effective in a randomised controlled trial of more than 43,000 people. The journal’s editors described the vaccine’s development as a “triumph” for science.
SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/30-jours-max-streaming-vf-film-gratuit/?page=1&size=20
With independent monitoring processes in place to advise both the scientific community and the public, robust scrutiny of Covid-19 vaccine programmes should be assured. And with it high levels of public confidence in these vaccines to protect against a disease that has caused the worst health crisis in a century.
This article has been translated from the original in French.
Israel and Morocco agreed on Thursday to normalise relations in a deal brokered with US help, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months.
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SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/voir-film-after-chapitre-2-streaming-vf/?page=1&size=20
As part of the agreement, US President Donald Trump changed longstanding US policy and recognised Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara.
The Western Sahara is a desert region where a decades-old territorial dispute has pitted Morocco against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a breakaway movement that seeks to establish an independent state in the territory.
SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/watch-mulan-full-movie/?page=1&size=20
Trump sealed the agreement in a phone call with Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Thursday, the White House said.
"Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!" Trump tweeted.
FRANCE 24's Irris Makkler reports on the normalisation of ties between Israel and Morocco
01:19
SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/watch-after-we-collided-full-movie/?page=1&size=20
Morocco is the fourth country since August to strike a deal aimed at normalising relations with Israel. The others were the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
Much of the momentum behind the deal-making has been to present a united front against Iran and roll back its regional influence.
Palestinians have been critical of the normalisation deals, saying Arab countries have set back the cause of peace by abandoning a longstanding demand that Israel give up land for a Palestinian state before it can receive recognition.
SITE: https://zenodo.org/communities/watch-demon-slayer-infinity-train-full-movie/?page=1&size=20
Egypt and UAE issued statements welcoming Morocco's decision to normalise ties with Israel. Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979.
"This step, a sovereign move, contributes to strengthening our common quest for stability, prosperity, and just and lasting peace in the region," the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, wrote on Twitter.
SITE: https://portfolium.com/entry/hold-up-documentaire-2020-streaming-vf-fr-2
With Trump due to leave office on January 20, the Morocco deal could be among the last his team, led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and US envoy Avi Berkowitz, will negotiate before giving way to President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration.
Kushner told reporters on a conference call it was inevitable that Saudi Arabia would eventually strike a similar deal with Israel.
Full diplomatic relations
SITE: https://portfolium.com/entry/after-chapitre-2-2020-streaming-vf-fr
Under the agreement, Morocco will establish full diplomatic relations and resume official contacts with Israel, grant flights over its territory and also direct flights to and from Israel for all Israelis.
"They are going to reopen their liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv immediately with the intention to open embassies. And they are going to promote economic cooperation between Israeli and Moroccan companies," Kushner told Reuters.
SITE: https://portfolium.com/entry/mulan-2020-streaming-vf-fr
Trump's agreement to change US policy toward the Western Sahara was the linchpin for getting Morocco's agreement and a major shift away from a mostly neutral stance.
In Rabat, Morocco's royal court said Washington will open a consulate in Western Sahara as part of Morocco's deal with Israel.
In recognising Israel, Morocco wins Trump nod on Western Sahara
A White House proclamation said the United States believes that an independent Sahrawi State is "not a realistic option for resolving the conflict and that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution".
"We urge the parties to engage in discussions without delay, using Morocco's autonomy plan as the only framework to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution," it said.
SITE: https://portfolium.com/entry/tenet-2020-streaming-vf-fr
Washington had supported a 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Western Sahara's Polisario Front independence movement that called for a referendum to resolve the issue. Last month, after a border incident, the Polisario pulled out of that deal and announced a return to armed struggle.
One more Middle East breakthrough is possible. Last week Kushner and his team travelled to Saudi Arabia and Qatar seeking an end to a three-year rift between Doha and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
A tentative deal has been reached on this front but it was far from clear whether a final agreement to end a blockade of Qatar will be sealed. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have maintained a diplomatic, trade and travel embargo on Qatar since mid-2017.
While Biden is expected to move US foreign policy away from Trump's "America First" posture, he has indicated he will continue the pursuit of what Trump calls "the Abraham Accords" between Israel and Arab and Muslim nations.
The news broke as Jews marked the first night of the Hanukkah festival.