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Donald Trump left letter for Joe Biden before departing White House - spokesman - IOL

In line with tradition, Donald Trump left a letter to his successor Joe Biden before leaving the White House, spokesman Judd Deere told AFP minutes after the outgoing president's departure.

Washington, United States - Donald Trump left a letter to his successor Joe Biden before leaving the White House, spokesman Judd Deere told AFP minutes after the outgoing president's departure. Trump, who refused to accept his defeat for more than two months, never congratulated Biden on his victory. "We are just temporary occupants of this office," Barack Obama wrote in his own note to Trump four years ago, left in the Oval Office in line with presidential tradition. "That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions... that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it's up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them," he added. The letter touted as one of the classiest left by a president was written by Republican George H.W. Bush to Bill Clinton, who had made Bush a one-term president after defeating him in the 1992 election. The letter, which Bush left as he departed the White House in 1993, recalled his "sense of wonder and respect" as he walked in to the Oval Office four years earlier."There will be very tough times ... just don't let the critics discourage you or push you off course," Bush wrote."You will be our president when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success now is our country's success. I am rooting hard for you. Good luck," he told his opponent.

Mobile labs take vaccine studies to diverse neighborhoods - Medical Xpress

Lani Muller doesn't have to visit a doctor's office to help test an experimental COVID-19 vaccine—she just climbs into a bloodmobile-like van that parks on a busy street near her New York City neighborhood.

by Lauran Neergaard and Joseph B. Frederick Nurse Brianne Stockman, left, prepares to draw some blood from study participant Lani Muller in a mobile medical unit parked in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. With more vaccines in the pipeline, scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Lani Muller doesn't have to visit a doctor's office to help test an experimental COVID-19 vaccineshe just climbs into a bloodmobile-like van that parks on a busy street near her New York City neighborhood. The U.S. is rightly fixated on the chaotic rollout of the first two authorized vaccines to fight the pandemic. But with more vaccines in the pipelinecritical to boosting global suppliesscientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. Those studies, like earlier ones, must include communities of color that have been hard-hit by the pandemic, communities that also voice concern about the vaccination drive in part because of a long history of racial health care disparities and even research abuses. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer. Muller, who is Black, said her family was worried about the vaccine research so she didn't mention she'd signed up to test AstraZeneca's shot. "The legacy of African Americans in science in these sort of trials hasn't been great and we haven't forgotten," said Muller, 49, a Columbia University employee whose participation in some prior research projects made her willing to get a test injection earlier this month. Muller knows more than 20 people who have gotten or died from COVID-19. "I'm much more afraid of the disease than the vaccine trial," she said. From the beginning, the National Institutes of Health was adamant that COVID-19 vaccines be tested in a population about as diverse as the nation'skey to building confidence in whichever shots proved to work. In studies of the Pfizer and Moderna shots so far cleared for widespread U.S. use, 10% of volunteers were Black, and more were Hispanic. Diversity is an even tougher challenge now. The high-risk volunteers needed for final testing of other vaccine candidates have to decide if they want to stick with an experimental injectionone that might be a dummy shotor try to get in line for a rationed but proven dose. AstraZeneca, with about 30,000 volunteers so far, didn't release specific numbers but said the last weeks of enrollment are focusing on recruiting more minorities and people over age 65. Another maker, Novavax, just began recruiting for its final testing last month. Research recruitment specialist Cristina Barron, right, talks with a pedestrian passing by a mobile medical van parked in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. With more vaccines in the pipeline, scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Studying the vaccines in diverse populations is only one step in building trust, said Dr. Wayne Frederick, president of Howard University, a historically Black university in the nation's capital. Howard's hospital shared video of Frederick and other health workers getting vaccinated as a public service announcement encouraging African Americans to get their own shot as soon as it's their turn. Frederick, a surgeon who's also at high risk because of diabetes and sickle cell disease, said he's dismayed to get emails espousing conspiracy theories such as that vaccination is "an experiment on African Americans." "There is misinformation that does require all of us to be in the forefront of getting involved and challenging it," he said. But efforts to build confidence in the vaccines could be undermined if, once there's more supply to go around, hard-hit minority communities get left behind. "The equity issue is absolutely important," said Stephaun Wallace, a scientist at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center who also is part of the NIH-created COVID-19 Prevention Network that helps with vaccine research and education. "It's important that we ensure that the vaccine is getting to the people, and that is an access issue." Using vans to reach at-risk communities has long been a staple of fighting HIV, another illness that has disproportionately struck Black Americans. And as more doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines arrive, mobile clinics are expected to help expand COVID-19 vaccination access, especially in rural areas. But the NIH program has a different focus, offering RV-sized mobile clinics from Matrix Medical Network to help improve the diversity of ongoing vaccine studies. Officials say they've been used at a Lakota reservation, at chicken-processing plants with a largely Hispanic workforce, and in cities like Washington where Howard University is recruiting volunteers for the new Novavax study. Co-investigator Jorge Soler, center, talks to pedestrians about the COVID-19 vaccine and the studies they are conducting in front of a mobile medical van parked in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. With more vaccines in the pipeline, scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) "I don't think we can sit in the ivory towers and hope that people come to us. I think that would be a mistake," said Howard's Frederick. Researchers from the New York Blood Center regularly park their lab-on-wheels in parts of Queens and Brooklyn with large Black, Asian and Hispanic populations, so that even after study enrollment ends the participants can pop in for required check-ups. They also make a point of standing outside to answer questions from passersby confused about COVID-19 vaccination in general. It's "building trust and rapport," said Dr. Jorge Soler, who helps study the AstraZeneca vaccine as part of the blood center's Project Achieve. "I'm Latino and I'm a scientist. To be able to say that to people means something." Soler sometimes has to dispel fears that getting vaccinated might mean being "injected with a chip," or having information collected for surveillance purposes.

• Pedestrians look over branded giveaways while receiving information about the COVID-19 vaccine in front of a mobile medical van parked in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. With more vaccines in the pipeline, scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
• Nurse Brianne Stockman, left, takes a sample for a COVID-19 test of study participant Victorya Kaon in a mobile medical unit parked in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. With more vaccines in the pipeline, scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
• Study participant Victorya Kaon talks with a nurse in a mobile medical unit parked in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. With more vaccines in the pipeline, scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
• Nurse Brianne Stockman, left, injects study participant Lani Muller with either a COVID-19 vaccine or a placebo in a mobile medical unit parked in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. With more vaccines in the pipeline, scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. To help, researchers in more than a dozen spots around the country are rolling out mobile health clinics to better reach minority participants and people in rural areas who might not otherwise volunteer. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Read next on IOL Tropical storm Eloise to miss the Western Cape - IOL

The Western Cape will largely be unaffected by the tropical storm, Eloise, anticipated to hit some parts of the country.

By Shakirah Thebus7h ago Cape Town - The Western Cape will largely be unaffected by Tropical Storm Eloise, anticipated to hit some parts of the country. This after several parts of the country received severe weather warnings and were told to remain on high alert and expect heavy rainfall over the coming days. The Cape Town Weather Office said the storm would predominantly affect the eastern parts of Limpopo and Mpumalanga as well as the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday and Monday. The office said this would not affect the Western Cape at all. Gift of the Givers Geologist: Drought Intervention, Dr Gideon Groenewald said high rainfall was indicated in the Lowveld between Friday and Sunday. It is simply warm air rising, but if the sea surface temperature is about 29°C or warmer, energy gets caught up in the system and winds get extremely strong, up to 180km/h, causing lots of water vapour to move into the cloud system. Eloise is currently in Madagascar and is expected to reach Mozambique today or tomorrow. A weather map from Meteo France showing the path tropical storm Eloise may take. When Eloise makes landfall, winds of 180km are killers. Extreme moisture levels cause rainfall of up to 97mm per hour for about five hours. That is 500mm over five hours, over 300km2 in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, he said. Cyclones are part of dry weather systems, so people in South Africa last saw this kind of rainfall with cyclone Demoina in 1988. Anybody who was not old enough to remember 1988 will not know what is going to happen on Sunday to Monday. Groenewald advised people not to venture into any flooded river or try to cross bridges, as the bridges might be gone. Cyclones are unpredictable disasters and Eloise can turn back to sea on Friday and have no dramatic effect on people in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, but it is better to know that if it does enter, roads will be rivers and rivers ... massive flooded areas for kilometres. If Eloise follows the models, we will see severe wind damage in Mozambique and very heavy flooding in large parts of Kruger National Park and inland along the Drakensberg escarpment near Graskop. There could be possible flooding from Friday to Tuesday, he said. Cape Argus