DAILY RENDEZVOUS

Daily Rendezvous  What has changed, and why there hasn’t been a new variant of concern It was 26 November 2021 that WHO declared that the world was facing a new variant of concern: Omicron. It would go on to change the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging evidence was quickly shared by scientists from Botswana, Hong Kong and South Africa and discussed in a special meeting of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group for Virus Evolution (TAG-VE). Experts at the meeting worried about the large number of mutations present in this variant, which differed greatly from the other variants that had been detected so far. Early data showed Omicron’s rapid spread in some provinces in South Africa and an increased risk of reinfection compared to the previously circulating variants. Just hours later, WHO declared this new variant a variant of concern: we were dealing with something new, something different, and something that the world had to quickly prepare for. WHO’s COVID-19 techni...

Daily Rendezvous 3rd WHO Global School on Refugee and Migrant Health to be held from 28 November to 2 December Focus on Capacity Building at WHO’s Global School on Refugee and Migrant Health in Dhaka Dhaka, 28 November: Globally one in eight or over one billion people today are migrants with 281 million international migrants and many million individuals who are stateless .  Climate change, rising inequality, conflicts, trade, and population growth are accelerating these trends. The health workforce has a vital role in providing for the health rights and needs of refugees and migrants.  With an aim to support countries and territories to build professional competence and capacity to adequately address refugee and migrant health issues, WHO is organizing the third edition of its annual Global School on Refugee and Migrant Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh with a focus on capacity-building.  “Migration and displacement can have deep and lo...

Daily Rendezvous DAMASCUS, 29 November 2022 – Trucks carrying  two million doses of Oral Cholera Vaccines  (OCV) arrived in Damascus, Syria, today.   Since the outbreak was declared on 10 September, tens of thousands of suspected acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) cases have been reported in all governorates. “Both adults and children are at risk of contracting the disease, but children often bear the brunt of severe illness and death. Procuring and delivering the vaccines timely is a top priority for UNICEF as cases continue to be reported in Syria,”  said UNICEF Syria Representative  a.i., Ghada  Kachachi. The vaccines will be used in an immunization campaign starting on 4 December to reach vulnerable people in the highly affected governorates: Aleppo, Ar-Raqqa Al -Hassakeh, and Deir ez-Zor. “Cholera is a public health threat affecting the health of populations and imposing substantial costs on public health systems. The arrival of the cholera vacci...

Daily Rendezvous WHO urges more effective prevention of injuries and violence causing 1 in 12 deaths worldwide 29 November 2022, Geneva:  Injuries and violence take the lives of some 12 000 people around the world each day. As reflected in a new World Health Organization report,  Preventing injuries and violence: an overview , 3 of the top 5 causes of death among people aged 5–29 years are injury related, namely road traffic injuries, homicide and suicide. In addition to those, injury related killers are drowning, falls, burns and poisoning, among others. Of the 4.4 million annual injury related deaths, roughly 1 in 3 of these deaths result from road traffic crashes, 1 in 6 from suicide, 1 in 9 from homicide and 1 in 61 from war and conflict. “People living in poverty are significantly more likely to suffer an injury than the wealthy,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The health sector has a major role in addressing these health inequities...

Daily Rendezvous    Solomon Kumangar, the Director General media to Governor Fintiri of Adamawa state urged the APC in Adamawa state to ensure the rented crowds which they budgeted over 100 million naira for to welcome its gubernatorial candidate, were not scams. The Director General argued that the hired crowd at the APC rally penultimate Saturday does not translate to votes, as evident in the 2019 general election where the crowd at campaign venues did not reflect the voting pattern. Kumangar reasoned, “we know for sure that when APC is preparing for the campaign, they have budgeted for mobilising a crowd and what you have seen is a rented crowd. It was reported that a chieftain of the APC in Adamawa said they had to hire about 20,000 people to welcome Aishatu Dahiru. “But it is quite disturbing because first, let’s look at what is the objective of yesterday’s rally. It is just simply to campaign and have people – voters and party members engaged with leaders. It...

Daily Rendezvous The People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) senatorial candidate for Adamawa central and the l Speaker House of Assembly has been declared ineligible due to a matter that is currently before Justice MZ Anka of the Federal High Court in Yola. Aminu Iya Abbas, the speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, was not selected as the party’s candidate. According to Anka, the involvement of Awwal Tukur, a political appointment, rendered the entire procedure illegitimate.  

Daily Rendezvous    Compiled and Edited By Jonathan Abel and Maggie Samuel Geneva, 28 November 2022 : Following a series of consultations with global experts, WHO will begin using a new preferred term “mpox” as a synonym for monkeypox. Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while “monkeypox” is phased out.  When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO. In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name.  Assigning names to new and, very exceptionally, to existing diseases is the responsibility of WHO under the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the WHO Family of International Health Related Classifications through a consultative process which includes WHO Member States. WHO, in accordance with the I...

Daily Rendezvous  “Ships do not sink because of water around them, ships sink because of water that gets into them” ~ Pracin Jain  This quote by Pracin Jain vividly describes the situation in the Adamawa Chapter of the All Progressives Congress APC. Quite a volume of water has been surrounding the Adamawa APC boat in the State, the waters of stiff competition, waters of disunity, waters of If not me.., waters of  strife, the waters of sharp disagreements, but we must not allow the waters get into the boat beyond its threshold. We must manage the inflow of these waters. THIS SHIP MUST NOT SINK. The judgement of the Appeal court upholding the Governorship candidature of Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani which was delivered on Thursday 24th November 2022 should ellucidate the need for the APC to unite because it is now more an existential need than personal gains and supremacy. A repeat of the 2019 episode must be avoided at all cost. We must commit ourselves to unit...

Daily Rendezvous  The 2023 Budget of Consolidation  Address by His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri at the presentation of the State’s 2022 Draft budget to the Adamawa State House of Assembly,  November, 2022.  RT. Honourable Speaker,  Honourable Members,  1. I am honoured, once again, to be in this hallowed Chamber which is the fortress of Democracy.  This is a moment I eagerly look forward to annually. Besides the fulfillment of this constitutional duty, is the beautiful memory the ambience of this Chamber brings to me whenever I am around. This is where a substantial part of my political story was sharpened. It is therefore gratifying that we are statutorily meeting in this manner, in continuous service to our people.    2. Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, I am indeed glad to present the 2023 budget proposal to this Honourable House. This is the fourth time that this House is according us the privilege to perform t...