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COVID Vaccine mandate expires Dec 31, TCIG stalled on ending it sooner

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By Deandrea Hamilton & Dana Malcolm

Editorial Staff

 

#TurksandCaicos, September 30, 2022 – The Turks and Caicos does not seem primed to do away with its Covid-19 vaccine mandate for entry to the islands just yet, Magnetic Media learned from Jamell Robinson, Minister of Health and Human Services.

Robinson maintained that “As usual all remaining regulations are continuously under review. Current regulations expire December 31st.”

Despite them being under constant review, the Minister gave no indication that the Turks and Caicos Islands Government would accelerate any change to the rule.

The question though, is why? The Turks and Caicos Islands Government has continuously stated that it is following the science and the UKs lead when it comes to the country’s Covid-19 response.  The UK dropped its vaccine mandate for entry back in March as the country was coming off of the Omicron wave and dozens of other countries have done so since.

In terms of the science, not only does vaccination not stop the virus from spreading to vulnerable islanders, the earliest vaccines and boosters have notoriously little efficacy against the circulating variants.

In addition, there is little evidence to suggest that allowing unvaccinated individuals within borders has a negative effect on that country’s Covid case count.

Not only are the islands missing out on a major chunk of their source markets who are unvaccinated, homeowners who are unvaccinated have not been able to return to or see their property investments since the mandate was adopted in September 2021.

Deputy Premier E Jay Sanders had explained that, “thanks to the country’s over performing tourism sector when the decision is made to pull back that requirement it will be done not out of pressure but with the TCI people in mind.”

It’s unclear what the reasoning behind keeping the mandate is when it now has been proven to provide so little protection.

Additionally, it was explained that multiple attempts by the Ministry of Health to secure avenues for unvaccinated homeowners in the Turks and Caicos to visit their properties have been rebuffed at the Cabinet level.

Robinson was addressing the continued COVID-19 vaccine requirement for travel to the TCI which blocks unvaccinated tourists and homeowners from entering the island.

“On several occasions, I have presented possible pathways for homeowners to be able to visit their properties outside of a full repeal of the vaccine entry mandate and each time there was not full support for it moving forward in Cabinet,” he said.

Magnetic Media has spoken to irate and broken-hearted  homeowners who have not been able to visit their properties in a year despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and other fees to have a home on the islands.

The Health Ministry however says his team is now preparing a cabinet paper to weigh the pros and cons of continuing with the vaccine mandate.  Robinson said that paper has not made the agenda as yet, taking a back seat to more pressing issues including the passing of Hurricane Fiona.

The paper should reach cabinet “soon” but this is not a guarantee that the measure will be dropped. Robinson also defended the TCIG’s current policy.

“Based on the numbers I have received from the (tourism) industry to date, being one of the few only remaining destinations with a vaccine mandate doesn’t seem to be hurting our projected occupancy rates for the months of December, January, and February across all segments of the Industry.”

The issue of why the vaccine mandate persists are heightened due to major announcements in recent days including, Joe Biden, US president declaring that the Coronavirus Pandemic “is over”; Canada moving to end its vaccine entry requirement on September 30 and The Bahamas calling off mandatory testing as of September 22 and rescinding the mask rule (for most public places) on October 1.

The mandatory vaccine measure came into effect in September 2021 prior to the widespread emergence of Omicron and lowered vaccine efficacy.  It is also a mandatory requirement for guest workers in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Health

Under 5 Mortality Rate Decreasing

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Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

 

 

#WHO#ChildDeathrate,March 13th, 2024 – The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that the number of children who died before their 5th birthday has decreased, reaching a historic low of 4.9 million in 2022, declining by 51 percent since the year 2000. This is according to a recent release by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME).  However, despite the major progress, there is still a lot of work to prevent child mortality, as  data shows that in addition to the 4.9 million young lives lost, another 2.1 million children and youths, aged 5 to 25, also died, most of which were in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. The Organisation (WHO) says the main causes of these deaths are preventable and/or treatable issues such as complications around the time of birth, malaria and preterm birth, adding that lives could have been saved with better access to high-quality primary health care.

 

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30 Facts About Your Heart

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As you go through your day, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about your heart and all that it’s doing. But let’s take a few moments to appreciate this life-sustaining organ in your chest.

Your heart starts beating well before you’re born and continues its rhythmic work until the day you die. That’s just the start (and end) of its amazing story, though.

Here are a few more heart-related facts, courtesy of cardiologist Brian Griffin, MD.

  1. Your heart beats about 100,000 times per day. During the average person’s lifetime, their heart beats more than 2.6 billion times. (Your pulse is a way you can feel your heart beating.)
  2. The beating sound from your heart — lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub — is from the clap of valve leaflets opening and closing.
  3. A typical human heart valve is about the size of a half dollar.
  4. Each minute, your heart pumps nearly 1.5 gallons (5.7 liters) of blood. That’s a pump flow rate that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in less than a year. (Talk about a gold medal effort!)
  5. Your adult-sized heart is about the size of two hands clasped together. A child’s heart is about the size of a single fist.
  6. Location is everything in life, right? That’s true for your heart, too. It’s located in the front of your chest, slightly behind and to the left of your breastbone. Your ribs offer extra protection for the vital organ.
  7. To make room for your heart, your left lung is slightly smaller than your right lung.
  8. Your heart weighs somewhere between 7 ounces and 15 ounces (200 grams to 425 grams), or less than a pound. The average male’s heart weighs 2 ounces (57 grams) more than the average female’s heart.
  9. For comparison’s sake, a blue whale — the world’s largest animal — has a heart weighing more than 1,000 pounds. A person could easily crawl through the aorta in that sized heart.
  10. The smallest animal heart can be found in fairyflies. You’d need a microscope to see the ticker in this tiny insect.
  11. Your heart works as a coordinated machine. The right side of your heart pumps “used” blood from your body into your lungs, where it refills with oxygen. The left side of your heart then pumps re-oxygenated blood back into your body.
  12. Almost every cell in your body gets blood from your heart. The outliers can be found in the corneas of your eyes.
  13. Your heart pumps blood through about 60,000 miles (96,000 kilometers) of blood vessels. To put that in perspective, this blood tubing system could circle the Earth at the equator TWICE.
  14. A female’s average heartbeat is faster than a male’s by almost eight beats a minute. The reason? Because their hearts are usually smaller in size, females need their hearts to beat more to pump the same amount of blood.
  15. A typical heart pumps approximately 4 tablespoons of blood with each beat.
  16. Your heart has its own electrical supply and will continue to beat even when separated from your body. This specialized network of cells is known as the heart’s electrical conduction system.
  17. Heart disease is the greatest single threat to your health and the leading cause of death globally. The good news? You can help manage your heart health through dietary choicesregular exercise and stress management.
  18. It’s true that some heart problems can be inherited. It’s also true that you can minimize their impact by managing blood pressure and cholesterol through a heart-healthy lifestyle. (See #15.)
  19. Runners have a 45% lower risk of heart disease or stroke.
  20. Cardiac health is an age-old issue, as evidence of heart disease has been found in 3,000-year-old mummies.
  21. Research shows that Monday — the start of the traditional work week — is the most common day of the week to experience a heart attack. It’s a phenomenon known as the “Blue Monday” effect.
  22. The holiday season is also heart attack season. More cardiac deaths occur on December 25 than any other day of the year. The second and third-deadliest days are December 26 and January 1.
  23. A joke a day may help keep the heart doctor away, as laughing can improve heart health by lowering stress and relaxing blood vessels. Happiness can lower your risk of heart disease, too.
  24. Why does the heart symbolize love? Probably because of the pitter-patter you feel in your chest when Cupid’s arrow strikes. (But in truth, your brain controls love — but that would make for a lousy Valentine’s Day symbol.)
  25. Despite your heart not being part of making a love connection, it can still be broken when relationships take a bad turn. An emotionally driven condition known as “broken heart syndrome” can temporarily weaken your heart muscle.
  26. Heart cancer is very rare because heart cells stop dividing in adulthood, making them more resistant to the sort of mutations that can lead to cancer.
  27. Modesty prompted the invention of the stethoscope, that iconic medical tool that healthcare providers use to listen to your heart. Before it existed, doctors had to press an ear directly to the chest of their patient.
  28. The world’s first “stopped-heart” surgery took place at Cleveland Clinic in 1956. Today, this type of surgery — which uses a machine to pump blood throughout the body while the heart is stopped during an operation — is commonplace.
  29. A cardiac surgeon at Cleveland Clinic pioneered coronary artery bypass surgery in the late 1960s. The surgery restores blood flow to areas of the heart using blood vessels transplanted from other parts of the body.

Each year, more than 2 million people around the world have open-heart surgery to address various heart conditions.

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The new Galaxy Ring is a part of Samsung’s Vision for an Intelligent Health Platform

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Dr. Hon Pak, Vice President and Head of Digital Health Team, MX Business at Samsung Electronics talks about Samsung Health platform and its newest addition: Galaxy Ring

Today, more than ever, people are defining their own wellness goals. From looking to stay fit or gaining more muscle mass, achieving better sleep, or caring for personal or family physical and mental health issues, everyone’s goals for better health look different. But one thing is common, the daily management and path towards these goals can be complicated and challenging, and most importantly, it is defined by you.

That’s why at Samsung, we’re working to empower more people to manage their health – and those they care for – their way, with a comprehensive, yet simplified approach to everyday wellness. Our vision is to improve the health of billions through connected care centered around the home by connecting devices, services and people – like only Samsung can.

 One of the biggest challenges the healthcare industry is facing today is fragmented data and how to bring it all together. Samsung is uniquely positioned to undertake this with one of the largest, most diverse connected device ecosystems. Now with Samsung Health, we’re connecting different devices and partner solutions within one cohesive platform, making it simpler to track health conditions on a Galaxy wearable.

By collecting data through advanced sensor technology, you’ll receive a deeper, more holistic understanding of your health with improved insights and integrated third party health data. And as always, your personal data on the Galaxy devices remains secure thanks to the Samsung Knox security platform.

Like any good data model, how you leverage the information is key. In this new mobile era of AI, Samsung is focused on remaining at the forefront of maximizing information. With the intelligence of AI, the most transformative technology of the century, users will receive more personalized insights and tailored health experiences through Samsung Health’s extensive global dataset from 64M monthly active users. And while every user’s wellness journey is unique, we believe they all start in the same way – by gaining a deeper understanding of their health through more comprehensive insights, spanning the longest time possible.

This is why we’ve continued to build a portfolio of tools that help track their health conveniently, continuously and accurately. This approach comes to life in our wearables portfolio with upcoming features like My Vitality Score[1] and Booster Card[2], combining more data with new intelligent analysis to deliver even more personalized and actionable guidance day and night.

With more data and greater intelligence, users will receive even more insights for preventative wellness end-to-end solutions, starting with sleep.  We’ve developed a variety of features that offer users a deeper understanding of their sleep quality and other aspects of their health during sleep. For example, the sleep apnea feature, which recently received De Novo clearance from US FDA, will detect signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea – and often undiagnosed and untreated – chronic medical condition, so they can address it with their healthcare provider.

This is just the beginning. We’re working with partners to connect these capabilities to real world solutions and services that expand access to healthcare in the home. For instance, you can create a more optimal sleep environment with a smart mattress that can fine-tune the ideal sleep temperatures for rest.

 Samsung recognizes that gaining a deep understanding of one’s personal health can result in significant long-term wellness benefits for our users. As we look to deliver on our vision of providing users with a comprehensive yet simplified approach to everyday wellness, we realize choice is a big factor. Obtaining accurate, detailed and advanced information on personal health conditions is the foundation of helping better track and action change. 

Mobile devices will become the primary access point for AI, and through Samsung Galaxy – with our broad and comprehensive product portfolio, heritage of innovation, and philosophy of open collaboration – we’re well positioned to accelerate its global expansion.  That’s why we’re thrilled to be introducing Samsung Galaxy Ring later this year – bringing Samsung’s accumulated innovations to the smallest form for comfortable 24/7 wear. As a new addition to our wearables portfolio, Galaxy Ring will offer users an all-new way to simplify everyday wellness, empowering them with greater insights and more ways to understand themselves day and night. With Galaxy Ring, users can embrace an unrivalled experience during every step of their wellness journey, all while being delivered in lockstep with Samsung’s broader vision for a more connected, integrated and seamless digital wellness platform.

 Samsung will continue to enrich and expand Galaxy AI experiences across our product categories and collaborations to bring forward mobile experiences that defy imagination. The launch of Galaxy Ring is just one of Samsung’s many initiatives that exemplifies this and delivers on our vision of improving the health and wellness of billions, starting at home, with you. Through the power of intelligence, partnerships and advanced technology, we’re helping more people better understand themselves and make the small changes that have a big impact, every day. With this, the power of Galaxy AI, and many more exciting health and wellness solutions and updates on the horizon, we can’t wait for you to see what we have in store.

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