Coronavirus: California hits one million cases as outbreaks grow across US
California is the second state to reach a million cases as outbreaks put a pause on reopenings.- Advertisement –
American slashes London flights in December due to weak demand
American Airlines plans to cut much of its service to London next month from major U.S. airports due to weak demand in the pandemic, the carrier said Sunday.The move comes as coronavirus cases have climbed in both countries and officials instated new restrictions in response to help curb the spread of the virus, driving down demand on what was one of the most profitable and popular international routes pre-pandemic.The carrier won’t operate flights from Charlotte, New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow next month. Customers in Chicago and New York can alternatively book on British Airways, American’s trans-Atlantic partner. American will continue to operate cargo-only flights from Chicago and New York and London, “until daily passenger service resumes in January,” a spokeswoman said in statement.- Advertisement – – Advertisement – – Advertisement – An American Airlines Boeing 777-200 aircraftNicolas Economou | NurPhoto | Getty Images
“We’re constantly evaluating our network to match supply and demand and have been making regular schedule adjustments since March,” the spokeswoman said. “In an effort to match low demand resulting from coronavirus (COVID-19), we continue to operate a reduced schedule.”Delta and United didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on their plans.Airlines, including American and British Airways, have been urging officials on both sides of the Atlantic to replace travel restrictions, such as those that bar most Europeans from entering the U.S. and quarantine requirements for Americans entering the U.K., with Covid-19 testing. – Advertisement –
International network to study high-dose Tamiflu
Mar 29, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – A network of clinical researchers stretching from Southeast Asia to the United States is about to begin testing whether doubling the standard dosage of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) will help patients overcome either the often-deadly H5N1 avian influenza or severe seasonal flu.Researchers in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States hope to enroll up to 400 patients over the next 2 years and treat them with either the standard regimen or twice that amount for up to 10 days.The trial will be run by the Southeast Asia Influenza Clinical Research Network (SEA ICRN), a multinational partnership launched about a year and a half ago. The network has published the full study protocol on its Web site (see link below).H5N1 disease in humans is fatal about 60% of the time, and experts have been suggesting for some time that higher doses of the antiviral drug might give patients a better chance of surviving. The results of the trial could affect not only recommendations for use of the drug, but also government decisions about how much of it to stockpile for use in a flu pandemic. Oseltamivir is considered the first-line treatment for H5N1 patients.Patients will be randomly assigned to receive either the standard dosage of oseltamivir—75 mg twice a day—or 150 mg twice a day, according to the study protocol. Patients won’t know which regimen they are on; placebo capsules will be used to pad the regimen for the standard-treatment group.Elizabeth Higgs, MD, deputy of the Collaborative Clinical Research Branch of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an associate investigator with the trial, told CIDRAP News that patients will be treated for 5 days and then assessed. “Then we’ll continue [the treatment] if the patient isn’t clinically better. We’re really trying to look at both the dose and the length of time. The hypothesis is the higher dose for a longer period of time will work better.”Higgs said Dr. Menno de Jong, a clinical researcher at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, found evidence that the virus reaches higher levels and invades more systems and organs in H5N1 disease than in seasonal flu. The hope is that a higher dose of oseltamivir will be more effective in countering the high viral load in H5N1 patients, she said.De Jong was the first author of a December 2005 report on two fatal H5N1 cases in Vietnam in which the virus showed signs of resistance to oseltamivir. One of the patients died despite receiving the drug within the recommended window of 2 days after symptom onset. De Jong and colleagues said their findings implied that some patients may need a higher dose or longer treatment regimen.In animal studies, higher doses of oseltamivir have yielded higher cure rates for H5N1, according to Tawee Chotpitayasunondh of Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health, who was quoted in a Reuters report published yesterday.Besides testing whether high-dose oseltamivir will better control the virus, the trial aims to uncover differences between human and avian influenza in their clinical manifestations, the relationship between viral blood concentration and viral dynamics, and pathogenesis, according to the protocol.The protocol calls for enrolling up to 100 patients with avian flu and up to 300 with severe seasonal flu. The aim is to enroll all laboratory-identified avian flu patients who seek treatment within 1 week of illness onset.The participating hospitals include five in Vietnam, two in Indonesia, four in Thailand, and one in the United States—the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. Five labs in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam will also be involved.The study is supported by the NIAID, the Wellcome Trust in London, and the University of Oxford. The World Health Organization (WHO) is also a partner in the network.Roche, the manufacturer of oseltamivir, is not participating in the study but is supplying the drug for it, according to the protocol.Amid controversy over access to H5N1 virus samples and vaccines, Higgs described the network as a remarkable example of international cooperation in flu research. Indonesia promised this week to resume sharing its H5N1 samples with the WHO, after withholding them for several months because of concern that vaccine producers would use them to make vaccines priced beyond Indonesia’s reach.”This [network] is the only group of its type that has this type of cooperation among countries,” Higgs said. “Here we are at a clinical science level cooperating very nicely. It’s significant that all of these countries want to cooperate at a scientific level and everybody has the same information.”She said the network was born about 18 months ago, after years of discussion among Southeast Asian researchers and also between the NIAID and the WHO. Since then, much work has been done to build capacity at the various sites involved, she said.”A lot of these sites had a tremendous amount of experience with research before they joined the network,” Higgs said. “Wellcome has been supporting clinical research in these countries for decades.”See also: Dec 22, 2005, CIDRAP News story “Tamiflu resistance in avian flu victims sparks concern”
THE PANDEMIC VACCINE PUZZLE Part 4: The promise and problems of adjuvants
The most provocative news in dose-sparing has come in the past several months. In August, scientists working with a GlaxoSmithKline formula published a trial of a two-dose regimen of an inactivated split-virus vaccine adjuvanted with a proprietary oil-in-water emulsion; after the second injection, even the lowest dose of 3.8 mcg exceeded EU criteria for immune response (see Bibliography: Leroux-Roels 2007). And in September, Sanofi Pasteur reported in a press release that an inactivated vaccine adjuvanted with the company’s own proprietary formula induced EU-accepted levels of protection after two doses of 1.9 mcg. Oct 30, 2007 (CIDRAP News) Adjuvanted vaccines appear to hold the greatest promise for solving the grave supply-demand imbalance in pandemic influenza vaccine development. They come with obstaclesimmunologic, regulatory, and commercialbut they also have generated more excitement than any other type of vaccine thus far. Two other alum-adjuvanted vaccines that used whole viruses have shown some promise for antigen sparing. At a February 2007 World Health Organization (WHO) meeting, Norbert Hehme of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals reported that a regimen of two 15-mcg doses met EU criteria for immune response (see Bibliography: Hehme 2007). And in May, Hungarian investigators reported that they had achieved an acceptable immune response in a small study using a formula (based on a seasonal vaccine already licensed in the EU) containing a single dose of only 6 mcg (see Bibliography: Vajo 2007). Two alum-adjuvanted vaccines that used the split-virus formulation common in the United States have reported levels of immune response acceptable to regulators at two doses of 45 mcg (see Bibliography: Keitel 2007) or 30 mcg (see Bibliography: Bresson 2006). But those levels of antigen are so high that deployment of those vaccines would not allow significant dose-sparing. The pandemic vaccine puzzle The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued $132.5 million in contracts in January 2007 to three companiesGlaxoSmithKline, Iomai, and Novartisto study antigen technology, including the possibility of mixing and matching adjuvants with separately manufactured antigens (see Bibliography: GSK 2007; Iomai 2007; Novartis 2007: Novartis receives US government contract). Manufacturers have welcomed the government interest because negotiating combinations of components from different companies is fraught with antitrust and intellectual-property pitfalls. Moreover, at the moment both the FDA and the European Union’s drug agency consider adjuvants to be a component of vaccines, not a product separate from vaccinesimplying that adjuvants can be brought forward only as part of a precise antigen dose/adjuvant combination that must be tested for safety and efficacy, probably in a “non-inferiority” trial against the same antigen dose without adjuvant, and then submitted for licensure (see Bibliography: European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products 2005; FDA 2007: Guidance for industry: clinical data needed to support the licensure of seasonal inactivated influenza vaccines). “We have H5N1 to thank for opening up the flu research field, which was absolutely creeping along,” said Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, who has long research experience with live-attenuated vaccine. “We’ve always known that flu vaccine was good, but not greatnot a 21st century vaccine with 95% protectionbut there was a feeling that it was good enough. But H5N1 changed the risk-benefit ratio so that we are willing for instance to work with adjuvants, which may have theoretical risks but certainly may well afford tangible benefits. We’re going to learn a whole lot about the immunology of protection that we haven’t learned in the past” (see Bibliography: Monto 2007). “We have not taken the position that an adjuvant can be thought of as a stand-alone product,” Dr. Pamela MacInnes of the National Institutes of Health said at an FDA advisory committee meeting last February. “It’s a product that has antigen in combination with an adjuvant that comes forward for licensure” (see Bibliography: FDA 2007: Committee meeting transcript). Part 1: Flu research: a legacy of neglectPart 2: Vaccine production capacity falls far shortPart 3: H5N1 poses major immunologic challengesPart 4: The promise and problems of adjuvantsPart 5: What role for prepandemic vaccination?Part 6: Looking to novel vaccine technologiesPart 7: Time for a vaccine ‘Manhattan Project’?Bibliography In an example of the hope being hung on adjuvants, the WHO last week issued a statement declaring that the pandemic vaccine supply is “sharply” increasing and forecasting that annual manufacturing capacity will rise to 4.5 billion two-dose courses by 2010 (see Bibliography: WHO 2007: Projected supply). The forecast is based on the expectation that flu vaccines made in 2010 will include an adjuvant permitting the use of just one-eighth of current vaccines’ antigen content. (Adjuvants are chemicals that are incorporated in some vaccines to improve response to the vaccines’ active ingredient. Adjuvants make it possible to reduce the dose of antigen in a vaccine without dampening the immune response.)
While adjuvants hold the greatest promise for dose-sparing, they also provoke trepidation because they are by definition immune-system activators. While many have been tested over the years, few have entered the market, because they proved too reactogenic to be acceptable to consumers or safe. Only one set of adjuvants, aluminum salts or alum (aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, and potassium aluminum sulfate), is licensed in the United States. Aluminum adjuvants and MF59, an oil-in-water emulsion that contains squalene (an oil found in some fish oils), are licensed in Europe (see Bibliography: Petrovsky 2007). Adjuvants old and newEarly hopes for an adjuvanted H5N1 vaccine focused on alum, because it is well-understood and widely licensed, but those formulas have proved disappointing. A phase 1 study of alum-adjuvanted vaccine made by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech achieved acceptable levels of protection using two doses of only 10 micrograms (mcg) of flu antigenbut that formula was based on an inactivated whole virus, a flu-vaccine type that is licensed in the European Union but not currently used in the United States (see Bibliography: Lin 2006). Mixing and matchingThere is currently no regulatory pathway by which adjuvants may be submitted for approval as products by themselvesor may be paired with a separately manufactured antigen, perhaps one produced by another company. Regulators acknowledge that could stand in the way of, for instance, converting the already-manufactured vaccine in the national stockpile (which was purchased under the 90-mcg-dose license granted Sanofi Pasteur earlier this year but is held in bulk) to an adjuvanted vaccine that could be stretched much further. “There probably are more concerns about an antigen made with one manufacturing process and an antigen made with another manufacturing process and whether when those are mixed with ideal adjuvant X in two potentially different circumstances or time points, that could raise a bunch of issues about formulation, stability, immunogenicity, safety,” Dr. Jesse Goodman, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said at the FDA meeting (see Bibliography: FDA 2007: Committee meeting transcript). Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a seven-part series investigating the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts promising advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing large amounts of an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame. Part 3 discussed the immunologic challenges posed by the H5N1 virus, including its poor immunogenicity when incorporated in vaccines and the difficulty of assessing immune responses to the vaccines. Regulatory barriers loomLike many other aspects of pandemic planning, adjuvants’ ability to solve some of the challenges of preparedness will depend on how rapidly a pandemic arrives. That is because the most promising vaccines rely on formulas that have not yet been licensed in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has indicated that pandemic vaccines made in the same manner as an already-licensed seasonal vaccine may be treated only as a “strain change,” in an accelerated approval process by which components are swapped out of existing seasonal flu vaccines each spring. But since there are no adjuvanted seasonal flu vaccines currently licensed in the United States, antigen-sparing pandemic vaccines may require a full Biologics License Applicationthe complete portfolio of testing and data, on both the product and the manufacturing facility, that is demanded of any new drug submitted for licensure and can take years to assemble (see Bibliography: FDA 2007: Guidance for industry: clinical data needed to support the licensure of pandemic influenza vaccines). No adjuvanted flu vaccine is licensed in the United Statesa notable oversight since federal health authorities urged such a vaccine be investigated as a preparedness measure after the pandemic of 1957 (see Bibliography: Strikas 2005). Fifty years later, the need to seek regulatory approval for novel components in adjuvanted pandemic vaccines could prove a barrier to rapid market entry of formulas that look promising. “I have heard a lot of people say they expect problems with adjuvanted vaccines,” said Hedwig Kresse, an associate analyst for infectious diseases with the British-based market analysts Datamonitor. “It is a technology that definitely has some potential, but there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed first” (see Bibliography: Kresse 2007).
Researchers find antibody that fights H5N1, seasonal flu strains
Supplementing antivirals?Antiviral medications have been the gold standard for H5N1 treatment, but they are mainly effective when given within 24 to 48 hours of symptom onset, and health officials have voiced concerns about antiviral-resistant strains of H5N1 and seasonal influenza that have surfaced in recent years. Feb 22 NIAID press release As a treatment, if mAb trials are successful in humans, it could be difficult to get the treatment to large groups of people, because it would likely be given intravenously or at least through an injection, he said. “To treat flu in advance would be logistically elaborate and expensiveit’s not as easy as giving a pill.” For seasonal influenza, treatments using mAbs could be used for those who have immune-system impairments, the NIAID said. In a pandemic setting, this group and others at risk, such as first responders, healthcare workers, and those exposed to the virus, could also benefit from mAb prophylaxis or treatment. The findings raise hopes for a universal flu vaccine and shed light on new options for preventing and treating influenza infections, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Center, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday in an early online edition of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Monoclonal antibodieshighly specific infection-fighting proteins derived from the same cell lineageare being used to treat some cancers and immunologic diseases. Physicians sometimes used a basic form of the therapy during the “Spanish flu” pandemic of 1918-19, by administering blood products from recovering patients to sick patients. Antibody treatment, also called passive immunotherapy, has been used to prevent infectious diseases such as hepatitis A and B and respiratory syncytial virus infections. The conserved region in the neckrather than the constantly mutating headof the protein could provide a useful and stable new target for vaccine developers, Marasco said, adding, “An important goal is to redirect the immune response of vaccines to this invariable region of the hemagglutinin to try to obtain durable lifelong immunity.” “This is an elegant research finding that holds considerable promise for further development into a medical tool to treat and prevent seasonal as well as pandemic influenza,” Fauci said in the NIAID press release. He added that mAbs could be used along with antivirals to contain an outbreak until a vaccine is available. Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the NIAID, told CIDRAP News that he was very pleased with the findings, and though it can be difficult to extrapolate from mouse studies, they represent a very significant advance. He said he hopes the agency will remain involved in the group’s next research steps. Billions of antibodies scannedA team from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, scanned billions of mAbs produced in bacteriophages and found 10 that were active against the four major H5N1 virus subtypes, according to a press release from NIAID. Collaborating with a researcher from the CDC’s influenza division, they found that three of the mAbs had broad neutralizing effects when tested in cell cultures and mice against other known influenza A viruses, including H1 seasonal strains and the one that caused the 1918 pandemic. At the same time, the Dana-Farber group worked with researchers at Burnham to visualize the x-ray crystal structure of an mAb that was bound to the H5N1 hemagglutinin. The image shows one arm of the mAb inserted into a genetically stable pocket in the neck of the hemagglutanin protein, which blocks the structural change needed to allow the virus to enter host cells. The antibodies could be frozen and have a fairly long shelf life, Fauci said. He added that mAb therapy typically provides potent protection for the first few weeks but wanes over the next few months. Implications for vaccine developmentWilliam Schaffner, MD, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, told CIDRAP News that the findings might change the way healthcare officials approach seasonal and pandemic flu, but he cautioned that the research is still in the early stages.
Sui J, Hwang W, Perez S, et al. Structural and functional bases for broad-spectrum neutralization of avian and human influenza A viruses. Nature Struct Mol Biol 2009 Feb 22; early online publication [Abstract] Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, publisher of CIDRAP News, called the new study a very important scientific development that raises hopes for a universal flu vaccine. He commended NIAID for supporting the study and said several more similarly well-done studies are needed to identify the right vaccine candidates. Schaffner, who is also president-elect of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said he sees two implications of the study, one focusing on vaccine development and the other on the development of new antibody treatments. However, he said he’s a little more excited about what the findings mean for the future of vaccines. Feb 23, 2009 (CIDRAP News) In a development that could create new tools to prevent and treat seasonal and pandemic influenza, researchers have identified and tested human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that can neutralize influenza A viruses, including lethal H5N1 avian influenza. “The holy grail of vaccine research is finding some part of the flu virus code that is conserved among different strains,” he said, adding that if the protein the researchers found is successful in future trials, the method could be used to provide long-lasting immunity against a host of strains. As a result, scientists wouldn’t need to develop a new vaccine every year, and people might need only periodic boosters, as in tetanus immunization, Schaffner said, adding that the prospect of saving money and having a healthier population is very exciting. Wayne Marasco, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Dana-Farber, said in the press release that humans rarely make antibodies to the highly conserved region in the neck of the hemagglutinin protein. “We believe this is because the head of the hemagglutinin protein acts as a decoy by constantly undergoing mutation and thereby attracting the immune system to producing antibodies against it, rather than against the pocket in the neck of the protein,” he said. Therapeutic mAbs are more costly to produce than other influenza drugs, but they can be readily manufactured and stockpiled, according to the Dana-Farber press release. In a pandemic, mAbs treatment could be used with antivirals until a vaccine specific to the circulating strain becomes available. However, he said the world still doesn’t have an economic model or the infrastructure to support the widespread use of seasonal influenza vaccine, much less a universal flu vaccine, if early scientific findings lead to a finished product. “There’s no magic bullet unless you have a gun to shoot it from and money to buy the bullets,” Osterholm said. The human mAbs are ready for advanced preclinical testing, and the next step will be to test the antibodies in ferrets, which have sialic acid receptors in their respiratory tracts resembling those in humans, Marasco said. Then researchers will develop a clinical version of one of the mAbs for use in human trials. He said that if mAbs are safe and effective in humans, a licensed product could still be several years away. See also: The new strategy would offer an advantage over current seasonal flu vaccines, which are sometimes ineffective because they don’t match circulating flu strains. Though vaccines developed against the H5N1 vaccine have been promising, none have elicited a broad response in humans to different H5N1 subtypes, according to a Dana-Farber press release on the findings. Feb 22 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute press release
Plitvice received its premium perfume as a tourist authentic souvenir
A new great tourist story comes to us from Lika, more precisely, Plitvice.Namely, Plitvice is our second tourist destination, after Mljet, which has its own perfume as an authentic and unique souvenir. Yes, a perfume, and not just any perfume, but a premium perfume based on orchids, moss and plums that grow in the Plitvice area.Maybe at first, like me personally, you are wondering why orchid perfume and what it has to do with Plitvice. But little is known about the fact that it is even in the area of Plitvice Lakes 50 species of orchids, as well as over 1.400 plant species and subspecies. All of this, as well as the inexhaustible beauty of the lakes and waterfalls, was the inspiration for the craft a unique souvenir dedicated to the beauties of one of the most beautiful parks in the world – perfume Plitvice Lakes. Wonderful nature visited by more than a million visitors a year, who share the same opinion “This is a paradise on earth that we want to remember forever”.This was the idea of Plitvice Perfume – a fragrance with notes of Plitvice and Lika sent around the world as the most beautiful gift to girls, mothers, friends… the smell of Plums – plants so important in the region of Lika in which Plitvice is located and Đurđica which abounds in the forests of the Velebit mountain near Plitvice. “Last year, we concluded that in the area of great tourist potential around Plitvice, there are very few quality premium products that would give tourists additional value, memory and emotion. If we go more locally, you will rarely find souvenirs more special than local delicacies, clothing details, figurines and T-shirts. It is certainly necessary and beautiful, but our vision was focused on something different. We wanted to make a step back, and again give a note of Plitvice and Lika. Plitvice perfume was a response to our vision, about which the market must now have its say, we hope that the idea will be recognized”Points out Ante Fumić, one of the founders of The Plitvice Times, the first tourist magazine in English that promotes stories from Lika, and now the perfume of Plitvice Lakes.By the way, the fragrance has long been recognized as a powerful marketing tool and various brands, stores, airlines and hotels use it to their advantage and have completely taken over emotional branding and experiential marketing. And there is just the smell of a strong ally. Namely, man is, above all, an emotional being – who, admittedly, analyzes rationally, but decides emotionally. As much as most consumers seem to experience products visually, research from neuromarketing has shown that 75% of emotions are caused by smell.Message “Fall in love” under the lid of the box he says fall in love with this perfume, but he also skillfully associates the word “Fall” with a waterfall. The box is also covered with drops of waterfalls, and the smell is fresh, just like the experience of visiting Plitvice “In terms of quality, we made a real women’s perfume. So not eau de toilette, nor versions of perfumes like the ones on the market, but an original perfume with notes of orchid, plum and moss plants, to make the story as authentic as possible. Plitvice deserves quality, we believe that our perfume will spread a fresh scent around the world and in many distant countries on other continents, on special occasions”Concludes Fumić.When we look at the bigger picture, tourists who bought perfume from Plitvice, will use it throughout the year, ie for special moments of their lives. So the story and memory of Plitvice is alive, present throughout the year because whenever a customer sees or puts on perfume, they will remember Plitvice. And those are strong emotions and a special experience. Also, whenever someone asks a proud perfume owner where they come from and what kind of perfume it is, the story again takes on a new dimension full of emotions and experiences. So the story of Plitvice is multiplied by word of mouth, and it has always been and will be the best advertisement.Perfume is available at Web Shop pages of The Plitvice Times HERE, and to make the story even better only after one day that the perfume is on sale, there are already superstructures from Australia and America.Related news:“THE PLITVICE TIMES” – THE FIRST TOURIST MAGAZINE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROMOTING STORIES FROM ALL OVER THE CHARACTER
Festkultura brings together students and organizers of the biggest festivals
In the last ten years, Croatia has established itself as a significant world and European destination for many modern festivals. Today, they have become the fastest growing form of tourist offer and are held in many cities throughout Croatia.In order to introduce young people to different types of festivals and opportunities for part-time or volunteer work at them, the Association of Tourism Students of the Faculty of Economics (USTEF) decided to connect festival organizers as employers and enthusiastic students looking for student jobs through a unique event – FESTKULTURA.So, this is an event that will take place 04.May.2018 starting at 17:30 in Zagreb, more precisely in History Village (Tkalčićeva 68), which connects the festival organizers as employers and enthusiastic students looking for a seasonal job with an unforgettable experience. It is intended for students interested in various festivals who want to have fun, but also earn something, and the festival is completely free for all participants.Photo: FuliranjeThe event will consist of short lectures by representatives of a particular festival lasting up to ten minutes in which the main information about the festival, its impact on tourism and how students can participate in them in the form of student work or volunteering. After a short lecture, representatives will be available for any questions and providing additional information to interested students.Festivals that will present and share their experiences are:Ultra Europe INmusic festival Jarun Zagreb Spancirfest Animafest Zagreb Zagreb Tourfilm Festival Ferragosto JAM Graffiti On The Grill Porec Open Air Festival Mediterranean Film Festival Split / Kino Mediteran Zagreb Burger Festival FuliranjeUSTEF is one of the most active student associations in tourism and has so far implemented a number of successful projects, collaborating with prominent and recognized professionals in the field of tourism. From the panel discussion on employment opportunities in tourism “With a degree in tourism”, case study competition “Inside Tourism” for high school students, conference “Tour de Tourism” on the interdisciplinarity of tourism, the current job shadowing project “Go and see” and networking event “Stop by for coffee”.Find out more about this interesting event HERE
A phenomenal move! Jamaica has embarked on a free online education of tourism workers
By the way, as the entire tourism sector has been directly affected by the covid19 crisis, the situation in Jamaica is also critical. Currently, all restaurants and hotels are closed, and thus about 160.000 workers are directly employed in tourism, this crisis has affected in one way or another. Thus, currently forty thousand employees in tourism are still employed while 75% or 120.000 are currently laid off. Tourism is a central part of Jamaica’s national development, and the goal of the program is to create new and better jobs that improve the quality of life of the average Jamaican. The program focused on sustainable tourism development rests on five pillars: New investments, new markets, new products, new partnerships and human capital development. Jamaica has announced significant investments in its tourism sector by launching a free online education program for tourism workers affected by the negative impact of COVID-19. As part of the program, tourism workers are offered 11 free online courses to improve their skills and improve their qualifications. So far, more than 22 tourism workers have applied since the program launched on Wednesday, April 6500, and all courses have already been filled. “We are very proud that the program was well received by our catering workers. In fact, the portal crashed moments after our launch, due to too much interest. I am pleased that our workers support and have joined the initiative. Workers will certainly gain new knowledge as well as improve current ones, and they will certification have additional quality certification Said Tourism Minister Hon Edmund Bartlett, adding that this initiative is very important because they want the workforce to be more qualified after this pandemic period than when it started. And that’s why Jamaica is hoping to offer these free courses a new life path for tourism workers. “There is no better time than now to upgrade and acquire new knowledge. This is a smart investment, which will pay nice dividends when the tourism sector returns to normal Said Bartlett, referring to how education is a great investment. It is this financial assistance that needs to be invested wisely, targeted and strategically, both in digitization, education, new products and platforms. Just as Jamaica took advantage of this crisis, as an opportunity. The right move at the right time. Smart and long term efficient. If you “insert” money into the market once – it will not get great results, nor long-term effect. If we co-finance accommodation or air transport as well – and a huge amount of money will be spent. Because simply until a vaccine or medicine appears, we cannot talk about the development of tourism, there is no “good” price of accommodation that will awaken the motive for travel in the current situation. At least not the mass we are used to. Only when the drug comes and is distributed around the world, we can talk about the beginning of the recovery of tourism that will last for the next 3-5 years with various changes. Covid19, EU and support to the tourism sector PS I definitely recommend you take a look at the great website from Jamaican Tourist Board This is where the difference will be made and jazz will decrease or increase between successful and less successful destinations. Which curve we will be on (stagnation, ie decline or growth and development) depends only on ourselves. Learn more about the entire program HERE The European Commission will soon launch a large financial package to help the European tourism sector, and the question is what to do with that money? The initiative, launched by the Center for Tourism Innovation (JCTI) and the Tourism Promotion Fund (TEF) in collaboration with many partners, aims to help tourism workers laid off due to hotel closures during the Covid19 pandemics.
Kelly will be an advocate for Saratoga residents
To my fellow Saratoga Springs residents, I hope you are all planning on voting this November. It’s important, especially in this day and age, for us all to exercise our constitutional rights and do our civic duty.I also hope that you will vote for Meg Kelly for mayor. I have had the honor to know Meg Kelly for many years and I have never met a more intelligent, dedicated, and resourceful person. Many of you know her as our current deputy mayor or from her years as an expert golf instructor.I first met Meg through her not-for-profit organization: The Saratoga Children’s Theater (SCT). Before SCT, there weren’t many choices for “theater kids” like my daughter to express themselves and learn their craft. Meg saw that need in this city and did something about it.In a short time, the organization grew from serving 20 kids to over 1,500 kids offering summer camps as well as main stage shows throughout the year, all the while not just teaching theater skills, but also promoting team-building, unity, public speaking, community service and anti-bullying lessons. My daughter has done over 20 shows with SCT and has thrived with both the theater skills and the life skills she’s been given.Being of little means, we couldn’t always afford a summer camp or a workshop, but Meg Kelly always helped families like mine with scholarships. She believed that every child should have the same opportunity regardless of their financial situation.Aside from her compassion, I was always impressed by her organizational skills, as well as her fierce determination.I think she would be an outstanding advocate for the citizens of Saratoga Springs.Alison LeskeSaratoga SpringsMore from The Daily Gazette:Schenectady, Saratoga casinos say reopening has gone well; revenue down 30%EDITORIAL: Beware of voter intimidationFoss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen?EDITORIAL: Thruway tax unfair to working motoristsEDITORIAL: Urgent: Today is the last day to complete the census Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion
When judicial deference becomes dereliction of duty
On Oct. 28, in an undergraduate course she was teaching on ethics, when the subject of same-sex marriage arose there was no debate because, a student said, Abbate insisted that there could be no defensible opposition to this.(Marquette is a Jesuit school.)After class, the student told her that he opposed same-sex marriage and her discouraging of debate about it.She replied (he recorded their interaction) that “there are some opinions that are not appropriate that are harmful … do you know whether anyone in the class is homosexual? … in this class homophobic comments … will not be tolerated.”The student’s appeals to Abbate’s superiors were unavailing (the chairman of her philosophy department referred to the student as an “insulin [sic] little twerp”) so he gave John C. McAdams his recording of Abbate rebuffing him.McAdams, a tenured professor then in his 41st year at Marquette and a conservative who blogs about the school’s news, emailed Abbate seeking her version of the episode.Without responding to him, she immediately forwarded his email to some professors. After this matter earned national media attention, she received some critical emails, some of them vile, and Marquette rightly branded them “hate mail.”However, for these, and for the unspecified “harm” that they supposedly caused Abbate, McAdams was held to be somehow blameworthy.Marquette, however, offered no evidence that he had anything to do with the emails.After a committee drawn from the university’s monochrome culture recommended suspending McAdams without pay for two semesters, Marquette’s president insisted that McAdams also express in writing “deep regret” and confess that his blog post was “reckless and incompatible” with Marquette’s mission and values.McAdams refused and has been unemployed ever since.Being a private institution, Marquette had a right to be as hostile as it obviously is to the First Amendment — except for this:Its contract with tenured faculty says no one shall be disciplined for exercising “legitimate personal or academic freedoms of thought, doctrine, discourse, association, advocacy, or action” and that the threat of dismissal shall not be used to “restrain” constitutional rights. A circuit court, ignoring Marquette’s ignoring of a Wisconsin contract, refused to adjudicate this dispute.Deferring to Marquette, the court essentially held that a professor’s academic freedom exists only until some other professors, and university administrators, say it does not.So, the deferential court allowed Marquette an unconstrained right to settle a contract dispute in which it was an interested party. Because there is almost no Wisconsin case law concerning academic freedom that could have guided the circuit court, McAdams is asking the state supreme court to bypass the appeals court and perform its function as the state’s “law-developing court.”He is also asking the court to be cognizant of the cultural context:Nationwide, colleges and universities “are under pressure” — all of it from within the institutions — “to enact or implement speech codes or otherwise restrict speech in various ways.” This episode, now in its fourth year, began because McAdams tried to assist a student who suffered unprofessional behavior by a bullying instructor. George Will is a nationally syndicated columnist for The Washington Post who writes from a conservative perspective.More from The Daily Gazette:EDITORIAL: Thruway tax unfair to working motoristsEDITORIAL: Urgent: Today is the last day to complete the censusEDITORIAL: Find a way to get family members into nursing homesEDITORIAL: Beware of voter intimidationFoss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen? Abbate has moved on.Now at the University of Colorado, she is still a (perhaps career) graduate student, writing a doctoral dissertation on the importance of the rights of … animals.The wreckage she left in her wake illustrates how rights are imperiled when judicial deference becomes dereliction of judicial duty. Prospective Marquette students, and Marquette alumni, must decide whether this school, awash with the current academic hysteria and corruption, merits their confidence and support.Wisconsin’s Supreme Court must lay down the law that can stop some of the rot that this case illustrates. She has called McAdams “the ringleader” of “extreme white [sic] wing, hateful people,” a “moron,” “a flaming bigot, sexist and homophobic idiot” and a “creepy homophobic person with bad argumentation skills.”This aspiring philosopher’s argumentation skills can be inferred from her reliance on epithets. Before McAdams had written a syllable, she claimed for herself the coveted status of victim, branding as “harassment” his request for her side of the story.Striking a pose of bravery, she accused him of trying “to scare me into silence.”When, on Nov. 9, McAdams blogged, his post took no position on same-sex marriage but said this should be a debatable issue.The next day, Abbate drafted a letter asking that McAdams be disciplined.He was. Categories: Editorial, OpinionWASHINGTON — Wisconsin’s Supreme Court can soon right a flagrant wrong stemming from events set in motion in 2014 at Milwaukee’s Marquette University by Cheryl Abbate.Although just a graduate student, she already had a precocious aptitude for academic nastiness. 