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Its peak sales forecast is of more than $2 billion annually together from the maternal vaccine and an RSV shot for older adults. The case highlights how equitable global access will require better advance planning by drugmakers, governments and health organizations, health officials say. "They could have tried sooner," said Erin Sparrow, WHO's technical officer for the RSV vaccine, referring to Pfizer. Pfizer has yet to take a number of steps needed to make the vaccine available in developing countries, according to global health officials and the company. She still expects it to be several years before the RSV vaccine is launched in lower-income countries.

☆ California Reconsiders Its Boycotts of States Over Their L.G.B.T.Q. Laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Jill Cowan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Seven years later, Republican-led states have moved well beyond bathrooms. States also have been battling hard over access to abortion ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. With tensions rarely higher, it may seem counterintuitive for Democratic leaders in California to repeal their boycotts of Republican-led states. But San Francisco supervisors did just that on Tuesday, and state lawmakers are considering a similar move later this year. They say the bans are having little impact — as shown by the flurry of transgender legislation being passed — and have mostly hurt their own government operations in California.

☆ Lizzo protests Tennessee drag ban, inviting drag queens on stage in Knoxville
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Toyin Owoseje | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Lizzo made her stance on Tennessee’s anti-drag-show legislation clear by inviting drag queens onstage at her Knoxville concert. Last month, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed legislation banning “adult cabaret” artists from performing in public and/or in the presence of children. The controversial bill listed “male or female impersonators,” which is widely interpreted to mean drag queens. In a show of defiance, Lizzo, known for her vociferous support of body-positivity and self-love, welcomed queens including Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, Asia O’Hara and Kandy Muse from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to join her performance at the Thompson-Boling Arena on Friday. “But why would I not come to the people who need to hear this message the most, the people who need to feel this release the most?” Lizzo told cheering fans.

☆ Many States Are Trying to Restrict Gender Treatments for Adults, Too
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Azeen Ghorayshi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Missouri this month became the first state in the country to severely restrict gender treatments for people of all ages, following a series of quieter moves across the country that have been chipping away at transgender adults’ access to medical care. Last year, Florida joined six other states in banning Medicaid from covering some form of gender care for transgender people of all ages. These bans affect an estimated 38,000 beneficiaries of the public insurance program, according to the Williams Institute, a research center at U.C.L.A.’s law school. And in at least five states, Republican legislators have proposed bills that would abolish gender care for minors as well as young adults. The rule also said that patients should not receive gender treatments until any mental health issues are “resolved.”

☆ Barry Humphries, Australian comedian best known for alter-ego Dame Edna Everage, dies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The Australian comedian Barry Humphries, best known for his drag character Dame Edna Everage, has died aged 89. Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1934, Humphries created the character of housewife Edna Everage in 1955 as a social satire. Before Edna made it big, Humphries appeared in numerous West End productions including “Oliver” and “Maggie Way” in the 1960s. Throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Humphries landed a series of TV talk shows, specials and films, as Dame Edna and his other alter-egos Les Patterson and Sandy Stone, among them The Dame Edna Experience in 1987. As well as performing on television, Humphries was a prolific author Marianna Massey/WireImage/Getty ImagesIn 2000, Humphries won a Special Tony Award for his Broadway show “Dame Edna, The Royal Tour”, officially breaking into the US market.

LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - African countries are lining up to approve a new vaccine for malaria, with 20 million doses available for them to buy this year, the shot’s manufacturer told Reuters. African countries that do not have extensive resources for drug regulation have previously relied on the U.N. agency to initially review new medicines. "We expect many more countries to come through," Mary Hamel, the WHO's malaria vaccine implementation head, told the expert meeting on Tuesday. “We are committed to making the R21 vaccine available to people who need it most,” Poonawalla said. FUNDING DOUBTSThe moves are a further sign that African countries want to exert their own pharmaceutical oversight after COVID-19 exposed inequity in vaccine supply.

On that unredacted form, Kacsmaryk reported owning about $2.9 million in stock in the Florida-based supermarket company Publix. Federal judges are only required to report financial holdings in ranges, and don’t have to provide exact figures. One possible source of the Publix stock Kacsmaryk reported in 2017 is the judge’s grandmother. In 2020 and 2021, less than 4% of officials required to file judicial financial disclosures requested redaction, according to reports from the Administrative Office of the US Courts. In any case, experts said, the judge’s redacted report prevents transparency that litigants deserve.

☆ A Supreme Court justice resigned 54 years ago over conduct that may 'pale in comparison' to Clarence Thomas' — but Thomas is almost certain to get off scot-free thanks in part to the 'Trump effect'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned in 1969 over accusations of financial misconduct. But unlike Fortas, Thomas is unlikely to experience severe consequences in the post-Trump era. Like Fortas, Thomas has been accused of financial misconduct. Democratic lawmakers have called for an investigation into Thomas, and the Senate Judiciary Committee has said it will hold a hearing on Supreme Court ethics. "He will forever be remembered as the second Abe Fortas," Kalir said.

CNN —A transgender woman has sued Maryland’s corrections department in federal court, alleging she was improperly housed with male inmates while jailed for three months in 2021 and 2022 – and was sexually assaulted and denied hormone treatment during that time. “I’m filing this lawsuit today because I don’t want what happened to me to happen to any other trans woman in the state of Maryland,” Gilliam said in a news conference Wednesday. She received hormone treatments for her gender dysphoria for 18 years before she was jailed, the suit says. After the assault, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services took no action, the lawsuit alleges. It also required her to sign a waiver saying she wouldn’t hold the public safety department liable if anything happened to her in the men’s prison, it says.

☆ Anheuser-Busch facilities face threats after Bud Light backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New York CNN —Several Anheuser-Busch facilities received threats last week, a company spokesperson confirmed, following weeks of backlash against Bud Light because it sponsored two Instagram posts from a transgender woman. Mulvaney’s timeline shows one previous post that is also marked as a Bud Light partnership. Siegfried Anthony/STAR MAX/IPx 2023/APMulvaney is among many social media personalities that Bud Light partners with, Anheuser-Busch said in a statement to CNN last week. “F**k Bud Light, F**k Anheuser-Busch,” he said. Anheuser-Busch (BUD) is set to report its first-quarter financial results, including revenue, on May 4.

But many medical associations have said the law is transphobic and that gender-affirming care can be life-saving. The new lawsuit says depriving transgender youth of medically necessary care will have devastating consequences for them and their families. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three families with transgender children and a Memphis-based doctor who performs gender-affirming procedures. Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the ban into law last month along with a separate measure restricting drag performances in public. Several other U.S. states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, and over the last several weeks groups have sued over laws adopted in Utah, Florida, Indiana and Arkansas.

REUTERS/Lindsey WassonLONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - People all over the world lost confidence in the importance of routine childhood vaccines against killer diseases like measles and polio during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from UNICEF. In 52 of the 55 countries surveyed, the public perception of vaccines for children declined between 2019 and 2021, the UN agency said. The picture on vaccine confidence varied globally, according to the UNICEF report, its flagship annual State of the World's Children. The report stressed that vaccine confidence can easily shift and the results may not indicate a long-term trend. The data was collected by the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

☆ Twitter removes transgender protections from hateful conduct policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Twitter appears to have quietly rolled back a portion of its hateful conduct policy that included specific protections for transgender people. The policy previously stated that Twitter prohibits “targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. The change to the hateful conduct policy is one of a number of updates Twitter has made to its safety and content moderation practices since Elon Musk took over the company last fall. LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD called out the hateful conduct policy change in a Tuesday statement. The billionaire tried to assuage advertisers about Twitter’s approach to hateful conduct at a marketing conference Tuesday, saying, “If somebody has something hateful to say, it doesn’t mean you should give them a megaphone,” according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

☆ How Gay Men Saved Us From Monkeypox - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Ina Park | Dan Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

We know gay sex has been unfairly blamed for everything from natural disasters to the fall of Rome. But in their efforts to avoid stigmatizing the community, health authorities and the media failed to effectively warn gay and bi men. Ignorant of the threat as the virus spread, gay and bi men couldn’t take steps to protect themselves and their partners. Gay party promoters canceled long-planned events and individual gay men temporarily deleted hookup apps from their phones and reduced their sexual contacts. They acknowledged the realities of gay sexuality and its breadth of expression, using the actual language gay men use when discussing sex with each other.

☆ Missouri's attorney general opened a new front in the GOP's attacks on transgender people: banning treatment for any adult with depression
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Chris Panella | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Adults with depression are banned from seeking care until their mental health issues are resolved. Attorney General Andrew Bailey's sweeping regulation would prohibit medical providers from providing gender-affirming care unless a number of requirements are met. The ACLU of Missouri previously said that the attorney general, a Republican, overstepped his authority when it condemned Bailey's initial announcement of the policy in March. The state attorney general is basing his regulation on a law aimed at fraudulent business practices, The Missouri Independent reported. Republicans and conservatives have moved to restrict gender-affirming care and other trans rights in recent years.

Oxford scientist Adrian Hill said Ghana's drug regulator has approved the vaccine domestically for the age group at highest risk of death from malaria - children aged 5 months to 36 months. Oxford has a deal with Serum Institute of India to produce up to 200 million doses of the vaccine - known as R21 - annually. "This shows how close the world is to having a second approved vaccine to fight malaria," he said. MEETING THE NEEDThe first malaria vaccine, Mosquirix from British drugmaker GSK (GSK.L), was endorsed by the WHO last year after decades of work. Since it began in 2019, 1.2 million children across the three countries have received at least one dose of the Mosquirix vaccine.

☆ A Florida GOP lawmaker apologized after calling transgender people 'demons and imps' and comparing them to X-Men mutants
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A GOP member of the Florida House of Representatives called trans people "demons and imps" on Monday. I'm a proud Christian conservative Republican, I'm not on the fence." The Florida lawmaker, who has previously said opening prayers for former President Donald Trump's rallies, then went even further. "That's right, I called you demons and imps, who come and parade before and pretend that you are part of this world.' "I referred to trans people as demons," Barnaby said, per Politico.

April 7 (Reuters) - The federal judge who on Friday suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is a former Christian legal activist whose small courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, has become a go-to destination for conservatives challenging Biden administration policies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, had a long track record of opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in 2019 to a life-tenured position as a federal judge. FAVORED VENUESince then, his courthouse has become a favored venue for conservative legal activists and Republican state attorneys general pursuing lawsuits seeking to halt aspects of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda - often with success. In October, Kacsmaryk vacated Biden administration guidance requiring employers to allow transgender workers to dress and use bathrooms consistent with their gender identities. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Bill Berkrot and Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The GOP risks blowing its 2024 chances by enlisting fringe pols and pushing issues normal voters don't care about
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The New York Times reported Trump wanted to hire far-right xenophone Laura Loomer to his campaign. The potential hire shows how far the Republican Party has moved from the median voter. It's just another example of how out of touch the Republican Party has become with the average voter. The Republican Party has yet to win the popular vote in presidential elections since 2004. Should the party keep hiring oddballs and pursuing culture war issues while failing to address substantive issues affecting the country, it's unclear that will change.

Pool via REUTERSApril 8 (Reuters) - The federal judge who on Friday suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is a former Christian legal activist whose small courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, has become a go-to destination for conservatives challenging Biden administration policies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, had a long track record of opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in 2019 to a life-tenured position as a federal judge. When anti-abortion groups in November filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's more than two-decade old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, they filed in Amarillo, guaranteeing the case would be heard by Kacsmaryk. FAVORED VENUESince then, his courthouse has become a favored venue for conservative legal activists and Republican state attorneys general pursuing lawsuits seeking to halt aspects of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda - often with success. While the district's chief judge could order cases be reallocated, he has not.

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Calls to pause the development of artificial intelligence will not “solve the challenges” ahead, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told Reuters, his first public comments since an open letter sparked a debate about the future of the technology. The technologist-turned-philanthropist said it would be better to focus on how best to use the developments in AI, as it was hard to understand how a pause could work globally. “I don’t think asking one particular group to pause solves the challenges,” Gates said on Monday. While currently focused full-time on the philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has been a bullish supporter of AI and described it as revolutionary as the Internet or mobile phones. He also said in the interview the details of any pause would be complicated to enforce.

☆ Swim England updates transgender policy with 'open' category
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - Swim England announced an updated transgender and non-binary policy on Monday with a 'female' category restricted to athletes with a declared birth sex of female and a new 'open' category for everyone else. Swim England said it saw a general consensus that post-puberty transgender females retained a biological level of performance advantage post-transition. The transgender youth charity Mermaids called on Swim England to reverse its decision. "Swim England's trans policy is disappointing. World Aquatics voted last year to restrict participation of transgender athletes in elite women's competitions and create a working group to establish an open category.

WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday temporarily blocked a law restricting drag performances in public from going into effect, saying it was likely "vague and overly-broad" in its restriction of speech. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, in February, had signed the bill passed by the state's legislature that was meant to go into effect on Saturday. The judge said the state had failed to justify with a compelling interest the restrictions it aimed to impose. The Tennessee bill was part of an upswing in recent months in Republican efforts to regulate the conduct of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Much of the debate in Tennessee has been over whether drag is inherently a sexually explicit art form.

☆ Hong Kong transgender protesters say government is not abiding by landmark ruling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Jessie Pang | Thomson Reuters | Jessie Pang Joined Reuters In After An Internship. She Covers Hong Kong With A Focus On Politics | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Tyrone SiuHONG KONG, March 31 (Reuters) - A group of Hong Kong transgender people staged a small protest on Friday against a delay by authorities in changing the gender indicated on their identity documents, saying they have yet to be fully recognised despite a landmark court ruling in February. "The government is using administrative tactics to deliberately delay the whole process," Tse told Reuters. Another protester, Emery Fung, 28, who has a gender marker change application pending, said he had not been given a timeline despite trying to ask the authorities numerous times. The department would not confirm whether it had suspended applications for gender marker changes since the ruling, as reported by media, nor say how many people were affected. 'HUGE PRESSURE'Kelley Loper, an expert in human rights law at the University of Hong Kong, criticised the government's failure to implement the decision swiftly.

March 28 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday refused to transfer to another court a lawsuit by Republican states challenging a Biden administration rule allowing socially conscious investing by retirement plans, rejecting claims of "judge shopping." U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, said the Biden administration had provided no evidence that the litigation did not belong in his court or that plaintiffs were attempting to manipulate the process. His courthouse has become a favored destination for Republicans seeking to challenge aspects of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda. The Labor Department argues the rule is valid because it still requires retirement plans to consider traditional financial factors when choosing investments. Congress in early March voted to repeal the ESG rule, but Biden vetoed that bill.

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