Vaccinating children against COVID kicks off in Europe

Dec 15 2021

Children aged 5 to 11 will start receiving jabs against COVID-19 on Wednesday in several European nations.

In an effort to keep schools open and contain the raging pandemic, Germany, Spain, Greece, Hungary and Malta were some among those who opened up inoculation drives to younger kids.

Doctors have also reported strong initial demand from parents, with the EU medicines watchdog having approved the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for kids last month.

The age group in question is reportedly experiencing high COVID infection rates across the continent, being one of the reasons prompting the vaccination effort.

The dose is administered at a lower amount than the Pfizer jab for over-12s.

The United States was the first large country to offer the jabs to young persons, so far having vaccinated more than five million children aged 5 to 11.

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Photo Source: City of Philadelphia

Spider-Man No Way Home gets almost perfect Rotten Tomatoes score

Dec 15 2021

As Marvel fans get understandably excited over the upcoming Spider-Man film, the most recent Rotten Tomatoes scores have given the film a whopping 97% rating.

Fans are already calling it one of, if not the, best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever-since Endgame. This is Tom Holland’s third solo film as the web-slinger and the scores for this entry are staggeringly high for a super-hero movie.

Critical consensus states that it is a bigger, bolder Spider-Man sequel and that this expands the franchise’s scope and shakers without losing sight of its humour and heart.

The multiverse aspect, without spoiling anything, has been massively praised, weaving villains seen in previous Spider-Man movies expertly and without cluttering the cast.

Many are also expecting some massive surprises to pop in during the film, but beyond that spoiler territory, the film has allegedly shown that Marvel know exactly what they’re doing right.

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Metsola one step closer due to President Sassoli not running for re-election

Dec 15 2021

As European Parliament President David Sassoli revealed he will not be running for re-election in January and that socialists group S&D will not be presenting any candidate, this opens up a door for Roberta Metsola towards achieving the top post.

Sassoli told MEPs at a meeting on Tuesday that he did not want to ‘destroy the European front’ represented by the parliament’s largest political blocs.

Sassoli and other S&D leaders made it clear however that their group would not necessarily back up Metsola. Instead, they will try to negotiate with the EPP and condition the vote to Metsola.

In terms of seats, S&D have 145 seats out of 705, the Greens 68 and The Left 39. The EPP have 187, Renew have 98, right-wing conservatives ECR has 63 and extreme right 75.

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Photo Source: Roberta Metsola, EU Neighbours

Nursing shortage causes Karin Grech to run at half capacity

Dec 15 2021

The MUMN claimed on Wednesday that Karin Grech Hospital is running at half capacity due to a shortage of nurses. In a published statement, the union said that 14 more nurses resigned over the past two weeks, leading to the hospital standing at 50 nurses short.

Out of 270 beds at Karin Grech, only around 140 are being actually utilised due to the shortage, the union revealed. Lamenting that the shortage crisis has no limits, the union also claimed that had it allowed health authorities to issue a call that would have ‘poached more nurses from the private sector’, the situation would have been much worse.

Times of Malta was told by an MUMN spokesperson that the shortage in the private sector was even worse. Carers employed by the private sector to support nursing staff at hospitals across Malta were moving to the UK in large numbers.

Malta was described as a stepping stone for nurses and carers who spend two years here to gain experience and then move to the UK for better salaries. This, the union said, is an open secret.

The union went on to criticise the Health Minister of being more focused on the election campaign than on the crisis facing every hospital in Malta.

‘While all EU countries embarked on addressing their nursing shortage by providing much better working conditions and increased salaries, the health ministry’s main concern is only the coming general election’.

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Photo Source: Times of Malta