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22NE SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20 2020 NEIGHBORS MIAMIHERALD.COM How do you make sure a cheetah is feeling OK? The first step: Immobilize it. Last week, Zoo Miami’s 8-year-old cheetah named Koda had his annual well- ness exam as part of the zoo’s Animal Health De- partment’s preventative medicine program. Zoo spokesman Ron Magill shared video of the Sept. 9 exam, which in- cluded blood tests, X-rays and a dental cleaning. “Because wild animals instinctively hide symptoms of being ill or injured so as not to expose themselves to predation or aggression, regular wellness exams play an important role in being able to diagnose any poten- tial problems before they become too serious,” Magill said in a news release. “Be- ing able to detect any prob- lems at an early stage plays an important role in the success of any treatment, which is why these types of exams are a fundamental part of the zoo’s overall preventative medicine program.” The 110-pound cat that once served as the “Wild- life Prognosticator,” for the 2015 Ford EcoBoost 400 (he was fired after selec- ting the wrong car as the winner), appeared to be in good health and was re- united with his brother, Diesel. Carli Teproff: 305-376-3587, @cteproff WELLNESS EXAM Zoo Miami cheetah named Koda gets his annual physical BY CARLI TEPROFF [email protected] Ron Magill/Zoo Miami Zoo Miami cheetah named Koda gets his annual exam on Sept. 9, 2020. A generator should pro- vide power when basic electricity isn’t available, not provide fire unexpect- edly. That’s why MWE Investments on Wednes- day recalled about 7,500 Westinghouse Dual Fuel Portable Generators. The problem, as stated in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall notice: “The recalled portable generators can leak fuel, posing a fire and burn hazard.” And the leaks have hap- pened 26 times, according to the notice. This recall covers West- inghouse WGen5300DFv Dual Fuel Portable Gener- ators, sold by Sam’s Club at brick-and-mortar stores and online; and Westin- ghouse iGen4500DF Dual Fuel Inverter Portable Gen- erators, sold online by Amazon, Home Depot, Lowe’s and others. The serial numbers begin with 04511A1019; 04511A1219; or 5311A1219. They were sold from January through May. MWE is offering to repair the generators, although a refund’s prob- ably on the table if you press for it. To schedule a repair, contact MWE via email at info@wpowe- req.com or by phone at 855-944-4796, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern time. David J. Neal: 305-376-3559, @DavidJNeal PRODUCT RECALL Portable generators recalled for possible fire, burn hazards BY DAVID J. NEAL [email protected] U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Westinghouse WGen5300DFv Dual Fuel Portable Generator
Transcript
Page 1: WELLNESS EXAM BY CARLI TEPROFF Zoo Miami ......1 day ago  · able emergency use ap-provals during the pan-demic is worrisome. He noted that in addition to the the FDA’s emergen-cy

22NE SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20 2020NEIGHBORS MIAMIHERALD.COM

How do you make sure acheetah is feeling OK?

The first step: Immobilizeit.

Last week, Zoo Miami’s8-year-old cheetah namedKoda had his annual well-ness exam as part of thezoo’s Animal Health De-partment’s preventativemedicine program.

Zoo spokesman RonMagill shared video of theSept. 9 exam, which in-cluded blood tests, X-raysand a dental cleaning.

“Because wild animalsinstinctively hide symptomsof being ill or injured so asnot to expose themselves topredation or aggression,regular wellness exams playan important role in beingable to diagnose any poten-tial problems before theybecome too serious,” Magillsaid in a news release. “Be-ing able to detect any prob-lems at an early stage playsan important role in thesuccess of any treatment,which is why these types ofexams are a fundamentalpart of the zoo’s overall

preventative medicineprogram.”

The 110-pound cat thatonce served as the “Wild-life Prognosticator,” for the

2015 Ford EcoBoost 400(he was fired after selec-ting the wrong car as thewinner), appeared to be ingood health and was re-

united with his brother,Diesel.

Carli Teproff:305-376-3587, @cteproff

WELLNESS EXAM

Zoo Miami cheetah namedKoda gets his annual physical

BY CARLI TEPROFF

[email protected]

Ron Magill/Zoo Miami

Zoo Miami cheetah named Koda gets his annual exam on Sept. 9, 2020.

A generator should pro-vide power when basicelectricity isn’t available,not provide fire unexpect-edly. That’s why MWEInvestments on Wednes-day recalled about 7,500Westinghouse Dual Fuel

Portable Generators.The problem, as stated in

the U.S. Consumer ProductSafety Commission recallnotice: “The recalledportable generators canleak fuel, posing a fire andburn hazard.”

And the leaks have hap-pened 26 times, accordingto the notice.

This recall covers West-

inghouse WGen5300DFvDual Fuel Portable Gener-ators, sold by Sam’s Club atbrick-and-mortar storesand online; and Westin-ghouse iGen4500DF DualFuel Inverter Portable Gen-erators, sold online by

Amazon, Home Depot,Lowe’s and others. Theserial numbers begin with04511A1019; 04511A1219;or 5311A1219. They weresold from January throughMay.

MWE is offering torepair the generators,although a refund’s prob-ably on the table if youpress for it. To schedule arepair, contact MWE viaemail at [email protected] or by phone at855-944-4796, Mondaythrough Friday, 9 a.m. to 5p.m., Eastern time.

David J. Neal:305-376-3559,@DavidJNeal

PRODUCT RECALL

Portable generatorsrecalled for possiblefire, burn hazards

BY DAVID J. NEAL

[email protected]

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

WestinghouseWGen5300DFv Dual FuelPortable Generator

Page 2: WELLNESS EXAM BY CARLI TEPROFF Zoo Miami ......1 day ago  · able emergency use ap-provals during the pan-demic is worrisome. He noted that in addition to the the FDA’s emergen-cy

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20 2020 9AMIAMIHERALD.COM

H1

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SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 13 2020 NEIGHBORS 15NEMIAMIHERALD.COM

• Implant Therapy • Porcelain Crowns and Bridges• Cosmetic Bonding • Cosmetic Dentures

• Over Dentures • Extractions • Root Canal Therapy• Partial with Clear Invisible Clasp • Soft Based Dentures

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A U.S. Coast Guard crewstopped five Cubanmigrants at sea off theFlorida Keys last Saturdayafternoon.

The people were onboard a small, partiallysubmerged, six-foot “rus-tic” boat, the Coast Guardsaid. The vessel was float-ing about 30 miles south ofthe Middle Keys city ofMarathon.

A 33-foot patrol boatlaunched from CoastGuard Station Marathonto pick them up aftersomeone reported theirlocation to the agency’sstation in Key West.

All five were trans-ferred to the CutterWilliam Trump, whichtook them back to Cuba,according to the CoastGuard.

David Goodhue:305-923-9728,@DavidGoodhue

U.S. COAST GUARD

A U.S. Coast Guard crew stopped five Cuban migrants atsea off the Florida Keys Saturday afternoon.

U.S. COAST GUARD

Five Cubanmigrants stopped atsea off Florida Keys

The U.S. Coast Guard stopped five people from Cubawho were on a small boat trying to enter the countryillegally, the agency said. They were sent back to theisland nation.

BY DAVID GOODHUE

[email protected]

Page 4: WELLNESS EXAM BY CARLI TEPROFF Zoo Miami ......1 day ago  · able emergency use ap-provals during the pan-demic is worrisome. He noted that in addition to the the FDA’s emergen-cy

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6 2020 NEIGHBORS 19NEMIAMIHERALD.COM

Page 5: WELLNESS EXAM BY CARLI TEPROFF Zoo Miami ......1 day ago  · able emergency use ap-provals during the pan-demic is worrisome. He noted that in addition to the the FDA’s emergen-cy

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6 2020 NEIGHBORS 17NEMIAMIHERALD.COM

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SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6 2020 NEIGHBORS 11NEMIAMIHERALD.COM

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4A SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6 2020From the front page MIAMIHERALD.COM

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Even once a vaccine isadministered, it will taketwo doses three to fourweeks apart, so even arushed process wouldn’t becompleted for many to getvaccinated by ElectionDay, Nov. 3.

The Centers for DiseaseControl and Preventionindicated last week itwants states to be ready togo in October. Last week, itsent out a letter askinggovernors to fast-trackpermits and licenses fornew distribution sites, andrequested states submitproposals by Oct. 1.

Florida is one of fivejurisdictions — California,North Dakota, Minnesotaand the city of Philadelphiaare the others — selectedby a CDC working group tocreate pilot distributionprograms intended to serveas models across the coun-try.

The group, which beganmeeting weekly in August,discussed allocation strate-gies, weighed how to pri-oritize who gets a vaccinefirst and reviewed datafrom the initial clinical trialphases of the leading vac-cine candidates.

But while the state maybe preparing for a vaccine,the White House’s chiefvaccine adviser on Thurs-day cast doubt about theprospect that the vaccinecould be ready by the endof October.

“There is a very, verylow chance that the trialsthat are running as wespeak could read beforethe end of October, ex-tremely unlikely but notimpossible,” MoncefSlaoui, the chief scientificadviser of the Trump ad-ministration’s coronavirusvaccine and treatmentinitiative, said in aninterview with NationalPublic Radio.

He said that if a vaccineemerges, “the right thingto do” is to be prepared.

If and when a vaccine isready for distribution inFlorida, hurdles remain,not the least of which iswhether the public willtrust a vaccine whose fastdevelopment, named Op-eration Warp Speed by thepresident, is strategicallybeing timed to coincidewith the election and tar-geting Florida.

NOVEMBER SURPRISE?

“I want to hope that ourstate is not putting people’slives in danger as it pre-pares to be that modelstate and that this is hap-pening because they be-lieve people will be helpedand lives will be saved,”said state Rep. ShevrinJones, a Broward CountyDemocrat and one of fourlegislators who has beendiagnosed with COVID-19.

Florida is a logical choiceto be on the front end ofvaccine distribution “be-cause it’s [the president’s]home state and the gover-nor is working with thepresident trying to dowhat’s best for Florida,”said state Sen. Joe Gruters,a Sarasota Republican whois chairman of the Repub-lican Party of Florida.

Gruters denied Floridawas selected because it is apivotal swing state deemedessential for PresidentDonald Trump to win re-election and said the vac-cine plan “is not a Nov. 1surprise.”

“This pandemic tran-scends politics,” he said. “Idon’t know if it will havemassive political implica-tions because people al-ready know it’s coming.”

He hopes Trump “willget the credit he deservesfor pushing OperationWarp Speed as fast as hu-manly possible” and pre-dicted that the vaccine willultimately “have a biggerimpact on the economythan it does on politics.”

But uncertainty over thetiming of a potential CO-VID-19 vaccine on Thurs-day had investors squeam-ish, as the Dow dropped807 points as stocks postedtheir worst day since June.

At a news conference in

Daytona Beach onWednesday, Gov. RonDeSantis tamped downexpectations about a vac-cine, and laid the responsi-bility for its distribution onthe federal government.

“I wouldn’t want peopleto think that in two moremonths, you know, every-thing is going to be gone,”the governor said, suggest-ing that the flu vaccine isonly 50% effective amongthe senior population com-pared to other populations,“so just people should havetempered expectations.”

(The governor did notcite research related to theflu vaccine, but recent datafrom the NationalInstitutes of Health refutesthat claim.)

DeSantis added that hedoesn’t know how manyvaccines “will end up beingproduced,” but he signaledthat the burden of produc-ing a successful vaccinenow falls on the drug com-panies.

“I know they basicallypaid all these companiesalready so that they couldjust go ahead and roll withit as the trials are going,”he said.

MANAGING

EXPECTATIONS

How the federal govern-ment handles the messa-ging about a vaccine isgoing to be crucial to man-aging public expectations,public health experts said.

Peter Pitts, president ofthe Center for Medicine inthe Public Interest and aformer FDA associate com-missioner for externalrelations, said one of thebiggest challenges stateswill face when distributinga new vaccine is publicskepticism.

“Having a vaccine thatnobody uses is a publichealth failure,” he said,adding that time is runningout for public health offi-cials to get out a persuasivemessage.

Americans already areskeptical. A poll releasedMonday by Harris andSTAT found that 78% ofAmericans believe that theCOVID-19 vaccine processis being driven more bypolitics than science.

But when it comes totrust in the president, thepublic breaks down alongpartisan lines. Althoughonly 46% of the publictrust the president or theWhite House to provideaccurate information aboutthe development of a CO-VID-19 vaccine, 71% ofRepublicans believe Trumpcompared to only 28% ofDemocrats.

There is more trust inthe FDA than the presi-dent: 68% say they areconfident that the FDA willonly endorse a vaccine thatis safe.

Gruters, who is one ofthe president’s most vocalcheerleaders in Florida,said he expects most of thepublic will trust a vaccine.

“There is a lot of distrustin government overall, butthe FDA and its policiesand science transcendspolitics,” he said. “If theysay it’s ready and if theyare getting results in thesetrials, then I’m confident.”

In a presidential electionyear, Pitts said, the pan-demic and the govern-ment’s response have be-come “hyper-politicized.”

“If you don’t believe themessenger, you’re notgoing to believe the mes-sage,” he said.

The president and theFDA didn’t help engendertrust when the head of theFood and Drug Adminis-tration grossly misstatedclaims about the lifesavingpower of a plasma therapyfor COVID-19 authorizedby his agency on the eve ofthe Republican NationalConvention, then quietlytried to correct it anddemoted the official incharge of the botchedrollout.

Barry Bloom, an immu-nologist and research pro-fessor with Harvard T.H.Chan School of PublicHealth, said the FDA’strack record of question-able emergency use ap-provals during the pan-demic is worrisome.

He noted that in addition

to the the FDA’s emergen-cy approval of convales-cent plasma, it also gaveemergency approval forhydroxychloroquine as aCOVID-19 therapy in April,only to revoke the autho-rization in June. The agen-cy also allowed dozens ofcoronavirus antibody testson the market withoutreview, only to later findthat many of the tests werenot accurate.

“That is worrisome be-cause in the case of vac-cines, the pressure will befar greater,” Bloom saidduring a conference callwith reporters on Aug. 25.

“I would hope the lead-ership of the FDA wouldstand firm on the scientificbasis. Otherwise, the trustin the whole scientificenterprise becomes com-promised. And there are alot of people in the anti-vaccine world that arelooking forward to precise-ly that.”

LOGISTICAL HURDLES

The government also hasto manage the logistics ofdistributing a vaccine on amass scale.

Only two of six vaccinecandidates that have thebacking of the federalgovernment — those beingproduced by Moderna andPfizer — are in active PhaseIII clinical trials, and theyrequire extremely coldshipment and storage con-ditions.

Sen. Gayle Harrell, chairof the state Senate HealthPolicy Committee, invitedrepresentatives from phar-maceutical companies amonth ago to conduct abriefing session for fellowRepublican lawmakersabout the status of vac-cines. She said that be-cause of the need for sup-er-cold conditions thereare a limited number offacilities in Florida that canstore it.

She said that once avaccine is thawed, it mustbe used within a day ortwo. That leaves researchhospitals and research labsas the most likely locationsto handle the product.

“You have to really thinkthis thing through to set upa mass distribution,” Har-rell said.

“The healthcare logisticsaren’t being discussed,which is a huge issue, notthe least of which is coldstorage,” Pitts said. “It’snot as though a big box ofpills arrives and you putthem on a shelf. Vaccinesrequire special care. Theyhave to be shipped in dif-ferent ways and have to bestored in different ways.The question is: Is ourhealthcare infrastructure

prepared for that?”

WHO GETS

VACCINATED FIRST?

After logistics, the statemust decide who will beeligible for the first roundof limited supplies of avaccine.

The governor said thisweek that “if there is a safeand effective vaccine, Ithink that the most vul-nerable population shouldhave priority.” He de-scribed that as people whoare 65 and older and thosewith underlying healthconditions that increasetheir risk.

Operation Warp Speedofficials have suggestedthat the state should expectthe elderly — includingthose homebound, in nurs-ing homes and in seniorliving facilities — as well ashealthcare workers, front-line essential workers,national security workersand communities of colorto be among the prioritygroups for the first vaccinedoses.

Bloom, the Harvardimmunologist, said thelimited availability of vac-cines in the beginningstages will create pressure“for every group, everypressure group, every orga-nized group and lots ofinfluential individuals totry to get access to thatvaccine.”

But Harrell, the statesenator, said “not everyonewill want to get vaccinat-ed,” especially in the earlymonths of the vaccine.

Critical to the publicmessaging is that everyoneshould be allowed to eval-uate their own risk, shesaid. Unlike using experi-mental therapy for treat-ment of COVID-19, a vac-cine involves giving a doseof the virus to healthypeople, she said. “It has tobe a voluntary thing, and ifyou don’t want to do it, youcan’t be forced to do it.”

Jones, the Broward legis-lator, said that many in theBlack community are goingto be reluctant to get vacci-nated given the state’s

historical failure to providehealthcare access to it.

“Is the state coming tous because they wanteveryone to be safe or arethey coming to the Blackcommunity because theywant them to be your labrats?” he said. “That’s themessage that is out thereon social media. They needto educate the communityfirst.”

He said he doesn’t seeany effort to educate thepublic now, however, andthat could lead to in-creased distrust.

“If the governor’s officeknows this is coming inOctober, the smart thingwould be to launch a cam-paign to show this is aboutto happen,” Jones said. “InFlorida, we get a lot ofthings wrong and we arethe laughingstock on a lotof things. We need to getthis right.”

Mary Ellen Klas can bereached [email protected] @MaryEllenKlas

FROM PAGE 1A

VIRUS

JOE RAEDLE TNS

Barbara Corral, a nurse practitioner, and Jose Fernando Henriquez, a research assistant, are seen in an exam room as theyconduct a COVID-19 vaccination study on a patient at Research Centers of America on Aug. 7 in Hollywood.

AFTER LOGISTICS,THE STATE MUSTDECIDE WHO WILLBE ELIGIBLE FORTHE FIRST ROUNDOF LIMITEDSUPPLIES OF AVACCINE.


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