Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

At a time when the discrimination against <keyword id="6395204" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="HIV-positive">HIV positive</keyword> patients has still not wore down, a Mumbai-based man is quietly transforming the lives of HIV positive children. 
 <keyword id="3434116" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Papa-Reji">Papa Reji</keyword>, as he is fondly called, is a father to over 24 children, 22 of them are HIV positive children that and his wife have adopted as their own. 
 
Over the years, they have nurtured these kids, fed them even though they had to starve and given them a place of shelter and unconditional love and ensured that these kids have a reason to laugh and live their life to the fullest. 
 <keyword id="2941350" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Humans-of-Bombay">Humans of Bombay</keyword> recently interviewed him and gave us a peak into the inspiring tale of this man’s journey to fathering 24 kids and how it began. 
 
If there’s anything you should read today, it’s this. 
 
 
How it all started: 
 
"I was passing DY Patil hospital one day when I saw a girl sleeping outside -- weak to the point that you could see her bones. I found out that she was HIV positive and had lost both her parents. I asked what she would like to eat and she said noodles, but I couldn't find them anywhere so I promised her I would return the next day. She passed away that night and that incident kept haunting me, so I went inside the hospital and asked them to contact me if there were any such children in the future. 
 
 
At first, it was difficult to make ends meet: 
 
2 such children were sent to me for different reasons. In 2009, I took a space on rent in Navi Mumbai for my wife, my two children and the two HIV positive children. At first it was difficult to make ends meet -- we could afford one mattress on which my 4 children slept and my wife and I would make do without. Eventually, people started donating -- beds, grains and money. My family of 4 slowly expanded to 24 as more and more children with HIV were sent to me. 
 
 
‘We have tried to make sure they have a life worth living’: 
 
My wife has been a rock solid support and we've never differentiated between our children -- we scold all of them, love all of them and give them the same gifts. My wife cooks for all 24 of our children, looks after their medication and takes them for their medical check ups. We've tried to give all of them a good education and make sure that they have a life worth living. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Love conquers all: 
 
An incident I'll never forget is of a boy who was abandoned by his parents and brought to us in the last stage of tuberculosis and HIV. We took him in, gave him all the fresh juices and lentils he needed. We began to laugh around him, make him play with us and showered him with so much love that he had to recover! Within two weeks from not being able to get up, he was running around everywhere. 
 
 
‘I am just a father looking after my children’ 
 
That's the most fulfilling part about what I do -- I can proudly say that my family of 24 is overflowing with love! Being HIV positive doesn't mean that they have to cut their life short...they can live as long as any normal person and that's what I'm here for...to save them and give them a long life. And with love and care, everything is possible. These children all call me 'Papa Reji' and it's the duty of a father to protect...so I'm not someone special -- I'm just a father looking after my children." 
 
This man is an example that one doesn’t require endless amounts of money to make a difference- all you need is compassion and lots of love. 
 
Thanks to Papa Reji, these HIV positive kids now have a family and a reason to smile.

This Mumbai superdad has adopted 22 HIV-positive kids and is raising them as his own

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Polio, monkeypox, marburg virus, and other infectious diseases are surging around the globe.</li><li>Experts say there's not one thing driving the surge — a multi-layered perfect storm has been brewing for some time.</li></ul>2022 has been a banner year for global infectious disease spread — and it's not just COVID. First, there were the reports of little kids with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-5-dead-109-ill-pediatric-hepatitis-outbreak-2022-5">mysterious and life-threatening liver failure</a> across the US and Europe. Then <a href="https://www.insider.com/monkeypox-gay-bisexual-men-affected-but-who-warns-stigma-2022-5">monkeypox</a> cases <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/us-map.html">surged</a> across the globe like never before.<a href="https://www.insider.com/meningococcal-disease-meningitis-outbreak-florida-2022-6">Meningitis</a> has killed at least a dozen people in Florida this year, according to state epidemiologists, while a fatal <a href="https://www.insider.com/healthy-newborn-died-parechovirus-signs-symptoms-2022-7">parechovirus infected newborns</a> across several states — at least one baby died in Connecticut. In Australia and Belgium, <a href="https://theconversation.com/diphtheria-is-back-in-australia-heres-why-and-how-vaccines-can-prevent-its-spread-186348">diphtheria made a comeback</a>, and cases of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/marburg/outbreaks/chronology.html">Marburg virus</a> are being identified for the first time ever in Ghana.Then, just last week, New York City announced that there is <a href="https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/polio/wastewater.htm">polio in its wastewater</a>, mirroring a highly unusual trend picked up in <a href="https://www.insider.com/polio-found-in-london-sewage-water-uk-health-officials-investigating-2022-6">London's sewers</a> in the spring. "It's like all the biblical plagues are coming back, right?" Dr. Madhukar Pai, a global health expert at McGill, told Insider. It didn't happen overnight, and it's not a direct result of the pandemic either, but disease experts agree: the <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41579-021-00639-z">pace of these infectious outbreaks</a> is <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/major-epidemics-modern-era">quickening</a>. Pai and other top-tier experts say there is no single, "simplistic" explanation. Instead, there is a wide web of at least seven powerful, interwoven issues undergirding the trend. "It's definitely not something that we hoped would happen in public health, but it's also a situation which we feared might happen," Dr. Jay Varma, an expert in disease control and prevention at Cornell, said. "If you think about it almost like a sports event, the offense has gotten more intense — if you consider the viruses and pathogens that are out there — and our defense has weakened at the same time."Here are the top seven factors driving disease outbreaks in 2022.<h2>ONE: Humans and animals have more close contact</h2><div type="image" title="mink covid-19" height="1848" width="2464" msid="93614982" hostid="261"></div>As climate change pushes people and animals out of their homes, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-the-us-handled-its-first-ever-monkeypox-outbreak-2022-5">pets</a> and animal products travel the globe, and worldwide demand for meat reaches <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/03/22/2197061/0/en/Global-Animal-Protein-Market-to-Reach-58-50-Billion-by-2027-AMR.html">all-time highs</a>, we're collectively coming in contact with all kinds of animals far more often than we used to."The human-animal interface has been broken," as Dr. Larry Brilliant, who helped eradicate smallpox, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyFcfL6iF4o&amp;t=872s">recently put it</a>. The <a href="http://www.emro.who.int/fr/about-who/rc61/zoonotic-diseases.html">World Health Organization</a> estimated in 2014 that 75% of today's emerging pathogens have "originated in animals," a number that has been accelerating in recent decades. Human-animal interaction is how <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8715">COVID</a> first spread into people. Ebola, HIV, MERS, SARS, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pandemic-flu-comes-from-birds-first-2019-7">influenza</a>, and monkeypox all have animal reservoirs, too. When a disease pivots from animals into people, it always has the potential to spawn a new outbreak. "The first factor that's driving transmission is increasing interaction between humans and animals, in <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/583117-why-stopping-deforestation-must-be-a-priority-for-public-health/amp/">settings that are not entirely natural</a>, or settings that are different from the way they have been in the past," Varma said.Deforestation, sequestration of livestock, and <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/reducing-zoonotic-disease-risk-from-wildlife-trade">illicit wildlife trade</a> — they all play a role."Human population is now so enormous that we will infiltrate into all sorts of ecosystems where we will encounter novel organisms — organisms to which we don't have much prior immunity," Pai added. <h2>TWO: The pace of global travel and migration</h2><div type="image" title="flight attendant riding moving walkway at aiport with suitcase" height="3000" width="3999" msid="93614985" hostid="261"></div>The global, interconnected, social nature of modern life helps spread diseases between people more efficiently than ever. Any infectious disease anywhere in the world is just one flight away. "Every time someone gets on a plane, there is some very tiny risk that they'll be carrying something new with them," Dr. Eric Rubin, editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, told Insider. "The more people get on planes, the more that risk goes up."It's a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/emirates-plane-flu-harvard-doctor-says-were-lucky-it-wasnt-mers-2018-9">numbers game</a>. And with the number of air <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/air-travel-consumer-report-consumer-complaints-against-airlines-rise-more-300-percent">travelers now skyrocketing</a>, new pathogens can travel very fast, and very far.In 2022, both monkeypox and polio hitched a ride on planes, infecting people on new continents. Conversely, when global travel ground to a halt in 2020, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-flu-varieties-disappeared-lockdown-extinct-2021-6">flu essentially disappeared for a year</a>.<h2>THREE: The worsening climate crisis</h2><div type="image" title="A photo of an insurance adjuster inspecting flood damage." height="600" width="1200" msid="93614987" hostid="261"></div>A paper released in the journal <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41558-022-01426-1">Nature on August 8</a> suggests that most of the human pathogens on Earth will be "aggravated" by climate change in some way. Many of them already have been. "Insect-borne diseases are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/graphs.html">really changing their patterns</a>, because the insects that carry them now have a much broader range," Rubin said, <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/the-history-of-zika-virus#:~:text=First%20identified%20in%20Uganda%20in,countries%20experiencing%20Zika%20virus%20outbreaks.">citing the way that Zika</a> — once a disease contained to Africa — has been allowed to spread across Asia and the Americas. <a href="https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/chikungunya-monthly">Chikungunya</a>, too, is now a global disease, not the regional threat it once was."The tropics has moved into Europe and North America," Varma said. <h2>FOUR: Not enough routine vaccines for kids</h2><div type="image" title="A boy getting the polio vaccine" height="2250" width="3000" msid="93614988" hostid="261"></div>During the pandemic, vaccination rates plummeted across the globe in a way that hasn't been documented in decades. The <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/15-07-2022-covid-19-pandemic-fuels-largest-continued-backslide-in-vaccinations-in-three-decades">WHO calls it</a> the "largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years." Add to that the vaccination <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-vaccine-court-is-it-real-2019-3">backsliding that was already underway in many rich countries</a>, fueled by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/experts-fact-check-vaccine-claims-by-robert-malone-rogan-podcast-2022-2">misinformation</a> and vaccine hesitancy, and it was inevitable that an uptick in vaccine-preventable disease spread would happen once lockdowns, social distancing, and masking measures eased. "We need everyone to be getting vaccinated, or we all face risks," Varma said. In some areas of Rockland County, New York, where polio has left at least one young, unvaccinated man paralyzed this year, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7133e2.htm?s_cid=mm7133e2_w">just 37% of little kids are up to date</a> on their polio vaccines. (For context: nationally, nearly 93% of babies are vaccinated against polio.)<h2>FIVE: The whole world is paying the price for years of neglecting developing countries' disease outbreaks</h2><div type="image" title="Provider measures monkeypox vaccine." height="3003" width="4759" msid="93614990" hostid="261"></div>"All these years, Africans had monkeypox, nobody did a thing, nobody gave them vaccines," Pai said. "Now, suddenly, all the rich nations are going after — and getting — monkeypox vaccinations?"Eventually, he said, "we pay the price" for such "archaic," "parochial," and short-sighted disease management. "If monkeypox had been handled better in Africa, it wouldn't have spread around the world. If COVID had been handled better in low and middle income countries, new variants would not have emerged. If Ebola had been contained in West Africa, even before it spread, then it wouldn't have arrived in the US."<h2>SIX: Our shifting perception of disease threats </h2><div type="image" title="screenshot of promed map with dots all around the globe on august 16 2022" height="539" width="851" msid="93614992" hostid="261"></div>We've also been shaped by our experiences during the pandemic, and we can't help but bring that knowledge into infectious disease news we read now. In some cases, it's overblown, Pai said. "Some <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-cattle-disease-idUSKCN24G1DK">little outbreak happens</a> in some corner of some market <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2202705">in China</a>, immediately everybody across the world is freaking out."In many, heightened concern is <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/07/28/1114183886/a-doctor-in-nigeria-tried-to-warn-the-world-that-monkeypox-had-become-a-global-t">warranted</a>.These days, scientists also have better tools than ever for noticing what's going on — <a href="https://www.bu.edu/neidl/2021/12/southern-africa-is-not-a-hotbed-of-variants-its-just-very-good-at-sequencing-and-spotting-them/">sequencing</a> viruses, testing cases, and sounding alarm bells they couldn't have years ago. "COVID has really changed the way we notice these things," Rubin said, speaking about average news readers and professional scientists alike. "Every day there's a disease of some sort <a href="https://promedmail.org/">reported somewhere</a> in the world," he said — and that is, in part, because we are all paying more attention to them than we used to. <h2>SEVEN: We're still not sure how COVID exposure has affected our immune systems</h2><div type="image" title="Dr. Francis S. Collins, who serves as the Acting Science Advisor the president is the highest-paid White House employee." height="1828" width="2438" msid="93614993" hostid="261"></div>New disease threats are especially alarming right now because it's <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/investigation/hepatitis-unknown-cause/parents.html/">not yet clear</a> to us what effect <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2531043721000040">prior COVID</a> could be having on our <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/common-long-covid-symptoms-hair-loss-vertigo-low-libido-2022-7">immune defenses</a>. "We will learn in the coming months and years," Pai said, "whether COVID does mess up the immune system to some degree or the other, which makes us more susceptible." Already, he's worried that doctors' overdependence on steroid <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/covid19-impact-report-508.pdf">and antibiotic prescriptions</a> during the pandemic may spur more <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-pandemic-fueled-a-superbug-surge-can-medicine-recover/">fungal infections, superbugs,</a> and antimicrobial resistance.<h2>Another pandemic is coming. We could stop it — but experts fear 'we've given up'</h2><div type="image" title="A sign outside of a New York clinic reads &quot;appointment only&quot;" height="1333" width="2000" msid="93614995" hostid="261"></div>Scientists <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2105482118">estimate our odds of experiencing another pandemic</a> "may double in coming decades," as disease outbreaks fueled by this wide array of interrelated, complex factors become more and more common. But when it comes to disease prevention, "you're better off not thinking that the 10 plagues have been released simultaneously," Rubin said. "Each disease is distinct," with different biological features, distinct reasons for emerging, and varying modes of transmission and prevention."The answer is more investment in public health, right?" Pai said. It's often "stuff that we've given up on," he said, interventions that are "undermined," like clean drinking water, good sanitation, vaccines, equitable access to treatment and clinical care, as well as robust disease research."Our racism in the way we think about infectious diseases," he says, "eventually will come back and haunt us — which is what is happening."

Yes, there are more infectious diseases popping up these days &mdash; experts say there are 7 clear reasons why

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Both <keyword id="4912868" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="moderna">Moderna</keyword> and <keyword id="44612" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Pfizer">Pfizer</keyword> have FDA-authorized <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> vaccines, with data showing both are safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 infections.</li><li>But, the shots do have some subtle differences.</li><li>Moderna's might better protect against severe cases, while Pfizer's seems to have milder side effects.</li><li>Here's everything you need to know.</li></ul>US regulators greenlit a second coronavirus shot on Friday, authorizing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-moderna-developed-coronavirus-vaccine-record-time-2020-11">Moderna's vaccine for emergency use.</a> The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vaccine-distribution-timeline-first-pfizer-shots-2020-12">two-shot vaccine on December 11.</a> Both vaccines are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chart-how-well-moderna-vaccine-prevents-covid-19-infections-2020-12">very similar</a> two-dose <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/leading-us-coronavirus-vaccines-how-they-work-compare-2020-10">mRNA shot courses</a>. Late-stage clinical trials for both vaccines are ongoing, meaning more results could still come in and change what we've learned about how well these shots work.But so far, the two vaccines appear quite similar, and they both seem to be safe and highly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-vaccine-efficacy-how-well-shots-prevent-infections-2020-11">effective, based on trials that have been conducted on tens of thousands of people around the world</a>. The trials compare people who got two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or of Moderna's vaccine to people who got fake shots known as placebos.Here's what we know so far.<h2>Both shots are overwhelmingly effective at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19</h2>The primary goal of both vaccine studies was to see if the shots can prevent the symptomatic kind of COVID-19, where people exhibit <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/difference-between-coronavirus-symptoms-flu-allergies-common-cold-chart-2020-9">outward symptoms of illness</a>, such as coughing, fevers, and shortness of breath. Both vaccines did well at that task.Pfizer: Pfizer's vaccine was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fda-authorizes-pfizer-biontech-coronavirus-vaccine-for-us-emergency-use-2020-12">95% effective at preventing symptomatic disease</a>, with the trial recording 162 COVID-19 cases in the placebo group and 8 in people who got the real vaccine. Pfizer's study began counting cases sooner than Moderna's, with researchers starting to count cases one week after people got the second (booster) dose.Moderna: Moderna's shot was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/safety-and-side-effects-for-modernas-coronavirus-vaccine-2020-12">94.1% effective at preventing symptomatic disease</a>. The study tallied 196 COVID-19 cases among volunteers, with 185 in the placebo group and just 11 among those getting the experimental vaccine. This study started counting cases 14 days after people got their second shot. <h2>The vaccines work really well at preventing the most severe COVID-19 infections, and deaths</h2>People with severe cases of COVID-19 can end up hospitalized, paralyzed, or dead. Fortunately, both Pfizer and Moderna's shots seem to protect people very well from some of the most severe instances of disease, and no one who was vaccinated died from COVID-19 during these studies. Pfizer: 8 fully vaccinated people (out of more than 18,100) in Pfizer's study got sick with COVID-19. One of those infections was severe, but none required hospitalization. Three placebo recipients also became severely ill, according to the study's final analysis. Two of those people were hospitalized, with one requiring intensive care. Moderna: 11 fully vaccinated people (out of more than 13,900) in Moderna's study got sick with COVID-19. None of their infections were severe. In the unprotected control group, 30 severe infections were recorded during the study period, including one death.Both vaccines dramatically reduced people's odds of developing severe infections, and eliminated deaths. Meanwhile in the US population at large, more than 300,000 have perished from this disease so far. <h2>We don't know if either vaccine can prevent asymptomatic spread</h2>Can these vaccines prevent infections altogether, including asymptomatic cases? Scientists don't know yet.Dr. Peter Marks, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fdas-peter-marks-on-the-coronavirus-vaccine-review-process-2020-11">top FDA regulator</a>, said on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqzE3Zr8pk&amp;feature=youtu.beu.be">a December 14 livestream with JAMA</a> that if he had a genie in a bottle, one of the first questions he would ask is whether these vaccines provide what's called sterilizing immunity, which prevents both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections.Pfizer: Pfizer presented no data related to asymptomatic infections, viral shedding, or contagiousness as part of its application to the FDA. The agency said additional data is needed, "including data from clinical trials and from the vaccine's use post-authorization." Marks said he hopes findings in animal studies that shots seemed to halt viral shedding could translate to humans and reduce asymptomatic spread, "but we don't know for sure." Moderna: Researchers swabbed volunteers for the virus before both injections. When volunteers came back for their booster shot, researchers found a handful of positive cases among people who didn't have symptoms: 14 positives among those getting Moderna's vaccine and 38 cases in the placebo group. While Moderna said that suggests "that some asymptomatic infections start to be prevented after the first dose," the FDA said the data is too limited to make any conclusions.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vaccine-experts-pitch-asymptomatic-covid-19-vaccine-trials-2020-11">We don't know if the coronavirus vaccines can stop the virus from spreading, but top scientists are pitching a new trial that could figure that out</a><h2>How long will protection last? </h2>Durability of the protection from the vaccines is one of the biggest unknowns.In both studies, participants were followed for at least two months after their shots, but beyond that timeframe, it's not yet clear how long the vaccine protection lasts. Will people need to get re-vaccinated in months, or years? No one knows yet if, or when, people will need to come back to doctor's offices for booster shots. That's true for shots from both Pfizer and Moderna, though an analysis <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2032195">published on December 3 in The New England Journal of Medicine</a> on recipients who got Moderna's shot as early as March showed only small decreases three months out in the level of neutralizing antibodies. Those are virus-fighting proteins that play a critical role in our immune response. As the study carries on and participants are followed for longer periods of time, we should get a better picture of if, or when, protection wanes.<h2>Both shots have the side effects you'd expect from a vaccine. Moderna's may be more severe.</h2>There's two buckets of side effects with vaccines: the expected and the unexpected. The expected ones are byproducts of the vaccine generating an immune response. Your body reacts to the shot, leading to temporary, usually mild, side effects like fatigue, headache, and chills. Here's how both vaccines stack up, and the rates of more severe reactions. Pfizer: Compared to Moderna's shot, there were fewer reports of pain, fatigue, and headaches in Pfizer's vaccine trials. The most common side effects were injection site pain (84%), fatigue (63%), and headache (55%). Severe side effects after the second dose happened with less frequency than Moderna's trial, with the highest rates among volunteers under 55 years old: 5% recorded severe fatigue, 3% had severe headaches, 2% had severe chills, and 2% had new or worsened muscle pain.Moderna: More than nine in 10 people registered some level of side effects, with most being mild or moderate. The most common reactions were injection site pain (92%), fatigue (69%), headache (63%), and muscle pain (60%). Younger participants recorded more side effects. Among volunteers ages 18-64, nearly 1 in 5 had a severe reaction after the second booster dose.The most common severe side effects for this age group were fatigue (11%), muscle pain (10%), joint pain (6%), fever (2%), and chills (2%). Among this younger group, a handful also recorded grade-four side effects, which are potentially life-threatening in severity. Ten of these volunteers, less than 0.1%, had grade-four fevers, which exceeded 104 degrees Fahrenheit.<h2>Pfizer's shot seems to be more effective for older adults, while Moderna's may be better at preventing severe cases </h2>Both of these vaccines are recommended for adults of any age. But, the trials didn't have a uniform number of people of all ages in them, so it's still unclear which vaccine might work best at every age.Pfizer: Vaccinated 4,294 people who were 65 years or older (about 21% of the vaccinated group). The oldest Pfizer vaccine recipient was 89 years old, and the average age of participants was 51. The vaccine appeared to work slightly better in people under 55 (96% effective, versus 94% in older adults), but those numbers could shift as more people get vaccinated, and the difference is not statistically significant.Moderna: Vaccinated 3,527 people who were 65 years or older (about 25% of the vaccinated group). The oldest Moderna vaccine recipient was 95, and the average age of participants was 52. The vaccine appeared to work slightly better in people under 65 (86.4% effective, versus 95.6% in younger adults), but those numbers could shift too, as more people get shots. Moderna's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/safety-and-side-effects-for-modernas-coronavirus-vaccine-2020-12">shot also appeared to be gentler on older people</a>, with more severe side effects like headaches and fatigue tending to fall on the younger vaccine takers, under 65. So far, Moderna's vaccine appears to be 100% effective at preventing severe cases (there was one severe case in the Pfizer trial.) <h2>The diversity in the trials mirrored the real world </h2>Historically, vaccine trials, and scientific research trials in general, have been pretty bad about leaving women and people of color out. But, Pfizer and Moderna have made some improvements to diversity in their coronavirus vaccination studies, which is important for a vaccine that's going to be delivered to hundreds of millions of people across the country, and around the world. Pfizer: Pfizer's vaccine was tried in six countries: the US, Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, Germany, and South Africa. 49% of volunteers were women, 51% were men. Most of the vaccine recipients were white, with the final breakdown as:<ul><li>55% White</li><li>26% Hispanic/Latinx</li><li>10% Black/African-American</li><li>5% Asian</li><li>2.5% Multiethnic</li><li>1% Native American (includes Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) </li><li>0.5% Other </li></ul>Moderna: Moderna's vaccine was only tried out on participants in the US. 48% of volunteers were women, 52% were men.Most of the vaccine recipients were white, with the final breakdown as: <ul><li>64% White (compared to the 60% <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219">of the US population</a>)</li><li>20% Hispanic/Latinx (19% <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219">of the US population</a>)</li><li>10% Black/African-American (13% <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219">of the US population</a>)</li><li>4% Asian (6% <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219">of the US population</a>)</li><li>1% Native American (includes Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) (1.5% <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219">of the US population</a>)</li><li>&lt;2% Other</li></ul><h2>Pregnant women were left out of the studies </h2>Very few people were excluded from the vaccine trials, categorically, and plenty of participants had pre-existing conditions like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, liver disease, and heart issues. But, there were a few groups the trials left out.Pfizer: Left out people younger than 16 (the study is now being expanded to <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/144245/download">include kids 12 and up</a>), lactating and pregnant people (though, a few did get pregnant during the trials), and people with a prior, severe allergic reaction to a vaccine. There were immunocompromised patients allowed in the study, but not many of them. For example there was only one person in the study with HIV or AIDS, and they were in the control (placebo) group. Moderna: Left out people younger than 18 (the study is now being expanded to <a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-first-participants-dosed-phase-23-study-covid">include kids 12 and up</a>). Enrolled mainly frontline workers (82% "at occupational risk" of contracting COVID-19, with 25% of them <keyword id="6354525" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="healthcare">healthcare</keyword> workers.) Pregnant people were also excluded from Moderna's study, and like Pfizer's trials, there were immunocompromised patients allowed in this study, but not many of them. Again, there was only one person in Moderna's study with HIV/AIDS, and they were in the control (placebo) group. <h2>Neither shot has any major safety concerns, but regulators will be watching closely for cases of Bell's palsy and allergic reactions</h2>Massive studies, enrolling tens of thousands of people, haven't identified major safety concerns for either vaccine. But public-health regulators around the world are on watch, particularly as these shots are rolled out to millions of members of the public. Here are some of the potential safety concerns they are watching closely. Pfizer: Pfizer's massive trial had a handful of Bell's palsy cases, a condition of weakening facial muscles that is typically temporary. Four cases were reported in the vaccine arm, and none in the placebo group.UK <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> regulators have warned against anyone with a history of severe allergies to food or medicine getting Pfizer's vaccine after two people with those allergies had non life-threatening allergic reactions to the shot. <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2020/12/18/3rd-alaska-health-care-worker-experiences-adverse-reaction-to-covid-19-vaccine/">Three healthcare workers in Alaska</a> have had similar allergic reactions after getting Pfizer's vaccine. Moderna: Among more than 30,000 people who signed up for Moderna's study, four volunteers subsequently developed Bell's palsy. Three got Moderna's shot, and one got the placebo.Combining the two trials, nearly 40,000 people got an experimental vaccine with seven developing Bell's palsy, a frequency of less than 0.1%. The numbers are far too small to tell if the cases are related to the vaccines or a product of random chance. The FDA said a relationship with the vaccine "cannot be ruled out" and should be monitored closely going forward.<h2>No data on children yet, but testing is underway</h2>Children won't be getting a <keyword id="8624004" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus-vaccine">coronavirus vaccine</keyword> anytime soon, outside of clinical trials. US public-health leaders have said they hope there's enough pediatric data in 2021 to begin immunizing children in the summer. But that depends on the studies working out as hoped. Pfizer: Pfizer began vaccinating kids as young as 12 in October, expanding its ongoing trial to recruit children. The FDA has already authorized Pfizer's shot for people 16 and older, despite its study having just one COVID-19 case among 16- and 17-year-olds. Agency scientists reckoned it was "biologically reasonable to extrapolate that effectiveness in ages 16 to 17 years would be similar to effectiveness in younger adults."Moderna: Moderna dosed its <a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-first-participants-dosed-phase-23-study-covid">first teenagers on December 10</a> in a study of children ages 12 to 17. CEO Stephane Bancel hopes to have results from this study, enrolling 3,000 healthy kids, by spring 2021. Moderna's emergency OK is only for adults over 18, for the time being.

Coronavirus vaccines compared: What to know about shots from Moderna and Pfizer, from safety to side effects

<ul class="summary-list"><li>More than 100 teams around the globe are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vaccine-timeline-what-to-watch-leading-research-2020-3">racing to find a vaccine for the coronavirus</a>, with a handful conducting human trials.</li><li>But even when a vaccine gets approved, an immediate global rollout still looks unlikely, due to a shortage of the glass vials needed to store it.</li><li>People on the front lines of <keyword id="8624004" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus-vaccine">coronavirus vaccine</keyword> research, like Bill Gates, Dr. Rick Bright, and Professor John Bell of the University of Oxford, have already sounded alarms of a vial shortage.</li><li>Business Insider spoke to four experts who warned that the vial supply chain is straining, and will affect the release of a <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> vaccine.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>At this moment, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vaccine-timeline-what-to-watch-leading-research-2020-3">more than 100 coronavirus vaccines</a> are being developed at breakneck speed in labs around the world, with a handful eagerly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oxford-vaccine-human-trial-early-results-mid-june-jenner-institute-2020-4">awaiting early readouts</a> from human trials. But when a vaccine is approved — which looks to be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vaccine-could-ready-september-oxford-vaccinologist-uk-death-2020-4">September at the earliest</a> — manufacturers will struggle to source enough glass vials to bottle enough for a global immunization drive, experts say.If this happens, COVID-19 will continue to infect people around the world — even while a vaccine exists — because of delays not in <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>, but the manufacturing supply chain.<div type="image" title="GettyImages A researcher works on a vaccin against the new coronavirus COVID-19 at the Copenhagen's University research lab in Copenhagen, Denmark, on March 23, 2020." height="512" width="1024" msid="75623217" hostid="261"></div>Vaccine vials are shaped from specialized glass — suppliers like <a href="https://www.thermofisher.com/uk/en/home/industrial/chromatography/autosampler-vials-closures/routine-vials-caps.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2caOicuf6QIVU4BQBh0AowAPEAAYASAAEgLR1PD_BwE&amp;ce=E.20CMD.DL102.29343.01&amp;cid=E.20CMD.DL102.29343.01&amp;ef_id=EAIaIQobChMI2caOicuf6QIVU4BQBh0AowAPEAAYASAAEgLR1PD_BwE:G:s&amp;s_kwcid=AL!3652!3!383084905584!b!!g!!%2Bvial%20%2BglassBvial%20%2Bglass">ThermoFisher Scientific</a> and <a href="https://www.schott.com/en-gb/products/vials/technical-details?tab=d2ecd927f83e4b908ebd7b2be8a967b2&amp;selected=0c5843c6de97479b90388ad3776d57d557d5">Schott</a> trademark their glassware — and tend to house between 2 ml and 100 ml of liquid. They measure, on average, 45 mm tall by 11.5 mm wide.They have to withstand cold temperatures, and survive the wear and tear of being transported around the world.The process of bottling vaccines is known in the industry as "fill-and-finish," and is invariably the main reason for vaccine delays.It's an arduous process, where machines siphon fluid into millions of vials and syringes before each one is hand-checked for quality.And to produce nearly 8 billion doses of a vaccine — one for each person in the world — is no mean feat, especially when there may not be enough vials for everyone. <div type="image" title="coronavirus vaccine vial oxford vaccine group" height="900" width="1200" msid="75623220" hostid="261"></div>"Quite clearly there will be a need to ramp up production of those vials," Professor Jeffrey Almond, a former vice president of research at <keyword id="45958" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sanofi">Sanofi</keyword> and current fellow at the University of Oxford's pathology department, told Business Insider."I'd be amazed if the people who are producing these things aren't already on it flat out, going at it all night long," he added.<h2>Warnings pile up</h2>In a <a href="https://www.kmblegal.com/sites/default/files/NEW%20R.%20Bright%20OSC%20Complaint_Redacted.pdf">whistleblower complaint</a> publicly released Tuesday, Dr. Rick Bright — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rick-bright-whistleblower-statement-cronyism-led-us-covid-19-response-2020-5">who was recently fired</a> as the head of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) — said he had warned the Department of Health and Human Services of a "critical shortage" of glass vials."It could take up to two years to produce enough vials for US vaccine needs," Bright said, according to the complaint.And on April 30, Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, told the BBC's "Today" radio program: "There's only 200 million vials left in the world now because they've all been sucked up by various people who can anticipate a vaccine."Bell works with the Oxford Vaccine Group, whose vaccine is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oxford-vaccine-human-trial-early-results-mid-june-jenner-institute-2020-4">currently undergoing human trials</a>.The director of the UK's Wellcome Trust, Sir Jeremy Farrar, also <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/what-we-cant-do-is-have-a-vaccine-in-september-and-then-realise-we-dont-have-the-syringes-to-deliver-it-sir-jeremy-farrar-on-covid-19-vaccine-preparations">told Channel 4 News</a> this week: "There's apparently a glass shortage at the moment. So if the vaccine has to be put into glass vials, we need to make sure we have that available."And Bill Gates, whose foundation has poured <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gates-foundation-shifting-total-attention-to-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-4">hundreds of millions of dollars</a> into coronavirus vaccine research, told "The Ezra Klein Show" in late April: "Even the bottles, the fill-finish... the world doesn't have enough of that."<div type="image" title="oxford vaccine group trial" height="718" width="1436" msid="75623222" hostid="261"></div>Other vaccine development groups include pharmaceuticals company Janssen, a division of Johnson &amp; Johnson, which told Business Insider it plans to "provide a global supply of more than one billion vaccine doses." It hopes to fit five doses in a single vial to save glass, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/us/politics/vaccines-coronavirus-research.html">The New York Times reported</a>.J&amp;J has declined to say how many glass vials it had access to. But James Robinson, vice president of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-covid-19-is-wreaking-havoc-on-our-ability-to-make-things-including-vaccines/">told FiveThirtyEight</a> last month Janssen had preordered 250 million vials."That might be all that's out there," Robinson said, adding that CEPI — which finances vaccine research — is hurrying to source 200 million vials itself.<h2>The vial shortage could hold up a global vaccine release</h2>It's not clear how many glass vials exist in the world, because there is no central authority.In the US, vaccine makers are obligated to notify the the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about any material shortages.However, the FDA told Business Insider that "manufacturers of glass vials are not."Meanwhile, the UK Vaccine Network, a government-mandated expert group, has warned that fill-and-finish is often the cause of delays in the production of vaccines. "Identifying a suitable fill finish site could be a bottleneck that adds delays to the manufacturing process," <a href="http://www.vaccinedevelopment.org.uk/fill-finish.html">it has said.</a> "Finding a suitable production slot within the site's production calendar can also become limiting."<div type="image" title="coronavius vaccine roche 2021" height="512" width="1024" msid="75623224" hostid="261"></div>Vijay Samant, former head of vaccine manufacturing at <keyword id="66878" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Merck">Merck</keyword>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/30/opinion/coronavirus-covid-vaccine.html?referringSource=articleShare">told The New York Times</a>: "The manufacturing task is insurmountable. I get sleepless nights thinking about it."Business Insider asked the big-four vaccine manufacturers — <keyword id="78710" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="GlaxoSmithKline">GlaxoSmithKline</keyword>, Merck, Sanofi, and <keyword id="44612" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Pfizer">Pfizer</keyword> — to outline their supplies of glass vials. The quartet <a href="https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4774079/global-vaccines-market-industry-size-growth?utm_source=CI&amp;utm_medium=PressRelease&amp;utm_code=hqz773&amp;utm_campaign=1263687+-+Global+Vaccines+Market+to+2025%3a+Shingrix+is+Set+to+Achieve+Blockbuster+Vaccine+Status+%2f+GSK+Led+the+Market+in+2018+%2f+Prevnar%2fPrevnar+13+has+Captured+the+Highest+Market+Share&amp;utm_exec=chdo54prdm_exec=chdo54prd">are responsible for around 90% of all the world's vaccines</a>.GSK told Business Insider: "We continue to work closely with suppliers, including of glass vials, in respect of current and future needs."Merck, Sanofi, and Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment.<div type="image" title="FILE - In this May 4, 2020, file photo, volunteers line up to begin taking hundreds of free COVID-19 tests at a pop-up site at the House of Hope in Decatur, Ga. Many African Americans watching protests calling for easing restrictions meant to slow the spread of the new coronavirus see them as one more example of how their health, their safety and their rights just don’t seem to matter. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)" height="1400" width="2800" msid="75623228" hostid="261"></div><h2>'The critical weak link in this whole supply chain'</h2>Glass vials are extremely hard and time-consuming to make."They take months to manufacture and the world has only created a capacity for what it uses for everyday treatments, so there is no surge capacity," Marc Koska, the inventor of a <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228386-500-my-self-destructing-syringe-could-save-millions-of-lives/">self-destructing syringe</a> that helped reduce HIV transmission, <a href="https://us.bremont.com/blogs/blogbook/marc-koska-we-can-make-a-breakthrough">told watch company Bremont</a>, for which he is an ambassador. "If we went to China now, or indeed anywhere in the world, to ask for a billion glass vials to inject everyone in Europe twice, it would be many months or years before we got supply. That has become the critical weak link in this whole supply chain."Vial makers will have to work relentlessly to boost production, said Prashant Yadav, a <keyword id="6354525" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="healthcare">healthcare</keyword> supply chain expert at the Center for Global Development."For workers on the fill-and-finish line, companies will have to incentive all these peoples to work their lives the same way as the scientists, 20 hours a day to make more vials and increase capacity," he told Business Insider.<h2>How often and how much people need to get vaccinated will also affect supply chains</h2>Whether the vaccine is bottled in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/injectionsafety/providers/provider_faqs_multivials.html">multi-dose vials</a>, which can house from two to 20 doses, or single-use vials — which house just one dose — will impact vial stocks too.Multi-dose vials are more economical than single-use vials in terms of glass per dose and other production costs. But singles are necessary for pharmacies and drugstores to vaccinate people who miss an initial mass vaccination drive."Logically, you're going to put it in multi-dose vials. Getting into individual syringes is a hell of a job, much slower, [and] would put huge demand on pack-and-fill facilities," Almond told Business Insider.<div type="image" title="covid 19 coronavirus vaccine working development britain.JPG" height="1250" width="2500" msid="75623229" hostid="261"></div>Dose sizes will also affect the demand for vials.Yadav, the supply chain expert, told Business Insider: "The extent of the shortage will depend on what type of vaccine comes out, as multi-dose vials will mean less of an issue.""But, if you open a vial, and you don't have enough patients, that vaccine is wasted."He added of efforts to address the shortage: "We don't know if vial makers, which is a concentrated market, have received clear signals of what to expect from distributors."<h2>Single- vs double-dose?</h2>Another key factor distributors need to consider is the fact that people may need to vaccinate themselves more than once to boost their immunity against COVID-19."It's also likely that annual boosters may be needed," Robin Shatlock, head of Mucosal Infection and Immunity at Imperial College London, told Business Insider.<div type="image" title="Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine clinical trial, vaccination of first volunteer" height="1977" width="3953" msid="75623238" hostid="261"></div>Almond, the former Sanofi VP, said it's more likely that a double-dose vaccine — two smaller doses taken separately — will be needed, which means using more glass per dose."Be prepared on the two-shot route to risk even more shortages," he said. "The probability is that it is going to be significantly better with two doses than one. If you have a dose and then another dose, say, two months later, you boost your response."It's not yet clear whether a single- or double-dose coronavirus vaccine will best immunize people against COVID-19. Labs that are doing human trials, like Pfizer and the Oxford Vaccine Group, are still expecting early results.Dr Paul F. McKay, a senior infectious-diseases researcher at Imperial College London, told Business Insider: "My personal opinion is to get as many doses to the public as quickly as possible, and if that requires multi-dose vials, then that's what we should do."<div type="image" title="President Donald Trump participates in a tour of a Honeywell International plant that manufactures personal protective equipment, Tuesday, May 5, 2020, in Phoenix, with Tony Stallings, vice president of Integrated Supply Chain at Honeywell, right and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)" height="1400" width="2801" msid="75623246" hostid="261"></div><h2>Glass vials are still needed to produce vaccines for other diseases</h2>While the coronavirus is indisputably the most pressing heath issue in the world, the constant supply of other key vaccines — like meningitis, influenza, and typhoid — must be maintained."The vaccines industry is used to producing hundreds of millions of doses of flu vaccines every year, and hundreds of millions of other vaccines," Almond told Business Insider."The materials and the facilities are there but, of course, you don't want to distort things by stopping doing all those things. Otherwise you're going to have to a whole load of deaths in kids who don't get the proper vaccines."The current outbreak of "COVID-19 on top of all that creates some logistical issues and probably some supply problems as well," he said.Cardinal Health, a US vial manufacturer, also told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/health/coronavirus-vaccine-supplies.html">The New York Times</a> that the pandemic is creating supply-chain issues like "delays in inventory replenishment for certain products."GAVI, the vaccine alliance, told Business Insider it is "working with partners" to ensure a vaccine "can be made available to countries as soon as possible," but did not comment on global levels of vials. The Oxford Vaccine Group declined to comment on distribution and manufacturing. Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vaccine-glass-vial-shortage-could-delay-global-rollout-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

Even if a successful coronavirus vaccine is developed, billions could struggle to access it because of a global shortage of glass vials

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A former <keyword id="9082331" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jeffree-star">Jeffree Star</keyword> Cosmetics model is speaking out about how he felt tokenzied and was "being used as a Black boy" for <keyword id="6354629" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="beauty">beauty</keyword> CEO and YouTuber Jeffree Star's brand.</li><li>Kameron Lester, a beauty microinfluencer with over 56,000 followers, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBQ4_hVpHVS/">says he is cutting ties</a> with Star, his cosmetics company, and <keyword id="7353406" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Shane-Dawson">Shane Dawson</keyword>, after he felt "manipulated" by the powerful <keyword id="860150" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="YouTubers">YouTubers</keyword>. </li><li>In an <keyword id="4425309" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Instagram-Live">Instagram Live</keyword> broadcast explaining the situation, Lester cited examples of Star confronting him about whether he liked James Charles, overhearing Dawson "curse out" Charles three months <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffree-star-james-charles-dramageddon-2-tati-westbrook-2020-5">before "Dramageddon 2.0"</a> started, and having Star dismiss Lester's request for the controversial guru to try and make amends with the Black beauty community. </li></ul>A Black male beauty microinfluencer who has modeled for Jeffree Star Cosmetics spoke out against the brand and its controversial CEO in <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBQ4_hVpHVS/">a 27-minute Instagram Live</a>. 23-year-old Kameron Lester has more than 56,000 Instagram followers and has been name-dropped by huge beauty YouTubers like Star, James Charles, and Shane Dawson. But in his live broadcast, Lester publicly cut ties with Star, his cosmetics company, and Dawson.Lester said he was grateful for Star featuring him in the "Magic Star" concealer and setting powder campaign that launched in April 2019, but Lester also said that for over a year he has felt that "something was off," and has undergone a lot of stress, paranoia, and fear while trying to decide whether to speak out. "I'm literally shaking guys, this is so scary to even do," Lester said at the beginning of his Instagram Live. "I don't want to monetize this, I don't want any gain from this. The only gain I want is peace and my truth, and this is my personal truth. [...] Everyone has their own truth and they might perceive things differently and that's okay."A member of Star's team didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.<h2>The crux of Lester's video is that he felt like Star used him as a "token Black boy," but he also brought up negative experiences related to Charles, Dawson, and Jackie Aina.</h2>Lester reiterated multiple times that he has "been manipulated" by Star and Dawson — Star's most frequent collaborator over the past few years, with whom he released <a href="https://www.insider.com/buy-shane-dawson-jeffree-star-conspiracy-palette-collection-2019-11">the highly sought-after Conspiracy collection</a> in 2019. Combined, Star and Dawson have over 41 million subscribers. Lester <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCokkWk1WtV11BeYUR7aZ6iQ">has 55,000 subscribers</a> on YouTube."As a Black beauty boy I have fought for my spot to even just be heard and be seen in the beauty community. I have been told not to say anything just to keep the network and benefit from it. I'm just not that type of person," Lester said. "I've been processing this for months. I've never said anything on my platforms. [...] But silence is complicit." Lester talked about a few specific experiences with Star that made him feel like their friendship was conditional, including a time he was in Houston to collaborate with a beauty commentary channel and well-known friend of Star's, Rich Lux. Lester said Star was there for work, too, and the three YouTubers plus several other people were in a Louis Vuitton store when Star first made Lester uncomfortable."I remember there was an instance where he like asked me if I liked James [Charles] or not," Lester said in his Live. "He was like 'Do you like James? Do you like him?' I was just so shocked and uncomfortable because he's such a big powerhouse [...] I didn't know what to say. I was so uncomfortable, there were people around me, and he was so blunt and out of nowhere."Lester says that Charles has been supportive of him and accepting of his HIV-positive status, which Lester has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qat-p8bDyUg">talked about extensively</a> on YouTube. So, according to Lester, he told Star that he didn't have any personal problems with Charles, and that Charles had "done a lot" for Lester."And he was like 'Well you don't f---ing owe him forever,'" Lester went on to say in the video. "I just was, like, taken aback when he said that, because it all happened so fast. [...] Rich Lux told me that Jeffree thought I was talking to James at the Louis Vuitton store. [...] I knew he didn't trust me."<h2>Lester's video also sheds new light on the events that led up to "Dramageddon 2.0," the explosive feud between Star and Charles.</h2>The Houston trip occurred around three months before <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffree-star-james-charles-dramageddon-2-tati-westbrook-2020-5">the explosive "Dramageddon 2.0" scandal</a> between Star, Charles, and Tati Westbrook erupted, Lester said. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu4Ys-Klqbf/">An Instagram post</a> of Lester's of him with Rich Lux in Houston was posted in March 2019. On the same trip, Lester went on to say that he overheard a surprising Facetime conversation between Star and Dawson, during which Lester says Dawson "cursed out" Charles."I was kind of taken aback, because I've never seen Shane Dawson like that. And he was just going in on James," Lester said. "I knew Shane wasn't the person that he was perceived as online. But I don't record things, I don't have hard facts. This isn't about receipts. [...] This is from my mouth, there's three sides to every story."Lester said that, in retrospect, having known something "was brewing with James" with Star and Dawson, he wishes that he had let Charles know — especially since, Lester said, Charles went on <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffree-star-james-charles-dramageddon-2-tati-westbrook-2020-5">to lose 3 million subscribers</a> in a matter of days. Despite "Dramgeddon 2.0" happening over a year ago, Star has <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffree-star-james-charles-dramageddon-2-tati-westbrook-2020-5">continued to bring up</a> the scandal.Lester says he regrets not warning Charles about the conversation he overheard between Star and Dawson, although he didn't disclose any details about what the conversation was about specifically. "I stayed silent because I wanted to protect myself," Lester said. "I wanted to protect my platform. Everyone told me not to say anything. Everyone was like 'It would be a crazy move, it would destroy your career, every brand he works with you're not going to be able to work with. You're not going to have money,' this and that. I was scared."<h2>Lester also recalled a conversation with Star when he encouraged him to "make amends" with Jackie Aina, and Star refused.</h2>Lester said there was another time that his conversation with Star left him feeling disappointed and "used." At an event for Mmmmitchell, a makeup artist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Wsg--yF_Y">who works closely</a> with Star, Lester says he talked to Star about Jackie Aina, a Black makeup YouTuber who <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/jeffree-star-racist-jackie-aina">has publicly confronted Star</a> about Star's racist behavior in the past. In October 2018, Aina <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/jeffree-star-racist-jackie-aina">addressed an open letter</a> to Star, in which she said she would no longer overlook his racist actions. Star <a href="https://www.bet.com/style/2017/08/17/a-comprehensive-timeline-of-jeffree-star-s-racist-behavior.html">has a history</a> of saying controversial and racist things, including <a href="https://www.bet.com/style/2017/08/17/a-comprehensive-timeline-of-jeffree-star-s-racist-behavior.html">using the "n word" slur</a> multiple times."I brought it up to him and said 'It would really say a lot if you could apologize to Jackie and the community' and all that kind of stuff," Lester said in his video. "He kind of shut it down and said 'She doesn't deserve a spot on my platform.' Which is understandable, and it is his platform, and he has all rights to do whatever he wants to do on his platform. I just left it at that, but I was definitely hurt as a Black boy and as a Black influencer who loves Jackie, that he was not trying to grow or amend that disconnect or wrongdoing he has done."From there in his video, Lester said he "got to a point" where he felt like he was "being used as a Black boy." On Twitter, Lester said he would defend Star, but that Star would not defend Lester in return, even when he liked tweets and saw Lester getting attacked for "supporting a racist person.""Even recently, I spoke up about Fenty and was like 'Oh, Fenty needs to pull up,' and everyone is coming at me like 'Aren't you a Jeffree Star stan?'" Lester said, referring to the "<a href="https://www.allure.com/story/pull-up-or-shut-up-challenge-beauty-company-responses">PULL UP or SHUT UP challenge</a>" started in the beauty community during recent Black Lives Matter protests, which encourage beauty brands to reveal the diversity statistics of their employees. "It's overwhelming as a small influencer. To get hate online is a lot, because you're putting yourself on the line when you're going against these brands," Lester went on to say. "You don't have that much power. And I just felt like it was never a friendship, it was always something like I was the token Black kid."Lester also said he was cutting ties with Dawson for a similar reason, because Lester feels like Dawson promoted him on his platform as a "token Black person" and as a way to earn Lester's silence. "I was grateful, but I felt like it was kind of to silence me and to say 'We're going to keep giving you bread crumbs and manipulate you and hold you by a string so that you stay quiet and you never speak your truth and talk about that situation in the hotel,'" Lester said. "Now I just want to move on with my life and have peace and not constantly think 'OMG, did I do the right thing? Is this the right move?'"The day before Lester made his Instagram Live video, he said a member of Star's team reached out to him and asked if Lester knew any Black creators that will support Jeffree Star Cosmetics. Lester says he told the member of Star's team that "in this climate," Lester doesn't know if any "Black beauty boys" will support Star. "I felt like this continued to be a game," Lester said. "He fake supported me. He talked about how he loved me and it was all superficial love. It was very fake."Lester said he wasn't trying to "bring Jeffree and Shane down," but he felt like he needed to apologize to the Black beauty community for ignoring what Black creators "have been saying all this time" about Star. Lester also said that Star claimed he would change Lester's career and collaborate with him on a YouTube video, and that never happened."I am not saying he is racist, but I do feel that race is involved in it," Lester said. "I benefited him and I benefitted from him, so it was a tic for tac situation, but moving forward I will no longer be the token Black person."<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/tiktok-josh-richards-sway-house-hiatus-apology-2020-6">The face of one of TikTok's buzziest collab houses took an abrupt hiatus amid a meteoric rise. Now, he's ready to explain why.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/influencers-promote-black-lives-matter-donation-instagram-ar-filter-2020-6">An activist addressed a common psychological phenomenon with her viral BLM Instagram donation filter</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/bon-appetit-alex-delany-vine-slur-andy-baraghani-antoni-porowski-2020-6">Bon Appétit Test Kitchen star Andy Baraghani calls out Alex Delany for a resurfaced Vine that includes a homophobic slur</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/ucla-professor-student-blm-protest-gordon-klein-racist-response-leave-2020-6">A UCLA lecturer was placed on leave after students condemned his 'woefully racist' response to a request for accommodations amid BLM protests</a></li></ul>

You Searched For "Hiv positi8ve kids" and got 6 results

This Mumbai superdad has adopted 22 HIV-positive kids and is raising them as his own

Poulomi Das

Yes, there are more infectious diseases popping up these days experts say there are 7 clear reasons why

Hilary Brueck

Coronavirus vaccines compared: What to know about shots from Moderna and Pfizer, from safety to side effects

Hilary Brueck,Andrew Dunn

Even if a successful coronavirus vaccine is developed, billions could struggle to access it because of a global shortage of glass vials

Bill Bostock

A beauty guru says he's cutting ties with Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson after feeling like he was 'being used as a Black boy' and being 'manipulated'

Kat Tenbarge

Police thought an 18-year-old girl 'made up' being raped at knifepoint - the guy who did it is now spending 327 years in prison for 27 other rapes

ProPublica and The Marshall P…

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides