US, PH agree to four new Edca sites

by John eric Mendoza Inquirer.net

MANILA —The United States and the Philippines have agreed to four new additional Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites in the country, a move that was met with protests from progressive groups.

The announcement came in light of the arrival of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III at the Department of National Defense (DND) headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, for his meeting with Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.

“Today, the Philippines and the United States are proud to announce their plans to accelerate the full implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the full agreement to designate four (4) new Agreed Locations in strategic areas of the country and the substantial completion of the projects in the existing five Agreed Locations,” the DND said in a statement.

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AT a meeting to simplify the nation’s covid vaccination policy, the FDA’s panel of experts could agree on only one thing: Information is woefully lacking about how often different groups of Americans need to be vaccinated. That data gap has contributed to widespread skepticism, undervaccination, and ultimately unnecessary deaths from COVID-19.

The committee voted unanimously on Thursday, January 26 to support the FDA’s proposal for all vaccine-makers to adopt the same strain of the virus when making changes in their vaccines, and suggested they might meet in May or June to select a strain for the vaccines that would be rolled out this fall.

However, the panel members disagreed with the FDA’s proposal that everyone get at least one shot a year, saying more