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At least 48 dead after strong quakes destroy buildings along Japan’s west coast

Water, power and telecommunication services are still down in some affected areas, authorities said.

A series of powerful earthquakes hit western Japan, leaving at least 48 people dead and damaging thousands of buildings, vehicles and boats, with officials warning people in some areas on Tuesday to stay away from their homes because of a risk of more strong quakes.

Aftershocks continued to shake Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas a day after a magnitude 7.6 temblor slammed the area on Monday afternoon.

Forty-eight people were confirmed dead in Ishikawa, officials said. Sixteen others were seriously injured, while damage to homes was so great that it could not immediately be assessed, they said.

Japanese media reports said tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. Government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi said 17 people were seriously injured and gave a slightly lower death tally, while saying he was aware of the prefecture’s tally.

Water, power and cellphone service were still down in some areas, and residents expressed sorrow about their destroyed homes and uncertain futures.

“It’s not just that it’s a mess. The wall has collapsed, and you can see through to the next room. I don’t think we can live here anymore,” Miki Kobayashi, an Ishikawa resident, said as she swept around her house.

Their house was also damaged in a 2007 quake, she said.

Japan’s military dispatched 1,000 soldiers to the disaster zones to join rescue efforts, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday.

“Saving lives is our priority and we are fighting a battle against time,” he said. “It is critical that people trapped in homes get rescued immediately.”

A quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 shook the Ishikawa area as he was speaking.

Firefighters were able to bring a fire under control in Wajima city which had reddened the sky with embers and smoke.

Nuclear regulators said several nuclear plants in the region were operating normally. A major quake and tsunami in March 2011 caused three reactors to melt and release large amounts of radiation at a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan.

News videos showed rows of collapsed houses. Some wooden structures were flattened and cars were overturned. Half-sunken ships floated in bays where tsunami waves had rolled in, leaving a muddied coastline.

On Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a major tsunami warning for Ishikawa and lower-level tsunami warnings or advisories for the rest of the western coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu, as well as for the northern island of Hokkaido.

The warning was downgraded several hours later, and all tsunami warnings were lifted as of early Tuesday. Waves measuring more than one meter (3 feet) hit some places.

The agency warned that more major quakes could hit the area over the next few days.

People who were evacuated from their houses huddled in auditoriums, schools and community centers. Bullet trains in the region were halted, but service was mostly restored by Tuesday afternoon. Sections of highways were closed.

Weather forecasters predicted rain, setting off worries about already crumbling buildings and infrastructure.

The region includes tourist spots famous for lacquerware and other traditional crafts, along with designated cultural heritage sites.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that his administration was “ready to provide any necessary assistance for the Japanese people.”

Japan is frequently hit by earthquakes because of its location along the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

Over the last day, the nation has experienced about a hundred aftershocks.
 

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Health authorities around the globe issue warnings about fake Ozempic

Last week, the FDA seized thousands of counterfeit units of the popular drug. Experts say what's happening in the US may be a symptom of a larger, global problem.

Health regulators around the world are sounding the alarm about counterfeit versions of Ozempic. Fake versions of the hugely popular diabetes drug, which is often prescribed off-label for weight loss, have been reported in over a dozen countries, including the US, and have also caught the attention of the World Health Organization.

“The thing about this product is that it's very popular; people are going to use it," said Timothy Mackey, a professor of global health at the University of California, San Diego, who studies counterfeit drugs. "Global regulators are trying to shut down the counterfeit drugs wherever they may go. Americans or anyone around the world are susceptible to counterfeits.”

Last month, the WHO's Member State Mechanism on Substandard and Falsified Medical Products discussed counterfeit semaglutide products, WHO spokesperson Daniel Epstein said. Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Ozempic.

The group encouraged member countries to "take appropriate action in the face of the recognized threat," Epstein said.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration said last week that it seized thousands of counterfeit units of the drug.

The FDA said it was working with drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which holds the patent on Ozempic, to test the counterfeit drugs to find out what's in them. They've already determined that the needles that came with the seized injectable medication are counterfeit and might not be sterile, the agency said. The labeling, packaging and prescription information given to patients and doctors were also falsified.

To date, no one has been seriously hurt by the counterfeit medications, the FDA said. The agency is aware of five adverse events related to the fake products, although all of them were consistent with known side effects seen with real Ozempic, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. 

In October, the European Medicines Agency said fake versions of Ozempic had been found at wholesalers in the European Union and the United Kingdom. The counterfeit pens, labeled in German, were detected when the serial numbers on the packages were scanned and came up as inactive, the agency said. 

Several people in Austria were hospitalized after they used the counterfeit products, Austrian regulatory authorities said in a separate statement. Serious side effects included hypoglycemia and seizures, an indication, authorities said, that the counterfeit products contained insulin instead of semaglutide. German authorities confirmed in November that a batch of counterfeit Ozempic contained insulin. 

It's unclear whether the counterfeit Ozempic found in the US supply chain is linked to the fake drugs discovered in other countries, Mackey said.

The FDA declined to comment beyond its statement last week, saying the investigation continues. Jamie Bennett, the spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, also declined to comment. 

Last week, the company said the counterfeit drugs were seized in warehouses outside its authorized supply chain.

The Partnership for Safe Medicines, a nonprofit coalition of supply chain producers and distributors, has been tracking cases of counterfeit Ozempic and other weight loss drugs around the world. 

At least 16 countries have encountered fake Ozempic, said the group's executive director, Shabbir Imber Safdar.

"The fake products aren't exactly identical, but close enough that they don't look obviously fake," he said.

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