“Investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) looking into the origins of coronavirus in China have discovered signs the outbreak was much wider in Wuhan in December 2019 than previously thought,” reports CNN, “and are urgently seeking access to hundreds of thousands of blood samples from the city that China has not so far let them examine.” The lead investigator for…
Tag: coronavirus
How Our Brutal Science System Almost Cost Us a Pioneer of mRNA Vaccines
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: As the first COVID-19 vaccines arrived at Penn Medicine last year, Penn Today reported with great pride, “It was mRNA research conducted at Penn—by Drew Weissman, a professor of Infectious Diseases, and Katalin Karikó, an adjunct associate professor—that helped pave the way for the development of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines.” While Weissman and Karikó…
To Block Covid-19 Charges, Amazon Sues New York’s Attorney General
The Associated Press reports:
Amazon is suing the attorney general of New York in a bid to stop her from suing the company over its coronavirus safety protocols and the firing of one of its outspoken workers. In the lawsuit filed Friday in Brooklyn federal court, Amazon said Attorney General Letitia James overstepped her authority by trying to regulate coronavirus safety protocols…
Prior infection with common cold viruses won’t protect against COVID-19
For months, scientists have wondered whether past exposure to seasonal coronaviruses that cause common colds might prevent people from getting a severe case COVID-19. Source: https://www.livescience.com/antibodies-common-cold-no-coronavirus-infection.html
Lancet Study Finds 40% of US COVID-19 Deaths Could Have Been Avoided
phalse phace shares a report from Slate: The British medical journal the Lancet, on Wednesday, published a damning assessment of Donald Trump’s presidency and its impact on Americans’ health, concluding that 40 percent of the nearly 500,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. over the past year were avoidable. The journal came to the conclusion by comparing the U.S. health outcomes on…
The Cinemas Now Hiring Out Their Screens To Gamers
Some movie theaters around the world are renting out their screens to gamers to bring in a new revenue stream amid the coronavirus pandemic. The BBC reports: With many cinemas across the country closed due to coronavirus restrictions meaning that they can only open with 50% capacity, and far fewer movies being released to tempt cinemagoers, CGV [South Korea’s largest cinema…
Covid-19 news: Vaccinations of people under 70 begin in England
The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-covid-19-news-vaccinations-of-people-under-70-begin-in-england/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
England’s quarantine hotels won’t stop spread of coronavirus variants
UK health secretary Matt Hancock ignores government science advice for mandatory quarantine of all visitors, making it unlikely that measures will stop the spread of new variants Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267688-englands-quarantine-hotels-wont-stop-spread-of-coronavirus-variants/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
A record deadly week for US avalanches in early February
2021 has brought a deadly avalanche season. “We’re only halfway through the season and we’re 3/4 of the way to the number of fatalities we’d see in a typical year. The dangerous, record-breaking year keeps avalanche forecasters up at night,” one expert said. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/avalanches-2021-united-states-how-to-survive…
Did the coronavirus really come from frozen food, as the WHO suggests?
Is it credible that coronavirus can stay infectious and jump to humans via frozen food, as findings from a Chinese and World Health Organization investigation suggest? Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267598-did-the-coronavirus-really-come-from-frozen-food-as-the-who-suggests/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…