The current COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent stay-at-home and social distancing directives might have played a major role in romance scams losses reaching record levels in 2020, the US Federal Trade Commission said in a report last week. From a report: Total losses were estimated at a record $304 million, up about 50% from 2019, with the average loss last year…
Tag: distancing
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…
How effective are coronavirus vaccines at stopping transmission?
Several studies suggest that coronavirus vaccines can significantly reduce transmission of the virus, but not halt it completely – so social distancing is still necessary Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2266330-how-effective-are-coronavirus-vaccines-at-stopping-transmission/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Simulating space
While most ESA personnel work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, essential activities continue to take place on site across Agency establishments while following social distancing protocols. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-01-simulating-space.html…
Feedback’s comedy award ceremony: The strange year that was 2020
Awards for Seer of the Year, Correction of the Year, Innovation of the Year and Social Distancing Measure of the Year are all dished out in Feedback’s review of 2020 Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833131-300-feedbacks-comedy-award-ceremony-the-strange-year-that-was-2020/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
GameStop Employees Surprised By New Shipment of PS5, Xbox Series X Consoles
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: GameStop employees across the country were caught by surprise on Saturday when the video-game chain suddenly announced new shipments of the highly coveted PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, sending customers flocking to stores. Workers at the U.S. retailer, speaking to Bloomberg and posting on social media, said they had received little…
Electoral College Certifies Biden’s Victory, As Trump Still Refuses To Concede
The Electoral College gave Joe Biden a majority of its votes Monday, confirming his victory in last month’s election in state-by-state voting that took on added importance this year because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede he lost. The Associated Press reports: California’s 55 electoral votes put Biden over the top, clearing the 270-vote mark that affirmed he will be…
Evidence Builds That an Early Mutation Made the Pandemic Harder to Stop
As the coronavirus swept across the world, it picked up random alterations to its genetic sequence. Like meaningless typos in a script, most of those mutations made no difference in how the virus behaved. But one mutation near the beginning of the pandemic did make a difference, multiple new findings suggest, helping the virus spread more easily from person to person…
In the Last Week America Experienced 1 Million New Coronavirus Cases
The total number of U.S. coronavirus cases since the pandemic started has now surpassed 12 million, CNN reports — “an increase of more than 1 million cases in less than a week.” Researchers at John Hopkins University calculate that over a quarter of a million Americans have now died from the disease. Almost every state has reported a rapid surge in…
Evolution explains why social distancing due to covid-19 is so hard
Hugs, handshakes and air kisses serve the same crucial purposes as animal greetings like sniffing, eye poking and buttock grabbing Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833080-900-evolution-explains-why-social-distancing-due-to-covid-19-is-so-hard/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…