Ghana Scientist Tries Gene Editing To Create Healthier Sweet Potatoes

The Cornell Alliance for Science seeks to build “a significant international alliance of partners” to “correct misinformation and counter conspiracy theories” slowing progress on climate change, synthetic biology, agricultural innovations, and other issues. Slashdot reader wooloohoo shares their article about research on Ghana’s first gene-edited crop — a high-yielding sweet potato with increased beta carotone content. “For sweet potatoes, we want…

WHO Lists AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine for Emergency Use

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world. From a report: A WHO statement said it had approved the vaccine as produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India. “We now have all the pieces in place…

WHO Team Member to New York Times: What We Learned in China

Peter Daszak is part of the World Health Organization’s 14-member team investigating the origins of the coronavirus. This weekend on Twitter he described “explaining key findings of our exhausting month-long work in China” to journalists — only to see team members “selectively misquoted to fit a narrative that was prescribed before the work began.” Daszak was responding to a New York…

Two WHO Team Members Dispute Report China Wasn’t Cooperative for Covid-19 Investigation

Friday the New York Times (following up on reports from the Wall Street Journal) wrote that China had “refused to hand over” important raw data to a 14-member World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus, reporting that “their Chinese counterparts were frustrated by the team’s persistent questioning and demands for data.” But Saturday two of those 14 team…

WHO Investigators Now Believe Coronavirus was ‘Circulating Widely’ in Wuhan in December

“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…

WHO Investigators Now Believe Cornavirus was ‘Circulating Widely’ in Wuhan in December

“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…

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…

Facebook Says It Plans To Remove Posts With False Vaccine Claims.

Facebook said on Monday that it plans to remove posts with erroneous claims about vaccines from across its platform, including taking down assertions that vaccines cause autism or that it is safer for people to contract Covid-19 than to receive the vaccinations. From a report: The social network has increasingly changed its content policies over the past year as the coronavirus…

‘Nature’ Urges More Masks, Air Purifiers, and Ventilation Instead of Disinfecting Surfaces

“Catching the coronavirus from surfaces is rare. The World Health Organization and national public-health agencies need to clarify their advice,” urges an editorial in Nature (shared by long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo): A year into the pandemic, the evidence is now clear. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted predominantly through the air — by people talking and breathing out large droplets and small…

China and the US clash over mission to find source of the coronavirus

The World Health Organization has begun its investigation to try to determine the source of the coronavirus, but there have already been clashes between the US and China over access to people and evidence Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933183-700-china-and-the-us-clash-over-mission-to-find-source-of-the-coronavirus/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…