Coronavirus News (74)

Inside the extraordinary race to invent a coronavirus vaccine Companies are launching trials at an unprecedented pace, but some worry about the trade-offs between speed and safety. ....... He volunteered to be a test subject knowing about the risks and unknowns, but eager to do his part to help end the worst pandemic in a century. ........ A coronavirus vaccine has become the light at the end of a very long tunnel, the tool that will bring the virus to heel, allowing people to attend sports events, hug friends, celebrate weddings and grieve at funerals. ........ With at least 115 vaccine projects in laboratories at companies and research labs, the science is hurtling forward so fast and bending so many rules about how the process usually works that even veteran vaccine developers do not know what to expect. ......... “The 26 years it took us to make the rotavirus vaccine is pretty typical. If it’s 12 to 18 months, you’re skipping steps” ........ Designing a promising vaccine is, in some ways, the easy part. Showing that it is safe and effective, and then scaling up production can takes years, or even decades. ............ “We’re not going to be able to say in 18 months that we have enough for all the world’s people to be immunized with two doses.” ................ “My motto is a woodworking one: Measure twice, cut once. The only change to that motto is: Measure quickly twice, cut quickly once” ........... the risk that the vaccines could actually make the disease worse in some people, as happened in some animal studies of vaccines for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), through a mechanism called antibody dependent enhancement. ......... Scientific debate is still raging about a dengue vaccine used in the Philippines in recent years that increased the risk of hospitalization for dengue in children who had not previously been infected. ............ the trust in vaccines generally, considered one of the most successful public health interventions in human history

The last time the government sought a ‘warp speed’ vaccine, it was a fiasco It was 1976, and President Gerald Ford was racing to come up with a vaccine for a new strain of swine flu ........... The federal government has launched “Operation Warp Speed” to deliver a covid-19 vaccine by January, months ahead of standard vaccine timelines. ...The last time the government tried that, it was a total fiasco........... The government had never attempted such an endeavor — both in its breadth and speed. .......Almost immediately, there was chaos............ One manufacturer produced 2 million doses with the wrong strain. As tests progressed, more scientific problems emerged — even as there were few, if any, signs that a pandemic was materializing. In June, tests showed the vaccine was not effective in children, prompting a public squabble between Salk and Sabin over who should be vaccinated. .......... There were reports of sporadic deaths possibly connected to the vaccine. Cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome also emerged, and are still cited today by the anti-vaccine movement. Panic emerged, with dozens of states pausing vaccinations. .......... By December, following 94 reports of paralysis, the entire program was shut down. .......... Almost immediately, in grand Washington fashion, fingers were pointed. Scientists and government officials turned on each other, with allegations that Ford acted recklessly for political gain without knowing for sure whether a pandemic would emerge — an impossible predictive game, his defenders argued.......

The recriminations were fueled by the fact that the swine flu pandemic hadn’t materialized.

.......... Ford had the initial backing of the world’s foremost vaccine experts — Salk and Sabin.

Smallest caseload to biggest death toll: Coronavirus decimates D.C.’s poorest ward “We’ve been suffering from people dying in Ward 8 for the last 30, 40 years,” he fumed, listing the reasons: diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, suicide, homicide. “It’s always people of color dying in the city. It’s not nothing new.” .............. For decades, the neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River — a stretch encompassing the poorest and most heavily African American population in the nation’s capital — have contended with an array of seemingly intractable challenges that include unemployment, violent crime, and drug addiction. ........The coronavirus has added a new layer of lethal pain. ......... As a council member, White (D) is known more for street activism and showing up at crime scenes than for policy proposals. He is often compared to the late D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who also represented the ward, though White delivers his populist touch on social media as well as in person. ........

“ ‘You don’t deliver food by phone’ — I want you to get that quote,” he said, repeating the line for emphasis

one afternoon as he dropped off dinners at a public housing complex. ........ When he urges people to disperse, he said, “They go off and they come right back.” ........ On April 19, he posted on Instagram that Veronica Norman, 76, his grandmother, had died. Her family had urged her to retire from the nursing job she held for 40 years at St. Elizabeths Hospital. ...... She kept working until her last days........ The coroner, White wrote, declined to transport her body to a funeral home “because it [was] a COVID-19 case.” ...... “This broke us down even more.” ....... The pandemic has exacerbated the ward’s socioeconomic challenges, including an 11 percent unemployment rate as of February, the highest in the city. As the health crisis deepened, people lost restaurant and service jobs. Others were forced to work at home, often in cramped apartments, alongside children navigating school online. ........

“I have families calling because they’re literally losing their minds,” she said. “People looking for food, for testing. They’re breaking emotionally.”

....... “Most of our focus is usually on stopping violence and helping people get jobs,” said Derek Floyd, a community activist and hip-hop artist who was distributing food one recent afternoon. “Now it’s about keeping the desperation at bay as much as we can. It’s about the basics — food, masks and gloves.” ....... As he traverses the ward, dreadlocks falling down his back, White describes himself as a one-man “social services office.” He is known for his relentless activism and nexus of relationships ....... Two years later, White was widely rebuked and accused of anti-Semitism after posting a Facebook video in which he espoused a conspiracy theory that the Rothschilds, a Jewish banking family, controlled the weather. ......... “Happy corona day,” Pepi Miller, 52, a laid-off welder, said as White passed out groceries the other day from the back of a van in Anacostia.

“I have no money, but look at the bright side: I’m not dead.”

....... A couple of hours later, White appeared on a friend’s Instagram live broadcast. The topic of discussion was anxiety and depression. ....... “There are a lot of people who may lose their jobs, their career, their house, their apartment and some people might lose their minds,” White said.

Coronavirus News (74) https://t.co/Out1z5Qgrq #coronavirus #coronavirusuk #CoronavirusPandemic #COVID__19 #COVID2019 #Covid19UK #COVIDIOT #LOCKDOWN2020 #Pandemie #TrumpLiesPeopleDie #TrumpIsNotADoctor #TrumpVirus

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 3, 2020

Coronavirus News (73)

FDA OKs Remdesivir Emergency Use for Severe COVID-19 — From the first case diagnosed to a therapeutic in just weeks ........ the drug met its primary endpoint, a 31% significantly faster time to recovery over controls. ..... Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the EUA is "another example of the Trump Administration moving as quickly as possible to use science to save lives" ....... the U.S. government will help to distribute remdesivir to hospitals in cities most heavily affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, adding "hospitals with intensive care units and other hospitals that the government deems most in need" will be prioritized, in part due to limited availability of drug supply.

COVID-19 Killing African Americans at Shocking Rates — Wildly disproportionate mortality

highlights need to address longstanding inequities

....... In Louisiana, African Americans accounted for 70% of COVID-19 deaths, while comprising 33% of the population. In Michigan, they accounted for 14% of the population and 40% of deaths, and in Chicago, 56% of deaths and 30% of the population. In New York, black people are twice as likely as white people to die from the coronavirus. .......... decades of spatial segregation, inequitable access to testing and treatment, and withholding racial/ethnicity data from reports on virus outcomes. ......

"There is nothing different biologically about race. It is the conditions of our lives"

....... Predominantly black U.S. counties are experiencing a three-fold higher infection rate and a six-fold higher death rate than predominantly white counties. ........ Many of these communities are located in poor areas with high housing density, limited access to education, and high unemployment rates. Low socioeconomic status is independently a risk factor for poorer health outcomes and is forcing some individuals residing in these communities out of their homes and into the workforce. ......... African Americans are overrepresented in frontline jobs like the postal service or home health aid industry, leading to higher rates of exposure, Jones said........ In New York City, the national epicenter, 75% of frontline workers are people of color. ........ "People are starting to recognize these people as being part of the essential workforce and those people are disproportionately black and brown," Jones told MedPage Today. "We have not honored the essential nature of that work, just as we have not equipped respiratory technicians, nurses, and doctors in the hospital with the [personal protective equipment] they need." ........... African Americans shoulder a higher burden of chronic disease, with 40% higher rates of hypertension and 60% higher rate of diabetes than white Americans ....... a long legacy of spatial and occupational segregation ........ Bias was shown to permeate the medical treatment of black patients long before the pandemic ........ when the state initially launched drive-through testing, it became clear -- when one 90-year-old woman walked a mile in the heat to get tested -- this would not be accessible to many low-income individuals who didn't have cars ...... As Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) forges ahead with plans to reopen tattoo parlors, hair salons, and bowling alleys, for example, the state's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter criticized that decision, saying it would disproportionately affect people of color. Newly released CDC data showed more than 80% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the state were black. ........

"To us, it is another signal that maybe our lives are not valued."

the slumber of racism denial.

Are Stockholm's Hospitals About to Break? — "The situation is not improving and there are concerns of not enough PPE and health professionals" ....... The Swedish healthcare system has thus far withstood an onslaught of COVID-19 cases under the country's less restrictive approach to fighting the pandemic, but it can't hold out much longer unless cases subside, public health experts there warned. ........

Over the past month, the cumulative number of cases has climbed sharply with no sign of flattening

...... reaching about 22,000 in a nation of roughly 10 million. That's less on a per-capita basis than in the United States, but not by much. ...... this pertains mainly to Stockholm, which has been the hardest-hit part of the country. ........ there are concerns of not enough personal protective equipment [PPE] and health professionals." ........ Last week, a group of 22 clinicians, virologists, and researchers penned an op-ed in a Swedish business newspaper calling for the closure of schools and restaurants, and requiring PPE for those who work with the elderly. More than a month ago, 2,300 academics urged the government to tighten restrictions in order to protect the healthcare system. .......... "No one has tried this route, so why should we test it first in Sweden, without informed consent?" Cecilia Soderberg-Naucler, PhD, an immunologist at the Karolinska Institute ......... only high schools and universities have closed; businesses have remained open. Swedes have been asked to keep their distance in public, refrain from non-essential travel, and work from home when possible. Gatherings of more than 50 people are also banned, as are home care visits. ............ "Apart from a few popular streets in central Stockholm, the pedestrian traffic elsewhere is down anywhere from 50% to 90%" ........ "Home delivery of groceries has exploded in popularity, making it difficult to make an order." ......... Sweden's death rate has been far higher than its Scandinavian neighbors: about 250 per million as of Thursday, compared with roughly 75 per million in Denmark and 42 per million in Norway, both of which instituted lockdowns in mid-March. ......... attributed the higher death rate to extensive infections in the country's elderly care homes. He has said nearly half of the country's deaths have occurred in those facilities .......... has denied claims that their approach was to create herd immunity. ........... Time will simply tell and no one knows today what the correct strategy is, hence, the Swedish strategy is no more experimental than any other country. We are all groping in the dark." .......... "I like the idea of 'freedom with responsibility' as the Swedes have adopted; it'll probably also be easier on the economy," Knop told MedPage Today. "However, as a medical doctor it's tough to see the immediate greater impact on health."

This 7-Minute Morning Routine Will Change Your (Work) Life This routine takes seven minutes each morning before you start work. Will you follow it? ...... It's like the approach you make to the tee on a golf course. You plan out how you will hit the shot, which is more important than the actual swing. ........ You'll also need a journal. ......... You have to clear your head. ........ breathing deeply creates a calming effect in your brain and helps you focus. Intentional breathing is important at all times of the day. ....... Draw a picture or doodle an idea. It's a way to figure out what is important, and what is stressing you out. It is a record of your preparation and a way to help you look back and see, for these seven minutes, what was really important. Make sure you don't get too focused on the writing and not enough on the thinking. ......... make a brief plan--in only 30 seconds--to act on one of the items on your list. Just one. If you jotted down a note to deal with a conflict or to finish a report, decide to focus on that task and make sure you are intentional about addressing it.

Coronavirus News (73) https://t.co/Rj7CezCY4i #coronavirus #coronavirusuk #CoronavirusOutbreak #COVID__19 #COVID2019 #COVIDー19 #COVIDIOT #COVID #lockdown #pandemic #TrumpLiesPeopleDie #TrumpOwnsEveryDeath #BlackLivesMatter #BlackTwitter

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 2, 2020

Putin’s hold on Trump: “There have long been suspicions that a considerable amount of funds supporting the Trump Organization have come from Russian oligarchs, either via secretive holding companies based in offshore tax havens, or through Deutsche Bank.“https://t.co/sn5zshnQcQ

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) May 2, 2020

Coronavirus News (72)

Get Ready for a Postcoronavirus World. The Economy Will Never Be the Same.
Coronavirus: crackdowns, racism and forced quarantine heighten tension for Africans in Guangzhou Community representatives say Chinese authorities risk harming trade and relationships with African nations .... Some tough measures may be a cover for finding overstayers, the professor says
Health care workers deserve our steadfast support, not just during a coronavirus pandemic It is an irony that Hong Kong is now stopping to clap for the health care workers who were harassed during last year’s protests ........ Attitudes around the world towards medics are not always appreciative: expect attitudes to change when these workers start demanding compensation for Covid-19 oversight
Singapore’s addiction to growth is built on the backs of migrant workers Some 90 per cent of the island nation’s Covid-19 cases are linked to migrant worker dormitories – exposing ingrained social and systemic prejudices ..... The question is whether conditions, practices and attitudes towards these workers will change after the crisis has abated ............. The coronavirus outbreak that Singapore suppressed so well during its early onset surged in mid-April, metastasising in scores of overcrowded dormitories housing the bulk of the island’s 320,000 construction workers, most of whom are from India and Bangladesh. ........... As of yesterday, nearly a month after the state enforced a nationwide lockdown, Covid-19 cases linked to migrant worker dormitories account for nearly 90 per cent of Singapore’s cases, which at more than 17,500 is the highest in Southeast Asia. ........

Some 180,000 migrant workers have been placed in isolation.

......... Government regulations such as the minimum space criteria for housing migrant workers – a woeful 4.5 square metres per worker – are partly to blame for the calamity. But so are the employers who exploit those regulations, as well as the public who have tacitly accepted for years that living conditions unfit for ourselves are more than adequate for men like Periyakarrupan. ..........

These deeply ingrained social and systemic prejudices, which existed well before the current crisis, remain at play when the government distinguishes between “high migrant worker cases” and “low community transmission” – a distinction that merely reflects the wider public’s separation of such workers from mainstream society.

................ the literally tone-deaf community singalong of a national song, Home, to thank those who have virtually no option of ever making Singapore their true home. .........

Singapore’s economy, whose high-growth model is greatly dependent on cheap imported labour.

Coronavirus: Singapore urged to consider migrant workers’ mental health amid ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown More than 323,000 workers in the city state are currently confined to cramped dormitories and other places of residence with up to 20 people per room ...... An online survey conducted this month found the majority of migrant worker respondents were expressing feelings of sadness and depression .........

More than 323,000 migrant workers in the city state are currently confined to 43 mega-dormitories and 1,200 other similar places of residence where they are largely restricted to cramped rooms which house up to 20 people...... Nearly 80 per cent of the country’s 11,178 infections come from within the migrant worker community, following a series of outbreaks inside their dormitories that began in late March.

......... the stress the workers may be facing – amid worries about being the next to be infected and anxiety about a loss of wages – could have a long-term impact on their mental health. .........

“These mental health challenges arise amidst the fear of Covid-19 challenges, the absence of places for the workers to go to raise their concerns, and the fear of facing consequences if they raise their concerns”

.............. deeply concerning, with conditions for social distancing still not in place in the dormitories. ........ Chinese nationals – who make up one of the largest groups of Singapore’s low-wage migrant workers alongside Bangladeshis and Tamils from India – were not surveyed.

Coronavirus: why Singapore fears a ‘hidden reservoir’ of Covid-19 cases Coronavirus cases in the city state have ballooned past 10,000 from just 1,000 at the beginning of this month ...... While four in five have been traced to migrant worker dormitories, there are also concerns about cases where the infection’s origin remains unknown ....... The number of coronavirus infections in Singapore rose to 10,141 on Wednesday, a remarkable increase given the city state had only 1,000 cases on the first day of the month. ..... Almost 80 per cent of these infections are linked to migrant workers living in 43 mega-dormitories across the country. .......... about 68 per cent of community cases are considered “unlinked”, fuelling suspicions there is a “larger hidden reservoir” of cases within the rest of society. ......... The circuit breaker measures that have banned social gatherings and reduced public transport usage and traffic volume by 70 per cent have helped to reduce community transmission.

How did migrant worker dormitories become Singapore’s biggest coronavirus cluster? Cases in the island nation have more than quadrupled in the past two weeks, propelled by a surge in infections among migrant workers ....... The government has upped its efforts amid criticism, with former diplomat Bilahari Kausikan saying ‘we did drop the ball on foreign workers’ .......... There are 323,000 low-wage migrant workers in the country, who

take on jobs shunned by Singaporeans in industries such as construction, estate maintenance and manufacturing.

Their accommodation includes 43 mega-dormitories with more than 1,000 workers each, some 1,200 factory-converted dormitories which typically house 50 to 100 workers each, and temporary living quarters with around 40 workers on various construction sites. ........ Manpower minister Josephine Teo attributed this rapid spread to workers socialising across dormitories on their days off, then again with different groups of friends within their dormitories. “They might, you know, cook together, eat together. Relax together” ........ “We did drop the ball on foreign workers,” wrote former Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, an active commentator on social media. ......... the poor living conditions faced by these men. They sleep on bunk beds, 12 to 20 people packed into a room ventilated by small fans attached to the ceiling or walls. Hundreds of men on each floor share communal toilets and showering facilities. ........ workers are transported squeezed into the back of a truck, and not showing up for work leads to a fine – so many of them work despite being ill. ........

worker dormitories, where conditions are nearly ideal for transmission of infection

........ The 43 mega-dormitories that house 200,000 workers are operated by the likes of offshore and marine company Keppel and real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, as well as listed companies such as Centurion, which also operates student hostels and workers’ accommodation in Malaysia and Australia. ..........

They charge construction companies who hire the workers S$300 to S$400 (US$210-US$280) per worker for lodging each month, while workers pay around S$130 a month for three catered meals a day.

Coronavirus: Indian superstar Rajinikanth offers supportive words to Singapore’s quarantined workers ‘This too shall pass,’ the 69-year-old star said in a Tamil New Year message to the workers who are under lockdown in the city state ...... More than 40 per cent of Singapore’s total of 3,252 infections are work permit holders, many of whom live in the country’s 43 mega-dorms

Coronavirus: after Little India riot, Singapore promised migrant workers decent housing. What happened? Some 13,000 migrant workers in dorms – mostly from India, Bangladesh and China – have tested positive for Covid-19 since the start of April ....... Their living conditions have now become a matter of national debate amid criticism they were in the government’s blind spot ......... Before leaving his hometown of Dhaka 17 years ago in search of better wages in Singapore’s construction industry, Zakir Hossain Khokan was a freelance journalist in Bangladesh. ...... It cost S$10,000 (US$7,094) to pay the recruiters, but his family was able to raise the funds by selling land and taking out loans and the 41-year-old is now a quality assurance officer, living in one of the city state’s many crowded mega-dormitories......... Since the start of April, some 13,000 migrant workers living in dorms –

mostly labourers from India, Bangladesh and China

– have tested positive for the Covid-19 illness caused by the virus, constituting some 85 per cent of Singapore’s total infections. ........

Singapore had its first infection as early as January 23 and the first migrant worker caught the disease on February 8.

........ About one-third of the island nation’s 1 million-strong low-wage foreign workforce are packed into its 43 mega-dormitories and 1,200 factory-converted dormitories, as well as an undocumented number of temporary living quarters on construction sites. ........

low-wage workers appeared to be in Singapore’s blind spot in its handling of the pandemic, which had won plaudits early on.

.......... Koh said the way Singapore treated its foreign workers was “not First World but Third World”. ........ a riot in Little India in 2013. A road accident in December that year killed an Indian construction worker, angering other foreign workers who formed a 300-strong mob that set fire to police and emergency vehicles. Some 50 police officers were injured and the government had to mobilise its elite Gurkha contingent. ........ a committee of inquiry to investigate the riot. Residents testified that migrant workers, who visited Little India to buy groceries and remit money, would often congregate under apartment buildings to drink and eat. Some residents said they were unhappy that the workers littered, vomited and urinated there. ........ Another reason for the rapid spread was that most migrant workers continued to do their jobs even after some businesses in Singapore had begun to implement work-from-home arrangements and other mitigation efforts ......... In response to the surging rates of infection among migrant workers, Singapore gazetted 25 of its 43 dormitories as isolation zones, with workers staying in their rooms and meals sent to them. All construction has been halted and workers outside dorms have been put on stay-home notice. The government is also testing close to 3,000 workers a day and quickly isolating sick ones. In dorms with widespread infections, workers showing symptoms are isolated and monitored, and only tested later. ........ defended the dormitories, saying that they were “designed in normal times and deemed to be entirely appropriate”. “Two months ago, no one had heard of safe distancing, and no one envisaged anything like Covid-19” ........ “Their fear of speaking out and having visas revoked and lack of direct communication channels to the state are both structural problems that need to be addressed,” she said, suggesting that “a dorm management committee of sorts for each dormitory or a union of migrants to better represent migrant interests directly to the relevant ministries could be formed”. ............

While some workers might flee Singapore in the wake of the pandemic, advocates said more would come because of the enduring poverty in their homelands.

....... “Are migrant workers simply recipients of pity and charity? Or is it time for a rights-based approach that fully respects our shared humanity and concretely, legally and practically, empowers the workers? To change government policy, we need to change the mentality of society” ........ April 2020: Infections spiked throughout the month as the disease tore through dormitories, with more than 1,000 new cases on some days. By April 30, Singapore had more than 16,000 cases – nine in 10 of which were migrant workers. All construction was halted and workers who were not locked down were placed on stay-home notices

Taiwan rewards health minister Chen Shih-chung’s coronavirus success story

The Taiwanese pandemic response has been one of the best in the world and the public is giving credit to one man

...... Professionals and public praise calm, informative style and occasional displays of humour ........

Taiwan’s health minister Chen Shih-chung

............ “If you go clockwise, you will win, if you go anticlockwise, you will lose.” ....... With more than 3 million Covid-19 infections worldwide, Taiwan – which has reported just 429 cases and six deaths since January 21 – is one of the few places in the world to have kept the pandemic at bay. As of Friday, there had been no new cases in Taiwan for six consecutive days and no local transmission for 19 days in a row. ......... Chen’s swift response, timely orders and frank communications ..... the minister, who often tells reporters at the daily briefing: “Have a heart! We all should keep empathy in dealing with certain matters.” .........

praised Chen for being a good communicator with high emotional intelligence.

......... has worked hard to keep Taiwan’s pandemic response in the hands of health professionals. He has often stressed that

“political rhetoric would only spoil professionalism and confrontation serves only to split society”

. .......... In a March 26 opinion poll by Taiwan’s cable news network TVBS, Chen – who has become the most searched person on Google in the past few months in Taiwan – was given an approval rating of 91 per cent, highest by far of all Taiwan’s politicians, including Tsai. ......... “He is a workaholic, often giving his time to work and meetings,” she said, adding that when she asked her four-year-old son what gifts should be given for his dad’s birthday, he said: “Work meetings.”

Bank of China’s US$1 billion hole from plunging oil shows how investors and banks alike are ill-prepared for risks of chasing after high returns Bank of China’s Crude Oil Treasure product would ultimately burn holes in the pockets of the lender’s retail customers, estimated to total 7 billion yuan ..... At least 60,000 people have invested in the product, according to Chinese media ........

anyone holding the contracts after their expiry on April 22 could be forced to take delivery of the crude oil in Cushing, Oklahoma.

......... “This is utterly disheartening and beyond any normal person's comprehension,” Wang said .......... That would make China’s oldest bank the biggest known victim of April’s melee in the global oil market, surpassing the collapse of Singapore’s Hin Leong oil-trading empire.......... Two decades since becoming a World Trade Organisation member, Chinese households – with

US$10 trillion in total savings

– are still limited by a dearth of investible options, forcing many adventurous investors to pursue high-yielding speculations often without proper appreciation of the associated risks. Over the years, these have veered from real estate to fine art and Bordeaux wine, to speculations in such exotic products as Pu’er tea and even the hoarding of garlic. .......... “All hope is gone,” Wang said. “I hadn't been able to sleep and I have no appetite to eat since this happened.”

Coronavirus more likely to kill men and the obese, study says British researchers link being male or obese to lower Covid-19 survival rates in largest study conducted outside China .......

Obese people could be at greater risk because they have reduced lung function and their immune systems may overreact

......... China,” where 6.6 per cent of adults were obese in 2016, compared with 29 per cent in England in 2017. ........ obese people are dying more than other groups because they have reduced lung function and possibly more inflammation in adipose tissue, the fatty tissue found under the skin and around internal organs. ....... This might then contribute to an enhanced “cytokine storm”, a potentially life-threatening overreaction by the body’s immune system.

Trump weighs banning US$50 billion of US federal savings from holding MSCI emerging market stocks, including Chinese equities The US Thrift Savings Plan is scheduled to transfer US$50 billion of its international fund to mirror an MSCI All Country Wolrd Index, which captures equities in emerging markets including China ...... Opponents of the transfer, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, in recent weeks have engaged in a last-minute effort to stop it

It’s unfair to blame China for coronavirus pandemic, Lancet editor tells state media Richard Horton tells state broadcaster CCTV the rest of the world should try to work with China rather than pointing the finger ...... British medical journal’s editor-in-chief says ‘China is not responsible’ for the Covid-19 outbreak first identified in Wuhan .......... the international community should instead work with the Chinese authorities in dealing with the outbreak. ..........

“China didn’t want this epidemic”

....... “China isn’t responsible for this pandemic. It’s happened.” ....... The editor of the British-based medical journal offered a strong defence of China during the CCTV interview, saying that while it is important to understand the origin of the virus, it was “not helpful” and “not scientific” to seek for a patient zero and such efforts could be “highly stigmatising and discriminatory”. ........... “It’s very important to understand the origin of this virus and to study those origins scientifically and not to allow such conspiracy theories to contaminate our thinking,” he said, adding that

these would only “risk destabilising our response to this virus”

. ....... “What is very disappointing is seeing the politicians who are giving credibility to conspiracy theories … and damaging the potential and prospect of global collaboration by being so openly critical of other countries such as China and organisations such as the World Health Organisation. I don’t think that’s a helpful response,” Horton said, adding that

countries should work “intensively together” to address the challenge of the pandemic

. ....... Horton has been vocal in criticising Western governments’ slow response to the pandemic, and in the interview said that many leaders had ignored repeated warnings in a series of papers published in The Lancet about the danger and risk posed by the virus........ “Most Western countries and the United States of America wasted the whole of February and early March before they acted” ........ Last month Horton also criticised Donald Trump’s decision to halt funding to the World Health Organisation, calling it “a crime against humanity” on Twitter.

Pros And Cons Of Reopening America Before Coronavirus Pandemic Ends https://t.co/l1uQgs5L5R pic.twitter.com/7qcfSUkElw

— The Onion (@TheOnion) May 2, 2020

Dear Professor Stephen Powis—The appalling number of UK deaths from COVID-19 are not “unfortunate”, as you just said. They were not unlucky, inappropriate, or even regrettable. These 27 510 deaths are evidence of full-blown government misconduct.

— richard horton (@richardhorton1) May 1, 2020

Pros And Cons Of Reopening America Before Coronavirus Pandemic Ends Definitely better option from virus’s perspective. ..... Already burned business down for insurance money.

Coronavirus News (72) https://t.co/1QRQX5kgBj #coronavirusuk #CoronaVirusNYC #CoronavirusOutbreak #COVID__19 #COVID2019 #COVIDー19 #COVID #lockdownhustle #Pandemie #Trump #TrumpLiesPeopleDie #TrumpOwnsEveryDeath

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 2, 2020

Coronavirus News (71)

Dr. Runa Jha, Chief Pathologist and Director at government laboratory, featured by UN Women as one of five women on the...

Posted by Kanak Mani Dixit on Friday, May 1, 2020

Posted by Ashutosh Tiwari on Saturday, May 2, 2020

अमेरिकी कंपनियों ने यूएस डिपार्टमेंट ऑफ स्टेट्स के साथ हुई सीक्रेट बैठक में चीन से अपना व्यापार समेटकर भारत ले जाने का...

Posted by Pranesh Jha on Friday, May 1, 2020

I am pretty sure that the Founding Fathers would change the Constitution after this clusterf$&@

Posted by Alex Romanovich on Thursday, April 30, 2020

बिहार में 28 लाख मजदूरों ने घर वापसी के लिए आवेदन दिया है. ये महाराष्ट्र और दक्षिण भारत के राज्यों से फंसे हैं,...

Posted by Pranesh Jha on Friday, May 1, 2020

Nobel Laureate Tasuku Honjo refutes claims of novel coronavirus being man-made False quote goes viral on social media Nobel Laureate and Distinguished Professor Tasuku Honjo of the Kyoto University Institute of Advanced Study on Monday released an official statement through the university refuting claims to have alleged that the coronavirus was man made. ........ A false quote citing Honjo has been making rounds on social media platforms such as WhatsApp. The forward states that Honjo had previously worked with a laboratory in China and that he had said that the virus was not natural. ....... “In the wake of the pain, economic loss, and unprecedented global suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, I am greatly saddened that my name and that of Kyoto University have been used to spread false accusations and misinformation,” Hojo said in the official statement. ......... The text message that has gone viral on WhatsApp claiming that Japan’s Nobel Prize-winning immunologist Tasuku Honjo had said that coronavirus is “manufactured by China” and ends with a link to Honjo’s Wikipedia page. .......

the broadcasting of unsubstantiated claims regarding the origins of the disease is dangerously distracting

....... Earlier this month, WhatsApp limited the number of forwards that a user can send in order to stop users from spreading misinformation The platform has also launched a Covid-19 information hub in association with the World Health Organization.

Trudeau announces ban on 1,500 types of 'assault-style' firearms — effective immediately

Posted by Madheshi Association in America - MAA on Saturday, April 25, 2020

Posted by Madheshi Association in America - MAA on Saturday, May 2, 2020

We left a playbook. He ignored it.

We created an office to prepare for pandemics. He gutted it.

We had CDC officials in China to detect and contain outbreaks. He pulled them out.

Trump can try and shift blame all he wants, but the fact is his actions left us unprepared. https://t.co/NdsINZ307m

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 2, 2020

Coronavirus News (71) https://t.co/FjWKQ9pe1l #coronavirus #COVID19 #COVID__19 #COVID2019 #lockdownhustle #pandemic

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 2, 2020

Merkel Makes Sense

Germany's Merkel wants green recovery from coronavirus crisis Governments should focus on climate protection when considering fiscal stimulus packages to support an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ......... Merkel wants to combine the task of helping companies recover from the pandemic with the challenge of setting more incentives for reducing carbon emissions. ....... Speaking at a virtual climate summit known as the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, Merkel said she expected difficult discussions about how to design post-crisis stimulus measures and about which business sectors need more help than others. ......... “It will be all the more important that if we set up economic stimulus programmes, we must always keep a close eye on climate protection,” Merkel said ........ supporting modern technologies and renewable energies. ......... U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the conference there could be an opportunity for the world in the “dark times” of the coronavirus crisis. ........ “The restart can lead to a healthier and more resilient world for everyone,” he said. ...... Merkel said governments should pull in private-sector money through international financial markets to finance the costly shift towards a more climate-friendly economy........ Merkel also welcomed the more ambitious goal set by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive, of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. .......... The EU agreed last week to build a trillion-euro recovery fund to revive economies ravaged by the pandemic and has already signed off on state aid worth 1.8 trillion euros ($1.95 trillion).

Coronavirus News (70)

What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus. .......... One of the questions I get asked the most these days is when the world will be able to go back to the way things were in December before the coronavirus pandemic. My answer is always the same: when we have an almost perfect drug to treat COVID-19, or when almost every person on the planet has been vaccinated against coronavirus. ........

Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus. Realistically, if we’re going to return to normal, we need to develop a safe, effective vaccine. We need to make billions of doses, we need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this to happen as quickly as possible.

.......... Our foundation is the biggest funder of vaccines in the world, and this effort dwarfs anything we’ve ever worked on before.

It’s going to require a global cooperative effort like the world has never seen. But I know it’ll get done. There’s simply no alternative.

.................. Although eighteen months might sound like a long time, this would be the fastest scientists have created a new vaccine.

Development usually takes around five years.

Once you pick a disease to target, you have to create the vaccine and test it on animals. Then you begin testing for safety and efficacy in humans. ............... this year’s flu vaccine is around 45 percent effective. ......... After the vaccine passes all three trial phases, you start building the factories to manufacture it, and it gets submitted to the WHO and various government agencies for approval. ............... Every day we can cut from this process will make a huge difference to the world in terms of saving lives and reducing trillions of dollars in economic damage. ........... As of April 9, there are 115 different COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the development pipeline. I think that eight to ten of those look particularly promising. ........... two new approaches that some of the candidates are taking: RNA and DNA vaccines. ............ The first candidate to start human trials was an RNA vaccine created by a company called Moderna. ......... Here’s how an RNA vaccine works: rather than injecting a pathogen’s antigen into your body, you instead give the body the genetic code needed to produce that antigen itself. When the antigens appear on the outside of your cells, your immune system attacks them—and learns how to defeat future intruders in the process. You essentially turn your body into its own vaccine manufacturing unit. ............. Since COVID would be the first RNA vaccine out of the gate, we have to prove both that the platform itself works and that it creates immunity. It’s a bit like building your computer system and your first piece of software at the same time. ............ We don’t know yet what the COVID-19 vaccine will look like. Until we do, we have to go full steam ahead on as many approaches as possible. ............ The smallpox vaccine is the only vaccine that’s wiped an entire disease off the face of the earth, but it’s also pretty brutal to receive. It left a scar on the arm of anyone who got it. One out of every three people had side effects bad enough to keep them home from school or work. A small—but not insignificant—number developed more serious reactions. ........... The smallpox vaccine was far from perfect, but it got the job done. The COVID-19 vaccine might be similar...............

I suspect a vaccine that is at least 70 percent effective will be enough to stop the outbreak. A 60 percent effective vaccine is useable, but we might still see some localized outbreaks. Anything under 60 percent is unlikely to create enough herd immunity to stop the virus.

.......... The older you are, the less effective vaccines are. Your immune system—like the rest of your body—ages and is slower to recognize and attack invaders. That’s a big issue for a COVID-19 vaccine, since older people are the most vulnerable. ........ we might end up with one that only stops you from getting sick for a couple months (like the seasonal flu vaccine, which protects you for about six months). ................

We need to manufacture and distribute at least 7 billion doses of the vaccine.

.......... In order to stop the pandemic, we need to make the vaccine available to almost every person on the planet. We’ve never delivered something to every corner of the world before. ............... Each vaccine type requires a different kind of factory. We need to be ready with facilities that can make each type, so that we can start manufacturing the final vaccine (or vaccines) as soon as we can. This will cost billions of dollars. Governments need to quickly find a mechanism for making the funding for this available. Our foundation is currently working with CEPI, the WHO, and governments to figure out the financing. ....... Most people agree that health workers should get the vaccine first. But who gets it next? Older people? Teachers? Workers in essential jobs? ........... I think that low-income countries should be some of the first to receive it, because people will be at a much higher risk of dying in those places. COVID-19 will spread much quicker in poor countries because measures like physical distancing are harder to enact. More people have poor underlying health that makes them more vulnerable to complications, and weak health systems will make it harder for them to receive the care they need. Getting the vaccine out in low-income countries could save millions of lives. The good news is we already have an organization with expertise about how to do this in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. ......................... we’re going to scale this thing up so that the vaccine is available to everyone. And then, we’ll be able to get back to normal—and to hopefully make decisions that prevent us from being in this situation ever again. ........



The World’s Biggest Social Virtual Reality Gathering Is Happening Right Now VRChat also works on the desktop without a VR device. ...... V-Ket displays some of the most complex and intricate virtual world architecture you will find anywhere in social VR. ......... V-Ket 4 kicked off at 7pm San Francisco time the evening of Tuesday April 28 (11am Wednesday in Tokyo), and will run for ten days. ........ given the ongoing pandemic where we’re spending even the most mundane parts of our day online, the idea that we’ll someday socialize, shop, play, and even work inside some form of digital environment is becoming a far more recognizable development of our modern era. ......... social VR doesn’t yet feel like the rich experience of virtual life depicted in science fiction like Snow Crash and Ready Player One ..... When I visited China and Japan a few years ago, it was already clear that consumer adoption of virtual reality was far beyond what we currently see in the West. https://www.v-market.work/v4/

Ramayan is world’s most watched show now, breaks all records with 7.7 crore viewership Since March 28, Doordarshan telecast Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan on public demand. It has now become the most-watched show with 7.7 crore viewers......... Ramayan is being telecast again since March 28 on public demand. In fact, when it was telecast for the first time, the serial had broken all records of popularity, and the show has repeated its history again.......... Ramanand Sagar had made a total of 78 episodes of this serial based on Valmiki’s Ramayana and Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas........ For the first time in the country, the serial was originally broadcast from January 25, 1987 to July 31, 1988. Then, every Sunday, at 9.30 a.m. the show was aired on TV. ....... From 1987 to 1988, Ramayan became the most watched serial in the world. ...... Interestingly, when the serial started airing in the country for the first time, people used to remain glued to the TV sets. Since there were less TVs at homes then, most of the people used to gather at some neighbour’s place to watch Ramayan.
Video: Ramayana
Pandemic Prophecy In The Ramayana?

Welcome to Your Sensory Revolution, Thanks to the Pandemic The very idea that there are only five distinct senses took ages to mature, gaining credence in the Enlightenment. This period not only discounted erstwhile senses—such as the sense of “intuition”—but arranged the five senses into a distinctive hierarchy. ........ The Age of Reason empowered the eye as the sense of truth; seeing was believing, said most thinkers in the 1700s. Sight was followed by hearing, understood as more refined than the so-called lower or proximate senses. Those are smell, taste, and touch, senses that had once been held in high esteem in the ancient and medieval worlds, but which lost their currency and became more associated with the animal senses......... These changes took time. Seeing was believing by about 1800, but it had taken centuries for the original iteration of the phrase, “seeing is believing, but feeling’s the truth,” to lose its tactile component............

Once-trusty eyes betray us in the face of an invisible enemy. Seeing is no longer believing. Those who appear perfectly healthy may be unknowing disease transmitters.

........... Desolate city streets are new sights; the absence of airplane contrails strikes many as almost primordial; masks render once-familiar faces unrecognizable. ........ Many urban dwellers hear less traffic and formerly smothered sounds, such as birdsong, now can be heard. ........ Human voices are louder because there are no whispers at six feet. ........ Clammy hamburgers on soggy buns served with limp french fries, anyone? Grocery stores now ration once taken-for-granted staples, notably eggs, milk, and meat. ........ Touch is the obvious sensory casualty in all of this. Centuries of handshaking habits have evaporated; high fives are gone. Outside of families, hugs, kisses, and nuzzles have all been lost with the fear of infection......

In sensory terms, there has been nothing like this....... Even the violence done to the senses by wars, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes is modest in scale and scope compared to this sensory revolution.

......... Thanks to virtual communication, “See ya” and “I hear ya” should remain stable, but “staying in touch” and “getting a grip” could go the way of the sensory dinosaur. .......... But if normalcy eludes us? ...... A whole new world of sensory engagement will emerge, and it could be terrifying. Our soundscape could be civil strife, punctuated with the smell of tear gas and the resounding sting of rubber bullets on flesh. ........ There is no sensory past that can guide us here. It is a genuine revolution of the senses. And it stinks.

What four coronaviruses from history can tell us about covid-19 Four coronaviruses cause around a quarter of all common colds, but each was probably deadly when it first made the leap to humans. We can learn a lot from what happened next ............. 1889, a disease outbreak in central Asia went global, igniting a pandemic that burned into the following year. It caused fever and fatigue, and killed an estimated 1 million people. The disease is generally blamed on influenza, and was dubbed “Russian flu“. ........... Another possibility is that this “flu” was actually a coronavirus pandemic. The finger has been pointed at a virus first isolated in the 1960s, though today it causes nothing more serious than a common cold. In fact, there are four coronaviruses responsible for an estimated 20 to 30 per cent of colds. ......... all four of these viruses began to infect humans in the past few centuries and, when they did, they probably sparked pandemics.

Is the universe conscious? It seems impossible until you do the maths The question of how the brain gives rise to subjective experience is the hardest of all. Mathematicians think they can help, but their first attempts have thrown up some eye-popping conclusions ...... the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics”. Physicist Eugene Wigner coined the phrase in the 1960s to encapsulate the curious fact that merely by manipulating numbers we can describe and predict all manner of natural phenomena with astonishing clarity, from the movements of planets and the strange behaviour of fundamental particles to the consequences of a collision between two black holes billions of light years away.......... if we are to achieve a precise description of consciousness, we may have to ditch our intuitions and accept that all kinds of inanimate matter could be conscious – maybe even the universe as a whole.

Scientists know ways to help stop viruses from spreading on airplanes. They’re too late for this pandemic. how easily viruses spread from person to person on airplanes, the novel coronavirus has decimated global aviation. ........... It is a problem of biology, physics and pure proximity, with airflow, dirty surfaces and close contact with other travelers all at play. ........... passengers can still breathe in tiny floating droplets from a coughing passenger seated nearby — before the air carrying those droplets can be vented out of the cabin and filtered. .......

covid-19 is largely spread from one person to another through droplets, such as when people cough or sneeze. ...... Such relatively large droplets, brimming with viruses, generally travel only a limited distance before being pulled down by gravity, sort of like ping-pong balls falling back to the table after being whacked. ........ That is why social distancing guidelines have emphasized the six-foot distance and call for incessant hand-washing, to avoid picking up fallen droplets and bringing them to your face. ....... coronavirus has become airborne in some hospital settings, including during intubation to help breathing. ........ coronavirus can spread by air through “normal breathing,” not just via droplets from coughing ........ was detected in the air beyond six feet from sick people. ..........

...... The company said it tested its “Fresh Lav,” which uses automated ultraviolet lights to kill 99.9 percent of germs in lavatories “after every passenger use” ....... “You’re sitting there and the guy right behind you sneezes. . . . All the filters in the world aren’t going to help you,” Brenner said. “I think the lamp would potentially deal with that.” ............ What takes longer is conclusively proving the long-term safety for people exposed to the light, a type of radiation known technically as far-UVC light. Traditional ultraviolet lights are used to clean water supplies and sanitize operating rooms, but only when no people are under them, because they can cause cancer and eye damage.

China’s coronavirus blues clouds hopes for Labour Day holiday spending spree The government has extended the annual break to give an extra shot in the arm for the economy after months of lockdown ....... But with still more uncertainty ahead, the country’s consumers might not be in the mood to splurge, observers say

The coronavirus won’t kill globalisation, but might just change global business for the better Look out for changes to industrial policies as governments realise the need to prioritise sectors such as medical supplies, to meet domestic needs in time of crisis ...... While companies will push to diversify supply chains and pay more attention to ESG factors, their preference for globalisation – and the profits it brings – won’t change

"These are good people..."

Posted by Alex Romanovich on Friday, May 1, 2020

पूर्व ब्रिटिश आर्मी क्याप्टेन गंजविर राईका नाति, मेजर सुर्जमान राई र फूलमाया राईको छोरा पूर्व इण्डियन आर्मीका मेजर ...

Posted by Tek Gurung on Friday, May 1, 2020