Coronavirus News (218)

Is your Zoom etiquette lacking?  barking dogs and background spouses aren’t cute anymore ..........  Don’t be late — if you’re clicking to join the meeting at the exact time your meeting starts, you’re already late. No chewing — a cup of coffee or some water is OK, but don't eat on a video call. Especially crunchy foods. Be present — when you’re multitasking, it’s more obvious than you think. ............  Rule of Thumb: If you're not scheduled to talk, then mute yourself. The mic's on your laptop or smart phone are more sensitive than you think. If you must get up (bathroom, refill coffee, correct a barking dog, etc.), then turn the camera off...............  one of our co-workers did his dishes during the meeting, camera on, etc. Took no notes, nothing on mute. It was very frustrating ..........  please do not take me with you during your morning walk ...........  take a tip from the broadcast world:  if you are NEAR a camera or a microphone, always assume it may be on.  That means no swearing, no scratching in awkward places, no nose picking, etc. .............  “I forgot I’m sharing my screen” accidents! ..........  Try to have your camera at an angle that limits or emoves the possibility of interruptions by other household members.  ALWAYS wear pants even if you think that your Zoom-mates can't tell. ........  Some colleagues of mine were on a live video conference when one person on the call — not realizing their camera was on — picked up their laptop and took it, and the whole team, into … the bathroom … where he proceeded to do what one does in there. .............  When in doubt, mirror your audience: for example, when working from home, PJs generally won’t cut it. ................  Rule of Thumb: If you're not scheduled to talk, then mute yourself. The mic's on your laptop or smart phone are more sensitive than you think. If you must get up (bathroom, refill coffee, correct a barking dog, etc.), then turn the camera off. ............  Master the tech: when appearing on video, lighting, camera angle, and audio all matter — in equal measure. .............  The thing I notice is how many people don't make thier beds. ;) As important as dressing as if you are meeting in person your background is also important. Avoid have bright lights behind you. If in a dark area open a blank Word document and turn up the brightness to help illuminate your face. ...........  Failure to mute but SPECIFICALLY the failure to mute NOTIFICATIONS, so when you’re discussing things other people’s machines keep pinging and dinging. Very distracting .................  when people are badly backlit, so you can’t actually see them. .........  If you are sitting by a window,FACE the window so it lights your face. ............  We are lucky enough to have a “no apologies” rule.  Work has come into your home not the other way around so we ask our people to try not to apologise for your home being your home. ..........  Unmute before talking, have the webcam at eye level facing you directly and look at it whilst talking. Don't interrupt, put your virtual hand up.

विदेशबाट फर्किँदा पीसीआर नेगेटिभ भए घर जान पाइन्छ : मन्त्री भट्टराई

नेपालमा चिनियाँ भ्याक्सिनको क्लिनिकल ट्रायललाई स्वीकृति बेलायत र रुसको छलफलमा

It is not what India means to @kamalaharris, it is what Kamala means to the young girls in India.

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) August 23, 2020

 

As business and government leaders attend to the immediate challenges of leading through the pandemic, they also have the opportunity to do more than react to disruptive change. They can shape our new reality. #LeadingInTheNewReality

— Boston Consulting Group (@BCG) August 12, 2020

Donald Trump’s Orwellian jamboree This year’s Republican convention proves the party is post-ideas — the plan is simply the man

As India peaks, Covid-19 spreads rapidly in Nepal Because of the open border, Nepal may not be able to completely control the virus until India does

COVID-19 Is Transmitted Through Aerosols. We Have Enough Evidence, Now It Is Time to Act a substantial share of COVID-19 cases are the result of transmission through aerosols. The evidence in favor of aerosols is stronger than that for any other pathway .........  research eventually proved that tuberculosis can only be transmitted through aerosols. I believe that we have been making a similar mistake for COVID-19. ........  “Aerosol” (sometimes referred to as “airborne”) transmission is similar to droplet transmission, except that the bits of fluid are so small that they can linger in the air for minutes to hours. To understand the scale of aerosols, the diameter of a human hair is about 80 microns, and aerosols smaller than about 50 microns can float in the air long enough to be inhaled. SARS-CoV-2 is only 0.1 microns in diameter, so there is room for plenty of viruses in aerosols. ............. When it comes to COVID-19, the evidence overwhelmingly supports aerosol transmission, and there are no strong arguments against it. For example, contact tracing has found that much COVID-19 transmission occurs in close proximity, but that many people who share the same home with an infected person do not get the disease. To understand why, it is useful to use cigarette or vaping smoke (which is also an aerosol) as an analog. Imagine sharing a home with a smoker: if you stood close to the smoker while talking, you would inhale a great deal of smoke. Replace the smoke with virus-containing aerosols, which behave very similarly, and the impact is similar: the closer you are to someone releasing virus-carrying aerosols, the more likely you are to breathe in larger amounts of virus. We know from detailed, rigorous studies that when individuals talk in close proximity, aerosols dominate transmission and droplets are nearly negligible. ............  Talking, and especially singing and shouting increase aerosol exhalation by factors of 10 and 50, respectively. .............  outbreaks often occur when people gather in crowded, insufficiently ventilated indoor spaces ..........  Superspreading events, where one person infects many, occur almost exclusively in indoor locations and are driving the pandemic. These observations are easily explained by aerosols, and are very difficult or impossible to explain by droplets or fomites. ...........  Aerosols on the other hand, act like smoke: after being expelled, they don’t fall to the ground, but rather disperse throughout the air, getting diluted by air currents, and being inhaled by others present in the same space. Contact tracing shows that, when it comes to COVID-19, being outdoors is 20 times safer than being indoors, which argues that aerosol transmission is much more important than droplets; outdoors, there’s plenty of air in which aerosols can become diluted; not so indoors.............  the CDC says that 15 minutes of close proximity to a COVID-19 infected person often leads to contagion .........  We should continue doing what has already been recommended: wash hands, keep six feet apart, and so on. But that is not enough. A new, consistent and logical set of recommendations must emerge to reduce aerosol transmission. I propose the following: Avoid Crowding, Indoors, low Ventilation, Close proximity, long Duration, Unmasked, Talking/singing/Yelling (“A CIViC DUTY”)........  masks are essential, even when we are able to maintain social distance. We should also pay attention to fitting masks snugly, as they are not just a parapet against ballistic droplets, but also a means to prevent “smoke” from leaking in through gaps. We should not remove masks to talk, nor allow someone who is not wearing a mask to talk to us, because we exhale aerosols 10 times as much when talking compared to breathing. ...........  It is important to think about ventilation and air cleaning. ...........  Spending as much time as possible outdoors, wearing masks, and reducing density will remain critical no matter how well we ventilate and clean the air.   

Coronavirus News (217)

 Trump v American democracy: the real battle on the ballot this November According to one former senior FBI official, ‘The insider threat [to the election] is sitting in the Oval Office.’ ..........  Trump poses a more severe danger to the 244-year-old American experiment than any foreign adversary. ...............  Whereas in 2016 Vladimir Putin’s Russia meddled in an election, now it is the current occupant of the White House who seems hellbent on subverting an American election. ..........  Kamala Harris, the first woman of colour on a major party ticket, whom he has already dubbed “mean”, “nasty” and “a mad woman”. .......  Five states – Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah – already carry out elections almost entirely by mail. ...........  the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor ...........  Republicans belong to “the party of voter suppression” .........  we’re still in the middle of a pandemic where showing up to vote in person could mean life or death for some people .......  US intelligence has warned that Russia is already interfering in the 2020 election with the aim of getting Trump re-elected. ............  a president gone rogue – a man who this week welcomed the support of believers in a baseless righting conspiracy theory that holds the world is run by a shadowy cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles. .................  “Who needs Vladimir Putin when we have Donald Trump? If you were Vladimir Putin and you wanted to disrupt this election, what would you do? You’d spread disinformation. You’d make people doubt the legitimacy of the vote. You’d peddle conspiracy theories and you might want to mess with mail-in voting. That’s all happening without him. Our president is doing that.”  ...............  if he loses, we will have a bitterly divided country with about 30% of the population angry, alienated, perhaps in the streets, something we’ve never seen here before   

 

How Donald Trump canceled the Republican party  After the election, political scientists and historians will study his obliteration of the Republican party as his greatest and most enduring political achievement...........  In 1980, Ronald Reagan opened his general election campaign at the Neshoba County Fair, the place where three civil rights workers had been murdered in 1964. Surrounded by Confederate flags, he hailed “states’ rights”. As brazen an appeal as it was, Reagan felt he had to resort to the old code words. ............  Central to Trump’s unique selling proposition is that he dispenses with the dog whistles. His vulgarity gives a vicarious thrill to those who revel in his taunting of perceived enemies or scapegoats. He made them feel dominant at no social price, until his catastrophic mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis. Flouting a mask is the magical act of defiance to signal that nothing has really changed and that in any case, Trump bears no responsibility. ...................  Trump is the only president since the advent of modern polling never to reach 50% approval. Despite decisively losing the popular vote in 2016, he said he “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”. This time, fearing an even more overwhelming popular rejection, he says the outcome will be “rigged” and he has pre-emptively tried to cancel the US Postal Service, to undermine voting by mail. ..............  Reagan represented free trade and western firmness against Russia. George HW Bush was a paragon of public service. George W Bush was an advocate for immigrants. John McCain was the embodiment of patriotic sacrifice. ......... After Trump, all that has been cancelled. .............  Since he first rode down the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, to declare his candidacy against Mexican “rapists”, there has always been a new escalator downward. .......  the conservative Trump apologists, the adults in the room, as latter-day versions of Franz von Papen, the German chancellor who enabled the rise of Hitler in the complacent belief that he could be controlled ..........  He had earlier told the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, “‘Did you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’” “And I started laughing,” she recounted. “And he wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.” ...........  Trump’s cancel culture deals in aggressions, not micro-aggressions. The only safe space is where Trump is worshipped. Before, during and after the death of McCain, Trump unleashed tirades of insult. ................  For years, Trump has disparaged the Bush family. At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when George W Bush called for setting aside partisanship and embracing national unity, Trump tweeted, “but where was he during Impeachment calling for putting partisanship aside”. ............   Trump has constantly retailed a false story about Reagan supposedly remarking after meeting him, “For the life of me, and I’ll never know how to explain it, when I met that young man, I felt like I was the one shaking hands with the president.” The chief administrative officer of the Reagan Foundation felt compelled to note that Reagan “did not ever say that about Donald Trump”. ...............  Trump’s petty, vindictive and exploitative abuse of the Bush presidents, McCain and Reagan pales in comparison to his raging obsessions about Lincoln. He has boasted his poll numbers are better than Lincoln’s ever were (true), claimed he is more a victim than the assassinated martyr (untrue), and declared he has done more for Black Americans than Lincoln (untrue). ..............   Trump, the would-be Great Emancipator and upholder of Confederate monuments, has lately ruminated about giving an address at Gettysburg. ..........  What Lincoln consecrated, Trump would desecrate. ............  Bannon’s dark apocalyptic mutterings against the forces conspiring against him and Trump: the “Deep State”, rootless cosmopolitans, globalists and liberal elites. ..................  “This has been the experience of most,” she observed with the sagacious tone of a student of history. “Abraham Lincoln was famously, even within his own cabinet, surrounded by people who were former political adversaries.” Ivanka’s smug confusion was complete. She had mistaken the whistleblower whose memo triggered the impeachment process with Lincoln’s “team of rivals”. ...........  we’ll make America great again, again ..........  “Russia if you’re listening …” .........  To quote Marx – Groucho – “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?” .........  quote from President Lincoln. He said … quote, ‘I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.’” ................  The identity of the enemy may change – Muslims, Mexicans or Moms – but Miller is prepared to draw the sword for whatever clash of civilization may come. He’s just not prepared for a virus.   

Coronavirus News (216)

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 सामूहिक दर खाएको भोलिपल्ट कोरोना पुष्टि, ३० जना क्लोज कन्ट्याक्टमा

वीरगञ्जको कोरोना अस्पतालबाट दुई संक्रमित भागे

New Survey Identifies 98 Long-Lasting Covid Symptoms Early research helps quantify coronavirus long-haulers’ experiences .........  new effects like hair loss that don’t show up until weeks after they’ve been declared Covid-free. ............  Witvliet, who had Covid-19 four months ago and is now suffering from tinnitus, chest pain, and heart-racing. ............  stretching from sadness and blurry vision to diarrhea and joint pain ...........  survey respondents noted 98 different effects, far more than the 11 common symptoms that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists as possible signs that a person has the disease. ....... A quarter of the effects involved pain. ............  A new study suggests Covid-19 can infect the thyroid gland, causing excess hormone release. ............  scarring, decreased lung function, decreased exercise capacity ...... “It’s too soon to say we’re disabled,” she writes. “It’s also too soon to know how long the damage will last.”

Coronavirus News (215)

 

Myth 1: The novel coronavirus was engineered in a lab in China.
Myth 2: Wealthy elites intentionally spread the virus to win power and profit.
Myth 3: COVID-19 is no worse than the flu.
Myth 4: You don’t need to wear a mask.
Myth 5: Hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment.
Myth 6: The Black Lives Matter protests led to increased transmission.
Myth 7: Spikes in cases are because of increased testing.
Myth 8: We can achieve herd immunity by letting the virus spread through the population.
Myth 9: Any vaccine will be unsafe and a bigger risk than getting COVID-19.

Nine COVID-19 Myths That Just Won’t Go Away From a human-made virus to vaccine conspiracy theories, we rounded up the most persistent false claims about the pandemic .........  This “infodemic” is just as harmful as COVID-19 itself, leading people to downplay the severity of the disease and ignore public health advice in favor of unproved treatments or “cures.” ...........  four in five Americans say the online spread of misinformation is the biggest problem facing the media. Even with widely available evidence to the contrary, beliefs are hard to change. ..........  the intelligence community “concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.” .............  the evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 was not created in a lab. ............  misinformation spreads perniciously ..........  no, coronavirus is not “just the flu.” ..............   wearing a face covering can limit the transmission of the coronavirus through small exhaled droplets .............  In a tweet, Trump called the hydroxychloroquine treatment “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine,” and he has mentioned it repeatedly in his public coronavirus briefings. ..............  Several studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine does not protect against COVID-19 in those who are exposed. And in June the National Institutes of Health halted its clinical trial of the medication, stating that while it was not harmful to patients, it did not provide any benefit. Yet Trump continues to hype the drug. .................  The fact that the demonstrations happened outdoors, where the risk of transmission is much lower, and that many protesters wore masks likely prevented superspreading events. Meanwhile, as states have reopened, there has been a notable increase in cases tied to bars and restaurants, as well as other indoor environments—likely because of the risk of airborne spread. ......................  He has tweeted that “without testing ... we would be showing almost no cases” and has said in interviews that the reason they appear to have gone up is because of increased testing. ...............  the national increase in positive tests reflects a true increase in cases. .........  roughly 60 to 70 percent of people would need to get COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity. And given the relatively high mortality rate of the disease, letting it infect that many individuals could lead to millions of deaths. That tragedy is what happened during the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which roughly 50 million people are thought to have perished. The U.K.’s COVID-19 death rate is among the world’s highest. Sweden, for its part, has had significantly more deaths than neighboring countries, and its economy has suffered, despite not shutting down. It is likely that many lives could have been saved if these countries had acted sooner. .............  one in three Americans would not get a COVID-19 vaccine if it were available today, with Republicans being less likely to be vaccinated than Democrats   

Holy shit. Dense smoke from western wildfires now covers half the United States, and has begun to wrap around Tropical Storm Genevieve off the coast of Mexico. Diffuse smoke has already reached the skies over New York City.

This is a continental-scale emergency. https://t.co/1obxsbJdsX

— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) August 21, 2020

Coronavirus pandemic could be over within two years - WHO head .........  In the US, Democratic nominee Joe Biden pledged to introduce a national mandate to wear masks if elected, and attacked President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic.  

Coronavirus vaccine: Short cuts and allegations of dirty tricks in race to be first In this race, there have been accusations of short-cuts, espionage, unethical risk-taking and jealousy, amid talk of "vaccine nationalism". ...........  The greater concern is about cutting corners in the normally slow, thorough world of medical testing........... "It is not hard to develop a vaccine. It is hard to prove that a vaccine is safe and effective. And if countries are only interested in the former they can take short cuts." ........  Dr Anthony Fauci, one of the most prominent members of the White House's coronavirus taskforce, said he "seriously doubt[s]" the Russians had proven their vaccine to be safe and effective. In Moscow, such concerns were dismissed as "jealousy". Those behind the vaccine say they will soon publish data in a major international scientific magazine. ............. reports that both countries plan to test the vaccine on their armed forces have led to ethical concerns, since those individuals may not be able to give proper consent. ..........  Failing to put a vaccine through full trials, and rushing it out, could lead to over-confidence from the public and so to the further spread of Covid-19. Alternatively, a drug which turns out to have serious side effects could fuel anti-vaccination movements. ...........  "There is vaccine nationalism for sure among western countries," says Thomas Bollyky. "The form… you are seeing in the US and UK is about locking up large initial doses of supplies of vaccines." .............. Being first to market does not necessarily mean a vaccine will be the most effective and experts caution that this is not a race where there will be a single winner or finish line. That means the rivalries over developing and supplying vaccines may only just be beginning.

The New Geopolitics Of India, China And Nepal  The “Minimum Interest Doctrine” (MID) could be an operational concept for small nations like Nepal that are in the middle of great power rivalry or “ potential conflict zones”. It is based on the assumption India and China have a certain set of minimum interests that they would like to see recognized in Nepal so that the chances of great power rivalry inside Nepal is minimized. It is based on the logic that it is not necessary to identify the long-term national interests of both India and China over Nepal as long as Nepal’s leadership has an idea of the composition of minimum interests that they would want to see protected at all cost inside. Being able to satisfy this condition while protecting its national sovereignty and promoting economic prosperity is the challenge facing the Nepali leadership. 

Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful Here’s how to pull yourself out of despair and live your life ......... it was exhausting having a kindergartener and fourth grader doing impromptu distance learning while I was barely keeping up with work ..........  But even knowing I would eventually crash, I didn’t appreciate how hard the crash would be, or how long it would last, or how hard it would be to try to get back up over and over again, or what getting up even looked like. ............  Surge capacity is a collection of adaptive systems — mental and physical — that humans draw on for short-term survival in acutely stressful situations, such as natural disasters. But natural disasters occur over a short period, even if recovery is long. Pandemics are different — the disaster itself stretches out indefinitely. ............  I couldn’t get any work done. I’d grown sick of Zoom meetups. It was exhausting and impossible to think with the kids around all day. I felt trapped in a home that felt as much a prison as a haven. I tried to conjure the motivation to check email, outline a story, or review interview notes, but I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t make myself do anything — work, housework, exercise, play with the kids — for that whole week. Or the next. Or the next. Or the next..............  it’s different from a hurricane or tornado where you can look outside and see the damage. The destruction is, for most people, invisible and ongoing. So many systems aren’t working as they normally do right now, which means radical shifts in work, school, and home life that almost none of us have experience with .......... “It’s harder for high achievers,” she says. “The more accustomed you are to solving problems, to getting things done, to having a routine, the harder it will be on you because none of that is possible right now. You get feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, and those aren’t good.” ...........  “I realized that my personal operating system, though it had led to tremendous success, had failed me on a more personal level,” he says. “I had to figure out a different way of contending with life.” ...............   “Our culture is very solution-oriented, which is a good way of thinking for many things,” she says. “It’s partly responsible for getting a man on the moon and a rover on Mars and all the things we’ve done in this country that are wonderful. But it’s a very destructive way of thinking when you’re faced with a problem that has no solution, at least for a while.” ...........  One of the toughest losses for me to adapt to is no longer doing my research and writing in coffee shops as I’ve done for most of my life, dating back to junior high. .............  Just as painful are losses that may result from the intersection of the pandemic and the already tense political division in the country. For many people, issues related to Covid-19 have become the last straw in ending relationships, whether it’s a family member refusing to wear a mask, a friend promoting the latest conspiracy theory, or a co-worker insisting Covid-19 deaths are exaggerated. ..........  Ambiguous loss elicits the same experiences of grief as a more tangible loss — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — but managing it often requires a bit of creativity. ..................   “We have to expect less of ourselves, and we have to replenish more” ............  people are having to live their lives without the support of so many systems that have partly or fully broken down, whether it’s schools, hospitals, churches, family support, or other systems that we relied on ........  Plenty of people are in denial: denying the virus is real, or that the numbers of cases or deaths are as high as reported, or that masks really help reduce disease transmission. ............. Anger is evident everywhere: anger at those in denial, anger in the race demonstrations, anger at those not physically distancing or wearing masks, and even anger at those who wear masks or require them. The bargaining, Boss says, is mostly with scientists we hope will develop a vaccine quickly. The depression is obvious, but acceptance… “I haven’t accepted any of this,” Boss says. “I don’t know about you.” ...........  “This is terrible and many people are dying, and this is also a time for our families to come closer together,” Boss says. On a more personal level, “I’m highly competent, and right now I’m flowing with the tide day-to-day.” ..........   The areas he specifically advocates focusing on are sleep, nutrition, exercise, meditation, self-compassion, gratitude, connection, and saying no.    

How government defied science and disregarded experts as Covid-19 spread Even after 146 deaths and over 31,000 cases, the Oli administration has not formed a national committee led by a specialist and it continues to take decisions on an ad-hoc basis. https://tkpo.st/2EaodC2 ............... “Corona is like the flu,” said Oli. If contracted, one should sneeze, drink hot water and drive the virus away.” https://tkpo.st/2EaodC2 ...........  The prime minister, however, had made it a habit of using his bully pulpit to make unsubstantiated claims like Nepalis have strong immunity and that drinking turmeric water could cure the disease. https://tkpo.st/2EaodC2 ...........  the Covid-19 surge is also due to the government’s disregard for experts’ warnings and Oli’s defiance of science, facts and truth https://tkpo.st/2EaodC2 ................. The Covid-19 Crisis Management Committee, which is tasked with fighting the virus, does not have a single individual with expertise on health-related issues. .................  “The government can bring an ordinance to split political parties, but it does not want to do anything to hire experts,” https://tkpo.st/2EaodC2 

Coronavirus News (214)

 I had COVID-19, and these are the things nobody tells you  I was so fatigued I could barely walk from my office chair to my bed .........  In an instant, my fears for others became prayers for myself. ..........  I had the incredibly good fortune to avoid hospitalization. .........  behind every coronavirus statistic there is unquantifiable human suffering. .........  My temperature hovered in the upper reaches of 102. It felt like my head was on fire. One night I sweated through five shirts. I shook so much from the chills I thought I chipped a tooth. My chest felt like LeBron James was sitting on it. My fatigue made it feel as if I was dressed in the chains of Jacob Marley’s ghost. I coughed so hard it felt like I broke a rib. ...........  I would fall asleep in a chair and wake up terrified from a hallucinatory dream where I was chased through a playground by old women with giant heads. During phone calls I would get confused and just stop talking. I would begin crying for no reason. I lost my sense of taste, smell, and five pounds in the first four days. .........   Everyone knows what happens, even if they never believe it will happen to them. ..............  things that stick with you long after the fever has spiked and the headaches have stopped. ............  Once you realize you have a virus that could kill you and there’s nothing anybody can do about it, you live in constant fear. .........   Then there are the late nights, when your quarantine feels most acute — when you are the most alone. You start coughing into a wet pillow and you can’t stop and your breath becomes ragged and your bed is soaking and you wonder, is now the time? Do you try to drive yourself to the hospital? Do you call an ambulance? Are you just being a baby? You can’t call any friends or family for help because they can’t be exposed. You can’t call your doctor because he’s already told you there’s nothing he can do. You don’t know what to do, so you simmer alone in the darkness doing nothing, paralyzed by fear and chasing your breath and praying that 102.1 does not become 103.1. .................   the anger. You followed all the rules, you wore countless masks, you never strayed far from home, you spent four months battling this thing, and still it hits you with a sucker punch. ..........  The weekend before my symptoms appeared, for the first time in four months, I met friends for two dinners at two socially distanced patio tables. Nobody is required to wear masks at the tables, so I removed my mask when I sat, as did my dining partners, and we left them off during the entire time we were at the table. ...................   and now my mistake could fester in my system forever. ...........  It didn’t take much for COVID-19 to make my unexciting life hell. ..........  COVID-19 is real enough to rise up and beat me senseless. We need to stop giving it license to do the same to others.

Coronavirus will be with us forever, Sage scientist warns  people would need to be vaccinated at regular intervals. .........  in order to control the pandemic, "global vaccination" would be required, but coronavirus would not be a disease like smallpox "which could be eradicated by vaccination". .........  Coronavirus has so far killed 800,000 people. Nearly 23 million infections have been recorded but the number of people who have actually had the virus is thought to be much higher due to inadequate testing and asymptomatic cases.  

Coronavirus: Why Spain is seeing second wave Spain saw one of the most draconian Covid-19 lockdowns in Europe, but two months after it was lifted, the virus is spreading faster than in any neighbouring nation. ...........  Most of the transmission is now between young people, and around three-quarters of positives are in patients who show no symptoms. ..........  Only around 3% of current cases require hospital treatment, less than 0.5% need intensive care and the current death rate is as low as 0.3%. ..........  Spanish politics has lacked any consensus or spirit of collaboration in managing the coronavirus crisis.   

Coronavirus News (213)

 6G Will Be 100 Times Faster Than 5G—and Now There’s a Chip for It  One wireless communications expert even estimates 6G networks could handle rates up to 8,000 gigabits per second; they’ll also have much lower latency and higher bandwidth than 5G. ..............  “Terahertz technology […] can potentially boost intra-chip and inter-chip communication to support artificial intelligence and cloud-based technologies, such as interconnected self-driving cars, which will need to transmit data quickly to other nearby cars and infrastructure to navigate better and also to avoid accidents.”   ............  Besides being used for AI and self-driving cars (and, of course, downloading hundreds of hours of video in seconds), 6G would also make a big difference for data centers, IoT devices, and long-range communications, among other applications.  

Don’t Let the Pandemic Sink Your Company Culture you and your leadership team invested years cultivating an effective culture — one that is both strategically relevant, because it prioritizes the behaviors essential to the success of your business, and strong, in the sense that employees trust that it is real and value it. Such cultures help companies attract and retain great people and contribute to fantastic bottom-line performance. .............  Will your culture take a hit because people can’t meet in person, making it harder to solidify their shared beliefs? .........  How can you continue to build and leverage your culture while your organization is operating mostly remotely? ........  organizations that were strategically aligned, strong, and had built in the capacity to adapt quickly to dynamic environments earned 15% more in annual revenue compared to those in the same industry that were less adaptable. ..............  1. Hire and promote people who are resilient, adaptable, and exhibit grace under fire. ..........  2. Curate and communicate examples of how the organization is adhering to its cultural values through new practices. ...........  3. Model transcendent values.  

US isolated as allies and opponents reject its bid to snapback UN sanctions on Iran

WHO warns coronavirus vaccine alone won’t end pandemic: ‘We cannot go back to the way things were’  a vaccine will be a “vital tool” in the global fight against the coronavirus, but it won’t end the Covid-19 pandemic on its own and there’s no guarantee scientists will find one. .........  world leaders can stop new outbreaks by practicing the “basics” of public health and disease control. “Testing, isolating and treating patients and tracing and quarantining their contacts. Do it all. Inform, empower and listen to communities 

Coronavirus News (212)

 “Woke-Washing” Your Company Won’t Cut It

Airships Are No Longer a Relic of the Past; You Could Ride in One by 2023

Construction of the World’s Biggest Nuclear Fusion Plant Just Started in France

The Global Work Crisis: Automation, the Case Against Jobs, and What to Do About It

BILL GATES CALLED MOST US CORONAVIRUS TESTS “GARBAGE” "THE MAJORITY OF ALL U.S. TESTS ARE COMPLETELY GARBAGE, WASTED."

MACHINE DETECTS COVID-19 IN 90 MINUTES HEALTH OFFICIALS ARE ALREADY ORDERING THOUSANDS.

Does the US-led Five Eyes have wider sights on China? A group of Renmin University international relations specialists says the alliance has become another part of Washington’s efforts to contain Beijing Japan is interested in becoming a ‘sixth eye’ but China should not respond by ramping up tensions, observer says

China, Pakistan push ahead with US$6.8 billion rail project in region disputed with India Beijing also announces the opening of a 118km stretch of the ‘Friendship Highway’ that will run from Islamabad to Kashgar Strengthening of ties comes a year after New Delhi revoked constitutional rights giving Kashmir greater independence

Japan could be on the brink of a second wave. Will Shinzo Abe act?

Forty percent of people with coronavirus infections have no symptoms. Might they be the key to ending the pandemic? New research suggests that some of us may be partially protected due to past encounters with common cold coronaviruses

SCIENTISTS THINK THEY FOUND THE CORONAVIRUS’ WEAK SPOT CRITICAL HIT!

‘No world peace without changing China’: Hong Kong’s Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai calls for American support The media mogul, who was arrested over alleged collusion with foreign forces before being released on bail, sought US support in Hong Kong’s fight for freedoms He also warned Hong Kong people against radicalism and urged them to steel themselves for a long fight to resist the encroachment on the city’s autonomy

Taiwan unveils record defence budget as Beijing stands firm on claim to island Tsai Ing-wen says Taipei will seek a ‘constructive security relationship’ with the US and strengthen its military Mainland military stages drills in Taiwan Strait in ‘warning to independence supporters’

US ‘follows China’s path’ in Africa by funding Mozambique liquefied natural gas project Exim Bank approves US$4.7 billion loan, the US’ largest ever to an African country, but American lending to the continent trails that of China The loan mirrors Chinese investments in Africa in the 2000s, aimed at gaining access to energy resources

Advice from a woman who survived covid-19, the 1918 flu — and cancer

Fauci amplifies Birx’s warning about ‘new phase’ of coronavirus spread in U.S.

Donald Trump says TikTok will be ‘out of business’ in US unless sold by September 15 In addition to Microsoft, at least two other interested buyers in the tech industry are in talks with ByteDance to acquire the video-sharing app, source says Trump also says the US should get money from the sale, though he did not say how that would be accomplished

Coronavirus: China positions itself for ‘vaccine diplomacy’ push to fight Covid-19 Beijing is offering loans and priority access to developing countries for vaccinations as they move to large-scale trials As richer nations scramble for early doses manufacturing constraints likely to cause shortages for years

China is home to four of the world’s five largest unicorns, led by Alibaba’s Ant Group Ant Group, the digital financial services arm of Alibaba, had a US$150 billion valuation to top the rankings of this year’s Hurun Global Unicorn Index The total value of all known unicorns in the world is US$1.9 trillion, equivalent to the GDP of Italy

Shenzhen should be elevated to same administrative status as Beijing, academics say Hong Kong’s neighbour and other cities should become centrally administered municipalities, updating regional structure drawn up in 1960s, article argues Change would bring greater resources and clout – but the proposal, floated before, is not official policy

China’s migrant workers facing end of an era as the world’s factory winds down amid coronavirus, US-China trade war China’s 290 million migrant workers have been the hardest hit by the coronavirus having already been under pressure from the US-China trade war One worker, Rao Dequn, has worked for 25 years in Chinese factories making goods for overseas markets, but will lose her job in less than a month