Coronavirus News (265)

कोरोना भाइरस महामारी: दक्षिण एशियाली देशमध्ये नेपालमा सक्रिय सङ्क्रमितको दर सर्वोच्च, 'सबैभन्दा बढी जोखिम'  नेपालमा सङ्क्रमण डरलाग्दो स्थितिमा भएको 

PHARMA COMPANIES NEVER AGREED WHAT MAKES A “SUCCESSFUL” COVID-19 VACCINE TRIAL ACCORDING TO EXISTING METRICS, EVEN A TECHNICALLY-SUCCESSFUL VACCINE WOULD LET PEOPLE GET SICK.

India Covid Map and Case Count

‘It did not need to be nearly this bad.’ A million people have died from Covid-19 across the world.  The coronavirus may already have overtaken tuberculosis and hepatitis as the world’s deadliest infectious disease. And unlike all the other contenders, it is still growing fast. ............ Like nothing seen in more than a century, the virus has infiltrated every populated patch of the globe, sowing terror and poverty, infecting millions of people in some nations and paralyzing entire economies. ............ much of the suffering could have been avoided .........   At the height of the first wave, places like China, Germany, South Korea and New Zealand showed that it was possible to slow the pandemic enough to limit infections and deaths while still reopening businesses and schools. .......... wide-scale testing, contact tracing, quarantining, social distancing, mask wearing, providing protective gear, developing a clear and consistent strategy, and being willing to shut things down in a hurry when trouble arises ................. Time and again, experts say, governments reacted too slowly, waiting until their own countries or regions were under siege, either dismissing the threat or seeing it as China’s problem, or Italy’s, or New York’s. ............. “You have standard principles of risk communication: Be first, be right, be credible, be empathetic,” he said. “If you tried to violate those principles more than the Trump administration has, I don’t think you could.” ............   Masks turned out to be more helpful than Western experts had predicted. Social distancing on an unheard-of scale has been more feasible and effective than anticipated. The difference in danger between an outdoor gathering and an indoor one is greater than expected. 

PEOPLE IN TRUMP’S AGE RANGE ARE 90 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DIE FROM COVID-19 THAN YOUNG ADULTS THE 74-YEAR-OLD PRESIDENT IS IN A VULNERABLE DEMOGRAPHIC.

The history of vindaloo, loved in Britain: why India has Portuguese explorers to thank for the famous hot curry The dish first found its way to Goa in India through Portuguese explorers in the early 15th century, where it was adapted by the local community It became popular further afield after British colonisation of India in the 1800s, and in Britain in the 1970s when Indian restaurants became all the rage

China and world at risk of financial turmoil greater than 2008 crisis, ex-finance minister warns Washington is playing a ‘negative-sum game’ with Beijing, and both sides will end up losing if geopolitical strife continues, says Lou Jiwei Lou Jiwei urges world’s major economies to rapidly roll back their loose monetary policies or excessive economic stimulus measures will take a global toll

Keep China out of US presidential election drama, Beijing tells Trump, Biden On the eve of the first US presidential candidate debate, Chinese state media says US politicians should stop dragging China into domestic issues Trump and Biden have accused each other as being weak on China, both promising adversarial policies if elected

Does this US military uniform suggest it is preparing for war with China? Island assault exercise off Californian coast uses badge depicting China on the uniforms Chinese state media condemns implication of possible action in South China Sea  

Coronavirus News (264)

The Coronavirus Unveiled

There’s no question we’ll be living in a different world post-pandemic  Technology will allow people to work, shop and study remotely, and many people will continue the habits they’ve acquired since March. Nimble companies and workers will race ahead; others may be left behind. Racial and economic inequalities may deepen unless they’re addressed forcefully. .............  private businesses and many state and local governments adapted with astonishing speed. ............ companies had shifted to remote work more than 40 times faster than they expected possible ...........  Studies this year in China, Britain, Spain, Italy and Canada of covid-19 patients found PTSD symptoms, such as depression, anxiety and sleeplessness  ........ A study of 8,079 junior and senior high school students in China found that 43.7 percent experienced depressive symptoms and 37.4 percent experienced anxiety during the epidemic period. .............  The shared hardship of the pandemic will change America, as surely as did the Great Depression and World War II. The pain is obvious now, but so is the resilience. We’ll be a different country in the future, but maybe a stronger one.

New Reactor Design Could Produce First Ever Energy-Positive Fusion Reaction

A New Factory in France Will Mass-Produce Bugs as Food

‘Tehran’ Is the Latest Israeli Thriller, Emphasis on Thrills The unabashedly entertaining Apple TV+ series, which follows a young female operative in Iran, is a departure from the gritty, manly espionage dramas Israel is known for, like “Fauda.” ........... “It shows that Iranians are not just a bunch of fanatics, or just passive victims of an oppressive regime. It shows Iranian society in its complexity.” 

My Best Friend Is Gone, and Nothing Feels Right If grief is the price of love, I am unable to pay. ......... To die from this plague is a tragedy. To witness a loved one do so is a merciless, unrelenting kind of sadness — prolonged and filled with false hope. It is a faraway, forced mourning, her body a vector of contagion. It is a unique grief overridden by a forced education in a vocabulary I never wanted to learn: hydroxychloroquine, extubation, Remdesivir. ............... To die amid this pandemic is to die over Zoom, your loved ones reduced to Hollywood Squares and requests to mute. Sharing stories about yesteryear with a video lag while your best friend is sedated. And while your friend dies in her hospital bed, hundreds of miles away, the process also involves rolling your eyes at the baby boomers on the call who insist on holding their phones below their chins rather than at eye level. ...........  To mourn your best friend in the 21st century is to do so publicly or risk others wondering why you haven’t already. ......... In college at the University of Florida, and then continuing for the next eight years, Alison and I would say to each other, “Thank you for ruining me.” It was our way of telling the other: You’re so perfect, your understanding of me so nuanced and deep, that no man could ever match you. .................  Do I keep her in my contact favorites now? Do I delete her? Do I unfriend her? To die in 2020 is a messy amalgamation of digital business.  

Does an Intellectual History of the Trump Era Exist? It Does Now  the troublesome questions raised by the elevation of a soulless carnival barker to the nation’s highest office. ..........  We have become a society “that has forgotten its civics lessons or, remembering them still, has decided they don’t matter.” .............   The former F.B.I. director James Comey “doesn’t just quote Shakespeare but quotes himself quoting Shakespeare.” .............  The Mexican border wall “is like Trump: big and bombastic, more artifice than utility, a blunt solution to a complex and ill-defined problem. … You are on one side or the other, you are with him or against him.” ............. The enduring irony of the Trump presidency may be that it brought national attention to, and action against, the systemic racism and casual misogyny that have crippled our society. ...............  “Popular culture compels us to ask: ‘What do I want?’ Institutions urge a different query, Levin explains: ‘Given my role here, how should I act?’ It is a relevant question — perhaps the most relevant — for this time and for this presidency.” ...... The Democrats have become traditionalists. The Republicans, a most illiberal group of libertarians, tear down the pillars of the temple. The former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s nihilism is the spiritual heir to Abbie Hoffman’s jolly anarchy in the 1960s. .........  a vision of American stability being eviscerated by the public’s need to be entertained. .......  Virtù is the quality that keeps a republic strong: It is rigor and responsibility and intellectual achievement, albeit with a distressing tinge of militarism. Ozio is indolence; it is the laziness that overtakes a republic when it is not at war or in crisis. In America, we experienced 70 years of unprecedented peace and prosperity, without a perceived existential threat, from 1946 to 2016, a bacchanal of ozio. In the process, far too many of us lost the habits of citizenship. Truth became malleable. Morality became relative. Achievement became pass-fail — and, more recently, just showing up. Rigor was for chumps. You didn’t have to do anything to become famous, except be an “influencer.” And to be an influencer, you didn’t need to train or study, although plastic surgery — branding — certainly helped. You didn’t have to serve or sacrifice; that was for chumps, too. This was the America that elected Donald Trump president.  

What Were We Thinking

Burnout signs have risen 33% in 2020; here are seven ways to reduce risks  the full number of people feeling exhausted, ineffective, and disconnected from work may be considerably higher........   “If it’s really urgent,” he says, “people can call my cell phone. And if it’s not, I let them know that I won’t be looking at email until the morning." ......... unplugging from work is an essential long-term habit, especially if a work-at-home office is just a few steps from the dinner table or a child’s play area. ................  Limited information is far better than nothing ........... employees’ sense of connection at work has declined significantly in recent months. Some 37% of employees now feel less connected to their colleagues, and 31% feel less connected to their leaders. Companies with the least erosion in this sense of connectedness show markedly lower rates of burnout signals than those where feelings of isolation are more intense. .............  situations where one employee’s knowledgeable teen can coach someone else’s grade-schooler on math or science. .......... burnout often arises when employees feel they’re putting a great deal into their jobs -- and getting almost nothing back .......... Homes now must do triple-duty as residences, office space for the parents, and a make-shift virtual school for children. 

Professional burnout is rising