A Child Care Center Followed The COVID Safety Guidelines. It Still Had An Outbreak: LAist – (But there are still governors who want to force kids to go to unready schools!)

But despite all of their best efforts, five teachers at Centro Alegria have tested positive for coronavirus in recent weeks. And while the center’s prevention efforts meant it didn’t have to shut down entirely, it was left scrambling to figure out how to continue to operate safely.

The outbreak illustrates the difficulties child care providers face in interpreting and implementing differing guidelines from state and local agencies that they often find confusing. Providers say they’re overwhelmed by the amount of information out there.

“When everything got shut down, I had a lot of providers calling me. And they were like, ‘so what are we supposed to do?'” said longtime child care provider and union organizer Tonia McMillian. “And I told them I don’t know.”

 

Source: A Child Care Center Followed The COVID Safety Guidelines. It Still Had An Outbreak: LAist

U.S. Government Contractor Embedded Software in Apps to Track Phones – WSJ #TikTokNot – OK for US firms to spy on everyone?

A small U.S. company with ties to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities has embedded its software in numerous mobile apps, allowing it to track the movements of hundreds of millions of mobile phones world-wide, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Anomaly Six LLC a Virginia-based company founded by two U.S. military veterans with a background in intelligence, said in marketing material it is able to draw location data from more than 500 mobile applications, in part through its own software development kit, or SDK, that is embedded directly in some of the apps. An SDK allows the company to obtain the phone’s location if consumers have allowed the app containing the software to access the phone’s GPS coordinates.

 

Source: U.S. Government Contractor Embedded Software in Apps to Track Phones – WSJ

Scientists Weigh the Benefits of Air Purifiers in Fighting COVID-19 – DER SPIEGEL

The filtration device halved the concentration of the aerosols in question after only six minutes of operation in Kähler’s 80-square-meter (860 square foot) test room. The device also uses heat to destroy the trapped viruses, while at the same time fighting pests like bacteria or mold. “If you keep this system running constantly,” the physicist says, “no one will be able to create an aerosol concentration at an infectious level in a room.”

These aren’t hi-tech devices, and they’re easy to make. “The air purifiers are comprised of a tin cabinet and a fan,” says Kähler. They use a class F7 prefilter for the larger impurities, while a special high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter of the quality class H13 or H14 must be installed to protect against viruses.

(new normal)

Brenner has already proven that coronaviruses don’t stand a chance when exposed to this light. Continuous far-UVC exposure in public spaces, Brenner recently wrote in a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, destroys 90 percent of airborne viruses after 8 minutes. It kills 99.9 percent of them after 25 minutes. The only hitch is that airborne disinfection with far-UVC light still hasn’t received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S.

Even absent the coronavirus, it would still be beneficial for people to have better ventilation, air purifiers and germ-killing light. People have accepted for too long that pollutants are lurking everywhere. “Having access to a comfortable, healthy indoor climate should be a fundamental right,” says Berlin engineer Kriegel. “Air is the most important thing we consume,” he says. “Five minutes without it and we’re dead.”

Source: Scientists Weigh the Benefits of Air Purifiers in Fighting COVID-19 – DER SPIEGEL

Latino voters in Texas ‘much more’ motivated to vote in 2020, poll finds – HoustonChronicle.com

The survey of 800 Latinos who are registered to vote found that 57 percent are “much more” motivated to vote in November, with 74 percent saying they are “almost certain” to vote in the presidential race and even more — roughly 80 percent — saying they are “almost certain” to vote in the U.S. Senate and congressional races.

Source: Latino voters in Texas ‘much more’ motivated to vote in 2020, poll finds – HoustonChronicle.com

Susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 to UV Irradiation – ScienceDirect

UV light disinfection is chemical free and thus a suitable method for applying in healthcare facilities to disinfect healthcare equipment 4. Most recently, a protocol for the disinfection of personal protective equipment (PPE) including filtering face pieces from health care workers described the potential use of ultraviolet light to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 6. Taken together, we demonstrated that UV irradiation is a highly effective method to inactivate the new corona virus SARS-CoV-2, even at the higher viral load levels that are found in research laboratories e.g. in cell-culture supernatants or in diagnostic material taken from the respiratory tract of COVID-19 patients.

Source: Susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 to UV Irradiation – ScienceDirect

United States government issues travel warning for New Zealand due to ’23 active cases’ | Newshub (Say what?)

However, the warning is a moot point. Only New Zealand citizens or residents with valid travel conditions are currently allowed to travel to New Zealand and all inbound passengers must complete at least 14 days of managed isolation or quarantine and test negative for COVID-19 before entering the community. And the New Zealand Government’s safe travel website has one simple message for anyone travelling overseas, including the United States. Don’t. “We currently advise that all New Zealanders do not travel overseas at this time due to the outbreak of COVID-19,” the website says.

Source: United States government issues travel warning for New Zealand due to ’23 active cases’ | Newshub