Impressive Water Purification System Found at Ancient Maya City | RealClearScience

The next job will be to monitor the safety of vaccines once they’re in widespread use. But the administration last year quietly disbanded the office with the expertise for exactly this job, merging it into an office focused on infectious diseases. Its elimination has left that long-term safety effort for coronavirus vaccines fragmented among federal agencies, with no central leadership, experts say. Source: Impressive Water Purification System Found at Ancient Maya City | RealClearScience

The Trump Administration Shut a Vaccine Safety Office Last Year. What’s the Plan Now? – The New York Times

The next job will be to monitor the safety of vaccines once they’re in widespread use. But the administration last year quietly disbanded the office with the expertise for exactly this job, merging it into an office focused on infectious diseases. Its elimination has left that long-term safety effort for coronavirus vaccines fragmented among federal agencies, with no central leadership, experts say.

Huge COVID study finds remdesivir doesn’t work—FDA grants approval anyway | Ars Technica

the FDA’s approval of remdesivir falls on the heels of data form the fourth and largest trial of the drug, and that trial showed no benefit. The data comes from the World Health Organization’s massive Solidarity trial, which set up an international network of trials enrolling nearly 12,000 patients at 500 sites in over 30 countries, testing multiple repurposed therapeutics. Remdesivir was initially developed over a decade ago as a potential treatment for hepatitis C and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). It has also been tested against Ebola but was beat out by other treatments. According to preliminary results from the Solidarity trial—reported online last week ahead of its planned publication in the New England Journal of Medicine—remdesivir was given to 2,743 patients, and their outcomes were compared with those of 2,708 patients given standard treatments. Between the two groups, WHO found that remdesivir did not reduce mortality. It also did not change how many patients progressed to needing mechanical ventilation, nor did it change the proportion of patients discharged after seven days of hospitalization.

Source: Huge COVID study finds remdesivir doesn’t work—FDA grants approval anyway | Ars Technica

Israel found success in combating a second coronavirus wave but now worries citizens will refuse more restrictions – ABC News

After recording the world’s worst per capita rate of new coronavirus infections, Israel finds some success with a second lockdown. But there are now fears Israelis might be less willing to cooperate with restrictions.

Source: Israel found success in combating a second coronavirus wave but now worries citizens will refuse more restrictions – ABC News

Trump issues sweeping order stripping job protections from tens of thousands of federal employees – Stripes (If he wants to claim you don’t like Trump, he can and can fire you.)

Federal scientists, attorneys, regulators, public health experts and many others in senior roles would lose rights to due process and in some cases, union representation, at agencies across the government. The White House declined to say how many jobs would be swept into a class of employees with fewer civil service rights, but civil service experts and union leaders estimated anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands in a workforce of 2.1 million.

It would be a profound reimagining of the career workforce, but one that may end up as a statement of purpose rather than anything else. The order fast-tracks a process that gives agencies until Jan. 19 to review potentially affected jobs. That’s a day before the next presidential inauguration. An administration under Democratic nominee Joe Biden would be unlikely to allow the changes to proceed.

Still, the order, coming less than two weeks before the election, represents a stunning effort to reshape large parts of the nonpartisan government, which is supposed to serve as a cadre of subject-matter experts for every administration.

Source: Trump issues sweeping order stripping job protections from tens of thousands of federal employees – Stripes

Jared Kushner and Rudy Giuliani friend Ken Kurson charged with stalking

  • Ken Kurson, the former editor of a New York newspaper that had been owned by his friend Jared Kushner, has been charged by federal prosecutors with stalking and harassment of three people.
  • Kurson, a political consultant, is accused of repeatedly visiting his victims at work, making false complaints with their employer and “malicious cyber activity,” prosecutors said.
  • Kurson, who is also a confidant of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, told The Times in 2018 that he withdrew from consideration for a Trump administration-appointed seat on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities

Source: Jared Kushner and Rudy Giuliani friend Ken Kurson charged with stalking

Lebanon Records Highest Daily Tally of Virus Cases — Naharnet

Lebanon on Friday announced 1,534 new COVID-19 deaths, the highest daily tally so far for the small country since the first infection was detected on February 21.

In its daily statement, the Health Ministry said 1,460 of the cases were confirmed among residents and 74 among people coming from abroad.

Source: Lebanon Records Highest Daily Tally of Virus Cases — Naharnet