Daily Archives: December 8, 2020

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Nationwide farmers’ strike shuts down large parts of India | India | The Guardian

Protesters in Amritsar take part in a demonstration supporting farmers during the launch of a national strike.

Hundreds of thousands of farmers blocked all roads into the capital Delhi for most of the day, and across the country demonstrated on railway lines and highways and called for a shutdown of shops, in a bid to pressurise the government into repealing new agriculture laws they say will leave them poverty stricken and at the mercy of corporations.

For over a week, thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, have been camped out around the periphery of Delhi, sitting along police barricades on the three main roads going into the capital, saying they will not move until the three agriculture laws are repealed and they are given assurances of a minimum price for their crops. A meeting last Friday between farmers and the government went on for seven hours but failed to end the deadlock.

Source: Nationwide farmers’ strike shuts down large parts of India | India | The Guardian

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‘Mix-and-match’ coronavirus vaccines to be tested – BBC News

experts want to explore whether the immune response can be strengthened further and made more durable with a mix-and-match “heterologous boost” approach.

Kate Bingham, who chairs the vaccine task force, said: “It’s an established process.

“It’s not being done because of supplies.”

There is another Covid jab that could soon be approved by regulators – the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

This works in a slightly different way to the Pfizer jab which could make it a good companion for pairing, say scientists.

The Pfizer vaccine uses a small amount of genetic code from the pandemic virus to teach the body how to fight off an infection, while the Oxford one is a genetically modified virus that has been altered so it won’t cause infection but does carry information on how to beat Covid.

The idea is to give people a shot of the Pfizer vaccine followed by a dose of the Oxford one a few weeks later or vice versa, rather than two doses of the same vaccine.

The hope is that it will make the immune system produce two responses strongly – antibodies and T-cells – to combat Covid.

Source: ‘Mix-and-match’ coronavirus vaccines to be tested – BBC News

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A ‘restricted’ free-for-all Russia’s coronavirus vaccine is rolling out in Moscow to risk groups, but hospitals are actually inoculating anyone who wants it, due to low demand driven by safety concerns — Meduza

officials in and around Moscow (where the vaccine has been made available first) have been administering the shots to virtually anyone who wants one, learned Meduza special correspondents Svetlana Reiter and Liliya Yapparova, who also discovered a special chat group on Telegram that contains instructions explaining how to get Sputnik V, even if you’re not in a risk group.

Sputnik V’s chief developer, Denis Logunov, told Meduza that the vaccine still hasn’t completed its Phase III trial, meaning that it cannot yet be made available to the general public. The drug currently has only “limited” approval, which allows health officials to vaccinate only people in certain risk groups, Logunov explained.

So far, the only published data from Sputnik V’s completed clinical trials come from the vaccine’s combined Phase I-II trial and its 20 participants. “We have no [detailed, published] data on how this vaccine will affect the body, shall we say, in the long run,” says Svetlana Zavidova, the executive director of the nonprofit Association of Clinical Trials Organizations. “And we still have no data about the drug’s effectiveness. We can’t even assess the risk of widescale use,” she warns.

In and around Moscow, mass vaccinations against COVID-19 are already underway. Doctors, teachers, and others in risk groups, however, aren’t being prioritized — the shots are going to anyone who wants them.

Source: A ‘restricted’ free-for-all Russia’s coronavirus vaccine is rolling out in Moscow to risk groups, but hospitals are actually inoculating anyone who wants it, due to low demand driven by safety concerns — Meduza

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(4) Brexit negotiations: UK PM Johnson heading to Brussels for in-person talks – YouTube (No Brexit on Brits terms for Boris- wannabe Churchill moment will not play)

British Prime Minister Boris #Johnson agreed to meet European Commission President Ursula von der #Leyen to see if they could find “a political way” through the disagreements in trade talks, his spokesman said on Tuesday. FRANCE 24’s Dave Keating tells us more.

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21st Century Colonialism – implemented by corporations and NGOs? Whose Survival is at stake here, Survival? The survival of the rainforests and indigenous peoples or of Cartier and others in the luxury gold and diamond jewelry industry? — Barbara Crane Navarro

Originally posted on Barbara Crane Navarro: photo: Cartier publicity? “Man’s folly hath enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity; whereas nature, like a kind parent, hath freely given us the best things, such as air, earth, and water, but hath hidden from us those which are vain and useless.” Thomas More,…

21st Century Colonialism – implemented by corporations and NGOs? Whose Survival is at stake here, Survival? The survival of the rainforests and indigenous peoples or of Cartier and others in the luxury gold and diamond jewelry industry? — Barbara Crane Navarro
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5 Common Mistakes Seen in Ecommerce Copywriting

MiddleMe

A lot of people think that e-commerce copywriting is a very easy task. One simply has to write several words for an online business to entice potential customers to check out the offered products and services. However, e-commerce copywriting is not only about writing quality articles, but also making the brands to be recognised in search engines and subsequently increase the search traffic.

If you are an e-commerce copywriter, you know that promoting your brand can be a challenge and it is evident in your website’s performance. If you seriously want to attract an audience using your articles and drive in sales, here are some of the common mistakes that you need to avoid when doing e-commerce writing:

It’s too Focused on the Product

Every copywriter falls into this specific pitfall of focusing too much on the product. From the perspective of the buyer, a long narrative can dissuade them…

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Department of Health Provides Update on COVID-19: 5,300 Patients Hospitalized and 1,107 Patients in the Intensive Care Unit

The Pennsylvania Department of Health today confirmed as of 12:00 a.m., December 7, that there were 6,330 new cases, in addition to 8,630 new cases reported Sunday, December 6 for a two-day total of 14,960 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 426,444. There are 5,300 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19. Of that number, 1,107 patients are in the intensive care unit with COVID-19. Most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older. More data is available here.

Source: Department of Health Provides Update on COVID-19: 5,300 Patients Hospitalized and 1,107 Patients in the Intensive Care Unit