COVID-19 tests that use patients’ saliva to screen for the virus are just as effective as those that use swabs collected from the nose and throat, an analysis published by JAMA Internal Medicine found.
Monthly Archives: January 2021
Stalemate Persists Between Indian Farmers, Government

The farmers have threatened to intensify the protest by organizing a massive tractor rally in New Delhi during Republic Day celebrations on Jan. 26.
New Study Explores Risk Played By Children in COVID Spread – DER SPIEGEL (They spread as fast and all other age groups – Keep schools virtual and support parents who cannot work from home)
Gurdasani told DER SPIEGEL that the evidence is clear. “It’s clear from evidence across the globe and within the UK that schools have contributed significantly to community transmission,” she said. She cites numerous studies showing the extent to which school closures slowed the spread of the pandemic. In the U.S., for example, closures reduced the number of cases and mortality by up to 60 percent. In addition, recent analysis by the Office for National Statistics found that two- to 12-year-olds were twice as likely to be infected as adults. In other words, they are carrying the virus into their homes, where they can pass the virus to their parents and siblings. Their older siblings (up to age 16) are seven times more likely to be infected. Source: New Study Explores Risk Played By Children in COVID Spread – DER SPIEGEL
Donald Trump supporters flock to niche social media sites | Americas| North and South American news impacting on Europe | DW | 15.01.2021
Pinar Yildirim is an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and last year co-authored a study called “Social Media and Political Contributions: The Impact of New Technology on Political Competition.”
“With regards to Merkel’s concerns, I think she also has the right to express her concerns and I can understand where she’s coming from,” she says. “I think the companies had to take action. [They couldn’t] simply sit back and let the exchange of information that is potentially creating violence be exchanged on their platform.”
But Yildirim recognizes Twitter’s quandary.
“For them this is between a rock and a tough place,” she says. “This is a difficult, challenging decision to make because they had to make the decision to give individuals the ability to express themselves. At the same time they need to make sure that the exchange of information on their platform is not creating violence on the streets, is not creating damage to individuals and property, is not creating harm to the democracy.”
And that’s exactly what Trump was doing, Yildirim says. “Social media is the most effective tool to inform them [your base], excite them, mobilize them,” says Yildirim. “Trump has used Twitter very effectively in order to inform, sometimes to misinform, manipulate his base, to mobilize them, to make example of people he doesn’t like.”
Full article: COVID-19 vaccine: where are we now and where should we go?
Here, the literature regarding the COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently in the clinical trials, as well as main candidates in pre-clinical stages for development and research, were reviewed. These candidates have been developed under five different major platforms, including live-attenuated vaccine, mRNA-based vaccine, DNA vaccines, inactivated virus, and viral-vector based vaccine.
Using vaccines with or without the adjuvant as an enhancement for immunogenicity during the development of the COVID-19 vaccine is another challenge. Investigating vaccine safety toward different pathogens can be possible through animal model experiments as well as clinical trials, which are very challenging in the small-time duration of this pandemic. In addition, there is a concern in the field of the live attenuated and inactivated vaccine which may revert to virulence. Thus, safety is considered as one of the most important challenges in the rapid development of the vaccine. Designing a vaccine within a short time is another main challenge, which includes detection of potential antigen, administration route, animal model experiments, the immune-response study, clinical trials, determining the safety and efficacy, etc. Possible COVID-19 vaccine should be designed to be suitable for different age groups without interfering with other vaccination protocols in pediatrics. Other challenges are large scale production of vaccines with the high purity of the antigen, sufficient antigen, and half-life stability. Source: Full article: COVID-19 vaccine: where are we now and where should we go?
Skateboarder alleges abuse by LA deputies involved in Guardado shooting – Los Angeles Times
Pfizer, BioNTech cut back vaccine deliveries to EU at ′short notice′ | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 15.01.2021
Tuberculosis Kills As Many People Each Year As COVID-19. It’s Time We Found a Better Vaccine | Inter Press Service – (Racism + Imperialist past + Profit = little incentive for development of an adult vaccine)
In most TB endemic regions of the world, BCG is given to infants shortly after birth. The vaccination prevents childhood versions of TB and saves thousands of children’s lives annually.
However, the efficacy of BCG wanes over time. In other words, it stops working. Protection against TB is often lost by adolescence or early adulthood.
Importantly, BCG doesn’t prevent active lung TB in adults, the most important driver of ongoing transmission and cause of death.
The World Health Organization has a goal of TB elimination. To do that, we need to find a TB vaccine that also works in adults.
The reasons BCG hasn’t been replaced with a more effective TB vaccine include:
- the decline of TB in many Western countries in the 20th century
- limited interest from pharmaceutical companies to invest in TB vaccine development
- the fact TB research and pre-clinical vaccine development is logistically challenging and requires special biological containment facilities
- the short-term and fiercely competitive environment for government and philanthropic research funding makes it difficult for academics to commit to TB vaccine research as a career path.
‘It’s Starting Again’: Why Filipino Nurses Dread the Second Wave – The New York Times
As devastating as Covid-19 was in those early months, a number of studies now reveal just how hard the virus hit Filipino health care workers. Of all the nurses who died from the virus nationwide, one study found, close to a third of them were Filipino.
According to an analysis by ProPublica, in the New York City area alone, at least 30 Filipino health care workers had died from the virus by June.
As devastating as Covid-19 was in those early months, a number of studies now reveal just how hard the virus hit Filipino health care workers. Of all the nurses who died from the virus nationwide, one study found, close to a third of them were Filipino. According to an analysis by ProPublica, in the New York City area alone, at least 30 Filipino health care workers had died from the virus by June.
Filipino nurses have a long history of working in New York City hospitals, dating at least to the immigration reforms in the 1960s, which broadened the categories of foreign workers who could apply for a United States visa.
In the Philippines, nursing schools have taught an American curriculum since as early as 1907, granting degrees to English-speaking nurses who could slot easily into American hospitals. They quickly became invaluable in the 1980s as a solution to staffing shortages exacerbated by the AIDS epidemic. It was in 1986 that Ms. Ellis was recruited by Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where she was quickly deployed to the bedsides of patients with H.I.V.
San Francisco and New York were especially welcoming to migrant nurses, according to Leo-Felix Jurado, a professor of nursing at William Paterson University in New Jersey who wrote his dissertation on the importation of Filipino nurses into American hospitals.
Mr. Jurado, who is now 55, was recruited in 1988 by JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J. He recalls that visiting the employment fairs held in Manila hotels felt like an afternoon of barhopping. Recruiters jostled to make hires, sweetening work visas to the United States with signing bonuses and promises of free housing, Mr. Jurado said.
Parents Sue Louisiana Sheriff and Deputies Over Autistic Son’s Death – The New York Times
The suit, filed in United States District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana, came a year after the death of the teenager, Eric Parsa, who had severe autism. Eric, 16, died on Jan. 19, 2020, after being held down, sat on and handcuffed by deputies in a shopping center parking lot after he had an autism-related meltdown, an outburst resulting from emotional or sensory overload, according to lawyers representing his parents, Daren Parsa and Donna Lou.
In the lawsuit, Dr. Parsa and Dr. Lou charge that the authorities exhibited negligence and used excessive force while also violating their son’s civil rights and his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Never did we ever think that our 16-year-old son with special needs would die in front of our eyes at this age and in the hands of law enforcement,” Dr. Lou said at a news conference on Thursday with her husband and their lawyers. “Unfortunately, it is our reality of a nightmare.”
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