All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Risk of COVID very low in vaccinated medical workers: study | CIDRAP

COVID-19 infection was very low in a cohort of vaccinated California healthcare workers (HCWs) amid a surge of new cases, according to a research letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

University of California researchers evaluated COVID-19 infection rates in 36,659 HCWs on the San Diego and Los Angeles campuses vaccinated with at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from Dec 16, 2020, to Feb 9, 2021. In that timeframe, 28,184 (77%) received the second dose of vaccine.

Of the 36,659 vaccinated HCWs, 379 (1.0%) tested positive for COVID-19 1 or more days after vaccination, 71% of them within the first 2 weeks after the first dose. Of the 28,184 HCWs who received their second dose, 37 (0.1%) tested positive, 22 of them 1 to 7 days later. Eight tested positive 8 to 14 days later, and 7 did so at least 15 days later.

Source: Risk of COVID very low in vaccinated medical workers: study | CIDRAP

Environmental Activist Juan Carlos Cerros Killed in Honduras – Havana Times

In Honduras, another Indigenous Lenca environmental activist has been assassinated. Forty-one-year-old Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante…

In Honduras, another Indigenous Lenca environmental activist has been assassinated. Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante, 41, was fighting against a hydroelectric dam in northwestern Honduras. He was reportedly shot to death in front of his children.

At least 12 environmental activists and land and water defenders were killed in Honduras last year. Violence has skyrocketed in the country since the U.S.-backed 2009 coup and under President Juan Orlando Hernández, a key U.S. ally.

Source: Environmental Activist Juan Carlos Cerros Killed in Honduras – Havana Times

Michigan, Minnesota see COVID-19 variant increases | CIDRAP

Today Minnesota confirmed the variant us now widespread in the state, accounting for more than half of the viruses in a sample selected for genetic sequencing. So far the state has detected 479 cases caused by B117.

Across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tracked 7,501 B117 cases in 51 jurisdictions; that number is likely a gross underestimate, as it’s based only on a samples selected for genomic surveillance.

Officials from the White House and CDC have said in recent weeks that B117 likely represents 30% of COVID-19 cases in the country, and it will become the dominant strain by April.

Source: Michigan, Minnesota see COVID-19 variant increases | CIDRAP

Alexei Navalny says health has sharply deteriorated in jail | Alexei Navalny | The Guardian

Alexei Navalny Alexei Navalny has complained of a “sharp deterioration” in his health in prison and has been blocked from meeting lawyers, a senior aide to the Russian opposition leader has said.

Navalny has reported “serious back pain” and numbness in one of his legs that has left him unable to stand on it, Leonid Volkov said on Wednesday.

Navalny’s lawyers said they had been blocked from meeting him on Wednesday and they suspected that he was in an infirmary in the IK-2 prison colony in the Vladimir region.

“We don’t understand where Alexei Navalny is or why he is being hidden from his lawyers,” they said, adding that they suspected the prison administration was trying to cover up his possible hospitalisation.

Source: Alexei Navalny says health has sharply deteriorated in jail | Alexei Navalny | The Guardian

U.S. Mass Shootings — By Hook Or By Book

In the past seven days there have been seven mass shootings in the U.S., the last two in Georgia and Colorado. I’m not going to rant and rave as I usually do, because frankly, I just don’t have it in me right now. As President Obama said in his statement addressing the latest massacre in […]

U.S. Mass Shootings — By Hook Or By Book

After Myanmar Coup, a New Resistance Rises – The New York Times

After weeks of peaceful protests, the frontline of Myanmar’s resistance to the Feb. 1 coup is mobilizing into a kind of guerrilla force. In the cities, protesters have built barricades to protect neighborhoods from military incursions and learned how to make smoke bombs on the internet. In the forests, they are training in basic warfare techniques and plotting to sabotage military-linked facilities.

Could a Air Sampler Help Detect Airbone Coronavirus Particles? – The New York Times

Testing for the virus was a top priority, so he connected with a private laboratory to ensure that his firefighters, who were transporting coronavirus patients to hospitals, could be regularly tested.

And then he heard that Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts company that makes laboratory equipment and materials, was beta testing an air sampler that could help him detect airborne coronavirus particles.

By December, he had installed one in a fire station hallway. The device, about the size of a toaster oven, sucked in ambient air and trapped airborne virus particles — if there were any to be found — in a specialized cartridge. Each afternoon, an employee would remove the cartridge and walk it to the UPS drop box across the street, sending it off for laboratory analysis.