All posts by nedhamson

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

Global COVID-19 continues climb amid widening vaccine gaps | CIDRAP

As the world’s COVID-19 cases spiked for the fifth week in a row, the World Health Organization (WHO) today said the vaccine gap between rich and poor countries continues to widen.

At a briefing, the WHO’s director said vaccine doses deployed in high-income countries are far outpacing doses administered through COVAX, a situation he said is “becoming more grotesque very day.”

The agency’s stark assessment comes as concerns over vaccine safety and supply roil countries, especially in Europe, and comes on the same day AstraZeneca released promising findings on efficacy and safety from a US trial of the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with Oxford University.

Source: Global COVID-19 continues climb amid widening vaccine gaps | CIDRAP

Some LAUSD Campuses Will Reopen Early, But Most Parents Hesitant To Send Students Back

A relative handful of Los Angeles Unified School District campuses will begin reopening earlier than expected, during the week of April 12, Superintendent Austin Beutner announced Monday.

But as LAUSD surveys families, Beutner said, a pattern is emerging: most parents are reluctant to send their students back to schools — especially in neighborhoods where COVID-19 vaccines are scarce.

Source: Some LAUSD Campuses Will Reopen Early, But Most Parents Hesitant To Send Students Back

USDA increasing SNAP benefits with pandemic relief funds | TheHill

he increase will provide around $3.5 billion to around 41 million people in households experiencing food insecurity, working out to an average $28 more per person every month, varying from state to state.

“We cannot sit by and watch food insecurity grow in the United States,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the release. “The American Rescue Plan brings help to those hurting the most due to the pandemic. It increases SNAP benefits so households can afford to put food on the table. It invests in working people and small towns and small businesses to get the economy back on track. And it makes the most meaningful investments in generations to reduce poverty.”

Source: USDA increasing SNAP benefits with pandemic relief funds | TheHill

Israeli Anti-Viral Nasal Spray gets first sales approvals – The Jerusalem Post

George Washington University student Jessica Hirsh is given the H1N1 flu nasal spray vaccine at the Student Health Service clinic in Washington, November 19, 2009 (photo credit: REUTERS/HYUNGWON KANG) Biotech company SaNOtize Research & Development said Monday that it has received interim approval in Israel to sell its Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS), which is designed to protect users from viruses that enter the body through the upper nasal pathways. The product is expected to be sold in pharmacies in Israel by the summer, and has been registered to begin being sold in New Zealand.

Last week, SaNOtize along with Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Surrey, UK, announced results of clinical trials indicating that NONS represents a safe and effective antiviral treatment that could prevent the transmission of COVID-19, shorten its course, and reduce the severity of symptoms and damage in those already infected. The study has been submitted to a leading medical journal for review and publication. “Our novel formulation of nitric oxide for use in humans is designed to kill viruses in the upper airways, preventing them from incubating and spreading to the lungs,” according to Dr. Chris Miller, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of SaNOtize. “The pharmacology, toxicity and safety data for use in humans has been well-established for decades. Our innovative product design also allows the treatment to be self-administered effectively and affordably.”

Source: Israeli Anti-Viral Nasal Spray gets first sales approvals – The Jerusalem Post

Massacre of the Danes

English History

Book 2,Chapter 9, Edward 975 AD to 1016 AD – Ethelred

Either at the command of the king, who, like most pusillanimous men, could be cruel to ferocity, or by a general impulse of indignation on the part of the people at wrong and injury suffered from the Danes, it was resolved to attack and destroy all of them who were found in the kingdom, and the festival of St. Brice, Nov. 13, 1002, was appointed for the massacre, which was carried out with all the fierceness of revenge and despair, men, women, and helpless children being involved in one common fate, and atrocities being perpetrated such as half civilized people delight in, but the particulars of which cannot be given.

Nothing can be advanced in justification of such a slaughter, but it must be remembered in extenuation, first, that the number of victims could not have been so…

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Against Violence — The Weekly Sift

The best thing you can do today is to speak out against violence toward Asians in this country, especially if you yourself are not Asian. – George Takei This week’s featured post is “Race in US History: 4 Facts Every American Should Know“. This week everybody was talking about the Atlanta shootings Tuesday night, a […]

Against Violence — The Weekly Sift