Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Texas officials ask US government for mortuary trucks as Covid cases rise | Texas | The Guardian

Officials requested trucks from Fema as a ‘precaution’ while coronavirus deaths in the state have tripled in the last two weeks

Source: Texas officials ask US government for mortuary trucks as Covid cases rise | Texas | The Guardian

Avian Flu Diary: Science Perspective: The Animal Origin of SARS-CoV-2

Humans are now the dominant SARS-CoV-2 host species. The danger is that SARS-CoV-2 could spread from humans to other animal species, termed reverse zoonosis, as is suspected for white-tailed deer in the United States. The promiscuous infection of various host species by the sarbecoviruses means that future spillovers of SARSr-CoVs from wildlife are very likely, and current vaccines may not be protective against novel variants. The sampling intensity of sarbecoviruses needs to be urgently increased to gain a better understanding of this spillover risk.
The recent finding of sarbecoviruses, not dissimilar to SARS-CoV-2, dispersed in Southeast Asia emphasizes the urgency of monitoring coronavirus diversity. Humanity must work together beyond country borders to amplify surveillance for coronaviruses at the human–animal interface to minimize the threat of both established and evolving variants evading vaccines and to stop future spillover events.
         (Continue . . . )
While I don’t completely discount the possibility of a lab-leak origin for SARS-CoV-2, we’ve been expecting another `SARS-like‘ spillover from bats – likely via an intermediary host – since the mid-2000s.
It was the scenario behind 2019’s The JHCHS #Event201 (Fictional) CAPS Table Top Exercise, and throughout the last decade we looked at numerous `bat-borne’ zoonotic threats, including:

Emerg. Microbes & Infect.: Novel Coronaviruses In Least Horseshoe Bats In Southwestern China 

PNAS: SARS-like WIV1-CoV Poised For Human Emergence

Sci Rpts: Avian & Human Influenza Compatible Receptor Cells In Little Brown Bats

Study: Hotspots For Bat To Human Disease Transmission

Six weeks before the Wuhan outbreak, in African Swine Fever’s (ASF) Other Impacts; Pharmaceuticals, Bushmeat, and Food Insecurity, I even speculated that China’s ASF outbreak could  lead to increased `bushmeat’ consumption, which in turn might spark another SARS-like outbreak (one of the possible scenarios discussed in today’s article).

Admittedly, more of a lucky guess than prescience, since we’ve been expecting a SARS redux – or the emergence of Virus X – for years.

Regardless of how SARS-CoV-2 emerged, today’s perspective is a reminder that nature’s laboratory is open 24/7 – and future spillovers are all but guaranteed.  We either prepare as if it will happen, or we will be caught flat footed and unprepared again.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: Science Perspective: The Animal Origin of SARS-CoV-2

Bursa de valori

Vivaldi translation:
Stock exchange
Paris, 2021

I knew from Punta in Dogana that Tadao Ando was acting by elimination. Now, in Paris, the concrete cylinder he introduced into the heritage building of the former Commodity Exchange absorbed me like a fountain or a cent and reduced my perceptions only to the essential.

ore de drum

Paris, 2021

Știam, încă de la Punta de la Dogana, că Tadao Ando procedează prin eliminare. Acum, la Paris, cilindrul de beton pe care l-a introdus în clădirea de patrimoniu a fostei Burse de mărfuri m-a absorbit ca o fântână sau un cenote și mi-a redus percepțiile doar la esențial.

De îndată ce îl văd, intuiesc ca actul arhitectural e mai puternic decât colecția care i-a prilejuit existența. Cred că marele industriaș François Pinault a avut dreptate să aștepte timp îndelungat oportunitatea de a-și instala o mică parte a colecției într-un astfel de spațiu unde, ca și la Venezia, Tadao Ando a plăsmuit magia receptării.

Clădirea Bursei se află pe locul unde, în 1574, a fost ridicată reședința personală a Caterinei de Medicis din care se mai pastrează o singură coloană. Mai târziu, în secolul 18, aici a funcționat o hală de grâne, amenajată circular.

În secolul 19, a fost…

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The sleeping giant that can define the future of the planet – Darwinian

The temperature of permafrost has increased in the last half century, in some regions registering an increase of 3 ° C in less than a decade, while in others the temperature remains stable. The process is fast and irreversible due to the feedback of its carbon cycle, and can have consequences not only in ecosystems, but in the emergence of new epidemics. In view of this, coordinated global actions are needed, mainly by industrial nations, to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, in order to avoid an environmental collapse even in that century.

Source: The sleeping giant that can define the future of the planet – Darwinian

Biden Administration Recommends Booster Shots For Covid-19

Most Americans will be advised to get a booster shot to protect themselves against the evolving COVID-19 virus, and those shots could be available as early as mid-September.

The Biden administration is expected to announce this week that Americans who got the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines will need the third shot to protect themselves against the Delta variant that is spreading across the country, according to the New York Times. The booster shot should come eight months after the second shot; officials also said that people who got the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine will also need a booster shot.

The New York Times reports that, like the first rollout of the vaccine, the first booster shots will go to frontline workers and the most vulnerable, including nursing home residents, healthcare workers and emergency workers. After those people will come older folks and then the general public. People will likely get the same vaccine they received before.

Source: Biden Administration Recommends Booster Shots For Covid-19

No era así

Santiago Galicia Rojon Serrallonga

SANTIAGO GALICIA ROJON SERRALLONGA

Derechos reservados conforme a la ley/ Copyright

No era así. Estamos desarmados. Hay piezas faltantes, voces que callaron de improviso, espacios ausentes, listas de epitafios. Estamos incompletos. Venimos de una historia distante, oculta no sé dónde -en los recuerdos que se debilitan, en los sentimientos que se extinguen, en todo lo que fuimos y vivimos-, al grado de hundirse en los esteros de la desmemoria. Algo extraño e inexplicable aconteció en el camino, en alguna estación de descanso o de la jornada, cuando vivíamos y, por lo mismo, suponíamos que éramos intensamente dichosos. Estamos rotos. Algo cambió. Hoy, cualquiera muere, y no importa si los instantes de su existencia se contabilizan en horas y en días o en años y en décadas, o si es en el cunero, en los jardines del mundo o en el lecho postrero. No era así. Antes -hace tan poco tiempo…

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COVID-19 Vaccine: FAQs & Distribution Information | Walgreens

The CDC recommends an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine for moderately to severely immunocompromised people. This includes people who have completed a vaccination series with Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna and have:

  • Been receiving active cancer treatment for tumors or cancers of the blood
  • Received an organ transplant and are taking medicine to suppress the immune system
  • Received a stem cell transplant within the last 2 years or are taking medicine to suppress the immune system
  • Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (such as DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome)
  • Advanced or untreated HIV infection
  • Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids or other drugs that may suppress your immune response

Source: COVID-19 Vaccine: FAQs & Distribution Information | Walgreens

Protection by vaccination of children against typhoid fever with a Vi-tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine in urban Bangladesh: a cluster-randomised trial – The Lancet (Me: just saying – vaccines save lives!)

Among new-generation vaccines against typhoid, ViPS-protein conjugate vaccines have been most promising, owing to their ability to elicit robust immune responses in infants and young children and their capacity to elicit T-cell-mediated immune memory responses, offering the potential for long-term protection.

One such vaccine, consisting of ViPS conjugated to tetanus toxoid (Vi-TT; Typbar TCV, Bharat Biotech International, Hyderabad, India), has been licensed as a single-dose vaccine for people younger than 12 months in multiple countries (India, Nepal, Cambodia, and Nigeria),

and has been prequalified by WHO for purchase by UN agencies.

The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization has recommended that, for programmatic and epidemiological reasons, the vaccine should be started at 9 months of age, coincident with the 9 month Expanded Programme on Immunization visit in many countries. A phase 3 randomised, controlled trial has shown that the vaccine was safe and highly immunogenic (seroconversion, 98%; geometric mean titre, 1937 [95% CI 1785–2103]) in children (n=327) aged 6–23 months.

This vaccine has also been shown in an interim analysis of an individually randomised efficacy trial among children in Nepal to confer 82% protection against typhoid disease.

To better understand the ability of this vaccine to confer protection, including herd protection, under circumstances of mass immunisation, we did a cluster-randomised, controlled, clinical trial of Vi-TT vaccine in urban Bangladesh.

Source: Protection by vaccination of children against typhoid fever with a Vi-tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine in urban Bangladesh: a cluster-randomised trial – The Lancet

More than 8,000 Florida students isolate or quarantine for covid-19 in Hillsborough County – The Washington Post

A Florida school board is set to hold an emergency meeting this week to consider a mask mandate as more than 8,000 students and hundreds of employees in its district are in isolation or quarantine because of a surge in coronavirus cases and possible exposure.

Hillsborough County Public Schools, which includes Tampa, has 8,400 students and 307 staff members either in isolation because of a positive test or in quarantine after coming into close contact with someone who tested positive, district spokesperson Tanya Arja told The Washington Post on Tuesday. The number of students who are either in isolation or quarantine jumped by nearly 3,000 from the total given by the school district on Monday.

Source: More than 8,000 Florida students isolate or quarantine for covid-19 in Hillsborough County – The Washington Post