Category Archives: News to use

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

Searching for a Turning point

Grounds For Hope

 A global pandemic, economic collapse A civil unrest has galvanized us. Questioning science causes turmoil, Searching for a turning point. Career politicians put our lives in suspense Power drunk, they are killing each other. Arguing if pips need a stimulus check Interrupting the progress to go further. Searching for ways to move on, Move on beyond the ravage of COVID We begged for a vaccine to save us all Now, that it’s here, we are silent and stolid. Picking through cracks of structural divides Most keep opinions a secret Watching the country falling apart Pretending that we are all equal. Woke up in the morning, turned on news With hope to hear about our savior coming. Only to learn that overnight More souls left the Earth and in heaven humming. A year of daily nightmares has passed Surgical masks still in fashion The Q people hit the country with blasts…

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Delay of Shots From India Slows Britain’s Speedy Vaccination Drive – The New York Times

Although the death toll from Covid-19 in Britain now exceeds 125,000, the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson has outpaced the rest of Europe with a vaccination program that has already provided first doses to more than 25 million people.

But that giddying pace is set to slow as a result of the delay in the delivery of about 4 million doses from India, underscoring the extent to which even successful vaccination programs are at the mercy of supply chains.

In April, Britain will concentrate on completing vaccinations of those 50 and above, and those who have medical conditions, as well as administering a second shot to 12 million people who were the first to be treated. That is a priority because the second injection needs to be done within 12 weeks of the first inoculation, Mr. Hancock said.

“The problem at the moment is that there is no spare capacity, every single factory that could possibly turn out a vaccine is working 24 hours, seven days a week to try and do that, but inevitably there are problems,” said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation and a scientific adviser to the British government.

What must be avoided is “this idea of export controls and nationalism,” Professor Farrar said. “Contracts need to be honored,” he added.

Holding that line looks increasing hard. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of the Serum Institute of India, told the BBC that his company had been permitted to export 50 percent of the 95 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it produces.

“Having said that, the government wanted to scale up its vaccination drive, they needed the maximum volumes they could get from us,” he said. “And that is why I had to send out a message to all our partners that were expecting more doses in these two to three months only that they would be facing a few delays.”

Myanmar Protesters Answer Military’s Bullets With an Economic Shutdown – The New York Times

Since the military seized power in a coup last month, an entire nation has come to a standstill. From hospitals, railways and dockyards to schools, shops and trading houses, much of society has stopped showing up for work in an attempt to stymie the military regime and force it to return authority to a civilian government.

While demonstrators continue to brave bullets — at least 220 people have been killed since the Feb. 1 coup, according to a local group that monitors political imprisonments and deaths — the quiet persistence of this mass civil disobedience movement has grown into a potent weapon against the military. For all the planning that went into the putsch, the generals seem to have been utterly unprepared for the breadth and depth of resistance against them.

China Punishes Microsoft’s LinkedIn Over Lax Censorship – The New York Times (protecting feelings of political leaders via bowing to their desire for censorship is not good business)

China’s internet regulator rebuked LinkedIn executives this month for failing to control political content, according to three people briefed on the matter. Though it isn’t clear precisely what material got the company into trouble, the regulator said it had found objectionable posts circulating in the period around an annual meeting of China’s lawmakers, said these people, who asked for anonymity because the issue isn’t public.

Why Child Care Staff Had to Show Up While Teachers Worked Remotely – The New York Times (for clicks and attention: create a division between unionized teachers and childcare workers and then present it as news? Not a good move NYT)

“When there’s a school closure, they don’t even include us, we are always an afterthought,” said Maria Collier, who runs the center, which serves mostly low-income Latino students. “We were deemed essential workers. But if teachers are in Department of Education schools, they were not essential workers.”

Over the last year, some educators, school officials and teachers’ union leaders in New York and across the country have declared that teachers are not babysitters, and that schools are not child care centers. The sentiment has been meant to convince the public that teachers should not be responsible for supervising children just so that parents can return to work.

But while some educators have been able to work from home for much, if not all, of the pandemic, child care centers have emerged as substitute schools for many thousands of American children for whom online learning is not an option.

Opinion: German politicians must realize this is no time for caution | News and current affairs from Germany and around the world | DW | 18.03.2021

For politicians, playing safe in emergencies isn’t necessarily the best approach, as the current situation goes to show. Of 1.6 million people who have received the first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Germany, three died of thrombosis. This is doubtless tragic and needs to be investigated. But was it necessary for Germany, like a whole series of other countries, to immediately suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine? Better safe than sorry? Well, the impact of this decision is predictable: The rate of vaccination in Germany will slow down and even more people will die, particularly as the number of cases is increasing rapidly.

Source: Opinion: German politicians must realize this is no time for caution | News and current affairs from Germany and around the world | DW | 18.03.2021

How to Deal With Anxiety At Night – Invisibly Me

Anxiety can be exhausting & debilitating if not managed well. Many find it can become more bothersome before bed, with the evening hours gradually ramping up stress and anxiety. Both issues can be incredibly damaging, and both may be all the more prevalent this year given the stress of the Covid19 pandemic. Mental and physical health go hand in hand, and these things shouldn’t be underestimated. Source: How to Deal With Anxiety At Night – Invisibly Me