Monthly Archives: May 2020

Indian Navy Begins Next Phase of Operation ‘Samudra Setu’

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The next phase of Operation “Samudra Setu” to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas will commence from Monday, June 1, 2020, said Indian Navy. In this phase, Indian Navy Ship Jalashwa will repatriate 700 personnel from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu and subsequently repatriate another 700 personnel from Malè, Maldives to Tuticorin.

Indian Navy has already repatriated 1,488 Indian nationals from Malè to Kochi during the previous phase of operations from May 8, 2020 as part of Phase-1. The ships have been suitably provisioned for the evacuation operation. The evacuated personnel would be provided the basic amenities and medical facilities during the sea-passage.

Indian Naval Ship Jalashwa brought 588 Indian citizens, including six expectant mothers and 21 children on 15 May from Maldives as part of Operation Samudra Setu, braving rain and winds gusting at 30-40 knots at Male. The ship staff ensured completion of all formalities for the manifested passengers while observing safety and medical protocols, though the inclement weather hampered the embarkation process requiring various pre-embarkation activities to be done onboard the ship itself.

Indian Missions in Sri Lanka and Maldives are preparing a list of Indian nationals to be evacuated and will facilitate their embarkation after requisite medical screening. COVID-related social distancing norms have been catered onboard and evacuees would be provided basic amenities and medical facilities during the sea-passage.

After disembarkation at Tuticorin, the evacuated personnel will be entrusted to the care of State authorities. This operation is being progressed in close coordination with Ministries of External Affairs, Home Affairs, Health and various other agencies of the Government of India and State governments.

Earlier, Indian Prime Minister spoke to Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa on the occasion of completing 50 years since his first entering Parliament. The leaders discussed the health and economic impact of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and the measures being taken in the two countries to counter them. PM Modi assured his counterpart that India stands ready to extend all possible support to Sri Lanka during this challenging time.

Back to Office? Replace coffee pot, restrain from hand shake – say CDC Guidelines

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No more hand shakes or fist bumps if you are returning to your office. Temperature and symptom checks, plastic desk shields, and face coverings worn at all times — are some of the urgent recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for those who are gearing up to return to offices despite the pandemic.

“Replace high-touch communal items, such as coffee pots, water coolers, and bulk snacks, with alternatives such as prepackaged, single-serving items,” says one of the guidelines issued by the CDC.

Workers in office buildings may be at risk for exposure to the coronavirus. Office building employers, building owners and managers, and building operations specialists can take “steps to create a safe and healthy workplace and protect workers and clients,” said the CDC on its website.

Applicable anywhere in the world, including India once the lockdown is lifted next week, here’s the list:

CDC Guidelines to Office Goers

  • Replace high-touch communal items, such as coffee pots, water coolers, and bulk snacks
  • Upon arriving at work, employees should get a temperature and symptom check.
  • Inside the office, desks should be six feet apart or partition with plastic shields be erected.
  • Seating should be barred in common areas.
  • Face coverings should be worn at all times.
  • Regular hand washing of at least 20 seconds; no fist bumps or handshakes; no face touching.
  • Limit use and occupancy of elevators to maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet.
  • Repeat disinfecting of surfaces, cleansing out the ventilation system, opening windows and allow ventilation.
  • Display posters in offices recommending best practices.

The guidelines would lead to a far-reaching remaking of the corporate work experience and those who are returning to work are urged to drive to work by themselves, instead of taking public transportation or car-pooling, to avoid potential exposure to the virus.

The CDC has finally advised companies to allow white-collar employees at all levels to continue work from home, which has proved effective in the last few months.

Coronavirus vaccine by October end, announces US pharma giant Pfizer

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American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced that its ongoing development of a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready in five months period by October end. Pfizer is working on the vaccine project in collaboration with German firm Biontech.

Pfizer and its vaccine development German partner BioNTech announced on Friday, May 29, that the first participants have been given the doses in the US in the Phase 1/2 clinical trial for the BNT162 vaccine program to prevent COVID-19. “If things go well, and the stars are aligned, we will have enough evidence of safety and efficacy so that we can have a vaccine around the end of October,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

The trial is part of the dosing of the first cohort in Germany that was completed last week. The Phase 1/2 study is designed to determine the safety, immunogenicity and optimal dose level of four mRNA vaccine candidates under study. The dose level escalation portion (Stage 1) of the Phase 1/2 trial in the U.S. will enroll up to 360 healthy subjects into two age cohorts (18-55 and 65-85 years of age). The first subjects immunized in Stage 1 of the study will be healthy adults 18-55 years of age, said the company.

Older adults will be immunized with a given dose level once testing and dose level in younger adults has provided initial evidence of safety and immunogenicity. Currently,the participants are being given these doses at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, with the University of Rochester Medical Center/Rochester Regional Health and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“The short, less than four-month timeframe in which we’ve been able to move from pre-clinical studies to human testing is extraordinary and further demonstrates our commitment to dedicating our best-in-class resources, from the lab to manufacturing and beyond, in the battle against COVID-19,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer.

Pfizer and BioNTech’s Vaccine Program

Pfizer and BioNTech’s development program includes four vaccine candidates, each representing a different combination of mRNA format and target antigen. The ongoing trial allows for the evaluation of the various mRNA candidates simultaneously in order to identify the safest and potentially most efficacious candidate in a greater number of volunteers.

“It is encouraging that we have been able to leverage more than a decade of experience in developing our mRNA platforms to initiate a global clinical trial in multiple regions for our vaccine program in such a short period. We are optimistic that advancing multiple vaccine candidates into human trials will allow us to identify the safest, most effective vaccination options against COVID-19,” said CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, whose firm will provide the vaccine from its GMP-certified mRNA manufacturing facilities in Europe.

Once this stage is successfully accomplished, both Pfizer and BioNTech plan to rapidly increase production of millions of vaccine doses in 2020, increasing to hundreds of millions in 2021. BioNTech and Pfizer will work supply the vaccine worldwide once regulators allow except China, where BioNTech has a collaboration with Fosun Pharma for BNT162 for both clinical development and commercialization.

Pfizer-owned sites in three U.S. states (Massachusetts, Michigan and Missouri) and Puurs, Belgium are being pressed into  manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine production, with more sites to be selected once the vaccine rolls out. Through its existing mRNA production sites in Mainz and Idar-Oberstein, Germany, BioNTech plans to ramp up its production capacity.

Coronavirus: Who is the loser in US-WHO rift? Global Health

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When US President Donald Trump tweeted a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week threatening to make permanent the US freeze on WHO funding that began in April, unless the organization “can actually demonstrate independence from China” within 30 days, it has heralded another onslaught on fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

If President Trump sidelines the World Health Organization, experts foresee incoherence, inefficiency and resurgence of deadly diseases. The fissure between the United States and the World Health Organization has unveiled further the repercussions which could range from a resurgence of polio and malaria to barriers in the flow of information on COVID-19.

On the flip side, scientific partnerships around the world would be damaged, and the United States could lose influence over global health initiatives, including those to distribute drugs and vaccines for the new coronavirus as they become available, according to health experts.

“I don’t think this is an idle threat,” says Kelley Lee, a global health-policy researcher at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. The acrimony is poorly timed when the need of the hour is for international coordination and cooperation to contain with the coronavirus. “In this pandemic, people have said we’re building the plane while flying,” Katz says. “This proposal is like removing the windows while the plane is mid-air,” said Rebeca Katz, director of the Center for Global Health at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

Trump’s Allegations

Trump’s letter, which he tweeted on 18 May, reiterated his earlier allegations that the WHO intentionally ignored reports that COVID-19 was spreading between people in Wuhan, China, in December itself. “I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America’s interests,” he wrote.

A few of Trump’s claims such that the medical journal The Lancet had published on the new coronavirus in December was debunked the next day when the journal issued a statement calling the claim factually incorrect because their first reports on COVID-19 were published on 24 January.

Tedros has reiterated his commitment to an independent evaluation of the WHO’s response to COVID-19, and an assessment of the organization’s operations in the first part of 2020 that has already been made public. But when reporters asked Tedros, he said, “Right now, the most important thing is fighting the fire, saving lives.”

Last year, the US government gave the WHO roughly US$450 million. Nearly 75% of that was voluntary, and the other quarter was mandatory — a sort of membership fee expected from the 194 member countries, adjusted by the size of their economies and populations. The United States is the biggest donor, representing about 15% of the WHO budget.

So far this year, it has paid about one-quarter — $34 million — of its membership dues, according to a WHO spokesperson. Voluntary funds are more complicated because a large portion were paid last year, however the spokesperson says that the freeze has put a hold on new agreements, meaning that the full-blown effects of the decision will be felt in 2021.

The US government provides 27% of the WHO’s budget for polio eradication; 19% of its budget for tackling tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles; and 23% of its budget for emergency health operations. David Heymann, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says this will also amount to resurge of polio.

The WHO will survive a US funding freeze in the next few months as other donors will help to compensate for the financial gap during the pandemic. Already, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $2 billion to the coronavirus response.

Even the United States would lose its influence on what the agency does and eventually lose its voting rights. Currently, only three countries — South Sudan, Venezuela and the Central African Republic — are in this category.

With that loss, the United States will relinquish its ability to shape health agendas around the world, says Lee. Ironically, that is exactly what the Trump administration is complaining about. “If the US pulls out and leaves a vacuum, it will be filled by other countries, like China,” she says. “You’ll see a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

 

 

No Dark Matter, astronomers find the long missing Universe’s ordinary matter

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Astronomers have detected much of the Universe’s ordinary matter, which had long been missing from accounts of its total mass. Not ‘dark matter’ — the mysterious, invisible stuff that makes up the majority of the Universe’s contents. This is normal matter, but it’s spread so sparsely across intergalactic space that more than three-quarters of it is almost undetectable.

Using an array of 36 radio telescopes in remote Western Australia, researchers analysed the light from 6 fast radio bursts (FRBs), unusually energetic events that last just milliseconds and originate in other galaxies. The spectrum was sensitive enough to reveal the exceedingly thin matter that the FRBs met in their travels. “The missing matter was equivalent to only one or two atoms in a room the size of an average office,” says radio astronomer Jean-Pierre Macquart.

More than three-quarters of the baryonic content of the Universe resides in a highly diffuse state that is difficult to detect, with only a small fraction directly observed in galaxies and galaxy clusters. Censuses of the nearby Universe have used absorption line spectroscopy to observe the ‘invisible’ baryons, but these measurements rely on large and uncertain corrections and are insensitive to most of the Universe’s volume and probably most of its mass.

Universe’s invisible baryons

In particular, quasar spectroscopy is sensitive either to the very small amounts of hydrogen that exist in the atomic state, or to highly ionized and enriched gas in denser regions near galaxies. Other techniques to observe these invisible baryons also have limitations — Sunyaev–Zel’dovich analyses can provide evidence from gas within filamentary structures, and studies of X-ray emission are most sensitive to gas near galaxy clusters.

The scientists said a measurement of the baryon content of the Universe using the dispersion of a sample of localized fast radio bursts; this technique determines the electron column density along each line of sight and accounts for every ionized baryon.

“We augment the sample of reported arcsecond-localized fast radio bursts with four new localizations in host galaxies that have measured redshifts of 0.291, 0.118, 0.378 and 0.522. This completes a sample sufficiently large to account for dispersion variations along the lines of sight and in the host-galaxy environments, and we derive a cosmic baryon density of Ωb=0.051+0.021−0.025h−170 (95 per cent confidence; h70 = H0/(70 km s−1 Mpc−1) and H0 is Hubble’s constant,” wrote scientists in their paper published in Nature.

This independent measurement is consistent with values derived from the cosmic microwave background and from Big Bang nucleosynthesis, they wrote in their abstract.

Neanderthal gene in modern women helps give birth to more children, says study

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A new study said one in three women in Europe who inherited genes from the ancient homosapiens — Neanderthals — tend to give birth to more children as they produce more progesterone receptors in their cells, which may lead to increased sensitivity to progesterone and protection against early miscarriages and bleeding.
The study, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, is based on analyses of biobank data from more than 450,000 participants – among them 244,000 women.
The findings showed that almost one in three women in Europe have inherited the progesterone receptor from Neandertals, while 29 percent carry one copy of the Neandertal receptor and three percent have two copies. Progesterone is a hormone, which plays an important role in the menstrual cycle and in pregnancy. It helps in preparing the uterine lining for egg implantation and in maintaining the early stages of pregnancy.
Modern Humans
The present-day carriers of the Neandertal haplotypes express higher levels of the receptor. In a cohort of present-day Britons, these carriers have more siblings, fewer miscarriages and less bleeding during early pregnancy suggesting that it promotes fertility  and this may explain the high frequency of the Neandertal progesterone receptor alleles in modern human populations.

 “The progesterone receptor is an example of how favourable genetic variants that were introduced into modern humans by mixing with Neanderthals can have effects in people living today,” says Hugo Zeberg, researcher at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, who performed the study with colleagues Janet Kelso and Svante Pääbo.

Neanderthals in a cave /Searchmap.eu

“The proportion of women who inherited this gene is about ten times greater than for most Neanderthal gene variants,” says Hugo Zeberg. “These findings suggest that the Neanderthal variant of the receptor has a favourable effect on fertility.”

Genomic Evidence from Past Studies

It’s thought that the Neanderthals and modern humans encountered in ancient periods and had sexual rendezvous, according to genomic evidence from past studies. Scientists believe that Western Asia is the most likely spot where it happened, said a 2017 study that analyzed the genetic material of people living in the region today, identifying DNA sequences inherited from Neanderthals.

“As far as human history goes, this area was the stepping stone for the peopling of all of Eurasia,” said Omer Gokcumen of biological sciences in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences. “This is where humans first settled when they left Africa. It may be where they first met Neanderthals. From the standpoint of genetics, it’s a very interesting region.”

The scientists analyzed 16 genomes belonging to people of Turkish descent. For example, one DNA sequence that originated from Neanderthals includes a genetic variant linked to celiac disease. Another includes a variant tied to a lowered risk for malaria. The bottom line is that Neanderthals tens of thousands of years ago may continue to exert an influence on our well-being today, Gokcumen says.

Angle of Asteroid that Doomed Dinosaurs was ‘Deadliest’, says New Study

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It’s widely believed that a deadliest asteroid had doomed the dinosaurs to extinct on Earth 66 million years ago. Amid growing theories of how and what could have ensued current life form on Earth, here’s a new study Dinosaur-dooming asteroid struck earth at ‘deadliest possible’ angle.

The study, published in Nature Communications, is based on simulations showing that the asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, thus maximizing the amount of climate-changing gases thrust into the upper atmosphere. It could have unleashed billions of tonnes of sulphur, blocking the sun and triggering the nuclear winter which could have killed the dinosaurs and wiped off 75% of life on Earth.

Using a combination of 3D numerical impact simulations and geophysical data from the site of the impact, the new models are used to reproduce the whole event – from the initial impact to the final crater, now known as Chicxulub. All the simulations used a 17-km diameter asteroid with a density of 2630 kgm3 and a speed of 12 km/s, and were performed on the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) DiRAC High Performance Computing Facility.

Besides the lead researcher Prof. Gareth Collins of Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, the team involved the University of Freiburg, and The University of Texas at Austin. “Our simulations provide compelling evidence that the asteroid struck at a steep angle, perhaps 60 degrees above the horizon, and approached its target from the north-east. We know that this was among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality on impact, because it put more hazardous debris into the upper atmosphere and scattered it everywhere – the very thing that led to a nuclear winter.”

Crater creation

The researchers say that while the study has also given them important insights into the dinosaur-dooming impact and project how large craters on other planets such as Mars are formed. The study co-author Thomas Davison, also of Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: “Large craters like Chicxulub are formed in a matter of minutes, and involve a spectacular rebound of rock beneath the crater.”

The study of upper layers of earth at the Chicxulub 200-km wide crater in present-day Mexico showed high amounts of water as well as porous carbonate and evaporite rocks,indicating that when heated and disturbed by the impact, these rocks would have decomposed, flinging vast amounts of carbon dioxide, sulphur and water vapour into the atmosphere.

The sulphur, which rapidly forms aerosols that would have blocked the sun’s rays, halting photosynthesis in plants and rapidly cooling the climate would have eventually contributed to the mass extinction event that killed 75 per cent of life on Earth 66 million years ago.

The team of researchers also examined the shape and subsurface structure of the crater using geophysical data to feed into the simulations that helped diagnose the impact angle and direction, while they also drilled into the 200 km-wide crater for more evidence to corroborate with rocks experiencing enormous due to the asteroid’s impact.

At Chicxulub, these centres are aligned in a southwest-northeast direction, with the crater centre in between the peak-ring and mantle-uplift centres at the angle of 60 degrees.

 

 

 

India health minster Harsh Vardhan takes charge as WHO Board Chiarman

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As coronavirus has given the World Health organization enough explanations to do amid massive criticism for its delayed response initially, India’s Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan joined the world body as its board chairman on Friday, at its 147th session, taking over charge from Dr Hiroki Nakatani of Japan.

He said, “I feel privileged to take charge as Chairman of the World Health Organisation’s Executive Board at its 147th session held virtually.I believe that health is central to economic performance and to enhancing human capabilities.”

The WHO has a 34-member WHO Executive Board, one of the two boards WHO has — the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board. The WHO headquarters is located at Geneva in Switzerland. The UN specialised agency for international public health, is currently at the forefront of fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic.

India comes under its South East Asia Region’s members and was elected last year unanimously to the executive board for a three-year term beginning May. The WHO board has 34 members technically qualified in the field of health,each elected for three-year term, while the Health Assembly is the WHO’s decision-making body with 194 Member States.

The Board chairman’s post is held by rotation for one year by each of the WHO’s six regional groups: African Region, Region of the Americas, South-East Asia Region, European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Western Pacific Region. The Board is the executive organ of the WHO and implements decisions and policies of the Health Assembly.

Amid Coronavirus, Pulitzer-winning ‘Vulture & the Little Girl’ photo makes rounds for wrong reasons

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See the heart-wrenching picture above titled “The vulture & the Little Girl’ that was taken in 1993 and went on to win a Pulitzer Award for the famous photographer Kevin Carter of South Africa.

In the picture, a vulture is waiting for the death of a hungry little girl and Carter, a photojournalist, captured it in March 1993, when famine killed many children and elders in Sudan. He was awarded the “Pulitzer Prize” for it but Carter committed suicide soon after receiving the Award, at the age of 33, despite receiving worldwide recognition and applaud for his stunning photo.

But he never realised that the same photo would drive him to suicide.

When he was busy celebrating the great honor at the time of his receiving the award and the photo was being shown on many TV channels all over the world.

Someone asked in a phone interview as to what happened to the girl in the end?

Carter replied that he could not stay there for long as he was in a hurry to catch his flight.

“How many vultures were there?” He was asked again.

“I think there was one,” Carter said.

The man on the other end of the phone said, “I’m saying there were two vultures that day, one of them with a camera.”

Realising the significance of his words, Carter was obviously upset and eventually committed suicide.

Carter forgot the basic human instinct to help the ‘girl’ save from death. All he could have done was to take the starving baby to the United Mission’s feeding center, which was only half-a-mile away. The baby might have been trying to reach the center and a lending hand would have saved her for life time.

Sold to The New York Times, the photograph first appeared on 26 March 1993, and the paper said that according to Carter, “she recovered enough to resume her trek after the vulture was chased away” but that it was unknown whether she reached the UN food center.” Next year, the photograph won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

In 2011, the child’s father revealed the child was actually a boy, Kong Nyong, and he had reached the UN food aid station. The boy survivied the vulture but died of fever in 2007, reported El Mundo quoting the family. The reporter described the boy as girl and received Pulitzer but failed to take the boy to the nearest aid station. If he had, he would have realised that it was a boy.

Coronavirus and Prey Culture

Today, almost 26 years after, many TV channels have been highlighting the plight of migrant workers and the plight of their children and even infants. But the twist is that the picture of Carter has been used to pronounce that those with cameras in their hands, busy taking pictures of workers walking thousands of kilometres, are similar to such vultures. Had it not been for these visuals, the governments today would not have moved to help them.

“Kevin Carter had self-esteem, so he committed suicide, but the vultures named after this journalist are busy making breaking news with dignity,” writes one circulating the message on WhatsApp.

Yes, these news gatherers get incentives from the government in the form of perks such as early coronavirus testing facilities but the numbers are not one but millions of them. No one reporter could have saved them the way Carter would have done so. With TV exposure, the migrant labourers and their children could not have been saved in India. Criticizing the whistleblower is also against humanity.

 

How migrant labourers can register on Govt websites to return home?

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As coronavirus lockdown has been lifted or being lifted gradually, all state governments are working overnight to facilitate migrant labourers to return safely to their home states across the country. They have to register on official websites to return home and here are the links to register.

For migrant labour registration, one can go to the link of the state mentioned against the name. To register, click on the link of state and go to the migrant labour registration link. Fill in all the details.

Provide a document such as Aadhar card for identity verification.

Here is the state-wise list of websites with links for migrant labourers’ registration:

Rajasthan– https://emitraapp.rajasthan.gov.in/emitraApps/covid19MigrantRegistrationService
Tamil Nadu– https://rtos.nonresidenttamil.org/
Gujarat– https://www.digitalgujarat.gov.in/
Uttarakhand– http://dsclservices.org.in/movement-outside-uttarakhand.php
Odisha– https://covid19regd.odisha.gov.in/migrant-registration.aspx
Karnataka– https://sevasindhu.karnataka.gov.in/Sevasindhu/English
Kerala– http://www.lc.kerala.gov.in/index.php/goverment-orders
Punjab– http://covidhelp.punjab.gov.in/PunjabOutRegistration.aspx
Arunachal Pradesh– http://covid19.itanagarsmartcity.in/scr/register/index.php
Haryana– https://edisha.gov.in/eForms/MigrantService
Chattisgarh– http://cglabour.nic.in/covid19MigrantRegistrationService.aspx
Madhya Pradesh– https://mapit.gov.in/covid-19/
Telangana– https://tsp.koopid.ai/epass
Goa– https://goaonline.gov.in/
West Bengal– https://wb.gov.in
Uttar Pradesh– http://jansunwai.up.nic.in/
Chandigarh– http://admser.chd.nic.in/migrant/
Jammu & Kashmir– https://serviceonline.gov.in
Ledakh– https://leh.nic.in/epass/
Jharkhand– https://jharkhandpravasi.in
Maharashtra– https://covid-19.maharashtra.gov.in
Himachal Pradesh– http://covid19epass.hp.gov.in/
Manipur– https://tengbang.in/
Andhra Pradesh– https://www.spandana.ap.gov.in/
Delhi– https://www.delhishelterboard.in/covid19/migrant-info.php
Meghalaya– http://meghalayaonline.gov.in/covid/login.htm
Nagaland– https://iamstranded.nagaland.gov.in/

Amphan Cyclone wreaks havoc in West Bengal and Bangladesh, 14 dead

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Cyclone Amphan from the Bay of Bengal wreaked havoc on eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people and destroying thousands of homes, with officials struggling to evacuate and provide relief amid a surging coronavirus outbreak.

The populous Indian state of West Bengal took the brunt of Cyclone Amphan, with gusting winds of up to 185 km per hour (115 mph) and a storm surge of around five metres. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at least 10 people had died in the state, and two districts been completely battered.

“Area after area has been devastated. Communications are disrupted,” Banerjee said, adding that although 500,000 people had been evacuated, state authorities had not entirely anticipated the ferocity of the storm.“We are facing greater damage and devastation than the CoVID-19,” she said as the disease has so far killed 250 people in the state.

With rains continuing, the hardest hits areas were not immediately accessible, while the Centre asked the National Disaster Relief Force to move in and promised that they could make a proper assessment of the destruction on Thursday morning.

2.4 million Evacuated in Bangladesh

In neighbouring Bangladesh, at least four people were killed, reported Reuters quoting officials. Around 2.4 million people have been shifted to more than 15,000 storm shelters this week and Bangladeshi officials also said they had moved hundreds of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, living on a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, to shelter.

But officials said they feared that standing crops could be damaged and large tracts of fertile land in the densely-populated country washed away. “Fortunately, the harvesting of the rice crop has almost been completed. Still it could leave a trail of destruction,” said Mizanur Rahman Khan, a senior official in the Bangladesh agriculture ministry.

Cyclones frequently batter parts of eastern India and Bangladesh between April and December, often forcing the evacuations of tens of thousands and causing widespread damage.

 

US firm Inovio’s coronavirus vaccine trial on mice turns positive

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US vaccine maker Inovio Pharmaceuticals said on Wednesday that its experimental vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection produced protective antibodies and immune system responses in mice and guinea pigs, raising hopes that it could provide relief if Moderna’s vaccine fails.

The company’s shares, which have more than quadrupled this year on hopes of its vaccine working, surged another 18% to $15.77 in early trading, reports Reuters.

“We saw antibody responses that do many of the things we would want to see in an eventual vaccine,” said Dr. David Weiner, director of the immunotherapy center at the Wistar Institute, which has collaborated with Inovio. “We are able to target things that would prevent the virus from having a safe harbor in the body.”

There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19, and more than 100 vaccines are under trials across the world, with more than 12 to 18 months to develop one effective vaccine among the candidates.

Apart from Inovio, other drug makers such as Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and AstraZeneca are in various stages of vaccine development. On Monday, Moderna said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers.

Inovio said preliminary results from its human trial are expected in June. The 40 healthy participants in the Phase 1 trial are given two shots, four weeks apart, of the vaccine, called INO-4800, and then followed for two weeks.

“We are already seeing safety data and it has been benign,” Dr. Katherine Broderick, head of research and development at Inovio, told Reuters. “Some people have slight redness of the arm.”

Both Moderna and Inovio are focusing on specific genes on the outer “spike” portion of the virus for vaccine. Inovio’s vaccine was designed using its DNA medicine platform, while Moderna’s vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Once the preliminary data is in, Inovio will seek FDA approval to move into a Phase 2/3 trial, which could happen in July or August.

Japan-India scientists claim Ayurvedic medicine Ashwagandha helpful in Covid-19 cure

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Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and IIT-Delhi joint research on Indian ayurvedic component Ashwagandha in combinaton with propolis, an actve ingredent from New Zealand can be developed as possible drug treatment to cure Coronavirus or COVID-19.

The research by IIT-D was led by Professor D Sundar from DAILAB (DBT-AIST International Laboratory for Advanced Biomedicine) discovered that Withanone (Wi-N), a natural compound derived from Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) and Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE), an active ingredient of New Zealand propolis, have the potential to block the activity of Mpro, responsible for COVID-19 infection in the human body. Japan’s AIST has not made any such claim so far and either removed the relevant sections and pages from its website or put them Under Construction mode.

The study to be published in Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics soon, claimed that properties of the ayurvedic herb Ashwagandha have “therapeutic and preventive value” against COVID-19 infection. “SARS-CoV-2 virus genome and structure have been recently published triggering drug designing, devising and development using informatics and experimental tools, worldwide.

DAILAB and AIST Japan, working on natural compounds from Ashwagandha and propolis for last several years, explored the possibility of some of their bio-actives to interact with SARS-CoV-2,” IIT-D said in a statement. The journal JBSD ranks 57 out of 286 in the category of journals in biochemistry and molecular biology, 12 out of 73 in the category of journals in biophysics.

“The researchers targeted the main SARS-CoV-2’s enzyme for splitting proteins, known as the Main protease or Mpro that plays a key role in mediating viral replication. This is an attractive drug target for this virus… They discovered that Withanone (Wi-N), a natural compound derived from Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) and Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE), an active ingredient of New Zealand propolis, have the potential to interact with and block the activity of Mpro,” the statement said.

Sundar said, “While the reputation of Ashwagandha as an immunity enhancer forms a basis of the recent initiative of the Indian government in forming an interdisciplinary task force to launch its clinical research studies related to SARS-CoV-2 and the Covid-19 disease, the current research report of this team provide hints on its direct anti-viral activities.”

However, Japan’s AIST has not made any such claim so far and either removed the relevant sections and pages from its website or put them Under Construction mode.

Priyanka Gandhi thanks UP govt for allowing offer of 1,000 buses to ply migrant workers home

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Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s offer to ply 1,000 buses to transport stranded labourers and migrants in Delhi to their homes in Uttar Pradesh has been accepted by the UP government after dragging ts feet for over two days. The state Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi replied to Priyanka Gandhi’s private secretary accepting the offer and requesting more details including a list of the drivers and conductors.

In her May 16 letter soon after the tragic road accident when 25 migrants had died near Aurraiya, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi wrote to CM Yogi Adityanath offering to bear the cost of 1,000 buses to transport migrants to UP. She said thousands of migrants from various parts of the country were walking down to their homes and 65 of them died on the road that was more than the COVID-19 tally in the state.

Priyanka Gandhi offered to provide 1,000 buses to transport migrants and bear the cost by the Congress Party and said 500 buses were being parked at Ghazipur border in Ghaziabad and another 500 buses at Noida. Amid adverse media reports, the UP Government has finally decided to give permission.

Earlier, Priyanka had deplored the poor mismanagement at Ghaziabad’s Ram Lila ground where a large uncontrollable crowd of migrants had gathered and were seen pushing each other, ignoring social distancing norms in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, to register to return home.

“If this exercise had started a month ago the migrants would not have had to undergo such hardship. I had offered 1,000 buses and had parked them at the UP border but the UP Government kept playing politics and did not give permission. The UP Government is not helping those hit by this pandemic and is neither allowing others to do it,” Priyanka had said in her earlier tweet.

After the approval of her request, she said, “The nation-building workers cannot be left like this to fend for themselves. The Congress party is committed to help them,” and thanked the state government for accepting the offer.

FBI Busts Medcaid Fraud Ring: Football Coach Set Up After-School Programs to Misuse it

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Matthew Harrell appeared to be the owner of several mental health businesses that treated young people. But he wasn’t a mental health provider; he was a youth football coach.

“He got kids’ information when they signed up for football camp and other after-school activities he sponsored,” said Special Agent Gregory Peacock, who investigated this case out of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office. “He used that information to bill Medicaid for mental health services that were never provided.”

Although he started in Georgia, Harrell, 44, eventually expanded his business into Florida and Louisiana. In Louisiana, Harrell bought a list of 13,000 stolen identities of children who were on Louisiana’s Medicaid program. Harrell used the data to bilk Louisiana’s Medicaid program out of more than a half-million dollars in mental health services never provided.

He tried to make his companies look legitimate. Harrell had offices and employees, although those employees didn’t provide care—they simply engaged in fake billing. Harrell even kept patient “charts” sitting on the shelf at his offices in case of an audit.

Harrell interviewed medical providers for non-existent jobs, asking them to provide their credentials and Medicaid provider numbers. Harrell didn’t hire the providers, but he used their Medicaid billing numbers without their knowledge. Neither the parents of the children nor the providers knew Harrell was using their information fraudulently. From 2012 through 2015, Harrell’s companies received about $2.5 million in reimbursements—all of which were fraudulent.

“There is only so much money to go around, and this money was meant to be used for kids who really need help” — Gregory Peacock, special agent, FBI Atlanta

The scheme was uncovered when Georgia Medicaid fraud personnel made an unannounced site visit to one of Harrell’s companies. This evolved into a multi-agency investigation involving the FBI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, and Medicare fraud investigators from Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana.

The partnership among the agencies was key to investigating and prosecuting the case. “Every health care fraud case we work, we work alongside these agencies,” Peacock said. “Our relationships are excellent, and it was beneficial to have them working with us on this case.”

In December 2019, Harrell pleaded guilty to health care fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. In March 2020, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Two of the Georgia participants in the scheme were also convicted on similar federal charges. Another five were convicted on state charges in Florida and Louisiana.

For the investigative team, taking down this ring of fraudsters sends an important message. “There is only so much money to go around, and this money was meant to be used for kids who really need help,” Peacock said. “It’s a really important thing to be working on, and we take health care fraud very seriously.”

FBI suspects Chinese hackers targeting COVID-19 research progress in US

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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have ncreased their vigilance in the wake of increased threat to COVID-19-related research in the country. The FBI is investigating the targeting and compromise of U.S. organizations conducting COVID-19-related research by China-affiliated cyber actors and non-traditional collectors.

These actors have been observed attempting to identify and illicitly obtain valuable intellectual property (IP) and public health data related to vaccines, treatments, and testing from networks and personnel affiliated with COVID-19-related research. The potential theft of this information jeopardizes the delivery of secure, effective, and efficient treatment options,” said FBI in a note.

Referring to China’s efforts to target these sectors, it described it a significant threat to the nation’s response to COVID-19 and sought to raise awareness for research institutions and the American public and provide resources and guidance for those who may be targeted. The FBI requested organizations who suspect suspicious activity contact their local FBI field office. CISA is asking for all organizations supporting the COVID-19 response to partner with the agency to help protect these critical response efforts.

A sound-activated camera was used to capture this image during a routine nighttime firearms training session /FBI

“The FBI and CISA urge all organizations conducting research in these areas to maintain dedicated cybersecurity and insider threat practices to prevent surreptitious review or theft of COVID-19-related material,” said FBI in a statement. FBI is responsible for protecting the U.S. against foreign intelligence, espionage, and cyber operations, while CISA protects the nation’s critical infrastructure from physical and cyber threats. CISA is providing support to the federal and state/local/tribal/territorial entities and private sector entities that play a critical role in COVID-19 research and response.

Cybersecurity Guidelines

  • Assume that press attention affiliating your organization with COVID-19-related research will lead to increased interest and cyber activity.
  • Patch all systems for critical vulnerabilities, prioritizing timely patching for known vulnerabilities of internet-connected servers and software processing internet data.
  • Actively scan web applications for unauthorized access, modification, or anomalous activities.
  • Improve credential requirements and require multi-factor authentication.
  • Identify and suspend access of users exhibiting unusual activity.
  • Victim Reporting and Additional Information
  • The FBI encourages victims to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to their local field office.

Even the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Agency released a similar alert earlier this month warning of malicious actors targeting COVID-19 response organizations using a tactic of password spraying.

Heart attack prevention lags for people with stroke, peripheral artery disease: Study

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Preventon of heart attack efforts are found to be unequal in patients who usually reach the stage after several cardovascular diseases and stroke, according to a recent study, whch advocated early treatment methods to ward off such eventualites among patients.

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care & Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2020, which had its virtual conference, May 15-16, at a global level exchangng the latest advances in quality of care and outcomes research in cardiovascular disease and stroke for researchers, health care professionals and policymakers.

Researchers found that patients with peripheral artery disease or stroke were less likely than those with coronary artery disease to receive proper treatment to prevent heart attack. All three are types of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease — coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease — lead to heart attack. The 2016 AHA/ACC guidelines recommend aspirin for patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease, while 2018 guidelines undeerscore that statin therapy reduces the risk of atherosclerotic events.

Heart Diseases

Worldwide, a major contributor to cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis, which occurs when cholesterol, fat and inflammatory cells build up and form plaque that blocks the arteries and impedes blood flow. Depending on its location, atherosclerosis increases the risk for the three serious conditions. Coronary artery disease results from damaged heart arteries. A common type of stroke occurs when clogged arteries block blood flow to brain. Peripheral artery disease results from damaged arteries in the extremities such as legs, and can lead to amputation.

“Our study highlights the need for public health campaigns to direct equal attention to all three major forms of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” said senior study author Erin Michos, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “We need to generate awareness among both clinicians and patients that all of these diseases should be treated with aggressive secondary preventive medications, including aspirin and statins, regardless of whether people have heart disease or not.”

Guidelines to treat all 3 cardiovascular diseases alike

Since atherosclerosis can affect arteries in more than one part, guidelines are to treat coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease similarly with lifestyle changes and medication, including statins to lower cholesterol levels and aspirin to prevent blood clots.

Lifestyle changes include eating a healthy diet, being physically active, quitting smoking, controlling high cholesterol, controlling high blood pressure, treating high blood sugar and losing weight. If people with stroke and peripheral artery disease received the same treatments prescribed for those with coronary artery disease, the results would be encouragng, said the study.

For the study, researchers compared more than 14,000 U.S. adults enrolled in the 2006-2015 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, and slightly more than half of the patients were men, the average age was 65, and all had either coronary artery disease, stroke or peripheral artery disease. These individuals were representative of nearly 16 million U.S. adults living with one of the three forms of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

“Our study highlights a missed opportunity for implementing life-saving preventive medications among these high-risk individuals,” Michos said. “Peripheral artery disease and stroke should generally be treated with the same secondary prevention medications as coronary artery disease.”

Compared to participants with coronary artery disease:

  1. Participants with peripheral artery disease were twice more likely to report no statin use and three times more likely to report no aspirin use;
  2. People with peripheral artery disease had the highest, annual, total out-of-pocket expenditures among the three atherosclerotic conditions;
  3. Participants with stroke were more than twice as likely to report no statin or aspirin use; and
  4. Those with stroke were more likely to report poor patient-provider communication, poor health care satisfaction and more emergency room visits.

 

Coronavirus: As India reopens, Indians reluctant to use public transport, 62% averse to use Ola, Uber

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As India prepares to ease the lockdown from May 18, a survey revealed that more than 70% people do not want to use public transport while 62% are reluctant to use cab-hailing apps like Ola and Uber. The new survey conducted by market research and analysis firm Velocity MR revealed on Friday that 71% would reduce shopping in malls and supermarkets and 80% would prefer to continue with online shopping.

At least 50% people anticipated increase in unemployment rates, followed by lack of job security in the private sector (53%) due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “Our study shows that in the next six months to one year, 47% are planning to invest in mutual funds followed by stock/shares (33%) and gold (30%),” said Jasal Shah, Managing Director and CEO, Velocity MR.

About 77% of those surveyed wish to use Arogya Setu app and more than 57% want to maintain social distancing and washing and sanitizing hands at regular intervals going forward in their daily lifestyle in the wake of the coronavrus pandemic.

Banking sector can witness a major boost through their digital payment services as close to 90% of respondents are willing to shift from cash to digital payments. “Almost 80% of respondents considered the non-availability of alcohol and cigarettes as one of the major benefits, and 74% considered work from home advantage and not a disadvantage,” the survey said.

The survey was conducted in April with a sample size of 3,000, covering categories including shopping habits, purchase habits, travel, social activities, investments, social responsibilities during the pandemic.

COVID-19 outbreak is nothing like India has ever seen before. If smallpox that took over 15,000 lives in 1974, is regarded as the worst epidemic in India, then COVID-19 is the one deadliest pandemic case that the country has ever come across. With just a little over 3 months, the virus-infected over 4 million people across the globe.

Velocity MR, acknowledging the impact of the COVID-19, conducted a study to understand and gauge the sentiments of the Indian towards the virus outbreak. This study covers the concern level, awareness level of the consumers as well their thoughts on the outbreak, the business it impacted and the initiatives taken by the government in India.

How Climate Change tweaked popular proverbs or made them redundant now, finds Study

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For those who often say my Grandma used to say — will have a real challenge chronicling them in right and scientific format now. Very often, these proverbs for generations handed over precautions owing to climate change, indicate signs when it rains on an unusual day.

Spanish researchers from the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), for one, have embarked upon such novel study to study proverbs related to environmental issues traditionally used by the local population in rural areas, which are currently considered imprecise and unreliable due to climate change impact.

The study, published in the journal Regional Environmental Change, studied the trend in Sierra Nevada (Granada, Southern Spain), which is unique since it’s in high mountainous regions with vulnerable ecosystem to climate change, besides being a historical place where local knowledge dominated for long in water management and agriculture.

Weather forecast through proverbs

Traditionally, weather forecasting was linked to weather, says María Garteizgogeascoa, who led the study. “I was particularly impressed by the numerous indicators (clouds, wind patterns, animal behavir) that, still nowadays, people in the area use for weather forecasting,” she said and added that some of these local sayings here are perceptibly changing in their meaning.

“I no longer pay attention to water signals because they are no longer credible” or

“In the past, cattle used to announce the rain; but now they only know when it rains after they get wet, as rain now is unpredictable” — are some of the statements made by the inhabitants of Sierra Nevada who participated in the study.

The study further explored information in local proverbs to study the impact of climate change on environment such as precipitation, snow cover and flowering periods.

For example, the proverb “por Todos los Santos la nieve en los altos, por San Andrés la nieve en los pies” indicates the arrival and abundance of snow cover. So, the proverb says at the beginning of November (Todos los Santos is celebrated on November 1st) snow can be found on the peaks of the mountains, and by the end of the month (November 30th) it normally reaches lower altitudes. But participants stated that the proverb barely reflects the current situation, as snow arrives much later now later and often scarce. Even the scientific data and literature show delayed snow periods now.

Farmer working his land and looking at the mountains, without snow. CREDIT: David García del Amo

Another proverb “Septiembre o lleva los puentes o seca las fuentes” describes rain variability in September as it might downpour a lot (the bridges are washed away) or barely rains (the fountains dry up). Participants agreed that the proverb is no longer accurate as there is hardly any rain in the month of September now. Scientific data corroborates the fact.

The study found 19 of the 30 proverbs examined turned out to be irrelevant now due to climate change. Other proverbs could not be established for their scientific validation. For instance, “Cuando vienen los vilanos es conclusion del verano” talks about the flowering period (end of August to beginning of September) of the cardus flower  that produces thistledown fluffy seeds that are transported by the wind. This proverb was considered not accurate now due to change in flowering periods.

Encrypted local knowledge

“This work shows that, despite some limitations, these traditional ways of encrypted local knowledge could be a useful source to do so and a window of opportunity to engage with local communities. During my work in the field, proverbs proved to be a useful tool to engage participants in discussions about climate change issues”, says María Garteizgogeascoa.

According to another team member and researcher Victoria Reyes-García, “In the absence of meteorological data from the past, traditional knowledge collected in proverbs and other forms of popular knowledge can be an alternative source of information to understand the impacts of climate change.”

The study reveals that older people thought that the proverbs they used in the past to guide their decisions are not reliable anymore. The study documents literature and impact of climate change through a Global Change Observatory established in the area in 2007.

 

Coronavirus: Loosening COVID-19 restrictions now is not a good idea, says expert

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Now that India and other glbal nations are being forced to re-open normal life and movement, here is an expert from Monash University in Australia who differs strongly at this idea as too early to reap the benefits of lockdowns in several nations that could effectively bar the spread of coronavirus or COVID-19.

Ever since the coronavirus hit the city of Wuhan in December last year, more than two months went in observing how the virus transfers from human to human and what kind of restrictions China imposed to contain the virus. When the infection entered Europe and destroyed several historic cities and devastated the economies, US woke up to the dangers more intensely than previously thought.

While most of the world’s scientists are working on developing a vaccine, “the bottom line is that we simply don’t yet know enough about how it works,” says Stephen Turner, Professor of Microbiology at the  Monash University. He warns that the COVID virus can’t be wished away by opening gyms, allowing sports like boating and golf, and resuming church congregations, which may relieve those who feel their personal rights have been stymied, but it’s no signal that this virus has been conquered.

“In this world we’ve created of instant gratification, we equally expect a pandemic to be studied, solved and an answer made available to everyone, so we can all return to our normal lives,” he said.

Short-lived South Korean example

Citing South Korea, one of the countries that has done an exemplary job of dampening the disease with social distancing and widespread testing, some people who recovered from coronavirus have retested positive, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Alongwith Singapore, these two nations showed how to flatten the COVID-19 curve, but then a spike in new cases washed offsuch hopes. Many of them showed negligible and below the detection of current tests, according to KCDC deputy director Kwon Joon-Wook.

But the prospect of people remaining positive for the virus, and therefore potentially infectious, is of utmost concern now when life is returned to normal levels. Of the more than 4 million people globally who have tested positive for the virus, more than one million have recovered and assuming they’re OK to interact with those who haven’t been infected is not true.

“We simply don’t know whether they remain infectious, all while the world is already starting to pull back on lockdown laws and allowing people to congregate with restrictions… Thankfully, the virus doesn’t appear to mutate much, which makes the development of a universal vaccine easier, but its super power may be that, as appears to be the case for other human non-SARS coronaviruses, immunity wanes over time – so those of us who have been infected, and think we’re immune against developing or spreading the disease, may only be confident in that for a period of time.” 

A recent study by Chinese researchers published in The Lancet, showed that those with severe COVID illness have, not surprisingly, a heavier viral load, and took longer to rid themselves of the virus. Other data suggests that about seven in 10 of those mildly infected actually develop antibodies to kill the virus and eradicate it from the body. This will be crucial in the development of a prototype vaccine.

“Every day we learn something new about this coronavirus. But most often, like these cases of South Koreans mysteriously testing positive after ridding themselves of the disease, what we learn every day is how little we know about how SARS-CoV-2 operates. To assume we can just resume our previous normal lives, when we still don’t truly know what we’re fighting, could be considered premature,” writes Stephen Turner.