Former Head of World Health Organisation’s Health Emergencies Programme Has Died Suddenly
January 25th, 2020Via: 9News:
A prominent Australian doctor who led the World Health Organisation’s Health Emergencies Programme has died suddenly.
Doctor Peter Salama was a medical epidemiologist who led research and published extensively on vaccine-preventable diseases, HIV and war related mortality and violence.
…
Prior to his work with WHO, Dr Salama led UNICEF’s global response to the Ebola crisis, worked with the US Centres for Disease Control, and worked with Doctors Without Borders in several regions including Asia and Africa.
Coronavirus – Inside Info and Discussion
January 24th, 2020Via: serpentza:
U.S. Says 34 Troops Diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury After Iran Strike
January 24th, 2020Via: Reuters:
The Pentagon said on Friday that 34 service members had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury following missile strikes by Iran on a base in Iraq earlier this month, a number higher than the military had previously announced.
President Donald Trump and other top officials initially said Iran’s attack had not killed or injured any U.S. service members.
Last week the U.S. military said 11 U.S. troops had been treated for concussion symptoms after the attack on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq and this week said additional troops had been moved out of Iraq for potential injuries.
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters that 17 service members diagnosed had already returned to duty in Iraq.
Eight service members who had been previously transported to Germany had been moved to the United States and would receive treatment at either Walter Reed military hospital or their home bases.
U.S. and Russian Dueling Roadblocks Create Friction Near Syria’s Oil and Gas Regions
January 24th, 2020Via: Newsweek:
U.S. and Russian forces have blocked or attempted to block one another’s movements along the strategic M4 highway that connects major towns and cities running parallel to the border with Turkey, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a United Kingdom-based monitor with ties to Syria’s exiled opposition, has reported.
For more than one week, the organization has reported near-daily incidents mainly in rural Al-Hasakah, a resource-rich province where both a U.S.-led coalition and Russia and its allies hold positions.
The overlapping lines of control have still reportedly produced frictions, however. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that “tensions have continued to increase significantly in recent days between U.S. and Russian forces in the north-eastern regions of Syria.”
In most cases, the U.S. has reportedly forced the Russian side to turn back on the M4. However, in at least one scenario earlier this month it was Russian and allied Syrian forces that blocked access for U.S. armored vehicles. The Syrian Democratic Forces have reportedly intervened in some instances to defuse the situation.
U.S. Navy Could Get Potent Airburst Rounds to Take Out Drones
January 24th, 2020Via: Military.com:
Crews on Navy littoral combat ships could soon be armed with powerful rounds that can blast hard-to-hit drones out of the sky.
Northrop Grumman, which produces modules for the LCS based on its mission, is eyeing a powerful precision airburst munition to combat drones targeting ships at sea. The round would be compatible with the 30mm gun module that’s already installed on some ships.
“We’re looking at another round called the proximity round, which detects the drone as it approaches and then blows up,” Kevin Knowles, who works on Northrop Grumman’s LCS and unmanned surface vessel programs, said Tuesday at the Surface Navy Association conference. “It’s not a radar system, but it’s something similar. That’s what we’re looking at for drones.”
China Deploys Military Medics to Wuhan Hospitals
January 24th, 2020Via: South China Morning Post:
China is mobilising its military medics to help to contain the Wuhan coronavirus
outbreak, state media reported on Friday.
According to the national broadcaster CCTV, the central military command has ordered medical staff to help civilian doctors and nurses.
The report said 40 medical officers from the city’s military hospital had already started work in the intensive care unit of Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital.
More:
Wuhan Medical Staff Being Infected at Much Faster Pace Than Reported
China: At Least 14 Cities, Home to Around 41 Million People, Have Gone Into Some Form of Lockdown
Wuhan Coronavirus: Are People Collapsing in Public [???]
January 24th, 2020It is extremely difficult to get a clear idea of what is happening in China with regard to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Via: DailyMail:
Disturbing videos have emerged purporting to show people collapsing in the streets of the Chinese city at the centre of the new coronavirus outbreak.
Dozens of videos tagged as coming from Wuhan show people lying in the street, being tended to by medics, or collapsing where they stand as people in face masks rush to help.
The new strain of coronavirus, a SARS-like disease which attacks the respiratory system, has killed at least 26 people and infected 800 worldwide.
MailOnline has been unable to verify the videos, which are being widely circulated on social media.
It is not clear where or when precisely much of the footage was taken, though all of it appears to come from China.
2015: “Lab-Made Coronavirus Triggers Debate”
January 24th, 2020Via: TheScientist:
The creation of a chimeric SARS-like virus has scientists discussing the risks of gain-of-function research.
Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, last week (November 9) published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of to one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice, according to the team’s results, which were published in Nature Medicine.
The results demonstrate the ability of the SHC014 surface protein to bind and infect human cells, validating concerns that this virus—or other coronaviruses found in bat species—may be capable of making the leap to people without first evolving in an intermediate host, Nature reported. They also reignite a debate about whether that information justifies the risk of such work, known as gain-of-function research. “If the [new] virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,” Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, told Nature.
In October 2013, the US government put a stop to all federal funding for gain-of-function studies, with particular concern rising about influenza, SARS, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). “NIH [National Institutes of Health] has funded such studies because they help define the fundamental nature of human-pathogen interactions, enable the assessment of the pandemic potential of emerging infectious agents, and inform public health and preparedness efforts,” NIH Director Francis Collins said in a statement at the time. “These studies, however, also entail biosafety and biosecurity risks, which need to be understood better.”
Baric’s study on the SHC014-chimeric coronavirus began before the moratorium was announced, and the NIH allowed it to proceed during a review process, which eventually led to the conclusion that the work did not fall under the new restrictions, Baric told Nature. But some researchers, like Wain-Hobson, disagree with that decision.
The debate comes down to how informative the results are. “The only impact of this work is the creation, in a lab, of a new, non-natural risk,” Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist and biodefence expert at Rutgers University, told Nature.
But Baric and others argued the study’s importance. “[The results] move this virus from a candidate emerging pathogen to a clear and present danger,” Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, which samples viruses from animals and people in emerging-diseases hotspots across the globe, told Nature.
U.S. Drinking Water Widely Contaminated with ‘Forever Chemicals’
January 24th, 2020Via: Reuters:
The contamination of U.S. drinking water with man-made “forever chemicals” is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, said a report on Wednesday by an environmental watchdog group.
The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems.
The findings here by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) show the group’s previous estimate in 2018, based on unpublished U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, that 110 million Americans may be contaminated with PFAS, could be far too low.
“It’s nearly impossible to avoid contaminated drinking water from these chemicals,” said David Andrews, a senior scientist at EWG and co-author of the report.
The chemicals were used in products like Teflon and Scotchguard and in firefighting foam. Some are used in a variety of other products and industrial processes, and their replacements also pose risks.
Seattle Is the First Area in U.S. Where Residents Can Vote Via Smartphones
January 22nd, 2020Here are a few words from the Bradley Tusk Wikipedia page:
“Campaign manager for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s successful 2009 re-election bid, as Deputy Governor of Illinois.”
“Communications Director for US Senator Chuck Schumer.”
“The firm develops and runs large-scale, multi-jurisdictional campaigns for companies, including Comcast, Google, Walmart, AT&T, Pepsi, and institutions including Stanford University, the Rockefeller Foundation and Texas A&M, and individuals including Michael Bloomberg and George Lucas.”
“Tusk then joined U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer as Communications Director from 2000-2002, handling communications, strategy and policy for the Senator, most notably in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on New York City.”
“After serving as Deputy Governor, Tusk served as Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers, where he created the lottery monetization group and headed all of its efforts regarding U.S. based lotteries.”
That’s what we find after spending two minutes on Wikipedia. The mind boggles at what we might find if we spent a half hour off the reservation…
And in other news, Low-Income “Obama Phones” Shipping With Unremovable Malware.
Via: The Verge:
King County, where Seattle is located, announced on Wednesday that it’s implementing smartphone voting for an upcoming board of supervisors election.
King County’s 1.2 million residents can use their cellphones to vote in the election, which begins on January 22nd and continues until 8PM PT on February 11th.
The program is a collaboration between King County Elections; the county’s conservation district; mobile-voting nonprofit Tusk Philanthropies; the National Cybersecurity Center; and Democracy Live, a technology firm that develops electronic balloting.
“It will be easier than ever for voters to access their Conservation District ballot and cast their vote,” said Julie Wise, King County director of elections, in a statement. “Here at King County Elections, we are always looking for ways to improve access and engage our voters and this election could be a key step in moving toward electronic access and return for voters across the region.”
In an interview with NPR, Bradley Tusk, CEO and Founder of Tusk Philanthropies, emphasized the positive impact the technology could have on voter turnout. Per NPR, King County’s board of supervisors election has seen less than 1 percent of eligible voters turn out in past years.
