Tag Archives: science

LIVE VIDEO: Mars Rover Perseverance Touches Down

NBC News reports: The car-size rover, which launched in July 2020, is aiming to touch down on Mars on Thursday. If successful, Perseverance will become NASA’s fifth rover to land on the red planet and will kick off the agency’s most ambitious mission yet to examine whether life ever existed on Mars. Like its predecessor, Curiosity, the Perseverance rover’s descent …

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Space Junk Removal Outfit Nears Demo Launch

The Observer reports: Astroscale is a space sustainability company headquartered in Tokyo that is committed to creating solutions for removing potentially dangerous space junk. As space tourism missions to the ISS (International Space Station) become more prevalent, even more attention will have to be paid to orbital highways to ensure their maintenance and cleanliness. It’s more than a courtesy, it’s …

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Fauci Awarded $1M Israeli Prize For “Defending Science”

The Associated Press reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci has won the $1 million Dan David Prize for “defending science” and advocating for vaccines now being administered worldwide to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The Israel-based Dan David Foundation on Monday named President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser as the winner of one of three prizes. It said he had earned the recognition …

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COVID-Related Hospitalizations Hit Three Month Low

The Hill reports: More than 74,000 people remain in the hospital due to COVID-19 as of Thursday, the lowest level in nearly three months, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. The group recorded approximately 74,225 hospitalizations as of Thursday, making it the third straight day the number has remained below 80,000. The number of patients in intensive-care units …

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CDC: Those Fully Vaccinated Need Not Quarantine

Changing America reports: People who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to quarantine if they have been exposed to someone who is infected with the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says. “Vaccinated persons with an exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 are not required to quarantine if they meet all of …

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AP POLL: One-Third Skeptical Of Getting COVID Vax

The Associated Press reports: About 1 in 3 Americans say they definitely or probably won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new poll that some experts say is discouraging news if the U.S. hopes to achieve herd immunity and vanquish the outbreak. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that while 67% of Americans …

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WHO Dismisses “Chinese Lab” As Origin Of COVID

The Associated Press reports: The coronavirus is unlikely to have leaked from a Chinese lab and is more likely to have jumped to humans from an animal, a World Health Organization team has concluded, an expert said Tuesday as the group wrapped up a visit to explore the origins of the virus. The Wuhan Institute of Virology in central China …

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New COVID Variants Raise Worries Of Reinfections

The Associated Press reports: Evidence is mounting that having COVID-19 may not protect against getting infected again with some of the new variants. People also can get second infections with earlier versions of the coronavirus if they mounted a weak defense the first time, new research suggests. How long immunity lasts from natural infection is one of the big questions …

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Dutch Government Rolls Out COVID Rapid Breath Test

Reuters reports: The Netherlands is to introduce rapid COVID-19 breath tests to sites across the country to speed up the testing process and make it less intrusive. Testing facilities in Amsterdam were this week the first to start using the SpiroNose, a machine which requires a person to breathe into it to indicate a possible coronavirus infection within a minute. …

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STUDY: Pfizer Vaccine Effective Against New Variants

The Hill reports: A Pfizer study released Wednesday determined that the mutations in the COVID-19 variants originally found in the United Kingdom and South Africa have “small effects” on the effectiveness of the company’s vaccine developed with BioNTech. The preliminary research, conducted by Pfizer and University of Texas Medical Branch scientists, concluded that the results showed no need for an …

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China Debuts “More Effective” Anal Swab COVID Test

The Washington Post reports: Months-long lockdowns. Entire city populations herded through the streets for mandatory testing. The people of China could be forgiven for thinking they had seen it all during the coronavirus pandemic. But now they face a new indignity: the addition of anal swabs — yes, you read that right — to the testing regimen for those in …

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Study: 12% Of “Recovered” COVID Patients Died Later

The New York Daily News reports: Almost a third of recovered COVID-19 patients in a UK study ended up back in the hospital within five months — and up to one in eight died of complications from the illness, according to a report. Researchers at the UK’s Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics found that out of 47,780 …

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Major Study To Probe COVID/Cognitive Decline Links

The Washington Post reports: There is compelling evidence that covid-19 will have long-term effects on the brains and nervous systems of survivors as they age, and researchers on Tuesday announced a large international study to investigate the correlation between the coronavirus and cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia in later life. Decades of evidence from other respiratory viruses, along …

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WSJ: Antibody Therapies Sitting Unused In Hospitals

The Wall Street Journal reports: Doses of monoclonal antibodies—Covid-19 therapies authorized for emergency use last month—are sitting unused in hospital pharmacies, even as cases surge across the country. Hospitals say the rollout of the therapies has been stunted by a lukewarm response from infectious-disease specialists, who say they want more clinical trial data before using them on a regular basis. …

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UK Scientists Trial “Instant Immunity” COVID Drug

The Guardian reports: British scientists are trialing a new drug that could prevent someone who has been exposed to coronavirus from going on to develop the disease Covid-19, which experts say could save many lives. The antibody therapy would confer instant immunity against the disease and could be given as an emergency treatment to hospital inpatients and care home residents …

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OTC “Fully At-Home” COVID Test Kit Will Cost $30

The Associated Press reports: The first home test for COVID-19 that doesn’t require a prescription will soon be on U.S. store shelves. The FDA’s action Tuesday allows sales in places like drugstores “where a patient can buy it, swab their nose, run the test and find out their results in as little as 20 minutes,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn. …

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US Seeing Mild Flu Season Due To COVID Protocols

The New York Times reports: Despite the horrifying surge of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the United States right now, one bit of good epidemiology news is emerging this winter: It now looks unlikely that the country will endure a “twindemic” of flu and the coronavirus hitting at the same time. That comes as a profound relief to public health …

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FDA Approves First OTC At-Home COVID Test Kit

CNN reports: The US Food and Drug Administration has granted an emergency use authorization for the first non-prescription, over-the-counter Covid-19 test kit for at-home use. The LabCorp Pixel COVID-19 Test Home Collection Kit allows anyone 18 and older to buy the kit and collect nasal swab samples at home, the FDA said in a news release Wednesday. The samples are …

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UK Hospitals Get COVID Vax Ahead Of Tuesday Rollout

The Associated Press reports: The coronavirus vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech was being sent to hospitals across the U.K. in super-cold containers on Sunday, two days ahead of the kickoff of Britain’s biggest-ever immunization program, one being closely watched around the world. Around 800,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to be in place for the …

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Nasal Drug May Offer Short-Term COVID Protection

The Arizona Republic reports: The treatment, called KEPTIDE, is a nasal spray that works by stopping the virus from attaching onto and entering cells. Studies done in mice, primate cells, and human lung cells have all been promising so far, the company said, showing 100% effectiveness with no negative side effects. One hitch: The treatment won’t offer long-term protection. Its …

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