Tag Archives: science

Reuters reports: An So-young had a gut feeling that the 31st person in South Korea to test positive for the coronavirus might be a member of the controversial religious sect she quit four years ago. What caught An’s attention was how health authorities were struggling to track the woman’s movements before she was tested. “That’s their culture, they have to …

Bloomberg News reports: Vice President Mike Pence has selected the State Department’s top AIDS official, Deborah Birx, to join his coronavirus response team, his office announced on Thursday. Birx is a career government official who was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2014 as the U.S. global AIDS coordinator responsible for overseeing humanitarian aid programs combating the epidemic. She …

The Washington Post reports: Health officials are warning that the spread of coronavirus in the United States appears inevitable. The comments were made in separate briefings to lawmakers and reporters on Tuesday, marking an escalation in tone and urgency. “Ultimately we expect we will see community spread in the United States,” Nancy Messonnier, a top official at the Centers for …

CNBC reports: The White House said Tuesday that President Donald Trump was referring to Ebola — not the deadly coronavirus — when he claimed that “we’re very close to a vaccine,” Dow Jones reported. Trump discussed the fast-spreading virus, which has killed more than 2,700 people and infected tens of thousands more, at a press conference during a state visit …

Politico reports: The White House will soon ask Congress for emergency funds to fight the coronavirus outbreak, after weeks of hesitation by the administration to press for additional funding, said four individuals with knowledge of the pending request. However, the amount could be significantly lower than some public health officials have argued is necessary — potentially as little as $1 …

The BBC reports: A US daredevil pilot has been killed during an attempted launch of a homemade rocket in the Californian desert. “Mad” Mike Hughes, 64, crash-landed his steam-powered rocket shortly after take-off near Barstow on Saturday. A video on social media shows a rocket being fired into the sky before plummeting to the ground nearby. Hughes was well-known for …

NBC News reports: Facebook groups that routinely traffic in anti-vaccination propaganda have become a resource for people seeking out a wide variety of medical information — including about the ongoing flu season. One recent post came from the mother of a 4-year-old Colorado boy who died from the flu this week. In it, she consulted group members while noting that …

From a statement by the National Institutes of Health: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has stopped administration of vaccinations in its HVTN 702 clinical trial of an investigational HIV vaccine. This action was taken because an independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) found during an interim review that …

The Washington Post reports: The World Health Organization will reconvene its emergency committee Thursday to determine whether the coronavirus outbreak amounts to a public health emergency of international concern, as the total number of people infected in mainland China surpassed those infected with SARS during the 2002-2003 epidemic. More than 6,000 cases have been confirmed in China, with thousands more …

Business Insider reports: Scientists in Melbourne, Australia, have successfully grown the Wuhan coronavirus from a patient sample, which could help provide international experts with crucial information to beat the virus. It’s the first time the virus has been grown in a cell culture outside China. The scientists come from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity — a joint …

The Associated Press reports: Researchers on Wednesday reported the largest-ever one-year decline in the U.S. cancer death rate, a drop they credited to advances in lung-tumor treatments. The overall cancer death rate has been falling about 1.5% a year since 1991. It fell 2.2% from 2016 to 2017, according to the new American Cancer Society report. That’s the largest drop …

Politico reports: Congress is on the verge of a sweeping health care reform: Federally prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to people under 21. The legislation significantly raising the age cap on cigarettes and e-cigarettes is increasingly likely to be included in the year-end spending deal, the result of support from a diverse coalition of lawmakers, according to four people …

The Associated Press reports: Change is afoot for the official measuring stick used to size up big places in America. The reason? There are actually two different definitions of the 12-inch measurement known as a foot. Some land surveyors use what’s known as the U.S. survey foot. Others use the definition that’s more accepted by the broader world: the international …

The Guardian reports: The worldwide surge in deadly measles outbreaks is showing no sign of abating, with nearly 10 million cases and 142,000 deaths last year, according to new estimates, and three times more cases reported so far this year than at the same stage in 2018. Most of those dying are small children, and thousands more suffer harm including …

The New York Times reports: About 80,000 babies and toddlers die of AIDS each year, mostly in Africa, in part because their medicines come in hard pills or bitter syrups that are very difficult for small children to swallow or keep down. But on Friday, the Indian generic drug manufacturer Cipla announced a new, more palatable pediatric formulation. The new …

From the American Medical Association: AMA supports state and federal bans on conversion therapy The AMA will develop model state legislation and advocate for federal legislation to ban so-called reparative or conversion therapy for sexual orientation or gender identity. The support for legislative bans strengthens AMA’s long-standing opposition to this unscientific practice. The AMA heard testimony, including first-hand accounts, regarding …

USA Today reports: Drug-resistant “superbugs” infect 2.8 million people and cause more than 35,000 deaths each year, underscoring the enormous public health threat of germs in what one official describes as a “post-antibiotic era,” according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. The report, which analyzes electronic health records and other data, shows an infection every 11 …

Courthouse News reports: Scientists around the world – 11,000 of them from 153 nations – have declared a state of climate emergency, calling on the world to make urgent and meaningful changes to avoid serious and unknown consequences. The scientists made their declaration Tuesday in the journal Bioscience, on the 40th anniversary of the first world climate conference held in …

Reuters reports: In many U.S. cities, tanning salons appear to cluster in neighborhoods where more gay and bisexual men live, according to a study that suggests this might be one reason for higher skin cancer rates among sexual minority men. The odds of living near a tanning salon were twice as high in areas where at least 10% of households …

The Washington Post reports: NASA made history Friday morning when astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir stepped outside the International Space Station to replace a faulty battery charger. The all-female spacewalk — the first of its kind “in human history,” the agency said — began at 7:38 a.m. Eastern time as the two American astronauts set their suits to battery …