Month: July 2020

With over 14.7 million confirmed novel coronavirus cases and nearly 610,000 fatalities, researchers are reporting progress in the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine against the disease.  Two different experimental vaccines — one developed in a joint venture between Britain’s Oxford University and British-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca, the other by Chinese biotech firm CanSino Biologics — have produced strong immune responses in late-stage human trials, according to two peer-reviewed studies published Monday in the British medical journal The Lancet.   Meanwhile, U.S. drug maker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech also reported positive progress Monday on their vaccine candidate.  The vaccine developed by the joint Oxford-AstraZeneca partnership is receiving the most attention, with the company having signed agreements with many governments to supply its vaccine if it is proved to be effective and granted regulatory approval. The company has already committed to making 2 billion doses.  According to The New York Times, the doses have been administered to more than 10,000 volunteers in Britain, Brazil and South Africa, with 30,000 participants in the United States set to receive the experimental vaccine next week.A subject receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine by Moderna for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.Monday’s news comes a week after U.S.-based biotech firm Moderna announced a vaccine developed by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease had also produced strong immune responses in its late-stage human trials, although it came with mild or moderate side effects such as fatigue, headaches, chills and muscle aches. But Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN Monday that “ the first vaccines may not be our best vaccines.”  Dr. Hotez said it will probably take a year “to accumulate all the data showing the vaccines actually work, as well as that they’re safe.” Meanwhile, European Union leaders reached an agreement early Tuesday on a $2.1 trillion budget and coronavirus relief package.      The agreement includes $857 billion in coronavirus funding that will be issued as loans and grants to the hardest-hit countries.    It came after negotiations stretched on for four days and nights, well beyond what was expected.  A main sticking point was a divide between a group of five richer countries in the north, including the Netherlands and Austria, that advocated a cut in the original proposal of $572 billion in grants along with stricter spending controls, while others such as Spain and Italy sought to keep such restrictions to a minimum.  The final agreement included a compromise of $446 billion in grants.  During an Oval Office meeting with Republican lawmakers on Monday about a new coronavirus financial rescue package, President Donald Trump announced that he will resume the daily press briefings of his coronavirus task force, beginning Tuesday.  The president led the briefings over the course of several weeks in the early days of pandemic, but ended them in April after he was widely criticized for an offhand suggestion that doctors could inject bleach into COVID-19 patients to counteract the disease. Trump also used the briefings to tout the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, despite medical experts’ warnings that the drug ineffective and has possibly deadly side effects.   The return of the daily briefings comes as the U.S. has topped 3.8 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and nearly 141,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center. After weeks of downplaying the need for Americans to wear masks as an effective means to prevent spreading the virus, Trump also tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask.  He wrote that “many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!”We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President! pic.twitter.com/iQOd1whktN— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2020
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Officials in the Bahamas say that starting Wednesday, it will ban travelers from the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials say the large increase in COVID-19 cases throughout the United States and other countries is the reason for the ban; however, some international travel will be permitted, although it will be confined to Canada, Britain, and the European Union. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. The ban marks a sudden shift from the Bahamas’ decision three weeks ago to reopen to virtually all international tourism. Those still permitted to travel to the Bahamas under the new requirements must test negative for COVID-19 from an accredited lab 10 or fewer days before traveling, or otherwise quarantine themselves for 14 days. “Regrettably, the situation here at home has already deteriorated since we began the reopening of our domestic economy,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Sunday. “It has deteriorated at an exponential rate since we reopened our international borders.” The prime minister also said, “Our current situation demands decisive action if we are to avoid being overrun and defeated by this virus.” He said these strong actions were being taken to “save lives.” Bahamas’ airline, Bahamasair, is halting all flights to and from the United States. The new travel bans are an attempt to halt the increase of the virus in the Bahamas. According to the Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard, the Bahamas has 153 confirmed cases with 11 deaths.   “We cannot risk the death of Bahamians and residents. We must be resolved in our collective willingness to save lives,” said Minnis.   
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Scientists at Oxford University say their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot.British researchers first began testing the vaccine in April in about 1,000 people, half of whom got the experimental vaccine. Such early trials are usually designed only to evaluate safety, but in this case experts were also looking to see what kind of immune response was provoked.In research published Monday in the journal Lancet, scientists said that they found their experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a dual immune response in people aged 18 to 55.”We are seeing good immune response in almost everybody,” said Dr. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University. “What this vaccine does particularly well is trigger both arms of the immune system,” he said.  Hill said that neutralizing antibodies are produced — molecules which are key to blocking infection. In addition, the vaccine also causes a reaction in the body’s T-cells which help to fight off the coronavirus.  He said that larger trials evaluating the vaccine’s effectiveness, involving about 10,000 people in the U.K. as well as participants in South Africa and Brazil are still underway. Another big trial is slated to start in the U.S. soon, aiming to enroll about 30,000 people.  How quickly scientists are able to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness will depend largely on how much more transmission there is, but Hill estimated they might have sufficient data by the end of the year to decide if the vaccine should be adopted for mass vaccination campaigns.  He said the vaccine seemed to produce a comparable level of antibodies to those produced by people who recovered from a COVID-19 infection and hoped that the T-cell response would provide extra protection.  “There’s increasing evidence that having a T-cell response as well as antibodies could be very important in controlling COVID-19,” Hill said. He suggested the immune response might be boosted after a second dose; their trial tested two doses administered about four weeks apart.  Hill said Oxford’s vaccine is designed to reduce disease and transmission. It uses a harmless virus — a chimpanzee cold virus, engineered so it can’t spread — to carry the coronavirus’ spike protein into the body, which should trigger an immune system response.Hill said Oxford has partnered with drugmaker AstraZeneca to produce their vaccine globally, and that the company has already committed to making 2 billion doses.”Even 2 billion doses may not be enough,” he said, underlining the importance of having multiple shots to combat the coronavirus.  “There was a hope that if we had a vaccine quickly enough, we could put out the pandemic,” Hill said, noting the continuing surge of infections globally. “I think its going to be very difficult to control this pandemic without a vaccine.”Numerous countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, U.S. and the U.K. have all signed deals to receive hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine — which has not yet been licensed — with the first deliveries scheduled for the fall. British politicians have promised that if the shot proves effective, Britons will be the first to get it.  Last week, American researchers announced that the first COVID-19 vaccine tested there boosted people’s immune systems just as scientists had hoped and the shots will now enter the final phase of testing. That vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna, produced the molecules key to blocking infection in volunteers who got it, at levels comparable to people who survived a COVID-19 infection.  About a dozen different experimental vaccines are in early stages of human testing or poised to start, mostly in China, the U.S. and Europe, with dozens more in earlier stages of development.British officials said Monday they had also signed a deal to buy 90 million doses of experimental COVID-19 vaccines being developed by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and others.In a statement, the British government said it had secured access to a vaccine candidate being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, in addition to another experimental vaccine researched by Valneva. 
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Cameroon’s medical authorities say over 200,000 children have not received routine vaccinations on schedule since March, when the country had its first case of COVID-19.  Parents are refusing to take their kids to hospitals because they fear they may be infected with the virus, which has spread to nearly 17,000 people and caused nearly 400 deaths.  Doctors are warning that without the vaccinations, children in Cameroon risk preventable diseases such as diphtheria, the measles, and tetanus.  A 4-month-old baby cries as she receives her second polio vaccine at the Chantal Biya Foundation Hospital in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde. Elizabeth Mbungong, 27, says she is getting her baby’s booster shot nearly three months late because she was scared of going to the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I gave birth in the month of March and the first vaccine was given to the baby against Tetanus.  They gave me another rendezvous [appointment] in the month of April.  I did not respect [the appointment] because I was afraid of the coronavirus,” she said.Mbungong said after she watched a TV program on the dangers of not vaccinating children, she decided that going to the hospital was worth the risk.  Pediatrician Clemence Vougmo says many parents are letting fear of the virus prevent them from getting their children vaccinated.   She says Chantal Biya Foundation Hospital should have had 2,300 children for routine vaccinations since March.  But they have seen only about half the children.   Cameroon’s medical officials say the problem has been widespread during the pandemic.    FILE – A member of medical staff wearing protective equipment, prepares to take care of patients amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at an hospital in Douala, Cameroon, April 27, 2020.Cameroon’s National Expanded Program for Immunization reports across the country at least 200,000 children have not received their vaccinations as scheduled.   Deputy permanent secretary of the program Shalom Tchokfe says they have deployed staff to look for the children.  Speaking via telephone from Douala, a coastal city and the largest in Cameroon, he said the situation is especially troubling in the capital Yaounde, the economic hub Douala, and the western town of Bafoussam.  He said 110,000 children in those cities have not received their routine vaccines since the month of March, when Cameroon reported its first case of COVID-19.  Teams can meet the children in their houses, said Tchokfe.  Parents and health workers are safe during routine vaccinations at hospitals, he said, as long as they wear their masks and wash their hands regularly.   Tchokfe notes that vaccinations dramatically reduce child mortality and urges all parents to get their infants vaccinated on schedule.   FILE – A child reacts as he receives an injection during the nationwide vaccination campaign against measles, rubella and polio targeting all children younger than 15 in Nkozi town, about 84 km from Kampala, Uganda, Oct. 19, 2019.The United Nations warned this month of an alarming decline in the number of children getting vaccinated for preventable diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, and the measles.   According to a study published by the Lancet Global Health Journal this month, continuing with routine immunizations may lead to 8,300 additional deaths in Africa from COVID-19.   But the study said suspending vaccinations could lead to a further 702,000 African children dying from preventable diseases.     
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Astrophysicists on Monday published the largest-ever 3D map of the Universe, the result of an analysis of more than 4 million galaxies and ultra-bright, energy-packed quasars.The efforts of hundreds of scientists from about 30 institutions worldwide have yielded a “complete story of the expansion of the universe,” said Will Percival of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.In the project launched more than two decades ago, the researchers made “the most accurate expansion history measurements over the widest-ever range of cosmic time,” he said in a statement.The map relies on the latest observations of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), titled the “extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey” (eBOSS), with data collected from an optical telescope in New Mexico over six years.The infant universe following the big bang is relatively well known through extensive theoretical models and observation of cosmic microwave background — the electromagnetic radiation of the nascent cosmos.Studies of galaxies and distance measurements also contributed to a better understanding of the Universe’s expansion over billions of years.’Troublesome gap’But Kyle Dawson of the University of Utah, who unveiled the map Monday, said the researchers tackled a “troublesome gap in the middle 11 billion years.”Through “five years of continuous observations, we have worked to fill in that gap, and we are using that information to provide some of the most substantial advances in cosmology in the last decade,” he said.Astrophysicist Jean-Paul Kneib of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, who initiated eBOSS in 2012, said the goal was to produce “the most complete 3D map of the universe throughout the lifetime of the universe.”For the first time, the researchers drew on “celestial objects that indicate the distribution of matter in the distant Universe, galaxies that actively form stars and quasars.”The map shows filaments of matter and voids that more precisely define the structure of the universe since its beginnings, when it was only 380,000 years old.  For the part of the map relating to the universe 6 billion years ago, researchers observed the oldest and reddest galaxies.For more distant eras, they concentrated on the youngest galaxies — the blue ones. To go back even further, they used quasars, galaxies whose supermassive black hole is extremely luminous.The map reveals that the expansion of the universe began to accelerate at some point and has since continued to do so.The researchers said this seems to be because of the presence of dark energy, an invisible element that fits into Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity but whose origin is not yet understood.Astrophysicists have known for years that the universe is expanding but have been unable to measure the rate of expansion with precision.Comparisons of the eBOSS observations with previous studies of the early universe have revealed discrepancies in estimates of the rate of expansion.The currently accepted rate, called the “Hubble constant,” is 10% slower than the value calculated from the distances between the galaxies closest to us.   
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Twitter says the hack that compromised the accounts of some of its most high-profile users targeted 130 people. The hackers were able to reset the passwords of 45 of those accounts.  
 
The San Francisco-based company said in a blog post Saturday that for up to eight of these accounts the attackers also downloaded the account’s information through the “Your Twitter Data” tool. None of the eight were verified accounts, Twitter said, adding that it is contacting the owners of the affected accounts.  
“We’re embarrassed, we’re disappointed, and more than anything, we’re sorry. We know that we must work to regain your trust, and we will support all efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Twitter said in the blog post.  
 
The July 17 attack broke into the Twitter accounts of world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls in one of the most high-profile security breaches in recent years. The attackers sent out tweets from the accounts of the public figures, offering to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.
 
It highlighted a major flaw with the service millions of people have come to rely on as an essential communications tool.
 
Allison Nixon, chief research officer at cybersecurity firm 221B said in an email Sunday that the people behind the attack appear to have come from the “OG” community, a group interested in original, short Twitter handles such as @a, @b or @c, for instance.  
 
“Based upon what we have seen, the motivation for the most recent Twitter attack is similar to previous incidents we have observed in the OG community — a combination of financial incentive, technical bragging rights, challenge, and disruption,” Nixon wrote.
 
“The OG community is not known to be tied to any nation state. Rather they are a disorganized crime community with a basic skillset and are a loosely organized group of serial fraudsters.”
 
While this attack did not appear go further than the Bitcoin ruse — at least for now — it raises questions about Twitter’s ability to secure its service against election interference and misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election.  
 
“Entire markets and potentially elections may be manipulated or altered in this way,” Nixon said. “Victims of account takeovers generally do not know that the fraud has occurred, and generally cannot take security precautions to prevent it.”
 
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The United Arab Emirates launched its first mission to Mars early Monday as it strives to develop its scientific and technology capabilities and move away from its reliance on oil.
The Hope Probe blasted off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 1:58 a.m. UAE time/6:58 a.m. Japanese time Monday (2158 GMT Sunday) for a seven-month journey to the Red Planet, where it will orbit and send back data about the atmosphere.
The first Arab mission to Mars was initially set to launch July 14 but had been delayed twice because of bad weather.
There are currently eight active missions exploring Mars; some orbit the planet and some have landed on its surface. China and the United States each plan to send another this year.
The Emirates Mars Mission has cost $200 million, according to Minister for Advanced Sciences Sarah Amiri. It aims to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere for the first time, studying daily and seasonal changes.
The UAE first announced plans for the mission in 2014 and launched a National Space Program in 2017 to develop local expertise. Its population of 9.4 million, most of whom are foreign workers, lacks the scientific and industrial base of the big spacefaring nations.
It has an ambitious plan for a Mars settlement by 2117. Hazza al-Mansouri became the first Emirati in space last September when he flew to the International Space Station.
To develop and build the Hope Probe, Emiratis and Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) worked with U.S. educational institutions.
Around an hour after launch, the probe will deploy solar panels to power its communication and other systems. The MBRSC space center in Dubai will then oversee the spacecraft during its 494 million km journey at an average speed of 121,000 km per hour.
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