Month: August 2020

China’s Sinopharm Laboratory will begin human clinical trials for a possible vaccine against COVID-19 in Peru on Monday.Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra announced Thursday that 6,000 volunteers will participate in the trials.Vizcarra expects a second clinical trial, by the firm AstraZeneca in association with Oxford University, will begin by the end of August.Vizcarra said Peru will be part of the World Health Organization initiative to vaccinate at least 20% of the global population, which would mean around 6.6 million Peruvians. So far, Peru has reported more than 560,000 coronavirus cases and more than 27,000 deaths. 
…

Sometime next year, genetically modified mosquitoes will be released in the Florida Keys in an effort to combat persistent insect-borne diseases such as Dengue fever and the Zika virus.The plan approved this week by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District calls for a pilot project in 2021 involving the striped-legged Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is not native to Florida. But it does transmit several diseases to humans, particularly in the Keys island chain where nearly 50 cases of Dengue fever have been reported so far this year.The plan by the Oxitec biotechnology company is to release millions of male, genetically altered mosquitoes to mate with the females that bite humans because they need the blood. The male mosquitoes, which don’t bite, would contain a genetic change in a protein that would render any female offspring unable to survive — thus reducing the population of the insects that transmit disease, in theory.Kevin Gorman, an Oxitec scientist, said Thursday in a phone interview from the United Kingdom that the company has successfully done such projects in the Cayman Islands and Brazil.”It’s gone extremely well,” Gorman said. “We have released over a billion of our mosquitoes over the years. There is no potential for risk to the environment or humans.”Oxitec points to numerous studies by government agencies, ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that underscore the safety of the project. Several Florida government agencies have approved it as well.Yet, there are people who worry about using genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, that they believe could alter the planet’s natural balance. At a meeting Tuesday of the Florida Keys mosquito control board, several people questioned the wisdom of the project.”You have no idea what that will do,” Barry Wray, director of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition, told the board.Whether the modified mosquitoes can efficiently crash the population of these mosquitoes in Florida remains an open question, some experts say.”The mosquitoes created in a lab have not gone through a natural selection process, in which only the fittest survive and mate. Once they are released in the natural environment, will they be as fit as the naturally occurring males and able to outcompete them for mates?” said Max Moreno, an expert in mosquito-borne diseases at Indiana University who is not involved in the company or the pilot project.Another question is whether the mosquitoes may have other unintended effects on the environment. If a spider, frog or bird eats the mosquito, will the modified protein have any effect on the predator?”An ecosystem is so complicated and involves so many species, it would be almost impossible to test them all in advance in a lab,” said Moreno.Still, Keys mosquito board members voted 4-1 in favor of the project. One of the supporters, Jill Cranny-Gage, said at the meeting that insecticides and other chemical means have become less effective against the Aedes aegypti mosquito.”The science is there. This is something Monroe County needs,” Cranny-Gage said. “We’re trying everything in our power, and we’re running out of options.”
…

U.S. space weather forecasters say the Earth on Thursday received a glancing blow from a “coronal mass ejection” (CME) – effectively, a solar eruption – first detected on the surface of the sun four days ago.  The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency responsible for monitoring the weather for much of North America, also does its best to monitor “weather” in space.   NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center Lead Forecaster Bob Rutledge said space weather is, for the most part, solar activity. The forecasters use satellites and other Earth-based instruments to monitor what the sun is sending out. For example, solar wind consisting of protons and electrons in a state known as a plasma continuously flows out of the sun. But during periods of high solar activity, Rutledge said, forecasters watch for CMEs, which can eject billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field material from the sun’s corona. One such event was observed Sunday, and by its size and the rate of its speed as it left the sun, it was forecast to pass by the Earth on Thursday. Rutledge said this was not a big event, and even if the full force of it hit the Earth, it would have minimal effect — a G-1 or less on their geomagnetic storm scale. At this level, such an event might cause some fluctuations on the power grid, possibly some minor effects on satellite operations, and maybe aurora borealis (northern lights) activity in northern latitudes.  Rutledge said that if this event were a G-5 — the top of the geomagnetic storm scale — there could be widespread blackouts or even collapse of the power grid; satellites could see problems with orientation or basic operations; navigation systems could be useless for a matter of days; and auroras could be seen as far south as Florida or other Southern U.S. states. Rutledge said forecasters monitor minor events like Thursday’s near miss so they can better predict much bigger events when they come. 
…

The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Europe office said it has begun discussions with Russia regarding the COVID-19 vaccine that the nation approved last week without the advanced trials normally required to prove a vaccine works.In a virtual news conference from the organization’s Copenhagen office, the WHO Europe’s senior emergency official Catherine Smallwood said there have been several direct discussions between Russia’s teams and the WHO’s pre-qualification colleagues, primarily on how the organization is going to assess the potential vaccine.The WHO Europe’s regional director, Hans Kluge, said that while any potential vaccine is good news, all must go through the same vigorous assessments. Smallwood added “This concern that we have around safety and efficacy is not specifically for the Russia vaccine, it’s for all of the vaccines under development.”  Smallwood acknowledged that the WHO was taking an “accelerated approach” to try to speed development of coronavirus vaccines but said “it’s essential we don’t cut corners in safety or efficacy.”Kluge cautioned that even once a vaccine or vaccines are approved, that will not be the end of the pandemic. “The end of the pandemic will be the day when everyone of us will take the responsibility and have been learning how to behave with the virus. And that depends on us, that day can even be tomorrow.”
…

While medical school students gain key healing skills as their education progresses, one important quality seems to wane: empathy.According to a study from FILE – Medical students hug during a demonstration, June 5, 2020, in Salt Lake City, Utah.DOs are fully licensed physicians who practice in all areas of medicine, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM),  and empathy is an important part of their program.“Emphasizing a whole-person approach to treatment and care, DOs are trained to listen and partner with their patients to help them get healthy and stay well,” according to the American Osteopathic Association. 
In the study, women score higher in empathy than male students, African American students score higher than white students, and Asian Americans score the lowest. But everyone shows a decline going into that third year.”As students progress through medical school, you expect FILE – A medical student from Touro University Nevada talks with a man in a temporary parking lot shelter at Cashman Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 30, 2020.In the medical publication STAT, Dr. Lawrence G. Smith said the COVID-19 pandemic will result in doctors with greater degrees of empathy.“As my students and others all across the country make their rounds, they will likely notice that while an infectious disease like COVID-19 afflicts people regardless of race or wealth or education, its impact varies widely based on socioeconomic status,” Smith wrote.“Such a realization can and must change everything about the way medical students perceive their profession, as well as everything about the way future generations of physicians are trained,” he continued. 
In an email to VOA, Hojat said empathy should be considered when assessing a student’s application to medical school.“The assessment of empathy should be used as a criterion measure for the selection of medical school applicants for training caring physicians,” he said.Hojat’s most recent study was published in June in the Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. 
…

Apple is the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion, just two years after it became the first to reach $1 trillion.  
Apple shares have gained nearly 60% this year as the company overcame the shutdown of factories in China that produce the iPhone and the closure of its retail sales amid the coronavirus pandemic.  
The company’s hugely loyal customer base trusts its products so much that they continued to buy iPhones and other devices online while stuck at home. Apple recently reported blowout earnings for the April-June quarter.
 
An upcoming four-for-one stock split that will make Apple’s shares more affordable to more investors also sparked a rally after it was announced three weeks ago.
Apple has been at the vanguard of a group of Big Tech companies that are increasingly taking over people’s lives — and the stock market. Just five companies — Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google’s parent company — account for nearly 23% of the S&P 500’s entire value.
Saudi Aramco reached a market value of $2 trillion shortly after becoming a public company in December 2019. The Saudi energy producer’s shares have fallen since amid a drop in oil prices and its market value is now about $1.82 trillion.
…