Month: September 2020

The World Health Organization issued Teachers and auxiliary staff take COVID-19 tests in Madrid, Spain, Sept. 2, 2020.Dr. Todd Rice, an associate professor of medicine and critical care physician at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who co-authored an editorial in JAMA, told The New York Times newspaper that the results were a confidence booster for medical professionals worried about steroid use in the sickest COVID-19 patients.”This shows us steroids are clearly beneficial in this population and should clearly be given, unless you absolutely can’t for some reason, which needs to be a pretty rare occasion,” he said.Researchers with the WHO’s Rapid Evidence Appraisal for COVID-19 Therapies (REACT) Working Group evaluated data on three steroids used in seven randomized clinical trials in 12 countries. Researchers found the corticosteroid drug dexamethasone reduced death by 36% in 1,282 patients in three separate trials. Hydrocortisone reduced death by 31% in 374 patients in three trials, and methylprednisolone reduced death by 9% in a small 47 patient trial.The JAMA editorial described the analysis as an “important step forward in the treatment of patients with COVID-19.””People are dying from this disease, and we want treatment that we are confident will decrease mortality and save people’s lives,” Rice said.Though the death rate among the sickest COVID-19 patients remained high, of the six studies that reported serious adverse events, 64 of the events occurred among 354 patients on steroids, while 80 events occurred among the 342 patients receiving standard care.Initial results showing that dexamethasone could reduce death in critically ill COVID-19 patients came out in mid-June, from the RECOVERY trial led by the University of Oxford. This was the other meta-analysis WHO used to develop Wednesday’s guidelines update. In the trial, 2,104 patients received the steroid, while 4,321 patients received standard care.Many of the sickest COVID-19 patients die not from the coronavirus itself but from their immune system’s overreaction to the virus, turning the body on itself. The steroid drugs allow doctors to tamp down the immune system’s response in a controlled way and reduce the inflammation and pain.The WHO cautioned against using the drugs on people with milder cases, who don’t have the “physiological signs of an inflammatory response that’s leading to respiratory distress,” explained Janet Diaz, the lead for Clinical Management at the WHO’s Emergencies Program.”The reason we said that [recommendation] is because there was a concern for harm,” she said at a live Q&A Wednesday explaining the WHO guidance. Live Q&A on COVID-19 clinical care with Dr Maria Van Kerkhove and Dr Janet Diaz. Ask your questions!Live Q&A on COVID-19 clinical care with Dr Maria Van Kerkhove and Dr Janet Diaz. Ask your questions!Posted by World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, September 2, 2020The data was less clear, she said, contributing to the conditional status of the recommendation. Steroid treatment could hinder healthier patients’ reaction to the virus and worsen their condition.As of Wednesday, there were nearly 26 million cases of COVID-19 around the world and nearly 900,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The United States leads in both confirmed cases and deaths. Leslie Bonilla contributed to this report. 
 
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Astronomers say they have discovered evidence of the first intermediate-size black hole, created by the merger of two smaller black holes.Up to this point, astronomers had observed black holes – super-dense regions of space with gravity so strong light cannot escape them – in only two general sizes.There are small, or “stellar” black holes, formed when stars collapse into themselves. They range in size from three to four times the mass of our sun to tens of times the mass of our sun.There are also are supermassive black holes that are millions, maybe billions, of times more massive than our sun. A supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is believed to be 4 million times the mass of our sun. Intermediate-size black holes had been theorized, but never “observed” by astronomers, until now.In a study published Wednesday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers say the observation came in the form of a signal detected in May 2019 by the National Science Foundation’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The signal was a brief but powerful gravitational wave.One of the authors of the study, French researcher Nelson Christensen, explains that due to the nature of gravitational waves – literally, ripples in the fabric of space-time – they offer a completely different way to observe the universe, as opposed to the light that different cosmic bodies give out – in other words, what we can see through a telescope.Christensen says light allows you to see the universe, but gravitational waves allow you to “hear” it. He compares it to a doctor seeing a patient and noting some physical symptoms that appear on the outside, but then placing a stethoscope on the patient’s chest to get a better understanding of what may be wrong.By studying the gravitational wave signal, the team discerned this ripple in the cosmic fabric was likely created by the merger or collision of two black holes, about 85 and 66 times the mass of the sun, respectively. They created a new, intermediate black hole about 142 times the mass of our sun.Christensen said all this came from a signal that lasted about a tenth of second and resulted from an event that occurred about 7 billion years ago. But he said without that “blip” of a gravitational wave, they never would have known it had happened. He said, “There would be no way to see two black holes spinning around each other and colliding if not for gravitational waves.”Though long theorized, studying gravitational waves is fairly new. Scientists detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2015, using LIGO. Since then, the gravitational-wave detector has listened in to more of these ripples in space-time.Christensen says each time they turn on the detectors, they “hear” interesting things. “The universe is providing us with all kinds of surprises, and that’s really wonderful.” 
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Pakistan has blocked access to five dating apps for their delivery of “immoral/indecent content” in the majority-Muslim nation. The state regulator, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, PTA, identified the platforms as Tinder, Grindr, Tagged, Skout and SayHi.”PTA issued notices to the above-mentioned platforms for the purpose of removing dating services and to moderate livestreaming content in accordance with the local laws of Pakistan,” PTA said Tuesday. It did not elaborate on the ban, but the country’s laws prohibit homosexuality and extra-marital relationships. The PTA statement noted that the five companies failed to respond to its directive within the stipulated time, prompting the authority to block their services in Pakistan. The statement did not elaborate on the time frame. Officials at the five companies have not commented on PTA’s action, which has been criticized at home. “PTA, deciding what adults should watch privately or not, is itself “immoral” if “morality” or “moral order” could be understood as a term in Islamic Pakistan! PTA is creating undemocratic trends; courts need to stop PTA!,” tweeted Moeed Pirzada, a prime-time TV news anchor in Pakistan.Tinder is globally popular and owned by Match Group.  FILE – A woman checks the Grindr app on her mobile phone, May 29, 2019.Grindr, which has a large following in the United States, describes itself as a social network “for gay, bi, trans, and queer people.” The PTA directive noted, however, that the authority can unblock the services if the management of their companies “assures adherence to the local laws with respect to moderating the indecent/immoral content through meaningful engagement.”Data from analytics firm Sensor Tower shows Tinder has been downloaded more than 440,000 times in Pakistan within the last 12 months, the Reuters news agency reported. Grindr, Tagged and SayHi have each been downloaded about 300,000 times. Skout has been downloaded 100,000 times during the same period, according to the data.   Last week, PTA formally asked video sharing platforms YouTube and TikTok to immediately block what PTA denounced as “vulgar, indecent, nude and hate speech content for viewing in Pakistan.”   The authorities directed both companies to tighten its content monitoring and moderation mechanism to block access to “the unlawful material” and “objectionable” content. 
 
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Louisianians woke up Wednesday, Aug. 26 to news that Laura would be arriving as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm was expected to hit Lake Charles early Thursday morning.   Throughout the day, doctors, nurses, maintenance and cafeteria workers filled Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. The plan was for several shifts of employees to be ready once the winds picked up that night. Whole floors were designated as sleeping areas for off-duty staff. Dr. Gary Kohler, a pulmonary critical care physician, arrived for his shift at 6:30 a.m. He remembered sensing how nervous everyone was in those hours before the storm. 
 “No one wanted to be alone,” he said. “When we were on break, a lot of us would sit around a table together. It was a shared fear of not knowing what was coming.”    In 2005, the hospital was evacuated before Hurricane Rita arrived and devastated the city. Hurricane Laura was predicted to be more ferocious. But this time, there were no plans to leave.    “You can’t help but wonder what’s going to hold and what isn’t, both at the hospital, but also at your home,” Kohler said.The calm before   A headshot of Dr. Gary Kohler, who works at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in Louisiana. (Photo courtesy/Lake Charles Memorial Hospital)As the strengthening hurricane headed for the Louisiana-Texas border, 1.5 million residents were ordered to evacuate.    Most chose to heed the warning, particularly residents in Lake Charles, a city of 80,000 that bore the brunt of the storm.   Tens of thousands of the city’s residents evacuated to areas north, east and west on Wednesday.  But some were asked to stay. “Our families left town,” Kohler told VOA. “But as long as there were patients at the hospital, we were going to be there.”    Kohler works in the intensive care unit (ICU) treating the critically ill. During a normal year, patients in the ICU might include those with heart, lung and kidney ailments, or those who suffered strokes or are battling major infections. But this year, a separate wing is reserved for patients who tested positive for the coronavirus. “Our patients tend to be the sickest in the hospital — that’s why they’re in the ICU,” Kohler explained. “And we’ve been hit pretty hard by COVID patients this year, which has made the work a lot more challenging.” Louisiana has the highest number of cumulative coronavirus cases per capita of any state in the U.S. Kohler said Lake Charles Memorial had so many patients this summer from a second wave of the virus that multiple patients were placed in a single room.   “That’s a lot of very sick patients we’re taking care of,” he said. “And when it became clear how strong Hurricane Laura was going to be when it hit us, I knew it had the potential to be a long night.”  Nagging fears   A storm surge of nine feet was predicted for parts of Lake Charles. Everyone at the hospital knew that if the building lost water, they would not be able to properly sanitize themselves or their patients. And if the power went out and the generators did not operate, they would have to manually sustain patients on ventilators.  Shannon Williams, an ICU registered nurse, arrived Wednesday at 5:45 a.m. She called the storm the scariest moment of her life. 
 
“To be honest, my biggest fear was that the building was going to collapse on us, and that all that would be left of my co-workers, patients and me was a very sad story,” she said.A photo of three nurses, including Shannon Williams, are at work at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in Louisiana. (Photo courtesy/Shannon Williams)Laura hits Kohler and Williams said the wind began to pick up around 8:30 p.m. Shortly after that, the hospital lost its main power source.   “I was concerned we lost power so early and before the main part of the storm arrived,” Kohler said. “But fortunately, the generators kicked on.” The generators are only meant to keep the essential functions of the hospital running, which does not include air conditioning. The lack of air conditioning is a serious problem in southern Louisiana, where temperatures and humidity climb to unbearable heights during summer months. Kohler recalled the uncomfortable situation.   “I was soaked with sweat,” he said. “But the nurses — they’re dressed for hours in their PPEs (personal protective equipment), and they looked like they had just come in from a rainstorm.”  Kohler said it was so humid in the hospital, the flooring was slick from condensation. The windows leaked from the rainfall. Around 1 a.m. Thursday, Williams said the wind sounded like a train speeding past the east side of the building where she was trying to sleep.  A maintenance worker checked the situation. The news was not good.  “These are six-foot-tall windows, so you could see some random debris smashing against them,” she said. “And the maintenance guy said it’s because the window was warped — you could see them flexing in and out — which is why water was also leaking in.” The storm caused many of the windows in the hospital to warp, including those in the ICU. The immediate danger was that the windows would shatter, leaving no protection from the storm outside.  Williams said the nurses frantically thought of ways to protect the patients and themselves should the windows burst. One window did collapse, creating a noisy wind tunnel in the ICU. But the remaining windows managed to hold.   “You had patients crying, and just generally really afraid,” Kohler said. “They were so hot and uncomfortable, and it was a scary experience. Plus, who knows when they saw their family last — family members aren’t allowed to visit COVID patients.” Kohler said the toughest moment of the night for him was when the hospital’s water stopped running.   “You can’t stay sterile if you can’t wash your hands,” he said. “We couldn’t even flush toilets anymore, let alone think about doing a procedure. At that point, you just hope a patient doesn’t require anything big.”   The aftermath   For the remainder of the night, the phones were not working, and employees had no idea what was happening outside.    “Our focus was on making our patients as comfortable as possible, and our nurses did an incredible job,” Kohler said. He explained that in the middle of the storm, some nurses took a device designed to heat patients and repurposed it to keep them cool. “They did everything they could to keep our patients comfortable,” Kohler said. “Our nurses are the real heroes of this hurricane.” Kohler said he woke up at 6 a.m. Thursday and could see outside for the first time since Laura made landfall. “I could see a neighborhood across the street from our hospital, and it was hard to find a home that didn’t have a tree through their roof,” he said. “Trees on roofs. Roofs gone. Trees inside houses. Electrical poles down. Debris all over the street. It’s hard to imagine my city ever being the same.”   But there was no time to think about the future. The staff still had work to do.    “I’m just extremely proud of our resilience,” Williams said. “The next day, we still had no air conditioning and no water. We still had no idea what was happening in the outside world, or what happened to our homes. But we kept working for our patients.”    Williams said the moment when the winds died down, and she realized everyone would survive, was when she finally breathed a sigh of relief.  Kohler’s moment came Thursday afternoon, when ambulances from Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky arrived to transport critically ill patients to other hospitals.  “That’s where you felt the collective sigh of relief,” he said. “That’s when it felt like we made it. We had never lost the ability to give medication. We had never lost the ability to give blood. And we had never lost the ability to give antibiotics. We did a good job.” On Friday, when it became clear that the city might not have water or electricity for three weeks or more, the announcement was made that the hospital would be completely evacuated.    Patients were evacuated that day. The staff stayed until the last one left.   “I saw heroes,” Kohler said. “The nurses, the maintenance workers, the cafeteria workers. They sacrificed themselves for the patients at this hospital. They’re heroes, and they’ll be ready to get back to work when it’s time.” 
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The World Health Organization’s Europe director says the COVID-19 crisis won’t necessarily end with a vaccine, but with societies learning how to live with it.In an interview with British broadcaster SKY News Wednesday, WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge said the governments that take an active leadership role and embrace public health and social measures will have the most success moving beyond the COVID-19 crisis. He said, “That could happen tomorrow.”Kluge understands that economies have been badly hurt by lockdowns and shutdowns, but every approach has its risks.Like many other health experts, Kluge predicts new surges in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations as the colder months approach and people are indoors. But he said it will not be like early in the pandemic when governments were taken by surprise.He said, “Now, we target the virus. We can manage transmission, manage our economies and open the education sector and that’s good news.”Kluge said for that reason, he is optimistic that while the virus will not be gone, nations now have tools to deal with it. He said people must continue to avoid mass gatherings, use masks and testing capacity must be improved, along with tracking and tracing, and localized lockdowns must be an option.“We have to be prepared for this in a positive manner,” he said.
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Louisianians woke up Wednesday, Aug. 26 to news that Laura would be arriving as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm was expected to hit Lake Charles early Thursday morning.   Throughout the day, doctors, nurses, maintenance and cafeteria workers filled Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. The plan was for several shifts of employees to be ready once the winds picked up that night. Whole floors were designated as sleeping areas for off-duty staff. Dr. Gary Kohler, a pulmonary critical care physician, arrived for his shift at 6:30 a.m. He remembered sensing how nervous everyone was in those hours before the storm. 
 “No one wanted to be alone,” he said. “When we were on break, a lot of us would sit around a table together. It was a shared fear of not knowing what was coming.”    In 2005, the hospital was evacuated before Hurricane Rita arrived and devastated the city. Hurricane Laura was predicted to be more ferocious. But this time, there were no plans to leave.    “You can’t help but wonder what’s going to hold and what isn’t, both at the hospital, but also at your home,” Kohler said.The calm before   A headshot of Dr. Gary Kohler, who works at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in Louisiana. (Photo courtesy/Lake Charles Memorial Hospital)As the strengthening hurricane headed for the Louisiana-Texas border, 1.5 million residents were ordered to evacuate.    Most chose to heed the warning, particularly residents in Lake Charles, a city of 80,000 that bore the brunt of the storm.   Tens of thousands of the city’s residents evacuated to areas north, east and west on Wednesday.  But some were asked to stay. “Our families left town,” Kohler told VOA. “But as long as there were patients at the hospital, we were going to be there.”    Kohler works in the intensive care unit (ICU) treating the critically ill. During a normal year, patients in the ICU might include those with heart, lung and kidney ailments, or those who suffered strokes or are battling major infections. But this year, a separate wing is reserved for patients who tested positive for the coronavirus. “Our patients tend to be the sickest in the hospital — that’s why they’re in the ICU,” Kohler explained. “And we’ve been hit pretty hard by COVID patients this year, which has made the work a lot more challenging.” Louisiana has the highest number of cumulative coronavirus cases per capita of any state in the U.S. Kohler said Lake Charles Memorial had so many patients this summer from a second wave of the virus that multiple patients were placed in a single room.   “That’s a lot of very sick patients we’re taking care of,” he said. “And when it became clear how strong Hurricane Laura was going to be when it hit us, I knew it had the potential to be a long night.”  Nagging fears   A storm surge of nine feet was predicted for parts of Lake Charles. Everyone at the hospital knew that if the building lost water, they would not be able to properly sanitize themselves or their patients. And if the power went out and the generators did not operate, they would have to manually sustain patients on ventilators.  Shannon Williams, an ICU registered nurse, arrived Wednesday at 5:45 a.m. She called the storm the scariest moment of her life. 
 
“To be honest, my biggest fear was that the building was going to collapse on us, and that all that would be left of my co-workers, patients and me was a very sad story,” she said.A photo of three nurses, including Shannon Williams, are at work at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in Louisiana. (Photo courtesy/Shannon Williams)Laura hits Kohler and Williams said the wind began to pick up around 8:30 p.m. Shortly after that, the hospital lost its main power source.   “I was concerned we lost power so early and before the main part of the storm arrived,” Kohler said. “But fortunately, the generators kicked on.” The generators are only meant to keep the essential functions of the hospital running, which does not include air conditioning. The lack of air conditioning is a serious problem in southern Louisiana, where temperatures and humidity climb to unbearable heights during summer months. Kohler recalled the uncomfortable situation.   “I was soaked with sweat,” he said. “But the nurses — they’re dressed for hours in their PPEs (personal protective equipment), and they looked like they had just come in from a rainstorm.”  Kohler said it was so humid in the hospital, the flooring was slick from condensation. The windows leaked from the rainfall. Around 1 a.m. Thursday, Williams said the wind sounded like a train speeding past the east side of the building where she was trying to sleep.  A maintenance worker checked the situation. The news was not good.  “These are six-foot-tall windows, so you could see some random debris smashing against them,” she said. “And the maintenance guy said it’s because the window was warped — you could see them flexing in and out — which is why water was also leaking in.” The storm caused many of the windows in the hospital to warp, including those in the ICU. The immediate danger was that the windows would shatter, leaving no protection from the storm outside.  Williams said the nurses frantically thought of ways to protect the patients and themselves should the windows burst. One window did collapse, creating a noisy wind tunnel in the ICU. But the remaining windows managed to hold.   “You had patients crying, and just generally really afraid,” Kohler said. “They were so hot and uncomfortable, and it was a scary experience. Plus, who knows when they saw their family last — family members aren’t allowed to visit COVID patients.” Kohler said the toughest moment of the night for him was when the hospital’s water stopped running.   “You can’t stay sterile if you can’t wash your hands,” he said. “We couldn’t even flush toilets anymore, let alone think about doing a procedure. At that point, you just hope a patient doesn’t require anything big.”   The aftermath   For the remainder of the night, the phones were not working, and employees had no idea what was happening outside.    “Our focus was on making our patients as comfortable as possible, and our nurses did an incredible job,” Kohler said. He explained that in the middle of the storm, some nurses took a device designed to heat patients and repurposed it to keep them cool. “They did everything they could to keep our patients comfortable,” Kohler said. “Our nurses are the real heroes of this hurricane.” Kohler said he woke up at 6 a.m. Thursday and could see outside for the first time since Laura made landfall. “I could see a neighborhood across the street from our hospital, and it was hard to find a home that didn’t have a tree through their roof,” he said. “Trees on roofs. Roofs gone. Trees inside houses. Electrical poles down. Debris all over the street. It’s hard to imagine my city ever being the same.”   But there was no time to think about the future. The staff still had work to do.    “I’m just extremely proud of our resilience,” Williams said. “The next day, we still had no air conditioning and no water. We still had no idea what was happening in the outside world, or what happened to our homes. But we kept working for our patients.”    Williams said the moment when the winds died down, and she realized everyone would survive, was when she finally breathed a sigh of relief.  Kohler’s moment came Thursday afternoon, when ambulances from Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky arrived to transport critically ill patients to other hospitals.  “That’s where you felt the collective sigh of relief,” he said. “That’s when it felt like we made it. We had never lost the ability to give medication. We had never lost the ability to give blood. And we had never lost the ability to give antibiotics. We did a good job.” On Friday, when it became clear that the city might not have water or electricity for three weeks or more, the announcement was made that the hospital would be completely evacuated.    Patients were evacuated that day. The staff stayed until the last one left.   “I saw heroes,” Kohler said. “The nurses, the maintenance workers, the cafeteria workers. They sacrificed themselves for the patients at this hospital. They’re heroes, and they’ll be ready to get back to work when it’s time.” 
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The United States says it will not participate in a global initiative to develop, manufacture and equally distribute a vaccine for COVID-19 because the World Health Organization is taking a leading role in the effort. More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, dubbed Covax, a joint project undertaken by the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, an organization founded by Bill and Melinda Gates to vaccinate children in the world’s poorest countries.In this Aug. 14, 2020, file photo, laboratory technicians work at the mAbxience biopharmaceutical company on an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and the laboratory AstraZeneca in Garin, Argentina.President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the WHO back in July, after claiming the agency mishandled the outbreak and showed deference to China, where the virus was first detected late last year. White House spokesman Judd Deere issued a statement saying the United States “will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China.” Surie Moon, the co-director of the Global Health Center at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, told The Washington Post that when the United States decides not “to participate in any sort of multilateral effort to secure vaccines, it’s a real blow.” The Trump administration has launched its own COVID-19 vaccine initiative, Operation Warp Speed, that aims to deliver 300 million doses of an approved vaccine by next January.  The initiative has distributed billions of dollars to a handful of pharmaceutical companies to develop, manufacture and test a potential vaccine.Senator Roy Blunt, R-Mo. and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., speak with Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the NIH, after he testified at a hearing on the plan to research, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, known as Operation Warp Speed.”This president will spare no expense to ensure that any new vaccine maintains our own FDA’s gold standard for safety and efficacy, is thoroughly tested, and saves lives,” Deere said in his statement, referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Trump administration’s initiative is one of many around the world aiming to quickly introduce a COVID-19 vaccine, with a handful currently in late-stage human trials.  But recent remarks by Dr. Stephen Hahn, the FDA commissioner, that the agency would consider authorizing an emergency use of a vaccine before the completion of  late-stage human trials raised concerns among WHO officials Monday.   Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist, said issuing such an authorization “has to be done with a great deal of seriousness and reflection. It’s not something that you do very lightly.” In a related development, a panel of government health experts says there is no evidence to date that convalescent blood plasma is an effective treatment for coronavirus patients to help them build immunity. Convalescent blood plasma comes from patients who have recovered from the coronavirus and is rich in antibodies. The FDA approved an emergency authorization of the use of convalescent blood plasma on August 23, a decision President Trump described as “truly historic.” But a panel of more than three dozen experts for the National Institutes of Health issued a statement Tuesday that there is “insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use” of convalescent blood plasma, and says doctors should not rely on it as a standard of care until more studies have been conducted. A day after the emergency authorization was announced, FDA Commissioner Hahn, the FDA commissioner, apologized for apparently overstating the benefits of using convalescent blood plasma. Dr. Hahn reaffirmed claims made by Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar of a 35% decrease in mortality among those younger than 80 years of age who were not on a respirator, a month after receiving the treatment early in the course of their disease.  But critics said the administration’s claim was a gross exaggeration of preliminary findings of a study conducted by the prestigious Mayo Clinic, noting that the study lacked a comparison group of untreated COVID-19 patients.    Dr. Hahn conceded this fact in a tweet apologizing for his remarks, explaining that he should have said that the data shows “a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.”   
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Facebook said Tuesday that it removed a small network of accounts and pages linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency, the “troll factory” that has used social media accounts to sow political discord in the U.S. since the 2016 presidential election.  Twitter also suspended five related accounts. The company said the tweets from these Russia-linked accounts “were low quality and spammy” and that most received few, if any, likes or retweets. The people behind the accounts recruited “unwitting” freelance journalists to post in English and Arabic, mainly targeting left-leaning audiences. Facebook said Tuesday the network’s activity focused on the U.S., U.K., Algeria and Egypt and other English-speaking countries and countries in the Middle East and North Africa.  The company said it started investigating the network based on information from the FBI about its off-Facebook activities. The network was in the early stages of development, Facebook added, and saw “nearly no engagement” on Facebook before it was removed. The network consisted of 13 Facebook accounts and two pages. About 14,000 accounts followed one or more of the pages, though the English-language page had a little over 200 followers, Facebook said.FILE – An man looks at a Facebook app on his smartphone in Amritsar, India, March 22, 2018.Still, its presence points to ongoing Russian efforts to disrupt the U.S. election and sow political discord in an already divided country. To evade detection, the people behind the network recruited Americans to do their bidding, likely unknowingly, both as journalists and as people authorized to purchase political advertisements in the U.S. Facebook said the people behind the network posted about global events ranging from racial justice in the U.S. and the U.K., NATO, the QAnon conspiracy, President Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. The network spent about $480 on advertising on Facebook, primarily in U.S. dollars. However, Facebook said less than $2 worth of those ads targeted the U.S. The network’s posts directed people to a website called PeaceData, which claims to be a global news organization that, according to a  report by research firm Graphika, “took a left-wing stance, opposing what it portrayed as Western imperialism and the excesses of capitalism.” The FBI said in a statement Tuesday that it provided information to the platforms “to better protect against threats to the nation’s security and our democratic processes.” “While technology companies independently make decisions regarding the content of their platforms and the safety of their members, the FBI is actively engaged with our federal partners, election officials, and the private sector to mitigate foreign threats to our nation’s security and our elections,” the statement said.  Separately, Twitter said Tuesday it will start adding context to its trending section, which shows some of the most popular topics on the service at any given moment. Experts and even Twitter’s own employees have expressed concerns that the trending section can be gamed to spread misinformation and abuse. Twitter uses algorithms and human employees to determine what topics are trending — it is not simply the most popular topics, but topics that are newly popular at any given time. But it’s not difficult to artificially elevate trends.  In the coming weeks, Twitter said, users in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, India and several other countries will see brief descriptions added to some trends to add context. “To be clear, we know there is more work to do to improve trends and the context updates we’re announcing today are just a small step in the right direction,” said Liz Lee, a product trust partner and Frank Oppong, a product manager, in a blog post. “We need to make trends better and we will.” 
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After a pandemic hiatus, more than a thousand mask-wearing Extinction Rebellion climate activists marched back onto London’s streets Tuesday, calling for swifter action to halt global warming as a huge contingent of police looked on. With Britain’s Parliament returning to work this week after a summer recess, protesters blocked the square in front of the building and called for legislators to take up a proposed climate and ecological emergency bill. It aims to expand Britain’s pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 to cover so-far excluded sectors such as international shipping and air travel, and for actions toward the goal to be faster and determined by a citizens’ assembly. “The important thing is having the government admit they’re too slow. Right now they’re not taking responsibility,” said Reece Evans, 24, an Extinction Rebellion activist and actor who held a placard reading, “Back the Bill.” Extinction Rebellion climate activists sit in the road and meditate in front of a line of police officers outside of Parliament during a “peaceful disruption” of British Parliament in London, Sept. 1, 2020.Holly Cullen-Davies said she wanted Parliament “to take climate change to the top of the agenda”, while her two young children drew with colored chalks on the pavement. Cullen-Davies said she had joined the grassroots movement in March, as the coronavirus lockdown began and planet-warming emissions temporarily crashed with economies on hold worldwide, showing how rapidly change could happen. “I thought if the world can stop for COVID, it can stop for climate change,” she said. Many activists said they thought the return to street protests, despite the ongoing pandemic, was justified because of fast-growing climate risks and because the movement was taking sufficient precautions to prevent spread of the virus. Nearly all of the activists at Parliament Square in London on Tuesday wore face masks, while simultaneous demonstrations in Cardiff and Manchester were planned to allow protesters to take part closer to home, organizers said. An Extinction Rebellion climate activist holds a placard during a “peaceful disruption” of British Parliament, in Manchester, England, Sept. 1, 2020.”COVID is likely to go on another couple of years and we don’t have that much time,” said Angie Nicholas, a child psychiatrist in green medical scrubs. “We’re super-aware of COVID – but climate and ecological threats are an emergency too,” she added. Chris Newman, a doctor and spokesman for Doctors for Extinction Rebellion, said the situation was comparable to a medic handling a patient with two serious problems. “You can’t just address one problem,” he said in a speech to the crowd in Parliament Square, with many listeners waving colored flags with Extinction Rebellion’s hourglass symbol or carrying homemade placards. Rows of police in yellow vests flanked the protest, and more than 70 police vans were parked nearby in a show of force as Extinction Rebellion – which last year blocked major roads and bridges, causing widespread disruption – resumed its actions. Police said 90 climate activists had been arrested in London as protesters blocked streets in violation of a police order. Police officers detain a priest protesting during a “peaceful disruption” of British Parliament, at Parliament Square in London, Sept. 1, 2020.”The reason we have implemented these conditions is that we know these protests may result in serious disruption to local businesses, commuters and our communities and residents, which I will not tolerate,” Metropolitan Police commander Jane Connors said in a statement Monday. But an Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman said the police had rowed back on restrictions that initially appeared to ban protests anywhere in the city except at Parliament Square, after lawyers for the group filed a letter saying it would dispute them. ‘Frustrating’ Activists said they were glad to be back on the streets after months of waiting for conditions to be safe enough. “It’s wonderful to feel the energy again and try to hold the government to account,” said Grace Onions, 52, who took part in the group’s large-scale protests in 2019. Increasingly clear evidence of climate-related disasters, from floods to droughts, made it urgent to keep up pressure on governments, she added. Marion Phillips, 73, said she was disappointed the UK government was giving stimulus funds to spark a coronavirus recovery without requiring recipients such as airlines to cut emissions, in line with its net-zero goal. “It’s been very frustrating these few months,” she said. Tuesday’s protests were the start of 10 days of action around Britain, organizers said. “I don’t know if it will be effective, but if we’re not doing this, then we’re guaranteed to lose,” said Nathan Nuckhir, 27, a furloughed jobs coach for people with disabilities on his first “nonessential” outing since the lockdown. “There are fewer of us, but it doesn’t change what we have to do,” he said. “I hope as a world we’ll get hold of this virus and more people can come out to join.” 
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The strongest typhoon of the year is on its way to the Korean Peninsula Wednesday after lashing Japan with strong winds and rain.Typhoon Maysak peaked early Tuesday with winds of 233 kilometers per hour, coming within a week of the first major storm and a few days before a third potential typhoon.Maysak, a Category 4 storm on the five-level scale, could affect weather as far away as Canada.Maysak is expected to make landfall Wednesday in South Korea as a Category 1 or Category 2 storm. Prefectures along Japan’s eastern coast were still under weather advisories Tuesday, with some at the southern tip of the island under more serious weather warnings. Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, is predicted to lie in the path of the strongest quadrant of the storm, raising fears of storm surges and flooding, according to the Washington Post. More than 3.4 million people live in Busan.“It is expected that the whole country will be affected by typhoons from the far south of Jeju Island to the day after tomorrow,” tweeted the Korea Meteorological Administration Tuesday. 15시 #태풍’은 매우 강한 태풍으로 일본 오키나와 부근 해상에서 북북동진 중입니다.오늘 늦은밤 제주도남쪽먼바다 시작으로 모레까지 전국이 태풍 영향권에 들 것으로 예상됩니다.전국 매우 강한 바람과 매우 많은 비, 전해상 매우 높은 물결, 일부 해안 폭풍해일 주의!https://t.co/ojZlDteaoipic.twitter.com/e8DBlymVcu— 기상청 (@kma_skylove) September 1, 2020″Very strong winds and very much rain across the country, very high currents, and some coastal storm surges!”This year’s Pacific typhoon season, typically busiest between May and October, has been unusually uneventful thus far.But last week, Typhoon Bavi, weaker than Maysak, dumped significant amounts of rain on the Korean Peninsula, which this year has already experienced one of its longest and wettest monsoon seasons on record.Bavi and Maysak aren’t the end of it. Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, and both Koreas are bracing for another developing storm system, Tropical Storm Haishen, to hit later this week.Korean weather authorities predicted Tuesday that Haishen could strengthen to a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 162 kilometers per hour by Saturday.The Japan Meteorological Administration noted Tuesday that sea surface temperatures around the country in August were the highest on average since record-keeping began in 1982, contributing to the unusual number of serious storms in the Western Pacific.【報道発表】（R2.9.1）日本の南を中心に海面水温が平年よりかなり高くなっており、8月の月平均海面水温が解析値のある1982年以降で最も高くなった海域があります。#いのちとくらしをまもる防災減災https://t.co/vZS1J8Zeyppic.twitter.com/7YELkX50Hi— 気象庁 (@JMA_kishou) September 1, 2020Videos on social media showed Maysak whipping sheets of rain and gusts of wind Monday night across Okinawa.Typhoon Maysak last night making its way across parts of Japan!At the time Sustained winds over 150 km/h (95 mph)Permission: Shuji Shinjo | Urasoe , Okinawa, Japan@WeatherBug#TyphoonMaysak#Typhoon#Maysakpic.twitter.com/eIJ7Pu1MeU— Live Storm Chasers (@Livestormchaser) September 1, 2020  
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Several experimental COVID-19 vaccines have reached the final testing stage, officials involved in their development have said.The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, said Monday the final testing stage in the U.S. will involve up to 30,000 adults from different racial, ethnic and geographical groups.
A vaccine created by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and manufactured by the U.S.-based Moderna Inc. also began testing thousands of people this summer in the U.S., as has another experimental vaccine developed jointly by Pfizer Inc., headquartered in New York, and Germany’s BioNtech.
AstraZeneca said its vaccine, known as AZD1222, is in late-stage trials in Brazil, South Africa and Britian, and that other trials of the vaccine are planned in Japan and Russia.For the experimental vaccines to be successful, they must pass tests that are more stringent than those in other trials because they will be administered to healthy people. Experts emphasize that final testing must be conducted among large numbers of people to determine whether the vaccines are safe and effective enough for mass vaccinations. 
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Getting an Amazon package delivered from the sky is closer to becoming a reality.The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it had granted Amazon approval to deliver packages by drones.Amazon said that the approval is an “important step,” but added that it is still testing and flying the drones. It did not say when it expected drones to make deliveries to shoppers.The online shopping giant has been working on drone delivery for years, but it has been slowed by regulatory hurdles. Back in December 2013, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos said in a TV interview that drones would be flying to customer’s homes within five years.Last year, Amazon unveiled self-piloting drones that are fully electric, can carry 5 pounds of goods and are designed to deliver items in 30 minutes by dropping them in a backyard. At the time, an Amazon executive said deliveries to shoppers would be happening “within months,” but more than 14 months have passed since then.Seattle-based Amazon is the third drone delivery service to win flight approval, the FAA said. Delivery company UPS and a company owned by search giant Google won approval last year.
 
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Botswana says a string of mysterious elephant deaths has come to a halt since June, after at least 281 carcasses were found.Experts in the southern African country, with the world’s largest elephant population, said there were no signs of poaching or predators. Most of the blood samples sent abroad for testing indicate a toxin caused the deaths. However, it is not clear if the toxin is man-made or natural, says Botswana’s Ministry of Wildlife and Environment Permanent Secretary Oduetse Koboto.                           “We have received most of the results. A lot of variables that we suspected had tested negative.  We ruled out any virus, no bacteria. Pathogens (are) also negative,” he said. “The only thing that we are waiting for is toxicology. What is evident is that we are now dealing with a poison.”       Koboto says they are waiting on one last batch of test results from the United States before reaching a conclusion.   Veterinarian Dr. Mbatshi Mazwinduma says a naturally occurring toxin would explain why no more elephants appear to be dying in Botswana’s Okavango panhandle. “In the period leading to June, remember this is a dry period, the amount of water is in low quantities. If it is because of a naturally occurring toxin, they would be in high concentration in the waters and those elephants that drink in particular spots get affected. With the rising waters of the Okavango in the last couple of weeks, the toxins are diluted and then washed out,” Mazwinduma said. Conservationist Neil Fitt agrees that changes in weather conditions could have diluted a natural toxin.   “If it is an environmental toxin, they come and go depending on weather conditions,” he said. “Obviously, the conditions, if that’s the case, have now changed and that’s the reason why the deaths have stopped, which is a good thing. But until we get the results, which are extremely long in coming, we cannot say much more.”  Koboto says getting quick results on the investigations and test samples was not possible due to COVID-19 restrictions. “There were lockdowns everywhere, even internationally,” he said. “Mostly, we are dependent on air transport. If there are no flights going outside the country even (to) South Africa here, how could we have taken them (samples) out?” Botswana’s neighbor, Zimbabwe, recorded its first mysterious deaths last week, with the loss of at least 11 elephants. Wildlife authorities there say the cause appears to be a bacterial infection.   The two countries have the world’s combined largest elephant population at more than 200,000 animals – most of them in Botswana.   Conservationists estimate the number of wild, African elephants has dropped by almost a third in the last decade due to drought, loss of habitat, and poaching.   
 
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