Latest News

What’s the Fed doing in response to the COVID-19 crisis? What more could it do?

The coronavirus crisis in the United States—and the associated business closures, event cancellations, and work-from-home policies—triggered a deep economic downturn of uncertain duration. The Federal Reserve stepped in with a broad array of actions to limit the economic damage from the pandemic, including up to $2.3 trillion in lending to support households, employers, financial markets, and state and local governments.

FIVE WAYS THE U.S. MILITARY WILL CHANGE AFTER THE PANDEMIC

The global pandemic is about to profoundly change the U.S. military’s role in defending the United States — even if Pentagon leaders don’t know it yet. As we noted in our last column, many Americans will look at the immeasurable damage wrought by the pandemic and conclude that defending the homeland from catastrophic threats is far more urgent than defending against foreign threats far from American shores. That fundamental shift is rapidly ushering in a new era for the Department of Defense, which will upend some of its bedrock assumptions about when, where, and how the U.S. military contributes to national security.

Study: Chemtrails and Solar Geoengineers: Governing Online Conspiracy Theory Misinformation

unorthodox proposals to limit
warming temperatures has grown. Solar geoengineering is one idea:
interventions in the atmosphere that would cool the Earth by reflecting away
a small percentage of incoming sunlight. Inspired by global cooling observed
after volcanic eruptions, it seems solar geoengineering could be technically
quick and simple to implement, but rather imperfect as climate policy.

Study: Positive rate of RT-PCR detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in 4880 cases from one hospital in Wuhan, China, from Jan to Feb 2020

There’s an outbreak of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection since December 2019, first in China, and currently with more than 80 thousand confirmed infection globally in 29 countries till March 2, 2020. Identification, isolation and caring for patients early are essential to limit human-to-human transmission including reducing secondary infections among close contacts and health care workers, preventing transmission amplification events. The RT-PCR detection of viral nucleic acid test (NAT) was one of the most quickly established laboratory diagnosis method in a novel viral pandemic, just as in this COVID-19 outbreak.

COVID-19, lies and statistics: Corruption and the pandemic

From Brazil to the Philippines, secretive governments across the world are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by covering up data and bypassing public procurement rules, undermining trust in health systems, fuelling anti-vaxxers and putting immunisation campaigns at risk.

Study: Assessment of Community-Level Disparities in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Infections and Deaths in Large US Metropolitan Areas

Study: Assessment of Community-Level Disparities in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Infections and Deaths in Large US Metropolitan Areas

Urban counties in large metropolitan areas in the United States are among the most affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with high proportions of confirmed infection among those who have been tested. While there is growing evidence of disparities by race/ethnicity across neighborhoods, the extent to which neighborhood poverty is associated with infection and deaths is not clear. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the association of neighborhood race/ethnicity and poverty with COVID-19 infections and related deaths in urban US counties, hypothesizing disproportionate burdens in counties with a larger percentage of the population belonging to minority racial/ethnic groups and a higher rate of poverty. This study is among the first to investigate such associations in US metropolitan areas.

Study: Long haulers: Why some people experience long-term coronavirus symptoms

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms can last weeks or months for some people. These patients, given the name “long haulers”, have in theory recovered from the worst impacts of COVID-19 and have tested negative. However, they still have symptoms. There seems to be no consistent reason for this to happen.

PCR, antigen and antibody: Five things to know about coronavirus tests

coronavirus, testing is critical. There are two types of Covid-19 tests — those that are designed to detect whether you have the infection now, or those crafted to check whether you have been previously infected by the virus — SARS-CoV-2 — that causes the disease. Like any other product these tests have varying degrees of accuracy and reliability, and can be used to achieve different aims.

Sweeping new vaccine mandates for 100 million Americans

 In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans — private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors — in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant.