#Infection Control Committee in University of Science and Technology hospital

[abdulqawiqaid]

تقرير - مكافحة العدوى في مستشفى جامعة العلوم والتكنولوجيا صنعاء خلال عام 2016

تقرير – مكافحة العدوى في مستشفى جامعة العلوم والتكنولوجيا صنعاء خلال عام 2016

مقدمة عامة تعد «عدوى المستشفيات» أو «العدوى المكتسبة أثناء الوجود بالمستشفيات»، إحدى المشكلات الصحية الخطرة التي قد تصيب المرضى، وخاصة من كبار السن وذوي المناعة المحدودة (الأطفال الخدج) ومرضى الحروق والرعاية المركزة والمرضى الذين يتلقون العلاج لفترات طويلة والمرضى الذين يعالجون ببعض الأدوية مثل المضادات الحيوية واسعة المدى، ومثبطات المناعة، والكورتيزون والعلاجات الكيميائية للسرطان. وأكد الخبراء…

[militant-holy-knight]

We have been paying dearly for China's lies.

"This is one of the worst cover-ups in human history, and now the world is facing a global pandemic," said Rep. Michael T. McCaul, the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, before the US intelligence community concluded, in a classified report to the White House, that China has concealed the origin and extent of the catastrophic global coronavirus outbreak.

The Chinese Communist Party's "failure has unleashed a global contagion killing thousands", wrote Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, on April 1. "As we survey the damage done to lives around the world, we must ask who is responsible?"

"... there is one government that has primary responsibility for what it has done and what it has failed to do, and that is the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] regime in Beijing. Let me be clear — it is the CCP that has been responsible, not the people of China... Lies and propaganda have put millions of lives around the world in danger... In recent years, we have seen an intense crackdown on freedom of expression in China. Lawyers, bloggers, dissidents and civil society activists have been rounded up and have disappeared."

One more person has just disappeared: Ai Fen, a Chinese physician who was head of the emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital, had worked with the late Dr. Li Wenliang. Ai, who claimed that her bosses silenced her early warnings about coronavirus, appears to have vanished. Her whereabouts, according to 60 Minutes Australia, are unknown. The journalists who saw what happened inside Wuhan have also disappeared. Caixin Global reported that the laboratories which sequenced the coronavirus in December were ordered by Chinese officials to hand over or destroy the samples and not release their findings. "If I had known what was to happen, I would not have cared about the reprimand, I would have fucking talked about it to whoever, where ever I could", Ai Fen said in an interview in March. Those were her last recorded words.

There is no record at all, however, about how this pandemic began. Wet market? A cave full of bats? Pangolins? Or a bio-weapons laboratory? No foreign doctors, journalists, analysts or international observers are present in Wuhan. Why, if the virus came out of a wet market or a cave, did China suppress inquiries to such an extent? Why, in December, did Beijing order Chinese scientists to destroy proof about the virus? Why did Chinese officials claim that US soldiers brought the virus to Wuhan? Why should it be scandalous that a US President calls a virus that began in China a "Chinese virus"?

Who announced on January 11 that Wuhan's wet market was the origin of this epidemic? The Chinese regime. It was later discovered that the first known case of coronavirus traced back to November 17, 2019.

The same Chinese regime later claimed that this coronavirus "may not have originated in China". What respected scientist or institution can now trust anything that comes out of China?

Many leading scientists have dismissed the claim that the Covid-19 virus was an engineered pathogen. This conclusion was seemingly based on the fact that Wuhan has two major virus research labs: the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which is apparently less than a mile from the market, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory, handling the world's most deadly pathogens, located just seven miles from the market. The story was immediately and emphatically trashed as a "conspiracy theory".

Those scientists claim that the virus likely originated among wildlife before spreading to humans, possibly through a food market in Wuhan. They say that, through genetic sequencing, they have identified the culprit for Covid-19 as a bat coronavirus. End of story? Science, thankfully, begins by asking questions and then seeking answers.

Bats were not, it seems, sold at Wuhan's wet market. The Lancet noted in a January study that the first Covid-19 case in Wuhan had no connection to the market. The Lancet's paper, written by Chinese researchers from several institutions, detailed that 13 of the 41 first cases had no link to the market. "That's a big number, 13, with no link," commented Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University. So how did the epidemic start?

"Now it seems clear that [the] seafood market is not the only origin of the virus, but to be honest we still do not know where the virus came from now", notes Bin Cao, pulmonary specialist at Capital Medical University, and the corresponding author of the Lancet article.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that China's Communist Party is withholding information about the coronavirus.

If we do not know, it is necessary be open to all possibilities.

"Less than 300 yards from the seafood market is the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention" wrote David Ignatius of the Washington Post.

"Researchers from that facility and the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology have posted articles about collecting bat coronaviruses from around China, for study to prevent future illness. Did one of those samples leak, or was hazardous waste deposited in a place where it could spread?".

"Collecting viruses" presumably does not exclude the possibility of a "leaked virus". Worse, if China is not able to protect its laboratories, it needs to be held accountable and made to pay for the devastating global damage.

"Experts know the new coronavirus is not a bioweapon. They disagree on whether it could have leaked from a research lab", stated The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Professor Richard Ebright of Rutgers University's Waksman Institute of Microbiology, and a major biosecurity expert, agreed with the Nature Medicine authors' argument that the coronavirus was not manipulated by humans. But Ebright does think it possible that the Covid-19 started as an accidental leak from a laboratory, such as one of the two in Wuhan, which are known to have been studying bat viruses:

"Virus collection or animal infection with a virus having the transmission characteristics of the outbreak virus would pose substantial risk of infection of a lab worker, and from the lab worker, the public."

Ebright has also claimed that bat coronaviruses are studied in Wuhan at Biosafety Level 2, "which provides only minimal protection" compared with the top BSL-4.

"We don't know what happened, but there are a lot of reasons to believe that this indeed was a release of some sort", China expert Gordon Chang said to Die Weltwoche.

"No one has been able to study it. How can you say it's not a release from a lab if you can't go to the lab? Indeed, we have seen Beijing do its best to prevent virologists and epidemiologists from actually going to Wuhan. The World Health Organization team went to Wuhan for like half a day with only part of the team."

That is another major problem. The potential major investigator of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic's origin, the World Health Organization (WHO), is now accused of being "China's coronavirus' accomplice". As late as January 14, the WHO quoted Chinese health officials claiming there had been no human transmissions of the coronavirus within the country yet.

China poses a biosecurity risks for the entire planet. One year before the first coronavirus case was identified in Wuhan, US Customs and Border Protection agents at Detroit Metro Airport stopped a Chinese biologist with three vials labeled "Antibodies" in his luggage. According to an unclassified FBI tactical intelligence report obtained by Yahoo News:

"Inspection of the writing on the vials and the stated recipient led inspection personnel to believe the materials contained within the vials may be viable Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) materials."

Why is China trafficking in dangerous viruses in the first place?

According to Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations:

"A safety breach at a Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention lab is believed to have caused four suspected SARS cases, including one death, in Beijing in 2004. A similar accident caused 65 lab workers of Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute to be infected with brucellosis in December 2019. In January 2020, a renowned Chinese scientist, Li Ning, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling experimental animals to local markets".

In February, Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao, from Guangzhou's South China University of Technology, wrote in a research paper:

"In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level [sic] may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories".

Xiao later told the Wall Street Journal that he had withdrawn the paper because it "was not supported by direct proofs".

Chinese laboratory mistakes have happened before. By 2010, researchers published as fact: "The most famous case of a released laboratory strain is the re-emergent H1N1 influenza-A virus which was first observed in China in May of 1977 and in Russia shortly thereafter". The virus may have escaped from a lab attempting to prepare a vaccine in response to the U.S. swine flu pandemic alert.

In 1999 the most senior defector in the US from the Soviet biological warfare program, Ken Alibek, revealed that Soviet officials concluded that China had suffered a serious accident at one of its secret biological plants, causing two major epidemics of fever that had swept China in the late 1980s. "Our analysts", Alibek stated in his book, Biohazard, "concluded that they were caused by an accident in a lab where Chinese scientists were weaponizing viral diseases".

In 2004, the World Health Organization disclosed that the latest outbreak of "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS) in China involved two researchers who were working with the virus in a Beijing research lab. The WHO denounced Chinese breaches of safety procedures, and director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Li Liming, resigned. Science magazine also stated that "for the third time in less than a year, an outbreak of SARS seems to have originated from a failure in laboratory containment".

Moreover, three years ago, when China opened the laboratory in Wuhan, Tim Trevan, a Maryland biosafety specialist, told Nature that he worried about the safety of the building because "structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important." Free speech and open information: exactly what Chinese regime fought against in December and January.

A Chinese video about a key researcher in Wuhan, Tian Junhua, which was released a few weeks before the outbreak in Wuhan, shows Chinese researchers handling bats that contained viruses. In the video (produced by China Science Communication, run by the China Association for Science and Technology), Tian says:

"I am not a doctor, but I work to cure and save people... I am not a soldier, but I work to safeguard an invisible national defense line".

Tian is also reported as having said:

"I can feel the fear: the fear of infections and the fear of getting lost. Because of the fear, I take every step extremely cautiously. The more scared I feel, the more care I take in executing every detail. Because the process of you finding the viruses is also when you can be exposed to them the easiest. I do hope these virus samples will only be preserved for scientific research and will never be used in real life".

For a month, the Chinese Communist Party, instead of fighting the contagion, did everything possible to censor all information about the Covid-19 outbreak. After President Xi Jinping declared "a people's war" on the epidemic on January 20, Chinese security services pursued 5,111 cases of "fabricating and deliberately disseminating false and harmful information". The Chinese Human Rights Defenders documented several types of punishment, including detention, disappearance, fines, interrogations, forced confessions and "educational reprimand".

After that, China lied about the real number of deaths. There are photographs of long lines of stacked urns greeting family members of the dead at funeral homes in Wuhan. Outside one funeral home, trucks shipped in 2,500 urns. According to Chinese official figures, 2,548 people in Wuhan have died of the Covid-19. According to an analysis by Radio Free Asia, seven funeral homes in Wuhan were each handing out 500 funeral urns containing remains for 12 days, from March 23 to the traditional tomb-sweeping festival of April 5, a time that would indicate up to 42,000 urns, or ten times higher than the official figure.

In February, it was reported that Wuhan crematoriums were working around the clock to cope with the massive influx of infected bodies. Wuhan's officials are apparently pushing relatives of the victims to bury the dead "quickly and quietly".

"Natural virus" does not exclude its fallout from a laboratory where pathogens are collected and studied. The Nature Medicine authors "leave us where we were before: with a basis to rule out [a coronavirus from] a lab construct, but no basis to rule out a lab accident", Professor Ebright commented.

"Debate may rage over which center it is, but at this point it seems undeniable that a center has been directly involved with research on viruses, although not necessarily on the creation of a virus" wrote Father Renzo Milanese, a longtime Catholic missionary in Hong Kong.

"In other words, the virus passed from a research center in Wuhan early on. More importantly there is also no question that the authorities were aware of the dangerousness of the virus, that they did not inform anyone and that they tried to keep the facts hidden".

US Senator Josh Hawley has introduced a resolution calling for an international investigation into China's handling of the spread of the virus. According to Hawley:

"The Chinese Communist Party was aware of the reality of the virus as early as December but ordered laboratories to destroy samples and forced doctors to keep silent. It is time for an international investigation into the role their cover-up played in the spread of this devastating pandemic".

Admitting a fault, as the Japanese did after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, might be one way for a country to be accepted again by the international community. Censoring, denying and covering up, as China is doing, will not.

"China claims that the deadly virus did not escape from its biolab," said a China specialist with the Population Research Institute, Steven W. Mosher. "Fine. Prove it by releasing the research records of the Wuhan lab".

[yunathun]

THEY DEAL IN THE SOULS OF MEN

THEY DEAL IN THE SOULS OF MEN

SATAN'S HIGH LEVEL END-TIMES WITCHCRAFT, THEY CONTROL THE SOULS OF MEN-(MK ULTRA MIND CONTROL-HUMAN CLONING-HUMAN CONSCIOUS TRANSFER/CRISPR-DEALING WITH THE SOULS OF MEN)

FROM THE KING JAMES BIBLE (KJV 1611) FROM THE BOOK: DAEMONOLOGIE YEAR 2020 BY AUTHOR: J.R.WILLIS

***INTRODUCTION***

ALL OF THESE EVILS ARE DONE IN ORDER TO DESTROY THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL-(WE ARE THEIR #1 FOCUS AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN-2/3RD'S OF ZION MUST PERISH AS IT IS WRITTEN):

REVELATION 18:13

13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots-(ALL OF BABYLONS INDUSTRIES/ECONOMY WHICH MADE HER GREAT AMONG ALL OF THE KINGDOMS SHALL BE DESTROYED WITH HER IN ONE HOUR UPON THE GREAT DAY OF THE LORD [PART I]-TOTAL & COMPLETE NUCLEAR DESTRUCTION), and slaves-(THE BLACK HEBREW ISRAELITE SLAVES IN WHICH SHE DEVOURED & BUILT HER EMPIRE OFF OF AND DRANK THEIR BLOOD-BABYLON IS DRUNKEN OFF OF THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS WHO BE THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL), and souls of men-(CIA PROJECT MK ULTRA-CIA SATANIC HOLLYWOOD-ALL INDUSTRIES OF INFLUENCE CONTROLLING THE SOULS OF MEN & HAVING THEM ALL WORSHIP SATAN & HIS ROMAN BEAST EMPIRE-ALL THINGS ABOMINABLE UNTO THE LORD THY GOD).

***IMPORTANT NOTES***

THE SATANIC MASONIC ADAM WIESHAMPT, ALBERT PIKE, GIUSEPPE MANZZINI, ALEISTER CROWLEY, NEW AGE, AGE OF AQUARIUS, ENLIGHTENMENT, NIHILIST, SODOMITE, DEMONIC MUSIC, FREE SEX, FREE DRUGS, LUCERFARIAN, RED BROTHERHOOD OF EDOM-(ILLUMINATI) PLAN IS NOW COMPLETED UPON THE WORLD POPULOUS-(THE WORLD IS NOW INDOCTRINATE INTO ONE LARGE GLOBAL SATANIC OCCULT):

BELIAR THROUGH (ESAU-AMALEK-EDOM/THE CAUCASIAN NATIONS/HIS PEOPLE/THE PEOPLE OF THE PRINCE, SATAN HIMSELF, DANIEL 9:26), BY WAY OF THE CIA BLACK BUDGET OPS SUCH PROJECT (MK ULTRA & DAARPA), DEALS IN THE SOULS OF MEN.

THIS IS CONFIRMED IN (REVELATION 18:13). THESE SECRETIVE COVERT U.S. GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS ARE IN FACT DEMON POSSESSION ENHANCING-(UPLOADING), PHARMAKEIA OPIOD PSYCHOTIC DRUG TESTING TECHNIQUE WHICH PRODUCE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATES OF ALL LEVELS OF POLITICAL, CELEBRITY, EDUCATIONAL, AND INDUSTRY WHICH ARE UTILIZED BY THE RED BROTHERHOOD OF EDOM-(THE ILLUMINATI) IN ORDER TO SWAY AND INFLUENCE THE SPIRITUALLY DEAD MASSES TO ACCEPT THIS SATANIC KINGDOM OF BELIAR AND ESAU.

***IMPORTANT NOTES***

SO WHAT IS THE CIA PROJECT MK ULTRA?

Project MK Ultra, also called the CIA mind control program, is the code name given to a program of experiments on human subjects that were designed and undertaken by the United States Central Intelligence Agency—and which were, at times, illegal.

Experiments on humans were intended to identify and develop drugs and procedures to be used in interrogations in order to weaken the individual and force confessions through mind control. The project was organized through the Office of Scientific Intelligence of the CIA and coordinated with the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories.

The operation was officially sanctioned in 1953, was reduced in scope in 1964, further curtailed in 1967, and recorded to be halted in 1973. There remains controversy over whether this operation ever ended, or continues presently. The program engaged in many illegal activities, including the use of U.S. and Canadian citizens as its unwitting test subjects, which led to controversy regarding its legitimacy.

MKUltra used numerous methods to manipulate people's mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse (including the sexual abuse of children), and other forms of torture.

The scope of Project MK Ultra was broad with research undertaken at 80 institutions, including colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies. The CIA operated through these institutions using front organizations, although sometimes top officials at these institutions were aware of the CIA's involvement.

Project MK Ultra was first brought to public attention in 1975 by the Church Committee of the United States Congress and Gerald Ford's United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MK Ultra files to be destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms's destruction order. In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a cache of 20,000 documents relating to project MK Ultra which led to Senate hearings later that year.

Some surviving information regarding MKUltra was declassified in July 2001. In December 2018, declassified documents included a letter to an unidentified doctor discussing work on six dogs made to run, turn and stop via remote control and brain implants.

ALL OF THESE EVILS ARE DONE IN ORDER TO INDOCTRINATE THE WORLD POPULOUS INTO THE BABYLONIAN MITHRA, ESOTERIC MYSTERY RELIGIONS, OR IN OTHER WORDS, BELIAR THROUGH EDOM IS SURELY AND SPEEDILY INDOCTRINATING THE ENTIRE WORLD INTO THEIR NEW WORLD ORDER, GLOBAL SATANIC OCCULT THROUGH ROME.

THROUGH PEOPLE OF POWER, INFLUENCE AND CELEBRITY, SCIENCE-(SORCERY), AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM, THE RED BROTHERHOOD OF EDOM HAS DONE JUST THIS. THEIR MACHINES OF INFLUENCE INCLUDE HOLLYWOOD, SPORTS, SMARTPHONE, THE INTERNET, AND ALL MEDIA OF ENTERTAINMENT, AND INDUSTRY OF LIFE.

***IMPORTANT NOTES***

THE HUMAN CLONING PROGRAM & CRISPR-(HUMAN GENE EDITING SORCERY):

HUMAN CLONING TECHNIQUE UTILIZE (FAMILIAR SPIRITS-DEMONS), THAT ARE AQAINTED WITH THE SOUL IN WHICH THESE EDOMITE SORCERER'S CLONE IN THEIR DUMBS-(DEEP UNDERGROUND MILITARY BASES). THE FAMILIAR SPIRIT CAN MIMIC AND COPY A HOST SPEECH PATTERNS, MEMORY, MOVEMENT, AND MANY OTHER SPIRITUAL AND CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES ASSOCIATED WITH THAT CLONED SOUL. SOME HUMAN CLONED TISSUE BODIES ARE MACHINE BASED AS I AM LED TO BELIEVE THAT EARLY TEST SUBJECTS WERE JUST THAT, DEMONICALLY ENHANCED BIOLOGICAL MACHINERY HOUSED WITH DEMONIC SPIRITS WHICH REENACT THAT HUMAN IN WHICH THE PHYSICAL CLONED TISSUE WAS CREATED FROM AND TO BE A DUPLICATE OF.

THE SECOND CLONING TECHNIQUE WHICH BY FAR IS THE SUPERIOR AND MORE ADVANCED, BE THE FULL HUMAN TISSUE CLONE, BOTH INSIDE AND OUTWARDLY. THESE BODIES HAVE BEEN CONJURED BY EDOM WORKING HAND IN HAND WITH THE FALLEN USING ADVANCED SORCERY-(SCIENCE) SUCH AS (CRISPR), WHICH IS FALLEN ANGELIC HUMAN AND BEAST GENE EDITING MODIFICATION TECHNOLOGY. THE PHYSICAL FULL FLESH AND BLOOD BODY CLONES ARE ALSO INHABITED BY WICKED FAMILIAR SPIRITS AS THEIR PREVIOUS MACHINE FLESH CLONED BODIES WERE AS WELL.

***IMPORTANT NOTES***

SO WHAT IS HUMAN CLONING DEFINED?

Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy (or clone) of a human. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning, which is the reproduction of human cells and tissue. It does not refer to the natural conception and delivery of identical twins. The possibility of human cloning has raised controversies. These ethical concerns have prompted several nations to pass laws regarding human cloning and its legality.

Two commonly discussed types of theoretical human cloning are: therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning would involve cloning cells from a human for use in medicine and transplants, and is an active area of research, but is not in medical practice anywhere in the world, as of April 2017. Two common methods of therapeutic cloning that are being researched are somatic-cell nuclear transfer and, more recently, pluripotent stem cell induction. Reproductive cloning would involve making an entire cloned human, instead of just specific cells or tissues.

***IMPORTANT NOTES***

WHAT IS CRISPR?

CRISPR (/ˈkrɪspər/) (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found within the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments from viruses that have previously infected the prokaryote and are used to detect and destroy DNA from similar viruses during subsequent infections. Hence these sequences play a key role in the antiviral defense system of prokaryotes.

Cas9 (or "CRISPR-associated 9") is an enzyme that uses CRISPR sequences as a guide to recognize and cleave specific strands of DNA that are complementary to the CRISPR sequence. Cas9 enzymes together with CRISPR sequences form the basis of a technology known as CRISPR/Cas9 that can be used to edit genes within organisms. This type of gene editing process has a wide variety of applications including use as a basic biology research tool, development of biotechnology products, and potentially to treat diseases.

CRISPR/Cas9 The CRISPR/Cas system is a prokaryotic immune system that confers resistance to foreign genetic elements such as those present within plasmids and phages that provides a form of acquired immunity. RNA harboring the spacer sequence helps Cas (CRISPR-associated) proteins recognize and cut foreign pathogenic DNA. Other RNA-guided Cas proteins cut foreign RNA. CRISPR are found in approximately 50% of sequenced bacterial genomes and nearly 90% of sequenced archaea.

PHYSICAL FULL ADULT VESSELS-(BODIES) OF HUMAN CLONING HAVE BEEN REPORTED TO BE GROWN AT AN ACCELERATED RATE OF 2-3 MONTHS, AND SOME EVEN MORE DISTURBING ACCOUNTS REPORT HUMAN REPLICATED BODIES TO BE COMPLETED AS FAST AS A FEW WEEKS, TO JUST DAYS. ONLY THE GOOD LORD KNOWS THE EXACT TRUTH OF WHAT THESE MALEVOLENT DEVIANTS DEMONIC TECHNOLOGY IS CAPABLE OF ACHIEVING NOW.

ALL OF THESE EVILS ARE DONE ACCORDING TO THE DEMONIC ADVANCEMENT OF ESAU'S DEMONIC FALLEN ANGELIC TECHNOLOGY. THEY CAN CLONE ANIMALS WITH EASE MY PEOPLE SINCE THE LATE 1940'S, SO WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT THEY HAVE NOT DONE SO WITH HUMAN BEINGS CELEBRITIES, ENTERTAINERS AND NEWLY CREATED MONSTERS SUCH AS THE YEMIM AND OTHER BEAST THAT ARE SHOWING UP ALL OVER THE EARTH?

THE MOST AMAZING FACT IS THAT THEY PUT ALL OF THESE EVILS RIGHT IN YOUR FACES WITH THEIR CIA HOLLYWOOD MOVIES, TELEVISION, SHOWS, COMICS BOOKS, AND MEDIA, PREYING UPON YOUR NAIVETE...

***IMPORTANT NOTES***

THE SATANIC ROMAN BEAST EMPIRE EDOMITE END GAME AGENDA:

ALL SO-CALLED HOLLYWOOD ENTERTAINMENT OF TODAY IS NO MORE THAN A TRAINING, MIND CONTROL, SPIRIT ALTERING TOOLS USED TO SUBJUGATE, DECEIVE, MISLEAD, AND BLIND 90-99% PERCENT OF THE HUMAN POPULATION IN ORDER LEAD THEM ALL ASTRAY SO THAT THEY MAY:

1. ACCEPT BELIAR-(SATAN), AS THEIR GOD WHICH MANY ALREADY WILLINGLY DO NOW IN BROAD DAYLIGHT BEING NOT ASHAMED OF THEIR FALLEN CHERIBUM GOD.

2. ACCEPT THE MARK OF THE BEAST RFID-(RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION CHIP)/NFC CHIP DEVICE INTO THEIR BODIES IN EITHER THEIR FOREHEADS OR LEFT HAND/WRIST AS PROPHESIED BY THE MOST HIGH THROUGH LORD YASHAYA CHRIST.

3. FLOOD THE EARTH AGAIN WITH RAPHAIM AND YEMIM MONSTERS NOT ONLY BY WAY OF DIRECT FALLEN ANGELIC HUMAN/ANIMAL COPULATION AS THESE WICKED ANGELS DID BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER THE GREAT FLOOD AS THEY SHALL MIX THEIR THEMSELVES WITH THE SEED OF MEN AGAIN AS PROPHESIED-(DANIEL 2:43), BUT TO ALSO CREATE A NEW HYBRID CLASS OF BEINGS FULLY INHABITED BY DEMONIC SPIRITS, PLACING THEM AMONG THE HUMAN POPULOUS SO THAT THE ABSOLUTE WILL OF SATAN BE EXECUTED UPON THE EARTH. THE EARTH BECOMES FILLED WITH ALL KINDS OF ABOMINABLE SINS WHICH LEAD TO THE WORLD BECOMING AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF FATHER NOAH.

UNDERSTAND THIS CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, BELIAR'S TIME IS SHORT, AND HE HAS ALL OF HIS HEATHEN NATIONS, HENCHMEN, EVIL SPIRITS, AND MINISTERS OF EVIL ALL IN PLACE SO THAT HIS CONTROL OVER THE ENTIRE EARTH BE AIRTIGHT AND UNDER HIS FULL POWER THROUGH ROME-(EDOM-THE CAUCASIAN NATIONS).

REVELATION 12:12

12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

THE CIA, HOLLYWOOD PRE-PREDICTIVE PROGRAMMING, PERSUADING, AND HUMAN CLONING PLANS ARE ALL THE WICKED TOOLS OF THE DEVIL THAT ARE UTILIZED THROUGH EDOM, IN ORDER TO TARGET 2/3RDS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AND HAVE THEM OUTRIGHT ACCEPT BELIAR/EDOM'S SATANIC ROMAN BEAST KINGDOM AND REJECT THE MOST HIGH.

THEY ALSO WORK THIS GREAT SORCERY UPON THE 2/3RDS OF OUR PEOPLE BY SUBDUING OUR PEOPLE THROUGH THEIR 501C3 FREE TAX DUTY STATUS, PAGAN ROMAN, BAAL TEMPLE, HARLOT HOUSES, AKA, (THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES).

WAKE UP ZION BECAUSE WE ARE HERE, AND THEIR EVIL INTENTIONS AGAINST OUR HOUSE IS SO GREAT, DARK, VAST AND SINISTER THAT THE MASSES COULD NOT POSSIBLY BELIEVE, BUT THESE EVENTS ARE ALL REAL AND ALL BE TRUE.

ALL OF THESE DEMONIC DEVICES OF EVIL ARE OF BELIAR AND HIS COHORTS, AND ARE NOTHING MORE THAN THEIR ANTEDILUVIAN-(PRE-FLOOD ERA), ANCIENT OCCULTIC WITCHCRAFT-(THE SECRETS OF HEAVEN), USED TO DRAG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL STRAIGHT TO HELL.

THESE ARE THE TOOLS OF HIS GREAT DECEPTION AND SADLY EXACTLY TWO-THIRDS OF YOU ZION SHALL FALL PREY TO HIS MANY DEVICES WHICH FLOW THROUGH HIS PEOPLE, THE WICKED HOUSE OF EDOM-(THE CAUCASIAN NATIONS).

YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WARNED...

SHALOM.

***CONCLUSION***

For Judgement-(DEATH) comes for Esau who is Amalek, who are Edom, which are the Caucasian nations by way of the WRATH OF THE LAMB.

REVELATION 2:9

9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)-(LORD YASHAYA KNOWS OUR OPPRESSION-AFFLICTION & DESTRUCTION AT THE HANDS OF OUR ENEMIES AS HE HIMSELF ENDURED THEM FOR US-BUT WE ARE RICH BECAUSE WE ARE THE LORD’S HERITAGE-WE ARE THE WORLD & THE WORLD WAS CREATED FOR US), and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews-(AMALEK-EDOM-THE CAUCASIAN NATIONS), and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan-(THESE WICKED SERPENTS ARE THE CHIEF HOUSE OF THE DEVIL HIMSELF).

All praises, honor and glory be unto the Most High God of the True 12 Tribes of Israel, bahashem Lord Yashaya Christ, wa Ruach Ho Kodesh, Amen.

***END OF SUMMARY***

NOW WHO SHALL DENY THIS REPORT?

J.R.WILLIS AUTHOR: A RACE OF DEMONS REFINED 2017 AUTHOR: SPIRITUAL CRIMES 2018 AUTHOR: THE PROPHECIES AUTHOR: THE BOOK OF DAEMONOLOGIE YEAR 2020'

[orbemnews]

Scientists Urge Air Quality Changes in the Workplace, in Wake of Pandemic Clean water in 1842, food safety in 1906, a ban on lead-based paint in 1971. These sweeping public health reforms transformed not just our environment but expectations for what governments can do. Now it’s time to do the same for indoor air quality, according to a group of 39 scientists. In a manifesto of sorts published on Thursday in the journal Science, the researchers called for a “paradigm shift” in how citizens and government officials think about the quality of the air we breathe indoors. The timing of the scientists’ call to action coincides with the nation’s large-scale reopening as coronavirus cases steeply decline: Americans are anxiously facing a return to offices, schools, restaurants and theaters — exactly the type of crowded indoor spaces in which the coronavirus is thought to thrive. There is little doubt now that the coronavirus can linger in the air indoors, floating far beyond the recommended six feet of distance, the experts declared. The accumulating research puts the onus on policymakers and building engineers to provide clean air in public buildings and to minimize the risk of respiratory infections, they said. “We expect to have clean water from the taps., said Lidia Morawska, the group’s leader and an aerosol physicist at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. “We expect to have clean, safe food when we buy it in the supermarket. In the same way, we should expect clean air in our buildings and any shared spaces.” Meeting the group’s recommendations would require new workplace standards for air quality, but the scientists maintained that the remedies do not have to be onerous. Air quality in buildings can be improved with a few simple fixes, they said: adding filters to existing ventilation systems, using portable air cleaners and ultraviolet lights — or even just opening the windows where possible. Dr. Morawska led a group of 239 scientists who last year called on the World Health Organization to acknowledge that the coronavirus can spread in tiny droplets, or aerosols, that drift through the air. The W.H.O. had insisted that the virus spreads only in larger, heavier droplets and by touching contaminated surfaces, contradicting its own 2014 rule to assume all new viruses are airborne. The W.H.O. conceded on July 9 that transmission of the virus by aerosols could be responsible for “outbreaks of Covid-19 reported in some closed settings, such as restaurants, nightclubs, places of worship or places of work where people may be shouting, talking or singing,” but only at short range. The pressure to act on preventing airborne spread has recently been escalating. In February, more than a dozen experts petitioned the Biden administration to update workplace standards for high-risk settings like meatpacking plants and prisons, where Covid outbreaks have been rampant. Last month, a separate group of scientists detailed 10 lines of evidence that support the importance of airborne transmission indoors. On April 30, the W.H.O. inched forward and allowed that in poorly ventilated spaces, aerosols “may remain suspended in the air or travel farther than 1 meter (long-range).” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which had also been slow to update its guidelines, recognized last week that the virus can be inhaled indoors, even when a person is more than six feet away from an infected individual. “They have ended up in a much better, more scientifically defensible place,” said Linsey Marr, an expert in airborne viruses at Virginia Tech, and a signatory to the letter. Updated  May 13, 2021, 2:00 p.m. ET “It would be helpful if they were to undertake a public service messaging campaign to publicize this change more broadly,” especially in parts of the world where the virus is surging, she said. For example, in some East Asian countries, stacked toilet systems could transport the virus between floors of a multistory building, she noted. More research is also needed on how the virus moves indoors. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory modeled the flow of aerosol-sized particles after a person has had a five-minute coughing bout in one room of a three-room office with a central ventilation system. Clean outdoor air and air filters both cut down the flow of particles in that room, the scientists reported in April. But rapid air exchanges — more than 12 in an hour — can propel particles into connected rooms, much as secondhand smoke can waft into lower levels or nearby rooms. “For the source room, clearly more ventilation is a good thing,” said Leonard Pease, a chemical engineer and lead author of the study. “But that air goes somewhere. Maybe more ventilation is not always the solution.” In the United States, the C.D.C.’s concession may prompt the Occupational Safety and Health Association to change its regulations on air quality. Air is harder to contain and clean than food or water. But OSHA already mandates air-quality standards for certain chemicals. Its guidance for Covid does not require improvements to ventilation, except for health care settings. “Ventilation is really built into the approach that OSHA takes to all airborne hazards,” said Peg Seminario, who served as director of occupational safety and health for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. from 1990 until her retirement in 2019. “With Covid being recognized as an airborne hazard, those approaches should apply.” In January, President Biden directed OSHA to issue emergency temporary guidelines for Covid by March 15. But OSHA missed the deadline: Its draft is reportedly being reviewed by the White House’s regulatory office. In the meantime, businesses can do as much or as little as they wish to protect their workers. Citing concerns of continued shortages of protective gear, the American Hospital Association, an industry trade group, endorsed N95 respirators for health care workers only during medical procedures known to produce aerosols, or if they have close contact with an infected patient. Those are the same guidelines the W.H.O. and the C.D.C. offered early in the pandemic. Face masks and plexiglass barriers would protect the rest, the association said in March in a statement to the House Committee on Education and Labor. “They’re still stuck in the old paradigm, they have not accepted the fact that talking and coughing often generate more aerosols than do these so-called aerosol-generating procedures,” Dr. Marr said of the hospital group. “We know that Plexiglas barriers do not work,” she said, and may in fact increase the risk, perhaps because they inhibit proper airflow in a room. The improvements do not have to be expensive: In-room air filters are reasonably priced at less than 50 cents per square foot, although a shortage of supply has raised prices, said William Bahnfleth, professor of architectural engineering at Penn State University, and head of the Epidemic Task Force at Ashrae (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), which sets standards for such devices. UV lights that are incorporated into a building’s ventilation system can cost up to roughly $1 per square foot; those installed room by room perform better but could be 10 times as expensive, he said. If OSHA rules do change, demand could inspire innovation and slash prices. There is precedent to believe that may happen, according to David Michaels, a professor at George Washington University who served as OSHA director under President Barack Obama. When OSHA moved to control exposure to a carcinogen called vinyl chloride, the building block of vinyl, the plastics industry warned it would threaten 2.1 million jobs. In fact, within months, companies “actually saved money and not a single job was lost,” Dr. Michaels recalled. In any case, absent employees and health care costs can prove to be more costly than updates to ventilation systems, the experts said. Better ventilation will help thwart not just the coronavirus, but other respiratory viruses that cause influenza and common colds, as well as pollutants. Before people realized the importance of clean water, cholera and other waterborne pathogens claimed millions of lives worldwide every year. “We live with colds and flus and just accept them as a way of life,” Dr. Marr said. “Maybe we don’t really have to.” Source link Orbem News #Air #Pandemic #quality #Scientists #Urge #Wake #workplace

[expatimes]

FDA authorises Moderna’s COVID vaccine for emergency use

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, paving the way for millions of doses to be shipped across the country as early as this weekend.

The FDA’s announcement on Friday came a day after a committee of outside experts endorsed the Moderna vaccine’s use across the US, saying its benefits outweigh any potential risks in people aged 18 and older.

The move marked the world’s first authorisation for the vaccine from Moderna, a small company based in Massachusetts – and the second COVID-19 vaccine authorisation in the US, after the FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last week.

“With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day,” FDA Commissioner Stephen M Hahn said in a statement.

Moderna has about 5.9 million doses ready for shipment set to begin during the weekend, according to Operation Warp Speed, the US government’s vaccine development programme.

Healthcare workers and nursing home residents are expected to be inoculated next week, before other essential workers and vulnerable groups have access to the vaccine.

“Authorization of Moderna’s vaccine means we can accelerate the vaccination of frontline healthcare workers and Americans in long-term-care facilities, and, ultimately, bring a faster end to this pandemic,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

First inoculations next week

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said the first Moderna vaccines are expected to be administered on Monday.

While there is still a long way to go before most Americans will be inoculated, Halkett said the Moderna vaccine’s authorisation is “a hopeful sign at a time when Americans need it”, as COVID-19 is surging across the country.

Moderna’s vaccine is similar to the one from Pfizer-BioNTech that is now being dispensed to healthcare workers and nursing home residents across the US.

The two work “better than we almost dared to hope”, National Institutes of Health Director Dr Francis Collins told The Associated Press news agency. “Science is working here; science has done something amazing,” Collins said.

Early results of large, still-unfinished studies show both vaccines appear safe and strongly protective although Moderna’s is easier to handle since it does not need to be stored at ultra-low temperatures.

Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University in New York, said that requirement has meant that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be restricted to areas that have the necessary infrastructure to store it at those temperatures.

But the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are similar in several ways, El-Sadr said.

“They’re similar in that they both use the same technology, the same approach to making he vaccine. They both require two doses,” El-Sadr told Al Jazeera, adding that the vaccines are also both about 94 to 95 percent effective.

“These two vaccines work incredibly well,” she said.

Moderna has said it plans to deliver approximately 20 million doses to the US government this year, and it has deals to provide the US with a total of 200 million doses by the end of June 2021.

US Vice President Mike Pence received a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shot on Friday

Virus surging

The US has reported more than 17.4 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began and more than 313,000 deaths linked to the novel coronavirus.

Hospitals across the country are stretched to their limits as infections have surged during the second wave, when colder weather is pushing people indoors where the virus can spread more easily.

Health officials are hoping that the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out can help bring the pandemic under control – and top US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, have publicly received COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to convince Americans that they are safe.

The FDA’s decision also could help pave the way for other countries that are considering the Moderna vaccine. European regulators could authorise its use as soon as January 6.

The United Kingdom, Canada and a few other countries already have cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for use, with a European Union decision due on Monday.

#technology Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=15750&feed_id=23746 #coronaviruspandemic #news #scienceandtechnology #unitedstates #usampcanada

[warninggraphiccontent]

24 July 2020

Missing numbers

Investment in preventive services, like children's centres and youth services, could make a real difference to children's lives - but the lack of consistently good-quality data makes it difficult frontline staff, local authorities and central government to understand what works.

That's one of the conclusions of a new report I've published with my colleague Colm and the excellent team at Nesta. We hope that as well as being useful to those in the children and young people's sector, the findings - and the recommendations - will be useful more widely to people working with and thinking about data. There's a graphic for thinking about data in different ways, and everything.

In brief:

On the subject of Missing Numbers... you may remember the project launched last year by Anna Powell-Smith (Data Bites presentation here). This week, she's launched the Centre for Public Data which will look at improving data provisions in new legislation. It's a great idea. More details here.

Data has gone missing from DCMS (well, bits of policy, including 'government use of data' and open government), as responsibility has been transferred back to the Cabinet Office. My lukewarm take here.

We're missing Data Bites this August to give me/everyone a summer break. Back in early September. Watch back the archive here.

Flourish joined the ranks of those subject to missing attribution this week. They also join a very select group that includes Neil Kinnock.

In case you missed it, yesterday marked a year since Boris Johnson became Conservative leader, and today marks a year since he became PM. It's been another quiet year in British politics, etc.

Finally, Warning: Graphic Content will be missing from your inboxes over the next few weeks as I take whatever passes for a holiday in these strange times. There definitely won't be a newsletter next week, and it will be intermittent through August. Have a lovely summer (or whatever passes for that in the UK or wherever you are), and see you again soon!

Very best

Gavin

Today's links:

Tips, tech, etc

End of the office: the quiet, grinding loneliness of working from home (The Guardian)

Digital remote working - research findings (Essex County Council)

The home-working revolution: new normal, old divides?* (New Statesman)

How well does working in open work when working from home? (Nick Halliday and others)

Putting feeling into policy making (CSaP)

Make a mask (Reuters)

Graphic content

Viral content: coronavirus

Our history is a battle against the microbes: we lost terribly before we developed vaccines to protect ourselves (Our World in Data)

Where the Virus Is Sending People to Hospitals* (New York Times)

After the Recent Surge in Coronavirus Cases, Deaths Are Now Rising Too* (New York Times)

A Detailed Map of Who Is Wearing Masks in the U.S.* (The Upshot)

The World Is Masking Up, Some Are Opting Out* (Bloomberg)

The UK And US Were Ranked Top For Pandemic Preparedness. What Went Wrong? (Huffington Post)

How to Understand COVID-19 Numbers (ProPublica)

T-cells: the missing link in coronavirus immunity? (FT)

When a simple gif is possibly the only way to show something: news desk wanted a size comparison of antibody, virus and T cell (FT via Ian Bott)

Viral content: consequences

The psychological toll of coronavirus in Britain – a visual guide (The Guardian)

Which jobs can be done from home? (ONS)

Amid a Deadly Virus and Crippled Economy, One Form of Aid Has Proved Reliable: Food Stamps* (New York Times)

US airlines fly in different directions in middle-seat debate* (FT)

How Remote Work Divides America (Reuters)

The costs of coronavirus: Just how big is £190 billion? (House of Commons Library)

US politics

Race and America: why data matters* (FT Data)

What Coronavirus Job Losses Reveal About Racism in America (ProPublica)

Republicans And Democrats See COVID-19 Very Differently. Is That Making People Sick? (FiveThirtyEight)

New polling makes clear what Trump refuses to see: His pandemic response has been a political disaster* (Washington Post)

At least 76% of American voters can cast ballots by mail in the fall* (Washington Post)

Everything else

The Living Standards Audit 2020 (Resolution Foundation)

Ministerial directions (Oliver for IfG)

Civil service pay (IfG)

Location of the civil service (IfG)

How much warmer is your city? Behind the scenes of our climate change interactive (BBC Visual and Data Journalism)

Where does the British public stand on transgender rights? (YouGov)

Meta data

MOG OMG

Machinery of government change: government use of data (and commentary from me)

DCMS loses government data policy to the Cabinet Office (Computer Weekly)

Cabinet Office takes charge of government use of data again (Civil Service World)

Viral content: testing times

Coronavirus: England's test and trace programme 'breaks GDPR data law' (BBC News)

Coronavirus: Government admits its Test and Trace programme is unlawful (Sky News)

Government admits that NHS Test and Trace programme is unlawful* (Wired)

Viral content: the only way is app

Coronavirus: The inside story of how government failed to develop a contact-tracing app (Sky News)

Cheap, popular and it works: Ireland's contact-tracing app success (The Guardian - 'works'?)

Data collection in new Covid-19 app ‘troubling’ (Belfast Telegraph)

Coronavirus: New NHS England contact-tracing app may bring 'personal benefits' (Sky News)

Coronavirus: The great contact-tracing apps mystery (BBC News)

Isle of Wight infection rates dropped after launch of contact tracing app (The Guardian)

Government

A No10 data science unit could create more problems than it solves (Lewis for IfG)

DRAFT FOR DISCUSSION: Data to support policymaking (ODI)

Scotland’s Census to be moved to March 2022 (National Records of Scotland)

A few final reflections as Chief Statistician (Welsh Government Data and Digital blog)

Addressing trust in public sector data use (CDEI)

Driving forward trustworthy data sharing (CDEI)

The continuing excellent performance of the ONS in this pandemic... (Tom Forth)

ICO hails transformative year as average fine trebles (Computer Weekly)

Resources and tools (GOV.UK Design System)

Government sets out draft agenda for a 21st century tax system (HMRC, via Gemma)

Data ethics and AI guidance landscape (DCMS)

Creating great online services: how we test services in our research lab (Inside DVLA, via Oliver)

The digital government atlas 2.0: the world's best tools and resources* (Apolitical)

ICO launches self-assessment Freedom of Information toolkit (ICO)

Public services

Missing Numbers in Children’s Services: How better data could improve outcomes for children and young people (IfG/Nesta)

Health data chief says UK’s data deficit in social care during COVID-19 a “catastrophe” (diginomica)

Six months of binnovation in Leeds (ODI Leeds)

Big tech

The inside story of Babylon Health* (Prospect)

Should you delete TikTok from your phone? (The Guardian)

Uber drivers to launch legal bid to uncover app's algorithm (The Guardian)

Europe must not rush Google-Fitbit deal (Politico)

Recovery from Covid-19 will be threatened if we don't learn to control big tech (The Observer)

Vestager has tasted defeat, but she should not stop chasing Big Tech (The Observer)

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university that would rival Stanford and MIT and funnel tech workers into government work (Business Insider)

From Russia with ****

We need a single agency to be responsible for UK elections (Democracy Club)

The Russia report has shown our election laws are dangerously out of date (The Independent)

Sharing is caring

How Schrems II will impact data sharing between the UK and the US (Computer Weekly)

Further (unhappy) thoughts on Schrems II (Panopticon)

Applying new models of data stewardship to health and care data (ODI/The Health Foundation)

Frameworks, principles and accreditation in modern data management (Felix Ritchie and Elizabeth Green, UWE Bristol)

How Wikidata might help the Smithsonian with its mission to diffuse knowledge (Wiki Education)

Everything else

Professional standards to be set for data science (Royal Statistical Society)

Understanding Machine-Readability in Modern Data Policy (Data Foundation)

Data and the Future of Work (Common Wealth)

Talking about data (Citizens Advice)

We are facing a global crisis of widespread unverified information (DCMS Select Committee)

White Paper on Artificial Intelligence - a European Approach: contributions to the consultation (European Commission)

The UK address mess: a way forward? (Peter Wells)

Public attitudes to science 2019 (BEIS)

Opportunities

JOB: Head of Data Infrastructure (ESRC, via Catherine)

JOBS (HDR UK)

JOBS: Technology opportunities (ICO)

EVENT: Exploring data institutions: trustworthy, sustainable access to data (ODI)

And finally...

Sport and entertainment

Defining the ’90s Music Canon (The Pudding)

Empty stadiums have shrunk football teams’ home advantage* (The Economist)

Does home advantage exist without football’s partisan fans?* (FT)

Sneak preview: The Seinfeld Chronicles (Andy Kirk)

Politics

As it's #WorldEmojiDay, can you guess the Conservative MPs? (Conservatives, via Pritesh)

congrats to Newspoll, who, according to the Courier Mail's Sunday editorial, surveyed a whopping 124% of Queenslanders to find just 59% were satisfied with the Premier (Sinéad Canning, via Sarah)

Breaking: there is one new case of a disgraced politician in New Zealand (The Spinoff)

Everything else

Stop resisting it, editors - the vast majority of people say "data" should be treated as singular, not plural (YouGov)

We should start a competition (Maarten van Smeden, via Nick)

Food hazards from around the world data competition (University of Bristol, via a quantum of sollazzo)

Penguins (Allison Horst/Oli Hawkins)

Alright, let’s go back to hating pie charts. (Randy Olson, via Nick)

[vignaniasacademy]

09th & 10th June 2020 Current affairs & Daily News Analysis

The Coral Triangle Day 2020 was observed on June 9 About: The Coral Triangle Day was established on June 9, to celebrate and raise awareness of the ocean conservation and protection, especially on the Coral Triangle. The Coral Triangle day was observed the first time on June 9, 2012, in conjunction with the World Oceans Day on June 8. The day is observed by the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security (CTI-CFF), also shortly known as the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI). It is a multilateral partnership of six countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste). Important Info : Coral Triangle? Coral Triangle, the world's epicentre of marine diversity, is a vast ocean expense that geographically spreads across 6 countries in Asia and the Pacific: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste (the "CT6" countries).It is considered as one of the 3 mega ecological complexes on Earth, together with Congo Basin and the Amazon Rainforest. The region contains 76% of all known coral species, 37% of all known coral reef fish species and 53% of the world's coral reefs. Source : WWF (Environment) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), a Deemed University, Pune has developed a Nano-technology based disinfectant spray to combat COVID-19 by disinfecting all types of surfaces About: It has been named “ANANYA”. This can be used by anyone, from a common man to a healthcare worker, for individual as well as large scale use. This spray can be used on masks, PPEs, hospital linens, as well as other likely contaminated surfaces such as medical instruments, elevator buttons, door knobs, corridors and rooms. This Nano-technology assisted formulation will not only stop the novel coronavirus from entering human body, but it will also kill the virus when the virus comes in contact with this formulation layer on masks and PPEs. This is a water based spray and will be effective for more than 24 hours after spray. Source : All India Radio (Healthcare) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) launched its flagship programme Turant Customs at Bengaluru and Chennai About: Importers will now get their goods cleared from Customs after a faceless assessment is done remotely by the Customs officers located outside the port of import. Now, the goods imported at Chennai may be assessed by the Customs officers located at Bengaluru and vice versa, as assigned by the Customs’ automated system. The start of Turant Customs at Bengaluru and Chennai will be the first phase of the All India roll out which would get completed by 31st December this year. The first phase will cover imports of Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics machineries at the ports, airports and ICDs of Bengaluru and Chennai. Turant Customs will benefit the importers by eliminating routine interface with the Customs officers and providing uniformity in assessment across the country. Source : All India Radio (Economy) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Delhi Disaster Management Authority Anil Baijal has overruled Arvind Kejriwal government's order that only Delhi residents will be admitted to government hospitals in the city for COVID-19 treatment About: Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) was constituted in 2008 under the Chairpersonship of Lt. Governor of Delhi for an effective and practicable framework for disaster management in Delhi. An Apex Committee headed by the Lt. Governor of Delhi will govern the Disaster Management Authority. The Authority will function through a secretariat (The DDMA Secretariat) which will be called the Disaster Management Center. The Divisional Commissioner of Delhi as the head of the nodal department for disaster management in Delhi will be the Convenor of the DDMA Secretariat. Important Info : Recent development: Baijal has directed authorities to ensure that treatment is not denied to any patient on the ground of not being a resident of the national capital.Earlier, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that all government and private hospitals in the city will only treat Delhi residents till the rising COVID-19 cases are contained. Source : All India Radio (Disaster Management) A look at 8 COVID therapies being used in hospitals in Mumbai and elsewhere List of 8 therapies being used in Indian hospitals for fighting COVID: Remdesivir: Remdesivir, an antiviral drug first developed for treating Ebola in 2014, is one of the possible Covid-19 treatments being investigated in the WHO’s Solidarity Trial. It inhibits viral replication in the body. Favipiravir: Favipiravir is an antiviral given to inhibit viral replication. It is used as an anti-influenza drug. Tocilizumab: This is an immunosuppressant commonly used to treat for rheumatoid arthritis. Itolizumab: This drug is commonly used for the skin disorder psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and autoimmune disorders. Hydroxychloroquine: This antimalarial drug is a subject of debate over its efficacy against Covid. India is the largest producer of this drug. Doxycycline + ivermectin: Doxycycline is an antibiotic used to fight infection in the urinary tract, eye, or respiratory tract. Ivermectin is an anti-parasite drug for treatment of scabies, head lice, and filariasis. The combination is used to treat Covid patients with acute symptoms. Ritonavir + lopinavir: These antivirals are commonly used to treat HIV patients. Plasma therapy: This is meant for critical patients with low oxygen saturation levels, or those suffering a cytokine storm. Source : Indian Express (HealthCare) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy The Union Cabinet has approved an ordinance to amend The Essential Commodities Act, 1955, to deregulate commodities such as cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes. The ordinance has introduced a new subsection (1A) in Section 3 of the Act Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy About the Act: There is no specific ‘definition of essential commodities’ in The EC Act. Section 2(A) of the act states that an “essential commodity” means a commodity specified in the “Schedule” of this Act. The Act gives powers to the central government to add or remove a commodity in the “Schedule.” The Centre, if it is satisfied that it is necessary to do so in public interest, can notify an item as essential, in consultation with state governments. By declaring a commodity as essential, the government can control the production, supply, and distribution of that commodity, and impose a stock limit. Source : Indian Express (Economy) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy U.K.-based archaeologists have discovered two Roman roads and 30 prehistoric or Roman large embanked settlement enclosures in Tamar Valley, England by analysing images derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data About: Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. These light pulses—combined with other data recorded by the airborne system— generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics. A lidar instrument principally consists of a laser, a scanner, and a specialized GPS receiver. Airplanes and helicopters are the most commonly used platforms for acquiring lidar data over broad areas. Two types of lidar are topographic and bathymetric. Topographic lidar typically uses a near-infrared laser to map the land, while bathymetric lidar uses water-penetrating green light to also measure seafloor and riverbed elevations. Lidar systems allow scientists and mapping professionals to examine both natural and manmade environments with accuracy, precision, and flexibility. Important Info : The Tamar is a river in England. The surrounding area is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.  Source : The Hindu (Science & Technology) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed a MoU with the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, for cooperation in the field of Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Astrophysics About: ARIES is a leading research institute which specializes in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Atmospheric Sciences. Status: It is an autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. Location: It is situated at Manora Peak, in Nainital, Uttarakhand. Established in: 1954.  Source : Economic Times (Science & Technology) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy A group of scientists working at the Pune-based National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) have recently discovered tiny flashes of radio light emanating from all over the sun, which they say could help in explaining the long-pending coronal heating problem About: The solar corona, the outer layer of the Sun's atmosphere, is composed of extreme high temperature gas, known as plasma, with temperatures reaching millions of degrees Celsius. As the outer layer of the Sun, the part farthest from the core where the nuclear reactions powering the Sun occur, it would logically be expected to be the coolest part of the Sun. But in fact, it is 200 times hotter than the photosphere, the layer beneath it. This contradiction, dubbed "the coronal heating problem" has puzzled astrophysicists ever since the temperature of the corona was first measured over 70 years ago. Source : The Hindu (Science & Technology) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in various sectors Major areas of mutual interest include: Supporting world class start-ups through CSIR Incubators under Atal Innovation mission initiatives and working together on new models of innovation including setting up of CSIR Innovation Parks. Stimulating innovation and research in the MSME industry by CSIR in collaboration with ARISE initiative of AIM. This initiative works to stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry. Creating problem solving mind-set across schools in India through close cooperation between Atal Tinkering Labs and CSIRs ´JIGYASA’ a Student-Scientist connect program where in >3 lakhs students across the country have been exposed to science and technology. Source : PIB (Science & Technology) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy The Indian Air Force has designed, developed and manufactured an Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation (ARPIT) About: This pod will be utilised for evacuation of critical patients with infectious diseases including COVID-19 from high altitude area, isolated and remote places. The system has been developed as a lightweight isolation system made from aviation certified material. The isolation system caters for suitable number of air exchanges, integration of medical monitoring instruments, and ventilation to an intubated patient. The ARPIT utilises High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) H-13 class filters and supports invasive ventilation using Transport Ventilator.  Source : All India Radio (Health ) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Union Minister of Personnel & Public Grievances inaugurated the 18th Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh About: Setting up of CAT Bench of Jammu to deal exclusively with service matters of government employees would reduce the burden of various Courts. Earlier, in a notification issued under section 5(7) of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, the Central Government has specified Jammu and Srinagar as the places at which the benches of the CAT shall ordinarily sit for the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and UT of Ladakh.  Important Info : Constitutional backing: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) had been established under Article 323 - A of the Constitution.Mandate: To adjudicate disputes and complaints with respect to recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or other authorities under the control of the Government.Under Section 17 of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1985, the Tribunal has been conferred with the power to exercise the same jurisdiction and authority in respect of contempt of itself as a High Court.The Tribunal is guided by the principles of natural justice in deciding cases and is not bound by the procedure, prescribed by the Civil Procedure Code.Salaries and Allowances and Conditions of Service of the officers and other employees of the Tribunal are specified by the Central Government. Source : PIB (Polity & Governance) Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued an order dated 5th June 2020 mandating Distinct colour band for number plate sticker for BS-6 four-wheel vehicles About: The order mandates a strip of green colour of 1 cm width on top of the existing sticker carrying details of registration for BS-VI vehicles of any fuel type i.e. for petrol or CNG which have a light blue colour sticker and a diesel vehicle which is of orange colour. These stickers will now have a green strip of 1 cm on top for BS VI, as mandated. The BS-VI emission standards, which have been mandated w.e.f. 1st April, 2020, provide for stricter and cleaner emission norms and are at par with the emission standards being followed across the world. Such distinct identification of vehicles for such emissions standard as is also being followed in other countries.  Source : PIB (Environment) Bangalore’s Best UPSC Civil Services Academy Daily Current affairs and News Analysis Best IAS Coaching institutes in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Contact Vignan IAS Academy Enroll For IAS Foundation Course from Best IAS / IPS Training Academy in Bangalore Online IAS Coaching with recorded Classes from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Read the full article

[biotechtimes]

Lessons in science journalism from veteran Dr K S Jayaraman

New Post has been published on https://biotechtimes.org/2020/05/10/lessons-in-science-journalism-from-veteran-dr-k-s-jayaraman/

Lessons in science journalism from veteran Dr K S Jayaraman

Dr. Killugudi S Jayaraman (born 1936) is a familiar name for several generations of scientists, policymakers and journalists in India. He is credited with founding the tradition of independent science reporting in Indian media. A qualified nuclear scientist as well as a trained journalist, Dr. Jayaraman first worked in the US but chose to return to India and worked in DRDO before joining premier news agency, the Press Trust of India (PTI) in 1973. He founded PTI Science Service, which became a trailblazer in science journalism and training ground for future budding science journalists. Dr. Jayaraman focused on investigative science reporting and got many scoops – unauthorized project on the genetic control of mosquitoes, racket in cornea transplants, illegal import of hop plants for beer making, Himalayan fossil fraud by Viswajit Gupta and so on.

As a long-time correspondent of Nature, Dr. Jayaraman played a critical role in placing Indian science on a global platform. In this interview with Dinesh C Sharma (Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow and founding Managing Editor, India Science Wire) who was trained under Dr. Jayaraman in PTI (1984-1990), Dr. Jayaraman recalls his early life and the journey in science journalism. Here are excerpts from the interview:

How did you shift from scientific research to science journalism?

I had an interest in writing from school days. While studying in the US, I had been occasionally writing science articles for The Hindu. The interest continued even after becoming a post-doc in Canada.  I remember having a long phone conversation with Professor Joseph Weber – who had developed the first gravitational wave detectors at the University of Maryland where I did my Ph.D. – for a story on gravitational waves that got published in The Hindu.

While working as a post-doc in the University of Manitoba, I was sent to Chicago to present a paper at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society in 1970. There, in the Press Room, I chanced meeting the science reporter of wire service, the Associated Press, who had come to cover the meeting. His name was Charles Gene McDaniels. I found him banging his typewriter in the Press Room. I told him that I also wanted to become a science reporter like him and asked for his advice.�� “You are in the right place,” he told me. “About 10 miles from here is the Medill School of Journalism on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. You can join that school, which is No.2 journalism school in the US.”  I  took his word seriously and took a train to Evanston the same day and met the dean of the Medill School and asked him if he would take me as his student for the one-year post-graduate (M.S.) course in journalism. “Not many have come to us after a Ph.D. in physics. Why you want to study journalism when you can report science without doing an MS,” he said. It took some effort to convince him that I wanted to learn all the tricks of the trade and fundamentals of reporting.

As part of practical training, I was also attached to a reporter of Chicago Tribune who used to take me in his car wherever he went. This gave me a chance to see how reporters work in the field. On one such round, he noticed that fire engines were missing from their usual depot. That raised a red flag: had they been called for duty?  He guessed it right. There was a huge fire in the neighborhood and he was the first to report from the site. This was a great lesson in reporting: always be alert and inquisitive.

You joined the Press Trust of India (PTI) in 1973. How was it to work in a news agency as a science reporter?

Scientists and science administrators are much more open today than the days when I started reporting science in PTI. This was a big downside. For example, though G.P. Talwar at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had in 1972 successfully experimented with his novel birth control method on rats, he would not give more details for a story without the permission of the institute director. Eventually, permission was granted and the PTI story on a potential birth vaccine for women made global news. In the presence of an invisible wall between scientists and reporters, science conferences and journals were the main source for stories. Sometimes, there was a problem here too. I remember AIIMS scientist (Dr. O.P.Ghai)  who had published the harmful effects of the colors used during the Holi festival,  strongly objected to PTI coverage of his published findings on the ground it scared people. The Tight-mouthed science community, coupled with the absence of official news outlets and press officers in scientific institutions, proved to be a major handicap to reporters covering science.

What were the top science stories you broke in the early days?  

Some stories that come to my mind include the one on biological warfare implications of US-funded project on the genetic control of mosquitoes. Following the story, the matter was raised in the parliament and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigated the matter in 1975. It resulted in the closure of the project and the government’s decision to set up a task force to scrutinize proposals for all projects involving foreign collaboration. Then there was one that exposed a racket in cornea transplants in which some eye surgeons in India were making money by misusing corneas donated by the international eye bank of Sri Lanka.

I also wrote on illegal import of “hop” plants (used for beer making) infected with dangerous pests by Mallya’s brewery in Bangalore. This also led to a parliamentary inquiry and resulted in changes in the Plant Quarantine Act. Another expose related to in-patients and outpatients at AIIMS being used as guinea pigs for research. The AIIMS director Lalit Agarwal threatened to sue PTI but changed his mind when shown a photocopy of the medical record of one patient. After my reports exposing the Himalayan fossil fraud by Dr. Viswajit Gupta of Punjab University, he was dismissed. I also wrote on how a blind school in Delhi, in order to keep getting government grants, was preventing its students from getting free eye operation that would have restored their vision. Another expose that led to a parliamentary investigation by PAC was about genetically engineered mosquitoes for malaria control.

Science reporting has changed at the turn of the century with the internet, embargoed stories from scientific journals, etc. Any thoughts on this?

This has made the job of science reporters a lot easier as one can write stories from home unlike in the 1970s and the 1980s when reporters were mostly on the road or near telephones. Internet journalism, however, limits one to follow-up work done by others. It robs one the thrill of spotting a potential story and turning out an article after a lot of running around. Many story ideas come when you least expect them. Once I sighted two dead experimental rats, used syringes and cotton rolls in a dustbin outside a hospital during a walk. It forced me and a photographer friend to visit and take photos of trash sites outside many other hospitals in Delhi. We found rag pickers rummaging these places to recover reusable articles. The resulting story, headlined “How hospitals spread diseases”, highlighted the pitiable state of waste disposal and prompted authorities to set up incinerators in hospital premises.

You have also been instrumental in presenting Indian science to international audiences through your reportage for the Nature group of journals. When did this association begin?

It started in 1981 when Nature editor Sir John Maddox asked me if I could write about science and technology developments in India and subsequently I became its contributing correspondent. In 1998, Nature desired to bring out an India supplement. This resulted in “News India”, a quarterly publication, with myself as its editor. This publication was stopped in 2008 when Nature launched the online version. My long association during which Nature and its sister journals covered important S&T developments in India, now continues on-and-off.

How would you describe the present state of science journalism in India?

Thanks to the new generation of over-active science reporters, the coverage of Indian science by the media today has grown leaps and bounds. It is also a pleasure to note that many of those responsible for this growth had earlier been associated with PTI science service. Future is extremely bright for four reasons: (1)  Increasing number of talented graduates and post-graduates in science and engineering are embracing this profession — a trend that will improve the quality and domain of reporting; (2) government science agencies, in their own ways, are promoting science communication; (3) major newspapers are giving more space to science-related stories;  and (4) thanks to the digital age, scientists who used to be reticent in the past, are racing to become vocal and visible like never before.

[Excerpted from the book “Raising Hackles: Celebrating the life of science journalist Dr. K S Jayaraman,” edited by Dinesh C Sharma, with permission. The Kindle edition of the book is available on Amazon.]

[fitnesshealthyoga-blog]

New Post has been published on https://fitnesshealthyoga.com/center-for-phage-technology-spearheads-the-battle-against-superbugs/

Center For Phage Technology Spearheads The Battle Against ‘Superbugs’

Ryland Young, director of the Texas A&M University Center for Phage Technology (CPT) in College Station, answered a call for help from a complete stranger in 2016. Consequently, he helped set in motion the advancement of phage therapy, a treatment for multi-drug resistant superbugs that could help the world avert a looming health care crisis. Researchers at the Navy Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, answered the stranger’s call soon after.

Once in a while, events unravel in such a way that those involved are left with the distinct impression that much more than meets the eye is at work in the world. This was one of those occasions. Strangers living in three different cities, each located 1,400 miles away from the next, spaced evenly across the United States, were brought together to miraculously save the life of one man.

“Antimicrobial resistance is the number one health problem facing the world right now,” Young said. “The problem with antibiotics is that we’ve used them so much, and in some cases, abused them and overprescribed them, that now most serious bacterial pathogens, the bad bacteria, are resistant to drugs.”

The call

The call came from Steffanie Strathdee, a University of California-San Diego (UCSD) infectious disease epidemiologist, who was frantically searching for alternatives to antibiotics. Her husband, Tom Patterson, a UCSD psychiatry professor, had contracted a multi-drug resistant superbug on an Egyptian vacation, and doctors had exhausted every health care intervention available. His vital organ systems were failing, and he was comatose and dying at the UCSD Hospital. When Strathdee asked him if he wanted to live, he squeezed her hand.

“I thought it was God’s cruel joke at first, because here I was an infectious disease epidemiologist, and my husband was dying from an infection,” Strathdee said.

She found phage therapy, and though she remembered learning about bacteriophages decades earlier, she knew nothing about their therapeutic uses. Her online searches kept bringing up Young and the Texas A&M CPT, the only center of its kind for basic and applied phage research in the nation. Since 2010, the CPT has worked to resurrect phage technology.

Phages, viruses that grow on bacteria in nature, were abandoned as a potential treatment for bacterial infections when antibiotics became ubiquitous in the United States during World War II. Meanwhile, in other areas of the world, especially where antibiotics are unaffordable and inaccessible, doctors have continued developing and practicing phage therapy.

As Patterson lay at the brink of death, one of Young’s graduate students, Adriana Hernandez, and a recent graduate and lab technician, Jacob Lancaster, agreed to drop everything to help him. For three  months, they worked day and night, literally around the clock, to provide Patterson with emergency phage therapy, and their last-ditch effort helped to save his life.

“It was 4 a.m. when I finally took my gloves off. I was listening to Tom Petty, and I was going to change the music because I needed something more upbeat. I was falling asleep,” Hernandez said. “I saw an email that Tom [Patterson] woke up, and I grabbed my phone in one hand, it was just baffling, ‘It worked, it worked,’ and I started to cry.”

Young and his team of researchers are working now to develop methods to safely, quickly and effectively harness and unleash the killing power of phages on multidrug-resistant bacteria infecting humans around the world. Beyond the science, they also are exploring best ways to tackle practical challenges such as securing FDA approvals and delivering the highly individualistic biological therapy, which is unlike the mass-produced antibiotics used most of the last century.

Ultimately, the goal of the CPT is to help develop the technology, standardize optimal delivery procedures and secure necessary approvals from regulatory agencies to make the treatment widely available to patients in the United States. The prominence of the Patterson case is helping to increase attention and funding for phage therapy in the United States.

“I thought it was God’s cruel joke at first, because here I was an infectious disease epidemiologist, and my husband was dying from an infection.”

Are superbugs responsible for more deaths in the U.S. than reported?

Generally, the United States and Western Europe address public health issues, such as potential bacterial epidemics, through improved procedures that are not always possible in other areas of the world. They avoid overcrowding, ensure high sanitation rates and carefully monitor food supplies.

At this time, most Americans who contract life-threatening bacterial infections pick them up in hospitals when they have major operations, Young said. Yet, in the United States alone, thousands of patients infected with superbugs die each year. Except in rare instances, experimental phage therapy is unavailable to them.

“How many others are going to be like Strathdee?” Young asked. “The surest way to get phage therapy, at this point, is to have 1,500 publications between you, your spouse and your physician.”

In a 2018 letter that was published in the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology, three doctors estimated that superbugs kill at least 153,000 patients each year in the United States. Their estimate, based on 2010 data, is almost seven times the number, 23,000, that is reported currently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Strathdee believes the discrepancy is likely much larger now since the data that they used is almost a decade old. The doctors blame the difference, at least in part, on poor surveillance and reporting methods for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.

According to a 2014 report, without effective health care interventions for superbugs, multidrug-resistant bacteria are expected to kill more people, 10 million, than cancer by 2050.

“I realized that even though I have training in infectious disease, that this whole global crises of antimicrobial resistance had snuck up on me,” Strathdee said. “That’s why we decided to tell our story. We’re considered the public face of superbugs these days.”

Jumping through bureaucratic hoops to fight infection

Strathdee turned to Dr. Robert Schooley, a UCSD infectious disease specialist and close family friend, with her desire to use experimental phage therapy to treat her husband, and he agreed to pursue the necessary emergency approvals from the FDA. However, he described challenges that Strathdee would have to overcome first.

Strathdee would need to find phages that were active against her husband’s superbug ­— the equivalent of finding the proverbial “needle in a haystack” — and ensure that they were prepared in a way that made them safe to administer to her husband.

She also would have to obtain approvals from two regulatory bodies, the institutional biosafety committee and the institutional review board, which monitor experiments at every major U.S. research institution, among others. And the legal teams of all involved parties would have to consent.

Only then could the phage therapy, which Schooley could not guarantee would work, be delivered to Patterson. And that was provided that Patterson would live long enough.

The frantic search for phages

In February of 2016, Strathdee sent an email message to every researcher she could find studying phage technology, and only Young responded that he would try to help.

The situation resonated with Young because Patterson was about his age, and Strathdee was an academic who spoke his language. And, nearing retirement, he wanted to see phage technology gain traction. He knew that saving Patterson’s life would be a game changer for the field.

“Texas A&M took a long-shot bet by investing in the center almost a decade ago because there was no evidence that all this would pan out,” Young said. “It’s going to turn out to be a good bet they made.”

Young called Strathdee and spent two hours explaining the processes necessary to find phages that would kill the particular strain of Acinetobacter baumannii ravaging her husband’s body.

Strathdee would have to send Patterson’s bacterial strain to his lab at Texas A&M, but first, she would have to obtain one of those approvals. Simply dropping a deadly bacterial strain in the mail was not an option.

“My feeling was that [all the necessary approvals] would take a long time, and it wasn’t consistent with the kinetics of Dr. Patterson’s illness,” Young said. “I hoped for the best, but I feared he was never going to live long enough to do all of that.”

The stars continued to align. Strathdee, a highly placed academic at UCSD, was able to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and expedite necessary approvals. She mobilized legal and regulatory representatives at her university to talk directly to representatives in the same positions at Texas A&M, and results that normally would have taken months took days.

“There were contacts at every level, side by side, and I think universities know how to work with each other,” Young said. “They do the same thing, the same way, so I think that’s what made it happen.”

Beyond petri dishes

In an unusual twist of events, researchers at Texas A&M, whose work generally is confined within walls of laboratories and to petri dishes, became intimately involved in providing life-saving medical intervention for Patterson.

Patterson’s bacterial strain arrived in College Station, and Young turned his lab into a central “command center.” He reached out to his contacts around the world to send whatever phages they had on hand to his lab for testing.

“Chip [Schooley] was very surprised that we were able to find a team that was willing to go to such lengths,” Strathdee said.

Hernandez and Lancaster put their lives on hold for two months to test the phages against Patterson’s superbug. In a race against time, they handed off a checklist at shift changes so that one could pick up easily where the other left off. Hernandez worked nights, and Lancaster worked days.

“I just literally said, ‘Let’s do this!’” Hernandez said. “I stopped everything I was doing, and I put my research on hold to focus all of my attention on getting phages, isolating phages, purifying phages [for the Patterson case].”

“I hoped for the best, but I feared he was never going to live long enough to do all of that.”

Testing and growing phages

To test phages against bacteria, the CPT researchers place media in flasks, add bacterial cells and wait. When the media becomes turbid with the bacteria, they add phages and wait again. They have their “needle in a haystack” when they return to find a crude product consisting of dead cell debris, including endotoxins from the bacterial cell coatings, and the phage cells that did the killing.

Phages are the only medicine that grows. For every one phage cell that kills one bacterial cell, 100 phage cells grow. This happens when a phage recognizes a receptor on the surface of the bacterial cell, attaches to the receptor, injects its DNA and multiplies. The bacterial cell explodes, releasing more phages to attack surrounding bacterial cells, and the cycle continues until 99 percent of the bacteria are dead. Each strain of bacteria has a different receptor, and likewise, each phage recognizes a different receptor.

The problem is that one mutant bacterial cell, meaning it has become resistant to the phage, is all it takes to eventually reverse any progress made by the phages. The solution for therapeutic and other applications, Young believes, is to treat each bacterial strain with a cocktail of three phages that recognize different bacterial receptors.

“There are not enough bacteria in the universe for resistance to emerge against a cocktail of three different phages,” Young said.

The command center

Hernandez and Lancaster began testing its small collection of A. baumannii phages and over 100 environmental samples already on hand at the CPT and those sent from labs around the world against Patterson’s superbug. They found three phages that killed the bacteria, but one of them could not reproduce to kill more bacteria.

As soon as the CPT found a phage that worked, Schooley began the process of getting special approval from the FDA. He learned during his conversation with the FDA that Navy researchers also were conducting phage research. They agreed to send whatever phages they could find to treat Patterson.

At the CPT, Hernandez and Lancaster isolated the phages from the crude product by spinning them two liters at a time in centrifuges that made 8,000 revolutions per minute.

“We broke two centrifuges in the lab by using them 24 hours a day for so long,” Hernandez said. “Actually, we burned up a centrifuge that Ry [Young] had used since he started his lab more than 40 years earlier.”

They then started the slow process of purifying the phages of debris and endotoxins that would be dangerous to Patterson, while they searched for more phages to kill his superbug. They collected new environmental samples from local sewage plants and animal pens and began testing them. Phages exist wherever bacteria are, so these places are obvious breeding grounds.

Meanwhile, Young looked for a faster way to clean the phages, and he contacted colleagues at San Diego State University who had streamlined a fast, safe and effective process and were willing to pitch in.

After that, the supply chain involved CPT isolating, propagating, concentrating and partially purifying the phages, which were then shipped to SDSU. There, Jeremy Barr in Forest Rohwer’s lab performed the final purifications and Anca Segall, another SDSU faculty member, assayed the final products and hand-delivered them to the UCSD Pharmacy.  The first shipment arrived at SDSU at about day 10 and were processed and delivered to the hospital the next day.

“With Patterson, we were in such a hurry because we didn’t know from day to day if he was going to be alive,” Young said. “We found phages we knew worked and sent them as quickly as possible.”

On Tuesday, March 15, Schooley introduced the CPT phages into Patterson’s abdominal cavity where the infection started. Two days later, he injected the Navy’s phages into Patterson’s bloodstream. By Saturday, Patterson had emerged from his coma.

“To go from a deep coma where he was in what’s considered multisystem organ failure, where his lungs were failing, his heart was failing, and I had just signed a consent form for kidney dialysis — he was literally hours away from dying before we administered the first phages — to waking up, lifting his head off the pillow and kissing his daughter’s hand,” Strathdee said. “It was just mind blowing, not just for me and our family, but for the whole ICU.”

Later, Young and the Navy researchers learned that all the phages they hastily found and sent to Patterson had the same receptor. With the proper amount of time for testing, they would have sent a cocktail of phages with three different receptors.

“We were lucky in his case, because even though resistant bacteria did emerge quickly, his immune system took over when we lowered the overall load of bacteria in his body,” Young said.

Before administering the treatment, Schooley had conversations with members of the medical team in ICU at the UCSD Hospital who thought it strange to use experimental phage therapy on Patterson.

“It’s not that strange to do something that you don’t think will hurt, and you hope will help,” Schooley told them. “And once we had that discussion, other physicians came on board, and when they began to see him get better, many became true believers.”

What seemed a cruel joke to Strathdee at first has become an impetus for advancing phage research and funding that can save many more lives in the future. All involved in the Patterson case want to see phage therapy become accessible to any patient in need of the treatment.

Advancing phage technology in the lab and the classroom

The Texas A&M CPT is comprised of six laboratories that continue to conduct basic and applied phage research. The center employs a combination of 30 paid faculty, graduate students, post-docs and technicians. Students enrolled in phage courses in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics also contribute to the center.

Young interviews and selects 20 students each spring semester for his class, BICH 464: Bacteriophage Genomics, which provides students an opportunity to isolate and annotate the genomes of new phages.

All of the labs conduct fundamental research exploring the DNA structures of phages and how they work. Until the Patterson case, the center focused its efforts on applications for agriculture and industry. For example, one of the labs developed a phage cocktail to combat Pierce’s disease, a severe bacterial infection that has devastated grapevines in California. The center’s original charter focused on agricultural and veterinary applications because the regulatory burden for pursuing therapeutic uses in humans seemed too high.

In 2018, the UCSD launched the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH). Strathdee established the Thomas L. Patterson Graduate Fellowship to support one doctoral student annually at the Texas A&M CPT, and Hernandez was the first recipient.

The road ahead for treating bacterial infections

Patterson’s case is helping researchers think about rational rules and regulations for developing and administering phage therapy. Different schools of thought about how the therapy should progress are being bounced around because the technology is still so young.

Young envisions phage therapy being delivered primarily as a service in hospital settings rather than in pill form in doctor’s offices. In his opinion, the first step in moving the treatment to the general public is developing libraries of phages that kill particular deadly bacteria. He believes that collections of 100 or so phages for each bacterium are necessary because every bacterial strain is different. Unlike antibiotics that work against all bacteria, one phage typically kills only one, two or a few strains of the same bacteria.

And phage therapy is single use, meaning phages will work only once against particular bacteria because they become resistant. Other phages must be used on the same bacteria the next time. The good news is that more phages exist in nature than any other organism, including bacteria, so the supply is virtually limitless.

In the future, hospitals might hire laboratories to fulfill orders for phages, but whatever the case, new technology is necessary, Young said. Doctors need ways to rapidly identify useful phages and target the bacteria. Rather than storing large doses of 100 phages needed for each bacterium, which would be expensive, Young speculates that keeping small doses of each and finding ways to rapidly amplify them might make better sense.

Young sees phage therapy becoming an important arrow in the quiver for treating bacterial infections, especially extreme cases, but he also envisions antibiotics making a comeback.

“I’m on the leading edge of the silver tsunami, that’s my generation, and we are likely going to see a lot more bad outcomes in hospitals because of antimicrobial resistance problems,” Young said. “Once significant numbers of Americans and Western Europeans start going into hospitals for knee and hip replacements and expiring because of drug resistance, there’s going to be a public outcry, and drug companies will start making antibiotics again.”

Overcoming regulatory barriers

Pharmaceutical companies have stopped developing antibiotics because they have become progressively more difficult to find and economically impractical to produce with the rapid rise of antimicrobial resistance. They also are not pursuing phage therapy because they have not yet determined ways to commercialize and monetize the treatment.

Antibiotics are chemical compounds that drug companies own for the period of the patent. They are intellectual property, and they are easily mass-produced, stored, dosed and distributed.

Conversely, phages are biologicals that companies cannot patent because they are found in nature. Phage therapy is personalized medicine, so every phage or phage cocktail is different. Purifying, growing and refrigerating all of them on a mass scale would be expensive and impractical.

Furthermore, all drugs used in the United States must meet good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards to be approved by the FDA. Rigorously testing antibiotics is necessary because chemical compounds can indiscriminately affect hundreds of types of tissue throughout the human body, and some of those effects might be harmful. Clinical trials are conducted exactly the same way using the same materials every time, or the results are considered “snake oil.”

As biological medicines, phages are not easy to produce to GMP standards, and conducting clinical trials on every phage in a large library would be impractical and prohibitively expensive. However, Young argues that purified phages meeting certain criteria do not need the same rigorous testing as new antibiotics, as phages are everywhere in nature and the risk of them causing direct harm to people is very low. Rather, he believes they need special FDA rules.

Purified phages cannot infect the human body. Unlike antibiotics, only two outcomes are possible with phages, and neither is harmful. The phages either work or they do not work. When they recognize dangerous bacteria, they rid the body of them. When they do not recognize the bacteria, they simply bump around each other until the body excretes them.

“The FDA is one of our most successful agencies,” Young said. “Very few people are complaining about the FDA, which means they haven’t made a whole lot of mistakes, so I believe they need to keep doing their job, but make special exceptions for phages.”

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[theconservativebrief]

A Chinese scientist shocked the world this week when he reported — through a well-coordinated media campaign that involved an AP exclusive and YouTube videos — that he’d created the world’s first babies genetically edited with CRISPR: a set of twin girls, with a third potential CRISPR baby on the way.

Nearly a week later, He Jiankui’s experiment still hasn’t been fully vetted. But it represents the realization of the fears of many scientists who believe CRISPR isn’t yet safe and precise enough to be used in human embryos.

He says he’s “proud” of his work — and that it has more to do with public health than “designer babies,” since his aim was to eliminate the risk of HIV infection in the babies.

But if a rogue scientist tinkering quietly in a lab can smash through norms and meddle with the human genome to feed his own ego or scientific curiosity, the worry is that many more dangerous applications of CRISPR could be in store. What if others are experimenting with CRISPR in ways that threaten human life? What if they’re using CRISPR to enhance human traits, ushering in a new era of genetic inequality?

Still, while some are calling He reckless, others are calling this a timely and necessary next chapter in the CRISPR story. Let’s unpack the controversy.

The past several years in science have unleashed the CRISPR revolution. CRISPR/Cas9 — or CRISPR, as it’s known — is a tool that allows researchers to attempt to control which genes get expressed in plants, animals, and even humans; to delete undesirable traits and, potentially, add desirable traits; and to do all this more quickly, and with more precision, than ever before. (You can read about how CRISPR works here.)

He, a Stanford-trained associate professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, was not well known in the field of CRISPR editing. But he’s claiming a major first: to have used the gene editing technology CRISPR to tweak the DNA of human embryos during in vitro fertilization.

If He’s experiment is confirmed, he would be the first scientist known to use CRISPR to edit human embryos resulting in a live birth, defying the unofficial international moratorium on editing human embryos intended for a pregnancy. (Chinese scientists were also the first to edit nonviable human embryos, which cannot lead to a birth.)

He’s experiment, first reported by the MIT Technology Review and the AP on Sunday, has still not been published in a scientific journal and his data has not been officially peer-reviewed. He says it was self-funded and that he had the consent of parents.

But he would not reveal the identities of the babies and parents involved, and only shared some data in an Excel spreadsheet ahead of a brief presentation at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong.

Researchers who have vetted the information he has made publicly available have determined it’s too sparse to understand what He’s team actually did, whether the editing worked, and whether it was safe.

He says he has submitted his study to a journal for peer review, though he hasn’t yet disclosed which one. If and once he shares his full set of data results, how his experiment went — and that the experiment indeed happened — should be easier to verify.

For now, here’s how He defends his work. The stated objective of his experiment was to disable a gene called CCR5 so the girls might be resistant to potential infection with HIV/AIDS. And He’s justified his experiment two ways: First, he made a human case in the talk at the Hong Kong meeting, saying the father of the girls had HIV and wanted to ensure his children would never suffer like he has.

Second, he made a scientific case: In a YouTube video, he’s said CCR5 is a well-studied genetic mutation, and there’s “real-world medical value” to figuring out how CRISPR can be used to cripple it and prevent HIV/AIDS. In other words, he felt the use of CRISPR technology was medically appropriate.

“Please remember that while there may be vocal critics, there are many silent families who have seen a child suffer from genetic disease and should not have to suffer that pain again,” he pleaded in one of the YouTube videos. “They may not be the director of an ethics center quoted by the New York Times, but they are no less authorities on what is right and wrong — because it’s their life on the line.”

Many people in the science community in China, as well as scientists involved with gene editing technologies elsewhere, don’t agree with that reasoning. And there are now investigations into his work and conduct.

Southern University of Science and Technology — where He has been on unpaid leave since February — said it wasn’t aware of the research, which seems to have occurred off campus. It has opened an investigation into He for potentially breaking the university’s ethical rules.

“He’s conduct in utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 to edit human embryos has seriously violated academic ethics and codes of conduct,” the university said in a statement. “The University will call for international experts to form an independent committee to investigate this incident, and to release the results to the public.”

On Tuesday, CNN reported that China’s National Health Commission is launching an investigation into the claims. The hospital where the babies were allegedly born, Shenzhen Harmonicare Women’s and Children’s Hospital, is also now distancing itself from He.

Side note: There are wrinkles in the hospital’s and university’s versions of events. As the Washington Post reported, a hospital executive appeared in an AP video applauding He’s work. And the informed consent form He used states his university helped fund of the experiment. So it’s possible He wasn’t quite the rogue operator he’s painted himself to be.

But some of He’s peers in science, who work on gene editing and ethics, also aren’t happy with the experiment. He broke a scientific taboo to edit out a disease that’s now highly treatable — using a potentially dangerous and unproven technique. Hank Greely, a Stanford law and ethics professor, called the experiment “reckless [because] of a terrible benefit/risk ratio for the baby.” Others have called the experiment “monstrous,” “unconscionable” and “premature,” and 122 Chinese scientists wrote a joint statement denouncing the work.

Most notably, the CRISPR co-inventors are also disturbed by He’s move. Feng Zhang, a member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the co-inventor of CRISPR/Cas9, called for a moratorium on gene-edited babies.

Jennifer Doudna, a CRISPR co-inventor from the University of California Berkeley, said in a statement that “this work reinforces the urgent need to confine the use of gene editing in human embryos to settings where a clear unmet medical need exists, and where no other medical approach is a viable option, as recommended by the National Academy of Sciences.”

Nobel laureate David Baltimore said the experiment showed “there has been a failure of self-regulation in the scientific community.” And this is the scary truth He’s experiment resurfaced: that the scientific community can’t necessarily protect the public from rogue scientists using CRISPR for potentially dangerous applications, including driving human evolution, enhancing humans by selecting certain traits, or using CRISPR to increase inequality.

But there are at least a couple of prominent researchers who have sided with He — including Harvard University’s George Church, another CRISPR pioneer.

In a lengthy interview with Science magazine, Church explained that if the kids in the experiment are normal and healthy, then maybe the babies will be viewed more like Louise Brown (the first baby born through in vitro fertilization) than Jesse Gelsinger (who died in an early gene therapy experiment).

“At some point, we have to say we’ve done hundreds of animal studies and we’ve done quite a few human embryo studies,” Church told Science. “It may be after the dust settles there’s mosaicism and off targets that affect medical outcomes. It may never be zero. We don’t wait for radiation to be zero before we do [positron emission tomography] scans or x-rays.”

Similarly, Dr. George Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School, said at the Hong Kong gene editing meeting that, “It is time to move forward from [debates about] ethical permissibility to outline the path to clinical translation … in order to bring this technology forward.”

Daley continued: “The fact that the first instance of human germline editing came forward as a misstep should not let us stick our neck in the sand. … I don’t think a single practitioner who goes against the norms of the field represents a failure of scientific self-regulation.” And Harvard researchers are indeed beginning to use CRISPR to tinker with the DNA of sperm, though only in embryos not intended for pregnancy.

For now, the scientific consensus still holds: Most experts think CRISPR isn’t ready for tinkering in humans.

A 2017 National Academies of Sciences report on gene editing stated that clinical trials could be green lit in the future “for serious conditions under stringent oversight.” But that “genome editing for enhancement should not be allowed at this time.”

That’s because there are real limits to what CRISPR can do, at least right now. Scientists have recently learned that the approach to gene editing can inadvertently wipe out and rearrange large swaths of DNA in ways that may imperil human health. That follows recent studies showing that CRISPR-edited cells can inadvertently trigger cancer.

According to Stat, He visited Feng Zhang’s lab in August asking about how to reduce some of these risks. “It was clear to me that he was having the same challenges as other researchers around lack of efficiency and lack of precision,” Zhang said. “I told him that the technology is neither efficient nor precise enough for real-world application in embryos, including in human IVF applications.”

That’s why scientists have generally advocated for a slow, cautious approach to gene-editing human embryos — which makes the news from China all the more shocking.

“I feel a strong responsibility that it’s not just to make a first, but also make it an example,” He said. Whether others follow his lead, he added: “Society will decide what to do next.” Or before society agrees on anything, He and other scientists may continue forging ahead.

Original Source -> Is the CRISPR baby controversy the start of a terrifying new chapter in gene editing?

via The Conservative Brief

[jakehglover]

Propaganda Machine of $4.3 Billion Influenza Vaccine Industry Is in Full Swing

Flu season is upon us again — the time of year when the steady message is "Have you gotten your flu shot yet?" Considering the many studies showing flu vaccines offer minimal protection against illness even when well-matched to circulating viral strains, the fact that vaccination continues to be touted as your first line of defense against influenza suggests this annual campaign is more about generating conformity for profit rather than actually improving and protecting public health.

Questionable Data Used to Support Annual Flu Vaccination Campaigns

Statistics reveal that in most years, flu shots are at best 50 to 60 percent effective at preventing lab confirmed type A or B influenza requiring medical care.1 In the decade between 2005 and 2015, the influenza vaccine was less than 50 percent effective more than half of the time.2

The 2017/2018 flu vaccine was a perfect example of this trend. The overall adjusted vaccine effectiveness against influenza A and B virus infection was just 36 percent.3

According to a 2014 meta-analysis,4 71 people have to be vaccinated in order for a single case of influenza to be avoided — a ratio that speaks to the ineffectiveness of this annual routine. Adding insult to injury, evidence5 (which was confirmed three years later6) suggests flu vaccination may double your risk of contracting pandemic influenza or a more serious bout of influenza.

Research7 published in 2011 also warned the seasonal flu vaccine appears to weaken children's immune systems and increases their chances of getting sick from influenza viruses not included in the vaccine.

When blood samples from healthy, unvaccinated children and children who had received an annual flu shot were compared, the unvaccinated group had naturally built up more antibodies across a wider variety of influenza strains compared to the vaccinated group.8

Evidence also shows you can get vaccinated, show few or no symptoms and still shed and transmit influenza to other people.9,10 Flu vaccines are also associated with debilitating and potentially lifelong side effects such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic shoulder injury related to vaccine administration.

2018/2019 Flu Season Brings Back Failed Nasal Spray Vaccine

Flu vaccines are by their nature a tricky business because influenza viruses are constantly evolving and public health officials have to guess at least six months before the flu season starts which type A and B influenza virus strains might end up being predominant so drug companies can manufacture the vaccines.

When the strains chosen do not match the strains actually causing most of the disease in any given flu season, the vaccine’s failure rate significantly increases. But it’s also important to realize that the majority of respiratory influenza-like illness that people experience during any given flu season is not type A or B influenza.11

When you get a sore throat, runny nose, headache, fatigue, low grade fever, body aches and cough, most of the time it is another type of viral or bacterial respiratory infection unrelated to influenza viruses.12

In fact, data13,14,15,16 shows other types of viruses are responsible for about 80 percent of all respiratory infections during any given flu season. The flu vaccine does not protect against or prevent any of these other types of respiratory infections causing influenza-like-illness (ILI) symptoms.

The chance of contracting actual type A or B influenza, caused by one of the three or four influenza virus strains included in the vaccine, is much lower compared to getting sick with another type of viral or bacterial infection during the flu season.

All of that said, there are several different types of influenza vaccines to choose from in any given year. This year, the live attenuated nasal spray vaccine (FluMist), which the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices did not recommend during the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons due to its extreme ineffectiveness, is back and once again being recommended by the CDC.17

For the 2018/2019 season, FluMist is approved for nonpregnant individuals between the ages of 2 and 49. Exceptions18 include children taking aspirin- or salicylate-containing medications, those with suppressed immune function, children aged 2 to 4 who have asthma, those who have taken an antiviral drug in the previous 48 hours, and a few others.

High-Dose Flu Vaccine for Seniors — 'Costs Outweigh Benefits' Canadian Experts Say

You also have the injectable inactivated influenza vaccines, including a high-dose version for seniors over the age of 65, which contains four times the amount of antigen as the regular dose of the standard vaccine. In Canada, infectious disease experts have spoken out against the vaccine, saying it’s not effective enough to justify its high cost, which is about five times that of the regular flu vaccine.19

According to British Columbia's provincial health officer Bonnie Henry, research suggests 200 seniors would have to be vaccinated with Fluzone High-Dose to prevent a single case of influenza, and 4,000 would have to be vaccinated to prevent one flu-related hospitalization.20

Due to its poor performance, British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta, New Brunswick and Newfoundland will not cover the cost of Fluzone High-Dose for seniors who would otherwise get free regular flu shots. The Globe and Mail reports:21

"The divergent policies are part of a continuing debate over the targeted flu shot that experts say has major implications for future influenza vaccination programs — and the amount of money it costs to deliver them …

Danuta Skowronski, epidemiology lead of influenza and emerging respiratory pathogens at the BC Centre for Disease Control, said the benefits don't justify the price.

She also said the new flu shot has only been studied for a few seasons and that there are unanswered questions health policy officials should consider before they get locked into an expensive multiyear agreement.

For instance, emerging research suggests people who get repeat flu shots every year may actually experience reduced immunity in subsequent years. That could have implications for seniors who receive a high dose of the flu shot, she said."

What You Need to Know About Flu Vaccines Made From Dog Kidney and Insect Cells

A relative newcomer in the vaccine lineup is the quadrivalent influenza vaccine called Flucelvax, which became available during the 2017/2018 season. Approved for individuals over the age of 4, this vaccine is unique in that it uses dog kidney (MDCK) cells for production.22

Traditionally, candidate vaccine strain influenza viruses, i.e., the viruses selected for inclusion in the vaccine, have been produced using fertilized chicken eggs. Flucelvax viruses are grown in cultured animal cells instead.23 (Another relatively new technology uses insect (army worm) cells to produce a recombinant quadrivalent influenza vaccine, Flublok, for individuals over 18 years old.24,25)

As the effectiveness of conventional flu shots continues to leave much to be desired, the new Flucelvax vaccine was touted as a new-and-improved version that would protect more people once flu season hit. In reality, a study26 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed its benefit was quite modest.

While flu vaccines overall were only 24 percent effective in preventing flu-related hospitalizations in people aged 65 and older, the Flucelvax vaccine had an effectiveness rate of 26.5 percent in that population — hardly a major improvement.

It's been known for some time that growing flu vaccines in eggs may lead to problematic mutations that make them less effective against circulating influenza viruses. Such was the case during the 2016 to 2017 flu season, when H3N2 viruses were prevalent.

Writing in PNAS,27 researchers noted, "Human vaccine strains grown in eggs often possess adaptive mutations that increase viral attachment to chicken cells." They identified a mutation in the flu vaccine strain that produced antibodies that didn't work well to neutralize the H3N2 viruses circulating that year.

But the hope that cell-based vaccines might solve this problem appears overly optimistic. Dr. John Treanor, a flu vaccine expert at the University of Rochester Medical Center, told STAT News in 2017,28 "There wasn't convincing evidence that it [cell culture flu vaccine] was better, so why would anyone spend extra money to buy that?"

This was before the FDA data came in on the 2017 to 2018 season, which offered proof that the effectiveness was virtually identical to the conventional egg-based version.

Lack of Quality Vaccine Science and Transparency

In his 2013 article,29 "Influenza: Marketing Vaccine by Marketing Disease,” BMJ associate editor Peter Doshi, Ph.D., points out the lack of quality science underpinning the annual call for flu vaccination and the government’s lack of transparency. He noted that in its marketing of influenza vaccines, the CDC fails to uphold its pledge “to base all public health decisions on the highest quality scientific data, openly and objectively derived.” The Vaccine Reaction summarizes Doshi’s comments, in part:30

"Promotion of influenza vaccines is one of the most visible and aggressive public health policies today … Closer examination of influenza vaccine policies shows that although proponents employ the rhetoric of science, the studies underlying the policy are often of low quality, and do not substantiate officials' claims.

The vaccine might be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza appears overstated … Mandatory vaccination policies have been enacted … forcing some people to take the vaccine under threat of losing their jobs.

The main assertion of the CDC that fuels the push for flu vaccinations each year is that influenza comes with a risk of serious complications which can cause death …

The only randomized trial of influenza vaccine in older people found no decrease in deaths. This means that influenza vaccines are approved for use in older people despite any clinical trials demonstrating a reduction in serious outcomes.

Even when the vaccine is closely matched to the type of influenza that's prevalent … randomized, controlled trials of healthy adults found that vaccinating between 33 and 100 people resulted in one less case of influenza … For most people, and possibly most doctors, officials need only claim that vaccines save lives, and it is assumed there must be solid research behind it."

Health Care Worker Flu Shot Mandates Are Based on Four Invalid Trials

A perfect example of what Doshi is talking about was published January 2017. This scientific analysis31,32 of four randomized controlled trials, which claim vaccinating health care workers against influenza offers significant protection for patients, were in fact overstated, and grossly so. According to the authors:

"In attributing patient benefit to increased health care worker influenza vaccine coverage, each cluster randomized controlled trial was found to violate the basic mathematical principle of dilution by reporting greater percentage reductions with less influenza-specific patient outcomes … and/or patient mortality reductions exceeding even favorably-derived predicted values by at least six- to 15fold.

If extrapolated to all long-term care facilities and hospital staff in the United States, the prior cluster randomized controlled trial-claimed number needed to vaccinate of 8 would implausibly mean >200,000 and >675,000 patient deaths, respectively, could be prevented annually by health care worker influenza vaccination, inconceivably exceeding total U.S. population mortality estimates due to seasonal influenza each year, or during the 1918 pandemic, respectively.

More realistic recalibration based on actual patient data instead shows that at least 6,000 to 32,000 hospital workers would need to be vaccinated before a single patient death could potentially be averted."

The researchers concluded that these four trials, which are the basis for policies of enforced vaccination of health care workers "attribute implausibly large reductions in patient risk to health care worker vaccination, casting serious doubts on their validity," adding that "The impression that unvaccinated health care workers place their patients at great influenza peril is exaggerated."

Independent Scientists Unable to Obtain Vaccine Trial Data

Europe also suffers from the same lack of transparency in vaccine research and public policy, as evidenced by Cochrane scientists' failure to obtain the necessary vaccine trial data required to evaluate the quality of 11 clinical trials on the HPV vaccine held by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Detailed information about a study's design, conduct and outcome can only be found in the trial's clinical study report (CSR), which drug companies are required to submit when applying for a new drug license. Transparimed.org reports:33

"Since 2014, in theory, independent scientists can access these documents by filing a request with the European regulator. In practice, the Cochrane team reports:

'After three years, we had obtained just 18 Clinical Study Reports (62 percent of the EMA's 29 reports) … Unfortunately, the reports still lacked important sections, such as protocols and serious harms narratives … Only three reports included completed case report forms … One study report of 4,263 pages was released in 17 files across seven batches over 12 months.'"

What’s more, the Cochrane scientists discovered that the EMA itself does not always receive all of the scientific evidence, as some of the submitted CSRs were incomplete. The team’s attempts to obtain the CSRs directly from the drug companies were equally fruitless. According to Cochrane:

"Although GlaxoSmithKline published versions of its Clinical Study Reports on its trial register, the reports often lack serious adverse events narratives and case report forms, and the data on serious adverse events in the reports we downloaded was heavily redacted."

Needless to say, without access to the CSRs, independent scientists such as the Cochrane group cannot assess the benefits and harms of the drugs or vaccines under review with any significant degree of accuracy or confidence.

"In our view, independent researchers ought to be able to obtain complete and unredacted Clinical Study Reports within a reasonable time frame without too many constraints or limitations," Cochrane writes.

"[R]egulators should release complete and coherent Clinical Study Reports… Urgent changes are essential for open and transparent assessment of the harms and benefits of interventions."

Professor Makes Bizarre Claim for Children's 'Vaccination Rights'

In related news, Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D.,34 a New York University (NYU) professor and founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU School of Medicine, raised more than a few eyebrows by claiming that a child’s presumed right to be vaccinated supersedes the parents’ legal right to exercise informed consent to vaccination on behalf of minor children.

In plain English, Caplan believes minor children should be vaccinated according to government recommendations regardless of whether parents have made an informed decision to decline one or more vaccinations for their child. As reported by The Vaccine Reaction,35 Caplan "claims that vaccinating children represents a higher moral imperative than respecting the informed consent rights of parents."

"'I want to point out a moral stance that I don't think has gotten enough attention, which is that every child has the right to be vaccinated,' said Caplan. 'We keep talking about parents' right to say yes or no, to avoid mandates or requirements, or to do what they choose to do. Someone has to speak up and say, 'Well, what about the kids? Don't they have any rights?'

Caplan believes that if parents refuse to vaccinate their kids the government has the right to override the legal right of parents to make medical care decisions for their children. Caplan argues that the government has the duty to vaccinate the children without the consent of the parents and by force, if need be."

In other words, what Caplan is saying is that parents should be prevented from making medical care decisions, especially vaccination decisions, on behalf of their minor children if those decisions do not conform with government policy. What kind of freedom is that? Coming from a self-appointed medical ethicist, this is scary, mind-boggling stuff. It’s barely one step away from all children being treated like property of the government.

Disturbingly enough, attempts to move this kind of public health policy and law forward are already underway, and parents everywhere need to join in the fight to retain their right to make medical decisions for their minor children. If government officials can vaccinate your child against your will, there’s no telling where it will end. As reported by The Vaccine Reaction:

"Legislation has been introduced in states like California that would seek to give government the right to make health care decisions for children, even against the wishes of their parents, if the state deems the decisions to be in the best interests of the children.

Such legislation would also allow government authorities to take legal physical custody of children in cases where parents refuse to comply with mandates forcing or coercing them to vaccinate their children.

The thrust of Caplan's thought process is that, at least when it comes to vaccination of children, parents should be stripped of their informed consent rights. Apparently, Caplan takes the view that the informed health care decisions that parents make for their children are just not relevant if those decisions conflict with government policy.

But it is precisely this 'long held legal right to make informed, voluntary decisions about pharmaceutical products and medical procedures that carry risks for their children,' says Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center, that is 'all that stands between parents and exploitation of their children by those in positions of power in society with a personal or professional vested interest in forcing every child to use pharmaceutical products that are not safe or effective for every child.'"

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/11/13/influenza-vaccine-effectiveness.aspx

[2mindspg-blog]

Film Philosophy

Two Minds(2018) aims to support and give a voice to women who make a choice to have an abortion. We believe that every woman should be in control of her own body and decisions, therefore we decided to include the Irish referendum, as it represents a major obstacle -and taboo- in these women’s contemporary lives.

The following text aims to define our motive for creating Two Minds(2018).

Before exploring the meaning of the Irish referendum in depth, it is essential to know the definition of an abortion. As Anibal Faundes and Jose Barzelatto argue - “[a]bortion is usually defined as the abnormal termination of pregnancy, spontaneous or induced.” (Faundes & Barzelatto, 2006) These authors also explain that:

“Spontaneous abortion, the termination of a pregnancy without any external intervention, can be caused by a disease in the pregnant woman or by genetic defects in the embryo. Induced abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the intentional external intervention.” (Faundes & Barzelatto, 2006, p. 13)

Today, in the United Kingdom, women can freely access the procedure: “In England, Scotland and Wales an abortion can be legally carried out up to the 24-week limit.” (Baker & Fruen, 2018)However, “The 1967 Abortion Act, which established legal abortion, has never applied in Northern Ireland.” (Baker & Fruen, 2018)

Celia Burrell and Malcolm Griffiths explain further: “for over 150 years Ireland has had strict laws on termination of pregnancy (TOP) before viability. When Ireland gained independence from the UK in 1922, the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 remained in force, maintaining all TOPs as illegal and subject to punishment.” (Burrell & Griffiths, 2017)

It is suggested that “[s]ome women from Northern Ireland, where reproductive rights are particularly restricted and ill defined […], are forced to have later terminations in Britain because of the enormous legal, practical and financial barriers that that system creates for women traveling to Britain for the procedure.” (House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee , 2007, p. 213)

We believe it is unfortunate that women have no choice even in extreme situations such as rape: “[…] the 8th amendment of the Irish constitution equates the life of a pregnant woman with that of an embryo or foetus and criminalises any woman or doctor that will carry out an abortion.” (Murroni, 2017)Which means that “[a] woman who seeks an abortion after rape can face an equal or longer prison sentence than her rapist – up to 14 years in prison.” (Murroni, 2017)

Shockingly, according to Guen Murroni: “[th]e reality is that 10 per cent of all Irish women will experience penetrative sexual violence in their lifetime and a proportion of them will become pregnant as a result. In 2013, 8 per cent [representing 75 women] of females attending a Rape Crisis Centre reported they became pregnant as a result of rape[.]” (Murroni, 2017)

We also feel that it is important to legalise abortions to prevent unsafe procedures – “[m]ost unsafe abortions are performed in countries where they are legally restricted”. (Faundes & Barzelatto, 2006, p. 21)To explain this, unsafe abortions are extremely risky and can have life changing effects and even cause death:

“International non-governmental organisations report regularly on the high death rates resulting from illegal abortions provided in unsafe, unsanitary situations without basic medications to treat the inevitable infections.” (Furedi, 2016, p. 5)Whereas, evidence strongly suggests that safe and professionally supervised procedures do not put women in such high risk. However, “If the procedure does not work, [women] may have to repeat it. There is a small risk of infection. There is also a very small risk of injury to [women’s] cervix, uterus, or other organs.” (Anon., 2017)

Nonetheless, in Ireland, 2012, doctors ignored the plead for an emergency abortion, which took a woman’s life. As Zara Qadir states:

“Savita Halappanavar died at University Hospital Galway, Ireland[…]. She died following a miscarriage and subsequent Escherichia colisepticaemiaafter requesting, but being denied, an emergency termination. Her death has since re-ignited Ireland's political, moral, and societal debate about abortion.” (Qadir, 2013)

Furthermore, it is argued that abortion causes mental health issues:

“Most research in mental health and abortion has examined factors associated with post-abortion psychological health. However, research that follows women from before to after their abortion consistently finds that depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms are highest just before an abortion compared to any time afterwards.” (Steinberg, et al., 2016)

On the other hand, it may be suggested that a women’s mental health really depends on society and its’ imputation,

“[H]elping women feel less stigmatized about having an abortion may be important for lowering pre-abortion depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Because pre-abortion psychological health was the strongest predictor of post-abortion psychological health, they also suggest that abortion stigma is a large contributor to post-abortion psychological health.” (Steinberg, et al., 2016)

The article also argues that “[…] reducing abortion stigma may also promote post-abortion mental health. “ (Steinberg, et al., 2016)This perception is shared by Ann Furedi, who writes; “[m]oral concern about whether abortion is right or wrong are replaced with concerns about whether it is safe or appropriate.” (Furedi, 2016, p. 3)

Luckily, Ireland has received good news – the government is ready for a big and all-changing step: “The Irish government has confirmed that it will hold a referendum on reform of the country’s strict anti-abortion laws by the end of May. The cabinet agreed to give voters in the republic the chance to repeal the eighth amendment to the country’s constitution on Monday [05/02/2018].” (McDonald, 2018)

Moreover, “the Fine Gael-led minority coalition […] decided to ask the electorate to endorse enabling powers to allow the Dáil (parliament) to draw up a new law that would eventually permit abortions in Irish hospitals up to 12 weeks into pregnancy.” (McDonald, 2018)

The Irish government is finally ready to give the public an opportunity to vote again, with contemporary research and public opinion suggesting the reality of legal abortion is closer than ever for Ireland, it can be regarded as an important time for our film to be made. Two Minds(2018) uses the overwhelming medical research combined with the growing political, international and social pressures to inform its story.

As a final thought for this text, Furedi writes:

“Our moral values matter and it seems bizarre to strip them from the debate on abortion when society is yet to be convinced that abortion can be right and should be seen as right.” (Furedi, 2016, p. 5)

See Bibliography post for full references.

[jermainecallinan-blog]

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[dinafbrownil]

Scientists Want to Know More About Using UV Light to Fight COVID-19 Spread

High up near the ceiling, in the dining room of his Seattle-area restaurant, Musa Firat recently installed a “killing zone” — a place where swaths of invisible electromagnetic energy penetrate the air, ready to disarm the coronavirus and other dangerous pathogens that drift upward in tiny, airborne particles.

Firat’s new system draws on a century-old technology for fending off infectious diseases: Energetic waves of ultraviolet light — known as germicidal UV, or GUV — are delivered in the right dose to wipe out viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms.

Research already shows that germicidal UV can effectively inactivate airborne microbes that transmit measles, tuberculosis and SARS-CoV-1, a close relative of the novel coronavirus. Now, with concern mounting that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may be easily transmitted through microscopic floating particles known as aerosols, some researchers and physicians hope the technology can be recruited yet again to help disinfect high-risk indoor settings.

“I thought it was a great idea, and I want my customers to be safe,” said Firat whose casual eatery, Marlaina’s Mediterranean Kitchen, is 20 minutes south of downtown Seattle.

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As the U.S. grapples with how to interrupt the spread of the highly infectious virus, UV is being used to decontaminate surfaces on public transit and in hospitals where infectious droplets may have landed, as well as to disinfect N95 masks for reuse. But so far using this technology to provide continuous air disinfection has remained outside of most mainstream, policy-setting conversations about the coronavirus.

Experts attribute this to a combination of factors: misconceptions about UV’s safety, a lack of public awareness and technical know-how, concerns about the costs of installing the technology, and a general reluctance to consider the role of aerosols in the spread of the coronavirus.

Aerosols are microdroplets expelled when someone exhales, speaks or coughs. Unlike the larger and heavier respiratory droplets that fall quickly to the ground, aerosols can linger in the air a long time and travel through indoor spaces. When someone catches a virus this way, the process is called “airborne transmission.”

It’s already recognized that the coronavirus can spread by means of aerosols during medical procedures, which is why health care workers are advised to wear respirators, such as N95 masks, that filter out these tiny particles. Yet there is still considerable debate over how likely the virus is to spread in other settings via aerosols.

Recently, the question of airborne transmission gained new urgency when a group of 239 scientists called on the World Health Organization to take the threat of infectious aerosols more seriously, arguing that the “lack of clear recommendations on the control measures against the airborne virus will have significant consequences.”

WHO officials conceded that more research is needed but maintained that most infections do not happen this way.

As the science continues to evolve, UV could emerge as an attractive safeguard against airborne transmission — one with a track record against pathogens — that can be deployed to reduce the risk of infectious aerosols accumulating in indoor settings such as schools and businesses.

Inside Marlaina's Mediterranean Kitchen, a Seattle-area eatery, which is battling the coronavirus using UV light. (Will Stone for KHN)

Ultraviolet fixtures mounted above the restaurant's ceiling panels glow faint blue and create a "killing zone" that can wipe out viral aerosols building up in the air. Some experts are calling for wider adoption of UV light to help disinfect the air in indoor settings.(Will Stone for KHN)

Welcome to the ‘Killing Zone’

At Marlaina’s restaurant, there are just two visible clues of the new UV disinfection system — a subtle glow of blue light above the black grates of the drop ceiling, and a hand-chalked sign at the door, proudly announcing to diners: “Coronavirus Disinfected Here!”

The system was installed while the restaurant was closed during Washington state’s lockdown. The setup is known as “upper-room germicidal UV” because the UV fixtures are mounted high and angled away from humans below.

Ceiling fans circulate the air, eventually pushing any suspended viral particles that have accumulated in the dining space through the grated drop ceiling, to the area where UV lights, positioned horizontally, blast them with radiant energy.

The inspiration and technical assistance for Marlaina’s owner came from customer Bruce Davidson, a pulmonary physician who was Philadelphia’s “tuberculosis czar” in the mid-’90s. Back then, the U.S. was grappling with a new outbreak of TB that included strains resistant to existing drugs.

“Preventing transmission was the most important part, because we had no drugs, no vaccine,” recalled Davidson, who now lives outside Seattle. UV light proved to be a key strategy back then, and Davidson thinks it can help again: “It really ought to be in most indoor public spaces now.”

To demonstrate the concept, Davidson lit a cigar inside Marlaina’s and showed how the smoke danced upward, collecting in the ceiling space with the UV fixtures.

“If somebody has undetected coronavirus and doesn’t eat with a mask and is talking and so on, the vast majority of their particles are going to get pulled up there into the killing zone and circulate and bounce around,” Davidson said. “Statistically, the risk to other people is going to be very low.”

Research shows close to 90% of airborne particles from a previous coronavirus (SARS-CoV-1) can be inactivated in about 16 seconds when exposed to the same strength of UV as in the restaurant’s ceiling. Other viruses, such as the adenovirus, are more resistant and require a higher dose of UV.

“Although it’s not perfect, it probably offers the best solution for direct air disinfection” in the current pandemic, said David Sliney, a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University and longtime researcher on germicidal UV.

When used with proper ventilation, upper-room GUV is about 80% effective against the spread of airborne tuberculosis, according to several studies. This is equivalent to replacing the air in a room up to 24 times an hour.

But widespread adoption of UV systems could be an uphill battle, Sliney said, because in the U.S., interest in using UV for air disinfection has waned in recent decades as scientists focused their attention on powerful vaccines and drugs to deal with infectious diseases.

Understanding Aerosols and Airborne Transmission

UV can be a powerful weapon against an airborne virus, but it can go only so far toward preventing infection. People can still get sick from the larger, heavier droplets ejected via coughs and sneezes. They can directly inhale those droplets or touch a surface contaminated with them, and then touch their eyes, nose or mouth.

UV also does not prevent someone from being exposed to infectious aerosols that have just emerged from an infected person — and are lingering quite near his or her body — what researcher Richard Corsi called the “near field.”

“In that scenario, you’re inhaling a very concentrated cloud of these tiny particles that you can’t see,” said Corsi, dean of the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science at Portland State University. “You’re getting a pretty significant dose in your respiratory system.”

So, even if there is upper-room UV in a building, Corsi said, face masks and social distancing are still necessary to block larger respiratory droplets and remove some of the aerosols in the near field. But Corsi said there’s now enough evidence to show that coronavirus aerosols can hang in the air and spread throughout a room (“the far field”), and it’s time to take that airborne spread seriously.

One example of far-field transmission is documented in a study of a restaurant in China at which some diners seated at neighboring tables contracted the COVID-19 virus despite never coming into close contact with the “index case-patient.” Another piece of evidence came from a March 10 choir practice in Mount Vernon, Washington, after which the majority of singers contracted the coronavirus, even though members of the group took precautions to use hand sanitizer and avoid hugs and handshakes.

In their letter to WHO, scientists note that the coronavirus that causes MERS can spread through aerosols, and “there is every reason to expect that [the COVID virus] behaves similarly.”

Understanding the Technology and Safety

Germicidal UV harnesses a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that contains short waves of radiant energy, called UV-C. This wavelength is further away from the visible spectrum than other forms of UV light.

Think of it as giving the virus a lethal sunburn.

“We have very little practical experience to show how effective it can be [in a pandemic] since it’s been out of use in this country and in Western Europe,” said Sliney of Johns Hopkins, who chairs a committee with the Illuminating Engineering Society, which recently released new guidance on GUV.

Sliney recommends installing UV in big-box stores, restaurants and grocery stores, which typically have high ceilings. “There needs to be vertical air exchange,” he said, as with ceiling fans, so “it’s not just sterilizing the air in the upper space of the room.”

“No one doubts the efficacy of germicidal UV in killing small microorganisms and pathogens. I think the bigger controversy, if there is any, is misperceptions around safety,” said Dr. Edward Nardell, a professor at Harvard Medical School who researches GUV.

Low-dose germicidal UV can damage the eyes and skin, but Nardell said those risks can be avoided by following the appropriate guidelines. While international guidelines warn against directly exposing humans to UV-C, the risks of skin cancer are considered negligible, especially compared with longer wavelengths of UV that can penetrate more deeply.

Could UV Make a Comeback?

With interest in UV climbing, there is concern about shoddy products on the market and exaggerated claims about their effectiveness against the virus, said Jim Malley, a professor at the University of New Hampshire who studies public health and disinfection.

Consumers should be wary of marketing claims about “UV wands” that can be waved quickly over surfaces or special “portals” that people walk through, he said, because those are probably not correctly calibrated to inactivate the virus and could be dangerous.

Malley said he does not think there’s much of a viable market for upper-room GUV outside health care settings, but he supports installing the technology in the most high-risk settings, such as meatpacking plants and nursing facilities.

“My gut feeling is we should do anything we can in those places, because we have a horrendous fatality record” with the coronavirus, he said.

At Marlaina’s restaurant, the installation was relatively straightforward.

The owner, Firat, purchased four UV fixtures (at $165 each), hired an electrician to install the fans and bought black gridded plastic panels to enclose the ceiling space where the UV is mounted.

Firat still encourages his customers to wear masks and maintain social distance. But he said the UV has become part of the ambiance.

“It’s more modern and clean, and the response is great, absolutely great,” he said.

This story is part of a partnership that includes NPR and Kaiser Health News.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/scientists-want-to-know-more-about-using-uv-light-to-fight-covid-19-spread/

[stephenmccull]

Scientists Want to Know More About Using UV Light to Fight COVID-19 Spread

High up near the ceiling, in the dining room of his Seattle-area restaurant, Musa Firat recently installed a “killing zone” — a place where swaths of invisible electromagnetic energy penetrate the air, ready to disarm the coronavirus and other dangerous pathogens that drift upward in tiny, airborne particles.

Firat’s new system draws on a century-old technology for fending off infectious diseases: Energetic waves of ultraviolet light — known as germicidal UV, or GUV — are delivered in the right dose to wipe out viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms.

Research already shows that germicidal UV can effectively inactivate airborne microbes that transmit measles, tuberculosis and SARS-CoV-1, a close relative of the novel coronavirus. Now, with concern mounting that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may be easily transmitted through microscopic floating particles known as aerosols, some researchers and physicians hope the technology can be recruited yet again to help disinfect high-risk indoor settings.

“I thought it was a great idea, and I want my customers to be safe,” said Firat whose casual eatery, Marlaina’s Mediterranean Kitchen, is 20 minutes south of downtown Seattle.

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

Sign Up

As the U.S. grapples with how to interrupt the spread of the highly infectious virus, UV is being used to decontaminate surfaces on public transit and in hospitals where infectious droplets may have landed, as well as to disinfect N95 masks for reuse. But so far using this technology to provide continuous air disinfection has remained outside of most mainstream, policy-setting conversations about the coronavirus.

Experts attribute this to a combination of factors: misconceptions about UV’s safety, a lack of public awareness and technical know-how, concerns about the costs of installing the technology, and a general reluctance to consider the role of aerosols in the spread of the coronavirus.

Aerosols are microdroplets expelled when someone exhales, speaks or coughs. Unlike the larger and heavier respiratory droplets that fall quickly to the ground, aerosols can linger in the air a long time and travel through indoor spaces. When someone catches a virus this way, the process is called “airborne transmission.”

It’s already recognized that the coronavirus can spread by means of aerosols during medical procedures, which is why health care workers are advised to wear respirators, such as N95 masks, that filter out these tiny particles. Yet there is still considerable debate over how likely the virus is to spread in other settings via aerosols.

Recently, the question of airborne transmission gained new urgency when a group of 239 scientists called on the World Health Organization to take the threat of infectious aerosols more seriously, arguing that the “lack of clear recommendations on the control measures against the airborne virus will have significant consequences.”

WHO officials conceded that more research is needed but maintained that most infections do not happen this way.

As the science continues to evolve, UV could emerge as an attractive safeguard against airborne transmission — one with a track record against pathogens — that can be deployed to reduce the risk of infectious aerosols accumulating in indoor settings such as schools and businesses.

Inside Marlaina's Mediterranean Kitchen, a Seattle-area eatery, which is battling the coronavirus using UV light. (Will Stone for KHN)

Ultraviolet fixtures mounted above the restaurant's ceiling panels glow faint blue and create a "killing zone" that can wipe out viral aerosols building up in the air. Some experts are calling for wider adoption of UV light to help disinfect the air in indoor settings.(Will Stone for KHN)

Welcome to the ‘Killing Zone’

At Marlaina’s restaurant, there are just two visible clues of the new UV disinfection system — a subtle glow of blue light above the black grates of the drop ceiling, and a hand-chalked sign at the door, proudly announcing to diners: “Coronavirus Disinfected Here!”

The system was installed while the restaurant was closed during Washington state’s lockdown. The setup is known as “upper-room germicidal UV” because the UV fixtures are mounted high and angled away from humans below.

Ceiling fans circulate the air, eventually pushing any suspended viral particles that have accumulated in the dining space through the grated drop ceiling, to the area where UV lights, positioned horizontally, blast them with radiant energy.

The inspiration and technical assistance for Marlaina’s owner came from customer Bruce Davidson, a pulmonary physician who was Philadelphia’s “tuberculosis czar” in the mid-’90s. Back then, the U.S. was grappling with a new outbreak of TB that included strains resistant to existing drugs.

“Preventing transmission was the most important part, because we had no drugs, no vaccine,” recalled Davidson, who now lives outside Seattle. UV light proved to be a key strategy back then, and Davidson thinks it can help again: “It really ought to be in most indoor public spaces now.”

To demonstrate the concept, Davidson lit a cigar inside Marlaina’s and showed how the smoke danced upward, collecting in the ceiling space with the UV fixtures.

“If somebody has undetected coronavirus and doesn’t eat with a mask and is talking and so on, the vast majority of their particles are going to get pulled up there into the killing zone and circulate and bounce around,” Davidson said. “Statistically, the risk to other people is going to be very low.”

Research shows close to 90% of airborne particles from a previous coronavirus (SARS-CoV-1) can be inactivated in about 16 seconds when exposed to the same strength of UV as in the restaurant’s ceiling. Other viruses, such as the adenovirus, are more resistant and require a higher dose of UV.

“Although it’s not perfect, it probably offers the best solution for direct air disinfection” in the current pandemic, said David Sliney, a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University and longtime researcher on germicidal UV.

When used with proper ventilation, upper-room GUV is about 80% effective against the spread of airborne tuberculosis, according to several studies. This is equivalent to replacing the air in a room up to 24 times an hour.

But widespread adoption of UV systems could be an uphill battle, Sliney said, because in the U.S., interest in using UV for air disinfection has waned in recent decades as scientists focused their attention on powerful vaccines and drugs to deal with infectious diseases.

Understanding Aerosols and Airborne Transmission

UV can be a powerful weapon against an airborne virus, but it can go only so far toward preventing infection. People can still get sick from the larger, heavier droplets ejected via coughs and sneezes. They can directly inhale those droplets or touch a surface contaminated with them, and then touch their eyes, nose or mouth.

UV also does not prevent someone from being exposed to infectious aerosols that have just emerged from an infected person — and are lingering quite near his or her body — what researcher Richard Corsi called the “near field.”

“In that scenario, you’re inhaling a very concentrated cloud of these tiny particles that you can’t see,” said Corsi, dean of the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science at Portland State University. “You’re getting a pretty significant dose in your respiratory system.”

So, even if there is upper-room UV in a building, Corsi said, face masks and social distancing are still necessary to block larger respiratory droplets and remove some of the aerosols in the near field. But Corsi said there’s now enough evidence to show that coronavirus aerosols can hang in the air and spread throughout a room (“the far field”), and it’s time to take that airborne spread seriously.

One example of far-field transmission is documented in a study of a restaurant in China at which some diners seated at neighboring tables contracted the COVID-19 virus despite never coming into close contact with the “index case-patient.” Another piece of evidence came from a March 10 choir practice in Mount Vernon, Washington, after which the majority of singers contracted the coronavirus, even though members of the group took precautions to use hand sanitizer and avoid hugs and handshakes.

In their letter to WHO, scientists note that the coronavirus that causes MERS can spread through aerosols, and “there is every reason to expect that [the COVID virus] behaves similarly.”

Understanding the Technology and Safety

Germicidal UV harnesses a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that contains short waves of radiant energy, called UV-C. This wavelength is further away from the visible spectrum than other forms of UV light.

Think of it as giving the virus a lethal sunburn.

“We have very little practical experience to show how effective it can be [in a pandemic] since it’s been out of use in this country and in Western Europe,” said Sliney of Johns Hopkins, who chairs a committee with the Illuminating Engineering Society, which recently released new guidance on GUV.

Sliney recommends installing UV in big-box stores, restaurants and grocery stores, which typically have high ceilings. “There needs to be vertical air exchange,” he said, as with ceiling fans, so “it’s not just sterilizing the air in the upper space of the room.”

“No one doubts the efficacy of germicidal UV in killing small microorganisms and pathogens. I think the bigger controversy, if there is any, is misperceptions around safety,” said Dr. Edward Nardell, a professor at Harvard Medical School who researches GUV.

Low-dose germicidal UV can damage the eyes and skin, but Nardell said those risks can be avoided by following the appropriate guidelines. While international guidelines warn against directly exposing humans to UV-C, the risks of skin cancer are considered negligible, especially compared with longer wavelengths of UV that can penetrate more deeply.

Could UV Make a Comeback?

With interest in UV climbing, there is concern about shoddy products on the market and exaggerated claims about their effectiveness against the virus, said Jim Malley, a professor at the University of New Hampshire who studies public health and disinfection.

Consumers should be wary of marketing claims about “UV wands” that can be waved quickly over surfaces or special “portals” that people walk through, he said, because those are probably not correctly calibrated to inactivate the virus and could be dangerous.

Malley said he does not think there’s much of a viable market for upper-room GUV outside health care settings, but he supports installing the technology in the most high-risk settings, such as meatpacking plants and nursing facilities.

“My gut feeling is we should do anything we can in those places, because we have a horrendous fatality record” with the coronavirus, he said.

At Marlaina’s restaurant, the installation was relatively straightforward.

The owner, Firat, purchased four UV fixtures (at $165 each), hired an electrician to install the fans and bought black gridded plastic panels to enclose the ceiling space where the UV is mounted.

Firat still encourages his customers to wear masks and maintain social distance. But he said the UV has become part of the ambiance.

“It’s more modern and clean, and the response is great, absolutely great,” he said.

This story is part of a partnership that includes NPR and Kaiser Health News.

Scientists Want to Know More About Using UV Light to Fight COVID-19 Spread published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/