SAIEE Africa Research Journal, Overdrive Libby App, Discord Events, more: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 25, 2021

SAIEE Africa Research Journal, Overdrive Libby App, Discord Events, more: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, December 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

IEEE Spectrum: Access South Africa’s Leading Research Journal’s Entire Collection. “The full archives of the SAIEE Africa Research Journal—some issues dating back more than 100 years—are now available in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. The open-access quarterly journal from the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers publishes peer-reviewed articles on research in IEEE’s fields of interest.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Good E-Reader: New Overdrive Libby app update offers enhanced accessibility options . “OverDrive said they have introduced some changes to the Libby app that are aimed at making it more accessible to all users, including those with visual, motor, or cognitive deficiencies. The company said they have taken inputs directly from those with visual defects – low vision to even blind individuals – thanks to their association with Fable to ensure the updates introduced to the Libby app makes it even more accessible to those with special needs.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Create and Attend Discord Events . “Discord is a great place to gather your friends to chat about games, school, and everything else. But what if you want to schedule everyone to meet at the same time? For that, you can use Discord events. We’re going to explain everything you need to know about Discord events, including how to set them up.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

EdSurge: The Surprising History of Google’s Push to Scan Millions of Library Books. “It seemed like the beginning of a new era, when scholars and the public could make new connections and discoveries in the kind of mass digital library that had previously been the stuff of science fiction. But it soon became clear the actual plan would turn out to be far more controversial than its organizers probably ever imagined. On this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we tell the story of this ambitious book-scanning effort that sparked an epic legal battle among publishers, authors and technologists. Somehow, it’s a story that seems largely forgotten.” I don’t see a transcript link, but there’s a decent-sized article.

New York Times: That Fun TikTok Video? It’s Actually an Ad.. “Ever since young Americans began their exodus from commercial television to streaming services and social media, advertisers have searched for the digital equivalent of home shopping channels, a place online where users might engage with ads rather than just quickly clicking past them. Now, they think they’re closer to finding this holy grail of marketing, and it doesn’t look anything like QVC.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Politico: Potential DOJ suits against Apple and Google delayed amid budget woes. “The Justice Department is still months away from deciding whether to sue Apple or file a new suit against Google over antitrust concerns, two people familiar with the discussions said — a question facing new financial complications after the collapse of President Joe Biden’s social spending bill.”

Mashable: ‘Extremely disturbing’: TikTok sued by content moderator for psychological trauma. “Candie Frazier, who works as a contracted content moderator, filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on Thursday against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, for psychological trauma. Frazier alleges she developed anxiety, depression, and PTSD as a result of the highly regimented 12-hour shifts in which she would watch a stream of videos containing ‘animal cruelty, torture, suicides, child abuse, murder, beheadings, and other graphic content.’ Troubling videos also discussed conspiracy theories, holocaust denial, political misinformation, and other destabilizing content.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mercury News: Google hopes dragonscale solar will take wing at Silicon Valley sites. “Google is betting that dragonscale solar panels on its canopy campuses in Mountain View could bolster the tech titan’s efforts to generate green energy. The search giant has been installing the solar panels, whose moniker derives from how the scales of a dragon might look, on its two new Mountain View campuses that both have an eye-catching design.”

CNET: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope just launched: What’s next?. “Webb is set to travel 1 million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth over the next six months and begin orbiting the sun at the vital-for-the-mission second Lagrange point. Once that happens, Webb will begin sending back images of the universe. But these won’t be mere intergalactic photos.”

Washington Post: Is artificial intelligence about to transform the mammogram?. “[Regina] Barzilay had spent years researching the AI specialty known as natural-language processing, which applies algorithms to textual data. Those skills, she realized, might be put to a different use: predicting cancer. She decided to shift her research. That choice is now bearing fruit. Barzilay, 51, and a student protege have built an AI that seems able to predict with unprecedented accuracy whether a healthy person will get breast cancer, in an innovation that could seriously disrupt how we think about the disease.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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December 26, 2021 at 02:11AM
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James Webb Space Telescope, Robocalls, Clubhouse, more: Saturday ResearchBuzz, December 25, 2021

James Webb Space Telescope, Robocalls, Clubhouse, more: Saturday ResearchBuzz, December 25, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNN: The James Webb Space Telescope has successfully launched. “It’s a moment that has been decades in the making. The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s premier space observatory of the next decade, successfully launched on Christmas morning. The telescope lifted off atop an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 7:20 a.m. ET.”

CNET: Robocalls are still out of control — and aren’t likely to stop in 2022. “Since a peak in March 2021 when Americans got 4.9 billion robocalls, Stir/Shaken has helped curb the number of robocalls, according to YouMail, a company specializing in blocking robocalls. In November that figure was down to 4.1 billion calls for the month, YouMail said. Still, the volume of robocalls is rising again, and Americans are getting more than they did in November 2020, when 3.8 billion robocalls set phones ringing and buzzing.”

MakeUseOf: How to Enable Live Captions on Clubhouse. “The wait is over. Clubhouse has finally launched a long-awaited live captions feature. If you prefer to read live captions instead of listening to audio while out in public, or if you’re deaf or hard of hearing, this feature will be especially helpful to you.”

USEFUL STUFF

Poynter: These 6 tips will help you spot misinformation online. “Here are six tools and techniques you, your friends (or enemies) and family can use to make a dent in the false information flowing on the internet today.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Google’s Santa Tracker isn’t just a holiday treat, it’s also made Google better . “The Santa Tracker originally launched in Dec. 2004, and has been continuously updated by Google’s team ever since. It’s gotten big features, like new coding games and voice assistant integration, and small ones, like a mask for Santa to protect himself and others during the pandemic. And according to the official Google blog, the developers behind each update have found that working on the Santa Tracker is not only a fun holiday tradition, but useful for overall Google service development, too.”

New York Times: TikTok Made Them Famous. Figuring Out What’s Next Is Tough.. “This year, the app’s biggest stars — Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, Noah Beck, Addison Rae and others — leapt from the phone screen to other platforms in the pop culture universe, with mixed results.”

BBC: Climate change: Small army of volunteers keeping deniers off Wikipedia. “Wikipedia has for so long been plagued by climate change denial. But a group of dedicated volunteers around the world is working tirelessly to keep the deniers at bay.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Moscow Times: Russia Fines Google, Meta Record $125M for Banned Content. “Russia has slapped tech giants Google and Meta with record penalties totaling over $125 million for repeated failure to remove banned content, state media reported Friday. The fines mark the first time Russia has imposed a fine based on a company’s turnover and comes as Moscow amplifies pressure on foreign internet platforms, which it says regularly fail to take down content in compliance with Russian law.” This is wild. Russia hits Silicon Valley firms with fines regularly, but usually they’re $100K USD or so.

Lifehacker: How to Tell If eBay, Amazon, and Facebook Marketplace Items Are Stolen. “These spaces operate more like virtual flea markets—except without the option of inspecting the items (in person) yourself. For this, and other reasons, it’s not uncommon for stolen goods to end up for sale on these sites. In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, what it refers to as ‘organized retail crime’ (ORC) currently costs retailers an average of $700,000 per $1 billion in sales, and roughly 75% of retailers surveyed in 2020 saw an increase in ORC that year alone. So how do you tell what’s legitimately (and legally) being sold or resold, and what’s hot? Here are a few red flags to look out for when shopping at online marketplaces.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Route Fifty: White House AI Initiative Launches Public Research Support Tools. “A new section of resources intended for artificial intelligence researchers was launched last Friday by the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office, with a goal of providing easy access to data sets and testbed environments for AI application training.”

UK Government: Social media influencers and counterfeit goods Executive summary. “The main aim of this study was to determine whether social media influencers have a meaningful impact on the intentions of female adults to purchase counterfeit goods. The study found that deviant SM influencers exert a significant influence as trusted others, prompting 10% of respondents to purchase counterfeit goods across a wide range of product sectors.”

CNN: This holiday, let’s stop this social media pretending. “This holiday season, I have a simple wish. Innovators gave us great digital tools to smooth out wrinkles and erase blemishes. We can lighten and brighten every snapshot and social media can give us powerful ways to connect with friends and family near and far. But we don’t need a photo filter for real life. Real life is messy. In fact, that’s what makes it interesting, challenging and fun. So starting in 2022, can’t we end the great pretend and share who we really are?” Good morning, Internet…

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December 25, 2021 at 06:57PM
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Thursday CoronaBuzz, December 23, 2021: 41 pointers to updates, health information, research news, and more.

Thursday CoronaBuzz, December 23, 2021: 41 pointers to updates, health information, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Please get a booster shot. Please wear a mask when you’re inside with a bunch of people. Much love.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

CNET: Google now gives free COVID test and vaccine details at a glance. Here’s what to do. “Google added new COVID-19 features to its search tool on Wednesday for mobile users. The features can help you quickly find free testing locations and places to get vaccines for kids (and adults). You can also select specific vaccine brands: Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.”

Inside Medicine: Breaking News: 62 US counties likely at or over 100% hospital capacity. “Circuit breakers” may be needed in those areas.. “The result is a county-level and state-level map that indicates exactly which areas have already exceeded hospital capacity, and identifies ones that are poised overflow if they remain above the thresholds that we calculate for the next 5-10 days. In other words, for every county and state, we can tell officials how many new coronavirus cases can be ‘tolerated’ without being at high risk of hospitals overflowing 1-10 days later.”

UPDATES

Associated Press: To grandmother’s house or no? Omicron disrupts holiday plans. “For the second year in a row, the ever-morphing virus presents would-be revelers with a difficult choice: cancel holiday gatherings and trips or figure out ways to forge ahead as safely as possible. Many health experts are begging people not to let down their guard.”

CORONAVIRUS MISINFORMATION / FACT-CHECKING

Vice: People Got Sick at a Conspiracy Conference. They’re Sure It’s Anthrax.. “A group of unvaccinated people who attended a huge conspiracy conference in Dallas earlier this month all became sick in the days after the event with symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, and fever. Instead of blaming the global COVID pandemic, however, the conspiracy theorists think they were attacked with anthrax.”

Valley News: Valley Regional Hospital targeted over man’s COVID treatment. “Valley Regional Hospital this week boosted security after it received threatening telephone calls regarding a patient under its care, the Claremont hospital said in a news release Thursday. The announcement came after Valley Regional became the target of a social media campaign when the family of a patient being treated there for COVID-19 called upon the hospital to respond to their demands for alternative treatment.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

The Mainichi: Friction between humans, crows declines amid pandemic in Japan. “The relationship between crows and humans in Japan’s cities has long been a contentious one. For one, it is not uncommon to see the contents of garbage bags strewn across sidewalks on pickup days after the big black birds have had at them, looking for food. But crow-human friction has decreased during the coronavirus pandemic, possibly because people are paying less attention to the birds, one expert says.”

HEALTH CARE – CAPACITY

Washington Post: In highly vaccinated New England, hospitals are under unprecedented strain as coronavirus surges. “Interviews with 10 hospital leaders across the region revealed a grave picture. Executives at smaller and midsized hospitals said that it has become exceedingly difficult to secure care at higher-level facilities in the region and they worry that delays in transferring patients could have life-threatening consequences. Several said they were discussing whether they might need to implement standards for rationing care.”

EVENTS / CANCELLATIONS

Anglican Ink: Covid concerns prompt National Cathedral to cancel Christmas Day services — Christmas Eve services unchanged. “Like you, we are watching the spread of COVID-19 and the omicron variant with equal measures of fatigue and wariness. I imagine that you, too, are asking what this variant means for upcoming Christmas gatherings and what steps each of us can take to protect our friends and families. The health and safety of our extended Cathedral community is our highest priority. In these anxious times, nothing else is more important. However, nearly two years into this pandemic, we have the tools, practices and valuable experience that allow us to gather safely and responsibly.”

The Street: Cancel(ing) Culture Is Back as Covid Omicron Surges. “Despite the Covid vaccines, everything from in-person classes for students to Broadway musicals to sporting events to New Year’s Eve celebrations and global conferences are being scaled back or canceled this holiday season.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

Business Insider: An Amazon worker says the company has shortened employee breaks because the pandemic is ‘supposedly’ over even though new cases continue to pop up. “Amazon warehouse employees at two facilities in the Chicago area have walked off their jobs just days ahead of last-minute Christmas deliveries. The workers were demanding higher wages and longer break times, according to a video from Amazonians United Chicagoland — a group representing local Amazon workers — posted to Facebook.”

Reuters: Employer must face worker’s lawsuit over husband’s Covid death — California court. “A California candymaker must face a lawsuit by an employee who says she caught Covid-19 at work and gave it to her husband, resulting in his death, a state appeals court held on Tuesday, upholding what appeared to be the first ruling allowing a worker’s lawsuit against an employer over a family member’s Covid death.”

UNITED STATES / UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

Air Force Magazine: As Uniform Shortage Looms, Some BMT Grads Go With Fewer Service Dress Items. “Supply chain shortages are affecting availability of the Air Force’s service dress uniforms, leading the department to announce Dec. 21 that it has started temporarily issuing fewer uniform items to certain graduates of basic military training.”

Washington Post: Supreme Court sets special hearing for Biden’s vaccine rules for health-care workers, private businesses. “The Supreme Court on Wednesday night announced it will hold a special hearing next month to consider challenges to the Biden administration’s pandemic efforts affecting millions of workers, a nationwide vaccine-or-testing requirement for large employers and a separate coronavirus vaccine mandate for health-care workers.”

Reuters: Large holiday gatherings in U.S. not safe even if boosted, Fauci says. “Americans vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 can be with family over the holidays but attending large gatherings is not safe, even for those who received a booster dose, top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday. ”

New York Times: Biden Promised 500 Million Tests, but Americans Will Have to Wait. “President Biden promised Americans he is making 500 million coronavirus tests available free of charge, but help is at least weeks away — if not longer — for anxious Americans facing a surge of new virus cases.”

New York Times: Beneath a Covid Vaccine Debacle, 30 Years of Government Culpability. “Washington has rejected plans to revamp vaccine preparedness for decades and repeatedly paid a price. The Biden administration is at a similar crossroads.”

ABC News: Private jet firms are soaring in popularity after big COVID-19 bailouts. Were they a ‘handout to the wealthy’?. “Lingering health concerns about commercial air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic have fueled a boom in private jet travel, a trend that has led to fresh scrutiny of the industry’s taxpayer bailout — which some critics are calling a ‘handout to the wealthy.'”

Politico: Biden Justice Department reverses on returning federal convicts on home detention to prison. “Under intense pressure from criminal justice reform advocates, the Justice Department has reversed a Trump-era legal opinion that could have required several thousand federal convicts to return to prison from home confinement if the Biden administration declares an end to the pandemic-related national emergency.”

CNN: Outgoing NIH director says Trump and other Republicans pressured him to endorse unproven Covid-19 remedies and to fire Fauci. “Dr. Francis Collins, whose last day as NIH director is Sunday, told CBS News that he got a ‘talking to’ by Trump, but that he held his ground and would have resigned if Trump made him endorse remedies for Covid-19 that were not based in science.”

Washington Post: FDA authorizes Merck’s anti-coronavirus pill, a second treatment option. “Federal regulators authorized a second pill to treat covid-19 Thursday, adding another at-home treatment option to help keep high-risk people out of the hospital. Doctors have clamored for easy-to-use medications throughout the pandemic, but the new drug, molnupiravir, has had an uneasy reception because of its modest efficacy and potential safety risks. Some experts say another tool will be helpful as the omicron variant, which is resistant to other key treatments, surges. But others say they would be hesitant to use the drug.”

WORLD/COUNTRY GOVERNMENT

Reuters: France reports near-record 84,272 new coronavirus cases. “France on Wednesday reported 84,272 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, coming close to its all-time high of almost 87,000 cases in November 2020.”

The Guardian: Covid self-isolation cut to seven days with negative test in England. “From Wednesday, new guidance will enable the 10-day self-isolation period for vaccinated and unvaccinated people in England who have tested positive for coronavirus to be reduced by three days if they get the all-clear from lateral flow tests.”

Reuters: China’s Xian Locks Down Its 13 Million Residents as COVID-19 Cases Rise. ” Rising COVID-19 infections in China’s city of Xian have spurred a lockdown of its 13 million residents, with stretches of highway eerily bare on Thursday, as many people queued in the cold to get their noses swabbed at testing sites.”

STATE GOVERNMENT

State of New York: Governor Hochul Signs Legislation to Improve State Response to COVID-19 Pandemic. “Governor Kathy Hochul today signed a package of legislation that will improve New York’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This legislative package will take a major step forward in the State’s efforts to increase vaccination rates and study the effects this pandemic has had on our economy and health care system.”

Local 10: Florida pulls pro-vaccination television ads, replacing with spots that don’t mention vaccines. “State sponsored commercials promoting COVID-19 vaccinations have been pulled from Florida’s airwaves. The new ads that replaced them make no mention of the vaccine. Spots are produced by the Florida Department of Health, which then disseminates them to stations around the state. Direction for the new ads come straight from the top, Governor Ron DeSantis, and the change has been noticeable.”

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

CNBC: An ER doctor wants to use ‘circuit breakers’ to slow the spread of Covid. Here’s how that would work. “Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, told Jim Cramer on “Mad Money” that local governments should use real-time data to identify ‘circuit breakers’ that trigger targeted restrictions and keep hospitals from being overrun.”

CNN: North Carolina police chief placed on unpaid leave for telling officers about ‘clinic’ to obtain Covid-19 vaccination cards without getting the shots. “A North Carolina police chief has been placed on unpaid leave and probation for telling officers about a ‘clinic’ that would issue them a Covid-19 vaccination card without actually receiving the shot, local officials said.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

Washington Post: How one health reporter cut through the noise on omicron. “I talked this week with [Dan] Diamond, who joined The Washington Post early this year from Politico, about his experience covering covid from the very beginning. I was intrigued after reading a Facebook post of his that went viral, a simple yet fact-packed message summarizing the knowledge and perspective that he’s been sharing with friends and family. (It has since been turned into a story that The Post published online Tuesday.) He wrote it partly to counter some misperceptions he kept seeing repeated on social media.” (The post from Dan Diamond is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/21/holiday-advice-omicron-family/ . It’s non-paywalled.)

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS – CELEBRITIES/FAMOUS

Mediaite: Trump Pushes Back on Candace Owens Undermining Vaccine: ‘People Aren’t Dying When They Take the Vaccine’. “[Donald] Trump joined the Daily Wire host for a wide-ranging interview, which was released on Wednesday, in which the two pushed various conspiracy theories surrounding the riot in the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. But the issue of vaccines came up and the former president continued to tout the efficacy of the vaccines in a manner that will likely encourage some of the vaccine-hesitant and eventually save lives.”

SPORTS

CBS Philly: Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni Tests Positive For COVID-19. “Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has entered COVID-19 protocols after testing positive for the virus Wednesday, the team said. Sirianni, who was feeling symptomatic, will continue to conduct his responsibilities remotely and remains hopeful to return by Sunday when the Eagles play the New York Giants.”

HEALTH

USA Today: Uncounted: Inaccurate death certificates across the country hide the true toll of COVID-19. “Nationwide, nearly 1 million more Americans have died in 2020 and 2021 than in normal, pre-pandemic years, but about 800,000 deaths have been officially attributed to COVID-19, according to the CDC data. A majority of those additional 195,000 deaths are unidentified COVID-19 cases, public health experts have long suggested, pointing to the unusual increase in deaths from natural causes. An investigation by Documenting COVID-19, the USA TODAY Network and experts reveals why so many deaths have gone uncounted: After overwhelming the nation’s health care system, the coronavirus evaded its antiquated, decentralized system of investigating and recording deaths.”

TECHNOLOGY / INTERNET

Recode: Omicron is outpacing delta on social media, too. “People talked about omicron six times as much as delta on major social media platforms in the weeks after each of the strains emerged.”

RESEARCH

Oxford Mail: University of Oxford blueprint for millions of vaccine doses. “UNIVERSITY of Oxford researchers have published a blueprint for making millions of doses of a new vaccine within 100 days. The university’s vaccine manufacturing research team says the new methods could enable clinical trials within 60 days of identification of a new virus.”

New York Times: Omicron Infections Seem to Be Milder, Three Research Teams Report. “While the new research is heartening, experts warn that the surge coming to many countries still may flood hospitals with Omicron cases, simply because the variant spreads so much more easily than previous versions of the coronavirus.”

Washington Post: Remdesivir can help keep unvaccinated, high-risk people with covid-19 out of hospitals, study finds. “The antiviral drug remdesivir can help keep unvaccinated people at risk of severe covid-19 out of hospitals, according to a study that found the treatment reduced hospitalization and death by 87 percent when given soon after diagnosis.”

The Scotsman: Study has revealed why children are more protected from severe Covid than adults. “The innate immune response of children is better at fighting coronavirus, which might help explain why they are less likely than adults to become seriously ill from the disease, new research suggests.”

OUTBREAKS

Miami Herald: Second Royal Caribbean ship has COVID-19 outbreak and is denied entry to Curacao and Aruba. “In a second coronavirus outbreak in less than a week, 55 fully vaccinated crew members and passengers on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas ship that set sail Saturday from Fort Lauderdale have contracted the pandemic disease, the cruise line confirmed late Wednesday.”

BuzzFeed News: Several People Who Attended A Midterm Strategy Event For Democrats In South Carolina Tested Positive For COVID. “Multiple people who attended midterm strategy meetings in South Carolina hosted by a subgroup of the Democratic National Committee have tested positive for COVID-19. Between 5% and 10% of the nearly 300 attendees were infected, BuzzFeed News has learned from two people briefed on the matter.”

Al Dia Music: COVID-19 infections confirmed at Bad Bunny concerts. “Last weekend, Bad Bunny performed live for the first time since beginning of the pandemic in Puerto Rico. At least 80,000 people attended at the Hiram Bithorn stadium, and at least 176 of them have now tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Puerto Rico Department of Health.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

WBHM: Prison visits are back in the Gulf States. Many have not seen loved ones for nearly 2 years. “For over a year, more than 70,000 people incarcerated in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi were not able to visit with their loved ones, impacting both the prisoners and their family members. The Alabama Department of Corrections was one of the last states in the country to reinstate in-person visitation for family and loved ones, holding off until Dec. 4. Louisiana and Mississippi began allowing family visits in October and November.”

New York Times: Virus cases spike in New York City jails, where less than half of detainees are vaccinated.. “According to a letter sent by the outgoing Correction Department commissioner, Vincent Schiraldi, the coronavirus positivity rate has jumped drastically in the last several days among incarcerated people, only 38 percent of whom are fully vaccinated. Among city residents, 71 percent are fully vaccinated.”

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December 23, 2021 at 10:27PM
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Kentucky Tornado Relief, Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Freespeech, more: Thursday ResearchBuzz, December 23, 2021

Kentucky Tornado Relief, Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Freespeech, more: Thursday ResearchBuzz, December 23, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

WPSD: Gov. Beshear launches new tornado relief resources website. “On Wednesday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear officially launched a new website to better assist those impacted by the deadly Dec. 10 tornadoes. The website will provide Kentuckians with information from several state assistance programs, including how to apply for unemployment, health care coverage, food assistance, driver’s license replacement and long-term housing.”

Jerusalem Post: Post six-day war footage of Egyptian Monastery made public by Israel’s national library . “Some 1,600 Christian manuscripts and numerous photographs and film footage from after the Six Day War are now available for free public viewing, the National Library of Israel (NLI) has announced. The documents were originally archived at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Founded by Justinian I over 1,500 years ago, the monastery is home to the oldest functional library in the world.”

CNN: A Texas teen couldn’t speak with his sister, so he created an app to give her a voice. “Archer Calder spent his childhood unable to talk with his younger sister, Della, his only sibling. Della has Bainbridge-Ropers syndrome, a rare genetic condition which affects her ability to eat, move and speak…. Archer began using his coding abilities to develop a web-based application called Freespeech. The site can be accessed from any device — phones, tablets and computers — with internet access. The simple website lets users program buttons with images of their choice to represent words. When clicked, the word is sounded out loud.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

RFI: France opens secret archives from Algeria’s war of independence. “France has opened its judicial and police archives relating to court cases and investigations into Algeria’s war against French colonisation – 15 years earlier than planned. Thursday’s announcement from the Ministry of Culture involves opening all ‘public archives produced in the context of cases relating to acts committed in connection with the Algerian war between 1 November 1954 and 31 December 1966’.”

CNET: Google now gives free COVID test and vaccine details at a glance. Here’s what to do. “Google added new COVID-19 features to its search tool on Wednesday for mobile users. The features can help you quickly find free testing locations and places to get vaccines for kids (and adults). You can also select specific vaccine brands: Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.”

Engadget: How a ‘robot lawyer’ could help you get unbanned from social media. “The new service, which is included with DoNotPay’s $36 monthly subscription, offers users an alternative to emailing companies’ help center bots or wiring appeals that may never get answered. Instead, DoNotPay asks users for information about what happened to them, and sends a letter to the relevant company’s legal department on their behalf.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Times of Israel: Greek Jewish archives stolen by Nazis returned after nearly 80 years. “The Greek Jewish community is celebrating the return of a trove of manuscripts and community documents that the Nazis stole nearly 80 years ago. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) announced in a statement earlier this month that Russia, which was in possession of the archives, had agreed to return them to their Mediterranean origin, after a diplomatic process supported by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.”

WWBT: Books, cloth envelope & coin found in Robert E. Lee monument time capsule. “134 years of history is uncovered as members of the Department of Historic Resources open a box believed to be the time capsule placed inside the Robert E. Lee monument in 1887. The team started their work to open the lid of the lead box on Wednesday morning. The box took nearly four hours to remove from the 1,500-pound granite block it was found in within the tower of the pedestal where Robert E. Lee’s statue once stood.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Unhappy about privacy laws? One teen showed how to force change.. “Social media platforms’ power to collect, manipulate and exploit personal information alarms many who think they should own the rights to their images and data about their personal lives and preferences. But, as they often do, laws and court decisions are lagging behind these privacy concerns. Yet a teenager’s lawsuit more than a century ago demonstrates how one determined person can enlist government aid in privacy protection and provides a blueprint for these seeking changes today.”

Security Week: Research: Simulated Phishing Tests Make Organizations Less Secure. “A large-scale, long-term phishing experiment conducted in a 56,000-employee organization has come to a startling conclusion: Those simulated phishing tests commonly seen in corporate user-education campaigns are actually making things much worse.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Analytics India: Interesting Algorithms Released By Google AI In 2021. “Google AI aims to apply AI to products and domains that will make AI accessible to all. To fulfil this mission, the tech giant conducts cutting-edge research to bring out innovations helpful to society. This year, too, we saw many such models and algorithms from Google. Though not possible to focus on all, let us take a look at some of the interesting innovations that came from Google AI this year.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Tom’s Hardware: Nostalgic Raspberry Pi Radio Tunes to Music From Past Decades. “The Raspberry Pi makes an excellent gift on its own, but getting one in a custom Time Machine Radio is remarkably fulfilling. This holiday, a maker known as Byte-rider created a custom Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W-powered radio for his father. This custom radio has a professional design and clean finish that we think looks fantastic. There is a dial on one side that can tune into different decades. The Pi reads this input to play only music from the selected decade.” Good morning, Internet…

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December 23, 2021 at 08:27PM
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Wednesday CoronaBuzz, December 22, 2021: 40 pointers to updates, health information, research news, and more.

Wednesday CoronaBuzz, December 22, 2021: 40 pointers to updates, health information, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

There are now 12,027 covid-19 articles, all tagged up, at https://rbfirehose.com/category/covid-19/ . Indexing begins mostly on March 14, 2020 (there were a few things indexed before in ResearchBuzz.) Category-specific search form in the right column, an overview of how to search/monitor tags, search terms, and categories at http://researchbuzz.me/2015/06/23/introducing-the-researchbuzz-firehose-how-to-use-it/ . Please get a booster shot. Please wear a mask when you’re inside with a bunch of people. Much love.

SOCIETAL IMPACT

NewScientist: Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the US in 2020. “More than three million deaths were recorded in the US in 2020 – an increase of 500,000 from 2019. The coronavirus was responsible for more than 350,000 deaths in 2020, according to the CDC.”

Associated Press: As COVID fueled the drug crisis, Native Americans hit worst. “As the pandemic ravaged the country, deaths from drug overdoses surged by nearly 30%, climbing to a record high. The drug crisis has also diversified from an overwhelmingly white affliction to killing people of color with staggering speed. The death rate last year was highest among Native Americans, for whom COVID-19 piled yet more despair on communities already confronting generations of trauma, poverty, unemployment and underfunded health systems.”

HEALTH CARE – PEDIATRICS

ABC News: With pediatric COVID cases surging, millions of children remain unvaccinated. “Since the emergence of the delta variant, children have been a significant driving factor behind the nation’s latest coronavirus surges, accounting for about a quarter of the nation’s reported weekly COVID-19 cases. Since July, more than 3.3 million have tested positive for the virus, representing 1 in every 4 cases, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. In addition, the U.S. has not seen a week with fewer than 100,000 new pediatric cases since early August.”

HEALTH CARE – CAPACITY

NBC News: ‘I am terrified right now’: Hospitalizations are again on the rise as Covid cases surge. “Hospitalizations around the nation have risen 39 percent from Nov. 1 to Tuesday, according to an NBC News analysis of data from the Department of Health and Human Services. The number of people with Covid has risen by 30 percent in the last two weeks, according to NBC News’ tally.”

The Oakland Press: Michigan hospitals ‘teetering’ under current COVID-19 surge. “Hospitals in southeast Michigan today are in worse shape than they were during the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. With the holidays approaching and the unknowns about the Omicron variant, hospital administrators are concerned.”

EVENTS / CANCELLATIONS

The Wrap: Fox Scraps Times Square New Year’s Eve Telecast Due to Omicron Surge. “Fox will not be ringing in 2022 from Times Square. The network said on Tuesday that it has canceled its planned broadcast from New York City on New Year’s Eve due to the surge of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.”

UNITED STATES / UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

MarketWatch: Biden administration to stockpile 4 million COVID-19 therapies by end January: report. “The administration of President Joe Biden plans to have 4 million various therapies to treat COVID-19 in its pandemic arsenal by the end of January, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday that cited sources. ”

The Guardian: First Thing: Biden seeks to rally the troops in Covid battle. “Half a billion free at-home coronavirus tests will be sent to the American public in the fight against Omicron, Joe Biden announced yesterday while pushing back against resistance to vaccine mandates by saying they are intended ‘not to control your life but to save your life'”.

CNN: FDA authorizes first pill to treat Covid-19. “The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized Pfizer’s antiviral pill, Paxlovid, to treat Covid-19 in high-risk individuals age 12 and older who weigh at least 88 pounds. This is the first antiviral Covid-19 pill authorized for ill people to take at home, before they get sick enough to be hospitalized.”

CNN: Biden extends pause on student loan repayment through May 1. “President Joe Biden announced Wednesday he is extending the pause on student loan payments until May 1. The payments, which were set to restart on February 1, have been paused since the beginning of the pandemic. Biden pointed to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis in the country as the reason for the extension.”

WORLD/COUNTRY GOVERNMENT

Reuters: Poland reports highest number of COVID-related deaths in fourth wave. “Poland reported 775 COVID-related deaths on Friday, the highest daily number in the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the data from the health ministry showed.”

New York Times: Israel will roll out a fourth dose of the vaccine.. “Israeli officials said Tuesday that the country will administer a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, in a bid to curb the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. Israel is believed to be the first country to offer a fourth round of doses.”

Reuters: Philippines cuts COVID-19 booster shot interval to three months. “The Philippines’ health ministry on Tuesday halved the wait time for a COVID-19 vaccine booster to three months to help prevent the spread of the more infectious Omicron variant. A growing list of countries, including South Korea, the United Kingdom, Thailand and Germany, are shortening the interval for boosters to try to stave off a new surge in infections.”

Reuters: Despite consumption hit, China to stand fast on tough COVID-19 curbs. “China’s strict COVID policy is weighing on consumption and rattling foreign firms, but its effectiveness and the imperative to maintain stability heading into a sensitive year mean Beijing will stick to its approach, experts say.”

Reuters: German health experts urge more COVID curbs as lockdown not ruled out. “German health experts said on Wednesday that new coronavirus curbs probably did not go far enough to keep the Omicron variant in check, as the country’s health minister said he had not ruled out a full lockdown if cases spiked. The measures, decided on Tuesday, include limits on private gatherings, closing clubs and discos and banning spectators at football matches and are set to be introduced from Dec. 28.”

Washington Post: While omicron explodes around the world, covid cases in Japan keep plummeting and no one knows exactly why. “As the omicron variant surges around the world, Japan’s overall coronavirus cases and deaths have been plummeting. And no one seems to know exactly why. Call it the hunt for a potential ‘X factor,’ such as genetics, that may explain the trend and inform how Japan could deal with the next wave. While the new highly transmissible omicron variant has appeared in the country and experts suspect there is already some community spread, the overall transmission rate of the virus and coronavirus-related deaths in Japan have remained low.”

STATE GOVERNMENT

Delaware: DPH Launches QR Tool Giving Delawareans Convenient Access to Their COVID-19 Vaccine Record. “The digital COVID-19 vaccination card now includes the QR code and is available through the DelVAX Public Portal, a site where those who were vaccinated in Delaware can access their immunization records. When the person accesses their COVID-19 record they will be able to download a PDF version of it, which resembles a vaccine card and includes the QR Code. The image can then be saved to a phone gallery, or printed on paper.”

Washington Post: D.C. to require coronavirus vaccination to enter restaurants, gyms and other businesses. “D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Wednesday announced that patrons age 12 and older at many indoor venues, including restaurants, will be required to show proof of coronavirus vaccination to enter under new rules she plans to unveil next month.”

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

City of Chicago: City of Chicago Announces Vaccine Requirements for Restaurants, Bars, Gyms, and Other Indoor Public Places. “Today, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection (BACP) announced that any individual 5 years of age or older will be required to show proof that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to dine indoors, visit gyms, or enjoy entertainment venues where food or drink are being served. This new requirement goes into effect on January 3, 2022 and is in response to an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases both locally and nationally, driven in part by the Omicron variant, and is similar to requirements already in place in other large cities, including New York City and Los Angeles.”

Fox 6 Milwaukee: COVID vaccination agreement Milwaukee, police union. “The City of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Police Association (MPA) have signed an agreement that requires union members to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, officials announced on Wednesday, Dec. 22.”

6 South Florida: Miami-Dade Expanding COVID-19 Sites, Bringing Back Masks in Buildings Amid Surge. “Miami-Dade is expanding COVID-19 sites and hours and bringing back mandatory masks in county buildings as the county deals with a surge in cases and high demand for testing ahead of the holidays, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Wednesday. Levine Cava said the county is hoping to open between three and five new sites and expanding hours at existing sites in response to the accelerated demand for testing. The new sites and hours will be announced on the county’s website.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

Daily Herald: ‘I have changed’: A nurse suffering long-haul COVID-19 effects looks toward Christmas. “This is long COVID. You cannot see it. What you would see is just another middle-aged woman, overweight, slow, lazy even. A complainer with nothing to complain about. Two years ago, I would have been described as fun, energetic. Youthful even. That woman has disappeared. In her place is a knockoff version, shoddy and not meant to last. And for this counterfeit self, lockdown has never ended. She does not do anything inspiring or go anywhere of note, but for work, part-time now, and essential shopping. She is but a shell of her pre-COVID self, as drab and unadorned as the tree standing in the corner.”

SPORTS

Sports Illustrated: Jets Coach Robert Saleh Tests Positive for COVID-19. “Jets coach Robert Saleh has tested positive for COVID-19, the team announced Wednesday. Saleh is symptomatic, per the Jets, and the team says he is vaccinated.”

Sports Illustrated: ACC Adjusts COVID Policy Forfeiture Rule. “The league’s athletic directors unanimously voted Wednesday to adjust the forfeiture rule from the policy, effective immediately. Moving forward, if an ACC game among winter sport programs – including basketball – cannot be played due to COVID-19 issues with either team, it will be rescheduled, or declared a no contest if it cannot be rescheduled.”

K-12 EDUCATION

JournalStar: Teachers file class-action lawsuit against Peoria-area school districts over COVID rules. “Teachers in two Woodford County school districts are among plaintiffs in a lawsuit that seeks to end state COVID-19 mitigation efforts as an employment requirement. Attorney Thomas DeVore filed the lawsuit Monday in Sangamon County Circuit Court in Springfield. Defendants include Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Board of Education.”

HIGHER EDUCATION

WTKR: UVA mandates COVID booster shot for spring semester. “The University of Virginia has announced students, faculty, and staff will be required to get a COVID-19 booster shot for the spring semester.”

New York Times: Another Surge in the Virus Has Colleges Fearing a Mental Health Crisis. “Colleges across the country are facing a mental health crisis, driven in part by the pandemic. After almost two years of remote schooling, restricted gatherings and constant testing, many students are anxious, socially isolated, depressed — and overwhelming mental health centers. At a few institutions, there has been a troubling spate of suicides. Now another swell of Covid cases, driven by the Omicron variant, threatens to make life on campus worse.”

HEALTH

Washington Post: Don’t feel ashamed for getting covid. “As two variants collide and states hit new records daily, breakthrough cases are becoming more normal and less of an exception; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns these cases are now ‘likely’ to occur. For many people who test positive during this latest surge, the virus is sparking yet another unpleasant feeling in an ordeal that’s churned out plenty: shame.”

Sky News: COVID infection reduces sperm quality for up to three months, study claims. Not peer-reviewed yet. “Men who become infected with coronavirus can suffer reduced sperm quality for up to three months, a new study has suggested. Research carried out on 120 men in Belgium by local academics showed that semen is ‘not infectious’ with COVID-19 and therefore cannot be transmitted through sexual contact.”

City AM: Mild or not: Omicron variant doubles risk of catching Covid aboard a plane. “Passengers are twice or even three times more likely to catch Covid-19 while flying since the emergence of Omicron according to a top medical adviser to airlines. Sitting in business class rather than the tightly packed economy section can reduce your chance of catching Covid-19 David Powell of the International Air Transport Association told Bloomberg.”

RESEARCH

Defense One: US Army Creates Single Vaccine Against All COVID & SARS Variants, Researchers Say. “Within weeks, scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research expect to announce that they have developed a vaccine that is effective against COVID-19 and all its variants, even Omicron, as well as from previous SARS-origin viruses that have killed millions of people worldwide.”

Technology Networks: Researchers Pinpoint Indicators of Severe COVID. “In a study led by researchers at the Hull York Medical School and Department of Mathematics at the University of York, the scientists analysed blood samples from hospitalised Covid patients. They detected markers in the blood associated with patients becoming so ill they needed treatment in intensive care. The findings may lead to new ways for triaging and assessing the risk of Covid patients, relieving the pressure from hospitals during infection spikes.”

Bloomberg: Covid: Omicron has 80% lower risk of hospitalization, new study shows. “South Africans contracting Covid-19 in the current fourth wave of infections are 80% less likely to be hospitalized if they catch the omicron variant, compared with other strains, according to a study released by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.”

OUTBREAKS

W42ST: Hell’s Kitchen Positive Tests Surge Over 550% — Latest City Data. “Hell’s Kitchen’s COVID-19 infection rate is trending up with an exponential curve as positive cases in the neighborhood increased by 578% since this time in November, according to city data released this afternoon.”

Local 10: Florida adds nearly 13,000 new COVID cases, largest jump since Sept. 11. “As the contagious omicron variant takes over as the dominant strain, Florida reported 12,915 new COVID-19 cases to the CDC from Monday, the state’s biggest single-day increase since Sept. 11. Over the past week, Florida is averaging 8,605 new cases per day, the CDC data shows, a significant spike after that number hovered below 2,000 from late October through early December.”

Akron Beacon Journal: Omicron variant helps fuel surge to record number of COVID-19 infections in Ohio since pandemic began. “The infections are skyrocketing as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads rapidly, particularly in Northeast Ohio. Omicron is now the second-most contagious known disease, behind only measles, according to a Cleveland doctor. Tuesday marked the highest number of new coronavirus infections in a single day in Ohio, with 12,502 additional cases reported.”

NBC New York: NJ COVID Cases Spike 42% in a Day as Cities Rush to Impose Masking, Close Schools. “New Jersey reported 9,711 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest by far of the entire pandemic and a 42% increase from the day prior. The stunning surge puts in stark relief just how quickly the omicron variant is spreading in the state and the region. The old record, from mid-January, was nearly 3,000 cases lower than this new single-day mark.”

WRAL: Hundreds of COVID cases reported across NC nursing homes. “150 nursing homes and 66 residential care facilities are reporting a coronavirus outbreak. One of the worst in central North Carolina is at the Carolina Rehab Center of Cumberland County. 87 people have tested positive, most of them being residents. So far, two residents have died from the virus during the recent outbreak, according to data from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

Department of Justice: College Football Player Arrested on Federal Charges of Orchestrating Fraudulent Scheme to Obtain COVID-Related Jobless Benefits. “A college football player was taken into custody this morning on federal charges alleging he orchestrated a scheme that fraudulently sought hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-related unemployment benefits. Abdul-Malik McClain, 22, who currently attends school in Jackson, Mississippi, surrendered to federal law enforcement this morning in Los Angeles before being arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court.”

OPINION

New York Times: Facts Alone Aren’t Going to Win Over the Unvaccinated. This Might.. “While small positive incentives such as free doughnuts or entries into statewide lottery programs may have motivated some people, those and similar methods don’t seem to motivate people to get vaccinated on a scale large enough to close the vaccination gap. The incentive that seems to work especially well is the employer vaccine mandate, a negative incentive.”

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December 23, 2021 at 01:18AM
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Indiana Housing, Colorado Inclusivity, James Webb Space Telescope, more: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, December 22, 2021

Indiana Housing, Colorado Inclusivity, James Webb Space Telescope, more: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, December 22, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority: Lt. Gov. Crouch, IHCDA unveil comprehensive dashboard to assist communities with housing inventory. “Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) and partners from the Housing Working Group, which represents stakeholders from around the state, today released a housing dashboard that includes a statewide inventory of housing in Indiana…. Information can be compared county by county, including housing stock in Indiana by age, by price, by number of units in a structure, by number of bedrooms in a unit, and more.”

Colorado Sun: The Green Book helped Black travelers navigate the U.S. Now two women are creating a modern version in Colorado.. “Here’s how it works. Participants can rate businesses using a range of markers, including courtesy of staff, Americans With Disabilities Act compliance, sense of personal safety and gender-neutral bathrooms. These ratings are used to populate ‘inclusivity scores’ and to grade the store, restaurant or service provider on a scale of 1-5. Business owners who pay to participate receive a detailed report with suggestions and recommendations about how to make their establishments more inclusive.”

EVENTS

Space: How to watch NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launch online in several languages on Christmas Eve. “The James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to NASA and Europe’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope. The next-generation capabilities of the upcoming observatory, paired with the laundry list of mission delays over the last several years, makes this a highly-anticipated event across the astronomical community.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: DuckDuckGo offers a first look at its desktop web browser. “DuckDuckGo has offered an early peek at its upcoming desktop app. In a blog post that recaps the company’s year, CEO Gabriel Weinberg looked toward the future as well. He said DuckDuckGo will bring the privacy protections the company is known for to the app. You can expect the speed and simplicity of its mobile app too.”

MakeUseOf: Mozilla Lists the Most Innovative Firefox Extensions of 2021. “Extensions are popular in the world of web browsers, and for a good reason. They are often a handy way to port over extra functionality into your browser. But not all extensions are the same, and Mozilla has revealed what it considers the most innovative ones of 2021.”

The Verge: Google Voice now lets you set custom rules for phone calls. “Google Voice now lets you create rules that dictate how the service responds to incoming calls from specific contacts. And yes, this includes having Google Voice automatically ignore certain contacts for you.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Reuters: China’s official Xinhua News Agency to issue digital photos as NFTs. “China’s state-owned news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday it will issue the country’s first collection of digital journalistic photos via blockchain-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs), ‘imprinting digital memories into the metaverse.'”

New York Times: How the Copycats Came for Clubhouse. “Downloads of the buzzy chat app dipped in the spring as pandemic lockdowns were lifted and new competition emerged, according to the data and analytics firm Sensor Tower. Major tech companies started similar audio platforms: Twitter rolled out Spaces, Facebook made an audio chat feature and Spotify introduced one called Greenroom. And some communities, like those focused on gaming and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, gravitated to more established chat platforms like Discord, which offers audio features.”

CNBC: Google CEO addresses employee concerns about loss of ‘candor, honesty, humility and frankness’ by execs. “Google employees are pressing executives to bring back a part of the company’s culture that, in the past, made it a desirable place to work: candor. At a year-end all-hands meeting, held virtually earlier this month, CEO Sundar Pichai read aloud one of the most popular questions from employees, based on the company’s internal system called Dory, which allows staffers to post questions and upvote the ones they want addressed.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNET: Scientists follow ancient clues to reveal oldest social network. “Way, way, waaay before the invention of Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, researchers say, a social network once existed in Africa — and the striking revelation comes to us through a bunch of ostrich eggshell beads. Among the oldest ornaments ever made, dating back as much as 50,000 years, these neutral-toned, Cheerio-shaped beads, made of ostrich eggshells, are unique imprints of ancient times.”

Mashable: Emoji helped me find my voice in our new remote reality. “Beyond their necessity in a time where we live a lot of our lives online, emoji just make me happy. I enjoy scheming up new ways to use different emoji and watching it catch on within my circle of friends. Lately, I’ve been using after I say something particularly aggressive or obnoxious, meaning ‘I’m going to attempt to be chill now.'”

Gizmodo: TikTok Got More Traffic Than Freakin’ Google in 2021. “TikTok is truly unstoppable: The video-sharing platform just pushed Google aside to become the most popular website in the world, according to web performance and security company Cloudflare’s 2021 Year in Review internet traffic rankings.” Good morning, Internet…

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December 22, 2021 at 06:27PM
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Tuesday CoronaBuzz, December 21, 2021: 41 pointers to updates, health information, research news, and more.

Tuesday CoronaBuzz, December 21, 2021: 41 pointers to updates, health information, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Please get a booster shot. Please wear a mask when you’re inside with a bunch of people. Much love.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

Medical Xpress: Web-based version of researcher’s CARD game helps improve kids’ vaccination experience. “Anna Taddio, a professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and a senior associate scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and her team have developed a web-based version of the CARD game (short for Comfort, Ask, Relax and Distract) she originally created to help kids receiving vaccines in school-based programs. The system addresses fear of needles through pain management and coping strategies. The new web-based version of the game is intended for younger kids who are currently being encouraged to get vaccinated.”

NEW RESOURCES – EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT

TimeOut New York: Broadway launches website to track what shows are playing. “As New York’s live entertainment world reacts to increasing concerns about a return wave of COVID, the Broadway League is taking action to keep audiences informed. The trade association has launched a new website… to help potential spectators track Broadway schedules week by week, with the most current information available on performance times and cancelations.”

UPDATES

Associated Press: Omicron sweeps across nation, now 73% of US COVID-19 cases. “Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S. Federal health officials said Monday that omicron accounted for an estimated 73% of new infections last week.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Mashable: The best, worst, and weirdest pandemic TV moments of 2021. “Over the past two years, how and why COVID-19 is portrayed on screen has grown more and more interesting. Some flagrantly fictional worlds have bent to accommodate the real crisis, while their more realistic counterparts sidestepped the matter altogether. So how was the pandemic addressed on TV this year? Listed in no particular order, here are 12 note-worthy Covid moments from 2021 television.”

Associated Press: US population growth at lowest rate in pandemic’s 1st year. “The United States grew by only 0.1%, with an additional 392,665 added to the U.S. population from July 2020 to July 2021, bringing the nation’s count to 331.8 million people, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. has been experiencing slow population growth for years but the pandemic exacerbated that trend. This past year was the first time since 1937 that the nation’s population grew by less than 1 million people.”

ACTIVISM / PROTESTS

Associated Press: Thousands in Brussels protest renewed COVID-19 restrictions. “Thousands of peaceful protesters have demonstrated in Brussels for a third time against reinforced COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Belgian government to counter a spike in infections as the omicron variant sweeps across Europe.”

HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

KHN: As Hospitals Fill Up, Paramedics Spend More Time Moving Patients, Less on Emergencies. “The night after Thanksgiving, a small ambulance service that covers a huge swath of southwestern Colorado got a call that a patient needed an emergency transfer from the hospital in Gunnison to a larger one with an intensive care unit 65 miles away in Montrose.”

HEALTH CARE – CAPACITY

NPR: With omicron now dominant, depleted U.S. hospitals struggle to prepare for the worst. “America’s hospitals are in bad shape right now — overwhelmed and understaffed — just as the omicron variant of the coronavirus takes hold across the country and Americans begin traveling and socializing for the holidays.”

EVENTS / CANCELLATIONS

BBC: Davos business leaders’ event postponed over Omicron. “The elite annual gathering of business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos has been postponed due to the spread of Omicron. The meeting was due to take place in Switzerland from 17-21 January, but is now planned for ‘early summer’.”

Washington Post: ‘SNL’ scraps show and sends cast home amid coronavirus fears; Tom Hanks and Tina Fey pitch in. “In a first for ‘Saturday Night Live,’ hours before an episode was set to air, producers scrapped the planned show and sent most of the cast home.”

INSTITUTIONS

New York Times: Metropolitan Museum of Art Limits Attendance Amid Virus Surge. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art said Tuesday that it would limit attendance to roughly 10,000 visitors per day because of the highly infectious Omicron variant. During a normal holiday season, the museum would expect nearly twice as many visitors.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

CNBC: Walgreens limits at-home Covid tests to four per customer due to demand surge amid omicron fears. “Walgreens on Tuesday limited purchases of at-home Covid tests in its stores to four per customer as demand for tests surges ahead of the holidays and as the omicron variant spreads throughout the U.S.” Note to history: tests started selling out over the weekend and this is completely pointless.

Slate: I Pointed Out That Our Hosts Were Unvaccinated. Airbnb Deleted My Review.. “A couple of months ago, my father and I stayed at an Airbnb in Moab, Utah. On my way home, I wrote a five-star review of the experience, in which I described the breakfasts (hearty and home-cooked), the rooms (clean and comfortable), the location (quiet yet proximate to downtown), and our hosts (friendly and full of good advice). After much deliberation, I closed out my review with the following line: ‘At the time of our stay in October 2021, the hosts told us that they were not vaccinated against COVID-19.’ Four hours later, I received a message from Airbnb: My review had been removed because it ‘didn’t have enough relevant information to help the Airbnb community make informed booking decisions.’ ”

New York Times: Fox tightens its vaccine rule, removing a test-out option for N.Y.C. office workers.. “Fox Corporation, the owner of Fox News, told employees on Friday that those working in New York City would have to show proof they’d had at least one dose of the Covid vaccine by Dec. 27, removing the option to get tested weekly instead.”

NPR: SpaceX reports LA County’s highest number of workplace COVID-19 cases. “At least 132 employees at the SpaceX rocket factory near Los Angeles have tested positive for COVID-19, making it the site of the largest recent countywide workplace outbreak tracked by local health officials. According to a report released by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Monday, the Elon Musk-led company currently accounts for nearly 30% of workplace COVID-19 cases in the county.”

UNITED STATES / UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

ABC News: Biden to announce plan to mail 500 million free rapid tests to Americans next month. “President Joe Biden will announce a plan on Tuesday to distribute 500 million free at-home rapid tests to Americans beginning in January as part of an attempt to double down on the spread of a transmissible variant that has hit the U.S. distressingly close to the holidays.”

CNN: Daily Covid-19 case numbers with Omicron ‘could exceed previous peaks,’ CDC warns. “The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that the Omicron coronavirus variant could drive Covid-19 cases higher than ever before, according to modeling posted on the agency’s website this week.”

CNN: Secret Service accelerates crackdown on Covid-19 scams. “In nearly two years of the coronavirus pandemic, the US Secret Service has seized more than $1.2 billion in relief funds obtained by fraudsters. Now, the agency is stepping up its efforts to claw back the billions more that Covid-19-related fraud has cost the economy by tapping a senior official to work with law enforcement agencies across the country on the issue.”

WORLD/COUNTRY GOVERNMENT

BBC: WHO urges cancelling some holiday events over Omicron fears. “The World Health Organization has urged people to cancel some of their holiday plans to protect public health as the Omicron variant spreads globally. ‘An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled’ said WHO head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that ‘difficult decisions’ must be made.”

BBC: Covid: No new measures in England but we rule nothing out, says PM. “The government needs to ‘reserve the possibility’ of bringing in new Covid rules in England as cases of the Omicron variant surge before Christmas, the prime minister has said.”

IDEX Online: Covid Travel Bans Destroying Economy, says Botswana President. “Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has slammed Covid travel restrictions newly imposed by Western nations, saying they are destroying his country’s economy. The USA, France, Germany, and the UK are among the countries that have banned flights to Botswana and elsewhere in southern Africa.”

AFP: EU secures extra 20 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses for Q1 2022. “The European Commission said today it had reached an agreement with BioNTech and Pfizer for an extra 20 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine to be delivered to EU member states in the first quarter of 2022. These doses come on top of an already scheduled 195 million doses from BioNTech-Pfizer, bringing the total number of deliveries in the first quarter to 215 million, a commission statement said.”

STATE GOVERNMENT

Washington Post: Gov. Larry Hogan tests positive for covid-19. “Gov. Larry Hogan, who is fully vaccinated and received a booster, has tested positive for the coronavirus, he announced Monday. Hogan said he received a positive rapid test on Monday as part of his regular testing routine. He said he was ‘feeling fine at the moment.'”

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Gothamist: Adams Cancels Inauguration Plans In Face of COVID Surge. “Mayor-elect Eric Adams said Tuesday he will cancel his inauguration in the face of a startling rise in coronavirus infections driven largely by the omicron variant. Adams had originally intended to hold his inauguration indoors at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre, bucking the tradition of having the ceremony outside on the steps of City Hall.”

Reuters: U.S. Cities Try New Way to Help the Poor: Give Them Money. “At least 16 cities and counties are handing out no-strings-attached payments to some low-income residents, a Reuters tally found. At least 31 other local governments plan to do so in the months ahead. That’s a departure from most U.S. anti-poverty programs, which provide benefits for specific needs like groceries or rent and require recipients to hold a job or look for work.”

City of Chicago: CDPH, Discovery Partners Institute Announce Citywide System to Monitor COVID-19 in Wastewater. “The Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) today announced the citywide system to monitor the virus that causes COVID-19 and its variants in wastewater will continue for two years, leveraging $2.14 million in federal funding. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is detectable in human waste nearly from the onset of infection, while symptoms may not appear for three to five days – or for some, not at all.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS

American Society For Biochemistry And Molecular Biology: Why we are developing a patent-free COVID antiviral therapy. “In March 2020, we started COVID Moonshot, which we believe is the first open-science effort to develop an antiviral drug. Now we are close to bringing an oral antiviral that’s effective against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) to the clinic, with no patent protection. As soon as the drug is approved, any drug manufacturer around the world can manufacture and sell it without needing to license it, thus driving prices down.”

INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS – CELEBRITIES/FAMOUS

BBC: Rafael Nadal tests positive for Covid-19 on return to Spain. “Rafael Nadal has tested positive for Covid-19 after returning home from the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi. The 20-time Grand Slam champion was beaten by Britain’s Andy Murray in the semi-finals of the exhibition event on Friday.”

Tone Deaf: Evanescence postpone tour amid “multiple” coronavirus cases. “Evanescence has announced they will be postponing their remaining tour dates until January after ‘multiple’ members of their crew tested positive for COVID.”

CNN: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and family test positive for Covid. “Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, his wife, and their teenage son have tested positive for Covid-19, his office announced Tuesday. The Democratic governor said that he and his wife Gwen tested positive Monday night following a PCR test after initially testing negative for the virus earlier that morning.”

INDIVIDUALS – DEATHS

Al Jazeera: Iran’s top diplomat in Yemen dies of COVID-19. “Iran’s top diplomat in Yemen, Hassan Irloo, has passed away due to COVID-19, days after being flown to Tehran for treatment, officials said. Irloo, 63, was named last year as Iran’s ambassador to the areas of the war-torn country controlled by the Houthi rebels, which for seven years have been fighting a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia in support of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.”

SPORTS

Gothamist: Personal Foul: NFL Officials Allowed To Skip COVID Testing Line In Manhattan. “Employees of the NFL were allowed to skip the line at a COVID testing site listed as a state-partnered facility on Monday, a facility employee and league spokesperson confirmed, sparking outrage among the 100 or so people huddled in the cold who said they’d spent hours queued up for pre-scheduled appointments.”

K-12 EDUCATION

Chalkbeat: Omicron and schools: What we know now. “What is clear is that some school systems are already adjusting course, but most have not yet made big changes to their plans for schooling in January or in-person learning this week. Here’s what we know so far.”

BBC: How Covid deepened America’s teacher shortages. “The autumn school term that has just ended in the United States was marked by a shortage of teachers and support staff. The pandemic has heightened the long-running problem – with a huge spike in retirements and resignations.”

New York Times: Are Schools Ready for the Next Big Surge?. “Districts say they don’t want to close classrooms again. But the latest wave in Covid-19 cases could challenge the rickety infrastructure that has kept schools running this year.”

Americas Quarterly: With Schools Reopening, Latin America Surveys the Damage. “As schools gradually reopen around the world, two questions are at the front of educators’ minds: How much ground did students lose during more than 20 months of pandemic-imposed closures, and how can policymakers close the learning gap? In Latin America and the Caribbean, both questions are just starting to be answered. Schools in the region were closed for an average of 231 days prior to October 2021, longer than any other part of the world.”

RESEARCH

Massachusetts Department of Public Health: Breakthrough case review finds 97% of COVID-19 cases in vaccinated individuals don’t result in severe illness. “Today the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released a review of breakthrough COVID-19 cases in vaccinated Massachusetts residents and found nearly 97% of all breakthrough cases in the Commonwealth have not resulted in hospitalization or death. Additionally, the review found unvaccinated residents are five times more likely to become infected than fully vaccinated residents (two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson) and unvaccinated residents are 31 times more likely to become infected than fully vaccinated residents who have received a booster.”

BBC: Omicron: South African scientists probe link between variants and untreated HIV. “South African scientists – hailed for their discovery of Omicron – are investigating the ‘highly plausible hypothesis’ that the emergence of new Covid-19 variants could be linked, in some cases, to mutations taking place inside infected people whose immune systems have already been weakened by other factors, including, though not limited to, untreated HIV.”

OUTBREAKS

Central Maine: How Maine lost control of coronavirus and became a national hot spot. “Maine had the country’s fourth-highest number of new cases per capita over the past week – a daily average of 78 per 100,000 people – a rate more than double the national average. The state also had the second-fastest rate of change – an increase of 148 percent over 14 days – after Connecticut, according to a national tracking database of statistics from state and local health agencies maintained by The New York Times.”

Associated Press: After reprieve, NYC is rattled by a stunning virus spike. “An omicron-variant-fueled wave of cases is washing over the nation’s most populous city, which served as a nightmarish test case for the country early in the pandemic. While health officials say there are important reasons why it’s not spring 2020 all over again, some Broadway shows have abruptly canceled performances, an indoor face mask mandate is back and testing is hard to come by.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

Reuters: Three arrested in Sicily for anti-vax COVID-19 jab scam. “Anti-vaccination holdouts in Sicily paid a nurse to give them fake COVID-19 jabs in order to obtain a health certificate that is mandatory for some professions, police said on Tuesday.”

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December 22, 2021 at 02:40AM
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