Tag Archives: Covid-19

Morning News Podcast: New Gun Regulations, Covid-19 Surges In Brazil

President Joe Biden is following through on a campaign promise to implement common sense gun laws. He is expected to introduce regulations for certain types of firearms and accessories. 

 COVID-19 deaths are surging in Brazil, yet President Jair Bolsonaro refuses to lockdown the country. And, Derek Chauvin’s defense is trying to make the case that George Floyd’s death had less to do with use of force and more to do with his opioid addiction and underlying health concerns.

American Diet: The Covid Surge In Snacking (Video)

With Americans stuck at home, snack food has become a valuable commodity for the pandemic stressed consumer. North American sales of savory snacks like chips, popcorn, and pretzels climbed to $56.9 billion in 2020. In stressful times, people turn to snacking for comfort and Covid-19 has transformed kitchens across the U.S. into giant vending machines. So, has Covid-19 put an end to the shift to healthier snacks?

Political News: ‘Brooks & Capehart’ On Biden’s Infrastructure Plan

New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including President Biden’s infrastructure plan, the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations amid spikes in infections, and Major League Baseball’s reaction to Georgia’s new voting law.

Covid-19 Podcast: What Are Vaccine Side Effects?

From a sore arm to anaphylaxis, a wide range of adverse events have been reported after people have received a COVID-19 vaccine. And yet it is unclear how many of these events are actually caused by the vaccine. In the vast majority of cases, reactions are mild and can be explained by the body’s own immune response.

But monitoring systems designed to track adverse events are catching much rarer but more serious events. Now scientists need to work out if they are causally liked to the vaccine, or are just statistical anomalies – and that is not an easy task.News: Why is it so hard to investigate the rare side effects of COVID vaccines?Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

Covid-19: Why You Can Be Forced To Take Vaccine

A large portion of the U.S. population still doesn’t want to get the new Covid vaccine, but they might not have a choice. Powers at the federal and state level, not to mention the legal rights granted to employers under U.S. labor law, may make it impossible for Americans to escape inoculation against the coronavirus.

Morning News Podcast: Covid In India, Poaching & Seeing Around Corners

Case numbers are on the rise—at a more worrying rate even than the first wave. We ask why, and what is being done to slow the spread. As revenues at wildlife-tourism spots have dried up, so has security—and now poaching is even more rampant than before.

And scientists’ increasingly audacious bids to see around corners. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here http://www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer

Biotechnology: ‘mRNA Could Change The World’

The dream of mRNA persevered in part because its core principle was tantalizingly simple, even beautiful: The world’s most powerful drug factory might be inside all of us.

Like so many breakthroughs, this apparent overnight success was many decades in the making. More than 40 years had passed between the 1970s, when a Hungarian scientist pioneered early mRNA research, and the day the first authorized mRNA vaccine was administered in the United States, on December 14, 2020. In the interim, the idea’s long road to viability nearly destroyed several careers and almost bankrupted several companies.

Read full article in The Atlantic