Many countries with already high vaccination rates are considering offering people an additional coronavirus vaccine dose. But are booster shots necessary? And what about the issue of vaccine equity? The Guardian's Natalie Grover examines the costs and benefits of possibly introducing a third jab
‘Eco-friendly’ lights found to be worse than sodium ones – but both contribute to insect decline, says study
“Eco-friendly” LED streetlights produce even worse light pollution for insects than the traditional sodium bulbs they are replacing, a study has found.
The abundance of moth caterpillars in hedgerows by rural roads in England was 52% lower under LED lights and 41% lower under sodium lights when compared with nearby unlit areas.
Continue reading...Multiple studies seem to suggest immunity declines over time, though what this means is unclear
With plans for the UK’s Covid vaccine booster programme this autumn soon to be revealed, we take a look at what we do – and don’t – know about waning immunity after vaccination.
Continue reading...Hospitals received letters threatening large fines after they installed their own onsite O2 plants in response to shortages
In March 2020, Benjamin Espinoza Zavala saw an entire floor of his small hospital in Guanajuato, central Mexico, converted into Covid-19 wards. The hospital’s need for oxygen soared.
Deliveries from CryoInfra, part of the Grupo Infra group, occasionally slowed to once every couple of days, and he had to buy in extra to cover the sudden gaps in supply. Prices increased.
Continue reading...Covid response minister says it would be a waste to stop aiming for elimination after plan was questioned by foreign media
New Zealand’s Covid response minister says the country will not “throw in the towel” with its elimination strategy, as cases continue to rise.
New Zealand announced 63 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 210 cases. It is the largest single-day jump since the outbreak began last week, and 12 people are hospitalised with the virus.
Continue reading...Viral load gradually decreased over time and matched levels of other variants after 10 days; Israel sees cases dip in wake of third shots
Greece has announced it will end free testing for unvaccinated people in an attempt to to boost inoculation rates.
Reuters reports that new measures to coax people into getting vaccinated will come into effect on 13 September, also obliging unvaccinated people to test either once or twice a week, depending on their profession.
In related news, the Australian federal government is paying a public relations firm $2.9m to help with its vaccine rollout for five months, including by copying vaccine data from its website and putting it in an email for journalists.
The health department has previously refused to say how much it was paying Cox Inall Change, a public relations company, for the simple task of attaching a pdf copy of its vaccine data to an email to media outlets every day.
Related: Morrison government is paying PR firm $2.9m to promote Covid vaccine rollout
Continue reading...Taiwanese company TiSPACE is planning three launches from South Australia in 2021, amid hopes the event will provide a boost to Australia’s space industry
Australia’s first commercial rocket launch will take place in South Australia this year, after receiving approval from the federal government.
Australian space company Southern Launch will send a Taiwanese rocket into space after being granted a launch permit, it was announced on Monday.
Continue reading...Study reinforces the hard evidence that carbon emissions are the main cause of worsening extreme weather
The record-shattering rainfall that caused deadly flooding across Germany and Belgium in July was made up to nine times more likely by the climate crisis, according to research.
The study also showed that human-caused global heating has made downpours in the region up to 20% heavier. The work reinforces the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s landmark report this month that there is “unequivocal” evidence that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main cause of worsening extreme weather.
Continue reading...Panic buying as Vietnamese city prepares for lockdown; UK also reports 49 further deaths
More children are being hospitalised with Covid in the US south and midwest than ever before, as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads among unvaccinated people.
One hospital in New Orleans has reported as many as 20 children hospitalised for Covid at a time in the past three weeks, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2020, that number never topped seven, the hospital’s physician-in-chief told the paper.
Doctors and staff working in GP surgeries across England are reporting a torrent of physical and verbal abuse from patients, the Independent reports.
Some GPs have told the newspaper they fear coming to work and say staff have quit over the threats they are receiving on a near-daily basis.
Continue reading...Full federal approval of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine will empower businesses and universities to require vaccinations and tip hesitant Americans toward getting the jab, the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, said on Sunday.
Related: Breakthrough infections and booster shots: what you need to know
Continue reading...JCVI considers lower third jab dosage to release stocks for poorer nations
Scientists in Britain are examining whether smaller doses of Covid vaccine could be used as part of booster programmes, amid hopes that the approach could also increase the supply of jabs across the world.
The use of so-called “fractional doses” has been proposed as a way of ensuring that precious supplies can immunise as many people as possible in parts of the world where there are shortages, while still providing high levels of protection from the virus.
Continue reading...Whatever this week’s Biden review finds, the cause of the pandemic lies in the destruction of animal habitats
If Joe Biden’s security staff are up to the mark, a new report on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic will be placed on the president’s desk this week. His team was given 90 days in May to review the virus’s origins after several US scientists indicated they were no longer certain about the source of Sars-CoV-2.
It will be intriguing to learn how Biden’s team answers the critically important questions that still surround the origins of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Did it emerge because of natural viral spillovers from bats to another animal and then into humans? Or did it leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology? And, if so, had it been enhanced to make it especially virulent?
Continue reading...The professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience discusses his work to develop a scientific explanation for how the brain conjures consciousness
For centuries, philosophers have theorised about the mind-body question, debating the relationship between the physical matter of the brain and the conscious mental activity it somehow creates. Even with advances in neuroscience and brain imaging techniques, large parts of that fundamental relationship remain stubbornly mysterious. It was with good reason that, in 1995, the cognitive scientist David Chalmers coined the term “the hard problem” to describe the question of exactly how our brains conjure subjective conscious experience. Some philosophers continue to insist that mind is inherently distinct from matter. Advances in understanding how the brain functions undermine those ideas of dualism, however.
Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex, is at the leading edge of that latter research. His Ted talk on consciousness has been viewed more than 11m times. His new book, Being You, proposes an idea of the human mind as a “highly evolved prediction machine”, rooted in the functions of the body and “constantly hallucinating the world and the self” to create reality.
Continue reading...I still get funny looks from people when I mention that I keep a diary. Maybe the practice strikes them as shifty or weirdly old-fashioned. It’s true that I never feel more furtive than when my wife finds me writing it at our kitchen table – it’s like being spotted entering a confessional box in church. What exactly have I got to tell this black book about a life that we share all day, every day? What secrets can I possibly be keeping?
The answer: nothing of any great note, and yet so much of my life is in it. I started writing a journal (as I used to call it) when I went on holiday. Twenty years ago I decided to go full-time and since then I’ve kept it more or less every day. Why? I suppose it began as an experiment – and became an obligation. You can’t hold back time, but you can try to save the past from being completely erased. It often feels trivial to record things as they happen (a stray remark, hearing a song, fleeting moments of doom or delight), but later they may prove useful, or instructive, or amusing. It also maintains the illusion of diligence – that you’re not just pissing away the days. A diary is good exercise for the writing muscle, the way a pianist practises scales or a footballer does keepy-uppies. During lockdown, like everyone else, I got into routines that felt numbing in their repetition and diary-wise left me short of material. I took recourse to discussing the books and box sets I was involved with – not exactly Pepysian, but it got me through.
Continue reading...A workplace in Bucharest filled with anti-virus innovations could become the new normal in office design, its creators hope
Not so long ago it may have seemed more like a futuristic vision of the workplace – or a hospital.
But the hands-free door handles, self-cleaning surfaces, antimicrobial paint, air-monitoring display tools, UV light disinfection robots, and 135 other measures at an office block in Bucharest are here to stay, say the creators behind what they are touting as one of the world’s most virus-resilient workplaces, which they hope will become the new normal in office design.
Continue reading...Gladys Berejiklian reports record high case numbers and Victoria extends lockdown statewide. This blog is now closed
We’re going to close off this blog for today, thanks very much for your company.
Here’s a helpful summary from Graham Readfearn – who did most of the hard slog today – and myself:
“Freedom” appears not to be free.
That's more than $1.2 million in fines pic.twitter.com/lfQJmbIPrb
Continue reading...Seasonal storms that blow up on the Peruvian coast at this time of year are named after St Rosa
In August 1615, a Dutch pirate fleet under Joris Van Spilbergen threatened the city of Lima. According to legend, a nun called Sister Rosa, whose original name was Isabel Flores de Oliva, prayed for deliverance. A tremendous storm blew up just as the pirates were sailing in to sack the city and scattered their fleet.
The storm was hailed as a miracle, and Sister Rosa became the first person born in the Americas to be canonised. She is patron saint of embroidery, gardening, the Americas, and the city of Lima. The seasonal storms that blow up on the Peruvian coast at this time of year are known as the Tormentas de Santa Rosa or Saint Rosa’s storms. These traditionally occur 15 days either side of the saint’s day on 30 August.
Continue reading...We are in an emergency. Wildfires are raging across the world as scorching temperatures and dry conditions fuel the blazes that have cost lives and destroyed livelihoods.
The combination of extreme heat, changes in our ecosystem and prolonged drought have in many regions led to the worst fires in almost a decade, and come after the IPCC handed down a damning landmark report on the climate crisis.
But technically, there are fewer wildfires than in the past – the problem now is that they are worse than ever and we are running out of time to act, as the Guardian's global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explains
Continue reading...Sajid Javid says green light for Ronapreve – which was used to treat Donald Trump – is ‘fantastic news’
The antibody cocktail used to treat Donald Trump for Covid has been approved by the UK’s medicines regulator, becoming the first treatment in Britain using artificial antibodies to tackle the virus.
The drug, developed by the US biotech company Regeneron, has received the backing of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Clinical trials showed it helped to prevent Covid infection as well as to reduce the risk of hospitalisation or symptoms in severe cases, when given soon after exposure.
Continue reading...Evidence about efficacy of additional dose of vaccine is unclear as some raise moral argument
Many rich countries are considering offering people an additional coronavirus vaccine dose. But are these booster shots necessary?
Continue reading...