1309: Vaxsaline

I'm glad somebody else thought of doing this. I was approached as part of the staff at a hospital and offered a free vaccine. I simply look the doctor in the eyes and said I cannot in good conscious take a vaccine when there's so many hundreds of thousands of people that need it people with type 1 diabetes, heart problems, serious medical conditions, permanent disabilities ect...

Also there's another approach that people can take, the philanthropic approach. "There are so many people that cannot afford to get this and need it so badly please give them mine."

Keep up the great work guys. Just wanted to give a quick shout out to my knittas listening to ikc that hit me in the mouth and turned me on to No agenda.

-Tx Joe

If it is a new “stain” the vaccines are no longer valid.

If it is a “variant” the vaccine will still “protect” you.

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Archived Version

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 05:15

The latest World Economic Forum-Ipsos survey on vaccine confidence shows that on average, across 15 countries, vaccination intent is down by 4 points since August. Aside from the challenges of manufacturing a vaccine and then ensuring its fair distribution, one of the great stumbling blocks is vaccine confidence, itself. Vaccine confidence can be highly variable and shouldn't be taken for granted. The current shortfall could be enough to limit the efficacy of the vaccine once it is delivered. The world is still struggling to contain the pandemic. Test-and-trace has met with implementation challenges and some countries '' notably in Europe '' are entering a fresh cycle of lockdowns and rising pandemic fatigue.

But another force - a reluctance to receive a pandemic vaccine '' seems to be mounting.

Numerous pharmaceutical companies are working on vaccine trials, while organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi and CEPI are also seeking to ensure any future solution is available for those most in need.

Progress over the past few months has edged the world closer to launching a vaccine, with news coming just this week, for example, that doctors in the UK are being told to be ready to administer a vaccine by Christmas.

But this latest World Economic Forum-Ipsos survey shows that confidence in taking a COVID-19 vaccine has dropped since August, with fewer people globally saying they'd get one.

Confidence has droppedThe survey shows that on average, across 15 countries, 73% of adults strongly or somewhat agree with the statement ''if a vaccine for COVID-19 were available, I would get it''. 3 months ago, that figure was 77%.

At the time, the shortfall in vaccine confidence was significant enough to be seen to compromise the effectiveness of seeing an end to the pandemic.

Confidence is now down by 4 points compared to three months ago. Vaccination intent has declined in 10 of the 15 countries, most of all China, Australia, Spain, and Brazil.

More than four in five in India, mainland China, South Korea, and Brazil, however, say they would get a vaccine if available '' compared to just over half in France and about two in three in the US, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Japan, and Germany.

Image: World Economic Forum-Ipsos

Why people are hesitantThe reasons people are reluctant to get a vaccine vary.

Globally, concerns about side effects are cited by 34%, and concerns about clinical trials moving too fast are cited by another 33%.

Among those who would not get vaccinated, worrying about side effects is most cited in Japan (62%), while the speed of clinical trials is most mentioned in Brazil and Spain (by 48% in both countries).

Globally, one in ten say they are against vaccines in general (including 14% in India and South Africa), they don't think a vaccine will be effective (15% in Germany), and say the risk of their getting COVID is low (20% in China and 19% in Australia).

Around one in four adults (24%), across the 15 countries think the chance of getting COVID-19 is so low that a vaccine is not necessary at all. Adults in India stand out as being particularly likely to agree with this statement (52%). The US follows next, though at a distance, at 31%, while Canadians are least likely to agree, with only 16% sharing this opinion.

What about the timing of a vaccine?The survey also looked at how soon people would get the vaccine. Half of adults globally (52%) say they would get vaccinated within three months after the COVID-19 vaccine is available to all.

More than two thirds would do so in Mexico (71%), Brazil (68%), and China (68%), but fewer than four in 10 in France and Spain (38% both).

As many as 90% in China and 86% in South Korea say they would get vaccinated within the first year of the COVID-19 vaccine's availability, compared to just 54% in France.

Image: World Economic Forum-Ipsos

When asked how soon they think a first vaccine will be available for general use for COVID-19, on average, only 45% of all adults across the 15 countries believe the first vaccine will be available for general use within the next six months. This includes the 16% who expect a vaccine to be ready within three months.

Instead, 55% think it will take nine months or more, including 18% who think it will take at least 18 months.

The belief that a vaccine will be available within the next six months is most prevalent in China (75%) India (72%), Brazil (67%), and the US (57%); it is lowest in France (26%), Spain (30%), and Japan (32%).

Vaccines won't work if people don't take themThe survey shows that aside from the challenges of manufacturing a vaccine and then ensuring its fair distribution, one of the great stumbling blocks is vaccine confidence, itself.

A separate study mapping trends in vaccine confidence across 149 countries between 2015 and 2019, found that scepticism about the safety of vaccines tended to grow alongside political instability and religious extremism. Confidence can be highly variable and shouldn't be taken for granted.

Experts estimate that at least 70% of the population will need to be immune to the virus to stop community spread of COVID-19. Accomplishing this demands that public confidence in a vaccine is especially high and the current shortfall could be enough to limit efficacy.

WHO named public hesitancy towards vaccination as one of the Top 10 Threats to Global Health in 2019, affecting not only public health, but businesses and economies.

While the numbers in this latest study do show that overall, there is more confidence than not in a COVID-19 vaccine, the rising hesitancy is material and highlights that a vaccine won't work if people don't take it.

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Archived Version

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 05:18

A pregnant woman's decision to take the vaccine may be complicated by her job, health condition and the time-sensitive nature of pregnancy. (Cavan Images/Getty Images)

For the first eight months of her pregnancy, Yadira Rivas, a nurse coordinator at Neighborhood Health of Virginia, relied on masks and gloves to protect her from the coronavirus that is rampant among her patients.

Recently, she's been considering another option '-- getting vaccinated. But after consulting with her obstetrician, Rivas decided to wait to get a shot until after her baby is born.

''One thing that the provider did mention is that it is worse to have the covid than to have the vaccine,'' she said. But with no safety data available for pregnant women, Rivas thinks she would have chosen to wait even if she were far earlier in her pregnancy. ''Just to stay safe,'' she said.

The same conundrum faces millions of women across the country, among them many health-care workers like Rivas who are being offered vaccines not yet tested on pregnant or lactating women.

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One of the first coronavirus hot spots was Albany, Ga., a majority-Black city that has struggled for decades against social and economic inequities. (The Washington Post)''There's a lot of confusion,'' said Jane Frederick, a fertility specialist in Newport Beach, Calif. ''I have questions from people who are pregnant and questions from people anticipating getting pregnant: 'Doctor, what do I do?' ''

With the exception of the smallpox vaccine, which can cause a rare but serious infection of the fetus, vaccines have been safe and enormously beneficial for pregnant women and their babies. Experts say the safety of the new mRNA vaccines, which do not contain live virus, would probably be similar in pregnant and nonpregnant people. What's more, pregnant women face the potential of severe illness from covid-19, which may also increase the risk of preterm birth and other serious outcomes for both mother and infant. Experts also warn against lumping the two distinct biological phases of pregnancy and lactation together.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has concluded that ''people who are pregnant and part of a group recommended to receive the coronavirus vaccine, such as health-care personnel, may choose to be vaccinated.'' The CDC also says that ''mRNA vaccines are not thought to be a risk to the breastfeeding infant.''

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists similarly says that ''[coronavirus] vaccines should not be withheld from pregnant individuals who meet criteria for vaccination.'' It also recommends the vaccines be offered to lactating women. But ACOG adds that because of the lack of data, ''the potential risks to a pregnant individual and the fetus are unknown.''

All of which leaves the process of weighing the pros and cons up to the individual in consultation with her doctor.

''The medical community has done a good job of saying, 'We don't know,' '' said Daryl Stoner, an obstetrician with Einstein Physicians Women's Associates for HealthCare outside Philadelphia. ''That drives people crazy. They want to be told it's safe.''

Doubts erupted in online pregnancy forums such as What to Expect, with views ranging from women saying they ''would not risk putting my baby in danger'' and counseling others to wait for more data or wait out the pandemic, to health-care workers declaring they were ''absolutely getting it.'' In some Facebook groups, where anti-vaccine advocates have fanned false worries about many vaccines, the fears are heightened. Many linked to Britain's policy, advising against immunizing pregnant women until more is known about mRNA vaccines.

The differing messages concern many American vaccine experts like Ruth Karron, director of the Center for Immunization Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who praised the way U.S. regulatory agencies and professional groups have handled the situation, while emphasizing the need for more research.

From the outset, ''we and many others were beating the drum for thinking about pregnant women,'' said Karron, who is a leader of the PREVENT project, which pushes for including pregnant women's interests in the development of vaccines against emerging pathogens such as Zika, Ebola and now covid-19.

Karron would have liked to see toxicology studies known as DART studies, which focus on developmental and reproductive risks, completed earlier. The resulting information along with initial safety data from nonpregnant individuals in clinical trials could then have been reviewed by experts to determine how and when the vaccines should be formally evaluated in pregnant women.

As it is, there is a little data from a handful of women who became pregnant during clinical trials. Observational data will also emerge as pregnant women who get vaccinated sign up for V-safe, a CDC app that uses texts and web surveys to check in with coronavirus vaccine recipients.

Clinical trials on pregnant women and young children could begin early this year. Stephanie Gaw, an assistant professor in maternal-fetal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center who has been studying the impact of covid-19 on pregnancy, said her team is planning to launch a study on the vaccine in pregnant and lactating women in the coming weeks.

''There has been so much interest from health-care workers,'' Gaw said. '' 'Do you want my breast milk? Blood? To evaluate my immune response?''‰''

Mary Prahl, an assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at UCSF who works with Gaw, said she would have liked to see a parallel clinical trial of the vaccines for pregnant women.

Prahl, who is 14 weeks pregnant and plans to get the vaccine soon, said that having studied covid-19 for most of this year, she was relieved to learn a vaccine would be available to her.

''I don't have any hesitation for myself,'' said Prahl, while acknowledging that if she were advising a patient, she would run through potential risks and benefits.

''Everyone brings something different to the table,'' she said.

The biomedical establishment long excluded pregnant women from research. The National Institutes of Health didn't open an Office of Research on Women's Health until 1990, when manifestation of gynecological symptoms of AIDS helped confirm the need to focus on women.

In clinical trials, a combination of ethical concerns and legal liability continues to handicap progress, according to Ruth Faden, founder of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and a colleague of Karron's on the PREVENT project.

''It's a profound injustice that pregnant women and offspring are late to the table and late to receive benefits,'' Faden said.

The upshot is that obstetricians have to rely on observational data with many medical treatments, according to David Jaspan, chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Einstein Healthcare Network in Pennsylvania, where pregnant women are asked to get a note from their providers before getting the new shots.

''We can't comment on the safety of vaccine; we can comment on the impact of covid on pregnancy,'' Jaspan said, describing a conversation he had recently with a pregnant health-care worker who did not want to be among the first recipients.

Such shared decision-making is made more complicated by vast variability in the circumstances of pregnant women. A woman working from home is at less risk of exposure to the virus than, say, a food service worker in a hospital or someone whose partner travels on public transportation every day. Some pregnant women suffer from conditions such as obesity or hypertension that increase the chance of complications should they contract covid-19.

And pregnancy is a dynamic state, not only in terms of fetal development but because it has a beginning and an end: A woman with just a few weeks left before delivery may decide to delay vaccination and instead avoid exposure to the virus until her baby is born.

Add to that the fact that women's childbearing years are limited and some may feel under pressure to get pregnant.

Frederick, the fertility specialist, said uncertainty about whether to get the vaccine has added to the anxiety many of her patients already feel.

''It's a time-sensitive condition they have,'' she said. ''They need to be continuing treatment and not delaying it, hoping the pandemic will go away.''

Frederick closed her clinic during the early months of the pandemic, advising her patients to delay treatment until more was known about the coronavirus. Now, though, she sees the vaccine as a positive step and in general counsels them that the benefits outweigh any risk.

''I think it's a good protection,'' Frederick said.

Jaspan said providers and their patients should expect knowledge to evolve as well as their own circumstances.

''If they decide no today, they can decide yes tomorrow,'' he said. ''And that's okay.''

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 11:36

U.S. | 42 people in West Virginia are mistakenly given a virus treatment instead of the vaccine. Dec. 31, 2020, 4:45 p.m. ET

Dec. 31, 2020, 4:45 p.m. ET By Lauren Wolfe

Monoclonal antibody cocktails have been used experimentally to treat Covid-19 patients, including prominent figures like President Trump. Credit... Gabby Jones for The New York Times Forty-two people in Boone County, in southwestern West Virginia, who were scheduled to receive the coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday were mistakenly injected with an experimental monoclonal antibody treatment instead, the West Virginia National Guard said on Thursday.

None of the 42 recipients has developed any adverse effects so far, the Guard said in a statement. The Guard, which is leading the state's vaccine distribution effort, called the error ''a breakdown in the process.''

The experimental treatment, a cocktail of antibodies made by Regeneron, is the same one President Trump received when he was hospitalized with Covid-19 in November. It is meant to be administered in an intravenous infusion, not in a direct injection like the vaccine.

Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, the adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, said that the mix-up apparently happened during the delivery of a shipment of the Regeneron cocktail to a distribution hub, where the vials were placed among supplies of the Moderna vaccine. Workers at the hub then apparently included the treatment vials in a shipment of vaccine to Boone County.

General Hoyer attributed the situation to ''a couple of human errors,'' and said the Guard acted swiftly as soon as it realized what had happened. ''We found an issue, we're fixing it and we're moving forward,'' he said in a radio interview on Thursday.

No other shipments of the vaccine have been affected, the Guard said in a statement.

Vials for the treatment and the vaccine look somewhat similar, but are clearly labeled, as are the boxes that hold them. Both are kept in refrigeration before they are used.

The blunder came at a time when record numbers of hospitalizations across the country signaled a greater need than ever for the antibody treatments, which are scarce and expensive, though some supplies are sitting unused in refrigerators across the country.

Officials in West Virginia reported 1,109 new coronavirus cases and 20 new deaths on Thursday. There have been at least 85,334 cases and 1,338 deaths in the state since the pandemic began, according to a New York Times database.

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 20:40

Among the nearly one million Israelis vaccinated against coronavirus so far, some 240 Israelis have been diagnosed with the virus days after getting the shot, Channel 13 News reported Thursday.

The figure underscores the need for individuals to continue to protect themselves for weeks after being inoculated, as the body takes time to develop effective antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.

The Pfizer vaccine is not made with the coronavirus itself, meaning that there is no chance anyone could catch it from the shots. Instead, the vaccine contains a piece of genetic code that trains the immune system to recognize the spiked protein on the surface of the virus and create antibodies to attack if it encounters the real thing.

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But this process takes time, and studies of the vaccine so far have shown immunity to the virus rises only some 8-10 days after the first injection '-- and then only to around 50 percent effectiveness.

This is why the second dose of the vaccine, given 21 days after the first, is critical: It strengthens the immune system's response to the virus, bringing it to 95% effectiveness and ensuring that immunity lasts. This level of immunity is only reached about a week after the second dose '-- or 28 days after the first.

Anyone who is infected a few days before getting the vaccine's first dose or in the weeks before full effectiveness is reached is still in danger of developing symptoms. (Even when the vaccine reaches its top potential, there remains a 5% chance of this.)

A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine, at a vaccination center in Jerusalem, on December 30, 2020. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Another matter to note is that studies have not yet determined whether the vaccine allows a person to carry the disease and spread it, without getting sick: It is possible that while one's body would be largely protected from the virus after vaccination, mucous layers in the nasal passages, beyond the reach of antibodies, could still harbor multiplying virus particles.

While these would not harm the carrier '-- as any virus that enters deeper into the body would swiftly be destroyed by the trained immune system '-- they could still be expelled through the nose and mouth and infect others.

The vast majority of Israelis who have received the vaccine have reported no issues since getting the shot. Around one in a thousand people have reported suffering mild side effects, with only a few dozen seeking medical attention following the shot, figures published Wednesday showed.

The most common side effects reported were weakness, dizziness and fever, with 319 combined cases, the ministry said. Five also reported suffering diarrhea. Another 293 people reported localized symptoms where the injection was administered such as pain, restriction of movement, swelling and redness.

Fourteen people said they had allergic reactions such as itching and swelling of the tongue and throat.

Additionally, 26 people suffered what the ministry described as ''neurological symptoms,'' with 19 complaining of a tingly sensation in their arm.

The ministry noted that only 51 people (0.008%) of those who reported suffering any side effects said they sought medical attention for their symptoms.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, there have been four cases where people in Israel have died shortly after receiving the vaccination, but three of the four were deemed by the Health Ministry, as well as by both family members and doctors, to have been unrelated to the shots. The fourth case, an 88-year-old man who had serious preexisting health problems, is currently being investigated.

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Archived Version

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 02:28

January 2, 2021 | 12:56pm | Updated January 2, 2021 | 12:57pm

Enlarge Image A pharmacist fills a syringe to prepare a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

A second California hospital has been busted for giving the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to its employees' relatives '-- instead of using the doses for the elderly or frontline workers.

Southern California Hospital allowed its workers to invite relatives to get vaccinated '-- just as another area hospital did last week, sparking criticism.

''The hospital had planned on vaccinating all of their employees, but a large number of their staff declined and they were sitting on a lot of thawed vaccines,'' a woman vaccinated at Southern California Hospital told the Orange County Register. '''They offered police officers, firefighters and first-responders to get vaccinated and also told employees they could invite four family members.''

The Culver City hospital eventually became inundated with requests from the general public and was forced to revert to only vaccinating frontline workers.

Any decision by a hospital to treat staff relatives flies in the face of Centers for Disease Control guidelines, which call for them to be inoculated during later stages of the vaccine rollout.

Southern California Hospital is the second facility busted in the Golden State giving ''extra'' doses of vaccine to family members.

Earlier this week, a Disney worker in California bragged on Facebook that she was able to obtain the vaccine because of an in-law who was a ''big deal'' at Redlands Community Hospital.

''After physicians and staff who expressed interest in the vaccine were administered, there were several doses left,'' the hospital told the Register. ''Because the reconstituted Pfizer vaccine must be used within hours or be disposed of, several doses were administered to non-front line healthcare workers so that valuable vaccine would not be thrown away.

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Sun, 03 Jan 2021 11:52

The scientist leading the UK coronavirus vaccination programme has defended the decision to extend the gap between the two doses, insisting it is 'the way we save lives'.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam says waiting 12 weeks between jabs rather than the original three will protect those most at risk of dying from Covid-19, adding that the focus must be 'to deliver first vaccine doses to as many people, in the shortest possible timeframe'.

As the first supplies of the Oxford vaccine arrived in the UK yesterday, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer '' who has become the trusted face of Downing Street press conferences during the crisis '' predicted that 'tens of millions of doses' will be available by the end of March.

A senior Government source last night said that the 15 million jabs needed to protect those most at risk could be delivered by mid-March. Vaccinating that vulnerable group is seen as crucial in releasing Britain from the crippling effects of lockdown.

Writing exclusively in The Mail on Sunday, Prof Van-Tam rejects criticism that changing the period between the two doses of the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines is confusing and potentially dangerous.

Deploying this second vaccine is another huge achievement for science and public health in the global effort to tackle Covid-19. Pictured: Assistant Technical Officer Lukasz Najdrowski unpacks doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine as they arrive at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex

The hard work of the researchers and scientists, and the selflessness of volunteers throughout months of rigorous clinical trials, will soon begin to save lives. Pictured: A vial of doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is checked

'Simply put, every time we vaccinate someone a second time, we are not vaccinating someone else for the first time,' he says. 'It means we are missing an opportunity to greatly reduce the chances of the most vulnerable people getting severely ill from Covid-19.'

In his article for this newspaper, Prof Van-Tam says the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has found the Pfizer vaccine to be 89 per cent effective against Covid-19 from between 15 and 21 days after the first dose.

That rises to 95 per cent after a second dose, but he argues that extra six per cent comes at the cost of halving the number who can get a large degree of immunity from a single jab.

He adds: 'If a family has two elderly grandparents and there are two vaccines available, it is better to give both 89 per cent protection than to give one 95 per cent protection with two quick doses, and the other grandparent no protection at all. The virus is unfortunately spreading fast, and this is a race against time.

'My mum, as well as you or your older loved ones, may be affected by this decision, but it is still the right thing to do for the nation as a whole.'

His intervention came as:

Boris Johnson hailed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as 'a triumph of British science'; Health Secretary Matt Hancock said more than a million shots had so far been administered, with a fifth of those aged over 80 already given their first dose; Government sources said Ministers planned to 'step on the gas' by delivering up to 1.5 million vaccines this week and reach the 2 million-a-week target by February; The Armed Forces are to deploy 150 mobile vaccination teams, including some on helicopters, to help deliver jabs as part of what has been dubbed 'Operation Delta Force'; A record 57,725 new infections were recorded yesterday, up from 35,691 a week ago, and a further 445 deaths were reported, almost double the death toll from last Saturday; Professor Andrew Goddard, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, warned the number of people in hospital was currently 'mild' compared to what he expects the NHS to face this week; The stand-off over schools reopening intensified, with unions telling primary teachers it is unsafe to return to work this week, and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, using a Mail on Sunday article to call on staff to 'move heaven and earth to get children back to the classroom'; German firm BioNTech said the EU had failed to order more doses of the vaccine it developed with Pfizer, as it emerged France had only delivered 352 jabs after European regulators were slow to approve its use. In Britain, medics will start using the initial 530,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab from tomorrow. The first will be administered at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

By the end of the week, vaccines will be available at 160 hospital sites and 800 GP surgeries. Community pharmacies will also be used to deliver jabs.

The programme cannot be rolled out fast enough for crisis-hit schools and hospitals. Half of the major hospital trusts in England are dealing with more Covid-19 patients than they were at the peak of the first wave in April, and 29 out of 39 NHS Trusts have postponed most elective surgery.

Meanwhile, Ministers are considering proposals to make teachers a higher priority for vaccines in a bid to end the schools stand-off.

More Left-wing councils yesterday said they would not allow classrooms to reopen, while the row created fresh splits within Labour, with Corbynista MPs backing the unions, but party leader Sir Keir Starmer failing to endorse their stance.

The Government last week changed its policy on administering a second jab following advice from the JCVI supported by Chief Medical Officers across the UK.

However, the British Medical Association echoed the concern of some family doctors that the move was misguided. On Friday, Dr Richard Vautrey, chairman of the BMA's GP committee, said: 'The existing commitment made to these patients by the NHS and local clinicians should be respected.

'If GPs decide to honour these booked appointments in January, the BMA will support them.'

Welcoming the arrival of the first batch of Oxford vaccines, Mr Johnson said: 'We know there are challenges still ahead of us over the coming weeks and months, but I'm confident this is the year we will defeat coronavirus and start building back better.'

NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens added: 'The vaccination programme '' the biggest in NHS history '' has got off to a strong start, and by New Year's Day we'd been able to vaccinate more people than the rest of Europe combined. Now we have a second, more versatile, jab in our armoury.'

Meanwhile, security agencies have warned Ministers that disinformation about the 12-week gap between jabs could be used by Britain's enemies to create 'panic'.

One Government source said: 'All the usual suspects will be trying to sow doubt.'

'It's better to give two grandparents 89% protection than to give one 95% and the other none at all' By Jonathan Van-Tam Deploying second vaccine is another achievement for science and public health in effort to tackle Covid-19 Hard work of researchers and scientists, and selflessness of volunteers in trials will soon begin to save livesPriority is to deliver first vaccine doses to as many people on Phase 1 priority list in shortest timeframe Last week, the UK became the first country in the world to authorise the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and this week we'll be the first to start using it to inoculate people against Covid-19 '' having already given more than a million people an initial first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Deploying this second vaccine is another huge achievement for science and public health in the global effort to tackle Covid-19.

The hard work of the researchers and scientists, and the selflessness of volunteers throughout months of rigorous clinical trials, will soon begin to save lives.

The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that at this stage of the pandemic, the priority should be to deliver first vaccine doses to as many people on the Phase 1 priority list in the shortest possible timeframe '' and myself and the UK's four Chief Medical Officers agree with that recommendation.

It means across the UK, the NHS will now prioritise giving the first dose of the vaccine to those in the most high-risk groups, with a second dose due to be administered within 12 weeks of the first.

Last week, the UK became the first country in the world to authorise the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and this week we'll be the first to start using it to inoculate people against Covid-19 '' having already given more than a million people an initial first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, writes deputy chief medical officer JONATHAN VAN-TAM

The flexibility to extend the time period between the two doses was a critical decision, made by the regulator '' and one which allows us to save more lives, based on the latest advice from the independent experts of the JCVI.

Their analysis shows the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 89 per cent effective against preventing Covid-19 in the period from 15 to 21 days after the first dose.

Science experts know that if you have protection as high as 89 per cent on Day 21, it is not really possible that this would have declined by much after just 84 days, or 12 weeks. If a vaccine is that good, antibody levels simply don't drop away that fast.

The evidence clearly shows vaccinated individuals get almost complete protection after the first dose.

Simply put, every time we vaccinate someone a second time, we are not vaccinating someone else for the first time.

It means we are missing an opportunity to greatly reduce the chances of the most vulnerable people getting severely ill from Covid-19.

If a family has two elderly grandparents and there are two vaccines available, it is better to give both 89 per cent protection than to give one 95 per cent protection with two quick doses, and the other grandparent no protection at all.

The virus is unfortunately spreading fast, and this is a race against time. My mum, as well as you or your older loved ones, may be affected by this decision, but it is still the right thing to do for the nation as a whole.

The UK has taken action to secure as many vaccine doses as possible with early access to 357 million doses of seven of the most promising vaccines so far. We have 530,000 quality-checked doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca available in the UK from tomorrow, with more available this month and tens of millions by the end of March.

The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that at this stage of the pandemic, the priority should be to deliver first vaccine doses to as many people on the Phase 1 priority list in the shortest possible timeframe '' and myself and the UK's four Chief Medical Officers agree with that recommendation. Pictured: Key workers queue for the vaccine

But we know there is global pressure on the supply of all of these vaccines.

So by prioritising the first dose, we can give more people a high level of protection sooner, without compromising their immunity in the longer term.

This is the way we save the most lives and avoid the most hospital admissions '' it is as simple as that.

This is especially vital at the moment, given the high levels of infection we are seeing in the midst of the most difficult time of year for our NHS.

Across the UK, the NHS will now prioritise giving the first dose of the vaccine to those in the most high-risk groups, with a second dose due to be administered within 12 weeks of the first. Pictured: Staff at a vaccination centre in Wickford, Essex

Those working on wards in the last week will know how serious this is, and how it is right we prioritise giving protection to as many people who need it as possible.

I understand this decision may cause some inconvenience and worry for those who had their second doses booked in but I can assure all Mail on Sunday readers that we have not taken it lightly.

We have to do the best we can, with what we have now, to protect the largest number of vulnerable people in the shortest possible time.

The decision we have taken will literally double the number of people who are protected over the next few crucial months.

Boris Johnson hails Oxford vaccine as a 'triumph for British science' and says he is 'confident this is the year we will defeat coronavirus' First batches of much-anticipated jab yesterday began arriving at UK hospitalsHundreds of new vaccination sites will begin to provide injections this week Health Secretary Matt Hancock says vaccine roll-out means 'the end is in sight' By ANNA MIKHAILOVA and BRENDAN CARLIN and STEPHEN ADAMS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

Boris Johnson last night hailed the arrival of the Oxford vaccine as a 'triumph of British science' and said he was 'confident this is the year we will defeat coronavirus'.

The first batches yesterday began arriving at UK hospitals, including the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, where laboratory technician Lukasz Najdrowski carefully removed the packs of vials from a cardboard box.

With an initial 530,000 doses available from tomorrow, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the addition of the Oxford vaccine to the Pfizer drug which has been in use since December 8 meant 'the end is in sight'.

About two-thirds of the million doses delivered UK-wide by New Year's Eve have been used to vaccinate those over 80, meaning about a fifth of that highly vulnerable age group have received their first jab.

Boris Johnson last night hailed the arrival of the Oxford vaccine as a 'triumph of British science' and said he was 'confident this is the year we will defeat coronavirus'

Mr Hancock added: 'The vaccine is our way out and this huge achievement brings us a step closer to the normality we've all been working hard to reclaim.'

Hundreds of new vaccination sites will begin to provide injections this week, joining 700 already in operation.

'The Oxford vaccine is a triumph of British science and I want to thank everyone involved in its development and production,' the Prime Minister said.

'From tomorrow, the NHS will start using the Oxford vaccine to give protection against Covid-19.'

The deployment of the Oxford vaccine will accelerate the programme as, unlike the Pfizer drug, it does not need to be stored at very cold temperatures so is far easier to distribute.

The first doses of the Oxford jab will be given at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Five other trusts '' Brighton, Nuneaton, Lancaster and two in London '' will also start providing injections from tomorrow, ahead of it being rolled out to other hospitals and GP surgeries.

By the end of this week, 160 hospital sites across England plus more than 800 GP surgeries should be offering Covid vaccinations. Jabs are also being given at dozens more hospitals and scores more surgeries across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Ministers are keen to 'step on the gas' to ensure that the 15 million people most at risk from Covid-19 get their dose within the next ten weeks. A source said the Government hoped to deliver up to 1.5 million vaccines this week alone '' comprising the 530,000 Oxford doses and a million Pfizer shots.

That should rise to two million a week from early February '' the rate seen as necessary to prevent a devastating third wave.

To help speed up the process, community pharmacies will be used alongside hospitals and GP surgeries from next week.

NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the arrival of the Oxford vaccine marked 'a major milestone in humanity's battle against coronavirus'.

He added: 'The vaccination programme '' the biggest in NHS history '' has got off to a strong start, and by New Year's Day we'd been able to vaccinate more people than the rest of Europe combined. Now we have a second, more versatile, jab in our armoury, and NHS staff are expanding the programme as extra vaccine supplies come on-stream, and the arrival of the Oxford jab, coupled with more Pfizer vaccine being made available, will allow us to protect many more people faster.'

The initial supplies of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have been produced by a company called Halix in the Netherlands.

Once produced in bulk, the vaccine goes to a plant in Wrexham, run by an Indian company called Wockhardt, where it is decanted into vials in a process known as 'fill and finish'. The plant can bottle at least 150,000 doses a day.

The team at Oxford's specialist vaccines and immunology centre, the Jenner Institute, developed the Covid-19 vaccine by adapting one they were already working on for a related coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi has criticised a Labour MP who attacked the decision to change the policy on administering second doses.

After the Government said the second jab would be given 12 weeks after the first, rather than three, Clive Lewis tweeted: 'Next they'll be suggesting the second vaccine dose can be substituted with bleach.' Mr Zahawi replied: 'Clive, this is irresponsible of you.'

The first batches yesterday began arriving at UK hospitals, including the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, where laboratory technician Lukasz Najdrowski carefully removed the packs of vials from a cardboard box

Britain records more than 50,000 coronavirus cases for the FIFTH day in a row - but deaths dip to 445 - as doctors warn crisis will get much worse and situation in packed London hospitals is 'MILD compared to what's coming next week' By James Gant for MailOnline

Britain has recorded more than 50,000 Covid-19 cases for the fifth day in a row but hospital deaths from the virus have dipped to fewer than 500.

Another 57,725 had positive test results in the last 24 hours, meaning 2,599,789 have had the disease in the UK since the pandemic began.

The country also saw an additional 445 deaths, taking the total official count to 74,570 - but 90,000 people in total have died with Covid-19 written on their death certificate.

And experts are warning jam-packed hospitals that the current number of coronavirus cases is 'mild' compared to what is coming next week - as the new more-contagious Covid strain continues to wreak havoc on the UK.

President of the Royal College of Physicians Professor Andrew Goddard also noted healthcare workers in Britain are 'really worried' about the battle against the virus over the next few months.

Today's grim figures come as the first batches of the newly-approved coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca arrive at UK hospitals ahead of the jab's rollout tomorrow.

Some 530,000 doses of the jab will be available from Monday - with vulnerable people taking priority - as Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the inoculation drive is 'accelerating'.

One of the first hospitals to take delivery of a batch on Saturday morning was the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, which is part of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

But Sir John Bell, a Regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and member of SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), said insufficient investment in the capacity to make vaccines has left Britain unprepared.

He also said the country lacks medical supply firms to build essential components to make the jab, forcing Oxford scientists to import parts from abroad.

England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty this week warned that vaccine availability issues will 'remain the case for several months' - as the 530,000 doses ready for distribution are a fraction of what was promised.

Officials initially said that 30million doses would be ready by the end of the year. The UK's vaccine tsar toned the estimate down to 4million in November, citing manufacturing problems.

India, on the other hand, preparing to deliver 50million doses of the Oxford vaccine that it has manufactured and stockpiled.

In other Covid news:

Pfizer and AstraZeneca rejected Government warnings of months-long vaccine supply gaps, claiming there will be enough doses to hit the ambitious targets; Coronavirus vaccine makers blasted the EU for being too slow to secure stocks of the jab as pressure mounts on France and Germany to speed up immunisation; A teaching union has called for all schools across the country to be closed for the start of the new term; Health Secretary Matt Hancock thanked 'everyone playing their part' as he revealed more than one million people have been vaccinated; The UK today announced a further 57,725 cases - marking five days in a row that there have been more than 50,000 positive tests. Medics transport a patient from an ambulance to the Royal London Hospital as the spread of the coronavirus disease in London today

London Ambulance staff stretcher a patient from the ambulance into The Royal London Hospital in east London, on Saturday

It comes as a nurse outlined the desperate situation in hospitals, with patients running out of oxygen and being left in ambulances and corridors. Pictured: The Royal London Hospital

Teachers are set to REFUSE to go back to school: Union will tell its members to stay at homeTeachers are set to refuse to go back to school under plans from the UK's biggest teaching union to tell its members to stay at home.

The National Education Union (NEU) said it will advise its members of their legal right not to have to work in an unsafe environment.

Dr Mary Bousted, the union's joint general secretary, said: 'Whilst we are calling on the Government to take the right steps as a responsible union we cannot simply agree that the Government's wrong steps should be implemented.

'That is why we are doing our job as a union by informing our members that they have a legal right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions which are a danger to their health and to the health of their school communities and more generally.'

The general secretary of the NASUWT union, Dr Patrick Roach, also called for an immediate nationwide move to remote education due to safety concerns.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) has started preliminary steps in legal proceedings against the Department for Education and is awaiting the Government's response.

The union is also preparing to advise headteachers not to take action against employees who decline to return to work, reports The Observer.

Sir John accused successive governments of failing to build onshore manufacturing capacity for medical products - with Oxford/AstraZeneca counting on outsourced companies to help create doses, such as Halix in the Netherlands, Cobra Biologics in Staffordshire and Oxford Biomedica.

Referring to governments over the past ten years, Sir John told The Times: 'The government has been completely disinterested in building onshore manufacturing capacity for any of the life-sciences products.'

On vaccine production, he added: 'When the pandemic started, we were not in great shape and I think we are probably paying the price for that.

'It's not AstraZeneca's fault - it's a national legacy issue, and it's one of the things we've got to fix.'

Meanwhile the majority of planned operations in London hospitals have been halted so medics can tackle the spiralling number of Covid patients.

A staggering 29 out of 39 NHS hospital trusts there have postponed elective surgery - bar cancer-related issues and emergency ones - with areas like Kent also pausing procedures.

President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Neil Mortensen said the problems facing health centres was 'like watching a car crash in slow motion'.

He told the Times: 'At the same time as people returned to work, to restaurants and shops, the new more contagious variant insidiously took hold in the south and east of England.

'Hospitals started to see the effects in mid-December, and across many parts of the country now, scheduled operations for hip or knee replacements, or ear, nose and throat operations, have had to be cancelled.

'Thousands of people already waiting, in pain or immobile for many months, will have been sorely disappointed this Christmas to have their operation cancelled or postponed.'

A nurse also outlined the desperate situation in hospitals, with patients running out of oxygen and being left in ambulances and corridors.

And a junior A&E doctor was left 'heartbroken' after being met with a crowd of maskless revellers chanting 'Covid is a hoax' after his New Year's Eve shift in London.

Out of the 445 new Covid-19 deaths in the UK, 383 were recorded in England.

The victims were between 27 and 100 years old with only 11 not aged 36 and 95 with underlying health conditions.

In Wales 2,764 new infections have been recorded as its overall count hits 151,300.

Public Health Wales said there were also 70 deaths, meaning the total since March is 3,564.

Northern Ireland also saw 3,576 over the last two days, with 26 deaths.

Professor Goddard told BBC Breakfast: 'There's no doubt that Christmas is going to have a big impact, the new variant is also going to have a big impact.

'We know that is more infectious, more transmissible, so I think the large numbers that we're seeing in the South East, in London, in South Wales, is now going to be reflected over the next month, two months even, over the rest of the country.'

He added: 'This new variant is definitely more infectious and is spreading across the whole of the country.

'It seems very likely that we are going to see more and more cases, wherever people work in the UK, and we need to be prepared for that.'

Trusts in London which have halted planned operations are some of the largest in the UK.

They include Barts Health Trust and Imperial College Trust as well as Croydon Health Services which said it will stop elective surgery from next week.

In a sign of the growing peril facing the capital, the Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre has been 'reactivated' to take patients.

Yet Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Adrian Boyle pointed out the field hospital was 'useless' if there is no staff to man it.

He told LBC: 'The thing about the nightingale hospitals and their limitations is that you need the staff to run it', adding without workers 'it's useless.'

Stuart Tuckwood, a Unison national nursing officer and critical care outreach nurse in the South East, said the situation in hospitals was 'extremely difficult'.

He told MailOnline: 'It's extremely difficult, very very challenging, the occupancy levels of patients in hospitals with Covid are just going up and up quite dramatically.

'This is at the same time the NHS is trying to deal with a lot of the backlog that's stacked up while other services were reduced.'

He continued: 'Lots and lots of staff are feeling just exhausted. They've been working under huge amounts of stress, chronically now for most of the year.

The first batches of the newly-approved coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca have started arriving at UK hospitals ahead of the jab's rollout. Pictured: Doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex

One of the first hospitals to take delivery of a batch on Saturday morning was the Princess Royal Hospital (pictured) in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, which is part of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

The rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine began almost a month ago with more than a million people having already received their first coronavirus jab. Pictured: People queue to receive a Covid-19 vaccine at Sussex House in Brighton today

Second doses of either vaccine will now take place within 12 weeks rather than the 21 days that was initially planned with the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. Pictured: People queue to receive a Covid-19 vaccine at Sussex House in Brighton

Stuart Tuckwood, a Unison national nursing officer and critical care outreach nurse in the South East, said the situation in hospitals was 'extremely difficult'

'They haven't had much time off, lots are of sick, which has put even more strain on their colleagues who are still working.'

He said: 'Hospitals have had to expand their intensive care units, but the thing they can't do is create more ICU staff.

'So even though they can expand the number of beds they are offering, that just means those staff are stretched further and further which makes it much more difficult to deliver the right level of care that those patients need.'

The government's lack of investment 'to blame for slow vaccine roll-out': Scientists point the finger at neglect of manufacturingScientists have blamed the vaccine's slow roll-out on the government's lack of investment and neglect of manufacturing.

Sir John Bell, a regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and member of SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), said that insufficient investment in the capacity to make vaccines has left Britain unprepared.

He accused successive governments of failing to build onshore manufacturing capacity for medical products, with Oxford/AstraZeneca counting on outsourced companies to help create doses, such as Halix in the Netherlands, Cobra Biologics in Staffordshire and Oxford Biomedica.

After the vaccine is produced by those companies, it is transported to a plant based in Wrexham that is operated by an Indian company, Wockhardt, where it is either sent to another plant in Germany or transferred to vials.

England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty this week warned that vaccine availability issues will 'remain the case for several months' as firms struggle to keep up with global demand.

In a bid to ration supplies, the Government has pledged to give single doses of the Pfizer vaccine to as many people as they can - rather than give a second dose to those already vaccinated.

But manufacturers of both the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs have rubbished concerns, saying there is no problem with supply.

Sir Richard Sykes, who led a review of the Government's Vaccines Taskforce in December, added that he is 'not aware' of a shortage in supply.

Mr Tuckwood said patients being out in corridors in stuck in ambulances outside jam-packed hospitals makes it difficult for nurses to provide the right level of care.

He continued: 'There is a risk when things get overloaded that vital observations can be missed or treatments get delayed and that can make the situation much more dangerous.

'And obviously it's much more tiring and stressful for the nurses and healthcare staff trying to deliver care under the circumstances.'

He added that NHS staff need the government to bring in a pay rise for workers given the 'moral and pressure' for them.

Mr Tuckwood also called for better support for frontline employees to get them the right PPE and access to mental health services.

He said there needs to be better investment in workforce numbers so the UK does not get in the same position again.

Another nurse described the 'unbearable' conditions in their hospital as patient numbers with the virus continue to rise.

The nurse, who works at the Whittington Hospital in north London, said patients are being left in corridors.

She said some also spend up to three hours in ambulances because of a lack of beds and one was left without oxygen when their cylinder ran out.

The nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: 'I'm worried about patient safety because if these little things are happening now when we're short and it's busy, it's only going to get worse.

'I don't know what else will happen - it worries me.'

The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals is at record levels in many areas of England - including London, the South West and the Midlands - with admissions rising above the levels seen during the first wave.

And staff in some hospitals are struggling to cope. The nurse said: 'It's not having enough nurses to care for patients, patient safety is being affected.

'Some are in corridors, being looked after in makeshift areas, makeshift wards have been created for Covid patients, and ICUs are running out of space.

'Staff have got low morale - we haven't even gotten over the first wave physically, emotionally and mentally, and now we're having to deal with this second wave.'

The nurse described finding one Covid patient with 'several health conditions' who had been left on an oxygen cylinder after it had run out.

They said: 'He thought he was receiving oxygen but the whole cylinder had run out. Because of staff shortages and because the nurses are tired, no one had checked on him.

Doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine are logged as they arrive at the Princess Royal Hospital

The vaccine can be kept at normal fridge temperature which he said is 'much easier' to administer when compared with the jab from Pfizer and BioNTech, which needs cold storage of around -70C. Pictured: Assistant Technical Officer Lukasz Najdrowski unpacks doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

Hundreds of people are expected to be vaccinated per day at the Princess Royal Hospital site, with efficiency expected to increase after the first few days of the programme, according to Dr Findlay

'He was in a room with an oxygen port on the wall but he was left on a cylinder and no one had gone back to check on him.'

They said nurses were overstretched as six beds were being put in bays that usually hold four, and having to check in on patients in other rooms that were being converted into makeshift wards.

EU coronavirus vaccinations lag behind: Pfizer and Biontech says bloc has been too slow to secure stocks of jabCoronavirus vaccine makers have blasted the EU for being too slow to secure stocks of the jab as pressure mounts on France and Germany to speed up immunisation.

The founder of BioNTech Uğur Şahin warned a 'gap' had emerged after EU leaders bet on other vaccines' approval rather than ordering from those already available.

He told Der Spiegel: 'It doesn't look so rosy right now, a gap has emerged, because there's a lack of other vaccines that have received approval and we have to fill this gap with our vaccine.'

The EU only ordered 200million doses until last week, when a further 100million were secured. But it is not enough to provide the EU's 446million population with a single jab each reported the Daily Telegraph.

The UK, meanwhile, has 30million doses as well as 100million of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, enough to immunise everyone.

President Emmanuel Macron has been under mounting pressure to inoculate medical staff over the age of 50 but so far just a few hundred doses have been administered, reported the Financial Times.

Medical staff aged 50 and older will receive the shots from Monday.

It comes as the situation in the Netherlands was labeled a 'national disaster' as the rollout is delayed until January 8 because a computer system still needs to be set up.

In Germany, meanwhile, tens of thousands have so far been immunised and in the UK the number of doses given has almost reached a million.

They continued: 'You've got patients in plaster rooms on hospital beds, and patients being left on oxygen in corridors and waiting to be taken back to their room.

'Over Christmas it was so, so short, and it's really worrying because patient safety is already being affected.'

The nurse said some patients were receiving all their treatment inside the ambulance they arrived in because there was no room for them inside the hospital.

'One paramedic was telling me on Boxing Day they had over 500 calls waiting but he was stuck in our A&E for three hours with a patient in his ambulance,' they said.

'It's these sorts of things that if they continue to happen, it makes me wonder, is somebody going to be harmed because of this?'

They said the hospital had been put on divert recently, meaning ambulances were told not take patients there because they were not able to take any more.

And while patients are being treated in ambulances outside the hospital, the paramedics are unable to go and attend to more call-outs.

With a peak expected in the coming weeks following Christmas and New Year, the nurse called for the Government to instigate a 'complete lockdown'.

They said the public may not be adhering to Covid restrictions as stringently as before, and that it was essential for people to stay home.

'I don't necessarily blame the public when the messages have been so mixed from this Government,' they said.

'But I just want them to hear us and hear what we're saying because it's really unbearable.'

A spokesman from Whittington Health said: 'Whilst we do not comment on anonymous claims, we take these allegations very seriously.

'Like the whole NHS, Whittington Health is currently experiencing pressure as a result of a rapid increase in Covid-positive patients.

'However, the safety of our patients remains our top priority and our staff are working tirelessly to ensure that we can continue to provide safe, effective and compassionate care to those who require it.'

Another nurse, named Naomi, who works in a London hospital, said on Twitter: 'I literally don't think my hospital has any more clean wards left.'

She added: 'All of them, Covid. I'm tired man this is too emotionally draining.'

And Dave Carr, an intensive care charge nurse at St Thomas' Hospital in London, added to the Guardian: 'The public needs to be aware of what's happening.

'This is worse than the first wave; we have more patients than we had in the first wave and these patients are as sick as they were in the first wave.

'Obviously, we've got additional treatments that we can use now, but patients are still dying, and they will die.'

Dave Carr, an intensive care charge nurse at St Thomas' Hospital in London, said: 'The public needs to be aware of what's happening. 'This is worse than the first wave; we have more patients than we had in the first wave and these patients are as sick as they were in the first wave'

Exhausted NHS staff will be looking to the vaccine rollout to stem the tsunami of hospitalisations on the way.

Pfizer and AstraZeneca have said there will be enough doses to hit the country's ambitious targets.

Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty this week warned vaccine availability issues will 'remain the case for several months' as firms struggle to meet demand.

The Government has pledged to give single doses of the Pfizer vaccine to as many people as they can - rather than give a second dose to those already vaccinated.

But manufacturers of both the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs have rubbished concerns, saying there is no problem with supply.

Sir Richard Sykes, who led a review of the Government's Vaccines Taskforce in December, added he is 'not aware' of a shortage in supply.

Another pressing issue facing ministers is whether to keep all primary and secondary schools closed because of a Covid 'tsunami' in classrooms.

One teaching union called for all institutions across the country to be closed for the start of the new term.

It came after the government U-turned on its decision to keep some primaries in London open despite rising Covid cases.

Many of the London boroughs which had been told to keep primary schools open are experiencing a surge in Covid cases

Ministers bowed to protests, legal pressure and scientific advice on New Year's Day after it initially omitted a number of the capital's boroughs from the forced closures.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the u-turn was needed but said it was 'perplexing' it had got to this stage.

She questioned why the same restrictions are not being rolled out across the rest of the country and said the way the devolved powers had dealt with the mutant virus in schools had led to less chaos.

Dr Bousted also slammed the government's 'recklessness' in looking out for teachers and children's health and branded it 'inexplicable'.

Gavin Williamson had this week released a list of London primary schools in coronavirus 'hotspots' that would stay shut for two weeks after the start of term next week.

The list did not include areas where Covid rates are high such as Haringey whose leaders said they would defy the government and support schools that decided to close.

It comes after a junior A&E doctor was left 'heartbroken' after being met with a huge crowd of maskless revellers after his New Year's Eve shift in London.

Dr Matthew Lee was 'disgusted' after a crowd - some chanting 'Covid is a hoax' - gathered outside St Thomas' Hospital - where tireless doctors battled to save Boris Johnson's life after he contracted Covid last year.

Dr Lee, from Hong Kong, filmed the group after he finished his senior house officer (SHO) shift in the A&E department.

A junior A&E doctor was left 'heartbroken' after being met with a huge crowd of maskless revellers chanting 'Covid is a hoax' after his New Year's Eve shift in London

Dr Lee, from Hong Kong, filmed the group (pictured) after he finished his senior house officer (SHO) shift in the A&E department

He claimed some of the people were Covid-19 conspiracy theorists as he questioned why many Britons still do not 'realise the seriousness of this pandemic'.

Footage of the crowd emerged as a further 53,285 people in Britain were diagnosed with Covid-19 - marking four days in a row there have been more than 50,000 cases.

Dr Lee shared the clip to Twitter with the caption: 'Worked the late A&E SHO shift on New Year's Eve and came out to this.

'Hundreds of maskless, drunk people in huge groups shouting ''Covid is a hoax'', literally outside the building where hundreds are sick and dying.

'Why do people still not realise the seriousness of this pandemic?'

He later added: 'I'm disgusted but mostly heartbroken. I wish people could see the amount of Covid-19 [cases] and deaths in hospitals, and the sacrifices that healthcare workers make.

'This week alone has been so tough. Their ignorance is hurting others. I really wish people would keep themselves safe.'

His footage sparked outrage online, with countless Britons rushing to condemn Covid conspiracy theorists.

Piers Morgan shared Dr Lee's clip, writing: 'This is so disgusting. These morons shame Britain.'

Footage of the crowd (pictured) emerged as a further 53,285 people in Britain were diagnosed with Covid-19 - marking four days in a row that there have been more than 50,000 positive tests announced

Dr Lee shared the clip to Twitter with the caption: 'Worked the late A&E SHO shift on New Year's Eve and came out to this'

Mr Johnson spoke from self isolation on April 3 - just days before he was taken to hospital with Covid (left). He then released a video message from inside no 10, after he was discharged (right)

He later added: 'Still seething about this. If it's a hoax, let's take all these imbeciles inside the Covid ward without PPE.

'See how brave they feel when confronted with the reality of people choking to death.'

Paediatric doctor Sarah Hallett wrote: 'And yet ironically, despite how angry and despairing this makes us as NHS staff, if any single one of them needed our help (perhaps intubation and ventilation for example), we would do it in a heartbeat.'

Another viewer added: 'I'd love to drag them around the hospital, going from ward to ward showing them the devastation Covid is causing.

'Maybe end the tour with a quick visit to the Morgue. Absolute fools.'

His footage sparked outrage online, with countless Britons rushing to condemn Covid conspiracy theorists

The UK's daily case count has surged 63 per cent in a week, from 32,275 last Friday, meaning 253,720 people have received positive test results since Monday.

And 613 more people have died with the virus - including an eight-year-old child - taking the total official death toll to 74,125.

The eight-year-old died in England on December 30 and had other health problems, the NHS said.

Department of Health records show there were 23,823 people in hospital with the virus by December 28, the most recent update.

The count of fatalities has been erratic this week in the wake of a string of bank holidays, during which hospitals don't record them as reliably.

Death records were lower than usual over the long Christmas weekend, dropping to 230 deaths on Boxing Day, then higher than expected mid-week, rising to 981 on Wednesday, December 30. The week-long average is 554 deaths per day.

Coronavirus infections have surged over the Christmas holiday with the toughest lockdown measures for most of the country held off until Boxing Day or even later, allowing thousands of families to mix on December 25.

Cases are being driven up by the new super-infectious variant of coronavirus which emerged in the South East but has since spread nationwide.

And with London, Kent and Essex now at the epicentre of England's second wave - two thirds of yesterday's cases (33,573) were from those three regions alone - pressure is piling onto hospitals in the area with some declaring they are already in 'disaster mode' even coping with admissions from a week or two ago when cases were lower.

London has once again become the centre of England's crisis, with 15,089 of the cases confirmed yesterday diagnosed in the capital city and hospitals there reporting that their wards are bursting at the seams.

Second worst affected was the South East, where a further 10,844 cases were confirmed yesterday, followed by the East of England with 7,640.

These regions are the ones where the new variant, which may be 56 per cent more infectious and so fast-spreading that normal lockdown measures don't work, emerged and where it now makes up a majority of infections.

Infections are significantly lower in the other regions, where the new variant does not appear to have got such a successful foothold, potentially because they were already in lockdown when it emerged.

Medics transport a patient on a stretcher from an ambulance to the Royal London Hospital yesterday

Medics are pictured collecting a patient from an ambulance at the Royal London Hospital this morning, January 1

For the North West there were 5,164 cases announced yesterday, along with 3,079 in the East Midlands, 2,860 in the West Midlands, 2,175 in Yorkshire and the Humber, 2,104 in the South West and 1,340 in the North East.

There are no signs so far that the UK's second wave is slowing down or likely to come to an end soon.

Although the numbers of infections and hospital admissions fell during November's national lockdown, they surged upwards again when the restrictions were lifted.

The tier system appears to have worked in the North of England, which was at the heart of the outbreak during the autumn, but it came too late to the South East, East and London, where cases surged out of control over Christmas.

Widespread rules were brought in only this week, with Tier 4 imposed on a total of 44million people by Wednesday, December 30, and the rest of the country in Tier 3 except for the remote Isles of Scilly.

It will now take two or three weeks for those measures to come into effect and - if they work - bring down transmission of the virus.

But even if the lockdown rules work and bring infection rates down, hospitals will still have to cope with the aftermath of people who have already caught Covid-19, who can take two to three weeks to be hospitalised.

One doctor in London has warned that coronavirus patients on NHS intensive care wards are already in 'competition' for ventilators to keep them alive.

Dr Megan Smith, from Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust in the capital, said medics are facing 'horrifying' decisions as they have to choose which patients get access to lifesaving treatment for Covid-19 and which don't.

And she warned that an expected surge in patients triggered by people mixing with family and friends over Christmas hasn't even started yet, with the situation expected to get worse later this month and in February.

It comes as official NHS figures show that intensive care wards across the country are struggling more this winter even though an average 743 extra beds per day have been made available to try and cope with Covid patients.

NHS England data shows that, in the last week of December, there were 743 more intensive care beds available than in the same week of 2019 - 4,394 compared to 3,651.

But in the same week there were, on average, 828 more patients in critical care - 3,340 compared to 2,512 in the December 2019 - suggesting the strain of Covid-19 is bigger than hospitals had prepared for.Many of the extra beds are in London - 253 of them - but even this hasn't been enough to stave off the surge in coronavirus patients.

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Sun, 03 Jan 2021 12:15

ELON Musk called Bill Gates a "knucklehead" on Monday and insisted he won't take a coronavirus vaccine.

The 49-year-old SpaceX and Tesla CEO slammed his fellow billionaire and revealed his shocking plans on the New York Times podcast ''Sway.''

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Elon Musk called Bill Gates a 'knucklehead' on Monday Credit: AFP or licensors 4

Bill Gates is invested in CureVac, a company that has its machines manufactured by Tesla Credit: Getty Images - GettySpeaking to the host Kara Swisher, Musk slammed Gates - who has voiced support for a coronavirus vaccine - as "a stupid person."

Musk added: "Gates said something about me not knowing what I was doing.

''It's like, 'Hey, knucklehead, we actually make the vaccine machines for CureVac.'"

CureVac, a company Gates has invested in, has machines manufactured by Tesla.

Musk also defended his decision not to vaccinate himself or his children, according to RT.

"I'm not at risk for COVID, nor are my kids," said Musk, when asked if he would get the vaccine.

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Musk has downplayed Covid-19 on many occasions Credit: Reuters 4

Musk has praised Tesla for continuing to make cars during the COVID lockdown Credit: AP:Associated PressMusk has downplayed Covid-19 on many occasions, including during his interview with Swisher.

"In the grand scheme of things, we have something with a very low mortality rate and high contagion," he said.

"Essentially, the right thing to do would be to not have done a lockdown for the whole country, but to have anyone who is at risk quarantine until the storm passes."

Musk praised Tesla for continuing to make cars during the Covid-19 lockdown after he filed a lawsuit over his factory's closure and opened up the plant.

He added: ''Through this entire thing, we didn't skip a day. We had national security clearance because we were doing national security work.

"We sent astronauts to the space station and back.''

When Swisher questioned Musk about the safety of his Tesla employees and asked what if somebody were to die, the Tesla CEO said: "Everybody dies."

He also denounced the nation's response to the pandemic, saying: "It has diminished my faith in humanity, the whole thing.

"The irrationality of people in general."

His comments don't come as a surprise as earlier this year, the Tesla boss advocated a coronavirus conspiracy theory that the official death toll was being artificially exaggerated.

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In April, Musk joined cries to reopen the US in a series of tweets to his 33 million followers, proclaiming "Free America Now!"

The Tesla tycoon tweeted an op-ed that questioned whether the lockdown saved many lives, adding "Give people their freedom back!"

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Sun, 03 Jan 2021 12:43

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Jan 2, 2021, 10:54am EST

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ITM! Happy new year to you Adam. May you, John and all you love have a happy and prosperous 2021.

I just thought I'd share with you some financial stats on what the UK has been doing during the never ending lockdown:

Lager: +792 million

Wine: +717 million

Tobacco: +684 million

Spirits: +566 million

Water: -149 million

Juices: -50 million

Deodorant: -47 million

As you can see, we are doing great! We are drinking more and smelling worse, all ready to build back better!

Stephen.

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Archived Version

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:16

By Mark Glennon of Wirepoints

Check out WGN's story about an executive board member at the Chicago Teachers Union.

Hypocrite Sarah Chambers enjoying some time away from the Rona.''As recently as Thursday,'' according to WGN, Sarah Chambers ''tweeted to rally special education teachers not to return to work Monday because it's unsafe. Just a few hours earlier, Chambers posted a picture on Instagram that appears to show her pool side in Puerto Rico and talking about going to Old San Juan for seafood.''

According to WGN, the post also mentions she previously had COVID, got a negative test result and consulted her doctor before traveling. Once the story broke, Chambers quickly deleted all evidence of her hypocrisy and nuked her instragram account.

Chambers, you may remember, was part of that solidarity mission last year by CTU members to communist Venezuela we wrote about.

At the time, she said on Twitter that ''The USA does not want people to realize that another world is possible with justice and love.'' Chambers also wrote on Twitter that the delegation hadn't seen a single homeless person during their trip. No mention that housing might be plentiful because over three million people have fled '' about 10% of the population.

Sarah Chambers (lower right) in Venezuela with other CTU members, all proudly supporting communism. Source: FightBackNewsIn 2017, the school district fired her for, as reported by WTTW,

''leaving her own classroom to barge into classrooms of other teachers and issue her own instructions to students, interfering with statewide tests, and participating in a scheme to remove and transport students without any chaperone who had cleared criminal background checks, without alerting school officials which students would be missing from class and which students were unaccounted for'....''

However, she claimed she was fired in retaliation for other matters and the CTU got her reinstated, the union says.

Props to Ben Bradley at WGN for catching this story. We might have missed it because Sarah, as good communists tend to do, blocked us on Twitter long ago.

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:17

A wild American mink in Utah has tested positive for the coronavirus '-- the first wild animal found to be infected with the virus, researchers say.

The wild mink was infected with a variant of the coronavirus that was ''indistinguishable'' from viruses taken from nearby farmed minks, researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture wrote in a Dec. 13 report. That suggests that the wild mink acquired the infection from farmed animals. It's not clear if the animal was alive or dead at the time of testing.

Researchers found the mink during a survey for coronavirus-infected wildlife in areas surrounding mink farms that had outbreaks from August 24 to October 30. With only one wild animal testing positive so far, there is no evidence that the coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, is spreading among wild animals in the United States or elsewhere.

If the virus were to become widespread among wild or farmed minks, it may continue to evolve in those animals. In such a scenario, the virus could accumulate mutations that might not occur in humans, potentially allowing the virus to jump to other types of animals and make them sick or transmit a new, possibly more virulent strain back to people.

There have been multiple coronavirus outbreaks on mink farms in the United States and Europe since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While infected people originally passed the virus to farmed animals, small genetic changes in viruses infecting people and minks in Europe show that the coronavirus has also spread from mink back to humans, researchers reported in November in Science.

Millions of animals in Denmark were culled in early November after authorities raised concerns that mutations in mink versions of the coronavirus might make COVID-19 vaccines less effective. That could happen if the parts of the virus that are typically the target of protective, vaccine-induced antibodies evolve in minks to escape recognition and then those viruses are passed to people. But there is no evidence suggesting that existing viral variants from minks can weaken vaccines.

Trustworthy journalism comes at a price.Scientists and journalists share a core belief in questioning, observing and verifying to reach the truth. Science News reports on crucial research and discovery across science disciplines. We need your financial support to make it happen '' every contribution makes a difference.

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 20:36

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), and Senators-Elect Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) issued the following statement in advance of the Electoral College certification process on January 6, 2021:

"America is a Republic whose leaders are chosen in democratic elections. Those elections, in turn, must comply with the Constitution and with federal and state law.

"When the voters fairly decide an election, pursuant to the rule of law, the losing candidate should acknowledge and respect the legitimacy of that election. And, if the voters choose to elect a new office-holder, our Nation should have a peaceful transfer of power.

"The election of 2020, like the election of 2016, was hard fought and, in many swing states, narrowly decided. The 2020 election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.

"Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed. By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes.

"And those allegations are not believed just by one individual candidate. Instead, they are widespread. Reuters/Ipsos polling, tragically, shows that 39% of Americans believe 'the election was rigged.' That belief is held by Republicans (67%), Democrats (17%), and Independents (31%).

"Some Members of Congress disagree with that assessment, as do many members of the media.

"But, whether or not our elected officials or journalists believe it, that deep distrust of our democratic processes will not magically disappear. It should concern us all. And it poses an ongoing threat to the legitimacy of any subsequent administrations.

"Ideally, the courts would have heard evidence and resolved these claims of serious election fraud. Twice, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to do so; twice, the Court declined.

"On January 6, it is incumbent on Congress to vote on whether to certify the 2020 election results. That vote is the lone constitutional power remaining to consider and force resolution of the multiple allegations of serious voter fraud.

"At that quadrennial joint session, there is long precedent of Democratic Members of Congress raising objections to presidential election results, as they did in 1969, 2001, 2005, and 2017. And, in both 1969 and 2005, a Democratic Senator joined with a Democratic House Member in forcing votes in both houses on whether to accept the presidential electors being challenged.

"The most direct precedent on this question arose in 1877, following serious allegations of fraud and illegal conduct in the Hayes-Tilden presidential race. Specifically, the elections in three states-Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina-were alleged to have been conducted illegally.

"In 1877, Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy. Instead, Congress appointed an Electoral Commission-consisting of five Senators, five House Members, and five Supreme Court Justices-to consider and resolve the disputed returns.

"We should follow that precedent. To wit, Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission's findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.

"Accordingly, we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not 'regularly given' and 'lawfully certified' (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.

"We are not na¯ve. We fully expect most if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, to vote otherwise. But support of election integrity should not be a partisan issue. A fair and credible audit-conducted expeditiously and completed well before January 20-would dramatically improve Americans' faith in our electoral process and would significantly enhance the legitimacy of whoever becomes our next President. We owe that to the People.

"These are matters worthy of the Congress, and entrusted to us to defend. We do not take this action lightly. We are acting not to thwart the democratic process, but rather to protect it. And every one of us should act together to ensure that the election was lawfully conducted under the Constitution and to do everything we can to restore faith in our Democracy."

###

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 22:25

Over 400 people from the Intelligence Community (IC), military, law enforcement, and the judiciary have formed a loose network to investigate irregularities in the 2020 election.

Robert Caron, one of the organizers of this network, began his intelligence career with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He later worked for the Special Situation Group, a task force established by President George H.W. Bush that includes strategic planning, technologies, and foreign and domestic investigations.

He told The Epoch Times that he was recruited to the network in 2014, during which time many in the intelligence community (IC) were seeing an increase in improper operations. Many IC officers were withholding information from their leaders, and their leaders were withholding information from the public. Caron mentioned that in 2014, Lt. General Michael Flynn called out then-President Barack Obama for ''not acting properly on intelligence.''

In the same year, Obama fired Flynn over management issues. On Aug. 7, 2014, Flynn left his post as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and ended his 33 years of an army career. After President Donald Trump pardoned Flynn last month, Flynn said in an interview with The New York Post that he was framed via the Russia-collusion investigation partly because Obama was afraid of Flynn's ability to expose his corruption.

''President Obama was not acting properly on intelligence that he received concerning Benghazi,'' Caron said, referring to an attack of U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the deaths of several U.S. officials. He said he believes it was then that a lot of people from the intelligence community got together and started recruiting people to join the network.

Retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn speaks among President Donald Trump supporters who rally in Washington, on Dec. 12, 2020. (Yong Wang/The Epoch Times)After numerous reports of irregularities in the 2020 election, the investigation network expanded. Many have focused on investigating the election, according to Caron, who said most are volunteering, while some are getting paid for the inquiry. He said that as far as he knows, the size of the network is ''way over 400'' and that each member of the network sees obvious election fraud based on their own observations.

Caron said that the network includes former intelligence officers, analysts, operatives, military, law enforcement, and judiciary from the FBI, CIA, Military Intelligence, DIA, and National Security Agency (NSA), among others, as well as many former intelligence officers in other countries.

''The fraud was so massive and so blatant, despite what the mainstream media said, that we need to get this information out to the public,'' said Caron. ''That's why more and more people from the intelligence community and law enforcement are coming out, which is unheard of.''

Caron shared an example of information control by the mainstream media that he witnessed in McAllen, Texas, when Trump visited the border wall there in January 2019.

He said he saw two groups on both sides of the street. A group of about 100 was on one side, and a much larger group was on the other side. ''A lot of people, because of what was told in the mainstream media, thought that all the people in the big crowd were the ones against the president. But no, they were the ones that were for the president.''

He said he asked them what they thought and learned that the border wall made their families feel safer, and was told that without the wall, various Mexican criminal organizations would cross the border and force their children to sell drugs.

One of the IC network's current investigations focuses on foreign interference during the Nov. 3 election, with the Chinese Communist Party being a significant player.

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Fri, 01 Jan 2021 01:00

'); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1455834208841-0'); }); } Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) officially stated that he will object to the Electoral College vote count to be held in the Senate on January 6. May this courageous man be the first of many senators to take a stand against the overwhelming evidence of election fraud. If neither candidate wins enough Electoral College votes on January 6, Trump should win '-- and it's all in the Constitution without the need for any strained statutory interpretations.

'); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1345489840937-3'); }); } Let me start with an overview of what happens on January 6. It's crucial to appreciate how this can end if Hawley is joined by several senators who refuse to certify Electoral College votes achieved through manifest fraud. I've culled this information from Petr Svab's excellent article at The Epoch Times (hat tip to Dan Bongino):

The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution is the primary authority for events on January 6. The Electoral Count Act (3 USC §15) plays a role, but, thankfully, that act is probably unconstitutional in one very specific and important way.

Under the Twelfth Amendment, the president of the Senate (i.e., Mike Pence) opens the certificates sent from the states, "and the votes shall then be counted." That's all that the Constitution says about the vice president's role.

Meanwhile, 3 USC §15, enacted in 1887, after prescribing details for conducting the count, says members of Congress can object. If one House member and one senator object, that triggers a separate vote about the objection by both the House and the Senate. If both House and Senate agree there's a problem, the challenged electoral votes are gone.

In this election year, having voices in the House and Senate to challenge the results is important. As we've seen, courts have punted on the question of fraud, effectively denying due process of law, not just to Trump, but to every Trump voter. When no court will allow evidence on a matter of pre-eminent importance, it's up to the People's representatives to get the evidence before the public.

However, we know that no amount of evidence of fraud will get the House to agree that Electoral College votes for Biden are invalid. So what happens when only the Senate votes to reject the Electoral College votes on the basis of fraud?

Well, this is the point at which the Electoral Count Act is confusing and almost certainly unconstitutional. It says that if the two bodies vote differently regarding competing Electoral College votes, the votes that the state's governor has certified win. This will hand victory to Biden. By so holding, though, the Electoral Count Act runs directly afoul of the Twelfth Amendment.

As I wrote in September, when no one was paying attention to this kind of thing, the Constitution is remarkably clear on the subject. If there are not enough Electoral College votes to hand victory to any one candidate '-- as will be the case if the Senate refuses to accept Electoral College votes predicated on manifest and overwhelming fraud '-- the Constitution spells out who picks the winner: fifty members (one for each state) from the newly seated House of Representatives decide.

Here's the Twelfth Amendment's language:

But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. (U.S. Const., Amendment 12, Clause 3.)

What's of signal importance here is that the House as a body does not vote. Instead, one House member from each state votes. Handing the matter to the House in this way makes eminent sense because this is the body closest to the most recently expressed will of the American people. If the Electoral College failed, at least the majority of voters in each state will speak through the majority of House members from their states.

Under the 20th Amendment, the vote takes place not with the currently seated House, but with the incoming House. The incoming House has 27 states with a majority of Republican representatives, 20 states with a majority of Democrat representatives, and 3 states that are tied. That spells a clear victory for Donald Trump.

In brief: If senators follow Hawley's lead and take a stand against the fraudulently generated Electoral College votes, at that point, under the Twelfth Amendment, there is no elected president, and the matter returns not to the full House, but to a single representative from each state. And so, Trump wins.

Image: Senator Josh Hawley. Public Domain.

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Fri, 01 Jan 2021 23:05

President Trump last week refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election. Mike Pence is right there with him.

''If Vice President Biden is declared the winner and President Trump refuses to accept a peaceful transfer of power, what would be your role and responsibility as vice president?'' Pence was asked during Wednesday night's vice presidential debate. ''What would you, personally, do?''

Pence dodged the question entirely, only maintaining that he thinks Trump is going to win the election. He went on to attack Biden, misrepresent the president's accomplishments, and wax conspiracy-theoretical about voter fraud and President Obama ''spying'' on the Trump campaign prior to the 2016 election.

Asked what he'd do if Trump doesn't accept a peaceful transfer of power, Pence admonishes Harris that ''your party has spent the last 3.5 years trying to overturn the results of the previous election.'' He then lies about the FBI ''spying'' on Trump's campaign. pic.twitter.com/EKp7wcgxyn

'-- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2020

Trump has on multiple occasions cast doubt on whether he will accept the election results. ''We're going to have to see what happens,'' he said when asked during a press conference late last month if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power. ''I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots,'' he added before, you guessed it, ranting incoherently for a few more minutes.

Days later during the first presidential debate, Trump was asked by moderator Chris Wallace if would commit to not declaring victory until the election results have been certified independently. Trump avoided the question. ''I urge my supporters to go to the polls and watch very carefully, because that's what has to happen,'' he said instead.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Trump was thrilled with Pence's response to the question about transferring power on Wednesday night. He even posted a video clip of it on Twitter before offering his review of his vice president's performance.

''Mike Pence WON BIG!'' the president wrote.

Holding the powerful to account isn't cheap. Support Rolling Stone's award-winning political coverage with a digital subscription. Click here to subscribe.

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Sun, 03 Jan 2021 12:19

Vice President Mike Pence said he welcomes efforts by lawmakers to challenge Electoral College results in the upcoming congressional joint session on Jan. 6, when the votes are formally counted, according to a new statement.

Vice President Chief of Staff Marc Short issued the statement yo reporters on Saturday saying that Pence, who will be presiding over the Jan. 6 session as president of the senate, is open to considering planned objections by Republican House members and senators to Electoral College votes cast for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Short added that the vice president also welcomes efforts by lawmakers to present evidence of election irregularities and alleged voter fraud before Congress during that session.

''Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election,'' Short said in the statement sent to media outlets.

This comes after a group of 11 Republican senators announced their intention to challenge the electoral college votes from contested states earlier on Saturday. The group, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said the 2020 election ''featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations, and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.''

The allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election ''exceed any in our lifetimes,'' they said, adding that this ''deep distrust'' of U.S. democratic processes ''will not magically disappear'' and ''should concern us all,'' whether or not elected officials or journalist believe the allegations.

''It poses an ongoing threat to the legitimacy of any subsequent administrations,'' the senators wrote in their statement, while calling on Congress to appoint an electoral commission to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election results.

They added that they intend to object to the votes unless and until the emergency 10-day audit is completed.

The group includes Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.). Meanwhile, Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) also plan on joining. They'll be sworn in on Sunday, several days before the joint session.

Their announcement means 12 senators intend to object to the contested electoral votes on Jan. 6.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was the first senator to announce his plans to object earlier this week. Forty-five House members plan on objecting to electoral votes, according to a tally by The Epoch Times.

President Donald Trump, left, and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in file photographs. (Getty Images)Objections during the joint session must be made in writing by at least one House member and one senator. If the objection for any state meets this requirements, the joint session pauses and each house withdraws to its own chamber to debate the question for a maximum of two hours. The House and the Senate then vote separately to accept or reject the objection, which requires a majority vote from both chambers.

If both candidates receive less than 270 electoral votes on Jan. 6, then a contingent election is triggered in which each state's delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives casts one en bloc vote to determine the president, while the vice president is decided by a vote in the U.S. Senate.

Democrats and several Republican senators have opposed the plans to challenge the electoral college results. Republican Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) issued statements on Saturday to reaffirm their support that they would back the electoral college votes that were cast for Biden.

Similarly, Senate Democrats rebuked efforts by their Republican colleagues.

''Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20th, and no publicity stunt will change that,'' Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said in a statement.

''This pathetic, opportunistic stunt is an attack on our democracy. It's un-American & unconscionable. Votes have been counted, recounted, certified, & all challenges totally discredited. Time to govern & get things done,'' Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a separate statement.

The Republican senators acknowledged in their statement on Saturday that they expect Democrats and a few Republicans to vote against them but they added that ''support for election integrity should not be a partisan issue.''

''A fair and credible audit-conducted expeditiously and completed well before January 20 would dramatically improve Americans' faith in our electoral process and would significantly enhance the legitimacy of whoever becomes our next President. We owe that to the People,'' the Republican senators said.

This comes after many President Donald Trump allies called on Pence to reject electoral votes from disputed states. A judge on Friday rejected a lawsuit filed by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and other Republicans against Pence requesting that the court grant the vice president ''the exclusive authority and sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count for a given State'' on Jan. 6.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

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Archived Version

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 12:24

News Analysis

At 1 p.m. local time on Jan. 6, members of Congress will gather in the chamber of the House of Representatives to observe the formal certification of Electoral College votes for president of the United States.

While it's usually a formality, nothing has been usual so far about this year's election amid numerous allegations of voter fraud in key swing states.

The situation is complicated by a lack of clarity on the legal and constitutional guardrails for the process. The joint session of Congress may well result in gridlock, in which a clear winner of the race isn't announced at all.

Based on current election results, former Vice President Joe Biden has received 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 votes. Meanwhile, Republicans in seven states where Biden claimed victory have sent their own sets of electoral votes to Washington, and some members of the House have indicated that they will object to Biden electors in some states. Any objection would require support from one House member and one senator to be considered, and at least one senator has left open the possibility he would join the effort.

So what will happen?

The counting of votes is primarily governed by the 12th Amendment of the Constitution and the amended Electoral Count Act.

The Constitution simply states that electors of each state have to meet, make a list of their votes, ''which they shall sign and certify,'' and send those to the president of the Senate, meaning Vice President Mike Pence.

''The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted,'' the 1804 amendment says.

The Electoral Count Act of 1887, currently known as 3 U.S. Code Section 15, establishes a procedure for how the votes are counted, how to raise objections, and how to resolve disputes. First, it says that the vice president indeed presides over the proceedings. Then, it says the House and Senate leaders each designate two tellers. The VP opens the envelopes with the vote certificates and hands them to the tellers for counting. The tellers then read them out loud, count them, and hand them back to the VP to announce the results.

Then, in rather convoluted language, the law says that Congress members can object. At least one objection from each chamber is needed to trigger a separate vote by both House and Senate on the objections. If both chambers agree, the objected voters are rejected. That's virtually out of the question given the Democrats' majority in the House.

If two sets of electors are presented for counting, the House and Senate need to separately vote on which set is legitimate and which should be rejected. If each chamber votes differently, the set certified by the state's governor should count. That would hand the victory to Biden.

The problem is, there's a voluminous body of legal analysis arguing that the Electoral Count Act is unconstitutional. Congress has no business granting itself the authority to decide which slate of electors is the correct one and which votes should be rejected. Nor does Congress have the power to designate state governors as the final arbiters, a lineup of legislators and legal scholars have argued.

There are two arguments for who has the constitutional power to decide which electors to choose.

Some jurists say it's the VP who has the sole discretion to decide which votes to count. The argument is that the framers intended for the VP to be the sole authority over the counting of the votes because the unanimous resolution attached to the Constitution said that the Senate should appoint its president ''for the sole purpose of receiving, opening, and counting the votes for president.''

Moreover, before the adoption of the Electoral Count Act, it was always the VP counting the votes, sometimes despite major objections from Congress. Thomas Jefferson did so as the VP in the 1800 election, counting Georgia's constitutionally deficient votes and de facto securing his own presidency.

Arizona state lawmakers and GOP electors, together with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), have filed a federal suit asking for the court to clarify the law to the effect that the Electoral Count Act is unconstitutional and the VP's power is paramount.

Not everybody agrees, though.

University of Virginia professor John Harrison, an expert on constitutional history, says the VP doesn't have ''any constitutional power to make decisions'' over which votes to count.

He argued that the law is deficient to the effect that ''Congress doesn't have the power to make the announcement [of its decisions regarding the vote count] conclusive.'' But that doesn't mean it can't prescribe any rules at all.

''The Constitution does call for counting the votes with both houses present, so I think that setting up procedures for a count is within Congress's power,'' he told The Epoch Times via email.

The second argument is that the Constitution grants the authority to determine how electors are picked to state legislatures. As such, any disputes over which votes should be counted should be resolved by state legislatures.

The problem is, state legislatures aren't in session and they can't assemble in a special session without a call from the governors, who have refused to do so. Meanwhile, the legislatures have usually delegated the power to certify electors to the Governors and Secretaries of State, undermining their own authority on the matter.

The conservative Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society has filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the power of the legislatures is both ''exclusive and non-delegable,'' and thus any state and federal statutes to the contrary are unconstitutional and void.

That would not only knock down some provisions of the Electoral Count Act, but also render electoral votes that haven't been certified post-election by state legislatures illegitimate.

Regardless of what the courts will say, the core question is what will take place in the House chambers on Jan. 6? Will Pence refuse to follow the Electoral Count Act? Will some of the tellers dissent? If things go wrong for the Democrats, will House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) try to end the session prematurely?

There's no way to tell. Pence hasn't let his intentions be known.

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Archived Version

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 13:16

January 2, 2021 | 12:21pm | Updated January 2, 2021 | 12:21pm

The Wisconsin hospital worker accused of spoiling hundreds of doses of COVID-19 vaccine didn't tamper with the vials just once '-- he left them unrefrigerated twice, his boss claims.

Steven Brandenburg, 46, is being held in jail on three criminal counts '-- recklessly endangering safety, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property '-- although police have not officially identified him as the alleged culprit, the Daily Mail reported.

Ozaukee County Jail records show Brandenburg was booked New Year's Eve, the same day cops arrested the culprit, and state records show he is a licensed pharmacist.

Both the police and federal authorities '-- the FBI and the Food and Drug Administration '-- are investigating the tampering at Advocate Aurora Health Hospital in Grafton, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee.

The wrongdoer had left 57 vials at room temperature not one night as first suspected, but two '-- on Dec. 24 and 25, Dr. Jeff Bahr told reporters in a Zoom briefing Thursday.

The culprit put the vials back on ice after the first night, then came back to pull the same trick a second night, Bahr told reporters.

A pharmacy technician found the vials on a counter the morning of Dec. 26 and put them back into the refrigerator. Later that day, 57 people were vaccinated at Aurora Medical Center Grafton because the hospital didn't know the vials had been left out two nights. The vaccine, according to maker Moderna, can be kept at room temperature for up to 12 hours.

Those vaccinated have been notified, Bahr said; hospital workers threw out the rest of the vials.

''There is no evidence that the vaccines posed any harm to them other than being potentially less effective or ineffective,'' he said.

Advocate Aurora Health Hospital in Grafton, Wisconsin. Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via APThe employee responsible for leaving the vials out told hospital officials that the move was ''inadvertent error,'' done in the process of getting another medicine out of the refrigerator, Bahr said.

But hospital officials became ''increasingly suspicious'' of the employee after an internal review, he said. They interviewed the worker several times before he finally admitted to tampering with the vials.

The employee didn't explain his actions and police don't have a motive yet for the crimes.

Bahr assured the public there was no evidence that the vaccine had been tampered with in any other way.

''This was a situation involving a bad actor as opposed to a bad process,'' he said.

Itm Adam,

I wanted to relay a personal story that may effect other producers going to Dc on the 6th and impact the NoAgenda protest on the 5th.

My wife and I booked a Hyatt hotel in Dc on booking.com I was checked the booking this morning and to my surprise, it was cancelled. I called the Hyatt and they looked it up, then confirmed the reservation was cancelled by a booking.com request.

I called booking.com and had two conversations. The first ended with the agent telling me to call back and hanging up on me. The second ended with a lady telling me her supervisor would not speak to me, yes it was cancelled, no she doesn't no why, your credit card is fine, and no, I don't know why we didn't email you about the cancellation, it looks like someone took that option off your cancellation action. Can I make a different reservation for you sir? (Heck no!!)

In short, if you're going to Dc for January 6th, double check your travel reservations. There is mischief afoot.

Robert Wood

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Archived Version

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 23:04

Britain could be hit by a new 'Beast from the East' in the next fortnight as forecasters warn of 'sudden stratospheric warming' above the Arctic.

Temperatures could hit -10 degrees celsius, roads will become treacherously icy and snow is expected to fall across the country, as police warn against all but essential travel.

Meteorologists say that a 'sudden stratospheric warming' is taking place high up in the stratosphere, which means that winds in the polar vortex could change direction and bring cold air to Britain from Siberia.

In 2018, when the last 'Beast from the East' came in, the UK was gripped by travel chaos, with drivers stranded overnight on motorways and heavy snow forcing schools to shut.

Grahame Madge from the Met Office said: ''Many weather agencies are united in the view that this SSW will take place next week.

''When that happens - around 30km up in the stratosphere - our traditional wind pattern can be reversed.

''What is less clear is the long-term outlook for the impact of this event. Two out of three SSW events result in very cold episodes but one in three has little impact at all.''

Snow has covered Cheshire and temperatures are set to continue to fall below freezing Credit : Martin Rickett/PA In recent years extreme cold, winter snow events have all been connected to the surface effects of sudden stratospheric warmings, such as those in 2009-10, 2013, and 'the beast from the east' in 2018, the Met Office said.

Every winter, strong westerly winds circle around the pole high up in the stratosphere, but sometimes the winds temporarily weaken, or even reverse to flow from east to west, as is predicted this year.

The cold air, which is around -80 degrees then descends very rapidly in the polar vortex - a large area of low pressure air above the North Pole.

The compression causes the temperature in the stratosphere to rise as much as 50­°C over only a few days, hence the term sudden stratospheric warming.

As the cold air from high up in the stratosphere disperses, it can affect the shape of the jet stream, which causes our weather to change.

The stratospheric sudden warming can sometimes cause the jet stream to 'snake' more, and this tends to create a large area of high pressure, usually forming over the North Atlantic and Scandinavia.

This means that northern Europe, including the UK, is likely to get a long spell of dry, cold weather.

Ollie King, 22, and his sister Laura, 19, take a dip into the sea at King Edward's Bay in Tynemouth on New Year's Day Credit : Owen Humphreys/PAWhat made the 2018 'Beast from the East' so fearsome, was the addition of Storm Emma, which added blizzards, strong winds and snow dumps of up to 50cms in one day.

Already, temperatures across the UK are dropping, and meteorologists are expecting ice and snow warnings to be issued next week.

New Year's Eve saw temperatures hit minus 7.3C in Wiltshire, and frost and ice are expected to last into next week, the Met Office said.

Police forces in areas hit by ice and snow urged motorists to travel only if necessary as emergency crews attended several collisions on New Year's Eve.

Derbyshire Police reported a five-car collision just before 7.30am on New Year's Day.

The warnings are echoed by RAC Breakdown spokesman Simon Williams who told the Telegraph: ''The best advice is always - if you don't have to drive, don't drive.

''The last thing that we need at the moment is more accidents and more people needing hospital treatment at a time when the NHS is under extreme pressure.''

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Archived Version

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 14:22

The practice of eating insects

Entomophagy (, from Greek á¼--νÏÎμÎν (C)ntomon, 'insect', and φαÎ"εá–ν phagein, 'to eat') describes the practice of eating insects.

In non-humans [ edit ] Entomophagy among animals: The

giant anteater is a mammal specialized in eating insects

Insects,[1] nematodes[2] and fungi[3] that obtain their nutrition from insects are sometimes termed entomophagous, especially in the context of biological control applications. These may also be more specifically classified into predators, parasites or parasitoids, while viruses, bacteria and fungi that grow on or inside insects may also be termed "entomopathogenic" (see also entomopathogenic fungi).

In humans [ edit ] Mealworms presented in a bowl for human consumption

The eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of certain insects have been eaten by humans from prehistoric times to the present day.[4] Around 3,000 ethnic groups practice entomophagy.[5] Human insect-eating is common to cultures in most parts of the world, including Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Eighty percent of the world's nations eat insects of 1,000 to 2,000 species.[6][7] In some societies, primarily western nations, entomophagy is uncommon or taboo.[8][9][10][11][12][13] Today, insect eating is uncommon in North America and Europe, but insects remain a popular food elsewhere, and some companies are trying to introduce insects as food into Western diets.[14] FAO has registered some 1,900 edible insect species and estimates that there were, in 2005, some two billion insect consumers worldwide. They suggest eating insects as a possible solution to environmental degradation caused by livestock production.[15]

Terminology and distinction [ edit ] Entomophagy is sometimes defined broadly also to cover the eating of arthropods other than insects, including arachnids and myriapods.[16]Insects and arachnids eaten around the world include crickets, cicadas, grasshoppers, ants, various beetle grubs (such as mealworms, the larvae of the darkling beetle),[17] various species of caterpillar (such as bamboo worms, mopani worms, silkworms and waxworms), scorpions and tarantulas. There are over 1,900 known species of arthropods which are edible for humans.[18]

Eating insects in human cultures [ edit ] History [ edit ] Before humans had tools to hunt or farm, insects may have represented an important part of their diet. Evidence has been found analyzing coprolites from caves in the US and Mexico. Coprolites in caves in the Ozark Mountains were found to contain ants, beetle larvae, lice, ticks, and mites.[20] Evidence suggests that evolutionary precursors of Homo sapiens were also entomophagous. Insectivory also features to various degrees amongst extant primates, such as marmosets and tamarins,[21] and some researchers suggest that the earliest primates were nocturnal, arboreal insectivores.[9] Similarly, most extant apes are insectivorous to some degree.[22][23][24]

Cave paintings in Altamira, north Spain, which have been dated from about 30,000 to 9,000 BC, depict the collection of edible insects and wild bee nests, suggesting a possibly entomophagous society.[20] Cocoons of wild silkworm (Triuncina religiosae) were found in ruins in Shanxi Province of China, from 2,000 to 2,500 years BC. The cocoons were discovered with large holes in them, suggesting the pupae were eaten.[20] Many ancient entomophagy practices have changed little over time compared with other agricultural practices, leading to the development of modern traditional entomophagy.[20]

Traditional cultures [ edit ] Many cultures embrace the eating of insects. Edible insects have long been used by ethnic groups in Asia,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Africa, Mexico and South America as cheap and sustainable sources of protein. Up to 2,086 species are eaten by 3,071 ethnic groups in 130 countries.[7] The species include 235 butterflies and moths, 344 beetles, 313 ants, bees and wasps, 239 grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches, 39 termites, and 20 dragonflies, as well as cicadas.[32] Insects are known to be eaten in 80 percent of the world's nations.[6]

The leafcutter ant Atta laevigata is traditionally eaten in some regions of Colombia and northeast Brazil. In southern Africa, the widespread moth Gonimbrasia belina's large caterpillar, the mopani or mopane worm, is a source of food protein. In Australia, the witchetty grub is eaten by the indigenous population. The grubs of Hypoderma tarandi, a reindeer parasite, were part of the traditional diet of the Nunamiut people.[33] Udonga montana is a pentatomid bug that has periodic population outbreaks and is eaten in northeastern India.[34]

Traditionally several ethnic groups in Indonesia are known to consume insects'--especially grasshoppers, crickets, termites, the larvae of the sago palm weevil, and bee. In Java and Kalimantan, grasshoppers and crickets are usually lightly battered and deep fried in palm oil as a crispy kripik or rempeyek snack.[35] In Banyuwangi, East Java, there is a specialty botok called botok tawon (honeybee botok), which is beehives that contains bee larvae, being seasoned in spices and shredded coconut, wrapped inside a banana leaf package and steamed.[36] Dayak tribes of Kalimantan, also Moluccans and Papuan tribes in Eastern Indonesia, are known to consume ulat sagu (lit. 'sagoo caterpillar') or larvae of sago palm weevil. These protein-rich larvae are considered as a delicacy in Papua, eaten both roasted or uncooked.[37]

In Thailand, certain insects are also consumed, especially in northern provinces. Traditional markets in Thailand often have stalls selling deep-fried grasshoppers, cricket (ching rit), bee larvae, silkworm (non mai), ant eggs (khai mot) and termites.[38][39]

The use of insects as an ingredient in traditional foodstuffs in places such as Hidalgo in Mexico has been on a large enough scale to cause their populations to decline.[40]

In East Africa, Kunga cake is a food made of densely compressed flies.[41]

Western culture [ edit ] Although insect products such as honey and carmine are common, eating insects has not been adopted as a widespread practice in the West. However, there is a popular current trend towards the consumption of insects.[42] By 2011, a few restaurants in the Western world regularly served insects. For example, two places in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, offer cricket-based items. Vij's Restaurant has parathas that are made from roasted crickets that are ground into a powder or meal.[43] Its sister restaurant, Rangoli Restaurant, offers pizza that was made by sprinkling whole roasted crickets on naan dough.[43][44] Aspire Food Group was the first large-scale industrialized intensive farming entomophagy company in North America, using automated machinery in a 25,000-square-foot warehouse dedicated to raising organically-grown house crickets for human consumption.[45]

At the home stadium of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, grasshoppers are a popular novelty snack, selling in high volumes since they were introduced to concession stands in 2017.[46][47]

Cultural taboo [ edit ] Within Western culture, entomophagy (barring some food additives, such as carmine and shellac) is seen as taboo.[48] There are some exceptions. Casu marzu, for example, also called casu modde, casu cundh­du, or in Italian formaggio marcio, is a cheese made in Sardinia notable for being riddled with live insect larvae. Casu marzu means 'rotten cheese' in Sardinian language and is known colloquially as maggot cheese. A scene in the Italian film Mondo Cane (1962) features an insect banquet for shock effect, and a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom features insects as part of a similar banquet for shock factor. Western avoidance of entomophagy coexists with the consumption of other invertebrates such as molluscs and the insects' close arthropod relatives crustaceans, and is not based on taste or food value.[48]

Some schools of Islamic jurisprudence consider scorpions haram, but eating locusts as halal. Others prohibit all animals that creep, including insects.[49][50]

Within Judaism, most insects are not considered kosher, with the disputed exception of a few species of "kosher locust" which are accepted by certain communities.[51]

Public health nutritionist Alan Dangour has argued that large-scale entomophagy in Western culture faces "extremely large" barriers, which are "perhaps currently even likely to be insurmountable."[52]There is widespread disgust at entomophagy in the West, the image of insects being "unclean and disease-carrying"; there have been certain notable individual exceptions, for example the celebrity Angelina Jolie has been widely pictured cooking and eating arthropod "bugs" including a spider and a scorpion, but there is little sign that this is anything other than a case of a single celebrity trying to experience a wider global perspective, nor that Jolie herself eats insects as a primary part of her diet, as opposed to experimentally or for the publicity value inherent in such an activity.[53]The anthropologist Marvin Harris has suggested that the eating of insects is taboo in cultures that have other protein sources which require more work to obtain, such as poultry or cattle, though there are cultures which feature both animal husbandry and entomophagy. Examples can be found in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe where strong cattle-raising traditions co-exist with entomophagy of insects like the mopane worm. In addition, people in cultures where entomophagy is common are not indiscriminate in their choice of insects, as Thai consumers of insects perceive edible insects not consumed within their culture in a similar way as Western consumers.[54]

Advantages of eating insects [ edit ] Fried silk worm pupae sold by a street vendor in

Jinan, China, one with a bite taken out of it

Recent assessments of the potential of large-scale entomophagy have led some experts to suggest insects as a potential alternative protein source to conventional livestock, citing possible benefits including greater efficiency, lower resource use, increased food security, and environmental and economic sustainability.[55][56][57][58]

Food security [ edit ] The major role of entomophagy in human food security is well-documented.[57] While more attention is needed to fully assess the potential of edible insects, they provide a natural source of essential carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins, offering an opportunity to bridge the gap in protein consumption between poor and wealthy nations and also to lighten the ecological footprint.[57] Many insects contain abundant stores of lysine, an amino acid deficient in the diets of many people who depend heavily on grain.[59] Some argue that the combination of increasing land use pressure, climate change, and food grain shortages due to the use of corn as a biofuel feedstock will cause serious challenges for attempts to meet future protein demand.[56]

The first publication to suggest that edible insects could ease the problems of global food shortages was by Meyer-Rochow in 1975.[60] Insects as food and feed have emerged as an especially relevant issue in the 21st century due to the rising cost of animal protein, food and feed insecurity, environmental pressures, population growth and increasing demand for protein among the middle classes.[61] At the 2013 International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition,[62] the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released a publication titled Edible insects - Future prospects for food and feed security describing the contribution of insects to food security.[61] It shows the many traditional and potential new uses of insects for direct human consumption and the opportunities for and constraints to farming them for food and feed. It examines the body of research on issues such as insect nutrition and food safety, the use of insects as animal feed, and the processing and preservation of insects and their products.

Small-scale insect farming / Minilivestock [ edit ] The intentional cultivation of insects and edible arthropods for human food, referred to as "minilivestock", is now emerging in animal husbandry as an ecologically sound concept. Several analyses have found insect farming to be a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional animal livestocking.[55][63]

In Thailand, two types of edible insects (cricket and palm weevil larvae) are commonly farmed in the north and south respectively.[64] Cricket-farming approaches throughout the northeast are similar and breeding techniques have not changed much since the technology was introduced 15 years ago. Small-scale cricket farming, involving a small number of breeding tanks, is rarely found today and most of the farms are medium- or large-scale enterprises. Community cooperatives of cricket farmers have been established to disseminate information on technical farming, marketing and business issues, particularly in northeastern and northern Thailand. Cricket farming has developed into a significant animal husbandry sector and is the main source of income for a number of farmers. In 2013, there are approximately 20,000 farms operating 217,529 rearing pens.[64] Total production over the last six years (1996-2011) has averaged around 7,500 tonnes per year.

In the Western world, agricultural technology companies such as Tiny Farms[65] have been founded with the aim of modernizing insect rearing techniques, permitting the scale and efficiency gains required for insects to displace other animal proteins in the human food supply. The first domestic insect farm, LIVIN Farms Hive, has recently been successfully Kickstarted and will allow for the production of 200-500g of mealworms per week, a step toward a more distributed domestic production system.

Therapeutic foods [ edit ] In 2012, Dr. Aaron T. Dossey announced that his company, All Things Bugs, had been named a Grand Challenges Explorations winner by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[66] Grand Challenges Explorations provides funding to individuals with ideas for new approaches to public health and development. The research project is titled "Good Bugs: Sustainable Food for Malnutrition in Children".[66] Director of pediatric nutrition at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Frank Franklin has argued that since low calories and low protein are the main causes of death for approximately five million children annually, insect protein formulated into a ready-to-use therapeutic food similar to Nutriset's Plumpy'Nut could have potential as a relatively inexpensive solution to malnutrition.[52] In 2009, Dr. Vercruysse from Ghent University in Belgium has proposed that insect protein can be used to generate hydrolysates, exerting both ACE inhibitory and antioxidant activity, which might be incorporated as a multifunctional ingredient into functional foods. Additionally, edible insects can provide a good source of unsaturated fats, thereby helping to reduce coronary disease.[5]

Indigenous cultivation [ edit ] Edible insects can provide economic, nutritional, and ecological advantages to the indigenous populations that raise them.[67] For instance, the mopane worm of South Africa provides a "flagship taxon" for the conservation of mopane woodlands. Some researchers have argued that edible insects provide a unique opportunity for insect conservation by combining issues of food security and forest conservation through a solution which includes appropriate habitat management and recognition of local traditional knowledge and enterprises.[67] Cultures in Africa have developed unique interactions with insects as a result of their traditional ecological management practices and customs. However, senior FAO forestry officer Patrick Durst claims that "Among forest managers, there is very little knowledge or appreciation of the potential for managing and harvesting insects sustainably. On the other hand, traditional forest-dwellers and forest-dependent people often possess remarkable knowledge of the insects and their management."[68]

Similarly, Julieta Ramos-Elorduy has stated that rural populations, who primarily "search, gather, fix, commercialize and store this important natural resource", do not exterminate the species which are valuable to their lives and livelihoods.[7] According to the FAO, many experts see income opportunities for rural people involved in cultivation. However, adapting food technology and safety standards to insect-based foods would enhance these prospects by providing a clear legal foundation for insect-based foods.[68]

Pest harvesting [ edit ] Some researchers have proposed entomophagy as a solution to policy incoherence created by traditional agriculture, by which conditions are created which favor a few insect species, which then multiply and are termed "pests".[56] In parts of Mexico, the grasshopper Sphenarium purpurascens is controlled by its capture and use as food. Such strategies allow decreased use of pesticide and create a source of income for farmers totaling nearly US$3000 per family. Environmental impact aside, some argue that pesticide use is inefficient economically due to its destruction of insects which may contain up to 75 percent animal protein in order to save crops containing no more than 14 percent protein.[56]

Environmental benefits [ edit ] The methods of matter assimilation and nutrient transport used by insects make insect cultivation a more efficient method of converting plant material into biomass than rearing traditional livestock. More than 10 times more plant material is needed to produce one kilogram of meat than one kilogram of insect biomass.[56] The spatial usage and water requirements are only a fraction of that required to produce the same mass of food with cattle farming. Production of 150g of grasshopper meat requires very little water, while cattle requires 3290 liters to produce the same amount of beef.[69] This indicates that lower natural resource use and ecosystem strain could be expected from insects at all levels of the supply chain.[56] Edible insects also display much faster growth and breeding cycles than traditional livestock. An analysis of the carbon intensity of five edible insect species conducted at the University of Wageningen, Netherlands found that "the average daily gain (ADG) of the five insect species studied was 4.0-19.6 percent, the minimum value of this range being close to the 3.2% reported for pigs, whereas the maximum value was 6 times higher. Compared to cattle (0.3%), insect ADG values were much higher." Additionally, all insect species studied produced much lower amounts of ammonia than conventional livestock, though further research is needed to determine the long-term impact. The authors conclude that insects could serve as a more environmentally friendly source of dietary protein.[55]

Economic benefits [ edit ] Insects generally have a higher food conversion efficiency than more traditional meats, measured as efficiency of conversion of ingested food, or ECI.[70] While many insects can have an energy input to protein output ratio of around 4:1, raised livestock has a ratio closer to 54:1.[71] This is partially due to the fact that feed first needs to be grown for most traditional livestock. Additionally, endothermic (warm-blooded) vertebrates need to use a significantly greater amount of energy just to stay warm whereas ectothermic (cold-blooded) plants or insects do not.[69] An index which can be used as a measure is the Efficiency of conversion of ingested food to body substance: for example, only 10% of ingested food is converted to body substance by beef cattle, versus 19''31% by silkworms and 44% by German cockroaches. Studies concerning the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) provide further evidence for the efficiency of insects as a food source. When reared at 30 °C or more and fed a diet of equal quality to the diet used to rear conventional livestock, crickets showed a food conversion twice as efficient as pigs and broiler chicks, four times that of sheep, and six times higher than steers when losses in carcass trim and dressing percentage are counted.[20]

Insects reproduce at a faster rate than beef animals. A female cricket can lay from 1,200 to 1,500 eggs in three to four weeks, while for beef the ratio is four breeding animals for each market animal produced. This gives house crickets a true food conversion efficiency almost 20 times higher than beef.[20]

Nutritional benefits [ edit ] Insects such as crickets are a complete protein (contains all nine essential amino acids) and contain a more useful amount, comparable with protein from soybeans, though less than in casein (found in foods such as cheese).[72] They have dietary fiber and include mostly unsaturated fat and contain some vitamins[73] and essential minerals.[74][75]

Impacts of animal agriculture [ edit ] According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), animal agriculture makes a "very substantial contribution" to climate change, air pollution, land, soil and water degradation, land use concerns, deforestation and the reduction of biodiversity.[76] The high growth and intensity of animal agriculture has caused ecological damage worldwide; with meat production predicted to double from now to 2050, maintaining the status quo's environmental impact would demand a 50 percent reduction of impacts per unit of output. As the FAO states, animal livestock "emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."[76] Some researchers argue that establishing sustainable production systems will depend upon a large-scale replacement of traditional livestock with edible insects; such a shift would require a major change in Western perceptions of edible insects, pressure to conserve remaining habitats, and an economic push for food systems that incorporate insects into the supply chain.[58]

Greenhouse gas emission [ edit ] In total, the emissions of the livestock sector account for 18 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions,[55] a greater share than the transportation sector.[76] Using the ratio between body growth realized and carbon production as an indicator of environmental impact, conventional agriculture practices entail substantial negative impacts as compared to entomophagy.[55] The University of Wageningen analysis found that the CO 2 production per kilogram of mass gain for the five insect species studied was 39-129% that of pigs and 12-54% that of cattle. This finding corroborates existing literature on the higher feed conversion efficiency of insects as compared to mammalian livestock. For four of the five species studied, GHG emission was "much lower than documented for pigs when expressed per kg of mass gain and only around 1% of the GHG emission for ruminants."[55]

Land use [ edit ] Animal livestock is the largest anthropogenic user of land.[76] 26 percent of the Earth's ice-free terrestrial surface is occupied by grazing, while feedcrop production amounts to 33 percent of total arable land. Livestock production accounts for 70 percent of all agricultural land and 30 percent of the planet's land surface. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock activity such as overgrazing, erosion, and soil compaction, has been the primary cause of the degradation of 20 percent of the world's pastures and rangeland.[76]Animal livestock is responsible for 64 percent of man-made ammonia emissions, which contribute significantly to acid rain.[76] By extension, animal waste contributes to environmental pollution through nitrification and acidification of soil.[55]

Water pollution [ edit ] According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 64 percent of the world's population is expected to live in water-stressed basins by 2025. A reassessment of human usage and treatment of water resources will likely become necessary in order to meet growing population needs.[76] The FAO argues that the livestock sector is a major source of water pollution and loss of freshwater resources:

The livestock sector [...] is probably the largest sectoral source of water pollution, contributing to eutrophication, "dead" zones in coastal areas, degradation of coral reefs, human health problems, emergence of antibiotic resistance and many others. The major sources of pollution are from animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and pesticides used for feedcrops, and sediments from eroded pastures. Global figures are not available but in the United States, with the world's fourth largest land area, livestock are responsible for an estimated 55 percent of erosion and sediment, 37 percent of pesticide use, 50 percent of antibiotic use, and a third of the loads of nitrogen and phosphorus into freshwater resources. Livestock also affect the replenishment of freshwater by compacting soil, reducing infiltration, degrading the banks of watercourses, drying up floodplains and lowering water tables.[76]

Potential as alternative pet food [ edit ] There is potential for insects to be used as a protein source in insect based pet food. Novel protein sources have possible benefits for pets with sensitive gastrointestinal tracts or food allergies, as the proteins are not recognized by the animal's body, and therefore are less likely to cause irritation.[77] Insects have also been shown to have a high palatibility to both companion and livestock animals.[78] They have a good amino acid profile, and also contain many essential nutrients for companion animals. Insects have also been shown to have a high digestibility in pets.[79] There have been studies done evaluating the protein quality of commonly used insects and their nutrient values in comparison to traditional pet food protein.[80]

Disadvantages [ edit ] Spoilage [ edit ] Spore forming bacteria can spoil both raw and cooked insect protein, threatening to cause food poisoning. While edible insects must be processed with care, simple methods are available to prevent spoilage. Boiling before refrigeration is recommended; drying, acidification, or use in fermented foods also seem promising.[81]

[ edit ] Adverse allergic reactions are a potential hazard of insect consumption.[82] Cross-reactivity between edible insects and crustaceans has been identified as clinically relevant in one review.[83] A study on the prevalence of allergies to edible insects in Thailand indicated that:

[A]pproximately 7.4% of people experienced an adverse reaction indicative of an edible-insect allergy and 14.7% of people experienced multiple adverse reactions indicative of an edible-insect allergy. Furthermore, approximately 46.2% of people that already suffer from a known food-based allergy also experienced symptoms indicative of an allergic reaction after insect consumption.[84]

Toxicity [ edit ] In general, many insects are herbivorous and less problematic than omnivores. Cooking is advisable in ideal circumstances since parasites of concern may be present. But pesticide use can make insects unsuitable for human consumption. Herbicides can accumulate in insects through bioaccumulation. For example, when locust outbreaks are treated by spraying, people can no longer eat them. This may pose a problem since edible plants have been consumed by the locusts themselves.[20]

In some cases, insects may be edible regardless of their toxicity. In the Carnia region of Italy, moths of the Zygaenidae family have been eaten by children despite their potential toxicity. The moths are known to produce hydrogen cyanide precursors in both larvae and adults. However, the crops of the adult moths contain cyanogenic chemicals in extremely low quantities along with high concentrations of sugar, making Zygaena a convenient supplementary source of sugar during the early summer. The moths are very common and easy to catch by hand, and the low cyanogenic content makes Zygaena a minimally risky seasonal delicacy.[85]

Cases of lead poisoning after consumption of chapulines were reported by the California Department of Health Services in November 2003.[86]

Ethical objections [ edit ] The humaneness of insect consumption has been questioned. One objection is the large numbers of individuals raised and killed per unit of protein'--exacerbated by a high tendency towards premature mortality'--in comparison to other animal-based foods.[87] The potential for insects to be conscious, and as a result experience pain and suffering, has also been raised as a concern.[88]

Sustainability [ edit ] Concerns have been raised about the sustainability of insect consumption, such as overexploitation due to wild-harvesting.[89] Food used to feed the insects raised for consumption may also have a large environmental footprint, which when scaled-up, could potentially make insect consumption similarly sustainable to traditional protein sources; negating any alleged benefit.[90] Additionally, edible insect preservation processes such as freeze-drying and grinding may use a large amount of energy.[91]

Promotion and policy instruments [ edit ] The Food and Agriculture Organization has displayed an interest in developing entomophagy on multiple occasions. In 2008, the FAO organized a conference to "discuss the potential for developing insects in the Asia and Pacific region.".[68] According to Durst, FAO efforts in entomophagy will focus on regions in which entomophagy has been historically accepted but has recently experienced a decline in popularity.

In 2011, the European Commission issued a request for reports on the current use of insects as food, with the promise that reports from each European Union member state would serve to inform legislative proposals for the new process for insect foods.[92] According to NPR, the European Union is investing more than 4 million dollars to research entomophagy as a human protein source.[93]

See also [ edit ] Human interactions with insectsTaboo food and drinkInsects in medicineInsects as feedSustainable agricultureWelfare of farmed insectsMan Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects (book)The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook (book)References [ edit ] ^ Clausen, Curtis Paul (1940). Entomophagous insects. OCLC 807191. [page needed ] ^ Poinar, G.O. (1986). "Entomophagous Nematodes". Fortschritte der Zoologie. 32: 95''121. ^ Domnas, Aristotle J.; Warner, Steven A. (1991). "Biochemical Activities of Entomophagous Fungi". Critical Reviews in Microbiology. 18 (1): 1''13. doi:10.3109/10408419109113507. PMID 1854431. ^ "Entomophagy (Eating insects)". Center for Invasive Species Research, University of California (Research) . Retrieved 27 January 2014 . ^ a b Ramos-Elorduy, Julieta; Menzel, Peter (1998). Creepy crawly cuisine: the gourmet guide to edible insects. Inner Traditions / Bear & Company. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-89281-747-4 . Retrieved 23 April 2014 . ^ a b Carrington, Damian (1 August 2010). "Insects could be the key to meeting food needs of growing global population". The Guardian. ^ a b c Ramos-Elorduy, Julieta (2009). "Anthropo-Entomophagy: Cultures, Evolution And Sustainability". Entomological Research. 39 (5): 271''288. doi:10.1111/j.1748-5967.2009.00238.x . S2CID 84739253. ^ Meyer-Rochow, Victor Benno (2009). "Food taboos: their origins and purposes". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 5:18: 18. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-5-18. PMC 2711054 . PMID 19563636. ^ a b Weiss, M. L. & Mann, A.E. (1985). Human Biology and Behaviour: An Anthropological Perspective. Little Brown & Co. ISBN 978-0-673-39013-4. [page needed ] ^ McElroy, A.; Townsend, P. K. (1989). Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective . Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-0742-8. ^ Saggers, S. & Gray, D. (1991). Aboriginal Health & Society: The Traditional and Contemporary Aboriginal Struggle for Better Health. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. 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Cnet. Archived from the original on 10 October 2018. ^ Rasul, Nicole (26 April 2019). "Toasted Grasshoppers, A Favorite Of Seattle Mariners Fans, On Offer At MLB FoodFest". Forbes. Forbes Media LLC . Retrieved 9 August 2020 . ^ Vinh, Tan (17 April 2017). "Get your fried grasshoppers here: the big hit at Mariners home games". The Seattle Times . Retrieved 9 August 2020 . ^ a b Gullan, P. J.; Cranston, P.S. (1994). The Insects: an Outline of Entomology. Chapman and Hall. ISBN 978-1-4051-1113-3. [page needed ] ^ "Laws of Islam Concerning Food". Yomatari's Laws of Religion. 10 May 2011 . Retrieved 26 September 2012 . ^ ibn Adam, Muhammad. "The Fiqh of Halal and Haram Animals". Shariahprogram.ca. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. ^ Abramowitz, Jack (3 November 2013). "Knee-High to a Grasshopper: The obligation to examine locusts for signs of being kosher". OU.org . Retrieved 30 January 2020 . ^ a b Parry, Wayne (22 February 2012). "Study: Eating bugs could reduce global warming". Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved 30 November 2012 . ^ Wilson, Cherry (21 February 2017). "Should we eat bugs like Angelina Jolie?". BBC . Retrieved 21 February 2017 . ^ Tan, Hui Shan Grace; Fischer, Arnout R.H.; Tinchan, Patcharaporn; Stieger, Markus; Steenbekkers, L. P. A.; van Trijp, Hans C. M. (2015). "Insects as food: Exploring cultural exposure and individual experience as determinants of acceptance". Food Quality and Preference. 42: 78''89. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2015.01.013. ^ a b c d e f g Oonincx, Dennis G. A. B.; Van Itterbeeck, Joost; Heetkamp, Marcel J. W.; Van Den Brand, Henry; Van Loon, Joop J. A.; Van Huis, Arnold (2010). Hansen, Immo A (ed.). "An Exploration on Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Production by Insect Species Suitable for Animal or Human Consumption". PLOS ONE. 5 (12): e14445. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...514445O. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014445. PMC 3012052 . PMID 21206900. ^ a b c d e f Premalatha, M.; Abbasi, Tasneem; Abbasi, Tabassum; Abbasi, S.A. (2011). "Energy-efficient food production to reduce global warming and ecodegradation: The use of edible insects". Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 15 (9): 4357''4360. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2011.07.115. ^ a b c Gahukar, R.T. (August 2011). "Entomophagy and human food security". International Journal of Tropical Insect Science. 31 (3): 129''144. doi:10.1017/S1742758411000257 . ^ a b Yen, Alan (2009). "Edible Insects: Traditional Knowledge or Western Phobia?". Entomological Research. 39 (5): 289''298. doi:10.1111/j.1748-5967.2009.00239.x . S2CID 84223922. ^ Gordon, David George (1998). The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. p. xiv. ISBN 978-0-89815-977-6. ^ Meyer-Rochow, V. B. (1975). "Can insects help to ease the problem of world food shortage?". ANZAAS Journal: "Search". 6 (7): 261''262. ^ a b Edible insects - Future prospects for food and feed security. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2013. ISBN 978-92-5-107595-1. [page needed ] ^ International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition ^ Paoletti, M.G. (2005). Ecological implications of minilivestock: potential of insects, rodents, frogs, and snails. Science Publishers. p. 648. ISBN 978-1-57808-339-8 . Retrieved 7 May 2010 . ^ a b Six-legged Livestock: Edible insect farming, collection and marketing in Thailand (PDF) . Bangkok: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2013. ISBN 978-92-5-107578-4. ^ "Jiminy Cricket! Bugs could be next food craze". New York Times. 3 August 2014. ^ a b "Company Gets Grant To Develop Food Based On Insects to Fight Malnutrition". Eurasia Review. 12 May 2012 . Retrieved 30 November 2012 . ^ a b Yen, Alan (2009). "Entomophagy And Insect Conservation: Some Thoughts For Digestion". Journal of Insect Conservation. 13 (6): 667''670. doi:10.1007/s10841-008-9208-8. S2CID 25342243. ^ a b c "Beastly bugs or edible delicacies". FAO Newsroom. 19 February 2008 . Retrieved 30 November 2012 . ^ a b Walsh, Bryan (29 May 2008). "Eating Bugs". Time. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. ^ Gordon, D.G. (1998) p.xv ^ "U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat, Cornell ecologist advises animal scientists Future water and energy shortages predicted to change face of American agriculture". Cornell Science News. 7 August 1997. ^ Van Huis, Arnold (2015). "Edible insects contributing to food security?". Agriculture & Food Security. 4 (20). doi:10.1186/s40066-015-0041-5 . ^ Schmidt, Anatol; Call, Lisa; Macheiner, Lukas; Mayer, Helmut K. (2018). "Determination of vitamin B12 in four edible insect species by immunoaffinity and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography". Food Chemistry. 281: 124''129. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.12.039. PMID 30658738. ^ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/10/eating-bugs-food_n_4726371.html?slideshow=true Here's Why You Should Start Eating (More) Bugs ^ "Nutritional value of insects for human consumption" (PDF) . Edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security. Food and Agriculture Organization. ^ a b c d e f g h Henning Steinfeld; Pierre Gerber; Tom Wassenaar; Vincent Castel; Mauricio Rosales; Cees de Haan (2006). "Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental issues and options". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . Retrieved 25 October 2012 . ^ Bowlin, Cynthia (March 2010). "Novel Proteins and Food Allergens" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2017. ^ Makkar, Harinder P. S.; Tran, Gilles; Heuz(C), Val(C)rie; Ankers, Philippe (1 November 2014). "State-of-the-art on use of insects as animal feed". Animal Feed Science and Technology. 197 (Supplement C): 1''33. doi:10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2014.07.008. ^ Oonincx, Dennis G. A. B.; Broekhoven, Sarah van; Huis, Arnold van; Loon, Joop J. A. van (2015). "Feed Conversion, Survival and Development, and Composition of Four Insect Species on Diets Composed of Food By-Products". PLOS ONE. 10 (12): e0144601. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1044601O. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144601. PMC 4689427 . PMID 26699129. ^ Bosch, Guido; Zhang, Sheng; Oonincx, Dennis G. A. B.; Hendriks, Wouter H. (2014). "Protein quality of insects as potential ingredients for dog and cat foods". Journal of Nutritional Science. 3: e29. doi:10.1017/jns.2014.23. PMC 4473158 . PMID 26101598. ^ Klunder, H.C.; Wolkers-Rooijackers, J.; Korpela, J.M.; Nout, M.J.R. (2012). "Microbiological aspects of processing and storage of edible insects". Food Control. 26 (2): 628''631. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.02.013. ^ Phillips, Joel; Burkholder, Wendell (1995). "Allergies Related to Food Insect Production and Consumption". Food Insect Allergies. 8 (2). ^ Ribeiro, Jos(C) Carlos; Cunha, Lu­s Miguel; Sousa-Pinto, Bernardo; Fonseca, Jo£o (2018). "Allergic risks of consuming edible insects: A systematic review". Molecular Nutrition & Food Research. 62 (1): 1700030. doi:10.1002/mnfr.201700030. ISSN 1613-4133. PMID 28654197. S2CID 24024771. ^ Taylor, Geoffrey; Wang, Nanxi (1 January 2018). "Entomophagy and allergies: a study of the prevalence of entomophagy and related allergies in a population living in North-Eastern Thailand". Bioscience Horizons. 11. doi:10.1093/biohorizons/hzy003 . ^ Zagrobelny, Mika; Dreon, Angelo Leandro; Gomiero, Tiziano; Marcazzan, Gian Luigi; Glaring, Mikkel Andreas; M¸ller, Birger Lindberg; Paoletti, Maurizio G (2009). "Toxic Moths: Source of a Truly Safe Delicacy". Journal of Ethnobiology. 29: 64''76. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-29.1.64. S2CID 73665731. ^ "State Health Department issues health warning on lead-contaminated chaplines (grasshoppers)". California Department of Health Services. 13 November 2003. Archived from the original on 1 January 2006 . Retrieved 16 December 2006 . ^ Tomasik, Brian (2016). "Insects Should Not Be a Part of People's Diets". In Espejo, Roman (ed.). What Should We Eat?. New York, NY: Greenhaven Publishing. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-7377-7390-3. ^ Pali-Sch¶ll, Isabella; Binder, Regina; Moens, Yves; Polesny, Friedrich; Mons", Susana (2019). "Edible insects - defining knowledge gaps in biological and ethical considerations of entomophagy". Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 59 (17): 2760''2771. doi:10.1080/10408398.2018.1468731. ISSN 1549-7852. PMC 6816476 . PMID 29693413. ^ Imathiu, Samuel (1 March 2020). "Benefits and food safety concerns associated with consumption of edible insects". NFS Journal. 18: 1''11. doi:10.1016/j.nfs.2019.11.002 . ISSN 2352-3646. ^ Mintz, Corey (4 February 2018). "Why eating insects won't end world hunger". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 24 April 2020 . ^ Huen, Eustacia (30 April 2017). "Why Eating Insects May Not Be As Sustainable As It Seems". Forbes . Retrieved 24 April 2020 . ^ Byrne, Jane (16 November 2011). "FSA flags up potential of purified insect protein". Food Navigator . Retrieved 30 November 2012 . ^ Schultz, Teri (4 November 2012). "Time For A 'Bug Mac'? The Dutch Aim To Make Insects More Palatable". National Public Radio . Retrieved 30 November 2012 . Further reading [ edit ] Dossey, Aaron (2013). "Why Insects Should Be in Your Diet". The Scientist. 27: 22''23. Dossey, Morales-Ramos and Rojas (2016). Insects as Sustainable Food Ingredients: Production, Processing and Food Applications. Elsevier. ISBN 9780128028568. Shockley and Dossey (2014). "Insects for Human Consumption". Mass Production of Beneficial Organisms. pp. 617''652. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-391453-8.00018-2. ISBN 9780123914538. Calder, Daniel. The Dietitian's Guide to Eating Bugs 2013 ebook [1]DeFoliart, Gene (1992). "Insects as Human Food". Crop Protection. 11 (5): 395''399. doi:10.1016/0261-2194(92)90020-6. Archived from the original on 23 April 2015. Holt, Vincent. Why Not Eat Insects? 1885 Pamphlet Full text of the 1885 pamphlet Why Not Eat Insects by Vincent Holt, with French cuisine recipesIchinose, Katsuya (9 February 1989). "More insect eating". Nature. 337 (6207): 513''514. Bibcode:1989Natur.337..513I. doi:10.1038/337513b0. PMID 2915701. S2CID 4345812. Kantha, Sachi Sri. (24 November 1988). "Insect eating in Japan". Nature. 336 (6197): 316''317. Bibcode:1988Natur.336R.316K. doi:10.1038/336316b0. S2CID 41548935. Meyer-Rochow, V.B. (January 2017). "Therapeutic arthropods and other, largely terrestrial, folk-medicinally important invertebrates: a comparative survey and review". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 13 (9): 9. doi:10.1186/s13002-017-0136-0. PMC 5296966 . PMID 28173820. Taylor, Ronald L. (1975). Butterflies in My Stomach, or, Insects in human nutrition. John Gregory Tweed (illus.). Santa Barbara, California: Woodbridge Press. ISBN 978-0-912800-08-0. External links [ edit ] "Edible insects". New Scientist. 193 (2595): 56. 2007. doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(07)60691-5. DeFoliart, Gene R. (29 September 2002). "The Human Use of Insects as a Food Resource: A Bibliographic Account in Progress". University of Wisconsin''Madison. Archived from the original on 24 February 2007. Toms, Rob; Thagwana, Mashudu (2003). "Eat your bugs - harvesting edible stink-bugs". Science in Africa. Archived from the original on 16 April 2011. Menzel, Peter; D'Aluisio, Faith (1998). Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 978-1-58008-022-4. Nejame, Sam. "Man Bites Insect" New York Times Sunday Magazine. 10 February 2008.]Dicke, Marcel. "Why not eat insects?", TEDxAmsterdam. Retrieved 12 March 2011.Risk profile related to production and consumption of insects as food and feed European Food Safety Authority 2015Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security

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The Future of Protein - VICE

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Monday December 28, 2020 10:48 AM

According to a report, Democrats are panicking, fearful that the COVID-19 pandemic could prevent Nancy Pelosi from being re-elected as House speaker despite Democrats holding a majority in the chamber.

While House members can vote by proxy due to emergency rules adopted in May to protect members from getting and spreading COVID-19, but, as The Hill reports, ''the proxy-voting rule expires with the new Congress, requiring lawmakers to be in the Capitol in person if they want to participate in the Jan. 3 floor vote for Speaker.''

New rules governing the 117th Congress happen after the vote for speaker.

House Democrats have been taking advantage of this proxy-voting rule in significant numbers. On December 18, nearly 90 Democrats voted by proxy.

This means that candidates for speaker of the House must receive a majority of the votes cast in person to be elected speaker. Democrats already have a thin majority of 222 seats following the 2020 election, and three moderate Democrats say they don't intend to vote for Pelosi when the vote takes place on January 3. In addition, several Democrats have health conditions that have kept them from the Capitol in 2020. It would only take a small number of Democrats being exposed to COVID-19 prior to the vote for Pelosi to potentially be in trouble.

Fifty-six percent of voters think Pelosi should not be reelected as speaker. Only 31 percent of voters support her.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) believes it's a real possibility that Republicans could outnumber Democrats for the vote, and the top Republican in the House, Kevin McCarthy, could be elected speaker.

''Let's say, just theoretically, we had six or eight people out with COVID and the Republicans have none. They probably could elect McCarthy,'' Yarmuth told The Hill.

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(Source: Sanjiv S. Gambhir/Nature Biomedical Engineering, Interestingengineering.com)

(CNS News) -- In his latest report on federal government waste, a project he completes every year, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) highlights $54.7 billion in government spending that he deems wasteful. Among the items noted this year is the creation of a $6.9 million "smart toilet," which operates with three cameras, one of which can identify a user's "analprint."

As explained in The Festivus Report 2020, researchers at Stanford University used $6,973,057 in funds granted through the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create a so-called "smart toilet."

(Screenshot, Interestingengineering.com)

The purpose of the toilet is to develop ''easily deployable hardware and software for the long-term analysis of a user's excreta through data collection and models of human health," state the researchers in an abstract.

"Each user of the toilet is identified through their fingerprint and the distinctive features of their anoderm [anus], and the data are securely stored and analysed in an encrypted cloud server," state the researchers.

"The toilet operates with artificial intelligence, includes three cameras (including one video camera), and features a urinalysis strip," according to the Festivus Report. "The toilet's AI collects the health data and then stores it in a digital cloud system."

(Screenshot, Interestingengineering.com)

For it to work, the "user would sit on the toilet, and the hardware's three cameras would use 'biometric identifiers to securely associate the collected data with the user's identity,' such as 'fingerprinting and a distinctive method of using anal creases '... referred to here as analprint," states the report.

"That's right!" it reads. "The toilet would use fingerprint technology and a photo of the user's nether regions to identify the user, and the toilet's in-bowl video camera would track various metrics, including the time between sitting and first bowel movement, and other metrics relevant to bowel health."

Although this technology apparently is designed to help monitor a person's health, Sen. Paul's report notes that "no matter how good the technology is at achieving its goal, nobody is going to use a toilet that has three cameras and takes a video of the user's 'analprint' to identify the user, never mind one that stores that data in a digital cloud that hackers could access."

(Source: Sen. Rand Paul's website)

"Because that's exactly what you want, right? A photo of you like that floating around in the cloud."

The researchers are forgetting that "there's a huge difference between video-chatting with your doctor so he or she can examine your tonsils and uploading your excrement into the cloud," reads the report.

In a concluding comment on this $6,973,057 item, Sen. Paul says, "I'll leave it to the researchers to explain to those afflicted with these illnesses and their loved ones why they used NCI money intended to develop non-invasive early cancer screening processes to design a toilet that nobody will use anyway."

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) (Getty Images)

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Archived Version

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06

By Elaine Shannon

Find his test sites, top bomb experts say.

Anthony Quinn Warner's device, although probably made of common over-the-counter components, is unique in the annals of mayhem, according to seasoned FBI bomb experts consulted by SpyTalk.

"We've never seen an improvised thermobaric device before in this country or any country,'' says Dave Williams, who conducted the FBI's on-scene investigations of the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City, Pan Am 103 and Unabomber bombings, among other notorious incidents. Thermobaric refers to a gaseous fuel-air explosion.

''The reason is, it's very difficult to get the timing down to get an optimum mixture of air and a liquified carbonaceous fuel such as propane, methane, acetylene or natural gas,'' Williams told SpyTalk. ''He couldn't have done it the first time and made it work. There had to be a test area.''

Accidental thermobaric explosions are not uncommon'--for example, when a house explodes because of a natural gas leak. But IED-makers haven't tried to stage them deliberately, up to now, Williams says, because too many things have to go right.

That's why investigators must be eager to locate Warner's proving ground, and also any internet sources he studied as he was building a timer and ignition mechanism that enabled him to blow up a Nashville city block, and himself, at 6:30 a.m. on Christmas Day.

As several news outlets have reported, on Aug. 21, 2019, Warner's ex-girlfriend and her lawyer alerted Nashville police that Warner was ''building bombs in the RV trailer'' on his property and ''frequently talks about the military and bomb-making.'' The police referred the incident to the FBI, according to the reports, but neither agency obtained a search warrant to investigate the premises. The police report of the charges leveled by the ex-girlfriend and lawyer contains no hint of Warner's evident mastery of bomb-making and related electronics.

Williams' hypothesis, that Warner's RV bomb was likely thermobaric, also known as a fuel-air explosive, aerosol bomb or vacuum bomb, is based on videos of the yellow-orange fireball, the pattern of destruction and conversations with other experts in the tight network of bomb investigators aware of the ongoing investigation in Nashville.

Smokeless firebombSignificantly, the videos show very little smoke from the bomb itself, which suggests the explosion was very efficient. Black smoke came later, from secondary blazes such as burning tires. To Williams' eye, the videos and photos of wreckage indicate a slow-moving explosion and a type of rolling and heaving also consistent with a relatively slow, homemade device.

At the FBI, where he spent 27 years as a bomb technician, and now, as a consultant on bomb technology, IED countermeasures and structural vulnerabilities, Williams is known for his ability to look at a bombing scene and form a reasonable hypothesis to guide evidence collection and interviews. It's a technique not without controversy: In the 1995 Oklahoma bombing case, a Justice Department Inspector General report criticized Williams' initial assessment as unscientific because, among other things, he offered it before waiting for all the scientific data to come in.

But, as I wrote in my 1998 book, No Heroes '' Inside the FBI's Secret Counter-Terror Force (with co-author Danny Coulson, an FBI special agent who led the evidence collection in Oklahoma City), investigators on the ground didn't have the luxury of time to compile the forensic data on explosive residues and fragments. They were racing to find the bomber and possible accomplices who might have been planning more attacks. My own investigation determined that the IG report misstated some facts and that Williams' first-look estimate'--that the bomb was roughly 4,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil'--turned out to be uncannily accurate. FBI agents later got hold of sales records showing that Timothy McVeigh bought exactly 4,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate from a farm co-op in Kansas. McVeigh was eventually convicted of the bombing and executed.

If Williams is right now about a fuel-air bomb, he figures Warner would have exercised considerable skill and preparation.The first step would be simple enough: crack open the valves of a tank of some kind of fuel and wait for the RV to fill with an aerosolized gas-air mix.

But the mix wouldn't explode by itself. An ignition source would have to have been introduced at precisely the right moment.

A bomber determined to die inside the van might anticipate that he would likely pass out from lack of oxygen before he could detonate the gas with a cigarette lighter. He'd have to set up a device to detonate automatically. It could be as simple as a baggie of black powder, available at hobby shops, wired to an electrical component, for instance, a switch that makes a microwave or dishwasher ding when its cycle is done, or a telephone alarm.

Timing is everythingThe trick would be timing the ignition with exquisite precision to detonate the aerosolized gas-air mix at its richest, when it reached maximum destructive power. That moment would depend on the type of gas and altitude.

All this argues for skill, study and hands-on practice through trial and error. The FBI playbook is straightforward: Retrace Warner's steps and build a timeline. Search highway tolls and gasoline purchase via his credit cards. Map out the towers his cellphone pinged as he moved around the countryside. Interview residents near where he stayed and ask about noise, brush fires and other indications of explosive testing. According to Nashville radio station WKRN, quoting law enforcement sources, Warner had spent time in a state park near Nashville, claiming he was hunting ''lizard people.'' If that state park or any other rural area Warner visited has patches of burned-out foliage, the investigators will almost certainly test for residues.

As the crime scene investigators recover components, they should be running a computer search of big box stores, looking for items that were purchased in specific combinations. They should be checking Warner's credit card purchases for such items. If Warner used gas tanks, shards will still be there. At the scene of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, Williams and his team found the remains of all three hydrogen tanks used to enhance the explosion. (The IED itself was not thermobaric; its explosive core was urea nitrate or nitrourea, apparently homemade.) The FBI will need to interview gas-supply houses for unusual purchases, if it hasn't already.

Other, as yet unidentified substances may have been incorporated into the RV bomb, to trigger or enhance it.

''Unfortunately it is only too easy to build an explosive,'' says a retired senior FBI agent and bomb expert who asked not to be named because he prefers to stay out of the media spotlight. He spent three decades working on the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings by Al Qaeda in Africa, multiple bombing scenes in the Middle East, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the anthrax attacks and many other cases.

''You need either nitrates or peroxide for the majority of homemade explosives. Both are readily available. Nitrates from fertilizer or even from those instant ice packs you can buy at any pharmacy,'' he tells SpyTalk. ''Those white prills [pellets] inside the packs contain the nitrates. The U.S. government watches suspicious purchases, but if you keep your purchases under certain amounts, no one notices. Also if you have a business (or letterhead!) that purportedly uses that ingredient, then it's easy to escape notice.''

''The trick isn't finding something that will go boom,'' he adds. ''It's setting it off. The detonator'--a person with electrical skills could easily build one with a little help from the internet. You used to have to find paper manuals, but today it's right online'--most with a 'how to' video showing step-by-step guidelines.''

This former FBI official finds Williams' theory positing an unprecedented fuel-air IED ''very plausible.''

Tinker tailored''We know he 'tinkered' on his RV for a long time so he would be able to easily seal it tight to allow any gas to accumulate,'' he says. ''He had more than enough electrical expertise to construct a timer and initiator that would function when he passed out.''

''I think the only way to prove it for sure will be through chemical analysis of any charred remains in the pieces of the RV they recover,'' he added. ''Most RV campers have propane-fueled stoves and heaters, so the mere presence of a propane tank or some trace of propane wouldn't be definitive for a fuel-air device. However, any other type of gas or multiple tanks would be one of the things they are looking for. The visual of the explosion sounds like a fuel-air device, but to confirm it, they will have to do a frame-by-frame examination of all video and a gas chromatography'--mass spectrometry analysis of any of the residues.''

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, FBI bomb techs played out scenarios that involved fuel-air explosive devices.

''We always worried that someone would attack a hospital with a large truck bomb parked immediately adjacent to a hospital oxygen tank farm,'' the ex-FBI bomb tech tells SpyTalk.

''Most hospitals have very, very large tank containers of oxygen under pressure stored outside. Most are near the back side of these buildings adjacent to loading dock facilities. Perfect for a large truck bomb to easily access. Most of these tanks are only secured by a chain-link fence and $2 padlock,'' he says. ''When we first began looking into this problem, the majority of these sites didn't even have CCTV coverage and no alarms. A real nightmare scenario.''

With all the potentially explosive material on the open market, it's surprising to the bomb tech community that more bombings haven't been attempted.

''We have hundreds, if not thousands of people in this country, who could easily build bombs and have a strong enough grudge, hatred or instability to actually carry out a crime, act of terror or revenge,'' the former FBI agent says.

''Quite frankly, I am surprised that we don't have more acts of violence like this. I honestly believe that because guns are so readily available, they are the method of choice. Explosives take work, effort and precision. Guns don't, so we have mass shootings instead,'' he adds. ''And let's face it, you can buy guns at Wal-Mart and flea markets and out of newspaper want-ads. There is no problem getting them.''

Still, there are some individuals with time on their hands and the necessary obsession, compulsion and talent for precision bomb-making.

Tony Warner, it seems, was one of them.

Co-published with SpyTalk, where Jeff Stein leads an all-star team of veteran investigative reporters, writers, and subject-matter experts who will take you behind the scenes of the national security state. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website.

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:12

Thermobaric weapons in high-intensity conflict dramatically change the quantity and severity of blast injuries

In April of 2017, in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, the US used a Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb against a subterranean network of fortified tunnels and bunkers. Accurate casualty totals were impossible to calculate, because any living thing close to the blast area was vaporized; however, casualty estimates range from 36 to 85 killed. Russia has been modernizing thermobaric munitions over the past two decades, it now possesses a bomb four times more powerful than the one the US used in Afghanistan. Recently, Russia used thermobaric weapons against ground forces in Ukraine. During the Battle of Zelenopillya, a single thermobaric strike nearly destroyed two Ukrainian mechanized battalions in a matter of minutes. In Syria, a Russian-made air-to-surface thermobaric bomb struck a market in Douma, killing almost 100 people. Meanwhile, China produces a wide range of thermobaric munitions, from small weapons launched as Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG) to artillery rockets and aircraft delivered bombs.

From drones to cyber, advancing technologies have the potential to change the character of future warfare. They challenge the US military's standing practices and measures of readiness. Thermobaric weapons are similar game-changers, particularly because they may undo the US military's approach to providing medical support forward''an approach cemented under assumptions of a permissive medical evacuation environment and a manageable number of casualties at any given time.

During Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM, medical teams demonstrated unprecedented success in treating casualties suffering traumatic blast injuries as a result of conventional munitions. However, as thermobaric weapons become more common on the modern battlefield, we cannot rely on the conditions that enabled effective responses by the military health system in Iraq and Afghanistan. In those conflicts, four key factors improved patient outcomes from blast injuries: (1) freedom of movement to get casualties rapidly to medical treatment; (2) forward surgical services to bring treatment closer to high-risk areas; (3) technical innovation in treatment of severe trauma (such as reducing blood loss immediately following a traumatic amputation); and (4) revised treatment protocols. Survival rates above 90 percent have now become the standard of measure and expectation for the military health system.

In contrast, thermobaric weapons in high-intensity conflict dramatically change the quantity and severity of blast injuries, and do so in an environment in which maneuver is much more difficult, and treatment is much farther away. This creates treatment requirements far beyond what the MHS is organized and equipped to handle. The MHS must change the way it performs its mission to conduct mass casualty operations effectively and maintain high survival rates in an environment where thermobaric munitions are employed.

Consider a Brigade Combat Team from the 101st Airborne Division conducting a forced entry operation into an Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) environment. Approximately 1100 personnel would be dispersed across an area only a few kilometers wide. Company-sized elements on offensive maneuver each cover 300-500 meters of the forward edge of the battle area. Then the enemy detonates a thermobaric munition over a company's position.

With a blast yield equivalent to 44 tons of TNT, the bomb creates a destruction radius approximately 300 meters wide, and a blast area approaching 2000 meters. Troops within the immediate blast radius are subjected to temperatures double that of conventional munitions, leading to severe burns of any exposed tissue. Close to the blast, over-pressurization of air in the blast wave causes severe injuries to the respiratory system, ears, and sinuses, as well as blunt trauma. Finally, material displaced by the blast inflicts shrapnel-like injuries on soldiers even further away. The explosion results in hundreds of severely injured casualties.

The few available medical personnel face treating hundreds of individuals suffering severe burns, inhalation injuries, blunt and penetrating force trauma, and major limb amputations. Medical evacuation is not an option; these injuries require immediate on-site treatment or the Soldiers would likely die within hours.

Thermobaric Weapons and Their EffectsCompared to conventional explosives utilized in improvised explosive devices and vehicle-borne varieties used against US forces, thermobaric rounds pose a greater potential to cause higher numbers of casualties with increased severity of injuries. Thermobaric munitions utilize a three-step process for effect: (1) a conventional explosive or so-called scatter charge detonates in the center of a container filled with fuel, (2) the compression of the fuel creates heat and enhances its reactivity, and (3) once the vaporized fuel is disbursed into the air, it uses atmospheric oxygen to accelerate oxidation, producing an exothermic reaction. When temperatures reach the fuel's auto-ignition threshold, progressive ignition and explosion results. The ignited fuel vapor produces enhanced fireball temperatures, blast waves of longer duration, higher over-pressurization effects, and greater decompression effects compared to conventional munitions. Adding fine particulate metals'--aluminum and magnesium powder often the metals of choice'--enable the increased fireball temperatures.

The fuel vapor easily seeps into vehicle compartments, bunkers, buildings, tunnels, and other enclosed spaces before ignition. Medical experts specialized in treating blast and burn injuries find barriers such as sandbags and body armor completely ineffective against thermobaric munitions. Blast waves in enclosed spaces pose a higher risk to humans because waves reflecting off the walls travel at higher velocity than initial waves with multiple waves converging on the victim. Adding the increased blast wave pressure produces traumatic injuries of greater severity. The enhanced blast effects will cause more injuries by the simultaneous harm to multiple body systems. Personnel not in the vicinity of the fireball are still at risk of suffering blast related concussive injuries.

Current Capacity of the Military Health SystemSince Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, the MHS undertook several initiatives to respond to the emergence of improvised explosive devices, with the changes dramatically decreasing death rates due to hemorrhage and immediate complications of blast injuries. Surgical services located near the battlefield, coupled with immediate casualty evacuation, significantly decreased the time from point of injury to initial surgical intervention. Expeditious movement from the field to US-based or Europe-based hospitals optimized patients' survivability.

One of the most significant factors in Iraq and Afghanistan was the ability of the US and its allies to establish large-scale medical footprints in the area of operations. Small surgical units/teams moved at liberty, and large medical treatment facilities (hereafter, ''field hospitals'') were placed forward. Rotary and fixed wing assets positioned at airfields adjacent to most field hospitals were crucial for casualty evacuation missions. In the littoral maritime space, the Navy's Hospital Ship platform and Amphibious Assault Ship variants operated freely just offshore providing additional surgical services and medical holding capacity.

Blast waves in enclosed spaces pose a higher risk to humans because waves reflecting off the walls travel at higher velocity than initial waves, with multiple waves converging on the victim.

Location of services is vital because studies and anecdotal evidence in the treatment of both civilian and combat trauma have overwhelmingly proven when casualties attain immediate hemorrhage control, receive damage control surgical intervention, and hemodynamic stabilization within the so-called Golden Hour, 60 minutes from the time of injury, have lower mortality rates. One of the greatest benefits of shortened lines of communication from battlefield to hospital is the ability to meet the Golden Hour directive.

The Thermobaric Paradigm ShiftIn Iraq and Afghanistan, the MHS proved its ability to deal with the most devastating injuries and execute Joint Medical Operations with tremendous success. However, the US cannot rely on future conflicts to be as permissive of such operations. Mass volumes of wounded were not the result of conventional weapons typically used in major wars. The predominant source of serious injuries improvised explosive devices used by irregular forces. Less protected, dismounted troops suffered more debilitating injuries due to pelvic involvement. In large scale conflicts the increased presence of dismounted troops will result in proportionately larger volumes of casualties caused by conventional weapons in addition to those caused by thermobaric munitions.

Although the MHS did very well treating injuries in theater, the conflicts' asymmetries did not stress the MHS's maximum capacity. Its success may lead to a false sense of security about its capability to provide the same standard of care in future conflicts. The threat of thermobaric munitions in a contested conventional environment will expose limitations of the current ability to effectively conduct mass casualty operations and attain survival rates similar to those in Iraq and Afghanistan. By interfering with freedom of movement and disrupting lines of communication, less permissive environments restrict location and delivery of clinical treatment. The implications should deeply concern leaders.

Medical personnel moving with tactical units will work without the assured ability to evacuate casualties to higher care facilities. Thus, the requirements to care for non-ambulatory patients will render the unit combat ineffective. Clinics and hospitals will have difficulty keeping up with the transition from maneuver to movement. Restricted air and ground movement will bring about casualty accumulation''exhausting supplies, exceeding holding capacity, and preventing movement. Without replenishment of consumable supplies, sterile instrument sets, and blood products, higher-level care in theater is impossible.

RecommendationsTo offset the current limitations of the MHS in dealing with mass casualties from thermobaric munitions, I offer the following recommendations.

First, we must revise training and improve skills within units to manage complications in treating blast casualties. Front-line medical personnel require additional training to handle injuries expected from thermobaric blasts. Because distributive maneuver isolates units and can potentially delay time for casualty evacuation and increase the distance to higher-level facility, augmenting skill-sets and equipment for front-line care providers will be necessary to effectively treat all casualties, especially those caused by thermobaric munitions. For example, intubation (cutting open the trachea and placing a tube to allow breathing) fell out of favor as a treatment for excessive constriction and inability to breathe, but is a proper treatment for inhalation burn injuries and damage to lung structure caused by the effects of having all the air instantaneously expelled. Medical personnel also require greater proficiency in blood transfusion at the point of injury. Additionally, medical evacuation aircrews may require medical training and small inventories of medical supplies to provide basic life support en route.

Second, units need equipment that supports effective treatment on-site, and preserves a unit's ability to maneuver with casualties. Returning to the intubation example, units should be equipped with commercially-available medical equipment that promotes positive placement of the tube (such as handheld portable devices with cameras and small digital screens), and small, rugged, and simple to use transport ventilators. We also need to continue to invest in technologies that increase the forward availability of plasma and blood, such as the freeze-dried plasma adopted by special operations units. Modifications to military equipment will also improve the effectiveness of medical response on-site, such as using barcoded dog tags to ensure patient-blood compatibility.

Third, we must improve the mobility and survivability of combat medical facilities, and continue to increase the capability and capacity of all medical facilities '' from combat hospitals to the highest-level medical centers. The contested battlefield prevents consolidation of combat hospitals, so more scalable teams are needed across the services. This will increase requirements for personnel with certain medical specialties such as general surgeons and surgeons trained in trauma, vascular surgery, and orthopedics. More cardio-pulmonary and respiratory technicians would be needed to manage ventilators and assist in pulmonary treatment. In connection with this focus on improving the mobility and survivability of medical facilities, the US must also recapitalize its air and sea-lift capability, and develop means to offset modern weaponry's encroachment on the security envelope required to safeguard theater medical operations.

The National Defense Strategy urges the services to prioritize preparedness for war and modernize key capabilities. The lethality of the contemporary warfare demands that we prepare the military health system for its most important function '' battlefield medicine. This requires accounting for the types of weapons and capabilities we should expect to face on the future battlefield, then modernizing both what we use and how we work. Thermobaric weapons are today's realities, and we must prepare for them being employed against us. Without system-wide improvements, the use of thermobaric weapons in a contested environment will expose current shortcomings in the form of increased mortality. Medical teams will need increased capacity, capability, mobility, and survivability at all echelons of care. The US military should prepare its health system under the assumption that the enemy will not afford it the same permissive environment as it has enjoyed in recent conflicts.

Eddie Lopez is a captain in the U.S. Navy and a graduate of the U.S. Army War College resident class of 2018. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.

Photo: An al-Qaida torture compound and prison is destroyed after being hit with six guided bomb unit-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions from a B-1B Lancer in March 2018 in Zenbaraniyah, Iraq.

Photo Credit: U.S.Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway

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Fri, 01 Jan 2021 21:58

Now that Christmas trees are littering street corners and the champagne's run out, it feels like the right time to think about what's next and how we climb out of this pandemic. Which brings us to rule No. 1 of any successful plan: You need a catchphrase.

This summer, the winner for the Covid recovery slogan competition was Build Back Better. You might remember Triple-B from when Joe Biden adopted it as his campaign slogan. Or when it was taken up by leaders in the UK, New Zealand, and Scotland, as well as other organizations around the world.

If this was high school English, they'd all flunk for plagiarism. "Building Back Better" was adopted as part of the United Nations' Sendai Framework for disaster recovery in 2015. The basic idea is using a disaster like a tsunami as an opportunity to build back with more resilient infrastructure, better preparations, and a more equitable society.We have a lot of building to do Starting with the obvious: pandemic preparedness, which moved from the government's "nice-to-have" to "we need this more than a premium Zoom account'' list.

There's no shortage of reports about how pandemic game plans were weakened before Covid arrived on American shores, and how a lack of to-do lists, institutional knowledge, and scientific leadership factored into the severity of the U.S.' early outbreaks.

Step 1 to building back better: Do the opposite of whatever that was. Experts have recommended that Biden (and future presidents) strengthen the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The Oval Office can't coordinate everything, but it does need to coordinate.

Agencies involved in the coronavirus response, including the CDC, DHHS, and DHS, weren't always keeping up with the group text. The White House needs a designated leader to coordinate cross-government action and communication with states and cities. Speaking of, it also needs a clear framework for federal, state, and local governments' responsibilities. Step 2: Spend money. States may need their own pandemic budgets. The CDC needs to be better equipped for tasks like setting up national testing and tracing. Federal, state, and hospital stockpiles need some topping off. Whoever makes vaccines needs a raise.

The WHO's Global Preparedness Monitoring Board estimates that good pandemic preparedness investments would cost $5/person annually. "It would take 500 years to spend as much on investing in preparedness as the world is losing due to Covid,'' the board writes. Step 3: Make sure your friends stay friends. The Council on Foreign Relations recommends that the U.S. remain in the WHO. Though it's a flawed institution, the council argues, it's the best multilateral body to coordinate international action, aid, and accountability.

Also make frenemies. "We will have to work with China," former diplomat Nicholas Burns told the WaPo. "Our political leaders have a responsibility to compete, but in a smart way and not drive this relationship into a ditch."Step 4: Untangle the supply chain. Covid-19 exposed our dependence on China for critical medical supplies (along with other goods) and showed that global supply chains have become increasingly complex without becoming more resilient. Supply chains "were designed for cost and efficiency, but without really a thought to what could go wrong along the way," per McKinsey partner Susan Lund.

Great, now we're prepared for the next health crisis. But how do we emerge stronger from the current economic crisis?

It should equitableThe pandemic highlighted the racial inequalities present in American society. Black and Hispanic or Latino workers have been more likely to lose their jobs and to serve as essential workers in frontline, low-wage roles. And Black, Hispanic, and Latino business owners were less likely to get CARES Act funds.

To build back better, more efforts are needed to address racial and class disparities in the recovery itself. You might have heard of the "K-shaped recovery," in which wealthier Americans generally rebounded while those at the bottom have been left even farther behind.

To turn that K into a Nike swoosh, the U.S. needs to address the historical disinvestment that has left some communities and groups of workers behind. Aid should be progressive to help lift the most vulnerable and impacted, according to the OECD. Some areas to start: Unemployment benefit programs, paid sick leave, food assistance programs, rural economic development, broadband access to allow more workers to participate in the remote work revolution, and programs to train or reskill workers at the local level.

Harvard economic policy professor Jason Furman suggests tying future responses to improvements in economic indicators (instead of arbitrary timeframes) so that assistance scales up or down depending on how much we need it. The recovery also needs to be greenThe climate clock is ticking down, and the brief dip in emissions from the pandemic's shutdowns is bouncing back.

An equitable and successful economic recovery can align with other long-term needs for a sustainable future, such as reducing emissions, protecting biodiversity, creating more circular supply chains, and generating jobs in new industries.

The government's "most effective tool" for the latter is increasing infrastructure investment, Furman said. The Biden administration has promised $2 trillion in infrastructure spending that it says will create 10 million jobs tied to clean energy.Full circle: Climate change is also linked to pandemic preparedness. "The economic pressures driving biodiversity loss and the destruction of ocean health can have cascading impacts on societies, and may increase the risk of future zoonotic viruses (those which jump from animals to humans)," the OECD writes.

Big picture: Covid-19 has arrived during a pivotal moment for American capitalism. Tying together all these ways we could improve'--healthcare, access and equity, infrastructure'--"is the need for urgent decisions taken today to incorporate a longer-term perspective," the OECD writes.

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 13:53

A young adult author has been 'canceled' after she defended the writers of The Scarlett Letter and other classic novels on Twitter.

The incident occurred when antiracist and anti-bias educator Lorena Germn wrote a tweet on November 30 advocating for more diversity among books that are taught in schools.

In response, Jessica Cluess, who wrote the Kingdom of Fire series, called Germn an 'idiot' and said authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote works criticizing the very societies in which their novels took place.

This led to Cluess's agent dropping her after what he described as 'condescending and personal attacks' by his former client.

On November 30, antiracist educator Lorena Germn (left) tweeted about how many classics were written before the 1950s and needed to be 'switched up.' Young adult author Jessica Cluess (right) responded by calling Germn an 'idiot' and defending Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote The Scarlet Letter

Germn is perhaps best known for being one of the founders of the #DisruptTexts hashtag and website.

The movement is meant to center more voices of color in literature and apply a critical lens to many texts written by white authors.

'Did y'all know that many of the "classics" were written before the 50s?' German wrote on Twitter on November 30.

'Think of US society before then & the values that shaped this nation afterwards. THAT is what is in those books. That is why we gotta switch it up. It ain't just about "being old."'

The tweet received nearly 900 likes and more than 140 retweets.

However, it was not well received by Cluess, who - in a series of now-deleted tweets - defended many classic authors.

She referenced Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote The Scarlet Letter about Hester Prynne, a woman in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony who conceives a daughter after having an affair and is made to wear a red 'A' on her chest.

Cluess said Hawthorne was not criticizing Hester for her 'sin' but the Puritan society for their judgement of her.

'If you think Hawthorne was on the side of the judgmental Puritans in The Scarlet Letter then you are an absolute idiot and should not have the title of educator in your bio,' she wrote.

'If you think Upton Sinclair was on the side of the meat packing industry then you are a fool and should sit down and feel bad about yourself.'

This in reference to Sinclair's novel The Jungle, which portrayed the poor working conditions of immigrants in the US.

Many people on Twitter soon began calling Cluess a racist and asking that her publisher, Random House Kids, drop her

Cluess continued: 'Ah yes, remember Their Eyes Were Watching God, and other literature of the extraordinary Harlem Renaissance? I guess not. D**k.'

This anti-intellectual, anti-curiosity bulls**t is poison and I will stand here and scream that it is sheer godd**n evil until my hair falls out. I do not care.'

It was not long before Germn saw the tweets and responded to them.

'What's interesting to me is how I present a position on an academic point, and yet this 55%er decides to attack me personally over and over again. Sounds like I struck a confederate nerve,' she wrote.

Many people on Twitter soon began calling Cluess a racist and asking that her publisher, Random House Kids, drop her.

The backlash led Cluess to delete her tweets just one day later and issue an apology.

One day later, Cluess issued an apology to Germn and called her words 'misguided, wrong, and deeply hurtful'

Two days after the apology, her agent, Brooks Sherman, announced that he was dropping Cluess as a client due to her 'racist' tweets

'I take full responsibility for my unproved anger against Lorena Germn and the impact of my words on her and all who read them,' it read in part.

'I want to acknowledge the pain I caused, and to apologize sincerely for it. My words were misguided, wrong, and deeply hurtful.'

Just two days later, on December 3, her agent, Brooks Sherman, distanced himself from Cluess and dropped her as a client.

'I hold myself to certain personal and professional standards for the values I support,' he wrote on Twitter.

'I no longer represent Jessica Cluess. Her tweets against Loren Germn earlier this week were racist and unacceptable.'

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Sun, 03 Jan 2021 13:17

The re-release of the celebrated cult-classic film Flash Gordon from 1980 has added a warning about "discriminatory stereotypes" due to the portrayal of Ming the Merciless.As reported by Comicbook.com, Ming the Merciless was first featured in the Flash Gordon comic strips from the 1930s and, according to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), "attitudes towards the acceptability of discriminatory racial stereotypes have moved on considerably since then, and rightly so of course.""Ming the Merciless is coded as an East Asian character due to his hair and make-up, but he's played by a Swedish actor in the film, he's played by Max Von Sydow, which I don't think is something that would happen if this were a modern production, and is something that we're also aware that viewers may find dubious if not outright offensive," BBFC senior policy officer Matt Tindall said. "The character of Ming of course comes from the Flash Gordon comic strips from the 1930s and the serials, and let's just say attitudes towards the acceptability of discriminatory racial stereotypes have moved on considerably since then, and rightly so of course."Have you seen Flash Gordon [1980]?

Above and beyond the warning, the BBFC has also decided to raise the film's rating for the re-release from an A rating to a 12A.

This is the start of a new process for the BBFC that will see the committee looking at other older films and examining them for reclassification.

"This is something that we have to bear in mind often when we see older films coming in for reclassification - films that might contain discriminatory depictions or stereotypes that are not acceptable to modern audiences, including films where discrimination wasn't the work's intent, just a reflection of the period in which it was made," Tindall continued. This is an issue that we're currently planning to explore more through research next year, speaking to the public to check that they're happy with the way we're classifying such films and the way we classify issues of discrimination more generally."

Flash Gordon joins such other films as Gone with the Wind, Breakfast at TIffany's, Disney's Song of the South, and the 1936 musical Show Boat as films and shows that are getting re-examined for their offensive characters and/or stories.Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 13:18

Defying U.S. calls to reduce its dependency on Russian energy supplies, Serbia has officially launched a new gas link that will bring additional Russian gas to the Balkan country via Bulgaria and Turkey

By

DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press

January 1, 2021, 12:05 PM ET

' 2 min read

FILE - In this Friday, June 13, 2014, file photo, a Serbian flag is seen on a gas pipe on the first section of the Gazprom South Stream natural gas pipeline near the village of Sajkas, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Belgrade, Serbia. Defying U.S. calls to reduce its dependency on energy supplies from Russia, Serbia has on Friday, Jan. 1, 2021 officially launched a new gas link that will bring additional Russian gas to the Balkan country via Bulgaria and Turkey. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File) The Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia -- Defying U.S. calls to reduce its dependency on energy supplies from Russia, Serbia on Friday officially launched a new gas link that will bring additional Russian gas to the Balkan country via Bulgaria and Turkey.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attended a ceremony Friday for the opening of the 400-kilometer (250-mile) section of the Turkish Stream pipeline, saying that Serbia has become ''much richer'' thanks to the new Russian energy supplies.

''Serbia has managed, with the help of our Russian friends and partners, to secure supply on its territory with gas,'' Vucic said. ''From our territory, gas will go towards Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, we will look at what other territories and countries (will be included) in the future. It's an important and great day for our country.''

Serbia has so far received the Russian gas via Hungary and Ukraine. But with Moscow's attempts to circumvent the Ukraine pipelines to the rest of Europe, it has been looking for alternative supply routes.

Like the almost-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline that is to double Russian gas supplies to Germany, the Turkish Stream was threatened by U.S. sanctions against companies involved in the project.

Serbia, a European Union candidate country, depends almost entirely on Russian energy supplies. Washington has been urging Serbia to diversify its energy supplies and use and American liquid gas shipments, but those tend to be more expensive.

Although when he was in Washington, Vucic signed a pledge to reduce Serbia's Russian energy dependency, he has said he would not be blackmailed by anyone to buy more expensive gas for political reasons.

Although Serbia has been formally seeking EU membership, it has also been strengthening its political, economic and military ties with traditional Slavic ally Russia as well as with China.

The gas supplies are one of Moscow's major ways to exert political pressure and influence on some less-developed countries, including Serbia.

Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko said during the pipeline opening that ''this is really the best present for the New Year.''

''As soon as the New Year started, we have a great event in the development of our bilateral relations,'' he said.

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| January 01, 2021 09:40 AM

Bill Gates is reportedly worth $118 billion. At least one estimate judges his worth to be $129 billion.

Either way, the man has leisure, cash, and a penchant for making everything his plaything. This might explain why he is funding an Icarian experiment to block out the sunshine.

With the help of Gates's greenbacks, Harvard scientists are attempting to determine whether they can dim sunlight to cool down planet Earth. The administrators of SCoPEx, or Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment, plan to test their sun-reflecting, particle-spraying balloon in Sweden in 2021, sans particle expulsion. The aim: ''SCoPEx is a scientific experiment to advance understanding of stratospheric aerosols that could be relevant to solar geoengineering.'' Run for your lives.

''It is not a test of solar geoengineering per se,'' reads a summary. ''Instead, it will observe how particles interact with one another, with the background stratospheric air, and with solar and infrared radiation.'' The underlying assumption, so it seems, is that the sun is doing something wrong.

Fervent climate meliorists think up some wild ideas, but this one is next-level. Remember when the sun was appreciated, even worshiped, as the sustainer of life that it is? Or, at least, do you remember reading about it? ''The law, say the gardeners, is the sun,'' W.H. Auden wrote. Now, the sun is viewed as an existential threat.

People object to this experiment for different reasons. One Swedish greenie told Reuters that it could create the impression that continuing use of fossil fuels is possible. Presumably, that would only happen if the chalk dust works. (The scientists plan on using calcium carbonate.) Another says that it violates a U.N. global moratorium on geoengineering. Still others suggest it will shift global rain patterns.

This is from Science's Paul Voosen: ''Unlike sulfates, which can lead to ozone loss, calcium carbonate is not particularly reactive. But because it does not exist naturally in the stratosphere, models for its behavior are uncertain.''

Voosen refers to David Keith, one of the SCoPEx scientists, who also told Reuters, '''There is a long history of people doing research on things that were socially unpopular at the time that we now see as important,' he said, such as birth control.'' That's a peculiar example and a peculiar justification for his sci-fi methods.

But don't mind Keith. Don't mind SCoPEx or Gates. They just want to do what climatism insists we must never, ever do in manipulating the environment.

Here are my Librem 5 observations revised for easier reading aloud on the show:

* The Librem 5 may be farther along the path than the PinePhone is, to judge from your review of that device and what I read about it on the Pine forums. No offense meant for Pine64. I like them, too.

* The Librem 5 is NOT ready for daily use, unless you are a Linux professional who likes to tinker and who doesn't leave the house for more than 2 hours at a time.

* The PureOS operating system cannot put the phone to sleep (suspend to RAM), so the battery burns down in a few hours, as even with the screen turned off the phone keeps running full speed ahead. As you wrote to me last month, creating a new operating system is very difficult, and Purism is still working on power management both for Linux kernel hardware support and the operating system. I receive an OS update every two weeks on average so I know Purism is working on it.

* The Librem 5's physical switches for camera & mic, Wifi/Bluetooth, and cellular modem work perfectly to shut those items off—it is very easy to thumb the switches on or off deliberately but never accidentally. This phone will be easy to walk around with WiFi and Bluetooth off by default, as we all SHOULD, then flip them on to use as needed but not one second longer. If you're not awaiting an important phone call, turn off the cell modem as well and enjoy OTG living.

* The phone is thicker than other phones because that's how you make a device easy to service by the customer. Pry off the back cover quickly so you can change the battery OR, get this, use a 000 Phillips screwdriver to change out the cellular modem and WiFi/Bluetooth cards. Different modems with different regional cell frequencies are already available for travel and overseas purchase.

* I am dissatisfied with the phone's sound quality for people on the other end of the call. Whether this is because my unit has a manufacturing defect, or the software needs more work, I don't know yet. It can receive and make calls, but both my "test victims" told me I sounded muffled and underwater compared to my Lumia 950 and my iPhone. For $600 I expected better.

* The PureOS Linux distribution boots fast and looks great on the 720P touch screen and the touch sensitivity is fine. It's a Gnome desktop and people from iOS and Android should have no trouble using it.

* I think you might be interested to play with one, but you may want to wait a few more months. Or order the second generation now (the "Fir" batch, which may take a year to come out). In the mean time please keep telling us about your de-Googled Android phone and the health benefits of an OTG lifestyle.

Sir Timothy of No Fixed Title,

Baron of the Upper Peninsula

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 20:51

Adam Curry is a popular American anchor and talented TV personality. His name is often found in leading tabloids and Publication magazines. Curry was completely busy in anchoring some of the well-known TV shows and is also a part of a podcast on television the ''No Agenda show''. Moreover, he is one of the top TV celebrities and anchors who is able to garner lots of fame and name through conducting shows on television. He has interviewed many high profile celebrities about their journey to success.

Adam's eminent and first-rate engagement on TV puts the light on his long-standing association with the TV shows that have attractive content that never fails to please the audience. Likewise, he is now associated with TV broadcasting to offer informative content for people all over the world. Because of Adam Curry, the viewer rate is high. Furthermore, he also worked as VJ after his success with the TV shows and performed a good job in hosting MTV top 20 video countdowns. Let's have a look at some more interesting life details about Adam Curry.

Early life and professionAdam CurryAdam Curry was born in Arlington, Virginia on Sep 2, 1964. He had interests in music and was set on getting a job in MTV VJ. His experience with the music show and hosting the MTV Music Celebrity won him several awards. Once he registered with the domain name MTV.com after the demands of the public however he was later sued by MTV for the creation of that domain name. But he started his own company On-Ramp Inc which is a web portal. He is a visionary who was able to manage a video sharing pod show in the year 2005.

Also read: Kodak Black Net Worth In 2020: Early life And All You Need To Know

Personal life and accomplishments Adam Curry is a great anchor with a talent for interacting with the guests with ease. His conversations are always straight forward which makes the shows rank best on the television. His moment of success came when he hosted the show called ''The No Agenda Show'' from 2007. This show gave him influence and reputation as the best anchor and presenter. His effort to take part in a podcast to offer the best information for the people also won him the public's favour.

Age Recently Adam Curry celebrated his birthday. He has turned 65 and still handling his profession exceptionally well. Age is just a number for him because now also he is trying to do his best in the career. He is still active in his work and has several plans for the future.

Marriagevia: FlickrFirstly, Adam Curry was with his wife Patricia Paay for twenty years and had a daughter with her named Christina. But the marriage ended in 2009. Then Adam married Dutch Presenter, professional photographer, supermodel, and actress Micky Hoggendijk. They married in the year 2012 and separated in 2015. Currently, Adam is married to Tina Snider a prolific woman.

The net worth of Adam Curry Adam Curry has an excellent net worth of $2 million. This significant amount has accumulated because of his anchor career and podcasts. Adam is on the billionaire's list because of his career. The success of his radio and TV broadcasts has made Adam Curry rich.

Conclusion

Adam Curry's main interest in life lies in his passion for hosting music shows. He is now a prestigious host and well-known celebrity because of his talents and good presence on stage. The outstanding radio shows he does have made him really popular in the showbiz world. The work-life of Adam is productive because of his hard work and effort.

Also read: Billy Busch Sr Net Worth | Age, marriage, and Everything About His Life

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Sun, 03 Jan 2021 12:49

Could impact fight of bacterial, viral, and fungal infections Metal Tech News '' December 30, 2020

Graphene has emerged as a powerful antimicrobial that can prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses when added to masks, paints, sports gear, and other products. Now, initial tests by a leading infectious disease specialist in Canada indicate that a graphene-based compound may be able to treat a broad spectrum of pathogens that make it past the first lines of defense and into the human body.

This graphene-based antibiotic, antiviral, and antifungal compound developed by Ontario-based Zen Graphene Solutions Ltd. is proving to be a potential medical breakthrough in the treatment of numerous human-contracted pathogens such as upper and lower respiratory tract infections '' where COVID-19 is a major contributor '' as well as drug resistant organisms.

"This broad-spectrum compound is a novel solution that could have an impact on infectious disease management. It has the potential to act as a targeted treatment for multi-drug resistant organisms as well," said Zen Graphene Solutions CEO Greg Fenton. "As in previously released results on the effectiveness of a similar compound against COVID-19, this graphene-based treatment could be against viral infections. We will be exploring its use not only in the fight against the current global pandemic, but also against numerous other pathogens."

What makes this discovery particularly exciting is that graphene is simply a single layer of carbon atoms, a primary element of human physiology.

Testing carried out by Dr. Tony Mazzulli, microbiologist-in-chief and infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and professor in two medicine and pathobiology departments at the University of Toronto, shows that a small dose of the graphene-based powder is 99.9% effective against a broad range of bacteria responsible for strep and staph infections, as well as E. coli, flu, and pneumonia. The compound has also been shown to be 99.9% effective against certain yeast infections.

"This graphene compound appears to be active against both gram positive (e.g., Streptococci and Staphylococci) and gram negative (e.g., E. coli, H. influenzae, M. catarrhalis) bacteria as well as common yeast (e.g., Candida albicans) at extremely low concentrations. These results are promising," said Dr. Mazzulli. "Additional testing against a broader range of bacterial species is required to determine the full spectrum of activity of this GC (graphene compound)."

The amount of this compound needed to fight bacterial, fungal, and yeast infections is low enough that it could be used as a treatment inside the human body.

"The relatively low concentrations of GC required to achieve an antimicrobial effect is also promising," said Dr. Mazzulli. "Although one cannot directly compare the MICs (minimum inhibitory concentrations) of different compounds to determine their relative efficacy, the extremely low concentrations of this GC show an effect well below the concentration required of commonly used antibiotics to show a similar effect. These concentrations are also in keeping with concentrations that have been shown to have an antiviral effect of this GC as well."

Zen Graphene said delivery mechanisms like a dry powder inhaler or nasal spray may prove to be a highly effective delivery system for this emerging infection fighting compound. In addition to avoiding the need to ingest or be injected with a dose, an inhaler or nasal spray would maximize concentrations of the 2D carbon material directly at the site of respiratory tract infections.

The company is currently having testing done to confirm that the graphene compound it has developed is not toxic to cells and thus safe for medical use. Results from the initial rounds of this cytotoxicity testing show no negative impacts to animals given graphene compound concentrations several thousand times higher than found to be effective in treating infectious disease during testing at Mount Sinai Hospital.

A second phase of cytotoxicity testing is slated to get underway in early 2021, with repeat dose testing completed by late-January.

Once this testing is complete, the company will seek approvals for human testing of the compound.

Following the recommendations of Dr. Mazzulli, Zen Graphene says it is also carrying out tests to determine the graphene-based compound's effectiveness in fighting the full spectrum of pathogens.

The infectious disease specialist believes the graphene compound could provide game-changing treatments for a broad range of ailments.

Pixabay

Researchers in Canada, Europe, and Hong Kong have developed graphene-enhanced antimicrobial masks that further increase the face covering's effectiveness in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and other disease.

"In the clinical setting, if GC can be shown to be safe and effective, it could provide a breakthrough alternative therapy with potentially significant impact on the practice of family medicine (who initially see most of these common infections) but also in the fields of otolaryngology (diseases of the ear and throat), ophthalmology (diseases of the eye), and even in the intensive care unit where MDR (multi-drug resistant) organisms are a major challenge for treatment," Dr. Mazzulli penned in the conclusion of his report.

The results from the latest round of graphene compound testing could also have major implications for preventing the spread of disease. Previous tests have already shown that polypropylene mask material treated with a graphene-based ink developed by Zen is 99% effective at killing the COVID-19 virus. The Mount Sinai Hospital testing indicates the graphene ink's effectiveness against a broader spectrum of disease-causing microbes.

"Consistent with our recently announced graphene-based compound for treating human-contracted pathogens, we have also confirmed that it is greater than 99% effective against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria," said Fenton. "This demonstrates that our coating on masks and other personal protective equipment has potential broad biocidal properties and applications that we believe will go far beyond protection against COVID-19."

Author BioShane Lasley, Metal Tech NewsWith more than 13 years of covering mining, Shane has become renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.

Email: [email protected] Phone: 907-726-1095https://www.facebook.com/metaltechnews/

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Privacy

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 23:40

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - An unidentified flying object spotted in the evening sky over Leeward Oahu prompted witnesses to call 911 on Tuesday.

The sighting happened about 8:30 p.m.

There are multiple videos of what appears to be a glowing'š oblong mass '-- both in the sky and in the water.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration say there were no aircraft incidents or accidents in this area at the time. But multiple witnesses reported seeing a large blue object fall out of the sky and into the ocean.

In a one video a woman can be heard saying, ''Something is in the sky. What is that?''

Misitina Sape told Hawaii News Now she captured the image at 8:26 p.m. near Haleakala Avenue in Nanakuli.

Not long after, a woman named Moriah spotted what looked like the same object passing over Princess Kahanu Estates.

''I look up and then I was like oh s***!,'' she said. ''I started calling my husband and them because they were all in the garage. I was like hey. Come look up there. See if you see what I see. They all said yea!''

The 38-year-old says she's never really been a believer in UFOs, but the bright blue object had them so intrigued they jumped in the car and started following it.

''I don't know what it was,'' she said. ''This one was going so fast.''

The journey ended less than three miles from where it began. She says they stopped the car on Farrington Highway in front of the Board of Water Supply building after the object appeared to drop into the ocean.

In one of Moriah's videos you can hear her say, ''(It) went land in the water. Whatever it is.''

She described it as being larger than a telephone pole and says she never heard it make any sound.

''We called 911,'' Moriah said, ''For have like one cop or somebody for come out and come check em out.''

While officers were on scene Moriah says they spotted a second light.

''My husband went look up and he seen the white one coming,'' she said. ''The white one was smaller. Was coming in the same direction as the blue one.''

They lost sight of the object after it passed over a nearby mountain.

Thursday morning we asked Honolulu police if investigators figured out what fell in the water. A spokesperson told us they didn't have any information.

Meanwhile, FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor said the agency received a report from police Tuesday night about a possible plane down in the area ''but had no aircraft disappear off radars. And no reports of overdue or missing aircraft.''

Although Moriah's had a couple days to think about it, she says she's still baffled by what she saw.

''To this day I don't know,'' she said laughing. ''If you guys can find out what it was, I like know, you know?''

Copyright 2020 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

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Sat, 02 Jan 2021 11:37

MetroNews : West Virginia Adjutant General James Hoyer speaks with @HoppyKercheval about moving into the new year and distribut'... https://t.co/TM41PJwpvX

Thu Dec 31 16:47:33 +0000 2020

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Fri, 01 Jan 2021 16:37

BeachMilk : Witness the RARE sight of a mainstream media TV host exposing the truth of what is going on with COVID!Follow 👉'... https://t.co/ayLcszIwRD

Wed Dec 30 00:10:05 +0000 2020

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OTTAWA '-- Anyone arriving in Canada starting Jan. 7 will need to have a negative COVID-19 test before boarding and may have to quarantine in a federal facility if they have inadequate isolation plans, the federal government says.

Flyers aged five and up will need have a negative PCR test within 72 hours of their scheduled departure and must show the results to their airline before they board their flight.

Travellers who receive a negative test result must still complete the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Read more: Canada to require all arriving air passengers to show negative COVID-19 test

Travellers will have to provide a quarantine plan for federal officials to review.

If officials aren't satisfied, the government said people will be required to quarantine in a federal facility.

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The statement on Thursday afternoon said Canadians vacationing abroad should immediately start arranging for a COVID-19 test to avoid delays in coming home.

The details arrive one day after cabinet ministers decided that Canada would join other countries in making a negative PCR test as a travel requirement.

A PCR test is designed to detect minute amounts of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, usually through a swab up the nose or in the mouth.

3:07 New rules require international travellers to provide negative COVID-19 test New rules require international travellers to provide negative COVID-19 testAccording to the statement, Health Minister Patty Hadju said that the new procedure was not a replacement for quarantine.

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''As the global situation evolves, we continue to work with our partners to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 into Canada at all international ports of entry,'' said Hadju.

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''The new testing requirement is an additional layer of protection that helps make Canada's border measures among the strongest in the world.''

Transport Minister Marc Garneau had been in contact with airlines on Wednesday as the high-level details rolled out. On Thursday, the government said the Jan. 7 start date was designed to provide airlines with enough time to comply with the new rules.

The National Airlines Council of Canada, which represents the country's largest airlines, warned earlier Thursday of major issues in Ottawa's plans, including what options passengers have if their jurisdiction does not offer the kind of test the government accepts.

The new federal testing requirement will only apply for air travellers, but Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet argued it should apply at all ports of entry.

He also said the government should make sure that thousands of Canadians are reimbursed for travel plans that have been interrupted or cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

2:33 Air travellers need negative COVID-19 test before entering Canada Air travellers need negative COVID-19 test before entering CanadaIt is essential that Canadians also understand that personal sacrifices are key to helping end the pandemic, Blanchet said in a statement.

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In a statement Thursday, several Conservative shadow ministers criticized the new testing rules and questioned why the federal government did not implement post-arrival testing models already used by other G7 countries.

''The Liberals' new bright idea is to have international airline workers with no ties to Canada act as COVID-19 screening agents,'' read the statement.

''The lack of rationale, clarity and confusion created by the Liberal government's half-baked announcement leaves airline workers and Canadians abroad in limbo.''

'-- With files from Global News

View link >>(C) 2020 The Canadian Press

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Fri, 01 Jan 2021 14:19

Ryan Fournier : President Trump is one of the funniest people I've ever seen.This is too good 🤣 https://t.co/ni1uWEulji

Thu Dec 31 19:44:59 +0000 2020

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