CORONAVIRUS: HOW TO USE TOUCHSCREENS AND SELF-CHECKOUTS SAFELY
Should you wipe down the screen or just avoid using them?

Sophie Gallagher@scfgallagher APRIL 15, 2020 THE INDEPENDENT

The coronavirus, known as Covid-19, affects lungs and airways causing symptoms of a cough, fever and high temperature, and shortness of breath, and can be potentially deadly.

Because coronavirus is a novel virus, the NHS says it does not know “exactly” how coronavirus spreads from person to person but other similar viruses are spread in cough droplets.

As a result Public Health England (PHE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) both recommend covering your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and washing your hands more often than normal.

They also suggest not touching your face in case the virus is present on your hands. But should you avoid touching potentially-contaminated surfaces in public?

While some are easier to not use, like escalator handrails, others like self-service checkouts at the supermarket can be harder to avoid in day-to-day life.

Are touchscreens dangerous?

Studies have suggested coronaviruses like SARS and MERS can stay alive for up to three hours in the air but as much as two or three days on metal, glass and plastic surfaces.

Professor William Keevil from the University of Southampton warned people should be cautious about using their phone after washing their hands without cleaning it first. But Keevil also said as your mobile device is only used by you, the risk isn’t so high.

However with public touchscreens, used by lots of people, an infected person could leave the virus on a surface days before and successfully infect another uncontaminated person without them knowing.

Infectious disease epidemiologist Dr Tara Smith from Kent State University said: “Since so many people are touching them day in and day out, they’re a great place for viruses and bacteria to be deposited by infected individuals and be picked up by healthy ones, spreading the germ to new people.”

Dr Smith suggested that as a result companies should consider increasing hygiene measures for those using the screens – such as wipes on the stations. But until we can be sure all companies are doing so, is it safer just to avoid touchscreens?

Should we still use touchscreens?

Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton told The Independent that avoidance isn’t necessarily the best step: “Touchscreens are now in many places in UK society, so it’s often hard to avoid needing to use them.

"Various laboratory studies have shown it is certainly theoretically possible, viral loads are detected on the screens.

“The most practical advice is for people to make sure they are thoroughly washing and cleaning their hands several times a day, thus reducing the risks of transmission of any infection.”

Public Health England (PHE) also told The Independent they are not issuing any guidance particularly around the use of touchscreens.

Instead people should continue to wash their hands frequently with hot water and soap for 20 seconds or use alcohol hand gel and be aware of safe coughing etiquette.
Should we use wipes on the touchscreens?

If you’re worried about using the screen and not having access to hand washing straight away then it could be tempting to use screen wipes (as people have been recommended to do with their individual mobile devices) but Michael Head says this isn’t a good idea.

Head says: “It’s probably not advisable to use wipes first on the screen, since the wipe may not adequately disinfect the screen, and it may also cause problems on the screen itself.

A SAFE SANITATION TECHNIQUE WOULD BE TO WIPE IT TWICE:

FIRST WITH ONE SIDE OF THE DISINFECTANT WIPE, WAIT FOR IT TO AIR DRY THEN WIPE AGAIN WITH THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIPE, THROW WIPE AWAY. 

FOLLOW THE SAME PROCEDURE AFTER YOU FINISH. 

IF THE SCREEN FOGS, THEN STOP USING THE WIPE, BEST TO TEST IN A CORNER FIRST.

“So washing hands soon afterwards is definitely the best solution.”
Are shops and restaurants doing anything to make touchscreens safer?

Most supermarkets now have self-checkouts that require customers to interact with a touchscreen.

In the UK the British Retail Consortium – which represents major supermarkets – said stores are not going to stop using touchscreens but are increasing the number of deep cleans and are advising customers to take precautions.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC told The Independent: “Retailers are continuing to adhere to high standards of hygiene in store and are taking extra precautions as advised by PHE.

"Alongside this, we are urging everyone to follow Public Health England’s advice: wash hands frequently with hot water and soap for 20 seconds or use alcohol hand gel, and be aware of safe coughing etiquette.”

Chernobyl fire under control, Ukraine officials say

BBC 14 April 2020

Footage shows wildfires near the nuclear disaster site this week

VIDEO'S AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE

A fire that threatened the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear plant has been contained, Ukrainian authorities said.

Emergency services said on Tuesday there were still some "smouldering" parts of the forest floor, but there was "no open fire" left.

There had been fears the blaze could threaten the site of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe.

Greenpeace Russia said on Monday one blaze was just one kilometre from the plant itself.

Though fires are common in the area, Greenpeace said this was the worst in decades. Police have arrested a 27-year-old man and accused him of starting the blaze.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was "carefully monitoring" the situation and praised emergency services for their "courage".

He tweeted that "society needs to know the truth and to be safe".

copyright PLANET LABS INC 

The reactor complex (circled) pictured on 9 April by a satellite operated by the Planet company 

copyright PLANET LABS INC

By Monday (13 April), the satellite imagery indicated that conditions had improved significantly

In 1986, the former nuclear plant suffered a catastrophic meltdown that spread radioactive fallout across Europe.

Chernobyl and the nearby town of Pripyat have been abandoned ever since, although they have attracted large numbers of tourists in recent years.
What's the situation?

Hundreds of firefighters as well as planes and helicopters were sent to tackle the fire.

On Tuesday, state emergency services announced the blaze had largely been contained.

"There is no open fire," a statement said, adding that there was "a slight smouldering of the forest floor" in separate places.

"We are trying to stop the spread of several hot spots of fire," said Volodymyr Demchuk, a senior official from Ukraine's emergency service.

Aircraft dropped 538 tons of water on the blaze on Monday, the statement said. Background radiation in and around the capital Kyiv "is within normal limits".

Image EPA

Authorities have been fighting the flames for more than a week

REUTERS

An image from 12 April shows part of the exclusion zone blackened by the flames

Over the past week there have been concerns the fire could threaten the plant and even spread radioactive chemicals.

Sergiy Zibtsev, head of the Regional Eastern European Fire Monitoring Center, told AFP news agency that the fire had become "super-huge" and "unpredictable".

Local tour operator Yaroslav Emelianenko said on Monday that one fire had reached Pripyat and was even just 2km (1.24 miles) from where the most dangerous waste from the plant was stored. "The situation is critical," he wrote on Facebook.

In 2018 more than 70,000 people visited the town. Last year that figure was even higher, after the success of an HBO mini-series about the disaster.

Chernobyl nuclear power station and Pripyat have been abandoned since 1986, when the plant’s No. 4 reactor blew up.

People are forbidden from living within 30km (18 miles) of the power station.

Chernobyl continued to generate power until the plant's last operational reactor was finally closed in 2000. A giant shield built to cover the reactor was installed in November 2016, replacing a decaying sarcophagus built in 1986 to seal in nuclear materials.

The Chernobyl disaster: A timeline

26 April 1986: An explosion occurs in reactor No. 4 after a safety test, blowing off the top and spewing huge amounts of radioactive material into the sky. Graphite fires start in the plant

27 April: Authorities begin evacuating people from the surrounding areas. A huge exclusion zone is eventually set up, where people are barred from living

28 April: The USSR admits an accident has happened at the plant without giving details, saying it is under control. Workers at a Swedish nuclear plant detect radiation which is traced back to the USSR

10 May: The fire in reactor No. 4 finally goes out

14 May : Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev talks about the disaster on television. In a memoir 

20 years later, Mr Gorbachev suggests the disaster may have been the "real cause" of the collapse of the Soviet Union

Chernobyl fire: Huge forest blaze moves within one kilometre of abandoned nuclear plant

'A fire approaching a nuclear or hazardous radiation facility is always a risk', Greenpeace researcher says



Vincent Wood @wood_vincent INDEPENDENT UK APRIL 14, 2020

A forest fire that has raged in Ukraine for more than a week has spread to within a kilometre of the Chernobyl power plant, environmental campaigners have warned.

Footage of the region has shown fires raging through the 30km exclusion zone set up around the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history, with black smoke billowing into the sky as firefighters attempting to beat back the blaze from helicopters.

However, despite state officials assuring the situation is under control, NGO Greenpeace Russia has warned the situation may be much worse than first stated by the authorities.

On 4 April, Ukrainian authorities said the blaze covered an area of 20 hectares, but Greenpeace cited satellite images showing it was around 12,000 hectares in size at that time.

"According to satellite images taken on Monday, the area of the largest fire has reached 34,400 hectares," it said, adding that a second fire, stretching across 12,600 hectares, was just one kilometre away from the defunct plant.

Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Show all 14





Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those claims. The Emergency Situations Service meanwhile said radiation levels in the exclusion zone had not changed and those in nearby Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, "did not exceed natural background levels".

But Rashid Alimov, head of energy projects at Greenpeace Russia, said the fires, fanned by the wind, could disperse radionuclides, atoms that emit radiation.
Read more

The Chernobyl art project illuminating a dark obsession with disaster

"A fire approaching a nuclear or hazardous radiation facility is always a risk," Mr Alimov said. "In this case we're hoping for rain tomorrow."

Chernobyl tour operator Yaroslav Yemelianenko, writing on Facebook, described the situation as critical.

He said the fire was rapidly expanding and had reached the abandoned city of Pripyat, two kilometers from where "the most highly active radiation waste of the whole Chernobyl zone is located". He called on officials to warn people of the danger.

The fires, which follow unusually dry weather, began on 3 April in the western part of the exclusion zone and spread to nearby forests.

Police say they have identified a 27-year old local resident who they accuse of deliberately starting the blaze.

It remains unclear if the person, who has reportedly confessed to starting a number of fires "for fun", is partly or fully responsible.

Coronavirus: Raspberry Pi-powered ventilator to be tested in Colombia

By Zoe Thomas BBC Technology reporter 13 April 2020

Image copyright MARCO MASCORRO

A team in Colombia is to test a ventilator made with a Raspberry Pi computer and easy-to-source parts.

The design and computer code were posted online in March by a man in California, who had no prior experience at creating medical equipment.

Marco Mascorro, a robotics engineer, said he built the ventilator because knew the machines were in high demand to treat Covid-19.

His post prompted a flood of feedback from healthcare workers.

He has used the advice to make improvements.

"I am a true believer that technology can solve a lot of the problems we have right now specifically in this pandemic," he told the BBC.

The Colombian team said the design was important for their South American country because parts for traditional models could be hard to obtain.

By contrast, Mr Mascorro's design uses only easy-to-find parts - for example, the valves it employs can commonly be found at car and plumbing supply stores.

The machine is set to be put through a fast-tracked round of tests at two institutions in Bogota - the University Hospital of the Pontifical Xavierian University and Los Andes University.

Image copyright MARCO MASCORRO

The machine regulates the amount of oxygen given to a patient

"The fight against Covid-19 is like a race," said Omar Ramirez, who will lead the effort.

"All the world is competing against the disease, but on different tracks and what determines those different tracks is the access to resources and experience."
Computing power

The Raspberry Pi plays a key role in the ventilator.

The British invention is a small, low-cost computer board, which was originally created to help teach computer coding. But over the past eight years it has been embraced by enthusiasts and others to form the brains of a wide range of electronics projects.

Having a computer to control the ventilator is critical. It sets the air pressure, opens and closes valves, and can regulate whether a patient needs full or partial breathing assistance.

Mr Mascorro has made the code involved open source, meaning that anyone can use it or modify it without charge.

RASPBERRY PI

More than 30 million Rasberry Pi computers have been manufactured since their launch in 2012

"The beauty of developing a software-centric system is we can make changes to the processes without doing much to the hardware," he explained.
Testing

The equipment will run non-stop for five days ventilating a set of artificial lungs, as part of the tests.

If it passes them, the machine will be undergo animal trials.

The Colombian group hopes to then make a start on human trials at the beginning of May.

And if they too are a success, the aim is to start using mass-produced versions on hospital patients by the middle of the year,

The timeline reflects the urgency with which Colombia's authorities are treating the matter. Testing and gaining regulatory permission to deploy such equipment would normally take about 18 months.

But some doctors remain unconvinced the machine will be up to the task, at least during the current outbreak.

"Anything that can provide a backup can be helpful, but it has to be properly tested to see if it can deliver the oxygen and pressure support," said Dr Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association.

Dr Rizzo added, however, that the project had the potential to eventually yield trustworthy ventilators which could be used during future pandemics.

---30---

Canadian care homes become coronavirus hotspots

BBC 13 April 2020

REUTERS

Nearly half of the known coronavirus deaths in Canada are linked to outbreaks in elderly care facilities, public health officials say.

The disclosure comes as care homes across the country have come under scrutiny.

Over the weekend, a care home in the province of Quebec, where 31 people have died, was placed under investigation.

There are about 24,804 cases of the virus in Canada and 734 deaths to date.

Long-term care facilities are "driving the severe outcomes in Canada", said the federal chief public health officer Theresa Tam on Monday.

Dr Tam said all jurisdictions are trying to deal with outbreaks in both private and public seniors' facilities.

Where officials have data on whether a Covid-19 victim was in a care facility or seniors' residence, she said, "close to half" were linked to those establishments.
Quebec inquiry opened

On Sunday, the Quebec coroner's office launched an inquiry into deaths at private residential long-term care facility Residence Herron. Public health and police investigations are also underway.

Thirty-one of the home's residents have died since 13 March - at least five from the virus. The cause of death in the other 26 cases has not been established.

The home in Dorval, a Montreal suburb, has 150 residents. Authorities have stepped in to care for the residents.

REUTERS

Dr Theresa Tam says "close to half of the deaths that we’re tracking are linked to long-term care facilities"
Many staff had left the home amid "serious problems", he said during a weekend media briefing.

Its management company did not respond to a request from the BBC for comment but in a statement to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, said its appeals for help at the outbreak of the crisis went ignored by regional health officials.

The coroner's office said it is not currently investigating deaths at similar facilities in the province but is monitoring the situation closely.

The Quebec premier was more reassuring on Monday, saying provincial health officials are carrying out checks at all the province's long-term care homes - and in the majority of homes so far, patients were well treated and cared for.

He said it has long been a challenge to properly staff homes where workers are often paid low wages.

Some care home workers in Canada have staged protests over a lack of personal protective equipment available to them.

On Saturday, the federal government issues new guidelines to help homes prevent and contain contagion among residents.
Care homes under the microscope

Globally, more than 1.8m people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus and 116,098 have died, accordingto data complied by Johns Hopkins University.
Europe's care homes struggle as virus deaths rise

People of all ages can be infected by the virus. But it is especially dangerous for older people and seniors' care homes in many parts of the world have been especially hard-hit by the pandemic.

In some instances, there have been concerns residents have not been properly cared for.

In Spain, soldiers helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic found elderly patients in retirement homes abandoned and, in some cases, dead in their bed. An investigation was launched in late March.

In the US last week, the federal justice department opened an investigation into conditions at a care home for veterans in Massachusetts.

It will look into whether the home in Holyoke, about 93 miles (150km) from Boston, violated the rights of residents "by failing to provide them adequate medical care generally, and during, the coronavirus pandemic".

---30---

Coronavirus: 'Pets no risk to owners' vets stress

By Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News 8 April 2020 

VICTORIA GILL

Veterinary scientists have recommended cat owners keep their pets indoors to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus among animals.

But the British Veterinary Association stressed "owners should not worry" about risk of infection from pets.

"There isn't a single case of a pet dog or cat infecting a human with Covid-19," Dr Angel Almendros, from City University in Hong Kong, told BBC News.

Research has shown cats may be able to catch the virus from other cats.

Dr Almendros added that it would be sensible to keep cats indoors - where it is safe and possible to do so - during the outbreak.
How the pandemic is putting the spotlight on wildlife trade
The race to find the source of coronavirus in wildlife

JASON PALMER

There is no evidence that cats or dogs can become sick or infect people

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) president Daniella Dos Santos told BBC News she agreed with that advice. But the association has since clarified that its recommendation to concerned pet-owners is to take the precaution of keeping cats indoors "only if someone in their own household showed symptoms".

Every pet-owner though should "practise good hand hygiene," she said.

"An animal's fur could carry the virus for a time if a pet were to have come into contact with someone who was sick."

In a recent paper on the subject, Dr Angel Almendros referred to the case of a 17-year-old pet dog in Hong Kong that tested positive for the Covid-19 virus - apparently infected by its owner.

"But even where we have these positive results, the animals are not becoming sick," he said.

"As in the previous Sars-Cov outbreak in Hong Kong, in 2003, where a number of pets were infected but never became sick, there is no evidence that dogs or cats could become sick or infect people."

How is the disease transmitted from humans to animals?

It appears cats may be susceptible to infection from respiratory droplets - virus particles suspended in air that people cough, sneeze or breathe out.

Following a case in Belgium where a cat tested positive about a week after its owner showed symptoms, scientists in China carried out lab tests that provided evidence of infected cats transmitting the virus to other cats.

"It is interesting to note in the experimental evidence that cats can become infected, alongside the apparent infection of a tiger [at Bronx Zoo in New York]," Prof Bryan Charleston, director of the UK's Pirbright Institute, which specialises in the study of infectious disease, said, adding that the "evidence on the transmissibility" from humans to other animals was building.

CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES One of the Bronx Zoo's Malayan tigers

There is also evidence humans can transmit respiratory infections to wild great apes, which makes the global spread of Covid-19 a concern for conservationists working to protect critically endangered animals, including gorillas.

In all of these cases though, it is infected humans that pose the threat to other species.

Dr Almendros told BBC News: "We know that the virus did make the jump from an animal into humans [at the beginning of this crisis]". But, he explained, that this appeared to be linked to people eating those animals.

There is no evidence that domestic animals can pass this disease back to people.

GOZDE OZAKINCI

"Treat pets like other people in your household. So if you're feeling sick, it's better not to interact with them," said Dr Almendros.

"I hope pet owners can sleep a bit better with the right advice and information," he added. "It isn't easy these days, I know."

Update 8th April: This story has been updated to reflect that the British Veterinary Association has issued a clarification about their position.

Coronavirus: Exploiting nature 'drives outbreaks of new diseases'

By Helen Briggs BBC News, Science & Environment April 8, 2020 

GETTY IMAGES Seized ivory in Malaysia waiting to be destroyed

New evidence has emerged of a link between human exploitation of nature and pandemics.

Close contact with wild animals through hunting, trade or habitat loss puts the world at increased risk of outbreaks of new diseases, say scientists.

Coronavirus is thought to have originated in bats, with other wild animals, possibly pangolins, playing a role in transmission to humans.

There are strong indications of a wildlife source and a link to trade.

In the latest study, researchers trawled scientific papers for reports of diseases that have crossed from animals to humans, then combined this data with information on extinction risk compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Wild animals at risk of extinction due to human exploitation were found to carry over twice as many viruses that can cause human disease as threatened species listed for other reasons. The same was true for threatened species at risk due to loss of habitat.

"As natural habitat is diminished, wildlife come into closer contact with people," Dr Christine Johnson of the University of California, Davis, US, told BBC News,

"Wildlife also shift their distributions to accommodate anthropogenic activities and modification of the natural landscape. This has hastened disease emergence from wildlife, which put us at risk of pandemics because we are all globally connected through travel and trade." 

 

GETTY IMAGES Road built through the rainforest

Wild animals on the edge of extinction are few in number and generally pose a low risk of passing on infectious diseases, said Dr Johnson, except where human exploitation and habitat loss puts them in close contact with humans.

"Exploitation of wildlife, which has caused once abundant wildlife to decline in numbers, through hunting and trading in wildlife, have endangered species survival and also put humans at risk of emerging infectious disease," she said.

Scientists have long drawn attention to human diseases that have originated in animals, including Sars, Mers and Ebola. In the wake of coronavirus, there is growing awareness that human health is linked both with animal health and the health of the planet as a whole.

GETTY IMAGES Protest against deforestation in Jakarta
A wide range of organisations are calling for curbs on wild animal trade to reduce risks to human health. Dr Johnson said wild animals sold in busy markets where animals and people mix present an opportunity for diseases to jump between species that would normally never come together in the natural world.

"Disease emergence that occurs anywhere can affect us all and we need to all understand the impact we are having when we interact with wildlife, realise that disease emergence is an environmental issue, and find more sustainable ways to co-exist."

The research is published in the journal Royal Society Proceedings B.

Crops were cultivated in regions of the Amazon '10,000 years ago'

WITH NO HELP FROM ALIENS OR UFO'S OR SUMERIAN GODS

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent BBC 8 April 2020

UMBERTO LOMBARDO

The forest islands of this part of Bolivia seen from the air

Far from being a pristine wilderness, some regions of the Amazon have been profoundly altered by humans dating back 10,000 years, say researchers.

An international team found that during this period, crops were being cultivated in a remote location in what is now northern Bolivia.

The scientists believe that the humans who lived here were planting squash, cassava and maize.

The inhabitants also created thousands of artificial islands in the forest.

The end of the last ice age, around 12,000 years ago, saw a sustained rise in global temperatures that initiated many changes around the world.

tUMBERTO LOMBARDO

Images of the phytoliths found by the scientists - the scalloped sphere in the top right corner is from squash

Perhaps the most important of these was that early civilisations began to move away from living as hunter-gatherers and started to cultivate crops for food.

Researchers have previously unearthed evidence that crops were domesticated at four important locations around the world.

So China saw the cultivation of rice, while in the Middle East it was grains, in Central America and Mexico it was maize, while potatoes and quinoa emerged in the Andes.

Now scientists say that the Llanos de Moxos region of southwestern Amazonia should be seen as a fifth key region.

The area is a savannah but is dotted with raised areas of land now covered with trees.

UMBERTO LOMBARDO

One of the 4,700 forest islands in this region of Amazonia

The area floods for part of the year but these "forest islands" remain above the waters.

Some 4,700 of these small mounds were developed by humans over time, in a very mundane way.

"These are just places where people dropped their rubbish, and over time they grow," said lead author Dr Umberto Lombardo from the University of Bern, Switzerland.

"Of course, rubbish is very rich in nutrients, and as these areas grow they rise above the level of the flood during the rainy season, so they become good places to settle with fertile soil, so people come back to the same places all the time."

The researchers examined some 30 of these islands for evidence of crop planting.

They discovered tiny fragments of silica called phytoliths, described as tiny pieces of glass that form inside the cells of plants.

The shape of these tiny glass fragments are different, depending on which plants they come from.

The researchers were able to identify evidence of manioc (cassava, yuca) that were grown 10,350 years ago. Squash appears 10,250 years ago, and maize more recently - just 6,850 years ago.

"This is quite surprising," said Dr Lombardo.

UMBERTO LOMBARDO The scientists at work on the site

"This is Amazonia, this is one of these places that a few years ago we thought to be like a virgin forest, an untouched environment."

"Now we're finding this evidence that people were living there 10,500 years ago, and they started practising cultivation."

The people who lived at this time probably also survived on sweet potato and peanuts, as well as fish and large herbivores.

The researchers say it's likely that the humans who lived here may have brought their plants with them.

They believe their study is another example of the global impact of the environmental changes being felt as the world warmed up at the end of the last ice age.

"It's interesting in that it confirms again that domestication begins at the start of the Holocene period, when we have this climate change that we see as we exit from the ice age," said Dr Lombardo.

"We entered this warm period, when all over the world at the same time, people start cultivating."

The study has been published in the journal Nature.

The woman who discovered the first coronavirus

15 April 2020

Dr. June Almeida with her electron microscope at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto in 1963

The woman who discovered the first human coronavirus was the daughter of a Scottish bus driver who left school at 16.

Dr. June Almeida went on to become a pioneer of virus imaging, whose work has come roaring back into focus during the present pandemic.

Covid-19 is a new illness but it is caused by a coronavirus of the type first identified by Dr Almeida in 1964 at her laboratory in St Thomas's Hospital in London.

The virologist was born June Hart in 1930 and grew up in a tenement near Alexandra Park in the north east of Glasgow.

She left school with little formal education but got a job as a laboratory technician in histopathology at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

Later she moved to London to further her career and in 1954 married Enriques Almeida, a Venezuelan artist.

Common cold research

The couple and their young daughter moved to Toronto in Canada and, according to medical writer George Winter, it was at the Ontario Cancer Institute that Dr Almeida developed her outstanding skills with an electron microscope.

She pioneered a method which better visualised viruses by using antibodies to aggregate them.

Mr Winter told Drivetime on BBC Radio Scotland her talents were recognised in the UK and she was lured back in 1964 to work at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London, the same hospital that treated Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was suffering from the Covid-19 virus.

On her return, she began to collaborate with Dr David Tyrrell, who was running research at the common cold unit in Salisbury in Wiltshire.

Mr Winter says Dr Tyrrell had been studying nasal washings from volunteers and his team had found that they were able to grow quite a few common cold-associated viruses but not all of them.

One sample in particular, which became known as B814, was from the nasal washings of a pupil at a boarding school in Surrey in 1960.

They found that they were able to transmit common cold symptoms to volunteers but they were unable to grow it in routine cell culture.

However, volunteer studies demonstrated its growth in organ cultures and Dr Tyrrell wondered if it could be seen by an electron microscope.

They sent samples to June Almeida who saw the virus particles in the specimens, which she described as like influenza viruses but not exactly the same.

She identified what became known as the first human coronavirus.

GETTY IMAGES

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that have a halo or crown-like (corona) appearance when viewed under a microscope

Mr Winter says that Dr Almeida had actually seen particles like this before while investigating mouse hepatitis and infectious bronchitis of chickens.

However, he says her paper to a peer-reviewed journal was rejected "because the referees said the images she produced were just bad pictures of influenza virus particles".

The new discovery from strain B814 was written up in the British Medical Journal in 1965 and the first photographs of what she had seen were published in the Journal of General Virology two years later.

According to Mr Winter, it was Dr Tyrrell and Dr Almeida, along with Prof Tony Waterson, the man in charge at St Thomas's, who named it coronavirus because of the crown or halo surrounding it on the viral image.

Dr Almeida later worked at the Postgraduate Medical School in London, where she was awarded a doctorate.

She finished her career at the Wellcome Institute, where she was named on several patents in the field of imaging viruses.

After leaving Wellcome, Dr Almeida become a yoga teacher 

but went back into virology in an advisory role in the late 1980s when she helped take novel pictures of the HIV virus.

June Almeida died in 2007, at the age of 77.

Now 13 years after her death she is finally getting recognition she deserves as a pioneer whose work speeded up understanding of the virus that is currently spreading throughout the world.

Burger King 'plant-based' Whopper ads banned

15 April 2020

Image copyright BURGER KING

Burger King has been banned from showing adverts suggesting its Rebel Whopper, which is cooked alongside meat and contains egg, is vegan-friendly.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the chain's claim that the burger is "100% Whopper, no beef" could be understood to mean it did not contain animal products.

Burger King said it had been "clear and transparent" in its marketing.

The Vegan Society said it was a "missed opportunity".

"We communicated from the outset that the Rebel Whopper is aimed at a flexitarian audience," the fast food chain said in a statement.

But the ASA found that Burger King's social media posts about the Rebel Whopper gave the impression it could be eaten by vegans and vegetarians.
Skip Twitter post by @BurgerKingUK

You asked and we listened. Introducing the Rebel Whopper, our first plant-based burger! 🍔 Pick up yours exclusively with the app on the 6th and 7th and then available as usual from the 8th. T&Cs apply. pic.twitter.com/uXaOFdZ5BX— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) January 6, 2020
Report

End of Twitter post by @BurgerKingUK

The posts included a logo saying "Vegetarian Butcher".

"The green colour palette and the timing of the ad and product release to coincide with 'Veganuary' contributed further to the impression that the product was suitable for vegans and vegetarians," the ASA said.

Some of the adverts included small print saying "cooked alongside meat products".

But the ASA said: "We considered it was not sufficiently prominent to override the overall impression that the burger was suitable for vegetarians and vegans."

When the burger was launched, the fast food chain said it was aimed at those who want to reduce their meat consumption.

But a spokesperson for the Vegan Society called the launch a "missed opportunity".
Burger King's plant-based Whopper 'not for vegans'