It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, December 14, 2020
Climate change fuels new toxic algal blooms along Pacific Coast Pseudo-nitzschia algae blooms, which produce a neurotoxin called domoic acid, have become increasingly common along the Pacific Coast. Photo by Rozalind Jester/Florida Southwestern State College
Dec. 14 (UPI) -- According to a new study, a new kind of algal bloom is becoming more common along the West Coast -- fueled by human-caused climate change.
Red tides, masses of phytoplankton and dinoflagellates that tun the ocean a rusty, reddish orange, have long plagued the shores of California, but a previously rare rare type of bloom, which releases a neurotoxin called domoic acid, is increasingly putting fishers, swimmers and seafood at risk.
On Monday, researchers published a new study inthe journal Frontiers in Climate, detailing the threat of domoic acid and other algal toxins.
"This study shows that climate change can influence the occurrence and intensity of some harmful algal blooms, HABs, by creating new seed beds for their survival and distribution," study lead author Vera Trainer said in a news release.
"Coastal communities, including Native Tribes, will suffer from the effects of HABs more frequently in the future, illustrating the importance of early warning systems such as Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletins that are becoming operational in the US and other parts of the world," said Trainer, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
For more than two decades, Trainer and her colleagues have been measuring domoic acid concentrations in ocean water and seafood samples along the West Coast.
In 2015, the algae that produced domoic acid, Pseudo-nitzschia, proliferated throughout the Northeast Pacific. Fueled by a severe ocean heatwave, the toxic bloom triggered widespread marine mammal mortalities.
As highlighted by the new research, massive blooms can turn a rare phenomena into an endemic problem.
In the wake of the 2015 bloom, domoic acid has become a persistent threat among the waters along the shores of northern California and southern Oregon. Shellfish harvests in the region has been disrupted by Pseudo-nitzschia blooms each of the last five years.
Scientists have previously used models to suss out the roles temperature, wind and ocean currents play in generating and sustaining extreme heatwaves.\
Simulations showed climate change made the marine heatwave that plagued the Pacific Coast between 2013 and 2015 five times more likely to occur under modern climate conditions than it would have been in a world without human-caused climate change. The same models suggest extreme heatwaves will be up to 20 times more likely in the near future.
For the new study, researchers examined the ways ocean currents and coastal topography make the waters off the coast of northern California and southern Oregon especially susceptible to recurring algal blooms.
Their analysis showed Pseudo-nitzschia algae can lie dormant in marine sediments, becoming reanimated by upwelling that brings deeper water to the surface.
Massive algal blooms ensure a reserve of algae cells remain in coastal sediments, putting the region at greater risk of future toxic blooms.
Researchers at NOAA are currently working with an array of regional partners, including the University of Washington, the Washington State Departments of Health and Fish and Wildlife and Native Tribes, to monitor and forecast the risk of Pseudo-nitzschia blooms and their impact on local shellfish harvests.
"There is evidence that bacteria associated with seagrasses have algicidal properties, indicating that seagrass planting may be used to successfully control some HABs in Puget Sound," said Trainer. "But for large-scale marine HABs, early warning is our best defense and these HAB Bulletins will help preserve a way of life that includes wild shellfish harvest, on which coastal people depend." upi.com/7061066
THIRD WORLD USA Study: Black kids in U.S. have higher risk for death from sepsis than White kids
"There is growing evidence that structural racism may be an important factor in the social and economic conditions that ultimately lead to health inequalities in children,"
HEALTH NEWS DEC. 14, 2020 Black children are more likely to die from sepsis than their White and Hispanic peers, according to a new study. File Photo by Mary Rice/Shutterstock
Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Black children hospitalized in the United States have a significantly higher risk for death from sepsis than White or Hispanic children, according to a study published Monday by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
Severe sepsis is a life-threatening reaction caused by the immune system overreacting to an infection, and it occurs most frequently in newborns and infants.
With an average of 10 days, Black and Hispanic children also had longer hospital stays than White children, who had averaged eight days, the data showed. "There is growing evidence that structural racism may be an important factor in the social and economic conditions that ultimately lead to health inequalities in children," study co-author Dr. Nadir Yehya said in a statement.
"Our findings demonstrate a need to examine the different ways in which these biases may contribute at structural, interpersonal or individualized levels to sepsis outcomes in children," said Yehya, attending physician in the Pediatric Sepsis Program and the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
More than 75,000 children and teens in the United States are hospitalized with sepsis annually, and 7,000 of them die, according to the Sepsis Alliance.
Previous studies have found that Black adults and uninsured people are more likely to die from sepsis, and that those living in high-poverty areas are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researchers said.
The new study included 9,816 children diagnosed with severe sepsis from the 2016 Kids' Inpatient Database, which records 80% of pediatric hospital discharges across 47 U.S. states.
Of the children in the study, 15% died from sepsis.
However, 18% of Black children in the study died from the disease, compared to 13% of White children and 14% of Hispanic children, the data showed.
Risk for death from sepsis for Black children was 60% higher than that for White children in the western United States and 30% higher in the South.
More White children -- 52% -- were privately insured than Black -- 23% -- or Hispanic -- 20% -- children, and Black and Hispanic children were up to twice as likely to live in low-income ZIP codes than White children.
And children from households lacking health insurance or whose parents paid out-of-pocket for care had a 30% higher risk for death from sepsis than those who had health insurance or Medicaid.
A range of factors may contribute to poorer outcomes for severe sepsis in minority children and those of lower socioeconomic position, including lack of access to quality healthcare and provider bias, the researchers said.
Further studies, they said, are needed to investigate why these disparities exist and how they can be addressed.
"Some of the disparities in outcomes from sepsis that we've identified related to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position are alarming, but this analysis is an important step toward working out why they exist and what measures can be taken to address them," study co-author Dr. Hannah Mitchell said in a statement.
"Importantly, no differences in survival were seen between publicly and privately insured children," said Mitchell, a pediatric resident at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
THIRD WORLD USA
Experts fear looser HUD count will worsen plight of homeless in U.S.
By Katie Livingstone, Medill News Service A homeless man holds an American flag near the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20. File Photo by Kyle Rivas/UPI | License Photo
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued less stringent guidelines, due to COVID-19, for conducting an annual survey of the U.S. homeless population. Experts fear the move will lead to a more inaccurate count -- and less help for needy Americans.
During the Point-in-Time count held each January, the department coordinates with U.S. shelters and advocacy groups to get an idea of the scope of the homeless problem. The survey is the only comprehensive, national look each year at the homeless population size and demographics and will provide the only hard data showing this year's impact of the coronavirus crisis.
"The data is important for us because it provides us with a consistent data point of what homelessness in our community looks like from one year to the next," said Kristy Greenwalt, director of the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Greenwalt added that although the survey is just one source cities and shelters use to estimate needs, the January count has historically been essential for understanding greater demographic changes that could lead to policy or strategy shifts -- especially in areas with high populations of unsheltered homeless.
The department's updated guidelines for the 2021 count, which normally includes both sheltered and unsheltered populations in odd-numbered years, will allow organizations to conduct less rigorous surveys that skip harder-to-gather requirements, use broader estimation tactics or opt out of the unsheltered portion of the count altogether.
The department has not yet formally announced the changes or responded to repeated requests for comments.
Weeks after quietly publishing the new guidelines to its website, the department scheduled a series of question-and-answer sessions for organizations that conduct the count -- but has yet to make any public announcement or note potential effects on the survey's accuracy.
In larger areas with more unsheltered homeless, the count demands a significant number of resources and volunteers who have been in short supply since the pandemic began. Mindful of these logistical issues, combined with fears of being exposed to the virus, some organizations have also discussed skipping the count this year. To ensure that some data will be collected, the department offered the new guidelines as a compromise.
"What HUD is trying to say is that if you can't do the whole unsheltered count, here are some ways that you can reduce it, make it simpler and make it safer for people that are involved," said Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Roman said the department has never before altered the requirements to this extent.
Even before the changes, some advocates criticized the PIT count for relying too heavily on figures for sheltered homeless and failing to get an adequate picture of unsheltered and itinerant homelessness. Critics of the survey say its methodology is based on a limited definition that fails to take into account millions of families who live in vehicles, on someone's couch or simply out of sight -- homeless that are harder to quantify.
Some estimates of the U.S. homeless population dwarf the department's, although no two surveys use the same framework or methodology. In 2018, about 553,000 people were estimated to be homeless on any given night, according to the PIT count. That same year, the National Center for Homeless Education said federal data from the Department of Education found that more than 1.5 million students were homeless at some point during the academic year.
Experts say inaccurate data causes a lot of problems. Jurisdictions rely on the figures to plan resource distribution and budgets and to track changes over time.
Advocacy groups that use PIT data to understand larger demographic trends are particularly concerned.
"It's just going to be really hard to understand the trend lines, because we're going to have this year that's just off," Roman added. "And we're not going to know if the trends are up or down."
As a result, she said, organizations need to create a new "baseline" and "kind of reset to understand data moving forward."
Advocacy groups are also worried about what could happen if the federal government doesn't extend a national coronavirus-related moratorium on evictions. Congress passed the first ban with the CARES Act in March, and it was extended through the end of 2020 by federal health officials when lawmakers failed to agree on another relief package.
"What happens when the eviction moratorium is lifted if there is no federal aid package? There are not going to be local dollars to address that problem," said Greenwalt. "We need Congress."
Barricades removed in Oregon neighborhood protest against family's eviction
Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The barricades for a protest in a three-block stretch of an Oregon neighborhood against a family's eviction have come down upon a tentative deal with the city.
Barricades blocking North Mississippi Avenue to protest eviction of the Kinney family were removed upon the tentative deal to buy back the "Red House on Mississippi," in north Portland.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said the family and developer were not in direct contact, but were negotiating through intermediaries.
"I am very confident they will reach an amicable solution on this," Wheeler said.
Demonstratrs removed barbed wire barricades in place since last week on Sunday ahead of a Monday deadline for the street to be cleared without police forcing the family to leave amid ongoing negotiations, activists said.
Multnomah County deputies served a court order for eviction to the Kinney family on Sept. 9, the sheriff's office said.
Since then, activists have been camping out on the property to support the fourth-generation Afro-Indigenous family's right to stay in their home, an activists' website shows. Tensions heightened Tuesday when sheriff's deputies attempted to forcibly remove the Kinney family, prompting the barricades.
The "Red House" had belonged to the Kinney family for more than six decades, but the home went into foreclosure when the family fell on hard times, and two years ago a developer bought it for $265,000.
Julie Metcalf Kinney, who is Native American, and her husband William Kinney Jr, who is Black, owned the home before they fell on hard times financially when a son faced criminal charges, and they had to take out a mortgage, which they failed to pay for nearly a year and a half, leading to foreclosure.
"We don't need another empty, high-rise, high-rent luxury condominium," the GoFundMe post reads. "The Kinneys are one of the last Black families remaining on Mississippi and their fight for their home is also a real-time fight against gentrification. In order to stand a chance against the big banks and developers who've systematically displaced Black families across North and Northeast Portland, we need leverage."
Urban Housing Development, a construction company in Portland, currently owns the house, according to Multnomah County property records. The family filed a formal request to the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case in November and response is due Dec. 23
NEIGHBOURS HALT EVICTION OF STRIKING MINERS FAMILY
FROM BW SALT OF THE EARTH 1954, FILM MADE BY BLACKLISTED
HOLLYWOOD 10
Some workers say religious beliefs bar them from getting vaccinated
One of the first Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines is administered in New York City on Monday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 14 (UPI) -- In a case that could have implications for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, an employee has filed a complaint against the University of Virginia Health System for refusing to exempt him from getting a flu shot that he believes would "defile the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit."
The man says his Christian beliefs require him to refrain from accepting vaccines made from fetal cell lines derived from an abortion or made by companies that profit from selling other vaccines made from those cell lines. However, his requests for an accommodation were denied and he was told he could be fired if he didn't get the flu vaccination.
"I have a sincerely held religious belief in the sanctity of innocent human life, prebirth, to birth, to natural death," the employee wrote in his exemption request. "I cannot participate in or benefit from abortion, which is murder according to the Bible. All humans -- born and unborn -- are made in the image of God."
With the help of Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Fla.-based nonprofit, the worker filed a complaint in November with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that his religious liberty rights have been violated.
Liberty Counsel will assess its next steps after it gets a response from the EEOC, which will investigate the complaint, said Richard Mast, the organization's senior litigation counsel.
Liberty Counsel wouldn't identify the employee or release the complaint, which is not a public record. He is still employed at UVA Health and had not been suspended as of Friday, Mast said.
A spokesman said UVA Health does not comment on pending legal matters.
COVID-19 vaccines
With pharmaceutical companies completing development of COVID-19 vaccines, more disputes between workers and their employers over inoculation requirements are expected.
"A great majority of the people who have contacted Liberty Counsel regarding mandatory flu vaccination orders have expressed concern that they will also be ordered to accept a COVID vaccination," Mast said in an email to UPI. "Liberty Counsel has also been contacted by a number of people concerned solely about the coming COVID vaccine and potential mandates."
On Monday, a New York nurse became one of the first people in the United States to receive the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. About 184,275 vials of the vaccine were expected to be distributed among all 50 states on Monday.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved emergency use authorization of the vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted Saturday to recommend the vaccine as appropriate for people 16 and older, and CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield accepted the recommendation.
Other vaccines also are being developed under Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership working to produce and deliver millions of doses to combat coronavirus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said between 75 percent and 80 percent of people need to be vaccinated in order to get "a real umbrella of protection" over the United States.
Connection to abortion
The use of fetal cell lines from two elective abortions, one in 1973 and the other in 1985, in connection with some COVID-19 vaccines has raised ethical concerns for some.
A report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List, says abortion-derived cell lines are not used in the production of the majority of the leading Operation Warp Speed vaccines. Among the vaccines described as "ethically uncontroversial" are the ones produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which also has applied for emergency use authorization.
The cell lines, though, were used in laboratory testing of some of the vaccine candidates or their use in testing could not be determined, the report says.
In a Nov. 20 memo, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said there appears to be confusion in the media about the permissibility of using the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines and that "some are asserting that if a vaccine is connected in any way with tainted cell lines then it is immoral to be vaccinated with them."
"This is an inaccurate portrayal of Catholic moral teaching," says the memo, which was written by the USCCB chairmen for the committees on doctrine and on anti-abortion activities.
The memo, which was sent to all bishops and posted on the conference website, says the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines did not involve the use of cell lines that originated from the body of an aborted baby "at any level of design, development or production."
"They are not completely free from any connection to abortion, however, as both Pfizer and Moderna made use of a tainted cell line for one of the confirmatory lab tests of their products," the memo says. "There is thus a connection, but it is relatively remote."
According to the memo, taking tissue from an aborted child for creating cell lines is immoral but there are distinctions in the level of responsibility between those who design and produce a vaccine and those who receive the vaccine. For a recipient, "it is morally permissible to accept vaccination when there are no alternatives and there is a serious risk to health," the memo says.
The memo points out that the church's Pontifical Academy for Life has called for "appropriate expressions of protest" against the vaccines' origins, as well as for vigorous efforts to promote the creation of alternatives.
Jeff Barrows, a physician and senior vice president of bioethics and public policy at the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, said the CMDA also encourages people to advocate for ethical vaccines. He said his organization would like a vaccine that has "absolutely no association" with any abortion-derived fetal cell line, but the candidates that are close to getting approval all have some connection to it.
"In the absence of an ethically pure vaccine, CMDA is advocating that everyone considers taking even one of these because the association with the fetal cell line is so remote and the evil of the abortion is so remote that the good that will be achieved by getting the vaccine will far outweigh any evil that is associated with the abortion," Barrows said.
Some CMDA members will still refuse to take a vaccine that has a connection to the cell lines, despite their medical background, which is their right, he said.
"We just hope that they're very careful in not getting any type of illness themselves and passing it on to others, but we certainly do respect the individual right to refuse to get the vaccine," Barrows said.
'Harm to conscience'
In the case of the UVA Health employee, he was told to comply with the flu vaccination mandate or face disciplinary action, which could include suspension and termination, according to a Liberty Counsel news release.
The worker made several written requests for a religious accommodation. In one of them, he said that the mandated vaccine "is the equivalent of a prohibited 'unclean food' that causes harm to my conscience."
"Vaccines to me are analogous to what non-kosher food is to orthodox Jews, and no one requires anyone in the United States to consume a substance contrary to their faith," the employee said.
He also quoted 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 from the Bible:
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
The accommodation requests were denied and one email from Immunize UVA said, "Stating that you are a Christian and citing biblical verses that do not address vaccinations is not sufficient basis for granting an exemption from the vaccine requirement. Christian philosophy does not have absolute rules that must be followed regarding vaccinations.
In an Oct. 22 letter to UVA Health's attorney, Mast wrote that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers to make a reasonable accommodation for an employee's sincerely held religious beliefs if doing so does not pose an undue hardship on the employer. By declining to grant the accommodation, UVA is discriminating against the employee on the basis of religion, he said.
Mast said the employee is willing to wear a face covering to help prevent the spread of influenza, which he does to help stop COVID-19 from spreading.
"After all, if face coverings or masks are effective in helping prevent the spread of COVID, then surely, they are effective in helping prevent the spread of influenza," the letter says. "Moreover, a percentage of UVA employees who accept the flu shot become symptomatic with influenza, despite having received the vaccine."
In addition, the letter says that numerous workers who weren't able to take the flu vaccine have been allowed to wear masks instead.
Mast cites two recent EEOC lawsuits that resulted in settlements on behalf of workers who refused vaccination because of their religious beliefs.
Ozaukee County, Wis., paid $18,000 in 2019 to a former certified nursing assistant who worked at one of its care centers and changed its policy to no longer require that an employee submit a letter from a clergy member to get a faith-based exemption from the flu vaccination. The employee could not provide a letter because she had no affiliation with a church or organized religion and got the shot after being told she would be fired if she didn't.
In 2018, Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., agreed to pay $89,000 to three employees who wouldn't get flu shots.
COVID-19: indoor air in hospitals and nursing homes require more attention
Recommendations on how to reduce SARS-CoV-2 aerosol dispersal
LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR TROPOSPHERIC RESEARCH (TROPOS)
IMAGE: HOW CAN THE SPREAD OF THE SARS-COV-2 CORONAVIRUS BE CONTAINED IN HOSPITALS AND NURSING HOMES? RECOMMENDATIONS FROM AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH TEAM. view more
CREDIT: BEATE RICHTER, TROPOS
Leipzig/New Delhi/Rome. A variety of measures are necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals and nursing homes. It is particularly important to develop an appropriate strategy to protect healthcare workers from airborne transmission. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig, the CSIR National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi, the Institute of Atmospheric Science and Climate (ISAC) in Rome and 2B Technologies, Colorado recommend that more attention is required in respect to indoor air in such facilities and to further training of the staff. From an aerosol experts' point of view, it is necessary to combine these different measures, the research team writes in an Editorial article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. These include regular ventilation, controlling fresh air consumption via CO2 monitor and using humidifiers to keep the relative humidity indoors at 40 to 60 percent. If it is not possible to ventilate sufficiently, the use of portable air purifiers is also advisable.
The risk of infection is particularly high in hospitals and nursing homes because infected and healthy people stay in the same room for long periods of time and the virus can be transmitted via invisible aerosol particles in the air, even over distances of several metres. According to media reports, COVID-19 infections are already reported in almost one tenth of the 12,000 old people's homes and nursing homes in Germany. Homes are now also considered as hotspot for the spread of the virus among new infections in Saxony.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, there have been increasing reports of transmissions via aerosol particles in the indoor air of hospitals and nursing homes. These include scientific reports from hospitals in China and the USA, but also from a nursing home in the Netherlands, where the virus apparently spread via the ventilation system using aerosol particles because unfiltered indoor air circulated in a ward. As further evidence, SARS-CoV-2 was detected on the dust filters of the air conditioning system there. "The complexity of the aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2, especially indoors, is far from being solved and there is a need to establish appropriate guidelines to protect medical staff. With this publication, we are therefore trying to give recommendations for measures that could contribute to the containment of not only current, but also future virus pandemics", reports Prof Alfred Wiedensohler from TROPOS.
The aerosol spread of the virus is, according to many experts, a major reason why the number of corona infections in Europe increased dramatically in the autumn. People stay indoors for longer durations and as temperatures fall, many indoor spaces are much less ventilated. Concentrations of viral particles in the air can rise sharply when infected people stay indoors. Simple mouth-nose masks can significantly reduce but not completely prevent the release of viral aerosol particles through the airways. The risk can therefore increase significantly with the number of people and the length of time they stay in the room. Hospitals and nursing homes are particularly affected by this, because additional risk factors are added there: particularly sensitive people, very long stays in a room and sometimes medical procedures such as intubation in intensive care units, where a lot of aerosol is produced.
The spread of viruses via the room air can be reduced with a number of measures. However, there is no single measure that can achieve this completely, but it is important to control indoor air and combine different measures:
"As protection against the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via the air in closed rooms, especially in cold and dry weather, we recommend humidifiers to keep the relative humidity in the room in the range of 40 to 60 percent and to reduce the risk of respiratory tract infection. It is in this middle range that the human mucous membranes are most resistant to infections. In addition, the viruses in the aerosol particles can survive at a relative humidity around 50 percent for less time than in drier or high humid air," explains Dr Ajit Ahlawat of TROPOS.
It is very important that there should be a constant supply of fresh air through the air conditioning system or ventilation. This can be controlled with measuring devices for carbon dioxide (CO2). The high CO2 values in indoor places indicate that there is lot of exhaled air in the room. If there is an infected person in the room, then there would also be many viral aerosol particles floating in the air and could be inhaled by a healthy person. The Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system should have a minimum efficiency of MERV-13 to filter even very small particles out of the air. (MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value and is a standard from the USA, established by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)).
If it is not possible to ventilate the room sufficiently, an attempt can be made to reduce the concentration of viruses in the room air by using air purifiers. However, these air purifiers should have so-called HEPA (High-efficiency particulate absorbing) filters. However, air purifiers can always only be an additional measure as they cannot replace the supply of fresh air and thus oxygen.
Medical staff need special protection during procedures and surgical operations that involve potentially infectious aerosol particles - such as dental treatment or intubation in intensive care units. Valve-free particle filter masks, so-called respiratory masks such as N95, should be worn and care should be taken to ensure that they lie close to the skin. " Avoid the use of FFP2 and FFP3 type respirators, which have an exhalation valve or ventilation, as these types of respirators are not sufficient. To reduce the risk, protective equipment such as goggles should also be worn," advises Dr Francesca Costabile of the Institute of Atmospheric Science and Climate (ISAC) in Rome. In addition, the researchers recommend avoiding aerosol-generating procedures and treatments in patients with COVID-19 wherever possible to reduce the risk of infection for medical staff. Aerosol-generating treatments usually include medication administered via a nebulizer. In order to avoid the risk of aerosolisation of SARS-CoV-2 by the nebulisation process, inhaled drugs should be administered by a metered dose inhaler rather than a nebulizer, if possible.
Care should also be taken when disinfecting rooms: "We recommend that disinfection with UV-C light should not be used too often. Although it is known that UV-C light destroys the SARS-CoV-2 viruses, it ultimately increases indoor ozone concentrations and can thus have a negative impact on health if the indoor air is not adequately replaced," stresses Dr Sumit Kumar Mishra of CSIR - National Physical Laboratory. Spraying oxidizing chemicals in the air, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), can also have negative consequences. Indoors, these chemicals cause toxic chemical reactions that create other air pollutants and damage the central nervous system and lungs of humans.
The international research team emphasises that the training of hospital and nursing home staff is extremely important to prevent the spread of viruses via indoor air. Medical staff must be adequately trained to follow the recommendations. It is important to draw attention to the risks of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Such recommendations, if adequately provided by health authorities and implemented by medical staff, could significantly reduce the risk of airborne transmission in hospitals and nursing homes until vaccination is effective on a large scale. Tilo Arnhold
###
Publication:
Ahlawat, A.; Mishra, S.K.; Birks, J.W.; Costabile, F.; Wiedensohler, A. Preventing Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Hospitals and Nursing Homes. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8553. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17228553 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228553
Recommendations to prevent airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in indoor environments for winter season based on scientific publications:
Dr. Sumit Kumar Mishra (en.) Scientist, Environmental Sciences and Biomedical Metrology Division, CSIR - National Physical Laboratory Phone +91-11-45609387 http://www.nplindia.in/users/mishrasknplindiaorg
and
Dr. Francesca Costabile (en. + it.) Scientist, Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e del Clima (ISAC) National Research Council (CNR) Phone +39 06 4993 4288 https://www.isac.cnr.it/en/users/francesca-costabile
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
THIRD WORLD USA
A catastrophic year casts a pall of uncertainty across California’s agricultural valleys
Photograph: Matt Black/Magnum/The Guardian
In the state’s Central, Eastern Coachella and Imperial valleys, several challenges have compounded to create a tenor of uncertainty
Photographs and story by Matt Black
Mon 14 Dec 2020
Nowhere are the effects of the multiple crises that hit California this year more visible than in the state’s agricultural valleys.
The region faced a list of challenges almost too long to comprehend: record-breaking heat, smog and smoke from historic wildfires resulting in air quality too poor to be outside in. High rates of Covid-19 infections and the anxiety, isolation and job losses that go with it. Tensions around a divisive election. Fears and conflict over immigration policies.
In 2020, California’s Central, Eastern Coachella and Imperial valleys were no longer the outlying edges, but the center of the state’s troubles. A two-week reporting trip in October and November revealed that not knowing the outcome of so much, not knowing where things will go from here, has created a tenor of uncertainty that vibrated through the small towns and across the broad fields.
Buttonwillow, California. More than 43% of Buttonwillow’s 1,583 residents live below the poverty line
Victorville, California. A burned and overturned car. Victorville is home to the Adelanto Ice Processing Center, where activists have regularly gathered to demand the release of detained immigrants with health conditions that make them vulnerable to Covid-19.
Firebaugh, California. Firebaugh has a poverty rate of 27.7%, and its farm worker residents must continue to work picking crops despite the pandemic. The wildfires in the state exacerbated already tough working conditions for valley farm workers.
Fresno, California. A fire at a homeless encampment downtown. Fresno has a population of 961,820 and 24.1% live below the poverty level. Taft, Kern county, California. Taft has a population of 7,294 and 24.5% of residents live below the poverty level. Like many other parts of the state, the city was under a “red-flag warning” for severe fire conditions in mid-October.
Mendota, Fresno county, California. Mendota has a population of 11,307 and has seen more than a 1,000 cases of Covid-19. Ninety per cent of California’s 381,000 farmworkers come from Mexico. Covid-19 has disproportionately affected Latino communities, accounting for 58% of all cases in the state as of August.
Wildfires take over from industry as major source of cancer-causing air toxins: study Wildfires have taken over from industry as a major source of a group of cancer-causing chemical toxins in the air, Environment Canada says.
The first national assessment of polycyclic aromatic compounds in more than 25 years has found that air has improved around aluminum and steel plants. But wildfires and vehicles have stepped in to keep average concentrations at about the same level that they were in the 1990s, says federal researcher Elisabeth Galarneau.
"Those big industrial point sources have been reduced to a very small fraction of the total," she says. "The largest (remaining) source by far is the natural emissions from forest fires."
The levels are still high enough in many places across the country to exceed health guidelines, the assessment found.
Polycyclic aromatic compounds are created during burning of everything from oil to wood to cigarettes. Many are carcinogenic and are considered priority pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
No federal guidelines for the chemicals exist. Alberta, Quebec and Ontario have set recommended levels, but Galarneau said only Ontario's are based on the effects on human health.
"(Ontario's) guideline is exceeded almost everywhere we looked in Canada," Galarneau said. "The exceedances in some areas are well over an order of magnitude."
The increasing size and severity of wildfires is a big reason why the levels haven't changed despite improved industrial emissions, she said.
"We would normally have called those natural, but now forest fires are seen to be increasing in frequency and severity because of climate change. There's now a (human-caused) component."
Research has found that climate change contributes to bigger, hotter fires by drying out forests and extending the fire season.
Other increased sources of the chemicals are increased vehicle emissions as well as residential wood-burning. The contributions of those sources vary widely from place to place.
Vehicles account for less than 10 per cent of emissions nationally, but in Toronto they can reach 50 per cent or even higher.
Galarneau warned that her research isn't the whole picture. Her team looked at only 16 different compounds, a list that dates back to the 1970s. Analytical chemistry has come a long way since then. Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about other similar chemicals that aren't on the list, she said.
"Everywhere you look, it seems people are coming to the same conclusion. There are other compounds beyond those 16 that make toxicity, and our measurements and models should probably expand to incorporate those."
The paper points out that concentrations of toxins in the air increase by factors of 1.4 to 6.2 when the number of compounds tested for is expanded.
The 16 compounds in this study became priorities because of their association with cancer. Galarneau said cancer isn't the only health danger from the chemicals on the expanded list. They are thought to have effects on the lung and liver as well.
"We know less than we do for the 16, but there's a body of evidence that is growing and identifying toxic effects associated with them," she said. "Some of these other (chemicals) are also implicated in non-cancer health outcomes."
The study is the fourth in a series of recent research publications on Canada's air quality. Two more are due and a final summary report is to be released in the coming months.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 14, 2020.
When biologist Tibor Gánti died on April 15, 2009, at the age of 75, he was far from a household name. Much of his career had been spent behind the Iron Curtain that divided Europe for decades, hindering an exchange of ideas.
But if Gánti’s theories had been more widely known during the communist era, he might now be acclaimed as one of the most innovative biologists of the 20th century. That’s because he devised a model of the simplest possible living organism, which he called the chemoton, that points to an exciting explanation for how life on Earth began.
The origin of life is one of science’s most perplexing mysteries, partly because it is several mysteries in one. What was Earth like when it formed? What gases made up the air? Of the thousands of chemicals that living cells now use, which ones are essential—and when did those must-have substances arise?
Perhaps the hardest question is the simplest: What was the first organism?
For scientists attempting to re-create the spark of life, the chemoton offers an attractive target for experiments. If non-living chemicals can be made to self-assemble into a chemoton, that reveals a pathway by which life could have formed from scratch. Even now, some research groups are edging startlingly close to this model.
And for astrobiologists interested in life beyond our planet, the chemoton offers a universal definition of life, one not tied to specific chemicals like DNA, but instead to an overall organizational model.
“I think Gánti has thought deeper about the fundamentals of life than anybody else I know,” says biologist Eörs Szathmáry of the Centre for Ecological Research in Tihany, Hungary. Life’s beginning
In 1994 a NASA committee described life as “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.” The word “system” can mean an individual organism, a population, or an ecosystem. That gets around the reeproduction problem, but at a cost: vagueness.
What few people knew at the time was that Gánti had offered another way two decades earlier.
Tibor Gánti was born in 1933 in the small town of Vác, in central Hungary. His early life was colored by conflict. Hungary allied itself with Nazi Germany in World War II, but in 1945 its army was defeated by the Soviet Union. The totalitarian regime would dominate eastern Eurasia for decades, with Hungary becoming a satellite state, like most other eastern European countries.
Fascinated by the nature of living things, Gánti studied chemical engineering before becoming an industrial biochemist. In 1966 he published a book on molecular biology called Forradalom az Élet Kutatásában, or Revolution in Life Research, a dominant university textbook for years—partly because few others were available. The book asked whether science understood how life was organized, and concluded that it did not.
In 1971 Gánti tackled the problem head-on in a new book, Az Élet PrincÃpiuma, or The Principles of Life. Published only in Hungarian, this book contained the first version of his chemoton model, which described what he saw as the fundamental unit of life. However, this early model of the organism was incomplete, and it would take him another three years to publish what is now regarded as the definitive version—again only in Hungarian, in a paper that is not available online.
Miracle year
Globally, 1971 was something of a banner year for research into the origin of life. In addition to Gánti’s underdog work, science put forward two other important theoretical models.
The first came from American theoretical biologist Stuart Kauffman, who argued that living organisms must be able to copy themselves. In speculating about how this might have worked before cells formed, he focused on mixtures of chemicals.
Suppose, he argued, that chemical A drives the formation of chemical B, which then drives the formation of chemical C, and so on, until something in the chain makes a fresh version of chemical A. After one cycle, two copies of each set of chemicals will exist. Given sufficient raw materials, another cycle will yield four copies, and continue exponentially.
Kauffman called such a group an “autocatalytic set,” and he argued that such groups of chemicals could have been the foundation for the first life, with the sets becoming more intricate until they produced and used a range of complex molecules, such as DNA.
In the second idea, German chemist Manfred Eigen described what he called a “hypercycle,” in which several autocatalytic sets combine to form a single larger one. Eigen’s variant introduces a crucial distinction: In a hypercycle, some of the chemicals are genes and are therefore made of DNA or some other nucleic acid, while others are proteins that are made-to-order based on the information in the genes. This system could evolve based on changes—mutations—in the genes, a function that Kauffman’s model lacked.
Gánti had independently arrived at a similar notion, but he pushed it even further. He argued that two key processes must take place in every living organism. First, it has to build and maintain its body; that is, it needs a metabolism. Second, it has to have some sort of information storage system, such as a gene or genes, that could be copied and passed on to offspring.
Gánti’s first version of this model was essentially two autocatalytic sets with distinct functions that combined to form a larger autocatalytic set—not so different from Eigen’s hypercycle. However, the following year Gánti was questioned by a journalist who pointed out a key flaw. Gánti assumed the two systems were based on chemicals floating in water. But left to themselves, they would drift apart, and the chemoton would “die.”
The only solution was to add a third system: an outer barrier to contain them. In living cells, this barrier is a membrane made of fat-like chemicals called lipids. The chemoton had to have such a barrier to hold itself together, and Gánti concluded that it also had to be autocatalytic so that it could maintain itself and grow.
Here at last was the full chemoton, Gánti’s concept of the simplest possible living organism: genes, metabolism, and membrane, all linked. The metabolism produces building blocks for the genes and membrane, and the genes exert an influence over the membrane. Together they form a self-replicating unit: a cell so simple it could not only arise with relative ease on Earth, it could even account for alternate biochemistries on alien worlds. Forgotten model
“Gánti captured life really well,” says synthetic biologist Nediljko Budisa of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. “It was a revelation to read.” However, Budisa discovered Gánti’s work only around 2005. Outside of Eastern Europe, it remained obscure for decades, with only a few English translations on the market.
The chemoton appeared in English in 1987, in a paperback with a rather rough translation, says James Griesemer of the University of California, Davis. Few noticed. Szathmáry later gave the chemoton pride of place in his 1995 book The Major Transitions in Evolution, co-written with John Maynard Smith. This led to a new English translation of Gánti’s 1971 book, with additional material, released in 2003. But still the chemoton remained niche, and six years later Gánti was dead.
To some extent, Gánti did not help his model find favor: he was known to be a difficult colleague. Szathmáry says Gánti was stubbornly wedded to his model, and paranoid to boot, making him “impossible to work with.”
But perhaps the biggest problem for the chemoton model was that in the last decades of the 20th century, the trend in research was to strip away the complexity of life in favor of ever more minimalist approaches.
For example, one of the most prominent hypotheses still in vogue today is that life began solely with RNA, a close cousin of DNA.
Like its more famous molecular relative, RNA can carry genes. But crucially, RNA can also act as an enzyme and accelerate chemical reactions, leading many experts to argue that the first life needed nothing but RNA to get started. However, this RNA World hypothesis has gotten pushback, particularly because science hasn’t found a type of RNA that can copy itself unaided—think of RNA-powered viruses like the coronavirus that need human cells to reproduce.
However, scientists in this century have turned the tide. Researchers now tend to emphasise the ways the chemicals of life work together, and how these cooperative networks might have emerged.
Szostak’s research “is very Gánti-like,” says synthetic biologist Petra Schwille of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. She also highlights the work of Taro Toyota at the University of Tokyo in Japan, who has made lipids inside a protocell, so that the protocell can grow its own membrane.
One argument against the idea of a chemoton as first life has been that it requires so many chemical components, including nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids. Many experts found it unlikely that these chemicals would all arise from the same starting materials in the same place, hence the appeal of stripped-back ideas like the RNA World.
But biochemists have recently found evidence that all the key chemicals of life can form from the same simple starting materials. In a study published in September, researchers led by Sara Szymkuć, then at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, compiled a database using decades of experiments that sought to make life’s chemical building blocks. Starting with just six simple chemicals, like water and methane, Szymkuć found it was possible to make tens of thousands of key ingredients, including the basic components of proteins and RNA.
None of these experiments has yet built a working chemoton. That may simply be because it’s tricky, or it may be that Gánti’s exact formulation is not quite how the first life worked. Still, what the chemoton gives us is a way to think about how life’s components work together, which increasingly drives today’s approaches to understanding how life got started.
It is telling, adds Szathmáry, that citations of Gánti’s work are now accumulating rapidly. Even if the exact details differ, the current approaches to the origin of life are much closer to what he had in mind—an integrated approach that is not focused on just one of life’s key systems.
“Life is not proteins, life is not RNA, life is not lipid bilayers,” Griesemer says. “What is it? It’s all those things hooked together in the right organization.”
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican Catholic Church’s highest-ranking bishop agrees with recent comments by Pope Francis in support of legal protections offered by civil unions for gay couples, the prelate told Reuters, stressing that no family member should ever be rejected.
FILE PHOTO: Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes arrives to take part in the inauguration ceremony as Mexico's new Archbishop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico February 5, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo
Mexico is the second-biggest Catholic country after Brazil with around 80% of its nearly 130 million people affiliated with the church. It has historically been conservative-leaning on social issues.
Cardinal Carlos Aguiar, archbishop of Mexico City, said in an interview that he backs the pope’s comments from a documentary that premiered in October and used previously unseen footage from an interview he gave to Mexican broadcaster Televisa. The comments marked the first time a sitting pope had advocated any legal protections for gay couples.
“I completely agree,” said Aguiar, a long-time ally of Pope Francis, who spoke ahead of Saturday’s feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, one of the Mexican Church’s most important annual celebrations.
In the documentary, entitled “Francesco,” the pope says, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family, they are children of god,” and “what we have to have is a civil union law, that way they are legally covered.”
The pope’s comments did not signal any change in church doctrine on homosexuality or support for same-sex marriage, which the Vatican emphasized after the remarks made headlines across the globe
But Francis’ more open and inclusive tone has marked a sharp contrast with his more conservative predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
“All of us are children of god, all are members of the family, and if we’re fighting so that families are united, regardless of their conduct, they don’t stop being our children. And that’s what Pope Francis said, everyone has the right to family,” said Aguiar.
The cardinal, who has lobbied against both abortion rights and same-sex marriage, argued that parents should never reject their openly gay children.
“Because if, as it happens unfortunately, a son in a family declares himself openly homosexual, then they don’t want to have anything to do with him. And that can’t be, it just can’t be,” he said, echoing Francis’ sentiments.
“If they decide as a matter of free choice to be with another person, to be in a union, that’s freedom,” he said.
Like the Argentine pontiff, the 70-year-old Aguiar touts landmark church reforms in the 1960s that pushed the church closer to the faithful and also embraced a social teaching aimed at alleviating human misery, while focusing less on what Aguiar called the “clerical mentality” that prioritizes the institution.
“The key point was to move away from a church that defended itself from the world,” he said.
Aguiar added that much work remains to address poverty and inequality in Mexico and the surrounding region.
“Latin America is the part of the world that’s most unequal,” he said, “and many of us here are Catholic!
“What kind of witness is that?”
Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Leslie Adler
Bolivia approves first same-sex union following legal battle
LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia’s civil registry authorized for the first time a same sex civil union following a two-year legal battle, a decision activists in the Andean nation hope will pave the way for an overhaul of the country’s marriage laws.
David Aruquipa, a 48-year-old businessman, and Guido Montaño, a 45-year-old lawyer, were initially denied the right to register their union in 2018 by authorities in Bolivia, who said the country’s laws did not allow same sex marriage.
The couple, together for more than 11 years, took their case to court. While the Bolivian Constitution still does not contemplate same sex unions, Montaño and Aruquipa argued successfully the prohibition violated international human rights standards and constituted discrimination under Bolivian law.
“It is an initial step, but what inspires us is (the goal) of transforming the law,” said Aruquipa, a well-known local activist for LGBT causes.
Despite considerable opposition from religious groups, gay marriage has become increasingly accepted in Latin America, with same sex couples now allowed to marry in Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and parts of Mexico.
Reporting by Daniel Ramos and Reuters TV, Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Bill Berkrot
