Shipping container crisis could spark another toilet paper shortage

BY SARAH POLUS - 03/25/21 

The world may face another toilet paper shortage similar to the one experienced at onset of the COVID-19 pandemic due to high demand for shipping containers, Bloomberg reports.

Suzano SA — the world's largest producer of wood pulp, needed to make toilet paper — is now warning that the demand for shipping containers could delay shipments to producers.

As the container crisis continues, the Brazil-based company is finding it harder to secure shipping containers to transport wood pulp.

The company's Chief Executive Officer Walter Schalka said if the issue worsens, a worldwide toilet paper shortage could be inevitable. The company has already had to push back shipments originally scheduled for March into April, according to Bloomberg.

The outlet reports that the worldwide shipping crisis, which has been going on for months, stems from increased demand from China. The shortage has trickled down through the global economy, already impacting supplies of other products, including coffee and cheese.

In the spring of 2020 as the pandemic hit the U.S., retailers across the country experienced shortages of products including toilet paper as panic over supplies caused people to stockpile household necessities as they entered into quarantine.

Last April, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told NBC News his company sold enough toilet paper in five days for every American to have a roll.

Regulator: Evidence suggests Texas 'absolutely' didn't follow recommendations to winterize power equipment

BY RACHEL FRAZIN - 03/24/21 

© Getty Images


The CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) told Congress on Wednesday that evidence shows Texas “absolutely” did not follow recommendations by the organization and federal regulators in 2011 to winterize their equipment.

During a Wednesday House hearing on the failure of Texas’s electric grid during last month's winter storm, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) asked NERC CEO James Robb whether Texas followed the organization’s recommendations.

“The inquiry will affirm this, but the evidence would suggest absolutely not,” Robb responded, referring to an ongoing probe that the group is conducting alongside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).


The winter storm in Texas led to days-long power outages and was linked to several deaths.

After blackouts following a cold snap in 2011, FERC and NERC put together a report that said that many power-generating companies had “failed to adequately prepare for winter.”

The report recommended that “all entities responsible for the reliability of the bulk power system in the Southwest prepare for the winter season with the same sense of urgency and priority as they prepare for the summer peak season.”

Later in Wednesday's hearing, Robb raised concerns about both the lack of legal changes and enforcement in Texas.

“The report that we put out in 2011 calls for very clear freeze protection on the generating plants,” he said. “What I understand Texas did was to put in place legislation that required weatherization but not to a specific level, and it was not an aggressively enforced standard.”

During the hearing, the CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the grid's power flow, testified that there were points during the blackouts when natural gas, wind, coal, solar and nuclear power each went down.


“We did see periods of time where each one of those ... tripped offline,” said Bill Magness.

He also said that ERCOT should have had better communication with the public.

Study suggests pregnant vaccinated women pass immunity on to babies

“Those times when we saw how large this would be and began to understand how long it would last, the communications around that I think we certainly could have done better,” Magness said.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) raised similar concerns about communication, saying that his city's residents were told that rolling blackouts would only last for an hour or two, instead of several days.

“We were told by our transmission distribution company to expect rolling blackouts anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours maximum,” Turner said. “I was on the phone asking my transmission distribution company, what is the problem ... they were not prepared, and we were not forewarned.”

A Canadian mining company called Musk spiked this week after buying the rights to the 'Elon' lithium property

insider@insider.com (Carla Mozée) 

3/24/2021

Tesla head Elon Musk. Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Shares of Musk Metals popped this week following the Canadian miner's deal to buy a lithium property called "Elon".

Musk Metals says the deal arrives as the "shift to electric vehicles" drives demand for battery metals and materials.

The company plans to acquire 3 million shares of Tonto Investments for the deal.

Shares of Canadian miner Musk Metals pulled back Wednesday after a more than 50% surge following the company's deal to acquire a prospective lithium property named "Elon".

Musk Metals' press release on Tuesday outlining its deal didn't make a direct reference to Elon Musk, the famed CEO of electric car maker Tesla and billionaire bitcoin enthusiast.

The miner said it reached an "arm's length" share-purchase agreement with Tonto Investments to acquire a 100% interest in the "Elon" property in Quebec, Canada. Musk Metals plans to acquire all 3 million of Tonto's issued and outstanding shares, subject to regulatory approval and other customary conditions.

Video: Here's how electric vehicles can cut global warming (USA TODAY)

Musk Metals' Canada-listed shares fell by 14% on Wednesday after soaring 56% to C$0.14 ($0.11) on Tuesday. Its US-listed shares that are traded over the counter also fell during Wednesday's session.

"Fueled by the recent shift to electric vehicles, demand for battery metals and materials has skyrocketed. Musk Metals has diversified its portfolio of highly prospective exploration projects to include the "ELON" lithium property as the company strives to maximize shareholder value by participating in this red-hot space," said Nader Vatanchi, chief executive and director at Musk Metals, in a statement.

The company said the Elon lithium property is located in an active lithium exploration and mining area and spans over 245 hectares in the La Corne and Fiedmont townships of Quebec.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Janey becomes 1st woman, person of colour to be Boston mayor

Boston has a new mayor in Kim Janey, who became the city’s first female and first person of colour to take the office Monday

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Marty Walsh resigned Monday evening to become President Joe Biden’s labour secretary. The Boston City Council President Janey, who is Black, stepped into the role of acting mayor and is scheduled to have a ceremonial swearing in Wednesday.

Walsh, the latest in a long line of largely Irish-American Boston mayors stretching back the better part of a century — with one notable Italian-American exception — said he welcomed the change.

“History will be made tonight," Walsh said earlier in the evening. "We're an extremely diverse city from different backgrounds and different nationalities and different skin colours. I think it's a good thing for our city. I think it's a great thing for our city.”

Janey took to Twitter to wish Walsh well following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

“Congratulations on your confirmation, Secretary Walsh. You are a proud son of Dorchester who will bring our city with you,” she tweeted. “The working people of America will benefit greatly from your passion.”

“Now, we look ahead to a new day — a new chapter — in Boston’s history,” Janey, a fellow Democrat, added.

Walsh said for the past two months he's had regular meetings and conversations with Janey. The two have also held extensive planning sessions, he said.

"Together the council president and myself and our teams have worked diligently to ensure a smooth transition,” he said.

By any typical political stopwatch, Janey's rise has been lightning quick. She was first sworn in as a city councillor just three years ago.

Although Janey, 55, is holding the office only on an interim basis, she's widely seen as hailing a new chapter in Boston’s political history.

Those actively seeking the office include three women of colour — current city councillors Michelle Wu, Andrea Campbell and Annissa Essaibi George. John Barros, who is of Cape Verdean descent and state Rep. Jon Santiago are also running. Barros served as chief of economic development under Walsh.

Janey has a long history of activism in Boston, with deep roots in Roxbury, the heart of the city’s Black community.

He grandfather, Daniel Benjamin Janey, was a member of Twelfth Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worshipped while attending Boston University. Her father was one of only eight Black students to graduate from the city’s prestigious Boston Latin School in 1964.

While spending time in her great grandmother’s home in the city’s South End neighbourhood, Janey was also exposed to the city's political culture as she watched a neighbour — Black community activist and former state Rep. Mel King — launch a bid for mayor in 1983, losing to Ray Flynn, an Irish-American city councillor.

During the second phase of Boston’s tumultuous school desegregation era, Janey would recall the rocks and racial slurs she said were hurled at her as an 11-year-old girl riding the bus to the largely white neighbourhood of Charlestown. She would later take part in a program that allowed her to attend school outside the city.

Janey began her career in advocacy with Massachusetts Advocates for Children, pushing for policy changes she said were aimed at ensuring equity and excellence for public school students in Boston.

In 2017, she won a 13-candidate race and became the first woman to represent her district, which includes most of Roxbury, parts of the South End, Dorchester, and Fenway areas of the city.

Although she hasn’t said yet if she’ll run for mayor in the fall, there is precedent for an interim mayor using the temporary post as a stepping stone to winning the seat outright.

When former Mayor Raymond Flynn stepped down to become President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the Vatican, then-city council president Thomas Menino stepped in as interim mayor in July 1993, won the mayoral election later that year, and ended up serving in the office longer than anyone in the city’s history.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Kim Janey is 55 years old, not 56.

Steve Leblanc, The Associated Press

'Dancing' fish could be key to ridding salmon farms of parasites

Benjamin Whittaker, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph and Elizabeth Boulding, Professor, Integrative Biology, University of Guelph 

Biologists study the social behaviour of fish through their communication, which includes grunts, clicks and coordinated flatulence. Cleaner fish feed on the parasites that live on the skin of many different species of fish, known as clients.© (Shutterstock) A bluestreak cleaner wrasse in an aquarium.

Some species of tropical cleaner fish are skilled communicators and display elaborate dances. New research focusing on the social behaviour of cold-water cleaner fish aims to help salmon farmers control parasitic sea-lice in aquaculture.

Read more: Salmon farms are in crisis – here's how scientists are trying to save them

Dancing tropical fish

Diving among the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific — the geographic region comprising the Indian Ocean and the west Pacific Ocean — you might see a bluestreak cleaner wrasse, which is a highly intelligent species and perhaps the first fish to show self-awareness. This wrasse relies on cleaning parasites from clients to find the majority of its diet.

© (Shutterstock) Bluestreak cleaner wrasses communicate with their client fish in order to provide a mutually beneficial service.

Attracting new clients and getting them to cooperate while removing parasites can be a difficult task. To make the job easier, bluestreak cleaner wrasse perform a complex dance and massage clients with their fins. This display relaxes the client, allowing the cleaner to approach and closely inspect its skin for parasites.

This is an example of mutualism because both parties benefit from interaction: the cleaner gets a meal and the client is rid of parasites. For decades, biologists have studied the behaviour of bluestreak cleaner wrasse to research mutualism, however, there are many other species of cleaner fish which are yet to be studied.

Cold-water communication

Investigating whether cold-water cleaner fish communicate with clients is particularly important for the salmon aquaculture business. Sea-lice are a huge economic, ecological and ethical problem for salmon farmers, and controlling louse populations is a big challenge.

Stocking cold-water cleaner fish in sea-farms may help reduce parasite numbers on the salmon. However it is unknown whether cold-water cleaner fish dance for their clients, or whether these species can communicate at all, which would affect how good they are at removing sea-lice from salmon.

To investigate this potential, our research team at the University of Guelph looked at how cunner wrasse communicated with salmon.

Strike a pose

We filmed cunner wrasse, a native cleaner fish from eastern Canada, swimming inside aquariums with salmon to see how the two species interact. At first, we were disappointed not to see any underwater dancing, but then a particularly large cunner swam out in front of the salmon and made an unusual pose.

The cunner pointed down towards the floor, spread its fins open wide, and hung suspended in the water for a few brief moments before swimming away. Several minutes later it returned to strike another pose, this time for longer, and moving slowly around the salmon.

Our video analysis showed that cunners posed more frequently towards salmon that had sea-lice on their skin, compared to salmon free of parasites. Cunners that posed more frequently would get closer to salmon, and also spend longer time periods visually inspecting the salmon.

These results imply that cunner wrasse pose towards salmon as a form of communication, which helps the cunner gain access to lice on the salmon’s skin.

Poser for mutualism

Cunner wrasse didn’t perform the complex ballet of their tropical counterpart, however, they displayed a series of highly exaggerated poses that was reminiscent of the voguing trend of the late 1980s.

This simpler dance style might reflect the fact that cunners can find alternate food sources, and don’t rely on eating parasites as much as bluestreak cleaner wrasse. Studying more diverse species of cleaner fish might give more insight on the biology of mutualism and fish communication.

It’s important to note than not every cunner showed posing behaviour and some individuals would hide from salmon, whereas others embraced the spotlight. Measuring differences in posing behaviours could help farmers choose the best cleaners to use for sea-lice control. It could also help identify factors that influence communication between cunner wrasse and salmon, like genetics and environment.

3/24/2021

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Benjamin Whittaker received funding for this project from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada STPGP

Elizabeth G. Boulding received funding for this project from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada STPGP

Facebook, Twitter must do more to stop COVID-19 anti-vaxxers, U.S. states say

By Jonathan Stempel 

3/24/2021

Li

© Reuters/Dado Ruvic FILE PHOTO: The Twitter and Facebook logos along with binary cyber codes are seen in this illustration

(Reuters) - Attorneys general for 12 U.S. states on Wednesday accused Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc of doing too little to stop people from using their platforms to spread false information that coronavirus vaccines are unsafe.

In a letter to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the Democratic attorneys general said "anti-vaxxers" lacking medical expertise and often motivated by financial gain have used the platforms to downplay the danger of COVID-19 and exaggerate the risks of vaccination.

They called on both companies to enforce their own community guidelines by removing or flagging vaccine misinformation.

The letter said anti-vaxxers control 65% of public anti-vaccine content on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and have more than 59 million followers on those platforms and Google's YouTube.

It also said some misinformation targets Blacks and other communities of color where vaccination rates are lagging.

"Given anti-vaxxers' reliance on your platforms, you are uniquely positioned to prevent the spread of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines that poses a direct threat to the health and safety of millions of Americans in our states and that will prolong our road to recovery," the letter said.

Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever said the company has removed millions of pieces of COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation, and tries to combat "vaccine hesitancy" by regularly directing users to reliable information from health authorities.

Twitter said it has removed more than 22,400 tweets in connection with its policy toward COVID-19 posts, and prioritizes removing content that could cause "real-world" harm.

Wednesday's letter was signed by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.

Zuckerman, Dorsey and Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google parent Alphabet Inc, are scheduled to testify on Thursday before two House of Representatives subcommittees about combating online disinformation.

The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 124 million people worldwide, and caused more than 2.7 million deaths.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot

ROSHOMON

1 report, 4 theories: Scientists mull clues on virus' origin


GENEVA — A team of international and Chinese scientists is poised to report on its joint search for the origins of the coronavirus that sparked a pandemic after it was first detected in China over a year ago — with four theories being considered, and one the clear frontrunner, according to experts.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The lengthy report is being published after months of wrangling, notably between U.S. and Chinese governments, over how the outbreak emerged, while scientists try to keep their focus on a so-far fruitless search for the origin of a microbe that has killed over 2.7 million people and stifled economies worldwide.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the report will be released after its publication was delayed earlier this month. By many accounts, the report could offer few concrete answers, and may raise further questions.

It will offer a first glance in writing from 10 international epidemiologists, data scientists, veterinary, lab and food safety experts who visited China and the city of Wuhan — where a market was seen as the initial epicenter — earlier this year to work with Chinese counterparts who pulled up the bulk of early data.

Critics have raised questions about the objectivity of the team, insisting that China's government had a pivotal say over its composition. Defenders of the World Health Organization, which assembled the team, say it can't simply parachute in experts to tell a country what to do — let alone one as powerful as China.

“I expect that this report will only be a first step into investigating the origins of the virus and that the WHO secretariat will probably say this," said Matthew Kavanagh, director of Georgetown University's Global Health Policy and Governance Initiative at the O’Neill Institute. “And I expect some to criticize this as insufficient. I think it is key to keep in mind that WHO has very limited powers."

The Wuhan trip is billed as Phase 1 in a vast undertaking to flesh out the origins of the virus.

The WHO has bristled at depictions of the mission as an "investigation" — saying that smacks of an invasive forensic probe that wasn't called for under the resolution adopted unanimously by the agency's member states in May that paved the way for the collaboration. The WHO and China later ironed out the ground rules.

Team member Vladimir Dedkov, an epidemiologist and deputy director of research at the St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute in Russia, summarized the four main leads first laid out at a marathon news conference in China last month about the suspected origins of the first infection in humans. They were, in order of likelihood: from a bat through an intermediary animal; straight from a bat; via contaminated frozen food products; from a leak from a laboratory like the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Officials in China, as well as Chinese team leader Liang Wannian, have promoted the third theory — the cold-chain one — while the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump played up the fourth one, of the lab leak. But Dedkov said those two hypothesis were far down the list of likely sources.

He suggested frozen products on which the virus was found were most likely contaminated by infected people. An infected person also likely brought and spread the virus at the Wuhan market associated with the outbreak, where some of the contaminated products were later found.

“In general, all the conditions for the spread of infection were present at this market,” Dedkov said in an interview. “Therefore, most likely, there was a mass infection of people who were connected by location.”

“At this point, there are no facts suggesting that there was a leak" from a lab, Dedkov said. “If suddenly scientific facts appear from somewhere, then accordingly, the priority of the version will change. But, at this particular moment, no.”

Suspicions about political meddling have dogged the mission, and the international team leader — the WHO's Peter Ben Embarek — acknowledged in interviews last week that unspecified “pressures” might weigh on its members. Liang, in a Chinese newspaper interview, also bemoaned political pressure on the team.

Delays in deploying the international team to China, repeated slippage in the timing of publication of the report, and rejiggering of the plans for it — an initial summary of findings was jettisoned as an idea — have only fanned speculation that the scientists have been steered by political authorities or others.

“The last understanding we had was that it is expected to come out this week — we'll have to see if that actually happens,” the U.S. charge d'affaires in Geneva, Mark Cassayre, said on Wednesday. “We have a clear understanding that other studies will be required.”

He said the U.S. was hopeful the report would be a “real step forward for the world understanding the origins of the virus, so that we can better prepare for future pandemics. That's really what this is about.”

The WHO leadership, including Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, repeatedly praised the Chinese government’s early response to the outbreak, though recordings of private meetings obtained by The Associated Press exposed how top WHO officials were frustrated at China’s lack of co-operation.

The international team was wholly reliant on data collected by Chinese scientists after the outbreak surfaced, and Dedkov called the visit to Wuhan an “analytical trip, mainly for the purpose of retrospective analysis in the sense that we studied only those facts that were obtained earlier.”

“We did not collect any samples ourselves, we didn’t carry out any laboratory studies there, we just analyzed what we were being shown," he said. If some data had not been collected, it wasn’t because the Chinese wanted to conceal something, he added.

The team’s visit was politically sensitive for China — which is concerned about any allegations it didn’t handle the initial outbreak properly. Shortly after the outbreak, the Chinese government detained some Chinese doctors who sought to raise the alarm.

The report, which Ben Embarek said last week took up about 280 pages, is set to lay out recommendations and lay the groundwork for next steps — such as whether the team, or others, get new access to China for further analysis. Ultimately, the aim is to find clues to help prevent another such pandemic in the future.

Georgetown’s Kavanagh said he hasn’t seen the report — but has suspicions about what it will say.

“Based on what we have heard so far I expect that the report will likely lend some credence to a link between wildlife farming and COVID-19, but without full evidence about exactly how the move from animals into humans might have occurred,” he said.

Dedkov said planning of “real-time research” is next, but noted there’s no guarantee future trips will find all the answers.

“But one can try," he added. "Of course, if the source of the origin of the virus is found, it will help answer many questions and, in general, will dissipate this unnecessary political tension around the virus."

___

Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Daria Litvinova And Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press

Colombian town uses discipline, speakers to stay virus-free

3/23/2021

CAMPOHERMOSO, Colombia — When customers enter his hardware store Nelson Avila asks them to wear a mask and wash their hands. He sprays alcohol over the bills and coins they give him before putting them in the till.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Avila's shop is in Campohermoso, a town of 3,000 people in Boyaca state in the mountains of central Colombia that has no reported cases of the coronavirus. According to the Health Ministry, Campohermoso county - which consists of the town and surrounding farms and villages - is one of just two counties in the country that are COVID-19-free. Colombia has more than 1,100 counties.

“Those bills can carry the virus” said Avila, 49, as he disinfects a wad of wrinkled Colombian pesos. “They go from hand to hand, so we have to be careful.”

Officials and locals say the town has been able to keep the virus away thanks to the disciplined behaviour of its residents and constant campaigns urging people to social distance and wear masks.

The town’s remote location ringed by mountains, far from major roads, has also helped it to stay coronavirus-free. It has just seven streets and six avenues laid out in a neat grid. It is nestled at the bottom of a green valley, 3300 feet (about 1,000 metres) above sea level.

“Campohermosos has a low population density and little contact with big cities,” said Jairo Mauricio Santoyo, the health secretary for Boyaca state.

Given that Colombia, with a population of about 50 million people, has reported more than 2.3 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, many consider the lack of infections here a small miracle.

During the first decade of this century, Campohermoso was affected by fighting between paramilitary groups and leftist rebels, says the town’s mayor, Jaime Rodríguez. The coffee-growing area has been peaceful for more than a decade but it is seldom visited by outsiders.

Rodríguez says communication has been crucial in keeping the pandemic away from Campohermoso. Messages about the virus and how to prevent it are broadcast three times a day on speakers perched on the town’s lampposts.

The local radio station also broadcasts daily shows that talk about prevention. To ensure everyone gets the message, the mayor’s office distributed 1,000 radios to farmers who live in Campohermoso's rural areas.

“The whole town has come together” Rodríguez said. “The police, the health centre, church personnel and the mayor’s office all go on the radio station to talk about the virus.”

Rodríguez said his message to townsfolk has been simple: “Its’ up to every family to stop it.”

He has also tried to lead by example. The mayor says he began to feel ill during a recent visit to Bogota, where he tested positive for the virus. He did not return to Campohermoso until he tested negative.

“We’ve put 60 families in town in quarantine because they showed some symptoms,” Rodríguez said. “But all of them have tested negative.”

Businesses are now open in Campohermoso and only allow customers wearing masks. The town has not banned visitors from other parts of the country but those who arrive and wish to stay have been asked to quarantine in a relative’s home, and receive a daily call from the local nurse.

Campohermoso’s only school is running at half of its usual capacity. Students have been divided by shifts and attend school every other day.

And in the largely Roman Catholic town, the local priest has also gotten involved in prevention efforts.

“We pray to Saint Roch, who is our patron saint and the protector of the sick,” says Father Camilo Monroy, who has also gone on radio to talk about ways to prevent the spread of the virus.

The only other town in Colombia that is reportedly coronavirus-free is San Juanito, which is also located in a remote valley in the Andes mountains.

Officials consider the two cases striking because the virus has even appeared in Amazon jungle villages that can only be reached by boat or small plane.

Campohermoso has vaccinated 80 people so far, most of them senior citizens over the age of 80.

Now the coronavirus-free county is waiting for more shots from Colombia’s central government.

___

Astrid Suarez reported from Bucaramanga, Colombia.

Marko AlváRez And Astrid SuaréZ, The Associated Press

Stem cells from umbilical cords might be the answer for severely ill COVID patients: Canadian researchers

Tom Blackwell 

2/24/2021

© Provided by National Post Dr. Duncan Stewart of Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, who is conducting a trial using a type of stem cell obtained from umbilical cords to treat patients made severely ill by COVID-19.

More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, medical science is still struggling to cope with the worst manifestation of the disease.

When out-of-control immune systems attack patients’ lungs and sap their ability to breathe, health care has no sure-fire response. Even with some improvement in treatment, as many as 40 per cent of COVID patients in the intensive-care unit never make it out.

But researchers in Canada and elsewhere believe there’s potential lurking inside an unlikely source: a byproduct of child birth.

Discarded umbilical cords are a particularly rich font of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), a type of stem cell that scientists hope could reset that berserk immune system and tamp down damaging inflammation.

At least two clinical trials are in the works in Canada and dozens more in other countries to test the idea on the sickest of COVID patients.

Results of randomized, controlled tests of the cells’ efficacy are still to come, but early signs are promising. A small handful of “case series” — observational studies that lack a placebo group for comparison — have had good results, including one just published by an Iranian team.

The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute has completed a phase one safety trial of the cells on 11 patients, showing the treatment was well tolerated.

“The results are encouraging, they definitely support moving forward into a larger randomized trial,” said Dr. Duncan Stewart, the institute’s CEO. “This is a population that has extremely poor outcomes, so anything that can reduce the severity of the disease and improve survival and recovery is really, really important.”

At McGill University, a team led by Dr. Inés Colmegna plans to test another MSC product derived from umbilical cord blood, produced by a Swedish company.

“The idea here is that you’re using a cell that is capable … of reversing the damage caused by a huge activation of the immune system,” she said. “In a way, you are bringing some order and direction to the immune system.”

Some experts actually describe COVID-19 as like two different diseases. The first sees the virus itself triggering various symptoms, which clear up in most patients. The second occurs when the immune system goes hyperactive, triggering massive inflammation and assailing the cells of the lung, strangling their ability to shift oxygen to the bloodstream.

The result can be acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the most dangerous symptom of COVID-19, when many patients end up on ventilators fighting for their lives.

Various potential treatments for the condition have been tried, none proving to be a home run.

With their ability to transform into other types of cells, MSCs were originally investigated as a way to regenerate damaged or diseased tissue. The results weren’t encouraging, but the cells did seem proficient at “modulating” the immune system, re-adjusting it so it fights off disease but doesn’t turn on the body itself, said Stewart.

Unlike single-molecule treatments, they also have a unique ability to multi-task, to target a number of factors causing damage, said Colmegna.

“You really are trying to tackle more than one thing at once.”

How the cells accomplish all that is not entirely clear, but they are associated with small blood vessels that play a key role in healing after injury, said Stewart.

Before the pandemic, the Ottawa team had completed a phase one trial using MSCs to treat ARDS caused by septic shock. A Chinese group reported in October on a study of 61 patients suffering from ARDS due to H7N9 flu. Significantly fewer of the 17 that received the stem cells — 17.6 per cent — died than those who did not get the treatment (55 per cent).

The cells can be found throughout the body but efforts to harvest them have largely focused on bone marrow and umbilical cords. The latter are the richest source and give up younger cells, Stewart said.

He believes his team’s MSC product has an advantage over others as it is derived fresh from living cultures, and is likely more potent than others that are frozen and then thawed.

But the frozen cells are “off-the-shelf” products that provide more flexibility in emergency cases when speed is of the essence, said Colmegna.

Crowds flock to Iceland volcano for a closer glimpse of lava

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The eruption of a long-dormant volcano in southwestern Iceland has drawn large crowds of visitors eager to get close to the lava flows.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Many have trekked to the volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula, near Iceland's capital Reykjavik, since it flared to life Friday night after tens of thousands of earthquakes were recorded in the area in the past three weeks. It was the area’s first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years.

On Tuesday, Iceland’s civil protection officials were seen gesturing to dozens of people to move away from lava just meters behind them to ensure visitors do not get hurt. One of the officials said a visitor tried to cook bacon and eggs on the lava — but the pan melted in the heat.

Italian photographer Vincenzo Mazza, who lives in Iceland, was one of those who got a close look at the slow-flowing lava.

Video: Icelandic volcano eruption attracts sightseers (The Canadian Press)



“I’ve been waiting for many years to see an eruption in Iceland,” he said. “I saw some eruptions in Italy, like Etna and Stromboli, but this is absolutely different."

“I can’t say ‘this is more beautiful than that’ because they are very different, but this lava glowing just so close to us, it’s insane,” Mazza said.

The glow from the lava could be seen from the outskirts of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, about 32 kilometres (20 miles) away.

Icelandic officials said they did not anticipate evacuations because the volcano is in a remote area, about 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) from the nearest road.