Lindsey Graham’s own words get thrown back in his face in new anti-Trump attack ad

Published on May 22, 2020 By Brad Reed 


Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is getting hit with a new attack ad that throws the senator’s own words back in his face.

The ad, which was produced by a super PAC called “Lindsey Must Go,” shows all the times that Graham attacked President Donald Trump before abruptly changing to becoming a major supporter of the president.

“I think he’s a kook,” Graham says at the start of the ad. “I think he’s crazy. I think he’s unfit for office.”

The ad then cuts to Graham at a Trump rally repeatedly thanking Trump for being “a damn good president.”
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Other choice cuts include Graham called Trump a “jackass” who says “one dumb thing after another,” before cutting to a clip in 2018 of Graham saying Trump “deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.”

“Honestly, they’re both terrible,” the ad says of the two versions of Graham. “But the new Lindsey stands for nothing but his reelection… This November, vote him out.”

Watch the video below.

History will not be kind to the billionaire Trump whisperers responsible for so many COVID-19 deaths

Published May 21, 2020 By Thom Hartmann- Commentary


Several new studies and models suggest that if Donald Trump had simply declared a state of national emergency, largely shutting down the country, a few weeks earlier than he did, tens of thousands of people who are dead right now would still be alive.

He certainly had the information available to him. We now know that he was receiving classified briefings in December and January warning about the virus coming, and Peter Navarro had written a memo to him explicitly warning of exactly what is happening right now.

The problem is that Donald Trump doesn’t read. He doesn’t read his classified briefings, he doesn’t read memos from his senior staff, he doesn’t read his speeches before he gives them; he apparently doesn’t read anything at all except Twitter.


While Trump may have some natural skills as a huckster, salesman and grifter, most the evidence – including statements by his previous teachers and professors – indicate he otherwise has a mediocre or even poor intellect.

So here’s how banal our crisis is: our president is a man who is not particularly smart and doesn’t read.

He gets all his news from billionaire Rupert Murdoch‘s propaganda channel, Fox News, which is famously filled with lies and scams.

Meanwhile, billionaires like Betsy DeVos are funding groups pushing defiance of stay-at-home orders or mask-wearing that save lives.

The feedback loop between Fox, groups funded by right wing billionaires, and Trump has produced policies that have led tens of thousands of Americans to die unnecessarily.

Putting a billionaire in the White House, while other billionaires are funding misinformation and disinformation groups, and another billionaire is running a national television propaganda channel, may lead to as many as a quarter million dead Americans by the end of the year.

History will not be kind to these oligarchs

(c) Thom Hartmann, used with permission

Skeptical experts in Sweden say its decision to have no lockdown is a terrible mistake that no other nation should copy

May 21, 2020, BUSINESS INSIDER

People at a restaurant in Stockholm on May 8. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 2,000 experts across Sweden in April urged the country to change its unusual decision not to have an enforced coronavirus lockdown.

Its per capita death toll in recent days has been the highest in the world, and some of those experts told Business Insider they remained convinced the plan was a historic mistake.

"This is not an example to follow. I don't want thousands of people around the globe to start dying," one science professor said.

They say much of Sweden's advice — including on masks, on the risks to children, and on who should self-isolate — is out of step with other countries'.

They are urging Sweden to test more so it can better understand its outbreak and give information to the rest of the world.
Sweden's strategy for dealing with the novel coronavirus so far has not included a lockdown.

Instead, the country has allowed people to go to parks, bars, and restaurants and to keep working, while encouraging but largely not enforcing social distancing.

It's a strategy that most in the country appear to support.

But it has sparked alarm among some experts who point to the country's relatively high death toll, the effects on vulnerable groups, and what they say is an approach that ignores much of the best research on COVID-19.


Two open letters signed in April by more than 2,000 experts across the country urged tougher measures with compulsory elements.

Sweden's state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, at a briefing in Stockholm on May 6. CLAUDIO BRESCIANI/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images

But the letters did not change government policy. Sweden's death toll on a per capita basis is now among the highest in the world and was the highest of any country in the seven days that ended Wednesday.

Business Insider spoke with some of those experts, who said Swedish health officials were not looking closely enough at new research.

They said they hoped no other countries tried to imitate Sweden, which lockdown opponents and some US politicians have held up as an example of a better approach.


Olle Kampe, a professor and senior consultant in endocrinology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said: "We are sacrificing old people and people with diseases."

People protesting Minnesota's stay-at-home order with a "Be Like Sweden" sign outside the governor's residence on April 17. Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images


"So I don't that it's something that anyone should copy."

Is Sweden gambling on herd immunity?

Sweden has said its strategy is not meant to achieve herd immunity — the point at which so many people are immune to a virus through infection or vaccination that it cannot take hold in a population.

But Anders Tegnell, Sweden's state epidemiologist and the main figure behind the country's plan, has highlighted Sweden's progress toward such a state. He said in late April that up to 20% of people in Stockholm were immune and that this could help guard against a second wave.

Many understood this as a quiet acknowledgment that herd immunity was the strategy. But scientists around the world have warned that there is no guarantee that catching the virus gives permanent immunity — and even if it did, the human cost of reaching that state would be huge.

"They are denying it in practice, but if you look at their actions, they're clearly going for herd immunity — that's why they are keeping schools and everything open," Marcus Carlsson, a mathematician at Lund University, said.

People in Stockholm on April 22. ANDERS WIKLUND/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images

Kampe said Sweden was trying to "reach herd immunity by killing people."

"It's saying that people who are old, or have a disease like obesity, like diabetes, are worth less than the rest of us, so we can just let them die and we get herd immunity," he said.


Kampe said Sweden's radically different approach meant it had a special responsibility to justify itself. "The burden of proof is very strong," he said.

A public-health ad in Stockholm on May 4 encouraging social distancing. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images

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Experts say Sweden's plan ignores science

Kampe said much of Sweden's approach was "not based on facts."

"If you have a virus that's totally new, you know very little about it, why don't you take a step back and say you are trying to infect as few people as possible until we know more?" he said.

"Sweden's strategy is the opposite: Infect as many people, reach herd immunity."


He pointed to new things discovered about the virus, including young people experiencing blood clots and strokes and a new inflammatory syndrome that has killed least four children.

People at a Stockholm shopping center on May 12. HENRIK MONTGOMERY/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images

He noted that Sweden did not consider children to be an at-risk group. They are expected to go to school, even if they have preexisting conditions known to increase adults' risk.

Christopher Plumberg, a theoretical physics researcher at Lund University, noted that the stance on children "stands in stark contrast to the United States and the United Kingdom."

Carlsson said the differences showed that Sweden's Public Health Agency had "a strange view on how to do science and research."


"They claim to be more logical while the rest of the world is panicking, claiming to be the voice of rationality."

He described the authority as being "picky about evidence" — insisting on unusually strong levels of proof before taking steps to mitigate the virus, as the rest of the world goes further.

He pointed to how the Public Health Agency had urged people to stay at home only when they show symptoms.

Swedish officials have said it is "still too early to say" how much the virus is spread by those without symptoms.

It is a stark contrast to other public-health bodies, which mostly recommend staying home when possible to mitigate the risk of asymptomatic transmission.

Carlsson said waiting for definitive proof in this case meant waiting too long and risking lives.

Lunch at a restaurant in Stockholm on April 21. Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

"Evidence-based is good science over time, but in emergency response to an unknown virus, you cannot sit and wait for a peer-review process," he said. "Science is very slow."
Sweden's renegade advice

Sweden diverges from the consensus in more ways than its advice on which people should stay home.


Even after people have been ill, Sweden recommends isolation for only two days after recovery. Other countries advise seven days, and the World Health Organization recommends a full two weeks.

Plumberg said Sweden had not "adequately adhered to the European Union precautionary principle," which says lawmakers should act to prevent harm even if they are not yet totally sure it will work.

"More succinctly, the principle cautions: 'Better safe than sorry.'"

Plumberg said he agreed with Tegnell's own statement that Sweden's death toll had been "horrifying."

People in Stockholm on April 8. AP Photo/Andres Kudacki
But he said Sweden should have looked closer at what was happening in other countries.

"To make no decision on condition of 'too little evidence' is already to make a decision," he said. "The virus itself has forced a rapid policy response, and Sweden seems philosophically opposed to making such changes."

Tegnell, the state epidemiologist, responded to the open letters in April by defending the scientific basis for Sweden's policy and calling the figures they cited "inaccurate."

He also said Sweden's death toll was inflated because the virus had spread in nursing homes to a greater extent than in other countries, causing more people to die.

The signatories say Sweden needs to collect more data about its outbreak and to allow an open debate between the Public Health Agency and other scientists.

Flying blind on testing

Sweden is prioritizing its coronavirus tests for healthcare workers who show symptoms and patients already in the hospital.

It then gives priority to police officers and emergency responders. The health agency says people who have cold or flu symptoms "will not be prioritized for testing" but should stay home.

Sweden has only just expanded its testing to include those with mild symptoms.

Lena Hallengren, Sweden's health minister, said at the end of March that targeted testing, rather than mass testing of the population, was the right way to go for Sweden.

A restaurant in Stockholm on May 8. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images

TheLocal.se, an English-language news service for Sweden, reported that as of May 8, about 1,000 people were being tested in Stockholm a day.

It said the country was hitting around a third of its goal of 100,000 a week.

Sweden's testing rate is at 17.6 per 1,000 people, according to tracking by the website Statista. Norway, its close neighbor, has a rate of 37.9.

Kampe, the science professor, said more testing was necessary to assess Sweden's strategy: "To evaluate this afterwards we have to have data."

"We still don't have data to calculate the projections people are making. It still doesn't exist," he said.

Carlsson said testing was especially important as Sweden's strategy was so different. "Because we chose a different path, we are in a unique position to provide valuable information for the rest of the world," he said.

"If we test a lot, we could provide so much information for the world. And save individual lives."
'Sacrificing' the old and weak

Sweden says its plan is meant to protect the most vulnerable: People over 70 are urged to stay at home, and visitors have been barred from nursing homes.

But about half of Sweden' deaths have taken place in nursing homes, and about 88% of its deaths are people over 70, a figure similar to some of Europe's hardest-hit countries like the UK and France.

Nursing-home workers have reported having to work without access to personal protective equipment.

A memorial to coronavirus victims in Stockholm's Mynttorget square. ONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images
Some staff members have complained that they do not have permission to give oxygen treatment to patients with the virus and say they have been told not take the patients to hospitals.

People with conditions that make them more vulnerable have also told Business Insider that Sweden's plan has left them frightened as they choose to isolate themselves.

"We are sacrificing old people and people with diseases," Kampe said.

Tegnell denies that Sweden's plan involved sacrificing certain groups. Instead, he said, the high deaths were an unforeseen event, not part of the plan. The health minister, Hallengren, has publicly said Sweden "failed to protect our elderly."

The Public Health Agency has said it started enforcing greater hygiene measures and has seen fewer nursing-home deaths.

But Sweden's death toll — at 3,698 on Tuesday — has soared above its Nordic neighbors that locked down early.

Per capita, its deaths are about four times those in Denmark and eight times those in Norway — countries with similar healthcare systems, political systems, and population densities.

People lined up to buy alcohol at a state-owned Systembolaget store on April 25. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images

Sweden is also reporting more than 400 new cases a day, compared with about 20 a day in Norway and about 60 a day in Denmark.

'Don't copy us'

Kampe said Sweden too had the ingredients for a low death toll: It is not very densely populated, has a high degree of education, and has low rates of diseases like diabetes and obesity.

Be, he said, "and still there are so many deaths." He continued: "As a physician you don't accept any unnecessary deaths. But we have thousands. If this continues, we will have tens of thousands.

"I don't think that it's something that anyone should copy."

Carlsson said Sweden was at "a very dangerous point in time" as its plan received international attention: "People want a way through without a lockdown," he said.

But he said the strategy would jeopardize lives anywhere it's employed.

"We are not testing," he said. "We are totally in the dark. This is not an example to follow."

Sweden has implied it will change it strategy if it finds evidence another one would work better.

So far, it has not indicated that any change is coming.

A Swedish catastrophe: Conservatives’ favorite pandemic policy turns out to be quite deadly



May 21, 2020 By Matthew Rozsa, Salon

Many conservatives are praising Sweden for its decision to not issue stay-at-home orders or close down businesses like cafes and restaurants. Indeed, anti-lockdown protesters have started using “Be more like Sweden” as a mantra in their attempt to convince American policymakers to put an end to the lockdowns that have swept the country.

Yet the public health data suggests that Sweden’s hands-off approach to fighting the pandemic has been dangerous.


The country’s per capita death toll is among the highest in the world, according to a report by Johns Hopkins University earlier this month. It was also the highest of any country as of the week that ended on Wednesday. Last month, more than 2,000 scientists and experts across Sweden signed a pair of open letters that urged tougher measures and compulsory safety policies, with one of them telling Business Insider that she believes Sweden’s current public health policies are immoral.“We are sacrificing old people and people with diseases,” Professor Olle Kampe, a senior consultant in endocrinology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, told Business Insider. “So I don’t [think] that it’s something that anyone should copy.”

There are other signs that Sweden’s policy has been a catastrophe. More than twice the usual number of people have died in Stockholm as a result of the outbreak, according to The New York Times, which shared Kampe’s observation about the elderly paying a disproportionate price because of the government’s more laid-back approach to the crisis. (Most of the people who have died so far in Sweden have been over the age of 70.) The increase in Stockholm is greater than the rise in deaths from American cities like Chicago and Boston, and is mirrored by the fact that almost 30 percent more people died during the epidemic than would normally have passed away in Sweden at this time. The jump is much greater than in countries near Sweden and comparable to that of the United States, which does not have Sweden’s advantages in terms of its health care system.

“It’s not a very flattering comparison for Sweden, which has such a great public health system,” Andrew Noymer, a demographer at the University of California at Irvine, told the Times. “There’s no reason Sweden should be doing worse than Norway, Denmark and Finland.”

This is not to say that Sweden’s approach has been an unmitigated disaster. Hospitals have not been overwhelmed, as many predicted, and Google mobility figures reveal that Swedes nearly matched residents of neighboring countries in their decision to visit restaurants, stores and other recreation spots with less frequency as a precautionary measure. Yet Sweden had certain advantages, including the fact that it has a low population density and has fewer multigenerational households, which are particularly vulnerable to the virus.

This is why Sweden’s approach probably would not work in the United States. Indeed, a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs revealed earlier this week that social distancing has reduced the COVID-19 growth rate in the United States.

Adoption of government-imposed social distancing measures reduced the daily growth rate by 5.4 percentage points after 1–5 days, 6.8 after 6–10 days, 8.2 after 11–15 days, and 9.1 after 16–20 days,” the authors of the study wrote. “Holding the amount of voluntary social distancing constant, these results imply 10 times greater spread by April 27 without [shelter-in-place orders] (10 million cases) and more than 35 times greater spread without any of the four measures (35 million).”

How cosmic rays may have shaped life

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: SHOWERS OF HIGH ENERGY PARTICLES ORIGINATING FROM THE SUN AND OUR GALAXY COLLIDE WITH NITROGEN AND OXYGEN IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE. AT GROUND LEVEL, THE SHOWER IS DOMINATED BY MAGNETICALLY... view more 

CREDIT: SIMONS FOUNDATION

Before there were animals, bacteria or even DNA on Earth, self-replicating molecules were slowly evolving their way from simple matter to life beneath a constant shower of energetic particles from space.

In a new paper, a Stanford professor and a former post-doctoral scholar speculate that this interaction between ancient proto-organisms and cosmic rays may be responsible for a crucial structural preference, called chirality, in biological molecules. If their idea is correct, it suggests that all life throughout the universe could share the same chiral preference.

Chirality, also known as handedness, is the existence of mirror-image versions of molecules. Like the left and right hand, two chiral forms of a single molecule reflect each other in shape but don't line up if stacked. In every major biomolecule - amino acids, DNA, RNA - life only uses one form of molecular handedness. If the mirror version of a molecule is substituted for the regular version within a biological system, the system will often malfunction or stop functioning entirely. In the case of DNA, a single wrong handed sugar would disrupt the stable helical structure of the molecule.

Louis Pasteur first discovered this biological homochirality in 1848. Since then, scientists have debated whether the handedness of life was driven by random chance or some unknown deterministic influence. Pasteur hypothesized that, if life is asymmetric, then it may be due to an asymmetry in the fundamental interactions of physics that exist throughout the cosmos.

"We propose that the biological handedness we witness now on Earth is due to evolution amidst magnetically polarized radiation, where a tiny difference in the mutation rate may have promoted the evolution of DNA-based life, rather than its mirror image," said Noémie Globus lead author of the paper and a former Koret Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC).

In their paper, published on May 20 in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers detail their argument in favor of cosmic rays as the origin of homochirality. They also discuss potential experiments to test their hypothesis.

Magnetic polarization from space

Cosmic rays are an abundant form of high-energy radiation that originate from various sources throughout the universe, including stars and distant galaxies. After hitting the Earth's atmosphere, cosmic rays eventually degrade into fundamental particles. At ground level, most of the cosmic rays exist only as particles known as muons.

Muons are unstable particles, existing for a mere 2 millionths of a second, but because they travel near the speed of light, they have been detected more than 700 meters below Earth's surface. They are also magnetically polarized, meaning, on average, muons all share the same magnetic orientation. When muons finally decay, they produce electrons with the same magnetic polarization. The researchers believe that the muon's penetrative ability allows it and its daughter electrons to potentially affect chiral molecules on Earth and everywhere else in the universe.

"We are irradiated all the time by cosmic rays," explained Globus, who is currently a post-doctoral researcher at New York University and the Simons Foundation's Flatiron Institute. "Their effects are small but constant in every place on the planet where life could evolve, and the magnetic polarization of the muons and electrons is always the same. And even on other planets, cosmic rays would have the same effects."

The researchers' hypothesis is that, at the beginning of life of on Earth, this constant and consistent radiation affected the evolution of the two mirror life-forms in different ways, helping one ultimately prevail over the other. These tiny differences in mutation rate would have been most significant when life was beginning and the molecules involved were very simple and more fragile. Under these circumstances, the small but persistent chiral influence from cosmic rays could have, over billions of generations of evolution, produced the single biological handedness we see today.

"This is a little bit like a roulette wheel in Vegas, where you might engineer a slight preference for the red pockets, rather than the black pockets," said Roger Blandford, the Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford and an author on the paper. "Play a few games, you would never notice. But if you play with this roulette wheel for many years, those who bet habitually on red will make money and those who bet on black will lose and go away."

Ready to be surprised

Globus and Blandford suggest experiments that could help prove or disprove their cosmic ray hypothesis. For example, they would like to test how bacteria respond to radiation with different magnetic polarization.

"Experiments like this have never been performed and I am excited to see what they teach us. Surprises inevitably come from further work on interdisciplinary topics," said Globus.

The researchers also look forward to organic samples from comets, asteroids or Mars to see if they too exhibit a chiral bias.

"This idea connects fundamental physics and the origin of life," said Blandford, who is also Stanford and SLAC professor of physics and particle physics and former director of KIPAC. "Regardless of whether or not it's correct, bridging these very different fields is exciting and a successful experiment should be interesting."

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This research was funded by the Koret Foundation, New York University and the Simons Foundation.

Study: Ancient ocean oxygen levels associated with changing atmospheric carbon dioxide

A Texas A&M-led study analyzed ocean floor sediment cores to provide new insights into the relationship between deep ocean oxygenation and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 50,000 years before the last ice age

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: DEEP OCEAN FLOOR SEDIMENT CORES HOLD CHEMICAL CLUES TO EARTH'S PAST. view more 

CREDIT: TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Why do carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere wax and wane in conjunction with the warm and cold periods of Earth's past? Scientists have been trying to answer this question for many years, and thanks to chemical clues left in sediment cores extracted from deep in the ocean floor, they are starting to put together the pieces of that puzzle.

Recent research suggests that there was enhanced storage of respired carbon in the deep ocean when levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were lower than today's levels. But new research led by a Texas A&M University scientist has reached back even further, for the first time revealing insights into atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 50,000 years before the last ice age.

"One of the biggest unknowns about past climate is the cause of atmospheric carbon dioxide variability over global warm-cold cycles," said Franco Marcantonio, lead author of the study and professor and Jane and Ken R. Williams '45 Chair in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Texas A&M. "Here we investigated the 'how' of varying carbon dioxide with the 'where' -- namely, the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean, which is an important region of the world ocean where, today, significant carbon dioxide is exhaled into the atmosphere and the greatest rates phytoplankton growth are found."

The National Science Foundation-funded research was recently published in Scientific Reports, a Nature Research journal.

To examine ancient carbon dioxide levels, Marcantonio and a team of researchers analyzed an ocean floor sediment core extracted from the deep Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean. The 10-meter long core spans about 180,000 years, and the chemistry of the layers of sediment provide scientists with a window into past climates. The chemical measurements they make serve as a proxy for oxygen levels of the deep sea.

Measuring minute traces of uranium and thorium isotopes, the team was able to associate periods of increased storage of respired carbon (and low deep-sea oxygen levels) with periods of decreased global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during the past 70,000 years.

"By comparing our high-resolution sediment record of deep-sea oxygenation in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific with other areas of the Pacific and Southern Ocean, we find that the Pacific Ocean, like the Southern Ocean, is a location for deep-ocean respired carbon storage during periods of decreased global atmospheric CO2 concentrations," he said. "Importantly, we put constraints on the location in the water column of the extent of the respired stored carbon pool during cold periods.

"Understanding the past dynamics of Earth's carbon cycle is of fundamental importance to informing and guiding societal policy-making in a warming world with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide."

Co-authors of the study were Ryan Hostak, a former Texas A&M graduate student who earned his master's degree in geology in 2019; Jennifer E. Hertzberg, who received her Ph.D. in oceanography from Texas A&M in 2015 and is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University; and Matthew W. Schmidt, associate professor of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion. Marcantonio and his colleagues designed the study, he and Hostak performed the isotope analyses, and the team interpreted the data.

"By performing similar studies in sediment covering a wider swath of the deep Pacific Ocean, we'll be able to spatially map the extent of this past deep pool of respired carbon," Marcantonio said, looking forward to future research.

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The study's radiogenic and trace element analyses were conducted in the College of Geosciences' R. Ken Williams Radiogenic Isotope Facility. The sediment core was extracted by Marcantonio and colleagues on an NSF-funded research cruise aboard the R/V Melville in 2010.

In China, quarantine improves air and prevents thousands of premature deaths

YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

 

Soon after coronavirus appeared, an all-encompassing quarantine put into effect by the Chinese government slowed the spread of the disease and saved lives, but the quarantine also produced another unanticipated health benefit.

A new study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health and published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, finds that China's countrywide ban on traffic mobility from February 10 to March 14 greatly limited automobile emissions and sharply reduced the country's often severe air pollution.

The improved air quality, in turn, prevented thousands of pollution-related deaths. More premature deaths were avoided by cleaner air--an estimated 12,125--than lives lost from the pandemic--4,633 as of May 4, the study finds.

"This is a very surprising result. The pandemic continues to be a terrible thing for China and the rest of the world, but the decrease in emissions that accompanied it has actually conferred some positive health results," said Kai Chen, assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health and the study's first author. "The question is, how can we have one without the other?"

Although the findings cannot be directly applied to other countries due to different severity of and responses to COVID-19, as well as differing air pollution levels and population characteristics, reduced air pollution levels have been detected in other Asian and European countries and the U.S. after their own lockdowns, Chen said. He notes that this reduction in pollution has likely conferred similar health benefits.

The study found that ground-level air pollution levels dropped remarkably throughout China, with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) dropping by 12.9 μg/m3 (or 37% compared with before the quarantine period) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) dropping by 18.9 μg/m3 (30%) across 367 Chinese cities. The decline in NO2 across China during the quarantine period was so dramatic that it was detected by satellite measurements.

NO2 is a gaseous air pollutant, which is mainly produced from fuel burning in vehicles and power plants. NO2 level before the quarantine (January 5 to 20) was as high as 40.5 μg/m3 in Wuhan, where the outbreak began in China. During the quarantine (February 10 to March 14), those levels had fallen to 18.8 μg/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter).

Particulate matter includes all solid and liquid particles suspended in air, many of which are hazardous when inhaled. This mixture includes both organic and inorganic particles, such as dust, pollen, soot, smoke, and liquid droplets. Before the quarantine, PM 2.5 (fine inhalable particles with diameters of 2.5 micrometers or smaller) levels were measured at 62.5 μg/m3 in many Chinese cities. During the quarantine, the fine particulate matter reading has been 36.5 μg/m3 in those same locations.

The authors then calculated the number of avoided deaths attributable to these decreases in NO2 and PM2.5 across China based on the short-term association between these pollutants and daily mortality using data from a previous epidemiological study of 272 Chinese cities, and mortality data from the China Health and Family Planning Statistical Yearbook 2018. The authors found that among the more than 12,000 avoided deaths, about two-thirds were from avoided cardiovascular diseases (hypertensive disease, coronary heart disease and stroke) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The findings illustrate the substantial human health benefits related to cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality that can be achieved when aggressive air pollution control measures are put in place to reduce emissions from vehicles, such as through climate mitigation-related traffic restrictions or efforts to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, the authors said.

"This unexpected health benefit suggests that if we were to address the climate crisis as aggressively as we are combating the COVID-19 pandemic with strong political will and urgent action, we could prevent the enormous health burdens associated with climate change," said co-author Paul T. Anastas, professor at the Yale School of Public Health and the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Chair of Chemistry for the Environment.

The authors said that they want to further identify whether climate or weather-related factors and air pollution could influence population susceptibility to COVID-19.

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The paper was written with researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions and Boston University School of Public Health.

When developing vaccines against COVID-19, 'fast is slow, and slow is fast'

SARS-CoV2 vaccines: Slow is fast

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

NEWS RELEASE 22-MAY-2020

Bypassing clinical trials for a potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccine would be "catastrophic," says Science Advances deputy editor Douglas Green in this Editorial. Instead, it's vital to take time to ensure any vaccine candidate's safety and investigate potential adverse effects, he says. A vaccine able to trigger strong neutralizing antibody responses in clinical tests will still not be ready for widespread implementation without comprehensive safety tests. For example, vaccines must be examined for causing an effect known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), whereby vaccine-induced antibodies that bind to the virus also attach to the body's cells, facilitating infection of these cells - a concerning phenomenon that has been observed in vaccines against dengue, Ebola, HIV, and feline coronavirus. Ethical accelerated testing on humans should not be ruled out completely, but extreme risks must be weighed against potential benefits, Green says. There are currently 95 vaccines in development against SARS-CoV-2, with most expected to clear Phase I and two experimental vaccines already moving into Phase II trials.

Parasitic wasp discovery offers chemical-free pest control for growers

JOHN INNES CENTRE

 

A species of parasitic wasp discovered by chance could provide growers with a chemical-free way of controlling a major pest.

Researchers made the discovery when the wasps appeared mysteriously in colonies of cabbage stem flea beetles (CSFB) they were studying to test feeding preferences on oilseed rape.

The wasps appeared even though the beetles were confined to potted oilseed rape plants inside micro-perforated bags.

Further exploration revealed that the colonies of around 3000 beetles collected from three sites around Norfolk had been infected by a parasitic wasp that lays eggs within the beetle's body.

Genetic sequencing and enquiries by the Natural History Museum, UK, and the Swedish Museum of Natural History identified the wasp as an obscure species called Microctonus brassicae which was first reported in 2008 with no further identifications until now.

The study carried out by researchers at the John Innes Centre is the first English published description of this parasitoid of the adult CSFB.

Experiments showed that within controlled conditions the presence of wasps in sufficient numbers led to the collapse of CSFB colonies.

Beetle hosts are rendered sterile and die after the wasp larvae emerge from the body after passing through its digestive system. The short generation time of 43.5 days from egg to adult means it would be possible to rapidly rear multiple generations in controlled conditions.

The study raises the possibility of employing Microctonus Brassicae and other species of genetically similar parasitic wasps as a biocontrol to protect oilseed rape and a range of commercially important crops prone to attack by CSFB.

The beetle is a major threat to oilseed rape, particularly the winter crop, throughout the UK and Europe. It causes characteristic damage known as "shot-holing" to leaves often resulting in crop failure or poor crop establishment.

The beetle has become a prominent pest in the UK, particularly in East Anglia, and surrounding counties following the European ban on neonicotinoid seed treatment use in flowering crops.

The ban on these and other systemic pesticides followed research linking their use to decline in pollinators. Further legislation in 2019 upgraded the ban to include other broad-spectrum pesticides.

With the removal of seed treatments for oilseed rape the numbers of CSFB and the damage they cause have increased. Figures for 2014 value damage at £23million with an approximate loss of 3.5% of the national crop area of winter oilseed rape to CSFB.

The estimated best-case crop production for 2020/21 is 1.26 million tonnes, a year on year decline of 489,000 tonnes, putting the future of the valuable UK rapeseed crop in doubt.

Using beneficial insects for biocontrol has been investigated in the past with five species of parasitoid wasps found to target CSFB. But these have demonstrated limited effectiveness and found to be economically unnecessary while the now banned pesticides were in use.

Under captivity in this study M. brassicae rate of parasitism was greater than 44%. The research suggests that the wasp may have the potential to deliver positive effects under field conditions.

Further research has been performed by Rothamsted Research to look at wasp presence and parasitism levels across the UK. Agricultural practices such as promotion of field margins, beetle banks and conservation headland may provide habitats to support the beneficial parasitoids.

"Something that was initially very annoying leading to the collapse of our research colonies has turned out to be fortunate," says lead author Dr Rachel Wells of the John Innes Centre. "It offers the possibility of using parasitoid wasps as bio-controls for farmers and growers of oilseed rape and brassica vegetables against cabbage stem flea beetle as part of an integrated pest management approach."

The research: The potential of the solitary parasitoid Microctonus brassicae for the biological control of the adult cabbage stem flea beetle, Psylliodes chrysocephala is in the journal Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata.

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Photographs/captions

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vupdtgbtxu4lvgj/AABVfHUUyx3gyG-VZBx2QDvda?dl=0

Article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eea.12910

The Lancet: No evidence of benefit for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients

THE LANCET

A large observational study suggests that treatment with the antimalarial drug chloroquine or its analogue hydroxychloroquine (taken with or without the antibiotics azithromycin or clarithromycin) offers no benefit for patients with COVID-19. The study analysed data from nearly 15,000 patients with COVID-19 receiving a combination of any of the four drug regimens and 81,000 controls.

Treatment with these medications among patients with COVID-19, either alone or in combination with

macrolide antibiotics, was linked to an increased risk of serious heart rhythm complications in these patients.

Researchers suggest these treatment regimens should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside of clinical trials until results from randomised clinical trials are available to confirm the safety and efficacy of these medications for COVID-19 patients.

Chloroquine is an antimalarial drug and its analogue, hydroxychloroquine, is used to treat autoimmune diseases including lupus and arthritis. Both drugs have a good safety profile as treatments for those specific conditions, and the findings do not imply patients should stop taking these drugs if they are prescribed for approved conditions. They have also been shown to have antiviral effects in laboratory tests and are therefore of interest as potential treatments for COVID-19.

Prof Dr Mandeep R. Mehra, lead author of the study and Executive Director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Center for Advanced Heart Disease in Boston, USA, said: "This is the first large scale study to find statistically robust evidence that treatment with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine does not benefit patients with COVID-19. Instead, our findings suggest it may be associated with an increased risk of serious heart problems and increased risk of death. Randomised clinical trials are essential to confirm any harms or benefits associated with these agents. In the meantime, we suggest these drugs should not be used as treatments for COVID-19 outside of clinical trials." [1]   

In the study, researchers analysed data from 96,032 patients hospitalised between 20 December 2019 and 14 April 2020 with laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from 671 hospitals. All of the patients included in the study had either been discharged or had died by 21 April 2020.

The team compared outcomes from patients treated with chloroquine alone (1,868), hydroxychloroquine alone (3,016), chloroquine in combination with a macrolide (3,783) or hydroxychloroquine with a macrolide (6,221). Patients from these four groups were compared with the remaining control group of 81,144 patients.

At the end of the study period, around one in 11 patients in the control group had died in hospital (9.3%, 7,530/81,144). All four of the treatments were associated with a higher risk of dying in hospital. Of those treated with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine alone, around one in six patients had died (16.4%, 307/1,868 chloroquine and 18.0%, 543/3,016 hydroxychloroquine). When the drugs were used in combination with a macrolide, the death rate rose to more than one in five for chloroquine (22.2%, 839/3,783) and almost one in four for hydroxychloroquine (23.8%, 1,479/6,221).

Some of the difference in the rates of mortality is due to underlying differences between patients who received the treatments and those who didn't. After accounting for factors including age, race, body mass index and underlying health conditions including heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, the researchers found the drug regimens were associated with an increased risk of death.

They estimated that the excess risk attributable to the use of the drug regimen rather than other factors such as co-morbidities ranged from 34% to 45%. The authors explain that if the rate of mortality is 9.3% in the control group, after adjustment for the other clinical factors, the rate attributable to the use of the drug regimens would rise to 12.4-13.4% . However, the researchers caution that it is not possible to exclude the possibility that other, unmeasured factors were responsible for the apparent link between treatment with these drugs and the decrease in patient survival because such is the design of observational studies, and randomised trials are urgently needed.

The team also found that serious cardiac arrhythmias, which cause the lower chamber of the heart to beat rapidly and irregularly, were more common in the groups receiving either of the four treatment regimens.

The biggest increase was seen in the group treated with hydroxychloroquine in combination with a macrolide, where 8% of patients developed a heart arrhythmia (502/6,221) compared with 0.3% patients in the control group (226/81144). After accounting for demographic factors and pre-existing conditions, the team calculated that treatment with this combination of drugs is associated with a more than five-fold increase in risk of developing a serious heart arrhythmia while in hospital (as an example, an increase from 0.3% to 1.5% would be attributable to the drug regimen after adjustment for other clinical factors). Similarly, it is not possible to conclusively infer cause and effect between treatment with these medications and the onset of heart arrhythmias. Randomised clinical trials will be required before any conclusion can be reached regarding benefit of harm of these agents in COVID-19 patients.

Prof Dr. Frank Ruschitzka, Director of the Heart Center at University Hospital Zurich who also co-authored the study said: "Several countries have advocated use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, either alone or in combination, as potential treatments for COVID-19. Justification for repurposing these medicines in this way is based on a small number of anecdotal experiences that suggest they may have beneficial effects for people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, previous small-scale studies have failed to identify robust evidence of a benefit and larger, randomised controlled trials are not yet completed. However, we now know from our study that the chance that these medications improve outcomes in COVID-19 is quite low." [1]

Writing in a linked Comment article, Professor Christian Funck-Brentano, of the Sorbonne University in Paris, France (who was not involved in the study), said: "This well-conducted observational study adds to preliminary reports suggesting that chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, alone or with azithromycin is not useful and may be harmful in hospitalized COVID-19 patients."

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Peer reviewed / Observational Study / People

NOTES TO EDITORS

The study involved researchers from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School (USA), Surgisphere Corporation (USA), University Hospital Zurich (Switzerland), the University of Utah (USA) and HCA Research Institute (USA). It was funded by the William Harvey Distinguished Chair in Advanced Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com

[1] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article.

For access to the Article and Comment, please see: http://www.thelancet-press.com/embargo/hydroxychloroquine.pdf

Immediate use link (note, the immediate use links will be updated to permanent links later this afternoon UK time on Friday 22 May): https://www.thelancet.com/lancet/article/s0140673620311806

Permanent link (note, the immediate use links will be updated to this permanent link later this afternoon UK time on Friday 22 May): http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31180-6/fulltext