MoD seeks security tech to harden military systems

The Defence and Security Accelerator has launched a programme to root out technology that will reduce the military’s exposure to cyber attacks

By Alex Scroxton, Security Editor
Published: 18 Aug 2021 

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has launched a new Innovation Focus Area, or IFA, to seek out and develop technologies that will reduce the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) exposure to cyber attacks on its systems and platforms.


Dubbed Reducing the cyber attack surface, the new IFA is being run on behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and Defence Science and Technology (DST), and is now open to applications, with the process closing on 20 October 2021.

The UK’s defence sector currently has a large, integrated network of legacy security technologies giving malicious actors a substantial and diverse attack surface to have a pop at, and the scheme will supposedly “accelerate next-generation hardware and software technologies” to address vulnerabilities in networks and systems.

DASA said it expects to fund proposals within Technical Readiness Level 4 to 7, for up to £300,000 across a nine-month contract period.

Proposals will need to demonstrate how they will achieve a technical demonstrator by the end of the 2023 fiscal year, should further funding be made available. More details are available here.

The brief seeks technologies that can be intelligently applied to reduce the chance of successful cyber attacks; can raise the barrier to entry for hostile actors and give the UK military confidence and assurance that it can withstand cyber-enabled attacks; and are novel and applicable across a class of attack surface, as opposed to tailored to specific threats.

It is not seeking off-the-shelf products that will not need experimental development, or anything that offers no real prospect of integration into the UK’s defence and security capabilities, or offers no real prospect of out-competing extant products and services.

Read more about cyber security and digital in the MoD

The Ministry of Defence has formally “stood up” a dedicated cyber security regiment tasked with protecting the UK’s defence networks both at home and on overseas operations.

The Ministry of Defence has launched a 10-year digital strategy, focusing on creating a digital backbone and enabling the department to exploit data and innovation.

AI and cyber capabilities have formed part of the government’s integrated review of security, defence, development and foreign policy.

Commenting on the new scheme’s launch, Talion chief operating officer Keven Knight said: “This is a great initiative from the MoD as it is encouraging software and hardware providers to start thinking about security and vulnerabilities at the beginning of the product development cycle, rather than bolting things on at the end.

“However, the one thing to note is that just because a product is developed with security in mind and vulnerabilities are addressed in the early stages, doesn’t mean the product will always be free from security bugs,” he said. “First, if these products are connected to networks and the internet, this will open them up to all the threats we are facing today.

“Second, it is virtually impossible to make an absolutely perfect product, where no vulnerabilities exist. This is because these products are built by humans, and humans are imperfect.

“Ultimately, the MoD should never let its guard down and should continue to monitor these products for vulnerabilities and security issues in the same way they do with other equipment,” said Knight.

A wave of high-profile security incidents affecting elements of critical national infrastructure in the past 18 months has thrown a spotlight on how hostile nation states use technology against Britain and its allies to cause disruption to national life. Military systems are no less vulnerable to such incidents and almost certainly draw great volumes of attacks that are never disclosed.

As part of a broader package of responses to this threat, the UK is currently in the process of developing a 250-strong cyber security regiment, the 13th Signals, created in 2020, alongside a cyber security defence force.

More recently still, the MoD has announced a major digital funding package including more money for cyber defences, and earlier this year ran its first ever bug bounty challenge with HackerOne, which led to the discovery of a number of security vulnerabilities, ranging from authentication bypass issues to misconfigured systems.

 

T-Mobile says cyberattack impacted more customer data than initially thought

Data on millions of additional customers was also compromised, T-Mobile said.

ByCatherine Thorbecke

20 August 2021, 14:55

• 

People walk past the front of a T-Mobile retail store on Aug. 18, 2021, in Arlington, Va.

By the Numbers: T-Mobile hack exposes data of over 40M customers

T-Mobile revealed Friday that the personal data of more than 5 million additional customers was compromised in the recent cyber attack, bringing the total number of people impacted to over 50 million.

The company revealed earlier this week that it was the victim of a "highly sophisticated cyberattack," and that the data of millions of current and prospective customers -- including names and social security numbers -- had been compromised. The company reiterated on Friday that it has no indication any of the stolen files include financial information or credit and debit card information.

"We previously reported information from approximately 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customer accounts that included first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information was compromised," the company said Friday, adding that it also determined phone numbers and IMEI and IMSI information (identifier numbers associated with a mobile phone) were also compromised. "Additionally, we have since identified another 5.3 million current postpaid customer accounts that had one or more associated customer names, addresses, date of births, phone numbers, IMEIs and IMSIs illegally accessed."

MORE: Why ransomware cyberattacks are on the rise

The company said the additional accounts, however, did not have any social security numbers or driver's license information compromised.

"We also previously reported that data files with information from about 40 million former or prospective T-Mobile customers, including first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information, were compromised," the company added. "We have since identified an additional 667,000 accounts of former T-Mobile customers that were accessed with customer names, phone numbers, addresses and dates of birth compromised."

Similarly, the company said social security numbers or driver's license information for the additional batch of accounts was not accessed.

The mobile carrier said the investigation remains ongoing, but they are confident the access point used by hackers to access their networks has been closed off.

T-Mobile said it is offering support to those impacted by the data breach by offering two years of free identity protection services with McAfee's ID Theft Protection Service, sharing best practices and security steps that can be taken and recommending customers sign up for a free scam-blocking protection.

The company also published a customer support landing page with further information on the data breach.

MORE: T-Mobile says data breach exposed personal data of more than 40 million people

"As we support our customers, we have worked diligently to enhance security across our platforms and are collaborating with industry-leading experts to understand additional immediate and longer-term next steps," the company said. "We also remain committed to transparency as this investigation continues and will continue to provide updates if new information becomes available that impacts those affected or causes the details above to change or evolve."

The massive breach at the mobile carrier comes amid a spate of recent high-profile cybersecurity attacks on firms big and small -- raising concerns from many that no company is immune.

In the wake of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack that forced a multiday shutdown of a massive East Coast fuel conduit, President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at modernizing the federal government's response to cyberattacks.

Opinion | Why So Many Holdouts Still Won’t Get Vaxxed — And Why We Should Learn to Live With It

Vaccine resistance runs deeper and wider than the current Covid strain. Keep trying to convert the hesitant — but keep expectations in check.


Protesters rally against vaccine mandates in Los Angeles on Aug. 14. | 

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes


Opinion by JACK SHAFER
08/18/2021 
Jack Shafer is Politico’s senior media writer.

The verdict has been rendered: The Covid-19 vaccines on offer in the United States — Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are safe and effective. The vaccines protect (to some degree) against Covid-19 infections, but they also vastly reduce the chances of serious illness, hospitalization and death following rare “breakthrough” infections. Except for a smattering of transient, relatively mild side effects and extremely rare severe reactions, what’s not to like?

Yet a sizable number of people here and abroad have refused vaccination. Only about 60 percent of Americans have gotten at least one vaccine dose. You can blame America’s lax vaccine attitude on a variety of factors, but other countries that have national health care systems, universal access to the vaccines, and cultural and class homogeneity have struggled to jab everybody, too. Take the egalitarian republic of Iceland, which has only 360,000 residents. Just 80 percent of this well-educated population of civic-mind folks have taken the shot, and the rate of vaccination has slowed, maybe even plateaued. The United Kingdom’s vaccination rate similarly has slowed, currently standing at about 70 percent, as has Canada’s, currently at about 73 percent.


In polls, people offer a grab-bag of reasons for resisting vaccination. They intend to get the jab later. They worry about the side effects, or about how quickly the vaccines were produced. They say they can’t afford to miss work if the vaccine makes them sick. They express distrust of big pharma and doctors. They regurgitate vaccine misinformation. They protest they don’t know where to get the shot. For some Americans, rejecting a vaccine could be related to their faith — 24 percent of white evangelicals told a pollster in June that they wouldn’t get vaccinated, the highest share of any religious group. And even though some 4.7 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in 183 countries so far, some people still say they’re waiting until the shots are proven safe. (Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy is not just a U.S. thing, by the way. Russia, other parts of Eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East lag, too.)

Without questioning the poll respondents’ motives, we can agree that these excuses are paper-thin. Yet reluctance to get vaxxed seems to be built into many vaccination programs in the United States, including vaccines for the flu, shingles, hepatitis, polio and others. No matter what vaccine is packed into the syringe, no matter the quality of persuasion and education applied, most vaccines hit a ceiling well below 100 percent of the U.S. population. Vaccine reluctance has been with us since the first vaccine, which prevents smallpox, proved its worth in the late 18th century. During the 2019-2020 flu season, only 48 percent of U.S. adults took the flu vaccine. It’s unlikely the avoiders declined that vaccine over “trust” or because they couldn’t find it or they wanted to wait until it was proven absolutely safe. Only about 35 percent of people over age 60 have taken the recommended shingles vaccine. At least that 24 percent of white evangelicals who said they would avoid the Covid-19 vaccine are consistent on the subject: In a 2018 Pew survey, 22 percent of them said they oppose mandatory vaccinations for children. Nor is mass vaccine avoidance new. At the turn of the previous century, the Anti-Vaccination Society of America was founded to combat mandatory vaccination.

Where, exactly, does this long-held indisposition come from? Wall Street Journal columnist William A. Galston surmised earlier this summer that, in the United States, an innate Republican antipathy for being told what to do informs the reluctance. He might be right, but that doesn’t explain the vaccine holdouts in Iceland or Canada, home to very few Trump Republicans. Scientists studying the vaccine conundrum have found that some people anchor their vaccine mindset to initial doubts about safety or efficacy, and that those attitudes harden even after safety and efficacy have been assured. “Once people question the safety or effectiveness of a vaccine, it can be very difficult to get them to move beyond those negative associations,” said Feng Fu, one of the study’s authors.

Setting aside mathematical models, political analysis and polls for a moment, we should remind ourselves that most vaccines are elective, designed to prevent or reduce the severity of illness in healthy people. Taking a vaccine is like buying insurance. You might never know for sure if the vaccine blocked disease, but taking it will buy you some peace of mind. Most other medicines are the opposite of elective — they’re taken by the sick in order to get better. Although there are some outliers, most people take meds without making the excuses vaccine resisters offer. Sick people demonstrate almost no “drug hesitancy.” Instead, some people who come down with serious Covid-19 infections experience a deathbed conversion and ask if they can still take the vaccine. (Sorry, it’s too late.) Of course, there’s an obvious downside to the resisters who catch Covid-19: Their infections spread the contagion. The ghoulish upside is that they also increase herd immunity.

Often, the more medicine people take, the more medicine they want. Old people, many of whom already take statins or blood thinners, have normalized drug-taking. They sense their mortality, and this knowledge makes them open to additional medical intervention. Adding a shot of Pfizer is a simple matter of adding another arrow to their medical quivers.

The million-dollar lottery appears to have failed to win vaccine hearts and minds. Can we change resisters into enthusiasts by encouraging them to become pill-popping hypochondriacs? Probably not. Convert them into enthusiasts by providing more facts? Assuredly not. Now that billions of doses safely have been served and untold thousands of lives have been saved, it’s hard to imagine a fact we could conjure that would persuade them. If visiting an intensive care unit and finding that nearly every ventilated person is unvaccinated won’t convince you to take the vaccine, what will? Should we teach fear of the virus by screening the Covid-19 equivalent of those old bloody drivers’ ed films? Lecture the anti-vaxxers for the 100th time that prevention via vaccination is superior in almost every way to treatment? Explain the cost-benefit argument one more time? Appeal to their altruism? Explain once more that, absent a vaccine, it’s less a question of whether you’re going to get a brutal case of Covid-19 than when?

Mandating vaccination for employment or for admittance to the next Foo Fighters concert will move some people on the margins, as will public shunning of the unvaccinated. But persuasion, shame, nudging and the setting of barriers have limited powers over people. Governments can enforce laws requiring vaccination, according to a Supreme Court precedent from 1905. But the punishment is only a fine, and recent rulings have upheld religious exemptions to the laws.

A world in which 100 percent of the population volunteered for Covid-19 vaccination would be the best. But that’s not the one we live in. Vaccine resistance is not solely about this particular vaccine. Don’t vax me, bro, has been the default setting for many adults since the invention of the first vaccine, and door-to-door visits and passports can’t change that. As much as the campaign to vaccinate might want to exercise zero-tolerance policies against resisters, in the absence of a law mandating universal compliance, we can’t reach that goal. Realism requires us to accept — though not salute — deadenders who have burrowed deeply into their tunnels. Some people will never surrender their lost causes.

When is Alberta going to see pandemic data and modelling? Hinshaw offers no new timeline



Adam Lachacz

CTVNewsEdmonton.ca 

Digital Producer
Published Thursday, August 19, 2021 


EDMONTON -- Alberta’s chief medical officer of health is apologizing for COVID-19 data and modelling not being available and said her team remains committed to ensuring it is publicly available.

In a town hall with doctors in Alberta Wednesday evening, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the modelling data to show what is driving the province’s pandemic response is not ready.

According to Hinshaw, the delay in releasing the modelling is due to Alberta’s shift in pandemic response plans.


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Originally, the United Conservative Party-led government was planning on lifting testing, isolation, and mandatory masking rules for transit, taxis, and ride shares in August.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s top doctor, previously said the decision to drop the pandemic response measures was made after data on age-specific outcomes related to COVID-19, vaccine effectiveness and modelling on the transmissibility of the Delta variant and related health outcomes were reviewed by her team.

Last Friday, Hinshaw announced that the government was delaying the decision to eliminate testing, isolating, and masking measures until Sept. 27 due to rising hospitalizations that she said exceeded projections by more than 60 per cent.

Additionally, Hinshaw cited growing evidence about the Delta variant’s effect on children led the province to back down from relaxing COVID-19 public health measures until at least the end of September.

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On Wednesday, Hinshaw said she understood the keen interest in the modelling but offered no timeline for when the public report would be ready.

“The team worked incredibly hard to try to pull those pieces together and I think that the challenge is that it's not just about kind of releasing a list of references,” Hinshaw told her colleagues Wednesday evening at the town hall.

“What the team's been trying to do is to put together a narrative that articulates the considerations and that evidence that can be put out publicly."

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The chief medical officer of health apologized and said she “own(s)” responsibility for not having the data prepared in time.

“I promised a timeline that ended up not being realistic based on the other work that was necessary for the team to do,” Hinshaw said. “I can assure you my team is working flat out and has been for a very long time and they're doing their best to get these things packaged together.”

In addition to the medical community, the official opposition in Alberta, Edmonton’s Mayor Don Iveson and several city councillors have called on the province to release the pandemic modelling.

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“In the interests of being able to release the package without releasing things in piecemeal, we want to be able to kind of put together in a comprehensive overview. So, I'm sorry it's not available,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is not something I can do by myself and it's also not something we can do without moving through all of the processes that are necessary in government.”

Hinshaw said she was committed to ensuring the data is released publically and that the medical community and Albertans get to look at it.

“The information is not secretive information,” she said. “The work that’s required isn’t just that list of articles. It’s trying to put it together into a narrative mode that helps explain not just to you as my peers, but to all Albertans, that list of considerations that was taken into account.”



Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw updates media

 on the Covid-19 situation on Friday March 20, 2020 (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson )

Alberta UCP leaders mum as COVID-19 fourth wave surges, 749 new cases today

Despite the continued rise in cases and hospitalizations, neither Dr. Deena Hinshaw nor Premier Jason Kenney took to the podium this week to address the upswing

Author of the article: Jason Herring
Publishing date: Aug 20, 2021 

A masked pedestrian is seen walking along Stephen Ave. SW. Thursday, August 19, 2021. Brendan Miller/Postmedia Brendan Miller/Postmedia
Article content

The fourth wave of COVID-19 in Alberta continued to surge Friday, with the province reporting another 749 new cases of the virus.

It’s the second-largest daily case count of this most recent wave, topped only by Thursday’s 817 new infections. The new cases come from about 9,000 tests, representing an 8.5 per cent positivity rate.

Despite the continued rise in cases and hospitalizations, neither chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw nor Premier Jason Kenney took to the podium this week to address the upswing.

Hinshaw last spoke publicly Aug. 13, when she walked back the province’s plans to lift testing, tracing and isolation containment measures against COVID-19. Meanwhile, Kenney’s last public appearance was Aug. 9, when he spoke at a news conference marking an expansion to Edmonton’s Labatt Breweries facility.

The premier’s office said Kenney is currently taking a two-week vacation but continues some work while away from the office.

“Many Albertans are taking holidays this summer, especially as society returns to normal following widespread vaccinations. This includes the premier, who is taking two weeks of holidays in August at the end of summer,” said Jerrica Goodwin, Kenney’s press secretary.

“While the premier is on holidays, he is, of course, still able to fully communicate with his cabinet and senior officials as required. In fact, he has participated in numerous briefings despite being ‘on holidays.'”

Goodwin added Hinshaw and Alberta Health officials also continue their work. An Alberta Health spokesperson said Friday there are currently no scheduled media availabilities for Hinshaw, who has stepped back from the spotlight over the past two months.

The NDP Opposition called Friday for Kenney or another senior government official to return to the lectern and field questions about the province’s pandemic handling.

“It is undeniable at this point that Alberta is entering a fourth wave of COVID-19, and this government’s response will determine how large and severe this wave is going to be,” said NDP health critic David Shepherd.

“I don’t begrudge anyone their vacation. I took some time off myself this summer. I think the last 18 months have been gruelling for everybody and I certainly can respect the premier has a lot of work and a lot of stress.

“If the premier is on vacation himself now, then let’s hear from another member of the UCP government because Albertans deserve to hear from them.”

As case counts increase amid the second wave, driven by the ultra-contagious Delta variant, hospitalizations are also spiking.

There are now 221 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, up from 198 the previous day — a 12 per cent jump. Among those patients, 48 are in intensive-care units.

Rates of hospital admissions due to the novel coronavirus are on the rise, only one month after Kenney celebrated hospitalization numbers dropping below 100 for the first time since October.

When asked in mid-June if his government had a contingency plan if hospitalizations rise alongside Alberta’s reopening, Kenney said, “We just don’t see that scenario.” He said he expected an increase in cases, but that vaccine rates would keep hospitalizations down.

Since July 1, the day Alberta lifted nearly all public-health restrictions, the province has reported 42 deaths from the virus. The rate of deaths from COVID-19 has slowed drastically since the devastating second and third waves but is now slowly increasing.

Staff prepare vaccine at the pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Village Square Leisure Centre in northeast Calgary on Sunday, June 6, 2021. 

PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

Since the start of 2021, 86 per cent of all deaths attributed to the virus in Alberta were in people either not immunized against COVID-19 or diagnosed within two weeks of getting their first shot.

The demographics of those dying from COVID-19 are trending lower, but young Albertans still aren’t facing significant mortality from the virus.

Of the 42 Albertans to die from COVID-19 since July 1, 27 per cent were 80 or above, a shift from the pandemic as a whole, where this age group comprises nearly 60 per cent of all virus deaths during the pandemic.

Since July 1, COVID-19 deaths are most common among those in their 60s. In the time span, only one person younger than 50 died of the virus in Alberta; a person in their 30s.

The toll from the pandemic in Alberta now sits at 2,343, after one additional death was reported Friday.

jherring@postmedia.com

Twitter: @jasonfherring

Henri upgraded to hurricane as it threatens US coast

Issued on: 21/08/2021 -

In this handout satellite image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory taken at 11:45 am US Eastern Time (15:45 UT) on Friday, August 20, 2021, Henri is seen moving toward the northeast US Coast - NASA Earth Observatory/AFP/File

New York (AFP)

A swath of the US East Coast, including New York City, was under alert Saturday, as storm Henri was upgraded to what could be the first hurricane in 30 years to hit New England.

Forecasters warned of violent winds, the risk of flash floods and surging seas as the storm churned in the Atlantic, packing maximum sustained winds near 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour.

"Although some weakening is expected prior to landfall on Sunday, Henri is forecast to be at or near hurricane strength when it reaches the coasts of Long Island and southern New England," the US National Hurricane Center said in its latest bulletin.

Henri is expected to produce three to six inches of rain (7.5 to 15 centimeters) across the region, with isolated maximum totals near 10 inches, the NHC warned.

The heavy rainfall "may result in considerable flash, urban, and small stream flooding," it added.

Officials in New England -- which includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont -- have warned people to get ready.

"All residents are advised to begin storm preparations today, and to pay close attention to local weather," the office of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said Friday.

His state, which will close parks and beaches from Saturday to Monday, was bracing for the high winds to knock out electricity for up to 300,000 locals, the governor's office said.

If Henri stays on its current course and maintains strength, it would be the first hurricane to directly hit New England in 30 years.

"The last hurricane to make landfall onto New England was Hurricane Bob in 1991," Dennis Feltgen, an NHC spokesman, told AFP. That storm killed at least 17 people.

It has been almost a decade since such severe weather was expected in part of the region.

"The last time we had hurricane watches issued for the area was for Hurricane Irene, back in late August of 2011," tweeted the National Weather Service in New York City.

New York beaches were ordered closed for swimming Sunday and Monday as officials warned of high winds and possible storm surges, as well as flash flooding on roads.

The last hurricane to make landfall in Long Island, home to the plush Hamptons villages where wealthy New Yorkers retreat to in summer, was Gloria in 1985.

The warnings have reignited memories of Hurricane Sandy, a more powerful storm that knocked out power for much of Manhattan and flooded subways in 2012.

© 2021 AFP

Update: Tropical Storm Henri is now a Category 1 hurricane, expected to make landfall on Long Island


By Karen Graham


Published August 21, 2021

Strengthening is forecast through tonight, and Henri is expected to become a hurricane later today and be at or near hurricane strength when it makes landfall in Long Island or southern New England. Source - National Hurricane Center

Hurricane warnings and watches are up across the Northeast affecting millions of people for what is expected to be the first hurricane to directly strike Long Island or New England in several decades.

In an update from the NHC at 11:00 a.m., Henri is now a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph.

At the 8:00 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Henri was swirling around 200 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and moving toward the north-northeast near 12 mph (19 kph).

Maximum sustained winds are near 70 mph (110 kph), with higher gusts. Strengthening is expected through tonight and Tropical Storm Henri is expected to become a hurricane later today and be at or near hurricane strength when it makes landfall Sunday in Long Island or southern New England.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward from the center up to 115 miles (185 kilometers), and it is anticipated the storm will veer northward to north-northeastward on Saturday with a turn to the north-northwest overnight.

Hurricane Warnings are up for New Haven, Connecticut to the west of Watch Hill, Rhode Island, the South Shore of Long Island from Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point, and the North Shore of Long Island from Port Jefferson Harbor to Montauk Point.

The Hurricane Watch area includes Block Island and Watch Hill, Rhode Island to Westport, Massachusetts.

National Hurricane Center graphic

Long Island has not had a hurricane landfall since Gloria in 1985. The last time a hurricane made landfall in New England was Hurricane Bob in 1991. New York has not had a direct hit from a major hurricane season storm since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Storm surges will be a major concern. Surges between 3 and 5 feet are possible Sunday in areas including parts of Long Island to Chatham, Massachusetts, the hurricane center said. The surges will be accompanied by large, dangerous waves.

People living in areas under storm surge warnings “should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions,” the NHC says.

The storm is projected to produce rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches with isolated maximum totals of nearly 10 inches over parts of Long Island, New England, southeast New York, and northern New Jersey from Sunday into Monday.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker urged people to avoid unnecessary travel and to delay weekend getaways to Cape Cod. The governor activated the Massachusetts National Guard on Friday in preparation for rescues, debris clearing, and other support.

“For those that have already traveled to the Cape or Islands for the weekend, they are advised to consider leaving on Saturday or extend their travel plans through early next week,” the governor’s office said in a news release.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/northeast-braces-for-tropical-storm-henri-expected-to-make-landfall-as-a-hurricane/article#ixzz74E8NkB2s

HAITI UPDATE

Workens Alexandre orthopedic surgeon released !
Kidnapped this Wednesday August 18, 2021, https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34534-haiti-flash-kidnapping-of-one-of-the-rare-orthopedic-surgeons-in-haiti.html Orthopedist Workens Alexandre was released by his captors on Friday evening, according to his colleagues. We do not know under what condition.

The West is hoarding the vaccine at its own peril

By withholding vaccines from developing nations, the West is creating fertile ground for the virus to mutate more

By CHARLOTTE KILPATRICK
PUBLISHED AUGUST 21, 2021 

Box of vaccine vials (Getty images/Iryna Veklich)

This week, US health officials recommended offering booster shots to all Americans who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. As of September 20th, Americans will be urged to get a third vaccine eight months after their second, with priority given to health care workers and the vulnerable.

On its surface, this seems like good news and sound medical advice. Studies have shown that antibody levels from the vaccines begin to wane after a few months, and headlines tell of crowded hospitals in areas of low vaccination rates. Beyond that, many of those who have had their shots have become increasingly frustrated at the unvaccinated for prolonging the pandemic. Under these circumstances, booster shots provide a feeling of security in an insecure world.

But while the frustration with the unvaccinated and fear for one's safety are understandable, administering booster shots to every American adult will deepen what global health officials are referring to as the rising "vaccine apartheid" between rich and poor countries. It is predicted that by the end of 2021 rich countries will have an estimated one billion unused doses while the 50 least developed countries in the world, home to 20% of the global population, have so far received just 2% of all vaccines. The inequality in vaccine distribution is not just a moral failure on the part of Western nations – it is also bad health policy that risks prolonging the pandemic by giving the virus fertile ground to spread and mutate.

One of the most dangerous variants in the pandemic so far is the delta mutation which was first identified in India in December of 2020. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), delta is twice as contagious as previous strains of the virus, and early data suggests that it causes more severe symptoms in unvaccinated people. Data from Reuters shows it took over a year for the world to record its first 100 million cases of COVID-19; but with the rise of the delta variant, it only took six months to record another 100 million.

As bad as delta is in the US, mortality rates are skyrocketing in other parts of the world with low vaccination rates. In the first two weeks of August, Southeast Asia recorded nearly twice as many deaths as North America. On the week ending August 1st, the World Health Organization announced Africa recorded its highest official death toll from COVID-19 with cases rising 20% in a single week. It would be impossible to get an accurate figure of the official death toll because the continent has very limited testing capacity and not every death is recorded. The real numbers are expected to be much higher.

Also — and this point is key — only 4% of those living in Africa have received any vaccines at all. Nigeria, a country with high population density, has fully vaccinated just 0.65% of its population. For comparison, the US has fully vaccinated 70% of its adult population and the UK 76% of those 16 and older. At current rates, people in developing countries will have to wait until 2023 before they can get vaccinated.

The reason the disparity exists between rich and poor countries is because a handful of rich nations gobbled up all the doses of the vaccines through advanced purchasing agreements (APAs). In May, Pfizer announced it had reached an agreement with the European Union to supply 1.8 billion doses on top of the 600 million doses that had already been procured in earlier agreements. On July 23rd, the Biden administration announced it bought an additional 200 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine on top of the 300 million already secured from the company. Between potential and current negotiations the US has procured 8 vaccines per American citizen, and the EU almost 10 vaccines per person.

Drug companies are adamant that they have done all they can to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines. The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, said in an open letter to his colleagues that equal access has been the company's "North Star since day one", and that in the early days of the pandemic the company reached out to all countries with vaccine contracts, but for some reason only the rich ones took them up on their offer. It was later revealed that the pharma giant had demanded that some Latin American countries put up sovereign assets such as embassies and military bases as a guarantee against the cost of any future legal challenges.

If the global community wants to reduce the risk of mutations it will have to vaccinate more people in all corners of the world. This would create a wider shield against the virus and prevent the risk of more mutations that could be potentially vaccine resistant. The poorest countries in the world receive most of their doses through the COVAX scheme, which was set up last year as a means for rich countries to donate vaccines and money to poor ones. The initial goal was to supply two billion doses by the end of 2021, and an additional 1.8 billion by early 2022. As of writing, UNICEF reports COVAX has only shipped 209 million doses to 138 countries. To put that number into perspective, that is enough doses to fully vaccinate only half the population of Nigeria.
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An obvious way that the US and other developed countries can help reduce the risk of another mutation is by donating more vaccines instead of inoculating its populations with a third round of doses. Rich countries can also step up to the plate by forcing pharma companies to share their patents and trade secrets so that other countries can manufacture vaccines for themselves instead of relying on hand out donations from COVAX. In October of last year, India and South Africa proposed an intellectual property waiver at the World Trade Organization for all COVID vaccines and therapies. In May, Joe Biden announced his support of the waiver (only for vaccines). The proposal has been held back in committee meetings and no decision is expected until the fall. Even if the waiver is approved it will not be enough on its own to increase global supply of doses unless pharma companies are compelled to give up the trade secrets to the vaccines.

Scientists discover a 'break' in one of Milky Way's arms

NASA says it's "like a splinter poking out from a plank of wood."


Amanda Kooser
Aug. 20, 2021 


This illustration shows what we think the Milky Way looks like,

 with two large spiral arms.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astronomers have done impressive work figuring out what our home Milky Way galaxy looks like. We know it's a spiral galaxy with two major arms. A new study reveals one of the galaxy's minor arms has a "break" in it, a set of stars and gas clouds that are sticking out.

NASA described the break on Tuesday as being like a splinter sticking out from wood. "Stretching some 3,000 light-years, this is the first major structure identified with an orientation so dramatically different than the arm's," the space agency said in a press release

The structure that's sticking out includes young stars and a group of nebulae, including the Lagoon Nebula and the Eagle Nebula, home to Hubble's famous Pillars of Creation image. Instead of holding tight to the spiral of the galaxy's Sagittarius Arm, the structure protrudes at a notable angle.
Stars and star-forming gas clouds make up the "break" that's sticking out of the

 Milky Way's Sagittarius Arm. The star shapes represent star-forming regions.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Caltech astrophysicist Michael Kuhn is the lead author of the study, published last month in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The research team used data from NASA's now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory to locate newborn stars and measure distances to them to create a 3D look at the arm segment.

"When we put the Gaia and Spitzer data together and finally see this detailed, three-dimensional map, we can see that there's quite a bit of complexity in this region that just hasn't been apparent before," said Kuhn. Scientists have spotted similar structures in spiral galaxies seen by our telescopes. These structures have been called spurs or feathers.

NASA says goodbye to Spitzer: See the telescope's most astounding images See all photos

+18 More

"The stars in the newly discovered structure likely formed around the same time, in the same general area, and were uniquely influenced by the forces acting within the galaxy, including gravity and shear due to the galaxy's rotation," said NASA.

The Milky Way is our home (Earth resides in the small Orion arm), and it will continue to be a challenge to work out the details of its structure. As NASA said, it's like standing in the middle of Times Square and trying to draw a map of the entire island of Manhattan.

The "splinter" find gives scientists a fresh perspective on the galaxy. It may have distinctive spiral arms, but not every star and nebula is coloring within the lines.

First published on Aug. 17, 2021 at 1:18 p.m. PT.

Efficient buildings could save thousands of lives in US every year.

A new study lays out two building efficiency improvement scenarios alongside estimates for how many premature deaths in the U.S. would be prevented in each case

Peer-Reviewed Publication

YALE UNIVERSITY

Buildings in the U.S. are responsible for 40% of the country’s total energy consumption. By improving the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings, the emissions generated from heating and cooling them could be reduced – preventing thousands of premature deaths every year.
 
A new paper, published in Science Advances, authored by Yale School of the Environment Economics Professor Kenneth Gillingham and colleagues at Yale’s SEARCH Center and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, lays out two building efficiency improvement scenarios alongside estimates for how many premature deaths in the U.S. would be prevented in each case. 
 
The burning of fossil fuels, in addition to greenhouse gasses, releases large amounts of harmful airborne particulate matter called PM2.5 (particles with diameters of less than 2.5 micrometers), which can cause heart and lung disease and aggravate conditions like asthma. The reduction in premature deaths is primarily due to the reduction in PM2.5. 
 
The “optimistic” scenario envisions a 50% increase in appliance efficiency (everything from refrigerators to boilers) and a 60 to 90% increase in the efficiency of buildings’ outer shells by 2050.  The researchers estimate that up to 5,100 yearly premature deaths would be prevented if those conditions were met. The “intermediate” scenario – still “a big step up” from what is being undertaken today, says Gillingham – could still save up to an estimated 2,900 lives every year.
 
These estimates of lives saved, however, are focused on changes in outdoor air pollution. 
 
“It is important to also consider the impacts on indoor air quality that may accompany changes in building ventilation,” says study co-author Drew Gentner, associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering and the environment at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science. 
 
The potential drawback of the increased energy efficiency of buildings, says Gillingham, is that when buildings are more tightly sealed to prevent leakage of heated or cooled air, the total amount of circulation between indoor and outdoor air also decreases.
 
“While tighter buildings can partially isolate you from outdoor pollution, it requires greater attention to indoor pollutant emissions,” Gentner says.
 
For example, inside a home, emissions from cooking or appliances can impact indoor air quality. 
 
“If you close the building shell and don't accompany it with recirculation and filtration upgrades, then you can actually face some health impacts,” Gillingham says. 
 
But even without additional indoor air filtration upgrades, the researchers found that improved building efficiency would still save about 3,600 per year under the “optimistic” scenario, and 1,800 under the “intermediate” scenario.
 
The researchers also note that some outdoor air pollution factors – like ozone and wildfire smoke – would be reduced indoors if buildings were made more efficient and there was less circulation between outdoor and indoor air. While average outdoor PM2.5 levels have been continually decreasing over time in the U.S., wildfires can sometimes drastically increase outdoor air pollution. And as recent years have shown, wildfire smoke can spread across large swaths of the country, causing harmful levels of air quality from coast to coast.

“These results, including effects on outdoor and indoor air pollutants, are quite interesting because no one's modeled both before. People have examined similar questions narrowly in small regions, but no one's done it broadly over the entire country,” says Gillingham.
 
Another factor that Gillingham and his colleagues modeled was the possible effect of a carbon tax. They found that a carbon tax, combined with building efficiency improvements, would save even more lives.
 
The study helps make clear to people, Gillingham says, that forgoing opportunities to reduce emissions can truly harm people’s health.

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abg0947 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The climate and health benefits from intensive building energy efficiency improvements

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Aug-2021

Dispelling false claims of cannibalistic caribs—again

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: GIOVAS AT THE HISTORIC RUINS IN THE CARIBBEAN. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPHED BY LAURA TERMES.

SFU archaeologist Christina Giovas and colleagues are formally denouncing what they call unsubstantiated and harmful claims of cannibalistic Caribs migrating to the Caribbean, in a paper published today in Nature’s Scientific Reports.

The story of Christopher Columbus and the colonization of Indigenous Peoples is a part of human history that is often told and retold with contradicting or false claims. According to the researchers, a paper published earlier in Scientific Reports (January 2020) is an example of these falsehoods. 

The 2020 paper, which concluded Indigenous cannibals migrated into the Caribbean circa AD 800, was met with widespread concern from archaeologists, anthropologists and historians. 

The problematic nature of the paper led the group of scholars to author a formal response, or rejoinder—published in the very same online, peer-reviewed journal.

Giovas and nine colleagues joined forces to challenge the paper’s findings, including Florida State University’s Tom Leppard, and University of Oregon’s Scott Fitzpatrick, a professor and associate director of research at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. 

Fitzpatrick says they were “disconcerted about the revitalization of the cannibalistic narrative, which is disingenuous and hurtful to Indigenous groups.”

The “cannibalistic narrative” is one that scholars have had to actively work to debunk, seemingly putting it to rest as the theory held no merit. “This dangerous trope was initially used to provide the moral justification Spanish colonizers sought to enslave Indigenous islanders and seize their land," says Giovas. The original paper brings the controversial discussion back to the forefront with what the group of scholars saw as flawed methods and data and a faulty conclusion. 

"The idea that ancient Caribbeans were cannibals still persists in popular imagination, but there has never been any scientific evidence showing they practiced cannibalism, despite the fact that we have really good archaeological techniques to detect this,” says Giovas. 

While rigorous give-and-take is not uncommon in the academic world, scholars rarely take the opportunity to publish a rejoinder to refute academic work. In this case, the researchers felt the consequences of the misinformation were too severe to ignore. Giovas explains that "how we reconstruct the past has real world implications in the present. We look to history to inform policy and decision-making today, so our understanding of history should ideally be backed by good science and multiple lines of evidence." 

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To view the rejoinder, visit http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-95558-7
 

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-021-95558-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Craniofacial morphology does not support a pre-contact Carib “invasion” of the northern Caribbean

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Aug-2021