Social media influencer charged with scheme to suppress 2016 U.S. election



Prosecutors say at least 4,900 people tried to text their vote to a number shared by Twitter accounts associated with conspirators. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors have charged a far-right social media influencer of conspiring with others to spread disinformation online during the 2016 presidential election with the intention to prevent people from voting.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Justice Department said Douglass Mackey, 31, of West Palm Beach, Fla., was charged in the Eastern District of New York, accused of conspiring under the Twitter name Ricky Vaughn with others starting in September 2016 until the Nov. 8 election of that year to deprive people of their ballots through encouraging them online to vote via text message or social media, two illegal voting methods, for an unnamed presidential candidate.

"The defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one of the most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution: the right to vote," said Nicholas L. McQuaid, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

The Justice Department said in 2016 Mackey had some 58,000 followers on Twitter and was ranked by the MIT Media lab as the 107th most important influencer of the 2016 election.

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The prosecutors accuse Mackey, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, of operating at least three Twitter accounts to spread disinformation. In one tweet on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey is accused of publishing an image of a Black woman standing with a sign that read "African Americans for [unnamed candidate]," and it included a number for which one was encouraged to text as a form of voting for the indicated presidential candidate.

Prosecutors said at least 4,900 people attempted to text their vote to the number shared by the Twitter accounts associated with Mackey and his co-conspirators.

"What Mackey allegedly did to interfere with this process -- by soliciting voters to cast their ballots via text -- amounted to nothing short of vote theft," William F. Sweeney, Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York Field Office, said. "It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the public's trust in our election processes. He may have been a powerful social media influencer at the time, but a quick Internet search of his name today will reveal an entirely different story."

RAND: U.S. brand-name drug prices nearly 3 times higher than other countries



Drug prices in the United States are up to three times higher than those of other nation, a new study has found. Photo by Thomas Breher/Pixabay

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Brand-name prescription drug prices in the United States are nearly three times higher than those in 32 other high-income countries, according to a report released Thursday by the RAND Corporation.

The cost differences include prices for both brand-name and generic drugs, the researchers said.

Branded prescription drugs alone are priced 3.4-times higher in the United States than in other countries, the data showed.

Prices for unbranded generic drugs -- which account for 84% of drugs sold nationally, but only 12% of spending -- are slightly lower in the United States than in most other nations.

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"Brand-name drugs are the primary driver of the higher prescription drug prices in the U.S.," report co-author Andrew Mulcahy said in a press release.

"We found consistently high U.S. brand-name prices regardless of our methodological decisions," said Mulcahy, a senior health policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

The new RAND report is based on 2018 data and compares U.S. drug prices to those in other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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Mulcahy and his colleagues used manufacturer prices for drugs because net prices, or the charges ultimately paid for drugs after negotiated rebates and other discounts are applied, are not available.

Even after adjusting prices downward based on an approximation to account for these discounts, which are negotiated between insurance companies, pharmacies and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, charges nationally for brand-name drugs remained substantially higher than those in other countries.

Among the G7 nations, Britain, France and Italy generally have the lowest prescription drug prices, while Canada, Germany and Japan tend to have higher prices, the data showed.

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Meanwhile, some of the highest-priced drugs in the United States are brand-name drugs that can cost thousands of dollars per dose and are used to treat life-threatening illness such as hepatitis C or cancer, the researchers said.

That's why the United States accounted for 58% of the $795 billion spent on prescription drugs among the OECD nations in 2018, while making up just 24% of the drugs used, they said.

Drug spending nationally increased by 76% between 2000 and 2017, and the costs are expected to increase faster than other areas of healthcare over the next decade as new, expensive specialty drugs are approved, according to the researchers.

"Many of the most-expensive medications are the biologic treatments that we often see advertised on television," Mulcahy said.

"The hope is that competition from biosimilars will drive down prices and spending for biologics, but biosimilars are available for only a handful of biologics in the United States," he said.


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Experts: Slow vaccine rollout shows U.S. public health 'disinvestment'



"Slow" rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines in the United States shows the need for investment in public health infrastructure, experts say. File photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo


Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Rollout of the available COVID-19 vaccines in the United States continues to be slow, due in part to "20 years of disinvestment in the country's public health infrastructure," experts said Thursday.

As a result, entire segments of the population have been excluded from vaccination, particularly communities of color, as states scramble to develop their own vaccine rollout plans, public health expert Dr. Chris Beyrer said.

"Although we have two efficacious vaccines due to our very robust biomedical research infrastructure in the United States, our system to deliver these vaccines to the public is nowhere near as advanced," said Beyrer, a professor of public health and human rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"There is more demand than there is vaccine, and it looks like we are going to be in that phase for many months ... even as we are still seeing high rates of community transmission," he said Thursday during a webinar hosted by the school.

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This "period of vaccine scarcity" could persist until August, although the problem is worse in some parts of the country than others, he said.

The Biden administration is attempting to implement a national vaccine distribution plan -- the Trump administration opted to leave it to the states to figure out -- with the goal of inoculating 100 million people in 100 days.

Through Thursday afternoon, nearly 26.2 million people across the country have received at least one dose of a vaccine against the new coronavirus, but 48.4 million shots have been distributed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Both vaccines approved for use in the United States, from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, require two doses for maximum effectiveness.

That two-dose requirement, and the fact that both vaccines need to be stored at extremely cold temperatures, has made distribution particularly challenging.

Anecdotal reports have surfaced of vaccine doses being wasted, with supplies being discarded when people fail to show up for their scheduled appointment, Beyrer said.

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Once removed from cold storage and thawed, both vaccines have to be used fairly quickly or they lose effectiveness.

Guidelines regarding who to prioritize for COVID-19 vaccination were "perhaps too restrictive at the beginning," which may have led to facilities "throwing away doses instead of immunizing people," Beyrer said.

These issues could resolve as single-dose vaccines that don't have the same rigorous storage requirements become available later this year, he said.

Vaccination priorities have largely ignored communities of color, which have had disproportionately higher infection rates since the start of the pandemic, said Monica Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

As part of efforts to ensure an "equitable" rollout of the vaccines, health agencies need to be given the funding and support to partner with community groups across the country to educate the public on vaccine safety, she said.

In particular, these efforts need to be aimed at addressing the high levels of "vaccine hesitancy" among Black Americans, who remain "skeptical toward [health] institutions" for historical reasons, Schoch-Spana said.

"We are still in an extraordinarily dangerous time for public health, and we can't be in a situation where whole segments of the population aren't vaccinated -- "not if we hope to end the pandemic," Beyrer said.


upi.com/7071668

USA

Study: Racist neighborhood 'redlining' has led to fewer green spaces today


Researchers say that the racist legacy of "redlining," which was outlawed in the 1960s, has left many urban neighborhoods with fewer green spaces -- a threat to the health of people who live in them. 

Photo by Free-Photos/Pixabay

A racist mortgage appraisal practice used in the United States decades ago has resulted in less green space in some urban neighborhoods today, researchers say.

Those so-called "redlined" neighborhoods have higher rates of air and noise pollution, racial segregation and poverty -- all of which can contribute to poorer health.

In the 1930s, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, or HOLC, gave neighborhoods nationwide risk grades that were based on racial makeup and other factors.

"Hazardous" areas -- often those whose residents included people of color -- were outlined in red on HOLC maps.

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In the decades since, these neighborhoods have seen less private and public investment and have remained segregated.

"Though redlining is now outlawed, its effects on urban neighborhoods persist in many ways, including by depriving residents of green space, which is known to promote health and buffer stress," said study first author Anthony Nardone, a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco.

Senior author Joan Casey called for action to remedy the problem.

RELATED 'Redlined' neighborhoods have higher rates of asthma than others

"Future policies should, with the input of local leaders, strive to expand availability of green space, a health-promoting amenity, in communities of color," she said. Casey is an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

For the study, the researchers examined the relationship between HOLC risk grades and 2010 satellite images of green space in 72 urban areas.

The analysis doesn't provide an indication of green space quality. For example, green space in hot, dry regions may not be reasonable substitutes for closeness to natural environments and their health-related benefits.
RELATED Louisville, Ky., mayor declares racism a public health crisis



Nor did the researchers distinguish between public and private green space or untended forest and manicured parks.

In some areas, the presence of green space in the 1930s may have reduced a neighborhood's chances of being redlined, the study authors noted in a Columbia University news release.

The practice was banned in 1968, but racist banking and real estate practices have persisted, according to the study authors.

They said these are reflected in the fallout of the subprime mortgage crisis, in which those communities were disproportionately targeted with foreclosures and predatory loans by banks.

The findings were published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.More information

The National Recreation and Park Association has more on the health benefits of green space.




Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Outlook projects 10,000 U.S. 

retail stores will close in 2021



A furniture store is seen closed and boarded up on Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 12, 2020, as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo


Jan. 28 (UPI) -- There could be more than 10,000 retail stores that close in the United States this year, directly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, an industry analytics group said in an outlook on Thursday.In its report, Coresight Research estimates 10,000 closures over the course of 2021.

Coresight predicted last summer that closures in the United States could reach 25,000 by the end of 2020, but noted fewer than 9,000 by year's end. It reported about 9,800 closures in 2019.

Coresight noted Thursday that the COVID-19 vaccine should help a bit.

"In 2021, the rollout of [coronavirus] vaccination programs should result in a partial recovery in store-based sales," CEO Deborah Weinswig said. "However, these programs may take many months to reach a wide base of consumers."

The firm said apparel stores were most affected by closures in 2020, accounting for 36% of the total. It said the trend will likely continue in 2021.

"Although retail was significantly impacted in 2008 and 2009 [during the financial crisis], the repercussions in terms of retail bankruptcies peaked in 2010," Weinswig added. "We could see history repeat itself in 2021, resulting in greater numbers of store closures this year than we saw in 2020."

The analysis says discount stores, meanwhile, are expected to open about 4,000 stores in 2021

U.S. economy grew 4% in Q4, but 2020 saw biggest decline since WWII

"Something like 9 million people remain unemployed as a consequence of the pandemic. 

That's as many people lost their jobs at the peak of the global financial crisis."

The New York Stock Exchange is seen Wednesday on Wall Street in New York City. 

Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. economy declined by nearly 4% for all of 2020, according to government figures on Thursday -- the worst single-year performance since the end of World War II.

The Commerce Department noted the figures in its fourth-quarter report, which also summarized economic performance for the year.

According to the data, gross domestic product declined by 3.5% over 2020, the worst yearly decline since at least 1945 when the government began keeping records.

By comparison, the U.S. economy grew by 2.2% in 2019.

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The figures for the final quarter show how the domestic economy performed throughout all of 2020 -- a 5% decline in the first quarter, a record 31.4% dive in the second and a 33.4% rebound in the third. 

FOR A 3% DECLINE IN REAL USD

"The increase in fourth quarter GDP reflected both the continued economic recovery from the sharp declines earlier in the year and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including new restrictions and closures that took effect in some areas of the United States," the department said in the report.

Consumer prices increased by 1.7% in the fourth quarter and disposable personal income improved somewhat with a decrease of 9.5%. In the third quarter, that decline was over 16%.

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The report noted other areas of growth, including housing prices.

The Federal Reserve said at the end of its policy meeting Wednesday that economic recovery is tied to the success of coronavirus vaccinations.

"The economic dislocation has abandoned many lives and created great uncertainty about the future," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said.

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"Something like 9 million people remain unemployed as a consequence of the pandemic. That's as many people lost their jobs at the peak of the global financial crisis."

RELATED IMF outlook projects better recovery for 2021, positive growth for 2022

CALIFORNIA DISASTER PORN
California highway closed after section falls into Pacific

BIG SUR GASH 

A section of California's Highway 1 crumbled and fell into the ocean Thursday due to heavy rain and snow that hammered the region this week. Image via Caltrans Region 5/Twitter

Jan. 30 (UPI) -- A section of Highway 1 in California is closed after part of the road crumbled and fell into the Pacific Ocean this week, according to the state's transportation agency.

Caltrans District 5 announced the washout and road closure on Twitter Thursday and released drone footage of the damage Friday when crews began assessing the damage.

The damage was reported near mile marker 30 near Big Sur, a mountainous region on California's central coast.

Check out this amazing drone video of #Hwy1 washout at Rat Creek about 15 miles south of #BigSur. Our crews are on site securing it, assessing damage & starting clean-up/ repairs. Reminder: the road is OPEN from #Carmel thru town of Big Sur. @bigsurkate @BigSurCC @CHP_Coastal pic.twitter.com/rB193DzXhL- Caltrans District 5 (@CaltransD5) January 29, 2021

California Highway Patrol Officer John Yerace said he was in the area on Thursday afternoon when he saw "this section of roadway, specifically the southbound lane, had fallen off into the ocean."

It is not clear how long it will take to repair the damage and reopen the road.

Northern California was hammered by heavy rain and snow caused by an atmospheric river Thursday.

On Saturday morning the National Weather Service predicted another heavy storm affecting the Coast Range in northern California and southern Oregon that could cause "localized flooding" due to wet soil and damage from recent wildfires.

Scientists keep 'Doomsday Clock' at 100 seconds to midnight

"The hands of the Doomsday Clock remain at 100 seconds to midnight, 

as close to midnight as ever"



The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists kept its "Doomsday Clock" at 100 seconds to midnight, describing the COVID-19 pandemic as a "wakeup call" that governments are unprepared to handle grave threats facing the world. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 27 (UPI) -- The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on Wednesday chose to keep its "Doomsday Clock" at 100 seconds before midnight, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, the threat of nuclear war and climate change.

The Chicago-based group chose to keep the clock -- which symbolically reflects how close the world is to destruction -- at 11:58 p.m., and 20 seconds, saying the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic indicates a lack of the structures necessary to combat other grave threats.

"The hands of the Doomsday Clock remain at 100 seconds to midnight, as close to midnight as ever," said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in a statement. "The lethal and fear-inspiring COVID-19 pandemic serves as a historic 'wake-up call,' a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change."

Since the start of the pandemic, 100.7 million people have been infected and 2.17 million have died worldwide, including 25.57 million cases and 428,015 deaths in the United States, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University.

"Though lethal on a massive scale, this particular pandemic is not an existential threat. Its consequences are grave and will be lasting. But COVID-19 will not obliterate civilization, and we expect the disease will recede eventually," the group said.

The group also warned of the threat of nuclear conflict, particularly between the United States and Russia, calling on the two countries to extend the New START treaty for as long as possible.

"The U.S., Russia and the world's nuclear powers must stop shouting at each other," said former California Gov. Jerry Brown, the group's executive chair. "It's time to eliminate nuclear weapons, not build more of them."

The scientists also expressed the need for the United States to to address the issue of climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement and reducing the use of fossil fuels. U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order last week to re-enter the pact.

"Over the coming decade, fossil fuel use needs to decline precipitously if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided," said Susan Solomon, member of the group's science and security board.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists first began the tradition in 1947 as a way to gauge the world's proximity to nuclear holocaust. In 2007 the group added climate change as a factor in the clock's setting.

The furthest the clock has ever been from midnight was set in 1991, at 11:43, or 17 minutes from "doomsday," after the United States signed the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the Soviet Union dissolved.

Prior to 2020, 2 minutes to midnight had been the closest the clock had ever been set, reaching that point both during the Cold War and following the first U.S. test of a thermonuclear weapon.

 

Dismantling gorilla traps in DRC

The NGO Primate Expertise works to protect gorillas in DRC's Kahuzi-Biega National Park by removing gorilla traps.

My experience with Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine

DW's Sergey Satanovskiy was one of many people who took part in a testing program for the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V. After receiving two shots, he visited his grandmother — and came in contact with coronavirus.


Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is already being rolled out

People in Russia are currently being inoculated against COVID-19, even though stage-three trials of the country's Sputnik V vaccine aren't due to be completed until May.

DW's Sergey Satanovskiy was among the volunteers who agreed to testthe new vaccineand report back in December what it was like to get his first shot and three weeks later his second, the Sputnik V booster. He was then tested for antibodies following the two inoculations. This is his story:

I was actually feeling fine before my antibody test. I had been given the two vaccination doses and hadn't experienced side effects, so on New Year's Eve I decided to visit my 74-year-old grandmother, who happens lives just outside St. Petersburg. I didn't have any symptoms at the time but took a COVID PCR test anyway. The result was negative.

My grandmother moved out of the city and into the country a year ago and has stayed away from St. Petersburg since the outbreak of the virus. She heats her house by turning on her oven and travels once a week to the next town, with 17,000 inhabitants, to do her shopping. But even being 300 kilometers (190 miles) away from the big city didn't mean that she escaped the coronavirus.

She developed a cough on New Year's Day, which continued into the next day. We thought at first that she had caught a cold, because it was so cold outside. We didn't think that she had the coronavirus. On January 3, I went back to St. Petersburg.

That same night my temperature climbed to 37.4 degrees Celsius and I developed a sore throat. My grandmother told me she had similar symptoms.

My symptoms were gone two days later. My grandmother, however, had a fever for three days running and felt pretty weak. She called a doctor and took a COVID PCR test. The results were positive. Although she didn't have to go to the hospital, she did get pretty sick. She had a fever for three weeks, her blood pressure increased and she felt weak and lousy for quite a while.

I, too, took a COVID PCR test and the results were negative.

'
'Lots of antibodies'

Wadim Lynjew, who heads up the lab at the Shostakovich Hospital where I got my two shots, said that the reaction of vaccinated individuals who come in contact with COVID-19 depends on the viral load they're exposed to. If someone who has been vaccinated comes in contact with someone who is only mildly sick, the vaccinated person often doesn't feel anything. But if the vaccinated person is confronted by a high viral load, they could get sick but have a milder case.

That's exactly what happened to me. I was exposed to a lot of the virus when I visited my grandmother but didn't really get sick because of the antibodies in my system. My grandmother had it much worse but is now feeling better, and I'm happy to report that her most recent COVID test was negative.

I was tested for antibodies a few days after returning from St. Petersburg and had the results the next day, which according to Dmitri Denisov, the medical director of the Helix Lab, were good results, especially when compared with others who were vaccinated or had COVID-19.


Sputnik V was already being administered in Russia in mid-December

What seems to be certain is that my antibodies are due to my Sputnik V vaccine. If I had been ill with the virus, I wouldn't have been able to build up so many antibodies, so quickly in the short time leading up to the antibody test.
Does Sputnik V prevent COVID?

According to Denisov, everyone has a different immune response after getting the vaccine. "It depends on numerous factors," he said. "Previous illnesses, recent infections and the kinds of diets people have, not to mention the individual way in which people respond generally."

No one can say for sure whether having the same level of antibodies as I had could offer failproof protection from getting COVID-19. According to Denisov, the jury is still out on the matter, since worldwide vaccinations are just beginning and clinical trials are winding down.

 

Clashes in Paris over proposed new security legislation

Tens of thousands of people in France demonstrated against a proposed security law. In Paris clashes erupted between police and protesters. Part of the bill would ban publication of images of police. Some civil rights groups say it should be scrapped.

 THE SIZE OF THIS MASS GRAVE IS ENORMOUS

Babyn Yar: The Holocaust's biggest massacre

Between 1941 and 1943, Nazi forces shot almost 34,000 Jews in the ravine at Babyn Yar on what was then the edge of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. But where exactly did the victims lose their lives? The precise location of the Holocaust's biggest massacre was unclear for decades.

Ultrasound Blasts 'Jumpstarted' The Brains of 2 People in Coma-Like State

DAVID NIELD
31 JANUARY 2021

Scientists have reported finding some success in using low intensity, focused ultrasound to 'jumpstart' parts of the brains of people in coma-like conditions, reawakening certain functions in patients who had previously been in a "minimally conscious state" (MCS).

The method uses ultrasound stimulation to excite the neurons in the thalamus, a processing hub for the whole brain, and a region that's known to be weaker after a coma. Two 10-minute treatment sessions were given to three MCS patients, with a week between each session.

While one patient showed no response, researchers observed significant improvements in the other two patients. The research builds on similar findings from 2016, involving one patient who was recovering from surgery and a medically induced coma. In the new study, the coma-like states had lasted much longer.

A person in a minimally conscious state may show clear but subtle or inconsistent signs of consciousnesses. These signs, like blinking on command or wakefulness, are generally sustained enough that they aren't seen as reflexive behaviours, and they help to differentiate MCS from comas or vegetative states.

"I consider this new result much more significant because these chronic patients were much less likely to recover spontaneously than the acute patient we treated in 2016 – and any recovery typically occurs slowly over several months and more typically years, not over days and weeks, as we show," says neuroscientist Martin Monti, from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).


"It's very unlikely that our findings are simply due to spontaneous recovery."

One of the patients to respond to the treatment was a 56-year-old man, who had been in a minimally conscious state for more than 14 months, unable to communicate at all. After treatment, he could not only look towards the photographs of relatives when their names were mentioned, he could also drop or grasp a ball on demand. When asked simple questions about his identity, he was able to shake his head 'yes' or 'no'.

The other patient to show signs of progress, a 50-year-old woman, had been in an even deeper MCS for more than two-and-a-half years. After the ultrasound sessions, she was able to understand speech and recognise basic objects, including a pencil and a comb.

Researchers say the technique is safe as it only uses a small amount of energy, and there were no changes to the blood pressure, heart rates, or blood oxygen levels of the patients.

A small device aims ultrasound at the thalamus. (Martin Monti/UCLA)

"This is what we hoped for, but it is stunning to see it with your own eyes," says Monti. "Seeing two of our three patients who had been in a chronic condition improve very significantly within days of the treatment is an extremely promising result."

It's important to emphasise that the research is still in an early and experimental phase. While the 50-year-old woman showed increased signs of awareness months afterwards, the differences from the MCS starting point weren't that significant. And after a few months without treatment, the 56-year-old man had returned to something close to his original coma-like state.

Add in the one patient that didn't respond at all to the treatment, and the researchers remain cautious about how successful ultrasound can be, and how quickly it can be rolled out. Nevertheless, these results are very encouraging – there are definite signs that this kind of treatment could help some patients some of the time.

The treatment can be applied in a device about the size of a saucer, and the researchers are hoping that it can eventually be used in the home on patients who are in long-term minimally conscious or vegetative states.

"Importantly, these behaviours are diagnostic markers of emergence from a disorder of consciousness," says Monti. "For these patients, the smallest step can be very meaningful – for them and their families. To them it means the world."

The research has been published in Brain Stimulation.

New COVID-19 test uses a smartphone microscope to quickly analyze saliva samples

• Download PDF Copy

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jan 29 2021

Researchers at the University of Arizona are developing a COVID-19 testing method that uses a smartphone microscope to analyze saliva samples and deliver results in about 10 minutes.

The UArizona research team, led by biomedical engineering professor Jeong-Yeol Yoon, aims to combine the speed of existing nasal swab antigen tests with the high accuracy of nasal swab PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, tests. The researchers are adapting an inexpensive method that they originally created to detect norovirus - the microbe famous for spreading on cruise ships - using a smartphone microscope.

They plan to use the method in conjunction with a saline swish-gargle test developed by Michael Worobey, head of the UArizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and associate director of the University of Arizona BIO5 Institute.

The team's latest research using water samples - done in collaboration with Kelly A. Reynolds, chair of the Department of Community, Environment and Policy in the UArizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health - is published today in Nature Protocols.

We've outlined it so that other scientists can basically repeat what we did and create a norovirus-detecting device. Our goal is that if you want to adapt it for something else, like we've adapted it for COVID-19, that you have all the ingredients you need to basically make your own device."

Lane Breshears, Biomedical Engineering Doctoral Student

Yoon - a BIO5 Institute member who is also a professor of biosystems engineering, animal and comparative biomedical sciences, and chemistry and biochemistry - is working with a large group of undergraduate and graduate students to develop the smartphone-based COVID-19 detection method.

"I have a couple of friends who had COVID-19 that were super frustrated, because their PCR results were taking six or seven days or they were getting false negatives from rapid antigen tests. But when they got the final PCR tests, they found out they had been sick, like they'd suspected," said Katie Sosnowski, a biomedical engineering doctoral student who works in Yoon's lab. "It's really cool to be working on a detection platform that can get fast results that are also accurate."

Cheaper, simpler detection

Traditional methods for detection of norovirus or other pathogens are often expensive, involve a large suite of laboratory equipment or require scientific expertise. The smartphone-based norovirus test developed at UArizona consists of a smartphone, a simple microscope and a piece of microfluidic paper - a wax-coated paper that guides the liquid sample to flow through specific channels. It is smaller and cheaper than other tests, with the components costing about $45.

The basis of the technology, described in a 2019 paper published in the journal ACS Omega, is relatively simple. Users introduce antibodies with fluorescent beads to a potentially contaminated water sample. If enough particles of the pathogen are present in the sample, several antibodies attach to each pathogen particle. Under a microscope, the pathogen particles show up as little clumps of fluorescent beads, which the user can then count. The process - adding beads to the sample, soaking a piece of paper in the sample, then taking a smartphone photograph of it under a microscope and counting the beads - takes about 10 to 15 minutes. It's so simple that Yoon says a nonscientist could learn how to do it by watching a brief video.

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The version of the technology described in the Nature Protocols paper makes further improvements, such as creating a 3D-printed housing for the microscope attachment and microfluidic paper chip. The paper also introduces a method called adaptive thresholding. Previously, researchers set a fixed value for what quantity of pathogen constituted a danger, which limited precision levels. The new version uses artificial intelligence to set the danger threshold and account for environmental differences, such as the type of smartphone and the quality of the paper.

On-campus impact

The researchers plan to partner with testing facilities at the University of Arizona to fine-tune their method as they adapt it for COVID-19 detection. Pending approval of the university's institutional review board, students who are already being tested on campus through other methods will have the option to provide written consent for their sample to be run through the smartphone-based testing device as well. Ultimately, the researchers envision distributing the device to campus hubs so that the average person - such as a resident assistant in a dorm - could test saliva samples from groups of people.

"Adapting a method designed to detect the norovirus - another highly contagious pathogen - is an outstanding example of our researchers pivoting in the face of the pandemic," said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. "This promising technology could allow us to provide fast, accurate, affordable tests to the campus community frequently and easily. We hope to make it a regular part of our 'Test, Trace, Treat' strategy, and that it will have a broader impact in mitigating the spread of the disease."

Yoon and his team are also working on another idea, based on a 2018 paper they published in Chemistry--A European Journal, which is even simpler but leaves slightly more room for error. It involves the same technology, but instead of a smartphone microscope and specially designed enclosure, users would only need to download a smartphone app and use a microfluidic chip stamped with a QR code.

"Unlike the fluorescent microscope technique, where you get the chip into just the right position, you just take a snapshot of the chip," said biomedical engineering master's student Pat Akarapipad. "No matter the angle or distance the photo is taken from, the smartphone app can use AI and the QR code to account for variances and run calculations accordingly."

The method requires no training, so, if perfected, it could potentially allow students to pick up microfluidic chips from a campus location and test their own samples. The team is also working with other members of the university's COVID-19 testing group, including Deepta Bhattacharya, an associate professor in the Department of Immunobiology.

Source:

University of Arizona College of Engineering

Journal reference:

Chung, S., et al. (2021) Norovirus detection in water samples at the level of single virus copies per microliter using a smartphone-based fluorescence microscope. Nature Protocols. doi.org/10.1038/s41596-020-00460-7.

FAA is reportedly investigating SpaceX over its Starship tests

By Georgina Torbet January 30, 2021 DIGITAL TRENDS

The SN8 Starship prototype explodes as it lands hard following a high-altitude test flight in December 2020.SpaceX

SpaceX’s high-altitude test of its Starship prototype SN8 in December 2020 ended in an explosive fireball, though company CEO Elon Musk seemed happy with the data collected during the test. But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which oversees regulations for rocket launches is concerned about the explosion and other issues, according to reports which say SpaceX is now the subject of an FAA investigation.

As reported by The Verge, the explosion in December is not the FAA’s only concern. The agency is reportedly also concerned about breaches of SpaceX’s test license, and has opened an investigation into the company. The exact details of what SpaceX supposedly did in violation of its license has not yet been made public.

“The FAA will continue to work with SpaceX to evaluate additional information provided by the company as part of its application to modify its launch license,” FAA spokesman Steve Kulm said, as reported by The Verge. “While we recognize the importance of moving quickly to foster growth and innovation in commercial space, the FAA will not compromise its responsibility to protect public safety. We will approve the modification only after we are satisfied that SpaceX has taken the necessary steps to comply with regulatory requirements.”

The issues with the FAA put the brakes on plans for another high-altitude test of the newer SN9 prototype, which had been expected to go ahead this week. The test had to be postponed after the FAA lifted the temporary flight restrictions in the airspace around the test site.

In this context, CEO Elon Musk was critical of the FAA on Twitter, saying its space division has “a fundamentally broken regulatory structure” and that its rules were not reflective of the modern situation of multiple expendable launches being performed regularly.

Now, SpaceX has two prototypes ready to test — both the SN9 and the SN10. Both prototypes have been seen side by side on the SpaceX pad at Boca Chica. Space.com speculates that the next test flight could go ahead next week, from Monday, February 1, as long as the approvals from the FAA are granted in time.

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BUILD BACK BETTER WILL USA JOIN

UK to apply to join free trade pact with nations on other side of world

Liz Truss to seek to join 11-nation trans-Pacific partnership, whose nearest member is 3,000 miles away

COMRADES TO BE

Liz Truss elbow bumps Vietnam’s minister of industry and trade, Tran Tuan Anh, after signing a free trade agreement in Hanoi in December. Photograph: Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images

PA Media
Sat 30 Jan 2021 23.07 GMT


The British government is to formally apply to join a mammoth free-trade pact that includes Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand now that it has left the EU.

Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, will ask to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) when she speaks to ministers in Japan and New Zealand on Monday.


Negotiations are expected to start later this year, Truss’s department said, in announcing the move on the anniversary of the UK’s formal departure from the EU.

Joining the CPTPP will cut tariffs in trading with its members. UK trade with the group last year was worth £111bn, according to the Department for International Trade.

The pact’s 11 members are:


Australia.


Brunei.


Canada.


Chile.


Japan.


Malaysia.


Mexico.


New Zealand.


Peru.


Singapore.


Vietnam.

Boris Johnson said: “One year after our departure from the EU, we are forging new partnerships that will bring enormous economic benefits for the people of Britain.

“Applying to be the first new country to join the CPTPP demonstrates our ambition to do business on the best terms with our friends and partners all over the world and be an enthusiastic champion of global free trade.”

British businesses reacted warmly to the plans, with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) saying the move would help firms “thrive and succeed more than ever”.

But the shadow international trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, said Labour will closely scrutinise any pact and called on the government to consult the public.

“Like any other trade agreement, the advantages of joining the CPTPP will have to be assessed once we see the terms on offer,” she said.

“At present, Liz Truss cannot even guarantee whether we would have the right to veto China’s proposed accession if we join the bloc first.

“More generally, people will rightly ask why we have been through five years of debate in Britain over leaving a trade bloc with our closest neighbours only to rush into joining another one on the other side of the world without any meaningful public consultation at all.”

Truss said joining the pact would “create enormous opportunities for UK businesses that simply weren’t there as part of the EU”.

The Confederation of British Industry president, Lord Bilimoria, said: “Membership of the bloc has the potential to deliver new opportunities for UK business across different sectors.”

Sue Davies – head of consumer protection and food policy at Which? – said ministers must ensure joining CPTPP “will bring clear consumer benefits” and will not dilute standards.

Two new Covid vaccines have less efficacy against South African strain

Early trial data shows Novavax and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have much less efficacy against new variant

The Novavax vaccine had 50% efficacy in mid-stage trials in South Africa, compared with 89.3% in late-stage results from the UK. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

Molly Blackall

Sat 30 Jan 2021 

Early data from two new coronavirus vaccine trials has indicated that they have less efficacy at protecting from the South African variant of coronavirus.

Clinical trial data showed that the vaccines from Novavax and Johnson & Johnson had significantly less efficacy at preventing coronavirus in trial participants in South Africa, where the new variant is widespread, compared with countries where the variant is less common.

Novavax reported that results from mid-stage trials on Thursday showed its vaccine had 50% efficacy overall in preventing Covid-19 among people in South Africa. In late-stage results from the UK, the vaccine had up to 89.3% efficacy

On Friday, Johnson & Johnson said a single shot of its vaccine had 66% efficacy, judging by a large-scale trial which spanned three continents. In the US, which recorded its first cases of the South African variant this week, the vaccine’s efficacy reached 72%, but it was just 57% in South Africa, where the new variants constituted 95% of the coronavirus cases in the trial.

The trial results also raise questions over the efficacy of the vaccines currently in circulation, such as the Pfizer/BioNTech which has been distributed in the UK. While the vaccines showed high efficacy, the trials were largely undertaken before the South African variant had spread widely.

Dr Dan Barouch, a researcher at Harvard University medical school’s Beth Israel Deaconess medical centre in Boston who helped develop the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, said the new variant meant this was a “different pandemic now”.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Pfizer’s chief executive, Albert Bourla, said there was “a high possibility” that the new strains could eventually mean the firm’s vaccine was redundant.

“This is not the case yet … but I think it’s a very high likelihood that one day that will happen,” Bourla said. Pfizer is considering whether its vaccine needs to be altered to protect against the South African variant.

Despite the new variant, experts said that existing vaccines were still valuable in the fight against coronavirus, and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was 89% effective at preventing severe disease in South Africa.

“The end game is to stop death, to stop hospitals from going into crisis and all of these vaccines, even including against the South African variant, seem to do that substantially,” said Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.