A new Columbia University study released this week suggests the U.S. delay in reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic cost the nation tens of thousands of lives.The study, conducted by three Columbia University researchers, and funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, suggests that if control measures designed to control the spread of the coronavirus had begun by  March 1 — two weeks earlier than most measures began — 83% of the nation’s deaths by the virus could have been prevented.The study says even one week earlier would have saved as many as 36,000 lives.The researchers say the most basic of measures, such as social distancing and restricting individual contact in the early stages of the pandemic in the U.S., would have prevented the spread of the disease in “hot spots” such as New York, New Orleans and other major cities.The study’s lead researcher, epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman, told The New York Times that catching the virus in the early “growth” phase is critical in the exponential spread of the disease and in reducing deaths.The researchers’ estimates are based on how restrictive measures began working to slow the spread of the virus once they were implemented on a large scale in mid-March. They modeled how those restrictions could have affected the spread of the virus if they had been applied sooner.The study shows that as states reopen in the coming days and weeks, officials must closely monitor confirmed cases, or outbreaks will occur again and get out of control. 
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Russia continues to pose “serious” and “growing” threats to U.S. interests in space, according to the top military officer for space defense. “They’re real, they’re serious and they’re concerning,” Gen. John Raymond, chief of the newly established U.S. Space Force and head of U.S. Space Command, told reporters Wednesday. “Our advantage has been diminished, and that’s why the establishment of the Space Force in the Aerospace Command is so important — to allow us to move fast with agility of effort, reducing costs to stay ahead of that growing threat,” he added. The realm of space is essential to everyday activities from navigation to banking. Space assets are also critical to military missions from launching missiles to collecting intelligence. Raymond did not elaborate when pressed for specific areas where the U.S. advantage is eroding but touted “significant strides” over recent months to remain the world leader in space.  Raymond credited having the “best partnerships” as a major reason the United States leads in space, confirming that Peru this month became the latest nation to join a U.S.-led network that shares information on space objects.  The data-sharing space situational awareness agreement will give Peru access to satellite tracking data, connecting Peru’s space agency with the military team that tracks space objects for the United States. Raymond warned, however, that as the United States has watched both Russia and China advance in space capabilities, “any progress they make could erode our advantage.” Russia and China have recently placed a greater emphasis on their space capabilities, including developing technology and weapons that could disrupt or destroy satellites.  “Our adversaries in the last several years have weaponized space. They’ve made it a war fighting domain,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Friday.U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, speaks during a news conference on Feb. 29, 2020.In recent weeks, Russia fired an anti-satellite missile, technology that could threaten U.S. orbital assets. It also conducted test maneuvers of two satellites that followed a U.S. spy satellite, a move that the U.S. Space Force said last month “exhibited characteristics of a space weapon.”  Raymond slammed Russia’s “hypocritical” behavior toward space, saying that Moscow is advocating for outer space arms control at the same time it is developing space weapons.  Iran and North Korea have less developed capabilities than Russia and China, but they still pose a threat, according to defense officials. Last month, Iran conducted its first successful launch of a military satellite into space. Raymond reiterated to reporters Wednesday that the satellite was “nothing more than a tumbling webcam” that was unlikely to provide intelligence. 
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Evidence of the formation of a new planet has been collected by scientists working at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.  
 
The discovery is the first of its kind, says lead scientist Anthony Boccaletti, from Observatoire de Paris.  
 
“Thousands of exoplanets have been identified so far, but little is known about how they form,” he said.  
 
An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star, rather than a moon or the sun.  
 
Scientists say they believe the formation occurred 520 light-years away in the Auriga constellation, also known as the charioteer. Its main star, Capella, is the sixth brightest in the night sky.  
 
The planet itself was formed about 2.7817 billion miles away, however, from the star AB Aurigae, according to Science Daily.
 
Planets typically are formed near young stars such as the AB Aurigae in the Auriga constellation. The process of gas and dust cooling and condensing, though, has never before been documented.
 
Key to the research is the presence of a “twist” in the imagery. Scientists say the center spiral in the ball of condensed gas and dust indicates the formation of a new planet.  
 
The twist indicates movement, explained Emmanuel Di Folco, study co-author and an astrophysicist at the Astrophysics Laboratory of Bordeaux in France.
 
“Disturbances in the [disk] in the form of a wave, somewhat like the wake of a boat on a lake,” said Di Folco.  
 
The spiral moves to accommodate the new planet as it orbits the star, creating additional waves.  
 
An abstract of the study published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics states that the twist matches a “planet-driven density wave model,” solidifying their claim. 
 
The study builds upon discoveries made in 2017 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, which hinted at the presence of a new planet, according to Forbes.  
 
After reviewing the research, Boccaletti and Di Falco, in addition to a team of astronomers from France, Taiwan, the U.S. and Belgium, began using the SPHERE telescope to capture imagery from AB Aurigae.  
 
The telescope “has delivered the deepest images ever obtained for AB Aur[igae] in scattered light,” the study abstract states.  
 
The team plans to continue its research upon the completion of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in Chile in 2025. The ELT enables the study of exoplanets in extremely high levels of detail.  
 
“We should be able to see directly and more precisely how the dynamics of the gas contributes to the formation of planets,” said Boccaletti.  
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NASA announced Wednesday it will name its next-generation space telescope in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, the space agency’s first chief astronomer. In a release posted on its website, the space agency calls Roman the “mother” of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched 30 years ago, this year. NASA says Roman tirelessly advocated for new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe from space.  Roman, who held a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Chicago, came to the space agency in 1959, six months after it was formed. She served as the chief of astronomy and relativity in the Office of Space Science. According to NASA, Roman spent much of her career working to establish new ways to probe the universe. President John F. Kennedy poses with government career women given the Federal Woman’s Award, Feb. 27, 1962. From left: Dr. Allene Jeanes, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, Evelyn Harrison, Kennedy, Margaret Brass, Katherine Bracken and Dr. Thelma Dunn.In the mid-1960s, she set up a committee of astronomers and engineers to envision a telescope that could accomplish important scientific goals. She convinced NASA and Congress that it was a priority to launch the most powerful space telescope the world had ever seen. Hubble turned out to be the most scientifically revolutionary space telescope of all time. Roman died in 2018, leaving behind what NASA calls “a tremendous legacy in the scientific community. . The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – or Roman Space Telescope, for short – is NASA’s next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope. It is set for launch in the next five years and will investigate long-standing astronomical mysteries, such as the force behind the universe’s expansion, and search for distant planets beyond our solar system.  
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 Thousands of Nigerians are receiving free mental health care through a program to help people cope with stress and isolation from COVID-19.  The program, Mentally Aware Nigeria, or MANI, was formed by psychologists and medical experts to create an environment where people can seek mental health care without fear of stigma or discrimination.  Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
Videographer: Simpa Samson 
Producer: JG 
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In early May, U.S. President Donald Trump was asked during a Fox News virtual town hall when the country would no longer be dependent on foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers for 94% of antibiotics used in this country.   “I think we will have it done within two years,” Trump answered. “Everybody makes our drugs, except us.” U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for the Camp David, Maryland presidential retreat from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, May 15, 2020.Trump may have been overly optimistic, but he was reflecting a mounting concern among Americans that they are overly dependent on overseas or offshore companies for most of their pharmaceutical drug needs.   The spread of COVID-19 and the unprecedented pressure it has placed on the U.S. health care system highlights America’s strategic dependence on foreign-based pharmaceutical supply manufacturers, particularly in China.  China holds a key position in the global active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) industry, which produces ingredients used in the manufacturing of drugs, and in the production of protective gear such as thermometers, PPEs and masks.  The outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, early this year prompted anxiety among industry experts who worried that a shortage of active pharmaceutical ingredients would disrupt pharmaceutical supply chains and create severe drug shortages in the U.S.     Incentives by Japan and France  The U.S. is not alone.  Many western countries, including Japan, France and Germany, found that the pandemic has brought their dependence on imported medical supplies to the fore. As the pandemic disrupts global supply chains, those countries have lost the ability to produce many basic medicines, as most APIs are sourced abroad. There is also a shortage of protective equipment and masks.  Wearing a protective mask, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe leaves a news conference at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo,
April 17, 2020.The Japanese government has taken action. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced April 7 that it would provide $2 billion in subsidies to help Japanese companies move their supply chains back to Japan. On May 12, the government announced that it has begun to work with more than 400 domestic firms to bolster production at home. Generic drugs are among the most vulnerable fields. Nearly half of Japan’s APIs come from China and South Korea. In addition, 70% to 80% of the masks come from China. French President Emmanuel Macron speaks after a video-conference summit on vaccination at the Elysee Palace in Paris, May 4, 2020.In Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron promised “full independence” by the end of the year in the production of protective face masks for France. He also highlighted France’s need to achieve independence in other strategic medical supplies.   Some French companies have already responded. Among them is multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi, which promised to launch a new Europe-based company in order to cut down reliance on Asian drug manufacturing.  10+ bills in the U.S. Congress  In the United States, bringing supply chains back home has long been a policy focus of the Trump administration. Congress is also motivated to act.  “We are seeing at least 10 bills that focus on ensuring the security of pharmaceutical supply chains,” said Anna Ashton, senior director of government affairs with the US-China Business Council (USCBC). “In all of our (Capitol Hill) conversations we’ve been having, we have been hearing that this is a priority.”    There are a Sen. Tom Cotton, shown in a May 31, 2019 photo, introduced the Protecting our Pharmaceutical Supply Chain from China Act of 2020, which would ban the use of federal funds to purchase drugs manufactured in China.Another approach, she said, focuses on measures to bring the supply chain back to the United States. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, introduced the Protecting our Pharmaceutical Supply Chain from China Act of 2020, which would ban the use of federal funds to purchase drugs manufactured in China.  A third approach, Ashton said, focuses on providing financial incentives to persuade formerly U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies to return home. Easier said than done  Big Pharma has expressed concern about an abrupt shift back to the U.S. of their supply chains, in light of potentially costly and time-consuming regulatory requirements. The facilities that manufacture API require strict regulatory approvals in the highly regulated industry.   “They tend to take several years to stand up, not one year or two years or months or weeks,” said Ashton.  Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRma) spokesperson Nicole Longo told VOA in an email that “building a new biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility can take 5 to 10 years on average before it is operational and can cost as much as $2 billion.”  The trade association represents the interest of U.S. pharmaceutical companies and is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country.   William McLaury, a professor of supply-chain management at Rutgers Business School, said that there might be a mandate for at least a percentage of the health care supplies to be sourced domestically. McLaury was executive director of the pharma supply chain for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation for over 30 years before his academic tenure.  “There might need to be some type of financial incentive offered to the companies to offset the potential costs incurred to make this transition,” he told VOA.    He added that domestic capacity would also have to be ramped up, and regulatory approval of any new supply sources would take some time.  The U.S. Commerce Department and State Department are looking for ways to push companies to move both sourcing and manufacturing out of China. Tax incentives and potential reshoring subsidies are among measures being considered to spur changes.   “We are still in the talking phase on this,” USCBC’s Ashton said. “I don’t think the action is incredibly imminent, but we do think that we will see some sort of legislation make its way through the process this year.” 
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Johnson & Johnson announced Tuesday it will stop selling one of its flagship products — talc-based baby powder — in the United States and Canada.The pharmaceutical company said its decision is part of a “portfolio reassessment related to COVID-19.”But J&J is facing more than 16,000 lawsuits from consumers who claim the powder is contaminated with asbestos and caused their cancer.”Demand for talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in North America has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising,” J&J said in a statement.A New Jersey judge ruled last month that the claims against J&J can proceed, but the judge put limits on how far expert testimony can go.J&J insists its baby power is safe and says it has “decades of scientific studies” to back it up.But tests last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration uncovered what the FDA says were “trace” amounts of asbestos.Johnson & Johnson started selling talc-based baby power in 1894, but says it counts for just 0.5% of its consumer health goods sales.It says it will sell off its remaining stock of the powder in the U.S. and Canada but will continue to sell it — along with its cornstarch-based powder — in other countries.  
 
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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence held a meeting of the National Space Council on Tuesday, just over a week before the program is set to launch astronauts into space from American soil. The meeting was held virtually, with Pence in Washington, and NASA administrators and astronauts checking in remotely. The vice president noted that the project stayed on schedule, even amid the coronavirus pandemic. He said the May 27 launch will be an inspiration to the country. NASA astronauts are set to blast into orbit on a private company’s rocket, a first since the end of the space shuttle era in 2011. It will also be the first time anywhere a private company, SpaceX, will have built and funded the rocket. NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley into space in the final test flight of the system before SpaceX is certified to carry out operational crew flights to and from the International Space Station for the U.S. space agency.  
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A scientific study published Tuesday shows COVID-19-related restrictions imposed by governments around the world since March drove a decline of daily global greenhouse emissions by as much as 17% by early April. But the authors of the study, published Tuesday in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, say the drastic improvement is likely to be temporary as economies resume. The study says that in the years leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) were rising by about 1% per year over the previous decade. But population confinement has led to drastic changes in energy use, and, therefore, CO2 emissions. The researchers say restrictive measures drove drops in demand for electrical generation and industrial and transportation activity – the sectors responsible for 86% of CO2 emissions. Even if the world’s economies return to normal, the study projects that total emissions for 2020 will likely fall between 4% and 7% compared with the prior year, though the final 2020 figure will depend on how rapidly, or cautiously, people around the world resume their regular activities. The researchers say government policies toward energy and emissions following the pandemic will likely influence the global CO2 emissions path for decades. The Washington Post reports leaders in Germany and Britain have observed the positive changes and pledged to pursue policies that will continue lowering emissions post-pandemic.  
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President Donald Trump’s declaration that he was taking a malaria drug of dubious effectiveness to help fend off the coronavirus will likely be welcomed in India.
Trump’s previous endorsement of hydroxychloroquine catalyzed a tremendous shift in the South Asian country, spurring the world’s largest producer of the drug to make much more of it, prescribe it for front-line health workers treating the virus and deploy it as a diplomatic tool, despite mounting evidence against using the drug for COVID-19.
Trump said Monday that he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a measure of protection against the virus. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, however, has cautioned against using it outside of hospitals because of the risk of serious heart problems.
Suhhil Gupta, a pharmacist in New Delhi, said Tuesday that Trump’s announcement shouldn’t carry any weight in India.
“He’s not a pharmacist. His statements are not relevant to the field,” Gupta said.
Still, India’s policy on the decades-old drug, used to prevent malaria and treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, drastically changed after Trump tweeted in March that the drug, used together with an antibiotic, could be “game changers” in the fight against the pandemic. India’s health ministry quickly approved it as a prophylactic for health care workers and others at high risk of infection, and as a treatment for critically ill patients.
Officials in Mumbai even drew up a plan to administer hydroxychloroquine to thousands of slum dwellers as a preventive measure against the virus.
Indian health officials have declined repeated requests for comment, limiting communications to daily health briefings, the last of which occurred May 11.
The rules say that drugs such as hydroxychloroquine be used only after a rigorous scientific and ethical review, continued oversight by an ethics committee and ensuring informed consent — none of which happened with hydroxychloroquine, according to Dr. Amar Jesani, a medical ethics expert.
The Mumbai proposal was ultimately shelved amid questions of the ethics of administering the malaria drug without first subjecting it to clinical trials. Still, the Indian government has recommended more and more people use it, contravening 2017 rules for emergency use of untested drugs, Jesani said.
India initially banned hydroxychloroquine exports, but lifted the ban after Trump threatened “retaliation.” At the same time, India’s government ordered manufacturers to ramp up production from 1.2 million to 3 million pills a month — causing company shares to skyrocket. From the U.S. to Australia, sales jumped.
Officials have even said that Indian plantations could increase the growing capacity of cinchona trees, whose bark contains the compound quinine, which has been used to treat malaria since the 1860s. Quinine can also be made synthetically.
The Indian government itself purchased 100 million hydroxychloroquine pills, according to government data, to distribute to states and donate to countries including Afghanistan, Myanmar and the Dominican Republic.
India is the world’s largest producer of generic drugs, a fast-growing industry that has brought down pharmaceutical prices globally. During the HIV/AIDs crisis, India played a similar role as in the coronavirus pandemic, boosting global supplies of life-saving drugs.
The problem this time, experts say, is that the hydroxychloroquine hype is based on a flimsy study, with little to no evidence that it prevents or treats COVID-19.
Still, a sharp rise in demand has reduced supplies for patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.  
India’s hurried guidance has also impeded scientific trials that could determine whether the benefits of taking hydroxychloroquine outweigh the risks.
“We should do a trial. I think that is the right way to come to answer on this question. But the (government) made our job harder,” said Dr. Bharath Kumar, whose team has proposed a trial.
Meanwhile, evidence against using hydroxychloroquine for the coronavirus is growing.
A U.S. study of 368 patients in veterans’ hospitals, the largest study yet examining the malaria drug’s value as a coronavirus antidote, found no benefits and even more deaths among those given the drug.
The Indian government’s own assessment of 19 drugs found that hydroxychloroquine wasn’t the most promising. A task force noted that while HCQ was readily available, the strength of scientific evidence for the mechanism of action was fairly low.
With more than 101,000 cases and 3,163 deaths, the coronavirus hasn’t yet overwhelmed India’s limited health care system. But that’s starting to change in some hot spots as a stringent weeks-long nationwide lockdown begins to ease, allowing for greater mobility of the country’s 1.3 billion people.
Nowhere is this clearer than in Maharashtra, the coastal state in central India bearing a third of India’s virus caseload. The state’s medical education and research agency has been administering hydroxychloroquine to patients in public hospitals and clinics, according to court records.
Agency chief Dr. Tatyarao P. Lahane said protocols set by India’s government were being followed and declined to answer further questions.
Dr. Shriprakash Kalantri of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Maharashtra said the government was recommending hydroxychloroquine for “off label,” or unapproved, use, meaning that patients must be told that “there is a small but significant risk that it might harm you.”
“If there is no evidence backed by solid clinical trials, then why are the scientific bodies pushing this drug and giving an impression to the public that this is a magic bullet and this is your last hope?” Kalantri said.
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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) special envoy on COVID-19 said Tuesday that the coronavirus will ”be a constant threat” until a vaccine or reliable treatment is found. In an interview with British broadcaster Sky News, Dr. David Nabarro said this means the world will need to learn how to live with it. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease. Nabarro said that while the world is focused on a vaccine, and there are promising signs, the WHO does believe one will be readily available “between one-and-a half and two-and-a-half years at the minimum.” He said social distancing regulations and protective measures will have to be followed for a very long time. Nabarro said this does not mean life has to stop. He noted countries that are maintaining protective measures while people go about their business include Singapore, Germany, South Korea and some developing nations. He said other viruses are constant threats, adding that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has forced people to change their behavior. Nabarro said the key to dealing with the coronavirus was to clamp down on infections by test, trace and contact procedures. Nabarro said, “Get the public health right, which means being able to defend against this virus by being able to find people with the disease quickly, using tests, and then isolate them and then the economy will be able to go on.”   
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The genetic mutation that causes Down syndrome increases the risk of intellectual disabilities, and an early death from autoimmune diseases and pneumonia. But it also protects from some cancers, and it often leads to people valued for their kindness and joy. Recently, researchers discovered a major clue as to why the genetic disorder does these things: The mutation increases inflammation. Shelley Schlender explains how this knowledge may lead to healthier lives for those with Down syndrome.Camera: Shelley Schlender 
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