More dengue, less malaria. That may be the future in parts of Africa on a warming planet, depending on where you live. FILE – A doctor tests a child for malaria at the Ithani-Asheri Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, May 11, 2016.Using mosquito optimal temperature data and population density, the researchers predicted the risk of malaria and dengue in Africa under “worst-case, business-as-usual” climate projections. The dengue mosquito — which also spreads a lot of viruses that cause diseases such as chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever — is expected to expand its range, increasing the risk of these diseases throughout sub-Saharan Africa by 2080.   In contrast, the areas of greatest risk for malaria are predicted to shrink, shifting further south and into high-elevation regions. The researchers say that rising urbanization in Africa may further enhance the risk of dengue. Malaria is often more of a problem in rural areas because the mosquito breeds in natural bodies of water such as ponds and streams. But the dengue mosquito prefers to breed in tiny, human-made containers “as small as a bottle cap” that are common in cities, said Mordecai. FILE – An Indian woman walks with a child along an open drain filled with plastic and stagnant water, which act as a breeding ground for mosquitoes in New Delhi, India, Sept. 20, 2016.Urban areas also tend to be warmer than surrounding rural regions, providing more suitable habitat for the heat-loving dengue mosquito. “We’re predicting that dengue is going to become a much bigger problem in Africa. And I think that, itself, is a very big deal, because Africa on the whole is probably not well-prepared, because they’ve been focused on another very important vector-borne disease — malaria,” said Desiree LaBeaud, professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Stanford University and co-author of the study. Public health measures such as insecticide-treated bed nets have helped curb malaria because they protect against the nighttime-biting malaria mosquito. But nets are little help against dengue because the mosquito bites during the day. Growing cases of dengue and other viral diseases may pose new challenges for Africa. According to Mordecai, diagnostic tools for dengue are not widely available in many parts of the continent, which can lead to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatments. “Generations of scientists and control people have been trained and have experience in controlling malaria vectors. But for dengue, you need to start retraining people essentially for a very different creature and a different enemy,” said Philip McCall, professor of medical entomology at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who was not involved with the study. According to McCall, other studies have also shown links with climate change and dengue. “It’s more likely you would have an increase in dengue, or possibly chikungunya and Zika, becoming an emerging serious urban phenomenon,” he said. “But I can’t see malaria, which is so established in Africa, disappearing easily. So, it could be like double trouble.” Experts say this study shows just one possible scenario for mosquito-borne diseases in Africa. “This study is only looking at the very high emission, very fossil fuel-intensive future, which some people think is a little bit unlikely,” said Joacim Rocklöv, professor of epidemiology at Umeå University, who did not contribute to the research. “I think if you would look at another scenario which would perhaps be more plausible, or given we make changes in controlling emissions, then you might see quite different results, actually, in regards to malaria.” The best way to control dengue is reducing breeding habitats for the mosquito by removing containers that hold standing water or making sure they’re fitted with a tight cover. But there is new hope for a different type of dengue control. A naturally occurring bacterium called Wolbachia blocks dengue virus replication in the mosquito and prevents transmission. A trial involving release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in Indonesia was found to reduce dengue cases. “They have reduced transmission in a huge area of Yogyakarta by 77%, which is incredible,” said McCall.
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U.S. weather officials announced Thursday that a La Nina climate pattern has developed in the Pacific Ocean, possibly exacerbating an already busy hurricane season and setting up a colder, wetter winter for North America.U.S. Climate Prediction Center Deputy Director Mike Halpert said in a press release that La Nina can contribute to an increase in Atlantic hurricane activity by weakening winds over the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic Basin. He said that can enable storms to develop and intensify.Halpert said the potential for La Nina development was considered when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) updated its Atlantic hurricane season outlook last month.In a statement on its website, NOAA describes La Nina — translated from Spanish as “little girl” — as a natural ocean-atmospheric phenomenon marked by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator.In the winter, La Nina typically brings above-average precipitation and colder-than-average temperatures along the northern tier of the U.S., along with below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures across the South. NOAA says that raises concern for the U.S. Southwest, which saw a weak summer rainy season and is already experiencing a severe drought.The opposite effect, El Nino — “little boy” in Spanish — is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific. That can often result in increased rainfall across the southern tier of the U.S., which, in the worst case, can cause destructive flooding, and drought in the western Pacific.NOAA says the most recent La Nina appeared during the winter of 2017-18, and El Nino followed in 2018-19. When neither climate pattern is present, as was the case last winter, the El Nino Southern Oscillation is neutral and does not influence global climate patterns.
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Amid busy construction crews racing to build an airport in Mexico, scientists are unearthing more and more mammoth skeletons in what has quickly become one of the world’s biggest concentrations of the now-extinct relative of modern elephants.More than 100 mammoth skeletons have been identified spread across nearly 200 excavation sites, along with a mix of other Ice Age mammals, in the area destined to become the Mexican capital’s new commercial airport.Lead archeologist Ruben Manzanilla explained on Tuesday that around 24,000 years ago mammoth herds reached this spot where sprawling grasslands and lakes would have enticed them to reside.”This place was like a paradise,” he told Reuters, noting that as the last glaciers melted a wide range of mammals — including ancient species of camels, horses and buffalo — lived along what would have been an extremely muddy shoreline.”Then over many years the same story repeated itself: The animals ventured too far, got trapped and couldn’t get their legs out of the muck,” said Manzanilla.Ruben Manzanilla Lopez of the National Anthropology Institute shows the skeleton of a mammoth that was discovered in the construction site of Mexico City’s new airport, Sept. 3, 2020.He speculates that most of the mammoths died this way, though he adds that there is some evidence that around 10,000 years ago early humans may have also hunted the 20-ton beasts with flint arrows and spears, or dug rudimentary shallow water pits to snare them.But the sheer amount of bones, including long, curling tusks — technically the animal’s front two teeth — have come as a shock.”We had the idea that we’d find mammoth remains, but not this many,” he said.Once the excavations are finished, Manzanilla said the site, located about 30 miles (50km) north of downtown Mexico City, could rival others in the United States and Siberia as the planet’s biggest deposit of mammoth skeletons.He noted that a museum-style mammoth exhibit is being planned for the airport’s main terminal.The series of inter-connected lakes that once covered the Valley of Mexico were deliberately drained by Spanish colonial masters beginning in the 1600s in an effort to tame annual flooding.Today, the mostly dry landscape is dominated by the working-class neighborhoods and highways that spill out from Mexico City.
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Vaping by U.S. teenagers fell dramatically this year, especially among middle schoolers, according to a federal report released Wednesday.Experts think last year’s outbreak of vaping-related illnesses and deaths may have scared off some kids, but they believe other factors contributed to the drop, including higher age limits and flavor bans.In a national survey, just under 20% of high school students and 5% of middle school students said they were recent users of electronic cigarettes and other vaping products. That’s down from a similar survey last year that found about 28% of high school students and 11% of middle school students had recently vaped.The survey suggests that the number of school kids who vape fell from 5.4 million to 3.6 million in a year, officials said.But even as teen use declined, the report shows a big bump in use of disposable e-cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year barred flavors from small vaping devices like Juul and others that are mainly used by minors. The policy did not apply to disposable e-cigarettes, which can still contain sweet, candylike flavors.”As long as any flavored e-cigarettes are left on the market, kids will get their hands on them and we will not solve this crisis,” Matt Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids said in a statement.CDC surveyThe national survey is conducted at schools each year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and usually involves about 20,000 middle and high school students. It asks students if they had used any vaping or traditional tobacco products in the previous month. The survey was cut short this year as schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.FILE- Flavored vaping solutions are shown in a window display at a vape and smoke shop in New York, Sept. 16, 2019.Federal health officials believe measures like public health media campaigns, price increases and sales restrictions deserve credit for the vaping decline. The age limit for sales is now 21.But they also acknowledge vaping-related illnesses probably played a part. The CDC’s Brian King said sales started falling in August — when national media coverage of the outbreak intensified.”It’s possible that some of the heightened awareness could have influenced decline in use,” said King.By the time the outbreak was winding down early this year, more than 2,800 illnesses and 68 deaths had been reported. Most of those who got sick said they vaped solutions containing THC, the ingredient that produces a high in marijuana. CDC officials gradually focused their investigation on black market THC cartridges, and on a chemical compound called vitamin E acetate that had been added to illicit THC vaping liquids.’Very encouraging’Kenneth Warner, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan’s school of public health, said the teen vaping drop was larger than expected.”This does look like a very substantial decrease in a single year and it’s very encouraging,” said Warner, a tobacco control expert.Among the likely factors, Warner noted the general negative publicity surrounding vaping. Additionally, Juul preemptively pulled all its vaping flavors except menthol and tobacco last fall ahead of federal action.Warner and other researchers have tracked a recent decline in teen smoking to all-time lows — about 6% — even as vaping has increased. He said it will be critical to watch whether teen smoking begins rising again as fewer teens vape.The new figures were disclosed on the same day that all U.S. vaping manufacturers faced a long-delayed deadline to submit their products for FDA review. Generally, that means the vaping companies must show that their products help smokers reduce or quit their use of cigarettes and other tobacco products.E-cigarettes first appeared in the U.S. more than a decade ago and have grown in popularity with minimal federal regulation.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has moved to bar offshore oil and gas drilling in parts of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, a rare action against the fossil fuel industry from an administration that has made global energy dominance a priority.The order drew skepticism from environmentalists and disappointment from the oil and gas industry, but approval from Republicans in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina who have opposed drilling off their state coasts.Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden places a note card in his jacket pocket as he speaks at a campaign event in Warren, Mich., Sept. 9, 2020.Florida especially is considered critical to deciding November’s presidential election. Polls there find Trump in an extremely close race with his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.The memorandum Trump signed in Florida on Tuesday adds 10 years to an existing ban on drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast set to end in 2022. It extends the ban to the South Atlantic off Georgia and South Carolina.”This protects your beautiful Gulf and your beautiful ocean, and it will for a long time to come,” Trump said.Extending the moratorium is “the wrong approach at the wrong time,” says Lem Smith, vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas industry trade group.“A ban on responsible energy development in the Eastern Gulf and the South Atlantic puts at risk hundreds of thousands of new jobs, U.S. energy security advancements and billions of dollars in critical revenue for states,” Smith said in a statement.The Trump administration had previously aimed to open more than 90% of U.S. coastal waters to FILE – Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy speaks during a news conference in Washington, Jan. 11, 2017.“This is a transparent attempt to manipulate Floridians two months before Election Day,” said Gina McCarthy, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council and former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama.”If President Trump wanted to protect the state’s beaches and waters from destruction, he would deep-six [dispose of] his five-year leasing plan to open up every coast in the country for drilling,” McCarthy said. “And he would stop doing everything in his power to make the climate crisis worse.”The Trump administration has weakened regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and vehicles. It has changed how the federal government calculates the impacts of those emissions, lowering the apparent benefits of climate regulations.The United States under President Trump is the only country in the world to announce plans to withdraw from the U.N.-brokered Paris agreement on climate change. The administration also has taken steps to loosen rules on mercury, methane and other pollutants with the aim of lowering regulatory burdens on industry.The New York Times tallies  a total of 100 environmental rules the Trump administration has or is working to roll back.Many of these face legal challenges, including the administration’s attempts to encourage more offshore oil and gas development.Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order that lifted the Obama administration’s ban on offshore drilling in the Arctic and North Atlantic. A federal court in Alaska threw out that order last March. The administration’s offshore drilling plans have been in limbo ever since.Trump described himself as “the great environmentalist” at Tuesday’s Florida signing event. The White House released a statement promoting Trump’s environmental record, including cleaning up hazardous waste sites and funding improvements in drinking water infrastructure. Trump’s signature on the Great American Outdoors Act is “the single largest investment in America’s National Parks and public lands in history,” according to the White House.”President Trump’s policies are promoting economic growth, while still maintaining standards that allow Americans to have among the cleanest air and water in the world,” the statement said.
Trump’s new offshore drilling ban drew criticism from Democratic presidential candidate Biden, who noted Trump’s previous plans to expand oil and gas development off Florida’s coast.”Now, with 56 days until the election, he conveniently says that he changed his mind. Unbelievable,” Biden wrote on Twitter.”You don’t have to guess where I stand: I oppose new offshore drilling,” he added.Just months ago, Donald Trump was planning to allow oil and gas drilling off the coast of Florida.Now, with 56 days until the election, he conveniently says that he changed his mind. Unbelievable.You don’t have to guess where I stand: I oppose new offshore drilling. https://t.co/oxfQNIymBh— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 8, 2020 
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British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant Astra-Zeneca has paused large-scale global trials of its COVID-19 vaccine because a volunteer participant became ill after receiving the experimental drug.   The company issued a statement Tuesday saying the pause in testing is a “routine action, which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”AstraZeneca developed the vaccine, AZD1222, in cooperation with Britain’s University of Oxford. The vaccine is being tested in large-scale Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials in several nations, including the United States, Britain, Brazil, South Africa and India.  AZD1222 is one of three COVID-19 vaccines in late-stage Phase 3 trials in the United States.    US Drug Execs Promise COVID Vaccine Safety Before Seeking Government Approval Unusual statement by nine competing firms comes as Trump pushes for vaccine approval before Election Day The company did not disclose the nature of the participant’s illness, but The New York Times reports the volunteer, based in Britain, was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and is often sparked by viral infections.  But the Times says it is unknown whether it is directly linked to the AZD1222 vaccine.Hours before announcing the pause of its COVID-19 vaccine testing, AstraZeneca joined eight other drug makers in pledging not to seek approval from U.S. government regulators for any vaccine until all data showed it was safe and effective.   The chief executive officers of the nine companies, which include Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna and Novavax, as well as those heading two joint vaccine projects, Pfizer and BioNTech, and Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, issued a statement promising they would “only submit for approval or emergency use authorization after demonstrating safety and efficacy through a Phase 3 clinical study that is designed and conducted to meet requirements of expert regulatory authorities,” including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.The executives said they would “always make the safety and well-being of vaccinated individuals our top priority.”The unusual joint pledge was aimed at alleviating growing fears by health experts that pharmaceutical companies are under considerable political pressure to quickly develop and introduce a COVID-19 vaccine. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that a successful vaccine could be ready before November 3, the date of the presidential election.But Moncef Slaoui, Trump’s top vaccine adviser and the co-director of the administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” initiative, which is funding many of the efforts to develop, test and manufacture a potential vaccine, told the public broadcasting organization NPR last week that it is “very unlikely” a vaccine would be authorized before Election Day.Trump, Biden Clash Over COVID-19 Vaccine Rhetoric Both presidential candidates are campaigning in battleground states this week as election race enters homestretchThe United Nations is warning that the pandemic could reverse decades of advances in reducing preventable childhood deaths.   A new report by three U.N. agencies — UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the Population Division of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs — and the World Bank Group says there were just over 5 million preventable deaths in 2019, compared to 12.5 million in 1990.But the report also found that 68% of respondents across 77 countries reported at least some disruption in children’s physical checkups and vaccinations.  Much of the disruption is due to parents’ fears that their children will be infected with the virus.   “The global community has come too far towards eliminating preventable child deaths to allow the COVID-19 pandemic to stop us in our tracks,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a news release.  “When children are denied access to health services because the system is overrun, and when women are afraid to give birth at the hospital for fear of infection, they, too, may become casualties of COVID-19,” Fore said.  COVID Vaccines Approaching Finish Line Use New Technology But crossing the finish line — getting shots in arms — won’t be easy The pandemic also continues to affect ordinary activities around the globe.  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to issue an order Wednesday limiting the number of people taking part in most social gatherings to six, from the current 30.  The new limit, would take effect next week as Britain is enduring a surge of nearly 3,000 new daily COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, the highest daily figure since May.And officials in Los Angeles County, California have issued an order banning most Halloween activities, traditionally observed on October 31.  The banned activities include the traditional door-to-door “trick-or-treating,” when costum-clad children knock on doors to receive candy, and “trunk-or-treating,” a similar activity involving going from car to car.   Indoor and outdoor events, including carnivals, festivals and “haunted houses” are also prohibited.  Los Angeles County officials said nearly 250,000 coronavirus cases had been recorded there and 6,036 people died from the disease since the start of the pandemic. 
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