China said Friday it is joining a World Health Organization international initiative to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to the developing world.  China, Russia and the U.S. had said they were not joining the alliance to help two-thirds of world’s population receive the vaccines by 2022.China’s reversal makes it the largest country to participate in what is known as the COVAX deal.  “We are taking this concrete step to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, especially to developing countries, and hope more capable countries will also join and support Covax,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement. Over 36 million infections
More than 36.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus as it snakes it way around the world, according to statistics from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. 
 
The U.S., India and Brazil lead in the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 — the disease caused by the virus. India’s health ministry reported more than 70,000 new cases in the past 24-hour period.  
 
The U.S. has more than 7.6 million infections and upwards of 212,000 deaths. India has nearly 7 million COVID cases, with more than 106,000 deaths, while Brazil has over 5 million cases and a death tally close to 149,000.
Russia reported a new record for coronavirus cases Monday – 12,126, bringing its total of confirmed cases to 1,272,238.  The previous daily high was in May.  Some officials there say new restrictions may have to be imposed. Ukraine reported a record 5,804 new cases Friday.  Authorities are expected to extend the Eastern European country’s lockdown until the end of October. Australia said Friday it has experienced two straight days without any COVID-19 deaths, the longest amount of time it has not had any COVID deaths in three months. White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah puts on her mask after speaking to reporters about U.S. President Donald Trump’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19), outside the White House in Washington, Oct. 8, 2020.White House outbreak
Various health departments in the U.S. capital, Washington, and the states of Maryland and Virginia sent letters Thursday to individuals who worked at the White House in the past two weeks or attended an event Sept. 26 in the Rose Garden for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, urging them “to contact their local health department for further guidance/questions regarding their potential need to quarantine.”   
 
The White House seemingly has become the source for several COVID-19 cases, including the infection of U.S. President Donald Trump, several lawmakers and the president of Notre Dame University.  
 
Photos of the Barrett event showed the mostly maskless crowd not observing social distancing protocols, including sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in chairs placed on the lawn.  The Expanding Number of COVID-19 Cases Linked to the White HouseAn increasing number of people with connections to the White House – including the President and First Lady – contracted COVID-19 recently        
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Asian kudzu vines smothering the southern United States. Pacific lionfish devouring Caribbean sealife. South American cane toads killing their way across Australia.  
 
As bad as invasive species are today, a study says they will get worse.    
 Researchers predict that non-native—or alien—species introductions will increase globally by around 36 percent during the first half of the 21st century.
 
The researchers call for better monitoring and regulations to contain the spread of alien species.
 The movement of plants and animals around the planet soared over the last century as human trade and travel opened new global pathways.
 
Not all alien species are problematic, but invasive alien species—like kudzu—wreak environmental or economic havoc in their new homes.  
 
“Together with climate change and land use change, invasive alien species are posing one of the greatest threats to biodiversity,” said Hanno Seebens, ecologist at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and lead author on the study.  
 
From devouring crops to clogging water pipes, invasive species cost the United States alone around $120 billion each year. Some species are intentionally introduced to new regions by humans. Others arrive accidentally as stowaways in goods shipped by planes, trucks and ships or as hitchhikers on luggage. 
“A species can only arrive in a new region when you connect different [regions],”  Seebens explained. “When we extended our trade networks, we connected more and more [regions], which allowed more and more species to come.”  
However, the number of possible species could taper off in the future. “We may just run out of species to be transported, because at some point, all species may have been transported already.”
 
To forecast alien species introductions for each continent between 2005 and 2050, the researchers used past records of alien species introductions and estimates of the number of possible species that could be introduced.
 
Alien species introductions will increase on every continent, they predict.FILE – An Asian hornet chases a bee near a beehive in Loue, northwestern France, Sept. 14, 2019.The largest increase is expected in Europe, with a 64 percent rise in alien species introductions totaling more than 2,500 species. In Australia and New Zealand, they predict just a 16 percent increase or about 1,286 new alien species.
 
“We know that a certain proportion of alien species will be problematic, so the more of them that there are, the higher the likelihood that we’ll have problems,” said Cascade Sorte, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California Irvine, who did not contribute to the research.  
 
“In some ways it’s shocking to think that, with all of the impacts that we’ve already seen [from alien species], there’s even a possibility that things can get worse,” she added.
 
On all continents, the study predicted the greatest increase in introductions for insects and their relatives. One reason is that these tiny animals can easily escape detection and be accidentally transported to new regions.
 
The researchers predict just small increases in alien mammal introductions, ranging from just 0 to 16 percent—or up to 12 species. According to Seebens that is because the number of possible mammal species is limited.
 
“Mammals are often very big. And so they are not easily transported to other areas. And the small ones, mice or rats for example, have already been transported all over the world,” said Seebens.
 
“We could, if we chose to as a global society, do something about [alien species],” said Bethany Bradley, professor of spatial ecology and biogeography at the University of Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study. “It requires more inspections; it requires more regulation. It’s definitely costly.”
 
“But on the other side of things,” she added, “there are estimates of hundreds of billions of dollars being spent every year on managing invasive species. I think we have the solutions to the problem that this paper lays out; we just haven’t implemented them.”
 
One reason for fewer alien species introductions in Australasia is the strict border regulations that Australia and New Zealand have in place, says Seebens. The isolation of those countries also means there’s less opportunity for species to cross borders.
 
The study predicts alien species introductions in a “business as usual” future, providing a baseline for comparing different future scenarios. For example, increased trade and transport or accelerated climate change would likely boost alien species introductions. On the other hand, adoption of new regulations could slow introductions.
 
“Our recommendations would be to have stricter regulations and stricter border controls,” said Seebens. People should also be aware of alien plants in their gardens and avoid releasing non-native pets into the environment, he added. 
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China said Friday it is joining a World Health Organization international initiative to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to the developing world.  China, Russia and the U.S. had said they were not joining the alliance to help two-thirds of world’s population receive the vaccines by 2022.China’s reversal makes it the largest country to participate in what is known as the COVAX deal.  “We are taking this concrete step to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, especially to developing countries, and hope more capable countries will also join and support Covax,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement. Over 36 million infections
More than 36.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus as it snakes it way around the world, according to statistics from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. 
 
The U.S., India and Brazil lead in the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 — the disease caused by the virus. India’s health ministry reported more than 70,000 new cases in the past 24-hour period.  
 
The U.S. has more than 7.6 million infections and upwards of 212,000 deaths. India has nearly 7 million COVID cases, with more than 106,000 deaths, while Brazil has over 5 million cases and a death tally close to 149,000.
Russia reported a new record for coronavirus cases Monday – 12,126, bringing its total of confirmed cases to 1,272,238.  The previous daily high was in May.  Some officials there say new restrictions may have to be imposed. Ukraine reported a record 5,804 new cases Friday.  Authorities are expected to extend the Eastern European country’s lockdown until the end of October. Australia said Friday it has experienced two straight days without any COVID-19 deaths, the longest amount of time it has not had any COVID deaths in three months. White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah puts on her mask after speaking to reporters about U.S. President Donald Trump’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19), outside the White House in Washington, Oct. 8, 2020.White House outbreak
Various health departments in the U.S. capital, Washington, and the states of Maryland and Virginia sent letters Thursday to individuals who worked at the White House in the past two weeks or attended an event Sept. 26 in the Rose Garden for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, urging them “to contact their local health department for further guidance/questions regarding their potential need to quarantine.”   
 
The White House seemingly has become the source for several COVID-19 cases, including the infection of U.S. President Donald Trump, several lawmakers and the president of Notre Dame University.  
 
Photos of the Barrett event showed the mostly maskless crowd not observing social distancing protocols, including sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in chairs placed on the lawn.  The Expanding Number of COVID-19 Cases Linked to the White HouseAn increasing number of people with connections to the White House – including the President and First Lady – contracted COVID-19 recently        
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Young people have suffered less under the COVID-19 virus than older people medically, but experts say the gap has narrowed, and so-called superspreading among the young is a factor.“The FILE – A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 30, 2014.A woman wearing face mask walks on a street in Hong Kong, Feb. 18, 2020. COVID-19 viral illness has sickened millions of people in China since December.In December 2019, as COVID-19 was emerging in China, colleges and universities worldwide released hundreds of thousands of students home for winter break. Many of the more than 360,000 Chinese students who study in the U.S. returned to China for the holiday.A month later, they and other international students returned to their campuses in the U.S. and around the world as COVID-19 was gaining speed.In March, U.S. colleges and universities began their spring breaks, times when students traditionally head to warm beach destinations, such as in Florida, Texas and Mexico, to blow off steam after studying for midterms.Dr. Sean O’Leary, associate professor of pediatrics-infectious diseases at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, told VOA that in response to the wave of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., many universities shut down their campuses, sent students home or asked them to return from spring break to clean out their rooms, and then put them on airplanes for points around the country.“From the perspective of the U.S. as a country, was that the best choice?” O’Leary asked. Campuses were “one place where we knew there was widespread transmission.”Lauterbach said the disease is insidious in younger people because they typically show only mild or no symptoms, and scientists now believe that 80% of COVID-19 transmission occurs among those who don’t seem ill.Kids ride their bikes at Las Heras park after lockdown measures to fight the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic were relaxed, in Buenos Aires, on July 21, 2020.A study by the American Academy of Pediatrics  looked at more than 2,000 youths ages 18 and younger in China.Doctors from Shanghai Children’s Medical Center and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine wrote that where the virus first emerged, in Hubei province, 13% of confirmed cases had asymptomatic infection, a rate that “almost certainly understates the true rate of asymptomatic infection, since many asymptomatic children are unlikely to be tested.”Research published Aug. 6 by JAMA Internal Medicinefound that many COVID-19 patients remained asymptomatic for a prolonged period, and the viral load was similar to that of symptomatic patients. Older children have also been shown to transmit the coronavirus as much as adults, according to a large study from South Korea. The study, which analyzed nearly 65,000 people in South Korea, found that children younger than 10 were around half as likely to spread the virus as adults. However, young people ages 10 to 19 years old are more likely than other age groups to disperse COVID-19 into households.Of 10,592 household contacts, 11.8% had COVID-19, with 18.6% being index patients ages 10 to 19. It was 1.9% for the 48,481 non-household contacts.“We should make it clear to younger people that if they behave in a careless fashion, that they are not only putting themselves, their peers, older people and peers [with underlying conditions] at risk,” Lauterbach said, “but they put themselves at risk and their best friends. So, we need to convey a message that this is a serious disease for all age groups.”“It is quite clear that not many young people die from the disease,” Lauterbach said.“But it is astonishing that we see very, let’s say, remarkable numbers of younger people in the ICU and also often on ventilator support,” he said.“Currently, we do not know whether they will fully recover their lung function or not. We definitely do not know that for certain. So, we have to take this way more seriously than we did in the past.” Kathleen Struck contributed to this report.
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The National Football League reported Thursday yet another Tennessee Titans football player has tested positive for COVID-19, raising questions about their game scheduled for Sunday in Nashville.The latest positive test brings the total to 23 positive COVID-19 tests among players and staff for the Tennessee franchise, and 21 of those positive cases have come since Sept. 29, two days after the Titans game with the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis. The team facility has been closed since that time.The team had gone two consecutive days without a positive test before two more tests came back positive Wednesday. A third day would have allowed them to return to their team facility in Nashville, under league rules.The outbreak has already led to the postponement of the Titans’ scheduled game last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers to the seventh week of the season. NFL sources say their game Sunday with the Buffalo Bills in Nashville is currently is being evaluated.Some current and former players took to social media Thursday calling for the Titans to be forced to forfeit a game as punishment for their “irresponsible” behavior in allowing the virus to spread.On Wednesday, the New England Patriots had to cancel practice at the team’s headquarters in Foxborough, Massachusetts, after defensive player Stephen Gilmore became the third player on that team to test positive for COVID-19.Quarterback Cam Newton tested positive Saturday and is on the reserve/COVID-19 list, and the Patriots placed a defensive tackle from the practice squad on that list Tuesday. The NFL says the Patriots have reported no new cases as of Thursday.Gilmore, last year’s NFL defensive player of the year, participated in a game Monday between the Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City. The Chiefs reported no positive cases since that game and have been allowed to practice.Under NFL protocols, players are required to wear protective equipment, including the mandatory use of masks and other gear during practice. 
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The European Union on Thursday concluded a deal with an American drugmaker to supply up to 400 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, bringing its total vaccine supply to 1.1 billion doses for the bloc’s 450 million people.To secure the vaccines, the EU made an undisclosed down payment to Johnson & Johnson, which confirmed the deal in a statement in which it reiterated plans to allocate up to 500 million additional doses to poorer countries. EU states plan to pay for those but the price and liability conditions remained confidential.This is the third COVID-19 purchasing deal the EU has closed as the world races to find and secure shots against the disease. The first two were with AstraZeneca and Sanofi.The announcement came in light of a fresh spike across Europe forcing countries to reintroduce previously relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, including the shutdown of bars, restaurants and gyms.The J&J deal follows supply contracts for 400 million doses of the potential vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and for 300 million doses of the shot being tested by a partnership between Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline.The commission plans to ramp up its vaccine collection as it continues to pursue deals with manufacturers like Moderna , CureVac and a partnership between Pfizer and BioNTech. If confirmed, the EU’s total vaccine supply will be nearly 2 billion doses.A senior EU source told Reuters news agency last month that the EU is in talks with Novavax for a seventh vaccine. If it strikes seven deals, the EU would be ahead of Britain and the United States, which each have concluded six supply contracts so far.The J&J vaccine, which is being developed by its subsidiary, Janssen, is based on vector technology, the same used by AstraZeneca. Sanofi’s is a protein-based jab. 
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The executive branch of the European Union announced Thursday it has signed a deal with pharmaceutical company Gilead to buy 500,000 treatment courses of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug shown to be effective in treating symptoms of COVID-19.The European Commission, which has overseen joint purchases of vaccines for the European bloc, said there were 37 signatories to the agreement, including all EU countries, six Balkan candidate and potential EU members, Britain and other European Economic Area countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.No treatment has yet proved able to prevent serious illness after a coronavirus infection, but the antiviral drug, also known by its commercial name Veklury, has helped some COVID-19 patients recover faster. It is among the drugs being used to treat U.S. President Donald Trump, who tested positive for coronavirus last week.Remdesivir was approved as a treatment for by the commission in July. There are reports of shortages of the drug among EU members because many countries in the region have seen a resurgence of COVID-19 in recent weeks.The drug company said the agreement will allow countries to purchase the drug for immediate use and stockpiling needs.European Commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker said Thursday during a briefing that a coronavirus vaccine candidate being tested by drug maker Johnson and Johnson is in phase three of its clinical trials.Keersmaecker says the commission has contracted with the pharmaceutical company to allow EU members to purchase enough of the vaccine, should it prove viable, to treat 200 million people, with the option of buying enough for 200 million more.  
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Prince William has joined forces with renowned British broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough to launch Thursday a new environmental award, the Earthshot Prize, which has grand ambitions to “incentivize change and help to repair our planet over the next 10 years.”
The prize takes its inspiration from the Moonshot challenge that President John F. Kennedy set for the U.S. in 1961 to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
William, who has been immersed in environmental issues all his life, said the same resources used to tackle the coronavirus pandemic should be devoted to saving the natural world.
“According to the experts, it really is the point of no return,” he told Sky News. “We have 10 years to fundamentally fix our planet.”
The plan envisions five prizes of 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) awarded each year for the next 10 years, providing at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems by 2030.
The first five Earthshots center on protecting and restoring nature, clean air, reviving oceans, building a waste-free world and fixing the climate.
“We very much hope that even if we can’t necessarily change the world in ten years’ time just from the prize alone, what we do hope is that, just like the Moonshot landings where they developed cat scanners, X-ray machines, breathing apparatus, stuff like that I think has been really, really important to come out of that,” William said.
Nominations open on Nov. 1 with an annual global awards ceremony held in a different city each year, starting with London in the fall of 2021. William will be part of the panel that makes the decisions.
The prize fund will be provided by the project’s global alliance founding partners, a group which includes the philanthropic bodies of billionaires like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, and Michael Bloomberg.
Attenborough, 94, said time is of the essence.
“Suddenly there are real dangers that there may be a tipping point in which the icecaps of the North Pole begin to melt, which it’s doing already,” he told BBC radio. “It’s a matter of great urgency now.”
William also spoke about how his seven-year-old son, Prince George, is getting concerned about what’s going on in the world. He said his son was left so saddened by an Attenborough documentary about extinction that he told his father “I don’t want to watch this anymore.”
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Wisconsin health officials opened a field hospital Wednesday at the state fairgrounds near Milwaukee to cater to the swelling number of COVID-19 cases threatening to overwhelm hospitals.The 530-bed field clinic was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in April at the request of Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ administration. Local leaders had warned about the possibility of area hospitals being overwhelmed, but hospitalizations didn’t reach the point where the hospital was needed, until now.Only 16% of the state’s 11,452 hospital beds were available as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the state’s Department of Health Services. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reached 853, its highest during the pandemic according to the COVID Tracking Project, with 216 in intensive care.”This alternative care facility will take some of the pressure off our  health care facilities while expanding the continuum of care for folks who have COVID-19,” said Evers.The spike in cases has largely been blamed on the reopening of colleges and K-12 schools as well as people’s refusal to wear masks and practice social distancing. Wisconsin ranked third nationwide this week in daily new cases per capita, making it the hot spot for coronavirus infections.Over 31,000 coronavirus patients are hospitalized nationwide according to the COVID Tracking Project.The hospital, which is designed to provide low-level care, will accept only patients who have already been hospitalized elsewhere for at least 24 to 48 hours, according to the Wisconsin Department of Administration. Patients who qualify will be transported to the facility by ambulance. The facility will not accept walk-ins.It will be staffed mainly by volunteers, state workers, and National Guard members.Several other states moved to set up field hospitals in the early stages of the pandemic — at great expense — only to find that they got little to no use and many were shut down.
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An Iranian dissident has contracted the coronavirus at a prison in northern Iran, according to a knowledgeable source, highlighting what U.S. and U.N. officials say is a worsening pandemic threat facing Iran’s prisoners of conscience.In a message sent Tuesday to VOA Persian, an Iran-based source close to the family of dissident Farhad Meysami said Meysami tested positive for the virus at Rajaei Shahr prison in the city of Karaj and was transferred that morning from his ward to a so-called prison “safe room” for isolation. The source had no further details on the conditions of Meysami’s detention.The 50-year-old medical doctor and women’s rights activist has been imprisoned by Iran since his July 31, 2018, arrest. Security agents detained him at his Tehran home where they found him in possession of pins with the slogan “I am against compulsory hijab.”Meysami had been peacefully supporting a 2018 campaign by Iranian women who removed their hijabs in public to protest Islamist regulations requiring the headscarves. He was sentenced in January 2019 to five years in prison on charges of “spreading propaganda against the system” and “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security,”  a sentence that was upheld on appeal in August that year.Authorities initially incarcerated Meysami at Tehran’s Evin prison before moving him to Rajaei Shahr last November.A former Iranian political prisoner first reported Meysami’s coronavirus infection in a series of Monday tweets.#فرهادمیثمی در زندان رجائی‌شهر به کرونا مبتلا شده است؛امروز از زندان تماس گرفت و گفت که جواب تستش مثبت شده، اینکه در هفته گذشته احساس بی‌اشتهائی داشته ولی الان حالش خوب است.گفتم این خبر را توئیت بکنم، مخالفتی نکرد.گفتم آیا لازم است بگویم حالِ فعلی‌تان خوب است؟گفت: بله!۱/ pic.twitter.com/grFUJwI8Vv— Zia Nabavi (@ZiaNabavi1) October 5, 2020Zia Nabavi, who is based in Iran, tweeted that Meysami informed him of the diagnosis in a phone call from prison that day. Nabavi said Meysami reported feeling fine after being unwell last week.#فرهادمیثمی در زندان رجائی‌شهر به کرونا مبتلا شده است؛امروز از زندان تماس گرفت و گفت که جواب تستش مثبت شده، اینکه در هفته گذشته احساس بی‌اشتهائی داشته ولی الان حالش خوب است.گفتم این خبر را توئیت بکنم، مخالفتی نکرد.گفتم آیا لازم است بگویم حالِ فعلی‌تان خوب است؟گفت: بله!۱/ pic.twitter.com/grFUJwI8Vv— Zia Nabavi (@ZiaNabavi1) October 5, 2020The former political prisoner followed up with a Tuesday tweet in which he also said Meysami had been transferred to a prison safe room that morning. Nabavi described the safe room as an individual cell without medical and other facilities available to inmates in the public wards.Meysami’s lawyer Mohammad Moghimi also tweeted about his client’s coronavirus diagnosis on Monday.موکلم دکتر فرهاد میثمی به کرونا مبتلاء شده و باید از مرخصی درمانی بهره‌مند شود. بارها گفته‌ام، دوباره تاکید می‌کنم؛ زندانیان سیاسی باید بدون قید و شرط آزاد شوند و سلامتی زندانیان عادی نیز باید تضمین شود یا آنان نیز بصورت موقت یا مشروط آزاد شوند.#فرهادمیثمی#زندانیسیاسی#کروناpic.twitter.com/6ljKYTbGqR— Mohammad Moghimi (@Moghimi_Lawyer) October 5, 2020“My client should be on medical leave,” Moghimi wrote. “I emphasize again: political prisoners must be released unconditionally, and the health of ordinary prisoners must be guaranteed. Otherwise, they must be released temporarily or conditionally.”Meysami’s infection got a mention in Iranian state media as well. Ensaf News published a Monday report quoting a friend of the dissident, medical book publisher Farhad Teimourzadeh, as saying he heard about the diagnosis from the dissident’s mother, Sedigheh Pishnamaz.The health risks facing prisoners of conscience in Iran has prompted international concern as the Islamist-ruled nation struggles to contain the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East.The U.S. is concerned by the worsening COVID-19 situation in Iran and we reiterate our offer of assistance first made in February. We join @UNHumanRights’ call for Iranian authorities to release all political prisoners from their overcrowded and unsanitary prisons immediately.— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) October 6, 2020In a Tuesday tweet, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus called for Iranian authorities “to release all political prisoners from their overcrowded and unsanitary prisons immediately.”U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also issued a statement Tuesday saying poor conditions inside Iranian prisons have “led to the spread of the virus among detainees, reportedly resulting in a number of deaths.”“I call for [Iran’s] unconditional release of human rights defenders, lawyers, political prisoners, peaceful protesters and all other individuals deprived of their liberty for expressing their views or otherwise exercising their rights,” Bachelet said. “It is particularly important to rectify such injustices at a time when COVID-19 is coursing through Iran’s prisons.” This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Lipin reported from Washington and Yazdiha from Istanbul. Click here for the original Persian version of the story.
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Some top scientists in Britain are calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservative government to shift strategy on the coronavirus pandemic and adopt a “herd immunity” approach, allowing people who are less likely to become seriously ill from the virus to return to normal life. “The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to coronavirus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this focused protection,” the scientists said in a petition known as the Great Barrington Declaration. A man sells face masks, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, on a street in Manchester, Britain, Oct. 7, 2020.The intervention by scientists from several universities, including the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, comes as surging coronavirus infection rates have put Britain on the brink of tougher lockdown measures. The government’s scientific advisers are calling for “urgent and drastic action.” Infection rates have doubled in the past 11 days. On Tuesday, Britain recorded 14,542 new confirmed cases. Hot spots are popping up across the country, although most are concentrated in the north, where 16 million people are already under partial lockdown.  The authors and co-signers of the Great Barrington Declaration, named after the Massachusetts town in the United States where it was first drafted and signed in 2020, argue that pandemic lockdowns are having “devastating effects” on public health by upending routine health care and harming mental health.  They warn that tighter restrictions and lockdowns will lead to greater mortality. Professors Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University drafted the declaration.  Many of Britain’s scientific advisers say a herd immunity strategy would be “grotesque” and amount to writing off sick and disabled people. Other critics say it was the approach the Johnson government tried earlier this year, and that it led to more deaths than necessary. Herd immunity The theory of herd immunity is based on the idea that once about 60% of the population has been infected, it becomes immune from further reinfection. That, in turn, provides some protection to those who are not immune because the virus will spread much more slowly or may just disappear. Most of the government’s advisers dismiss herd immunity as a viable strategy, arguing that immunity is only short-term. A person is tested for COVID-19 at a drive-through testing center in a car park in Chessington, Greater London, Oct. 7, 2020.Rupert Beale, a clinician scientist group leader at the London-based Francis Crick Institute, said herd immunity is unlikely to kick in before vaccines are ready. He also maintained that it is impossible to know who is likely to become seriously ill from the virus. Many government advisers are now urging a national lockdown aimed at lowering the infection rate and avoiding hospitals becoming overwhelmed with the sick. Professor Calum Semple of the University of Liverpool and a member of the government’s main scientific advisory group on the pandemic, told the BBC on Wednesday that a “circuit-breaker” national lockdown was long overdue.  Another government adviser, Professor John Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said Wednesday that localized measures are failing, and much more stringent lockdown restrictions are needed. “These local restrictions that have been put in place in much of the north of England really haven’t been very effective,” he said. Impact of lockdowns The infighting among scientists comes as mayors of towns in the north of England have started to question the orthodoxy of lockdowns, fearing that tighter and prolonged shutdowns are causing irreparable damage to their local economies, as well as having a long-term impact on mental health.  Local leaders say they are better placed to know when and how to tighten restrictions, or whether they are needed at all. They fear central governments are not getting the right balance between protecting lives and saving livelihoods and businesses. Andreas Spahiu, owner and manager of Don Vito’s restaurant, is seen inside his premise, which is closing at the weekend due to the coronavirus restrictions, in Newcastle upon Tyne, Britain, Oct. 7, 2020.The signatories of the declaration also argue that lockdowns are having a series of negative impacts. They point to lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes and fewer cancer screenings that they say are affecting working-class people and young people the most. Hospital admissions in England jumped by a quarter in one day this week, and worries are mounting about the ability of the National Health Service to cope as winter sets in. The government’s testing system is also straining to cope with people wanting tests and complaining that they are unable to get them. Further delays are likely, as it emerged this week that there are supply shortages from the diagnostics company Roche because of logjams in the supply chains of swabs, screening kits and reagents, the chemicals needed for the tests. The infighting among scientists is also being mirrored among Johnson’s cabinet ministers. Liz Truss, secretary of state for international trade, is publicly arguing against further lockdown measures, saying it would “set us back hugely.” 
 
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Zimbabwe, like other African countries, is trying a phased re-opening of schools after closing in March due to COVID-19.But many teachers like 33-year-old Munyaradzi Masiyiwa are refusing to return to class, pointing to low pay and unsafe conditions.Masiyiwa said he makes more money selling brooms than teaching at Cranborne Boys Government High School in Harare.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Paul Mavima, Zimbabwe public service minister  (Harare, October 6, 2020) says teacher salaries, about $100 a month, including a $75 “COVID-19 allowance” is all it can afford at the moment. (Columbus Mavhunga/ VOA)Public Service Minister Paul Mavima said teacher salaries, about $100 a month, including a $75 “COVID-19 allowance” is all the government can afford.”It is in this context that we are saying to civil servants please be realistic, exercise moderation in the manner in which you demand salary increases, we don’t want salary increases that will upset the stability that we have so far realized and further torpedo the economic recovery that we have started to see,” Mavima said.Without teachers in class, Zimbabwe’s school children are the ones left paying the price.Filda Rusheje, a parent of student, in Harare (October 7, 2020) wishes if the government can negotiate with the teachers on strike so that children can learn ahead of examinations. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)At Glen View High School, students said they only discuss lessons among themselves. Filda Rusheje is one of their parents. She is worried the children won’t learn enough to pass their exams.“The situation at schools is a tough one,” Rusheje said. “They are going to school but they are not learning. My daughter said they are just discussions among learners. They are not even sure if it’s making sense because teachers are not coming. I just wish if the government can negotiate with the teachers so that our children can learn. I want them to look after us in future.”Zimbabwe’s government has threatened to replace defiant teachers like Masiyiwa if they don’t soon return to the classrooms. 
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Two scientists have won this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a method of gene editing. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences jointly awarded the $1.1 million prize to Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer Doudna of the United States. The academy recognized their work on a tool called the CRISP/Cas9 genetic scissors, which allows scientists to cut a string of DNA at a precise position and edit genomes of animals, plants and microorganisms. Applications for the tool include plant breeding and contributing to cancer therapies. The academy said the work of Charpentier and Doudna has “revolutionized the life sciences.” The Nobel Prize in literature will be awarded Thursday, followed by the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. Three scientists won the physics prize Wednesday for their discoveries related to black holes. Three scientists also shared the medicine prize for the discovery of Hepatitis C. 
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As the COVID-19 pandemic marches on, new, rapid tests offer hope for pumping the brakes on the virus’ spread.  The United States is falling far short in its testing efforts. More than 4 million tests per day would be needed to control the spread of the coronavirus, according to an analysis by Brown University and A healthcare professional adds the extraction reagent and a patient specimen to Abbott’s BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag rapid test card, Sep. 2020.The right test for the job Experts say that the best test depends on the testing strategy.   “I think there’s definitely a time and a place for all of these tests, as long as they’re used properly,” said Wyllie. Currently, the CDC only recommends COVID-19 testing if people have symptoms or if they’ve been in close contact with an infected person. Because PCR picks up even tiny quantities of the virus it is much more sensitive than antigen testing. This means that PCR can more accurately diagnose COVID-19, particularly as the disease progresses and virus levels wane. “PCR is extremely sensitive. It can detect one molecule [of the virus],” said Michael Mina, epidemiology professor at Harvard University at a press conference. “I want to make it clear that PCR is a terrific tool. If I’m a diagnostic physician, I want to use PCR.”   However, because PCR tests are so sensitive, they may give a positive result when people are no longer contagious. “We’re actually missing people during the peak of their infection and we’re catching them too late,” said Mina.   Some experts say the best approach to tackling COVID-19 is frequent, widespread testing of asymptomatic people. Less-sensitive antigen tests may do the job because they perform well when virus levels are high and detect people when they’re most infectious. Best of all, these tests are cheap and quick. “If my goal is to use testing as a way to remove people who are infectious from the population, that’s where these rapid antigen tests really start to shine,” said Mina. According to Mina, the recent granting of an Emergency Use Authorization to a rapid antigen test is a step in the right direction. This type of simple, paper test could one day be available for use in homes. Although the FDA has not yet approved a home COVID-19 test, it recently provided recommendations for home testing standards, stating that these tests will be a “game changer in our fight against COVID-19.” “I really like the idea of a rapid test that you can do at home,” said Yale’s Wyllie. “This idea that we can get up in the morning and as we’re getting ready for work or whatever, taking a test.” But Wyllie says the success of this approach depends on test sensitivity and how often testing is done. “The problem with antigen tests at the moment is that I just don’t think they’re sensitive enough sometimes.”   Even with daily testing, a low sensitivity test could fail to identify the virus before a person becomes infectious. “In that 24 hours, they could go to a wedding, they could go to a funeral, they could go to a church choir. All these settings that we’re seeing become superspreading events.”How Superspreaders – People and Places – Drive the COVID-19 Pandemic A mix of biology, behavior and location is found to produce a majority of cases The limits of testing Experts agree that no test is perfect. Results depend on many factors such as the type of test, how the sample was collected and when the test was taken. “A negative [diagnostic] test doesn’t exclude the possibility that you will test positive tomorrow if you’re within that 14-day incubation period,” said UNC’s Weber. “I think testing is an important strategy but it’s not a substitute for physical distancing and mask wearing.” Steve Baragona contributed to this report.
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Experts from a global chemical weapons watchdog confirmed Tuesday that the substance used to poison Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was from the banned Soviet-style Novichok family of potent nerve agents.  The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, his wife, Yulia, and son, Zahar, pose for a picture in Berlin, in this undated image obtained from social media October 6, 2020. (Courtesy of Instagram @NAVALNY/Social Media)Russia has repeatedly denied accusations that it was involved in the incident and has widely rejected the medical findings by German military doctors that identified the nerve agent last month.  Moscow requested assistance from OPCW on October 1 to confirm the presence of poison. According to a statement of their findings, experts said that an analysis of the samples taken from Navalny prove that a nerve agent from the Novichok family was used against him.  In response to the OPCW findings, the German government said Tuesday that it would talk with European Union partners about its next steps in the investigation.  “Any use of chemical weapons is a serious matter and cannot remain without consequences,” said German government spokesman Steffan Seibert. “These results constitute a matter of grave concern,” the OPCW said. “The use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances … (is) … reprehensible and wholly contrary to the legal norms established by the international community.” The Kremlin was accused of using a similar nerve agent in a 2018 in an attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal, an ex-Soviet spy and Moscow critic. Poisoned Former Spy Sergei Skripal Discharged From UK Hospital

        Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal has been discharged from a British hospital more than two months after he was poisoned with a nerve agent and left fighting for his life, health officials said Friday.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious in the English city of Salisbury on March 4, and spent weeks in critical condition.

Britain has accused Russia of poisoning the pair with a military-grade nerve agent, a claim Moscow denies.The poisoning has sparked a Cold War-style diplomatic…
If Navalny’s case is anything like the incident with Skripal, who acted as a double agent for the U.K., punishment could include financial sanctions against Russian officials. In his first video interview since the poisoning, Navalny told prominent Russian YouTube blogger Yury Dud in a segment released Tuesday that the Kremlin critic believes Russian intelligence services are responsible for the attack.  Navalny went as far as accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering the poisoning.  In the video interview, Navalny alleges that he was targeted by Russian authorities that believed he posed a threat to Putin’s ruling party in the following year’s parliamentary elections. In recent years, the opposition activist has become one of Putin’s most influential critics, in part because of his efforts to wage a combination of protests and anti-corruption campaigns against the Kremlin.   
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