Researchers in New Zealand are testing new techniques to find out whether masks and gowns used by health workers as protection against COVID-19 can be decontaminated and safely used again.   Researchers want to reduce the “mountain” of personal protective equipment, or PPE, that is discarded around the world daily. According to experts in New Zealand, estimates indicate that in China alone, hundreds of thousands of metric tons of PPE are going to the landfill each day.    FILE – Workers in protective suits walk past the Hankou railway station on the eve of its resuming outbound traffic in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, April 7, 2020.Mark Staiger is an associate professor of materials engineering at the University of Canterbury.   “The amount of waste that is being produced by the pandemic is absolutely huge. It has been estimated that something like 3 million face masks are being used per minute around the world. Other studies have shown that something like 3.5 billion face masks and face shields are being discarded globally every day,” he said. FILE – A discarded N95 protective face mask lies amongst other bits of disposed medical waste at a landfill site, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in New Delhi, India, July 22, 2020.Masks and gowns contain plastics that cannot easily be recycled. Researchers from Canterbury, Otago and Auckland universities are testing a process that would destroy the COVID-19 virus and allow the PPE to be used again.   The aim is to safely disinfect protective equipment so it can be used by frontline workers. If successful, Staiger says the system could increase the supply of N95 masks, which filter out airborne particles, by 40%.    “The particular challenge in decontaminating face masks, for example, is making sure that whatever technique you use for killing off the virus does not affect the materials contained within the mask. For example, N95 masks have a special electrostatic layer inside them, which is used for capturing very small particles, and if that layer is damaged by the treatment that you are using or the decontamination treatment that you are using, this would render the mask ineffective and lose its functionality.”    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said PPE creates a barrier between an individual’s skin, mouth, nose, or eyes and viral and bacterial infections. It is mostly designed to be used only once. The New Zealand university study began in 2020. Its final stage is under way, and it is due to finish later this year. The research team is also building a mobile disinfection unit that could be transported in shipping containers to other countries.   New Zealand has an enviable record of containing COVID-19, in large part because it closed its borders to most foreign nationals in March 2020. It has recorded about 2,700 confirmed or probable infections. Twenty-six people have died.   
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The delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is more infectious and more virulent than the alpha variant first identified in the United Kingdom, according to new research.  The good news is that vaccines still work against it, though somewhat less well, the studies say. “Delta is a much more concerning variant globally, even than the other variants,” said Bill Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. As vaccine access moves at a snail’s pace outside of wealthier countries, “much of the world remains extraordinarily vulnerable,” said William Powderly, director of the  Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. FILE – People register their names to receive a coronavirus vaccine at a free camp in Kolkata, India, June 14, 2021.The delta variant was first identified in India. It is likely responsible for that country’s explosive outbreak, which has set grim world records for the most deaths per day of any country.  When it spread to the U.K., it overtook the fast-spreading alpha variant in a matter of weeks. Delta now causesFILE – A health worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at the newly-opened mass vaccination program for the elderly at a drive-thru vaccination center in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 25, 2021.Vaccines still work against it, though not quite as well, the study found. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were about 13% less effective against delta than they were against alpha. Two weeks after the second dose, Pfizer was 79% effective, and AstraZeneca was 60%.  While some vaccinated people may still get sick, they are not likely to get severely ill, FILE – Austin Kennedy, left, a Seattle Sounders season ticket holder, gets the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in a concourse at Lumen Field, May 2, 2021.While nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of vaccine, “lots of the world is going to be facing delta with no such protection,” Hanage said. “It’s really important that those countries that are able to supply vaccines get [them] to those parts of the world that are struggling with [vaccine access] as quickly as possible.” “If we continue to not vaccinate the rest of the world,” Powderly added, “the virus will continue to evolve, and this delta virus could well be the start of something even worse.” 
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Turkey’s Sea of Marmara is battling an explosion of sea algae, dubbed sea snot, which is now threatening an ecological disaster. As Dorian Jones reports for VOA from Istanbul, the mucus-like substance is fast becoming politically toxic as well.
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China will launch the first crew of its new permanent space station into orbit on Thursday.  An official with the China Manned Space Agency announced Wednesday that veteran astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming and rookie Tang Hongbo will blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China aboard the Shenzhou-12. At age 56,  Nie Haisheng will become China’s oldest astronaut to fly to space. The trio will spend three months aboard the first module of the station, dubbed Tianhe, which translates to “Heavenly Harmony.” The mission, China’s first manned space flight in five years, is the third of 11 needed to add more elements to the space station before it becomes fully operational in 2022. The new station is expected to remain operational for 10 years.   The station could outlast the U.S.-led International Space Station, which may be decommissioned after its funding expires in 2024. China has never sent astronauts to the ISS due to a U.S. law that effectively bars the space agency NASA from collaborating with China.      China is aggressively building up its space program as an example of its rising global stature and technological might. It became the third country to send a human in space in 2003 behind the United States and Russia, and has already operated two temporary experimental space stations with manned crews.  Just this year, it sent an unmanned probe into orbit around Mars, while another probe brought back the first samples from the Moon in more than 40 years.  
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More than half the cosmetics sold in the United States and Canada are awash with a toxic industrial compound associated with serious health conditions, including cancer and reduced birth weight, according to a new study.  Researchers at the University of Notre Dame tested more than 230 commonly used cosmetics and found that 56% of foundations and eye products, 48% of lip products and 47% of mascaras contained fluorine — an indicator of PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals” that are used in nonstick frying pans, rugs and countless other consumer products.  Some of the highest PFAS levels were found in waterproof mascara (82%) and long-lasting lipstick (62%), according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Twenty-nine products with higher fluorine concentrations were tested further and found to contain between four and 13 specific PFAS, the study found. Only one item listed PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, as an ingredient on the label. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates cosmetics, said the agency does not comment on specific studies. The FDA said on its website that there have been few studies of the presence of the chemicals in cosmetics, and the ones that have been published generally found the concentration is at very low levels not likely to harm people, in the parts per billion level to the hundreds of parts per million. A fact sheet posted on the agency’s website says, “As the science on PFAS in cosmetics continues to advance, the FDA will continue to monitor” voluntary data submitted by industry as well as published research. But PFAS are an issue of increasing concern for lawmakers working to regulate their use in consumer products. The study results were announced as a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to ban the use of PFAS in cosmetics and other beauty products.  The move to ban PFAS comes as Congress considers wide-ranging legislation to set a national drinking water standard for certain PFAS and clean up contaminated sites across the country, including military bases where high rates of PFAS have been discovered. “There is nothing safe and nothing good about PFAS,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who introduced the cosmetics bill with Republican Senator Susan Collins. “These chemicals are a menace hidden in plain sight that people literally display on their faces every day.” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., talks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, June 15, 2021.Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat who has sponsored several PFAS-related bills in the House, said she has looked for PFAS in her own makeup and lipstick but could not tell whether they were present because the products were not properly labeled. “How do I know it doesn’t have PFAS?” she asked at a news conference Tuesday, referring to the eye makeup, foundation and lipstick she was wearing.  The Environmental Protection Agency is also moving to collect industry data on the uses and health risks of PFAS as it considers regulations to reduce potential risks caused by the chemicals. The Personal Care Products Council, a trade association representing the cosmetics industry, said in a statement that a small number of PFAS may be found as ingredients or at trace levels in products such as lotion, nail polish, eye makeup and foundation. The chemicals are used for product consistency and texture and subject to FDA safety requirements, said Alexandra Kowcz, the council’s chief scientist. “Our member companies take their responsibility for product safety and the trust families put in those products very seriously,” she said, adding that the group supports prohibition of certain PFAS from use in cosmetics. “Science and safety are the foundation for everything we do.”  But Graham Peaslee, a physics professor at Notre Dame and the principal investigator of the study, said the cosmetics pose an immediate and long-term risk. “PFAS is a persistent chemical. When it gets into the bloodstream, it stays there and accumulates,” Peaslee said. No specific companies were named in the study.  Environmental, health risksThe chemicals also pose the risk of environmental contamination associated with manufacturing and disposal, he said. The man-made compounds are used in countless products, including nonstick cookware, water-repellent sports gear, cosmetics and grease-resistant food packaging, along with firefighting foams. Public health studies on exposed populations have associated the chemicals with an array of health problems, including some cancers, weakened immunity and low birth weight. Widespread testing in recent years has found high levels of PFAS in many public water systems and military bases. Blumenthal, a former state attorney general and self-described “crusader” on behalf of consumers, said he does not use cosmetics. But speaking on behalf of millions of cosmetics users, he said they have a message for the industry: “We’ve trusted you and you betrayed us.” Brands that want to avoid likely government regulation should voluntarily go PFAS-free, Blumenthal said. “Aware and angry consumers are the most effective advocate” for change, he said. 
 
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The novel coronavirus was present in the U.S. in December 2019, weeks before health officials first identified infections, according to a new government study.
 
Conducted by a team that included researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the study analyzed 24,000 blood samples. The findings suggest that some Americans were infected as early as the middle of December 2019, weeks before the world recognized the spread of the new deadly virus that erupted in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
 
While the analysis is inconclusive, and some experts remain unconvinced, more federal health officials are accepting a scenario during which small numbers of people in the U.S. were infected with the virus before the world was aware of its spread.
 
The study, published Tuesday by the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, is the latest and largest to suggest the virus first appeared in the U.S. earlier than previously known. It found that at least seven people in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were infected earlier than any COVID-19 case was ever reported in those states.
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The United States has surpassed 600,000 dead from COVID-19, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Tuesday. The count spans from the beginning of the pandemic 15 months ago. While the numbers of new COVID-19 cases and daily deaths in the United States have fallen steadily in recent weeks, the milestone is a harsh reminder of the toll the pandemic has taken and is still taking.  U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday acknowledged the approaching milestone, saying that while new cases and deaths are dropping dramatically in the U.S., “there’s still too many lives being lost,” and “now is not the time to let our guard down.” In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced late Monday that the government would be pushing back by nearly four weeks its “road map out of lockdown” date — from June 21 to July 19 — on which all COVID-19-related restrictions would be lifted. Speaking to reporters, Johnson said the decision was based on a surge in COVID-19 infections caused by the delta variant of the virus in certain parts of the country. He said July 19 will be “a terminus date” that will allow the country to proceed with full reopening.  Racial inequalities in COVID deaths Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports it has uncovered data showing how the pandemic has exposed wide racial inequalities in the U.S. A story published Monday by the AP said that where race is known, white Americans account for 61% of all COVID-19 deaths, followed by Hispanics with 19%, Blacks with 15%, and Asian Americans with 4% — figures that track with each group’s share of the U.S. population as a whole.  FILE – Anthony Brinson, right, talks with a resident while leaving a flyer at a home in Detroit, May 4, 2021. Officials are walking door-to-door to encourage residents of the majority Black city to get vaccinated against COVID-19.But the news agency said an analysis of data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that after adjusting for population age differences, Native Americans, Hispanics and Blacks are two to three times more likely than whites to die of the disease. The AP also found that Hispanics are dying at much younger ages than other groups — 37% of Hispanic deaths were of people younger than 65, compared with 30% for Blacks and 12% for whites.  According to the AP, Blacks and Hispanics overall have less access to medical care and are in poorer health, with higher rates of diabetes and high blood pressure. They are less likely to work from home and more likely to work at jobs deemed “essential” and to live in crowded, multigenerational households, where working family members are more likely to expose others to the virus. An analyst with the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy research organization, told the AP that the high rates of COVID-19 deaths among Blacks and Hispanics parallel sharply with the low vaccination rates among those groups.   As of Tuesday afternoon, the United States had posted 600,159 deaths out of nearly 33.5 million total infections, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. 
 
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As the United States approaches 600,000 COVID-19 related deaths, the Associated Press has uncovered data showing how the pandemic has exposed  the country’s wide racial inequalities. A story published Monday by the AP said where race is known, white Americans account for 61% of all COVID-19 deaths, followed by Hispanics with 19%, Blacks with 15%, and Asian Americans with 4% — figures that track with the groups’ share of the U.S. population as a whole.  But the news agency said an analysis of data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Native Americans, Latinos and Blacks are two or three times more likely than whites to die of the disease after adjusting for population age differences.  The AP also found Latinos are dying at much younger ages than other groups — 37% of Hispanic deaths were of those under 65 years of age, compared to 30% for Blacks and just 12% for whites.  According to the AP, Blacks and Hispanics overall have less access to medical care and are in poorer health, with higher rates of diabetes and high blood pressure.  They are also more likely to work at jobs deemed “essential,” are less able to work from home and more likely to live in crowded, multi-generational households, where working family members are more likely to expose others to the virus. An analyst with the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health-policy research organization, tells the AP that the high rates of COVID-19 deaths among Blacks and Latinos parallels sharply with the low vaccination rates among those groups.   As of early Wednesday morning, the United States had posted 599,945 deaths out of nearly 33.5 million total infections, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Vaccine effectiveness  A new study from Britain suggests both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines are both highly effective against the Delta variant of the virus. FILE – A health worker holds a tray with vials of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 during a priority vaccination program at a community medical center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 6, 2021.The study, published Monday in the The Lancet medical journal, says the vaccine developed jointly by Pfizer and BioNTech proved 79% effective against the highly transmissible Delta variant, while the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University was 60% effective. The findings were the result of a study conducted on more than 5 million people in Scotland who were given both doses of each vaccine.   The Delta variant of COVID-19, first detected in India, has now spread to at least 74 countries, especially in Britain, where it has overtaken the homegrown Alpha variant. The Guardian newspaper says Delta appears to cause more severe symptoms, including stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, hearing loss and joint pain. The World Health Organization has designated Delta as a “variant of concern.” Tokyo Olympics organizers to Unveil New ‘Playbook’ Organizers of the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games are preparing to release its latest version of rules aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 among the participating athletes. FILE – A red traffic light is seen on a street near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building displaying a banner of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games, in Tokyo, Japan, May 31, 2021.Tuesday’s release of the updated protocols, which have been dubbed the “playbook,” coincides with the arrival in the Japanese capital of International Olympic Committee vice-president John Coates. He sparked a backlash last month when he vowed the Olympics would be staged as scheduled even if Tokyo was under a continued state of emergency due to the pandemic.  The Games are scheduled to officially begin on July 23 after a one-year delay despite staunch public opposition due to the current outbreak of the coronavirus, especially among the Japanese medical community. Japan has banned foreign spectators from attending the Olympics, and organizers are expected to deliver a decision later this month on whether to welcome domestic spectators into the venues.   Tokyo and several other prefectures are under a state of emergency until June 20.    
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Mexico has received 1.35 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson, single-dose COVID-19 vaccine donated by the United States.The doses will be given to those over 18 in four border towns, Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juárez and Reynosa. The goal is to end essential travel restrictions on the border.The first vaccinations could be given as early as Wednesday, according to Mexican Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell.
Mexico’s vaccination program has used a mix of vaccines and so far, has been focused on people 40 and older. It has administered about 26 million shots, according to the Associated Press.After an upsurge in December and January, cases have been declining across the country until a spike of 8% this week attributed to a breakout along the Caribbean coast.Earlier this month, the Biden administration said the U.S. would donate up to 80 million vaccine doses worldwide by the end of the month.
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Officials in conflict-torn Afghanistan said Tuesday gunmen had shot dead at least five polio vaccinators and injured several others in separate attacks in eastern Nangarhar province.  
 Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan are the only two countries in the world where the crippling polio disease remains endemic. 
 
Authorities said the early morning violence in parts of Jalalabad, the provincial capital, and nearby Khogyani district came on the second day of a four-day national campaign administering polio drops to children under five years of age.  
 
Jan Mohammad, head of the provincial immunization department, told VOA they had suspended the vaccination campaign following the deadly attack. No one immediately took responsibility for what appeared to be a coordinated shooting spree.   
 
In March, three female anti-polio workers were gunned down in Jalalabad during this year’s first polio immunization drive. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. The terror group’s regional affiliate, known as IS Khorasan Province, has bases in Nangarhar and adjoining Afghan provinces.  
 
The United Nations condemned Tuesday’s attack, saying depriving children from an assurance of a healthy life “is inhuman.” 
 
Ramiz Alakbarov, U.N. secretary-general’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan, demanded the “senseless violence must stop” and authorities bring to justice those responsible for it.  
 
“I am appalled by the brutality of these killings,” Alakbarov wrote on Twitter. The United Nations strongly condemns all attacks on health workers anywhere. Delivery of health care is impartial attack against health workers and those who defends them is an attack on children, whose very lives they are trying to protect. @UNAMAnews@UNICEFAfg@WHOAfghanistan— Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov (@RamizAlakbarov) June 15, 2021Afghanistan reported 56 new cases of polio last year. But officials say only one wild polio virus case has been detected in the country since October 2020, and transmissions to polio-free Afghan areas have also been contained.  
 
Wahid Majrooh, the acting Afghan health minister, said on Monday the current immunization drive intends to administer polio drops to nearly 10 million children across the country’s 34 provinces.  
 
He lamented, however, that relentless fighting and restrictions on door-to-door vaccinations in areas held by Taliban insurgents continue to deprive around three million children of the polio vaccine.  
 
Majrooh again urged warring parties to help ensure trouble-free access for his teams so they can vaccinate all Afghan children against polio.  
 
“We cannot end polio unless we are able to vaccinate children everywhere,” he said. 
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