Year: 2020

The European Commission, the European Union’s administrative branch, announced  Monday a deal with to purchase 405 billion doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine from German bio-tech company CureVac. The announcement comes just days after EU officials announced a similar deal with German company BioNTech and U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for an initial 300 million doses of the vaccine candidate they jointly produced, which, they say, has proven 90 percent effective against COVID-19 in late-stage testing. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters the deal with CureVac is, of course, conditional on their vaccine proving to be safe and effective.  Von der Leyen said the fifth CureVac is fifth company the alliance has contracted with a for its COVID-19 vaccine portfolio.FILE – A sign marks the headquarters of Moderna Therapeutics, which is developing a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Cambridge, Mass., May 18, 2020.She said they are already working on a deal with U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna, for a sixth contract. On Monday, Moderna announced testing showed its vaccine candidate to also be better than 90 percent effective. Von der Leyen said the European Commission hopes to have finalize their contract with Moderna soon.  She said all the vaccines must independently tested by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) before they will be accepted. She said, “We do not know at this stage which vaccine will end up being safe and effective… And this is why we need to have a broad portfolio of vaccines based on very different technologies.” European nations continue …

Meteorologists at the U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted late Friday Iota will “become a dangerous major hurricane soon.”   The forecasters said Iota is “expected to bring potentially catastrophic winds, life-threatening storm surge and extreme rainfall impacts to Central America.”  Iota is moving with maximum sustained winds of 165 kilometers per hour.  Hurricane warnings are in effect for portions of Colombia, Nicaragua and Honduras, covering much of the same area devastated by Hurricane Eta earlier this month. The NHC said a hurricane warning means that “preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.”  …

Giant, aging cables that support one of the world’s largest single-dish radio telescopes are slowly unraveling in this U.S. territory, pushing an observatory renowned for its key role in astronomical discoveries to the brink of collapse.The Arecibo Observatory, which is tethered above a sinkhole in Puerto Rico’s lush mountain region, boasts a 1,000-foot-wide (305-meter-wide) dish featured in the Jodie Foster film “Contact” and the James Bond movie “GoldenEye.” The dish and a dome suspended above it have been used to track asteroids headed to Earth, conduct research that led to a Nobel Prize and helped scientists trying to determine if a planet is habitable.”As someone who depends on Arecibo for my science, I’m frightened. It’s a very worrisome situation right now. There’s a possibility of cascading, catastrophic failure,” said astronomer Scott Ransom with the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves, a collaboration of scientists in the United States and Canada.Last week, one of the telescope’s main steel cables that was capable of sustaining 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) snapped under only 624 pounds (283 kilograms). That failure further mangled the reflector dish after an auxiliary cable broke in August, tearing a 100-foot (30-meter) hole and damaging the dome above it.  Officials said they were surprised because they had evaluated the structure in August and believed it could handle the shift in weight based on previous inspections.  It’s a blow for the telescope that more than 250 scientists around the world were using. The facility is also one of Puerto Rico’s …

Space X is preparing to send a rocket carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station Sunday evening.“All systems are go for tonight’s launch at 7:27 p.m. EST of Crew Dragon’s first operational mission with four astronauts on board,” SpaceX, the rocket company of high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, wrote on Twitter Sunday. SpaceX also said, “Teams are keeping an eye on weather conditions for liftoff, which are currently 50% favorable.”All systems are go for tonight’s launch at 7:27 p.m. EST of Crew Dragon’s first operational mission with four astronauts on board. Teams are keeping an eye on weather conditions for liftoff, which are currently 50% favorable → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdKpic.twitter.com/GTpvVAiLkK— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 15, 2020Separately, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that he was looking forward to attending the viewing of the launch with the second lady, Karen Pence. A White House statement said the Pences would travel to Florida Sunday and return to Washington in the evening.Looking forward to attending the viewing of @NASA’s @SpaceX Crew-1 Mission Launch tomorrow with @SecondLady! https://t.co/vDjOAHrOoJ— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) November 15, 2020The mission will be the first time NASA is launching a privately-owned rocket into space.The journey to the orbiting outpost is expected to take 27 hours. It was initially scheduled to begin on Saturday, but was delayed due to wind gusts, according to NASA officials.In August, two U.S. astronauts returned to Earth, splashing safely into the Gulf of Mexico after a mission to the International Space Station aboard the commercially developed SpaceX spacecraft Crew …

There are 54 million coronavirus cases around the world, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday.The U.S., India, and Brazil continue to top the list as the places with the most infections. The U.S. has almost 11 million cases, while India and Brazil have 8.8 million and 5.8 million, respectively.On Sunday, India reported 41,100 new infections in the previous 24-hour period.Mexico’s tally of coronavirus cases passed the 1-million-mark Saturday. Mexico has avoided issuing mask-wearing mandates or lockdowns.   Masks “are an auxiliary measure to prevent spreading the virus,” Mexican Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell told the Associated Press, rejecting international public health experts’ pleas to wear masks to stop people from contracting and spreading the coronavirus.  “They do not protect us,” Lopez-Gatell said of the masks, “but they are useful for protecting other people.” Hopkins reports Mexico has recorded more than 98,000 COVID-19 deaths. An uptick in cases in the U.S. has prompted the Navajo Nation to impose a three-week lockdown, beginning Monday.“The Navajo Nation is experiencing an alarming rise in positive COVID-19 cases and uncontrolled spread in 34 communities across the Navajo Nation,” the reservation’s Department of Health said in a public health order announcing the lockdown. “These cluster cases are a direct result of family gatherings and off-Reservation travel.”The Navajo health department reported Saturday that there are 13,249 COVID-19 infections on the massive reservation where almost 600 people have died from the virus.Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the world may be on the brink of a child …

In an unassuming house in rolling hills east of the Hungarian capital, a small family firm is helping oil the wheels of the world’s big pharmaceutical companies on the path to a coronavirus vaccine. Biologist Noemi Lukacs, 71, retired to Szirak, her birth village, to establish English & Scientific Consulting (SciCons) and manufacture a genetic sensor so sensitive that a few grams can supply the entire global industry for a year. “We produce monoclonal antibodies,” Lukacs told Reuters in the single-story house where she was born, now partly converted into a world-class laboratory. The white powder ships worldwide from here, micrograms at a time. “These antibodies recognize double-stranded RNA [dsRNA],” she explained. DsRNA is a byproduct of viruses replicating, so its presence signals the presence of a live virus, long useful in virus-related research. More importantly, dsRNA is also a byproduct of the process used by U.S. giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech to create their experimental COVID-19 vaccine which is more than 90% effective according to initial trial results last week.And because dsRNA can be harmful to human cells, it must be filtered out from any vaccine to be used in humans. Several filtering methods exist, but the most widely used way to do quality control is to expose the vaccine to Lukacs’ antibodies. Not only will the antibodies show if there is any dsRNA in the vaccine, they will also tell researchers how much of it is present. Only once completely freed from dsRNA can the vaccine be administered. The result: a line of big …

This year’s U.N. World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14 was observed in Cameroon with medical staff all over the central African state encouraging those with the disease to return to hospitals for treatment.Health workers say patients scared of COVID-19 stopped going to hospitals for control of their glucose levels. Although the disease is spreading rapidly due to Cameroonians’ sedentary lifestyles, experts say, health workers complain that 80% of patients do not know they have diabetes.A medical doctor told scores of people at the General Hospital in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, to go to the nearest hospital if they get tired and thirsty regularly, drink water and urinate frequently. She said while at any hospital, such people should immediately ask for their blood sugar levels to be measured.Diabetes educator Agnes Koki said the campaign is part of World Diabetes Day activities. She said medical staff members want to encourage people to find out whether they have diabetes.”There were so many people out there without the knowledge of diabetes,” she said. “We educate them on what diabetes is all about, how to feed and so many other things. We do free consultation, free screening.”Sixty-year-old carpenter Hilary Lingalia said he was diagnosed with diabetes after his wife forced him to go to the hospital. He said the African traditional healers he counted on for treatment from nerve pain, a diabetes-related condition, instead told him that he had been bewitched.”It was a strange sickness to me because my father did not have diabetes nor my …

The Navajo Nation on Monday will reinstate a stay-at-home lockdown for the entire reservation while closing tribal offices and requiring new closures and safety measures for businesses due to rising COVID-19 cases.The lockdown goes into effect Monday for a three-week period, tribal officials announced Friday night. A previously ordered 56-hour weekend curfew began Friday night.Much of the Navajo Nation was closed between March and August as the coronavirus swept through the vast reservation that covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah in the U.S. Southwest.The Navajo Nation Department of Health on Wednesday warned residents of new “uncontrolled spread” of the virus in 34 communities on the reservation.On Saturday, tribal officials said the huge reservation had 172 new cases and no recent deaths, increasing the total of cases to 13,249 with 598 deaths.“With nearly 900 new cases of COVID-19 reported on the Navajo Nation in the last week and with surging cases across the country, we have to implement these public health measures to protect our Navajo people and reduce the spread of this virus,” tribal President Jonathan Nez said in a statement.With the new uncontrolled spread, “we are inching closer and closer to a major public health crisis in which we could potentially see our hospitals filling up with patients,” Nez said. The reservation’s health care system could not sustain a prolonged surge in cases, he said. “The safest place to be is at home here on the Navajo Nation.”Tribal officials already have urged residents to wear face masks, …

A year ago, if you saw someone wearing a mask, you might assume they were sick or maybe even a little weird or paranoid. Today, thanks to the pandemic, wearing a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is the new normal for many Americans.Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia require people to FILE – Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, left, bumps elbows at Sergio’s Restaurant in Doral, Florida, July 23, 2020.Not all Americans have adopted mask-wearing, especially not those who view masks through a political lens. But pandemics have changed public habits in the past. Wearing a face covering is much more common in East Asia since the outbreak of FILE – Barbers Johnny ‘Geo’ Sanchez, left, and Alberto Sagentin, rear, cut hair in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, May 21, 2020.“I can see how, in the future, especially during the cold and flu seasons, people are going to step away from it saying, ‘Hey, listen, let’s just wave, let’s bow to each other, let’s do a namaste. Let’s do something different,” he says. “So yeah, I think there’s going to be a cultural shift with the handshake.”Overall, Americans might be less touchy-feely, according to Dr. Aaron Glatt, spokesperson for the FILE – A shopper wears a mask and gloves to protect against coronavirus as he shops at a grocery store in Mount Prospect, Illinois, May 13, 2020.“When you go through something like a pandemic, regardless of how you feel politically, it is a fairly scary and …

We’re closing in on a year with a viral pandemic that has affected more than 47 million people and has claimed the lives of more than 1 million, according to the World Health Organization. As VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, people are now suffering from what’s being called “pandemic fatigue.”  …

Danny Rice has a good sense of how dangerous the coronavirus can be.What puzzles him are the people who have curtailed so much of their lives to avoid being infected by the virus.”I’m not going out and looking to catch it,” he said, sitting at a desk in his auto repair shop in the tiny eastern Nebraska community of Elmwood. “I don’t want to catch it. But if I get it, I get it. That’s just how I feel.”Plenty of people agree with Rice, and health experts acknowledge those views are powering soaring COVID-19 infection rates, especially in parts of the rural Midwest where the disease is spreading unabated and threatening to overwhelm hospitals.It’s not that people in Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and elsewhere don’t realize their states are leading the nation in new cases per capita. It’s that many of them aren’t especially concerned.‘They don’t think it’s real’Wayne County, home to 6,400 people in southern Iowa, has the state’s second-highest case rate, yet its public health administrator, Shelley Bickel, says mask-wearing is rare. She finds it particularly appalling when she sees older people, who are at high risk, shopping at a grocery store without one.”I just want to get on the speaker and say, ‘Why don’t you have your mask on?’ It’s just amazing,” Bickel said.Jenna Lovaas, public health director of Jones County, Iowa, said even now that her rural county has the state’s highest virus rate, people have opted not to make any changes, such as …

Sri Themudu’s seasonal business, Diyaa Confectionary, is a success story at a time many businesses are struggling in the COVID-19 economic climate.His company has for eight years catered to Malaysian families and local companies that buy gift baskets of snacks such as crackers, cookies and coconut candy for Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, known as Deepavali in Malaysia.The snacks, made from scratch in the kitchens of his mother and family friends, start at about $8 each.The baskets include sweet treats such as coconut candy. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)Sri used to go to the offices of potential corporate clients with samples but could not do so this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, many of his longtime corporate customers cut expenses and did not place orders.“It looked like this year was going to be a washout,” Sri said, adding, “Just a month ago I had so few sales and had no confidence that this year would work out at all.”However, he invested almost $1,000 for a photographer and videographer to improve his website and promote his products on Instagram. The gamble paid off – he now has three times the revenue as in his previous best year, and he even stopped taking orders last Wednesday because he could not handle any more.The cookies, crackers and candy are made from scratch in the home of Sri’s mother, Maletchumy, as well as the kitchens of several family friends.(Dave Grunebaum/VOA)“The main reason why I did professional videography and photography is because people cannot touch, …

SpaceX delayed its second astronaut flight by a day because of high wind and weather conditions that could jeopardize the recovery and recycling of the rocket booster, pushing the launch to Sunday.Friday’s postponement news came after SpaceX chief Elon Musk disclosed he had gotten mixed test results for COVID-19 and was awaiting the outcome of a more definitive test.NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said anyone testing positive for COVID-19 must quarantine under NASA policy and remain isolated. Officials said contact tracing by SpaceX found no link between Musk and any personnel in close touch with the four astronauts, who remain cleared for flight.”I can assure everyone that we’re looking good for the (crew) launch and all of the critical personnel involved,” said SpaceX’s Benji Reed, senior director for human spaceflight.It wasn’t immediately known if Musk would be allowed at the Kennedy Space Center launch site even if later tests came up negative.Norm Knight, a deputy manager at NASA, said the guidelines are rigid for restricting access to astronauts before flight in order to keep them safe and healthy.”No one’s above this access. It doesn’t matter if you’re Elon Musk or Jim Bridenstine,” Knight said at a news conference Friday night. “If you have not met those protocols, or if any of those protocols have been compromised, then we’re not going to let you near the crew.”FILE – In this Sept. 3, 2020, photo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives to visit the construction site of the future US electric car giant Tesla …

More than 130 U.S. Secret Service officers have tested positive for the coronavirus or have been in close contact with infected colleagues, according to The Washington Post newspaper.The report, published Friday, was attributed to three people “familiar with agency staffing.”The Secret Service officers, who, among other duties, are tasked with protecting President Donald Trump when he travels and at the White House, were ordered recently to isolate, the report said.FILE – U.S. Secret Service agents gather for coronavirus tests prior to President Donald Trump’s departure for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 27, 2020.The sources, who the Post says spoke anonymously in order to speak more freely, said the infections are believed to be related to campaign rallies Trump held before the Nov. 3 presidential election. The report also cites the sources as saying that about 10% of the agency’s primary security team has been “sidelined.”Trump, members of his immediate family, and an increasing number of White House and campaign officials have tested positive recently for the coronavirus in the wake of campaign events, where many administration officials and other attendees did not wear masks.The White House and the Secret Service did not immediately comment on the report, but White House spokesman Judd Deere told the Post the administration takes “every case seriously” and directed the Post to the Secret Service for answers to questions about the outbreak. An agency spokesperson declined to comment to the Post.The reported outbreak among the officers occurred as the coronavirus crisis in the …

Scientists at the U.S. space agency NASA say the remnants of a 1960s unmanned lunar mission may have returned to orbit the Earth 54 years later. Scientists first discovered the object in September, using a special survey telescope on the Hawaiian island of Maui.  They originally believed it to be a small asteroid, and named it 2020 SO.  When they discovered the object’s path would bring it close to Earth, it came to the attention of the Center for Near Earth Objects (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. But the scientists there quickly noticed the object’s orbit was different than a normal asteroid. While the typical asteroid has an elongated orbit and is tilted relative to Earth, the orbit of this object was on nearly the exact orbital plane as Earth. CNEOS Director Paul Chodas says further study and measurements of the object made it clear it was likely man-made, based on its size and density, and likely a piece of a rocket.  Chodas suspected it was a remnant of a lunar mission, and to prove it, he ran 2020 SO’s orbit backwards, tracing its closest path to Earth to September 1966. That matched the launch date for NASA’s Surveyor 2 lunar lander, an unmanned probe designed to land on the surface of the Moon and survey possible landing sites ahead of the Apollo missions, which would put men on the lunar surface for the first time in 1969. The probe was launched on an Atlas-Centaur rocket and …

The United States set another single-day record for the number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalization Thursday.COVID Tracking Project figures show that more than 150,000 new cases were reported across the U.S., surpassing the more than 144,000 new cases recorded the day before.The figures also indicate that more than 67,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, an increase of more than 1,700 from the previous day. Another 1,104 people died.The new figures add to the United States’ world-leading casualty figures of more than 10.5 million total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic reached its shores earlier this year, including more than 242,400 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.The nation’s most populous state, California, is nearing the 1 million mark of  COVID-19 cases, following Texas, which is closing in on that threshold.Worldwide, Italy is the 10th country to surpass the 1 million mark of infections. India and Brazil follow the U.S., with more than 8.7 million and 5.7 million cases respectively. France is nearing 2 million infection cases, followed by Russia with 1.87 million. Over the 1 million mark are Spain, Britain, Argentina, and Colombia.In Brazil, the country with highest coronavirus tally in Latin America, the late-stage trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine have resumed after the country’s health regulator called a halt due to an “adverse, serious event” involving a participant in the study.The vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac, is being developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. The vaccine had been denounced by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a frequent …

The first cruise ship to resume sailing in the Caribbean since the coronavirus outbreak expanded in March, is idled again after five passengers tested positive for the coronavirus.SeaDream, a Norway-based luxury cruise liner, issued a statement Thursday that all crew members had tested negative for the coronavirus and that the ship’s medical staff was in the process of re-testing passengers.SeaDream says it began strict safety protocols following a Norwegian cruise this summer, although passengers were not immediately required to wear masks when boarding the SeaDream.The 53 passengers and 66 crew members are reportedly self-quarantining aboard the ship docked at the Port of Bridgetown in Barbados.The cruise ship industry has been hard hit by the pandemic, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuing an order banning sailing in March, citing cruise ship travel would worsen the global spread of COVID-19. …

Peru is set to host Phase 3 clinical trials of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. COVID-19 vaccine by U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.Dr. Jorge Gallardo, principal director of the Ensemble trial, told America Noticias TV show that Peru was chosen because of the makeup of its population and the impact of the coronavirus in the country.Peru is seeking 3,500 participants in the multinational study that will include participants from eight countries, including the United States.The trials will include participants with preexisting conditions, such as diabetes, and those over 60 years of age to ensure the overall efficacy of the vaccine.Peru has one of the highest coronavirus totals in Latin America, with more than 925,000 coronavirus cases and 34,992 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. …

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., will not be getting together with his family for Thanksgiving.At 79, Fauci is at increased risk of contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. His three adult daughters “were concerned about their, quote, ‘elderly’ dad. I hate to use that word,” he told NBC. They decided on a virtual dinner instead, he said.The COVID-19 pandemic is complicating holiday plans for many families across the country. With more than 240,000 dead from the coronavirus and infections climbing nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins University,  every family will have to make a decision about whether to get together, Fauci said.Especially when gatherings include an elderly family member, or someone with health problems such as diabetes, obesity, cancer or heart  disease that raise their risk of serious illness, “you want to take a couple of steps back and say, ‘Is it worth it for this year to bring those people together when you don’t know what the [infection] status of everybody … is?’” Fauci told JAMA Network.Breaking the bubbleThe holiday usually is the busiest travel period of the year in the U.S. Some 50 million Americans travel 50 miles or more to share a meal with friends and family, according to automotive and travel group AAA.Traditional Thanksgiving gatherings seem custom-made to spread the coronavirus.Experts have been advising people to limit their interactions to one group of people, called a “bubble.” Less contact with people outside the bubble means less opportunity for …

Australian scientists are developing an ambitious plan to try to tame lightning to ease the threat of bushfires. Many of last summer’s devastating blazes were caused by lightning strikes. An international team of researchers in Canberra is testing a laser beam to try to control where the lighting hits.Scientists in Canberra are trying to tame the lightning bolts responsible for many Australian bushfires. The scientists believe the bolts’ path and direction could be controlled by small, portable laser pointers.Lightning is generated when frozen raindrops collide in a storm cloud, creating an electric charge. Researchers have shown that thunderclouds could be “short-circuited” by using a laser to heat tiny particles in the air to trigger a lightning strike.In the laboratory, they have successfully used an energy beam to guide a burst of electricity to a designated target.Professor Andrey Miroshnichenko of the University of New South Wales in Canberra is a co-author of the study.“The reason for our research was to find the condition where we can control and induce lightning where we want it and when we want it,” Miroshnichenko said. “We anticipate that it should be quite effective and low-cost. We need to perform large-scale experiments out there.”Those trials are expected to start soon. The research has been published in the journal Nature Communications. It was a collaboration that involved the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Texas A&M University in Qatar and the University of California in Los Angeles.The largest bushfire ever recorded in Australia was caused by …

Sniffer dogs are being used to identify people infected with the coronavirus, and early trials suggest they are incredibly accurate at detecting the disease. As Henry Ridgwell reports, this is raising hopes that our canine companions could soon be used to help fight the pandemic.Producer: Mary Cieslak. Camera: Henry Ridgwell. …

The World Health Organization reports measles cases and deaths have soared around the globe since 2016. It reports an increase in cases to nearly 270,000 last year, while more than 207,000 people died—a 50 percent increase from 2016 levels.The U.N. agency says the failure to inoculate children on time with two doses of measles vaccines is the main driver for increased cases and deaths. It says vaccination coverage remains well below the 95 percent needed to control the disease and prevent outbreaks and deaths.Added to this mix is the coronavirus pandemic. Although reported cases of measles are lower this year than last, WHO says efforts to control the coronavirus outbreak have resulted in disruptions in vaccination.  WHO’s senior technical advisor for measles and rubella, Natasha Crowcroft, tells VOA different strategies are needed to prevent new measles outbreaks in the time of COVID-19, the disease brought on by the coronavirus. “The Number One action we need to take is to prevent outbreaks from happening in countries where we have got the highest risks…and there are several where there is not the ability to be able to put the health system in place to be able to rely on,” she said.Crowcroft says countries where routine immunization for children was happening will recover quickly from delays or suspended coverage during this difficult period.  She says weak countries will continue to be at risk of deadly outbreaks unless swift action is taken to close this widening gap.The WHO reports more than 94 million people are at risk of missing vaccines because nationwide campaigns have been put on pause in 26 countries. This led to huge outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar.  Eight of the 26 countries now have resumed their campaigns. They include Brazil, …

Greece and Turkey have long been at loggerheads over a host of issues – from a scattering of uninhabited islands in the Aegean Sea that divide them, to the origins of souvlaki.Now, they are trading jabs anew, this time trying to trump each other’s claims to Pfizer’s creation of what may be the world’s first demonstrably effective coronavirus vaccine.Since the company’s announcement earlier this week, media and medical experts from around the globe have hailed the drug’s pioneers, Dr. Ozlem Tureci and Dr. Ugur Sahin, as heroes.While both scientists are children of Turkish migrants who moved to Germany as part of the first guest worker generation in the late 1960s, the pair founded BioNTech in 2008 to develop new types of targeted cancer treatments.Two men wearing masks to help protect against the spread of coronavirus, watch their dogs playing in a public garden, in Ankara, Turkey, Nov. 12, 2020.As the coronavirus pandemic spread earlier this year, BioNTech, which employs 1,300 people, quickly moved to reallocate its resources, teaming up with the U.S. pharmacy industry giant Pfizer to develop 20 candidates for a vaccine.As the world this week breathed a sigh of relief at news that one of the experimental vaccines had shown results, Turkey, like perhaps no other state, went into a frenzy.Since the revelation, Turkish news media have splashed pictures and praise of the “Turkish dream team” on the fronts of newspapers, magazines and websites. Politicians have praised them for contributing to humanity. Even teachers across the nation are …

The United States set another single-day record for the number of COVID-19 infections on Wednesday.Data compiled by The COVID Tracking Project shows more than 144,000 new cases were reported across the U.S., surpassing the more than 136,000 new cases recorded just the day before.  The data also shows 65,368 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, shattering the 61,964 mark set one day earlier  Another 1,421 people died Wednesday, pushing the 7-day average over 1,000.  Texas Surpasses 1 Million COVID-19 CasesCDC changes advice on wearing masks, saying they benefit both wearer and anyone nearby The new figures add to the United States’ world-leading casualty figures of more than 10.4 million total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic reached its shores earlier this year, including more than 241,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.  The nation’s most-populous state of California is nearing the 1 million mark of total COVID-19 cases, following Texas, which became the first U.S. state to reach the grim threshold on Wednesday.  In Brazil, late-stage trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine have resumed after the country’s health regulator called a halt due to an “adverse, serious event” involving a participant in the study.  The vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac, is being developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac.  The vaccine had been denounced by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a frequent critic of China.   Brazil has the highest coronavirus tally in Latin America, with more than 5.7 million confirmed cases and 168,368 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University  Coronavirus Resource Center.In Spain, authorities announced Wednesday that travelers from …