Year: 2021

The first manned crew of China’s new permanent space station docked with the outpost Thursday evening.The Shenzhou-12 spacecraft carrying veteran space travelers Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming and rookie Tang Hongbo rendezvoused with the Tianhe module six hours after blasting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China.The trio will spend the next three months aboard the module, whose name translates to “Heavenly Harmony,” outfitting it with equipment and testing its various components.This mission is China’s first manned space flight in five years, and the third of 11 needed to add more elements to the space station before it becomes fully operational next year. 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 into 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.  …

For some people, COVID has led to changes in lifestyle, or even a new job.  That’s the case of a cyclist in Los Angeles, California, who ended up opening several bicycle shops to meet a growing demand by people wanting to get exercise while exploring their city. Mike O’Sullivan has more. Camera: Mike O’Sullivan and Roy Kim  …

China launched the first crew of its new permanent space station into orbit Thursday morning.Veteran astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming and rookie Tang Hongbo blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China aboard the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft.A crowd of well-wishers bid the three astronauts farewell in an elaborate ceremony before they boarded a van to take them to the launch pad to board their spacecraft.  The mission is China’s first manned space flight in five years.The trio is expected to reach the first module of the station, dubbed Tianhe, or “Heavenly Harmony,” by Thursday evening, where they will spend the next three months outfitting the module with equipment and testing its various components.This mission is the third of 11 needed to add more elements to the space station before it becomes fully operational next year. 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 into 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 …

The current rate of forest fires burning through the Rocky Mountains in the United States is the highest it’s been in the past 2,000 years, University of Montana professor Philip Higuera, right, and his team collect lake sediment from Chickaree Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, used to reconstruct fire and vegetation history. (Grace Carter photo; image courtesy of Philip Higuera)“The 2020 fire season was record-setting across the West [of the United States],” said Philip Higuera, a fire ecologist at the University of Montana and lead author of the study. “Colorado broke the previous record for largest fires in the state three times last year.”At the forest’s high elevations, the environment normally keeps the trees cool and wet relative to forests at lower elevations. Naturally occurring forest fires may burn every few hundred years, but even then, fires need unusually warm, dry weather to first dry out the vegetation to serve as fuel.’Sentinels’ of climate changeThe areas known as subalpine forests are also less sensitive to fire suppression and less impacted by past land management than lower-elevation forests, Higuera said. “They’re better sentinels of climate change.”Ecologists wondered if the fires of 2020 were unprecedented, even relative to the forests’ history of fires stretching back over millennia. They studied historical records to understand if the recent fires were an anomaly and published their results June 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Modern human records of forest fires go back only a few decades. The study authors used government …

The U.S.-based biotech firm Moderna said Wednesday the U.S. government has purchased another 200 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, bringing the total number of Moderna doses it has committed to 500 million.   In a release Wednesday, the Massachusetts-based company said the U.S. government orders include 110 million doses expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 90 million expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022. As of Monday, the company says it has supplied 217 million doses of the vaccine to the U.S. government.   In the statement, Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said the company appreciates the collaboration with the U.S. government on the additional doses, adding that it could be used for the continuing primary vaccination program or for children or perhaps as a booster down the road.   Last month, the company announced its vaccine was safe and effective for people age  12 to 17 and applied for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its use in that group.   The doses could also be part of U.S. President Joe Biden’s commitment to supply the World Health Organization-administered global vaccine cooperative, known as COVAX, with vaccine for the world’s lower-income nations.   During a summit with the European Union Tuesday, Biden committed to continue supporting the COVAX facility and urged the world’s donors to supply it with at least two billion doses of vaccine by the end of the year. …

A new study in the United States reveals that nearly 25% of COVID-19 patients experienced new health problems well after their initial diagnosis.The non-profit group FAIR Health analyzed the health insurance claims of nearly two million people between February 2020 and February of this year. The study found the most common new conditions among so-called “Long COVID” patients included pain, breathing difficulties, high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol and fatigue. The new ailments affected patients of all ages, including children, and even included patients who were asymptomatic, or experienced no symptoms whatsoever. The study found 19% of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients came down with Long COVID symptoms, increasing to 27% who had mild or moderate symptoms but were not hospitalized, and 50% of those who were hospitalized.Other ailments revealed in the study included intestinal symptoms, heart disorders and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.  A health worker in protective suit collects nasal swab sample of a traveler to test for COVID-19 outside a train station in Bengaluru, India, June 16, 2021.The CDC says the Delta variant accounts for nearly 10% of all new cases in the United States as of June 5, and experts are concerned it could lead to a surge of new infections due to the slowing rate of COVID-19 vaccinations. A new study published this week in The Lancet medical journal says two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer is 79% effective against the Delta variant, compared to 60% effectiveness after both doses of the …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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.   …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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. …

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 …

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 …