Medical
Spanish drug nearly completely reduces Covid viral load
Plitidepsin was 27.5-fold more potent against SARS-CoV-2 than remdesivir, a drug that received FDA emergency use authorization in 2020 for the treatment of COVID-19, according to new research. "By targeting host factors that enable or facilitate disease, we have the potential to have a more far-reaching impact in drug development". In the second study, the team tested plitidepsin against the m... [Full Article...]
Key COVID-19 numbers in the Ottawa area today
Since the pandemic began, 232,480 people previously infected with the novel coronavirus have recovered. The rolling seven-day average of new cases drops to 2,205. Since the first case of COVID-19 emerged in the province a year ago yesterday, there have been 258,700 lab-confirmed cases of the virus across Ontario. [Full Article...]
Harvard health expert makes case for everyone to wear N95 masks
The CDC said that face masks were recommended "in public settings when around people outside their household, especially when social distancing measures are hard to maintain". It's time to tell them to start wearing better masks or wearing two masks. The sight of coaches removing their masks at the precise moment they are most useful - when chatting with players and yelling at referees - r... [Full Article...]
ONS figures show United Kingdom passed 100,000 Covid deaths by 7 January
New figures from the ONS based on figures from England, Wales Scotland, and Northern Ireland reveal that 7,766 virus-related deaths were recorded in the United Kingdom in the most recent week, up to January 15. The figures bring the United Kingdom death toll from Covid in care homes to more than 27,000 when deaths registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same periodare included. [Full Article...]
Joe Biden to call for end of federally run private prisons
On Tuesday Biden said in the coming weeks he would reaffirm a federal "commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility". President Biden will take action Tuesday to disavow another aspect of his predecessor's legacy - racial animus toward Asian Americans, which rose sharply during a pandemic that President Trump blamed on "the China virus". [Full Article...]
COVID-19: Ontario reports 1,740 new cases, Ottawa shows another drop
The first shipment of a COVID-19 vaccine is scheduled to arrive in one of 31 fly-in First Nations communities on Tuesday as part of Ontario's Operation Remote Immunity. There are 83,285 total vaccinations completed (both doses). Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on the federal government to take further action when it comes to border control, pushing for mandatory COVID-19 testing and a tem... [Full Article...]
Biden overturns ban on transgender people joining U.S
Even if he can't get all the way there-he was voted in to be a centrist-I hope that with the language of equity in these plain speaking ways, we can normalize things that the right has disingenuously painted as too radical and far left. Mr Biden said his order directing the Justice Department not to renew its contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities is meant to ultimately ... [Full Article...]
Tokyo Olympic Q&A: officials try to explain how games to arrive
Do they feel safe? Can they be away that long? As many athletes and fans wonder about the future of the Tokyo Olympics, a Brock University professor says cancelling the games is not necessarily as easy as it may appear. Various training programs for volunteers, who have been recruited by the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee and local governments, have been canceled since aroun... [Full Article...]