US companies no longer have to pay sick leave to people with Covid after Mitch McConnell reportedly blocks extension

https://news.yahoo.com/american-companies-no-longer-pay-123314575.html

 

The Independent
James Crump
Tue, December 22, 2020, 4:35 PM EST

US businesses will no longer have to provide sick leave to employees who contract coronavirus, after Senate Majority Leader  [republican] Mitch McConnell reportedly blocked an extension of the policy.

At the start of the pandemic in the US in March, Congress passed legislation that allowed employees to claim two weeks of paid sick leave if they contracted Covid-19.

The legislation also mandated two weeks of paid leave to care for a relative who was quarantining after contracting Covid-19, and 10 weeks of paid family leave to look after a child whose school or daycare was closed because of the pandemic.

The requirement was not universal, as businesses with more than 500 employees were exempt from providing the paid leave, while companies with fewer than 50 workers were able to apply for an exemption.

However, as part of the first coronavirus relief package since spring, which was agreed by Congress on Sunday, the paid leave mandate was not extended, according to Buzzfeed News.

Both Republican and Democratic Congressional aides told Buzzfeed that the extension of paid leave was left out of the bill as a concession to Mr McConnell, who had been pushing for it not to be included.

Despite the end of the mandate, the bill does extend a refundable tax credit that subsidises the cost of paying sick leave until the end of March 2021.

However, making use of this subsidy is optional for businesses, meaning that US employees will no longer be automatically entitled to paid sick leave after contracting Covid-19.

•••••

A person who knowingly went to work while sick likely led to the COVID-19 deaths of 7 people and forced more than 300 people into quarantine, health officials say

https://news.yahoo.com/person-knowingly-went-while-sick-193909249.html

 

INSIDER
Kelly McLaughlin
Thu, December 24, 2020, 2:39 PM EST

Kelly McLaughlin
Thu, December 24, 2020, 2:39 PM EST
Boots test covid coronavirus
Boots

    Health officials in Douglas County, Oregon, said last week that one person who went to work sick with COVID-19 caused two outbreaks of the virus.

    Officials said that at least seven people died from COVID-19 as a result of the person going to work, and at least 300 people were forced to quarantine.

    Officials referred to the person's decision to go to work as a "superspreader action."

    Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A person living in southern Oregon knowingly went to work while sick, and likely caused seven people to die from COVID-19 and forced more than 300 people into quarantine, health officials said.

Douglas County officials said last week that the person had "unwittingly and unconsciously" chose to go to work while sick, and later tested positive for COVID-19.

It's unclear exactly when the the person went to work or where they are employed, but Douglas County officials said in a December 17 statement that the action led to two major COVID-19 outbreaks.

•••••

Wildfires fueled by climate change threaten toxic Superfund sites

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wildfires-fueled-climate-change-threaten-toxic-superfund-sites-n1252156

 

Dec. 23, 2020, 5:00 AM EST
By Michael Kodas, Inside Climate News and David Hasemyer, Inside Climate News
For Jake Jeresek, a leader of the U.S. Forest Service’s firefighting operation in the Kootenai National Forest of northwest Montana, blazes in the woods 4 miles east of the town of Libby demand the most urgent response. But, before his crew can snuff any flames in those woods, they must recite a poem.

“When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a tiny prism and form a rainbow,” crew members intone in turn.

The poem is a test of the firefighters’ respirators — a piece of safety equipment required in no other forest in the nation. The verse’s vocalizations ensure the respirators are properly sealed to the firefighters’ faces.

Contaminated by Libby amphibole, a highly toxic mixture of asbestos fibers unleashed by a former mine that has killed hundreds of area residents, this section of forest is an officially designated hazardous waste zone — Superfund Operable Unit 3 of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Libby Asbestos Site.

With wildfires heightened by climate change threatening 234 Superfund sites across the country, according to the federal government, the OU3 Libby Asbestos Site presents a kind of worst-case scenario in which a wildfire could send asbestos-contaminated ash into nearby communities. Some firefighters worry a plume of smoke could carry the forest’s toxins hundreds of miles away.

t’s one of the 945 Superfund sites that the Government Accountability Office last year found were vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, increased precipitation or wildfires, all of which are intensifying as the planet warms.

•••••

Some firefighters and land managers fear that it is only a matter of time before megafires like those that exploded across Colorado and California this year burn over a toxic site with disastrous consequences. There have already been a number of extremely close calls.

•••••

“Climate change is driving increased severe, extensive fire behavior. We're seeing more and more large, dramatic, destructive fires,” said Don Whittemore, a fire incident commander from Colorado who helped the Forest Service, EPA, state and county leaders put together their plan for managing fires in OU3.

•••••

 

Creek Fire forces Christmas Eve evacuations north of San Diego

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/creek-fire-forces-christmas-eve-evacuations-north-san-diego-n1252342

 

Dec. 24, 2020, 1:36 PM EST / Updated Dec. 24, 2020, 5:17 PM EST
By Tim Fitzsimons

A wildfire near a military base 50 miles north of San Diego forced thousands of people to evacuate on Christmas Eve, according to local fire authorities.

The fire broke out Wednesday in northern San Diego County, much of which is occupied by Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. NBC San Diego reported that about 7,000 people were ordered to evacuate overnight in the base communities and in neighboring Fallbrook.

In an update posted just after 9 a.m. PT, Ryan Rushing, a division chief at the Camp Pendleton Fire Department, said the fire had burned over 3,000 acres was zero percent contained.

Rushing said the fire's quick development was "fueled by steep terrain, difficult access, and winds."

•••••

tags: extreme weather, severe weather

'Mom, we need food': Thousands in South Sudan near famine

Climate disruption is making the situation worse, increasing conflict, decreasing food supplies, at times making it hard to deliver aid, as in the flooding cited in this article.

https://news.yahoo.com/mom-food-thousands-south-sudan-070333189.html

 

AP
SAM MEDNICK
Thu, December 24, 2020, 2:03 AM EST

After nearly a week of hiding from conflict, Kallayn Keneng watched two of her young children die. “They cried and cried and said, ‘Mom, we need food,'" she said. But she had nothing to give. Too frail to bury her 5-year-old and 7-year-old after days without eating, she covered their bodies with grass and left them in the forest.

Now the mourning 40-year-old awaits food aid, one of more than 30,000 people said to be in likely famine in South Sudan's Pibor county. The new finding by international food security experts means this could be the first part of the world in famine since one was declared in 2017 in another part of the country then deep in civil war.

South Sudan is one of four countries with areas that could slip into famine, the United Nations has warned, along with Yemen, Burkina Faso and northeastern Nigeria.

Pibor county this year has seen deadly local violence and unprecedented flooding that have hurt aid efforts. On a visit to the town of Lekuangole this month, seven families told The Associated Press that 13 of their children starved to death between February and November.

•••••

The Famine Review Committee’s report, released this month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, stops short of declaring famine because of insufficient data. But famine is thought to be occurring, meaning at least 20% of households face extreme food gaps and at least 30% of children are acutely malnourished.

•••••

Flooding has cut off most road access to Pibor town and its better medical care, forcing some severely sick children to travel for three days along the river in flimsy plastic rafts.

•••••

Trump’s old tweet suggesting Clinton should accept defeat ‘with dignity’ returns to haunt him

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-old-tweet-suggesting-clinton-074311724.html

 

The Independent
Shweta Sharma
Thu, December 24, 2020, 2:43 AM EST

An old tweet by Donald Trump suggesting that Hilary Clinton should “lose with dignity” has resurfaced to haunt him as he continues to refuse to accept the election result and complain of voter fraud despite the lack of any proof that supports his claims.

Mr Trump shared the message shortly after he was elected president in 2016, endorsing comments made by Vladimir Putin about Ms Clinton and the Democratic Party at an annual news conference in Moscow.

"Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems: 'In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose with dignity.' So true!” read the tweet.

•••••

Last month, Mr Trump’s critics hit back by reminding him of his 2014 tweet in which he said: “What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate”.

The outgoing president is to yet acknowledge his defeat in the US presidential elections even as Mr Biden is all set for taking the oath of office in January 2021.

Mr Trump is reported to be throwing a “temper tantrum” and telling his advisers that he won’t leave the White House. "He's throwing a f****** temper tantrum. He's going to leave. He's just lashing out," an adviser said.

•••••

High court allows murder charge after fetus is stillborn

Smoking increases the risk of still birth, as does drinking alcohol.  Are they going to charge women who smoked or drank during pregnancy and had a still birth with murder?

https://news.yahoo.com/high-court-allows-murder-charge-191846286.html

 

AP

Thu, December 24, 2020, 2:18 PM EST

The California Supreme Court declined to stop the prosecution of a woman who was charged with murder after authorities said she used methamphetamine before her fetus was stillborn.

•••••

Chelsea Becker of Hanford has remained in custody on $2 million bail since the 2019 stillbirth. Police say methamphetamine was found in the fetus and that Becker, who was 8½ months pregnant at the time of the stillbirth, acknowledged using the drug. Becker, 26, has pleaded not guilty.

Supporters say substance use disorder is a medical condition, not a crime, and that there is not enough evidence to say methamphetamine use causes stillbirths.

Philip Esbenshade, executive assistant to Kings County District Attorney Keith Fagundes, said the law authorizes a murder charge for “the reckless or indifferent unlawful conduct of a mother that results in the unlawful death of her fetus.”

•••••

The 1970 California law allowing a murder charge does not say whether the pregnant woman herself can be charged. But it lists circumstances that would bar prosecution, including legal abortion, medical intervention to save the woman’s life, or any act that was “solicited, aided, abetted or consented to by the mother of the fetus.”

 [It appears that this law would not apply to charging the mother in this case.]

2020 closes a decade of exceptional heat

https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/2020-closes-decade-of-exceptional-heat

World Meteorological Organization
Published 24 December 2020

As 2020 draws to an end, it closes the warmest decade (2011-2020) on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This year remains on track to be one of the three warmest on record, and may even rival 2016 as the warmest on record. The six warmest years have all been since 2015.

The exceptional heat of 2020 is despite a cooling La Niña event, which is now mature and impacting weather patterns in many parts of the world. According to most models, La Niña is expected to peak in intensity in either December or January and continue through the early part of 2021, according to a new WMO summary.

“Record warm years have usually coincided with a strong El Niño event, as was the case in 2016. We are now experiencing a La Niña, which has a cooling effect on global temperatures, but has not been sufficient to put a brake on this year’s heat. Despite the current La Niña conditions, this year has already shown near record heat comparable to the previous record of 2016,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Taalas.

•••••

The difference between the warmest three years is small and exact rankings for each data set could change once data for the entire year are available.

The temperature ranking of individual years is less important than long-term trends. Since the 1980s each decade has been warmer than the previous one. And that trend is expected to continue because of record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, in particular, remains in the atmosphere for many decades, thus committing the planet to future warming.

•••••



•••••

Urban land and aerosols amplify hazardous weather, steer storms toward cities

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/dnnl-ula121520.php

 

News Release 15-Dec-2020
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

 

Urban landscapes and human-made aerosols--particles suspended in the atmosphere--have the potential to not only make gusts stronger and hail larger; they can also start storms sooner and even pull them toward cities, according to new research exploring the impact of urban development on hazardous weather, led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.


•••••

tags: extreme weather, severe weather,

Expect fewer, but more destructive landfalling tropical cyclones

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/ifbs-efb121520.php

 

News Release 16-Dec-2020
Institute for Basic Science

 

A study based on new high-resolution supercomputer simulations, published in this week's issue of the journal Science Advances, reveals that global warming will intensify landfalling tropical cyclones of category 3 or higher in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, while suppressing the formation of weaker events.

Tropical cyclones (including typhoons and hurricanes), are the most fatal and costliest weather disasters on our planet. Millions of people are affected every year by the destructive power of these extreme weather systems,

•••••

tags: extreme weather, severe weather,

A child so sick they feared the worst, now they urge others to wear masks

https://news.yahoo.com/child-sick-feared-worst-now-172909985.html

 

AP

LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Wed, December 23, 2020, 12:29 PM EST

Kale Wuthrich watched doctors surround his son in the emergency room, giving him fluids though IV tubes, running a battery of tests and trying to stabilize him. He was enveloped by the confusion and fear that had been building since his 12-year-old suddenly fell ill weeks after a mild bout with the coronavirus.

“He was very close at that point to not making it, and basically they told me to sit in the corner and pray,” Wuthrich said. “And that’s what I did.”

Shortly after Thanksgiving, the boy from a secluded valley in Idaho became one of hundreds of children in the U.S. who have been diagnosed with a rare, extreme immune response to COVID-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Cooper Wuthrich’s fever spiked as his joints and organs became inflamed, including his heart, putting his life at risk, his father said.

“Cooper had it in every organ, in his joints; his feet were swelled up the size of mine, his poor eyes were red, bugged out of his head and very lethargic, very scared," Kale Wuthrich said. “Cooper would never, has never complained about pain, but that’s all he could do was tell me how bad he hurt.”

After days in the hospital, Cooper is back home. But the kid who loves sledding and skiing spent much of the following days on the couch in the lounge of the Montpelier, Idaho, truck stop that his parents partly own. A short walk left him with a bloody nose, and he’s still on medications that require twice-daily injections.

For Cooper’s parents, his illness deepened their commitment to wearing masks and urging others to do so, though pushback can be intense in conservative Idaho. Hundreds of people have protested mask requirements for months, even forcing one Boise health official to rush home this month in fear for her child as protesters blasted a sound clip of gunfire outside her front door.

•••••

Cooper caught the virus in late October, likely at school, which is open for in-person classes without a mask requirement, said his mother, Dani Wuthrich.

“He had got himself grounded, and so he hadn’t been allowed to go anywhere except for to school,” she said. “We kind of don’t know anywhere else he could have gotten it besides school.”

•••••

The root seems to be a dysfunction of the immune system, which kicks into overdrive when exposed to the virus, releasing chemicals that can damage organs. Symptoms include fever, abdominal or neck pain, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, bloodshot eyes and fatigue.

It can be tricky to identify at first because some kids have such mild COVID-19 symptoms that parents didn't know they had the virus until the inflammatory syndrome appears, Truong said. It’s unclear why some children get the syndrome and others don't, so the only way to prevent it is to stop kids from getting the virus, with steps like masks and social distancing, she said.

Back home in Idaho, the Wuthriches are trying to persuade friends and family to take precautions. To a hunting buddy, Kale Wuthrich made his case for mask-wearing by comparing it to the camouflage he puts on his face while staking out deer.

•••••

'My second life': California nurse walks out of hospital after 8-month COVID-19 ordeal

Reuters

Steve Gorman
Tue, December 22, 2020, 5:45 PM EST

As a veteran ICU nurse whose job is to care for the most critically ill patients at her hospital in Long Beach, California, Merlin Pambuan was well aware of the deadly ravages COVID-19 can inflict on the human body.

Last spring in a tragic role reversal, Pambuan became one of those patients - admitted to the intensive care unit of St. Mary Medical Center, her workplace for the past 40 years, where she was rendered unconscious by paralysis-inducing sedation and placed on a ventilator to breathe. A feeding tube was later added.

She came close to death on several occasions, her doctors later revealed. So dire was her condition at one point that end-of-life options were discussed with her family.

By the time she awoke and could breathe on her own again, she was too weak to stand. But she fought back and struggled through weeks of painful therapy to regain her strength and mobility, celebrating her 66th birthday in St. Mary's acute rehabilitation ward in late October.

On Monday Pambuan beat the odds of her eight-month ordeal by walking out the front door of the hospital, drawing cheers, applause and exhilaration from colleagues lining the lobby to rejoice in her discharge.

•••••

studies show frontline healthcare workers' frequent, close contact with coronavirus patients puts them at higher risk of contracting the disease, hence the decision to give them top priority in getting immunized.

•••••

Pambuan spent the last few months of her hospital stay undergoing physical and respiratory rehabilitation and will continue recuperation from home, while making peace, she said, with a change in pace.

"It's going to be very difficult for me," she said. "But I have to accept it, that I'm going to be on oxygen for a while and slow down a little bit."

•••••

GM recalls 840K vehicles for seat belt, suspension problems

https://news.yahoo.com/gm-recalls-840k-vehicles-seat-133932901.html

 

Associated Press

Wed, December 23, 2020, 8:39 AM EST

General Motors is recalling nearly 840,000 vehicles in the U.S. for suspension problems or because the front seat belts can fail.

The seat belt recall covers 624,000 2019 through 2021 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickup trucks. Also included are the 2021 Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe and GMC Yukon XL, and the 2020 and 2021 Silverado 2500 and 3500 and GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500.

All have split bench seats. Pickups with bucket seats are not affected.

GM says in government documents that the seat belt brackets may not have been secured to the seat frame. That means the belts may not properly restrain people in a crash. The company says it doesn’t know of any crashes or injuries.

GM will notify owners starting Feb. 1 and dealers will inspect the seat belt brackets and assemble them correctly.

•••••

Trump leaves Washington in limbo with relief threat

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/531522-trump-leaves-washington-in-limbo-with-relief-threat

 

By Naomi Jagoda and Morgan Chalfant - 12/23/20 05:12 PM EST

President Trump has left Washington in limbo after signaling opposition to the massive coronavirus relief and government funding package passed with bipartisan support this week, threatening a government shutdown in his final days in office.

Trump, who left Washington for his Mar-a-Lago resort on Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, did not definitively say he would veto the $2.3 trillion package, but his opposition left members of both parties shaking their heads and wondering if he’d come around to sign the legislation before funding is set to run out on Dec. 29.

Congress would have limited options and time should Trump veto the package.

The most plausible move may be for Congress to pass a weeks-long continuing resolution to fund the government through the beginning of January.

•••••

Failure to promptly enact a relief package could further hamper an economy already showing new signs of slowing as coronavirus cases explode across the country, forcing some states and localities to implement new restrictions on businesses to curb COVID-19’s spread.

Two unemployment assistance programs funded by the CARES Act are set to expire the day after Christmas, and the federal moratorium on evictions will expire at the end of the year. As of mid-December, more than 14 million weekly claims were being made in the two programs alone.

A shutdown would put millions of federal employees on furlough in the midst of the economic downturn while closing nonessential services. Trump has already presided over the longest shutdown in U.S. history, a 35-day affair from December 2018 through January 2019 over funding for his border wall.

•••••

One former White House official attributed Trump’s last-minute objection to the bill as a bid to stay relevant in the waning weeks of his term.

•••••

Republicans vent over surprise Trump move on COVID-19 relief

Given Trump's past actions, I have to wonder if he is doing things like this as revenge on our country for not re-electing him.  It's certainly consistent with his tendency to stab allies in the back.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/531516-republicans-vent-over-surprise-trump-move-on-covid-19-relief

 

By Juliegrace Brufke - 12/23/20 04:38 PM EST

House Republicans vented during a conference call held Wednesday over President Trump’s threat to veto the sweeping coronavirus relief and omnibus spending package, which could potentially tee up an end-of-the-year government shutdown.

Trump in a video post to Twitter on Tuesday complained that the $600 direct payments included in the bill were too small, and called for them to be $2,000.

Democrats, who have backed larger payments, are seeking to turn that against the GOP with a unanimous consent request on Thursday to agree to stand-alone legislation that would make the checks $2,000. 

•••••

The president is set to travel to his Mar-a-Lago resort on Wednesday. If he does not sign the new legislation, the government would shut down on Dec. 29 without other action by Congress.

•••••

The lawmaker noted that some of the provisions Trump railed against were included in his own budget request.

"I've been with the president at about every turn, you know, tried to stand with him, tried to support him, and here he is now bitching about the stuff he asked us to put in the bill. It's just not helpful when we're being divided and here we are being divided by him," the lawmaker told The Hill.


"The Defense bill, the veto, everything — I mean, if he wants us to all vote with him on the sixth you'd think he'd be trying to pull us together. It makes it harder for anybody that was maybe feeling charitable towards him – it pisses off anybody who cares about Defense, you know this stuff pisses off appropriators, it just makes it harder for us to come together and kumbaya to support him later," the member added.

•••••

The Blackwater guards Trump pardoned were jailed for a massacre of civilians, including 2 kids

People have noticed that after making these pardons, Trump made his threat to veto the government spending bill just passed by Congress, unless the amount of direct payouts is increased, after he had told Congress he would sign the bill.  This threat has taken attention off the pardons.

\https://news.yahoo.com/blackwater-guards-trump-pardoned-were-131513384.html

 

The Week
Peter Weber
Wed, December 23, 2020, 8:15 AM EST

The 15 people President Trump pardoned Tuesday evening include the first two congressmen who endorsed him for president — former Reps. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), both convicted of financial crimes — two people jailed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, and four private guards working for Blackwater who were serving long sentences for an unprovoked and unnecessary 2007 massacre of civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left 17 Iraqis dead, including two boys, ages 8 and 11.

Blackwater, since sold and renamed Academi, is a private military contractor outfit headed at the time by Erik Prince, brother to Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The Nisour Square massacre marked a low point in U.S.-Iraqi relations after the 2003 U.S. invasion, and federal prosecutors spent years bringing the four Blackwater guards — Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard — to justice.

•••••

Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn December 15, 202012:17 PM ET

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/15/946381523/right-wing-embrace-of-conspiracy-is-mass-radicalization-experts-warn?fbclid=IwAR2PRA7zX___lguKYprK5d5wndBPB1fGwrfkbMLUsrnvNT5lqnbBPtDfCUw

December 15, 202012:17 PM ET
Hannah Allam


The widespread embrace of conspiracy and disinformation amounts to a "mass radicalization" of Americans, and increases the risk of right-wing violence, veteran security officials and terrorism researchers warn.

At conferences, in op-eds and at agency meetings, domestic terrorism analysts are raising concern about the security implications of millions of conservatives buying into baseless right-wing claims. They say the line between mainstream and fringe is vanishing, with conspiracy-minded Republicans now marching alongside armed extremists at rallies across the country. Disparate factions on the right are coalescing into one side, analysts say, self-proclaimed "real Americans" who are cocooned in their own news outlets, their own social media networks and, ultimately, their own "truth."

"This tent that used to be sort of 'far-right extremists' has gotten a lot broader. To me, a former counterterrorism official, that's a radicalization process," said Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw terrorism cases and who's now a law professor at Georgetown University.

•••••

At the online conference, participants characterized the shift as a mass radicalization. Neumann said the issue keeps her up at night worrying about where the country is heading. She talked about family members who've gone down the right-wing rabbit hole of disinformation. She said conversations with them require patience and negotiation, such as laying out her conditions for coronavirus safety protocols at family gatherings.

•••••

On the conference call, the analysts agreed that the leftist fringe also is hardening and promoting its own conspiracies. But they said there's simply no equivalency with the right in terms of the volume of disinformation and conspiracy, or in its connections to violent acts.

"There is a monetization of outrage on both sides," Neumann said, "but in particular the conservative infotainment sector makes money off of that outrage."

On the topic of solutions, the panelists floated ideas about education, media literacy, trusted mediators. But they added there's little chance of progress until Trump, a superspreader of conspiracies and disinformation, is out of the White House.

•••••

Kruglanski said revolutions and wars throughout history offer examples of how quickly extremism can go mainstream.

"Every large political movement started at one point as a small fringe minority," he said. "And when it catches on, it can engulf the whole society. So, you know, the danger is there."

Community-based programs reduce sexual violence, study shows

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/uop-cpr121820.php

 

News Release 22-Dec-2020
University of Pittsburgh

 

Through small, neighborhood classes, researchers at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Promundo-US significantly reduced sexual violence among teenage boys living in areas of concentrated disadvantage.

The study, published today in JAMA, is the culmination of a large Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clinical trial spanning 20 racially segregated neighborhoods in the Pittsburgh area to evaluate two violence prevention programs. The proportion of youth reporting the use of sexual or partner violence in their relationships decreased in both groups by about 12 percentage points.


•••••

For young men enrolled in Manhood 2.0, the use of partner violence--including physical or verbal abuse, sexual harassment, sexual coercion and cyber abuse--dropped from 64% at baseline to 52% in the months following the program. For those who received job training, self-reported sexual violence dropped from 53% to 41%.

That was a surprise. Miller said she expected job training to have a positive impact in other areas of life, but not violence towards women.

"Job skills training is a structural intervention, grounded in economic justice," Miller said. "Perhaps this resonated and resulted in young men using less violence because they felt more hopeful about their future."

Next, the researchers hope to study whether combining Manhood 2.0 with job readiness training might have an even greater impact on intimate partner and sexual violence than either curriculum alone.

•••••

COVID immunity lasts up to 8 months, new data reveals

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/mu-cil122020.php

 

News Release 22-Dec-2020
Monash University

 

Australian researchers have revealed - for the first time - that people who have been infected with the COVID-19 virus have immune memory to protect against reinfection for at least eight months.


•••••

The publication reveals the discovery that specific cells within the immune system called memory B cells, "remembers" infection by the virus, and if challenged again, through re-exposure to the virus, triggers a protective immune response through rapid production of protective antibodies.

•••••

As with other studies - looking only at the antibody response - the researchers found that antibodies against the virus started to drop off after 20 days post infection.

However - importantly - all patients continued to have memory B cells that recognised one of two components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the spike and nucleocapsid proteins. These virus-specific memory B cells were stably present as far as eight months after infection.

According to Associate Professor van Zelm, the results give hope to the efficacy of any vaccine against the virus and also explains why there have been so few examples of genuine reinfection across the millions of those who have tested positive for the virus globally.

•••••

Masks not enough to stop COVID-19's spread without distancing

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/aiop-mne122120.php

 

News Release 22-Dec-2020
American Institute of Physics

 

Simply wearing a mask may not be enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19 without social distancing.

In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers tested how five different types of mask materials impacted the spread of droplets that carry the coronavirus when we cough or sneeze.

Every material tested dramatically reduced the number of droplets that were spread. But at distances of less than 6 feet, enough droplets to potentially cause illness still made it through several of the materials.

"A mask definitely helps, but if the people are very close to each other, there is still a chance of spreading or contracting the virus," said Krishna Kota, an associate professor at New Mexico State University and one of the article's authors. "It's not just masks that will help. It's both the masks and distancing."


•••••