Year: 2020

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that it's "extremely crucial" to take every possible measure to combat a new coronavirus that has infected more than 200 people in the country.His remarks, cited by state broadcaster CCTV, came the same day that the country reported a sharp rise in the number of people infected by the novel form of viral pneumonia, including the first cases in the capital.The outbreak comes as the country enters its busiest travel period, when millions board trains and planes for the Lunar New Year holidays."The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan and other places must be taken seriously," Xi said, according to CCTV. "Party committees, governments and relevant departments at all levels should put people's lives and health first."Health authorities in the central city…

Chinese health officials in the central city of Wuhan confirmed 136 new cases of a new coronavirus — a huge spike — over the past three days.The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission says the total number of cases of the virus now exceeds 200, including two new cases in Beijing and one in Shenzhen in southern China. Most of the confirmed cases are described as mild, but three deaths have been reported.Doctors in Wuhan, China's seventh most populous city, have stepped up screening for suspected cases of pneumonia. They are urging people to be more conscious of their personal hygiene and to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze.On Friday the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at three airports — San Francisco,…

Chinese health officials in Wuhan report 136 new cases of a newly confirmed coronavirus in the past three days, bringing the total number of cases of the potentially deadly virus to nearly 200.Most of the confirmed cases are mild, but at least three deaths are reported, according to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. The WHO reported 139 new confirmed cases, citing China as a source.#China🇨🇳 has reported to WHO 139 new cases of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in #Wuhan, #Beijing and #Shenzhen over the past two days.This is the result of increased searching and testing for 2019-nCoV among people sick with respiratory illness. pic.twitter.com/qAuaFzYmXH— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 19, 2020On Friday, U.S. health officials began screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at three U.S. airports: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New…

U.S. health officials are at airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York screening passengers traveling from Wuhan, a city in central China, where a viral pneumonia has spread. Michelle Quinn spoke to passengers arriving in San Francisco. ...

Amid a spike in violent extremism around the world, a communications researcher is experimenting with a novel idea: whether people can be “inoculated” against hate with a little exposure to extremist propaganda, in the same manner vaccines enable human bodies to fight disease.The idea is based on something called attitudinal inoculation, a technique that aims to build people’s resistance to negative influences by exposing them to weaker forms of those influences.  Developed in the 1960s, the method has been used to help teenagers resist peer pressure to start smoking.  In 2018, Kurt Braddock, a communications professor at Penn State University, conducted a study to see whether attitudinal inoculation could be used against extremism.  The results, published in the journal Terrorism and Political Violence in November, look promising. Data showed a 'very cool story'The data came back…

The World Health Organization reports there is no evidence of human-to-human spread of the new coronavirus that has sickened dozens, but says the possibility cannot be ruled out.   Investigations are continuing, aimed at identifying  the source of the new Coronavirus.  Late last year, China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause.  Many were linked to a fish market in Wuhan, central China’s largest city.  The World Health Organization reports 41 people have been infected with the disease in China, including two deaths.  Additionally, two infections have been identified in Thailand and one in Japan among people who had traveled to Wuhan.  The spread of the disease outside of China is raising concern among health officials and the general public.  Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that range…

U.S. health officials announced Friday that the United States will begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China for signs of a new virus outbreak that has killed two people and sickened dozens of others.Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the screenings will take place at airports in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and will focus on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the heart of the outbreak.A CDC spokesman, Scott Pauley, told VOA that only people traveling from Wuhan would be screened at this time.Chinese health officials say many of those who became sick from the virus worked at or visited a food market in the suburbs of Wuhan. Three cases have been detected outside China --…

Four more cases have been identified in a viral pneumonia outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that has killed two people and prompted countries as far away as the United States to take precautionary measures. The latest cases bring to 45 the number of people who have contracted the illness, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said Saturday. Five are in serious condition, two died and 15 have been discharged. The others are in stable condition. The cause of the pneumonia has been traced to a new type of coronavirus. Health authorities are keen to avoid a repeat of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, another coronavirus that started in southern China in late 2002 and spread to more than two dozen countries, killing nearly 800 people. The U.S.…

The new virus emerging from a live animal market in southern China has worrisome echoes of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which killed 774 people worldwide in 2002 and 2003.  Two people have died from the new virus, which is closely related to the SARS virus. Forty-one people have become ill. Three travelers have carried it to Thailand and Japan.  Georgetown University infectious diseases physician Daniel Lucey worked on SARS in 2003 in China, Hong Kong and Toronto.He says this outbreak is different in three ways.  Chinese scientists have tools that were not available in 2002. They had the acumen to look for something new. And they had something else that was missing during SARS: the transparency to warn the world.Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, right, speaks next to Wong Ka-hing,…

A second person has died from a newly identified virus in central China that has sickened dozens. The outbreak prompted U.S. health officials to announce Friday that the United States would begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China. Here is what we know about the virus.What is the newly identified virus?Health authorities have identified the virus as a new type of coronavirus, part of a large family of viruses that includes the common cold as well as the more serious illness SARS. Laboratory tests have ruled out all previously known coronaviruses, including SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome, as well as influenza and bird flu. Scientists say the new virus strain appears most similar to SARS, but say it seems to be weaker than…

Bobby Humphreys never thought that it would be a tiny Chihuahua that would help him go through a very large rough patch in life. But the small dog named Lady did more than that – she also inspired the Maryland native to turn his home into a shelter for abandoned, abused and neglected Chihuahuas. Evgeniya Samus has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.  ...

U.S. health officials announced Friday that they will begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China for a new virus that has sickened dozens and killed two, prompting worries about a new international outbreak.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say they will begin taking temperatures and asking about symptoms of passengers at three U.S. airports who traveled from the outbreak city of Wuhan.Officials estimate roughly 5,000 passengers will go through the process in the next couple of weeks at New York City's JFK International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport. The first direct flight was expected Friday night at JFK, and the next expected Saturday morning in San Francisco.More than 40 cases of the newly identified coronavirus have been confirmed in Asia, including two deaths…

At least 700,000 people die every year due to drug-resistant diseases, including 230,000 from multidrug resistant tuberculosis, according to the World Health Organization.  Last year, a U.N. report predicted growing antimicrobial resistance could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and trigger a financial crisis.The WHO said the health threat affects everyone, but those most at risk include people whose immune system is compromised, the elderly, and patients undergoing chemotherapy, surgery and organ transplants.Fifty antibiotics are in the pipeline, said WHO's Senior Adviser on Antimicrobial Resistance, Peter Beyer, but the majority only have limited benefits when compared to existing antibiotics."We are actually running out of antibiotics that are effective against these resistant bacteria," he said. "It takes maybe 10 years to develop a new antibiotic, so if you go…

An ancient and rare species of tree has been saved from Australia's bush fires by a specialist team of firefighters.  Australia's Wollemi pines survived the dinosaurs, and were protected from huge blazes near Sydney by water-bombing aircraft and specialist firefighters, who were winched into a narrow gorge by helicopter.  "It was a military-style operation," said Matt Kean, the New South Wales environment minister. "We had fire retardant, irrigation systems. We winched staff into the area to make sure that we were doing everything we could to protect the trees, and fortunately it paid off."These trees can be found nowhere else in the world. In fact, there are only 200 left on the planet, so we needed to do everything we could to protect them and ensure they were able to…

The The World Health Organization reports that 3,382 cases of Ebola, including 2,232 deaths, have occurred in Congo's North Kivu and Ituri provinces since the start of the outbreak in August 2018. The epidemic is unfolding in an area affected by a two decades-long conflict that has claimed countless lives.Capobianco says this unstable, dangerous situation has raised fear and hostility in communities toward responders."The episode was regrettable and I think the expression of the frustration in the communities seeing this Ebola outbreak continuing month after month," he said. "You know, this is a year-and-a-half now. And, that is a way that the frustration and the fear is manifesting.”  Capobianco says the attack is a sign that the Red Cross needs to do more to build community trust and acceptance. He…

The last 10 years were the hottest decade ever measured on Earth, last year was the second warmest ever and NASA says "you haven't seen anything yet."The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that the average global temperature in the 2010s was 14.7 degrees Celsius, with eight of the 10 hottest years ever recorded.Parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and South America had record-high temperatures in 2019. Alaska's average temperature was above freezing for the first time in recorded history.Many climate scientists who have seen the study said there was no other explanation for the record-breaking warming than human activity."This is going to be part of what we see every year until we stabilize greenhouse gases," said Gavin Schmidt, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "We crossed over into more…

The possibility that a new virus in central China could spread between humans cannot be ruled out, though the risk of transmission at the moment appears to be low, Chinese officials said Wednesday.      Forty-one people in the city of Wuhan have received a preliminary diagnosis of a novel coronavirus, a family of viruses that can cause both the common cold and more serious diseases. A 61-year-old man with severe underlying conditions died from the coronavirus on Saturday.      While preliminary investigations indicate that most of the patients had worked at or visited a particular seafood wholesale market, one woman may have contracted the virus from her husband, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a public notice.      The commission said the husband, who fell ill…

The European Union rolled out a massive, trillion-dollar investment plan Tuesday to deliver on promises to make Europe the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050.The EU would designate one-quarter of its budget to fighting climate change over the next decade. The trillion-dollar price tag would come from a mix of EU and national government funds, as well as investment from the private sector.  It targets the EU’s ambitious goal of ensuring greenhouse emissions reach net zero in 30 years. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who late last year announced that goal — a plan she calls the “Green Deal" — says the investments are for the climate, as well as EU citizens. "It will be invested in the huge transition ahead of us, which consists of upskilling people in new…

Vice President Mike Pence has formally sworn in in Gen. John "Jay" Raymond as the new Chief of Space Operations Tuesday at the White House.Raymond assumed the duties of the first head of the Space Force on December 20, 2019, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act that officially launched the new force."The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground," Trump said at the NDAA signing last month.Officials say the Space Force will organize, train and equip military personnel who primarily focus on space operations.Vice President Mike Pence, right, applauds during swearing in ceremony for Air Force General John Raymond as Chief of Space Operations, in his Ceremonial Office in the White House complex, Jan. 14, 2020 in…

The world's oceans were the hottest in recorded history in 2019, scientists said on Tuesday, as manmade emissions warmed seas at an ever-increasing rate with potentially disastrous impacts on Earth's climate.Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of excess heat created by greenhouse gas emissions and quantifying how much they have warmed up in recent years gives scientists an accurate read on the rate of global warming.A team of experts from around the world looked at data compiled by China's Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) to gain a clear picture of ocean warmth to a depth of 2,000 meters over several decades.They found that oceans last year were by far the hottest ever recorded and said that the effects of ocean warming were already being felt in the form of more…

Pollution kills three times more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, according to new estimates. It's one of the leading causes of death. But it's a neglected issue in most of the world, despite the enormous toll. VOA's Steve Baragona has more. ...

The World Health Organization confirmed Monday the first case in Thailand of a new virus from the same family as SARS that is behind a Chinese pneumonia outbreak.The U.N. health agency said a person traveling from Wuhan, China, had been hospitalized in Thailand on January 8 after being diagnosed with mild pneumonia."Laboratory testing subsequently confirmed that the novel coronavirus was the cause," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told AFP in an email, referring to the new virus.WHO said it might soon host an emergency meeting on the spread of the new virus.The case marks the first outside of China, where 41 people with pneumonia-like symptoms have so far been diagnosed with the new virus in the central city of Wuhan, with one of the victims dying last Thursday.The episode has caused…