Category: News

Scientists around the world are working to battle the coronavirus - an effort that extends to a space-travel lab that worked overtime to help sick earthlings. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has This Week in Space. ...

Burundi has expelled four officials from the World Health Organization (WHO), declaring them persona non grata and ordering them to leave the country by Friday, a leaked memo from the country’s foreign ministry reveals. The decision comes days before the May 20 presidential elections and amid a global coronavirus pandemic.Bernard Ntahiraja, the foreign affairs assistant minister, did not provide an explanation for the expulsion. The WHO's Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said that the organization “remain[s] very willing to...support their [Burundi’s] response to COVID-19.” John Nkengasong, the head of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement that he found the decision to hold elections in a time of the COVID-19 crisis irresponsible. “We have to collectively deny the virus any space to transmit,” he said.Opposition candidate Léonce Ngendakumana…

America faces the "darkest winter in modern history" unless leaders act decisively to prevent a rebound of the coronavirus, says a government whistleblower who alleges he was ousted from his job after warning the Trump administration to prepare for the pandemic. Immunologist Dr. Rick Bright makes his sobering prediction in testimony prepared for his appearance Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Aspects of his complaint about early administration handling of the crisis are expected to be backed up by testimony from an executive of a company that manufactures, respirator masks. A federal watchdog agency has found "reasonable grounds" that Bright was removed from his post as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority after sounding the alarm at the Department of Health and Human Services. Bright…

The European Medicines Agency predicted that there could be licensed drugs to treat the new coronavirus in the next few months and that a vaccine might even be approved in early 2021, in a "best-case scenario." Dr. Marco Cavaleri, who heads the European regulator's vaccines department, told a media briefing on Thursday that approving medicines to treat COVID-19 might be possible "before the summer," citing ongoing clinical trials. Recent early results for the drug remdesivir suggested it could help patients recover from the coronavirus faster, although longer-term data is still needed to confirm any benefit.   Although it typically takes years to develop a vaccine, Cavaleri said that if some of the shots already being tested prove to be effective, they could be licensed as early as the beginning of…

Cancer deaths have dropped more in states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act than in states that did not, new research reveals. The report Wednesday is the first evidence tying cancer survival to the health care change, which began in 2014 after the law known as "Obamacare" took full effect, said one study leader, Dr. Anna Lee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "For a policy to have this amount of impact in a short amount of years" is remarkable, because cancer often takes a long time to develop and prove fatal, she said. Lee discussed the results in an American Society of Clinical Oncology news conference as part of its annual meeting later this month. The law let states expand Medicaid eligibility and offer subsidies to help…

A new comet that was discovered in April using data from an orbiting observatory may be visible to the naked eye in the coming weeks. The comet was first spotted by amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo, who used data gathered by an instrument onboard the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite. The instrument, known as the Solar Wind Anisotropies, or SWAN, maps the constantly outflowing solar wind in interplanetary space by focusing on a wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted by hydrogen atoms.  The new comet was picked up by the instrument because it is releasing huge amounts of water, about 1.3 tons per second. Though its official name is C/2020 F8, the comet has become known as Comet SWAN for the instrument that aided in its discovery. It…

As South Korea grapples with a new spike in coronavirus infections thought to be linked to nightspots in Seoul, including several popular with gay men, it's also seeing rising homophobia that's making it difficult for sexual minorities to come forward for diagnostic tests. The first confirmed patient in the new coronavirus cluster was a 29-year-old man who visited five nightclubs and bars in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment neighborhood in a single night before testing positive for the virus last Wednesday. Further investigation has since found more than 100 infections that appear linked to the nightspots. A Christian church-founded newspaper, Kookmin Ilbo, reported last week that the places the man visited in Itaewon on May 2 included a gay club. The report was followed by a flood of anti-gay slurs on social…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic first erupted in China this winter, hopes have lingered that the outbreak would die down with the change of seasons.  "A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat," U.S. Stalls are shuttered at Hong Lim Hawker Centre in Singapore, May 10, 2020, amid the coronavirus outbreak. COVID-19 cases in Singapore recently spiked to 700 to 800 per day."We can see that this virus has spread all over the world, with many different temperatures," said Universidad Católica de Valencia bioengineering professor Angel Serrano Aroca. "I believe that there is an effect of weather conditions, but I think that this virus is so contagious that there are other factors that are much more important." Population density, social-distancing measures and public health tools such as…

Climate scientists expect above-normal temperatures over the next three months, despite the absence of an El Nino, a natural phenomenon that tends to boost global temperatures.   In past years, record heat has occurred in El Nino years. But that is changing according to the global seasonal climate update from the World Meteorological Organization. The WMO said that April 2020, a non-El Nino period, is tied as the warmest month on record with April 2016, when there was a strong El Nino, as well as climate change. WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis said all the years subsequent to 2016 have been very warm without El Nino, including 2019, which was the second warmest year on record.  She notes the trend has continues into this year.  “Global temperatures in January, February and March were also the warmest or second warmest year on record, according to international data bases," Nullis said.  "So, we are seeing now that…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic first erupted in China this winter, hopes have lingered that the outbreak would die down with the change of seasons.  "A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat," U.S. Stalls are shuttered at Hong Lim Hawker Centre in Singapore, May 10, 2020, amid the coronavirus outbreak. COVID-19 cases in Singapore recently spiked to 700 to 800 per day."We can see that this virus has spread all over the world, with many different temperatures," said Universidad Católica de Valencia bioengineering professor Angel Serrano Aroca. "I believe that there is an effect of weather conditions, but I think that this virus is so contagious that there are other factors that are much more important." Population density, social-distancing measures and public health tools such as…

It is not only doctors who are exposed to the deadly coronavirus every day – there are all the non-medical employees at hospitals who face the same risks every day. Maia Kay reports on how they are coping with today’s harsh reality. ...

You can count on viruses to change. VOA explains the process and why it could pose problems for researchers who are working on a COVID-19 vaccine. ...

China’s health commission is reporting a spike in new COVID-19 cases in several provinces, prompting health officials to urge citizens to use personal protection. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.At a Beijing news conference, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said 17 new cases were reported Monday, up from 14 the day before. This marked the first double-digit increase in new cases in 10 days.The spokesman said seven of the new cases were listed as “imported” into the inner-Mongolia region from overseas, while five were in the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic, where a strict lockdown was lifted last month.Another five cases were spread across three northeastern provinces, including Jilin, where authorities suspended train service in and out of a county after a cluster was…

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage on, an invisible fight is emerging for many at home, triggered by the anxiety, joblessness, death, isolation and uncertainty that accompany the virus.May is mental health awareness month, and never before has the topic of mental health been more relevant. Federal agencies and experts are reporting increasing rates of mental health problems and predict that this is only the beginning of a lasting mental health crisis.Nearly half the people in the United States say the coronavirus pandemic is adversely affecting their mental health, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. The tracking poll, which surveyed 1,226 Americans from March 25-30 and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points, indicates 45% of adults say the crisis has had a negative impact on…

A main coronavirus vaccine trial — a joint venture between an American and a German company — got underway this week in the United States. Some participants are U.S. medical students. This trial joins others around the world, as pharmaceutical companies compete to discover the breakthrough for COVID-19. VOA's Carolyn Presutti takes us through what’s being done and how. ...

Five players in Spain's top two divisions have tested positive for COVID-19 since clubs began testing players and staff members last week, organizing body La Liga said in a statement on Sunday.La Liga said the players would remain at their homes where they would continue individual training before being tested again "in the next few days" to determine whether they can return to their club's training ground.Many clubs including champions Barcelona have returned to individual training as part of the second stage of La Liga's four-phase protocol for getting back to activity after play was halted in early March due to the pandemic.Real Madrid are due to resume training for the first time in two months on Monday, while La Liga has said it hopes matches will resume, without spectators,…