Worst ever Covid variant? Omicron

John Campbell shares his findings on Omicron. 

View here (Youtube, Nov 27, 2021)

Drop in cases in Japan: Ivermectin, nsp14 and/or APOBEC3A?

John Campbell shares three theories on sudden drop of Covid-19 cases in Japan: (1) Ivermectin allowed as a treatment on August 13, two weeks before the precipitous drop in cases (2) Ituro Inoue, professor, National Institute of Genetics, on the virus’s error-correcting protein, nsp14 (3) More people in Asia have a defense enzyme called APOBEC3A that attacks RNA viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. 

View here (Youtube, Nov 24, 2021)

New Pfizer anti-viral and ivermectin

Pharmacodynamic analyses that show that the new Pfizer antiviral works in the same way as ivermectin -- as a SARS-CoV-2-3CL protease inhibitor. Plenty of links attached to the video to back the claim.

View here (Youtube, Nov 9, 2021)

Our weapon against Covid, one money can’t buy: Exercise

Our weapon against Covid, one money can’t buy... We have to work for it. For those vaccinated, it will elevate our fight against Covid to a higher level. The answer is exercise.

View here (Dr Ling Health Wave, Sept 9, 2021)

India: ’A coronavirus tsunami we have not seen before’

‘India's Covid caseload has risen sharply in the past few weeks. The country's been reporting more than 150,000 cases a day. In January and February daily cases fell below 20,000.

‘So, how did India get from relative calm to its new crisis? Workplaces, markets and malls have reopened, and transport is operating at full capacity. Big weddings, festivals and election rallies are also being held. The result: a situation that one doctor described as a "Covid tsunami".’

View here (BBC, Apr 15, 2021)

Why you can't compare Covid-19 vaccines

‘In the US, the first two available Covid-19 vaccines were the ones from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Both vaccines have very high "efficacy rates," of around 95%. But the third vaccine introduced in the US, from Johnson & Johnson, has a considerably lower efficacy rate: just 66%.

‘Look at those numbers next to each other, and it's natural to conclude that one of them is considerably worse. Why settle for 66% when you can have 95%? But that isn't the right way to understand a vaccine's efficacy rate, or even to understand what a vaccine does. And public health experts say that if you really want to know which vaccine is the best one, efficacy isn't actually the most important number at all.’

View here (Vox, Youtube, Mar 20, 2021)

Coronavirus and the money behind vaccines

The FT explains how the vaccine market works – including the cost of a vaccine and the vaccine development process – and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This short documentary features global experts including Bill Gates, the CEOs of Moderna and Gavi, and the lead scientist behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. 

View here (Financial Times, Youtube, Mar 10, 2021)

Inside poverty: How we gave a voice to Asia’s poor during Covid-19

‘When COVID-19 struck in 2020, sending many Asian countries into lockdown, CNA’s Insight series zoomed in on its impact on the poor - with teams on the ground in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India and Hong Kong. Poverty rates soared for the first time in almost two decades, dealing a blow to decades worth of poverty alleviation efforts.

‘With well over 100,000 views per episode, Poverty in Asia drew thousands of comments, ranging from words of encouragement for our profiles, to asking questions such as “is this poverty porn?” and “Why do the poor have so many children?”.

‘The producers behind the episodes, Aji Yahurti from Indonesia, Chen Yih Wen from Malaysia, Lolita Lachia from Philippines and Insight’s Ikhwan Adrian Rivai answer viewers’ questions and talk the about the challenges faced in recording the stories of the poor, amid a pandemic.

‘They also share about unexpected kindnesses and life lessons they learnt from those living in scarcity. One profile from the Philippines, Tricia Borromeo, had received $2,000 in donations to resume her university education, after the episode was released.’

View here (Channel News Asia video, Feb 18, 2021)

Germany: Ways out of the coronavirus crisis

‘Northeastern Germany has managed the crisis better than the rest of the country. As Rostock eases restrictions, it aims to be a model for other cities.’

View video here (DW, Feb 13, 2021) 

Why has Britain failed on Covid? | Richard Horton, editor, The Lancet

‘A year after the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic, with Britain enduring more than a 100,000 deaths since, a number of major questions remain unanswered. Why was the response of the UK among the worst in the world? How is it possible that the death toll of countries in Europe and North America is so much higher than poorer countries in Asia such as Thailand and Vietnam? And when will things go ‘back to normal’? Discussing that, and more, is Richard Horton – editor of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet and author of ‘The Covid-19 catastrophe, what’s gone wrong and how to stop it happening again’.

View here (Novara Media, Feb 2, 2021)

What is herd immunity?

‘In this short video, Yale’s Dr. Howard Forman, physician and professor, discusses herd immunity — what it is and how to achieve it for maximum benefit in the age of COVID-19.’

View here (Yale News, Jan 6, 2021)

There are four types of Covid-19 vaccines: Here’s how they work

‘The fight against COVID-19 has seen vaccine development move at record speed, with more than 170 different vaccines in trials. But how are they different from each other and how will they protect us against the disease?

‘There are more vaccine candidates simultaneously in the pipeline for COVID-19 than ever before for an infectious disease. All of them are trying to achieve the same thing – immunity to the virus, and some might also be able to stop transmission. They do so by stimulating an immune response to an antigen, a molecule found on the virus. In the case of COVID-19, the antigen is typically the characteristic spike protein found on the surface of the virus, which it normally uses to help it invade human cells.

‘The four main types of Covid-19 vaccines: There are four categories of vaccines in clinical trials: (1) Whole virus, (2) Protein subunit, (3) Viral vector and (4) Nucleic acid (RNA and DNA). Some of them try to smuggle the antigen into the body, others use the body’s own cells to make the viral antigen.’

Read here (Gavi, as Jan 2021)

Watch here (Gavi, Youtube, as Jan 2021)

‘Lean into loneliness like it is holding you’ – A poetic reflection on life in lockdown

‘The audiovisual poem How to Be Alone (2010) was a viral hit for the Canadian musician and poet Tanya Davis and the Canadian filmmaker Andrea Dorfman. Their sequel How to Be at Home updates the original for our age of COVID-19 lockdown, pairing Dorfman’s charming animations – a distinctive melding of stop-motion and illustration – with Davis’s lyrical musings on the isolation that she and much of the rest of the world has endured over the past eight months. The resulting short is an artful – and, depending on your current degree of solitude, perhaps cathartic – meditation on the many conflicting emotions inspired by being forced to spend time at home during a crisis.’

View here (Aeon, Nov 12, 2020)

The world after Coronavirus: A Pardee Center video series

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis of unprecedented scale, with aftershocks that will be felt in virtually every aspect of life for years or decades to come. The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at the Pardee School of Global Studies is pleased to present “The World After Coronavirus,” a video series featuring more than 100 interviews with leading experts and practitioners from Boston University and across the world, exploring the challenges and opportunities we will face in our post-coronavirus future.

The series is hosted by Prof. Adil Najam, the Inaugural Dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies and former Director of the Pardee Center. Each episode is around five minutes long, and is an edited version of a slightly longer conversation between Dean Najam and our featured guest.

The entire series is curated on the Pardee Center’s YouTube channel.

• Ban Ki-moon on The Future of the United Nations
• Leon E. Panetta on The Future of Public Service
• Richard N. Haass on The Future of ‘The World’
• Lawrence Lessig on The Future of Expertise
• Fred Swaniker on The Future of Education in Africa
• Nicol Turner Lee on The Future of Technology and Work
• Paul Webster Hare on The Future of Diplomacy
• Michelle A. Williams on The Future of Public Health
• Kara Lavender Law on The Future of the Oceans
• Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz on The Future of the WTO
• Alanna Shaikh on The Future of Global Health
• Barry Hughes on The Future of Disruptions
• Mariette DiChristina on The Future of Science Journalism
• James J. Collins on The Future of Synthetic Biology
• Sharon Goldberg on The Future of Cybersecurity
• Jeffrey D. Sachs on The Future of Global Sustainable Development
• Guy Kawasaki on The Future of Digital Marketing
• Ian Bremmer on The Future of Geopolitics
• Umar Saif on The Future of E-Commerce in the Developing World
• Janine Ferretti on The Future of Environmental Performance
• Judith Butler on The Future of Gender and Identity
• Richard Florida on The Future of Cities
• Martin Rees on The Future of the Future
• Julia Kim on The Future of Happiness
• Jeremy Corbyn on The Future of Politics (and Part 2)
• Ian Goldin on The Future of Globalization
• Judith Butler on The Future of Hope
• Robin Murphy on The Future of Robots
• Thomas Lovejoy on The Future of Nature
• Sandrine Dixson-Declѐve on The Future of the Green Economy
• Mary Evelyn Tucker on The Future of Religion and Ecology
• Mark C. Storella on The Future of Health Diplomacy
• Paul R. Ehrlich on The Future of Population and Extinction
• Adela Pineda on The Future of Literature
• Peter Gleick on The Future of Water
• Ricardo Hausmann on The Future of Tax Policy in Developing Countries
• Ramachandra Guha on The Future of Globalism
• Ann Marie Lipinski on The Future of Journalism
• Peter Frankopan on The Future of the Silk Roads
• Ha-Joon Chang on The Future of Developing Economies
• Alice Ruhweza on The Future of the Food System in Africa
• Elizabeth Economy on The Future of U.S.-China Relations
• Ibram X. Kendi on The Future of Racism
• Peter Maurer on The Future of Humanitarianism
• Jessica Stern on The Future of Extremism
• Angus Deaton on The Future of Despair
• Danielle Citron on The Future of Cyber Civil Rights
• Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on The Future of Human Rights
• Elizabeth M. Mrema on The Future of Biodiversity
• Dani Rodrik on The Future of Global Trade
• Nahid Bhadelia on The Future of Infectious Disease
• Vali Nasr on The Future of the Middle East
• Graham T. Allison on The Future of Thucydides
• Rachel Kyte on The Future of Renewable Energy
• David Miliband on The Future of Refugees
• Vala Afshar on The Future of Digital Business
• Kevin P. Gallagher on The Future of Economic Multilateralism
• Karen H. Antman on The Future of Medicine
• Adm. James G. Stavridis on The Future of the Military
• Thomas Piketty on The Future of Inequality
• Jomo Kwame Sundaram on The Future of Food Security
• Kevin Outterson on The Future of Health Law
• Bill McKibben on The Future of Environmentalism
• Laurie Garrett on The Future of Pandemics
• Malik Dahlan on The Future of Muslim Societies
• Sandro Galea on The Future of Mental Health
• Michael Barber on The Future of Government
• Peter Singer on The Future of Meat
• Phil Baty on The Future of Global Higher Education
• Sunita Narain on The Future of Global Cooperation
• Adil Haider on The Future of Emergency Medicine
• Michael Woldemariam on The Future of Africa
• Lucy Hutyra on The Future of CO2
• David Chard on The Future of Education
• Sakiko Fukuda-Parr on The Future of the SDGs
• Francis Fukuyama on The Future of Democracy
• Mark Blyth on The Future of Growth
• Claudia Juech on The Future of Data Governance
• Tom Tugendhat on The Future of the Nation State
• Rachel Nolan on The Future of Immigration
• Achim Steiner on The Future of International Development
• Michael Kugelman on The Future of South Asia
• Enrico Letta on The Future of the E.U.
• Marcia McNutt on The Future of Science
• Jorge Heine on The Future of Latin America
• Harvey Young on The Future of the Fine Arts
• Kishore Mahbubani on The Future of Asia
• Yolanda Kakabadse on The Future of Sustainable Development
• Atif Mian on The Future of Debt
• Parag Khanna on The Future of Supply Chains
• Noam Chomsky on The Future of Neoliberalism (and Part 2)
• Neta Crawford on The Future of War
• Perry Mehrling on The Future of Money
• Larry Susskind on The Future of Problem Solving in Crises
• Ellen Ruppel Shell on The Future of Work
• Kishore Mahbubani on The Future of World Order & Global Governance
• Saleemul Huq on The Future of Global Climate Policy
• Andrew J. Bacevich on The Future of National Security
• Muhammad Hamid Zaman on The Future of Humanitarian Relief
• Vivien Schmidt on The Future of Europe
• Jon Hutton on The Future of Conservation

Read here (Pardee School of Global Studies, Sept 29, 2020) 

Israeli hospital trials super-quick saliva test for Covid-19

‘A newly developed saliva test aims to determine in less than a second whether or not you are infected with the novel coronavirus, Israel’s largest medical center said on Thursday... The center said in an initial clinical trial involving hundreds of patients, the new artificial intelligence-based device identified evidence of the virus in the body at a 95% success rate... The company said they are in the process of getting regulatory approval. Each test costs less than 25 cents and it expects the device will eventually cost less than $200.’

Read here (Reuters, August 13, 2020)

Watch here (South China Morning Post video on Youtube)

What to expect when flying now (and in the future)

Air travel is full of opportunities for coronavirus transmission. Touchless check-in, plexiglass shields, temperature checks, back-to-front boarding and planes with empty middle seats are all now part of the flying experience, and the future may bring even more changes. Illustration: Alex Kuzoian

Watch here (Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2020)

Tale of Covid-19 in two Indian cities: Dharavi, Mumbai, a rare success, and Delhi which was “messed up”

‘Asia's largest slum Dharavi was being seen as a 'Covid-engine' that will drive Mumbai in the wrong direction. But with conscious efforts, the slum's Covid doubling rate has come down to 44 days, twice as good as Mumbai’s 22. Delhi sadly is a study in contrast with India’s highest test positivity rates. In episode 496 of ThePrint's #CutTheClutter, Shekhar Gupta talks about the lessons from Dharavi & new plan for Delhi.’

Watch here (Youtube, June 14, 2020)

Amsterdam trials ‘Covid-safe’ restaurant

As countries in Europe start to emerge from lockdown, they’re experimenting with ways to get people dining out again. An innovative solution in Amsterdam is currently being trialled and tested. It hopes it will provide a way to help people adjust from isolation to a degree of social contact.

View here (BBC, May 15, 2020)

When did Covid-19 first appear in the US?

‘A US mayor claims he had COVID-19 last November, over one month before China reported its initial cases. If this was really the case, how did he get it and from where? How long ago did the virus start spreading in the US? In this episode of Getting to the Point, CGTN anchor Liu Xin asks the big question.’

View here (CGTN, Youtube, May 6, 2020)

Yuval Noah Harari talks about governance, surveillance, misinformation and the significance of Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic has presented humanity with an almighty shock. Our evermore interconnected and technologically advanced societies are now in lockdown and we are fearful for our health and economic futures thanks to an invisible virus. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the Israeli historian and best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari. What 21st century lesson can we draw from the spread of Covid-19?

View here (BBC, Youtube, May 5, 2020)