Religion protected mental health of members of several faith groups, Schnabel reports in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, but also constrained crisis response among some of the same groups, ultimately undercutting the overall effectiveness of public health efforts to contain the virus.
"Religion limited the negative mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, with highly religious Americans and especially evangelicals experiencing less distress than more secular Americans," Schnabel wrote. "However, that mental health benefit came at the cost of less concern about and support for addressing an important real-world problem: saving lives during a pandemic."
According to Schnabel, "the most obvious explanation for this pattern is the politicization of the pandemic and the fact that ... Republicans and conservatives simply were not as concerned about the pandemic and less likely to think they needed to worry about social distancing, etc."
Intensely religious white people tend to hold conservative values and embrace Republican politics, Schnabel wrote - the same political positions that downplayed the threat of the virus, especially in the early days of the pandemic.
https://www.eurekale...u-rfp040721.php
"We discovered new features about the N protein structure that could have large implications in antibody testing and the long-term effects of all SARS-related pandemic viruses," said Deb Kelly, professor of biomedical engineering (BME), Huck Chair in Molecular Biophysics and director of the Penn State Center for Structural Oncology, who led the research. "Since it appears that the N protein is conserved across the variants of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1, therapeutics designed to target the N protein could potentially help knock out the harsher or lasting symptoms some people experience."
Most of the diagnostic tests and available vaccines for COVID-19 were designed based on a larger SARS-CoV-2 protein—the Spike protein—where the virus attaches to healthy cells to begin the invasion process.
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were designed to help recipients produce antibodies that protect against the Spike protein. However, Kelly said, the Spike protein can easily mutate, resulting in the variants that have emerged in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil and across the United States.
Unlike the outer Spike protein, the N protein is encased in the virus, protected from environmental pressures that cause the Spike protein to change. In the blood, however, the N protein floats freely after it is released from infected cells. The free-roaming protein causes a strong immune response, leading to the production of protective antibodies. Most antibody-testing kits look for the N protein to determine if a person was previously infected with the virus—as opposed to diagnostic tests that look for the Spike protein to determine if a person is currently infected.
"Everyone is looking at the Spike protein, and there are fewer studies being performed on the N protein," said Michael Casasanta, first author on the paper and a postdoctoral fellow in the Kelly laboratory. "There was this gap. We saw an opportunity—we had the ideas and the resources to see what the N protein looks like."
https://phys.org/new...s-variants.html
Following a dramatic rise in coronavirus infections in recent days, Tehran's Grand Bazaar and many other businesses have been closed for two weeks, according to Head of Tehran Chamber of Guilds
https://www.tasnimne...d-19-infections
Jordanian Prince Hamzah bin Hussein's visit to the families of victims who died in a controversial incident was the trigger for his house arrest in connection with an alleged coup attempt, according to a new report.
Hamzah, a former crown prince and half-brother to current King Abdullah, met with the families of nine Covid-19 patients who died after a government hospital ran out of oxygen.
The tragedy sparked protests in defiance of a nighttime curfew, with demonstrators calling for accountability over alleged medicial negligence and an end to draconian coronavirus restrictions.
Hamzah's visit to the victims' families on March 14 was the "straw that broke the camel's back", officials and palace insiders told Reuters.
The visit was viewed as an attempt to upstage and undermine the king and Crown Prince Hussein, who replaced Hamzah as heir designate in 2004.
https://english.alar...rdan-royal-rift
Japan placed Tokyo under a new, month-long state of "quasi-emergency" on Friday (Apr 9) to combat surging COVID-19 infections, less than a month after the capital and host of the Summer Olympics lifted a broader state of emergency
https://www.channeln...rgency-14586528
Как заявил ранее канцлер Себастьян Курц, Австрия может зарегистрировать "Спутник V" на национальном уровне, если процесс одобрения вакцины Европейским агентством лекарственных средств (EMA) затянется.
MOSCOW, April 9 - RIA Novosti. The prerequisites for the approval of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at the national level in Austria are the quality and political will confirmed by experts, Director General of Public Health Katharina Reich told Presse newspaper.
https://ria.ru/20210...1727544641.html
But soon, we might never have to ask ourselves such questions again. That’s not because vaccines are here to stop COVID-19 in its tracks. That’s because General Electric (GE) is developing a potentially groundbreaking new sensor, which can fit into everyday electronics like smartphones and smart watches, to detect specific viruses or bacteria in the air, on a surface, or on your breath.
And it wouldn’t just work for COVID-19, either. GE’s chip could be optimized to detect a seasonal flu or the next pandemic coming our way, too.
“I call that in several months, COVID stories will be boring because everything is safe,” says Radislav Potyrailo, principal scientist at GE Research, with a small laugh. “But there will still be other particles to be detected.”
https://www.fastcomp...nside-an-iphone
Newly released emails show that Trump administration officials openly celebrated after they successfully meddled to get the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to downplay the risks of the novel coronavirus.
The Washington Post reports that former Trump science adviser Paul Alexander wrote an email to then-HHS public affairs chief Michael Caputo in which he boasted about getting the CDC to back off language in two different reports that he believed painted too dire of a picture of the COVID-19 crisis.
"Pointing to one change -- where CDC leaders allegedly changed the opening sentence of a report about spread of the virus among younger people after Alexander pressured them -- Alexander wrote to Caputo, calling it a 'small victory but a victory nonetheless and yippee!!!'" the Post reports.
https://www.rawstory...downplay-risks/
ted nugent
He said, with a straight face:
You know, I guess I would ask you, because I'm addicted to truth, logic, and common sense, and my common sense meter would demand the answer to 'Why weren't we shut down for COVID 1 through 18?'
There was a COVID 1 and 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. COVID 1 through 18 didn't shut anything down, but WOAH! COVID-19, even though it's 99.8 percent survivable.
https://www.wonkette...for-covids-1-18
https://www.facebook...105769779922760
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