Day: December 17, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, on Wednesday once again urged Americans to have a low-key Christmas in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“I’m going to be with my wife — period,” Fauci told The Washington Post. “The Christmas holiday is a special holiday for us because Christmas Eve is my birthday. And Christmas Day is Christmas Day. And they are not going to come home. That’s painful. We don’t like that. But that’s just one of the things you’re going to have to accept as we go through this unprecedented challenging time.”

https://www.aol.com/news/anthony-fauci-issues-christmas-covid-074907595.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29kbGlrZXByb2R1Y3Rpb25zLmNvbS9mb3J1bTEvbWVzc2FnZTQ2MzA2NTUvcGcx&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKjRpb3OdkJebKqH5WANpCUQcYReVojYaan3B_WrOva_ZQKrl0pNzW62aXl84II3hdhQkis0iTdJU4HGv6LBX6XeSGvCzfDT_1Ye7gfdpLi0FaWRiGAZUoMhXvTTM-kEc1MO5IKlAELVoJ3GD_RcDmcuoEpkVURW4rSgrL9cXytE

By monitoring the cosmos with a radio telescope array, a Cornell University-led international team of scientists has detected radio bursts emanating from the constellation Boötes. The signal could be the first radio emission collected from a planet beyond our solar system.

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-astronomers-radio-emission-exoplanet.html

The Chinese authorities will welcome an international team of Covid-19 investigators who plan to travel to China in January, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Its regional emergencies director in the Western Pacific, Dr. Babatunde Olowokure, told reporters on Thursday that the WHO and China are continuing to discuss which places the team might visit.

“Our understanding at this time is that China is welcoming the international team and their visit,” he said. “This is anticipated, as far as we are aware, to happen in early January.”

https://www.rt.com/news/509946-who-origins-china-trip/

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

According to a source close to the White House Admin @realDonaldTrump @POTUS has ordered most of his WH staff to leave DC area and clear out.

Something big is about to go down in DC.

— SteelKRAKEN! Ann Vandersteel (@annvandersteel) December 17, 2020

Many of the changes have happened to the virus’s spike protein, which it uses to latch onto human cells and cause illness.

This is significant because most Covid-19 vaccines being developed, including the Pfizer jab that has already begun to be rolled out in the UK, are effective by targeting this protein.

It is feared this could stop people becoming immune to coronavirus if they have been infected with a different strain than the vaccine can protect them against.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/new-covid-19-strain-features-23177387

Cyclone Yasa, a top category five storm expected to bring winds of up to 250 km per hour (155 miles per hour) and torrential rain, made landfall over Bua province on the northern island of Vanua Levu at about 6 p.m. local time (0600 GMT).

“The impact for this super storm is more or less the entire country,” Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said in a video posted on Facebook. He told the country’s near 1 million population to find safe shelter ahead of a 14-hour nationwide curfew beginning 4 p.m. (0400 GMT).

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-storm-fiji/fiji-declares-state-of-natural-disaster-as-powerful-cyclone-hits-idUSKBN28R09P?il=0

Reports of a near disaster due to lack of communication between Moscow and Washington over routine military drills have been greatly exaggerated.

A missile alarm went off at a US base in Germany on Saturday, during a drill run by Russian strategic nuclear forces. This was breathlessly reported by CNN, quoting unnamed sources, as a frighteningly close shave with Armageddon.

According to CNN’s sources, the warning, triggered at Ramstein Air Base (the largest US Air Force base in Europe), and “resulted in several minutes of uncertainty and alarm until an all-clear was sounded.”

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/509928-russia-us-nuclear-war/

Cases of a “brain-eating amoeba” reported across the southern US have begun spreading northward via the country’s freshwater systems, in a worrying development for health officials already struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a new study, the single-celled, brain-eating amoeba, known as Naegleria fowleri (N. fowleri) has been relentlessly spreading northward over the past four decades. 

https://www.rt.com/usa/509929-deadly-brain-eating-amoeba-spreading/