Biology Digest

Here is an update on SARS-COV-2 project on folding at home.   

 

  The opening testimony Wednesday in support of a legislative effort to allow lawmakers to vote down public health orders went far enough off the rails for YouTube to remove footage of the speaker. Tom Renz, an attorney for Ohio Stands Up, filed a lawsuit in federal court in September  seeking to overturn any and all health orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic . A federal judge last week  deemed the arguments nearly “incomprehensible”  and ordered Renz to show cause for why he shouldn’t dismiss the suit for procedural errors. The Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, an  anti-vaccine activism group aligned with Renz , posted to YouTube footage of Renz’s 35-minute, oftentimes rambling testimony to the House State and Local Government Committee. The video was soon taken down for violating YouTube’s terms of service. “We have clear Community Guidelines that govern what videos may stay on YouTube, which we enforce consistently, regardless of speaker,” said Ivy Choi...

Texas-based anti-vaccine organization Informed Consent Action Network was among five anti-vaccine groups that collectively received more than $850,000 in federal loans from the Paycheck Protection Program,  the Washington Post reported Monday . The organization received $166,000 in May 2020, according to founder Del Bigtree. “Vaccine hesitancy” or “vaccine skepticism”  poses a significant and ongoing challenge for health authorities trying to overcome mistrust within communities of color, by the anti-vaccine crowd and general uncertainty nationwide. Doctors and scientists say the coronavirus vaccines currently available in the United States are  safe and effective . “At a minimum, it’s a mixed message from the government,” said Timothy Callaghan, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. “Those individuals who are hesitant are going to be looking to various pieces of information to hel...

Five prominent anti-vaccine organizations that have been known to spread misleading information about the  coronavirus  received more than $850,000 in loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, raising questions about why the government is giving money to groups actively opposing its agenda and seeking to undermine public health during a critical period. The groups that received the loans are the National Vaccine Information Center, Mercola Health Resources, the Informed Consent Action Network, the Children’s Health Defense and the Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom that fights misinformation and conducted the research using public documents. The group relied on data released in early December by the Small Business Administration in response to a lawsuit from The Washington Post and other news organizations. Several of the Facebook pages of these organizations have bee...

  WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Sunday announced a three-day lockdown in the country’s biggest city Auckland, after three COVID-19 cases emerged, the first local infections since late January. Level 3 restrictions will require everyone to stay home except for essential shopping and essential work, Ardern said, repeating the strict approach the country has taken over the past year in virtually eliminating the pandemic. “We have stamped out the virus before and we will do it again,” Ardern told a news conference in the capital, Wellington. New Zealand, which had gone more than two months without local infections before the January case, is to start inoculating its 5 million people against the new coronavirus on Feb. 20, receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier than anticipated. Restrictions were raised to level 3 through Wednesday, shutting public venues and prohibiting gatherings outside homes, except for weddings and funerals of up to 10...

  The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) reported this week on a case of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in Tajikistan. The case was reported in Khatlon province making it the first cVDPV2 case in the country. The case is linked to an outbreak originating in Pakistan. Elsewhere, cases of wild poliovirus-1 (WPV-1) and cVDPV were reported: Afghanistan: 34 cVDPV2 cases Pakistan: four WPV1 and three cVDPV2 positive environmental samples Chad: one cVDPV2 case Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo): one cVDPV2 case Kenya: one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample South Sudan: two cVDPV2 cases Yemen: one cVDPV1 case