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Eco/Invest/Demography

Fighting misinformation in the time of COVID-19, one click at a time

“Public trust in science and evidence is essential for overcoming COVID-19,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“Therefore, finding solutions to the infodemic is as vital for saving lives from COVID-19 as public health measures, like mask-wearing and hand hygiene, to equitable access to vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.”

Low rates of vaccine acceptance are a concern across the globe. Data released in January 2021 by the Johns Hopkins Centre for Communication Programs** suggest that across 23 countries, only 63 percent of respondents will accept a vaccine.

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Brazil pharma flags ‘retaliation’ risk over bill to drop vaccine patents

In a joint statement, five of Brazil’s leading pharmaceutical associations sided with his administration.

“The approval of a bill that allows for the weakening of intellectual property could lead to international retaliation and reduce the supply of pharmaceutical inputs.We cannot support measures that could generate more instability and scenarios that may have irreversible consequences, in the short, medium and long term for Brazil,”it said. 

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US may be winning war against Covid with vaccinations

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 34 per cent proportion of the US population already have some immunity to the virus from having been exposed to the virus.

Added to this is the vaccination campaign, the report said. More than 43 per cent of the population has now gotten at least one shot, and a third are fully vaccinated. That’s getting very close to where other countries, such as Israel, started to turn the corner and experience a precipitous drop in infections, it added.

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A City Tailor-Made for Self-Driving Cars? Toyota Is Building One 

E-palettes will run through the city using autonomous vehicle lanes, providing shared transportation, delivering packages and acting as mobile storefronts.

Beyond futuristic mobility options, the city will also feature smart homes that take out trash and restock refrigerators automatically, according to Toyota. The entire ecosystem will also be powered by hydrogen. It’s a big and ambitious bet for the automaker — although no investment figures have been disclosed, costs are likely to run upwards of a billion dollars. To help fund the project,
Toyota said last month it would sell as much as 500 billion yen ($4.6 billion) in “Woven Planet Bonds,” the biggest such issue at the time to be used in part for the new city.

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Covid’s spike protein plays key role in illness: Study

“A lot of people think of it as a respiratory disease, but it’s really a vascular disease,” said Uri Manor, Assistant Research Professor at the Salk Institute in California.

“That could explain why some people have strokes, and why some people have issues in other parts of the body. The commonality between them is that they all have vascular underpinnings,” Manor added.

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