HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

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November 22,  2020 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

SCIENCE & TECH

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Hospitals nationwide face shortage of medical staff amid spike in COVID-19 cases (ABC News)

Twenty-two percent say they'll face a critical staff shortage in the next week.

Evangelical Doctors' Group Pleads With Churches To Stay Home (NPR)

As coronavirus cases spike, a national group that represents thousands of evangelical Christian doctors and other healthcare providers is asking churches to stop holding services in person.

In a statement provided to NPR, titled, "A Plea to Our Churches," leaders of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations say that Christians who persist in holding large gatherings at this time could "appear to care only about our individual freedoms and don't care that we may be contributing to others getting this illness because of our selfishness."

Covid-19 has killed 250,000 people in the US. That's 10 times the deaths from car crashes in a year (CNN)

In less than 10 months, Covid-19 has killed more people than strokes, suicides and car crashes typically do in a full year -- combined.

California Doctors Work to Prioritize Who Will Get COVID-19 Vaccine First  (KQED)

 A panel of experts with the state’s Department of Public Health is working to prioritize who will be first in line to get innoculated when the Food and Drug Administration finally approves a vaccine. 

One in five COVID-19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days – study (Reuters)  

Many COVID-19 survivors are likely to be at greater risk of developing mental illness, psychiatrists said on Monday, after a large study found 20% of those infected with the coronavirus are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 90 days.

Measles surging as COVID-19 curbs disrupt vaccinations (Reuters)

Measles surged to infect almost 870,000 people across the world in 2019, the worst figures in almost a quarter of a century as vaccination levels fell below critical levels, a report said on Thursday.

A gym trainer exposed 50 athletes to Covid-19, but no one else got sick because of a ventilation redesign (CNN)

A Virginia gym owner thought she had a nightmare scenario on her hands when she learned that 50 athletes were potentially exposed to Covid-19 particles by one of the gym's coaches. But not a single member ended up contracting the virus, thanks to the extra safety precautions and ventilation measures she put in place.

SCIENCE & TECH

Zoom to implement heightened security program in settlement with the FTC (The Hill)

Videoconferencing platform Zoom has agreed to implement a security program as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Monday…The FTC alleged that Zoom misled users about its encryption practices, saying in the settlement that “Zoom maintained the cryptographic keys that could allow Zoom to access the content of its customers’ meetings, and secured its Zoom Meetings, in part, with a lower level of encryption than promised.”

NASA Model Reveals How Much COVID-related Pollution Levels Deviated from the Norm (NASA)

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, space- and ground-based observations have shown that Earth’s atmosphere has seen significant reductions in some air pollutants. However, scientists wanted to know how much of that decline can be attributed to changes in human activity during pandemic-related shutdowns, versus how much would have occurred in a pandemic-free 2020. Using computer models to generate a COVID-free 2020 for comparison, NASA researchers found that since February, pandemic restrictions have reduced global nitrogen dioxide concentrations by nearly 20%. 

‘Stop the Steal’ supporters, restrained by Facebook, turn to Parler to peddle false election claims (Washington Post)

Alternative social media app Parler has surged in popularity as Facebook restricts groups and hashtags spreading election misinformation.



 


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