HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

May 28, 2021 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• COVID-19 antibody test from UC Irvine team can predict if you'll have severe disease (10 News)
• 0.03% chance: Getting coronavirus after being vaccinated incredibly rare in L.A. County  (Los Angeles Times)
• 'What if it was your kid?': Parents of young children feel forgotten as CDC loosens mask restrictions (USA Today)
• New Coronavirus Detected In Patients At Malaysian Hospital; The Source May Be Dogs (NPR)
• Unvaccinated People Are Most at Risk by Unmasking, C.D.C. Director Says (MSN)
• Car goes up in flames after driver uses hand sanitizer while smoking, officials say (KOMO News)
• Scary 'long haul' symptoms found in many COVID patients, Stanford researchers say (SF Chronicle)
• Coronavirus vaccines may not work in some people. It’s because of their underlying conditions (Washington Post)
• The Pandemic Proved Hospitals Can Deliver Care To Seriously Ill Patients At Home (NPR)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• Ford Says Electric F-150 Will Start Under $40,000. It Can Also Power Your Home (NPR)
• Man Who Is Paralyzed Communicates By Imagining Handwriting (NPR)
• Amazon merger with MGM bolsters its Prime ambitions (Washington Post)
• How Your Hot Showers And Toilet Flushes Can Help the Climate (NPR)
• Clearview accused of attempting to move biometric data beyond reach of US law (Biometric update)

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

HEALTH

COVID-19 antibody test from UC Irvine team can predict if you'll have severe disease (10 News)

Some researchers at UC Irvine have developed a new kind of COVID-19 antibody test that can predict early on if someone will have a severe case of the disease. The two-step test works by searching a patient’s blood for what the scientists call “bad antibodies” that are produced early in the infection.

0.03% chance: Getting coronavirus after being vaccinated incredibly rare in L.A. County  (Los Angeles Times)

It is exceedingly rare for fully vaccinated Los Angeles County residents to still get infected by the coronavirus, according to a new analysis by the Department of Public Health.

'What if it was your kid?': Parents of young children feel forgotten as CDC loosens mask restrictions (USA Today)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fully vaccinated people can ditch masks in most indoor settings. Several states have begun to lift mask mandates. And some schools are loosening mask requirements. But as many Americans celebrate the new guidance as a step toward a return to normalcy, some parents of young children who cannot yet be vaccinated say they feel left behind.

New Coronavirus Detected In Patients At Malaysian Hospital; The Source May Be Dogs (NPR)

…Now, scientists are reporting that they have discovered what may be the latest coronavirus to jump from animals into people. And it comes from a surprising source: dogs.

Unvaccinated People Are Most at Risk by Unmasking, C.D.C. Director Says (MSN)

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, facing blowback over the agency’s new liberalized mask guidelines, offered a stark reassurance on Sunday: Only unvaccinated people are at risk if they take off their masks. “If you are vaccinated, we are saying you are safe, you can take up your mask and you are not at risk of severe disease or hospitalization from Covid-19,” the C.D.C. director, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “If you are not vaccinated, you are not safe. Please go get vaccinated or continue to wear your mask.”

Car goes up in flames after driver uses hand sanitizer while smoking, officials say (KOMO News)

One person is recovering from non-life threatening injuries after a car fire started with a cigarette and hand sanitizer, according to Montgomery County Fire officials Thursday.

Scary 'long haul' symptoms found in many COVID patients, Stanford researchers say (SF Chronicle)

More than 70% of COVID-19 patients studied report having at least one “long haul” symptom that lasts for months, including depression, shortness of breath and brain fog, a new Stanford analysis of dozens of research projects finds.

Coronavirus vaccines may not work in some people. It’s because of their underlying conditions (Washington Post)

Early research shows that 15 to 80 percent of people with certain medical conditions, such as specific blood cancers or organ transplants, are generating few antibodies after receiving coronavirus vaccines.

The Pandemic Proved Hospitals Can Deliver Care To Seriously Ill Patients At Home (NPR)

…for moderate COVID-19 and dozens of other conditions, acute hospital care at home is likely to become a more common option as more health systems adopt the program and even more diseases are included. It is offered now at 129 hospitals in 30 states.

SCIENCE AND TECH

Ford Says Electric F-150 Will Start Under $40,000. It Can Also Power Your Home (NPR)

…in addition to touting towing capacity, speedy acceleration and other on-road essentials, Ford is emphasizing what the Lightning can do at a standstill — namely, run a work site or power a home during an emergency. Eleven built-in outlets allow drivers to run multiple power tools at a work site or kitchen appliances at a campsite…And when it's plugged in at home and the power goes out, the Lightning can automatically send electricity back into your home, keeping the lights on for days, Ford says

Man Who Is Paralyzed Communicates By Imagining Handwriting (NPR)

An experimental device that turns thoughts into text has allowed a man who was left paralyzed by an accident to construct sentences swiftly on a computer screen. The man was able to type with 95% accuracy just by imagining he was handwriting letters on a sheet of paper, a team reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Amazon merger with MGM bolsters its Prime ambitions (Washington Post)

Amazon’s deal to buy MGM will boost the company’s video catalogue as the company battles new rivals.

How Your Hot Showers And Toilet Flushes Can Help the Climate (NPR)

A secret cache of clean energy is lurking in sewers, and there are growing efforts to put it to work in the battle against climate change.

Clearview accused of attempting to move biometric data beyond reach of US law (Biometric update)

The latest volley from plaintiffs in a biometric data privacy lawsuit against Clearview AI contends that the company opened subsidiaries in Panama and Singapore in an attempt to provide its service to American law enforcement without having to comply with domestic regulations, according to Law360.