Brevard 21-year-old recovers from mild COVID-19 then his organs started shutting down – Florida Today

Spencer Rollyson was admitted to the AdventHealth East Orlando ICU after suffering from heart failure, septic shock and acute respiratory failure. Florida Today

After 21-year-old Canaveral Groves resident Spencer Rollyson bounced back from mild COVID-19 symptoms in May, he didnt think the virus was a big deal I thought it was still a joke.

But mysteriously, two weeks after testing negative for the coronavirus and returning to work, Rollyson started suffering from an array of symptoms: fever, chills, nausea, severe headaches, abdominal and chest pain.

His fever eventually reached 103.4 degrees and Rollyson fell unconscious in the middle of a June 15 telehealth appointment. His mother drove him to AdventHealth East Orlando, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on a ventilator.

Doctors diagnosed Rollyson with multi-organ failure withheart failure, acute respiratory failure, and severe sepsis with septic shock.

"I thought I was going to die. I was literally sitting in the hospital like, Im going to die,' " Rollyson recalled.

I thought for sure I was gone, he said.

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Spencer Rollyson was admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on a ventilator at AdventHealth East Orlando.(Photo: Courtesy photo)

Facebook: Coronavirus questions, answers and info in Brevard

Instead, Rollyson survived, returning home to recover after a five-day stay. He said he is now taking two blood-pressure medications and one of his doctors advised him to avoid a high heart rate over the next year to reduce his risk of cardiac arrest. He will return to the hospital Wednesday for anelectrocardiogram checkup.

Rollyson recounted his harrowing hospital experience in a Facebook warning tofriends and relatives whoare not taking the coronavirus seriously:

"Two weeks after I tested negative for the virus is when I went into the ICU and was on the verge of death. Ihad heart failure, respiratory failure and many other things. I was put on a breathing machine because I was not able to breathe on my own,"Rollyson wrote.

"Please take this virus seriously. I had no prior health issues and it almost (took) my life. Be safe!" he wrote.

Canaveral Groves resident Spencer Rollyson recounted his brush with death and posted his hospital diagnosis in a Facebook warning.(Photo: FLORIDA TODAY)

Long-term complications of the coronavirus remain unknown, said Dr. Luis Junco, AdventHealth East Orlando infectious disease medical director. He said links between COVID-19 and Rollyson's health crisis are unclear.

This virus can weaken the immune system, so you become more vulnerable or susceptible to acquire new infections after you get this virus. So thats a possibility in this case, he said.

Junco said Rollyson was suffering from pneumonia and inflammation of the heart and intestines when he was admitted to the hospital. He said Rollyson received a spectrum of antibiotics and recovered relatively quickly.

Spencer is young, so we usually dont see that kind of complications, Junco said.

Saturday, Boston Red Sox officials announced that 27-year-old pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez was out for the season after he developed myocarditis an inflammation of the heart muscle after he recovered from COVID-19.

Two German studiespublished last week found heart abnormalities in COVID-19 patients months after they had recovered from the disease, USA Today reported.

And the National Kidney Foundation warns that COVID-19 will likely result in ahigher number of Americans with chronic kidney disease.

Meagan and Spencer Rollyson, who are both 21, had mild COVID-19 symptoms in May. Spencer later suffered life-threatening health issues that sent him to the AdventHealth East Orlando intensive care unit.(Photo: TIM SHORTT/FLORIDA TODAY)

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COVID-19 masks:They generate polarizing debates in cities, towns across Brevard

Rollysongraduated from Edgewood Jr./Sr. High on Merritt Island in 2016. He manages Green Acres Lawn Service Group, his fathers business.

In January, he married his wife, Meagan,21, a 2017 Melbourne High graduate. Sheworks at Flying J Travel Center in West Cocoa, and she is enrolled in the dental assisting program at Eastern Florida State College. She also tested positive for COVID-19 in May, and she had mild symptoms.

Im still young, and I have a lot of friends that are still not taking it seriously," Spencer Rollyson said.

"Im married. I run my dads business. So I dont have a lot of time to go out and be partying and all that. I basically work all day and go home. And I still got it," he said.

"I didnt take this seriously at all but look what happened to me, he said.

Canaveral Groves resident Spencer Rollyson, 21, suffered mild coronavirus symptoms in May. But life-threatening conditions later sent him to the AdventHealth East Orlando ICU, where he was placed on a ventilator.(Photo: TIM SHORTT/FLORIDA TODAY)

Among Florida residents,20.7% of confirmed COVID-19 cases (106,347 out of512,421) have beenpeople age 24 or younger, the Florida Department of Health reports. But these younger folksonly account for 0.2% of coronavirus deaths among Florida residents (23 out of 7,927).

Researchers know relatively little about thereturn to baseline health for people who become mildly ill with COVID-19, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released two weeks ago.

According to a survey of coronavirussurvivors in 13 states, one in five people ages 18 to 34 with no chronic medical conditions had not returned to their usual state of health two to three weeks after testing positive.

Rollyson's mother, Amy, works as an AdventHealth transcription supervisor. She said theday her sonwas admitted to the hospital was "just terrifying because she was not allowed inside, perCOVID-19 policy.

I was sitting in my vehicle in the parking lot for nine hours, not knowing what was going on. And that was very hard, and very scary, Amy Rollyson said.

I cant even sit in a room with him, or try to bring him any comfort, or see what hes going through. So that was the hardest part of it, just feeling useless, she said.

Amy Rollyson said many people mistakenly believe the coronavirus only impacts older folks.

There are many young people who have died, or who have almost died. That statistic may be low in comparison to our population. That does not make it any less significant when its your child, or your friend, or your sibling," she said.

That is still a person that somebody loves and cares about, and does not want to lose.

Reporter Jim Waymer contributed to this story.

Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY.Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1.To subscribe: https://cm.floridatoday.com/specialoffer/

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Brevard 21-year-old recovers from mild COVID-19 then his organs started shutting down - Florida Today

Slowing U.S. job growth, rising COVID-19 raise doubts on the recovery’s strength – Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employment growth slowed considerably in July, underscoring an urgent need for additional government aid as a resurgence of COVID-19 infections threatens to snuff out the nascent economic recovery.

FILE PHOTO: Hundreds of people line up outside a Kentucky Career Center hoping to find assistance with their unemployment claim in Frankfort, Kentucky, U.S. June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston/File Photo

The Labor Departments closely watched employment report on Friday came as Democratic leaders in Congress and top aides to President Donald Trump struggled to negotiate a fiscal package. Trump, who lags former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, in polls ahead of the Nov. 3 election, threatened to bypass Congress with an executive order.

The jobs recovery is on very shaky ground and without seat belts for the unemployed provided by additional fiscal stimulus the economy could be in for a very bumpy ride, said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. There cannot be sustainable economic growth if the country has to carry on with the crushing weight of massive unemployment.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.763 million jobs last month after a record rise of 4.791 million in June. Excluding government employment which was artificially boosted by a seasonal quirk related to local and state government education, and temporary hiring for the 2020 Census, payrolls rose 1.462 million, stepping down from 4.737 million in June.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 1.6 million jobs were added in July. While the number exceeded expectations, the economy has regained only 9.3 million of 22 million jobs lost between February and April.

Blacks continued to experience high unemployment. Racial inequality is a dominant theme in Novembers election.

Economists believe July was probably the last month of employment gains related to the rehiring of workers after the reopening of businesses. A $600 weekly unemployment benefit supplement, which made up 20% of personal income, expired last Friday. Thousands of businesses have exhausted loans offered by the government to help with wages, which economists estimate saved around 1.3 million jobs at the programs peak.

Bankruptcies are accelerating, especially in the retail sector. Coronavirus infections have soared across the country, forcing authorities in some of the worst-affected areas in the West and South to either shut down businesses again or pause reopenings, sending workers back home. The West and South account more than a third of the nations employment. Demand for services has been hardest hit by the respiratory illness.

The initial bounce from widespread re-openings is now behind us, said Sarah House, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. Further improvement will occur in fits and starts and depends on the course of the virus.

Slowing employment growth challenges the U.S. stock markets expectation of a V-shaped recovery. The S&P 500 index is up nearly 50% from its March trough. Economists see a U or W-shaped recovery.

Stocks on Wall Street were trading lower. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices fell.

The economy, which entered recession in February, suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression in the second quarter, with gross domestic product dropping at its steepest pace in at least 73 years.

Job growth slowed across all sectors last month. The leisure and hospitality industry hired 592,000 workers, accounting for about a third of nonfarm payrolls. The bulk of the jobs were at restaurants and bars. Retail employment rose by 258,000 jobs, with almost half of the gain in clothing and accessories stores.

Professional and business services added 170,000 jobs, concentrated in the temporary help services.

Government employment increased by 301,000. The model that the government uses to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data normally anticipates education workers to drop off payrolls in July. This, however, happened earlier because of the pandemic, leading to a big gain in July.

The unemployment rate fell to 10.2% from 11.1% in June. It was again biased downward by people misclassifying themselves as being employed but absent from work. Without this error, the jobless rate would have been about 11.2%. About 62,000 people dropped out the labor force last month, contributing to the drop in the reported unemployment rate.

Joblessness fell across all demographic groups, but remained high for Blacks, with the unemployment rate dipping to 14.6% from 15.4% in June. The unemployment rate for Hispanics dropped to 12.9% from 14.5%. The jobless rate for whites declined 9.2% from 10.1%.

Women, who have borne the brunt of the job losses because of child care issues, saw their unemployment rate fall to 10.5% from 11.2% mostly as they withdrew from the labor force.

The U.S. economy was marked by intergenerational, racial, and gender inequality before the pandemic, and todays report does nothing to alter that reality, said Nicole Goldin,nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

There were more part-time workers. The number of people on temporary layoff fell, but permanent job losers were little changed at 2.9 million. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2% in July after a drop of 1.3% in June. The workweek shortened to an average of 34.5 hours from 34.6 hours.

Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chris Reese, Paul Simao and David Gregorio

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Slowing U.S. job growth, rising COVID-19 raise doubts on the recovery's strength - Reuters

What doctors know about the risk of COVID-19 for kids: ‘The science is constantly evolving’ – Wink News

(CBS News)

President Donald Trump isfacing criticismafter falsely claiming that children are almost immune to the coronavirus, asschoolsnationwide continue to grapple with when and how to reopen. While experts generally believe that children under 10 years old are less susceptible to thecoronavirusthan teens or adults, theres evidence that they can still catch it.

Doctors also are still learning about the ability of people under 18 to spread the virus to others who may be more vulnerable, Dr. Ron Elfenbein, an emergency care physician in Maryland, said on CBSN Thursday.

The science is constantly evolving, he said. More data is coming out on a daily basis, so its very confusing.

About 339,000 children in the United States were reported to have the coronavirus through July 30, making up 8.8% of all cases,according to a reportby the American Academy of Pediatrics. Elfenbein said children under 10 years old seem less likely to get sick.

Science sort of has shown us that kids under 10 really dont get it very often, in fact, very rarely get it at all, and if they do get it, theyre asymptomatic, he said.

But there are a growing number of examples of young children who did catch the virus. Astudypublished last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documented the case of a summer camp in Georgia wheremore than 200 kids tested positivefor the coronavirus after a teenage staff member was diagnosed in June. Out of 100 kids between the ages of 6 and 10 who were tested, 51 were positive, the study found.

In the next-oldest age group, 11 to 17 years old, 180 out of the 409 kids tested had positive results. Overall, 260 out of the 344 campers and staff who were tested had the virus. There were more than 600 people at the camp.

The camp required all trainees, staff members and campers to provide documentation of a negative coronavirus test within 12 days before starting camp. It also required staff towear masks, but did not require campers to do so, the CDC said.

The researchers said they planned to follow up and see if the children ended up spreading the virus to other members of their households.

In several communities around the country, cases ofchildren testing positivefor COVID-19 havealready disruptedthe beginning of the school year, forcing classmates and teachers into quarantine.

Though the kids overall have a lower risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus, some haveended up hospitalizedwithsevere complications. TheCDC reportsat least 45 children age 14 and under have died from COVID-related causes since the pandemic began.

Mr. Trump made the claim about children and immunity in an interview with Fox News Wednesday, and it was shared on his Facebook page and his campaigns Twitter account. The social media companies said the video violated their policies on COVID-19 misinformation, andthe posts were removed.

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What doctors know about the risk of COVID-19 for kids: 'The science is constantly evolving' - Wink News

Human rights activists are allies in fighting COVID-19 why are they under attack? – Amnesty International

By Lisa Maracani, Amnesty International's Researcher on Human Rights Defenders

COVID-19 has presented a set of huge new challenges which require governments to listen to advice, be open to criticism and scrutiny from experts, and consult those most affected in order to find solutions that minimize harm. States need to learn quickly from mistakes, adapt, innovate, and provide flexible and differentiated responses to the vast problems arising from the pandemic. This can only be achieved when diverse opinions and debate are allowed, and when different sectors of society are listened to and encouraged to participate. As the WHO says, a crucial way to fight COVID-19, is to inform, empower and listen to communities.

At a time of great crisis, what we would expect to see is governments bringing people together, fostering solidarity, and striving to protect those most at risk. Indeed, amid the shock of the first few weeks of the pandemic, many of us dared to hope that this huge upheaval might be an opportunity to create a more just, inclusive and caring world, and an environmentally friendly future.

What we have seen instead is many states lashing out at those whom they perceive as critics. Instead of unifying society, thin-skinned authorities in places like Nicaragua, Poland, or Tunisia, have ignored, criminalized, or suppressed information and critical voices. Other leaders have used this calamity to further their power and crack down on civic space, including in Hungary, the Philippines, Thailand, Azerbaijan or Zimbabwe. As the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression recently put it:

People have suffered because some governments would rather protect themselves from criticism than allow people to share information, learn about the outbreak, know what officials are or are not doing to protect them.

This is reflected in the abundant documentation of abuses against human rights defenders that we have seen and denounced in the last few months. In our briefing Daring to stand up for human rights in a pandemic we have put together dozens and dozens of individual cases - likely to be just the tip of the iceberg - of people paying a high price for their work defending human rights.

They include whistleblowers in the health sector, community activists, and journalists and bloggers sharing information and raising questions about the handling of the pandemic. Indigenous communities have been left without adequate health care and under siege from those encroaching on their lands; and at-risk activists have been left without protection and made into easy targets for attackers.

Women and LGBTI activists have faced increased gender-based violence and discrimination, and imprisoned human rights defenders and dissidents suffer additional punishment as they continue to be held in overcrowded, unsanitary prisons where they are exposed to the virus.

There are so many individual stories of human rights defenders under attack. One that stands out for me as it epitomizes state contempt for them, is that of Atena Daemi, a woman human rights defender in Iran, imprisoned for her anti-death penalty activism. After four years in prison and being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including the denial of medical care, in June, she was sentenced to two additional years and 74 lashes on trumped up charges designed to keep her in detention for her human rights activism.

The pandemic has deepened pre-existing inequalities and poverty, humanitarian crises and the impact of discrimination and racism in every society. It is likely that this will encourage more people than ever to mobilize for their rights. And indeed we have seen movements coming together to defend human rights and protest peacefully, stepping up and playing different roles in their own communities.

This has included providing information on how to protect ourselves from COVID-19 when information is lacking or contradictory, and denouncing the lack of adequate prevention measures and health services. More and more human rights defenders are involved in delivering humanitarian aid and advocating for groups that are marginalized and discriminated against, fighting government pushbacks on human rights under the cover of emergency legislation, and continuing with their long standing human rights work. States could learn a great deal from their resilience, adaptability, determination and innovation.

This is why human rights defenders are important actors in the fight against the pandemic, and why states should see them as allies, not enemies. Without all the individuals and collectives who defend human rights worldwide, it will be almost impossible to tackle COVID-19 and save as many lives and livelihoods as possible.

As well as being a state obligation, is in the interest of states and society at large to recognize, protect and enable human rights defenders to carry out their crucial work. Only then can we mitigate the harshest impacts of the crisis, and ensure those most at risk are not left behind in the process.

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Human rights activists are allies in fighting COVID-19 why are they under attack? - Amnesty International

TDH reports one new death, 220 new cases of COVID-19 in Northeast Tennessee – WJHL-TV News Channel 11

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) The Tennessee Department of Health reported 117,087 confirmed cases and 1,695 probable cases of COVID-19 in the state on Friday, an increase of 2,432 total cases since Thursday.

The health department also announced 1,167 confirmed deaths, 5,190 hospitalizations, and 79,357 recoveries. More than 1.6 million coronavirus tests have been administered.

On Thursday, TDH reported 114,801 confirmed cases and 1,147 confirmed deaths.

The total COVID-19 case count for Tennessee is now 118,782 as of Aug. 7, 2020 including 1,206 deaths, 5,190 hospitalizations and 79,357 recovered. For additional data, including the weekly cluster report, go to https://t.co/Psc3HfgZ8j. pic.twitter.com/7RPCFakcYW

One new death was reported Friday in Carter County, bringing the countys total fatalities to six.

TDH reported 220 new cases in our area: 69 in Washington County, 38 in Sullivan County, 33 in Johnson County, 29 in Greene County, 24 in Carter County, 19 in Hawkins County, and eight in Unicoi County.

Almost set a record in NETN today 220 new cases reported today. (record is currently 229 set last Saturday)

One new hospitalization reported in Greene County.

One more person has died in Carter County. pic.twitter.com/3850cwEa4y

Twenty-six new recoveries were reported: 11 in Washington County, seven in Sullivan County, four in Carter County, and two each in Greene and Hawkins counties.

There are currently 2,481 active cases in Northeast Tennessee, up from 2,288 active cases on Thursday.

The following data was reported in local counties:

Carter 497 cases / 6 deaths / 121 recoveriesGreene 447 cases / 7 deaths / 145 recoveriesHawkins 435 cases / 7 deaths / 103 recoveriesJohnson 258 cases / 42 recoveriesSullivan 933 cases / 12 deaths / 601 recoveriesUnicoi 156 cases / 65 recoveriesWashington 1,200 cases / 2 deaths / 334 recoveries

Active cases by county:

Carter 370Greene 295Hawkins 325Johnson 216Sullivan 320Unicoi 91Washington 864

Continuing coverage of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

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TDH reports one new death, 220 new cases of COVID-19 in Northeast Tennessee - WJHL-TV News Channel 11

New Covid-19 cases are declining in Arizona, once a hot spot. Here’s how the state is turning things around – CNN

Today, that decision appears to have paid off.

This turn around has caught the attention of health experts, who have praised Arizona as an example of a state that successfully reimplemented mitigation efforts as cases rose.

"We saw in Arizona, which was a good example, they went up (in cases) and they started to really clamp down and do things right. And the cases came right down," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's John Berman on Thursday morning.

The state and its governor, Doug Ducey, were praised on Wednesday by President Donald Trump and Dr. Deborah Birx in the Oval Office, where Ducey credited the downward trend to Arizonans wearing masks, physically distancing, washing hands and staying home if sick.

"They've really done a great job putting these pieces together and really creating that path forward," Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said. She pointed to the improvement in Arizona as a model that could work for other states.

Of course, while things are improving, the state -- like the rest of the country -- is not in the clear.

Arizona reported nearly 1,400 cases on Thursday, bringing the statewide total to more than 183,000. And the number of deaths continues to climb, with more than 4,000 total deaths as of Thursday.

"This is not a victory lap," Ducey said last week after discussing the state's downward trend. "This is not a celebration. If anything, it's evidence that the decisions and the sacrifice that Arizonans are making are working."

How Arizona did it

"We did take some further steps," Ducey said on Wednesday. "We were in the unhappy but responsible position of dispersing large crowds, so bars and nightclubs and gyms all closed temporarily," he said.

"But upon putting those steps out there, we've seen improvement every week, week-over-week for four weeks," he said.

On May 8, retail stores, barbershops and salons were allowed to resume in-person business with some guidelines. A few days later, on May 11, restaurants were allowed to resume dine-in service. That day, the state had a total of 11,383 cases of Covid-19.

Then things went downhill from there. Cases rose throughout the month of June, totaling 79,228 on June 30 -- up from 20,129 on June 1. The state was forced to try and rectify the situation before it spun out of control.

"The Covid-19 crisis didn't hit Arizona until later," Ducey explained. "We had a very difficult June, we've had a much better July."

At the time, Ducey warned his state it would take time for the restrictions to be reflected in the state's Covid-19 numbers.

In early July, the state was paid a visit by members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Birx and Vice President Mike Pence. A few days later, on July 9, Ducey took another step back, limiting indoor dining to 50% capacity before things started looking up.

The average of new daily cases over a seven-day period began steadily declining each week, something the governor touted in his visit to the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Despite the improvement, Ducey recognizes that the Grand Canyon State was not out of the woods.

"Like I said, no celebration, no victory lap," he said. "We're going to stay the course, stay vigilant and keep our guard up. But we have a path forward in Arizona."

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New Covid-19 cases are declining in Arizona, once a hot spot. Here's how the state is turning things around - CNN

North Dakota sees big day for COVID-19 recoveries as Bismarck and Mandan revamp response team – Grand Forks Herald

While reports of new coronavirus cases continued apace on Friday, a flood of 215 recoveries took the state's active cases down to 1,053. This marks the first time that recoveries have outweighed new cases in the last week and the most significant drop in active cases since early June.

The burst of recoveries comes as Bismarck and Mandan announced a revamped approach to the pandemic in an effort to address a resilient hotspot in North Dakota's capital region. At a meeting of the Burleigh-Morton COVID-19 Task Force on Friday, Bismarck Mayor Steve Bakken stressed the importance of containing the virus in Burleigh and Morton while saying that he would like to avoid delaying the reopening of local businesses.

Also at the meeting, Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health Director Renae Moch said that there is no single source for the high levels of transmission in Bismarck and Mandan but noted that the outbreak is most widespread among young people. Moch reportedd 86 active cases of the virus among 20-29 year-olds in Burleigh and Morton counties, the most of any 10-year age demographic.

Burleigh County continues to report the highest number of active cases of any county, adding 25 new cases on Friday. And while the county's active case count dropped to 260, it is still reporting more than double the number of active cases in Cass County, which has the second-highest county total. Combined, the neighboring Burleigh and Morton counties account for nearly a third of North Dakota's active cases.

Of the new cases reported Friday:

Forty-four are from the Burleigh-Morton County region, which encompasses neighboring cities Bismarck and Mandan.

Twenty-seven of the new cases came from Cass County, which includes Fargo and West Fargo.

These high numbers of new cases in Stark and Williams counties suggest a resurgent outbreak in western North Dakota.

A Benson County man in his 40s, reported Friday as having underlying health conditions, also died from the virus, marking North Dakota's seventh death in as many days and pushing the state's coronavirus death toll to 110. Benson County, which encompasses part of the Spirit Lake Reservation, has suffered a small spike in coronavirus cases lately, with the county reporting 54 active cases Friday.

About 2.6% of the 5,773 test results announced Friday came back positive, but 5.3% of residents tested for the first time received a positive result. North Dakota does not regularly report a seven-day rolling average for positivity rate as many other states do, but Forum News Service calculated the rate to be 4.9% for tests taken on previously untested residents.

All counties in North Dakota have reported cases of COVID-19, but some currently have zero active cases.

A total of 7,327 North Dakota residents have tested positive, but 6,164 have recovered.

The state has announced the results of 346,669 tests, and many residents have been tested more than once.

As a public service, weve opened this article to everyone regardless of subscription status. If this coverage is important to you, please consider supporting local journalism by clicking on the subscribe button in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage.

Readers can reach reporter Adam Willis, a Report for America corps member, at awillis@forumcomm.com.

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North Dakota sees big day for COVID-19 recoveries as Bismarck and Mandan revamp response team - Grand Forks Herald

Renewed concern grips Cardinals as another player tests positive for COVID-19; game vs. Cubs postponed – STLtoday.com

Due to seven postponed games, the Cardinals were about to start a stretch of 55 games in 52 days. This postponement makes their schedule entirely uncertain.

Players converged on Busch Stadium from either traveling with the team from Milwuakee or joining the team out of the alternate-site camp in Springfield, Mo. The Cardinals added four players from the alternate-site camp Wednesday to the workouts. All of them had previously undergone regular testing and received negative tests before traveling to join the big-league roster.

On Friday, Major League Baseball and the players' union released the updated information on the ongoing testing of players and staff during the regular season. The leagues call this "monitoring testing."

There have been 13,043 test samples collected in the past week, and of that group 13 have tested positive. That includes seven players and six staff members. The Cardinals are the majority of those positive tests.

On four of the last seven days MLB has not had a new positive, and the Cardinals had three consecutive days of that.

During the regular season, a total of 71 new positives have been revealed from 53,826 samples. That number includes 49 players. Nineteen of the 30 major-league clubs have had at least one positive test during the regular season. The two outbreaks have been with the Marlins and Cardinals.

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Renewed concern grips Cardinals as another player tests positive for COVID-19; game vs. Cubs postponed - STLtoday.com

Your Bones Are Made Out of Exploded Stars, Scientists Say

A team of astronomers discovered a new type of supernova, a

According to new research, half the calcium in our universe came from “calcium-rich supernova.” That means the stuff our teeth and bones is made from is, essentially, the remains of dead stars that blew up a long, long time ago.

“These events are so few in number that we have never known what produced calcium-rich supernova,” said Wynn Jacobson-Galan, Northwestern graduate student and lead author of the new study published in The Astrophysical Journal this week, in a statement.

“By observing what this star did in its final month before it reached its critical, tumultuous end, we peered into a place previously unexplored, opening new avenues of study within transient science,” Jacobson-Galan added.

An extremely bright event some 55 million light years from Earth grabbed the attention of the international astronomy community in April 2019. “Every single country with a prominent telescope turned to look at this object,” Jacobson-Galan recalled.

Astronomers were so quick that many observed the supernova just ten hours after the explosion. “The explosion is trying to cool down,” Raffaella Margutti from Northwestern University and a senior author of the study, explained in the statement. “It wants to give away its energy, and calcium emission is an efficient way to do that.”

As it turns out the explosion spewed out an immense amount of calcium. “It wasn’t just calcium rich,” Margutti said. “It was the richest of the rich.”

They caught the event just in time to conclude that it was the most calcium to have ever been observed to be emitted from just a single event.

“The luminosity tells us how much material the star shed and how close that material was to the star,” Jacobson-Galan explained. “In this case, the star lost a very small amount of material right before it exploded. That material was still nearby.”

READ MORE: Exploding stars created the calcium in our bones and teeth, study says [CNN]

More on supernovae: This Star Appears to Have Survived a Supernova

The post Your Bones Are Made Out of Exploded Stars, Scientists Say appeared first on Futurism.

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Your Bones Are Made Out of Exploded Stars, Scientists Say

Astronomers May Have Found a Star That’s Just 33 Years Old

A team of astronomers have found new evidence suggesting there's a neutron star lurking in the center of the supernova 1987A that's only 33 years old.

A team of astronomers have observed what they believe to be a neutron star being born following a supernova first detected in 1987, in a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way 170,000 light-years from Earth, dubbed SN 1987A.

Until now, astronomers weren’t sure if the neutron star survived the powerful event and didn’t just collapse in on itself to form a black hole — but a new paper published last week in The Astrophysical Journal suggests that it may have survived after all.

That means the neutron star would be a millennial, no older than 33.

If confirmed, it would be the youngest neutron star known to mankind, as Astronomy reports. To date, the youngest supernova remnant is the 330 years old Cassiopeia A, about 11,000 light-years away from Earth inside the Milky Way.

Analyzing high-resolution imagery from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, a team of astronomers was able to get a closer look at what was left behind following SN 1987A.

They found a hot “blob” inside the core of the supernova, likely a gas cloud shrouding the neutron star. The star itself would be far too small to be detected directly, as it’s extremely small and dense — the mass of 1.4 times the Sun inside a sphere that’s only 15 miles across.

“We were very surprised to see this warm blob made by a thick cloud of dust in the supernova remnant,” Mikako Matsuura from Cardiff University who made the discovery with ALMA, said in a statement.

The discovery by the ALMA team supports the new theoretical study published last week.

“There has to be something in the cloud that has heated up the dust and which makes it shine. That’s why we suggested that there is a neutron star hiding inside the dust cloud,” Matsuura added.

“In spite of the supreme complexity of a supernova explosion and the extreme conditions reigning in the interior of a neutron star, the detection of a warm blob of dust is a confirmation of several predictions,” lead author Dany Page, astrophysicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, explained in the statement.

According to computer models, the neutron star would have been sent screaming through space at hundreds of kilometers per second. The location where the ALMA team found it is exactly where it would be today, according to the models.

The theoretical star was also found to be extremely bright, in large part thanks to its hypothesized temperature of around five million degrees Celsius.

It will take time until the existence of the star can be confirmed. The dust and gas around the supernova need to subside further for astronomers to say with any certainty that the extremely young star really exists.

READ MORE: Hot ‘blob’ points to a neutron star lurking in Supernova 1987A [Astronomy]

More on neutron stars: Astronomers Watch Neutron Star “Charge Up” Before Huge X-Ray Blast

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Astronomers May Have Found a Star That’s Just 33 Years Old

Machine Detects COVID-19 in 90 Minutes

A small UK-based DNA-testing company called DnaNudge has come up with a toaster-sized machine that can detect COVID-19 in just 90 minutes.

A small UK-based DNA testing company called DnaNudge has come up with a toaster-sized machine that can detect COVID-19 in just 90 minutes, Bloomberg reports, no lab analysis needed.

The UK’s National Health Service has already ordered 5,000 of the machines, as well as cartridges to start testing coronavirus patients, as part of a $211 million contract.

The machine was originally designed to help people tailor their diet based on their heredity, according to Bloomberg. But founder Christofer Toumazou, a professor at Imperial College London, made a U-turn in light of the growing pandemic.

“My dream has been to bring testing like this to the consumer,” Toumazou told Bloomberg. “A test that can demystify and simplify that quickly — rather than leaving people in doubt — is going to be very useful.”

All the machine needs is a nose swab or some saliva to detect traces of the coronavirus. It can even detect other diseases such as the flu and a common virus infection called Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). It will also notify the user if a proper sample has been taken or if a test needs to be retaken.

Bloomberg didn’t address the accuracy of the machine, which DnaNudge says could prove helpful in triaging potential COVID patients.

“If you have someone coming in and you’re not sure if they have COVID, you can make a decision about where they should go,” Graham Cooke, a professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, told Bloomberg. “You don’t want to put the wrong person in the wrong place.”

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Bill Gates Called Most US Coronavirus Tests “Garbage”

Bill Gates says that the long wait times for coronavirus test results render the whole thing useless. Or, in his words, the tests are

Wealthy philanthropist and public health advocate Bill Gates, who’s been critical of the U.S. coronavirus response since the beginning, shared some new thoughts about the diagnostic testing situation in the country.

Specifically, he says it’s utter trash.

“The majority of all U.S. tests are completely garbage, wasted,” Gates told Wired in a lengthy interview today.

His frustration wasn’t necessarily about the quality of the tests or the accuracy of the results they provide, though that’s been called into question in the past, but rather how long it takes to get results in the first place.

The current delays for test results, Gates says, essentially render them useless. Positive or negative, many in the U.S. are going weeks before they hear back about their nasal swabs. That’s a dangerously long time for people to continue going about their lives if they’re unsure whether or not they might spread COVID-19.

Gates called the delays “stupidity” in the Wired interview.

To fix the bottleneck, Gates suggests that the testing companies’ reimbursement should be tied to how long it takes to send back results. With that extra incentive, Gates thinks that results will come back way sooner.

“You have to have the reimbursement system pay a little bit extra for 24 hours, pay the normal fee for 48 hours, and pay nothing [if it isn’t done by then]. And they will fix it overnight,” Gates told Wired.

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NASA Says It Will Stop Using Racist Names for Space Objects

NASA is finally taking stock and getting rid of the various racist nicknames the space agency has granted objects in space over the years.

Taking Stock

NASA has an unfortunate history of granting insensitive and bigoted nicknames to stars, galaxies, and other stuff in space.

Because of that, the space agency announced on Wednesday that it’s taking stock of all the various nicknames it’s assigned and eliminating any that don’t pass muster. In those instances, NASA says that going forward it will only use the official, acronym- and numeral-heavy names instead.

Clean Slate

According to NASA’s announcement, it’s already made some progress. Racist nicknames like the “Eskimo Nebula” and the “Siamese Twin Galaxy” are out the window, and the space agency is still looking for other insensitive and harmful terms.

“Our goal is that all names are aligned with our values of diversity and inclusion, and we’ll proactively work with the scientific community to help ensure that,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in the announcement. “Science is for everyone, and every facet of our work needs to reflect that value.”

Spotty Past

This isn’t the first time NASA had to reckon with its nomenclature. Last year, the space agency had to rename the asteroid Arrokoth because its former name, Ultimate Thule, has a strong association to Nazism.

“These nicknames and terms may have historical or culture connotations that are objectionable or unwelcoming, and NASA is strongly committed to addressing them,” Stephen T. Shih, Associate Administrator for Diversity and Equal Opportunity at NASA Headquarters, said in the new announcement. “Science depends on diverse contributions, and benefits everyone, so this means we must make it inclusive.”

READ MORE: NASA to Reexamine Nicknames for Cosmic Objects [NASA]

More on NASA: NASA Reverses Course After Giving Asteroid Nazi Name

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Zapping the Brain Improved Language Learning Abilities by 13%

Researchers showed that electrical stimulation through simple ear pieces improved adult participants' abilities to recognize foreign language tones.

In a new study published in the journal Science of Learning, researchers showed that small amounts of electrical stimulation through specially designed ear pieces improved the adult participants’ abilities to recognize foreign language tones — an effect that lasted after the stimulation was halted.

“Humans are excellent perceptual learners,” the paper’s introduction reads. “Yet, a notable and well-documented exception is the acquisition of non-native speech categories in adulthood.”

By stimulating the vagus nerve using the ear pieces, the group was better able to better identify and distinguish between four different Mandarin tones, as Inverse reports.

That’s impressive, because differentiating between those four common tones is extremely hard for native English speakers who are not used to tonal languages.

Overall, they saw an improvement of 13 percent in distinguishing an easier-to-tell-apart pair of Mandarin tones when compared to those who didn’t receive brain stimulation — although the effect was almost imperceptible more difficult tones.

“Showing that non-invasive peripheral nerve stimulation can make language learning easier potentially opens the door to improving cognitive performance across a wide range of domains,” Fernando Llanos, a postdoc researcher at the University of Pittsburg’s Sound Brain Lab and lead author on the study, said in a statement.

The same effect could be generalized to learning sound patterns of other languages according to the researchers.

“In general, people tend to get discouraged by how hard language learning can be, but if you could give someone 13 percent to 15 percent better results after their first session, maybe they’d be more likely to want to continue,” said Matthew Leonard, an assistant professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco and co-author of the study.

The researchers are now investigating if extending the learning sessions with stimulation could enhance the effect for the more-difficult-to-distinguish tones.

Similar brain stimulation of the same area, the vagus nerve, has been used to treat epilepsy in the past and is now the subject of other studies investigating whether it could help treat depression or even inflammatory diseases.

However, these treatments tend to be far more invasive when compared to the non-invasive ear pieces used during this particular study.

“We’re showing robust learning effects in a completely non-invasive and safe way, which potentially makes the technology scalable to a broader array of consumer and medical applications, such as rehabilitation after stroke,” senior author Bharath Chandrasekaran, professor and vice chair of research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said in the statement.

READ MORE: Scientists Discover Brain Hack That Improves Language Abilities By 13 Percent [Inverse]

More on brain stimulation: Elon Musk: Neuralink Will Do Human Brain Implant in “Less Than a Year”

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New NASA Animation Shows Mars’ Creepy Greenish “Nightglow”

A new NASA simulation shows the ghostly ultraviolet flashes of Mars's

A new NASA simulation shows the ghostly ultraviolet flashes of Mars’ “nightglow” — greenish hues in the Martian night sky.

The stunning video comes courtesy of the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph on board NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, which launched back in 2013.

The observations were detailed in a new paper appearing the journal Space Physics this week.

To the MAVEN  team’s surprise, they found that the Martian atmosphere pulsed exactly three times every night, but only during spring and fall on the Red Planet. The new analysis also showed unexpected waves and spirals over the planet’s poles during winter.

We’ve known about Mars’ “nightglow” phenomenon for a number of years now. Scientists have observed faint glows, likely the result of nitric oxide emissions.

Here’s how it works. On the day side of Mars, UV light from the Sun breaks down carbon dioxide and nitrogen molecules.

The resulting particles are then circulated by high-altitude winds from the day side to the night side, where they fall to lower altitudes. CO2 and nitrogen particles then recombine, creating energy, which is then released in the form of UV light.

“The ultraviolet glow comes mostly from an altitude of about 70 kilometers (approximately 40 miles), with the brightest spot about a thousand kilometers (approximately 600 miles) across, and is as bright in the ultraviolet as Earth’s northern lights,” Zac Milby, student researcher at the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and co-author of the new study, said in a NASA statement.

“Unfortunately, the composition of Mars’ atmosphere means that these bright spots emit no light at visible wavelengths that would allow them to be seen by future Mars astronauts,” he added.

The team is hoping to examine the phenomenon from an entirely new perspective next by looking at just above the edge of the planet, where they’re hoping to get a more detailed look at vertical wind patterns and seasonal changes.

READ MORE: The eerie green ‘nightglow’ of Mars pulses in ultraviolet light in new NASA views [Space.com]

More on Mars: This Video of Mars’ Leaking Atmosphere Could Make Elon Musk Cry

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Air Force One’s Successor Could Go 5x the Speed of Sound

The aerospace startup Hermeus won a contract to build a hypersonic version of Air Force One capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 5.

Nyoom!

A coming iteration of Air Force One, the high tech plane reserved for shuttling the President of the United States around the world, may be able to reach nauseatingly-fast speeds up to Mach 5.

The U.S. Air Force just awarded a contract to the aerospace startup Hermeus, Business Insider reports, which calls for the first hypersonic version of Air Force One. The company already has a prototype engine built and tested, and now it’s just a matter of building the rest of the plane.

Drawing Owls

Hermeus has been working on its hypersonic engine for over a year and completed tests in March, Business Insider reports. But now that it has this Air Force contract, it will need to make sure that its Mach 5 plane also meets certain rigorous standards.

Hermeus thinks it can all be done with existing technology.

“We want to do engineering, not science,” COO Skyler Shuford told Ars Technica last year.

Distant Vision

For better or worse, Hermeus’ hypersonic Air Force One is at least ten years down the road, Business Insider reports. Boeing is already set to deliver the next Air Force One in 2021, and Hermeus’ model would serve as that plane’s eventual replacement.

That means that unless American democracy utterly collapses, we’ll never get to see what Mach 5 would do to President Trump’s notoriously unusual hairstyle.

READ MORE: An aerospace startup just won a contract to develop an Air Force One jet that can travel at Mach 5. Here’s an early look at the engine that could rocket from New York to Paris in 90 minutes. [Business Insider]

More on Hermeus: Blazing Supersonic Plane Could Zoom From NY to Paris in 90 Min

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Exclusive Teen Titans Go! To Camp: Review and Interview with Sholly Fisch – GeekDad

GeekDad was lucky enough to get an advance look at DCs new all-ages graphic novel Teen Titans Go! To Camp. Writer Sholly Fisch was kind enough to answer a few questions about the first long-form TTG graphic novel, and DC provided an exclusive excerpt from the book. Read on for our interview and review, with the pages from the graphic novel along the way!

GeekDad QuestionsAnswers from Sholly Fisch

1. This comic certainly captured the chaotic feel of summer camp well, with an Apokaliptan twist. Did you go to camp as a kid, and what are the memories that stick out from there?

With an Apokaliptan twist? You mean your summer camp didnt have volcanic fire pits and savage parademons? Weird

I did indeed go to camp for a bunch of years as a kid, although it was day camp, rather than sleepaway. That gave me lots of experiences to draw from while writing the graphic novel, and it was a lot of fun figuring out how to twist those experiences in bizarre ways to fit the dark, demonic setting of Apokolips. I mean, I probably did have a food fight or two in camp, but our food never fought back.

Most of my favorite camp memories are the usual, like swimming and arts and crafts. Since this is a graphic novel about super heroes going to camp, though, Ill mention that my most heroic camp moment was probably knocking down a bully in the swimming pool. He was older and bigger than me, so in retrospect, it probably wasnt the smartest thing Ive ever done. But I didnt get beaten up for it not because he admired my bravery, but because I had terrible sunburn on my shoulders. The second he jumped back up and grabbed my shoulder, I wailed loudly in pain, and he panicked for fear of getting in trouble. Who says sunburn is bad for you?

2. One of the biggest highlights of Teen Titans GO! to Camp was the parade of unique cutaway gags and letters to home by a diverse team of artists. How was the process of picking so many collaborators in addition to main artist Marcelo DiChiara?

Id love to take credit for the astonishing range of guest artists on the letters from camp, but that idea really came from Editor Supreme Kristy Quinn. Kristy did all the hard work, and I just got to be pleasantly surprised by the mix of artists, which ran the gamut from old friends to artists from regular DC Universe series, and even one of the artists from Sandman: The Dreaming! (I wont spoil which artists they are, because the surprises are half the fun.) Quite a departure from what you might expect in Teen Titans Go!

But I dont want to overlook the amazing artwork that Marcelo and colorist Franco Riesco created for the main part of the graphic novel either. Over the past few years, Marcelo, Franco, and I have done a bunch of stories together for the regular Teen Titans Go! comic book, and theyre always great at capturing the series manic fun not to mention slipping in lots of little Easter Eggs that not even I was expecting. For the graphic novel, though, they really went way above and beyond, with tons of stunning spreads and visual effects that I just had to keep showing to my family as the pages appeared in my e-mail.

Its pretty nice having so many talented people make me look so good.

3. This was a very Robin-focused story as he had to overcome his desire to be the best at everything. Will he be the lead in the upcoming second OGN, Roll With It as well, or is someone else taking the lead for that story?

Well, Im not writing Roll With It, but the word I hear from behind the scenes is that Robin starts out running the Titans favorite role-playing game but only until the others get tired of his shenanigans and replace him. Of course, their new Basement Boss might not be the wisest choice in the world

4. What were your favorite episodes of the original Teen Titans cartoon and Teen Titans Go that influenced this story? And were there any other DC books that influenced your portrayal of a rather chaotic (and more kid-friendly than usual, natch) Apokalips?

Naturally, anytime you write anything set in Apokolips, your biggest influence is bound to be Jack Kirbys original stories that introduced the characters and their world. As I was plotting out the graphic novel, I went back and re-read the old Kirby comics for inspiration (and because it was a good excuse to re-read my collection of Kirby comics). Apart from obvious villains like Granny Goodness or Mantis, thats where I found more obscure characters like Devilance the Pursuer. Actually, I think we gave Devilance more space than hes had since 1972. I also really enjoyed the recent Mr. Miracle series, which inspired the recurring Darkseid is jokes. You know, people in Apokolips really do need to finish that sentence someday

Since Ive written lots of Teen Titans Go! comics (and an episode of the TV show), I already had a good handle on the Titans themselves. But most Teen Titans Go! stories are pretty short ten pages in the comics or eleven minutes on TV. So the real challenge here was to figure out how to make a full-length, 128-page graphic novel work equally well, with a story that would be substantial enough to be satisfying but still feel like an episode of Teen Titans Go! To help figure out how to do it, I re-watched the feature film Teen Titans Go! to the Movies, paying attention to how they tackled similar kinds of challenges of balancing plot, subplots, character arcs, and gags. We did it differently than they did, but it was very helpful to be able to dig into the movies structure as an example.

5. Cyborgs obsession with musical numbers was probably my favorite running gag here. Tell us, from behind the scenes what are Vic Stones favorite movie and Broadway musicals?

The musical numbers were a big favorite for me, too not to mention my youngest daughter, whos obsessed with Broadway musicals.

Cyborgs favorite movie and Broadway musicals? Well, lets see

Certainly not Singin In the Rain. Too much rust.

On the other hand, he loves The Wizard of Oz. He identifies with the Tin Man.

And, of course, Hamilton, given Cyborgs lifelong dream of becoming an 18th-Century politician. Besides, who doesnt love Hamilton?

And now, the review.

Ray: Ill be honest Im not a Teen Titans Go fan. I could never quite get into its unique brand of super-random comedy told in short bursts, and the characters are too far from their comic book versions for me to connect with them. I also freely admit Im out on a limb with this, and the show is wildly popular, to the point where it basically takes over Cartoon Network at points. There have been many comic book spinoffs, but this is the first long-form graphic novel based on the property, and I was intrigued for one reason Sholly Fisch, master of DC all-ages books and the man who wrote every issue of Scooby Doo Team-Up, was writing it. So did Teen Titans Go! To Camp make me a TTG fan?

Yes and no. I doubt Ill be doing any binging of the cartoon any time soon, but this graphic novel is a clever and funny expansion on the property thats taken to the next level by an all-star team of artists, led by frequent Fisch collaborator Marcelo DiChiara, who perfectly captures the manic energy of the main characters. The story centers around another summer as the Titans prepare to head off to summer camp one year after Robins disastrous attempt to one-up Speedy at Smores led to them apparently being banished from the Justice Leagues summer camp. So theyve picked another one on Apokalips. Pitting the TTG characters against the full forces of Darkseids army as part of a summer camp comedy seems absurd, but thats what this series does.

This is very much a Robin story, and if youre not familiar with the characterization of him in TTG, it can be a bit disorienting. A brash egomaniac who is constantly trying to prove himself the best hero, hes obsessed with Speedy and his rivalry leads him to do reckless things in pursuit of glory or Starfire. The other Titans are mostly supporting characters, although Beast Boy gets in some great visual gags. Raven and Starfire are mostly there to provide a contrast to the chaotic boys, but its Cyborg who gets the books best running gag thanks to his obsession with musicals. Poor guy really wants to go to band camp.

The main story is a lot of fun, paired with great easter eggs, but Sholly Fisch pulls an amazing hat trick with the great little stories-within-the-story he scatters through the book. Told in the form of letters from each of the campers not just the core five, but the Titans East campers and a few villains he shows us the story through different eyes and matches each segment with a different artist that perfectly suits the character. Francos surprise segment at the end was my favorite, but in terms of art alone, it was a pleasure to see Jamal Igles work on a DC book again.

Overall, Teen Titans Go! To Camp is going to be an acquired taste, because its definitely very much in the cartoons bizarre style of humor. But Fisch and his team of talented artists have much more room to play than the animators do in each segment, and have taken these oddball takes on DCs top teen heroes and given them a chaotic and hilarious story that fits them perfectly. It should be a must-buy for any parent with a TTG-loving kid.

And read below for a Q&A with author Sholly Fisch!

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.

Liked it? Take a second to support the GeekFamily Network on Patreon!

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Check Out These Cool Shots Of A Disassembled F-117 Nighthawk Arriving At Hill Aerospace Museum – The Aviationist

Two images of the F-117 being delivered to the Hill Aerospace Museum on Aug. 5, 2020. (All images: Hill Aerospace Museum).

As often reported here at The Aviationist, some F-117 Nighthawk stealth jets out of Tonopah Test Range continue to zip through the Nevada despite being officially retired in 2008. Some stories even claim the aircraft was actually re-introduced to combat in Syria and Iraq in 2017, although these claims have never been substantiated; however, the most recent sightings suggest that the aircraft continue to fly operational sorties, most probably playing the aggressor role for both training and testing duties.

Whatever, some F-117s have indeed been retired once for all. We spotted an F-117 fuselage being transported on a truck trailer on November 14, 2017. Last year, on Aug. 16, 2019 aviation expert and photographer Chris McGreevy spotted another fuselage being hauled by a truck along Columbia Way (Ave. M) near the joint military/civilian use Palmdale Regional Airport outside Palmdale, California. While we dont know where the first F-117 ended, we know that the second one was delivered to the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California where it is currently on display.

A third F-117 is being prepared for public display: the Nighthawk that was delivered to the Hill Aerospace Museum, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, on Aug. 5, 2020.

The official FB account of the museum shared the news that the aircraft had just arrived from Tonopah where the airframe was demilitarized. The Hill Aerospace Museum shared also some really interesting shots of their new F-117 that you can find in this post.

As the other F-117, the Nighthawk was hauled on a flatbed truck without its wings and vertical stabilizers and other parts that will be attached by the Hill Aerospace Museum. The aircraft, whose original coating has been removed as it may still pose a security as well as a health risk, will also get its iconic overall black paint job so that it can be put on display in the Lindquist Stewart Gallery next week.

Noteworthy, the other F-117, the one at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, had been prepared for display by Lockheed Martin as part of Operation Nighthawk Landing that saw the aircraft (#803/82-0803) being reconfigured and painted at Skunk Works in Palmdale, California.

H/T Al Clark for the heads-up!

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Check Out These Cool Shots Of A Disassembled F-117 Nighthawk Arriving At Hill Aerospace Museum - The Aviationist

UK gene therapy pioneer tilts at $125m NASDAQ IPO – Business Weekly

Freeline Therapeutics in Stevenage, which is developing gene therapies for rare diseases, is bidding to raise $125 million through an IPO on the US technology market NASDAQ.

The company plans to offer 7.4 million American Depositary Shares at $16-$18 apiece.

Even hitting halfway up the range Freeline could clinch a market value of around $574m.The company's lead candidate, FLT180a, is an investigational gene therapy medicinal product candidate for the treatment of haemophilia B and is currently in a Phase 1/2 trial.

Freeline closed a $120 million extended Series C financing in June 2020.The companys stated aim is to transform the lives of patients suffering from inherited systemic debilitating diseases. Data gleaned from trials involving the first cohort of 10 patients was promising, the company says.

CEO Theresa Heggie said: The feedback builds on previously reported data which suggest that FLT180a has the potential, using relatively low doses, to create durable FIX activity levels in the normal range in patients with severe Haemophilia B and provide a functional cure.

Freeline is headquartered at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst and has operations in Germany and the US. It has plans to grow rapidly across all territories.

Targeting the liver with its novel gene therapy platform enables Freeline to treat a wide range of chronic diseases. Its proprietary split packaging technology and high performing capsid allows the company to target monogenic diseases and, in the future, potentially treat complex disease areas not currently targeted by gene therapy.

Heggie said: We plan to commercialise our next-generation AAV gene therapy platform for haemophilia B while we continue to deploy the capsid and manufacturing platform across our pipeline of novel indications.

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Of mice and memories: Gene therapy study returns function in Alzheimer’s mice – ABC News

Norman Swan: Alzheimer's disease is the commonest form of dementia, and the results of billions of dollars of research investment have been bitterly disappointing in terms of finding an effective treatment. However, experiments on mice by a group from the Dementia Research Centre at Macquarie University have come up with some promising findings. Professor Lars Ittner is the director of the centre. Welcome to the Health Report Lars.

Lars Ittner: Hello, how are you?

Norman Swan: Now, essentially you are targeting an enzyme which protects nerve cells in the brain from the toxic effects of amyloid beta and that's one of the two main substances which accumulate in Alzheimer's disease. What did you actually do in this study?

Lars Ittner: So in this we found prior to this study that this enzyme activity that protects the brain from Alzheimer's disease is actually lost in Alzheimer's disease. And we devised a gene therapy to replace the enzyme activity and bring the enzyme back into the brain cells.

Norman Swan: And these are mice which replicate Alzheimer's disease in some shape or form.

Lars Ittner: Yes, they are, so we genetically engineered them to develop Alzheimer's disease.

Norman Swan: And they were showing signs of memory and thinking problems?

Lars Ittner: Yes, so their ability to form memory and then store the memory over longer terms is compromised.

Norman Swan: And this was the gene for this enzyme?

Lars Ittner: So we brought backit's called the P38 gamma gene, which we brought back into the brains of these mice and that restored their ability to form memory.

Norman Swan: So you actually got healing?

Lars Ittner: So we were quite surprised because when you set out with these type of studies you expect at most that you stop the progression. But yes, we got far more than we set out for.

Norman Swan: People have tried gene therapy before from Parkinson's disease and other things, and it's quite hard to get the gene therapy into the brain. And of course Alzheimer's disease is quite widespread as opposed to Parkinson's disease. How do you get the gene therapy in reliably?

Lars Ittner: So from the early days of gene therapy done in Parkinson's disease, the vehicles that are used to bring the genes into organisms or in the brain in particular have improved, so these days we use modified viruses that we take advantage of their ability to infect brain cells, and they then deliver the genes for us.

Norman Swan: In the right place. Were there any side effects?

Lars Ittner: So we did toxicity studies as part of our study, and then you use incredibly high amounts of the virus, and we did not see long-term side-effects.

Norman Swan: How do you getthere's something called the bloodbrain barrier, the brain is a protected organ and it's quite hard for things to get into the brain because of this barrier, how did you get beyond that with these gene therapies?

Lars Ittner: So with the mice we can take advantage of a modified virus which has been selected to actually passage this naturally, but in humans you would do a single injection, it's like a lumbar puncture, it's at the base of your neck, and it's directly into the liquid around the brain, so you basically mechanically bypass the bloodbrain barrier.

Norman Swan: There have been very disappointing results. I mean, what happens in mice particularly in Alzheimer's disease does not necessarily happen in humans, and there's not a single amyloid beta therapy that has had much effect on the brains of the people with Alzheimer's disease. Why do you think this one might work in humans when others haven't?

Lars Ittner: So the problem with the amyloid beta is that it is now understood that this is a disease inducing pathology but is not required for the progression of the disease, and we are targeting here actually the tau protein specifically which is

Norman Swan: It's the other thing that

Lars Ittner: Exactly, and that is responsible for the progression of the disease, so it's actually moving away from the amyloid beta as a drug target which has failed in the past.

Norman Swan: Now, with COVID-19 around we are getting used to the language of clinical trials and accelerating trials. When are you ready to go to phase 1 which would be a safety trial in humans?

Lars Ittner: So preclinical experiments have actually been completed for this particular study, and the next step are in fact phase 1 clinical trials, and we are currently working with Macquarie University and their commercialisation arm to find the right partner to move forward into clinical trials.

Norman Swan: Fascinating. Well, we'll follow that up when you do. Thanks for joining us.

Lars Ittner: It was my pleasure.

Norman Swan: Professor Lars Ittner is director of the Dementia Research Centre at Macquarie University.

You've been listening to the Health Report, I'm Norman Swan, and I'd really enjoy your company next week.

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Of mice and memories: Gene therapy study returns function in Alzheimer's mice - ABC News