First week of fall practice showing signs of progress – WV News

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First week of fall practice showing signs of progress - WV News

Seth Meyers on Kansas abortion vote: A promising sign of progress – The Guardian

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Seth Meyers celebrated a victory for reproductive rights in the US a month after the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, as voters in Kansas overwhelmingly decided to keep abortion protections in its state constitution. The defeat of a referendum to remove said rights from the constitution, 59% to 41%, was especially encouraging, said Meyers on Wednesdays Late Night, given that anti-abortion activists used every shady tactic they could think of and still lost.

The wording of the referendum was intentionally confusing, Meyers explained, reading the vague paragraph out loud. Wow, I cant believe they hired the same guy who wrote the iTunes user agreement, he joked. I hope voters were given the options yes, no, and da fuck?

That reads like the intro to a college paper you start writing at 3am the night before its due.

Moreover, Kansas voters saw through the bullshit and overwhelmingly backed abortion rights, despite misleading text messages from a GOP group. The night before the election, the group sent voters a text that said: Women in KS are losing their choice on reproductive rights. Voting YES on the Amendment will give women a choice. Vote YES to protect womens health. (Voting yes would do the opposite.)

You know, as a general rule, if your best strategy is to try to trick people into accidentally voting for you, thats probably a sign that youre the bad guys, Meyers said. Its like, if in order to get people to watch this show online, we made the title of every YouTube video click here for free boner pills!

Last night was both a promising sign of progress in the fight to safeguard abortion rights on the one hand, and a perfect case study of what the GOP has become on the other hand, he concluded.

Stephen Colbert also delved into the Kansas referendum on the Late Show, calling the 59% to 41% decision kind of shocking, the scale of that victory. Thats just not a win. Thats a Kans-asskicking.

And may I remind you, Kansas is a state so bright red it looks like me after 30 seconds on the beach, he added.

Keep in mind, this blowout happened after a series of dirty tricks from Republicans in Kansas, he continued. First, they made the wording of the ballot measure extra confusing, then they sent voters text messages right before the election that misleadingly equated a yes vote with personal choice.

They tried to trick them into voting the wrong way, Colbert said. This is the most misleading political message since 1952s I Like Ike too much to burden him with the presidency vote Stevenson.

In other news, Colbert pointed to a new study that found that eating processed food like ice-cream hurts brain function. Stop it, science, Colbert pleaded. Just stop studying things. This is why people turn against you and start eating horse paste. Whats next? Puppy kisses cause herpes? Exposure to Chris Evans is depleting the ozone layer? Just let us have nice things!

And on the Daily Show, Trevor Noah looked into a jaw-dropping moment during the defamation trial of Alex Jones, a far-rightwing commentator and a guy who makes Donald Trump look like a reasonable human being. During Wednesdays hearing, Jones, on trial for defamation after he repeatedly and systematically called the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting a hoax, found out on the stand that his lawyer had mistakenly emailed the prosecution evidence that proved he had committed perjury.

Noah cracked up at footage of a visibly reddened, flustered Jones confronted on the stand with his lies. He was so shocked, he started turning into every emoji, Noah said. At one point he even tried to give himself Covid, he added, pointing to a moment where Jones coughed on the stand. Did you see that? Oh, I cant speak, you know the disease I said is fake? Yeah, I got it, Ive got it.

You know youre in trouble when the truth chokes you up like an episode of Hot Ones, Noah continued.

But you realize, this moment is huge, because it shows that Alex Jones probably committed perjury. Which means Alex Jones lies about stuff, he joked. Yeah, I know, thats shocking, because does that mean chemtrails from planes arent turning the frogs gay? Was that also a lie?

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Seth Meyers on Kansas abortion vote: A promising sign of progress - The Guardian

Satisfactory Academic Progress: What You Need to Know About SAP – Student Loan Hero

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Around 84% of U.S. college students receive some form of federal financial aid. However, its important to make satisfactory academic progress (SAP), otherwise you risk losing this benefit.

Every school has a different set of SAP standards. In general, youre expected to maintain a certain GPA while making steady progress toward obtaining your degree.

Lets take a closer look at SAP and what to do if you find yourself falling behind.

For many students, federal financial aid is the only way they can afford college. In fact, more than 10 million U.S. college students benefit from the governments annual distribution of $150 billion in grants, work-study funds and federal student loans.

However, federal aid isnt a free-for-all. Students must meet and maintain certain requirements to continue to receive financial support, including adhering to their schools satisfactory academic progress (SAP) policy. Failure to do so could result in a financial aid warning or probation, which may affect your future eligibility for aid.

Without a financial aid package, you will have to find another way to cover your college costs, such as paying out of pocket, asking family for help or applying for private student loans although many private lenders also impose SAP restrictions.

Furthermore, certain schools wont accept alternative loans if you dont meet their SAP standards.

Its up to the college or university to define its own SAP standards. Furthermore, your schools SAP terms may vary, based on whether youre an undergraduate, graduate or professional student.

In order to fulfill a schools SAP requirements and continue receiving financial aid, students typically need to meet the following:

Keep in mind that SAP rules apply to the entire period youre receiving aid not just when you apply. Also, specific scholarships might have even stricter academic performance requirements than the ones outlined here.

Its worth talking to your schools financial aid advisors to understand their specific SAP policy. Some schools even have a SAP calculator on their website to help monitor your progress.

Most colleges wont immediately pull your financial aid as soon as your grades start slipping. Instead, they usually issue a warning that youre close to failing the SAP guidelines.

Your financial aid should still continue during the warning period, which generally lasts one semester. During that time you should use all the resources available to help boost your grades, such as learning and tutoring centers.

Ultimately, if you fail to meet your schools progress requirements after the one-semester warning period ends, your financial aid may be suspended.

If your school suspends your financial aid, you can check to see if they allow for a SAP appeal. You will most likely need to provide a one-page letter that explains what happened and what you plan to do to correct it.

Here are some common situations where an appeal might be considered:

Additionally, youll want to outline the specific steps you plan to take to improve your academic standing, such as repeating failed classes, signing up for tutoring sessions or enrolling for summer school.

Most schools will notify you about your appeal within 30 days. However, there is no industry standard on how often SAP appeals are approved. Ultimately, its up to your school to approve or deny your appeal based on your specific circumstances.

If your appeal is approved, you could be put on probation, which typically allows you one semester to rectify the issues while still receiving federal financial aid. Your school might impose extra stipulations, such as creating and sticking to an academic plan. If you fail to meet the criteria by the end of your probation period, your financial aid will most likely be suspended.

If your appeal is denied, you might be able to apply again. However, some schools have stipulations on how many times you can submit an appeal. Either way, you can usually keep attending school, but youll have to find another way to fund your tuition. (See our guide to college without financial aid here.)

Alternatively, you could consider a potential SAP workaround, which is to switch majors or degrees, or transfer to another school. For example, if your previous grades and coursework dont apply to your new concentration or college, you might be able to start over. This probably isnt the best plan of action, though, since many schools review your past academic performance when determining your eligibility for aid. Also, a transfer could affect your college loans.

In the end, the best plan of action is to work hard to stay on top of your coursework and to reach out for help before you start failing. Although getting satisfactory academic progress back on track can be hard, with some patience, creativity, commitment and a big reality check, it can be done.

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Activated Alumina Market is Estimated to Progress at a CAGR of 5.2% during the Forecast Period, Notes TMR Study – GlobeNewswire

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Wilmington, Delaware, United States, Aug. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Transparency Market Research Inc. - The value of the global activated alumina market stood at US$ 1.0 Bn in 2021. Global market study on activated alumina predicts the market to rise at a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period, from 2022 to 2031. The activated alumina market size is estimated to attain valuation of US$ 1.7 Bn by 2031. Players in the globalactivated alumina market are concentrating on important domains including oil & gas andwater treatment. A large number of end users utilize and valueactivated alumina's attributes, such as absorbance, which make it a useful component for several industries.

Desiccation, food preservatives,catalysis, fluoride adsorption,vacuum systems, removal of fluoride adsorption andtrace metalsduring the de-fluoridation of drinking water are all common and important activated alumina uses. Activated alumina is a common industrial desiccant due to its excellent adsorption properties, which is expected to fuel demand of activated alumina market in the near future. Major marketplayers often opt for partnerships, mergers, andjoint ventures to increase their regional footprint. Additionally, these tactics aid established players in lessening rivalry. In addition to increasing capacity, producers of activated alumina are spending money on research and development to create novel formulations and activated alumina manufacturing process.

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Global Activated Alumina Market: Growth Drivers

Global Activated Alumina Market: Key Players

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Transparency Market Research, a global market research company registered at Wilmington, Delaware, United States, provides custom research and consulting services. The firm scrutinizes factors shaping the dynamics of demand in various markets. The insights and perspectives on the markets evaluate opportunities in various segments. The opportunities in the segments based on source, application, demographics, sales channel, and end-use are analysed, which will determine growth in the markets over the next decade.

Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insights for thousands of decision-makers, made possible by experienced teams of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants. The proprietary data sources and various tools & techniques we use always reflect the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in all of its business reports.

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Activated Alumina Market is Estimated to Progress at a CAGR of 5.2% during the Forecast Period, Notes TMR Study - GlobeNewswire

Rockland church community making progress on prayer garden – Northern Virginia Daily

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FRONT ROYAL John Piazza remembers when his churchs Thursday night prayer group decided to build a prayer garden for the community.

They wanted to do more than just a simple small garden.

Lets do something that will make a difference in the whole community, he recalled them saying.

Piazzas late wife, Sheron Smith-Piazza, a church deacon, started the Gardening with God prayer group about five years ago, and the group meets every Thursday at the Piazza home in northern Warren County.

A landscape designer, Smith-Piazza had designed various gardens around their home most notably a large backyard oasis with brick walkways, two koi ponds with a small river connecting them, and a patio next to a pear tree and a wall of occupied birdhouses.

She used that garden as inspiration for the churchs prayer garden, her husband said, and although she lost a long battle with cancer on April 27, the prayer group and the greater church community are continuing her legacy.

Last weekend, the congregation at Rockland Community Church, installed a life-size marble statue of Jesus in the heart of their garden space in a field at 2921 Rockland Road.

The garden will sit below a pavilion where the congregation holds regular church services and overlooks the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The garden is mapped out with lines that indicate where brick walkways, benches, flowers and eight pink and white dogwood trees will go. The walkways will form a cross around an 8-by-40-foot reflecting pool, and eight small gardens with purple and white flowers will be planted around it.

In September, the prayer group hopes to complete the rest of the work, including relocating several orange koi fish from Piazzas house into the pool thats waiting at the church.

The whole job should cost about $150,000 to $200,000 once completed, Piazza said, but most of the work has already been sponsored by church members.

Benches, individual gardens and giant stone planters are largely spoken for, though the church will continue to sell memorial engraved bricks that range in cost from $150 to $400 to fund the project and to give the community a stake in the garden. So far, Piazza said, about 150 bricks have been sold.

Additionally, he said, the garden will be fenced in, have underground irrigation from the churchs well and have night lighting. Handicap parking will be available, sunset maples will fill in the treeline behind the garden along the churchs property, and Piazza said theyre hoping to plant 200 dogwood trees that community members can buy in memory of loved ones.

Once completed, Piazza hopes the garden will provide not only a meditative space for local residents but also a destination for people encouraged to drive out from Washington, D.C., or beyond.

He also mentioned concerts, weddings and other events that the space could accommodate once it opens to the public.

There are all kinds of possibilities, Piazza said. We want it to be for everybody.

Rockland is a nondenominational church with about 100 members. They typically see 40 to 50 parishioners on Sundays and have welcomed Interim Pastor Mark Jordan, who is retired from being a Baptist minister.

The church has gone through a transformation, said George McIntrye, board chairman for the church.

Theyve added a LOVE sign on their property to tie in with the states Virginia is for Lovers tourism campaign, and an informational sign along the road in front of the church was built by a local Scouting group.

Additionally, McIntyre and fellow prayer group members Dawn and Scott Hinkle and Linda Litchfield have been instrumental in planning the prayer garden, Piazza said.

Since April, Litchfield has taken over as project manager of the garden, and McIntyres business, The Apple House restaurant and gift shop in Linden, donated the funds to pay for the marble statue.

All of this is done to celebrate the good and the love in the world, McIntyre said.

The Hinkles have handled the brick project, placing all the orders, Piazza said.

The four of them, he said, "They're just godsends to this project."

Though the location of the prayer garden was consecrated about a year ago, the church has seen a lot of delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated supply chain issues.

Theyve received all the garden decor but are still waiting on plumbing for the reflection pond before they start planting the flowers and placing other elements around the garden.

The current plan is to do most of the work in September and then hold a dedication ceremony.

Much of the work will be done by church volunteers, but Piazza said that Lantz Construction poured the concrete for the pool and theyll have a contractor supply the plumbing.

His wifes company, Turtle Rock Landscaping, of Rileyville, will do the brickwork under its new owner, Duenis Diaz.

People have needed a place to go and just be, Piazza said. Its coming true now.

McIntrye is also excited to see the garden completed and Smith-Piazzas vision realized.

Weve seen a lot of her work. Were kind of memorializing the whole project after her, he said.

Its the quality of her expertise that comes through. Its like shes still there.

For more information about the project or the church, call 540-635-8312 or visit tinyurl.com/Rockland-Facebook.

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Rockland church community making progress on prayer garden - Northern Virginia Daily

Student groups spur progress toward UM sustainability | The University Record – The University Record

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As the University of Michigan continues to work toward carbon neutrality across all campuses and units, three student-led organizations have released annual reports that collectively detail a broad effort toward a universitywide culture of sustainability.

The reports from the Sustainable Food Program, Student Sustainability Coalition and Planet Blue Student Leaders showcase initiatives from the past year that have helped the campus community engage in more sustainable behaviors and learn more about relevant efforts on and off campus.

We couldnt be more pleased with the role that U-M students have taken in advancing sustainability, carbon neutrality and social justice, said Alex Bryan, sustainability programs manager for Student Life.

As these are urgent and important issues at U-M and around the world our community has shown great interest in taking meaningful and just climate action. And in no surprise, our students are helping to lead the effort. Over the last year, these groups have facilitated programs that led to more than 3,200 peer-to-peer interactive engagements.

The U-M Sustainable Food Program is a student-led initiative that aims to build just and resilient campus food systems. This includes helping scale the Campus Farm and expanding the Maize and Blue Cupboard.

The UMSFP 2021-22 academic year report notes a number of successful programs, events, collaborations and working groups, including:

The Student Sustainability Coalition report for the 2021-22 academic year details the organizations work fostering collaborations and empowering student-led environmental work at U-M.

The SSC, which the Graham Sustainability Institute and Student Life co-facilitate, seeks to connect students and student groups to catalyze university sustainability efforts. The organization communicates with the campus community via a weekly newsletter, dedicated social media accounts, summits and informal coffee chats.

The SSC report puts forward several ideas for fostering a culture of sustainability throughout U-M. In the year ahead, SSC aims to address a knowledge gap between students and U-M administration around relevant campus efforts, expand offerings like Earthfest that are programmed towards students, and work to center diversity, equity, inclusion and justice within sustainability initiatives.

The report also highlights the Planet Blue Student Innovation Fund, which funds student-led and initiated work that both reduces the universitys carbon footprint and helps foster sustainable values on campus.

SSC funded four PBSIF projects over the last year, including an energy-efficient cold-storage system that uses winter air for cooling, a bicycle repair station, canopy covers and light switch stickers that encourage energy conservation.

The Planet Blue Student Leaders program focuses on peer-to-peer engagement and culture change, with focus on early undergraduates as well as those who are less familiar with U-M carbon neutrality work or sustainability generally.

During the 2022-2022 academic year:

During the last year, U-M student programs granted $56,000 to 12 student-led projects that prioritized equity and sustainability. Also, 281 graduating seniors earned Excellence in Sustainability Honors Cords, in recognition of their involvement in climate action and dedication to the environment. Cords were produced locally by U-M students and with sustainable wool and dye from plants from Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

U-M continues to make strides toward net-zero emissions. Recent actions include joining the U.S. Department of Energy Better Climate Challenge, planning geothermal exchange heating and cooling systems, announcing $300 million in green bonds for capital projects aligned with U-M sustainability goals, launching a public dashboard tracking U-M emissions reduction efforts, and financing LED and energy conservation projects.

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Student groups spur progress toward UM sustainability | The University Record - The University Record

Firefighters make further progress to contain raging Oak fire near Yosemite – The Guardian US

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Firefighters have made significant progress battling the ferocious Oak fire burning in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Yosemite national park, achieving 45% containment by Friday morning. The blaze has consumed more than 19,200 acres, fueled through the dry, overgrown vegetation coating the hillsides and favorable fire conditions that spurred erratic and extreme behavior.

Many have still been kept from their homes as the fire continues to spread since igniting last week, as residents await word on whether theirs was one of the 162 structures reported destroyed. That number could go up as damage assessment crews work to investigate the destruction, and hundreds of houses still lie in the fires path.

If the fire intensifies it could reach those areas, said a Cal Fire public information officer, Hector Vasquez, noting that warmer and drier conditions are expected in the coming days and that the steep, rocky terrain where the fire is burning has hindered efforts to corral it. Homes will remain at risk until the blaze has been completely extinguished. But the number [of homes at risk] has gone down significantly in the last few days, he added.

The Oak fire is one of many disasters raging across the US, as scorching temperatures baked the Pacific north-west, the west remained parched in record drought, and severe storms sent flash floods surging across several states. At least four people have died due to the extreme heat in Oregon, according to the state medical examiner, while the death toll mounts in Kentucky, where 16 people have been reported killed in historic flooding.

We may have even lost entire families, said Kentuckys governor, Andy Beshear, speaking in an update posted on YouTube.

The climate crisis has turned up the dial on disasters and, as temperatures continue to climb, extreme events are expected to increase and overlap, testing resilience and hampering recovery. Although the ways that individual events are linked to climate change must be studied to be confirmed, the trends tell a troubling story of whats to come.

Instead of random extreme weather events, were seeing these large-scale anomalies, said climate scientist Karen McKinnon, who studies climate variability at the University of California, Los Angeles. She also noted the scale of the continent-wide heatwave.

Most evidence pointed to the extreme 120F temperatures in the Pacific north-west last year as being largely a freak event, she said. But if we see it again, thats a huge signal that something about the underlying physics of the system is changing. If you see two freak events in a row, then you know you need to re-examine your conceptual system.

As for fires, California which experienced record-breaking blazes in recent years has had a milder start to its high-risk season, even with the destructive Oak fire.

This time last year we had multiple fires burning throughout the state, Vasquez said, adding that the lack of competition for resources played a big part in enabling crews to attack the fire quickly. We had so many personnel and they got here quickly because we had a wide range of personnel not assigned to other incidents.

Still, with months left before the state sees wetting rains that reduce the risks, this could just be the beginning of another fire-filled season. Fires are important to maintaining the health of Californias landscapes, and can improve resilience and ecosystem recovery, especially in forests that are adapted to flames. But high-intensity conditions and an over-abundance of dried fuel have changed fire behavior, resulting in more destructive blazes.

Overgrown parched vegetation across the state is baking in summer heat. Many regions are primed to burn.

There have been several fires started since the Oak incident started, Vasquez said, and that could be a strong indicator of what lies ahead of us.

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Firefighters make further progress to contain raging Oak fire near Yosemite - The Guardian US

The Origins of Covid-19 Are More Complicated Than Once Thought – WIRED

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It means we have environmental sampling data that can place the spillover event precisely in the southwestern corner of the Huanan market, and genetic testing of virus samples from the first patients to give us a date: around November 18, 2019, for the introduction of Lineage B, with Lineage A following a week or so later. After that, though, the trail runs cold.

The researchers know which animals were being sold in the market in late 2019, and which ones were susceptible to coronaviruses, but they dont have the smoking gun. They dont have samples from animals that had the virus. Thats what theyd like to have, and theyd like to be able to trace those animals back to the farms from which they came and see whether people in those farms had been exposed to the virus or viruses, says Jonathan Stoye, a virologist at the Francis Crick Institute in the UK, who was not involved in the research.

Thats unlikely to be possible. There are theories on how infected animals may have reached the market: Wuhan is in Hubei province, and to the west of the region there are caves that are home to horseshoe bats, close to farms that once housed millions of raccoon dogs and civets. The most likely course of events is something like: A bat infected with a novel coronavirus flies over a farm where animals are being reared for meat. It poops, and viral particles infect one of the animals below, sparking an unseen wave of infections at the farm. Maybe the virus crosses over to the farmworkers but fizzles out because theres not enough population density to sustain a human epidemic. Days or weeks later, in November 2019, some of the infected animals are shipped to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where theyre sold at stalls in the southwestern corner. The virus crosses over to humans at least eight times, maybe more. The majority of those infections fizzle out without spreading to anyone else, but two take hold, start to spread. Not long after that, dozens of people in the area start to come down with a mysterious viral pneumonia.

But the animal or animals that carried coronavirus are almost certainly long dead: shipped off and sold for meat, or killed in one of the mass culls that took place in early 2020 as the Chinese authorities clamped down on the live animal trade. It is very possible that we will never have that sample, that we may have missed our opportunity, says Worobey.

But there are still leads to follow: tracing the supply chains for the stalls in the southwestern corner of Huanan market and finding out which farms supplied them; poring over the paperwork from the culls to find out where the animals from that farm were buried; exhuming the animals and sequencing their DNA to look for remnants of a coronavirus that looks almost identical to SARS-CoV-2.

It will need patient work and international cooperation in a difficult environmentbut it could be the only way to stop the next pandemic. These things are not impossible, Worobey says. So lets look at all the options. Lets connect every single possible dot that we can.

Image updated on 8/4/22 at 11:17AM PST to include the Wuhan Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market.

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The Origins of Covid-19 Are More Complicated Than Once Thought - WIRED

Another Way the Coronavirus Is Outsmarting Us – The Atlantic

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By the time a cell senses that its been infected by a virus, it generally knows it is doomed. Soon, it will be busted up by the bodys immunological patrol or detonated by the invader itself. So the moribund cell plays its trump card: It bleats out microscopic shrieks that danger is nigh.

These intercellular messages, ferried about by molecules called interferons, serve as a warning signal to nearby cellsYou are about to be infected; its time for you to set up an antiviral state, says Juliet Morrison, an immunologist at UC Riverside. Recipient cells start battening down the hatches, switching on hundreds of genes that help them pump out suites of defensive proteins. Strong, punchy interferon responses are essential to early viral control, acting as a first line of defense that comes online within minutes or hours, says Mario Santiago, an immunologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. At their best, interferons can contain the infection so quickly that the rest of the immune system hardly needs to get involved.

Viruses, of course, arent content to let that happen. Pretty much all of them, SARS-CoV-2 included, are darn good at impairing interferon signaling, or finding their way around the virus-blocking shields that cells raise after heeding those molecular calls. And as new coronavirus variants arise, they may be steadily improving their ability to resist interferons punchmaking it easier, perhaps, for the microbes to spread within and between bodies, or spark more serious disease.

Read: How long can the coronavirus keep reinfecting us?

This development may sound kind of familiar: As the coronavirus has evolved, one of its main moves has been to repeatedly dodge the antibodies that vaccines and past infections raise. But theres a key difference. Although antibodies are powerful, most are able to recognize and latch onto only a super-specific sliver of a single pathogens physique. Interferons, meanwhile, are the ultimate generalists, a set of catch-all burglar alarms. Even if the body has never seen a particular pathogen before and no relevant antibodies are present, cells will make interferons as soon as they realize a virus is aroundany and all viruses, says Eleanor Fish, an immunologist at the University of Toronto. It doesnt matter what the virus is, it doesnt matter where it comes in.

Once warned, interferon-ized cells leap into action. They will reinforce their exteriors; sharpen molecular scissors that can hack the microbe to bits, should it get inside; and conjure up sticky substances that can stop the viruss progeny from exiting. All that buys the immune system time to rouse, again with interferons help, more precise fighters, such as B cells and T cells.

But this system isnt foolproof. Some viruses will cloak their innards from cellular sensors, so the relevant alarm wires never get tripped. Others destroy the gears that get the interferon system cranking, so the warning signals never get sent. Particularly resilient viruses may not even mind if interferon messages go out, because theyre able to steel themselves against the many defenses that the molecules marshal in other cells. Strategies such as these are pretty much ubiquitous because theyre so crucial to pathogen success. I defy you to identify any virus that doesnt have in its genome factors to block the interferon response, Fish told me.

This, from our perspective, is not ideal. Derail these early responses, and theres a domino effect, says Vineet Menachery, a coronavirologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch. More cells get infected; antibody and T-cell responses hang back, even as viral particles continue to spread. Eventually, the body may get wise and try to catch up. But by then, it may be too late. The brunt of viral replication might be over, leaving the immune frenzy to misdirect much of its havoc onto our own tissues instead.

Interferons, then, can make or break a hosts fate. Researchers have found that people whose interferons are weak or laggy after catching the coronavirus are far more likely to get very seriously sick. Others experience similar problems when their immune system churns out misguided antibodies that attack and destroy interferons as they try to ferry messages among cells. Interferons also play a very dramatic role in counteracting the viruses that cause dengue and yellow fever. Those pathogens are rapidly wrangled by rodent interferons and never make those animals sick, Morrison told me. In people, though, the microbes have cooked up ways to muffle the moleculesa big reason they cause such debilitating and deadly disease.

Read: Could genetics be the key to never getting the coronavirus?

Coronaviruses in general are pros at interferon sabotage. Among the most powerful is MERS, which just shuts down everything in the interferon assembly line, says Susan Weiss, a coronavirologist at the University of Pennsylvania. That essentially ensures that almost no interferons are released, even when gobs of virus are roiling about, a dismantling of defenses that likely contributes to MERS substantial fatality rate. Weiss doesnt think SARS-CoV-2 is likely to copy its cousin in that respect anytime soon. The virus does have some ability to gum up interferon production, but it would take a lot more, she told me, to silence the system as MERS has.

Still, SARS-CoV-2 seems to be taking its own small, tentative steps toward interferon censorship. For months, several groups of researchers, CU Anschutzs Santiago among them, have been studying how well the virus can invade and replicate inside of cells that have been exposed to interferons. Recent variants such as Delta and Omicron, theyve found, seem to be better at infiltrating those reinforced cells compared with some versions that preceded thema hint that this resistance might be helping new iterations of the virus sweep the globe and cause repeated rounds of disease.

The bump in SARS-CoV-2s resilience doesnt appear to be massivemore at the margins of enhancing infective success, Menachery told me. Antibody evasion, for instance, might be playing the more dominant role in helping the virus spread and sicken more people. Still, the pattern thats unfolding raises a discomfiting question, Santiago told me. Interferons potency against the virus already seems to be getting slowly but surely undermined; what if at some point in the future, the virus becomes a lot more resistant? The challenge of managing COVID, whether through vaccines or antivirals, might disproportionately balloon. And unlike antibody evasion, with interferon resistance, theres not anything we can do to vaccinate against this, Menachery told me.

Read: The BA.5 wave is what COVID normal looks like

Still, theres probably a ceiling to how interferon-resistant the coronavirus can become. Eventually, repeated attempts to disarm our alarm systems may come at a cost to the viruss infective potential, or the speed at which it spreads, Morrison told me. Interferons are also extremely diverse, and have redundancies among them. Should one flavor get flummoxed by a pathogen, another would likely help fill in the gaps.

Many researchers, such as Fish, are also testing interferon-based treatments in people who have very recently been infected by or exposed to the coronavirus. Several of these trials have produced mixed or disappointing results. Even so, I think theres every reason to think that interferons are still going to be effective in some form, once scientists nail the timing, recipe, and dose, says Eric Poeschla, Santiagos collaborator at CU Anschutz. The molecules are, after all, natures DIY antivirals.

For a gamble like that to pay off, though, viral evolutionand thus, viral transmissionwill need to be kept in some check. SARS-CoV-2 has immense wiggle room in its genome; giving it less practice at infecting us is one of the most straightforward ways to halt its self-improvement kick. Every replication cycle is an opportunity, Menachery told me, for the virus to further fine-tune its MO.

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Another Way the Coronavirus Is Outsmarting Us - The Atlantic

Data limitations are making it harder to detect when COVID-19 is surging in Virginia – Virginia Mercury

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Since early July, Virginias COVID-19 case counts have remained relatively stable, with an average of around 3,000 new infections reported every day. But over the same time period, hospitalizations have risen, with more than 800 inpatients as of Wednesday, according to data from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.

The discrepancy, experts say, can be chalked up to data limitations. In a recent report, researchers with the University of Virginias Biocomplexity Institute wrote that the states current case rates are similar to those seen during last falls delta wave, which threatened to overwhelm local hospital systems. Detecting those cases, however, has become much more challenging.

In some ways, we might be revisiting early stages of the pandemic where all were observing is severe COVID, said Bryan Lewis, a computational epidemiologist on the Biocomplexity Institutes research team. People who end up going to the hospital are the only ones who end up getting confirmed.

Thats largely because testing, once in extremely limited supply, has become easily accessible to most Virginians. Rather than seeking out more sensitive PCR tests from pharmacies and local health department events, most patients with symptoms are relying on at-home antigen tests, whose results typically arent reported back to the Virginia Department of Health. And as pandemic fatigue sets in for more and more people, many arent testing at all, said Dr. Akira Shishido, an infectious disease specialist for VCU Health.

Like other public health experts, he said the lack of clarity around rising case rates has made it more challenging to offer guidance as the pandemic approaches its third year. Currently, the Biocomplexity Institute estimates that there are roughly 16 coronavirus infections for every reported case in Virginia, given the rise of highly infectious subvariants and the decline in test results reported to VDH. If thats true, it would put the states current infection rate closer to levels seen during the winter omicron surge.

Unlike this past winter, though, most Virginians arent taking the same health precautions. The states COVID-19 state of emergency expired last summer along with previous requirements for indoor masking and social distancing in public spaces. And after Gov. Glenn Youngkins successful push to repeal mandatory masking policies in schools, students and parents are expecting a mixed approach to face coverings at the start of the year. With community transmission already high in 55 of the states 133 localities and cases rising in most local health districts some providers say theyre worried about the coming fall and winter.

We still have circulating COVID, and I think well still see some people being admitted with severe COVID pneumonia, said Dr. Kyle Enfield, the medical director of UVA Healths medical intensive care unit. People are making the choice to not get vaccinated and not wear masks. And I think that will be compounded by a larger spread of other respiratory viruses that seemed to have decreased back when masks and social distancing were common.

Thats not to say there isnt a bright side to the current stage of the pandemic. Enfield emphasized that if hospitals do feel strained over the colder months, it will likely be due to a combination of cases that includes flu and possibly even monkeypox, an emerging virus thats spreading in Virginia and across the country. And theres evidence that omicron subvariants, while highly transmissible, are causing less severe disease, bolstered by growing population immunity.

Even as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations rise across the state, Lewis pointed out that ICU admissions have remained relatively low, indicating that fewer people are developing severe illness from the virus. COVID-19 deaths have also sharply declined since mid-January, and theres evidence that vaccines and previous infections convey lasting protection against the worst outcomes.

At this point, so many Virginians have some degree of immunity against COVID-19 that its unlikely the state will experience the same rates of hospitalizations and deaths that occurred during last winters omicron surge, according to Lewis. Still, he said its unnerving to see hundreds of patients admitted for the virus every week.

Its pretty incredible were still generating a fair number of hospitalizations, Lewis added. Yeah, its not as horrible as the catastrophes that have happened a couple of times during this pandemic, but you just dont see that with other infectious agents, even during the worst flu seasons.

Thats why public health experts are still encouraging caution, especially in anticipation of cooler weather and more indoor gatherings. Shishido said the chance of reinfection is substantial even for those who have been vaccinated, boosted and previously infected with COVID, largely thanks to the antibody-evading capabilities of omicron subvariants.

Luckily, he said, vaccines still generate a type of protection known as cell-mediated immunity, which provides strong protection against hospitalization and death even in the case of breakthrough infections. But while severe outcomes are unlikely for immunized Virginians, Lewis cautioned theres limited information on the effect of repeated COVID-19 infections or long-lasting symptoms.

Long COVID is something we dont fully understand and is messing people up pretty badly, he said. Were finding a lot of studies out there where a fair portion of people were talking 20 or 30% of people, even young people were still reporting symptoms like shortness of breath, the loss of taste and smell, even six to nine months out.

Enfield said that unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Virginians are still driving hospital admissions at UVA, a trend borne out by national data (the Virginia Department of Health no longer reports cases and deaths by vaccination status). But he also warned that high community transmission increases the risk of spreading COVID-19 to more vulnerable populations including immunocompromised and elderly patients, who are still at risk of worse outcomes even if theyre fully vaccinated.

High infection rates also mean the virus will continue to mutate, and public health experts still worry an even more dangerous variant could emerge in the future. Thats unlikely, according to Shishido, given that the most successful viruses are typically highly infectious without killing their hosts. But like other doctors, he encouraged Virginians to avoid unnecessary risks.

The hard thing is, the public health measures we were pushing a year ago are the same things we want people to be doing now.

Dr. Kyle Enfield, medical director of UVA Healths medical intensive care unit

For Shishido, that means masking indoors and making use of COVID-19 therapies including Paxlovid, an antiviral pill for high-risk patients, and Evusheld, an experimental medication that can lower the risk of infection for immunocompromised patients. Enfield said people should continue to limit the size and number of social gatherings they attend, particularly if theyre regularly in contact with more vulnerable groups.

He also encouraged anyone with COVID-19 symptoms to seek confirmatory PCR testing if their antigen test results are negative given the lower sensitivity of most at-home tests. And like Shishido and Lewis, Enfield strongly encouraged Virginians to take advantage of upcoming COVID-19 boosters, which will be reformulated to offer better protection against omicron subvariants.

We know people can get reinfected with COVID even after a natural infection, and that immunity wanes over time and might not be as good as some of the vaccines, he said. So I would stress that vaccines are still in everyones best interest.

The hard thing is, the public health measures we were pushing a year ago are the same things we want people to be doing now, Enfield added. I know were at a point where people want to fully relax, but were really just not at a point where thats the right thing to do.

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Data limitations are making it harder to detect when COVID-19 is surging in Virginia - Virginia Mercury

8 Facts You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Vaccine & Pregnancy – Healthline

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Pregnancy is a really exciting time, to be sure. But lets be real: It can also be stressful especially during this era of COVID-19.

Pregnant people are one of several groups at a higher risk of becoming very ill from COVID-19. COVID-19 can also lead to serious pregnancy complications as well.

The good news is that the COVID-19 vaccine can protect against severe illness and complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that anyone who is pregnant, breastfeeding, or plans to become pregnant get a COVID-19 vaccine and booster.

Getting vaccinated during pregnancy may feel intimidating, but were here to help. Keep reading as we go over eight facts about the COVID-19 vaccine that are backed by research.

According to the CDC, if youre pregnant, you have a higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19. This can include things like:

Thats not all, though: COVID-19 can also have serious consequences for your pregnancy. Thats because if you get COVID-19 while pregnant, you have a higher risk of pregnancy complications.

A March 2022 review of research notes that various studies have found that getting COVID-19 while pregnant is associated with an increased risk of:

Vaccination can go a long way in helping prevent these complications.

Lets get a big concern out of the way next: COVID-19 vaccines are indeed safe and effective during pregnancy.

Since the COVID-19 vaccines have been available, many studies have supported this. Were not going to cover each one of them here (that would take all day), but lets explore what some of them say.

Researchers in a 2021 study looked at the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in pregnant women. They compared 7,530 vaccinated pregnant women and 7,530 unvaccinated pregnant women.

Overall, researchers found vaccinated women had a significantly lower risk of contracting the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 than their unvaccinated counterparts.

Further, none of the vaccinated women reported serious side effects from vaccination. The most common side effects were similar to those seen in the general population and included:

Vaccines work by introducing your immune system to a germ. Your immune system crafts a response, which includes antibodies, to the vaccine. Your immune system can then call upon this response to protect you from the actual germ in the future.

Another bit of good news is that pregnant people appear to make the same immune response to COVID-19 vaccination as nonpregnant people.

In a 2021 study, researchers compared immune responses in 131 pregnant, lactating, or nonpregnant women. They found the levels of antibodies made in response to vaccination were similar between all three groups. Side effects were also similar in all groups.

And theres more: Antibody levels made in response to vaccination during pregnancy were higher than the antibodies made from infection during pregnancy.

Despite the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, vaccination in this group is still low compared with the general population.

For example, a January 2022 study in Scotland found that in October 2021, only 32.3% of women giving birth had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 77.4% of the total female population.

A 2021 study found that out of a group of 1,328 pregnant women, less than one-third got the COVID-19 vaccine when it was offered to them. Vaccinated women still had similar pregnancy outcomes to those who were not vaccinated.

Raising vaccine coverage is vital for preventing severe illness and complications during pregnancy. However, concerns about the vaccine and its potential effects have made people hesitant. Lets explore some of these concerns next.

One concern about the COVID-19 vaccine is whether it increases the risk of miscarriage. Research says this isnt the case.

A 2021 research letter outlines a study on this topic. For the study, researchers used the Vaccine Safety Datalink database to analyze COVID-19 vaccines and miscarriage rates. Data from about 3% of the U.S. population is included in this database.

Researchers found 105,446 unique pregnancies, 92,286 of which were ongoing and 13,160 of which resulted in miscarriage. All three COVID-19 vaccines used in the United States were represented within this large group.

Researchers wanted to see whether COVID-19 vaccines were linked with miscarriage. They were specifically looking to see whether people who had a miscarriage were more likely to have received a COVID-19 vaccine in the past 28 days.

This isnt what they found. Instead, researchers saw that, compared with those with ongoing pregnancies, women who had a miscarriage were not more likely to have received a COVID-19 vaccine in the previous 28 days.

COVID-19 vaccination is also not associated with birth and delivery complications.

Researchers in a March 2022 study reviewed data from a population-based survey. Among a group of 97,590 pregnant people, 22,660 (23%) had gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during their pregnancy.

Researchers compared people who were vaccinated during their pregnancy to those who got vaccinated after their pregnancy. They found that vaccination during pregnancy did not lead to a significantly increased risk of:

Another large March 2022 study also supports these findings. This study used data from 157,521 deliveries of single babies (no twins, triplets, etc.) in Sweden and Norway.

Within this group, 28,506 pregnancies (18%) included COVID-19 vaccination at some point during pregnancy. Compared with pregnancies in which no COVID-19 vaccine was given, researchers found that among the pregnancies with vaccination, there was no increased risk of:

If youre not yet pregnant but plan to be in the near future, you may wonder whether the COVID-19 vaccine could affect your fertility. According to the CDC, theres currently no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause fertility issues.

Research supports this statement. A January 2022 study included 2,126 self-identified female participants ages 21 through 45 who were trying to get pregnant. Participants completed surveys every 8 weeks about:

After analyzing the data, researchers concluded that COVID-19 vaccination was not associated with long-term decreased fertility in either females or males.

But researchers did find that getting COVID-19 itself was associated with a potential temporary decline in male fertility for about 60 days.

Now that weve debunked the main concerns about COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, lets take a look at some of the benefits that vaccination may give your baby.

Antibodies that your body makes after vaccination can be passed to your baby through the placenta. These antibodies can go on to protect them when theyre particularly vulnerable to germs in the months after birth.

A June 2022 study included 21,643 babies, 9,739 (45%) of whom were born to mothers who had gotten their second or third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy.

Researchers found these babies had a lower risk of having a positive COVID-19 test within 4 months of birth. This finding persisted during both the Delta and Omicron coronavirus variant waves, although protection was stronger against Delta.

A February 2022 study included 379 hospitalized babies; 176 of them had COVID-19 and the other 203 babies were hospitalized for other reasons.

Researchers wanted to see how effective maternal vaccination was at preventing COVID-19 hospitalization of a baby within their first 6 months of life. Using this parameter, researchers found that vaccine effectiveness was:

How long does this protection last, though? Researchers aimed to find this out.

According to a February 2022 research letter, experts compared antibody levels in babies whose mothers had either been vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy or who had actually had COVID-19 during pregnancy.

Overall, researchers found that antibody levels in babies whose mothers had been vaccinated against COVID-19 while pregnant stuck around for longer.

Six months after birth, 57% of babies born to vaccinated mothers still had detectable antibodies. Only 8% of babies whose mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy had detectable antibodies.

Its known that breastfeeding parents pass antibodies to their babies through breast milk. These antibodies can help protect a baby from various germs.

Antibodies made in response to COVID-19 vaccination have been detected in breast milk. Lets look at a research letter about a 2021 study that discussed this.

The study included 84 breastfeeding mothers who provided 504 breast milk samples over the course of the study. After getting the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, participants were followed up weekly for 6 weeks.

Researchers looked for two types of antibodies to COVID-19 called IgA and IgG. IgA is found earlier in the immune response. IgG appears later.

They found the amount of breast milk samples with IgA rose early after vaccination. They peaked at week 4 (1 week after the second dose) before beginning to drop at week 6.

Few breast milk samples contained IgG after the first vaccine dose. However, by weeks 4 and 6, more than 90% of breast milk samples had detectable IgG.

This all sounds great, right? There are some caveats: The number of participants was small, and its unknown how long these antibodies last or the strength of protection they provide to a baby. More research will help find these things out, though.

The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective during pregnancy. Its vital for preventing serious illness and pregnancy complications from COVID-19.

The COVID-19 vaccine has not been associated with an increased risk of infertility, miscarriage, or other pregnancy and delivery complications.

In fact, vaccinated pregnant people can pass antibodies to their baby both through the placenta and breast milk. These antibodies can continue to protect babies after theyre born.

The COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for all people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to get pregnant. If you ever have questions or concerns about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, be sure to raise them with your doctor or another healthcare professional.

Excerpt from:

8 Facts You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Vaccine & Pregnancy - Healthline

Long covid: One in 8 have symptoms months after coronavirus infection – New Scientist

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Researchers estimated the prevalence of long covid using survey data from the Netherlands in the early stages of the pandemic

By Jason Arunn Murugesu

A man recovering from covid-19 at a hospital in The Hague, the Netherlands, in April 2020

REMKO DE WAAL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images

One in 8 adults who had a covid-19 infection during the early stages of the pandemic developed long covid symptoms, according to survey data from the Netherlands.

Long covid is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an illness that usually occurs within three months from the onset of covid-19, with symptoms that last for at least two months. These cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis and can include chest pain, loss of smell and painful muscles.

The symptoms have many causes, so it is hard to determine how many people experience these long-term effects resulting from covid-19 infection.

Aranka Ballering at the University of Groningen and her colleagues surveyed more than 76,000 adults between 31 March 2020 and 2 August 2021 in Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen in the north of the Netherlands.

The researchers initially surveyed people weekly about their health. They then surveyed participants every two weeks from June 2020 and then just once a month from August 2020.

During the study period, 4251 people were diagnosed with covid-19 for the first time. The team matched each of these people to two others of the same age and sex who didnt get infected.

By comparing the people who had covid-19 with the matched controls on the same dates, the researchers could better determine which symptoms experienced three to five months after infection were caused by long covid.

They defined long covid as a condition in which at least one symptom increased to moderate severity three to five months after a person developed covid-19. According to this definition, 1 in 8 people in the study who got covid-19 developed long covid. Loss of smell and taste, painful muscles and general tiredness were the most prevalent long covid symptoms.

The team also found that it took longer for long covid symptom severity to return to baseline levels in women compared with men. Some studies suggest that women face greater barriers to healthcare and so seek out help for symptoms later, and this may affect the severity of long covid, says Ballering.

The researchers couldnt say whether these symptoms lasted beyond five months, nor could they say how badly they interfered with daily life.

The ancestral and alpha SARS-CoV-2 variants were most prevalent during the study period, so the findings may not extend to people infected with other variants. The study also doesnt show what effect vaccines may have had on long covid. Just 10 per cent of the participants had been fully vaccinated by the end of the study, as most of the data was collected before vaccines were available.

About 98 per cent of those studied were white and they were all in the Netherlands, so these results may not extend to other ethnic and national groups. It is also unclear how long covid risk changes when people are infected with the virus multiple times, says Ballering.

I think these figures are an underestimate, says Danny Altmann at Imperial College London. What I can say from my research is that I think were undercounting long covid, not overcounting it.

He says this study highlights the gaps in our knowledge regarding long covid. What were not good at yet is working out the nuances of long covid after different variants, such as delta.

Journal reference: The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01214-4

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Long covid: One in 8 have symptoms months after coronavirus infection - New Scientist

Coronavirus Today: Experts are taking a softer stance on masking; it’s a different pandemic – Los Angeles Times

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Good evening. Were Corinne Purtill and Karen Kaplan, and its Tuesday, Aug. 2. Heres the latest on whats happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond.

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Perhaps nothing has come to symbolize this pandemic as succinctly as the humble face mask.

Be it pleated blue polypropylene, colorful fabric or the bulbous shell of an N95, its an accessory you probably never wore in public before the coronavirus arrived, and odds are you cant wait to be rid of it.

In the early weeks of the COVID-19 era, when new infections were rising like crazy, we were asked to don face masks to flatten the curve. As schools began to welcome students back to campus, masks were an essential accessory to make communal learning safe. After scientists began to recognize that the coronavirus spread mainly through the air, masking was deemed necessary to protect those who were older or medically vulnerable.

Despite all these virtues, the mask has also been vilified as a symbol of unthinking obedience to authority and a tool to muzzle children and stifle dissent.

Its been a wordless signal of community resolve, and a noisy touchstone of struggle against government strictures, our colleague Melissa Healy writes.

Even people who have worn them when asked over the last 2 years are running out of patience for the face coverings. They havent made the coronavirus go away yet, and with each new variant more transmissible than the last, it seems unlikely they ever will.

Isnt the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

Regardless, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer had planned to reinstate L.A.s indoor mask mandate if the county met the criteria set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for having a high COVID-19 community level and maintained that status for two weeks. She later hinted that she might press pause on the unpopular mandate if there were sustained decreases in cases, or the rate of hospital admissions moves closer to the threshold of medium.

In the end, Ferrer didnt have to decide whether to follow through with her original plan.

When the latest figures came out Thursday, the countys level had dropped to medium. Using its own data, the county calculated new weekly coronavirus-positive hospital admissions as 9.7 for every 100,000 residents just under the threshold to trigger the mask mandate. The CDC calculated a rate of 10.7, but Ferrer said the federal agencys data were older than the countys.

The news was celebrated by people like Michael Matteo Rossi. The 35-year-old filmmaker from Los Feliz wore his mask without complaint for more than two years. But even hes hit his limit. He told Healy that his mask was lost somewhere in his car, and he hopes he doesnt have to dig it out.

Fed-up folks like Rossi werent the only ones pleased that they could continue going about their lives mask-free. Some medical and public health professionals have softened their support for mask mandates as well.

The reason for their change of heart is not that masks (if used properly) have become less effective at preventing coronavirus transmission. Its that the value of widespread masking just isnt what it used to be.

Thats due to progress in other parts of the pandemic fight. With COVID-19 vaccines and past infections, the U.S. population has substantial coronavirus immunity. Those who get sick anyway have an array of effective treatments at their disposal. It also looks like infections caused by Omicron subvariants arent as dangerous as ones caused by earlier coronavirus strains.

Put that all together and the potential benefit of a mask mandate isnt substantial enough to justify the inconvenience, public backlash and other costs that come with it, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, chief health officer of Seattle and King County.

The threat has decreased, Duchin said. And for that reason, taking steps that are seen as inconvenient or costly or philosophically objectionable is less palatable and less desirable.

Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor who conducts public health research at UC San Francisco, agrees with that assessment though she can understand why some health officials are still inclined toward mask mandates.

When new infections rise, that feels scary to a public health officer, she said, and a mask mandate feels like something they can do.

But just because you can do something doesnt mean you should, she added.

Were in a very different place in the pandemic, Gandhi said. At this point, I do not think that widespread masking is necessary.

California cases and deaths as of 4:20 p.m. Tuesday:

Track Californias coronavirus spread and vaccination efforts including the latest numbers and how they break down with our graphics.

Box fans, four high-quality filters and duct tape. Those are the components of a Corsi-Rosenthal box, an inexpensive DIY device that pulls coronavirus and other contaminants from indoor air as effectively as many commercial air filters do, at a fraction of the cost.

Researchers have found that changing the air in an indoor space just five times an hour can cut the risk of COVID transmission in half, The Times Emily Alpert Reyes reports. One study in Italy saw that benefit grow to an 80% reduction in COVID transmission in schools when indoor air was changed six times an hour.

Yet indoor air quality is often neglected. A June report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most U.S. public schools had not made any major investments to improve indoor air quality since the pandemic began. When asked what steps theyd taken to improve ventilation in their classrooms, most schools reported simply opening windows or moving indoor activities outside. Fewer than 40% said they had replaced or upgraded their HVAC systems.

But theres no need to wait until the next major capital improvement project to start cleaning up indoor air, engineers say. Theres no time, either.

There are things we could be doing immediately and not waiting to spend millions of dollars to retrofit ventilation systems, said UC Davis College of Engineering dean Richard L. Corsi, who helped develop the low-cost air filters that now bear his name.

It doesnt help that the definition of clean indoor air is nebulous. Theres no federal standard or guidelines for what constitutes a well-ventilated room. The Environmental Protection Agency only has regulatory authority over the air we breathe outside buildings, not in them.

That has left many institutions to manage air on their own. In Los Angeles, the county Department of Public Health told Reyes it had connected schools with state grants to improve their ventilation systems and provided diagrams on the best places to put fans in school gyms. The county has also distributed HEPA air purifiers to more than 100 shelters for homeless people and other interim housing sites.

Some residents are taking the challenge up themselves. Reyes interviewed Alex LeVine, a cannabis company executive who has tricked out his own Studio City house with homemade air filters that pull contaminants from the air and, in one case, pulse colored lights in time to Phil Collins In the Air Tonight.

Who says filtration cant be fun?

See the latest on Californias vaccination progress with our tracker.

The hyper-transmissible Omicron variants have sent case numbers skyrocketing in recent months.

But health officials fear that they are also a harbinger of a devastating number of long COVID cases, our colleagues Rong-Gong Lin II and Luke Money report.

Thus far in the pandemic, infection with COVID has appeared to offer a grace period of protection against subsequent infections. But the most recent variants appear to have altered that timeline, speeding up the rate at which people can become reinfected. Thats particularly worrisome, as each individual infection carries the risk not only for acute illness but also the possibility of developing long COVID.

Reinfection absolutely adds risk, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Healthcare System.

Al-Aly is the lead author of a preprint study on U.S. veterans that found that the risk of developing heart or lung disease, blood clotting issues and other serious health problems including death rose with each subsequent infection.

The additive risk is really not trivial, not insignificant, Al-Aly said. Its really substantial.

One of the most troubling risks of repeated infection is long COVID, in which symptoms persist for months or even years after the initial infection. Part of the maddening quality of the condition is that there are no clear indicators of who is most at risk. The condition has plagued people of all ages, including those whose initial COVID infections were mild or asymptomatic.

Its repercussions are already being felt in California. As Lin and Money have reported, an estimated 1 in 13 adults nationwide and 1 in 14 in California had current long COVID symptoms in early July, according to data collected by the Census Bureau and analyzed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That study defined the condition as having symptoms lasting three months or longer that werent experienced prior to infection.

Dr. Anne Foster, vice president and chief clinical strategy officer for the University of California Health system, has a different name for it: a mass disabling event.

The good news is that most long COVID will resolve, lets say, after a year, Foster said. But theres going to be some smaller subset that will have lifelong disability and impact to their health.

A study from USC published last month found that 23% of people who had coronavirus infections between March 2020 and March 2021 were still reporting symptoms up to 12 weeks later.

The most common lingering symptoms reported in that study were headache, nasal congestion, abdominal pain, fatigue and diarrhea. But many long COVID sufferers describe severe ongoing heart, respiratory and neurological problems that in some cases have made it impossible to return to normal life.

Hannah Davis, a co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, was diagnosed with COVID in March 2020 and still has difficulty driving, reading and walking, she told the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis during a recent hearing.

Long COVID, she said, has already impacted our workforce. Many people with long COVID cant work or need reduced hours and struggle to apply for disability benefits. The financial impact is devastating and cannot be overstated.

And finally: Just three days after testing negative and getting the all-clear to leave isolation, President Biden tested positive for the coronavirus once again on Saturday.

Biden, 79, first tested positive for the virus on July 21. He was treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid, and was cleared to exit isolation July 27 after receiving negative tests. But rebound infections like Bidens are not unheard of, particularly among patients treated with Paxlovid, an antiviral recommended for patients at risk of developing more severe disease. Most rebound cases dont merit additional treatment, the CDC advised in May. The White House says Biden does not have further symptoms, and will resume working from home.

Im feeling fine, everythings good, Biden said in a video posted to Twitter, gesturing to his nearby dog. Commander and I got a little work to do.

Todays question comes from readers who want to know: Should I wait to get a booster until the one that targets Omicron comes out?

Considering how many people are becoming infected despite being fully vaccinated and even boosted, its no wonder this question keeps coming up. After all, the CDC estimates that 85.5% of the coronaviruses on the loose in the U.S. right now are of the BA.5 variety, and another 11.8% are BA.4 types. Those are the two subvariants that the new crop of boosters will be designed to recognize, along with the original coronavirus strain.

The Food and Drug Administration expects the updated shots to be ready this fall, but if you are eligible to get a booster right now, the advice of experts is unequivocal: Dont wait.

Definitely get it now! Paula Cannon, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at USCs Keck School of Medicine, told our colleague Jon Healey. The other vaccine experts he spoke to emphatically agreed with Cannons assessment.

Everyone who is at least 5 years old is eligible for one or two booster shots, depending on their age and the state of their immune system. Yet fewer than half of Americans who are booster-eligible have gotten even one extra shot, according to the CDC.

More than 17,600 Californians have been getting infected each day over the last week, including more than 5,600 per day in Los Angeles County alone. Those numbers are all the reason you need to get up to date on your vaccinations, said Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious diseases expert at UCLAs David Geffen School of Medicine.

Here are two more: The booster you can get right away remains extremely good at keeping people from getting extremely ill or dying, he said. Plus, its not clear that the Omicron-specific shots will offer a huge advantage.

Data from the companies developing the shots show that targeted boosters were only modestly better than the current ones in terms of antibody activity against Omicron, Yang told Healey.

And who knows whether BA.5 and BA.4 will still be dominant by the time the new shots are ready?

We could be looking at a completely new variant by then, Cannon said. So rather than trying to second-guess anything, we should stick with what we know, which is that boosters work well now, to top up peoples immunity.

We want to hear from you. Email us your coronavirus questions, and well do our best to answer them. Wondering if your questions already been answered? Check out our archive here.

(Rachel Bluth / Kaiser Health News)

My body, my choice. For the last half a century, this slogan has been associated with the fight for abortion access. Yet since the outbreak of the pandemic, and the proliferation of public health measures to control the virus spread, this former rallying cry for reproductive rights has been increasingly co-opted by opponents of mask and vaccine mandates.

The sign above (carried by Steve Bova of Maryland) was one of many on display at an April anti-vaccine mandate rally in downtown Los Angeles. Women say they can have an abortion because its their body, said Tom Blodget, a retired Spanish-language teacher from Chico who wore a T-shirt bearing the slogan. Blodget opposes abortion, he said. But if thats a valid thing for a lot of people, why should I have to take an injection of some concoction?

The enthusiasm with which vaccine and mask opponents have embraced the expression has led many reproductive rights advocates to distance themselves from it. In the wake of the June 24 Supreme Court decision that reversed the federal right to abortion, advocates for reproductive rights have retooled their language, opting for terms like Bans off our bodies and Say abortion, said Jodi Hicks, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.

In this moment, Hicks said, to co-opt that messaging and distract from the work that were doing and using it to spread misinformation is frustrating, and its disappointing.

Rachel Bluth of Kaiser Health News has more on the story here.

Resources

Need a vaccine? Heres where to go: City of Los Angeles | Los Angeles County | Kern County | Orange County | Riverside County | San Bernardino County | San Diego County | San Luis Obispo County | Santa Barbara County | Ventura County

Practice social distancing using these tips, and wear a mask or two.

Watch for symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell. Heres what to look for and when.

Need to get a test? Testing in California is free, and you can find a site online or call (833) 422-4255.

Americans are hurting in various ways. We have advice for helping kids cope, as well as resources for people experiencing domestic abuse.

Weve answered hundreds of readers questions. Explore them in our archive here.

For our most up-to-date coverage, visit our homepage and our Health section, get our breaking news alerts, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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Coronavirus Today: Experts are taking a softer stance on masking; it's a different pandemic - Los Angeles Times

BD’s base business growth in Q3 offset by drop in COVID-19 testing – MedTech Dive

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By the numbers

Q3 revenue: $4.64B

0.7% year-over-year increase on a reported basis

Base revenue: $4.57B

6% year-over-year increase

COVID-19 testing revenue: $76M

75% year-over-year decrease

Q3 trends: Becton Dickinsons third quarter revenue was relatively flat compared to 2021 as growth in its base business was offset by a 75% year-over-year drop in COVID-19 testing sales. CEO Tom Polen said on a Thursday earnings call that the company was affected by many of the same challenges the industry is managing inflation, supply chain constraints, healthcare staff shortages and rising labor costs, China slowdown but its base business was still able to grow over last years quarter.

Stifel analysts wrote in a Thursday note that BDs $4.64 billion in revenue last quarter beat the investment firms estimate by about $170 million driven in part by incremental Covid testing sales, but also strong all-around performance from nearly every other business line.

COVID-19 testing: While coronavirus testing revenue declined year over year by about $224 million last quarter, sales still beat analyst expectations, according to J.P. Morgan. The analysts wrote in a Thursday note that BDs $76 million of sales came in ahead by about $44 million. The company expects stronger COVID-19 sales for the full year, increasing its forecast by about $50 million to a total of $500 million.

Still, the testing demand slowdown is expected to continue for the remainder of its fiscal year and into 2023. CFO Christopher DelOrefice said that the COVID-19 testing revenue will drop to $25 million next quarter, and the business in BDs fiscal year 2023 will be significantly below 2022. DelOrefice said that approximately $25 million in quarterly sales is likely to be where future quarters fall. So far this year, COVID-19 testing revenue totals about $475 million.

2022 revenue forecast: BD increased its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $18.75 billion to $18.83 billion compared to $18.5 billion to $18.7 billion previously announced. The base business forecast was increased by $215 million at the midpoint.

The companys stock price was up over 2% to $250.15 Thursday morning.

China recovery: Polen told investors that a slowdown in China due to restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus continued into BDs third quarter, but the market rebounded faster than expected, with a strong recovery in June. Beyond the recovery of hospital patient flow, we initiated several actions to continue manufacturing and keep warehousing largely operational by working closely with our stakeholders in China, Polen said.

2023 trends: DelOrefice said that macroeconomic challenges are expected to continue in its fiscal year 2023, which typically begins in October. But the CFO added that the economic challenges are not expected to get worse next year and some may improve in the second half, such as the current complexity and challenges with the supply chain.

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BD's base business growth in Q3 offset by drop in COVID-19 testing - MedTech Dive

2022-2023 school year: Will coronavirus protocols change? Will there be weekly testing for NYC students? – SILive.com

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. When schools across the United States shut down during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020, guidance was made to ensure students would be able to return to their classrooms once again in the fall through a multitude of safety measures. This year, those recommendations could look different and less stringent, according to media reports.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to update its guidance for coronavirus control in the community, including in schools, in the coming days, sources told CNN.

Additionally, education news site Chalkbeat reported that New York City plans to do away with its weekly school-based coronavirus PCR testing, though a City Hall spokesperson said plans for the fall havent been finalized.

CDC GUIDANCE

CNN obtained a preview of the plans that showed the updated recommendations by the CDC are expected to ease quarantine recommendations for people exposed to the virus and de-emphasize six feet for social distancing. Regular screening testing for COVID-19 in schools will also be de-emphasized. Instead, the agency said it may be more useful to base testing on coronavirus community levels.

The CDC may also remove a recommendation that students exposed to COVID-19 take regular tests to stay in the classroom called test to stay. According to CNN, this was a way to keep unvaccinated students exposed to the coronavirus, but without symptoms, in the classroom instead of quarantining at home.

This was a program implemented in New York City public schools in December 2021. Whenever there was a positive case in a classroom, each child would take home two at-home test kits over the course of seven days. Those who tested negative and were asymptomatic were able to go back to school, causing less disruption to their education.

The changes could be publicly released as early as next week. However, they are still under deliberation and arent finalized, according to CNN.

The CDC told the media outlet in a statement that it is always evaluating its guidance as science changes, adding it will update the public as changes occur.

In schools and other locations, the agency wont recommend six feet of social distancing instead emphasizing which kinds of settings are riskier, like poorly ventilated areas and crowds.

Quarantine requirements are likely to be eased for unvaccinated people, or those not up to date on coronavirus vaccines. Currently, people not up to date on the vaccine stay home for at least five days after close contact with a positive person. Going forward, CNN reported they wont have to stay home, but should wear a face mask and test at least five days after exposure.

NO MORE TESTING IN NYC SCHOOLS?

Chalkbeat reported that New York City is planning to end its in-school weekly coronavirus testing.

In February, the city updated its testing policy that required schools to test the larger of either 10% of the schools student enrollment in grades 1-12, up to a cap of 250 students; or 20% of the schools unvaccinated student population. The change, the DOE said at the time, allowed schools with a high number of vaccinated students to test a larger group every week.

However, a source with knowledge of the program told Chalkbeat that the city plans to discontinue on-site PCR testing.

A City Hall spokesperson said the citys plans for the fall havent been finalized, but didnt dispute that the city is moving away from in-school PCR testing, Chalkbeat reported. The spokesperson told the media outlet that the city will communicate its plan with families when there is an actual decision.

The city hasnt yet shared what coronavirus safety measures will be in place when school starts next month, or what the testing strategies will look like.

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2022-2023 school year: Will coronavirus protocols change? Will there be weekly testing for NYC students? - SILive.com

Hawaii Department of Health reports 3,689 new infections, 21 coronavirus-related deaths – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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The Hawaii Department of Health today reported 3,689 new COVID-19 infections over the past week, lower than reported the previous week, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 329,633.

The states seven-day average of new cases also fell to 528, down from 573 reported on July 27. DOHs daily average reflects new cases per day from July 23 to 29, which is an earlier set of days than the new infections count.

DOH also reported 21 more deaths, bringing the states coronavirus-related death toll to 1,592.

By island, there were 2,503 new infections reported on Oahu, 468 on Hawaii island, 462 on Maui, 146 on Kauai, 12 on Molokai, and two on Lanai. Another 96 infections were reported for out-of-state Hawaii residents.

Actual numbers are estimated to be at least five to six times higher since these figures do not include home test kit results.

The states average positivity rate, meanwhile, declined to 13.8% compared to 15.7% reported the previous week, representing tests performed between July 16 to Aug. 1.

There are 147 patients with COVID in Hawaii hospitals today, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agencys dashboard. Of the 147, 19 are in intensive care and four on ventilators.

The Healthcare Association of Hawaii reported a 7-day rolling over of 135 patients with COVID in hospitals over the past week, and an average of 23 new COVID admissions per day.

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Hawaii Department of Health reports 3,689 new infections, 21 coronavirus-related deaths - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Travel to Mexico during Covid-19: What you need to know before you go – The Mercury News

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Editors note: Coronavirus cases remain in flux. Health officials advise delaying travel if youre not fully vaccinated and caught up on boosters. This article was last updated on August 3.

If youre planning to travel to Mexico, heres what youll need to know and expect if you want to visit during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mexico is open to travelers. You do not need to provide a negative result of a PCR test or proof of vaccination to enter. You might be subject to a health screening before entering.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lifted its requirement for travelers to test negative for Covid-19 before entering the United States. This eases passage back to the United States for American citizens, who constitute a big block of Mexicos tourists.

Youll find incredible food, sensational beaches, charming towns and historical remains in Mexico.

While the beach resorts around Cancun attract the bulk of visitors, those who want more than a fly and flop go for Mexico Citys cultural heft, the coastline of Baja California and traditional towns such as Oaxaca.

Mexico has had some of the worlds loosest border restrictions since the pandemic with anyone allowed to travel by air for business or leisure.

The land border between Mexico and the United States has been reopened to nonessential travel since November 8, 2021.

Since March 2022, travelers to the country no longer need to fill out a health declaration form.

There is no need to take a test before departure or undertake any form of quarantine. Those concerned they might have symptoms should ask for the Sanidad Internacional health organization.

Some Mexican states or cities might have tighter restrictions than the country at large based on local conditions. Tourists may want to inquire with their hotels or resorts about any local directives before committing to plans. You can also use this directory of phone numbers for individual states.

Mexico has had almost 6.78 million cases of Covid-19 and almost 328,000 deaths as of August 3.

As of August 3, Mexico had administered roughly 209.7 million doses of vaccine, or 165 doses per 100 people. For comparison, the United States has administered about 181 doses per 100 people and Canada has given 228 doses per 100 people.

As of August 3, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had Mexico at Level 3 (high) for Covid-19 risk.

Many hotels and lodging groups offer on-site Covid-19 testing for travelers returning to places that require them. Check with your hotel about on-site testing before you travel.

Visitors are likely to find situations differ depending on where in the country they travel, with local restrictions varying. See the Local Resources section of the US Embassy website for specific information.

Mexico uses a four-color traffic-light system to assess the health safety of each state and set certain restrictions in movement if conditions warrant it. Red is the highest level of caution, and green allows all activities. You can check the current status of the states you plan to visit by clicking here.

Sanidad Internacional

Covid-19 government page

US Embassy in Mexico

US State Department travel advisories for Mexican states

Joe Yogerst took two trips to Mexico one to sun-soaked Tulum and another to the big city of Guadalajara exposing contrasting attitudes and approaches to Covid-19. Find out which place put safety first.

Ever wondered what it was like to move to Mexico in a pandemic? Kim Kessler did. So did this adventurous couple, who booked an Airbnb together for several months despite being virtual strangers.

If youre not ready yet to take the plunge, youll find inspiration with the prettiest towns in the country and an insiders guide to tequila.

Aerial remote-sensing of a large region of Mexico has revealed hundreds of ancient Mesoamerican ceremonial centers. See for yourself what they found. And a post-conquest Aztec altar was recently uncovered in Mexico City.

The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

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Travel to Mexico during Covid-19: What you need to know before you go - The Mercury News

114 coronavirus cases reported in a week in Apache Junction, Gold Canyon area – Daily Independent

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Independent Newsmedia

The Arizona Department of Health Services on Aug. 3 reported the number of coronavirus cases in Apache Junction, east Mesa, Gold Canyon and Queen Valley is 19,555 in ZIP codes 85118, 85119 and 85120.

That is an increase of 114 from a week ago when cases stood at 19,441.

More than 90% of cases were mapped to the address of the patients residence. If the patients address was unknown the case was mapped to the address of the provider followed by the address of the reporting facility, according to the ADHS.

85118 ZIP code:

85119 ZIP code:

85120 ZIP code:

Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, breathing trouble, sore throat, muscle pain and loss of taste or smell. Most people develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia.

To see full numbers across the state, click here.

See more stories at yourvalley.net/covid-19.

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114 coronavirus cases reported in a week in Apache Junction, Gold Canyon area - Daily Independent

Libraries Help Educate About COVID-19 Vaccination Ahead of Schoolyear – NBC4 Washington

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The U.S. Department of Health is rolling out its "We Can Do This" COVID-19 education campaign ahead of the schoolyear, hoping to increase the vaccination rate among children by educating parents in trusted spaces, and the library is becoming a critical location in the effort.

Dr. Cameron Webb, a senior advisor on the White Houses COVID-19 team, was a special guest for Thursdays story time at Hyattsville's Library. He shared more than a book with families.

Back-to-school is right around the corner, so we want families, we want everybody to have their best protection, he said.

While vaccination rates for children 6 months to 5 years old are the lowest of any age group with 3% vaccinated, Webb hopes parents will step up before little ones reenter school and day care.

We want to make sure that everybody has that protection against COVID-19, but its coming at a time where a lot of people are processing how they look at the pandemic differently.

In Hyattsville, one of the most diverse communities in Prince George's County, it was clear early on that the approach to accessing the vaccine had to be different.

We were the community that was hardest struck in the region, yet we were the last to receive testing and the last to receive vaccines, Prince Georges County Council member Deni Taveras said.

Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information

The county's libraries stepped in to help improve access.

We would receive a phone call, and a customer would say, Im an undocumented immigrant. Im having trouble getting through to the vaccine clinic. Theyre telling me I cant get a vaccine, Prince George's County Memorial Library System acting co-CEO Nicholas A. Brown said. And we would tell them exactly what to say. Get on the phone with the vaccine provider to clarify what the policies are. And it was that level of library-to-family connection that helped people get to these resources really quickly.

Thursdays clinic reminded how libraries have pivoted, becoming more than just a place to check out books.

They have a such a nice space for children, so I think it's really great that they tied those two together to offer the vaccine to the community while having children's events here, mother Jillian Campbell said.

Parents said they are adjusting to the new reality and the back-to-school list is changing.

School is starting September or Aug. 22, and he needs to get vaccinated, so we are really, really glad that its being offered over here, mother Grace Burrell said.

It was only a one-day clinic, but the public library is open to share information on where to find other clinics like it by calling local branches during library business hours.

The American Library Association is working alongside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to launch similar campaigns around the country.

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Libraries Help Educate About COVID-19 Vaccination Ahead of Schoolyear - NBC4 Washington

Whatever Happened to the Transhumanists? – Gizmodo

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Image: Gizmodo/Shutterstock

Gizmodo is 20 years old! To celebrate the anniversary, were looking back at some of the most significant ways our lives have been thrown for a loop by our digital tools.

Like so many others after 9/11, I felt spiritually and existentially lost. Its hard to believe now, but I was a regular churchgoer at the time. Watching those planes smash into the World Trade Center woke me from my extended cerebral slumber and I havent set foot in a church since, aside from the occasional wedding or baptism.

I didnt realize it at the time, but that godawful day triggered an intrapersonal renaissance in which my passion for science and philosophy was resuscitated. My marriage didnt survive this mental reboot and return to form, but it did lead me to some very positive places, resulting in my adoption of secular Buddhism, meditation, and a decade-long stint with vegetarianism. It also led me to futurism, and in particular a brand of futurism known as transhumanism.

Transhumanism made a lot of sense to me, as it seemed to represent the logical next step in our evolution, albeit an evolution guided by humans and not Darwinian selection. As a cultural and intellectual movement, transhumanism seeks to improve the human condition by developing, promoting, and disseminating technologies that significantly augment our cognitive, physical, and psychological capabilities. When I first stumbled upon the movement, the technological enablers of transhumanism were starting to come into focus: genomics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. These tools carried the potential to radically transform our species, leading to humans with augmented intelligence and memory, unlimited lifespans, and entirely new physical and cognitive capabilities. And as a nascent Buddhist, it meant a lot to me that transhumanism held the potential to alleviate a considerable amount of suffering through the elimination of disease, infirmary, mental disorders, and the ravages of aging.

The idea that humans would transition to a posthuman state seemed both inevitable and desirable, but, having an apparently functional brain, I immediately recognized the potential for tremendous harm. Wanting to avoid a Brave New World dystopia (perhaps vaingloriously), I decided to get directly involved in the transhumanist movement in hopes of steering it in the right direction. To that end, I launched my blog, Sentient Developments, joined the World Transhumanist Association (now Humanity+), co-founded the now-defunct Toronto Transhumanist Association, and served as the deputy editor of the transhumanist e-zine Betterhumans, also defunct. I also participated in the founding of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), on which I continue to serve as chairman of the board.

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Indeed, it was also around this time in the early- to mid-2000s that I developed a passion for bioethics. This newfound fascination, along with my interest in futurist studies and outreach, gave rise to a dizzying number of opportunities. I gave talks at academic conferences, appeared regularly on radio and television, participated in public debates, and organized transhumanist-themed conferences, including TransVision 2004, which featured talks by Australian performance artist Stelarc, Canadian inventor and cyborg Steve Mann, and anti-aging expert Aubrey de Grey.

The transhumanist movement had permeated nearly every aspect of my life, and I thought of little else. It also introduced me to an intriguing (and at times problematic) cast of characters, many of whom remain my colleagues and friends. The movement gathered steady momentum into the late 2000s and early 2010s, acquiring many new supporters and a healthy dose of detractors. Transhumanist memes, such as mind uploading, genetically modified babies, human cloning, and radical life extension, flirted with the mainstream. At least for a while.

The term transhumanism popped into existence during the 20th century, but the idea has been around for a lot longer than that.

The quest for immortality has always been a part of our history, and it probably always will be. The Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest written example, while the Fountain of Youththe literal Fountain of Youthwas the obsession of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Len.

Notions that humans could somehow be modified or enhanced appeared during the European Enlightenment of the 18th century, with French philosopher Denis Diderot arguing that humans might someday redesign themselves into a multitude of types whose future and final organic structure its impossible to predict, as he wrote in DAlemberts Dream. Diderot also thought it possible to revive the dead and imbue animals and machines with intelligence. Another French philosopher, Marquis de Condorcet, thought along similar lines, contemplating utopian societies, human perfectibility, and life extension.

The Russian cosmists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries foreshadowed modern transhumanism, as they ruminated on space travel, physical rejuvenation, immortality, and the possibility of bringing the dead back to life, the latter being a portend to cryonicsa staple of modern transhumanist thinking. From the 1920s through to the 1950s, thinkers such as British biologist J. B. S. Haldane, Irish scientist J. D. Bernal, and British biologist Julian Huxley (who popularized the term transhumanism in a 1957 essay) were openly advocating for such things as artificial wombs, human clones, cybernetic implants, biological enhancements, and space exploration.

It wasnt until the 1990s, however, that a cohesive transhumanist movement emerged, a development largely brought about byyou guessed itthe internet.

As with many small subcultures, the internet allowed transhumanists around the world to start communicating on email lists, and then websites and blogs, James Hughes, a bioethicist, sociologist, and the executive director of the IEET, told me. Almost all transhumanist culture takes place online. The 1990s and early 2000s were also relatively prosperous, at least for the Western countries where transhumanism grew, so the techno-optimism of transhumanism seemed more plausible.

The internet most certainly gave rise to the vibrant transhumanist subculture, but the emergence of tantalizing, impactful scientific and technological concepts is what gave the movement its substance. Dolly the sheep, the worlds first cloned animal, was born in 1996, and in the following year Garry Kasparov became the first chess grandmaster to lose to a supercomputer. The Human Genome Project finally released a complete human genome sequence in 2003, in a project that took 13 years to complete. The internet itself gave birth to a host of futuristic concepts, including online virtual worlds and the prospect of uploading ones consciousness into a computer, but it also suggested a possible substrate for the Nospherea kind of global mind envisioned by the French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Key cheerleaders contributed to the proliferation of far-flung futurist-minded ideas. Eric Drexlers seminal book Engines of Creation (1986) demonstrated the startling potential for (and peril of) molecular nanotechnology, while the work of Hans Moravec and Kevin Warwick did the same for robotics and cybernetics, respectively. Futurist Ray Kurzweil, through his law of accelerating returns and fetishization of Moores Law, convinced many that a radical future was at hand; in his popular books, The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999) and The Singularity is Near (2005), Kurzweil predicted that human intelligence was on the cusp of merging with its technology. In his telling, this meant that we could expect a Technological Singularity (the emergence of greater-than-human artificial intelligence) by the mid-point of the 21st century (as an idea, the Singularityanother transhumanist staplehas been around since the 1960s and was formalized in a 1993 essay by futurist and sci-fi author Vernor Vinge). In 2006, an NSF-funded report, titled Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations: Converging Technologies in Society, showed that the U.S. government was starting to pay attention to transhumanist ideas.

A vibrant grassroots transhumanist movement developed at the turn of the millennium. The Extropy Institute, founded by futurist Max More, and the World Transhumanist Association (WTA), along with its international charter groups, gave structure to what was, and still is, a wildly divergent set of ideas. A number of specialty groups with related interests also emerged, including: the Methuselah Foundation, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (now the Machine Intelligence Research Institute), the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, the Foresight Institute, the Lifeboat Foundation, and many others. Interest in cryonics increased as well, with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation and the Cryonics Institute receiving more attention than usual.

Society and culture got cyberpunked in a hurry, which naturally led people to think increasingly about the future. And with the Apollo era firmly in the rear view mirror, the publics interest in space exploration waned. Bored of the space-centric 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, we increasingly turned our attention to movies about AI, cybernetics, and supercomputers, including Blade Runner, Akira, and The Matrix, many of which had a distinctive dystopian tinge.

With the transhumanist movement in full flight, the howls of outrage became louderfrom critics within the conservative religious right through to those on the anti-technological left. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared transhumanism to be the worlds most dangerous idea, while bioethicist Leon Kass, a vocal critic of transhumanism, headed-up President George W. Bushs bioethics council, which explicitly addressed medical interventions meant to enhance human capabilities and appearance. The bioethical battle lines of the 21st century, it appeared, were being drawn before our eyes.

This TIME cover blew my mind when it came out on February 21, 2011.Image: Photo-illustration by Phillip Tolendo for TIME. Prop Styling by Donnie Myers.

It was a golden era for transhumanism. Within a seemingly impossible short time, our ideas went from obscurity to tickling the zeitgeist. The moment that really did it for me was seeing the cover of TIMEs February 21, 2011, issue, featuring the headline, 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal, and cover art depicting a brain-jacked human head.

By 2012, my own efforts in this area had landed me a job as a contributing editor for io9, which served to expand my interest in science, futurism, and philosophy even further. I presented a talk at Moogfest in 2014 and had some futurist side hustles, serving as the advisor for National Geographics 2017 documentary-drama series, Year Million. Transhumanist themes permeated much of my work back then, whether at io9 or later with Gizmodo, but less so with each passing year. These days I barely write about transhumanism, and my involvement in the movement barely registers. My focus has been on spaceflight and the ongoing commercialization of space, which continues to scratch my futurist itch.

What was once a piercing roar has retreated to barely discernible background noise. Or at least thats how it currently appears to me. For reasons that are both obvious and not obvious, explicit discussions of transhumanism and transhumanists have fallen by the wayside.

The reason we dont talk about transhumanism as much as we used to is that much of it has become a bit normalat least as far as the technology goes, as Anders Sandberg, a senior research fellow from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, told me.

We live lives online using wearable devices (smartphones), aided by AI and intelligence augmentation, virtual reality is back again, gene therapy and RNA vaccines are a thing, massive satellite constellations are happening, drones are becoming important in warfare, trans[gender] rights are a big issue, and so on, he said, adding: We are living in a partially transhuman world. At the same time, however, the transhumanist idea to deliberately embrace the change and try to aim for such a future has not become mainstream, Sandberg said.

His point about transhumanism having a connection to trans-rights may come as a surprise, but the futurist linkage to LGBTQ+ issues goes far back, whether it be sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler envisioning queer families and greater gender fluidity or feminist Donna Haraway yearning to be a cyborg rather than a goddess. Transhumanists have long advocated for a broadening of sexual and gender diversity, along with the associated rights to bodily autonomy and the means to invoke that autonomy. In 2011, Martine Rothblatt, the billionaire transhumanist and transgender rights advocate, took it a step further when she said, we cannot be surprised that transhumanism arises from the groins of transgenderism, and that we must welcome this further transcendence of arbitrary biology.

Natasha Vita-More, executive director of Humanity+ and an active transhumanist since the early 1980s, says ideas that were foreign to non-transhumanists 20 years ago have been integrated into our regular vocabulary. These days, transhumanist-minded thinkers often reference concepts such as cryonics, mind uploading, and memory transfer, but without having to invoke transhumanism, she said.

Is it good that we dont reference transhumanism as much anymore? No, I dont think so, but I also think it is part of the growth and evolution of social understanding in that we dont need to focus on philosophy or movements over technological or scientific advances that are changing the world, Vita-More told me. Moreover, people today are far more knowledgeable about technology than they were 20 years ago and are more adept at considering the pros and cons of change rather than just the cons or potential bad effects, she added.

PJ Manney, futurist consultant and author of the transhumanist-themed sci-fi Phoenix Horizon trilogy, says all the positive and optimistic visions of future humanity are being tempered or outright dashed as we see humans taking new tools and doing what humans do: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Indeed, were a lot more cynical and wary of technology than we were 20 years ago, and for good reasons. The Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Edward Snowdens revelations about government spying, and the emergence of racist policing software were among an alarming batch of reproachable developments that demonstrated technologys potential to turn sour.

We dont talk about transhumanism that much any more because so much of it is in the culture already, Manney, who serves with me on the IEET board of directors, continued, but we exist in profound future shock and with cultural and social stresses all around us. Manney referenced the retrograde SCOTUS reversals and how U.S. states are removing human rights from acknowledged humans. She suggests that we secure human rights for humans before we consider our silicon simulacrums.

Nigel Cameron, an outspoken critic of transhumanism, said the futurist movement lost much of its appeal because the naive framing of the enormous changes and advances under discussion got less interesting as the distinct challenges of privacy, automation, and genetic manipulation (e.g. CRISPR) began to emerge. In the early 2000s, Cameron led a project on the ethics of emerging technologies at the Illinois Institute of Technology and is now a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawas Institute on Science, Society and Policy.

Sandberg, a longstanding transhumanist organizer and scholar, said the War on Terror and other emerging conflicts of the 2000s caused people to turn to here-and-now geopolitics, while climate change, the rise of China, and the 2008 financial crisis led to the pessimism seen during the 2010s. Today we are having a serious problem with cynicism and pessimism paralyzing people from trying to fix and build things, Sandberg said. We need optimism!

Some of the transhumanist groups that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s still exist or evolved into new forms, and while a strong pro-transhumanist subculture remains, the larger public seems detached and largely disinterested. But thats not to say that these groups, or the transhumanist movement in general, didnt have an impact.

The various transhumanist movements led to many interesting conversations, including some bringing together conservatives and progressives into a common critique, said Cameron.

I think the movements had mainly an impact as intellectual salons where blue-sky discussions made people find important issues they later dug into professionally, said Sandberg. He pointed to Oxford University philosopher and transhumanist Nick Bostrom, who discovered the importance of existential risk for thinking about the long-term future, which resulted in an entirely new research direction. The Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford are the direct results of Bostroms work. Sandberg also cited artificial intelligence theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky, who refined thinking about AI that led to the AI safety community forming, and also the transhumanist cryptoanarchists who did the groundwork for the cryptocurrency world, he added. Indeed, Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, subscribes to transhumanist thinking, and his father, Dmitry, used to attend our meetings at the Toronto Transhumanist Association.

According to Manney, various transhumanist-driven efforts inspired a vocabulary and creative impulse for many, including myself, to wrestle with the philosophical, technological and artistic implications that naturally arise. Sci-fi grapples with transhumanism now more than ever, whether people realize it or not, she said. Fair point. Shows like Humans, Orphan Black, Westworld, Black Mirror, and Upload are jam-packed with transhumanist themes and issues, though the term itself is rarelyif everuttered. That said, these shows are mostly dystopian in nature, which suggests transhumanism is mostly seen through gray-colored glasses. To be fair, super-uplifting portrayals of the future rarely work as Hollywood blockbusters or hit TV shows, but its worth pointing out that San Junipero is rated as among the best Black Mirror episodes for its positive portrayal of uploading as a means to escape death.

For the most part, however, transhuman-flavored technologies are understandably scary and relatively easy to cast in a negative light. Uncritical and starry-eyed transhumanists, of which there are many, werent of much help. Manney contends that transhumanism itself could use an upgrade. The lack of consideration for consequences and follow-on effects, as well as the narcissistic demands common to transhumanism, have always been the downfall of the movement, she told me. Be careful what you wish foryou may get it. Drone warfare, surveillance societies, deepfakes, and the potential for hackable bioprostheses and brain chips have made transhumanist ideas less interesting, according to Manney.

Like so many other marginal social movements, transhumanism has had an indirect influence by widening the Overton window [also known as the window of discourse] in policy and academic debates about human enhancement, Hughes explained. In the 2020s, transhumanism still has its critics, but it is better recognized as a legitimate intellectual position, providing some cover for more moderate bioliberals to argue for liberalized enhancement policies.

Transhumanist Anders Sandberg circa 1998. Photo: Anders Sandberg

Sandberg brought up a very good point: Nothing gets older faster than future visions. Indeed, many transhumanist ideas from the 1990s now look quaint, he said, pointing to wearable computers, smart drinks, imminent life extension, and all that internet utopianism. That said, Sandberg thinks the fundamental vision of transhumanism remains intact, saying the human condition can be questioned and changed, and we are getting better at it. These days, we talk more about CRISPR (a gene-editing tool that came into existence in 2012) than we do nanotechnology, but transhumanism naturally upgrades itself as new possibilities and arguments show up, he said.

Vita-More says the transhumanist vision is still desirable and probably even more so because it has started to make sense for many. Augmented humans are everywhere, she said, from implants, smart devices that we use daily, human integration with computational systems that we use daily, to the hope that one day we will be able to slow down memory loss and store or back-up our neurological function in case of memory loss or diseases of dementia and Alzheimers.

The observation that transhumanism has started to make sense for many is a good one. Take Neuralink, for example. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk based the startup on two very transhumanistic principlesthat interfaces between the brain and computers are possible and that artificial superintelligence is coming. Musk, in his typical fashion, claims a philanthropic motive for wanting to build neural interface devices, as he believes boosted brains will protect us from malign machine intelligence (I personally think hes wrong, but thats another story).

For Cameron, transhumanism looks as frightening as ever, and he honed in on a notion he refers to as the hollowing out of the human, the idea that all that matters in Homo sapiens can be uploaded as a paradigm for our desiderata. In the past, Cameron has argued that if machine intelligence is the model for human excellence and gets to enhance and take over, then we face a new feudalism, as control of finance and the power that goes with it will be at the core of technological human enhancement, and democracywill be dead in the water.

That being said, and despite these concerns, Manny believes theres still a need for a transhumanist movement, but one that addresses complexity and change for all humanity.

Likewise, Vita-More says a transhumanist movement is still needed because it serves to facilitate change and support choices based on personal needs that look beyond binary thinking, while also supporting diversity for good.

There is always a need for think tanks. While there are numerous futurist groups that contemplate the future, they are largely focused on energy, green energy, risks, and ethics, said Vita-More. Few of these groups are a reliable source of knowledge or information about the future of humanity other than a postmodernist stance, which is more focused on feminist studies, diversity, and cultural problems. Vita-More currently serves as the executive director of Humanity+.

Hughes says that transhumanists fell into a number of political, technological, and even religious camps when they tried to define what they actually wanted. The IEET describes its brand of transhumanism as technoprogressivisman attempt to define and promote a social democratic vision of an enhanced future, as Hughes defines it. As a concept, technoprogressivism provides a more tangible foundation for organizing than transhumanism, says Hughes, so I think we are well beyond the possibility of a transhumanist movement and will now see the growth of a family of transhumanist-inspired or influenced movements that have more specific identities, including Mormon and other religious transhumanists, libertarians and technoprogressives, and the ongoing longevist, AI, and brain-machine subcultures.

I do think we need public intellectuals to be more serious about connecting the dots, as technologies continue to converge and offer bane and blessing to the human condition, and as our response tends to be uncritically enthusiastic or perhaps unenthusiastic, said Cameron.

Sandberg says transhumanism is needed as a counterpoint to the pervasive pessimism and cynicism of our culture, and that to want to save the future you need to both think it is going to be awesome enough to be worth saving, and that we have power to do something constructive. To which he added: Transhumanism also adds diversitythe future does not have to be like the present.

As Manney aptly pointed out, it seems ludicrous to advocate for human enhancement at a time when abortion rights in the U.S. have been rescinded. The rise of anti-vaxxers during the covid-19 epidemic presents yet another complication, showing the extent to which the public willingly rejects a good thing. For me personally, the anti-vaxxer response to the pandemic was exceptionally discouraging, as I often reference vaccines to explain the transhumanist mindsetthat we already embrace interventions that enhance our limited genetic endowments.

Given the current landscape, its my own opinion that self-described transhumanists should advocate and agitate for full bodily, cognitive, and reproductive autonomy, while also championing the merits of scientific discourse. Until these rights are established, it seems a bit premature to laud the benefits of improved memories or radically extended lifespans, as sad as it is to have to admit that.

These contemporary social issues aside, the transhuman future wont wait for us to play catchup. These technologies will arrive, whether they emerge from university labs or corporate workshops. Many of these interventions will be of great benefit to humanity, but others could lead us down some seriously dark paths. Consequently, we must move the conversation forward.

Which reminds me of why I got involved in transhumanism in the first placemy desire to see the safe, sane, and accessible implementation of these transformative technologies. These goals remain worthwhile, regardless of any explicit mention of transhumanism. Thankfully, these conversations are happening, and we can thank the transhumanists for being the instigators, whether you subscribe to our ideas or not.

From the Gizmodo archives:

An Irreverent Guide to Transhumanism and The Singularity

U.S. Spy Agency Predicts a Very Transhuman Future by 2030

Most Americans Fear a Future of Designer Babies and Brain Chips

Transhumanist Tech Is a Boner Pill That Sets Up a Firewall Against Billy Joel

DARPAs New Biotech Division Wants to Create a Transhuman Future

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Whatever Happened to the Transhumanists? - Gizmodo