A new report from the World Bank has provided some sobering analysis regarding the implications of climate change on the world’s populations. According to the Associated Press, that report indicated that “Climate change could push more than 200 million people to leave their homes in the next three decades and create migration hotspots unless urgent action is taken to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report has found. The second part of the Groundswell report published on Monday examines how the impacts of slow-onset climate change such as water scarcity, decreasing crop productivity and rising sea levels could lead to millions of what the report describes as ‘climate migrants’ by 2050 under three different scenarios with varying degrees of climate action and development.” http://bit.ly/3hsNnw0
The global fund has issued disconcerting news about its fight against HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. The covid-19 pandemic has seriously hampered their efforts to fight those diseases. According to Nature, “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a ‘devastating’ impact on the fight against other deadly infectious diseases, according to a report that compares 2019 and 2020 data on HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria in more than 100 low- and lower-middle-income countries. The assessment was conducted by the Global Fund, an international organization that funds efforts to tackle these three health challenges.” Yet another unforeseen consequence of the global pandemic and probably not the last. http://go.nature.com/3z7aQJb
Widespread testing plays a key role in any serious effort to mitigate the effects of covid-19. However, that assumes that the tests are both widely available and affordable. And much of the world including Europe, that is the case. Unfortunately, and the United States it’s the exact opposite. There are lots of reasons, but one of the primary ones is simply corporate greed. Fiercebiotech did an in-depth look at things holding back affordable home testing in the United States. According to the article, “With only a handful of rapid tests on the market, it is harder for companies that have not yet received FDA authorization to catch up and, in turn, drive the prices down, said Michael Greeley, co-founder and general partner at Flare Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on health care technology. ‘If we’re talking about people testing their kids every day going to school,’ he added, ‘for many families, the current costs are a real burden.'” Put simply, it’s not good news and will most likely cost lives. A lot of them. http://bit.ly/391uP1l
SpaceX is set to make history yet again, with its latest launch of one of its Rockets. This time, it will be carrying a crew composed entirely of civilian, non-astronaut astronauts. According to space.com, “The Inspiration4 crew will fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, a highly advanced and automated spacecraft that has showcased its abilities on multiple crewed missions to the ISS for NASA. Indeed, the vehicle scheduled to launch on Wednesday, known as Resilience, aced SpaceX’s six-month Crew-1 mission to the orbiting lab, which splashed down this past April.” It continues to be exciting times in the aerospace and space exploration industries. http://bit.ly/3EatZO2
The journal Science is reporting that a scientist accused of lying to NASA about 2 ties to China has been acquitted in court. According to the article, “The U.S. government had prosecuted Anming Hu under its 3-year-old China Initiative, which asserts that China has been using academic scientists as unwitting conduits to acquire federally funded technology. Hu was arrested in February 2020 and then fired from his tenured position as an associate professor. 1On 7 June his case was the first resulting w the China Initiative to go before a jury. But 1 week later, U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan declared a mistrial after the jury was deadlocked.” There has been suggestions of prosecutorial overreach by the U.S. Government regarding its efforts to combat industrial and intellectual espionage. https://go.nature.com/3z7aQJb
Thanks for reading. Let’s be careful out there.