Links 8/5/2020
3 Stranded Mariners Rescued After Spelling Out ‘SOS’ in Sand of Tiny, Uninhabited Island People
Much Of Maine’s Lobster Fishery Loses International ‘Sustainably Fished’ Designation Maine Public Radio (DL).
As forests disappear in India, leopards have learnt to live and prey among human habitats Scroll.in (J-LS).
FBI Raids U.S. Company With Ties to Ukrainian Oligarch Bloomberg
What Years of Emails and Texts Reveal About Your Friendly Tech Companies NYT
#COVID19
Too Good to Be True? Osaka Says Gargling Formula Can Beat Virus – Bloomberg Bloomberg. n=41 mildly symptomatic patients. “The finding isn’t based on data from a large, randomized, controlled trial — the gold standard for assessing the safety and efficacy of any potential therapy.” But see Tricia Greenhalgh here: “In a complex system, the question driving scientific inquiry is not ‘what is the effect size and is it statistically significant once other variables have been controlled for?’ but ‘does this intervention contribute, along with other factors, to a desirable outcome?’”
Povidone‐iodine gargle as a prophylactic intervention to interrupt the transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 Oral Diseases
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Evidence favouring the efficacy of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 therapy (preprint) medRxiv. From the abstract: “Fixed-effects analyses demonstrated that hospitalized COVID-19 patients transfused with convalescent plasma exhibited a 57% reduction in mortality rate (13%) compared to matched-patients receiving standard treatments (25%; OR: 0.43, P < 0.001). These data provide evidence favouring the efficacy of human convalescent plasma as a therapeutic agent in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.” Mayo Clinic affiliations.
By boat and on foot, Indian state hunts for plasma for COVID patients Reuters
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These dogs are trained to sniff out the coronavirus. Most have a 100% success rate The Conversation. Put sniffer dogs at the jetways for international flights, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t our passports back.
K9s against coronavirus: The UAE implements sniffer dogs to detect COVID-19 The Points Guy. NC was early on medical detection dogs, too.
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Clinical Trials Over, New Russian Vaccine to Be Given to Doctors and Teachers Soon, Population by October, for Free, Murashko Says Window on Eurasia
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Masks Do More Than Protect Others During COVID-19: Reducing the Inoculum of SARS-CoV-2 to Protect the Wearer Journal of General Internal Medicine
Maskne: How to Take Care of Your Skin While Wearing a Face Mask Teen Vogue
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Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Australian educational settings: a prospective cohort study The Lancet. From the Findings: “SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates were low in NSW educational settings during the first COVID-19 epidemic wave, consistent with mild infrequent disease in the 1·8 million child population. With effective case-contact testing and epidemic management strategies and associated small numbers of attendances while infected, children and teachers did not contribute significantly to COVID-19 transmission via attendance in educational settings.”
Contact tracing during Phase I of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Province of Trento, Italy: key findings and recommendations (preprint) medRxiv. From the abstract: “Although childhood contacts were less likely to become cases, children were more likely to infect household members, perhaps because of the difficulty of successfully isolang children in household settings.”
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Yes, the Coronavirus Is in the Air NYT. Good round-up.
Houston Officials Are Using Sewage To Help Fight Coronavirus. Here’s Why Texas Standard
Covid-19 vaccine trials worry US minority communities FT
More lifesaving ventilators are available. Hospitals can’t afford them. WaPo
China?
Jiang Shigong, “Empire and World Order” Reading the China Dream
The China Footprint Macro Polo
Situating the Hong Kong left Lausan
Core Parts of China’s Beidou Satellite System ‘100% Made in China’ Caixin
‘A serious problem’: Asymptomatic cases may place Indonesia at 1m infections Sydney Morning Herald
Indonesia Economy Shrinks for First Time Since Asian Crisis Bloomberg
India
Delhi, Mumbai & Chennai infection rates dip below 1, India’s overall R value now at 1.16 The Print. Fingers crossed.
The Koreas
‘We Need to Move From a Wartime Mentality to a Peacetime Mentality’ The Nation
Syraqistan
Beirut Blast Wrap-up Moon of Alabama. With before and after pictures. I believe the explosion also damaged nearby grain elevators in the port of Beirut, so there may be food supply chain issues as well. Blast video compilation:
“It is a catastrophe, I’ve never seen something like that.”
Lebanon is in a state of emergency following a massive explosion in Beirut that killed at least 100 people and injured thousands.
Follow our LIVE coverage on the #BeirutBlast: https://t.co/8qEDq3qL5R pic.twitter.com/kSrpNt4oGf
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 5, 2020
Ammonium nitrate: the everyday fertiliser behind the Beirut blast The National
UK/EU
Why the UK tax authority is accusing General Electric of a $1bn fraud FT
US ‘cloud’ supremacy has Europe worried about data Agence France Presse
RussiaGate
VIPS MEMO: To Nancy Pelosi — Did Russia Hack the DNC Emails? Consortium News
How QAnon Creates a Dangerous Alternate Reality NYT
Are Conspiracy Theories Good For Facebook? NPR
Trump Transition
White House eyes executive orders to upend virus negotiations Politico
6 states band together to secure rapid COVID testing The Hill. Virginia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio and Maryland.
Assange
Assange Legal Farce Continues Craig Murray
The Protests
How white radicals hijacked Portland’s protests Michael Tracey, Unherd
Didn’t see this tactic in Hong Kong:
Standoff pic.twitter.com/nuOjV1s9Yv
— Soundtrack to the End (@_WhatRiot) August 4, 2020
Shouldn’t there be a message on the table-tops?
Leaked Documents Show Police Knew Far-Right Extremists Were the Real Threat at Protests, not “Antifa” The Intercept
Homeland Security Is Quietly Tying Antifa to Foreign Powers The Nation
Police Violence Was a Problem in Portland Long Before Federal Agents Arrived The Appeal
Portland Protesters No Longer Being Banned From Attending Protests to Win Release From Jail Pro Publica
Husband of LA district attorney charged after pointing gun at Black Lives Matter protesters Guardian
Failed State
Is A New Civil War Possible? Rod Dreher, The American Conservative
Imperial Collapse Watch
America’s Superdense Foreign Policy Black Hole Tablet
Okinawa virus outbreaks ignite scrutiny of U.S. SOFA privileges Japan Times
Joint US military drills get thumbs down from Thais amid coronavirus fears Straits Times
Nearly half of Germans in favor of US military withdrawal: survey Deutsche Welle
Class Warfare
An Interview with the New York Music Co-op Grassroots Economic Organizing
A Trailer in the Country: Working-Class Attitudes about Redistribution American Compass
When Will Consumers Feel Safe? Weekly Updates on Consumers’ Comfort Level With Various Pastimes Morning Consult
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
