(2020-04-01). 'Ask the government': Former Celtics star claims NBA season could resume at classified US Air Force site Area 51. rt.com 
Having held the 2019 Summer League at the University of Nevada, NBA chiefs could find a novel solution to ending the season at a less conventional base in the state — with Area 51 suggested by former champion Paul Pierce. | Area 51, the US Air Force base which is notorious among conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts, could become the home of the NBA as a makeshift setting for the conclusion of the season, former All-Star Paul Pierce has suggested. | Responding to a proposal by former rival Jay Williams that the remainder of the campaign could be played on cruise ships, Boston Celtics icon Pierce named…
(2020-04-01). The UK and Covid-19 Crisis. counterpunch.org BoJo, though not the proverbial rocket scientist, is much better informed generally (and less demented!) than his orange-hued American counterpart, and so, for instance, knows that hospitals caring for COVID-19 patients need more than 2 ventilators each, and that making egregious suggestions regarding possible "cures" for the virus is best left to those better trained in science and medicine!
(2020-04-01). Grad Students Continue Withholding Grades During Covid-19 Pandemic. indybay.org Email from graduate student to UCSC Chancellor and Executive Vice Chancellor on the day Winter quarter grades are due.
(2020-04-01). "Whose University? Our University!" The Struggle for a COLA at UC Berkeley. counterpunch.org On March 5th, in the midst of a campus-wide march and rally, a student protester at UC Berkeley walked into the bustling Free Speech Movement Café, a study spot that borrows its name from Cal's legendary 1960s anti-war protests. "Fellow students!" she shouted, climbing on top of the counter. "Today, you will witness the largest
(2020-04-01). Campuses Are Closed, but Student Journalists Are Still Working. thenation.com Campuses Are Closed, but Student Journalists Are Still Working…
(2020-04-01). Russian Scientists Use Cold Plasma to Help Combat COVID-19 Spread – Report. sputniknews.com While the new invention can reportedly be used as a cheap and effective disinfectant, it remains to be seen whether it will be effective against the particular strain of coronavirus mankind is currently facing.
(2020-03-31). Scientists Help Governors to Confront Coronavirus in Brazil. telesurenglish.net A videoconference held Tuesday morning brought together Governors of Brazil's northeastern states, including Rui Costa, the Workers' party governor of Bahia, and members of the Scientific Committee of the Northeast Consortium to combat the spread of coronavirus. | RELATED: | Doctors, scientists, physicists, and researchers came together to assist Brazilian governors in taking the right health decisions to confr…
(2020-03-31). Language Barriers Leave US Communities out of COVID-19 Info. telesurenglish.net Various communities across the United States (U.S.) are struggling to keep up with information concerning the spread and the dangerousness of the novel coronavirus because of language barriers, a report from Al Jazeera showed Tuesday. | RELATED: | In a city with a long history of receiving refugees like Des Moines, Iowa, not less than 100 spoken languages exist. | Around 22 percent of the students in public schools qualify…
(2020-03-31). Visas extended for overseas doctors, nurses and paramedics fighting virus in UK. thecanary.co Doctors, nurses and paramedics from abroad are to have their visas extended so they can "focus on fighting coronavirus". | The extension will apply to around 2,800 migrant health professionals who are working for the NHS and have UK work visas which are due to expire before 1 October. | They will be renewed automatically for a year free of charge so they can remain working in the country, the Home Office said. | The changes will also apply to their family members. | Restrictions have also been lifted on how many hours international student doctors and nurses can work for the NHS per week, according to an announce…
(2020-03-31). On the Need for Dissent and Debate in These Urgent Times. thenation.com On the Need for Dissent and Debate in These Urgent Times…
(2020-03-30). What not to believe: coronavirus myths you should ignore. thecanary.co Britons have been facing a flood of myths about the new coronavirus (Covid-19), according to new research. | No, vodka isn't a good hand sanitiser: | The most widely believed false claim is that vodka can be used as hand sanitiser, according to a YouGov survey of 2,099 adults. In reality, there is not enough alcohol in vodka to effectively kill microbes. But 32% of Britons felt it was probably true that the spirit could help them tackle the virus. | The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, recently suggested that his fellow citizens should drink 50ml of vodka a day to ward off the virus. | Othe…
(2020-03-30). In a 10-Day Span, ICE Flew This Iranian Detainee Across the Country Nine Times. iranian.com Less than two weeks ago, the Trump administration urged Americans to avoid nonessential travel to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Major airlines slashed their routes. All the while, Sirous Asgari took nine different flights around the country. None of them was by choice. Asgari bounced around on chartered jets from Louisiana to Texas to …
(2020-03-28). [Comment] Offline: COVID-19 and the NHS—"a national scandal" thelancet.com "When this is all over, the NHS England board should resign in their entirety." So wrote one National Health Service (NHS) health worker last weekend. The scale of anger and frustration is unprecedented, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the cause. The UK Government's Contain—Delay—Mitigate—Research strategy failed. It failed, in part, because ministers didn't follow WHO's advice to "test, test, test" every suspected case. They didn't isolate and quarantine. They didn't contact trace. These basic principles of public health and infectious disease control were ignored, for reasons that r…
(2020-03-28). [Obituary] Aron Goldhirsch. thelancet.com Medical oncologist specialising in breast cancer. Born on April 25, 1946, in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, he died on Feb 26, 2020, in Lugano, Switzerland, aged 73 years.
(2020-03-28). Education Cannot Solve Poverty and Inequality. dissidentvoice.org 
One of the long-standing stubborn myths about education in American culture is that education is "the great equalizer" and that education is the way to overcome poverty and inequality at the individual and societal levels. The facts show, however, that poverty and inequality are generally increasing every year despite the fact that there are more …
(2020-03-27). "Total System Failure": Congress Pushes $2 Trillion Pandemic Bill. Will Dems Allow "Corporate Coup"? democracynow.org 
We continue our look at the massive $2 trillion coronavirus relief package — the largest stimulus bill in U.S. history — with author Matt Stoller, who argues the country will be unrecognizable after this pandemic if big corporations walk away with trillions of dollars and no strings attached. Stoller is research director at the American Economic Liberties Project and author of the book "Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy." His recent column for The Guardian is headlined "The coronavirus relief bill could turn into a corporate coup if we aren't careful."
(2020-03-27). The Italian war-like measures to fight coronavirus spreading: Re-open closed hospitals now. thelancet.com As recently highlighted by The Lancet, the Covid-19 outbreak started in Northern Italy has shocked Europe, while it has been questioned if China benefits from an authoritarian advantage in disease response [1,2]. In Italy, after the shutdown of the educational system (schools and Universities will remain closed at least for one month) and the collapse of the touristic sector (90% of travels and reservations cancelled), the Government officially locked down residents of all the region of Milan (Lombardia) and other 11 provinces.
(2020-03-18). [Correspondence] Future of Chernobyl research: the urgency for consolidated action. thelancet.com The Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, 1986, continues to create fears and myths about its health consequences, as shown by the large response to a top-rated HBO miniseries devoted to the tragic event. Risk assessments range from recognising an increase in thyroid cancer incidence in exposed children and adolescents (becoming one of the single most established long-term health effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the general population), to claims of hundreds of thousands of deaths due to the accident.
(2020-03-18). [Research Paper] A phase 1b randomized study of the safety and immunological responses to vaccination with H4:IC31, H56:IC31, and BCG revaccination in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-uninfected adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa. thelancet.com BCG revaccination administered as a single dose ID and both H4: IC31 and H56: IC31 administered as 2 doses IM had acceptable safety profiles in healthy, QFT-negative, previously BCG-vaccinated adolescents. Characterization of the assays and the immunogenicity of these vaccines may help to identify valuable markers of protection for upcoming immune correlates analyses of C-040-404 and future TB vaccine efficacy trials.
(2020-03-16). [Research Paper] Results from the first English stool bank using faecal microbiota transplant as a medicinal product for the treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection. thelancet.com The methodology developed here enabled successful licencing of FMT by The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as a medicinal product. This has widened the availability of FMT in the National Health Service via a stool bank and can be applied in other centres across the world to improve access to safe and quality assured treatments.
(2020-03-10). [Research Paper] Association of characteristics of tampon use with menstrual toxic shock syndrome in France. thelancet.com Our study suggests that the risk of MTSS was associated with using tampons for more than 6 h, overnight tampon use during sleep, and neither read nor followed tampon insertion instructions in case of reading.
(2020-03-09). [Comment] Patchy progress on the ICPD: are we asking the right questions? thelancet.com The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) agenda, set in 1994 in Cairo and revisited 25 years later in Nairobi in 2019, included goals for equitable education of women, reduction of infant and child mortality, reduction of maternal mortality, and access to reproductive and sexual health services, including family planning, through its well known Programme of Action.1 The ICPD was ground-breaking in recognising the benefits that empowerment of women and girls would have for themselves, their families, and, ultimately, their countries.
(2020-03-07). TEXAS 2020 DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRIMARY. tdmsresearch.com Exit Poll Versus Reported Vote Count By Theodore de Macedo Soares The 2020 Texas Democratic Party presidential primary was held on March 3, 2020. Election results from the computerized vote counts differed significantly from the results projected by the exit poll conducted by Edison Research and published by CNN at poll's closing. According to the exit poll Sanders was tied with Biden but lost in the unobservable computer counts by 4.5%. In this election candidate Sanders saw the largest
(2020-03-05). [Research Paper] Gender parity at scale: Examining correlations of country-level female participation in education and work with measures of men's and women's survival. thelancet.com This study extends past research by examining actionable areas of gender equality and their impact on both male and female survival. While longitudinal research is needed to examine both causality and mechanisms, our findings suggest longevity gains for both women and men, and for all children through reduced maternal mortality, where greater parity in school and work is exhibited.
(2020-03-05). [Research Paper] Access to women physicians and uptake of reproductive, maternal and child health services in India. thelancet.com Higher district availability of women physicians is associated with higher maternal health care utilization but not child health care utilization. Improving gender parity in the physician workforce and rural women physician access may improve maternal health care use in India.
(2020-03-04). [Research Paper] Effects of sexual harassment on advancement of women in academic medicine: A multi-institutional longitudinal study. thelancet.com Contrary to our hypothesis, women reporting severe workplace harassment in 1995 were more rather than less likely to advance to full professor. Women seeking advancement may be more vulnerable to sexual harassment in academic medicine vis a vis greater exposure to those who abuse their position of authority.
(2020-03-04). [Research Paper] Sport as a vehicle of change for livelihoods, social participation and marital health for the youth: Findings from a prospective cohort in Bihar, India. thelancet.com Evidence from India shows that sport can be an instrument supporting pro-social engagement for boys and girls. Further understanding of the gendered nature of sport and the mechanisms linking sport to agency among youth is needed.
(2020-03-04). [Research Paper] Gender discrimination and depressive symptoms among child-bearing women: ELSPAC-CZ cohort study. thelancet.com The findings provide the first evidence that perceived gender discrimination is associated with depressive symptoms among child-bearing women. Social intervention programs aimed at reducing gender discrimination can potentially contribute to better mental health of women.
(2020-03-04). [Commentary] Gender equality: Framing a special collection of evidence for all. thelancet.com In this issue of EClinicalMedicine, the editors have assembled a special collection of papers which reinforce and extend concepts advanced recently in other Lancet family journals on Gender Equality, Norms and Health [1] and Advancing Gender Equity in Science, Medicine and Global Health [2]. These works in turn, build on decades of scholarship in the study of gender inequalities which to this day have disproportionately impacted women and girls, and even more so women who are poor or from racial or religious minorities or other intersecting aspects of identify which impart social disadvantage.
(2020-03-03). [Research Paper] Violence-related knife injuries in a UK city; epidemiology and impact on secondary care resources. thelancet.com Knife injuries constitute 12 ∑9% of trauma team workload. Violence recidivism and intoxication are common, and females are predominantly injured in a domestic setting, presenting opportunities for targeted violence reduction interventions. 13 ∑9% of injuries involved machetes, with implications for law enforcement strategies.
(2020-02-27). [Comment] Challenges in evidence-based therapy for systemic sclerosis associated interstitial lung disease. thelancet.com The excellent Review of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) by Apostolos Perelas and colleagues1 in this issue is testament to the large body of work over several decades that has helped to better define the frequency, effects, and management of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Translational research has also elucidated key aspects of aetiopathogenesis. The progression of ILD in SSc is highly variable, and we are now able to identify the patients most at risk for severe ILD and determine who is more likely to have an indolent course on the basis of clinica…
(2020-02-24). [Newsdesk] The 7th London Centre for NTDs conference. thelancet.com The London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research conference was held in London, United Kingdom, on Jan 30. Alexandra York reports.
(2020-02-19). [Research Paper] Loss-of-function polymorphism in IL6R reduces risk of JAK2V617F somatic mutation and myeloproliferative neoplasm: A Mendelian randomization study. thelancet.com A loss-of-function polymorphism in IL6R reduces risk of JAK2V617F mutation and myeloproliferative neoplasm. This finding supports inflammation as an independent risk factor for JAK2V617F mutation and myeloproliferative neoplasm and indicates that therapeutics designed to block interleukin-6 receptor signaling might prevent or retard progression of myeloproliferative neoplasm.
(2020-02-19). [Research Paper] Long-term clinical prognosis of human infections with avian influenza A(H7N9) viruses in China after hospitalization. thelancet.com Patients who survived severe illness from A(H7N9) virus infection had evidence of persistent lung damage and long-term pulmonary dysfunction.
(2020-02-18). [Research Paper] Predicting death by suicide following an emergency department visit for parasuicide with administrative health care system data and machine learning. thelancet.com The combination of predictors from multiple administrative data systems and the combination of personal and ecologic predictors resulted in promising prediction performance. Further research is needed to develop prediction models optimized for implementation in clinical settings.
(2020-02-17). [Research Paper] Global variation in the prevalence of bullying victimisation amongst adolescents: Role of peer and parental supports. thelancet.com Bullying victimisation is a global public health problem that has been predominantly studied in high income countries. This study aimed to estimate the population level prevalence of bullying victimisation and its association with peer and parental supports amongst adolescents across low and middle income to high income countries (LMICHICs).
(2020-02-14). [Commentary] Women empowerment is central to addressing the double burden of malnutrition. thelancet.com Women play a critical role in ensuring that their nutritional needs and those of their children and families are met. Women are also an integral part of delivering nutrition-sensitive interventions, and optimizing food systems to address the double burden of malnutrition characterized by the co-existence of nutritional deficiencies, underweight, and overweight and obesity in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In this commentary, we highlight how women empowerment affects nutrition with a focus on nutrition-sensitive interventions, and identify research and implementation gaps that warrant greater attention.
(2020-02-11). [Corrections] Correction to Lancet Glob Health 2020; 8: e76—91. thelancet.com Hines LA, Trickey A, Leung J, et al. Associations between national development indicators and the age profile of people who inject drugs: results from a global systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Glob Health 2020; 8: e76—91—In the Acknowledgments of this Article, the second and third sentences should read "LAH is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust. LD is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellowship." This correction has been made as of Feb 11, 2020.
(2020-02-10). [Research Paper] Outcomes of a nine-month regimen for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis up to 24 months after treatment completion in nine African countries. thelancet.com The close to 80% relapse-free success indicates the good outcome of the regimen in low-and middle-income settings. Results confirm the lesser effectiveness of the regimen in patients with initial resistance to fluoroquinolones and support the use of high-dose isoniazid, but do not support exclusion of patients for resistance to drugs other than fluoroquinolones.
(2020-01-13). [Spotlight] Information overload and unsustainable workloads in the era of electronic health records. thelancet.com Electronic health records (EHRs) were supposed to usher in a golden age of improved care, efficiency, and safety in the USA, increasing patient engagement and even reducing health-care disparities. But these systems have complicated interdisciplinary communication and worsened clinician workloads, contributing to clinician burnout, and opportunities for error, researchers told The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. "Manufacturers told us EHRs would make our lives easier but when we counted the number of tasks and the time required, we found that a frighteningly large fraction of physicians' available time was consumed…
(2020-01-07). [Comment] Relaunching human bornavirus research from encephalitis cases with unclear cause. thelancet.com Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1), the first bornavirus to be discovered, was identified as a causative agent of Borna disease, a fatal encephalitis occurring in horses and sheep. BoDV-1 is highly neurotropic and can cause both fatal immune-mediated encephalitis and behavioural disturbances in a broad range of infected animals.1 These observations prompted researchers to investigate the presence of BoDV-1 in patients with psychiatric disorders on the basis of the hypothesis that BoDV-1 might also cause behavioural abnormalities in humans.
(2019-12-17). [Spotlight] Organising international research in critical care medicine: current challenges and potential solutions. thelancet.com During the first years of intensive care medicine, many of its treatments were introduced because they were thought to be beneficial to patients, despite there being a lack of evidence from high-quality research to support these premises. However, in the last 20 years intensive care medicine research has picked up the pace and countless randomised controlled trials have been performed, supplying clinical care with the much needed scientific foundation, discarding obsolete treatments, and saving lives.