Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 1

Recalls are announced by safety boards to ensure the safety of every American, which is why it's important to pay attention to any recalls in case you own any of the recalled products.

Two new listings have appeared on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service website, and both are for meats that may not be safe to consume. The reason for the recall is that the USDA never got to inspect the products, which could lead mean they are contaminated with bacteria or are just generally not safe for consumption.

The recall includes close to 100,000 pounds of beef (96,810) that was from China and 30,000 pounds of pork that originated in France. The beef from China has set off some alarms because regulations are currently in place to prevent the importation of beef from China, which means that the product should've never made it to the US in the first place. Essentially, the company behind the beef was knowingly importing a banned product.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has added a new product to its bulletin board, and this time it's for some cheese that could potentially be dangerous.

According to the new bulletin listing, El Abuelito Cheese is voluntarily recalling all Queso Fresco products. The reason for the recall is that this cheese has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. For those that don't know, listeria can cause a range of different symptoms; high fever, severe headache, migraines, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, stillbirths in pregnant women, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Additionally, on the FDA page listing, the agency states that listeria can "can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems." If you happen to own any of this cheese, it's recommended to throw it away or return it to the place of purchase for a refund. For more information on this story, visit this link here.

A new study has found that if you wear this common accessory, you may have some extra protection against catching COVID-19.

Researchers published the study at the beginning of the month on the site medRxiv, and according to the researchers, people who wear glasses for at least eight hours a day are less likely to catch COVID-19 than someone who doesn't wear glasses. The researchers say that the glasses offer protection against infectious particles from someone who coughs, sneezes, or even just talking.

For those that don't know, it's possible to get infected with COVID-19 through the eyeballs, and this can happen through either natural ambient absorption or if a person rubbed their eye with a hand that was contaminated. The researchers wrote, "This present study showed that the risk of COVID-19 was 2-3 times less in spectacles-wearing population than the population not using spectacles. [The] protective role of the spectacles was found statistically significant if those were used for [a] long period of the day."

If you happened to miss the news, NASA officially touched down on Mars with its Perseverance rover last week.

Last week, NASA landed its Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of the Red Planet, and now we have a video posted to Bloomberg Technology YouTube channel of the rover landing on the surface. The video can be found below.

Now, the Perseverance rover has captured its first 360-degree view of the Red Planet's surface where it landed. NASA explained that the video was captured with the rover's color Navigation Cameras, or "Navcams". For those that don't know, Perseverance is equipped with 19 cameras located all over the rover, which makes Perseverance the most equipped Mars rover to date when it comes to cameras. For more information on this story, visit this link here.

The nation's leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said that people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should expect some new CDC guidance "pretty soon".

In a recent interview with CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the White House, revealed that we should expect less stringent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention due to the progress of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout. Dr. Fauci says these changes should "relax the stringency of the recommendations".

The relaxation of guidance should be aimed towards people in the same family who have been vaccinated. Additionally, Dr. Fauci was asked if fully vaccinated people should be allowed to gather indoors with families. Dr. Fauci responded by saying that he would personally be comfortable with that. The infectious disease expert continued to say that the CDC wants to "sit down, talk about it, look at the data and then come out with a recommendation based on the science".

The National Deer Association has said it has found a year-old whitetail buck that had hair covering both of its eyeballs.

The young buck was found wandering around a Tennessee suburb, and it was bleeding, disorientated, and didn't have any fear of humans. According to IFL Science, animal control officers said that they believed the buck might have been infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD), which is why they decided to kill the deer to stop it from potentially spreading the disease.

However, after the head of the deer was sent off for testing, the results indicated that it was actually suffering from epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). While the deer was found out to have a different disease, it doesn't explain why there was hair on its eyeballs.

Using the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker, we can see the number of new daily cases is dropping in the United States.

Overall, it's very good and hopeful news that COVID-19 cases are dropping across the country, but some states are still reporting cases, which suggests the US as a whole still has a fight on its hands when it comes to getting normal life back.

According to mlive.com, Michigan has reported 1,316 new COVID-19 and 34 additional deaths on February 23. As for totals, Michigan has reported 582,719 COVID-19 cases and 15,396 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. At the moment, the state's weekly average for new COVID-19 cases has been increasing for the past three days. For any more information on this story, check out this link here.

Coronavirus cases across the country are in decline, but the average number of cases being recorded per day is still quite high.

One state has recorded 1,655 new COVID-19 cases and 27 additional deaths as a result of COVID-19 infections. That state is Illinois, and according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, as of Tuesday this week the state has recorded 1,177,320 COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

As for deaths, the state has recorded 20,330 deaths attributed to COVID-19. The good news is that test positivity rate is still remaining quite low, with 2.8% of tests returning positive. Additionally, hospitalizations are also continuing to drop, with 1,488 patients currently hospitalized due to COVID-19. For more information on this story, visit this link here.

Researchers are very concerned about a virus that has the potential to become the next "big" pandemic.

The disease experts are voicing concern over is called Nipah, and it has a death rate of up to 75%. Originally, the disease comes from bats, and can jump to humans where the mortality rate is extremely high when you compare the mortality rate to COVID-19. Symptoms of the virus can include; vomiting, seizures, brain swelling, disorientation, drowsiness, confusion, headaches, sore throat, and more.

Nipah first jumped from pigs to farmers in Malaysia in 1999, and luckily, there are no current Nipah outbreak s in the world. However, Dr. Melanie Saville, head of vaccine research and development at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said to The Sun, "Nipah is one of the viruses that could absolutely be the cause of a new pandemic. Several things about Nipah are very concerning."

Millions of people in the United States have received a COVID-19 vaccine, and millions more and patiently waiting their turn to get one.

While getting vaccinated provides you certain levels of immunity, it doesn't mean you are free of the public health recommendations that have swept the nation. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the White House, and the nation's leading infectious disease expert, even if you are vaccinated, there are some places you still shouldn't visit.

Dr. Fauci said on Monday that "there are things, even if you're vaccinated, that you're not going to be able to do in society. For example, indoor dining, theaters, places where people congregate. That's because of the safety of society." These statements from Dr. Fauci remind everyone that once you are vaccinated, you don't have a free pass to go back to living like you were in 2019, there is still much work to be done when it comes to defeating the COVID-19 pandemic, and everyone must do there part. Vaccinated or not.