Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 1

A new interview was published on Tuesday revealing that a clear link or association has been found between blood clots in the brain and a COVID-19 vaccine.

The news comes from a senior official from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) after a review of AstraZeneca's vaccine was conducted. According to Marco Cavaleri, chair of the vaccine evaluation team at the EMA, "In my opinion, we can now say it, it is clear that there is an association (of the brain blood clots) with the vaccine. However, we still do not know what causes this reaction."

It should be noted that the EMA said its review of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine is ongoing and that findings will be published on Wednesday or Thursday this week. Additionally, Cavaleri didn't provide any evidence to support the claim that there is a link between very rare blood clots in the brain and AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine.

New data that has been published in JAMA has revealed that if you get this COVID-19 vaccine, you will experience more discomforting side effects.

The newly published data looked at reports that were collected through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program called v-safe. This program is designed to track COVID-19 vaccine side-effects by recording text messages from recipients. People who have agreed to be a part of the program are asked to fill out a daily survey for any post-vaccine symptoms that appear.

Before February 21st, 3,600,000 people who received their first vaccine dose enrolled in the v-safe program and reported at least one time. Most people reported symptoms such as soreness around the injection site, fatigue or chills. However, there was a discrepancy found between Moderna vaccine recipients and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine recipients. The data indicates that people who received a Moderna shot were more likely to have side effects than those that received a Pfizer shot.

A team of scientists has alleged they have found evidence that supports the claim of new Chinese viruses.

It should be noted that this alleged discovery has yet to be peer-reviewed by other experts in the field. However, the data has been made available on the pre-print server aXiv. The researchers found evidence of dangerous human viruses in agricultural facilities based in Wuhan and Fuzhou, China.

For example, the team sequenced a cotton dataset by the Huazhong Agricultural University from 2017, and a rice dataset was sequenced by the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in 2017. Both of these datasets were found to be hosting novel viruses. If the team's research proves to be accurate and true, it could mean that many of these facilities that were found to be hosting novel viruses may have their safety protocols brought into question. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

A new report has indicated that a vaccination site has been shut down after a COVID-19 vaccine caused adverse reactions in more than a dozen people.

According to Fox News, thirteen people who received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine developed adverse reactions on Wednesday, causing the vaccination site to be shut down for the day. Officials at the vaccination site have yet to reveal the types of adverse reactions these thirteen people suffered.

More than 1,700 people were given shots at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, which means that less than 1% of the people vaccinated suffered from an adverse reaction. Due to the closure of the vaccination facility, more than 600 people who were booked in to receive their vaccination missed out. Centura Health officials said in the statement, "We followed our protocols and in an abundance of caution, made the decision - in partnership with the state - to pause operations for the remainder of the day."

A famous priest that was buried in a vault has been found mummified with a fetus laying behind the bishop's calves.

The bishop is named Lund Peder Pedersen Winstrup of the Churches of Sweden and Denmark and died back in 1679. Upon his death, the bishop was buried in a family vault in Lund Cathedral, and then in 2012, researchers decided to move the coffin, which gave them an opportunity to study the corpse. Researchers explain that it's not uncommon for small children to be placed in coffins with adults. However, small children are usually found with their family members.

This wasn't the case for the fetus that was found with the bishop. Archaeologist Torbjorn Ahlstrom of Lund University in Sweden said, "Placing a coffin in a vault is one thing, but placing the fetus in the bishop's coffin is quite another. It made us wonder if there was any relationship between the child and the bishop." The researchers performed a full genetic analysis on both the bishop and the child and found that roughly 25% of their genes matched up, indicating that there was some kind of secondary relationship between the fetus and bishop.

Elon Musk said 4 years ago that he wanted to end languages for human beings with brain implants with his company Neuralink, fast forward to 2020 and Musk said human trials of the brain implant were coming... and now they have a monkey playing pong with his mind. Wow. Check it out:

9-year-old monkey Pager learns how to control the computer and use the joystick to move the ball around on the screen to match up with the orange square, and gets rewarded when he does this with a "tasty banana smoothie, delivered through a straw". While Pager learns how to play the game, the Neuralink team have been pulling data from the chip in his brain.

Once Pager is familiar with the control system, Neuralink disconnected the joystick and Pager was still playing Pong -- but with just his brain. The brain-computer interface, or BCI, is doing the rest -- allowing Pager to control the computer with just his thoughts. The team at Neuralink say this is going to be perfect technology for those who have lost a limb and get a prosthetic installed, which they will eventually be able to control through a BCI.

COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out every day, and now a retired surgeon and former medical professor has warned against a blanket vaccine rollout for Americans.

The warning comes from former U-Penn Medicine professor Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, who appeared on Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today", where he said that patients should be asking questions regarding the vaccine and it's immunity status without any kind of fear. Dr. Noorchashm said, "When folks in the public health arena, talk about the vaccine efficacy. I think it's a good bet that our science, this is American science... says to us that neutralizing antibodies and prime T cells can clear this out of your body."

However, Dr. Noorchashm goes on to say that "Now the question is, have we done enough to make sure it's safe in everyone". The retired medical professor went to on to ask a rhetorical question "Are there categories in subset of people in whom this vaccine may actually pose some sort of risk? -- I think the answer to that is yes." Dr. Noorchashm states that "they" made a very effective vaccine, but are dropping the ball when it comes to safety part.

A famous epidemiologist that is well known for doing considerable work eradicating smallpox has spoken out about the COVID-19 situation in the US.

Epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant recently appeared on CNN with Erin Burnett, where he said he was "quite concerned" about the new COVID-19 variants that are circulating around the country. Dr. Brilliant goes on to say that a fourth wave of COVID-19 cases could be close to emerging across the nation as new daily cases have plateaued around 60,000. Another thing Dr. Brilliant mentions is that some of the new strains of COVID-19 render some vaccines not as effective.

For the aforementioned reasons, Dr. Brilliant suggests that he thinks there should be some kind of backup plan in addition to vaccinating people. Here's what Dr. Brilliant said, "I do think we have to have a backup plan in addition to vaccinating everybody as fast as we can. I think we have to get really much better at outbreak containment, detecting of diseases, finding them, isolating them, and vaccinating them with the vaccine that matches the variant that our genomics tells us they have."

Hundreds of people have still managed to contract a COVID-19 infection after receiving their COVID-19 vaccination.

According to a New York Post report, as many as 246 Michigan residents who were all "fully vaccinated" against COVID-19 have managed to test positive for COVID-19 at least two weeks after receiving their final vaccination. Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said, "Some of these individuals may ultimately be excluded from this list due to continuing to test positive from a recent infection prior to being fully vaccinated."

Sutfin goes on to say that these cases are currently undergoing review to determine whether or not they can be classified as a "breakthrough" case by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) criteria. Sutfin added, "While the majority of the population develops full immunity within 14 days of completion of their vaccine series, a small proportion appear to take longer to mount a full antibody response." Lastly, the spokeswoman said that the CDC is actively working to understand this group of people that have a delayed immunity response to COVID-19 vaccines.

A man has found and recorded what could only be assumed as a "three-eyed mutant rat hybrid" roaming around on the streets.

The Texas man uploaded the video to TikTok, and it has since gathered quite a lot of attention as people attempt to figure out exactly what the creature is. As the creature turns back around to man, you can see what seems to be three eyes looking back at the camera, one on each side of its skull and a third on its forehead. The creature seemingly is unafraid of the current situation.

According to The Sun, the video has been watched more than 6 million times by people on TikTok, with some people commenting on the video and suggesting it is a hybrid mix between a rat and a squirrel. One person suggested it's a "NYC rat and squirrel hybrid". As for a scientific perspective on the matter, some users suggested that it's a melanistic grey squirrel, which is native to North America. To watch the video for yourself, check it out here.