Science, Space & Robotics News - Page 1

With such widespread coronavirus safety guidelines, you have probably already guessed that Halloween won't be the same this year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued new safety guidelines on how to correctly celebrate Halloween. The CDC's new recommendations rule out the traditional way of celebrating Halloween, such as typical classic door-to-door trick-or-treating or costume parties. The CDC has grouped each Halloween activity into a separate group depending on its level of coronavirus risk.

Door-to-door trick-or-treating, indoor haunted houses, going on hayrides, parking lot trunk-or-treats, and using alcohol or drugs as it can "cloud judgment and increase risky behaviors" has been added to the higher risk category. If you are interested in the other CDC guidelines, check out this link here.

This past Monday, a report was published in the scientific journal Cell, and this report detailed a new discovery that could be used to battle the coronavirus.

According to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, scientists were able to iso "the smallest biological molecule" that "completely and specifically neutralizes" SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 infection. The researchers explain that the molecule is a component of the antibody that is ten times smaller than the full-sized antibody.

Additionally, researchers have now taken this molecule and are using it to create a drug called Ab8. This drug has already shown to be "highly effective in preventing and treating" COVID-19 infections in animals such as mice and hamsters. Most importantly, the researchers found that the drug doesn't bind to human cells, meaning it won't have any side effects when it is injected into humans. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

During a congressional hearing this past Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci scolded Senator Rand Paul over coronavirus immunity levels in New York.

Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was visibly annoyed at some of Senator Rand Pauls's comments regarding the events taking place in New York regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Sen. Rand Paul suggested that COVID-19 cases in New York aren't rising because New Yorkers have developed a certain level of herd immunity to the virus.

Dr. Fauci stopped Sen. Rand Paul in his tracks, saying that "this happens with Senator Rand all the time...", Fauci then went on to correct the Senators comments about herd immunity, saying, "If you believe 22% is herd immunity, I believe you're alone in that." This exchange between Dr. Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul happened at the Senate Health Committee hearing where Fauci and others were testifying about the coronavirus pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken to its website to update its coronavirus guidelines for this year's Halloween.

The CDC has categorized each Halloween activity into three separate categories; lower risk activities, moderate risk activities, and higher risk activities. Most of the typical Halloween celebrates have been ruled out, but the CDC has recommendations on how people can still celebrate. A moderate risk activity is a "one-way trick-or-treating where individually wrapped goodie bags are lined up for families to grab and go while continuing to social distance (such as at the end of a driveway or at the edge of a yard)."

Additionally, instead of a crowded costume party, the CDC recommends that if you attend a costume party, make sure its outdoors, open-air, you have a mask on and that everyone is distanced more than 6 feet apart. Notably, the CDC recommends that people should have a Halloween movie night with people you live with. If you are interested in finding out more recommendations from the CDC, check out this link here.

By now, you have probably heard all the coronavirus safety advice before, but its important to keep up to date with what leading advisors are recommending.

One of those leading advisors is the top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci said in an interview with the MSNBC that the current data on the CDC website indicates that the restaurants, bars, and gyms are the most prominent places for higher transmissibility.

Here's what Dr. Fauci said, "It shows the ... risk of different types of situations that give you a higher risk of transmissibility, and coming right out at you from the figure is restaurants, bars, and gyms. When you have restaurants indoors in a situation where you have a high degree of infection in the community [and] you're not wearing a mask, that's a problem."

Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman are scheduled to leave Earth next year aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX is no stranger to the idea of doing private tourist missions for the extremely wealthy, and I suppose that is why this mission has been dubbed a "tourist mission". According to Space Shuttle Almanac, Tom Cruise, director Doug Liman, and most likely one other as one seat has yet to be filled, will be leaving Earth in October 2021 to arrive at the International Space Station.

At the moment, the purpose of the mission is officially unknown, but we can assume that actor Tom Cruise and director Dough Liman are either discussing filming possibilities or are doing some kind of filming for a future movie. One thing is certain; the launch is more than a year away, which means there is plenty of time for plans to change, such as cancellation or the other passenger's announcement.

The United States is still battling the coronavirus, and unfortunately, as the days go on, the death tally is still adding up.

According to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker, which has been used widely by a range of publications for quite some time, the United States has surpassed the 200,000 deaths mark. These now recorded 200,000 deaths attributed to the virus come only 8 months after the first official case of COVID-19 was recorded - January 21, 2020.

Since January 21, there have been just 247 days, putting the average amount of deaths per day to about 810. The United States leads the world in both case count for the virus and death count. At the time of writing this, the US has over 6.8 million cases. Globally, the tracker indicates that the coronavirus cases are about to tip over the 32 million marks. If you want to track the coronavirus for yourself, check out this link here.

Everyone who is concerned about the coronavirus is patiently waiting to hear news about the data from the Phase 3 clinical trials.

President Trump told reporters last week that "we essentially have" the vaccine data, and that the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine "very soon". However, in a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, "These are blind placebo-controlled trials. The only ones who see the data intermittently is the safety data monitoring board.... a single unblinded statistician. Those data are not public data; no one can know what those data show."

As BusinessInsider reports, this would mean even President Trump hasn't yet seen the coronavirus vaccine trial data. Dr. Fauci has said that a coronavirus vaccine's efficacy will likely be confirmed around November or December of 2020. Medical agencies have another issue to tackle, and that is many Americans not wanting to get a coronavirus vaccine even if its available. Dr. Fauci explains that there is a "lack of trust in a vaccine".

A man who has a staffer under Dr. Anthony Fauci has announced his retirement after it was discovered he was the author of many articles trashing Fauci and the coronavirus pandemic.

The staffer named William B. Crews was a public affairs specialist for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID. The Daily Beast reported that Crews was found to be moonlighting as a managing editor for the website RedState. Crews wrote articles as the editor under the pseudonym "streiff", and these articles consisted of information that was contradictory to what the health body was recommending about the virus.

Some of these articles even went on to trash Dr. Fauci, the director of NIAID, calling him a "mask nazi". Additionally, in one of Crews posts, he stated that the coronavirus pandemic was "nothing more or less than a massive fraud perpetrated upon the American people by 'experts' who were determined to fundamentally change the way the country lives and is organized and governed." A spokesperson for NIAID said that the agency was made aware of Crews this Tuesday, and has since been informed of his retirement.

We are slowly moving closer to the end of the year, which means we could start to hear about the completion of a coronavirus vaccine. But what if the vaccine manufacturing isn't our biggest problem?

The Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index has been collating the opinions of whether Americans would take the first round of coronavirus vaccines or will not. Judging on the results found on the website, 60% of American participants said it is not very, or not at all, likely that they would be getting the first round of coronavirus vaccines.

In August, 53% of Americans said they wouldn't get the first round of vaccines, which shows there was a 7% increase in the number of people that don't want the vaccine. Compared to the previous month of August, where 47% of Americans said that they'd be willing to get vaccinated right away, September data shows that 39% of Americans would get the vaccine right away - an 8% decrease in the number of people that are willing to get the vaccine.