Month: December 2020

Categories
Health

Moderna Vaccine Is Extremely Protecting and Prevents Extreme Covid, Knowledge Present

Moderna Vaccine Is Highly Protective and Prevents Severe Covid, Data Show

WASHINGTON – Newly released data confirmed on Tuesday that Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine offers high levels of protection and sets the stage for this week’s emergency approval from federal regulators and beginning its spread across the country.

The Food and Drug Administration intends to approve use of the vaccine on Friday, said people familiar with the agency’s plans. The decision would give millions of Americans access to a second coronavirus vaccine as early as Monday.

The FDA review confirms Moderna’s earlier assessment that the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 94.1 percent in a study of 30,000 people. Side effects, including fever, headache, and fatigue, were uncomfortable but not dangerous, the agency found.

The success of Moderna’s vaccine has become all the more important to fighting the pandemic as other vaccine efforts have stalled. The hopeful news comes at a time with a record number of coronavirus cases overwhelming hospitals and an ever-increasing death toll that hit a bleak milestone of 300,000 on Monday.

The data release is the first step in a public review process that includes a one-day meeting on Thursday by an independent panel of experts. You will hear from Moderna, FDA scientists, and the public before they vote on whether to recommend approval. The panel is expected to vote yes and the FDA generally follows the experts’ recommendations.

Distribution of about six million doses could then begin next week, significantly adding to the millions of doses already developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the companies that only released the first emergency coronavirus vaccine last Friday . Healthcare workers received the first shots of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine Monday with an efficacy rate of 95 percent.

The introduction of vaccines has been eagerly anticipated and is one of the most ambitious vaccination campaigns ever carried out in the United States.

Last summer, the federal government signed contracts with Moderna and Pfizer to dispense a total of 200 million cans in the first quarter of 2021. Since both vaccines require two doses, these contracts guaranteed enough doses for 100 million people.

Last week the government announced that it had bought an additional 100 million doses of Moderna for the second quarter, bringing the number of Americans who can be vaccinated to 150 million. That leaves the question of how and when the 180 million or so other Americans will be covered.

Both vaccines are made available to the public free of charge.

Moderna’s vaccine has become a symbol of government scientists’ successes during the pandemic. After China released the genetic sequence of the new virus in early January, scientists from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health were able to focus on designing a vaccine in just two days. Unlike Pfizer, Moderna has a close relationship with Operation Warp Speed, the federal program that seeks to get a vaccine to market quickly. Nearly $ 2.5 billion federal funding helped Moderna buy raw materials, expand its factory, and increase its workforce by 50 percent.

Moderna’s success contrasts with two other high profile projects the US had hoped would increase vaccine supply: one from pharmaceutical companies Sanofi from France and GlaxoSmithKline from the UK and one from Anglo-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca and the Oxford University.

AstraZeneca and Oxford used two different doses in clinical trials in the UK and Brazil. The effectiveness was 62 percent at one level and 90 percent at the other. These jumbled results have made it unclear when AstraZeneca will have enough data to obtain an emergency clearance.

Meanwhile, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline received disappointing results with their vaccine in early clinical trials. While it produced a promising immune response in volunteers under the age of 50, it did not do so in older people. The companies are now planning a series of new studies with a different version of the vaccine. Due to the delay, they are unlikely to provide vaccines before the end of 2021.

Moderna’s vaccine worked equally well in white volunteers and in color communities. There was also no significant difference between protecting men and women or between healthy volunteers and those at risk for severe Covid-19 who developed conditions such as obesity and diabetes. For people aged 65 and over, the study found an estimated effectiveness of 86.4 percent, which is below the overall estimate of 94.1 percent. However, the apparent difference was not statistically significant.

So far, FDA reviews have shown two possible differences between vaccines, but the results may reflect a lack of data more than real differences. The Pfizer BioNTech study showed that the vaccine began protecting against the coronavirus within about 10 days of the first dose. The experiment with the vaccine from Moderna, however, did not show such a noticeable effect after the first dose.

However, in the early days of the Moderna study, there were fewer cases of Covid-19 among study participants, making it more difficult to measure the differences between the vaccinated group and the placebo group. In either case, health officials have said that for both vaccines, two doses are essential for complete protection.

Updated

Dec. 15, 2020 at 9:31 am ET

A second difference concerns the ability to prevent serious diseases. Moderna presented more evidence that its vaccine can, according to the review. In his study, 30 volunteers developed severe cases of Covid. All of them belonged to the placebo group, with no cases among the vaccinated people.

In the Pfizer BioNTech study, the results were less convincing. There were 10 severe cases in the placebo group and one in the vaccinated group. These numbers are too few to assess the vaccine’s ability to prevent serious diseases.

“The data available for these results did not allow firm conclusions,” said the FDA.

The documents released on Tuesday made it clear that side effects were particularly common after the second dose, but usually lasted only one day. Experts say people may need to take a day off after the shot.

During the Moderna trial, researchers also kept an eye out for volunteers who developed new disorders. In a multi-month study of 30,000 volunteers, it is normal for some to have conditions unrelated to the vaccine, health experts say. Comparing the rates between people receiving the vaccine and placebo, as well as general background rates, can help identify serious concerns and eliminate coincidences.

During the Moderna study, three vaccinated participants developed a form of temporary facial paralysis called Bell’s palsy, while one participant on the placebo experienced the same. Bell’s palsy, which can last weeks or longer, can be triggered by viral infections and other causes. Around 40,000 people develop the disease in the United States each year. Years of intensive research have found no evidence that any vaccine routinely recommended in the US causes Bell’s palsy.

In the review released Tuesday, the FDA said, “There is insufficient information currently available to establish a causal relationship with the vaccine.”

The Pfizer BioNTech study identified four cases in the vaccine group, including one in a person with a history of the disorder and none in the placebo group.

Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s lead vaccine regulator, said in an interview with JAMA Monday that the cases of Bell’s palsy in the study were most likely not caused by the vaccine and that the apparent difference between the two groups of volunteers was only one reason Random question.

“Our working hypothesis is just that this is an imbalance in the background rates, as we’ve seen in other studies,” he said.

In its analysis of the Moderna vaccine released Tuesday, the FDA said it plans to recommend prosecuting Bell palsy cases when the vaccines are rolled out.

“We’re going to ask about this just to wrap up that question,” said Dr. Marks on Monday.

The FDA’s analysis did not reveal any serious allergic reactions to the Moderna vaccine. The same was true for the Pfizer-BioNTech clinical trial, but when vaccinations began in the UK outside of that study, two people with a history of serious allergies had a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis.

UK health officials have said people with a history of anaphylaxis should avoid the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that people with serious allergies can be safely vaccinated, with close monitoring for 30 minutes after receiving the shot.

Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are similar in their ingredients, but not identical. Therefore, it is not clear whether an allergic reaction to one vaccine would occur with the other. Both are made up of genetic material called mRNA that is enclosed in a bladder made of a mixture of fats. The two companies use different fats.

Moderna has applied for approval to vaccinate people aged 18 and over, as in its study. The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was approved for people aged 16 and over because the study included a number of younger volunteers. Both companies are conducting experiments with children aged 12 and over and plan to also study younger children.

Sharon LaFraniere contributed to the coverage.

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Categories
Business

Smartphones and algorithms may rework the upkeep of cities

Smartphones and algorithms could transform the maintenance of cities

Potholes can be a dangerous hazard for road users around the world.

georgeclerk | E + | Getty Images

From street lights and crossroads to trash cans and sidewalks, the cities we live in require constant maintenance and upkeep to ensure they are functioning properly.

Roads are no different: Large cracks and potholes pose a number of potentially dangerous hazards for drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and local authorities.

According to the 2020 edition of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) annual road maintenance survey, preventing such deterioration can have significant financial implications.

In FY 2019/20, the “reactive” repair of filling a single pothole in England, London and Wales cost an average of £ 70.91 ($ 94.86). When this repair was scheduled, the AIA report puts the average cost at £ 43.10.

Given the above, it may come as no surprise that a number of companies and organizations are currently working on systems and processes to identify problems on the road before they become a major problem.

Earlier this year the UK Department of Transport announced that it would be working with local motorway authorities, digital mapping company Gaist and companies such as Uber, Deliveroo and Ocado to identify what are known as “pothole hotspots” in England.

And on Monday, Statkraft Ventures, backed by the state-owned Kraftkraft Group, a Norwegian state-owned energy company, announced that it has invested in Vialytics, a German company that uses windshield-mounted smartphones and algorithms to monitor road conditions.

Put simply, the system that Vialytics uses includes a specially adapted smartphone that is attached to the windshield of a vehicle.

The user opens an app on the phone that collects road-based data such as markings, cracks and manholes. This information is passed on to the company’s system, which uses an algorithm to analyze the images for damage.

Any problems detected by the system are then georeferenced and uploaded to the company’s web GIS – a visual tool that allows users to see where maintenance may be required.

Statkraft Ventures said the new investment – the announcement did not reveal the amount – would allow Vialytics to “further accelerate its expansion as a partner for cities and towns”.

Back in England, the University of Liverpool announced in October that it had launched a new company focused on commercializing research related to road faults.

The overall goal of Robotiz3d Ltd is to use robotics and other technologies to improve how problems such as cracks and potholes on roads are detected and then corrected.

Going forward, the company – a joint venture established by the university in collaboration with A2e Ltd – will seek to develop its Autonomous Road Repair System (ARRES).

At the time, Paolo Paoletti, Robotiz3d’s chief technology officer, said the proposed system “would be able to autonomously detect and characterize road defects such as cracks and potholes, assess and predict the severity of such defects, and repair cracks with it they don’t develop. ” in potholes. “

Categories
Politics

‘Religion in Our Establishments Held’

‘Faith in Our Institutions Held’

The electoral college votes and confirms Biden’s victory. Now it’s official again. It’s Tuesday and this is your political tip. Sign up here to receive On Politics in your inbox every weekday.

Stacey Abrams, Chair of the Georgian Electoral College, spoke to voters at the Georgia State Capitol yesterday.

“I’m afraid we would lose our country forever.”

These were the stark and unwavering words of Republican Speaker for the Michigan House of Representatives, Lee Chatfield, when making a statement yesterday just a few hours earlier he and Mike Shirkey, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, confirmed Michigan’s 16 votes for Biden.

“I can’t believe risking our norms, traditions and institutions to pass a resolution that will change voters retrospectively for Trump, simply because some believe there has been enough widespread fraud to make him win to bestow, “wrote Chatfield.

Trump had called him and Shirkey to the White House last month trying to convince them to replace the state’s voters with a vote in the state legislature. As supporters of the president, with their own political ambitions and representing a state where Trump is still very popular with Republicans, Chatfield and Shirkey were ready to meet and listen to him.

But they ultimately rejected his plan, becoming canaries in the mine for other Republicans at the state and national levels across the country who are now trying to balance their loyalty to the president with unwillingness to follow his undemocratic behavior.

It’s not an easy political task: More than two-thirds of Republican voters across the country believe Trump was unjustly deprived of his election victory, according to a poll by Fox News last week. Sixty-six percent of Republicans said the president’s election challenges actually helped American democracy, and even more – 71 percent – wanted him to run again in 2024.

For Democrats and Independents, who overwhelmingly believe that Biden won fair and fair, things are very different.

In Washington, Republican leaders are beginning to let go of their long-standing unwavering loyalty to Trump as top senators stepped forward after the electoral college vote yesterday to recognize Biden as president-elect and Kamala Harris as vice-president-elect.

“I understand there are people who take the outcome of this election very seriously, but in the end you have to face the music at some point,” said Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Chamber, at the Capitol. “And I think once the electoral college has resolved the problem today, it will be time for everyone to move on.”

That change of tone didn’t come soon enough for Michigan Republican Paul Mitchell, who was so disgusted by his party’s refusal to confront Trump about his disinformation campaign that he quit the GOP

Mitchell, who did not run for re-election this year and was already planning to retire from Congress, announced the news yesterday in a letter to senior Republican officials. He warned that they would help Trump “do long-term damage to our democracy” by believing his unfounded allegations of election fraud.

Mitchell plans to spend the remainder of his tenure as an independent.

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Is there anything you think we are missing? Do you want to see more? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

Categories
Health

London to maneuver into prime tier of restrictions

London to move into top tier of restrictions

Commuters walk the Thames Path with a view of Tower Bridge in London, UK on Monday 14 December 2020.

Hollie Adams | Bloomberg via Getty Images

LONDON – London is being placed in England’s toughest coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday morning from midnight after a rapid surge in Covid-19 infection rates.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the move on Monday when addressing lawmakers in the House of Commons. He said UK authorities had identified a new variant of the virus that could be linked to the faster spread of cases in the south-east of England.

“Initial analyzes indicate that this variant is growing faster than the existing variants,” said Hancock, adding that 1,000 cases of the new variant have been identified in England so far.

“There is currently no evidence that this variant is more likely to cause serious illness and, based on the latest clinical recommendations, it is highly unlikely that this mutation will not respond to a vaccine.”

Hancock said similar variants of the coronavirus had been identified in other countries in the past few months and that UK health officials had notified the World Health Organization. Public health experts would continue to analyze the newly identified variant of the virus in the UK, Hancock said.

Earlier this month the government put in place a three tier system of public health measures across England to contain the spread of the outbreak after a month-long lockdown.

At the time, millions of people across the country were placed in “Tier 3” but the UK capital was placed in the second highest level of restrictions.

A nationwide review of the tiered system was originally scheduled for December 16.

In addition to London, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire will move into “Tier 3” from 00:01 London time on Wednesday.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock arrives at the BBC Broadcasting House in London to appear on the Andrew Marr Show.

Aaron Chown | PA Images via Getty Images

“I know this is difficult news and I know that it will disrupt plans and that it will be a severe blow to the companies affected,” said Hancock.

“But this measure is absolutely necessary, not only to keep people safe, but because we have seen that taking action early can help prevent more damaging and longer-lasting problems later,” he added.

What does tier 3 mean?

Under Tier 3 restrictions, people cannot mix indoors, in private gardens, or in most outdoor locations.

Shops, gyms, and personal care services such as hairdressers are allowed to stay open, but bars, pubs, and restaurants must be closed except for takeaway and delivery.

“I know these steps are difficult, but we mustn’t waver when we hit the final stretch. When we look back on this period of crisis we can all say we played our part,” said Hancock.

Last week, the UK became the first country to vaccinate people with a coronavirus treatment that has been fully tested.

Margaret Keenan, then 90, made history as the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine outside of the experimental conditions.

It is now being given out to front-line health workers, nursing home workers and those over the age of 80 before it becomes more widespread among the UK population.

It is hoped that a safe and effective vaccine can help end the coronavirus pandemic.

To date, more than 72.3 million people worldwide have become infected with Covid-19, with 1.61 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

– CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

Categories
Business

Why Paying Folks to Be Vaccinated May Backfire

Why Paying People to Be Vaccinated Could Backfire

The approval of the first Covid-19 vaccine in the US was celebrated over the weekend as the beginning of the end of the pandemic. However, the road between giving off the first doses and getting widespread vaccination at rates that inhibit the spread of the coronavirus is far from easy. In addition to the logistical challenges of distributing the vaccine, people also need to be ready to take it. A new poll found that more than a quarter of Americans hesitate.

Two prominent economists, N. Gregory Mankiw and Robert Litan, and politicians John Delaney and Andrew Yang have proposed or supported paying Americans for the vaccine. At first glance, this seems like a reasonable idea; The economy teaches us that people respond to incentives. However, behavioral research suggests that this strategy could backfire.

Humans do not respond to incentives like rats pull levers for food. You are trying to interpret what it means to be offered. In this case, there is a risk that the vaccine will not be a valuable asset.

Studies cited in an article titled “Tom Sawyer and the Construction of Value” (referring to a famous section in the Mark Twain book where Tom convinces his friends that whitewashing a fence is a desirable activity ) have found that people are unsure whether something is good or bad, the prospect of payment helps them make negative decisions.

In one of the studies, a professor asked his students if they would attend a reading of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and offered half of the students payment to attend the reading while the other half asked if they would would pay to attend. Those who were offered payment reported less interest in participating. For those who are unsure of whether to get vaccinated, like those who are unsure of whether to attend the poetry reading, paying will most likely send the message that this is something you are not want to do without compensation.

It’s also likely that people will conclude from the payment that the vaccine could be risky. In our research with Kevin Volpp and Alex London, we found that people naturally assume that payments are a risk. In a series of experiments, we have described clinical studies that offered different payment amounts for participating in a study with an unfamiliar test procedure. We found that when the payment was higher, people believed that the risk of a study was greater, even though the descriptions of the study procedures were otherwise identical. Paying people to be vaccinated could also lead them to conclude that it is riskier than they would otherwise assume.

Data so far suggests that Pfizer and Moderna’s early Covid-19 vaccine candidates are safe and effective – evidence that has already led to the Pfizer candidate’s emergency approval. Although direct payments for vaccinations could increase acceptance for some people in the short term, the effects just described could ultimately produce the exact opposite of the intended effects, especially for those unsure whether the risks of vaccination are outweighing the benefits.

Payments not only make the vaccine appear riskier, but they may also reduce the likelihood that people will be vaccinated for the selfless goal of helping others. Research shows that paying people for altruistic measures often backfires. In one study, Israeli students who raised for charity on a given day of the year raised less money than they were paid a small commission.

The report on the study, entitled “Pay Enough or Not Pay at All,” argued that the amount paid was too little to motivate students but enough to ask questions about students’ motives for doing have raised a lot of money in the minds of the people watching these students, and possibly even on the part of the student collectors themselves. The same logic would suggest that paying people for vaccination might decrease the motivation of those who are or like to be altruistic would do.

A more promising approach might be to make desired activities such as travel dependent on vaccination. Australian airline Qantas reports that it and other airlines are considering making vaccination compulsory for international air travel. When vaccination is associated with positive results, such as B. Travel and access to large public events, the vaccination itself is rated positively. When people see the various benefits of vaccination, skepticism will likely go away for at least some.

Ultimately, the circumstances surrounding the introduction of the vaccine can affect attitudes towards it. Given the complexities of making and distributing the vaccine, it is almost certain that it will be in short supply for months. The silver lining is that much research in marketing has shown that scarcity can be a huge demand stimulator. Seeing others want to be vaccinated and desperately waiting to get to the top could increase the likelihood that people will see the value of the vaccine and want it for themselves.

George Loewenstein is the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. Cynthia Cryder is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Washington University’s Olin Business School in St. Louis.

Categories
Entertainment

Sara Leland, Ballerina of Ardour and Abandon, Dies at 79

Sara Leland, Ballerina of Passion and Abandon, Dies at 79

Sara Leland, a principal dancer for the New York Ballet who had staged George Balanchine’s ballets around the world during her career and later became a popular ballet master for the company, died on November 28th in Westwood, New Jersey when she was 79.

Her hospital death was caused by heart failure, said her niece, Mary-Sue O’Donnell.

Ms. Leland, known to friends and colleagues by her maiden name Sally, was a young dancer with the Joffrey Ballet in New York when Balanchine, the ballet master of the City Ballet, saw her dancing in a class and invited her to join his company.

In 1960, her first year with the city ballet, she got a leading role in “Les Biches”, a new ballet by Francisco Moncion; She was promoted to soloist three years later and began playing lead voices in a variety of ballets, including Balanchine’s “Agon,” “Symphony in C,” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Jerome Robbins “Interplay”; and Frederick Ashton’s “Illuminations”.

Balanchine created a role for her in the “Emeralds” section of his full-length “Jewels” (1967) and in the short-lived “PAMTGG”, which is based on a commercial jingle for Pan American World Airways (1971). Robbins created roles for her in “Dances at a Gathering” (1969) and “Goldberg Variations” (1971). Her ability to quickly pick up and remember choreographic sequences led Robbins to ask her to help him with rehearsals, and they worked closely together in creating these two ballets.

Ms. Leland was promoted to solo dancer in 1972 shortly before the Stravinsky Festival of the City Ballet, which opened with “Lost Sonata,” a pas de deux created by Balanchine for Ms. Leland and John Clifford. That same evening she played the second movement with Edward Villella in the premiere of Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements,” a ballet with which she would be associated throughout her career and which she later taught generations of city ballet dancers.

“Sally was a quick learner and Balanchine was really struggling with ‘Symphony’ in terms of tempo, so he gave Sally lots of steps to demonstrate the Corps de Ballet,” said Barbara Horgan, Balanchine’s longtime assistant.

These steps stayed with Mrs. Leland. “When I first directed ‘Symphony’ I remember writing down the intricate counts of Sally that kept it all in mind,” said Christine Redpath, repertoire director at City Ballet. “I still remember her abandoned mercury dancing in this work.”

Balanchine choreographed roles for Ms. Leland in “Union Jack” (1976) and “Vienna Waltzes” (1977). Her steely technique and versatility enabled her to perform in an exceptionally wide range of the company’s repertoire, including abstract ballets such as Balanchine’s “Serenade” and “Agon”; romantic, expressive pieces such as “La Valse” and “Davidsbündlertänze”; and conventional story ballets like “The Nutcracker” (as Dewdrop and the Sugar Plum Fairy) and “Don Quixote” (as Dulcinea).

“It was fun to see because you didn’t have to hold your breath,” said Ms. Horgan. “She was strong enough to take risks – but they weren’t risks to her. Some dancers are alike in everything, but she wasn’t. “

Ms. Leland began staging works by Balanchine and Robbins in the mid-1970s, while she was still performing, traveling to Amsterdam, Havana and Copenhagen to teach her ballets and working on it with companies in the US including the Joffrey Ballet, Dance to work Harlem Theater and the Boston Ballet. In 1981, two years before she retired from the stage, she was appointed deputy ballet master at the city ballet.

“I watch Mr. Balanchine as closely and closely as possible these days,” she said in a 1982 interview with The Christian Science Monitor. “I appreciate every minute of every rehearsal he conducts. I try to study his ballets so closely that I will never forget them and that in the future I can stage them exactly as he intended.”

Sally Harrington was born on August 2, 1941, in Melrose, Massachusetts, to Ruth (Gibbons) Harrington and Leland Kitteridge Harrington, known as Hago, a former Boston Bruins player of the National Hockey League. She later took the stage name Sara Leland.

An older sister, Leeta, was born with spina bifida and a doctor suggested taking ballet into physical therapy. The family lived near the school of E. Virginia Williams, a noted teacher who had admired Balanchine’s work and studied his teaching methods. Mrs. Leland went to study with her sister.

Her talent was immediately evident and she began to train intensively with Mrs. Williams, who founded the New England Civic Ballet in 1958, the forerunner of the Boston Ballet. Ms. Leland’s mother and Ms. Williams became close friends, and Ruth Harrington ran the company’s reception, brought dancers into the family home, and made costumes for the troupe.

“It became her life,” said Mrs. O’Donnell, Mrs. Leland’s niece.

Robert Joffrey saw Ms. Leland perform with the company in 1959 and invited her to join the Joffrey Ballet. On vacation in Boston the next year, she attended ballet classes with Mrs. Williams and was discovered by Balanchine, who was an artistic advisor to the New England Ballet.

“Balanchine adored Sally,” said Richard Tanner, a former ballet master with City Ballet. “She was such an unusual dancer with so much freedom of movement and lack of inhibition. She danced really big and he loved that. He liked her personality too, everything about her. “

Shortly after Ms. Leland started doing rehearsals, Balanchine asked her to practice the main ballerina roles in his ballets. Her unusual ability to maintain and teach the choreography of all parts of a ballet meant that she could work on more than 30 works in the repertoire. She also frequently staged Balanchine’s works abroad, notably “Jewels” at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1998.

Mrs. Leland married Arthur Kevorkian in 1975; They divorced in 1993. In later years, Mrs. Leland, an avid gardener, lived in New City, NY, in the Hudson Valley. Mrs. O’Donnell, her niece, is her only survivor.

Wendy Whelan, the city ballet’s associate artistic director, said Ms. Leland made an indelible mark on several generations of dancers.

“It was bigger than life; She had that huge, big smile and so many things that I imagined a balanchine dancer would radiate when I joined the company, ”said Ms. Whelan. “Passion, freedom, individuality – that was all. When she was teaching it was always’ More! Greater! Do it!’ She embodied all the qualities that we wanted to incorporate into the dance. “

Categories
Business

Actual property presents ‘lots of alternative’ as pandemic hurts property

Real estate presents 'a lot of opportunity' as pandemic hurts assets

A view of East London from the air. As the sun goes down, its glow is captured on the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf – London’s second business district.

Ray Wise | Moment | Getty Images

According to one of the leading real estate investors in London, there are numerous opportunities for investors to use distressed real estate after the coronavirus pandemic.

Thomas Balashev, founder and CEO of Montague Real Estate, said real estate was overly hammered during the downturn, giving buyers the opportunity to make profits when the economy recovered.

“I think it goes without saying that there will be many options,” Balashev told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Tuesday.

Another kind of crisis

Unlike the 2008 financial crisis, which was directly linked to the US housing market and gave some people the opportunity to “move forward,” the current economic crisis took the market by surprise and hurt otherwise solid assets, Balashev said.

“When you look at the way the pandemic has been dealt with, both politically and economically devastating, it has taken a lot of people by surprise,” he said. “So assets that really shouldn’t be in need, that didn’t suffer such a significant loss in value, suddenly hit the market.”

The global real estate market has been hit hard this year by dwindling demand for commercial properties such as offices and retail space and the shift in demand for residential real estate as homeowners move cities to the suburbs.

Still, there are deals around the world, stressed Balashev, who recently joined a Luxembourg-based fund focused on buying distressed properties in Europe, Asia and the UK

If you’re a liquid buyer with deep pockets, your options are a multitude of options.

Thomas Balashev

CEO, Montague Real Estate

“If you are a liquid buyer with deep pockets, there will be a multitude of options, and not just on one continent,” he said. “I think this is a great time for real estate worldwide.”

Indeed, London-based Montague Real Estate, which primarily deals with off-market deals in the prime and super-prime real estate markets, has seen a surge in inquiries from investors this year, Balashev said. This includes an increase of 200% to 300% year over year in inquiries from Asian investors interested in the UK

“We have to see this as a positive sign that people in international markets still see London as a safe haven,” he said.

Categories
Health

Fruit Flies Are Important to Science. So Are the Employees Who Hold Them Alive.

Fruit Flies Are Essential to Science. So Are the Workers Who Keep Them Alive.

The rooms of the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center at Indiana University are lined with identical shelves from wall to wall. Each shelf is filled with uniform frames and each frame with indistinguishable glass bottles.

However, the tens of thousands of fruit fly species in the vials are each very different. Some have eyes that fluoresce pink. Some will jump if you throw a red light on them. Some have short bodies and iridescent curly wings and look “like little ballet flats,” said Carol Sylvester, who helps with grooming. Each strain is also a unique research tool, and it has taken decades to introduce the traits that make them useful. If left unattended, the flies will die in a few weeks and destroy entire scientific disciplines.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, workers from different industries held the world together and took great personal risk to care for sick patients, maintain supply chains, and feed people. However, other important professions are less well known. Dozens of employees come to work at the Stock Center every day to serve the flies that support scientific research.

For most casual watchers, fruit flies are tiny dots with wings that hang near old bananas. Over the past century, researchers have turned the insect – known in science as Drosophila melanogaster – into something of a genetic switchboard. Biologists regularly develop new “fly strains” in which certain genes are switched on or off.

Studying these light mutants can show how these genes work – including in humans, as we share more than half of our genes with Drosophila. For example, researchers discovered what is now known as the hippopotamus gene – which helps regulate organ size in both fruit flies and vertebrates – after flies with a defect in them became unusually large and wrinkled. Further work with the gene has shown that such defects can contribute to the uncontrolled cell growth that leads to cancer in humans.

Other work with the flies has shed light on diseases from Alzheimer’s to Zika, taught scientists about decision making and circadian rhythms, and helped researchers win six Nobel Prizes. Over a century of optimizing fruit flies and cataloging the results has made Drosophila the best characterized animal model we have.

It’s a big part of a humble mistake. “When I try to tell people what I’m doing, the first thing they usually say is, ‘Why should you keep fruit flies alive? I’m trying to kill her! “Said Ms. Sylvester, who has been a Bloomington warehouse keeper since 2014.

When a couple of hitchhikers come to her house from the grocery store and their children rape her, she added, “Mom, you brought your coworkers home from work.”

The Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center is the only facility of its kind in the United States and the largest in the world. It is currently home to over 77,000 different types of fruit flies, most of which are in high demand. In 2019, the center shipped 204,672 fly vials to 49 laboratories States and 54 countries, said Annette Parks, one of the center’s five lead investigators.

It’s “one of the jewels we have in the community,” said Pamela Geyer, a University of Iowa stem cell biologist who has been ordering flies from the storage center for 30 years.

Other model organisms can be frozen for long-term storage in certain life stages. Laboratory freezers around the world hold mouse embryos and E. coli cultures. But fruit flies cannot go on ice. Taking care of the creatures means turning them over regularly: they are transferred from an old vial to a clean vial that has been supplied with plenty of food. Under quarantine with other members of their species, the flies mate and lay eggs that hatch, pupate and reproduce and continue the cycle.

“We have strains in our collection that have been continuously propagated this way since about 1909,” said Cale Whitworth, another senior investigator at the camp center, across generations and institutions. To keep the millions of Drosophila on their toes, the center employs 64 storekeepers plus a media preparer – think fly food cook – as well as a kitchen assistant and five dishwashers.

In the camp center, as everywhere, the first movements of the pandemic felt threatening. “I remember joking with people:” We are the people at the beginning of the dystopian novel, and we still don’t know what’s coming, “said Ms. Sylvester.

As the number of cases increased, Dr. Whitworth got a bag with a pillow and a toothbrush and imagined the worst. “I was in the ‘everyone is sick, last man on earth’ business,” he said. “How ‘How many flies can I fly in a period of 20 hours, sleep for four hours and keep turning the next day?'”

When Indiana University closed on March 15, the warehouse center remained open.

Kevin Gabbard, the fly food chef, made an emergency shop. Although they eat the same thing every day – a yeast puree made primarily from corn products – flies can be picky. Risking nothing, Mr Gabbard ordered two months of her favorite brands. “They think cornmeal is cornmeal,” he said. “But it’s not when it’s not right.”

The co-directors developed a more robust Hail Mary plan that would enable them, if necessary, to “keep most flies alive with just eight people,” said Dr. Whitworth. They also decided to stop all supplies and focus their energies on looking after flies.

On March 26th, the flies stopped leaving the building – and news of support came in almost immediately. “You are all amazing,” read an email. “The fly community is strong because of the phenomenal work you do.”

At around the same time, employees had a choice. They were considered essential workers and were allowed to come on campus. The university guaranteed them full pay even if they decided to stay home or an hour and a half to get in. (The center covers its costs through a combination of federal grants from the National Institutes of Health and its own income from sales of flies.)

The vast majority chose to keep working, said Dr. Whitworth – although suddenly the job was very different. The center is usually a very social place to work with birthday parties and group lunches. Working hours are usually flexible, a big selling point for employees, many of whom are parents, students, or have retired from full-time work.

Now people work in masks, often in separate rooms. Relocations in one of the buildings in the center were strictly planned to avoid overlap. “You can work alone for quite a while, maybe all day,” said Roxy Bertsch, who has been a warehouse keeper since 2018.

And for the first few weeks, the warehouse keepers – many of whom do additional duties like packing, shipping, and training – spent all of their time turning flies, which is monotonous and tough on the hands. “We just came in, fed flies and left,” said Ms. Bertsch.

But she kept going back. After her son may have been exposed to the coronavirus and she had to quarantine herself, she counted down the 14 days before she could return.

“There’s no way to keep me from work when I could be here,” she said.

Ms. Sylvester specializes in caring for flies whose mutations mean they will need additional DC. She also worked full time during the entire shutdown, borne by the care for her protégés. “Most of the time, I just love the flies and don’t want them to die,” she said. “I never thought I would love larvae so much.”

In mid-May, the center began shipping inventory again. Dr. Parks relayed another series of messages, many of which were now relieved.

“Feels like Christmas,” tweeted a laboratory at Aarhus University in Denmark with a photo of a box of vials.

A message in the spring from Tony Parkes, a biologist at Nipissing University in Ontario, had praised those “who do their job with few awards, but on which everyone counts as a basic backbone”.

When Dr. Parkes’ laboratory paused, he spent some of his unexpected downtime thinking about the storage center. It is a balance, he said, that enables even small laboratories to answer big questions “without using large resources”.

Plus, researchers can literally share their discoveries with one another. “You don’t need to have your own library to access all of this information,” he said, since the storage center is “there whenever you want.”

The people who keep the center going are also thinking about it. “It means a lot to know that you are part of it,” said Ms. Bertsch.

But it increases the pressure. “We all feel this great weight in making sure the storage center is there for everyone,” said Dr. Whitworth.

The pandemic continues, of course, and further obstacles loom. Although the fall semester has passed without incident, cases are increasing in the region, increasing the potential for another shutdown. Post delays at home and abroad have led the center to point out that their customers are turning to private freight forwarders – flies die if they’re on the road too long.

Although they are no longer paid extra, they all keep coming back to work. And even if things change, Dr. Whitworth ready. “I never unpacked my bag,” he said. “It’s still in the closet.”

Categories
Politics

Michigan Rep. Mitchell quits GOP for refusal to just accept Trump loss to Biden

Michigan Rep. Mitchell quits GOP for refusal to accept Trump loss to Biden

Michigan MP Paul Mitchell resigned from the Republican Party on Monday because the GOP refused to admit that President Donald Trump lost the election to President-elect Joe Biden.

Mitchell wrote in a damning letter to GOP leaders that Trump’s unsubstantiated claims alleging widespread electoral fraud and the Republican Party’s tolerance of these claims threatened “long-term damage to our democracy.”

“It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our electoral system as if we were a Third World nation and create suspicion of something as fundamental as the sanctity of our voting,” Mitchell wrote to Ronna McDaniel, Chair of the Republican National Committee Minority Chairperson Kevin McCarthy of California.

“Also, it is unacceptable for the President to attack the United States Supreme Court because its Liberal and Conservative justices failed with his side or because ‘the Court has failed him,'” wrote Mitchell, whose letter was first reported from CNN.

Mitchell will retire from Congress when the current session ends early next year.

Trump has claimed he lost Michigan and several other battlefield states whose votes gave Biden his margin on the electoral college for illegally suppressing votes for him and artificially inflating Biden’s ballot.

The electoral college will meet on Monday, and California’s votes have pushed Biden over the 270-vote threshold required to win the White House by 5:30 p.m. ET.

Mitchell wrote, “If Republican leaders sit back together and tolerate unsubstantiated conspiracy theories and” stop “the rallies without advocating our electoral process, which the Department of Homeland Security has called” the safest in American history, “our nation will be do corrupt. “

“I have spoken out clearly and firmly against these messages,” he wrote.

“However, since the leadership of the Republican Party and our Republican Conference in the House of Representatives actively participate in at least some of these efforts, I fear long-term damage to our democracy.”

Mitchell, who represents Michigan’s 10th Ward, said last year he would not seek a third term in Congress and complained that the “rhetoric and vitriol” he saw in Washington overwhelmed the real work of policy making.

Mitchell said that with more than 155 million eligible voters, “both administrative errors and even fraudulent votes are likely to have occurred”.

But he also said Trump “didn’t lose Michigan to Wayne County,” a Democratic stronghold that the president claims has counted fraudulent ballots.

“Rather, it lost to dwindling support in areas like Kent and Oakland Counties, both of which were former Republican strongholds,” the congressman wrote.

Mitchell said in his letter that he voted for Trump “for about four more years under his leadership despite some reservations.”

But he also wrote: “The stability and strength of our democracy is a constant concern of mine.”

“I expressed great concern about the president’s reaction to Charlottesville, the rhetoric against immigrants they are sending back, and even the racist comments made by my own colleagues in the House.”

Even after Mitchell left the GOP, the president and his deputies continued to struggle to undermine public confidence in Biden’s victory, arguing that on January 6, Congress would have the final say in the selection of the next president.

This is the day that Congress is due to confirm the electoral college vote.

Trump, his campaign and his allies have lost or withdrawn any suit that questioned the validity of Biden’s ballot papers. On Friday, the US Supreme Court denied a motion from Texas to file a lawsuit against the voting processes in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Before the Supreme Court responded to the request, Trump had described the Texas case as “the big one” that would undo Biden’s victory.

Categories
World News

Turkey’s Coffeehouses, a Hub of Male Social Life, Could Not Survive Virus

Turkey’s Coffeehouses, a Hub of Male Social Life, May Not Survive Virus

ISTANBUL – For years, Varan Suzme has been visiting the Kiral Coffeehouse near his house, where men from his Istanbul neighborhood chat for hours, sip from tiny, steaming cups, and play backgammon and cards.

“I came here every day,” said Mr Suzme, 77, a retired clothes salesman. “This is our second home. It’s a place I love, I see my friends and I’m happy and I play. “

Until the pandemic. A lockdown earlier this year closed coffeehouses across the country, as well as bars and restaurants, and when the government allowed them to reopen in June it banned the usual games and said they increased the risk of virus transmission.

Customers, mostly middle-aged and retired, stopped coming for fear of the virus, and with banned games, coffee house owners saw business shrink. Even before another lockdown went into effect this month, they feared that the coronavirus could endanger the survival of many coffee houses and rob the country of an essential center of Turkish life.

The Turkish coffee house is a one-of-a-kind men’s reserve, ranging from a post office to a social club that is fueled with cups of coffee – or now, when tastes change, tea. In every neighborhood, from the narrow streets of Istanbul to the ancient cities dotted around the country, men stop on the way to and from work, retirees meet and exchange gossip and political parties.

“We miss our friends and play backgammon,” said Mamuk Katikoy, 70, when he recently came for an interview at the Kiral Coffeehouse in Istanbul’s Yesilkoy district. “I haven’t seen this man in eight months,” he said, greeting a 90-year-old friend who also stopped by.

Several coffee shop owners complained that the religiously conservative government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was against the games because of its association with gambling and that the ban was more ideological than hygienic.

The country was already in an economic downturn when the pandemic hit, and with scarce government aid, many businesses were forced to shut down for good.

Several famous cafes in Beyoglu’s artistic district have closed in recent months. They had introduced Italian espresso to Istanbul society – the now closed Simdi Cafe was famous for its espresso machine from the 1960s – and represented a prime of intellectual and artistic life in Turkey.

The traditional Turkish coffee house is a more humble affair where the regulars are mostly workers who play cards, backgammon, and “okey,” a game similar to rummy and played with numbered tiles. Some coffeehouses charge hourly fees for games that are in progress, while others make their living only from the drinks they serve.

But without games, the business between locks was so bad that most of the coffee houses were closed or had few customers. Owners warn that they may have to close permanently without further government help.

“Our stores are empty,” said Murat Agaoglu, head of Turkey’s Federation of Coffee Houses and Buffets, who predicted that 20 percent of the country’s coffee houses would shut down.

That could rob Turkey of a pillar of its communities that is almost as old as drinking coffee. The custom spread from Arabia north to Turkey and further to Europe in the 16th century.

The first coffee houses in Turkey were founded by two Syrian merchants in the Tahtakale district of what was then Constantinople, near the seat of power of the Ottoman Empire and in the teeming streets of the spice bazaar.

“At that moment, Istanbul was one of the most populous cities in the world,” said Cemal Kafadar, Professor of Turkish Studies at Harvard University. “Imagine the commercial potential of this innovation. Within half a century there were hundreds of coffee houses in the city. And since then we have been able to enjoy the blessed brew of this blessed bean privately or publicly. “

The court of the Ottoman sultans dealt with drinking coffee. Artisans made tiny, delicate cups and narrow-necked coffee pots, women began serving coffee to guests in their homes, and men gathered in coffeehouses and smoked tobacco in extravagantly long-stemmed pipes. Later the aqueduct became fashionable.

The coffeehouses became meeting places for business people to socialize, but they also became centers of literary activity and public entertainment. Some had reading rooms or housed storytellers and puppeteers. Many still have names that go back to their Arabic origins: “kahvehane”, which means “coffee house”, and “kiraathane”, which means “reading house”.

The coffeehouses inevitably became centers of political gossip and activism, as they did across Europe, and closed regularly as political agitation increased, Kafadar said.

Updated

Dec. 15, 2020, 3:03 p.m. ET

Over time they lost their standing in the eyes of the more educated urban public and gradually became cheap hangouts for workers. “From the middle of the 19th century, modernizers associated it with idleness and backwardness,” said Kafadar.

The traditional coffeehouses, which are regulated by the government, are allowed to sell tea, coffee, and other soft drinks, including salep, a popular orchid bulb drink from Ottoman times.

The drinks and games, as well as the prices, are listed in the license that is affixed to the wall of the coffee house. The prices are regulated and set low.

They serve traditional Turkish coffee, each cup individually brewed, bitter or sweet to taste, and small glasses of strong black tea. Aqueducts are still listed among the listings, but Mr Erdogan’s government banned indoor use more than a decade ago.

For Guven Kiral it was his life to run a coffee house. He inherited his from his father and moved it to new premises in the same neighborhood.

“This place is like my kid,” he said. “I have a son, but it’s like a second son to me.”

On busy days, 60 people would play, he said, but the pandemic has put an end to that, silencing the shuffling of cards and the sharp click and hit of backgammon pieces.

“When I open, customers come for tea and sit for a while, but then they say, ‘Sorry, there are no games’ and leave,” said Mr Kiral, who fears he will be forced to close down forever. “We’re racing downhill. The pandemic has caused us a great loss. “

He demonstrated his anti-virus hygiene system: spread out disposable tablecloths, break out a new deck of cards for each game, and soak the backgammon counters in detergent. The tables would be widely spaced and even expanded to separate customers, he said.

“The big problem is the ban on games, both for the customers and the people who work in these places,” said Bendevi Palandoken, head of the Turkish Chamber of Crafts, which represents owners and workers in 120,000 coffee houses across the country. “We want the government to reduce the burden of social security and cash benefits for breadwinners.”

A flyer on the wall at the Kiral Coffeehouse reads, “We ask the government, do you care?”

Mr Kiral said he would be heartbroken and lose business.

“For my regular guests, the separation will be the first. You won’t see any more people, ”he said. “We’d lose our jokes, our laughter.”

On a broader level, he said that the entire older generation would be punished. “The costs will be for a specific age group. You will have nowhere to go. “