Fanny
News this month of vaccines that can stop COVID show that science has found solutions in record time to a huge problem, but the virus has also pushed people to find fixes for all sorts of other headaches – we could almost say ‘Thanks COVID!’
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Knock out! Science thumps COVID; now we’re ready to batter other problems too
- 20.11.20
Problem?
A huge problem, like the coronavirus pandemic, can seem like a completely bad thing and so makes us unhappy.
Solution!
People react to problems by finding solutions – and many of these solutions will help us make life better, even after the original problem is fixed.
Adults Info
For an overview of how the new COVID vaccines work and how their arrival may herald more rapid treatments for other illnesses, this piece in the i newspaper is succinct. This is an explainer from Reuters on how these vaccine trials and their “efficacy rates” mean.
The Independent looks at the boom in “telehealth” and its post-pandemic advantages.
The benefits of low-cost ventilators developed to meet the COVID crisis are explained in this piece from Advanced Science News, while the New York Times looks at the situation in Africa, where, for example, South Sudan has more vice-presidents (5) than ventilators (4).
Antimicrobial or antiviral textiles are booming, though they are not without controversy – over their efficacy (catching COVID from clothes appears very rare) and over the environmental impact of the chemicals used to treat the cloth. Vogue offers this view, while Vox offers some healthy scepticism.
We all know the benefits of hand-washing, but here’s some new research from Wales on how perhaps we should also be adding more mouthwash to our daily routines.
And finally, for a concise overview of some of the future-gazing thinking coming out about how life may be different, and perhaps better, after COVID, try this.
The WOW! reporters
Alastair
