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Human Behavior

How to stay safe when flying, according to two experts – World Economic Forum

We dont know about you, but were ready to travel. And that typically means flying.

We have been thinking through this issue as moms and as an exposure scientist and infectious disease epidemiologist. While weve decided personally that were not going to fly right now, we will walk you through our thought process on what to consider and how to minimize your risks.

The primary concern with flying or traveling by bus or train is sitting within six feet of an infected person. Remember: Even asymptomatic people can transmit. Your risk of infection directly corresponds to your dose of exposure, which is determined by your duration of time exposed and the amount of virus-contaminated droplets in the air.

A secondary concern is contact with contaminated surfaces. When an infected person contaminates a shared armrest, airport restroom handle, seat tray or other item, the virus can survive for hours though it degrades over time. If you touch that surface and then touch your mouth or nose, you put yourself at risk of infection.

While there is no way to make air travel 100% safe, there are ways to make it safer. Its important to think through the particulars for each trip.

One approach to your decision-making is to use what occupational health experts call the hierarchy of controls. This approach does two things. It focuses on strategies to control exposures close to the source. Second, it minimizes how much you have to rely on individual human behavior to control exposure. Its important to remember you may be infectious and everyone around you may also be infectious.

The 'Heirarchy of Control' focuses on strategies to control exposures close to the source.

Image: CDC

The best way to control exposure is to eliminate the hazard. Since we cannot eliminate the new coronavirus, ask yourself if you can eliminate the trip. Think extra hard if you are older or have preexisting conditions, or if you are going to visit someone in that position.

If you are healthy and those you visit are healthy, think about ways to substitute the hazard. Is it possible to drive? This would allow you to have more control over minimizing your exposures, particularly if the distance is less than a day of travel.

Youre going, now what?

If you choose to fly, check out airlines policies on seating and boarding. Some are minimizing capacity and spacing passengers by not using middle seats and having empty rows. Others are boarding from the back of the plane. Some that were criticized for filling their planes to capacity have announced plans to allow customers to cancel their flights if the flight goes over 70% passenger seating capacity.

Federal and state guidance is changing constantly, so make sure you look up the most recent guidance from government agencies and the airlines and airport you are using for additional advice, and current policies or restrictions.

While this may sound counterintuitive, consider booking multiple, shorter flights. This will decrease the likelihood of having to use the lavatory and the duration of exposure to an infectious person on the plane.

After you book, select a window seat if possible. If you consider the six-foot radius circle around you, having a wall on one side would directly reduce the number of people you are exposed to during the flight in half, not to mention all the people going up and down the aisle.

Also, check out your airline to see their engineering controls that are designed or put into practice to isolate hazards. These include ventilation systems, on-board barriers and electrostatic disinfectant sprays on flights.

When the ventilation system on planes is operating, planes have a very high ratio of outside fresh air to recirculated air about 10 times higher than most commercial buildings. Plus, most planes ventilation systems have HEPA filters. These are at least 99.9% effective at removing particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter and more efficient at removing both smaller and larger particles.

How to be safe from shuttle to seat

From checking in, to going through security to boarding, you will be touching many surfaces. To minimize risk:

If you are thinking about flying with kids, there are special considerations. Getting a young child to adhere to wearing a mask and maintaining good hygiene behaviors at home is hard enough; it may be impossible to do so when flying. Children under 2 should not wear a mask.

Each day, we are all constantly faced with decisions about our own personal comfort with risk. Arming yourself with specific knowledge about your airport and airline, and maximizing your use of protective measures that you have control over, can reduce your risk. A good analogy might be that every time you get in the car to drive somewhere there is risk of an accident, but there is a big difference between driving the speed limit with your seat belt on and driving blindfolded, 60 miles an hour through the middle of town.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with our Terms of Use.

Written by

Paloma Beamer, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Arizona

Kacey Ernst, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Arizona

This article is published in collaboration with The Conversation.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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How to stay safe when flying, according to two experts - World Economic Forum

Human Behavior

Ahlquist: Let’s cut the divisiveness, put that energy toward recovery – Idaho Press-Tribune

We live in unprecedented times. COVID-19 has caused the world to reevaluate everything we know about preparation for infectious diseases.

We have been introduced to a whole new vernacular. Acronyms, words and phrases, previously unfamiliar are now part of our everyday lives: COVID, PCR, IgG, N95, NP swab, Fauci, Cluster, Antibody, Quarantine, Stay-At-Home Order, R0, and Crush the Curve.

Some phrases sounded great at first and then overtime lost steam like this one: Were all in this together.

America is the most incredible country in the history of the world. Built on freedoms and a constitution that is the envy of the world. Diversity is our strength. As COVID-19 marched across the globe, most of us could feel a sense of unity as we came together to fight for our communities, our families, and our future. I remember the first time someone said, Were all in this together. It resonated with me. It made me proud to lock arms with my fellow Americans and show the world just how strongly we could respond.

Unfortunately, that unity and optimism did not last long.

The truth is, were not all in this together. Because we were not prepared as a country for a pandemic. It became easier to blame someone than to work together for our people. Our country was already politically polarized and to add to the chaos, its an election year. We were primed for a complete political circus. Politicians have not disappointed. Finger pointing, denial, lies, and distractions dominate the airwaves as the average American fights for their livelihoods, always wondering what the next day will bring.

So what would were all in this together look like? It would start with clear communication. There is nothing that disrupts a plan faster than a lack of clarity. In a leadership vacuum, chaos reigns supreme and without clear direction, political agendas and conspiracy theories flourish, and they have.

So now its the end of May. In baseball terms, we are at the top of the 2nd inning, with much of the game yet to be played. So whats next?

George Bernard Shaw famously said, You see things; and you say, Why? But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?

Here are some of my Why nots? for Idaho in the coming months.

Why not temper our political rhetoric and look for common ground to fight the real enemy COVID-19?

Now that some of us are back to work, why not take the divisiveness of the past and apply that energy to help Idaho stay at work?

Why not learn from countries who have successfully fought COVID-19 and implement similar strategies in Idaho?

Why not collaborate on testing, tracing, protocols, capacities, data, and solutions?

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Why not wear a mask, stay six feet apart, and cough in our sleeves?

Why not focus on those who are severely disadvantaged in this fight: the vulnerable, uninsured, working-class employees, the elderly, and those who speak English as a second language?

Why not work together to provide clarity with comprehensive messaging and then deliver on those messages?

Finally, why not prepare now for the fall? Lets spend this time to develop world-class response strategies to stay open and give our businesses the very best chance for a complete rebound.

During a crisis, the best and worst of human behavior is on full display. The speed and uncertainty of this pandemic will continue to expose our weaknesses and shortcomings, but it will also allow us to respond and accomplish things we never thought possible. Why not lead the nation?

I know the people of Idaho. I know the grit and determination that is part of our heritage. I know if any state in the Union can respond and thrive in a crisis, it is Idaho.

I ask you to join me today and commit to be part of the solution. Every individual, company and organization can play a role as we fight this disease and keep our economy rolling. Stand with me today and ask Why not?

Lets beat COVID-19 together.

Tommy Ahlquist, a former emergency room doctor, is the CEO of BVA Development and co-owner of Saltzer Health. He ran for governor as a Republican in 2018.

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Ahlquist: Let's cut the divisiveness, put that energy toward recovery - Idaho Press-Tribune

Human Behavior

CDC warns of aggressive cannibal rats facing shortage of garbage to eat – The Guardian

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of unusual or aggressive behavior in American rats as a consequence of more than two months of human lockdown for city-dwelling rodents who now find themselves unable to dine out on restaurant waste, street garbage and other food sources.

Last month, according to the national health body, dumpster-diving rats were observed resorting to eating their young in the wake of urban shutdowns.

Community-wide closures have led to a decrease in food available to rodents, especially in dense commercial areas, the CDC said in recently updated rodent-control guidelines.

Some jurisdictions have reported an increase in rodent activity as rodents search for new sources of food. Environmental health and rodent control programs may see an increase in service requests related to rodents and reports of unusual or aggressive rodent behavior.

Elevated levels of rat aggression has been observed in New York, where there are increased reports of cannibalism and infanticide, and New Orleans, where unusual rat behavior was caught on CCTV.

I turn the corner, theres about 30 rats at the corner, feasting on something in the middle of the street, Bourbon street tour guide Charles Marsala told CBS News.

Complaints in Chicago have included reports of infestations in housing blocks as rodents seek new sources of food.

Some rodent experts predicted increased urban rat aggression.

Many of these rats in our cities depend on their nightly food, which is the restaurants and hotels and bars and doughnut shops and everything that we consume on the go, rodentologist Bobby Corrigan told The Washington Post.

The overall rat-to-human ratio is notoriously hard to gauge. A 1949 study determined the ratio was 36 humans to one rat in New York. The estimate was increased to one to one in the 1950s, and then dropped again to four humans to one rat.

The CDC noted that rodent population upheavals are common during natural disasters.

Preventive actions include sealing up access into homes and businesses, removing debris and heavy vegetation, keeping garbage in tightly covered bins, and removing pet and bird food from their yards, the CDC said.

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CDC warns of aggressive cannibal rats facing shortage of garbage to eat - The Guardian

Human Behavior

Nothing Could Stop People From Moving to Oregon. A Pandemic Might. – Willamette Week

WWpresents "Distant Voices," a daily video interview for the era of social distancing. Our reporters are asking Portlanders what they're doing during quarantine.

Josh Lehner has the unenviable job of giving Oregon's governor bad news.

Last week, Lehner, an economist with the state, delivered the state's quarterly forecast, predicting how much revenue from taxes and other sources Oregon state government will have to spend.

Lehner forecasts state revenue will be down more than $2.5 billion for the next biennium (the state operates on a two-year budget), which is about 11 percent of the state's general fund budget.

And his forecast went out 10 years, predicting there would be 34,000 fewer Oregonians because of the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic.

While Lerner and the Office of Economic Analysis are number crunchers, he also has to predict human behavior, which drives revenue. Fewer people eating outplus less liquor and lottery salesequals less taxes. Fewer people moving to Oregon because of lack of opportunity equals less taxes. More consumption of cannabis equals more taxes.

In this conversation with WW editor Mark Zusman, Lerner offers his look into the crystal ball.

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Nothing Could Stop People From Moving to Oregon. A Pandemic Might. - Willamette Week

Human Behavior

How are zoo animals handling the coronavirus shutdown? – EarthSky

A Californian sea lion swims behind empty seats in its enclosure at a zoo in Berlin, April 4, 2020. Image via EPA-EFE/ Clemens Bilan/ The Conversation.

By Ellen Williams, Nottingham Trent University and Jessica Rendle, Murdoch University

More than 700 million people visit zoos and aquariums each year worldwide, so human visitors are usually a constant presence for the animals that live there. But the Covid-19 pandemic has forced these places to close to the public, plunging resident animals into an empty silence.

Instead, zoos have been opening virtually during the lockdown, allowing people to see behind the closed doors from the comfort of their living rooms. Chester Zoo in the U.K. hosted an online tour so popular that it broke the internet when it went viral according to one zookeeper, with hundreds of thousands of people worldwide flocking to the zoos Facebook page.

Zoo workers have described how animals are greeting the isolation during Covid-19 closures. One zoo in India reported that animals were loving the quiet spell foxes were frolicking around, the hippopotamus was happily splashing in its pool and even the tigers were enjoying a dip. In other zoos, animals seem to be missing people. Twycross Zoos curator reported primates looking for zoo visitors, for instance.

A worker disinfects Giza Zoo in Egypt, April 12 2020. Image via Khaled Elfiqi/ The Conversation.

Some zoo animals are forgetting all about their previous lives, with garden eels at one Japanese aquarium hiding when staff members approached their enclosure. Workers have asked the public to make video calls to their eels, to try and prevent them from seeing visitors as a threat when the aquarium reopens. Meanwhile, some animals are enjoying the freedom of daily zoo walks, like the penguins at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, which were let out to wander the empty halls and look into the other enclosures.

Is this reprieve from regular visitors healthy for zoo animals? And how will they respond to people suddenly flooding back once zoos reopen? Researchers and animal charities are worried that our pets will develop separation anxiety once their owners return to work. The opposite might happen among zoo animals. Will captive creatures be desperate for the public to return or have they adapted to a slower, quieter life?

When zoos reopen

As zoos that have closed for months reopen their doors, we have an opportunity to study how visitors influence the lives of zoo animals. While we cant predict the future, previous research on how zoo animals have responded to changes in visitor schedules might give us some idea of what to expect.

During the night, zoo animals are used to relative peace and quiet. For many, beyond the odd security warden, there are no visitors. But before Covid-19, some zoos did open their doors outside of normal opening hours, for late-night tours and overnight camps.

During lockdown, zookeepers are the only human presence for many zoo animals. Image via Roman Rios/ The Conversation.

Typically, we study animal behaviors to understand how they may be feeling and try to make judgements about their experiences. From that, we can say that zoo animals have tended to show mixed responses to evening events. A study at a zoo in Germany found that elephants sought comfort from others in their herd during an evening firework display, but they didnt retreat into their indoor enclosures. Researchers at London Zoo noticed no changes in the behavior of lions during sunset safaris, on evenings when the zoo was open for visitors until 10 p.m., compared to their behavior during normal opening hours.

Across the board, changes in the usual routines of zoo animals affect different species in different ways. The quiet caused by vanished visitors might mean more animals performing attention-seeking behaviors to try and interact with visitors more than normal, as keepers have reported chimpanzees doing during lockdown, as they reach out towards workers who would usually feed them by hand. It may also cause them to be overly skittish to human visitors when they return, like the garden eels in Japan.

Amsterdams Artis Zoo has reopened for members only, instituting strict social distancing guidelines. Image via EPA-EFE/ Koen Van Weel/ The Conversation.

This is the longest time many zoo animals will have gone without the public, and zoo staff will have to help them transition back to normal life. Most zoos are planning phased reopenings of animal houses to prevent the sudden changes in noise disturbing the animals.

Some animals, especially those born during the Covid-19 lockdown, will never have experienced life in the public eye. Many up-close animal encounters will have to change, particularly as humans can transmit coronaviruses to great apes in captivity.

On your next visit, be cool, calm and collected. Keepers and other zoo staff will be on hand to guide you, helping enforce social distancing and supporting you on how best to behave around the animals. Your local zoo will need visitors more than ever when they reopen. But remember, zoo animals will be experiencing their own post lockdown fuzz, and, just like you, they may need time to adjust.

Ellen Williams, Lecturer in Animal Science, Nottingham Trent University and Jessica Rendle, Honorary Postdoctoral Associate in Conservation Medicine, Murdoch University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: The Covid-19 pandemic has forced zoos and aquariums to close to the public. How are captive animals coping with the sudden emptiness?

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How are zoo animals handling the coronavirus shutdown? - EarthSky

Human Behavior

Africa, Eid-al-Fitr and the virus – TheCable

This years eid-al-fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of the month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast for 29 or 30 days, in observance of one of the Five Pillars of Islam, was celebrated on Saturday and Sunday May 23/24, but it was a different kind of eid. It was sombre, low key, and completely over-shadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In close to 100 years, there has been no eid like that: the worlds nearly 2 billion Muslims observed the Ramadan under imposed conditions. People were advised to avoid congregational prayers and stay in their homes. On Sunday, many could not observe the traditions of the eid either: the sharing of gifts, visits to family and friends to share goodwill, hugs and handshakes. In countries around the world, persons were advised to shun large gatherings for their own safety. Eid prayers could not be held publicly in Mecca and Medina. The Grand Mosque was noticeably scanty. Earlier, the Saudi Grand Mufti had advised against large congregations.

In Egypt, the usually busy Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo was empty. In the United Kingdom, the Muslim Council, ahead of the Eid-al-Fitri, advised Muslims to pray at home. In Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia, congregational prayers were allowed but there was very strict adherence to precautions. In Thailand for example, worshippers who showed up for the Hari Raya, as the eid-al-fitri is otherwise known in that country, Malaysia and in Indonesia had to pass through health officials who checked their temperatures, gave them sanitizing gels, recorded their names and addresses so they can be traced and contacted in the event of a report of community spread of the virus. The people prayed but they kept away from one another. The main thing about COVID-19 is how it has imposed a regimen of observances on human behavior and relationships.

The fact that people are expected to comply or gamble with their lives for failing to do so, is what makes it all so surreal. The mode of compliance varied from one country to the other. The only uniting factor, however, is how on Sunday, the Muslim global community and indeed the entire world was reminded of how so much COVID-19 has disrupted our lives. This sub-text was driven home more poignantly when the New York Times on May 24, decided on a dramatic, all-type concept front page, listing the names and brief descriptions of about 1,000 Americans who had died from COVID-19 related complications. It was the first time in more than 40 years that the New York Times will not have an image on its front page. The published names were compiled from obituary notices in newspapers across the United States by a researcher Alan Delaqueriere and put together by a team led by Ms. Simone Landon, Assistant Editor, Graphics. There was also an inside-page essay by columnist, Dan Barry. For me, this was journalism at another level.

The New York Times went beyond the raw data that is quoted daily by Johns Hopkins University which tracks the incidence of COVID-19 in the United States (over 1.6 million confirmed cases, and over 98, 000 deaths the highest COVID-19 figures in the world!). The newspaper gave names to the statistics and conveyed a sense of the uniqueness of those that died. Whoever reads that list is bound to realize how it is so easy to be alive at one moment, only to end up on a list of corpses in a short moment. The unpredictability of human transitions is what therefore makes it alarming that certain persons knowing how the grim reaper is on rampage, riding the vehicle of a virus, would engage in suicidal and risky behavior.

These were my thoughts as I read the New York Times on the day of the eid-al-fitr, and reflected on the sharp variations in how the eid was celebrated especially in sub-Saharan Africa where religion is a virus of sorts. Whereas North African countries (Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria) where there are high figures of COVID-19 enforced rules of physical distancing, many worshippers South of the Sahara threw caution to the winds, with perhaps the notable exceptions of Ghana and Senegal. In Sudan, before and after the eid, neither the leaders nor the people seemed to have heard of physical distancing. Sudan has the highest number of cases in East Africa with over 100 deaths but nobody seems to care. The people and their leaders certainly did not care during this years eid-al-fitri. Inflation is over 100% in Sudan. Health workers have no access to Personal Protective Equipment. The World Health Organization (WHO) should watch that country closely.

In Tanzania, a country that has been Magufulifized to paraphrase the eminent Kenyan Professor, PLO Lumumba, the leaders pretended to be aware of the need for physical distancing but the worshippers who trooped to mosques in Dodoma and elsewhere in the country could not be bothered. As in Sudan, the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic could be traced to the failure of leadership. President John Magufuli of Tanzania held much promise when he assumed office five years ago, but he has since derailed confirming indeed that his reform agenda is a double-edged sword of progressivism and dictatorship/primitivism. He insists that there has been a reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases in Tanzania, but this is not based on data. Tanzania stopped releasing COVID-19 figures and suspended daily briefings on April 21 because Magufuli is convinced that such briefings cause panic among the populace. He also insists that testing cannot be trusted, having discovered that even fruits and goats have tested positive due to faulty test kits. The Africa Centre for Disease Control and the US Embassy in the country have warned about the extremely high risk that Tanzania constitutes, especially to the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Zambia and Uganda. Healthcare workers in Tanzania cannot even express an opinion because under Magufuli, it is a crime to have independent thoughts. On eid-el-fitri day, Muslims in Tanzania simply followed his lead and ignored the reality of COVID-19.

In not too far away Burundi, the management of COVID-19 is not any better. Burundi is officially a secular state. Muslims constitute a minority, previously thought to be only 1% of the population but now considered to be about 5-8% after the last post-civil war census. The big problem with Burundi in the face of COVID-19 is the total refusal of President Pierre Nkurunziza to come to terms with the fact that the pandemic is real. Last week, the country held a Presidential election, a stage-managed election which was rigged to produce the candidate of the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD as winner with 68.72%. The CNDD-FDDs candidate, Evariste Ndayishimiye was once Chief of Staff to Nkurunziza who wants to retire from office and retain the pompous title of Supreme Guide to Patriotism. The new President will be required to consult the Supreme Guide on matters of national security and unity. Nkurunziza has apparently forgotten what happened to former Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos whose delusion of indispensability eventually led to his humiliation.

I digress slightly. The point I am really trying to make is that in Burundi, not even the countrys Muslim population had any need to worry about COVID-19. Before the eid, the government of Burundi expelled World Health Organization officials from the country on the ground that they had become persona non grata. International election observers and monitors were informed that they would be quarantined if they showed up in the country to observe any election. The international community stayed away.

Now let us switch the lens to Nigeria. Days before the eid-al-fitri 2020, the Nigerian Government on May 4 eased restrictions that had been imposed by the Federal Government on Ogun, Lagos states and the Federal Capital Territory, not for religious reasons, but as part of a phased and gradual process of re-opening the Nigerian space while also addressing the multi-faceted challenges of COVID-19. State governments also began to relax the restriction orders in their states, with the entire country bound to enforce the uniform ban on inter-state travel and the emplacement of a nationwide curfew from 8 pm to 6 am. There were specific regulations and guidelines for restaurants, places of religious worship, human relationships, work place protocols etc. There was a big push-back from ordinary Nigerians who had grown weary of the lockdown, as well as pundits and business owners who felt that the lockdown will not work in Africa but the biggest resistance came from religious leaders especially Pentecostal church leaders who argued from all corners of their mouths about either 5G technology or the damage that the lockdown was doing to the church economy. There were exceptions though: on the mainstream Christian side- the Catholic Church, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and on the Pentecostal side: Pastors Enoch Adeboye, Tunde Bakare, Sam Adeyemi and Paul Adefarasin

If Muslim leaders were opposed to the lockdown, they were quiet with their objections. The Christian leaders were loud and aggressive. One of them even said if government could allow markets to re-open, churches should also be re-opened. However, the fact that Muslim leaders were also not entirely quiet soon became evident as many states in the North began to announce that religious worship was in order, and that mosques and churches could re-open even as COVID-19 figures in Nigeria increased geometrically. In due course, these states: Kano, Bauchi, Taraba, Nasarawa, Gombe, Yobe, Niger, Adamawa, Cross River, Delta lifted the ban on worship centres, with the convenient caveat of course that the rules of physical distancing and (2) attendance relative to building capacity and (3) the threshold of 20 persons per gathering must be respected. All the Governors claimed that they were responding to pressures from religious leaders. The Governor of Kano claimed he was advised by Islamic Scholars. The Council of Ulamas in Kano State insisted that they were not consulted. The Sultan of Sokoto, the Head of the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria and head of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) issued a statement directing all Muslims in Nigeria to observe the eid prayers at home, because the eid-al-fitri is not fard (that is obligatory). President Muhammadu Buhari also issued a statement saying nobody should visit him to pay eid homage as is customary and that people should pray at home.

But in reality, what Nigeria and many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa are faced with is the threat of an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases post eid-al-fitri. In Kano state which is second on the Nigerian COVID-19 League Table, the guidelines were observed more in the breach. The Kano elite at the prayer grounds hypocritically tried to maintain social distancing but nobody provided minimum care for the ordinary people who risked their lives in the name of religion. In Minna, Niger state, there was reportedly a heavy downpour. People abandoned their masks and rushed into the mosque where they huddled together. The Nation newspaper (Nigeria, May 25) reports that Southern Muslims in Nigeria observed the eid in their homes. In the Northern part of the country, where the Northern Governors Forum most recently announced that the region accounts for 54% of reported cases, and 70% of fresh infections, the prayer grounds were unlocked from Kano to Borno, by the same leaders who had only a few days earlier acknowledged a brewing crisis in their region. Does that make sense?

I have tried to paint the picture above simply to revisit the commendation that Africa has received for beating the worlds expectations with regard to COVID-19 sero-prevalence. The eid celebration is merely a peg. At a recent Africa.Com Webinar Series 6 with the theme: Whats the real story behind Africas COVID-19 figures?, the WHO Regional Director Ms Rebecca Moeti expressed enthusiasm about the fact that whereas WHO expected higher COVID-19 cases in Africa, the numbers have been lower than expected. She praised African countries. Both the WHO DG and the UN Secretary General have also had cause to commend Nigeria. The praise for Africa may be premature. It is not justified by the attitude of many of the leaders and the behaviour of the people. Could the real story in Africa be that not enough testing is being done resulting in gross undercount or that corruption has further mutated COVID-19 into a strain that is yet unknown to the world? Or is the virus un-African? These are the key questions.

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Africa, Eid-al-Fitr and the virus - TheCable

Human Behavior

Psychiatrist: Men drink 4 times more often than women, but it is not inherited – The Times Hub

During a recent press conference, the chief freelance psychiatrist of the Moscow Desdra and Ministry of health of Russia Yevgeny Bryun said that, statistically, men drink alcohol are four times more likely than women. The specialists stressed that there were no signs of hereditary transmission of craving for alcohol in this case.

According to Brune, there are certain peculiarities in the treatment of alcohol dependence and rehabilitation of women. For example, according to him, they first partake of alcohol at the average age of 12-13 years, while the misuse of the first problems with the behavior change begins to occur in 14-16 years. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist stressed that alcoholism is generally not inherited, despite the fact that genetics do may to some extent influence human behavior and risks of acquisition of some dependencies. According to the expert, in Russia today recorded the upward trend in mortality of working age citizens, largely caused by alcohol dependence.

It is noteworthy that shortly before the Moscow Department of health noted an increase in mortality in the first quarter of 2020 in the capital of 3.7% compared to the same period of 2019. The report noted that from January through April in the city died 42 000 people, and among the most common causes of death among the population invariably is part of the abuse of alcohol.

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Psychiatrist: Men drink 4 times more often than women, but it is not inherited - The Times Hub

Anatomy

‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Shonda Rhimes Opens Up About Sandra Oh’s Exit and It’ll Remind You the ‘Killing Eve’ Star Is a Force of Nature – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Greys Anatomy fans knew Sandra Oh was a force of nature when she first appeared as Cristina Yang back in 2005. The fandom instantly fell in love with the character and her strength for 10 seasons. Then when Oh left Greys Anatomy in 2013, viewers werent sure whether the ABC medical drama would be able to continue. Of course, the show went on and so did the actor. But recently, creator Shonda Rhimes revealed she grieved writing for Oh when she departed, subsequently reminding everyone that the woman behind Cristina really is the sun.

RELATED: Greys Anatomy: Krista Vernoff Reveals Why Alex Karev Didnt Die in Season 16

When speaking with Elle in May 2020, Rhimes opened up about Ohs exit from Greys Anatomy. The showrunner felt the same way the fandom did back in 2013. Rhimes said:

I grieved [no longer] writing for Sandra more than anything because I [wouldnt] get to see what she would do with it. I think she chooses characters and then inserts herself into them. There are plenty of actors who want to be nice or who want to be seen as romantic or who want to be seen as a hero. But Sandras not interested in that. Shes interested in playing the stuff of life.

Meanwhile, Rhimes reminisced over working with Oh, revealing the actor used to come to her office on a weekly basis with notes and questions about the script.

Sandra is intense when she is playing a role, and I mean that in the best way, Rhimes said. It drove me crazy and made me so happy at the same time. Sandra wanted to get it as right as she possibly could.

The creator continued, She could elevate anything you wroteshe dives in and cares deeply. You cannot have a superficial conversation with Sandra.

RELATED: Kate Walsh Reflects on Her Greys Anatomy Debut and Fans Want Addison Montgomerys Return in Season 17

Now, Greys Anatomy fans can find Oh on BBC Americas Killing Eve. The hit series has earned numerous accolades, including Ohs big win for Best Actress at the Golden Globes in 2019.

Meanwhile, in the above interview with Elle, Oh explained what types of roles she wants to pursue. And while the actor recognized she is in a good place in her career as she now has the option to say no Oh has a clear vision.

I decided that Im only going to play characters that are essential to the plot, that conduct the narrative and therefore cant be cut out, Oh said.

Oh also specified she wants to be part of a project that truly values the characters race. Im in a place in my career now where I am specifically interested in roles that explore a characters race, Oh said. Because I can and because I want our conversations to eventually move to a place that recognizes that its important.

For the time being, fans will have to wait and see whether Oh will return as Cristina on Greys Anatomy. However, the actor has been asked numerous times about the possibility and answered differently each time.

When Oh left after the 10th season, she told TVLine she would come back for the series finale of Greys Anatomy. But more recently, Oh hinted she wouldnt return for a cameo.

Creatively, you have moved on, Oh told Extra in April 2019. And while I deeply appreciate because I can feel it from the fans how much they love Cristina and how the show keeps Cristina alive for me, Killing Eve is my home now. This is where I am. I am Eve and thats where I plan to stay as long as the show will have me. And thats really where I want to be.

Whether or not Oh comes back for the series finale of Greys Anatomy, its safe to say we havent seen the last from the actor. So get ready. Who knows what this force of nature will pick up next.

RELATED: Greys Anatomys Ellen Pompeo Shares One of Her Most Memorable Scenes With Her Person Sandra Oh

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'Grey's Anatomy': Shonda Rhimes Opens Up About Sandra Oh's Exit and It'll Remind You the 'Killing Eve' Star Is a Force of Nature - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

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Blood test could predict diabetes years before it strikes – Newswise

Newswise Scientists have identified metabolites in the blood that accurately predict whether a woman will develop type 2 diabetes after experiencing a transient form of illness during pregnancy. This discovery could lead to a test that would help doctors identify patients at greatest risk and help them potentially avert the disease through interventions including diet and exercise.

The research was led by Michael Wheeler, a professor of physiology at U of T's Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with Hannes Rst, an assistant professor of molecular genetics and computer science at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, Feihan Dai, a research scientist of physiology and Erica Gunderson, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Northern California. Mi Lai, a post-doctoral fellow in Wheeler's group performed much of the analyses.

"There is a metabolic dysregulation that occurs in the group of women that will go on to develop type 2 diabetes that is present in the early postpartum period, suggesting that there is an underlying problem that exists already and we can detect it," says Wheeler, who is also a senior scientist at Toronto General Hospital Institute at University Health Network.

The identified metabolic signature can predict with over 85 per cent accuracy if a woman will develop type 2 diabetes (T2D), as described in a study published in the journal Plos Medicine.

About one in 10 women will develop gestational diabetes (GD) during pregnancy which puts them at higher risk of T2D, with 30 to 50 per cent of these women developing the disease within 10 years after delivery. The disease hampers the body's ability to regulate blood sugar levels and can lead to serious complications including vision loss, neurological problems, as well as heart and kidney disease.

Women with GD are recommended to have an annual oral glucose tolerance test after delivery, which measures the body's ability to remove sugar from the bloodstream. But the procedure is time and labor consuming and fewer than half of the women follow through with it.

"If you've got a newborn at home one of the last things you are thinking about or have time for is your own health," says Wheeler. "This is one of the main reasons why we performed this study, to potentially develop a simple blood test reducing the number of hospital visits."

Wheeler and Gunderson first uncovered metabolic signatures predictive of T2D in their 2016 pilot study of 1033 women with GD Gunderson recruited for the Study of Women, Infant Feeding and Type 2 Diabetes After GDM Pregnancy (SWIFT), one of the largest and most diverse studies of its kind. All of the women delivered their babies at Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals between 2008 and 2011.

The new study builds on prior research, following the same cohort of women over a longer time period during which more women developed T2D.

Baseline blood samples were collected between six and nine weeks after birth and then twice over two years. The women's health was followed through their electronic medical records for up to 8 years. During this time, 173 women developed T2D and their blood samples were compared to 485 women enrolled in the study, matched for weight, age, race and ethnicity, who had not developed the disease.

"This study is unique as we are not simply comparing healthy people to people with advanced disease," says Rst, who holds Canada Research Chair in Mass Spectrometry-based Personalized Medicine and led the statistical data analysis. "Instead, we are comparing women who are clinically the same--they all had GD but are back to being non-diabetic post-partum.

"This is the holy grail of personalized medicine to find molecular differences in seemingly healthy people and predict which ones will develop a disease," says Rst.

Rst said that, unsurprisingly, sugar molecules feature prominently among the identified compounds. But amino-acids and lipid molecules are also present, indicating underlying issues in protein and fat metabolism, respectively. In fact, the predictive power of the test dropped if amino-acids and lipids were excluded, suggesting that processes beyond sugar metabolism may occur very early in the development of the disease. The finding may help explain why complications occur in T2D patients even when blood sugar is tightly controlled with medications.

The researchers hope to turn their discovery into a simple blood test that women could take soon after delivery, perhaps during an early visit to the doctor with their baby.

The women from the SWIFT study are being invited back for a 10-year follow-up visit, where they will be tested for T2D. "The information we glean from this study will bring us even closer to our goal of developing this blood test," says Gunderson.

"It will also help us to identify metabolic differences among race and ethnic groups that this test will need to take into account. The test is intended to help obstetricians and primary care providers identify the women with recent gestational diabetes who are most at risk for developing type 2 diabetes and to support them with breastfeeding and other healthful lifestyle habits during the first year postpartum that may reduce their risk."

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Blood test could predict diabetes years before it strikes - Newswise