News roundup for Tue, Mar 2, 2021

1 Comment on News roundup for Tue, Mar 2, 2021

The Right to Repair and open-source software movements are growing—John Deere and other companies hold their customers hostage behind software licensing for updates and fixes the lack of which bricks heavy machinery. Farmers must choose between getting nickel and dimed to keep their tractors running or hack their own equipment.

Prepping goes mainstream v. 500.0—This time inspired by storm Uri and the Texas experience. What’s missing from the article are the practical tips and lists that folks find helpful at The Prepared.

Temperature swings from climate change are altering avalanche dynamics. Why is this important? Because keeping an eye on the metrics of the health of the natural world can help us keep ourselves healthy. Some assert that measuring environment health could help us prevent pandemics. When ecological health is in decline, zoonotic diseases spread more often.

A malaria vaccine is in the works that is based on the mRNA technology. Scientists are researching mRNA applications for flu vaccines, cancer vaccines, and even a novel HIV vaccine.

Search and rescue volunteers in Colorado are getting overwhelmed. There’s a large influx of people moving into the state each year, and the number of search and rescue calls is growing each year as well. It might be time to pay well-trained rescuers to reduce turnover in their ranks. Legislation is pending.

Endocrine disruptors are impacting our health and fertility. Widespread contamination of the environment with plasticizers, fire retardants, and pesticides is doing us harm. Sperm counts aren’t the only problem—obesity, pre-term births, and rates of cancers may also be rising because of these “forever chemicals.”

Cities like Atlanta are creating free food forests in an effort to bring healthy food to the people. There are 70 such free food forests in the US.

Water scarcity may drive multiple western states to mandatorily reduce water usage in the future. Unfortunately, a lot of the US’ food comes from western farmland that relies on massive irrigation—the largest use of water by far in impacted states.

The world has nearly 115 million COVID cases.  The world has gained 1.5 million cases in 4 days, which is a decrease in pace compared to previous weeks. There have been over 2.5 million deaths in total. The US has over 29 million cases. Over 527,000 Americans have died. The US has gained ~50,000 new cases since yesterday—case gain is plateauing for now. I’d like to see the decline continue, so let’s not let our guard down just yet:

States’ coffers aren’t doing as poorly as anticipated during the pandemic. Many local governments are suffering, and some states are doing worse than others. States that rely on tourism suffered the most.

2 million COVID vaccine doses are rotting on shelves in California because of red tape and poor choices:

UK disease experts want masks into 2022.

The FCC has approved internet subsidies for struggling families while the pandemic continues. This will help families pay for internet while their children are trying to attend school by distance, for example.

We’ve got a third vaccine!

We’re getting there:

Apple stores are open again, which is an odd but reliable barometer of how the pandemic is going.

A third stimulus check is probably coming.

Vaccines appear to be reducing transmission (not just severe disease), which is not that surprising.

Stephanie Arnold | cosmicpixle

Stephanie Arnold is an advanced practice psychiatric nurse and a doctoral candidate in UA Tuscaloosa’s DNP program. Stephanie moonlights from time to time at UCLA teaching mental health nursing. She also likes making cold-process soap.

  • 1 Comment
    • TraceContributor March 10, 2021

      The mRNA technology/developments are amazing. It’s going to be one of the very positive thing that come out of this pandemic.

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