The Weekly Focus Edition 6
Has a Vaccine been developed to fight COVID-19?
A lot of talk regarding the COVID-19 vaccine has been going on lately after the Sechenov University in Russia announced it had completed human clinical trials of a vaccine. 2 days ago, the Russian Defence also announced it had developed another safe vaccine against coronavirus, claiming that within 28 days after being injected, all the volunteer's vital signs were normal. Meanwhile, Oxford University is now in Phase 3 of clinical trials for its vaccine. The 900-year-old university is conducting trials in Brazil, South Africa, and in the UK. Oxford has also partnered with British pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca, for mass production if the vaccine is tested successfully. The vaccine could be out as early as September according to some researchers. With well over 100 potential vaccine candidates on the way, how do we know which is going to be successful? Coming back to the Russian Candidate, it claims
to show promising results, and phase 3 trial results will be announced on Monday. They also state that a vaccine can be ready and distributed around August 12-14th. Although these claims make it look like the pandemic is coming to an end, we must bear in mind that the WHO still ranks this vaccine in Phase 1 trials, and can only be distributed if all 3 trials turn out successful. Although we should hope for the best, we shouldn't believe everything that goes through our ears, as we may be hugely disappointed the next day.
What's the big deal about wearing a mask?
Anti-Face Mask Protests have been taking place across some states of the USA, and until recently, Donald Trump never wore a face mask in public. So why should we wear masks anyway, and how does it help? Let's face it- masks are not going to eradicate the risk of infection. But, it can help reduce the risk greatly. COVID-19 is spread through water droplets from infected people, found in their saliva and cough droplets. Wearing a mask significantly reduces the droplets which escape your mask, infecting much fewer people. On the other hand, some reports suggest wearing a mask can cause many other problems, but the World Health Organisation has clearly stated that this is a rumour, and wearing a mask does not cause any illnesses. Experts say the reason the situation in the US is so bad, is because only 36% of the population wears face masks, while in places like Japan almost everyone wears masks. And the result is visible since Japan, the country with the highest number of elderly people in the world has successfully been able to contain the virus. This is why wearing a mask in public places is necessary, and keeps you much safer.
Twitter accounts hacked
Yesterday, famous personalities and companies across the world's twitter accounts were hacked. The message from Elon Musk's twitter handle, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX stated, "Feeling grateful, doubling all payments sent from my BTC Adress, You send 1000$, I send you 2000$! Only doing this for the next 30 minutes!". A Bitcoin Link was then sent with the message. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter later tweeted, "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened. We’re diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened". It was later found out that the hacker's online name was Anthony Elias, found out through his Instagram account. His story read the words "It was a charity attack. Your money will find itself to the right place,” and he later deactivated his account. Victims to this hack included Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Mike Bloomberg, President candidate Joe Biden, Former President Barack Obama, and companies Apple and Uber.
Other News
~The IMD has issued a red alert for heavy rains in Mumbai, Thane, and surrounding districts.
~ A report states Amazon is going to start labeling the country of origin on all products from July 21st onwards.
~ Google is going to invest 33,737 crore rupees for a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms, among other announcements made in Reliance's 43rd AGM(Annual General Meeting).
~ UAE postpones Mars Mission again due to bad weather conditions in the Japan launch site.
~ A Photographer couple build a camera-shaped house called Click for 71 lakhs in Karnataka. Their three son's names are Canon, Epson, and Nikon.
~ The UK banned Huwaei 5G over security concerns. Huwaei is a Chinese based telecommunications and equipment company.
Markets this Week-
Nifty- 10,811 -64.6
Sensex- 36,642 -238.4
The Golden Tiger
A Golden tiger that lives in Kaziranga National Park, Kanchanjuri, Assam was spotted this week. The Golden Tiger is popularly known as “Kazi 106F”, and the researcher in Assam says that over the years he and the photographer have shot several pictures of this beautiful creature. These tigers are unique and completely different from all the other tigers from different terrestrial regions in terms of behavior. The researcher out there says that he has spotted 4 Golden tigers out there out of the few 30 left in the whole world, many of them contained in zoos.
This Week in History
On July 14th, 1789, the French Revolution begins with the fall of the Bastille Prison.
On July 15th, 1799, the Rosetta Stone is found by French captain Pierre during Napoleon's campaign. The Rosetta stone is how historians translated the Egyptian Hieroglyphic language
On July 16th, the first detonation of an Atomic bomb is conducted during a test in New Mexico, as a part of the Manhattan Project.
Fact of the week
New Zealand is part of a much bigger, sunken landmass.
Dubbed Zealandia, it was only discovered after humans had traveled to space as they were able to easily see it from above Earth. Some scientists believe it should be formally recognized as the world’s 8th continent.
Joke of the week
Why don’t scientists trust atoms?
Because they make up everything!
Leisure
Credits: Dilbert comics Official
Credits: Garfield Comics Official