Category: Feature Stories

More than twenty heads of state and government from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America have proposed drafting a new international treaty to prevent and combat future pandemics, according to a report. This should draw lessons from the mistakes made in dealing with Covid-19, according to Deutsche Press Agentur in an appeal published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. Signatories include Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, EU Council President Charles Michel, Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Korea’s President Moon Jae In and…

Read More

The U.S. has been vaccinating people with Moderna and Pfizer/Biontech’s mRNA vaccines since December. Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has been able to confirm the high effectiveness of the vaccines. They reduce the risk of infection among healthcare workers and first responders by 90 percent 2 weeks after the second vaccination. The vaccines are thus highly effective, according to the CDC study. This confirms the results of a large-scale clinical trial prior to emergency approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Hopes of breaking the chain…

Read More

Once again, the time will change in Austria (and in most parts of Europe). The clocks will be set forward one hour tonight – then daylight saving time will apply.In the night from Saturday (27. March) to Sunday (28. March), the clocks will be set one hour forward. The changeover to daylight saving time 2021* has been taking place in the EU since 1996 always on the last Sunday in March (changeover to daylight saving time) and on the last Sunday in October (changeover to winter time/normal time). But wasn’t…

Read More

The third wave of Corona is rolling across Europe. Vaccinations are expected to quickly immunize people, finally halting the pandemic. But a new study shows: The new virus variants could dash the dream of herd immunity anytime soon. “Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate” – is the battle cry of all European countries in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Experts and politicians now agree that the third wave currently sweeping the continent can only be stopped by tough measures – and by immunizing the population. Herd immunity through vaccination could even be…

Read More

The coronavirus can be combated and the pandemic would end. But for this to happen, other protective measures are needed in addition to effective vaccination. The covid pandemic will not end by a successfully completed vaccination campaign alone. That’s what researchers have calculated. While relaxations in infection control measures are justifiable once a large proportion of the population has been vaccinated with some success, they say. However, mask-wearing, spacing and limited lockdowns cannot be dispensed with completely for the time being if the incidence of infection is not to flare…

Read More

A waste recycle app has been introduced in Vienna. The waste management in Vienna found out that too many plastic bottles and aluminum cans still end up in the residual waste. The RecycleMich app aims to change that. The pilot test has now been launched in Vienna. The introduction of the RecycleMich app is intended to increase the efficiency of the collection structure and at the same time strengthen consumers’ separation behavior. The way the app works is quite simple: it makes it easy to find the nearest garbage can…

Read More

Already in June, the vaccination of the company Oravax is to be tested in a clinical trial. A new Corona vaccine, administered in tablet form, could make the fight against the pandemic much easier. The pharmaceutical company Oravax, a joint venture between the Israeli-American company Oramed and the Indian company Premas Biotech, plans to start clinical trials in humans as early as June. This “2nd generation” of Corona vaccines could make it much easier to contain the virus. Many advantages over injectionThe advantages over vaccination via injection are obvious. The…

Read More

The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca sees the high efficacy of its Corona vaccine confirmed by now updated data, but had to correct it downward. The vaccine protects against Covid-19 with an efficacy of 76 percent – not 79 percent – the company announced Thursday morning, citing further data from a so-called Phase III study involving about 32,500 subjects. In people over 65, the figure was 85 percent, it said. This means that among the elderly subjects of a vaccinated group 85 percent less disease occurred than among those of a…

Read More

Exit restrictions, closed trade, distance learning, and a mandatory FFP2 mask indoors: corona measures for Vienna, Lower Austria, and in Burgenland are being tightened. An “Easter rest”, distance learning, PCR tests, a FFP2 mask obligation indoors: the governors of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, Michael Ludwig (SPÖ), Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) and Hans Peter Doskozil (SPÖ), as well as Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Grüne) hope, after a marathon of negotiations, that these measures will be able to contain the number of infections with the coronavirus or one of its mutants: “We…

Read More