Category: Feature Stories

More than 100 years ago, the world was hit with the Spanish flu, a pandemic described by experts as the deadliest in human history – at least until now. The 1918 flu pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide, or 200 million in today’s global population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 1918 flu outbreak began in the spring with the transmission of the novel H1N1 virus from birds to humans and lasted about two years. According to the CDC, an estimated one-third of the…

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Starting tomorrow, the police are stepping up checks on the authenticity of “3-G” credentials. “We have detected close to 400 such fake documents in the last six months alone,” the Director General of Public Security, Franz Ruf, reported today. The checks, especially in the restaurant industry, are supported by health authorities. The probability of being caught is “very high in the future,” saidInterior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) at a press conference in Vienna. “This is not a trivial offense in our country.” It could also “mean that you will be…

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The validity of more than 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses worldwide will expire at the end of the year. If they are not redistributed quickly, the vaccine will go to waste, data analytics firm Airfinity warned today. More than 40 percent of those vaccine doses are in the EU, it said. Considering that most recipient countries need at least two months of shelf life from importation to conduct vaccination campaigns, 241 million vaccine doses are at risk of expiring unused. If those doses were distributed promptly, that, along with the…

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BioNTech and Pfizer are moving quickly to seek approval for their Covid-19 vaccine for use in children following positive trial results. In the pivotal trial involving five- to 11-year-olds, the vaccine was well tolerated and produced a strong immune response, both companies said Monday. The data will now be submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory agencies worldwide. “After submission of the data, I expect the approval process to be completed about four weeks later, so the approval could be…

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Caffeine disturbs sleep, it is said again and again. Nevertheless, many like to drink an espresso after an extended dinner without lying awake all night afterwards. Others, on the other hand, can’t get any rest in the evening, even though it’s been hours since their last coffee. How can that be? Some people are extremely sensitive to caffeine, while others can drink cola, coffee and the like just before going to bed without any problems. Is caffeine really “poison” for sleep or is that only partly true? And how does…

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Covid-19 disease can be prevented by 95 percent through vaccination. This was emphasized to Ö1 by Viennese physician Christoph Wenisch, head of the infection department at the hospital Favoriten, who said that a vaccination could also prevent dramatic long-term consequences of an infection. Twelve percent of Corona intensive care patients who were able to work before the disease can no longer do so afterwards because of cognitive deficits. “The brain doesn’t work that way anymore.” They are incapacitated for life, Wenisch reported. “That’s where livelihoods are destroyed.” The lungs, as…

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The ominous seasonal effect of coronavirus infections is always on everyone’s lips during pandemics. This is strongly related to droplet transmission, which is generally more difficult in summer due to higher temperatures and more sunlight. Researchers from Vienna and Italy have now taken a close look at what happens to emitted droplets, which can act as SARS-CoV-2 virus carriers, in the environment. These proved to be surprisingly persistent. In the autumn, which is now beginning, the seasonal effect in the numbers of cases is already turning again to our disadvantage,…

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Poor working conditions cost the lives of 1.9 million people a year, according to a UN study. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), strokes and heart disease are the main causes of premature death for about 1.2 million men and women, it said. Workplace accidents caused about 360,000 deaths. The study, unveiled Friday, was prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). As the WHO also reported in May, overwork is a particularly large and rising risk factor. Working too many hours was linked to about…

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A new study from Israel shows how well booster vaccinations against Covid-19 work. People over the age of 60 were eleven times less likely to be infected after a “third prick” than those who had only been vaccinated twice, and serious illnesses were even almost 20 times less likely to occur. Whether booster vaccinations are generally useful, however, remains controversial. The World Health Organization (WHO), for example, is against it in view of the still very low vaccination rates in many developing countries: “We don’t want booster doses for healthy…

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