Category: Feature Stories

Pope Francis waves from his window overlooking St. Peter’s Square during an Angelus address on Feb. 28, 2021. VATICAN MEDIA Pope Francis will lead the Filipino community in Italy in celebrating the 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines, a Filipino priest based in Rome said. Scalabrinian Fr. Ricky Gente of the Filipino Chaplaincy in Rome said the celebration will be highlighted with a Mass to be officiated by Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Basilica at 10:00 a.m. (5:00 p.m. in the Philippines) on March 14. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect…

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Testing for COVID-19 is now very simple. With the LOLLIPOP test, testing can be done in a snap without the unpleasant nasal or throat swabbing or spitting and gargling. When people talk about COVID-19 antigen tests, they automatically think of the nasal swab or the spit test. Yet the latest approved variant of the Covid-19 antigen test is simpler than ever, and somewhat reminiscent in its handling of the principle of a pregnancy test. The procedure is simple and clean. Take the test out of the package, remove the lid,…

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Honors for Austria’s largest hospital, Vienna General Hospital (AKH): the hospital has earned recognition in the eyes of U.S. news magazine Newsweek and data provider Statista. The hospital and its clinics at MedUni Vienna landed in 27th place on the list of 200 top hospitals in 25 states (a total of 2,000 hospitals evaluated). In second place for Austria is Innsbruck University Hospital (49). These are the best hospitals in the worldMost of the rich industrialized countries (USA, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France Italy, Switzerland, Israel, etc.) are the home…

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This is not the first time Pope Francis has visited an Islamic country: he was in Turkey in 2014, followed by Azerbaijan (2016), Egypt (2017) and Morocco and the United Arab Emirates (2019), where he signed a “document of human brotherhood” together with Islamic leaders. And yet the Pope’s visit to Iraq, which begins Friday, is singular in several respects – and not only because of the precarious security situation and the Corona pandemic, which is anything but under control in Iraq. The visit is aimed first of all at…

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About 17 percent of food sold worldwide ended up in the trash in 2019, according to a UN report. That’s 931 million tons of food that ended up in the trash cans of private homes, restaurants, stores and other food service providers, according to the report published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). That’s the equivalent of about 23 million fully loaded trucks that, lined up, would reach seven times around the world, it said. Per Earth citizen, 121 kilograms of food waste was generated at the consumer level,…

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On Wednesday, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober gave an update on Corona vaccinations. The statistical figures show that the states are vaccinating as specified in the vaccination schedule. To date, 695,000 vaccinations have already been recorded in the e-vaccination passport – with over seven million more to follow by summer. So far, residents and employees of nursing homes and homes for the elderly in particular have been almost completely vaccinated – as stipulated in the vaccination plan. In the coming weeks and months, the federal government’s vaccination campaign is now expected…

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In a reversal of trends, the number of new cases of Covid-19 increased by seven percent worldwide last week. The World Health Organization (WHO) released figures Tuesday evening in Geneva on the first increase after six weeks of decline. According to the figures, 2.6 million cases were reported to the UN agency in Geneva in the last week of February. This development could have to do with the spread of more contagious virus variants, the WHO wrote in a report. It cited the relaxation of health measures and Corona fatigue…

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Good news from Israel: the vaccine not only provides a high level of protection against disease, but also against the transmission of Sars-CoV-2 It’s been the big sticking point since the first Corona vaccines were approved: how well can they prevent transmission of Sars-CoV-2? The clinical trials were focused entirely on the question of how well the vaccines protect against disease with covid-19 – and they do, to a very high degree of up to 95 percent. However, it remained unclear whether vaccinated people could nevertheless pass on the virus…

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The researchers from the bioinformatics company Innophore, acib (Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology) and the University of Graz are using screening methods based on artificial intelligence (AI). This approach could enable vaccine manufacturers to adapt vaccines more quickly to the most serious mutations. Mutations – changes in the genetic material of an organism – can occur spontaneously or be caused by external influences. Some give the organism advantages such as better adaptation to changing environmental conditions. In the case of viral mutations, this can sometimes have a direct impact on…

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