Category: Feature Stories

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is starting a review of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford. This is the first time this has been done in the European Union for a coronavirus vaccine. The EMA warned today against jumping to hasty conclusions: This does not yet mean that the vaccine can be considered effective and safe. This has yet to be shown in the review. In view of the urgency, this review will be carried out in an…

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A survey has shown that four out of five Austrians are in favor of compulsory masks in parts of public life. The approval is thus almost as high as during the lockdown. Most Austrians are in favor of making masks mandatory in parts of public life. In the latest survey conducted as part of the Austrian Corona Panel Project at the University of Vienna, 81 percent stated that in their opinion, an obligation to wear a mask should currently apply in stores and public transport. This is a similar number…

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One third of all food produced worldwide is not eaten, but is destroyed on the way to the consumer or ends up in the garbage. At the same time, these wasted foods cause around eight percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, the WWF and the sustainability NGO WRAP criticize in a recent report. In total, more than one billion tons of food is not eaten worldwide every year. In order to grow this amount, an area the size of China is needed. Moreover, if food waste were a country,…

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Coronavirus vaccines are being developed at record speed. Several substances are in the final stages of clinical trials. The Austrian virologist Florian Krammer, who works in the USA, believes that vaccines will be launched on the market this year. Although there is no approved vaccine against a human coronavirus yet and vaccine development normally takes around 15 years, the prospect of a rapidly available, market-ready compound within one and a half years relatively soon after the start of the coronavirus pandemic was raised. As the virologist Florian Krammer from the…

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“Our planet is in a state of emergency!” This warning was conveyed today by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. In the run-up to the Biodiversity Summit, Van der Bellen emphasized in a video message on the occasion of a “Leaders Event for Nature and People”: “We are observing the effects of the overuse of natural resources, unsustainable habits and the global climate crisis. “And every day we are feeling the devastating effects of these factors on our ecosystems,” continued the…

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Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, more than 30 million infections with the corona virus have been recorded worldwide. But how widespread is the new corona virus SARS-CoV-2 actually? Time and again, even experts say that the official corona figures do not provide a reliable picture of the current reality and that the number of unreported cases is much higher. The true extent of the pandemic is much worse, a report in the “Economist” now also suggests, which is based on data from more than 270 antibody studies worldwide.…

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More than 600 people are currently tested positive for the corona virus every day. Politicians are trying to prevent the spread with numerous rules. An overview. The three golden rules apply to everyone and everywhere:Distance, hygiene, mask Family, friends: The majority of new infections now occur at home. All celebrations, private events indoors (not in your own four walls) are limited to 10 persons. Outside, a limit of 100 persons applies. School: The same applies to students and teachers: contacts should be reduced to a minimum. Therefore, a mask is…

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Guidelines have been issued for Catholic celebrations such as baptisms or weddings. Due to the increasing number of infections, the Catholic Church has established new rules for the celebration of baptisms, first communions, confirmations, marriages and funerals. Here are all the details. In order to ensure that the minimum distances are observed during the celebration and when entering and leaving the church, there are, for example, appropriate markings on the paths and seats, but also one-way rules when entering and leaving the church. The guidelines are intended to support parishes…

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In the last 24 hours, 9,865 corona tests were performed nationwide – in 662 new infections, every 15th suspected case tested positive for corona virus. Vienna. Today, 662 new infections are compared to 435 newly recovered patients, the highest numbers are again reported from Vienna (279) and Lower Austria (109). Individual assessment parameters are improving slightly due to the successful stabilization this week. For the first time, the reproduction rate has returned to 1.0 – the 7-day incidence/100,000 p.e. has fallen to 41.9 – at the same time, however, the…

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