Category: Feature Stories

A new Covid-19 simulator makes the aerosol dispersion in offices, classrooms and gondolas visible and calculates where the risk of infection is high.Already towards the end of the first lockdown, Gerald Dipplinger and his team asked themselves the question: “If we are allowed back into the office – an open-plan office in the Vienna DC Tower – how is it determined how many people are allowed in? 30, 50 or 70 percent of the workforce? The answer – 30 percent – came more from the gut and was not very…

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The corona pandemic also affects Christmas. A survey was conducted to find out how Austrians celebrate Christmas this year. Two thirds want to celebrate Christmas as usualThe Christmas celebration is very meaningful for Austrians, but Corona changes this time noticeably: “73 per cent of the respondents are convinced that the time before Christmas becomes fundamentally different this year. This is particularly evident at the Christmas markets: “If 75 percent still wanted to visit a market in 2019, this figure will shrink to 25 percent in 2020. More than half even…

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The SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, which are about to be approved, have been tested on tens of thousands of people and have comparable efficacy to other vaccines, experts told journalists on Thursday. The SARS-CoV-2 vaccines would also be suitable for older people with concomitant diseases (comorbidities). Pregnant women, cancer patients, people with weakened immune systems and children were not included in the clinical trials and therefore should not be vaccinated, they said. “Vaccinations are a preventive measure and are administered to healthy individuals. Therefore, the requirements for clinical trials are particularly high…

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Chancellor Sebastian Kurz stressed on Thursday that vaccination against the corona virus would be the “game changer in the fight against the pandemic”. “I am glad that we now have certainty that we will start vaccinating in Austria as early as January and can thus return to normality as early as next summer,” he said during a visit to the biotech company Polymun in Klosterneuburg. The next months would be still very challenging, but there is by the vaccine light at the end of the tunnel , repeated the Chancellor…

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U.S. manufacturer Moderna plans to start supplying its CoV vaccine to the European Union as early as December – provided the product receives regulatory approval. The company announced this yesterday. It confirmed the conclusion of a framework agreement with the EU Commission. According to the agreement, initially 80 million vaccine doses are to be delivered, with an option for 80 million additional units. “Moderna expects to begin shipping mRNA-1273 to the European Union in December 2020,” the company confirmed. Strategic partners in Europe are Lonza in Switzerland and Rovi in…

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The announcement of a corona vaccine provides relief worldwide. But now Biontech has commented on the side effects. Vaccines against the corona virus are being worked on under high pressure worldwide – some manufacturers are now even ready to say that the first vaccinations are realistically expected before the end of this year. These include the vaccine developed by the German company Biontech in collaboration with the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The researchers were amazed not only by its rapid development, but also by its apparently very high efficacy. Around…

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Professor Ken Dark, from the University of Reading, has spent 14 years examining the remains of the fascinating stone and mortar dwelling, found built into a limestone hillside beneath the Sisters of Nazareth Convent. The dwelling, which dates back the the 1st century, is believed to have been built by a highly skilled craftsman, likely Saint Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary and Jesus’s legal father on Earth. The archeologist is certain to have found the parental home of the Savior in present-day Israel. According to his research, the…

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The vaccine candidates from Biontech/Pfizer and Moderna have made the headlines in recent weeks. But the vaccine from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca could be even more important in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic: Because, unlike the other two vaccines, the doses, which cost between three and nine dollars (approx. 2.50 to 7.50 euros), should also be affordable for poorer countries. When AstraZeneca reported on its vaccine candidate with an average effectiveness of 70 percent, the drug seemed at first glance to be inferior to the vaccines of the other…

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Vienna – Austria’s vaccination strategy to protect against Covid-19 disease is ready and is to be approved today in the Council of Ministers. Health Minister Rudolf Anschober and his Special Commissioner for Health, Clemens-Martin Auer, presented initial details to the public yesterday: 1️⃣ Who should and can be vaccinated and when? The sequence of vaccinations will depend on the time of approval and subsequently on the quantity that can be produced and supplied by the manufacturers. It is expected that BioNTech/Pfizer will be the first to approve the vaccine in…

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