Category: Feature Stories

The infection is asymptomatic or the viral load is too low. Günter Weiss, infectiologist and director of the University Clinic for Internal Medicine in Innsbruck, has new insights into corona. It is now clear that “20 to 25 per cent, i.e. about a quarter of those tested positive, are not infectious”, Weiss explained to the “Tiroler Tageszeitung” (Wednesday edition). There are various reasons for this, such as the fact that the infections are asymptomatic and the virus load is too low. In addition, the infection could be a few weeks…

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The following is an overview of the regulations in the Corona crisis that apply to Austrians when travelling to other European countries. Roughly speaking, three categories can be distinguished: entry is possible without conditions. 2. one must show a negative corona test or must be in quarantine for a certain period of time. 3. entry is only possible if you belong to a certain group of people. Recently, many European countries have started to differentiate in their risk assessments according to individual regions, which is why different rules now apply…

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According to a survey conducted by “Integral Markt- und Meinungsforschung”, the majority of motorists in Austria are dependent on the vehicle in their daily lives. The Viennese are an exception. In the survey, six out of ten people stated that they commute to work or training facilities by car every day. One third even absolutely need the car to make daily trips. Among these people, the emotional attachment to the car is also particularly strong, reported AutoScout24. According to this, for almost 70 percent of them, their own mobile is…

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Around 400,000 seafarers are not allowed to come ashore because of the CoV travel restrictions and some have been at sea for 17 or more months. The UNO Office for Human Rights condemned this as inhuman today in Geneva. International labor standards allow an uninterrupted stay on board for a maximum of eleven months. The office appealed to all governments to find solutions. It also called on companies worldwide that deal with ship cargo to exert pressure. This would affect 90 percent of world trade. Psyche affectedSeafarers on container and…

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A team of U.S. researchers analyzed data from Indian health authorities on 85,000 COVID 19 cases and nearly 600,000 of their contacts. 70 percent of those originally infected (index persons) examined did not infect anyone. Eight percent of those infected, however, were responsible for 60 percent of the new infections that were tracked, according to the study. In families, only nine percent of those infected for the first time infected their close contacts. “Contact testing is personnel-intensive and therefore limited in richer countries. In India, the situation is different,” writes…

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Herd immunity would mean the end of the pandemic and corona restrictions. In a Brazilian city it could be reached already now, as researchers show. Nevertheless, the strategy is not worth copying there. Manaus in Brazil could be the first city in the world to develop a kind of herd immunity against the corona virus. At least that is what a new international study published by researchers on the pre-print server medRxiv.org suggests. More than 30 epidemiologists, virologists and physicians have tested thousands of blood donations from the Brazilian cities…

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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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