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USA Selects Two COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates for Huge Investments

Covid-19 Vaccine 

The US government has announced collaborations with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna to simultaneously support clinical testing and the development of production infrastructure for COVID-19 vaccines, according to a statement from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

“Delivering a safe and effective vaccine for a rapidly spreading disease like COVID-19 requires accelerated action with parallel development streams,” says Rick Bright, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), in the statement. “The rapid progress we are making with industry partners clearly demonstrates a commitment to protecting people at home and abroad.”

Johnson & Johnson announced on Monday (March 30) a joint investment with the US government of $1 billion intended to create the capacity to manufacture more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine, reports Reuters, and the efforts will be funded in part by roughly $420 million from BARDA. The funding will support non-clinical studies, according to the statement, as well as a Phase 1 clinical trial of Ad26 SARS-CoV-2, an investigational vaccine for COVID-19 developed by Janssen, a pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Ad26 SARS-CoV-2 uses the same technology as Janssen’s investigational Ebola vaccine, according to Science, which was  made available in the Democratic Republic of Congo in November 2019. The clinical trial for Ad26 SARS-CoV-2 is set to begin no later than this coming fall, and could produce a vaccine available for emergency use in the US in early 2021.

The agency will also support Moderna to get Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-1273, ready to go as soon as the Phase 1 trial is complete, according to the statement. The Phase 1 study for the vaccine, developed in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, got underway earlier this month.

Bright tells Reuters that BARDA intends to support five to six vaccine candidates, out of which two or three may be ultimately be successful, and that the goal is to work  “as quickly as possible and manufacture enough of [a vaccine] for us and the rest of the world in a very short time-frame.”

Choosing which experimental vaccines to invest in is a bit of a gamble, according to Seth Barkley, chief executive of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), who tells Reuters, “What you need to do is take an assessment of what the most likely candidates are and invest at risk in those.”

Berkley adds that deciding earlier on which vaccines to support helps to organize manufacturing processes, but that doing so also decreases confidence in whether they will work. 

Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer Paul Stoffels confirms in an interview with Science that his company and BARDA are both investing in the research and development phase of the experimental vaccine as well as in manufacturing to create additional capacity. “Of course, it’s step by step—it has to work—but there’s no hesitation now to do everything in parallel,” he says. “When we have clinical data, we will have the capacity to scale up to very large quantities.”

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This is how the relationship between teenagers and social media is changing

YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens. Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online 'almost constantly'.

Until recently, Facebook had dominated the social media landscape among America’s youth – but it is no longer the most popular online platform among teens, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Today, roughly half (51%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat.

This shift in teens’ social media use is just one example of how the technology landscape for young people has evolved since the Center’s last survey of teens and technology use in 2014-2015. Most notably, smartphone ownership has become a nearly ubiquitous element of teen life: 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis.

The survey also finds there is no clear consensus among teens about the effect that social media has on the lives of young people today. Minorities of teens describe that effect as mostly positive (31%) or mostly negative (24%), but the largest share (45%) says that effect has been neither positive nor negative.

These are some of the main findings from the Center’s survey of U.S. teens conducted March 7-April 10, 2018. Throughout the report, “teens” refers to those ages 13 to 17.

Facebook is no longer the dominant online platform among teens

The social media landscape in which teens reside looks markedly different than it did as recently as three years ago. In the Center’s 2014-2015 survey of teen social media use, 71% of teens reported being Facebook users. No other platform was used by a clear majority of teens at the time: Around half (52%) of teens said they used Instagram, while 41% reported using Snapchat.

In 2018, three online platforms other than Facebook – YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat – are used by sizable majorities of this age group. Meanwhile, 51% of teens now say they use Facebook. The shares of teens who use Twitter and Tumblr are largely comparable to the shares who did so in the 2014-2015 survey.

For the most part, teens tend to use similar platforms regardless of their demographic characteristics, but there are exceptions. Notably, lower-income teens are more likely to gravitate toward Facebook than those from higher-income households – a trend consistent with previous Center surveys. Seven-in-ten teens living in households earning less than $30,000 a year say they use Facebook, compared with 36% whose annual family income is $75,000 or more.

It is important to note there were some changes in question-wording between Pew Research Center’s 2014-2015 and 2018 surveys of teen social media use. YouTube and Reddit were not included as options in the 2014-2015 survey but were included in the current survey. In addition, the 2014-2015 survey required respondents to provide an explicit response for whether or not they used each platform, while the 2018 survey presented respondents with a list of sites and allowed them to select the ones they use. Even so, it is clear the social media environment today revolves less around a single platform than it did three years ago.

When it comes to which one of these online platforms teens use the most, roughly one-third say they visit Snapchat (35%) or YouTube (32%) most often, while 15% say the same of Instagram. By comparison, 10% of teens say Facebook is their most-used online platform, and even fewer cite Twitter, Reddit or Tumblr as the site they visit most often.

Again, lower-income teens are far more likely than those from higher-income households to say Facebook is the online platform they use most often (22% vs. 4%). There are also some differences related to gender and to race and ethnicity when it comes to teens’ most-used sites. Girls are more likely than boys to say Snapchat is the site they use most often (42% vs. 29%), while boys are more inclined than girls to identify YouTube as their go-to platform (39% vs. 25%). Additionally, white teens (41%) are more likely than Hispanic (29%) or black (23%) teens to say Snapchat is the online platform they use most often, while black teens are more likely than whites to identify Facebook as their most used site (26% vs. 7%).

Teens have mixed views on the impact of social media on their lives

Despite the nearly ubiquitous presence of social media in their lives, there is no clear consensus among teens about these platforms’ ultimate impact on people their age. A plurality of teens (45%) believe social media has neither positive nor negative effect on people their age. Meanwhile, roughly three-in-ten teens (31%) say social media has had a mostly positive impact, while 24% describe its effect as mostly negative.

Given the opportunity to explain their views in their own words, teens who say social media has had a mostly positive effect tended to stress issues related to connectivity and connection with others. Some 40% of these respondents said that social media has had a positive impact because it helps them keep in touch and interact with others. Many of these responses emphasize how social media has made it easier to communicate with family and friends and to connect with new people:

“I think social media have a positive effect because it lets you talk to family members far away.” (Girl, age 14)

“I feel that social media can make people my age feel less lonely or alone. It creates a space where you can interact with people.” (Girl, age 15)

“It enables people to connect with friends easily and be able to make new friends as well.” (Boy, age 15)

Others in this group cite the greater access to news and information that social media facilitates (16%), or being able to connect with people who share similar interests (15%):

“My mom had to get a ride to the library to get what I have in my hand all the time. She reminds me of that a lot.” (Girl, age 14)

“It has given many kids my age an outlet to express their opinions and emotions, and connect with people who feel the same way.” (Girl, age 15)

Smaller shares argue that social media is a good venue for entertainment (9%), that it offers a space for self-expression (7%) or that it allows teens to get support from others (5%) or to learn new things in general (4%).

“Because a lot of things created or made can spread joy.” (Boy, age 17)

“[Social media] allows us to communicate freely and see what everyone else is doing. [It] gives us a voice that can reach many people.” (Boy, age 15)

“We can connect easier with people from different places and we are more likely to ask for help through social media which can save people.” (Girl, age 15)

There is slightly less consensus among teens who say social media has had a mostly negative effect on people their age. The top response (mentioned by 27% of these teens) is that social media has led to more bullying and the overall spread of rumors.

“Gives people a bigger audience to speak and teach hate and belittle each other.” (Boy, age 13)

“People can say whatever they want with anonymity and I think that has a negative impact.” (Boy, age 15)

“Because teens are killing people all because of the things they see on social media or because of the things that happened on social media.” (Girl, age 14)

Meanwhile, 17% of these respondents feel these platforms harm relationships and result in less meaningful human interactions. Similar shares think social media distorts reality and gives teens an unrealistic view of other people’s lives (15%), or that teens spend too much time on social media (14%).

“It has a negative impact on social (in-person) interactions.” (Boy, age 17)

“It makes it harder for people to socialize in real life, because they become accustomed to not interacting with people in person.” (Girl, age 15)

“It provides a fake image of someone’s life. It sometimes makes me feel that their life is perfect when it is not.” (Girl, age 15)

“[Teens] would rather go scrolling on their phones instead of doing their homework, and it’s so easy to do so. It’s just a huge distraction.” (Boy, age 17)

Another 12% criticize social media for influencing teens to give in to peer pressure, while smaller shares express concerns that these sites could lead to psychological issues or drama.

Vast majority of teens have access to a home computer or smartphone

Some 95% of teens now say they have or have access to a smartphone, which represents a 22-percentage-point increase from the 73% of teens who said this in 2014-2015. Smartphone ownership is nearly universal among teens of different genders, races and ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.

A more nuanced story emerges when it comes to teens’ access to computers. While 88% of teens report having access to a desktop or laptop computer at home, access varies greatly by income level. Fully 96% of teens from households with an annual income of $75,000 or more per year say they have access to a computer at home, but that share falls to 75% among those from households earning less than $30,000 a year.

Computer access also varies by the level of education among parents. Teens who have a parent with a bachelor’s degree or more are more likely to say they have access to a computer than teens whose parents have a high school diploma or less (94% vs. 78%).

A growing share of teens describe their internet use as near-constant

As smartphone access has become more prevalent, a growing share of teens now report using the internet on a near-constant basis. Some 45% of teens say they use the internet “almost constantly,” a figure that has nearly doubled from the 24% who said this in the 2014-2015 survey. Another 44% say they go online several times a day, meaning roughly nine-in-ten teens go online at least multiple times per day.

There are some differences in teens’ frequency of internet use by gender, as well as race and ethnicity. Half of the teenage girls (50%) are near-constant online users, compared with 39% of teenage boys. And Hispanic teens are more likely than whites to report using the internet almost constantly (54% vs. 41%).

A majority of both boys and girls play video games, but gaming is nearly universal for boys

Overall, 84% of teens say they have or have access to a game console at home, and 90% say they play video games of any kind (whether on a computer, game console or cell phone). While a substantial majority of girls report having access to a game console at home (75%) or playing video games in general (83%), those shares are even higher among boys. Roughly nine-in-ten boys (92%) have or have access to a game console at home, and 97% say they play video games in some form or fashion.

There has been growth in game console ownership among Hispanic teens and teens from lower-income families since the Center’s previous study of the teen technology landscape in 2014-2015. The share of Hispanics who say they have access to a game console at home grew by 10 percentage points during this time period. And 85% of teens from households earning less than $30,000 a year now say they have a game console at home, up from 67% in 2014-2015.

Google: Our brilliant Spectre fix dodges performance hit, so you should all use it

Google's 'moonshot' fix for the hardest-to-solve of the three Meltdown and Spectre CPU attacks seems to have paid off.

That fix, called Retpoline, addresses Variant 2 of the two Spectre CPU attacks called 'branch target injection'. Variant 2 is considered by Microsoft and Google to be the trickiest speculative execution vulnerability to fix as it's the only one that does cause a significant hit on CPU performance.

It is also the scariest threat to virtualized environments in the cloud due to its potential to be used to hop between different instances on the same CPU.

The other way of fixing Variant 2 is via a blend of OS/kernel fixes and silicon microcode from Intel and AMD, but Google contends its software-based Retpoline answer is superior and should be adopted universally.

Google last week said Retpoline generally had "negligible impact on performance" and has now outlined the specific impact for Google Cloud Platform services.

Ben Treynor Sloss, the VP of Google's 24x7, said for several months it looked like the only option to fix Variant 2 would be to disable the performance-enhancing speculative execution CPU feature, which in turn would result in slower cloud applications.

Google had already patched Variant 1, also a Spectre attack, and Variant 3 aka Meltdown, by September, with Variant 2 standing out until December. These first two fixes had "no perceptible impact" on GCP or services like Gmail, Search, and Drive, but the fix for Variant 2 did.

Intel initially denied reports that its Meltdown and Spectre fixes would cause a major hit on CPU performance, but yesterday admitted "impact on performance varies widely, based on the specific workload, platform configuration and mitigation technique".

Sloss says during tests at Google, disabling the vulnerable CPU enhancements -- that is, speculative execution -- did result in "considerable slowdowns".


"Not only did we see considerable slowdowns for many applications, we also noticed inconsistent performance, since the speed of one application could be impacted by the behavior of other applications running on the same core. Rolling out these mitigations would have negatively impacted many customers," he wrote.

Microsoft's analysis of the patches' impact on PC, server, and cloud performance came to a similar conclusion.

"In general, our experience is that Variant 1 and Variant 3 mitigations have minimal performance impact, while Variant 2 remediation, including OS and microcode, has a performance impact," wrote Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group.

Paul Turner, Retpoline's creator, has provided a detailed write-up on the fix. The term is a portmanteau of 'return' and 'trampoline'.

"Retpoline sequences are a software construct which allow indirect branches to be isolated from speculative execution. This may be applied to protect sensitive binaries (such as operating system or hypervisor implementations) from branch target injection attacks against their indirect branches," said Turner.

Retpoline is a stable fix too, according to Sloss, who says that since wrapping up all Meltdown and Spectre bugs for Google Cloud Platform in December, it hasn't received a single support ticket related to the updates.

"This confirmed our internal assessment that in real-world use, the performance-optimized updates Google deployed do not have a material effect on workloads," he wrote.

"We believe that Retpoline-based protection is the best-performing solution for Variant 2 on current hardware. Retpoline fully protects against Variant 2 without impacting customer performance on all our platforms. In sharing our research publicly, we hope that this can be universally deployed to improve the cloud experience industry-wide."

Green coffee new drink to lose weight !

Green coffee

Green coffee is the latest addition to weight loss fads. It aids rapid fat loss, helps in boosting metabolism and is also beneficial in reducing bad cholesterol levels. Not only it is beneficial for losing weight, drinking green coffee is also good for your skin and hair. So, if you're on a weight loss journey, you must check the following benefits of green coffee. Let's see if this fad is here to stay.

Boosts metabolism: Green coffee beans contain chlorogenic acid which is also referred to as a metabolism booster. It helps in reducing the excessive release of glucose from the liver into blood. During this process, our body starts to burn stored fat cells to fulfill glucose requirement. Hence, drinking green coffee raises our body's fat burning capacity, which in turn reduces weight.

Helps in burning extra fat: Another benefit of drinking green coffee is that it helps in burning extra body fat. Green coffee beans contain kelp (a certain type of seaweed enriched with essential vitamins and minerals) in large amount. When your body maintains essential levels of nutrients, it boosts metabolism, which in turn, burns unwanted fat and extra calories in the body.

Helps in suppressing appetite: The biggest hurdle in any weight loss journey is to kill your frequent hunger pangs. Green coffee is known to be an effective appetite suppressor. Drinking green coffee helps in controlling frequent cravings and you can get rid of extra body weight.


A natural detoxifier: Green coffee beans are also considered as natural detoxifiers. They naturally cleanse toxins from the body and make it free from extra fats and bad cholesterol. When your body gets properly detoxified, it functions properly and aids your overall health.



A natural energy booster: As green coffee contains caffeine, it boosts energy in the body. You stay more active and energetic throughout the day. And when you stay active all day long, you will be able to indulge in more physical activity.

What Are the Causes and Symptoms of Depression?

Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

You may be depressed if, for more than two weeks, you've felt sad, down or miserable most of the time, or have lost interest or pleasure in usual activities.It’s important to remember that we all experience some of these symptoms from time to time, and it may not necessarily mean you're depressed. Equally, not everyone who is experiencing depression will have all of these symptoms.

• Behaviour

1. not going out anymore
2. not getting things done at work/school
3. withdrawing from close family and friends
4. relying on alcohol and sedatives
5. not doing usual enjoyable activities
6. unable to concentrate

• Feelings

1. overwhelmed
2. guilty
3. irritable
4. frustrated
5. lacking in confidence
6. unhappy
7. indecisive
8. disappointed
9. miserable
10. sad

• Thoughts

1. 'I’m a failure.'
2. 'It’s my fault.'
3. 'Nothing good ever happens to me.'
4. I’m worthless.
5. 'Life’s not worth living.'
6. 'People would be better off without me.            

• Physical                                                               

1. tired all the time
2. sick and run down
3. headaches and muscle pains
4. churning gut
5. sleep problems
6. loss or change of appetite
7. significant weight loss or gain                                                                                                                                             If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing depression, completing our checklist is a quick, easy and confidential way to give you more insight. The checklist won't provide a diagnosis – for that you'll need to see a health professional – but it can help to guide you and provide a better understanding of how you're feeling.                                                                                                                                                                      

Causes

Experts believe depression is due to a combination of things:

1. Brain structure; The way certain nerve pathways or circuits in your brain send information may not work properly. Scans show that the parts of your brain involved in mood, thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior look different when you're depressed, but scientists aren't sure why.    
2. Genes; Scientists are studying certain genes that may make you more likely to get it. But even if you have them, you may not get depressed. And depression can happen in some people even when they don't have that genetic makeup.Depression can run in families, but that doesn't mean you'll develop depression just because someone you're related to has it. And you may have the condition even if no one else in your family has it.
3. Life events; Something disturbing that happens to you may trigger depression. It may be the loss of someone close to you, a difficult relationship, or a stressful situation. Other things, like your finances, where you live, and whether or not you're married may also have an impact. But remember, there doesn't have to be a "reason" for your depression. Sometimes it happens without an obvious cause.
4. Childhood problems; People who have disturbing experiences in childhood are more likely to have depression. It may be from brain changes caused by trauma at a young age.  
5. Other conditions; Drug or alcohol abuse, illness, long-term pain, anxiety, sleep problems, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may also be linked to depression.                                                                                                           If you think you're getting depressed, don’t try to tough it out. See your doctor. Lots of treatments can help, including antidepressants and talk therapy. And make sure you get the backing you need from family, friends, and support groups.