This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThe Trump administration on Thursday to open more than two-thirds of the nation’s largest piece of public land to oil and gas drilling, removing wildlife protections for the Alaskan tract that have been in place for more than four decades.The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management wants to allow fossil fuel extraction in roughly 82 percent of the on the state’s North Slope. Less famous than the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it is one of the most ecologically valuable tracts of federal property —...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThe Trump administration on Thursday to open more than two-thirds of the nation’s largest piece of public land to oil and gas drilling, removing wildlife protections for the Alaskan tract that have been in place for more than four decades.The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management wants to allow fossil fuel extraction in roughly 82 percent of the on the state’s North Slope. Less famous than the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it is one of the most ecologically valuable tracts of federal property —...WW…

This article was published more than 3 years agoCommentGift SharePresident Trump’s pick for managing federal lands doesn’t think the federal government should have any.This past week, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed an order making Wyoming native the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley, former president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, was a senior official in President Ronald Reagan’s administration.The appointment comes at a critical time for the BLM, which manages more than a tenth of the nation’s land and oversees the federal government’s...…This article was published more than 3 years agoCommentGift SharePresident Trump’s pick for managing federal lands doesn’t think the federal government should have any.This past week, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed an order making Wyoming native the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley, former president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, was a senior official in President Ronald Reagan’s administration.The appointment comes at a critical time for the BLM, which manages more than a tenth of the nation’s land and oversees the federal government’s...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareTwo tried-and-true vaccines — a century-old inoculation against tuberculosis and a decades-old polio vaccine once given as a sugar cube — are being evaluated to see if they can offer limited protection against the coronavirus.Tests are already underway to see if the TB vaccine can slow the novel coronavirus, while other researchers writing in a scientific journal Thursday propose using the polio vaccine, which once was melted on children’s tongues.The old vaccines are oddities among the cutting-edge and targeted...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareTwo tried-and-true vaccines — a century-old inoculation against tuberculosis and a decades-old polio vaccine once given as a sugar cube — are being evaluated to see if they can offer limited protection against the coronavirus.Tests are already underway to see if the TB vaccine can slow the novel coronavirus, while other researchers writing in a scientific journal Thursday propose using the polio vaccine, which once was melted on children’s tongues.The old vaccines are oddities among the cutting-edge and targeted...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThe Abbott coronavirus test hailed by President Trump and used by the White House failed to detect infected samples in a large number of cases that were caught by a rival firm, a preliminary study has found.The speedy Abbott test, which is supposed to determine in five to 13 minutes whether a person has the virus, missed a third of the positive samples found by the diagnostic company Cepheid when both tests used nasopharyngeal swabs, according to the study done by a group from New York University. It missed more than 48...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThe Abbott coronavirus test hailed by President Trump and used by the White House failed to detect infected samples in a large number of cases that were caught by a rival firm, a preliminary study has found.The speedy Abbott test, which is supposed to determine in five to 13 minutes whether a person has the virus, missed a third of the positive samples found by the diagnostic company Cepheid when both tests used nasopharyngeal swabs, according to the study done by a group from New York University. It missed more than 48...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareWith the number of the covid-19 tests hovering at an average of 146,000 a day, businesses leaders and state officials are warning the Trump administration that they cannot without radically increasing the number of available tests — perhaps into the millions a day — and that won’t happen without a greater coordinating role by the federal government.Though the capacity of private business to produce those volumes remains unclear, state leaders and health experts say that the administration should move with a greater sense...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareWith the number of the covid-19 tests hovering at an average of 146,000 a day, businesses leaders and state officials are warning the Trump administration that they cannot without radically increasing the number of available tests — perhaps into the millions a day — and that won’t happen without a greater coordinating role by the federal government.Though the capacity of private business to produce those volumes remains unclear, state leaders and health experts say that the administration should move with a greater sense...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThree months into the coronavirus epidemic, the Trump administration has yet to devise a national strategy to test Americans for the deadly disease — something experts say is key to blunting the outbreak and resuming daily life.In the absence of a national plan, several states are developing their own testing systems, but the emerging picture . States with more money and robust medical sectors have devised comprehensive plans, while others lag far behind.The White House, meanwhile, is still debating which types of tests...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThree months into the coronavirus epidemic, the Trump administration has yet to devise a national strategy to test Americans for the deadly disease — something experts say is key to blunting the outbreak and resuming daily life.In the absence of a national plan, several states are developing their own testing systems, but the emerging picture . States with more money and robust medical sectors have devised comprehensive plans, while others lag far behind.The White House, meanwhile, is still debating which types of tests...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareEpidemiologists and other leading scientists seeking to decipher test result patterns and slow the advance of the coronavirus are stumbling over the huge disparities among the ways states administer or report information.Some states are keeping negative tests secret while others aren’t. Some track state lab results, while ignoring test results from private companies. Some restrict the availability of tests, while others test widely.New York has detected 780 positive tests per million people, at a rate of one out of four...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareEpidemiologists and other leading scientists seeking to decipher test result patterns and slow the advance of the coronavirus are stumbling over the huge disparities among the ways states administer or report information.Some states are keeping negative tests secret while others aren’t. Some track state lab results, while ignoring test results from private companies. Some restrict the availability of tests, while others test widely.New York has detected 780 positive tests per million people, at a rate of one out of four...WW…

This article was published more than 3 years agoCommentGift ShareThe oil price war Saudi Arabia launched against Russia sent crude prices into one of the steepest falls in history Monday, compounding depressed global demand from the coronavirus and causing casualties for oil field workers, U.S. shale drillers, investors and members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that rely on oil to make their budgets add up.Moscow’s refusal to cut its oil output by a half-million barrels a day shattered the unusual three-year marriage of OPEC, led by the Saudis, and major...…This article was published more than 3 years agoCommentGift ShareThe oil price war Saudi Arabia launched against Russia sent crude prices into one of the steepest falls in history Monday, compounding depressed global demand from the coronavirus and causing casualties for oil field workers, U.S. shale drillers, investors and members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that rely on oil to make their budgets add up.Moscow’s refusal to cut its oil output by a half-million barrels a day shattered the unusual three-year marriage of OPEC, led by the Saudis, and major...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift SharePresident-elect Joe Biden has promised a “transition” away from fossil energy, the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions that have put the planet on a path toward dangerous warming. A few big oil and gas companies are thinking about what it would mean to shift — or even shrink — their businesses.The trick is to execute a transition that will reassure fossil-fuel workers that their jobs won’t vanish overnight, and that’s a tightrope Biden will continue to walk as he aims to eliminate contributions to global warming by...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift SharePresident-elect Joe Biden has promised a “transition” away from fossil energy, the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions that have put the planet on a path toward dangerous warming. A few big oil and gas companies are thinking about what it would mean to shift — or even shrink — their businesses.The trick is to execute a transition that will reassure fossil-fuel workers that their jobs won’t vanish overnight, and that’s a tightrope Biden will continue to walk as he aims to eliminate contributions to global warming by...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareAndrew Brooks, a Rutgers University molecular neuroscientist, remembers clearly having a long nasopharyngeal swab stuck up his nose in search of evidence of a virus. “It was terrible,” he recalls. “It felt like someone was poking the front of my brain.”Now Brooks, who is also the chief operating officer and director of technology development at a firm called RUCDR Infinite Biologics, has come up with a coronavirus test that relies on nothing more than spitting into a cup.His firm has won emergency use authorization from...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareAndrew Brooks, a Rutgers University molecular neuroscientist, remembers clearly having a long nasopharyngeal swab stuck up his nose in search of evidence of a virus. “It was terrible,” he recalls. “It felt like someone was poking the front of my brain.”Now Brooks, who is also the chief operating officer and director of technology development at a firm called RUCDR Infinite Biologics, has come up with a coronavirus test that relies on nothing more than spitting into a cup.His firm has won emergency use authorization from...WW…