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World

UK Brexit negotiator says Britain will not trigger Article 16 today

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LONDON/BRUSSELS, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Britain will not trigger an emergency provision in its Brexit deal on Friday, its negotiator said on arriving for talks with the European Union’s pointman aimed at overcoming disagreements over trade across the Irish border.

The emergency measures, called Article 16, allows either side to take unilateral action if they deem their agreement governing post-Brexit trade is having a strongly negative impact on their interests.

Britain left the bloc last year, but it has since refused to implement some of the border checks between its province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland that the 27-nation union says London is obliged to under their divorce deal.

London says the checks are disproportionate and are heightening tensions in Northern Ireland, putting at risk a 1998 peace deal that largely brought an end to three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalist militants and pro-British Protestant “loyalist” paramilitaries.

The EU says tighter controls are necessary to protect its single market of 450 million people.

“We are not going to trigger Article 16 today, but Article 16 is very much on the table,” Britain’s negotiator David Frost told journalists.

Later on Friday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Britain would press on with negotiations to try to resolve the issues with the so-called Northern Ireland protocol that governs post-Brexit trade with the province.

“We obviously want to agree consensual solutions on the protocol and we need to resolve these issues urgently, because the disruption on the ground in Northern Ireland hasn’t gone away,” the spokesperson said.

As expectations grow that London might resort to that option, Frost said the best way of avoiding it was “if we can reach an agreement, an essential agreement… that provides a sustainable solution”.

He said there was a “significant” gap between the EU and the UK on the matter and that time was running out for his negotiations with Maros Sefcovic, a deputy head of the bloc’s executive European Commission.

A spokesperson for the Commission told a regular news briefing on Friday the bloc was “fully concentrated on finding solutions that provide predictability for people” in Ireland and Northern Ireland that share a history of sectarian violence.

Asked whether it was planning what to do should London trigger Article 16, the Commission – which negotiates with Britain on behalf of EU countries – said earlier this week it always prepares for eventualities.

Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in London, Christian Levaus and Johnny Cotton, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels and Elizabeth Piper in Glasgow; Writing by Gabrela Baczynska; Editing by William Maclean and Jan Harvey

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Science

Halloween solar flare headed for Earth could trigger Northern Lights this weekend – and disrupt power grid

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THE SUN launched a massive solar flare yesterday that’s headed in Earth’s direction – the strongest storm seen in the current weather cycle.

The volley of radiation may trigger the northern lights if it collides with our atmosphere, and could cause major issues for power grids, experts suggest.

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An X1.0 class solar flare flashes in the lower center of the Sun on October 28, 2021Credit: Nasa

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An ultraviolet image of the flare captured by Nasa highlights the extremely hot material in flares, which is colourised here in tealCredit: Nasa

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which tracks the Sun’s activity, captured an image of the event at 11:35 a.m. EST (4:35 p.m. BST) on Thursday.

It has already caused a temporary, but strong, radio blackout in parts of South America, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).

The flare is the result of a coronal mass ejection (CME) – a huge expulsion of plasma from the Sun’s outer layer, called the corona.

In a blog post, Nasa said that the “significant” flare has been classified an X1.

Flares are ranked by letter, with the biggest labelled as “X-class.” The smallest flares are “A-class.”

Higher numbers designate more intense flares. Nasa logged an X28 in 2003, though an X1 is still a significant eruption.

The flare is expected to hit Earth over the weekend, meaning it could land on Halloween on October 31.

Dr Tamitha Skov, a space weather physicist, said on Twitter: “A direct hit for Halloween! The solar storm launched during the X-flare today is indeed Earth-directed!

“NASA predictions confirm impact by early October 31. 

“Expect aurora to mid-latitudes, as well as GPS reception issues and amateur radio disruptions on Earth’s nightside!”

Solar flares can have an impact on Earth. They affect our planet’s magnetic field, which in turn can disrupt power grids and communications networks.

“Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground,” NASA said.

“However – when intense enough – they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.”

Thankfully, due to the flare’s intensity, any disruption it causes is likely to be temporary.

In the past, larger solar flares have wreaked havoc on our planet.

In 1989, a strong solar eruption shot so many electrically charged particles at Earth that the Canadian Province of Quebec lost power for nine hours.

As well as causing issues for our tech, they can cause harm to astronauts working on the International Space Station, either through radiation exposure or by interfering with mission control communications.

The Earth’s magnetic field helps to protect us from the more extreme consequences of solar flares.

Weaker solar flares are responsible for auroras like the Northern Lights.

Those natural light displays are examples of the Earth’s magnetosphere getting bombarded by solar wind, which creates the bright green and blue displays.

The sun is currently at the start of a new 11 year solar cycle, which usually sees eruptions and flares grow more intense and extreme.

These events are expected to peak around 2025 and it’s hoped the Solar Orbiter will observe them all as it aims to fly within 26 million miles of the sun.

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Solar storms may cause issues for our tech on EarthCredit: Reuters
Nasa probe films FIRST close-up footage of solar eruption during trip to the Sun

In other news, three entirely new lifeforms were recently discovered at different locations onboard the International Space Station.

Nasa has announced that it is accepting applications for wannabe space explorers who wish to fire their names to the Red Planet.

And, the Perseverance Mars rover has revealed stunning video and audio recordings from the surface of the Red Planet.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk



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Health

‘Kissing disease’ among teenagers may trigger multiple sclerosis: report

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Infectious mononucleosis – also known as “mono” or “the kissing disease” – in childhood or adolescence is associated with an increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) as an adult, according to a new study.

In order to reach these conclusions, researchers from Sweden and the United Kingdom used data from nearly 2.5 million Swedish people.

In the population-based cohort study, published earlier this month in the journal JAMA Network Open. the authors wrote that they had used the Swedish Total Population Register to identify Swedish-born individuals from Jan. 1, 1958, to Dec. 31, 1994, who reached 25 years of age from Jan. 1, 1990, to Dec. 31, 2019, with both parents alive in 1990, in order to aid in the identification of all first-degree relatives as well as MS diagnoses in parents. 

CHRISTINA APPLEGATE MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS DIAGNOSIS: WHAT ARE THE WARNING SIGNS?

Participants aged 20 years were followed up from Jan. 1, 1978, to Dec. 31, 2018, and the data was analyzed from October 2020 through July of this year.

The researchers used the unique individual Swedish personal identification number to link data across various registers and identify cohort members’ hospital-based diagnoses and their first-degree relatives.

They estimated the risk of an MS diagnosis associated with MS in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood using STATA for data analysis and Conventional Cox proportional hazards regression models. 

The authors adjusted for sex, parental MS diagnosis, birth order and parental age at birth, and the group said second-degree fractional polynomials suggested that parental age at birth was linearly associated with risk of an MS diagnosis. 

The team also took into account the health of the participants’ siblings – which could make the difference in confirming or discounting the role of familial genetics in the development of MS – and fractional polynomials for the stratified Cox proportional hazards regression also suggested that parental age at birth was linearly associated with risk of an MS diagnosis. 

Of the 52.63% who were men and the 47.37% who were women, doctors diagnosed nearly 6,000 with MS after the age of 20.

‘FLESH-EATING’ STD THAT CAUSES ‘BEEFY RED’ SORES IS SPREADING IN UK

Results from stratified Cox proportional hazards regression indicated that being female and older maternal age at birth were associated with increased risk of an MS diagnosis, while later-born children were at lower risk of being diagnosed with MS compared with first-born children. The paternal age at birth was not associated with an increased risk of an MS diagnosis.

Infectious mononucleosis in childhood and adolescence – with a higher risk in adolescence – was associated with an increased risk of an MS diagnosis that remained significant after controlling for shared familial factors in stratified Cox proportional hazards regression. Infectious mononucleosis in early adulthood was also associated with risk of a subsequent MS diagnosis, but the risk was attenuated and was not significant after the researchers controlled for shared familial factors.

“These findings suggest that IM in childhood and particularly adolescence is a risk factor associated with a diagnosis of MS, independent of shared familial factors,” the authors said. 

The researchers also found that the risk of developing MS falls, the older a person contracting mono gets.

“Hospital-diagnosed [mono] in childhood and most notably in adolescence was associated with increased risk of a subsequent MS diagnosis, independent of measured and unmeasured shared familial factors addressed by stratified Cox proportional hazards regression. There was less evidence of an independent association of MS with IM in early adulthood,” they said. “This age-defined pattern of risk may reflect variation in susceptibility to environmental exposures due to developmental changes of the immune system and [central nervous system].”

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Mono is a contagious disease spread most commonly through bodily fluids, including saliva. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the most common cause of infectious mononucleosis, but other viruses can cause the disease.

MS is an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system, ranging from relatively benign to devastating. There is currently no cure for MS, though several drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat one or more forms of multiple sclerosis.

According to a National MS Society study, nearly 1 million Americans are living with MS.

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US

Pritzker Won’t Say What May Trigger an Order – NBC Chicago

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned Tuesday that if Illinois’ COVID metrics don’t decline, “significantly greater mitigations” could be imposed in the state.

“We’re consistently looking at the menu of options that we may need to impose in order to bring down the numbers,” Pritzker said during a press conference. “I will remind you that if we are not able to bring these numbers down, if hospitals continue to fill, if the hospital beds and ICUs get full like they are in Kentucky -that’s just next door to Illinois – if that happens, we’re going to have to impose significantly greater mitigations.”

As of Tuesday, 37 Illinois counties and Chicago were at a “warning level” for intensive care unit bed availability, according to data from the state health department.

For a county to reach “warning level,” it must have below 20% ICU bed capacity, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.

All counties in Illinois, except one, are also seeing “high” community transmission of COVID-19, placing the most of the state in the category in which everyone over the age of 2 should resume wearing a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status, health officials say.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance late last month to recommend that fully vaccinated people wear masks in indoor settings again in areas of the U.S. that are seeing “substantial” or “high” transmission of COVID-19.

Illinois health officials on Friday reported 24,682 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 126 additional deaths and nearly 235,000 new vaccine doses administered – increases in all metrics as the state continues to see a surge fueled by the delta variant.

As of midnight Thursday, 2,000 patients were hospitalized due to COVID in the state – up roughly 21% from the week before. Of those patients, 468 were in ICU beds, and 234 were on ventilators. All metrics are a reported increase from numbers seen the week prior.

Pritzker said heightened mitigations could include this like “phases,” which brought restrictions on both a regional and statewide level earlier in the pandemic, though he did not offer many specifics.

“Those are things that we don’t want to go back to,” he said, “Those are, you know, phases, situations, things on the menu that I think we don’t want to go to but right now.”

Pritzker noted that increased mitigations have already been implemented across the state, including an indoor mask mandate in schools, a vaccine mandate for state employees in congregate settings, a vaccine requirement for nursing home personnel and a mask mandate in all state buildings.

Meanwhile, both Chicago and suburban Cook County have independently issued indoor mask mandates, requiring anyone over the age of 2 to wear masks in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status.

Last week, the governor declined to give a specific metric at which the state might impose a similar indoor masking mandate, leaving the door open for further mitigations but deferring to local authorities to take action, even as he called the current COVID-19 surge fueled by the delta variant a “very dangerous moment.”

Earlier this month, Pritzker unveiled a new mask mandate specifically for schools, requiring – rather than recommending – that all students, teachers and staff in K-12 schools wear masks while indoors, effective immediately.

The Illinois State Board of Education later placed several schools and districts across the state on probation or changed their status with the state to “nonrecognized” for not adhering to the mandate.

When asked about that action at an unrelated news conference Friday, Pritzker said schools not following the requirement are endangering students and their communities at “a very dangerous moment.”

“What I can tell you is that those schools that are not following the mask requirements for their children are, of course, endangering their children, they’re also endangering the people who work in the school, the parents and grandparents who pick up and drop off their children at school,” Pritzker said.

“We are living in a very dangerous moment of coronavirus, an upswing of the delta variant across the nation and here in Illinois,” he continued. “I am deeply concerned especially that the delta variant is having an increasingly serious medical impact on younger people, not just young children who attend school, but older kids in high school and the young teachers who come to work at schools every day and so we’re trying simply to ask people to make sure that people are following a mitigation that we know works.”

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US

Pritzker Won’t Say What May Trigger an Order – NBC Chicago

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned Tuesday that if Illinois’ COVID metrics don’t decline, “significantly greater mitigations” could be imposed in the state.

“We’re consistently looking at the menu of options that we may need to impose in order to bring down the numbers,” Pritzker said during a press conference. “I will remind you that if we are not able to bring these numbers down, if hospitals continue to fill, if the hospital beds and ICUs get full like they are in Kentucky -that’s just next door to Illinois – if that happens, we’re going to have to impose significantly greater mitigations.”

As of Tuesday, 37 Illinois counties and Chicago were at a “warning level” for intensive care unit bed availability, according to data from the state health department.

For a county to reach “warning level,” it must have below 20% ICU bed capacity, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.

All counties in Illinois, except one, are also seeing “high” community transmission of COVID-19, placing the most of the state in the category in which everyone over the age of 2 should resume wearing a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status, health officials say.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance late last month to recommend that fully vaccinated people wear masks in indoor settings again in areas of the U.S. that are seeing “substantial” or “high” transmission of COVID-19.

Illinois health officials on Friday reported 24,682 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 126 additional deaths and nearly 235,000 new vaccine doses administered – increases in all metrics as the state continues to see a surge fueled by the delta variant.

As of midnight Thursday, 2,000 patients were hospitalized due to COVID in the state – up roughly 21% from the week before. Of those patients, 468 were in ICU beds, and 234 were on ventilators. All metrics are a reported increase from numbers seen the week prior.

Pritzker said heightened mitigations could include this like “phases,” which brought restrictions on both a regional and statewide level earlier in the pandemic, though he did not offer many specifics.

“Those are things that we don’t want to go back to,” he said, “Those are, you know, phases, situations, things on the menu that I think we don’t want to go to but right now.”

Pritzker noted that increased mitigations have already been implemented across the state, including an indoor mask mandate in schools, a vaccine mandate for state employees in congregate settings, a vaccine requirement for nursing home personnel and a mask mandate in all state buildings.

Meanwhile, both Chicago and suburban Cook County have independently issued indoor mask mandates, requiring anyone over the age of 2 to wear masks in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status.

Last week, the governor declined to give a specific metric at which the state might impose a similar indoor masking mandate, leaving the door open for further mitigations but deferring to local authorities to take action, even as he called the current COVID-19 surge fueled by the delta variant a “very dangerous moment.”

Earlier this month, Pritzker unveiled a new mask mandate specifically for schools, requiring – rather than recommending – that all students, teachers and staff in K-12 schools wear masks while indoors, effective immediately.

The Illinois State Board of Education later placed several schools and districts across the state on probation or changed their status with the state to “nonrecognized” for not adhering to the mandate.

When asked about that action at an unrelated news conference Friday, Pritzker said schools not following the requirement are endangering students and their communities at “a very dangerous moment.”

“What I can tell you is that those schools that are not following the mask requirements for their children are, of course, endangering their children, they’re also endangering the people who work in the school, the parents and grandparents who pick up and drop off their children at school,” Pritzker said.

“We are living in a very dangerous moment of coronavirus, an upswing of the delta variant across the nation and here in Illinois,” he continued. “I am deeply concerned especially that the delta variant is having an increasingly serious medical impact on younger people, not just young children who attend school, but older kids in high school and the young teachers who come to work at schools every day and so we’re trying simply to ask people to make sure that people are following a mitigation that we know works.”

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World

At least 180 dead in India as rains trigger floods, landslides

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At least 38 people were killed in Taliye, 180 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of the financial capital Mumbai, when a landslide flattened most of the small village, state government officials said. The death toll also includes 27 reported deaths from Satara district in the last 48 hours, a representative from the state’s Disaster Management, Relief & Rehabilitation department told CNN.

In nine other landslides in other parts of Maharashtra, 59 people died and another 15 were killed in accidents linked to the heavy rainfall, state government officials said. Another 84 deaths are from the coastal dstrict of Raigad, according to an official with the National Disaster Response Force on Monday.

The toll rose after 31 people who were reported missing after Thursday’s landslide have been confirmed dead.

Since Thursday, Maharashtra, along with the neighboring states of Goa, Karnataka and Telangana, has faced heavy rainfall. In Maharashtra, the Radhanagari Dam overflowed and the Panchganga River saw water levels rise, submerging low-lying areas nearby. Rescue operations are continuing in those interior districts, toward the state’s south and along the border with Karnataka.

In Maharashtra, more than 200,000 people have been evacuated, according to the state’s Department of Relief and Rehabilitation.

The National Disaster Response Force, the Indian Army, Coast Guards, Navy, Air Force and state authorities have all been deployed as part of the rescue effort.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued a red alert for six districts of Maharashtra, forecasting “extremely heavy” rainfall and recommending preventive actions. The official said that districts Kolhapur and Sangli are still on alert, Reuters reported.

Parts of India’s west coast received up to 594 millimeters (23 inches) of rainfall over 24 hours, forcing authorities to evacuate people from vulnerable areas as they released water from dams that were threatening to overflow.

“Unexpected very heavy rainfall triggered landslides in many places and flooded rivers,” Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads Maharashtra’s state government, told journalists.

“Dams and rivers are overflowing. We are forced to release water from dams, and, accordingly, we are moving people residing near the river banks to safer places,” he said.

Thackeray was due to visit flood-affected areas but his helicopter was unable to land due to low visibility, according to a Twitter thread posted by his office on Monday.

On Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of $2,686 for the families of victims, and $671 to those injured.

Thousands of trucks were stuck on a national highway linking Mumbai with the southern technology hub of Bengaluru, with the road submerged in some places, another Maharashtra government official said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of villages and towns were without electricity and drinking water, he said.

Rivers were also overflowing in the neighboring southern states of Karnataka and Telangana where authorities were monitoring the situation, government officials there said.

Seasonal monsoon rains from June to September cause deaths and mass displacement across South Asia every year, but they also deliver more than 70% of India’s rainfall and are crucial for farmers.

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US

PA weather: Severe storms trigger flash flooding across Philadelphia region

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PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Severe storms wreaked havoc across the Philadelphia region Monday evening, trigging water rescues and leaving dozens of residents stranded.

The storm prompted the National Weather Service to issue a Flash Flood Emergency, urging drivers of the imminent threat.

“Widespread and life-threatening flash flooding is occurring. This is an extremely dangerous situation,” the weather service said. “Do not venture out unless it is an emergency or to move to higher ground.”

The torrential rain flooded neighborhoods throughout Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The NWS says this is around a 100-year flood for those hardest-hit areas — meaning each year there is about a 1% chance of seeing this much rain.

Here are some of the latest rainfall estimates:

-Croydon 10.28″
-Bristol Twp. 8.67″
-Florence 7.33″
-Beverly 5.00″
-NE Philadelphia: 3.99″
-Levittown 3.79″

As drivers tried to get home from work, many, like those traveling under the Route 13 bridge became stranded. Many other roadways across the region were also closed due to severe flooding.

And in Bensalem, the Action Cam was rolling as marine units jumped into action to rescue residents from the floodwaters.

“I opened my door, I couldn’t open it, and the next thing you know everything was flooded in my house,” said Vicky Pacheco tearfully. “The water just started coming up.”

About 45 residents who live at the Lafayette Condos had to be evacuated. Ashley Firman and her 11-month-old son Eli packed up their life in four bags.

“My entire stairwell was flooded,” she said. “I grabbed this right here.”

“Everybody is ok — that’s ultimately what matters. These are material things that are gone,” said an evacuated resident.

In was a similar situation in Croydon, where crews had to use boats to rescue residents along Spencer Drive and Stephen Avenue.

“We lived in that house 53 years and never had it come in the house,” said 77-year-old Rich Kelly.

“It flooded out front, it flooded out back and then all of a sudden, it started coming in the front door. (It) came in the kitchen, came in the family room, every single room in our house is covered in 2-3 inches of water,” said Rich’s wife, Marie Kelly.

Stephanie Houser says she was driving home from work in Center City when the skies just opened up with a vengeance.

“I literally couldn’t see anything. My wipers were going as fast as they could and they weren’t helping. I came home to see all of this. Flooded cars on my street, nobody could get through,” she said.

Bucks County officials and the American Red Cross ask that anyone who cannot return home Monday evening due to flooding to report to the Snyder Middle School in Bensalem for further assistance.

According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Cecily Tynan, there have been dozens of reports of water rescues in the area. No injures have been reported.

In Northeast Philadelphia, one resident told Action News the storm completely flooded his basement and ruined other parts of his home.

There is another threat for severe weather Tuesday. Flooding downpours, damaging winds and an isolated tornado are all possible. The best chance of seeing severe weather is in the northwest suburbs, says Meteorologist Cecily Tynan.

Do you have videos or photos of the flooding? If you can do so SAFELY, please send them to us at 6abc.com/share

Copyright © 2021 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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Health

Sinovac vaccine may not trigger sufficient antibody response to Brazil variant: study

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Refinery29

No, Johnson & Johnson’s Vaccine Isn’t “Less Effective” — Here’s Why

A vial of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen Covid-19 vaccine at Northwell Health South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, New York, U.S., on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. President Biden said that Merck & Co. will help make Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine, a collaboration between rivals aimed at ramping up the pace of inoculations that will help provide enough supply for every adult in the U.S. by the end of May. Photographer: Johnny Milano/Bloomberg via Getty Images Nationwide, people are grappling with the weight of life during the coronavirus pandemic as they reflect on an entire year living under some kind of lockdown. For many, the pandemic has meant working from home, less physical contact with family and friends, and a complete change in how they interact with everyday life in an effort to keep themselves and their loved ones safer from the deadly virus. But there is some hope for relief, now that a third vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use. Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is now being administered across the country for people ages 18 and older. Despite the fact that there are now even more vaccines being made available to millions of people across the country, some are skeptical that the J&J vaccine is less effective than the Moderna and Pfizer two-dose vaccines, due to lower efficacy numbers. Media reports on the new vaccine have focused their attention on its efficacy rate: 72% for Johnson & Johnson, compared to 94% for Moderna and 95% for Pfizer. But the lower rate shouldn’t discourage anyone from getting the single-dose vaccine, which is equally as effective as the other two at preventing serious illness, according to The New York Times. The J&J vaccine’s lower effectiveness number refers only to its ability to prevent all infections as a result of contracting the SARS-Cov-2 virus. While it may not be as good at preventing mild COVID cases, Johnson & Johnson’s single dose is just as successful as the other two at preventing the most serious cases of this virus, and that’s most important. For more context, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also more effective than the flu shot. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “flu vaccination reduces the risk of flu illness by between 40% and 60% among the overall population during seasons when most circulating flu viruses are well-matched to the flu vaccine.” Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco told The New York Times that with any of the three vaccines, “There’s essentially no chance you will die of COVID, which is breathtaking.” This is notable, considering the virus has killed more than half a million people in the U.S. over the last year. The goal of any of the three vaccines is not to completely root out COVID-19, which is likely here to stay. Instead, the hope is to turn the virus into something like a mild flu or the common cold while we seek to achieve herd immunity and in that regard, things are looking up. “When you think of what do you want from a vaccine, you don’t want to go to the hospital, and you certainly don’t want to die,” Johnson & Johnson CEO and Chairman Alex Gorsky told CNBC’s Squawk Box. “And what we have seen as far as 100% efficacy in those parameters, again with a single shot.” Experts say they would recommend any of the three vaccines and suggest that people get whichever one is first made available to them. That is our best possible tool when it comes to moving past the pandemic. Lisa Lee, an infectious disease epidemiologist and public health ethicist at Virginia Tech, said last month that a third vaccine option “substantially reduces the time it takes the U.S. to reach herd immunity.” Lee also noted that as more of the population becomes vaccinated, there is less opportunity for further mutations of the virus to develop. “When we stop transmitting between people, we also stop the opportunity for mutation,” she told CNBC. After a long year in relative isolation, as people sit with the grief of losing their old ways of living and their loved ones and the uncertainty of what comes next, it’s only natural that they might question the efficacy of a new vaccine. We’ve been dealt so many blows in the last year, after all. But rest assured that if your time comes for the vaccine and the Johnson & Johnson single-dose shot is made available to you, it’s just one more layer of protection for all of us. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?I Helped Create The Johnson & Johnson VaccineWill Everyone Be Able To Get Vaccinated By May?Inside The Fierce Hunt For Leftover Vaccines

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