Sweden ends its deadly libertarian pandemic experiment

Sweden ends its deadly libertarian pandemic experiment

The Wall Street Journal reports: Sweden’s Covid-19 experiment is over. After a late autumn surge in infections led to rising hospitalizations and deaths, the government has abandoned its attempt—unique among Western nations—to combat the pandemic through voluntary measures. Like other Europeans, Swedes are now heading into the winter facing restrictions ranging from a ban on large gatherings to curbs on alcohol sales and school closures—all aimed at preventing the country’s health system from being swamped by patients and capping what…

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Drug reverses age-related mental decline in mice within days

Drug reverses age-related mental decline in mice within days

University of California, San Francisco: Just a few doses of an experimental drug can reverse age-related declines in memory and mental flexibility in mice, according to a new study by UC San Francisco scientists. The drug, called ISRIB, has already been shown in laboratory studies to restore memory function months after traumatic brain injury (TBI), reverse cognitive impairments in Down Syndrome, prevent noise-related hearing loss, fight certain types of prostate cancer, and even enhance cognition in healthy animals. In the…

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Is the Earth an evolving organism?

Is the Earth an evolving organism?

W Ford Doolittle writes: Many of us, scientists included, harbour contradictory intuitions about Mother Nature. We can see that ecosystems often have an inherent ability to self-stabilise, and we know we wouldn’t be here if the planet hadn’t maintained conditions suitable for life for almost 4 billion years. One reaction is to claim that some Earth-wide equilibrium, though fragile, does exist, and reflects the fact that species have evolved to cooperate with one another. Another is to say that the…

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Arizona Legislature ‘cannot and will not’ overturn election, Republican House speaker says

Arizona Legislature ‘cannot and will not’ overturn election, Republican House speaker says

USA Today reports: Republican Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives Rusty Bowers said Friday that pleas from some GOP lawmakers to overturn the results of the state’s presidential election are illegal and “cannot and will not” happen. Republican state Reps. Mark Finchem and Kelly Townsend spent much of the day imploring their fellow legislators on social media to overturn the election results in favor of President Donald Trump. Bowers said such action would be both illegal and inappropriate. “As…

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Trump calls Georgia governor to pressure him for help overturning Biden’s win in the state

Trump calls Georgia governor to pressure him for help overturning Biden’s win in the state

The Washington Post reports: President Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Saturday morning to urge him to persuade the state legislature to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state and asked the governor to order an audit of absentee ballot signatures, the latest brazen effort by the president to interfere in the 2020 election. Hours before he was scheduled to hold a rally in Georgia on behalf of the state’s two GOP senators, Trump pressed Kemp to…

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‘We’ve lost our moral authority’: Kinzinger unwilling to back off Trump

‘We’ve lost our moral authority’: Kinzinger unwilling to back off Trump

Politico reports: Rep. Adam Kinzinger is sticking around next Congress — and the Illinois Republican isn’t done sticking it to Donald Trump. Kinzinger, fresh off a re-election victory in his conservative district nestled between Chicago and Peoria, has been dialing up his criticism of the president since Nov. 3. The 42-year-old lawmaker has long pushed back on Trump’s foreign policy moves. But with most of the Republican party still paralyzed by Trump’s brazen attempts to overturn the election, Kinzinger is…

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Is ‘natural immunity’ from Covid-19 better than a vaccine?

Is ‘natural immunity’ from Covid-19 better than a vaccine?

The New York Times reports: On the heels of last month’s news of stunning results from Pfizer’s and Moderna’s experimental Covid-19 vaccines, Senator Rand Paul tweeted a provocative comparison. The new vaccines were 90 percent and 94.5 percent effective, Mr. Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said. But “naturally acquired” Covid-19 was even better, at 99.9982 percent effective, he claimed. Mr. Paul is one of many people who, weary of lockdowns and economic losses, have extolled the benefits of contracting the coronavirus….

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New Mexico shut down nearly everything to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed by covid. It wasn’t enough

New Mexico shut down nearly everything to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed by covid. It wasn’t enough

The Washington Post reports: The governor had been sounding the alarm for more than a month. But by mid-November, it was clear to Michelle Lujan Grisham that she would need to take extreme measures to head off the “most serious emergency that New Mexico has ever faced.” With covid-19 cases rising exponentially and hospital beds dwindling, she dragged her state back to the darkest days of spring, when restaurant dining was banned, nonessential businesses were closed and residents were ordered…

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Report points to microwave ‘attack’ as likely source of mystery illnesses that hit diplomats and spies

Report points to microwave ‘attack’ as likely source of mystery illnesses that hit diplomats and spies

The New York Times reports: The most probable cause of a series of mysterious afflictions that sickened American spies and diplomats abroad in the past several years was radiofrequency energy, a type of radiation that includes microwaves, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has concluded in a report. The conclusion by a committee of 19 experts in medicine and other fields cited “directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy” as “the most plausible mechanism” to explain the illness, which came to…

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Google’s star ethics researcher highlighted the risks of large language models — then she got forced out

Google’s star ethics researcher highlighted the risks of large language models — then she got forced out

MIT Technology Review reports: On the evening of Wednesday, December 2, Timnit Gebru, the co-lead of Google’s ethical AI team, announced via Twitter that the company had forced her out. Gebru, a widely respected leader in AI ethics research, is known for coauthoring a groundbreaking paper that showed facial recognition to be less accurate at identifying women and people of color, which means its use can end up discriminating against them. She also cofounded the Black in AI affinity group,…

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The U.S. has passed the hospital breaking point

The U.S. has passed the hospital breaking point

Robinson Meyer and Alexis C. Madrigal write: Since the beginning of the pandemic, public-health experts have warned of one particular nightmare. It is possible, they said, for the number of coronavirus patients to exceed the capacity of hospitals in a state or city to take care of them. Faced with a surge of severely ill people, doctors and nurses will have to put beds in hallways, spend less time with patients, and become more strict about who they admit into…

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How 700 epidemiologists are living now, and what they think is next

How 700 epidemiologists are living now, and what they think is next

The New York Times reports: Even with coronavirus vaccines on the way, many epidemiologists do not expect their lives to return to pre-pandemic normal until most Americans are vaccinated. In the meantime, most have eased up on some precautions — now going to the grocery store or seeing friends outdoors, for example — but are as cautious as ever about many activities of daily life. In a new informal survey of 700 epidemiologists by The New York Times, half said…

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Wall Street and finance workers could get COVID vaccines before most Americans

Wall Street and finance workers could get COVID vaccines before most Americans

MarketWatch reports: Wall Street could get a shot in the arm in the coming months, while much of Main Street waits months for their COVID inoculations. Lenders, bank tellers and traders could jump ahead of most Americans for vaccines, after such remedies receive emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, potentially putting financial industry workers ahead of those aged above 65, adults with medical issues and the rest of the U.S. population. The American Bankers Association said it has…

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A gathering political storm hits Georgia, with Trump on the way

A gathering political storm hits Georgia, with Trump on the way

The New York Times reports: Some of the biggest names in national politics jumped into the fiercely contested runoffs for two Georgia Senate seats on Friday, even as a second recount showed that Joseph R. Biden Jr. had maintained his lead in the state and Republicans braced for a visit by President Trump, who has railed against his loss there with baseless claims of fraud. With Mr. Trump set to campaign for the two Republican incumbents, David Perdue and Kelly…

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