With the pandemic now going into its third year, the worldwide COVID-19 death toll has topped six million.
The latest figure comes from the team behind the Center for Systems Science and Engineering atJohns Hopkins University, with a subsequent report from the Associated Press highlighting that remote Pacific islands are now seeing “outbreaks and deaths” after previously being protected from such spikes.
The cruise industry may have suffered another major blow.
A day after COVID cases reached a record high, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory warning Americans about the potential dangers of cruise travel. The agency cited the recent spike in COVID-19 cases that have been reported on ships around the world. According to the CDC, cruise ships operating in U.S. waters tallied more than 5,000 COVID cases between Dec. 14 and Dec. 29—a drastic increase from the previous two weeks, in which just 162 cases were confirmed.
Researchers have shared a paper including findings related to the observation of leprosy in wild chimpanzees, a reported first for the scientific community.
This week’s question would appear to answer itself: It is the rare person who emerges from an hour’s scrolling feeling healthy, rejuvenated, and better-prepared to take on the vicissitudes of the day. The general consensus among the terminally online would seem to be that the internet is a miserable place just barely made tolerable by the idiots and well-meaning naifs whose screw-ups at least provide something to ridicule. But is there a scientific basis for this generalized feeling? How has social media actually impacted mental health, per the research? For this week’s Giz Asks, we reached out to a number of experts to find out.
COVID-19 cases are surging as the Delta variant takes over as the dominant strain, with unvaccinated individuals getting hit the hardest.
HUMANITY IS STRUGGLING to contain two compounding crises: skyrocketing global temperatures and plummeting biodiversity. But people tend to tackle each problem on its own, for instance deploying green energies and carbon-eating machines, while roping off ecosystems to preserve them. But in a new report, 50 scientists from around the world argue that treating each crisis in isolation means missing out on two-fer solutions that resolve both. Humanity can’t solve one without also solving the other.
The Fat Cat Collective 