Today's News: April 22, 2020

World News

Iran hails military satellite launch as US tensions simmer

AFP – Iran said it put its first military satellite into orbit Wednesday, making it an emerging “world power”, as US President Donald Tump issued a new threat amid rising naval tensions in the Gulf.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps broke the news of what it said was its own satellite launch, hailing it as a milestone for the country’s space programme.
“Today, we are looking at the Earth from the sky, and it is the beginning of the formation of a world power,” the Guards’ commander Hossein Salami said, quoted by Fars news agency.
The United States alleges that Iran’s satellite programme is a cover for its development of missiles, including ones that could one day carry nuclear warheads.
Iran maintains it has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, and says its aerospace activities are peaceful and comply with a UN Security Council resolution.
Tensions between the arch foes again escalated last week with the US accusing Iran of harassing its ships in the Gulf.

Donald Trump: I’ve Ordered Navy to Destroy Iranian Ships if Provoked

Breitbart – President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he had ordered the destruction of Iranian gunboats harassing American ships.
“I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The president reacted to ongoing reports of Iranian gunboats who continue harassing American ships in the Persian Gulf.
Last Wednesday, 11 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gunboats repeatedly harassed six U.S. Navy warships.
Iran acknowledged their aggressive activity on Sunday, but accused the United States for “unprofessional and provocative actions” without offering any evidence.

Mutated coronavirus strain in India could kill all efforts at creating a vaccine

NaturalNews – An unusual strain of coronavirus that was isolated in India has been found to contain a strange mutation that experts warn could completely derail all efforts to develop a vaccine for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) at large.
Researchers from both Australia and Taiwan are warning that this mutated strain of coronavirus follows a much different pathway when it comes to causing infection in the form of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Simply put, a vaccine for the coronavirus strain currently in mass circulation probably wouldn’t work for this other strain, or any other mutated strain for that matter.
The change in this mutated strain occurred in part of the spike protein that normally allows the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) to bind with certain human cells. This protein specifically targets cells containing ACE2, an enzyme found in the outer surface cells of the lungs.
By targeting this enzyme, said protein allows the SARS virus to infect people with illness, which is why vaccine researchers have been rushing to come up with antibodies that might target it. But the mutation identified in this other strain of coronavirus means that a whole different approach would be necessary to stop it from causing infection.
“The observation of this study raised the alarm that Sars-CoV-2 mutation that varied epitope (something that an antibody attaches itself to) profile could arise at any time,” wrote the team of collaborators from Murdoch University in Australia and the National Changhua University of Education in Taiwan.
“This means current vaccine development against Sars-CoV-2 is at great risk of becoming futile.”

Pandemic ‘will cause famine of biblical proportions’

Governments must act now to stop 265 million starving, warns World Food Programme boss
Guardian – The world is facing widespread famine “of biblical proportions” because of the coronavirus pandemic, the chief of the UN’s food relief agency has warned, with a short time to act before hundreds of millions starve.
More than 30 countries in the developing world could experience widespread famine, and in 10 of those countries there are already more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation, said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme.
“We are not talking about people going to bed hungry,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “We are talking about extreme conditions, emergency status – people literally marching to the brink of starvation. If we don’t get food to people, people will die.”

India plans wristband patient surveillance

AP – India said Wednesday that it plans to manufacture thousands of wristbands that will monitor the locations and temperatures of coronavirus patients and help perform contact tracing.
The wristband project aims to track quarantined patients and aid health workers and those delivering essential services. India is ramping up surveillance as it begins to ease one of the world’s strictest virus lockdowns.
It has 19,984 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 640 deaths, and experts fear the epidemic’s peak could still be weeks away. Thousands of wristbands are expected to be deployed, but an exact figure has not been released.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Missouri sues Chinese Communist Party for ‘billions’ in costs

State blames ‘reckless’ work on virus at Wuhan lab
The Washington Times – Missouri filed a lawsuit Tuesday demanding China repay the state “billions of dollars” lost because of the coronavirus, saying the communist government was reckless in its handling of the disease.
Attorney General Eric S. Schmitt said China hid details of the outbreak, hoarded medical supplies and may even have allowed the virus to escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology — a possibility The Washington Times raised in January, and which has recently gained ground as the U.S. government investigates.
At the very least, the Chinese government and its ruling Communist Party should have known that research on such a dangerous virus was a recipe for disaster, given previous findings of safety concerns at the Wuhan lab, Mr. Schmitt argued.
“The Chinese government lied to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19, silenced whistleblowers, and did little to stop the spread of the disease. They must be held accountable for their actions,” Mr. Schmitt said.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court, says the cost to Missouri could “total in the tens of billions of dollars, even if only one outbreak occurs.”

Big shakeup at HHS

Director of key U.S. vaccine agency leaves role suddenly amid coronavirus
STAT – Rick Bright, one of the nation’s leading vaccine development experts and the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, is no longer leading the organization, officials told STAT.
The shakeup at the agency, known as BARDA, couldn’t come at a more inopportune time for the office, which invests in drugs, devices, and other technologies that help address infectious disease outbreaks and which has been at the center of the government’s coronavirus pandemic response.
Bright, whose departure was confirmed by three industry sources and two current Trump administration sources, will instead move into a narrower role at the National Institutes of Health. Gary Disbrow, Bright’s former deputy at BARDA, will serve as the acting director of the office, an HHS spokesperson confirmed to STAT.
BARDA was expected to play an even larger role in the coming months; Congress more than tripled BARDA’s budget in the most recent coronavirus stimulus package. Already, the office has a role in some of the splashiest Covid-19 projects, including partnerships with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Therapeutics, both of which are developing potential Covid-19 treatments.
BARDA has been plagued with management issues virtually since its creation in 2006, with much of the criticism aimed at a contracting department that some say is unresponsive to industry partners. The office has only had two permanent directors since its creation in 2006. Bright has led the organization since 2016.
The BARDA director position is not a Senate-confirmed position. It reports directly to the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response.
None of the sources articulated the reason for Bright’s departure, though several mentioned recent chafing between Bright and Bob Kadlec, the current HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response.
An HHS spokesperson confirmed that Bright will begin working out of NIH. An NIH spokesperson later clarified that Bright will work on diagnostics.
“Dr. Rick Bright will transfer the skills he has applied as Director of the [BARDA] to the [NIH]. … Dr. Bright brings extensive experience and expertise in facilitating powerful public-private partnerships that advance the health and well-being of the American people,” the HHS spokesperson said.

Coronavirus: US university stops using Chinese testing kits after some found to be contaminated

South Morning China Post – The University of Washington School of Medicine went to extraordinary lengths to airlift tens of thousands of Covid-19 testing kits from China during a nationwide shortage of sampling swabs and the liquid that preserves specimens for diagnostic testing.
In short: a Seattle importer used a business associate in China, who had a connection to a doctor in the province hardest hit by the disease, to secure testing kits from a Shanghai factory and then have them flown stateside as soon as possible on an Amazon-chartered plane. UW Medicine allocated US$125,000 to purchase the kits.
The story of the testing swabs illustrated what authorities are willing to risk to secure more supplies for Covid-19 testing, which experts say will need to ramp up before distancing restrictions in Washington can be safely removed.
Late last week, the saga took a dour turn.
UW Medicine has decided to halt, at least temporarily, the use of the testing kits from Lingen Precision Medical Products, after a small percentage of the kits showed signs of contamination.
“I’ve just recommended everyone who has these things pause and not use them at all,” said Geoff Baird, the interim chair of the University of Washington Department of Laboratory Medicine, who was part of the group that went to great lengths to secure the materials. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed.”
Baird said he first learned of a problem on April 16, when a colleague notified him some of the liquid in vials he had sent appeared to have changed in colour.
Baird said he went immediately to where UW Medicine is storing some testing kits and starting “tearing through boxes”.
Many of the vials appeared to be fine. But the liquid in a small percentage of them had turned to an orange or yellow colour, rather than hot pink, an indication of bacterial growth. Some appeared cloudy, too.

VA Gov. Northam: Protesters ‘So Selfish’ for Endangering Healthcare Workers

Breitbart – Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) on Tuesday ripped the “selfish” protesters who are defying stay-at-home and physical distancing orders, saying they are putting frontline healthcare workers in danger.
“What they’re doing at the end of the day—which I think is so selfish—they’re putting our healthcare providers, those that are in the trenches trying to save lives every day, they’re putting them at risk, and that’s wrong. I would ask them to think about that,” Northam said on MSNBC.

DOJ sends three US marshals to G2 Church to halt sales of chlorine dioxide

NaturalNews – For the “crime” of selling chlorine dioxide and other concoctions that some say are beneficial in ridding the body of disease-causing pathogens, Genesis 2 Church in Florida was recently targeted by three United States marshals who ordered that the organization stop selling its products immediately.
Video footage of the incident that was captured by the church’s Bishop Mark and uploaded to Brighteon shows one of the marshals nailing a cease and desist order to the door of the church facility. Bishop Mark is heard behind the camera petitioning his First Amendment rights in the matter, but to no avail.
The incident took place on April 17, and Bishop Mark says it occurred because G2 Church claims that its sacraments can cure, heal, or otherwise eliminate coronavirus from the body within 1-3 days, based on alleged testimonies from church “members” who say they’ve successfully used these products for healing.
G2 Church says it’s also compiling studies about its products that back these health claims, though this still isn’t allowed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which requires that all products with associated health claims undergo testing and approval by the FDA itself in order to be designated as legal drugs.
“This is church property … and this is illegal here because this is church property,” Bishop Mark is heard telling the marshals, each of whom identified himself simply as “deputy.” “The Constitution, the First Amendment, says that Congress shall make no law” against G2 Church’s religious sacraments, Bishop Mark added in his rebuke.

Over 50,000 Traumatized Children Rescued by Military Out of Tunnels Beneath US Cities

Before It’s News – The count was now over 50,000 traumatized, malnourished and deceased children who have been pulled out of underground tunnels across the nation by the US Military and Marines since last October. The operations were authorized under President Trump as Commander in Chief, General Mark A. Milley and other military generals of the Pentagon Pedophile Task Force.
“Unfortunately there were more operations to go to save the children,” according to Timothy Charles Holmseth, reporter for the Task Force: https://youtu.be/UFaC_F6M_P8
Malnourished, caged and tortured children have been rescued, or found deceased, in underground tunnels beneath large and small US cities, including one beneath New York Central Park. Another tunnel was said to run from the Clinton Foundation building to the New York Harbor.
In Central Park many of the babies and children rescued out of a tunnel into medical tents were deceased or dying by the time they got to the top and didn’t make it. The babies and children had lived their whole lives in the tunnel, couldn’t be exposed to light and needed ventilators.
Piles of little corpses, babies born to teens and even preteens in the tunnels who had never seen the light of day, deformed and traumatized children, preteens and teens who were evidently experimented upon and electro-shocked as part of CIA Mind Control and genetic experiments, sexually abused, locked in cages, tortured and killed to harvest their organs and Adrenochrome for the elites to drink in Satanic worship.

Leave your gloves at home when you go grocery shopping, experts advise

If you’re braving trips to the grocery store in person these days, you might be diligent about putting on a face mask and gloves before you head down the aisles. But is this really helping you avoid coronavirus? Experts say no, at least not when it comes to the gloves.
In fact, while the CDC does recommend avoiding close contact, wearing a mask, and washing your hands frequently, they’ve stopped short of recommending glove use for family activities like grocery shopping.
One family medicine physician, Dr. David Cutler, told Healthline that there isn’t any medical benefit to be gained by wearing gloves while grocery shopping.
He said: “With or without gloves, if you touch one thing, then touch something else, you’re potentially transmitting it [the virus] from one place to another. Gloves might even divert attention from the importance of washing your hands.”
However, he conceded that they do send a message to others that you are taking the virus seriously.
There could also be psychological benefits, experts say. For example, since you probably never wore gloves for grocery shopping before the virus took hold, seeing and feeling them on your hands could remind you to be more careful about what you touch, encouraging you to touch fewer surfaces and making it easier to remember not to touch your face. It can also help people feel a little more in control of the situation.
Unfortunately, there’s a possibility that coronavirus could stick to the latex found in gloves even better than it can stick to your skin. In addition, germs that are on the gloves can easily transfer to the other surfaces you touch, like your phone or the items in your purse or wallet.
However, it’s worth noting that the CDC does recommend that gloves be used for pumping gas when disinfectant wipes aren’t available, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, and handling items touched or used by people who have the virus.

Trump administration reverses prisoner release policy

On Monday, some prisoners were told that officials were no longer considering early releases for inmates who have served less than half their sentence.
Politico – A coronavirus-related policy shift that could have cleared the way for thousands of federal prisoners to be sent home early was abruptly reversed this week, according to friends and family members of inmates.
Prison officials indicated earlier this month that inmates who had served less than half their sentences could still be considered for early release to limit the spread of infection behind bars. However, inmates in various prisons who had been put into prerelease quarantine almost two weeks ago were advised Monday by authorities that the policy had changed, lawyers and associates said. Officials would not waive a requirement that prisoners must have completed 50 percent their sentence to be eligible for early release during the pandemic, the inmates were told.
A federal prosecutor in New York also confirmed the shift to a court Tuesday, drawing the ire of a judge for contradicting the position the government took just three days earlier.
However, shortly after this article was published Tuesday, a Justice Department spokesman suggested yet another course correction and indicated that officials at the Bureau of Prisons were confused or given inaccurate guidance about previous directives from Attorney General William Barr.
“The Department confirmed to BOP this afternoon that the BOP has discretion under the Attorney General’s Memoranda on March 26 and April 3 regarding which home confinement cases are appropriate for review in order to fight the spread of the pandemic,” the Justice Department statement said. “BOP will proceed expeditiously consistent with that confirmation.”
The reversal reported by inmates to their families and lawyers on Monday could have dashed the hopes of several well-known prisoners seeking release from federal custody, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Neither man has served half his sentence.

Economy & Business

Senate passes new $484 billion spending bill

The Hill – The Senate on Tuesday approved roughly $484 billion in new coronavirus aid for small businesses and hospitals and more funding for testing, ending a lengthy battle over the size and contents of the package.
The agreement was passed by a voice vote after days of negotiations between congressional Democrats and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, with the talks lasting until approximately midnight on both Sunday and Monday.
The deal includes an additional $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), including $60 billion specifically for community banks and smaller lenders, as well as $75 billion for hospitals, $25 billion for testing, and $60 billion for emergency disaster loans and grants, according to a summary obtained by The Hill.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the only senator who has been infected with the coronavirus, said shortly before its passage that he opposed the funding but would not block its passage and require his colleagues to come back to Washington for a formal roll-call vote.
“The virus bailouts have already cost over $2 trillion. Our annual deficit this year will approach $4 trillion. We can’t continue on this course. No amount of bailout dollars will stimulate an economy that is being strangled by quarantine,” Paul said from the Senate floor on Tuesday.
Lawmakers are under pressure to act quickly as the coronavirus decimates large sectors of the economy where businesses have either scaled back or closer altogether.
Forty-three percent of respondents to a Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday said they have had their wages cut or lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Senate’s passage came only hours after a senior administration official confirmed the agreement had been reached and less than two hours after text of the bill began to circulate as leadership tried to “hotline” the deal to find out if it could pass it by consent, which would allow it to avoid bringing back members amid health concerns sparked by the coronavirus.
The House is expected to pass the bill on Thursday morning, with members returning to Washington for a recorded vote. President Trump threw his support behind the deal on Tuesday, an endorsement that could help help the agreement avoid landmines from libertarian-minded lawmakers and fiscal conservatives.
“I urge the Senate and House to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act with additional funding for PPP, Hospitals, and Testing,” Trump tweeted.
He added that once the bill is signed, he will start discussions on the “phase four” coronavirus bill, including more help for states and local governments, infrastructure, “tax incentives” and a payroll tax cut. Both chambers are expected to be out of Washington until at least May 4.

Industry Braces for Devastation

Seattle Times – Workers at Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in Gallup, New Mexico, are turning off the valves. Oil companies in West Texas are paying early termination fees to contract employees rather than drill new wells. And in Montana, producers are shutting down wells and slashing salaries and benefits.
Just a few months ago, the U.S. oil industry was triumphant in its quest for energy independence, having turned the United States into the world’s biggest petroleum producer for the first time in decades. But that exhilaration has given way to despair as the coronavirus has kneecapped the economy, destroying demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as cars sit parked in driveways and planes are consigned to remote fields and runways.
The oil industry has lived through many booms and busts, but never before have prices collapsed as they have this week. On Monday, one closely watched price fell below zero, meaning some traders had to pay others to take crude oil off their hands. That price — for May delivery — recovered on Tuesday, but not nearly to levels where oil companies can make a profit. At the same time, the price of oil for June delivery fell by about half to roughly $10 a barrel.
“I’m just living a nightmare,” said Ben Sheppard, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, which represents companies in the area of Texas and New Mexico that became the world’s most productive oil field last year.
In Midland, Texas, the epicenter of the oil shale boom during the last decade, parking lots at companies like Chevron, Diamondback and Apache are empty aside from a scattering of pumping trucks. Executives are working from home, huddling with their colleagues and board members to decide how quickly to shut down production and lay off workers. Oil giants like Exxon Mobil have slashed their 2020 exploration and production budgets by nearly a third, and that was before the total oil price collapse at the start of this week.

Farmer Says 61,000 Chickens Euthanized as Egg Sales Drop

Breitbart – A sharp drop in demand for eggs has one Minnesota farmer seeing 61,000 of his chickens euthanized amid the nation’s coronavirus lockdown.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:
Kerry Mergen, a contract egg farmer near Albany, Minn., got word on a Wednesday the chickens in his barn would be euthanized. A crew showed up the next morning and started gassing the birds with carbon dioxide.
The sudden drop in demand for food at restaurants, school cafeterias and caterers shut down by the pandemic has ripped through farming. Milk has been dumped, eggs smashed and ripe lettuce plowed under.
Now, farms are killing animals sooner than planned.
Mergen said he initially couldn’t believe it when a field manager from Daybreak Foods, the Lake Mills, Wis.-based firm that owned and paid to feed the flock of 61,000 birds, said they might be killed early. His contract called for the flock to produce eggs until fall.
Mergen told the newspaper that a group of 15 workers armed with carbon dioxide began euthanizing the chickens on April 6th at 6:30 A.M. and used semi trailers to remove the dead birds.
“They come in with carts, put them all in carts, wheel them up to the end, put a hose in that cart and gas them, then dump them over the edge into a conveyor and convey them up into semis and the semis haul them out,” explained Mergen. “I was in there for quite a while and the longer I was there the more disgusted and disappointed I was knowing that I’m not going to see anything put back in my checkbook again, so after a while I just simply left.”
The incident occurred after Cargill Inc.’s fluid eggplant in Big Lake, Minnesota, temporarily shut down last week, leaving 300 employees without a job. The food giant pointed to a large decline in demand as it shut down the plant that sees roughly 800 million eggs annually.
“It is important to note that food-service orders have not stopped, but with the decline in food-service orders, Cargill and its egg suppliers are working diligently to rebalance supply to match these consumer and customer shifts,” a Cargill spokesperson said in a statement.
The Mergens said they are still reeling from the ordeal, feeling disappointed that Daybreak did not consult them about there decision to euthanize the chickens.
“They didn’t confide in us, they didn’t ask us, they didn’t care about what effect this would have on us,” Barb Mergen said. “Our contract says at least a seven-day written notice. That’s not much, but it’s more than this. We just feel like we’re a nobody at the end.”
Up until earlier this month, the Mergens had been running their egg farming operation for 22 years.
“It’s a very challenging time. It’s very stressful on farmers,” said Kevin Stiles of the Chicken & Egg Association of Minnesota.

Energy & Environment

Pope Francis on Earth Day: We Have ‘Polluted and Despoiled’ the Planet

Breitbart – Pope Francis issued a severe indictment Wednesday of humanity’s failure to care for the planet, as environmentalists commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Earth Day.”
“Because of our selfishness we have failed in our responsibility to be guardians and stewards of the earth,” the pope said in his video-streamed General Audience. “We need only take a frank look at the facts to see that our common home is falling into serious disrepair.”
“We have polluted and despoiled it, endangering our very lives,” the pontiff continued. “For this reason, various international and local movements have sprung up in order to appeal to our consciences.”
“I deeply appreciate these initiatives; still it will be necessary for our children to take to the streets to teach us the obvious: we have no future if we destroy the very environment that sustains us,” he said in a message evocative of his past praise for climate warrior Greta Thunberg and her Fridays for Future movement.
“We have failed to care for the earth, our garden-home; we have failed to care for our brothers and sisters,” Francis said in his audience Wednesday. “We have sinned against the earth, against our neighbours, and ultimately against the Creator, the benevolent Father who provides for everyone, and desires us to live in communion and flourish together.”
The pope also said that the fiftieth Earth Day provides “an occasion for renewing our commitment to love and care for our common home and for the weaker members of our human family.”
“As the tragic coronavirus pandemic has taught us, we can overcome global challenges only by showing solidarity with one another and embracing the most vulnerable in our midst,” he said.
Human beings are fashioned from the earth and the fruit of the earth sustains our life, and yet “we are not simply ‘earthly’; we also bear within us the breath of life that comes from God,” he said.
“Thus, we live in this common home as one human family in biodiversity with God’s other creatures,” he added.
“In today’s celebration of Earth Day, we are called to renew our sense of sacred respect for the earth, for it is not just our home but also God’s home,” Francis said. “This should make us all the more aware that we stand on holy ground!”
As he has done on other occasions, the pope called on his listeners to undergo “an ecological conversion that can find expression in concrete actions” because “we cannot heal the earth unless we love and respect it.”
The pope also touted two upcoming environmental Conferences: COP15 on Biodiversity in Kunming, China, and COP26 on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland, calling on people to “come together to create a popular movement ‘from below.’”

As people stay home, Earth turns wilder and cleaner

AP – An unplanned grand experiment is changing Earth.
As people across the globe stay home to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, the air has cleaned up, albeit temporarily. Smog stopped choking New Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world, and India’s getting views of sights not visible in decades. Nitrogen dioxide pollution in the northeastern United States is down 30%. Rome air pollution levels from mid-March to mid-April were down 49% from a year ago. Stars seem more visible at night.
People are also noticing animals in places and at times they don’t usually. Coyotes have meandered along downtown Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. A puma roamed the streets of Santiago, Chile. Goats took over a town in Wales. In India, already daring wildlife has become bolder with hungry monkeys entering homes and opening refrigerators to look for food.
When people stay home, Earth becomes cleaner and wilder.
“It is giving us this quite extraordinary insight into just how much of a mess we humans are making of our beautiful planet,” says conservation scientist Stuart Pimm of Duke University. “This is giving us an opportunity to magically see how much better it can be.”

Health

CDC chief: Second wave could be worse

Reuters – A second wave of the coronavirus is expected to hit the United States next winter and could strike much harder than the first because it would likely arrive at the start of influenza season, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Tuesday.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield told the Washington Post in an interview.
As the current outbreak continues to taper off, as shown by a recent decline in hospitalization rates and other indicators, authorities need to prepare for a probable resurgence in the months ahead.
“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he said, and the combination would put even greater strain on the nation’s healthcare system than the first outbreak.

Researchers investigate the effects of Moringa oleifera stem extract on cataracts caused by oxidative stress

NaturalNews – Chinese researchers investigated the effects of Moringa oleifera stem extract (MOSE) on cataract formation induced by oxidative stress in cultured mouse lenses. The results of their study were published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

M. oleifera, also known as horseradish tree, drumstick tree or simply moringa, has strong antioxidant properties.
To find out if it can prevent cataract formation, the researchers pre-treated mouse lenses cultured in vitro with 0.5 and 1 mg/mL MOSE for 24 hours.
Afterward, they exposed the mouse lenses to 1 millimolar (mM) hydrogen peroxide for 24 hours.
After 48 hours, the researchers measured the lens opacification, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, reduced glutathione (GSH) content and the activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), in the lenses.
They also measured the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARa), a nuclear receptor that helps protect against vision-threatening eye diseases.
The researchers reported that MOSE at a concentration of 1 mg/mL alleviated lens opacification, reduced ROS generation and increased GSH content in cultured lenses.
It also increased SOD and CAT activities and up-regulated the expressions of SOD, CAT and PPARa.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that moringa extracts can alleviate oxidative stress-induced cataract formation by enhancing the endogenous antioxidant system in eye lenses.
Read the full study at this link.

Good News

COVID-19’s Silver Lining — A Boon for Homeless Pets

Mercola – A bit of good news on the COVID-19 front is that a surprising number of people who are staying home to slow the spread of the virus are signing up to foster shelter pets.
This is good news for animal shelters that are temporarily closed to the public; adoptions are way down as a result, but pets continue to be dropped off.
Fostering is a win-win for both pets and humans, especially during a time when so many people are feeling isolated; for animals, living in a home environment is less stressful and more enriching than shelter life.
If you’re considering fostering a pet, it’s important to know what to expect, which will depend on the type of animal you agree to care (e.g., cat or kitten, dog or puppy, age, sex, health or behavioral issues, history, etc.)