WHO to revive probe into Covid-19 origins: Report

Team of 20 scientists to hunt for new evidence, says American newspaper

The World Health Organization (WHO) is looking to revive an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19, a US media report said. The world health body is assembling a team of 20 scientists to hunt for new evidence, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. According to the WSJ report, the new probe comes following an initial WHO inquiry found that that the data provided by Chinese scientists was insufficient to answer key questions about the virus’ origin.

The report stated that the new team of scientists, which includes specialists in laboratory safety and biosecurity and experts in geneticists, may be charged with examining whether the novel virus emerged from a lab, as well as broader inquiries into future virus risks and the links with human behaviour. WHO believes that the new initiative will help accelerate a probe that risks running out of time, and blood samples from early virus victims become unusable.

Earlier in August, the US had released a report tracing the origins of the Covid-19 virus. While rejecting the report, Beijing had lodged solemn representations with Washington terming the report as “completely political, and having no scientificity and credibility.”

3D printed vaccine patch offers greater protection than jab

Scientists have developed a three-dimensional (3D) printed vaccine patch that provides greater protection than a typical immunisation shot. The team at Stanford University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) applied the vaccine patch to the skin of animals. The resulting immune response was 10 times greater than vaccine delivered into an arm muscle with a needle jab, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

‘Biggest decrease in life expectancy since WW II’

The Covid-19 pandemic led to the biggest decrease in life expectancy since  World War II, and wiped out years of progress on mortality, according to a study published on Monday by the University of Oxford. The research team assembled an unprecedented dataset on mortality from 29 countries from Europe, the US and Chile - countries for which official death registrations for 2020 had been published. The study found 27 of them saw reductions in life expectancy in 2020.

1,47,772
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

23,15,51,680
Total no. of cases worldwide

47,43,708
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins

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