Tag: covid-19 medicine

Vaccination and COVID-19

How long has it been since we went to school met our friends or had a family dinner at some restaurant? Since March 2020, we have all been advised to stay home and sanitise ourselves in order to stay safe. Sanitizers and masks have been added to our daily use products, all because of one tiny yet dangerous virus Covid-19!

The world is now waiting anxiously for a vaccine against this dreaded virus. Researchers around the world are working round the clock to develop vaccines to combat the pandemic. Currently, more than 165 vaccines against the corona virus are under process and 27 vaccines are undergoing human trials. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic. Today, scientists all over the world are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year.

• When did the efforts start

Efforts to make a successful Covid-19 vaccine began in January 2020 with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV -2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus.

• India and vaccine against Covid-19

Like many other countries, India too is immersed in the efforts to develop successful vaccines to counter Covid-19. Thirty different Indian companies are trying to produce a vaccine to fight the infection. 7 out of these have received approval from the World Health Organization. These vaccines are in different stages of testing and clinical trials now.

COVAXIN

COVAXIN is developed by Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech International Limited in collaboration with ICMR and NIV, Pune. This is the first vaccine from India to get regulatory approval. The vaccine makes us an inactive version of a virus to spike up production of antibodies in the host body. It recently initiated Phase I and Phase II of clinical testing.

ZyCoV-D

ZyCoV-D is being developed by Zydus Cadila based in Ahmedabad. The Phase I trials of the vaccine have already begun. Extensive research was done regarding the same in collaboration with medical labs in Europe and US.

• Russia and vaccine against Covid-19

Russia is one of the countries worst affected by Covid-19. The country has been pushing extensively for a Covid-19 vaccine for quite some time now; Russia too is a part of the race to produce the world’s first Covid vaccine. It is possible that Russia would be ready with its first domestic corona virus vaccine soon. The clinical trials were conducted by the Gamaleya National Research centre of Epidemiology and microbiology. There seem to be no reports of side effects on the volunteers. All the participants showed immunity and the country is planning for the serial production of the vaccine by September. By the beginning of next year, Russia hopes to manufacture several million doses of corona virus vaccines per month.

• Oxford University’s efforts to develop a vaccine

The university of Oxford has partnered with AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical company to develop an adenovirus vector vaccine to combat Covid-19. The vaccine prototype is currently in Phase III of testing. Trials of the vaccine developed by Oxford University show it can trigger an immune response. The vaccine which has so far been found to be safe and effective is expected to be made available for the masses by the end of 2020. This vaccine would also be the first such vaccine to have a large scale testing in India. The observatory data for this vaccine is expected to be available by November this year. The company has tied up with Pune based serum institute of India to mass produce the vaccine once the company gets required approvals and licensing from medical boards.

• Some methods used to make vaccines for Covid-19

Different scientists across the world try different techniques and formulas to develop vaccines. The Oxford researchers have put small sections of the corona virus genetic code into a harmless virus that infects chimpanzees. They appear to have developed a safe virus that looks enough like the corona virus to produce an immune system. Some other scientists have used pieces of raw genetic code, either DNA or RNA. When these are injected into the body it would start producing bits of viral proteins which the immune system can learn to fight. There is also work on corona virus vaccines called ‘plug and play’ vaccines. This method is new and less tested.

Thank you for reading. Have a nice day!🌼

Who delivers the Amazon cardboard boxes???

Cardboard boxes that have been used for generations and thrived in the age of e-commerce continue to flourish or could the cardboard box be facing a new challenger? Cardboard boxes are a very big deal within the U.S. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of trees. Someone’s going to make the first box and that’s almost inevitably a mill generally in the Southeast United States. China certainly doesn’t have trees and India the extent they do have trees they’re not necessarily the right types of trees and shouldn’t be dedicated towards making boxes for us. The box business grew rapidly up through 1999 when the U.S. coordinated box market had its peak shipment. Starting in the early 2000s the U.S. corrugated box market faced multiple economic obstacles.

The great recession dragged on box demand and even after the recession demand continued to slow for commodity like soda and for the boxes that transport them. The move to digital devices also coincided with a drop in demand for copy paper and newsprint. But box makers found a grace in e-commerce sales and Amazon sale specifically which were growing at mostly integer rates within the recession and post-recession years. Those e-commerce sales have become a significant market for the containerboard industry. In 2018 told a U.S. e-commerce sales were estimated to be $512 billion almost 50 percent higher than in 2015. Amazon captured 48 percent of those sales. Most estimates are that e-commerce accounts for about 10 percent of the U.S. box market. Amazon accounts for close to 5 percent of U.S. box demand. By our estimates they are clearly the single largest box user in the US. International Paper with a third of the market I think does closer to 50 percent of all the amazon boxes evidently they got a bit more share than perhaps some of the smaller players.

Amazon's incredible, vanishing cardboard box - CNN

Amazon said they deal with most of the big box makers across the U.S. according to analysts. Those manufacturers include International Paper, WestRock, Packaging Corporation of America and Georgia-Pacific. Some investors were turning to these companies as a way to invest in the e-commerce giant without having to purchase Amazon’s pricey stock. People didn’t really start talking about buying International Paper or WestRock as a secondary investment in Amazon till about the last five years. Despite the boost from e-commerce sales the box business still isn’t growing all that much. And since 2018 their stocks have mostly underperformed the S&P 500. In 2018, 69 percent of International Papers total revenue came from the box business and that sales volume has been mostly flat for the past five years. Although the big producers sold less boxes in 2018 than in 2000, industry consolidation has dramatically narrowed the fields.

The handful of big players remaining are based in Memphis, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia and Lake Forest, Illinois. Analysts have told CNBC that substantial industry mergers have made it easier to collectively hike prices and those price increases have helped drive revenue. There are portions of the business that are in indisputable secular decline but if you’re in the brown part of the business, making these boxes, that’s been some very welcome growth. But those extra boxes piling up on people’s doorsteps have led to a backlash from disgruntled customers who are sick of receiving golf ball sized products in supersized boxes. It used to be that you’d order a toothbrush and it would come in three giant boxes and you’d say to yourself, what is this? Well, Amazon is trying to rectify that by using fewer boxes and using other types of packaging where appropriate. With e-commerce packaging underfire Amazon decided to change the way they do shipping. In 2008, Amazon introduced the Frustration Free Packaging program. It aims to reduce the extra packaging created when retail packaged products are placed inside Amazon boxes to be shipped. Instead, products certified in the program that are roughly the size of a blender or larger need to be packaged in their own ready to ship boxes. And those boxes also need to be made of 100 percent recyclable materials. For customers that means that the packaging is easy to recycle and the box is easy to open without all the excess packaging materials.

Use That Pile of Empty Amazon Boxes to Do Something Wonderful ...

Amazon offered vendors an incentive of a dollar per shipment to modify their packaging. And starting August 1st 2019 Amazon is charging a $1.99 penalty for each product shipped that needs to be reboxed. And basically the point of this deadline is for Amazon to get out of the business of packaging. They want their vendors to send them boxes that Amazon doesn’t have to touch or rebox. Over the last two years we have invented two different kinds of flexible mailers. One is the blue and white all plastic mailer. We’ve recently launched in the last six, eight months a paper padded mailer that’s actually fully recyclable with the paper stream. Amazon said they made about 10 million shipments using the paper padded mailer and depending on the month the plastic mailer is used about 20 to 30 percent of the time. So really when we come down to deciding if the product is of the size it can go on a mailer, it’s not likely to be damaged by going in the mailer, the mailer is always the better fitting option and frankly is easier for the customer to choose to recycle than breaking down a corrugate box. We’re driving in that direction for many different reasons. But those plastic mailers generally are not accepted in municipal recycling programs and you’ll need to bring them to a store that accepts plastic bags. The latest stats from the EPA show that corrugated boxes were recycled at a rate of 92 percent in 2015 while plastic bags, sacks and wraps were recycled at a rate of 13 percent in 2015.

AMAZON E-COMMERCE SELLERS, IT'S TIME TO REVIEW YOUR ADVERTISING ...

When you think about what is the greatest pain point for the consumer after having it get there safely arrive on time people are concerned about receiving something that is plastic or made a poly because of the environmental concerns. Some waste management companies say plastic packaging also causes problems for the recycling systems. Plastic mailers get caught in the recycling machinery slowing down the process and raising the costs for recyclers and sometimes contaminating entire bundles. Until Scotty on the Enterprise can beam the products from the warehouse to your living room I think Amazon’s going to be good for the corrugated business. I think there’s going to be noise I think you’re going to have challenges from time to time where people say, “Should we try and the plastic pouch?”, in the long run plastic is going to be on the wrong side of history. Because Amazon is a market leader in the U.S. e-commerce sector any move away from cardboard to plastic mailers could signal a shift for the entire industry. The corrugated box could be about to undergo a major facelift. We’re seeing some major trends among consumers and what they’re expecting from e-commerce and the first one is actually this desire for increased engagement with the package. In 2015, Amazon partnered with Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment to ship orders in bright yellow delivery boxes featuring cartoon characters from the movie Minions. The boxes promoting the movie and a special Amazon U.R.L. dedicated to shopping for merchandise from the film.

Meditation in the age of covid

Online intervention has a large group of preferences, yet additionally bears some advised.

We live in weird occasions. Old assurances have offered approach to new vulnerabilities. Down the ages, Lady Justice, blade in one hand and eyes blindfolded, has been essentially similar to the Rock of Gibraltar, guaranteeing soundness, yet additionally being impervious to change. One bug, initiated COVID-19, tags along and the Lady is reeling . At the core of the ill-disposed framework is promotion acted in open setting, in full look of customers and individual legal advisors, and that has directed methods of thought and approach and conduct, all basic to the framework. Equity must appear to be done, however passes judgment on must likewise be seen while they are occupied with the undertaking of doing it. Be that as it may, nearness in numbers requires vicinity, and now closeness spells threat. Denied of their normal setting of the court, judges and legal advisors have fallen back to discuss virtual courts, so the minimum necessity is accomplished — the appointed authority having the option to hear the specific legal counselor. Every single other element of the court are shunned , and along these lines a basically open setting is changed over to a shut entryway one. It is, and will stay, inadmissible.

A tenderfoot

There is, in any case, another device in the contest goals ordnance , which is impervious to COVID-19, and maybe could even blossom with it. That is intervention, which is the total inverse of the court procedure. It attempts to accomplish accord between gatherings to go to a neighborly understanding, as opposed to the success lose decision of the antagonistic framework. At its center is secret conversation among go between and parties, and among arbiter and individual gatherings. It centers around revealing interests, and evoking recommendations from the gatherings themselves for down to earth answers for end the question. As much as the basic quality of the conventional equity framework is the open court hearing, intervention’s pith is shut entryway correspondence with its assurance of secrecy. Furthermore, significant in the current setting, it has an intrinsic adaptability and flexibility.

As a procedure, organized intercession is a newcomer, with a presence of scarcely a few decades in India, and only a couple of increasingly around the world. Regular suit and intervention are vintage, traversing many years and ages of judges and legal advisors. Intervention, be that as it may, is a thought whose opportunity has arrived and is quickly making strides. Enactment has given it the legitimate structure and defends, and gave the confirmation that the courts will actualize intervention understandings. India’s appointed authorities have been energetic embracers of this procedure. Attorneys, saturated with antagonistic ways, have shockingly heated up to a framework which is its direct opposite.

Helpful and practical

Online intercession will empower the go between and the gatherings to collect together, each on their PC screens maybe several miles away. Conversation can be guided, allowing gatherings and legal advisors the chance to advance their perspectives. At the point when separate gatherings are required, the go between can, at the snap of a catch, move the other party and its legal counselor to another virtual room. The incredible bit of leeway of online intervention is that it is advantageous, practical and a proficient utilization of time. Gatherings don’t need to endure costs, don’t need to travel, don’t need to stand by extended periods, and don’t need to experience dismissals and various visits to the intercession community. Much should be possible by utilizing this medium to get quicker outcomes.

What will be absent in this procedure is the promptness, unequivocal quality and complete contact that is conceivable just in eye to eye gatherings. Then again, it might likewise be that in an online procedure, we are giving the member a little casing of security, when we make this grainy obstruction of two screens and a middle universe of Internet and WiFi. It will unquestionably be of advantage in situations where feelings run high and up close and personal showdown may expand the contention. That happens frequently in marital cases, and in privately-run company debates, where tempers and feelings emerging from frayed local circumstances and settings can push out reasonable business rationale. Correspondingly, where gatherings are situated in various nations, we would have discarded troubles of separation when we receive this mode. As the new impulsive of online courses appears, it is anything but difficult to get individuals from various areas on to one stage.

Online intervention has a large group of favorable circumstances, yet in addition bears some forewarning. Classification can be undermined since hearings could be recorded; specialist organizations must be cautious, and rules should punish members for break. Specialized glitches must be limited, and Internet administrations must apparatus in the mood for giving screen lucidity and continuous feed. In any case, most importantly, there is the trepidation that online correspondence will reject the oppressed, the individuals who can’t bear the cost of access to Internet or don’t have the limit or help to utilize it. Such rejection will be equivalent to forswearing of access to equity. In the event that the State and its Courts will permit and urge online intervention to determine questions, more vulnerable gatherings must be helped and empowered to profit of this office.

As we wander in obscurity to discover what the new ordinary is going to comprise of, we may well find that a decent piece of the universe of contest goals has been flipped, and that COVID-19 is the harbinger of progress taking on the web consensual goals to a more significant level. Maybe, this cloud also has a silver covering.

“Mutations In Corona Virus-Leading Towards Second Wave?”

Current era we are living in is a time of pandemic which is  spread all over the world, infecting millions of people and thousands of people losing life. The hike is growing day by day with no proper vaccines  and cure to it. There have been various studies and ways to test this disease. But various scientists are concerned about something which is surely not good news for people around the world. They believe that the spread of Corona-virus is increasing with its increase in mutation. Mutation is a phenomenon which means the change in the DNA sequence and this mutation can be due to mistake while Copying Of DNA to another cell or due to environment factors as a source of change and adapting the surrounding. 

There have been countries where this pandemic has been eradicated and some places where it is seeing a general downfall in its rate, while there are countries on the contrary and are seeking hikes day by day. Scientists believe that corona-virus may be mutating while it replicates from one individual to another. But the interesting fact is that these viruses or bacteria do mutate every time which means they do  and can change themselves while they get transferred from one person to others we know then need a host to be alive. Virus can be thus simply explained as anything that things that infect us and thus make us sick. Scientists believe that this Covid-19 virus is made up of RNA or Ribonucleic acid which is the building block of life and carry codes which do for a living organism. So this mutation happens when the sequence changes. When these viruses make mistakes in copying their code, they can’t reverse it which man’s that once it gets changed it will be the same forever, and this change goes on happening as it grows . Scientists have come up with discoveries reflecting the mutation process in this Covid- 19 virus . 

  1. It is believed that the mutation changes are very small and the person would be feeling the same symptoms as present in the older cases. 
  2. But mutation could be an area of concern while testing, as it may be possible that the technique we use for testing it may not be able to catch the mutation and thus gives us a negative result while it is still being present inside the body. 
  3. Also the possibility exists to find a vaccine solving the older virus while the new mutated virus still survives . So there needs to be advancement with time for testing technique, and at least twice a person should be tested so as to get a proper report. 
  4. This change in mutations and their known symptoms could also help the doctors to prepare the vaccine more accurately and effectively. 

But there are biologists that believe that mutations of covid-19 virus are small and their change remains mostly the same. So this could be a strong  reason which could give a reason to start the “Second wave” of virus, with much improved mutated virus. “So scientists and biologists need to remain updated with any change in the characteristics of these viruses, catch their mutations, track them and thus use them to find a proper vaccine and way out other than social distancing and thus save humanity from this deadliest virus and its spread”.