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One of the abiding images of any virus outbreak is people in surgical masks. Using them to prevent infection is popular in many countries around the world, most notably China during the current coronavirus outbreak where they are also worn to protect against high pollution levels.

Virologists are sceptical about their effectiveness against airborne viruses. But there is some evidence to suggest the masks can help prevent hand-to-mouth transmissions.

Dr David Carrington, of St George’s, University of London, told BBC News “routine surgical masks for the public are not an effective protection against viruses or bacteria carried in the air”, which was how “most viruses” were transmitted, because they were too loose, had no air filter and left the eyes exposed. But they could help lower the risk of contracting a virus through the “splash” from a sneeze or a cough and provide some protection against hand-to-mouth transmissions.

Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said: “In one well controlled study in a hospital setting, the face mask was as good at preventing influenza infection as a purpose-made respirator.”

Respirators, which tend to feature a specialised air filter, are specifically designed to protect against potentially hazardous airborne particles.

“However, when you move to studies looking at their effectiveness in the general population, the data is less compelling - it’s quite a challenge to keep a mask on for prolonged periods of time,” professor Ball added.

Dr Connor Bamford, of the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, at Queen’s University Belfast, said “implementing simple hygiene measures” was more effective. “Covering your mouth while sneezing, washing your hands, and not putting your hands to your mouth before washing them, could help limit the risk of catching any respiratory virus,” he said.

Read the cartoon below and answer the following questionbased on it.

Becoming

Back in the ancestral homeland of Michelle Obama, black women were rarely granted the honorific Miss or Mrs., but were addressed by their first name, or simply as “gal” or “auntie” or worse. This so openly demeaned them that many black women, long after they had left the South, refused to answer if called by their first name. A mother and father in 1970s Texas named their newborn “Miss” so that white people would have no choice but to address their daughter by that title. Black women were meant for the field or the kitchen, or for use as they saw fit. They were, by definition, not ladies. The very idea of a black woman as first lady of the land, well, that would have been unthinkable.

A crítica do livro de memórias de Michelle Obama, ex-primeira-dama dos EUA, aborda a história das relações humanas na cidade natal da autora.

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OPINION: FAKE NEWS ABOUT THE CORONA VIRUS AND SCIENCE IN GENERAL

By Marc Schiltz

The news about the Corona Virus epidemic is making many people hold their breath on a daily basis. A theory has been spreading on social media that the virus did not – as assumed – start on a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, but that it was created in a lab where scientists experimented with viruses. The ‘theory’ is that something went wrong with their experiment and this led to the virus. Despite no foundation for this claim, it is spreading like fire, like the virus itself.

The internet and social networks pose a new and difficult challenge for dealing with information. Scientific studies have shown that false information spreads on social media up to ten times faster than truthful information, and that false information tends to reach a wider number of users.

Then there is the phenomenon of “social robots”: robots deployed on social media to spread information in a way where it appears they are real users. A recent study indicated that one quarter of the tweets about climate change were posted by such robots, with the majority devoid of any scientific foundation. This proportion was higher in certain topics—robots were responsible for 38% of tweets about “fake science” and 28% of all tweets about the petroleum giant Exxon.

Science struggles with Fake News. Most of the time, Fake News are short and very objective. On the other hand, Scientific and medical articles are long and complex. Still, science must try to fight back– for example what the WHO is trying to do with information about the Corona Virus epidemic.

One avenue is to get more visibility, for example by bringing science together with ‘influencers’, supporting science journalists, or increasing the communication coming directly from the scientists. Science actors can also create their

own platforms with large visibility – as Luxembourg has done with science.lu.

It is clear – it will be a great challenge to limit the spread of Fake News and pseudo-science, just like the Corona Virus.

Glossary: spread: espalhar; foundation: fundamento; deployed: implantados; devoid: desprovido(a); struggles: luta

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ARE VIRUSES ALIVE?

For about 100 years, the scientific community has repeatedly changed its collective mind over what viruses are. First seen as poisons, then as lifeforms, then biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so in truly living cells and can also affect the behavior of their hosts profoundly. Finally, however, scientists are beginning to appreciate viruses as fundamental players in the history of life.

To Be or Not to Be

The seemingly simple question of whether or not viruses are alive, which my students often ask, has probably defied a simple answer all these years because it raises a fundamental issue: What exactly defines “life?” A precise scientific definition of life is an elusive thing, but most observers would agree that life includes certain qualities in addition to an ability to replicate. For example, a living entity is in a state bounded by birth and death. Living organisms also are thought to require a degree of biochemical autonomy, carrying on the metabolic activities that produce the molecules and energy needed to sustain the organism. This level of autonomy is essential to most definitions.

Viruses, however, parasitize essentially all biomolecular aspects of life. That is, they depend on the host cell for the raw materials and energy necessary for nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis, processing and transport, and all other biochemical activities that allow the virus to multiply and spread. One might then conclude that even though these processes come under viral direction, viruses are simply nonliving parasites of living metabolic systems.

The boxer

I am just a poor boy, though my story’s seldom told
I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises
All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

[05] When I left my home and my family, I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin’ scared, laying low,
Seeking out the poorer quarters, where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know
[10] Lie la lie, lie la la la lie lie

Asking only workman’s wages, I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on 7th Avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
[15] I took some comfort there

Now the years are rolling by me
They are rockin’ evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I’ll be; that’s not unusual
[20] Nor is it strange
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same

After changes we are more or less the same
And I’m laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone
[25] Goin’ home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleedin’ me
Leadin’ me
Goin’ home

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade
[30] And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down or cut him
‘Til he cried out in his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”, but the fighter still remains

In line 13, come-on is a verb transformed into a noun.

Leia os provérbios:

1. Don't count your chickens before they lay eggs.

2. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

3. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Texto

What impact have technologies generated in this changing role?

Faced with the pandemic, countries have combined high-tech and low- tech approaches to help teachers better support student learning. In Cambodia, for example, education leaders designed a strategy that combines SMS, printed handouts, and continuous teacher feedback, taking advantage of the high mobile phone penetration in the country. The approach goes beyond providing low-tech materials: it gives information on how to access learning programs, ensures students access paper-based learning materials, and includes home visits to monitor distance learning activities. Teachers are also expected to provide weekly paper-based resources to students and meet them weekly to provide their marked worksheets and issue new ones for the weck ahead,

Technology has also enhanced government-teacher support, adapting existing coaching programs to be delivered remotely (as the mentioned cases of Nigeria and Uruguay), creating spaces for peer support programs (for example the Virtual EdCamps initiative, created to facilitate peer-topeer learning among teachers) or establishing EdTech hotlines for teachers (like in Estonia, where the HITSA - the Information Technology Foundation for Education - opened an educational technology information line to solve any technological question teachers might have).

Technology interventions should enhance teacher engagement with students, through improved access to content, data and networks, helping teachers better support student learning, as laid out in the World Bank's Platform for Successful Teachers, where effective use of technology is one of the key principles to ensure cadres of effective teachers.

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Tower of London’s “queen” raven Merlina missing

Merlina, who joined the flock in 2007, has not been seen for several weeks.

The Tower usually has six ravens at any time and, according to legend, if they ever leave then both the fortress and the kingdom will fall. There are currently seven in residence.

A spokesman said Merlina’s “continued absence indicates to us that she may have sadly passed away”.

He added: “Merlina was our undisputed ruler of the roost, queen of the Tower ravens. She will be greatly missed by her fellow ravens, the ravenmaster, and all of us in the Tower community.”

Ravenmaster Christopher Skaife said he would be taking some time to mourn Merlina, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“I know so many of you lovely folk will be saddened by this news,” he said in a social media statement. “None more than me. Please excuse my absence for a few days.”

Tower staff added that they had no immediate plans to replace Merlina. Charles II is believed to have been the first monarch to officially decree that the birds must be kept at the Tower at all times.

When numbers fell to just a single raven guard, Winston Churchill ordered that the flock — known as an “unkindness” — was increased to at least six.

In 2018 the Tower launched a raven breeding programme after Historic Royal Palaces warned it was becoming “increasingly difficult” to source the birds.

The following comic strip refers to question.