Health & Science

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 09:35 UTC

  Death of Brazilian volunteer in clinical trials of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine triggers controversy

  

  A volunteer taking part in clinical trials of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University has died in Brazil, officials announced on Wednesday, though media reports said he had received a placebo, not the test vaccine.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 09:29 UTC

  Bolsonaro in political controversy rejects purchase of the Chinese vaccine

  

  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday rejected the announced purchase of 46 million doses of a potential vaccine against the coronavirus being developed by a Chinese company and tested in a state governed by a political rival, prompting some to question if he was allowing politics to steer public health decisions.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 09:24 UTC

  Venezuela plans massive immunization with Russian and Chinese vaccines

  

  Venezuela plans to vaccinate citizens with Russian and Chinese coronavirus vaccines, which could arrive in the South American nation in December or January, President Nicolas Maduro said.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 09:18 UTC

  Spain becomes first Western Europe to exceed a million coronavirus infections

  

  Spain became the first Western European country to exceed 1 million coronavirus infections on Wednesday (Oct 21), doubling its tally in just six weeks despite a series of increasingly stringent measures to control the second wave.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 09:00 UTC

  Chilean voting centers on Sunday will de disinfected with copper nanoparticles

  

  Chile, the world’s largest producer of copper, will use nanoparticles of the metal to disinfect voting centers ahead of this weekend’s referendum on changing the constitution, the government said Wednesday.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 08:50 UTC

  Britain's new polar ship Sir David Attenborough begins sea trials

  

  Britain's new polar ship, RRS Sir David Attenborough, has left her Merseyside construction yard. Sirens and accompanying tugboats marked the Attenborough's departure from builder Cammell Laird's wet dock at Birkenhead. Four years in the making, the £200m vessel is about to venture out on a series of sea trials.

• Thursday, October 22nd 2020 - 08:10 UTC

  Vaccine safety questioned in South Korea: 13 people die from flu shots

  

  At least 13 South Koreans have died after receiving flu shots in recent days, according to official and local media reports, ramping up fears about vaccine safety even as authorities rule out a link.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 09:22 UTC

  NASA feat: spacecraft grabs a sample of rocks from an asteroid and begins to send back images

  

  NASA spacecraft touched down on the rugged surface of the Bennu asteroid on Tuesday, grabbing a sample of rocks dating back to the birth of our solar system to bring home. The minivan-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, extended its 3.35m robotic arm toward a flat patch of gravel near Bennu’s north pole and plucked the sample of rocks, the space agency's first handful of pristine asteroid rocks.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 09:03 UTC

  Multi-faiths event sees Pope Francis wear a face mask for the first time at a public function

  

  Pope Francis wore a mask for the first time at a public function on Tuesday when he and other religious leaders attended a prayer service for peace around the world. The pope wore a white mask during the service at the Rome Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Previously he wore masks only in a car taking him to his weekly audiences in the Vatican.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2020 - 08:44 UTC

  Brazilian health minister ill with a suspected case of Covid-19

  

  Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello has fallen ill with a suspected case of COVID-19, the ministry's press office said on Tuesday, as the country battles with the third-worst coronavirus outbreak globally, with nearly 5.3 million cases.