Suez Canal blocked by giant container ship run aground
Traffic along one of the world's most important trade routes has come to a standstill as tugboats and excavation trucks do their best to dislodge the 400-meter vessel. https://p.dw.com/p/3r1nT

On Tuesday morning local time, the Ever Given, a 1,312-foot-long container ship capable of carrying more than 220,000 tons, was traveling from China to the Netherlands through the canal when Egyptian authorities say a dust storm brought low visibility and heavy winds that caused the ship to run aground. https://www.vox.com/2021/3/24/22348186/ship-stuck-suez-canal-blocked-ever-given-memes

A 1,300-foot, 220,000-ton container ship that has been blocking traffic in the Suez Canal for nearly a week is finally free and once again underway, onboard tracking sites and livestreamed video from the scene indicate. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/29/982174644/ever-given-partially-afloat-as-salvage-teams-race-to-reopen-suez-canal

The Ever Given has been freed. The container ship was blocking the Suez Canal for nearly a week, holding up billions in trade. Workers succesfully freed the MV Ever Given, according to the Suez Canal Authority and service provider Leth Agencies. The vessel, which is the size of the Empire State Building in New York, had held up nearly 200 other ships, bringing the world's most important trade route to a grinding halt. https://youtu.be/rGBRTz7uFco

French schools will close for at least three weeks as part of new national res
Mr Macron said that schools would move to remote learning from next week.
Lockdown measures, introduced in some areas of France earlier this month, are also being extended to other districts. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56597319

The Italian government is to introduce a mandatory five-day quarantine for EU travellers over the Easter holidays, amid a third wave of infections in a number of countries. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56576657

A senior scientist has warned that the US faces "impending doom" as coronavirus cases and hospital admissions rise across the country.
On Monday President Joe Biden urged state politicians once again to make mask-wearing obligatory in public places. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56572452

A Hygienist Had Covid. Shouldn’t My Dentist Have Told Me?
On balancing health care providers’ privacy against patients’ concerns, creating an equitable vaccine system and more. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/magazine/a-hygienist-had-covid-shouldnt-my-dentist-have-told-me.html

California on Thursday lifted the statewide advisory that asked leisure travelers to stay within 120 miles of home to curb the spread of COVID-19, according to a news release. However, the California Department of Public Health still discourages travelers from leaving the state or the country “until we can achieve higher levels of vaccination in California and beyond.” https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2021-04-01/california-lifts-120-mile-travel-advisory-but-still-wants-you-to-stay-home

Novavax's coronavirus vaccine, called NVX-CoV2373, differs from the three vaccines already being distributed in the United States. The vaccine relies on what is called recombinant nanoparticle technology and Novavax's adjuvant, called Matrix-M, to stimulate an immune response and stimulate high levels of neutralizing antibodies. https://ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-confirms-high-levels-efficacy-against-original-and-0

Americans are starting to come out of their pandemic shells, as state governments loosen restrictions. While plenty of Americans are doing so as they become vaccinated against Covid-19, many are doing so regardless of vaccination. This drop in social distancing is occurring as new cases of Covid-19 are beginning to rise. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/04/politics/pandemic-polls-american-behavior/index.html

Michael Osterholm, Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, talks to Meet the Press about the uptick in Covid cases and the rollout of vaccines. https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/full-osterholm-interview-covid-variant-is-a-brand-new-ballgame-109642309532

One particular paper from the University of Barcelona has attracted attention, claiming to be just this type of study.
It suggested vitamin D had staggering success, with an 80% reduction in intensive care admissions and a 60% reduction in Covid deaths. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56180921

Experts say Covid-19 vaccinations in the US are going extremely well — but not enough people are yet protected and the country may be at the start of another surge. Only about 18.5% of Americans are fully vaccinated, CDC data shows, and Covid-19 cases in the country have recently seen concerning increases. The highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant has fueled an alarming rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in parts of Europe. And experts worry the US could be next. "We have to think about the B.1.1.7 variant as almost a brand new virus," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. "It's acting differently from anything we've seen before, in terms of transmissibility, in terms of affecting young people, so we have to take this very seriously." https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html

New mutations are popping up in increasingly complicated patterns, spurring a drive by top biologists to devise new ways to track a fire hose of incoming genomic data.
The goal: Quickly detect variants that can lessen the effectiveness of vaccines for a pathogen that’s unlikely to be eradicated any time soon. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-05/covid-mutants-multiply-as-scientists-race-to-decode-variations?srnd=coronavirus

Dangerous secondary infections by opportunistic pathogens are common in intensive care units, and physicians are raising the alarm about a particular microbial threat to COVID-19 patients: a common fungus known as Aspergillus https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/common-fungus-emerges-threat-hospitalized-covid-19-patients

New variants of SARS-CoV-2 are rapidly spreading through the U.S. These coronavirus variants are being studied because they may be more transmissible, cause more severe disease, or reduce the efficacy of current vaccines. https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-variant-tracker-where-different-strains-are-spreading-ffd71934-1596-43e6-923d-32c4698e2f8b.html

People diagnosed with Covid-19 in the previous six months were more likely to develop depression, dementia, psychosis and stroke, researchers have found.
A third of those with a previous Covid infection went on to develop or have a relapse of a psychological or neurological condition.
But those admitted to hospital or in intensive care had an even higher risk.
The study authors pointed to both the effects of stress, and the virus having a direct impact on the brain. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56650125

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration are recommending that the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine over six reported US cases of a "rare and severe" type of blood clot.
The six reported cases were among more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/13/health/johnson-vaccine-pause-cdc-fda/index.html

The fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic is poised to fracture societies worldwide, increase instability across the globe and reshape political and economic realities for years to come, the US intelligence community warned in a stark report laying out the top security concerns facing the country. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/13/politics/us-intel-report-coronavirus/index.html