Five good reasons not to wear a mask

Five good reasons not to wear a mask: Here are five good reasons not to wear a mask, numbered in reverse to indicate an ascending order of importance: 

5. No evidence masks reduce community transmission; 

4. Masks may do harm; 

3. Masks signal compliance with the ongoing public health tyranny; 

2. Masks are de-humanising; 

1. Masks perpetuate the elevated levels of fear.

COVID-19 has cut progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals

Gates: COVID-19 has cut progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals: Every year, the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers Report on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is full of good news. Not this year.

Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan publishes report claiming COVID-19 was made in a lab

Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan publishes report claiming COVID-19 was made in a lab: A virologist who fled China after studying the early outbreak of COVID-19 has published a new report claiming the coronavirus likely came from a lab.

Researchers highlight ‘questionable’ data in Russian coronavirus vaccine trial results

Researchers highlight ‘questionable’ data in Russian coronavirus vaccine trial results: A group of researchers have expressed concern about repetitive patterns of data in a paper describing early-phase clinical trials of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine — the first jab worldwide to be approved for widespread use.

In an open letter to the study authors, who published the trial results this month in The Lancet, the researchers highlight values that seem to be duplicated, and warn that the paper presents its results only as box plots without providing a detailed breakdown of the data on which they are based.

What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 15 September

COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 15 September: Top stories: India nears 5 million cases; new restrictions in France; progress on global health facing major setbacks.

COVID-19 arrived on a meteorite, claims Elsevier book chapter

COVID-19 arrived on a meteorite, claims Elsevier book chapter: We’ve heard plenty of bizarre theories about the novel coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, from its having been manufactured in a Chinese lab to its links to 5G cell technology. But this one wins the prize for being, as one Twitter user said, “batshit.”

Update COVID-19 safety rules, say researchers

Chart of the day: Update COVID-19 safety rules, say researchers: Current COVID-19 social distancing rules are too rigid and need to reflect real-life risks better, say Oxford and MIT researchers.
They have broken-down situations into high- and low-risk categories – including speaking and singing.
In some situations we should probably relax restrictions, they advise, and in others, increase them.
The researchers say airflow is also a major factor in dispersing infectious droplets carrying the virus.