The Daily Populous

Tuesday May 19th, 2020 day edition

image for Coronavirus: Wearing surgical masks can reduce COVID-19 spread by 75%, study claims

Wearing surgical masks can significantly reduce the chances of those with COVID-19 infecting others, researchers have claimed.

Image: The UK government is now advising people to wear masks where they cannot practise social distancing.

Dr Yuen, who helped discover the SARS virus in 2003, said the study was the first of its kind.

He said that his team conducted the study because - while he has long supported wearing masks - world leaders, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), had questioned their effectiveness.

Researchers said they found that without any masks between the cages, two-thirds of the healthy hamsters were infected within a week.

Transmission can be reduced by 50% when surgical masks are used, especially when masks are worn by infected individuals.

Hong Kong suffered 298 deaths from SARS, second only to mainland China, but the territory has only reported four fatalities from COVID-19. »

The times when an average American consumed 90 bottles of whiskey a year

Authored by moneycontrol.com

Even after factoring in the abstainers, Americans were consuming 1.7 bottles of a standard 80-proof liquor per person, per week.

At this point, it was cheaper and more profitable to convert corn into whiskey than transporting it to eastern markets, without it spoiling.

Thus, as Okrent notes, by 1820s, whiskey was sold at twenty-five cents a gallon, making it cheaper than wine, beer, tea, coffee and even milk. »

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2–Specific Antibodies Among Adults in Los Angeles County, California, on April 10-11, 2020

Authored by jamanetwork.com
image for

Residents of Los Angeles County, California, within a 15-mile (24 km) radius of the testing site were eligible for participation.

We used a proprietary database representative of the county maintained by LRW Group, a market research firm, to select participants.

We thank John Walton Senterfitt and Alysia Kwon, ScM, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, for IRB support. »

Authorities announce forfeiture of ancient Gilgamesh tablet from Hobby Lobby's Museum of the Bible

Authored by nbcnews.com

Federal authorities announced the forfeiture Monday of an ancient tablet inscribed with part of the Epic of Gilgamesh from a museum backed by the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby.

A cuneiform tablet known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet. U.S. District Court Eastern District of NY.

A spokeswoman for the museum said it supported the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to return this Gilgamesh fragment to Iraq. »

'I cannot stress this enough, this will kill you': Fox News host Neil Cavuto was shocked by Trump's announcement that he's taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus.

Authored by businessinsider.com

Fox News host Neil Cavuto was stunned by President Donald Trump's announcement on Monday that he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive treatment for coronavirus.

Fox News host Neil Cavuto was shocked by President Donald Trump's announcement on Monday that he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive treatment for coronavirus, and warned of the drug's potential side effects.

Right after Cavuto went off the air, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld of "The Five" encouraged viewers to take the drug. »