CategoryEducation

Israel leads vaccine race with 12% given jab

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Israel has given vaccinations against coronavirus to more than one million people, the highest rate in the world, as global immunisation efforts step up.

Israel has a rate of 11.55 vaccination doses per 100 people, followed by Bahrain at 3.49 and the UK at 1.47, according to a global tracking website affiliated with Oxford University.

In comparison, France had vaccinated 138 people in total by 30 December.

More than 1.8m people have now died of the virus around the world.

The comparative figures on vaccination are put together by Our World in Data, which is a collaboration between Oxford and a UK-based educational charity.

They measure the number of people who have received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Most of the vaccines approved for use so far rely on two doses, given more than a week apart.

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Operation Moonshot to mass test for Covid will start trials within weeks, says Boris

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Millions of fast Covid tests will be trialled within weeks under Operation Moonshot, the Prime Minister has announced.

Boris Johnson said that some new, faster Covid-19 tests have proven “highly effective” – and could deliver results in just 15 minutes.

He said that the UK is developing the capacity to manufacture millions of new fast turnaround tests – but warned it would take time to roll them out.

Speaking at a No10 press conference today, Mr Johnson said: “We have already bought millions of these tests, some of which are very simple – meaning you wipe the swab inside your mouth – and can give a result as quickly as in 15 minutes.

“Some of these fast tests work with saliva and we are already using these in hospitals. 

“We have started building the infrastructure for domestic manufacture of these tests, ensuring that Britain has the ability to produce millions of fast tests here. 

“Over the next few weeks we will start distributing and trialling these tests across the country.

“This will enable us to do quick turnaround tests on NHS and care home staff much more frequently.

“By testing more frequently and quickly than ever before, we can hope we can help prevent the virus entering and spreading through care homes.

“We will be able to test students in universities with outbreaks, as well as children in schools, helping us to keep education open safely through the winter.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12948804/millions-fast-covid-tests-trialled-within-weeks-boris/HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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A carpenter saved his whole life to fund college scholarships and helped 33 strangers go to school for free

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Four years ago, one of the happiest days of Kira Conard’s life carried a cloud of sadness.

At a high school graduation party, her friends were buzzing with excitement about their next steps. Many were going to college, but the aspiring therapist in Des Moines, Iowa, scarcely had the heart to tell them she couldn’t go. Her family just couldn’t afford it.

Raised by a single parent with three older sisters, “paying for all four of us was never an option,” she told CNN affiliate KCCI. But then she got a call from a stranger offering a scholarship.

“I broke down into tears immediately,” she said.

The man on the other end of the line told her that her dreams would be funded by an angel named Dale Schroeder.

Born in 1919, Schroeder worked as a carpenter for 67 years at the same business in Des Moines. When he died in 2005, he had amassed almost $3 million in savings.

Schroeder had owned two pairs of jeans, one for work and one for church, his friend Steve Nielsen, a lawyer, told KCCI. He never married and had no living descendents.

Before his death, Schroeder walked into Nielsen’s office and told him he wanted to start a scholarship. He hadn’t had the chance to go to college but wanted others to be able to get an education.

Nielsen described Schroeder as a “blue-collar, lunch-pail kind of guy.”

Since his death in 2005, that money has been doled out to 33 Iowans.

Conard, whose dream of becoming a therapist has been financed by the fund, is the last person to receive one of Schroeder’s scholarships; after putting 33 students through school, his fund is finally tapped out.

“For a man that would never meet me to give me basically a full ride to college, that’s incredible. That doesn’t happen,” she said.

Schroeder’s legacy lives on as Dale’s Kids are making their mark on the world.

“All we ask is that you pay it forward,” Nielsen said. “You can remember him, and you can emulate him.””Dale’s Kids” met for dinner on Saturday to catch up on each other’s lives and to honor the man who made their dreams possible. They sat around the old carpenter’s lunch pail to share updates on their lives. Many are now doctors, teachers and therapists.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/19/us/carpenter-funds-33-college-scholarships-trnd/index.htmlHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Suicide bombing survivor gets highest score in country on Afghanistan’s national exam

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Shamsea Alizada’s story could so easily have ended when she was just 15.

A coal miner’s daughter whose family had moved all around Afghanistan seeking safety and the chance for her and her siblings to get a good education, Ms. Alizada was among the lucky who evaded the suicide bombing that killed dozens of her fellow students at a Kabul tutoring center two years ago.

But if it was luck that saved Ms. Alizada, now 17, it was resilience and hard work that made her a national inspiration, when it was announced on television on Thursday that she had achieved the highest score out of nearly 200,000 students on Afghanistan’s national university entrance exam. Her mother saw it and gave her the happy news personally.

“I thought she was kidding. But when I entered the room, I saw the brightest smile on my mother’s face,” Ms. Alizada said in an interview. “I have seen her smiling, but yesterday’s smile was something else. Her smile was a gift and made my day; it was better than gaining the highest score in the country.”

A generation ago, she would probably never have gotten the chance. Under Taliban rule, girls were prevented from going to school. It is the success of Ms. Alizada and young Afghans like her that have provided one of the few bright spots in the decades of war and unrealized Western goals since: More girls are not only going to school, they are also starting to translate that into social mobility.

Ms. Alizada was a junior student at a tutoring center that prepared underprivileged Afghans for the country’s competitive university entrance exam when a suicide bomber walked into a lecture hall packed with more than 200 older students and detonated his explosive vest.

Half of the students in the room were killed or wounded, and Ms. Alizada lost friends and young women she looked up to. A center that incubated a universal dream — a good education as the ticket out of poverty and oppression — was turned into a scene of carnage, the algebra equations on the whiteboard covered in blood.

That kind of violence keeps ending young, hopeful Afghan lives every day, curtailing the dreams of women and minorities even before the Taliban can start imposing terms. Extremists in Afghanistan, in essence, control both sides of that equation — keeping up the violence to help their position in talks now, while holding to their goal of a return to an unbending Islamic rule later.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/world/asia/afghanistan-woman-university.htmlHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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New PCR test should avoid long quarantine times

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Bosch has developed a new rapid test for its Vivalytic analyzer to detect the SARS CoV-2 pathogen. The test result is reliably determined in 39 minutes – currently no other PCR test worldwide is faster, the company says, and the new rapid test is predestined for decentralized use in mobile test centers at highway rest stops or airports. People tested can obtain a reliable result directly at the place where the sample is taken.

The CE-marked test is available in Europe with immediate effect and helps to avoid quarantine periods, relieve the burden on laboratories and make travel and work safer again: “One key to combating the corona pandemic is the rapid detection of sources of infection. That’s why it was important for us to make a much faster one possible after our first corona test, “says Dr. Volkmar Denner, Chairman of the Board of Management of Robert Bosch GmbH. The PCR singleplex test, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, has a sensitivity of 98 percent and a specificity of 100 percent. It was jointly developed by the Bosch subsidiary Bosch Healthcare Solutions and the German biotechnology company R-Biopharm

https://www.interview-welt.de/2020/09/27/corona-neuer-pcr-test-soll-lange-quarant%C3%A4ne-zeiten-vermeiden/HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Feared coronavirus outbreaks in schools yet to arrive, early data show

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Thousands of students and teachers have become sick with the coronavirus since schools began opening last month, but public health experts have found little evidence that the virus is spreading inside buildings, and the rates of infection are far below what is found in the surrounding communities.

This early evidence, experts say, suggests that opening schools may not be as risky as many have feared and could guide administrators as they charter the rest of what is already an unprecedented school year.

“Everyone had a fear there would be explosive outbreaks of transmission in the schools. In colleges, there have been. We have to say that, to date, we have not seen those in the younger kids, and that is a really important observation,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

On Wednesday, researchers at Brown University, working with school administrators, released their first set of data from a new National COVID-19 School Response Data Dashboard, created to track coronavirus cases. It found low levels of infection among students and teachers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/feared-covid-outbreaks-in-schools-yet-to-arrive-early-data-shows/2020/09/23/0509bb84-fd22-11ea-b555-4d71a9254f4b_story.htmlHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Nigerian Boy Earns Prestigious Dance Scholarship After Viral Ballet Video

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FACTS ABOUT OUR PROGRAM. Behind those fanciful in class beauty and costumes are lots and lots of backstage hard work. With very little or no resources our kids are training to be the best they can. This is not to bring down anyone but to show their high level of dedication and committments to our program. Who wouldn’t be proud of them? What teacher wouldn’t pray for students who shows/comes to class with so much desire to learn? Kids who are ready to dance with or without conditions. Imagine what more we could achieve if we have more?â–¡ DMs for more information. #leapofdanceacademy #covid19 #donation #vocational #nigerianballetschool #travelingtutusincnigeria #danceacademy #danceeducation #weloveyou #growth #weloveourpartners #yeswecan #dancing #learning

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When Anthony Mmesoma Madu was videoed practicing ballet barefoot in the drizzling rain in Nigeria earlier this year, the 11-year-old thought the footage would be used for a common film study session.

Instead, the cellphone video of him performing the pirouette without shoes on the unevenly wet concrete was seen by a much bigger audience. The video has garnered more than 20 million views on social media including by Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis and Cynthia Erivo, who has won Grammy and Tony awards.

Madu’s practice dance session was so impressive that it earned him a ballet scholarship with the American Ballet Theater in the U.S. It also showed his community that anything is possible.

“I feel very, very surprised, very, very happy,” Madu said after his fellow students at Leap of Dance Academy staged a performance on a dirt street in Lagos, Nigeria, while tossing dust into the air in celebration.

“I thank God that he made the video to go viral,” he said.

Davis shared Madu’s video with her 1.4 million followers on Twitter. She wrote in the caption “Reminds me of the beauty of my people. We create, soar, can imagine, have unleashed passion, and love…. despite the brutal obstacles that have been put in front of us! Our people can fly!!!”

Erivo decided to sponsor Madu’s training and helped bring the video to the attention of the American Ballet Theater, said Laura Miller, a spokeswoman for the dance company.

“When I got that call that I won a scholarship to the U.S in the year 2021, I was very, very happy, I was like, ‘What? Is this what God can do?’” Madu recalled. Ballet, he added, “is hard to learn but if you put your effort, you can learn it.”

https://time.com/5882477/anthony-madu-viral-ballet-video-scholarship/HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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UK Education secretary says Covid-19 unlikely to spread in classrooms

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The Education Secretary has said there is little evidence of coronavirus transmission in schools, amid suggestions that teachers could call for a “week on week off” approach if there is a virus spike.

Gavin Williamson claimed that ministers were being guided by science in their move to reopen schools to all pupils in England next month.

Mr Williamson referred to a forthcoming study which he described as “one of the largest studies on the coronavirus in schools in the world”, saying it “makes it clear there is little evidence that the virus is transmitted at school”. According to BBC News, Mr Williamson is believed referring to an upcoming report due to be released by Public Health England.

In a statement issued on Sunday, he said there was a “growing confidence among parents about their children returning” to the classroom, adding: “This is down to the hard work of school staff across the country who are putting in place a range of protective measures to prepare to welcome back all pupils at the start of term.”

Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, echoed Mr Williamson’s statements on virus transmission in schools as he said studies suggested children were “very minor players in the transmission overall” of the virus.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/gavin-williamson-coronavirus-spread-testing-schools-reopening-a4520486.htmlHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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U.S. Vice President Mike  Pence says coronavirus positive cases flattening in Arizona, Texas, Florida

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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday that the percentage of positive coronavirus testing is starting to flatten in the hard-hit states of Florida, Texas and Arizona.

“We are actually seeing early indications of a percent positive testing flattening in Arizona and Florida and Texas,” Pence said at a White House coronavirus task force briefing at the Department of Education.

He also said authorities were seeing declining numbers of emergency room visits as well in Arizona and Florida.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-pence/pence-says-coronavirus-positive-cases-flattening-in-arizona-texas-florida-idUSKBN2492JWHELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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Scottish schools aim to reopen full-time in August

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Scottish schools are aiming to reopen full-time with no physical distancing in August if coronavirus continues to be suppressed, John Swinney has said.

Schools had been preparing to return with a “blended” model of face-to-face teaching and at-home learning.

But the education secretary said “significant progress” had been made in controlling the spread of the virus.

Mr Swinney said ministers were now preparing for all schools to open full-time in August.

He had previously targeted having pupils spend at least half their time physically in the classroom, leading to concerns from parents.

Opposition parties said the move was a “u-turn” and a “climbdown” which had been forced by public pressure.

Schools have faced difficulty in working out how to bring pupils back in August while maintaining the current 2m (6ft 6in) physical distancing rule, leading to the blended learning plans.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-53139895HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS!

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