12:37 PM 9/11/2020 - Blogs Review

 

12:37 PM 9/11/2020

Blogs -  Links and Pages - The News and Times - Blogs by Michael Novakhov




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Blogs from Michael_Novakhov (27 sites) 
The News And Times: 11:47 AM 9/11/2020 - Germans want the US forces out of Germany: this is their long term strategy after WW2 | US embassy to challenge Germany over attempts to tax American troops
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: www.washingtontimes.com stories: Security: Pelosi honors 9/11 first responders: 'September 11 does not belong to fear, but rather to courage'
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 9:45 AM 9/11/2020 - Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review In 250 Brief Posts
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 9:30 AM 9/11/2020 - Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained | Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? | How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020
The News And Times: 9:45 AM 9/11/2020 - Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review In 250 Brief Posts
The FBI News Review: 9:30 AM 9/11/2020 - Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained | Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? | How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Odor-sensing cells in nose seen as key entry point for SARS-CoV-2
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work?
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: mikenov on Twitter: RT @ForeignAffairs: With new players in the disinformation game, in all likelihood, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far wors
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine trial pause a 'wake-up call', says WHO
Inmotion Hosting Complaints: Recover your ranks with our Monthly SEO plans
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Century 21, landmark of Lower Manhattan since 1961, files for bankruptcy and plans shutdown of all 13 locations
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: At least 3 dead in Northern Calif. wildfire threatening thousands of homes
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin appears in court for tax evasion charges
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Настоящее Время: "Люди в разрисованных масках и сотрудники милиции". Избитый в изоляторе в Минске мужчина о жестокости силовиков
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 1:56 PM 9/10/2020 - Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign!
The News And Times: 1:56 PM 9/10/2020 - Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign!
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review
The Brooklyn News And Times: 11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review
Blogs from Michael_Novakhov (27 sites) 
The News And Times: 11:47 AM 9/11/2020 - Germans want the US forces out of Germany: this is their long term strategy after WW2 | US embassy to challenge Germany over attempts to tax American troops

Germans want the US forces out of Germany: this is their long term strategy after WW2, and the recent events confirm this, including the decision by the German - Russian - New Abwehr puppet and The Useful Idiot Trump to withdraw the US troops from Germany, with the consent and approval of the German and the New Abwehr agent Putin. - M.N. 11:58 AM 9/11/2020 - Saved and Shared Stories in 25 Posts

The News And Times
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: www.washingtontimes.com stories: Security: Pelosi honors 9/11 first responders: 'September 11 does not belong to fear, but rather to courage'

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from 1. US Security from Michael_Novakhov (87 sites).

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi marked the anniversary of 9/11 Friday morning by honoring the first responders that risked their lives in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

"Nineteen years later, we still remember where we were when the Twin Towers fell, when the Pentagon was struck and when Flight ...



 www.washingtontimes.com stories: Security

Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks

Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 9:45 AM 9/11/2020 - Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review In 250 Brief Posts

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The News And Times.

 

9:45 AM 9/11/2020

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Blogs from Michael_Novakhov (27 sites) 
The FBI News Review: 9:30 AM 9/11/2020 - Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained | Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? | How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Odor-sensing cells in nose seen as key entry point for SARS-CoV-2
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work?
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: mikenov on Twitter: RT @ForeignAffairs: With new players in the disinformation game, in all likelihood, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far wors
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine trial pause a 'wake-up call', says WHO
Inmotion Hosting Complaints: Recover your ranks with our Monthly SEO plans
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Century 21, landmark of Lower Manhattan since 1961, files for bankruptcy and plans shutdown of all 13 locations
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: At least 3 dead in Northern Calif. wildfire threatening thousands of homes
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin appears in court for tax evasion charges
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Настоящее Время: "Люди в разрисованных масках и сотрудники милиции". Избитый в изоляторе в Минске мужчина о жестокости силовиков
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 1:56 PM 9/10/2020 - Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign!
The News And Times: 1:56 PM 9/10/2020 - Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign!
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review
The Brooklyn News And Times: 11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 9:49 AM 9/10/2020 - "Wild animals roaming the cities of the "free" Western world - this is one of the most favorite memes, themes, propaganda scares, etc., etc. of the RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE, POSSIBLY THE GRU AND THEIR MAFIA FRIENDS.
The FBI News Review: 9:49 AM 9/10/2020 - "Wild animals roaming the cities of the "free" Western world - this is one of the most favorite memes, themes, propaganda scares, etc., etc. of the RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE, POSSIBLY THE GRU AND THEIR MAFIA FRIENDS.
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Tiger spotting in Tennessee prompts huge search efforts
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 9:11 AM 9/10/2020 - Blogs Review: News - coronavirus and the brain | Sexual harassment in the FBI - the hidden epidemic. What do we really know about it?
The News And Times: 9:11 AM 9/10/2020 - Blogs Review: News - coronavirus and the brain | Sexual harassment in the FBI - the hidden epidemic. What do we really know about it?
____________________________________________________________

Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review In 250 Brief Posts
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» Odor-sensing cells in nose seen as key entry point for SARS-CoV-2
11/09/20 09:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Hub. By Waun'Shae Blount / Published Aug 24 Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine, experimenting with a small number of human cell samples, report that the "hook" of cells used by SARS-CoV-2 to latc...

» Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained
11/09/20 08:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story . It is still unclear whether the adverse event that caused AstraZeneca to pause enrollment in its COVID-19 vaccine trial was transverse myelitis or not. The New York Times is reporting this morning tha...

» Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work?
11/09/20 08:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Interesting Engineering. Everyone knows the  COVID-19  coronavirus is a respiratory disease, but SARS-CoV-2 the virus associated with the illness responsible for nearly 200,000 deaths in the U.S....

» How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020
11/09/20 08:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from FA RSS. As the United States gets ready for the 2020 presidential election, there is reason to think that this time, the country might be spared the massive interference campaign that Russia carrie...

» mikenov on Twitter: RT @ForeignAffairs: With new players in the disinformation game, in all likelihood, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far wors
10/09/20 18:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Trump Investigations from Michael_Novakhov (124 sites). With new players in the disinformation game, in all likelihood, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far worse. trib.al/RGHx79G Po...

» AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine trial pause a 'wake-up call', says WHO
10/09/20 16:35 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Zurich: AstraZeneca's pause of an experimental vaccine for the coronavirus after the illness of a participant is a "wake-up call" but should not discourage researchers, the World Health Organisation's...

» Century 21, landmark of Lower Manhattan since 1961, files for bankruptcy and plans shutdown of all 13 locations
10/09/20 15:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from New York Daily News. The Manhattan location opened 59 years ago, with Century 21 announcing a going-out-of-business sale there and at stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.

» At least 3 dead in Northern Calif. wildfire threatening thousands of homes
10/09/20 15:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from New York Daily News. Time and time again we have seen how dangerous wildfires can be. ... Please, please please be prepared, maintain situational awareness and heed the warnings.

» Ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin appears in court for tax evasion charges
10/09/20 15:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from New York Daily News. Former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, who was fired after the death of George Floyd and subsequently charged with murder, appeared remotely in court Tuesday over tax evasion ch...

» Настоящее Время: "Люди в разрисованных масках и сотрудники милиции". Избитый в изоляторе в Минске мужчина о жестокости силовиков
10/09/20 14:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from 1. Russia from Michael_Novakhov (115 sites). Белорусским протестам, которые начались 9 августа, уже месяц. Александр Лукашенко в интервью российским журналистам сказал, что в изоляторе на Окрестина...

» 1:56 PM 9/10/2020 - Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign!
10/09/20 14:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The News And Times. Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms?  Shame on you! Resign! |  1:56 PM 9/10/2020 _____________________...

» 11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review
10/09/20 11:35 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Brooklyn News And Times. 11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review <a href="https://brooklynnewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2020/09/am-9102020-news-review-brooklyn-ny-news.html" rel="nofollow">https://brooklynnewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2020/09/am-9102020-news-review-brooklyn-ny-news.html</a> The Brooklyn NY News Review Headlines  |...

» 9:49 AM 9/10/2020 - "Wild animals roaming the cities of the "free" Western world - this is one of the most favorite memes, themes, propaganda scares, etc., etc. of the RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE, POSSIBLY THE GRU AND THEIR MAFIA FRIENDS.
10/09/20 10:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The FBI News Review.  9:49 AM 9/10/2020 - "Wild animals roaming the cities of the "free" Western world - this is one of the most favorite memes, themes, propaganda scares, etc., etc. of the RUSSIAN...

» Tiger spotting in Tennessee prompts huge search efforts
10/09/20 09:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from New York Daily News. Notice of Right to Opt Out If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives you the right to opt out of the sale of your personal informa...

» 9:11 AM 9/10/2020 - Blogs Review: News - coronavirus and the brain | Sexual harassment in the FBI - the hidden epidemic. What do we really know about it?
10/09/20 09:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The News And Times.  9:11 AM 9/10/2020 - Blogs Review:  News - coronavirus and the brain  |   Sexual harassment in the FBI - the hidden epidemic. What do we really know about it? <a href="https://thenewsand" rel="nofollow">https://thenewsand</a>...

» 8:38 AM 9/10/2020 - News - coronavirus and the brain
10/09/20 08:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Tweets And News - From Michael Novakhov. 8:38 AM 9/10/2020 -  News - coronavirus and the brain - Google Search google.com/search?q=coron pic.twitter.com/3rRHsFVcGH <a href="https://tweetsandnews.blogspot.co" rel="nofollow">https://tweetsandnews.blogspot.co</a>...



Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 9:30 AM 9/11/2020 - Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained | Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? | How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The FBI News Review.


9:30 AM 9/11/2020 - 

Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained |
Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? |
How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020



Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks | In Brief | 
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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks 
Odor-sensing cells in nose seen as key entry point for SARS-CoV-2
Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained |
Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? |
How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020
mikenov on Twitter: RT @ForeignAffairs: With new players in the disinformation game, in all likelihood, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far wors
AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine trial pause a 'wake-up call', says WHO
Century 21, landmark of Lower Manhattan since 1961, files for bankruptcy and plans shutdown of all 13 locations
At least 3 dead in Northern Calif. wildfire threatening thousands of homes
Ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin appears in court for tax evasion charges
Настоящее Время: "Люди в разрисованных масках и сотрудники милиции". Избитый в изоляторе в Минске мужчина о жестокости силовиков
1:56 PM 9/10/2020 - Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign!
11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review
9:49 AM 9/10/2020 - "Wild animals roaming the cities of the "free" Western world - this is one of the most favorite memes, themes, propaganda scares, etc., etc. of the RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE, POSSIBLY THE GRU AND THEIR MAFIA FRIENDS.
Tiger spotting in Tennessee prompts huge search efforts
9:11 AM 9/10/2020 - Blogs Review: News - coronavirus and the brain | Sexual harassment in the FBI - the hidden epidemic. What do we really know about it?
8:38 AM 9/10/2020 - News - coronavirus and the brain
Three Stages to COVID-19 Brain Damage, New Review ... coronavirus and the brain: reviews - Google Search google.com/search?q=coron pic.twitter.com/kgEsaCUgME
News - coronavirus and the brain - Google Search google.com/search?q=coron pic.twitter.com/3rRHsFVcGH
8:09 AM 9/10/2020 - Trump administration intends to end Covid-19 screenings of passengers arriving from overseas - Saved and Shared Stories In 50 Posts
Neuroinvasion of SARS-CoV-2 in human and mouse brain | bioRxiv
coronavirus and the brain - Google Search
7:25 AM 9/10/2020 - Tweets: Sexual harassment in the FBI - the hidden epidemic. What do we really know about it?
itnnews's YouTube Videos: West Coast Wildfires: San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge Covered in Dramatic Orange Haze
How the Coronavirus Attacks the Brain
12:51 AM 9/10/2020 - Trump Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize


Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks
The News And Times: 9:45 AM 9/11/2020 - Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review In 250 Brief Posts

9:45 AM 9/11/2020Blogs from Michael_Novakhov_______________________________________________________________Blogs from Michael_Novakhov (27 sites) The FBI News Review: 9:30 AM 9/11/2020 - Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained | Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? | How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020Michael Novakhov -

The News And Times
The FBI News Review: 9:30 AM 9/11/2020 - Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained | Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? | How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020

9:30 AM 9/11/2020 - Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained |Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work? |How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinksMichael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks | In Brief | -Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks Odor-sensing cells in nose seen as key entry point for

The FBI News Review
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Odor-sensing cells in nose seen as key entry point for SARS-CoV-2

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Hub.

By Waun'Shae Blount

/Published Aug 24

Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine, experimenting with a small number of human cell samples, report that the "hook" of cells used by SARS-CoV-2 to latch onto and infect cells is up to 700 times more prevalent in the olfactory supporting cells lining the inside of the upper part of the nose than in the lining cells of the rest of the nose and windpipe that leads to the lungs. These supporting cells are necessary for the function/development of odor-sensing cells.

The findings, from a preliminary study of cells lining both the nose and trachea, could advance the search for the best target for topical or local antiviral drugs to treat COVID-19, and offer further clues into why people with the virus sometimes lose their sense of smell.

A summary of the findings appears in a letter published Aug. 19 in the European Respiratory Journal.

"Loss of the sense of smell is associated with COVID-19, generally in the absence of other nasal symptoms, and our research may advance the search for a definitive reason for how and why that happens, and where we might best direct some treatments," says Andrew Lane, professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, and director of the Johns Hopkins Sinus Center.

Lane's medical practice focuses on people with nasal and sinus problems, who oftentimes, he says, lose their sense of smella condition called anosmia.

Scientists have known that SARS-CoV-2 latches on to a biological hook on the surface of many types of human cells, called an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, or ACE2, receptor. The receptor reels in essential molecules.

Johns Hopkins responds to COVID-19

Coverage of how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting operations at JHU and how Hopkins experts and scientists are responding to the outbreak

In a bid to explore the ACE2 link to COVID-19 in more detail, Lane and Mengfei Chen, a research associate in Lane's lab, as well as others on the team took a close look at ACE2 levels in nasal tissue specimens from 19 adult men and women with chronic rhinosinusitis (inflammation of nasal tissue) and in tissues from a control group of four people who had nasal surgeries for issues other than sinusitis.

The researchers also studied tissue samples of the trachea from seven people who underwent surgery for abnormal narrowing of the trachea.

Cells from children were not examined for this study, in part because they tend to have low ACE2 levels in the cells lining the nose, which may contribute to generally less severe illness among children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. None of the study participants had been diagnosed with COVID-19.

The scientists used a high-resolution imaging technique called confocal microscopy to produce very sharp images of cells lining the nasal and tracheal airways. They used fluorescent stains to identify ACE2 receptors.

They found high levels of ACE2 among nasal cells that give structural support called sustentacular cells. These cells are located in an area called the olfactory neuroepithelium, where odor-sensing neurons are found. The researchers say this area of the nose may be particularly vulnerable to infection and might be the only infected site even when there are no symptoms. Because of this, they urge people to wear masks and wear them correctly.

For the study, depending on the biopsy sample, cells in the olfactory neuroepithelium had a 200-fold to 700-fold increase in ACE2 proteins compared with other samples from the nose and trachea. Because the cells with high levels of ACE2 are associated with odor sensing, the researchers suggest that infection of these cells may be the reason some people with COVID-19 experience loss of smell.

Two of seven trachea specimens had low levels of ACE2 receptors, and the amount of those receptors was similar between study participants with and without chronic rhinosinusitus.

Because the cells lining the nose may prove to be a key entry point for SARS-CoV-2, Lane says there may be ways to target those particular cells with topical antiviral drugs or other therapies directly to that area.



Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Transverse Myelitis, Possible Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

It is still unclear whether the adverse event that caused AstraZeneca to pause enrollment in its COVID-19 vaccine trial was transverse myelitis or not.

The New York Times is reporting this morning that in a statement to reporters yesterday an AstraZeneca spokesperson said the individual did not have a confirmed [emphasis added] case of transverse myelitis. The newspaper reported two days ago that an anonymous source said a woman in the United Kingdom who had the possible adverse reaction to the vaccine had received a diagnosis of transverse myelitis.

Stat, which broke the story that the trial had been put on hold, reported yesterday that companys CEO, Pascal Soriot, told investors in a conference call today that the symptoms of the woman whose illness led the company to pause of the trial are consistent with transverse myelitis, although in the same story the biotech news site reported that diagnosis had not been confirmed.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that a form from July that was posted on an international registry of clinical trials said a study volunteer had developed symptoms of transverse myelitis.

Meanwhile, health officials and experts are cautioning that it is common for vaccine trials to be put on hold as researchers investigate whether illnesses that occur in study volunteers are, in fact, related to the vaccine. Its quite common for serious adverse events to occur, most not relevant to the vaccine, Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor told the Journal.

Whether or not the adverse event is confirmed as a case of transverse myelitis or not, the news over the last few days has asking a lot of questions about transverse myelitis.

Here is some information for people who are unfamiliar with it:

What is transverse myelitis?

In simple terms, it is inflammation of the spinal cord. Wolters Kluwer UpToDate, the database of reviews of medical topics, describes transverse myelitis as a mixed inflammatory disorder that affects neurons, axons, and oligodendrocytes [the cells that produce myelin] and myelin. A 2010 clinical practice article in the New England Journal of Medicine described the pathological hallmark of the condition as being the focal collection of lymphocytes and monocytes with varying degrees of demyelination, axonal injury and astroglial and microglial activation within the spinal cord.

Why is it called transverse myelitis?

Myelitis is the medical term for inflammation of the spinal cord. In some accounts, the modifier transverse is explained as referring to the pattern of symptoms that go across the body. But the better explanation is that transverse refers to the transverse, or horizontal, plane of the spinal cord and the fact that the inflammation is usually limited to a relatively small area of the spinal cord, not its whole length. Transverse also refers to the fact that both the ascending (that carry sensory messages to the brain) and descending (which direct voluntary movement) tracts of the spinal cord are affected.

What causes transverse myelitis?

A large proportion  how large varies with the study  of cases are associated with central nervous system autoimmune disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, and other autoimmune disorders, such as sarcoidosis and Sjögren syndrome. In fact, transverse myelitis can be the first demyelinating event that precedes full-blown multiple sclerosis.

Another large fraction of cases as large as two thirds in some studies of transverse myelitis cases are labeled idiopathic, meaning that the cause is uncertain. But that is a bit of a misnomer because a large proportion of those idiopathic cases occur after an illness or infection of some kind has occurred. Nevertheless, these are considered idiopathic because the causative nature of the infection is seldom proven, says the Wolters Kluwer UpToDate article on transverse myelitis. The thinking is that an infection can trigger an aberrant, unregulated immune response that turns on the body and, in this case, the spinal cord instead of taking on the invasive organism.

Some of the infectious agents that have been linked to the development of transverse myelitis include the enteroviruses, the West Nile virus, and the Zika virus. Transverse myelitis can also be a complication of Lyme disease, which is typically caused by bacterium Borrelia burgdorfer

There have been several case reports suggesting that COVID-19 itself could trigger transverse myelitis. For example, in a letter published in May in the Journal of Neurology, German clinicians described the case of a 60-year-old man who recovered quickly from COVID-19 pneumonia but then developed symptoms suggestive of transverse myelitis three days after he was discharged.

Do other vaccines cause transverse myelitis?

There are reports of instances when getting a vaccine appeared to lead to transverse myelitis. But Roger Baxter of the Northern California Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center in Oakland, California, and his colleagues used the Vaccine Safety Database to look at the question more systematically. Among 64 million vaccine doses, they found 7 cases of transverse myelitis and no statistically valid association between those cases and prior vaccination. They reported the results of their study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases in 2016. in the Vaccine Safety Database to look at the question more systematically.

How common is transverse myelitis?

An incidence of between one to eight cases per million people is cited often. Such a proportion would mean a range of between 330 and 2,640 new cases in the United States annually. The authors of the NEJM clinical practice piece noted that if cases associated with multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating disorders are included, the estimated incidence increases to about 25 cases per million, which would translate into roughly 8,000 cases occurring in the U.S. annually.

What are the symptoms?

Transverse myelitis is divided into subtypes based on how large the area of inflammation is, whether it affects both sides of the spinal cord symmetrically, and other factors. The symptoms vary with these subtype and where on the length of the spinal cord the inflammation is present.

In a nontechnical explanation on its website, the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center says the four classic symptoms are weakness in the arms and legs, sensory symptoms such as numbing and tingling, pain and discomfort, and bladder dysfunction, bowel motility problems, or both.

How is it diagnosed?

Clinicians are encouraged to take a patient history and assess symptoms carefully because they can yield important diagnostic clues. After that, one of the first steps is an MRI scan of the spine, partly to rule out that the symptoms arent the result of a compressive lesion something (herniated disc, for example) impinging on the spinal cord that might be treated with surgery. The contrast agents used in MRI scans can also yield some diagnostic information that may (or may not) lead to transverse myelitis diagnosis. The diagnosis also hinges on the analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid, which is collected via lumbar puncture. High white blood cells can be indicative of inflammation. Measurements of antibody can indicate whether multiple sclerosis is likely.

The authors of the NEJM article note that transverse myelitis syndrome has an extensive differential diagnosis, which means a number of other tests might be done to rule out other causes. For example, a brain MRI might be ordered to detect the presences of lesions that are indicative of multiple sclerosis.

How is it treated?

Treatment with intravenous corticosteroids is the standard first-line treatment and has been for a while. Although the NEJM article was published 10 years ago, the authors identify intravenous corticosteroids as the front-line treatment. The authors of Wolters Kluwer UpToDate article say their preferred regimens are methylprednisolone or dexamethasone for three to five days. The Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center notes the lack of evidence from clinical trials but says it is well recognized as a standard of care that patients suspected to have acute myelitis receive high-dose intravenous methyl-prednisolone for 3-5 days, unless there are compelling reasons not to.

The standard second-line treatment if intravenous corticosteroids arent effective is plasma exchange, which involves filtering out a patients plasma and replacing it plasma from a donor or a saline solution that contains albumin. The Wolters Kluwer UpToDate authors say that for patients with significant deficits, waiting for end of the corticosteroid treatment isnt necessary. The Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center takes a slightly different approach, saying that plasma exchange is often used for patients with moderate to aggressive forms of transverse myelitis who dont show much improvement after being treated with intravenous and oral steroids.

Immunosuppressant or immunomodulatory agents may be used to treat people with recurring transverse myelitis or cases that dont respond to intravenous corticosteroids or plasma exchange. The Wolters Kluwer UpToDate authors mention mycophenolate and intravenous rituximab. The Johns Hopkins center mentions intravenous cyclophosphamide.



Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Coronavirus Infects, Hijacks Brain - How Does It Work?

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Interesting Engineering.

Everyone knows the COVID-19 coronavirus is a respiratory disease, but SARS-CoV-2 the virus associated with the illness responsible for nearly 200,000 deaths in the U.S. also affects other organ systems, including the central nervous system. Whether this damage extends to the brain, no one was sure. Until now.

A new study found the first clear evidence that some people will suffer an invasion of the coronavirus in their brain cells hijacking them to copy and reproduce itself, according to a new study shared on a pre-print website.

The virus also absorbs all nearby oxygen, effectively starving neighboring cells to death.

RELATED: COVID-19 VACCINE LIKELY COMING THIS NOVEMBER, CDC TELLS STATES

COVID-19 can infect, hijack brain cells

As of writing it remains unclear how the virus associated with COVID-19 illness enters the brain, or how often it launches its path of destruction, reports The New York Times.

COVID-19 infection in the brain is probably rare, but some people are more vulnerable than others because of genetic backgrounds, high viral load, or other, miscellaneous reasons.

"If the brain does become infected, it could have a lethal consequence," said Akiko Iwasaki, a Yale University immunologist and lead author of the study, the Times reports.

The study is still waiting for expert review, but several researchers agree it is careful and elegant, displaying multiple ways brain cells may suffer from COVID-19 infection.

Coronavirus uses ACE2 protein to invade the brain

The team first used human brain organoids which are clusters of brain cells in a lab dish designed to mimic the brain's 3D structure. Using these, the research team found clear evidence of infection, along with the associated metabolic changes in infected and neighboring neurons. But no evidence for type I interferon responses were found.

"We demonstrate that neuronal infection can be prevented either by blocking ACE2 with antibodies or by administering cerebrospinal fluid from a COVID-19 patient," read the study.

The research team also used mice that overexpresses ACE2 a protein the coronavirus uses to enter human cells and showed that death is associated with cases when the virus invades the brain without touching the lungs.

"These results provide evidence for the neuroinvasive capacity of SARS-CoV-2, and an unexpected consequence of direct infection of neurons by SARS-CoV-2," concluded the study's abstract.

Brain imaging shows coronavirus hijacks cells, copies itself, starves nearby neurons

Scientists have to use brain imaging and patient symptoms to infer the effects of the virus on the brain, but the ones involved in the study "hadn't really seen much evidence that the virus can infect the brain, even though we knew it was a potential possibility," said Michael Zandi, consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Britain, the Times reports. "This data just provides a little bit more evidence that it certainly can."

Zandi and his colleagues also published research in July, suggesting patients with COVID-19 develop serious neurological issues like nerve damage.

The new study saw Iwasaki and her colleagues document brain infection in three different ways: in brain matter from a person who was killed from COVID-19 illness, in a mouse model, and in organoids.

Other deadly pathogens like the Zika virus are known to infect the brain's cells. Immune cells typically then flood sites of damage in a bid to cleanse the brain by destroying all infected cells.

However, the coronavirus works in stealth-mode: It uses brain cell machinery to multiply without destroying them choking adjacent cells of oxygen until they die.

No signs of human immune system response

Autopsies from patients who died from COVID-19 revealed the presence of the coronavirus in cortical neurons and showed no evidence significant immune response to fight infiltrating coronavirus cells. "It's kind of s silent infection," said Iwasaki. "The virus has a lot of evasion mechanisms."

When the coronavirus attacks the brain, it appears to rapidly decrease the number of synapses connections between neurons. "Days after infection, and we already see a dramatic reduction in the amount of synapses," said Alysson Muotri, a neuroscientist at the University of California who has studied both the coronavirus and the Zika virus.

Previous studies wrong about brain security from virus

The virus infects a host cell using a protein on its surface called ACE2. This protein also shows up throughout the human body especially in the lungs which helps explain why they tend to infect there the most.

While earlier studies suggested the brain was relatively safe from coronavirus infection via its lack of ACE2 proteins, Iwasaki and her colleagues concluded after further scrutiny that the brain is indeed susceptible to infection. "It's pretty clear that it is expressed in the neurons and it's required for entry," she said, reports the Times.

As potential vaccines to the COVID-19 coronavirus ready for distribution across the U.S., we are learning that the virus can be deadly in more ways than previously thought infecting and hijacking brain cells to reproduce itself while suffocating nearby neurons.

We have created an interactive page to demonstrate engineers noble efforts against COVID-19 across the world. If you are working on a new technology or producing any equipment in the fight against COVID-19, please send your project to us to be featured.



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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from FA RSS.

As the United States gets ready for the 2020 presidential election, there is reason to think that this time, the country might be spared the massive interference campaign that Russia carried out in 2016. Back then, Moscow had a clear opportunity. The cost of running the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the St. Petersburgbased troll farm set up by the Kremlin to spread disinformation during the U.S. election, was about $1.25 million a month. That was a small price to pay for a remarkable foreign policy coup: a seemingly pro-Russian U.S. president in Donald Trump, a humiliating defeat for Hillary Clinton (whom Russian President Vladimir Putin had long disliked), and, above all, a chance to expose U.S. democracy as dysfunctional. Unprepared and seemingly unaware of the planned Russian operation, the United States was low-hanging fruit.

Four years on, Moscows calculus is less straightforward. The pandemic and the ensuing crash in oil prices hit the country hard, and Putins approval ratings have taken a nosedive. In the past, the Russian president has used foreign policy wins, such as the 2014 invasion of Crimea and Russias years-long intervention in Syria, to maintain his support at home. The unspoken contract behind this strategythat making Russia great again on the world stage was worth some economic sacrifices by its citizenshad grown fragile even before the pandemic. Now, with the Russian economy on a path to long-term stagnation, the majority of Russians want their government to focus on the problems at home. Selling them another foreign policy adventure will be a tall order.

On top of these domestic concerns, the Kremlin would need to work harder in order to manipulate U.S. voters and cover its tracks this time around. A growing cottage industry of analysts now monitors Russias disinformation operations across the world. Social media companies have become more aggressive in taking down networks of inauthentic accounts and bots, and they are more willing to point the finger at Moscow and other governments. And the investigation by the U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller revealed the Kremlins operational tactics in impressive detail, naming both IRA employees and operatives of the GRU, Russias military intelligence unit, which carried out cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

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Yet its equally plausible that Russia might try again. As Putin positions himself to be Russias leader for life, undermining faith in democracy writ large is still very much in the Kremlins interest. Most of Russias interference in 2016 aimed to amplify divisions around hot-button social issues such as race, immigration, and religion. These divisions have only deepened in the coronavirus era, providing even more ample opportunities to incite chaos. A more divided United States means a more inward-looking White House that will be less concerned with pushing back against Russias activities in Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere. And if the Kremlin once feared the potential consequences of exposure, the United States mild response after 2016 put those fears to rest. Although it laid bare the extent of Russias meddling, the special counsels investigation resulted in only 13 indictments of Russian nationals, mostly low-level IRA and GRU operatives. The U.S. Congress imposed additional targeted sanctions on individual Russian officials and entities but shied away from more aggressive measures, such as instituting broad sanctions on Russian business sectors or restricting Russian financial institutions access to the SWIFT international banking payment system. All the while, Trump, who considers any mention of Russian meddling an attack on his own legitimacy, repeatedly went against his countrys intelligence community by believing Putins denials.

The Russian government came away emboldened, judging from its daring covert actions in the years since. In 2018, the GRU poisoned and nearly killed the former double agent Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, and earlier this year, it was reported that Russia had orchestrated a scheme in 2019 to pay Taliban fighters bounties for attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. At the same time, Russias disinformation peddlers have refined their tactics, with social media accounts linked to Russia spreading falsehoods on a number of topics, from the Skripal attack to the Catalan independence movement to the pandemic.

The U.S. government, meanwhile, has responded tepidly to Russian meddling and is now consumed by the pandemic. Russia and others know they are pushing on an open door. With new players in the disinformation game, in all likelihood, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far worse.

A TSUNAMI OF FALSEHOODS

A big part of the risk is that Russia is no longer the sole danger. The lack of serious retaliation or long-lasting consequences for its behavior has effectively left the door open for others to follow Russias lead. To these newcomers, the Kremlins 2016 operation against the United States offers a handy step-by-step guide.

Step one is to build an audience. As early as 2014, the IRA had set up fake social media accounts purportedly belonging to ordinary Americans. Using those accounts, it created online content that was not necessarily divisive or even political but simply designed to attract attention. One IRA Instagram account, @army_of_jesus, initially posted image stills from The Muppet Show and The Simpsons. Between 2015 and 2017, the IRA also purchased a total of over 3,500 online ads for approximately $100,000 to promote its pages.

When it comes to disinformation, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far worse.

Step two is to flip the switch. Once an IRA-run account gained some following, it suddenly began publishing increasingly divisive content on race, immigration, and religion. One prominent account was the anti-immigrant Facebook group Secured Borders; another was a proBlack Lives Matter pair of Facebook and Twitter accounts called Blacktivist. The most popular IRA-controlled group, United Muslims of America, had over 300,000 followers on Facebook by mid-2017, when Facebook deactivated the account. Many of the accounts began publishing anti-Clinton content in 2015, adding pro-Trump messaging to the mix the following year.

Step three is to make it real. In time, the IRAs fake accounts sent private messages to their real-life followers, urging Americans to organize rallies that would sometimes pit opposing groups against each other. According to the special counsels investigation, the IRA Instagram account Stand for Freedom tried to organize a pro-Confederate rally in Houston as early as 2015. The next year, another IRA-organized rally in Houston, against the Islamization of Texas, pitted protesters and counterprotesters against each other outside the Islamic Dawah Center. In all, the special counsels investigation identified dozens of IRA-organized rallies in the United States.

The IRA was able to reach millions and millions of people126 million through Facebook alone, according to the company, and 1.4 million through Twitter. The GRUs publication of thousands of stolen Clinton campaign emails dominated news headlines for months, tarnishing the image of the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign. Such success in reaching large numbers of Americans at a relatively low cost did not go unnoticed, especially by authoritarian regimes. The Iranian government, for example, has stepped up its disinformation operations over the last two years, using methods that are often reminiscent of the IRAs. In 2018, Facebook removed accounts, pages, and groups associated with two disinformation campaigns (or inauthentic coordinated behavior, in the companys language) originating in Iran. One of the campaigns targeted users in the United Kingdom, the United States, Latin America, and the Middle East. It copied the IRAs focus on divisive social issues, especially race, promoting memes in support of the former NFL player and social justice activist Colin Kaepernick and cartoons criticizing the future U.S. Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh. Another Iranian campaign, in January 2019, focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wars in Syria and Yemen and targeted Facebook and Twitter users in dozens of countries, including France, Germany, India, and the United States. At least one of the Iranian-controlled Facebook pages involved had amassed some two million followers. Earlier this year, Facebook removed another set of accounts linked to Iran that it suspected of targeting the United States ahead of the presidential election.

A host of other countries, including Bangladesh, Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, and Venezuela, have also fallen afoul of Facebooks and Twitters rules against disinformation campaigns. But perhaps the most important new player is China. Until recently, Beijing mostly limited its propaganda efforts to its own neighborhood: at the height of the Hong Kong protests in the summer of 2019, Facebook and Twitter for the first time removed accounts and pages linked to the Chinese government; these had been spreading false information about the protests and questioning their legitimacy. In its attempts to change the narrative on how it handled its COVID-19 outbreak, however, Beijing has grown more ambitious: at the peak of the pandemic in Europe this past spring, China unleashed a series of disinformation attacks on several European states, spreading false information about the origins of the virus and the effectiveness of democracies responses to the crisis. This prompted the EU to take the unprecedented step of directly and publicly rebuking Beijing in June of this year.

Future elections in the United States and other democracies will face an onslaught of disinformation and conspiracy theories emanating not just from Russia but also from China, Iran, Venezuela, and beyond. The attacks will come through a number of channels: traditional state-sponsored media, fly-by-night digital outlets, and fake social media accounts and pages. They will deploy artificial intelligence technologies to produce realistic deepfakesaudio and video material generated by artificial intelligence that cannot be easily discerned as such. They will be coordinated across major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, but also across smaller platforms, such as Medium, Pinterest, and Reddit, which are less equipped to defend themselves. New Chinese social media platforms, such as the fast-growing video-sharing app TikTok, will be unlikely to bow to U.S. political pressure to expose disinformation campaigns, especially those carried out by Beijing. Russias firehose of falsehood, as researchers at the RAND Corporation have called it, will turn into a worldwide tsunami.

The Russian playbook has been copied by others, but it has also evolved, in large part thanks to Moscows own innovations. After social media companies got better at verifying accounts, for instance, Russia began looking for ways to roll out its campaigns without relying on fake online profiles. In the run-up to the 2019 presidential election in Ukrainelong a testing ground for Moscows new forms of political warfareRussian agents tried their hand at account rentals. At least one apprehended agent confessed to trying to pay unsuspecting Ukrainians to temporarily hand over some control of their Facebook accounts. The agent planned to use these authentic accounts to promote misleading content and buy political ads.

A barrage of attacks could leave governments and social media companies scrambling to catch up.

Moscow has tested similar methods elsewhere. In the lead-up to the 2018 presidential election in Madagascar, Russian agents established a print newspaper and hired students to write positive articles about the incumbent president. The agents also bought billboards and television ads, paid protesters to attend rallies, and then paid journalists to write about them. In the fall of 2019, a massive disinformation campaign linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian businessman and Putin confidant who allegedly set up the IRA, brought the new rental strategy to several other African countries, including Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Côte dIvoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Mozambique, and Sudan. In each case, Russian operatives worked with locals in order to hide the true origins of the campaign, disguising a foreign influence operation as the voices of domestic actors.

Setting up shell media and social media entities, as Russia did in Africa, is more scalable than the co-optation of individual social media accounts, allowing Russia to reach a larger audience. Most important, however, it lets Russia eradicate that telltale of foreign interference: foreign-based accounts whose location gives away their true identity. In just four years, the once clear line between domestic and foreign disinformation has basically disappeared.

Americans could also be induced to rent out their social media accountsor, in a twisted version of the gig economy, convinced to run disinformation campaigns themselves. U.S. citizens could even become unwitting pawns in such an effort, since Russian agents could easily set up seemingly legitimate shell companies and pay in U.S. dollars. They could also reach out to their targets through encrypted messaging platforms such as WhatsApp (as they did in Africa), adding another layer of secrecy. And because false content that is in fact pushed by foreigners could look like genuine domestic conversations protected by the First Amendment, it would be trickier to crack down on it. A barrage of attacks, combined with the increasingly sophisticated methods used to avoid detection, could leave governments, social media companies, and researchers scrambling to catch up.

BRACE FOR IMPACT

The United States is woefully underprepared for such a scenario, having done little to deter new attacks. Since 2016, the U.S. Congress has not passed any major legislation targeting disinformation peddlers other than the limited sanctions against individual Russian officials and entities, nor has it mandated that social media companies take action. In fact, it is unclear who in the U.S. government even owns the problem. The Global Engagement Center is tasked with countering state-sponsored disinformation, but as part of the State Department, it has no mandate to act inside the United States. A group of government agencies has published guidance on how the federal government should alert the American public of foreign interference, but it is weak on specifics. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency produced an entertaining leaflet showing how easy it is to polarize an online community on seemingly benign issues, such as putting pineapple on a pizza. That agencys parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security, has worked to secure the physical machinery of elections, updating and replacing electronic voting machines and strengthening security around the storage of voter data. And it has tried to improve information sharing among federal, state, and local election authorities. Those are important measures for defending against an election hack, but they are useless against foreign disinformation operations. And Trumps tendency to blur the facts and undermine U.S. intelligence agencies has only worsened Americans confusion about the nature of the 2016 Russian attack, which in turn leaves them vulnerable to future operations aimed at undermining trust in the democratic process.

Social media companies, for their part, have their own patchwork of responses and policies. Whereas Twitter has banned all political advertising (and even restricted the visibility of some of Trumps tweets for violating its policy against abusive behavior), Facebook has said it will allow political ads regardless of their veracity. Concerned with user privacy, social media companies have also been reluctant to share data with outsiders, which makes it difficult for governments and independent groups to inform the public about the scope of the threat. In the United States, the First Amendments far-reaching protections for free speech add another layer of complexity as companies attempt to navigate the gray areas of content moderation.

It is late, but not too late, to shore up U.S. defenses in time for the November election.

A bevy of research groups, consultancies, and nonprofits have emerged to expose disinformation campaigns, advise political campaigns about them, and develop potential tools for responding to future threats such as deepfakes. But exposure in itself is not enough to deter adversaries or even to keep up with the rapid evolution of their tactics. Sometimes, detailing the methods of a disinformation campaign merely provides others a blueprint to follow. The same can happen when Russia watchers explain their methods for detecting disinformation operations: once those methods are out in the open, Russia and others will seek to circumvent them. And so companies, researchers, and governments are stuck playing a game of whack-a-mole, shutting down disinformation campaigns as they arise without any proactive strategy to prevent them in the first place.

It is late, but not too late, to shore up U.S. defenses in time for the November election. The focus should be Russia, given its status as the main originator and innovator of disinformation operations. Fortunately for Washington, the Kremlin tends to make carefully calculated decisions. Putin has shown himself willing to take risks in his foreign policy, but there is a limit to the costs he will incur. Washingtons task is therefore to increase the pain Moscow will feel if it engages in further disinformation campaigns. Doing so would in turn send a clear message to other states looking to mimic Russia.

As a first step, the U.S. government should add individuals and state-linked entities that engage in disinformation campaigns to its sanctions list. Existing executive orders and the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, passed by Congress in 2017, give the government the authority to be far more aggressive on this front. Changing states behavior through sanctions, as the United States aimed to do with the now defunct Iran nuclear deal, requires an expansive sanctions regime that ties good behavior to sanctions relief. That effort has been lacking in the case of Russia. A more assertive sanctions policy, which would likely require new legislation, could sanction the entire Russian cyberwarfare apparatusgovernment agencies, specific technology companies, and cybercriminals.

Second, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development should expand funding for independent research groups and investigative journalists working on exposing Russian-linked corruption across the world. The 2017 Panama Papers investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed rampant corruption in Putins inner circle. Little is known about how such corruption helps finance state-sponsored disinformation campaigns, but the funds devoted to setting up the IRA most certainly came from illicit sources. Identifying Russias complex web of illicit finance is critical in order to cut the lifeline to such operations. Once companies, individuals, and other entities are identified as being involved in illicit financing schemes in support of disinformation campaigns and cyber-operations, they should be sanctioned. But such investigative work is expensive and sometimes dangerous. In 2018, for example, three Russian journalists were killed in the Central African Republic while investigating the activities of the Wagner Group, a Prigozhin-controlled private military organization linked to Russias 2019 disinformation campaigns in Africa.

Perhaps most important, the U.S. government must do much more to explain to its citizens what state-sponsored disinformation is and why they should care. Ahead of national elections in 2018, the Swedish government went as far as mailing every household in the country an explanatory leaflet detailing what disinformation is, how to identify it, and what to do about it. Other European governments, such as the United Kingdom during the Skripal scandal, have developed strategic communications campaigns to counter false narratives. The European Union, through its foreign affairs arm, has set up a rapid-response mechanism for member states to share information about foreign disinformation campaigns. Washington could learn from the experiences of its partners. With a president who still questions the overwhelming evidence of Russian interference four years ago, this will be a hard task for the U.S. government to take on, if it is possible at all. Unless Washington acts now, however, Americans may soon look back at the 2020 election with the same shock and incredulity that they felt in 2016. This time, they will have only themselves to blame.



Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: mikenov on Twitter: RT @ForeignAffairs: With new players in the disinformation game, in all likelihood, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far wors

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Trump Investigations from Michael_Novakhov (124 sites).

With new players in the disinformation game, in all likelihood, 2020 will not be a replay of 2016. It will be far worse.
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Retweeted by Michael Novakhov (mikenov) on Thursday, September 10th, 2020 8:33pm


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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine trial pause a 'wake-up call', says WHO

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

Zurich: AstraZeneca's pause of an experimental vaccine for the coronavirus after the illness of a participant is a "wake-up call" but should not discourage researchers, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) chief scientist said.

"This is a wake-up call to recognise that there are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared," Soumya Swaminathan told a virtual briefing from Geneva.

"We do not have to be discouraged. These things happen."

Governments are desperate for a vaccine to help end the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused more than 900,000 deaths and global economic turmoil, and the WHO had flagged AstraZeneca's, being developed with Oxford University, as the most promising.



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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Century 21, landmark of Lower Manhattan since 1961, files for bankruptcy and plans shutdown of all 13 locations

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from New York Daily News.

The Manhattan location opened 59 years ago, with Century 21 announcing a going-out-of-business sale there and at stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.





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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: At least 3 dead in Northern Calif. wildfire threatening thousands of homes

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from New York Daily News.

Time and time again we have seen how dangerous wildfires can be. ... Please, please please be prepared, maintain situational awareness and heed the warnings.





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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin appears in court for tax evasion charges

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from New York Daily News.

Former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, who was fired after the death of George Floyd and subsequently charged with murder, appeared remotely in court Tuesday over tax evasion charges.





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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: Настоящее Время: "Люди в разрисованных масках и сотрудники милиции". Избитый в изоляторе в Минске мужчина о жестокости силовиков

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from 1. Russia from Michael_Novakhov (115 sites).

Белорусским протестам, которые начались 9 августа, уже месяц. Александр Лукашенко в интервью российским журналистам сказал, что в изоляторе на Окрестина, куда свозили задержанных в первые дни, не было массовых избиений и пыток: якобы били только каких-то бывших зеков, "урок" как сказал Лукашенко. Он также обвинил людей в том, что некоторые из них рисовали следы побоев. Это противоречит данным ООН, которая заявила о 450 задокументированных случаях пыток и жестокого обращения с людьми, задержанными после выборов 9 августа в Беларуси. И это противоречит свидетельствам, которые собирали журналисты и в том числе наш канал. Накануне 19-летняя Марина Зайцева рассказала, как уже месяц лежит в больнице и не знает, удастся ли врачам сохранить ей слух: в Марину попала шумовая граната. Александра Петрова задержали 11 августа: вытащили из машины, избили. После изолятора он оказался в больнице. Александр рассказал Настоящему Времени, как он чувствует себя спустя месяц и что думает про заявления Александра Лукашенко. Когда я ехал на машине, меня выдернули, выжали с дороги, направили за торговый центр. Как их называют, "переодетые гаишники", якобы это были не они. Сказали заехать за торговый центр там видимости нет и там уже вытянули из машины и били. Били всех людей абсолютно. Попадали такие люди со мной мужчина был в камере, он вышел в машину из подъезда за сигаретами. У него два глаза были набиты ужасно. Говорит, еще дверь в подъезд не закрылась, а его уже положили на землю и начали бить. Были или не были [среди избивавших людей в изоляторе] омоновцы? Были люди в масках, были сотрудники милиции. Но кто больше всего были жестокими были люди в разрисованных масках. Единственное, что мне удалось увидеть через ноги, когда я лицом был в землю, это были люди в разрисованных масках: в виде черепа такие, которые защитные. Естественно, сотрудники милиции были в обычных черных масках. Мне кажется, что дело времени. Насколько мы будем сильными, насколько хватит. Да, конечно, наблюдаю в интернете. С работы придешь вечером, посмотришь. Очень много провокационных [новостей], что в кафе стекло разбили, что люди в гражданской одежде в масках начинают бить людей. Мое мнение, что это просто провокация людей, чтобы люди начали давать отпор.  А наши люди молодцы. Да, бьют их, да, забирают, но никто не бьет в ответ. Я думаю, это приводит в ярость нашу противоположную сторону.



 Настоящее Время

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Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 1:56 PM 9/10/2020 - Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign!

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The News And Times.

Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? 
Shame on you! Resign! | 1:56 PM 9/10/2020

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Настоящее Время: "Люди в разрисованных масках и сотрудники милиции". Избитый в изоляторе в Минске мужчина о жестокости силовиков
"syria kurds russia" - Google News: Anti-ISIS command handed over in Iraq, Syria amid regional tensions - The Jerusalem Post
"russia analysis" - Google News: Live updates: Trump acknowledges knowingly playing down the deadly coronavirus - The Washington Post
Michael Novakhov on Twitter from Michael_Novakhov (4 sites): mikenov on Twitter: New York Daily News: De Blasio shrugs off Rep. Max Roses worst mayor ad bklynnews.com/2020/09/10/ny- pic.twitter.com/LVqzd1hGqR
Настоящее Время: США внесли в санкционный список украинского депутата Деркача, обнародовавшего "пленки Байдена", назвав его "российским агентом"
Putin and Putinism - News Review: Putin, Saudi king discuss production of Russian COVID-19 vaccine - TASS
"russia ukraine" - Google News: Treasury designates anti-Biden Ukrainian lawmaker for sanctions for election interference - POLITICO
"Russia influence in Eastern Europe" - Google News: Why Europe still can't take risks with its supply of Russian gas - erienewsnow.com
"Russia and US Presidential Elections of 2016" - Google News: US blacklists four Russia-linked individuals over election interference - Times of India
11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review
The Brooklyn Pages - 5:52 PM 8/29/2020
3:59 PM 8/29/2020 - Saved Stories - 1. Video - Music - YouTube Playlists Brilliant Classics Radio
11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review
9:49 AM 9/10/2020 - "Wild animals roaming the cities of the "free" Western world - this is one of the most favorite memes, themes, propaganda scares, etc., etc. of the RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE, POSSIBLY THE GRU AND THEIR MAFIA FRIENDS.
Tiger spotting in Tennessee prompts huge search efforts
9:11 AM 9/10/2020 - Blogs Review: News - coronavirus and the brain | Sexual harassment in the FBI - the hidden epidemic. What do we really know about it?
8:38 AM 9/10/2020 - News - coronavirus and the brain
News - coronavirus and the brain - Google Search google.com/search?q=coron pic.twitter.com/3rRHsFVcGH
Three Stages to COVID-19 Brain Damage, New Review ... coronavirus and the brain: reviews - Google Search google.com/search?q=coron pic.twitter.com/kgEsaCUgME
8:09 AM 9/10/2020 - Trump administration intends to end Covid-19 screenings of passengers arriving from overseas - Saved and Shared Stories In 50 Posts
RT @SecPompeo: The Confucius Centers are a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party and serve as hubs for disinformation and malign in
1:59 PM 9/6/2020 - Berlusconi remains hospitalized in most delicate phase of coronavirus thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2020/09/159-pm pic.twitter.com/7pIGfWXFeH
8:24 AM 9/7/2020 - Navalny poisoning may threaten Nord Stream 2 pipeline thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2020/09/824-am pic.twitter.com/CttW6uNvEZ
10:54 AM 9/7/2020 #Assange's #legal #battle to avoid #US #espionage #trial #resumes in #London thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2020/09/1054-a pic.twitter.com/rWNfndX1S4
11:37 AM 9/7/2020 - #News #Review thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2020/09/1137-a pic.twitter.com/7QN9CHHXKQ


Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks
The News And Times: 1:56 PM 9/10/2020 - Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign!

Mr. Lukashenko: Is this how you treat your fellow citizens who try to exercise their basic rights and freedoms? Shame on you! Resign! | 1:56 PM 9/10/2020______________________________________________________________Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks All Saved Stories- 25 -Saved Stories - None Настоящее Время: "Люди в разрисованных масках и сотрудники милиции". Избитый в изоляторе в Минске

The News And Times
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks: 11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Brooklyn News And Times.



Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks
The Brooklyn News And Times: 11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Review

11:31 AM 9/10/2020 - News Reviewhttps://brooklynnewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2020/09/am-9102020-news-review-brooklyn-ny-news.htmlThe Brooklyn NY News Review Headlines | Posts Brooklyn NY News Review In Brief 250 | Page ____________________________________________1. New York and Brooklyn from Michael_Novakhov (116 sites)"Borough Park Brooklyn" - Google News: No Sleep Til Brooklyn: A History of

The Brooklyn News And Times
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