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China Could Have 65 Million COVID Cases a Week by June: Should the World Be Concerned?

(CTN News) – China is currently grappling with a new wave of COVID-19 infections, driven by the XBB variant, as health experts sound the alarm over the escalating number of cases.

Chinese Health Expert Projects 65 Million COVID-19 Cases Weekly by June

A senior health adviser in China projected that the country could experience 65 million COVID-19 cases per week by June, raising concerns about the effectiveness of China’s vaccination efforts and containment protocols.

Since transitioning from a zero-COVID strategy to a “living with the virus” policy in December, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention stopped providing regular updates on weekly infections.

However, the relaxation of anti-epidemic measures resulted in an estimated 37 million new infections per day a few weeks later. Experts believe nearly 80% of China’s 1.4 billion population may have already been infected during the first wave.

Respiratory disease doctor Zhong Nanshan, known for confirming COVID-19’s high transmissibility, provided insights into the spread of the disease during this second wave.

His modeling indicates that the XBB variant is expected to cause 40 million infections weekly by May, with projections reaching 65 million by June. These figures contradict the Chinese health officials estimate that the wave had peaked in April. Notably, the number of new infections recorded in Beijing has quadrupled over four weeks from May 15 to 21.

While Zhong mentioned the development of vaccines targeting the XBB variant, the projection of increasing infections has sparked concerns in the market.

According to researchers, China’s collective immunity has been questioned due to domestically developed vaccines that demonstrated lower efficacy in preventing infection during early clinical trials. Moreover, stringent virus containment protocols have limited the development of natural immunity.

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, suggests that despite the lack of mass testing to determine the true extent of the surge, the Chinese population may have acquired some level of immunity from the previous wave.

Huang emphasizes that public health officials in China tend to downplay the severity of the second wave, indicating that the Chinese people have learned to coexist with the virus through social adaptability.

Compared to countries like the United States and Australia, China is still in the process of transitioning COVID-19 from a pandemic to an endemic disease.

Catherine Bennett, an epidemiologist at Deakin University, highlights the importance of vaccine effectiveness and ensuring that everyone, particularly the elderly and vulnerable populations, remains up to date with vaccinations.

While the current mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus have not significantly differed from the Omicron variant, resulting in relatively milder symptoms, the potential emergence of a new, more dangerous sub-variant cannot be completely ruled out.

Another factor influencing China’s prognosis is its willingness to share information transparently. Independent experts have expressed skepticism regarding China’s official COVID-19 figures, leading many to rely on their statistics.

The delayed release of marriage and funeral data for the October-December 2022 period has raised speculation about the true extent of the infection spread during the first wave.

Vincent Pang, an assistant professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, emphasizes the importance of sharing data on the spread and impact of COVID-19 globally through a well-regulated platform.

Such sharing enables countries to perform their own risk assessments and underscores the notion that”Infectious disease does not respect geographical boundaries,” Pang highlights. “No one is safe until everyone is ready and safe.”

Sharing accurate and timely information about the spread of COVID-19 is crucial for effective global risk assessment and response. However, China’s willingness to transparently share data has been a subject of skepticism among independent experts.

Concerns Rise Over China’s Ability to Achieve Collective Immunity

Many have resorted to recording their statistics due to concerns over the reliability of China’s official COVID-19 figures. Furthermore, the delayed release of marriage and funeral data for the October-December 2022 period raises questions about the true extent of the infection spread during the first wave.

Vincent Pang emphasizes the need for a well-regulated, global platform where countries can share data on the spread and impact of COVID-19. This would enable other countries to perform their own risk assessments and take necessary measures to protect their populations.

Pang stresses the importance of recognizing that infectious diseases have no boundaries and that true safety can only be achieved when everyone is prepared and protected.

As China grapples with the new wave of COVID-19 infections, the country must ensure effective vaccination efforts, especially among the elderly and vulnerable populations.

The emergence of the XBB variant and the projected rise in cases underscore the need for vigilance and ongoing monitoring of the situation. While the current mutations in the virus have not significantly undermined immunity or testing capabilities, it is crucial to remain cautious and prepared for the potential emergence of new sub-variants.

China’s ability to control and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 will impact its population and have global implications. By prioritizing transparency, international collaboration, and proactive measures, China can work towards effectively managing the ongoing wave and contribute to global efforts in combating the pandemic.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

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Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

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Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

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Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

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Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

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Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

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