| Greetings, QuickTake readers! In this edition: Elizabeth Warren bows out, airlines brace for virus gut punch and climate change is forcing tropical forests to a new breaking point.  Hindsight is 20/20 for Wuhan docs As the coronavirus epidemic spreads across the globe, doctors at the outbreak's epicenter in Wuhan have been studying Covid-19 patients to come up with answers to the most critical questions: - When will you get sick? The median incubation period between exposure and the first symptoms is five to seven days and up to 14. Onset usually begins with a mild fever before conditions deteriorate.
- How does it spread? It's typically transmitted via virus-containing droplets emitted when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Other routes include airborne particles and fecal-to-oral transmission.
- How deadly is it? At 3.4%, the fatality rate is fairly low but more lethal than the flu. Victims have mostly been older patients with weaker immune systems or underlying diseases.
- What happens inside the body? Based on autopsies of 12 victims, scientists say Covid-19 causes large amounts of mucus to "attach to the lungs like paste," which should be targeted during treatment.
- Lessons learned? Planning is most important to virus response and hospitals need to know ahead of time how to handle each patient by coordinating best practices for critical care with all ICU staff.
$ignificant figures $113 billion. The coronavirus outbreak could cost airlines that much in lost revenue, the International Air Transport Association warned, calling on governments to waive some taxes and fees on struggling carriers. 58. How many parliamentary seats Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing bloc captured in Israel's third election in less than a year, three shy of the 61 needed to form a government, signaling further political deadlock. 90%. The share of men and women who hold some sort of bias against females, says the UN's Gender Social Norms index, which analyzed data on discrimination in politics, work and education in 75 countries. Highly quotable "Angel of death." A panel of infectious disease experts stressed the need to protect elderly individuals from Covid-19, especially after 7 people died in a Washington nursing home where the virus "rolled through like a train." "Let's take a deep breath." After ending her 2020 bid, Elizabeth Warren told reporters "we don't have to decide right this minute" on which of the remaining candidates her supporters should back. "Political weapon." The head of the International Red Cross says it's "unacceptable" to see migrants crossing into Greece from Turkey treated as "a tool for politics" and called for policies that treat them with dignity. This is not normal Reaching their limit. A 30-year study of thousands of trees in Africa and the Amazon found that tropical forests absorbed a third less CO₂ over the past decade than they did the 1990s, a difference of 21 billion metric tons.  The future is now Forget foldables. Chinese electronics maker TCL is developing the world's first rollable smartphone with internal motors that extend the screen to a 7.8-inch tablet-sized device without wrinkles or creases.  What's good "Feast for the eyes." NASA's Curiosity rover captured the sharpest-ever view of Mars after snapping more than 1,000 photos over four days to stitch together a 1.8-billion pixel panorama of the Red Planet.  Now that you're caught up... Tell your friends to sign up to receive our newsletter five days a week. Follow QuickTake on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. BTW: After sifting through 28,000 entries, NASA revealed the official name of its 2020 Mars Rover, submitted by a seventh grader. See the moment. Thanks for reading!
-Andrew Mach | 
Post a Comment