China harvests DNA data

As part of surveillance efforts in Xinjiang, authorities have collected biometric data, including facial scans and fingerprints—used to verify identities at the region’s ubiquitous checkpoints—and DNA data. Moreau says DNA profiling does not directly enable mass internments or forced labor. Rather the impact is psychological, reinforcing citizens’ feelings of constant surveillance. Byler adds that DNA …

Whatever your politics, nature rules

“We need a lot of humility.” — Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, of University of California San Francisco, discussing the many unknowns surrounding whether one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine provides sufficient protection for the previously infected. “You either choose to live with it, or avoid anything that makes life meaningful.” — Alex Myers, DO, a …

Suddenly the scales fell from their eyes

[J]ust a year ago, much of blue-state America was lusting after Governor Andrew Cuomo… The erotic interest was documented in a Jezebel article—“Help, I Think I’m in Love with Andrew Cuomo???”… The term “Cuomosexual” was popularized in a song called “Andy,” by the comedian Randy Rainbow, set to the tune of “Sandy,” from the musical …

A month later nobody knows who killed Haitian president

Haitian officials crucial to the investigation are now in hiding. Callers to Mr. Destin, the crime-scene officer, from blocked numbers have threatened his life and family, he said. Three other clerks and judicial officers on the case said they received the same calls. One colleague, tasked with interviewing suspects, left his lights on one Sunday …

Editorial denounces the De Blasio vaccine passport

It is common to hear that the ‘selfish’ are inflicting negative externalities on the ‘selfless’ during the pandemic. But the ‘selfless’ also impose negative externalities on everyone else. This happens because nothing is free. Striking the right balance is a matter of cost-benefit estimates and calculated risk. Anyone who promises ‘free’ and totally safe is …

Lockdowns create vision problems for kids

An analysis of eye test data from nearly 2,000 Hong Kong school-age children revealed that the rate of nearsightedness that developed during the pandemic more than doubled what was found in a pre-pandemic study of children the same age, according to the report in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. … The researchers also found “significant …

Does new delta plus variant mean life imprisonment?

South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday that it had recorded at least two cases of the new coronavirus delta-plus variant, which some experts believe to be more transmissible than the original delta variant that was first detected in India and has since thwarted plans for returning to life before the pandemic. But …