It has been the sole silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic — cleaner air and water on the planet. But will it continue? A new study says that isn’t yet clear. “The pandemic raises two important questions related to the environment,” said study author Christopher Knittel, from the MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston. “First, what is the short-run impact on fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions? Second — and more important but harder to answer — what are the longer-term implications from the pandemic on those same variables? “The health impacts from the pandemic could stretch out for decades — if not centuries — depending on the policy response,” he said. “If the pandemic leads to a persistent global recession, there is a real threat to the adoption of clean technology, which could outweigh any ‘silver lining’ in environmental benefits,” said study co-author Jing Li, also from the MIT Sloan School of Management. For the study, the researchers analyzed the effect of the pandemic on carbon dioxide (CO2) levels from late March to June 7. They found reductions in the use of jet fuel (50%) and gasoline (30%). Natural gas use also dropped by nearly 20% and the demand for electricity dropped by less than 10%. “Overall, these reductions reflect a 15% total reduction in daily CO2 emissions, which is the largest…  read on >

The world’s population is shifting, with a new analysis predicting it will peak in 2064 at around 9.7 billion people and fall to 8.8 billion by the end of the century. The United States will have population growth until just after mid-century (364 million in 2062). That will be followed by a moderate decline to 336 million by 2100. At that point it would be the fourth most populous country, according to the modeling study published July 14 in The Lancet. As a result of these population changes and ensuing economic shifts, India, Nigeria, China and the United States will be the dominant powers by the end of the century, the study predicts. “Continued global population growth through the century is no longer the most likely trajectory for the world’s population,” said study leader Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle. “This study provides governments of all countries an opportunity to start rethinking their policies on migration, workforces and economic development to address the challenges presented by demographic change,” Murray said in a journal news release. The total U.S. fertility rate — the average number of children a woman has over her lifetime — is forecast to steadily decline from 1.8 in 2017 to 1.5 in 2100. That’s well below…  read on >

As the number of U.S. coronavirus cases topped 3.5 million on Wednesday, more states, cities and major retailers turned to face mask mandates to try to stem the spread of COVID-19. Increasingly seen as a last hope to slow soaring infection rates across the country, Alabama, Montana and the city of Tulsa on Wednesday moved to make face coverings required in public settings, the Washington Post reported. Several large retailers also joined the trend: Walmart, Kroger and Kohl’s. Until now, only a handful of national retailers, including Costco, Apple and Best Buy, had instituted blanket policies requiring masks at all of their stores, the newspaper said. “Workers serving customers should not have to make a critical decision as to whether they should risk exposure to infection or lose their jobs because a minority of people refuse to wear masks in order to help stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus,” the National Retail Federation trade said in a statement. “Shopping in a store is a privilege, not a right. If a customer refuses to adhere to store policies, they are putting employees and other customers at undue risk,” the statement added, the Post reported. The new restrictions suggest that officials and business leaders across America are painfully aware that cases have spiked in 41 states over the past two weeks and things will only worsen…  read on >

Yet another daily record for new U.S. coronavirus cases was shattered on Thursday, with 75,600 new infections reported. It’s the 11th time in the past month that the daily record had been broken, The New York Times reported. The previous single-day record, 68,241 cases, was reported last Friday. The number of daily cases has more than doubled since June 24. Things will likely get worse: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, warned in June that daily case counts could reach 100,000 a day if outbreaks across the country weren’t contained. “What I think we need to do, and my colleagues agree, is we really almost need to regroup, call a timeout, not necessarily lock down again, but say that we’ve got to do this in a more measured way,” Fauci told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an interview Thursday. “We’ve got to get our arms around this and we’ve got to get this controlled.” Deaths are also going up: On Thursday, Florida reported 156 new fatalities, its highest number yet. It was one of 10 states to reach a record for deaths in a single day this week, joining Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, the Times reported. As case counts and deaths have continued to climb, more states, cities and major retailers have turned to face…  read on >

Parents can ease conflict with their teens by showing them warmth, researchers say. In their new study, they analyzed daily diary entries from parents and teens in 151 families. The teens were 13 to 16 years old, and 95% of the parents were women. “By using 21 consecutive days of daily diaries, we were able to disentangle the day-to-day ways that parents’ behaviors are linked to how loved their teenagers were feeling,” said lead author John Coffey, a visiting assistant professor at Yale University’s Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn. No matter how close parents and teens were, teens said they felt more loved on days when parents reported showing more affection, understanding and praise, and less loved on days when parents reported more conflict than usual. But the study also found that parents can reduce the impact of conflict by showing warmth. So when parents showed warmth, high levels of conflict didn’t make teens feel less loved. But in order to get that benefit, parents had to show warmth on the same day a conflict occurred, according to the findings published July 13 in the journal Emotion. “Parents often stress about the conflicts they are experiencing with their children, but our study suggests conflicts are manageable as long as children experience warmth from their parents at some point during the same day,” Coffey…  read on >

As yet another record for the seven-day average of new coronavirus cases in the United States was broken on Sunday, federal health officials prepared to start pooled testing for COVID-19. The strategy could speed results, stretch lab supplies further, reduce costs and expand testing, the Associated Press reported. On Sunday, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina all set new single-day records for new cases, the Washington Post reported. Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa and five other states have seen their seven-day averages for daily new fatalities rise by more than 40 percent in the past week, the newspaper added. In Florida, more than 100 hospitals have run out of ICU beds for adults. The state has reported more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases on 12 different days in July, the Post reported. Meanwhile, Los Angeles is “on the brink” of shutting down again, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday. Over the past week, Los Angeles County has seen its highest number of coronavirus hospitalizations since the pandemic began, the Post reported. In some good news, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday gave emergency approval to pooled testing, which combines test samples in batches, the AP reported. The emergency use approval was given to Quest Diagnostics to perform its COVID-19 test with pooled samples. It is the first test to be authorized to be used in this…  read on >

With U.S. coronavirus cases surging past 3.8 million on Tuesday, Congress is negotiating yet another pandemic relief package for cash-strapped Americans. The package is likely to include a payroll tax cut, along with funding that would be tied to whether schools fully reopen, the Washington Post reported. Although local and state officials have said they desperately need more money to combat the ongoing public health crisis, it looks unlikely that they will receive much aid, the newspaper said. President Donald Trump also shifted his stance on face masks dramatically on Monday: He tweeted a photo of himself wearing a face mask and said that wearing them was now “patriotic.” He also announced plans to bring back the daily coronavirus task force briefings, which were stopped in April. Meanwhile, seven states — Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Kentucky, North Dakota, Arkansas and Montana — reported record highs for coronavirus-related hospitalizations on Monday, as did Puerto Rico, the Post reported. In a sign that the reality of rising case and death numbers may be sinking in, top health officials in Maryland’s most populous counties asked the state to roll back reopening plans and Kentucky restored limits on public gatherings, the Post reported. In Florida, more than 100 hospitals have run out of ICU beds for adults. The state has reported more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases on at least…  read on >

For the first time in nearly two months the daily U.S. coronavirus death toll topped 1,000 on Tuesday, with President Donald Trump acknowledging that the country’s outbreak will likely “get worse before it gets better.” Trump’s comments came during the first coronavirus task force briefing he’s held since April, as he conceded there were now “big fires” in the country, particularly in Florida and across the South and West. He also shelved his past resistance to masks, displaying his own and asking Americans to wear them because “they have an impact.” Meanwhile, three states that have been slammed by the pandemic in recent weeks continued to struggle to handle surges of COVID-19 patients in their hospitals, CNN reported. Hospitalizations in Florida have risen by more than a third in the 12 days since the state started releasing daily hospitalization data. There are now more than 9,500 people hospitalized in Florida and least 53 hospitals in 27 counties said they had no more beds in their ICUs, CNN reported. Miami-Dade County has exceeded its ICU capacity, with 130% occupancy on Monday, state officials reported. In California, Los Angeles County has surpassed its record for daily hospitalizations for the fourth time in the past week, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director, told CNN. The county has at least 2,232 patients currently hospitalized with 26% of…  read on >

For the first time in nearly two months the daily U.S. coronavirus death toll topped 1,000 on Tuesday, with President Donald Trump acknowledging that the country’s outbreak will likely “get worse before it gets better.” Trump’s comments came during the first coronavirus task force briefing he’s held since April, as he conceded there were now “big fires” in the country, particularly in Florida and across the South and West. He also shelved his past resistance to masks, displaying his own and asking Americans to wear them because “they have an impact.” Meanwhile, three states that have been slammed by the pandemic in recent weeks continued to struggle to handle surges of COVID-19 patients in their hospitals, CNN reported. Hospitalizations in Florida have risen by more than a third in the 12 days since the state started releasing daily hospitalization data. There are now more than 9,500 people hospitalized in Florida and least 53 hospitals in 27 counties said they had no more beds in their ICUs, CNN reported. Miami-Dade County has exceeded its ICU capacity, with 130% occupancy on Monday, state officials reported. In California, Los Angeles County has surpassed its record for daily hospitalizations for the fourth time in the past week, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director, told CNN. The county has at least 2,232 patients currently hospitalized with 26% of…  read on >