Articles in Journeys

‘Never Again.’ In a Year of Far-Right Extremism, Terror Attacks on Israel, Holocaust Memorial Day on 2024 Feels a Lot Like 1938 to Me

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A group portrait that included Barbara Back and Siegfried Back (top l.), and Paula Spira, their daughter (center r.), the author's grandmother, in an undated photo.

In Austria and Germany, International Holocaust Memorial Day, which this year marks the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, is associated with the pledge “Nie wieder,” or “Never again.”
This year, that pledge has taken on far greater meaning amidst a rise in antisemitic incidents in the country, the revelation that members of the Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, party had met with neo-Nazis and those calling for a mass …

How to Cough and Sneeze Without Infecting Others

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Mankind has been coughing and sneezing since the dawn of time.
Both sneezing and coughing are completely natural reactions to allergens, colds, and the flu, but there is a right way – and a wrong way – to cough or sneeze.
By the “right way,” we mean how to cough or sneeze in a healthy and hygienic manner, so as not to spread germs via aerosols and droplets.
To reduce the possibility of …

The Great Fog of 2024 – ‘A Real Pea Souper’ – Shows Little Sign of Relenting

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“It’s just fog,” protests Winston Churchill, so brilliantly portrayed by John Lithgow in the television series “The Crown,” when the Great Smog of 1952 descends upon London. A period of unusually cold weather for early December combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions to collect airborne pollutants – most arising from the use of coal – to form a thick layer of smog over the city.
A weather report over the …

How Long Does It Really Take to Contract Covid?

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At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, scientists estimated that it would take approximately 15 minutes of continued exposure at which point there would be a meaningful chance of contracting SARS-CoV-2. Now a new study that appeared in December in the journal Nature suggests that most exposures that result in transmission last an hour, if not significantly longer.
The study, led by scientists at by Nuffield Department for Medicine, …

At Senate Long Covid Hearing, Patients and Researchers Take Center Stage

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Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which as an acronym spells “HELP,” Long Covid patients, the mother of a teenage Long Covid patient, and lawmakers with Long Covid came together on Thursday on one issue that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on: How to advance Long Covid patient care. The hearing, entitled Addressing Long COVID: Advancing Research and Improving Patient Care, took place at …

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2024: Here’s What’s Open and What’s Closed

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This coming Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States.
Dr. King, a Baptist minister and activist, was a leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He is widely recognized for having advanced civil rights through non-violent actions and civil disobedience.  King’s father, Martin Luther King Sr., was an early civil rights leader who survived his son’s death and …

The First Covid Death Was Four Years Ago Today

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On January 11, 2020, Chinese state media reported what is considered to have been the known death what we then referred to as an illness caused by the novel virus and now refer to as SARS-CoV2. At the time of this person’s death, the virus had infected merely dozens of people.

As of January 11, 2024, the world had recorded 701.62 million officially reported cases, although the actual number is …