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The field of genomic epidemiology focuses on using the genetic sequences of pathogens to understand patterns of transmission and spread. Viruses mutate very quickly and accumulate changes during the process of transmission from one infected individual to another. The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which is responsible for the emerging COVID-19 pandemic mutates at an average of about two mutations per month. After someone is exposed they will generally incubate the virus for ~5 days before symptoms develop and transmission occurs. Other research has shown that the "serial interval" of SARS-CoV-2 is ~7 days. You can think of a transmission chain as...

A 2% levy on the money major tech firms make from British users had been expected to be introduced next month. It has been strongly opposed by Washington, however, which has said any such tax would be discriminatory and inappropriate. “We note comments regarding digital taxation and will consider this as part of our policy development,” the British government said in its mandate for trade talks with the United States. […] France had considered a similar digital tax, but it agreed in January to suspend down payments after Washington threatened to retaliate with tariffs on French wine. …

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Two more high-profile tech companies say they won’t attend the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival happening later this month over fears of the novel coronavirus. Facebook and Intel confirmed to KXAN they do not plan to send anyone to the tech conference, which draws tens of thousands of people from across the world to Austin. “Due to concerns related to coronavirus, our company and employees will not be participating in SXSW this year,” Tracy Clayton, a Facebook spokesperson, said in a statement. An Intel spokesperson said the company has “withdrawn from on-site activities at this year’s SXSW.”

When ( Imam Omar Suleiman) appeared at a Bernie rally in Mesquite, TX, the hateful Islamist cleric spoke in front of a backdrop of giant American flags and signs urging donations to Sanders. Before Bernie took the stage, he called for an, "America where we uplift our most vulnerable, celebrate our diversity." The Imam did not mention, as he has before, that he believes that, “Zionists are the enemies of God.”[snip] Suleiman has developed a slick routine for American audiences, filled with jokes and pop culture references, even when he’s discussing honor killings and mutilations, but his (mentors and theological...

Vice President Mike Pence’s office said he did not have contact with a Florida student who was later quarantined for the coronavirus while visiting the student's school, Bloomberg News reported. The vice president on Friday reportedly shook hands with the male student’s classmates at Sarasota Military Academy. The student was later quarantined along with his mother, who came in contact with a patient who tested positive for coronavirus “in her professional role” at Sarasota Doctors Hospital, according to the school’s Facebook post.

Turkey's president will no longer stop “Syrian” refugees from fleeing into Europe. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's borders with Europe were open Saturday, making good on a longstanding threat to let refugees into the continent as thousands of migrants gathered at the frontier with Greece. - ABC News The first thing to notice is that not all of these refugees are from war-torn Syria. Greek officials arrested 66 migrants Friday, 17 of whom were sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for entering the country illegally. All Afghans, they were are [sic] the first migrants sentenced for illegal...

SEOUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korea confirmed 851 more cases of the COVID-19 on Tuesday, raising the total number of infections to 5,186. As of 4:00 p.m. local time (0700 GMT), the number of infected patients totaled 5,186, up 851 from 24 hours ago. Five more deaths were reported, lifting the combined death toll to 31. The fatality rate from the COVID-19 here was 0.6 percent as of midnight local time. The figure gained to 4.0 percent for those in their 70s and 5.4 percent among those in their 80s or higher. (Please see full article at link)

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden gladly accepted former rival Beto O'Rourke's endorsement during a rally in Dallas on the Monday before Super Tuesday. When O'Rourke was finished with his speech, Biden revealed he wants the former congressman to lead the effort on gun control. "I'm gonna guarantee you this is not the last you've seen of this guy," the former vice president said as he had his arm around O'Rourke. "You're going to take care of the gun problem with me. You're gonna to be the one who leads this effort. I'm counting on you. I'm counting on you. We...

Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams has been one of the most vocal critics against red flag laws since Colorado legislators started considering it in 2019. When he learned an inmate in the Weld County Jail used the law to ask a judge to remove weapons from Reams and a unit in the jail, he was frustrated to see it being abused in the ways against which he warned. On Feb. 25, Weld District Chief Judge James Hartmann reviewed and denied a temporary extreme risk protection order filed by an inmate of the jail. Reams learned of the petition later that...

As Iran scrambles to contain the coronavirus, it has added another high official to the death toll. A top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died from the coronavirus pandemic. Iran confirmed the death of Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a senior adviser to the ayatollah on March 2. The Iranian Health Ministry recorded 523 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours—bringing the total number of people infected in Iran to 1,501, Fox News reported. Other high ranking officials that have become infected include Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, and one of Iran’s seven vice presidents,...

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal case on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, that could potentially invalidate the entire law. On Dec. 15, 2018, a Texas judge ruled that Obamacare’s individual mandate was unconstitutional. Judge Reed O’Connor agreed with the plaintiffs who argued that the lack of a penalty invalidated the “individual mandate” provision of the law, and if that part of the law was now invalid, then the whole law was. Democratic states and the House of Representatives appealed the decision, and the case made it all the way up to the...

Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on "Voter Suppression in Minority Communities: Learning from the Past to Protect Our Future." The hearing was based on the premise that "today, many Americans — especially those in minority communities — face significant barriers to registering to vote and casting a ballot." One witness, civil rights activist Diane Nash, delusionally claimed that America "was founded on genocide," which was an "extremely fundamental institution in our history." She went on to state that "we look on the value of lives of Europeans and white Americans and Australians and...

Now that Mike Bloomberg is on center stage running for President of the United States, his past policies are coming to light. Those of us who are strong supporters of the Second Amendment know that Mike Bloomberg single-handedly funds the gun control groups that aim to disarm law-abiding Americans. What's interesting is that he cherry-picks when he talks about the organization he founded, Everytown for Gun Safety, and its subgroup, Moms Demand Action. Whenever he wants to prove he is a real Democrat or cares about issues the rest of the nation does, he then interjects the amount of money...

Young Americans are flocking to the “socialist” banner that Bernie Sanders is waving. It sounds new and exciting, but it’s anything but new. It’s a tempting political vision that has been tried many times, in many ways, and in many places. The results make for a long litany of failure, most recently in Venezuela. In 1998, Hugo Chavez came to power, proclaiming a vaguely defined “revolution” that was “anti-Yanqui,” pro-Cuba, and solicitous of the poor. Government intervention in the economy increased exponentially and spending on social programs multiplied, sustained by seemingly limitless oil revenues. Chavez won four national elections in...

Massachusetts’ second suspected case of coronavirus was identified in a woman in her 20s in Norfolk County who recently returned from Italy with a school group, state health officials said Monday night. It was the first case to test positive since testing started Friday at the State Public Health Laboratory. The woman is recovering at home, officials said. “The individual’s test results came back positive just this evening,” a Department of Public Health statement said Monday night. “Specimens will be sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and, if confirmed, this would be the second confirmed...

Far-left Denver City Democrat Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca stated from her government Twitter account on Monday that she stands in “solidarity” with someone who posted a graphic stating that if they became infected with the coronavirus, they wanted to attend as many Trump rallies as possible in an apparent effort to infect supporters of President Donald Trump. CdeBaca, who has advocated for communism in the past, responded to a tweet that featured a graphic that stated: “For the record, if I do get the coronavirus I’m attending every MAGA rally I can.” CdeBaca responded by writing, “#solidarity Yaaaas!!”

There’s a new crime wave developing in Sweden among children. “In 2016, there were 1,178 robberies against children under 18 years of age. In 2019, the number had increased to 2,484. The number of violent crimes where the suspect is a child under 15 years of age has also gone up dramatically: In 2015, there were 6,359 reported violent crimes where the suspect was a child under 15. In 2019, that number had increased to 8,719 reported violent crimes.” Police spokesman Carin Gotblad said it’s “ordinary children who are robbed on their way to and from school, they are called...

It is no secret that the political Left’s wish list overflows with radical proposals that are far too unpopular to pass into law. Extreme, socialist ideas such as free college tuition, outlawing fossil fuels, speech restrictions, universal Medicare, open borders, firearm bans, and guaranteed income are just some of the menu items they dream of serving up to the American people. Thankfully, the vast majority of voters still find these ideas too hard to swallow. But liberals have never been known to let a little thing like democracy stand in the way of their grand schemes, or, as Democrat Rep....

Elizabeth Warren usually pushes back on the idea of political lanes, but with a narrowing field on the eve of Super Tuesday, she was making the case that she's the compromise candidate in the Democratic Party. "We find ourselves barreling toward another primary along the same lanes as 2016: one for an insider, one for an outsider," she said Monday night in Monterey Park, California. "Democratic voters should have more choice than that." The Massachusetts senator made a reference to the endorsements Biden received Tuesday, though she didn't identify the former opponents who announced their support of him earlier that...

The Trump administration said March 2 that it will reduce the number of Chinese staff allowed to work at several major Chinese state-run media outlets in the United States. The move was described by senior administration officials as an act of reciprocity against Beijing’s continued use of “intimidation to silence members of a free and independent press.” The Chinese regime has been presiding over a “deepening crackdown” on independent journalism within the country, two administration officials told reporters on a call on March 2, citing recent examples such as the disappearance of citizen journalists covering the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan,...