Crawford Training & Consulting

Study: Additive found in Skittles and Starburst no longer considered safe An additive used in Skittles, Starburst, Hostess' Donettes and thousands of other foods should no longer be considered safe for human consumption, according to a new study from the European Union's top food safety agency.

The results of this study apply to both the toilet and the urinal. "The droplets were detected at heights of up to 5 feet for 20 seconds or longer after initiating the flush."

Flushing a public toilet? Don't linger, because aerosolized droplets do: Study explores flushing power to test risk of COVID-19 transmission Because COVID-19 has been detected in urine and stool samples, public restrooms can be cause for concern. Researchers measured droplets generated from flushing a toilet and a urinal in a public restroom and found a substantial increase in the measured aerosol levels in the ambient environment with t...

A fascinating read on why and how your honey might contain radioactive fallout from nuclear testing

American Honey Still Contains Radioactive Fallout From Nuclear Tests Decades Ago Traces of radioactive fallout from nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s can still be found in American honey, new research reveals.

"Compared to individuals who rarely or never ate chili pepper, the analysis found that people who ate chili pepper had:

a 26% relative reduction in cardiovascular mortality;
a 23% relative reduction in cancer mortality; and
a 25% relative reduction in all-cause mortality."

People who eat chili pepper may live longer? Consumption of chili pepper may reduce the relative risk of cardiovascular disease mortality by 26%, according to an analysis of diet and mortality data from four large, international studies. Chili pepper consumption was associated with a 25% reduction in death from any cause and 23% fewer cancer d...

Although this article doesn't mention which over the counter products were evaluated, it does state that "Several of the mouthwash and gargle products also were effective at inactivating the infectious virus. Many inactivated greater than 99.9% of virus after only 30 seconds of contact time and some inactivated 99.99% of the virus after 30 seconds."

Mouthwashes, oral rinses may inactivate human coronaviruses, study finds Certain oral antiseptics and mouthwashes may have the ability to inactivate human coronaviruses, according to a new study. The results indicate that some of these products might be useful for reducing the viral load, or amount of virus, in the mouth after infection and may help to reduce the spread....

These new changes to USDA GMO crop regulations (or rather lack of regulations) are essentially the Covid-19 of agriculture. And there will be no cure.

Newly Finalized Federal Regulations on GMOs Are a Under the newly released regulations, the overwhelming majority of GE plant trials would not have to be reported to USDA, or have their risks analyzed befor

Just in case the last link I posted is taken down...

COVID-19: on average only 6% of actual SARS-CoV-2 infections detected worldwide
07 Apr 2020 | Source: Universität Göttingen

Actual number of infections may already have reached several tens of millions
The number of confirmed cases for the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 officially issued by countries and widely commented on by national and international media outlets dramatically understates the true number of infections, a recent report from the University of Göttingen suggests. Dr Christian Bommer and Professor Sebastian Vollmer from Göttingen University have used estimates of COVID-19 mortality and time until death from a recent study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases to test the quality of official case records. Their data shows that countries have only discovered on average about 6% of coronavirus infections and the true number of infected people worldwide may already have reached several tens of millions. Their study is available online at www.uni-goettingen.de/vollmer.

Insufficient and delayed testing may explain why some European countries, such as Italy and Spain, are experiencing much higher casualty numbers (relative to reported confirmed cases) than Germany, which has detected an estimated 15.6% of infections compared to only 3.5% in Italy or 1.7% in Spain. Detection rates are even lower in the United States (1.6%) and the United Kingdom (1.2%) – two countries that have received widespread criticism from public health experts for their delayed response to the pandemic.

In sharp contrast to this, South Korea appears to have discovered almost half of all its SARS-CoV-2 infections. The authors estimate that on 31 March 2020, Germany had 460,000 infections. Based on the same method, they calculate that the United States had more than ten million, Spain more than five million, Italy around three million and the United Kingdom around two million infections. On the same day the Johns Hopkins University reported that globally there were less than 900,000 confirmed cases, meaning that the vast majority of infections were undetected.

Sebastian Vollmer, Professor of Development Economics at the University of Göttingen, says, “These results mean that governments and policy-makers need to exercise extreme caution when interpreting case numbers for planning purposes. Such extreme differences in the amount and quality of testing carried out in different countries mean that official case records are largely uninformative and do not provide helpful information.” Christian Bommer adds: “Major improvements in the ability of countries to detect new infections and contain the virus are urgently needed.”

Original publication

Bommer C & Vollmer S (2020) Average detection rate of SARS-CoV-2 infections is estimated around six percent. www.uni-goettingen.de/en/606540.html

Background publication

Verity et al. “Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: a model-based analysis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 2020. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30243-7

Chair of Development Economics / Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) - Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Webseiten der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Earlier today I made this post with a link to a study stating that only 6% of actual cases had been detected worldwide. It also shows that in the US, less than 2% of cases had been detected. For some reason, the link no longer exists. I searched for it on Google and though it still comes up in the search, the study has been removed. Hmm!

If this study is accurate, it certainly underscores the need to be extremely cautious every time you leave the house.

COVID-19: On average only 6% of actual SARS-CoV-2 infections detected worldwide: Actual number of infections may already have reached several tens of millions The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus disease officially issued by countries dramatically understates the true number of infections, a report suggests. Researchers used estimates of COVID-19 mortality and time until death from a recent study to test the quality of records. This shows that cou...

"the parasite can invade the intestinal wall and cause symptoms that mimic those of food poisoning, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. In most cases, the worm dies after a few days and the symptoms disappear. This disease, called anisakiasis or anisakidosis, is rarely diagnosed because most people assume they merely suffered a bad case of food poisoning"

'Sushi parasites' have increased 283-fold in past 40 years A new study finds dramatic increases in the abundance of a worm that can be transmitted to humans who eat raw or undercooked seafood. Its 283-fold increase in abundance since the 1970s could have implications for the health of humans and marine mammals, which both can inadvertently eat the worm.

"New research finds that the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces. Scientists found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel."

New coronavirus stable for hours on surfaces: SARS-CoV-2 stability similar to original SARS virus New research finds that the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces. Scientists found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on....

"The study revealed that after just one week of use, pillowcases were found to have 17 thousand times more bacteria than a toilet seat. While pillowcases that were left unwashed for four weeks had 39 times the bacteria of a pet bowl."

There is more bacteria in your bed than the toilet seat study reveals We are now diligently washing our hands for 20 seconds, and avoiding shaking hands. But, are you overlooking the bacteria in your bed?