¶ Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine Progress
Hi, I'm Carl Azus with your daily down-the-middle delivery of world events. Our show starts with news from the pharmaceutical industry. The drug company Pfizer says it's moved a big step closer to a breakthrough in the fight against coronavirus. Pfizer's one of many companies that are working on a coronavirus vaccine. It says an early look at research indicates its shot is more than ninety percent effective in protecting people from catching COVID nineteen.
Pfizer's in the midst of its phase three trial when tests are carried out on tens of thousands of volunteers. The disease continues to spread, though at different rates in different countries. Health officials say last Wednesday was the first time the United States recorded more than 100,000 positive tests in a 24-hour period. And the country's seen that several times since then.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the US has reported around ten million positive tests in all since the pandemic began early this year, and health officials have blamed more than two hundred thirty seven thousand deaths on coronavirus in America. Many people who catch the disease have no symptoms from it though, and officials estimate the overall survival rate for coronavirus is more than ninety-nine percent.
Still, because it appears to be deadlier than the flu, there's been an international race to prevent its spread, develop treatments from existing in new medicines, and manufacture an effective vaccine. Has Pfizer done that? No one knows yet. A nonprofit consumer rights organization criticized Pfizer's announcement. The group Public Citizens says publishing early and incomplete information in a press release is quote bad science.
It adds that more data is needed to prove the vaccine is effective against serious cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from coronavirus. Pfizer also says more research and safety information needs to be gathered. If its vaccine is proven safe and effective, the company says it'll be free to all American citizens.
It's unclear though how many of those citizens would actually get it. In a CNN poll conducted last month, forty-five percent of Americans said they would not try to get vaccinated once a drug becomes available.
¶ Hurricane Eta Devastates Central America
This is the same storm that uh brought so much havoc to Central America with mudslides, flash flooding, and extremely powerful winds. Yeah. ni nosotros lo creíamos ahí, abrimos la puerta y ya nos costó abrir la puerta porque estaba lleno de agua. Todo se mojó, todo se perdió su recién. Drumnoas logramos subir en lo alto como dos camas. La Refri se volteó, se mojó todo. Ya por ahí por las 10 que salimos, ya salimos con el agua al pecho. Thank you.
10 second trivia. Be stirring is the time, the fire with fire is a quote from what Shakespeare play. Henry V, All's Well That Ends Well, King John, or as you like it. Terima kasih. This line is from the life and death of King John.
¶ Prescribed Burning for Wildfire Control
That's likely where we got the phrase fight fire with fire, and though Shakespeare meant it differently, prescribed or controlled burning is fighting wildfires with fire. People intentionally burn certain areas so that when a wildfire gets there it has nothing left to burn and can't spread.
The downsides? Sometimes control burns can go out of control. They can worsen air pollution, possibly threatening the health of residents nearby. But a Native American tribe that does this in California says history proves its advantages. For generations, members of the Kaduk tribe in Northern California have embraced fire rather than fight it.
We try to bring back family-based burning in our area, which would be traditionally how we would do it, is like having families burning their village areas and having that responsibility and having that knowledge of when and how to burn it. The Cotterk intentionally light fires to clear brush and vegetation in wildfire prone areas. They say it not only reduces the impact of future fires, but makes trees and plants more resistant.
They feel it's a crucial tool for the community, and they want to be able to do it more and on their own terms. Vicky Preston is a technician with the Tribes Natural Resources Department. A lot of our well being is is very much connected with like where we live and how the land is doing. You just feel a lot safer when you're able to do those prescribed burns around your places. It's been really a real bummer and just been so real like hard.
seeing like places that we were wanting to burn burn intensely in wildfire. The Codderk have to seek permission from and work with the US Forest Service to do prescribed burns because the government owns most of the land, according to the tribe. The California Air Resources Board also says burn smoke could create unhealthy levels of pollution if managed incorrectly.
their regulations say like no burning at certain times or no this and that then it's been something that we've had to work under, we've had to get permits for. They've gotten a lot of flack over for even wanting to do. And so that's been Struggle for many years. In a statement to CNN, the US Forest Service said they support their tribal partners as long as they follow prescribed fire rules and safety. California and a twelve thousand acre forest fire in the south of the state
The debate over how to handle fires has lasted decades. The U.S. government outlawed burnings in native communities with the Weeks Act in 1911. During that time, the U.S. Forest Service also pushed a fire suppression policy. Firefighters put out more fires instead of managing them. Experts in fire ecology say this removed natural fire from the landscape, allowing brush that could fuel future fires to build up.
And it wasn't until the nineteen fifties when the US government started to take prescribed burning seriously. So instead of having a suppression only policy everywhere all the time, they adopt a policy of what is called fire by prescription. Uh they would try to restore good fires as well as prevent.
Factors like climate change and human development in wildfire prone areas have complicated reintroducing prescribed burns back in California. Yet the Cotic tribe and some experts say the benefits of prescribed burns usually outweigh the downside. In twenty sixteen, the US Geological Survey and the National Park Service found using prescribed fires across a handful of national parks in California reduced fire hazards for several years after its use.
we need to see more funding for for the work, you know, more crews, more community based effort. more attention to tribal practices and cultural burning, we should be looking for and taking advantage of any opportunity to to learn from tribal communities. and to work with them. But I also know that prescribed fire needs to be used strategically and in targeted ways at the right times if we're going to actually have an impact. Yeah, this was the front steps. She walked up here.
The Kadruk are seeing the consequences of extreme wildfires firsthand. Happy Camp, where a large portion of the tribe lives, lost dozens of homes and buildings due to a wildfire this year. But the tribe remains hopeful prescribed burns will become the norm. You know, I'm realistic that it's gonna be hard and realistic that um whatever work I do is also something that has to be handed off to the next generation.
¶ Whimsical Flying Pig & Episode Close
It's been said that the traffic on Parmoley Gulch Road will only slow down when pigs fly. The man who owns property in this part of Jefferson County, Colorado made a flying pig. He used paper mache, fiberglass, pink paint and lipstick,'cause lipstick on a pig. And it's working. Drivers are slowing down to look at it. The owner plans to leave it up all winter and possibly make more as long as people keep tapping the brakes when they see them.
Last time I saw a flying pig was at a barbecue food fight. Now don't grunt at me or bust my chops. You know I'm oink climbed to ham it up. You know I'm always rooting for the puns that are bacon you groan and I always keep a spare or two just to rip people with. Up Coralazou for CNN
We got a shout out today to Interlakes High School. It's our viewers in Meredith, New Hampshire getting the mention on today's show. The only place we look for the schools we mention is the comments section of our most recent YouTube show. So good luck, y'all.