The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) recently announced a list of research projects selected in a call for proposals to receive R$50 million in funding for COVID-19 research. Of this amount, R$30 million will be drawn from the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT) for research into treatments, vaccines, diagnostic tests, and the pathogenesis or biological mechanism of the disease. The other R$20 million will be contributed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health for use in projects around prevention, containment and healthcare (
see article). The overwhelming response to the call for projects shows that the scientific community in Brazil is eager to advance research about the disease, more than the government can afford. A total of 2,219 project proposals were submitted. If all were approved, these projects would involve R$1.7 billion in funding, 34 times more than available. An evaluation committee recommended a
Collaborative research, which mobilizes scientists from different institutions and countries, has gained momentum over recent years due to easier communications and an increase in large, internationally organized projects. A group from the Dalian University of Technology, in China, put together a set of indicators that allow a view of various collaboration profiles between the 41 countries in the world doing the most scientific production. In an article published in May in the journal
Scientometrics, the authors compared the collaboration profiles of these nations and observed striking distinctions. While scientists in the United States cooperate in greater numbers with their own academic colleagues and within the country itself which, after all, is the principal scientific power on the planet researchers from nations like Switzerland, Iran, and South Korea follow an inverse trend and invest more frequently in partnerships with colleagues from abroad or in industry.
Calculating GDP is usually relatively uncomplicated. The total amount of household consumption of goods and services is summed with corporate investments, government disbursals, and total nationwide exports and imports during a given period. By knowing how the economy has behaved previously and the trajectory of primary economic variables such as interest and foreign exchange rates, the performance of principal trading partners, and current prices of exports, among other factors, it is possible to predict the country’s production and consumption over subsequent months and years.
The same predictability isn’t possible when economic activity is suspended. “Usually, in major crises, the drop in demand goes to 4% or 5%. In this crisis, there are people talking about 40% or 70%. There’s no parallel. The level of uncertainty for any forecast this year is enormous,” says José Ronaldo de Castro Souza Júnior, director of Macroeconomic Studies and Research at the Institute of Appl
US top infectious disease expert warns of more ominous COVID-19 mutations
Dr. Anthony Fauci said health officials are looking at them very carefully
New strains from Brazil and South Africa are considered more contagious
But it is not known if the new variants will less impact of COVID-19 vaccine
Fauci said US is weeks away from approving two new COVID-19 vaccinations
Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca are getting set to roll out new inoculation
Fauci also inoculating 100 million Americans in Biden s first 100 days is doable
First positive sample was taken on November 14 at a Lighthouse Lab in Glasgow, MailOnline understands
Laboratories in Cheshire, Milton Keynes and Cambridge have also spotted the variant, which is known as P.2
At least two nurses in Brazil have been infected with P.2 despite catching and beating Covid in the spring
It has raised fears the new variant can slip past vaccines targeted at older strains and undo natural immunity