Category: december 2020

A team of 10 international scientists will travel to the Chinese city of Wuhan next month to investigate the origins of Covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. Beijing has been reluctant to agree to an independent inquiry and it has taken many months of negotiations for the WHO to be allowed access to the city. The virus is thought to have come from a market in the city selling animals. But the search for the source has led to tensions, notably with the US. President Donald Trump’s administration has accused China of trying to conceal the initial outbreak.

The second most populous country in the world will have to vaccinate millions upon millions of its people against the coronavirus. India has yet to approve a vaccine that can cover the second largest population on Earth. And when it does, getting this task completed will be perhaps one of the biggest logistical exercises the world has ever seen. So how will India do it? Experts say India’s universal immunisation programme, already the largest in the world, offers a starting point. There is considerable medical infrastructure already in place. But can it be used to deliver a future coronavirus vaccine? Nimisha Jaiswal and Sharique Ahmad went looking for answers.

As 2020 comes to a close, Melanie Ng speaks with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau some of the mistakes he made this year, plus the largest immunization program in Canadian history.

Chris Hayes: “Donald Trump and our government under his leadership explicitly pursued a strategy to spread the virus, to get more people sick. They took the side of Covid. They had the same aims as the virus. They were—as I said before—objectively pro-Covid.” Aired on 12/16/2020.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam discusses concerns about a possible post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases, and reflects on Canada’s response to the virus and what could have been done differently.

Kangaroos are able to intentionally communicate with people and “ask for help”, a study has found. The research challenges the notion that only domesticated animals display this behaviour, co-authors from the UK and Australia tell the BBC.

‘This hearing gives a platform to conspiracy theories and lies’ — Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) slammed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) for echoing Trump’s false claims of fraud during a hearing on ‘election irregularities.’

Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk shares his reaction to the deal and what’s known about the mission.

China’s national space agency says its Chang’e-5 return capsule carrying rock and soil from the moon landed safely in snow-covered grasslands of the country’s Inner Mongolia region in the early hours of Dec. 17.

Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. But a small town in Italy called Prato has built its fortune on transforming old scraps into new clothes, particularly knitwear and wool.