Tweaking COVID-19 vaccines will keep them effective against new variants

INDIA-HEALTH-VIRUS-SERUM-VACCINE — Photo by PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts have cautioned that the first batch of vaccines created against the virus might not be the last. Like all viruses, this one would mutate, and eventually, those mutations could make the virus different enough that a different vaccine would be needed to combat it. Only two months into the vaccination campaign, researchers are preparing for that inevitability.

There’s early evidence from South Africa that both the Novavax and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine candidates are not as effective against a variant form of the virus first identified in the country, called B.1.351. The shots still offer some defense and still protect against hospitalization and death. Preliminary research...

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Pandora Stories lets artists add commentary to their own playlists

Pandora launched Stories today, a tool that lets artists and creators add voice commentary to their own playlists. The Stories feature merges podcasts with music playlists, and is meant for artists to add context to an album, or for podcasters to experiment with new storytelling formats. The feature is part of Pandora AMP, the streaming service’s free Artist Marketing Platform that helps creators promote their work. To kick off the launch, Pandora’s prepared some Stories by artists like John Legend and Daddy Yankee, who tell listeners their personal stories interspersed between their own songs. There’s also a Stories playlist called Love Songs That Aren’t Really Love Songs , which includes commentary on individual songs like a podcast... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Xz1oNc

Minneapolis hiring social media influencers for former police officers’ trials

George Floyd died in police custody in May 2020 | Getty Minneapolis is hiring social media influencers to share “city-generated and approved messages” during the trials of four former city police officers charged in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, according to the Minnesota Reformer . The Minneapolis city council approved the plan on Friday, which calls for six influencers to be paid about $2,000 each to spread the city’s messages with Black, Native American, Hmong, and Latino communities. The goal is to “address/dispel incorrect information” by using “trusted messengers,” part of a program the city refers to as its Joint Information System to share “timely and relevant information” with the public during the trials. “Through the Communications and Neighborhood and Community Relations... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3q1AY3x

Android Addition Opens FIDO Password Killer to Billions

The FIDO Alliance hammered another nail into the passwords coffin with the announcement that devices running Android 7.0 or higher will be compatible with FIDO2. Certification of Android 7.0+ means devices running those versions of Google's mobile operating system will support FIDO2 out of the box or through a software update. FIDO2, introduced last year, provides a FIDO Web authentication standard that combines the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Authentication specification with FIDO's Client-to-Authenticator protocol. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2GQVG4f

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