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The Joint European Torus (JET) has achieved a relevant scientific milestone related to energy production from nuclear fusion reactions. The results confirm some of the technological options selected for the large international ITER experiment. Spain has proposed to build a scientific facility in Granada to develop materials with which to build future reactors.
More than two million doses of the vaccine from US company Novavax are expected to arrive in Spain soon. Nuvaxovid, or NVX-CoV2373, became the fifth vaccine approved in Europe against covid-19 on 20 December. We tell you how it differs from those already available, how it is produced and why it is especially important for countries with fewer resources.
The WHO recommends keeping an eye on the BA.2 variant of Omicron because it is spreading, but it does not appear to cause more serious disease or escape vaccination. Don't be fooled by its evocative nickname: it is perfectly detectable. The misconception that tests do not identify it was propagated by a headline that was corrected.
The Spanish Society of Public Health and Health Administration calls for the creation of an institution "that prepares us to protect the health of our population in the face of the current pandemic, future pandemics and current health challenges".
The dream of obtaining electrical energy from the fusion of two atomic nuclei is a little closer. Results obtained with some of the most powerful lasers on the planet show that one of the strategies to achieve this, nuclear fusion by inertial confinement, works as predicted 50 years ago.
Several results confirm that vaccination against covid-19 does not affect fertility. One of them, carried out on some 2,000 couples and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, compares the ability to conceive naturally in vaccinated and unvaccinated couples. The other, in Obstetrics & Gynecology, studies some 1,300 vaccinated and unvaccinated women who have used different assisted reproductive techniques. Neither paper finds a link between vaccination and pregnancy.
In Spain, since 13 January, the booster vaccination against covid-19 has been recommended for the general adult population. 78.8 % of those over 50 and 88.9 % of those over 60 have already had it, said the Minister of Health yesterday. If those who are missing have doubts, here we try to solve them.
Spain recommends that people who have been infected with the coronavirus receive the third dose four weeks later. Experts assess the decision from an immunological point of view.
The director of the Vaccine Strategy of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Marco Cavaleri, told a press conference on 11 January that "it is not sustainable in the long term to continue giving booster doses every three or four months [to the general population]". Spanish immunologists agree that this is not the right thing to do. In these reactions they explain why.
The terms "endemism" and "seasonality" are increasingly used to refer to the covid-19 pandemic. They are sometimes incorrectly associated with the severity of the disease or with the premature end of the pandemic. What do they mean? Does SARS-CoV-2 fit these definitions? Will it ever do so thanks to vaccines?