COVID-sniffing dogs can also smell long-term virus symptoms in patients, study says
While researchers already discovered a trained dog’s nose can identify COVID-19 with its scent-detecting capabilities, dogs have now demonstrated they can also sniff out long-term virus symptoms — often called “long COVID” — in patients, researchers in Germany found.
Dogs are “superior smellers” and are already used to detect what the human nose typically cannot from diseases, such as Parkinson’s, cancer and diabetes, to drugs and explosives in public places, according to the American Lung Association.
In a pilot study, scientists discovered the dogs that had been trained to detect COVID-19 in their prior research could identify long COVID patient samples with a “high sensitivity,” according to the work published June 16 in Frontiers in Medicine.
“These results suggest that the disease-specific odor of acute COVID-19 is still present in the majority of Long COVID samples,” study authors from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover, Germany wrote.
—McClatchy Washington Bureau
‘An epidemic of hate’: Anti-Asian hate crimes in California jumped 177% in 2021
LOS ANGELES — The number of hate crimes in California rose for the third year in a row in 2021 and included a sizable uptick in the number of anti-Asian crimes, according to a report from the state attorney general.
The California Department of Justice released its annual report on hate crimes on Tuesday morning, noting 1,763 reported hate crimes, up 33% from the year prior.
Hate crimes against Asian Americans saw another year of triple-digit percentage increases, with crimes increasing 177.5% from 2020 to 2021, according to the report. Over the last year the number of anti-Asian hate crimes rose from 89 to 247.
“Today’s report reflects a grim reality our diverse communities know too well,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a news conference Tuesday morning. Bonta pointed to the pandemic as giving way to “an epidemic of hate.”
Bonta said that hate crimes have increased to a level California hasn’t seen since the spike in the aftermath of 9/11. At the time, hate crimes jumped to 2,261 reported incidents.
—Los Angeles Times
Maryland to restrict crabbing in response to ‘worrisome’ population decline
BALTIMORE — This summer Maryland will impose new restrictions on crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay — including the first-ever limits on how many bushels of male blue crabs watermen can haul each day — in response to a troubling decline in the population of the beloved crustaceans.
Regulations issued this week, to be in effect starting in July, will limit commercial watermen to at most 15 bushels a day of male crabs in August and September and will end their harvest two weeks earlier than normal on Nov. 30. And the new rules will tighten existing restrictions on the commercial harvest of female crabs and the recreational harvest, too.
The changes come weeks after an annual survey of Chesapeake blue crabs found they number the fewest since scientists began tracking their population in the 1990s.
That state fishery managers moved to limit even the harvest of male crabs demonstrates the gravity of the situation. Limits are typically only imposed on female crabs as a means of ensuring enough of them to survive to spawn, but with a more than 60% decline in the overall estimated blue crab population since 2019, scientists, environmentalists and representatives from the seafood industry are signaling that more protections are needed to help boost crab reproduction.
—Baltimore Sun
Turkish objections to NATO expansion find Hill skepticism
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in both parties are signaling that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should not expect them to sweeten the pot as he seeks concessions in return for dropping his objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
Erdogan’s objections to the Nordic countries joining the Western military alliance have injected some high-stakes drama in the lead-up to this week’s NATO summit in Madrid, which President Joe Biden will attend. Erdogan’s grievance is ostensibly over the two wealthy democracies’ ties to a Kurdish group that Turkey contends is linked to terrorists.
Decisions to expand NATO require the unanimous signoff of all 30 member states, so Ankara’s decision to withhold its approval has the potential to drag out the accession process for some months — though it is widely expected Turkey will eventually relent and lift its objection.
Meantime, Sweden and Finland are in a bit of a perilous gray area security-wise. They have given up their long-standing neutrality in order to join NATO while not yet receiving the critical benefit that comes with official treaty membership: Article 5 guarantees that member countries will defend each other.
—CQ-Roll Call
