Twenty thousand years ago, humans lived in grassy tundras near the Arctic Circle. Trees were scare in these cold, dry regions, so Ice Age hunters could not build campfires using wood.  Instead, these hardy humans made campfires by burning the bones of the big animals they hunted.  Few modern people know how to make a bone fire.  Recently, a Colorado archeologist and some volunteers gave it a try.  From Longmont, Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports. …

Massachusetts    State officials are promising a significant increase in Massachusetts’ capacity to test for the coronavirus. Massachusetts Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said Thursday the state aims to administer 3,500 tests a day by the beginning of next week.   Gov. Charlie Baker has said expanding coronavirus testing is among his top priorities as state-run labs can only currently process about 400 tests a day. The top prosecutor for Boston and surrounding communities is seeking the release from custody of certain people who are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus because of their health or age. Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins’ office said in an emailed statement Thursday that it is working with defense attorneys to identity “individuals whose release we deem urgent and necessary for public health reasons.” Rollins’ office said she is seeking to free from jail only those who “pose no meaningful risk to …

With the coronavirus pandemic alarming the global community, South Sudan is grappling with another potentially fatal viral infection: measles. Last year, more than 4,700 people were affected due to low immunization coverage. Chika Oduah reports from the South Sudan capital, Juba. …

Phones have been ringing off the hook lately for Brian Edwards, a sales manager of a small medical supply company in California.  And he has to say “No” to all the people who called.Edwards used to buy tens of thousands of facemasks from China. But not in the past three months.His company, the First Choice Industrial Supply Company, has not been able to get any masks from China since the outbreak of coronavirus in late December while the demand is soaring in the U.S.”You can’t get a product. You are not going to get a product for months. ” said Edwards, whose company advertises itself as “If it’s something you use, it’s something we stock”.Edwards said in the interview with Voice of America last Friday that he gets about 50 calls and 50 emails every day from all over the country trying to find masks.  But now in the U.S. …

Shejirina Moni sits beside her children in front of their makeshift home in a shanty community in South Sudan’s capital Juba. Six of her children have died of various illnesses. She’s got three left.“The first one died at nine months. Another one died at the age of 10 months. Another one died when he was crawling, about three months,” she tells VOA.Moni’s story highlights a sad fact:  Millions of children in South Sudan do not get routine vaccinations. They are vulnerable to preventable illnesses.UNICEF health specialist Dr. Patti Samuel (R) explains the importance of childhood immunizations to a young mother. (Chika Oduah/VOA)While South Sudan is currently free of the coronavirus pandemic alarming the global community, the country is battling a severe measles outbreak, with over 4,700 confirmed cases and 26 deaths since January 2019. The government of South Sudan has partnered with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine …

One of the few Americans to see the moon close up has died. Astronaut Al Worden, who flew around the moon as part of the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, died in his sleep, his family said Wednesday. He was 88. Worden was a U.S. Air Force colonel when he joined NASA in 1966, getting his chance to fly to the moon five years later. Worden circled the moon in the command module while fellow astronauts Jim Irwin and David Scott explored the surface.  The highlight of the mission for Worden was when he performed the first deep-space spacewalk 322,000 kilometers above the Earth, inspecting the spacecraft’s scientific instrument bay.  “Al was an American hero whose achievements in space and on Earth will never be forgotten,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday.  Worden once described flying to the moon as like driving a car, only with some analytical ability.  He wrote two books about his moon mission, including one for children. Worden retired from NASA in 1975 and worked in the aerospace industry, but he never lost his enthusiasm for space.  In 2019, he told VOA’s Kane Farabaugh that he was “very optimistic” about the U.S. space program, saying whether it …

Dharam Singh Rajput can’t afford to buy hand sanitizer, which could help ward off transmission of the coronavirus in his community. The Rajput family could opt for something more basic — soap and water — to achieve hand hygiene. But sometimes there is no clean running water in their neighborhood, which sits next to open sewage canals and mounds of garbage in the heart of New Delhi, India’s capital. “The kind of water we have access to has the potential to cause more diseases instead of warding off the virus if we use it to wash our hands,” Rajput said. Experts say keeping hands clean is one of the easiest and best ways to prevent transmission of the new coronavirus, in addition to social distancing. But for India’s homeless and urban poor who live in thousands of slums across major cities and towns, maintaining good hygiene can be nearly impossible. …

Social distancing could qualify as an oxymoron in Italy, where walking arm-in-arm with friends, kissing neighbors in greeting and patting the heads of babies are part of the demonstrative culture.But a new virus has rapidly redefined the concept of respecting personal space for tactile Italians, as well as for South Koreans, Filipinos, Americans, Spaniards and citizens of many other crowded parts of the world.  Whether acting under government orders or following basic public health advice, people are putting distance between themselves to keep the coronavirus away. The new rules of engagement call for maintaining a gap of one to two meters (or three to six feet) to prevent possible exposure when an infected individual coughs or speaks.  The COVID-19 illness causes mild or moderate symptoms in most of those infected, but severe symptoms are more likely in the elderly or people with existing health problems. The vast majority of those …

After months of bickering over new competitions, talks of closed  super leagues and complaints of greed by elite clubs, football’s leaders have buried their differences to tackle the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.   On Tuesday, UEFA agreed to delay its flagship Euro 2020 competition for one year to allow domestic leagues to complete their seasons, once football resumes, and FIFA in turn recommended postponing its new Club World Cup from 2021.   “It was a relatively short call, probably the most united front of opinion I have seen in European football so far,” said Jonas Baer-Hoffmann, general secretary of the global players’ union FIFPRO, after a video conference with UEFA and representatives of clubs and leagues.   “It was a very cordial conversation — not at all tense or contentious.”   That could not be said of recent encounters involving football’s various stakeholders.   Only two weeks ago, UEFA …

It’s a sunny day in Miami, Florida with no chance of rain. But according to environmental scientist Margarita Kruyff, even on days like this, low-lying coastal communities like Miami and nearby Miami Beach may experience periodic flooding because of the porous bedrock underground that leaks water.“On the roads it means water could be coming up our drainage systems,” said the City of Miami Beach environmental scientist, who explained that the annual seasonal King Tides, or very high tides, also take their toll.  “Water may be coming up over seawalls for our residents, causing flooding in their homes and back yards,” she said.Rising seas linked to climate change are triggering chronic inland flooding in many parts of the world. In southern Florida, high tides are also threatening drinking water and causing soil erosion.  Scientific studies differ on how much farther the tides will rise there, but the U.S. National Oceanic and …

Today’s coronavirus pandemic looks eerily similar to the fear experienced in 2009 when the swine flu broke out. Kathleen Struck shares one woman’s story. …

The main Serbian hospital treating patients infected with coronavirus looks like an abandoned building, but it isn’t. With its rundown facade, peeling walls and rooms crammed with metal beds, the downtown Belgrade clinic for infectious diseases has for decades been a symbol of Serbia’s depleted health system that now has to cope with a major virus outbreak. “If coronavirus doesn’t kill you, that hospital surely will,” said Bane Spasic, a middle-aged man who recently visited the place for a minor infection.   Although the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t hit Eastern and Central Europe with such a force compared to Italy, Spain and France, health officials throughout the region are sounding the alarm about the lack of medical staff, facilities, equipment and enough hospital beds to handle several virus outbreaks simultaneously. The COVID-19 illness causes mild or moderate symptoms in most of those infected, but severe symptoms are more likely in the …

The Rolling Stones are postponing its 15-city North American tour because of the growing coronavirus outbreak.The band announced Tuesday that its No Filter Tour, originally expected to kick off in San Diego on May 8, is postponed. The band’s tour was also planned to visit some North American cities they haven’t played in years, including Cleveland, St. Louis, Austin, Texas, Louisville, Kentucky, Charlotte, North Carolina and Tampa, Florida. “We’re hugely disappointed to have to postpone the tour. We are sorry to all the fans who were looking forward to it as much as we were, but the health and safety of everyone has to take priority. We will all get through this together — and we’ll see you very soon,” the Stones said in a statement.Tour promoter AEG is advising concertgoers to hold onto their original tickets and wait for more information.The Stones’ tour through North America last year was …

 Medicare said Tuesday it will immediately expand coverage for telemedicine nationwide to help seniors with health problems stay home to avoid the coronavirus. The new option will allow millions of older people to take care of ongoing medical problems as well as new concerns, while heeding public health advice to stay home during the outbreak. For example, a patient with diabetes wouldn’t have to postpone a regular follow-up visit with the doctor to keep safe — he or she could do it via Skype. And people concerned they may have the virus could “see” their doctor or nurse practitioner virtually to find out how to get tested in person. “It helps us prevent the spread of the virus,” said Medicare administrator Seema Verma. For seniors who don’t navigate technology, relatives or friends can assist. “If it’s your mom, you may need to go over to her house to help her do this,” said Verma. …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set up four new committees to help respond to a growing coronavirus outbreak, focusing on health, public sector preparedness, the economy and the international response to the pandemic.   The four committees will feed into a daily meeting on coronavirus, part of new stringent measures to try to tackle an outbreak, and will help “refine” decisions taken at emergency meetings, which will continue to be chaired by Johnson, his office said in a statement.  …

A British citizen appeared at a public hospital in India’s capital with a fever, difficulty breathing and a private clinic’s referral for a coronavirus test. She was turned away.Indian authorities said Tuesday that they are not expanding testing for the virus, as most affected nations are doing, amid mounting criticism from some experts that the limited tests could mask the true toll of the disease in the world’s second most populous country.The World Health Organization has urged countries to test as many people as possible to curb the pandemic, but India has taken a different approach, limiting testing to those who have traveled from affected countries or come in contact with a confirmed case and show symptoms after two weeks of quarantine.  The British patient denied a test last week fulfilled neither criteria.  The woman, who requested anonymity fearing business consequences for her employer, said she told hospital officials that …

Several U.S. states are closing dine-in restaurants and bars, limiting the establishments to carry-out or delivery service, in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus. The governors of California, Connecticut, Ohio, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Washington State are among those who have ordered the restrictions. Mayors in some towns across the United States are also putting similar measures in place. “These are very difficult decisions, but hours count here and very strong measures are necessary to slow the spread of the virus,” Washington state Governor Jay Inslee said.Customers order and wait for their food at a restaurant in Chicago, March 15, 2020.Ben Chapman, a professor and food safety specialist at North Carolina State University, says it is important for people to remember that, when it comes to coronavirus, the risks of eating out have nothing to do with the food itself. “I’m worried about someone coughing on surfaces, but food itself has not been identified at all as a risk factor …