Short Takes – 8-24-23

Mask mandates reemerge amid upturn in COVID-19 cases. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““When you take flu and RSV and, you know, if we had a little bit of a surge in COVID … the biggest concern right now is hospitals becoming overwhelmed. And we had a little bit of that last year that is very much in everybody’s minds and concerns right now.””

US intelligence says an intentional explosion brought down Wagner chief Prigozhin’s plane. APNews.com article. Pull quote: “Videos shared by the pro-Wagner Telegram channel Grey Zone showed a plane dropping like a stone from a large cloud of smoke, twisting wildly as it fell, one of its wings apparently missing. A free fall like that typically occurs when an aircraft sustains severe damage. A frame-by-frame AP analysis of two videos was consistent with some sort of explosion mid-flight.”

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lands on the moon in 'victory cry of a new India'. Reuters.com article. Pull quote: “"Landing on the south pole would actually allow India to explore if there is water ice on the moon. And this is very important for cumulative data and science on the geology of the moon," said Carla Filotico, a partner and managing director at consultancy SpaceTec Partners.”

What should we expect from the coronavirus this fall? ScienceNews.org article. Pull quote: “Levels of detectable coronavirus in wastewater samples and the proportion of tests that come back positive have certainly been ticking up since June, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. Both metrics indicate rising cases at the national level, albeit indirectly. It’s hard to get a good grasp of the start of new surges or know what’s happening within communities, in part because states are no longer required to report new cases, a result of the U.S. public health emergency ending in May (SN: 5/4/23).”

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