coronavirus

Legal decisions on mandatory coronavirus vaccination policies favouring employers

George Vassos says arbitrators have largely favored employers’ vaccination policies, but employers don’t have carte blanche. 

Benefits Canada

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coronavirus

EEOC greenlights coronavirus vaccine requirements, incentives — with some limits

Barry Hartstein explains his view of the EEOC’s vaccination incentives.

HR Dive

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Aggressive Stock Promotion Exploits Fears of Coronavirus Recession

TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is warning the public about aggressive promotion of Crestview Exploration Inc.




coronavirus

OSC and RCMP issue joint warning on coronavirus investment scams

TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), in partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) – Integrated Market Enforcement Team (IMET), is warning the public about fraudulent investment opportunities related to the coronavirus (COVID-19).




coronavirus

Raspberry Pi Enthusiast Creates Coronavirus Live Global Tracker Display

There are so many things that can be done with a little spare time and a Raspberry Pi that it boggles the mind; the little developer board can be made to do just about anything builders can dream up. One of the most recent projects we've seen using the Pi turned up on Reddit from a person called jul-bruegger who combined the Raspberry Pi Zero... [PCSTATS]




coronavirus

Shipments of Goods and Coronavirus: Update

Yesterday, the President of the United States declared an expanded emergency declaration for all states and the District of Columbia on truck shipments of consumer goods and other supplies. Below is an update from the FMCSA delineating the types loads that are being exempted from hours of service rules.




coronavirus

NAB Statement on Inclusion of Vaccine Awareness Campaign in Coronavirus Relief Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the inclusion of $1 billion for a vaccine awareness campaign in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the following statement may be attributed to NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith: 





coronavirus

A Curiously Written Coronavirus Paper

The mystery of "extreme acute respiratory syndrome"




coronavirus

Animal Coronaviruses

Location: Electronic Resource- 




coronavirus

Coronavirus Is Not Passed From Mother to Child Late In Pregnancy

Coronavirus Is Not Passed From Mother to Child Late In Pregnancy

After a newborn (born to a mother infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing positive for COVID-19 infection within 36 hours of birth, there were concerns about whether the virus could be contracted in the womb. A new study finds that COVID-19 does not pass to the child while in the womb. The women in the small study were from Wuhan, China, in the third trimester of pregnancy and had pneumonia caused by COVID-19. However, it only included women who were late in their pregnancy and gave birth by caesarean section. 

There were two cases of fetal distress but all nine pregnancies resulted in live births. That symptoms from COVID-19 infection in pregnant women were similar to those reported in non-pregnant adults, and no women in the study developed severe pneumonia or died.

All mothers in the study were aged between 26-40 years. None of them had underlying health conditions, but one developed gestational hypertension from week 27 of her pregnancy, and another developed pre-eclampsia at week 31. Both patients’ conditions were stable during pregnancy. The nine women in the study had typical symptoms of COVID-19 infection, and were given oxygen support and antibiotics. Six of the women were also given antiviral therapy. In the study, the medical records of nine pregnant women who had pneumonia caused by COVID-19 infection were retrospectively reviewed. Infection was lab-confirmed for all women in the study, and the authors studied the nine women’s symptoms.

(A) Patient 1: left-sided patchy consolidation and multiple bilateral ground-glass opacities. (B) Patient 2: subpleural patchy consolidation in the right lung and slightly infiltrated shadows around left bronchus. (C) Patient 3: bilateral multiple ground-glass opacities, prominent on the left. (D) Patient 4: left-sided patchy ground-glass opacity. (E) Patient 5: multiple ground-glass opacities bilaterally. (F) Patient 6: bilateral clear lung fields with no obvious ground-glass opacities. (G) Patient 7: right-sided subpleural patchy consolidation. (H) Patient 8: multiple bilateral ground-glass opacities, prominent on the right. (I) Patient 9: multiple bilateral ground-glass opacities.


In addition, samples of amniotic fluid, cord blood, neonatal throat swabs and breast milk were taken for six of the nine cases [2] and tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Importantly, the samples of amniotic fluid, cord blood, and neonatal throat swabs were collected in the operating room at the time of birth to guarantee that samples were not contaminated and best represented intrauterine conditions. All nine pregnancies resulted in live births, and there were no cases of neonatal asphyxia. Four women had pregnancy complications (two had fetal distress and two had premature rupture of membrane), and four women had preterm labor which was not related to their infection and occurred after 36 gestational weeks. Two of the prematurely born newborns had a low birth weight.

The authors note that their findings are similar to observations of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus in pregnant women, where there was no evidence of the virus being passed from mother to child during pregnancy or birth. The findings are based on a limited number of cases, over a short period of time, and the effects of mothers being infected with the virus during the first or second trimester of pregnancy and the subsequent outcomes for their offspring are still unclear, as well as whether the virus can be passed from mother to child during vaginal birth.

Dr Jie Qiao (who was not involved in the study) of Peking University Third Hospital, China,compares the effects of the virus to those of SARS, and says: “Previous studies have shown that SARS during pregnancy is associated with a high incidence of adverse maternal and neonatal complications, such as spontaneous miscarriage, preterm delivery, intrauterine growth restriction, application of endotracheal intubation, admission to the intensive care unit, renal failure, and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. However, pregnant women with COVID-19 infection in the present study had fewer adverse maternal and neonatal complications and outcomes than would be anticipated for those with SARS-CoV-1 infection. Although a small number of cases was analysed and the findings should be interpreted with caution, the findings are mostly consistent with the clinical analysis done by Zhu and colleagues of ten neonates born to mothers with COVID-19 pneumonia."

sb admin Wed, 02/12/2020 - 13:03
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coronavirus

The Biology Of Why Coronavirus Is So Deadly

The Biology Of Why Coronavirus Is So Deadly

COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses belong to a group of viruses that infect animals, from peacocks to whales. They’re named for the bulb-tipped spikes that project from the virus’s surface and give the appearance of a corona surrounding it.

A coronavirus infection usually plays out one of two ways: as an infection in the lungs that includes some cases of what people would call the common cold, or as an infection in the gut that causes diarrhea. COVID-19 starts out in the lungs like the common cold coronaviruses, but then causes havoc with the immune system that can lead to long-term lung damage or death.

SARS-CoV-2 is genetically very similar to other human respiratory coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. However, the subtle genetic differences translate to significant differences in how readily a coronavirus infects people and how it makes them sick.

 

SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (pink dots) on a dying cell. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH

 

SARS-CoV-2 has all the same genetic equipment as the original SARS-CoV, which caused a global outbreak in 2003, but with around 6,000 mutations sprinkled around in the usual places where coronaviruses change. Think whole milk versus skim milk.

Compared to other human coronaviruses like MERS-CoV, which emerged in the Middle East in 2012, the new virus has customized versions of the same general equipment for invading cells and copying itself. However, SARS-CoV-2 has a totally different set of genes called accessories, which give this new virus a little advantage in specific situations. For example, MERS has a particular protein that shuts down a cell’s ability to sound the alarm about a viral intruder. SARS-CoV-2 has an unrelated gene with an as-yet unknown function in that position in its genome. Think cow milk versus almond milk.

 

How the virus infects

 

Every coronavirus infection starts with a virus particle, a spherical shell that protects a single long string of genetic material and inserts it into a human cell. The genetic material instructs the cell to make around 30 different parts of the virus, allowing the virus to reproduce. The cells that SARS-CoV-2 prefers to infect have a protein called ACE2 on the outside that is important for regulating blood pressure.

The infection begins when the long spike proteins that protrude from the virus particle latch on to the cell’s ACE2 protein. From that point, the spike transforms, unfolding and refolding itself using coiled spring-like parts that start out buried at the core of the spike. The reconfigured spike hooks into the cell and crashes the virus particle and cell together. This forms a channel where the string of viral genetic material can snake its way into the unsuspecting cell.

An illustration of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein shown from the side (left) and top. The protein latches onto human lung cells. 5-HT2AR/Wikimedia

SARS-CoV-2 spreads from person to person by close contact. The Shincheonji Church outbreak in South Korea in February provides a good demonstration of how and how quickly SARS-CoV-2 spreads. It seems one or two people with the virus sat face to face very close to uninfected people for several minutes at a time in a crowded room. Within two weeks, several thousand people in the country were infected, and more than half of the infections at that point were attributable to the church. The outbreak got to a fast start because public health authorities were unaware of the potential outbreak and were not testing widely at that stage. Since then, authorities have worked hard and the number of new cases in South Korea has been falling steadily.

 

How the virus makes people sick

 

SARS-CoV-2 grows in type II lung cells, which secrete a soap-like substance that helps air slip deep into the lungs, and in cells lining the throat. As with SARS, most of the damage in COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, is caused by the immune system carrying out a scorched earth defense to stop the virus from spreading. Millions of cells from the immune system invade the infected lung tissue and cause massive amounts of damage in the process of cleaning out the virus and any infected cells.

Each COVID-19 lesion ranges from the size of a grape to the size of a grapefruit. The challenge for health care workers treating patients is to support the body and keep the blood oxygenated while the lung is repairing itself.

 

How SARS-CoV-2 infects, sickens and kills people

 

SARS-CoV-2 has a sliding scale of severity. Patients under age 10 seem to clear the virus easily, most people under 40 seem to bounce back quickly, but older people suffer from increasingly severe COVID-19. The ACE2 protein that SARS-CoV-2 uses as a door to enter cells is also important for regulating blood pressure, and it does not do its job when the virus gets there first. This is one reason COVID-19 is more severe in people with high blood pressure.

SARS-CoV-2 is more severe than seasonal influenza in part because it has many more ways to stop cells from calling out to the immune system for help. For example, one way that cells try to respond to infection is by making interferon, the alarm signaling protein. SARS-CoV-2 blocks this by a combination of camouflage, snipping off protein markers from the cell that serve as distress beacons and finally shredding any anti-viral instructions that the cell makes before they can be used. As a result, COVID-19 can fester for a month, causing a little damage each day, while most people get over a case of the flu in less than a week.

At present, the transmission rate of SARS-CoV-2 is a little higher than that of the pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, but SARS-CoV-2 is at least 10 times as deadly. From the data that is available now, COVID-19 seems a lot like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), though it’s less likely than SARS to be severe.

 

What isn’t known

 

There are still many mysteries about this virus and coronaviruses in general – the nuances of how they cause disease, the way they interact with proteins inside the cell, the structure of the proteins that form new viruses and how some of the basic virus-copying machinery works.

Another unknown is how COVID-19 will respond to changes in the seasons. The flu tends to follow cold weather, both in the northern and southern hemispheres. Some other human coronaviruses spread at a low level year-round, but then seem to peak in the spring. But nobody really knows for sure why these viruses vary with the seasons.

What is amazing so far in this outbreak is all the good science that has come out so quickly. The research community learned about structures of the virus spike protein and the ACE2 protein with part of the spike protein attached just a little over a month after the genetic sequence became available. I spent my first 20 or so years working on coronaviruses without the benefit of either. This bodes well for better understanding, preventing and treating COVID-19.

By Benjamin Neuman, Professor of Biology, Texas A&M University-Texarkana. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation Thu, 04/02/2020 - 14:02
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coronavirus

How Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly wrestled with the moral dilemma of canceling Mass for coronavirus

This is hardly the first time the Catholic Church has to deal with a plague. Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly knows that well…



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coronavirus

Atlanta Mayor Rolls Back Reopening Plan As Coronavirus Cases Soar

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is set to roll back the city's reopening plan back to phase one as COVID-19 continues to spread across the state, a spokesman said Friday. The first phase guidelines include encouraging residents to stay home except for essential trips, wearing a face covering in public and avoid in-person dining at restaurants.




coronavirus

New York Gov. Cuomo Offers Coronavirus Assistance To Atlanta

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is taking up New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on his offer to send a team to conduct testing and contact tracing of people exposed to the coronavirus. Cuomo announced Monday that New York State will deploy coronavirus assistance to the capital of Georgia as the state continues to experience an increase in COVID-19 cases.




coronavirus

With Lack of Pandemic Protections, Fears — And Coronavirus — Spread Among Georgia ICE Detainees

While protests set off by the killing of George Floyd show no signs of letting up, another quieter protest has been stirring at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Irwin County, Georgia. There, a group of detainees staged a hunger strike and protest over video chat to raise the alarm over a lack of precautions against the spread of COVID-19 inside the detention center.




coronavirus

Coronavirus Pandemic Spotlights Problems With Online Learning

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Distance learning in the pandemic highlights a problem that experts have warned about for years - some students have good access to the Internet, and others do not. It's called the digital divide. Many districts are about to start the school year with more distance learning, so how can they narrow that divide? Rachel Martin spoke with Nicol Turner Lee, who studies it. RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: When you look back at those two, sometimes three, months that students in this country were doing distance learning, what worked and what didn't? NICOL TURNER LEE: You know, I think, generally, I am in agreement with some of the folks that have looked at this short period time as somewhat of an abject failure for our children. What worked was that, you know, schools had the attention of their households to figure out what to do during a time of crisis. What didn't work was that schools were not necessarily ready to move to an online




coronavirus

'Unprecedented Demand' Slows Results From Some Coronavirus Labs

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Here is a very brief history of American testing in the pandemic. The United States started out drastically short of coronavirus tests. The few people who got them had to wait many days for results. Then the United States engaged private companies to make up the difference. Mobile testing centers appeared in parking lots in many cities. Millions of people were tested. But now, as NPR has reported, most states are short of the testing numbers they need, and people getting tested report delays in getting results. Admiral Brett Giroir is on the line. He is an assistant secretary of health, and he has been in charge of the federal testing response. Admiral, welcome to the program. BRETT GIROIR: Thank you. It's good to be here with you this morning, Steve. INSKEEP: I want to quote Mick Mulvaney, President Trump's former chief of staff, who wrote, quote, "it isn't popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a




coronavirus

Bollywood Star, Big B As He's Known, Contracts Coronavirus

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: One of the most famous actors in India has COVID-19. Big B, as he's called, is Amitabh Bachchan. Bollywood fans are praying for recovery, as NPR's Lauren Frayer reports. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Praying in non-English language). LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: At a Hindu temple in Bhopal, India, the faithful chant prayers for Amitabh Bachchan and his family. The 77-year-old Bollywood icon and his son were both hospitalized over the weekend with COVID-19. His daughter-in-law and granddaughter also tested positive and are isolating at home. The Bachchans are bigger than royalty. There's another Hindu temple dedicated to Amitabh Bachchan in Kolkata, complete with a life-sized idol of the actor on a throne. The sanctuary walls are plastered with movie posters. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken). FRAYER: "We're not fans, we're devotees," this man told local TV.




coronavirus

Coronavirus Costs Delta Air Lines Nearly $6 Billion In 2nd Quarter

Over the last three months, Delta Air Lines lost nearly $6 billion as the company's CEO said a slow, brief recovery in air travel has now stalled amid a big resurgence in coronavirus infections. Delta is the first U.S. airline to report second-quarter financial results; it is the first full quarter since the pandemic began, and the results are worse than anticipated. Delta flew 93% percent fewer passengers in April, May and June than it did in the second quarter last year. Revenue fell 91% compared with the same three-month period last year as the airline said it was losing close to $100 million a day at the start of the pandemic. Atlanta-based Delta said it is still burning about $27 million a day. Delta CEO Ed Bastian called the losses "staggering," adding that "it could be two years or more before we see a sustainable recovery." Bastian noted that in June and early July, there was "a small but welcome uptick in passenger volume, driven almost entirely by domestic leisure travelers




coronavirus

Market Meltdown: Dow Dives 1,800 Points On Worries Of 2nd Coronavirus Wave




coronavirus

'We Need Help': People At Higher Coronavirus Risk Fear Losing Federal Unemployment

Many people with underlying medical conditions are worried about what's going to happen at the end of the month. It's not currently safe for many of them to go back to work. The COVID-19 death rate is 12 times higher for people with underlying conditions. But an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits, which has been enabling them to pay their rent and other bills, will stop coming at the end of July. "We don't have a whole lot of options that don't involve risking our lives," Lauren Van Netta says. "We need help. We really do." Van Netta lost her job at a perfume store in New Orleans during the outbreak. She says she's had serious bacterial infections that have damaged her lungs and compromised her immune system. And she has asthma. So even if she could find another job in retail, she says her doctors have told her it would be risky. She says even wearing a mask and trying to keep social distancing in a workplace, "it's like the fear of, you know, I could make a mistake.




coronavirus

La política frente al coronavirus de Trump es muy pobre: Silva

Gabriel Silva habla sobre efectos económicos del Coronavirus




coronavirus

Con el coronavirus la línea debe ser sensata y prudente: Roy

Roy Barreras habla sobre las precauciones necesarias en torno al Coronavirus




coronavirus

Con el coronavirus se abren oportunidades en los mercados: Santamaría

Santamaría habla sobre efectos económicos del Coronavirus




coronavirus

El coronavirus profundiza guerra comercial China y EE.UU.: Poly

Poly Martinez habla sobre efectos económicos del Coronavirus




coronavirus

Sentido colectivo de la humanidad se recuperó ante coronavirus: Pizarro

Maria José Pizarro habla sobre la importancia de lo colectivo frente al coronavirus




coronavirus

¿En qué va la pandemia del coronavirus?

¿En qué va la pandemia del coronavirus?




coronavirus

A Look At Betsy DeVos' Role During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST: President Trump says he wants America's schools to reopen and quickly. He's undercut guidance from the CDC, calling it impractical. He's even threatened to cut funding for schools that don't reopen. And supporting this push is Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Here she is speaking last week at a meeting of the Coronavirus Task Force. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) BETSY DEVOS: Ultimately, it's not a matter of if schools should reopen. It's simply a matter of how. They must fully open, and they must be fully operational. MCCAMMON: For more on DeVos' role in this pandemic, we're joined by NPR's Cory Turner, who's been covering her since she became secretary. Hi, Cory. CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Hello. MCCAMMON: So, Cory, let's recap. How did DeVos initially respond to this pandemic? TURNER: Yeah. So back in March, she seemed largely supportive of state and local school leaders' decision to close schools. To help, she waived




coronavirus

Coronavirus Surge For U.S. Military On Okinawa Adds To Soured Relations There

Relations between the more than 25,000 U.S. military forces on Okinawa and that Japanese island's 1.5 million residents have long been strained over pollution, crime and overcrowding associated with the 31 U.S. military bases there. Now a new outbreak of COVID-19 cases among American service members stationed on Japan's southernmost territory is fraying things further. As of Tuesday, 100 new cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the past week at five U.S. bases on Okinawa, according to Japan's independent Kyodo News agency. Beyond those bases, where only three cases had earlier been confirmed, Okinawa has had a relatively low impact from the disease, reporting 148 infections and seven deaths. At a weekend news conference, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki called the surge of coronavirus cases among U.S. military personnel "extremely regrettable," according to the Reuters news agency. "I can't help but have strong doubts about the U.S. military's measures to prevent infections," Reuters




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Coronavirus en Colombia: ¿Es hora de eliminar el uso obligatorio del tapabocas?




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Blood tests reveal that the Coronavirus COVID-19 originated before September 2019 and China knew and hid its origins

COVID-19 antibodies have been found in blood samples as early as September, 2019. China knew about the virus' transmission to humans months before it announced such to the world. Why has the media and our government not investigated this gross negligence, if not mass murder? Continue reading



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  • Blood tests reveal that the Coronavirus COVID-19 originated before September 2019 and China knew and hid its origins
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  • COVID-19 a 'global fraud' by China that cost American lives
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  • Ron Klain Joe Biden's pick for White House chief of staff told Axios on Jan. 27 that China has been "more transparent and more candid than it has been during past outbreaks"
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  • WHO.

coronavirus

Dealing with Coronavirus…

We know your inbox is probably flooded with emails about COVID-19. Internet is overwhelmed with this topic but we feel it is important to let you know about the crucial steps RSS Ground team has taken to ensure our employees’ continued safety through this pandemic and reassure you there is no interruption to your service. […]

The post Dealing with Coronavirus… appeared first on RSSground.com.




coronavirus

Biden: Trump Is ‘Responsible’ For Contracting Coronavirus

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said that President Trump does bear some responsibility for catching COVID-19 last week due to his refusal of not taking social distancing guidelines and not wearing a mask seriously. “Look, anybody who contracts the virus by essentially saying, ‘masks don’t matter; social distancing doesn’t matter’ — I think is responsible […]

The post Biden: Trump Is ‘Responsible’ For Contracting Coronavirus appeared first on Hispolitica.




coronavirus

Trump On Coronavirus: ‘Don’t Let It Dominate You, Don’t Be Afraid Of It’

President Trump returned to the White House Monday evening after spending three-day being treated for COVID-19 at Walter Reed National Military Center, released an upbeat video message telling Americans not to be afraid of the virus. “One thing that’s for certain — Don’t let it dominate you,” Trump said in a one-minute long video filmed […]

The post Trump On Coronavirus: ‘Don’t Let It Dominate You, Don’t Be Afraid Of It’ appeared first on Hispolitica.




coronavirus

Biden Surrogate Jane Fonda Says The Coronavirus Is ‘God Gift To The Left’

Biden campaign surrogate and actress Jane Fonda on Wednesday called the coronavirus “God’s gift to the left.” She described the coronavirus pandemic as an “existential crossroads” that can “help determine which way humanity” can go in addressing progressive issues like climate change. “What a great gift, what a tremendous opportunity, we are so lucky, we have […]

The post Biden Surrogate Jane Fonda Says The Coronavirus Is ‘God Gift To The Left’ appeared first on Hispolitica.




coronavirus

Undercurrents: Episode 46 - Understanding Decolonization, and China’s Response to Coronavirus




coronavirus

How Concerning Is the New Coronavirus Outbreak?




coronavirus

Undercurrents: Episode 50 - The Coronavirus Communications Crisis, and Justice in Myanmar




coronavirus

The Climate Briefing: Episode 4 - Coronavirus and Climate Change