Apple’s global suppliers

Most of Apple’s suppliers and manufacturing happen outside the United States and in China. But because of tensions between the U.S. and China, Apple has tried to shift to other countries. Bloomberg provides the breakdowns over time, showing the biggest increases in India and Vietnam.

Tags: , , ,

To make electric vehicle batteries, China must be involved

For The New York Times, Agnes Chang and Keith Bradsher ask if it’s possible for the world to make EV batteries without China. Going over manufacturing and the materials involved, it looks like probably not:

Experts say it is next to impossible for any other country to become self-reliant in the battery supply chain, no matter if it has cheaper labor or finds other global partners. Companies anywhere in the world will look to form partnerships with Chinese manufacturers to enter or expand in the industry.

I appreciate the illustrative nature of these charts.

Tags: , , ,

India estimated to pass China in population

Based on the United Nations’ world population report, it is estimated that India’s population will increase past China’s some time this year. For The New York Times, Alex Travelli and Weiyi Cai have charts to show how and why.

Tags: , , ,

Shooting down the Chinese balloon

Shooting down a floating balloon out on its lonesome seems like a straightforward task. It’s just a balloon after all. But it seemed to take a while to get that Chinese spy balloon down. For The Washington Post, William Neff, Leslie Shapiro and Dylan Moriarty explained the challenges and timing behind the task.

Tags: , , ,

Inferring the scale of China’s Covid spike through obituaries

China reported 80,000 Covid deaths since lifting restrictions in early December 2022. But researchers believe the count is much higher, because the figure only includes hospital deaths and the country does not require Covid testing as strictly as before. So, for The New York Times, Pablo Robles, Vivian Wang, and Joy Dong evaluated the change in scale of scholars’ obituaries, which appears to correlate with China’s restriction timeline.

Tags: , , , ,

China’s fishing patterns shift globally

China’s fish supply is running low along its own coast, so they’ve shifted their fishing activities globally. The New York Times visualized the shift with animated maps.

Tags: , ,

China’s possible blockade around Taiwan

It appears China wants to impose a blockade around Taiwan with ships, submarines, and airplanes. The New York Times mapped the possibility and how it could disrupt life in and around the island.

Tags: , , ,

Canceled flights due to coronavirus

With an animated side-by-side map, The New York Times shows canceled flights in efforts to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. The left map represents 12,814 flights within China on January 23. The right map shows 1,662 on February 13. Keep scrolling to see changes for flights leaving China to other countries.

Tags: , , ,

Responding to the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) emerging in Wuhan, China

Map of China highlighting Wuhan City where a novel coronavirus has emerged

By Scott J. Becker, executive director, APHL

As news spreads of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) emerging in Wuhan, China, we at APHL are taking this threat seriously while also remaining calm and confident that our public health system is prepared. APHL has activated our incident command structure (ICS) to support our members and partners during the response.

Despite being a new respiratory virus strain, there is a familiarity that is reassuring to many of us in public health but can be unsettling to others. This new outbreak resembles SARS, MERS, H5N1 bird flu and other emerging respiratory diseases from the past. However, illness does not appear to be as severe as those previous viruses although our understanding of 2019-nCoV is still developing.

While there is a lot we don’t know about 2019-nCoV, this is what we do know about the outbreak response to prevent its spread:

  • As the first 2019-nCoV patient was identified in the United States, our public health system worked. Efforts to disseminate information to the public and to health care providers led to the patient self-identifying and allowed his providers to quickly initiate screening, isolation and eventual diagnosis. The specimen was immediately sent to CDC for rapid testing and results were promptly reported.
  • Public health laboratories are ready to process and ship specimens to CDC whose laboratory is currently the only one able to perform diagnostic testing in the US. CDC is working hard to develop and qualify a test that public health laboratories can use. Performing testing close to where the patient is being treated is ideal, but developing an effective test requires strong science and that takes time. We expect this new test to be ready for public health lab use in the coming weeks. CDC is already working closely with FDA to get an emergency use authorization (EUA) to deploy the test across the country in the event a US public health emergency is declared. (An EUA cannot be given until the US Secretary of Health and Human Services declares a public health emergency.)
  • For all of the critical players in our public health system – public health laboratory scientists, epidemiologists, CDC, FDA, health care providers and others – this is all in a day’s work. Frequent preparedness training and routine outbreak responses ensure that when a new disease emerges, the public health system is ready.

An outbreak of a new virus like 2019-nCoV can sometimes stir up panic and fear. We understand why some feel that way, but we are also confident that the public health system is working to stop this virus just as it has done with many others. We hope that our confidence in their expertise and abilities is reassuring for you. It is not time to panic – it is time to wash those hands, catch your coughs and continue to be vigilant during this cold and flu season.

Update (Jan 31, 2020): Media Statement on Novel Coronavirus Public Health Emergency Declaration from APHL Executive Director Scott Becker

We will continue to update this post with more information as it becomes available.

 

What is an Emerging Infectious Disease?

The post Responding to the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) emerging in Wuhan, China appeared first on APHL Lab Blog.

I survived giving my first large conference talk as a PhD student

  By Lei Shen When I was in the middle of designing my poster, an email from the organizers  of  Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory‘s Asia Conference arrived informing me that my abstract was selected to