Earth Essences.Com

Police confiscate more than 300,000 used condoms being washed and sold as new

Vietnamese police have seized hundreds of thousands of used condoms which had reportedly been doused in boiling water and reshaped on a wooden phallus to be resold as new.Vietnamese police have seized hundreds of thousands of used condoms which had reportedly been doused in boiling water and reshaped on a wooden phallus to be resold as new.

More than 360 kilograms of second-hand contraceptives - equivalent to 345,000 condoms - were confiscated from a warehouse near Ho Chi Minh City, following a tip-off from a resident.

Footage broadcast by state outlet Vietnam Television (VTV) showed dozens of large bags containing the used prophylactics scattered across the floor of the building in Binh Duong.

The person renting the warehouse said they had received a “monthly input of used condoms from an unknown person,” state newspaper Tuoi Tre reported. 

A woman arrested during the raid told police that the used prophylactics were first boiled in water then dried and reshaped on a wooden phallus before being repackaged and resold.

The detained woman said she had received $0.17 (13p) for every kilogram of recycled condoms she produced.

It was not clear how many of the recycled condoms had already been sold, VTV reported, but it has been claimed that they were being traded in local markets.

The provincial market management director said the condoms had been confiscated as evidence but would be disposed of immediately after as they are considered hazardous medical waste. 

“Condoms are classified as medical items, so we will take a look at the several laws that the owner has broken,” Tran Van Tung was reported as saying.

It follows previous warnings of an abundance of counterfeit and low-quality condoms in Vietnam.

Notably, in 2014, a United Nations Population Fund report warned that some 40 per cent of condoms for sale - some of which used counterfeit branding to dupe customers - failed quality control tests, leaving users more open to infection and pregnancy. 

Reference: Independent: Andy Gregory 3 days ago:24/09/2020

Police probe 'plague doctor' seen scaring children near duck pond

Pranksters dressing up as 'plague doctors' have returned once again as police in Gloucester confirmed they are investigating a sinister figure seen scaring children near a duck pond. Pranksters dressing up as 'plague doctors' have returned once again as police in Gloucester confirmed they are investigating a sinister figure seen scaring children near a duck pond. 

Officers said they want to offer advice on the 'appropriateness' of the outfit, which is similar to those seen a number of times up and down the country throughout the pandemic.

A member of the public posted on social media on Sunday alerting people that a man wearing the mask was in Saintbridge near Coney Hill.Plague doctors thought beaked masks containing lavender would protect them During the plague doctors dressed in certain clothes they believed protected them from the airborne diseases.  T

hey wore long, ankle-length overcoats and bird-like beak filled with plants and herbs that had a smell, usually lavender. They also wore gloves, boots and wide hat. Historians think  the outfit was invented in 1619 by Charles de Lorme who got the idea for head-to-toe clothing from a soldier's armour. 

Chloe, from Coney Hill, said: 'I was there chilling at the duck pond on Sunday and I saw a man when I was walking on top of the bridge.'He was talking to the kids, and one child ran off because they were so scared.
'The group of children were very young and small, the one who ran off must have been about 10 years old.'

The man has been spotted wearing the mask and a long brown overcoat. A Gloucestershire police spokesperson said: 'We are aware an individual has been seen wearing medieval style costumes in and around Gloucester.

'While it is not an offence to dress in this way, we will be looking to speak to the individual to give advice on the appropriateness of the costume at this time.' Plague doctor costumes have appeared a number of times since the start of the pandemic earlier this year.

At the end of April, concerned locals in Norwich reported a prankster to police after seeing them wearing a long black cloak, hat and pointed beak-like mask. Norfolk Police later unmasked the ghoulish figure as a local teenager who had dressed up in the outfit as a joke.

Officers said they have spoken to the boy about the 'consequences of his actions', but he will escape prosecution unless he defies police to continue his display.Just days later, another eerie figure wandered through London's Crouch End, much to the amazement of locals who peered through their windows. 

As he went about his business in the capital, the prankster popped into a local supermarket and 'tipped his hat' to people as he passed them. A plague doctor was then also spotted at a protest in Hyde Park in July, where hundreds of activists had gathered to oppose the imminent policy of making face coverings mandatory in shops. 

The mask is similar to what doctors wore when they were treating people affected by the Bubonic Plague in the 17th Century.

Reference: Daily Mail: Tom Pyman For Mailonline 3 days ago: 24/09/2020 

UK could become first country in world to deliberately infect volunteers with Covid-19 for vaccine test

The UK could host the world's first Covid-19 "human challenge trials" in which healthy volunteers are infected with coronavirus to test the effectiveness of experimental vaccines.The UK could host the world's first Covid-19 "human challenge trials" in which healthy volunteers are infected with coronavirus to test the effectiveness of experimental vaccines.

The studies are expected to begin in January at a secure quarantine facility in east London, according to a Financial Times report. Those taking part will be inoculated with a vaccine before receiving a “challenge” dose of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, under controlled conditions a month or so later.

A Government spokesperson confirmed ministers were looking into collaborating on the potential development of a vaccine through such human challenge studies. "We are working with partners to understand how we might collaborate on the potential development of a Covid-19 vaccine through human challenge studies," the spokesperson said.

"These discussions are part of our work to research ways of treating, limiting and hopefully preventing the virus so we can end the pandemic sooner." Any trial that involves exposing people to Covid-19 would need to be approved by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), as well as an independent research ethics committee.

The MHRA said such studies can "be helpful for the development of vaccines and can provide early evidence of clinical efficacy, particularly when there are low rates of infection of the virus in the Population". Dr Hilary says 'it makes sense' to keep university students on campus over christmas“The safety of trial participants is our top priority and any proposal from a developer to include a human infection challenge as part of a clinical trial for development of a vaccine would be considered on a benefit-risk basis, with risks monitored for and minimised in the proposed trial design," it added.

Reports of the potential trials meanwhile come amid a surge of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK.

The number of daily coronavirus cases recorded nationwide rose on Wednesday to more than 6,000 for the first time since May, taking the overall number of cases confirmed to 409,729. On Thursday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said nearly 10,000 people a day are contracting coronavirus in the UK as he urged people to download the newly-released NHS tracing app. 

Health Sec: Under 10,000 Per Day Getting Virus 'Still Too High'He said the 10,000 daily infections were still fewer than the “100,000 per day” estimated during the spring peak.

He told Sky News: “The massive testing capability we’ve got helps to find where the virus is so, if you think about it, yesterday we had a figure that there is over 6,000 people who have tested positive in the previous 24 hours. “And that is comparable to the highest levels in the peak in terms of the number of people who were tested positive but back then we estimate through surveys that over 100,000 people a day were catching the disease, but we only found around 6,000 of them and they tested positive.

When could a coronavirus vaccine be available to the public?“Now we estimate that it is under 10,000 people a day getting the disease – that’s too high but it is still much lower than in the peak – and through the mass testing we have and the quarter-of-a-million capacity, we found yesterday over 6,000 of them.

“That then allows us to do the contact tracing for everyone who has tested positive and find who they’ve been in contact with. “In addition, today with the app, if you download the app you will also have that added protection for you and your loved ones.”
Mr Hancock made the comments as he welcomed the launch of the NHS contract tracing app in England and Wales. The rollout follows months of delay and questions about its effectiveness in the face of mixed results from other countries which have already deployed such apps.

Reference: Evening StandardDavid Child 2 days ago: 25/09/2020

Robots target coronavirus with ultraviolet light at London train station

LONDON (Reuters) - Robots that can kill the coronavirus with ultraviolet light have been brought in at one of London's biggest train stations, St Pancras International, as it tries to restore customer confidence in the safety of travel hubs.LONDON (Reuters) - Robots that can kill the coronavirus with ultraviolet light have been brought in at one of London's biggest train stations, St Pancras International, as it tries to restore customer confidence in the safety of travel hubs.

Stations suffered a blow on Tuesday when Prime Minister Boris Johnson told people to work from home again where possible and also ordered restaurants and bars to close early to tackle a second wave of COVID-19 infections.
St Pancras International saw 34.6 million entries and exits in the year to March 2019, the most recently available yearly data from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), making it the ninth-busiest station in the country.

The ORR has said the pandemic caused a dramatic fall in rail usage."The main thing for us is to get the confidence of customers," said Jay Newton, Head of Stations Engineering and Operations for the High Speed One Channel tunnel rail link."We are the first train station to bring this type of technology in because we want to allow people to use a train station with confidence, use our retail units with confidence, and slowly get back to a normal way," he told Reuters.

The robots use ultraviolet light to sweep large areas without the need for chemical disinfectant, the station said, adding the technology could kill nearly 100% of bacteria and viruses - including the coronavirus - on surfaces and in the surrounding air in minutes.St Pancras International is the terminus of the Eurostar link to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and also shares links to six London Underground lines with neighbouring King's Cross station.

Reference: Reuters: 1 day ago: 23/09/2020