DINNER PARTY INTEL: Rocky outcome for Rio Tinto CEO
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1. Covid makes comeback
Hong Kong researchers have reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, after a 33-year-old man who was first infected in March contracted the virus again while travelling in Europe four months later. There have been other reports of Covid-19 reinfection, but these have been based only on anecdotal evidence. The Hong Kong case raises questions about the durability of immune protection against the coronavirus. Researchers sequenced the virus from the patient’s two infections and found that they did not match, indicating the second infection was not tied to the first.
2. Africa’s polio milestone
Africa was declared free from wild polio on Tuesday, following decades of work. Nigeria was the last African country to eradicate the wild strain of the disease, having accounted for more than half of all global cases less than a decade ago. Wild polio is now only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Several hundred people in Africa still have a vaccine-derived strain of the virus. Polio usually affects children under five, sometimes leading to irreversible paralysis. And when breathing muscles are affected by the paralysis, it can cause death. There is no cure, but the polio vaccine, if administered correctly, protects children for life.
3. Rocky outcome for CEO
Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques has lost $5m in bonuses over the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site in Western Australia, after an internal review found "systemic failures" in the company’s heritage management system, The Guardian reports. The mining company destroyed two rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region in May, despite having received five separate reports on the significance of the sites.
The newspaper said the Rio Tinto board had voted to withhold the bonuses of three executives. Activist groups have described the lost bonuses as "pocket change" for the executives.
Hong Kong researchers have reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, after a 33-year-old man who was first infected in March contracted the virus again while travelling in Europe four months later. There have been other reports of Covid-19 reinfection, but these have been based only on anecdotal evidence. The Hong Kong case raises questions about the durability of immune protection against the coronavirus. Researchers sequenced the virus from the patient’s two infections and found that they did not match, indicating the second infection was not tied to the first.
2. Africa’s polio milestone
Africa was declared free from wild polio on Tuesday, following decades of work. Nigeria was the last African country to eradicate the wild strain of the disease, having accounted for more than half of all global cases less than a decade ago. Wild polio is now only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Several hundred people in Africa still have a vaccine-derived strain of the virus. Polio usually affects children under five, sometimes leading to irreversible paralysis. And when breathing muscles are affected by the paralysis, it can cause death. There is no cure, but the polio vaccine, if administered correctly, protects children for life.
3. Rocky outcome for CEO
Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques has lost $5m in bonuses over the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site in Western Australia, after an internal review found "systemic failures" in the company’s heritage management system, The Guardian reports. The mining company destroyed two rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region in May, despite having received five separate reports on the significance of the sites.
The newspaper said the Rio Tinto board had voted to withhold the bonuses of three executives. Activist groups have described the lost bonuses as "pocket change" for the executives.