뉴스&스피킹(영자신문)
하루 10분이면 영어에 대한 두려움을 극복하고 누구나 유창하게 영어를 구사하실 수 있습니다.
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Do You Need to Wear That Mask? As concerns over the new coronavirus spread around the world, people have to make basic health decisions. They are wondering how worried they should be about getting infected and what they should do about it.
Some decision can have unexpected results however. For example, because of fears over getting infected, large numbers of people have bought masks to cover their faces. This led United States Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams to write this message on Twitter: “Seriously people – STOP BUYING MASKS”
He noted that masks are not effective in protecting the general public. The masks should be kept available for those who really need them. He added that “if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”
Different levels of concern not unusual
It is hard to know just how concerned people should be. Someone who lives near an area with many reported cases of coronavirus may be right to be more concerned than someone who does not.
But experts note that people do not only make decisions based on calculations.There are also emotional and psychological influences that play a part.
David Ropeik is an expert on risk who retired from Harvard University in Massachusetts. He said, “Emotions are the filters through which we see facts.”
Paul Slovic is a psychology professor at the University of Oregon. He said people’s perception of risk can increase so that it becomes different from the advice of medical officials.
For example, less is known about the new coronavirus than the seasonal flu, which is blamed for far more deaths each year. But the new coronavirus is not fully understood and seems to be difficult to control.
Slovic said that because “there is no vaccine that can prevent it” and it spreads easily, news of the disease hurts our personal sense of control. He said our sense of risk increases when we do not feel like we know what to do to protect ourselves.
At the same time, the information that people are getting from the news and social media does not ease their concerns, Slovic said. He noted that reports place attention on people getting sick and dying and not on less serious cases.
To make matters worse, “everybody is telling everybody about it,” Ropeik said. This increases the perceived risk.
Vincent Covello is director of the Center for Risk Communication, a business advisory group. He has a list of 17 psychological influences that people consider when they think about risk. For example, he said people worry more when they do not trust the officials or agencies in charge.
People also get more concerned about involuntary things, like exposure to an infected person than voluntary ones, like smoking or spending too much time in the sun.
Ropeik said people can reduce their risk of overreacting by not spreading news of every little development. “Don’t just share the scary parts,” he advised.
Finally, Ropeik said it is good idea to take a break from the 24-hour news. “Log off, put your phone down, pick up a book,” he said.
I’m Mario Ritter, Jr.View -
Trump Declares National Emergency over New Coronavirus American President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Friday to provide more resources to fight the new coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking from the White House, Trump said, “I am officially declaring a national emergency.” He said the action would release up to $50 billion for state and local governments to deal with the outbreak.
The president said he was also giving Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar emergency power to ease federal regulations and laws to give doctors and hospitals “flexibility” in treating patients.
Trump spoke as his administration is talking with Congress about providing support for people and businesses affected by the outbreak. Before Trump’s declaration, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives said the lower house would approve its own coronavirus proposal. She called on Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate to “put families first” by supporting the proposal.
The House bill includes free testing for the virus, guaranteed sick pay for workers who cannot work, money for the unemployed and food programs for children, families and older people.
The virus has changed the daily lives of many Americans. Sporting events have been canceled. Schools have been closed and people in some areas have been asked to limit their movements.
The Trump administration also said Friday that it would provide $1.3 million to two companies to develop new COVID-19 tests. The new test could detect if a person has the new coronavirus within an hour. The announcement came as the U.S. struggles to provide tests to people who want them.
The coronavirus crisis also has affected people close to Trump and some members of Congress. The president, his daughter Ivanka, Attorney General William Barr and several lawmakers are among those who have been near people who have been found to be infected with the new coronavirus.
When asked by reporters if he would be tested for the virus, Trump said he would “most likely” get tested.
Emergency in Europe
In Europe, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government will declare a two-week state of emergency on Saturday. He said, “It’s an emergency that affects the life and health of all.”
The Associated Press reported Friday that Spain had more than 4,200 confirmed cases of the virus. It also said that 120 people had died of the COVID-19 disease. The prime minister warned that the country could have over 10,000 infected persons by next week.
On Friday, Spain blocked the movement of 60,000 people in four towns. A state of emergency permits the government to limit personal movement and to take control of industries and hospitals across the nation.
In Italy, officials admitted that restrictions have not contained the spread of the virus. This week, officials threatened heavy fines and even prison for anyone breaking the nation-wide quarantine.
Three weeks after Italy identified its first case of infection in the north, the country now has a total of 17,600 confirmed cases, with 1,266 deaths.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Europe has now become the epicenter of the pandemic with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China.”
I’m Jill Robbins.View -
Japan Struggles with Cleanup of Fukushima Disaster The Japanese government, citizens and groups are debating what to do with radioactive water from the disabled nuclear power center near Fukushima.
An earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 caused severe damage to three of the six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Since then, Japanese officials have been struggling to contain and clean up the damage.
The Associated Press recently observed the decontamination process taking place there. Officials are trying to decide what to do with 1.2 million tons of radioactive water being stored at Fukushima.
The nuclear center is operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO. The company says it needs to free up space as work on the damaged reactors reaches an important point.
Many people expect TEPCO to slowly release the water into the ocean near the nuclear centers. The government has already approved the plan. However, it is not clear when the company will carry out the plan.
Local people oppose it because releasing the water into the nearby sea could hurt fisheries. Sales of fish caught off the coast near Fukushima are 50 percent of what they were before the nuclear disaster. Fish caught in the area have been approved for sale after radioactivity testing by health officials.
TEPCO Chief Decommissioning Officer Akira Ono said the water must be removed. He says crews need the space currently occupied by the water tanks. In their place, workers will set up structures to hold melted reactor wreckage.
Workers are planning to remove wreckage of the melted reactor by December 2021. Special equipment is taking apart Unit 2. Radioactive waste is being removed from Unit 3. People wear protective clothing and head coverings to work in all but the most radioactive areas around the nuclear center.
But underground, conditions remain dangerous and radioactive water is leaking from the melted reactors and mixing with groundwater. This water is being pumped into containers to keep it from flowing into the sea.
The contaminated water from underground is processed and filtered to remove dangerous radioactive elements. Tritium is the only radioactive material that remains. Japan’s industry ministry and nuclear officials say tritium is not harmful in small amounts.
However, although officials try to ease public fear, there are worries that fish might be affected if the water is released into the sea.
Katsumi Shozugawa is a radiology expert at the University of Tokyo. He has been studying the underground water around the nuclear center. He said long-term results of low-level exposure to radioactivity in the food chain has not been fully studied.
“At this point it is difficult to predict risk,” he said. “Once the water is released into the environment, it will be very difficult to follow up and monitor its movement.”
After years of discussions, a government group released a report earlier this year. It proposed two possible ways to dispose of the treated water. One method would mix treated water with fresh water and release it into the ocean. A second method would permit the water to dry up over time.
The report also urged the government to do more to fight the “reputational damage” done to Fukushima’s fishing and farming products.
TEPCO and government officials have said they will treat the water a second time to meet legal requirements before any release.
Masumi Kowata lives in Okuma, a town close to the nuclear center. She said some of her neighbors are offering their land as a place to put more water storage tanks.
“We should not dump the water until we have proof about its safety,” she said. “The government says it’s safe, but how do we know?”
I’m Mario Ritter Jr.View -
Enough Sleep Could Reduce Risk of Injury, Study Finds A new study suggests that healthy adults who get at least eight hours of sleep a night may be less likely to experience common exercise-related injuries.
The study was based on information from over 7,500 United States soldiers in the Army’s Special Operations Forces. About 95 percent of the study subjects were men.
The researchers found that soldiers who got no more than four to five hours of sleep a night were over two times as likely to report bone or muscle injury in the last year than those who slept eight hours or longer.
Tyson Grier is with the U.S. Army Public Health Center in Maryland. He was one of the writers of the study. He said that getting enough sleep not only improves physical performance among active people, but it "may also...have a positive impact on musculoskeletal injury prevention.”
During the yearlong study, more than half of the soldiers said they had experienced at least one musculoskeletal injury.
Most study subjects – about 63 percent – reported getting six to seven hours of sleep a night. About 10 percent reported getting no more than four hours. Only 16 percent got eight hours or more.
Compared to those who reported eight hours of sleep or more each night, soldiers who slept seven hours were 24 percent more likely to experience a musculoskeletal injury.
The risk climbed as the hours of sleep dropped, with a 53-percent greater injury risk at six hours of sleep. At five hours of sleep, the risk of injury was two times greater.
In the Army, two-thirds of injuries are from musculoskeletal overuse. Most are caused by physical training or repetitive activities, the research team wrote in the study, which was published in Sleep Health.
About 42 percent of Army soldiers report an average of five hours of sleep or less each night. The study notes that making sure soldiers get enough rest could be a way to reduce injury risk.
One limitation of the study is that researchers depended on soldiers reporting how long they slept each night. And, additional research would be needed to test whether increasing sleep time really reduces injuries.
Dr. Hohui Wang is with the University of California, San Francisco. He was not involved in the study. He said that getting too little sleep leads to decreased attention and mental energy, which can lead to people being more likely to get hurt.
Wang added that sleep loss causes “cell damage in multiple organs.” Getting extra sleep might help reverse this cell damage over time.
Most people are healthiest and perform their best with seven to nine hours of sleep a night, said Captain Jeffrey Osgood. He is with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland. He was not involved in the study.
Osgood offered suggestions for how people can get more – and better-quality – sleep.
He advises the following:
“Try to avoid caffeine, nicotine, and exercise in the hours leading up to sleep; avoid using alcohol as a sleep aid; don’t go to bed hungry; try to keep your bedroom dark and quiet; use sleep masks and/or earplugs if needed; and keep your smartphone/devices out of bed.”
I’m Ashley Thompson.View -
Students, Professors Push Back on the Growth of Online Education Education officials and industry experts are debating the future of online learning. The discussion is important because recently hundreds of universities in the United States have moved classes online because of the spread of the new coronavirus.
For Asha Choksi, the rise of internet-based or online study programs has led to major improvements in higher education.
“What it’s done is, it’s actually given a lot more power to students in terms of how, when and where they learn,” the head of research for Pearson Education told VOA. Her company supervises online learning programs.
Colleges and universities worldwide have been looking for ways to provide high quality education off campus and outside of normal business hours. The decision by many schools in the U.S. to suspend in-person classes during the recent coronavirus crisis has shown how important online teaching can be. And demand for such programs is increasing.
A growing industry
The financial advising company Tyton Partners valued the online program management industry at over $1.5 billion in 2015.
Choksi, however, argues that her company is creating a path to higher education for people who might not have been able to get a degree otherwise.
Pearson Education is one of a growing number of companies that have partnered with schools to create online study aids and full degree programs. Classes meet online through video conferencing. In this way, students are able to communicate with each other and their professors even when they are far away from school.
Online learning also permits older students, who work full-time and support families, to work on their education in their free time. It can be helpful for people who might have difficulty coming to a college campus, such as disabled students or those who live far from any college or university.
Not so fast…
However, recent research suggests the majority of college students and professors prefer in-person instruction. In addition, some experts are concerned that companies supervising online learning programs are not clear about the policies they have with the schools they serve.
Last year, the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research published two opinion studies on online higher education programs. Researchers asked over 40,000 American undergraduate students and 9,500 professors what they thought about these programs. In both groups, at least 70 percent of people said they prefer in-person instruction.
“Students see in-class lectures as opportunities to engage with instructors, peers, and...content,” the researchers wrote. “Faculty satisfaction with their overall technology experience has declined.”
In-person learning is especially important in fields like healthcare and teaching. Online education can never really take its place, said Stephanie Hall. She is a fellow with the independent policy research group The Century Foundation.
“Students need to experience…what it is they’re learning about, reading about or hearing about in the classroom. And I don’t know yet the degree to which technology can facilitate that,” said Hall.
She added that it is not just the user experience that is the issue. Her organization has released several studies about a number of online program managers, known as OPMs. These include companies such as Pearson Education, 2U and Academic Partnerships.
When schools make agreements with OPMs to run their online programs, they often do not make important information available to students, Hall said. This includes how much control the company has over the design of the program or whether the faculty leading the classes were involved in their design.
In addition, many colleges and universities advertise online programs as a low cost opportunity for students. But in some cases, students attending in person classes get financial aid and online students do not. This is another detail which many schools do not make clear to students.
Hall argues that rules for these programs are very limited. She said schools should be required to give all of this information to students. She also believes agreements between the schools and companies are too long and should be renewed each year. In this way, companies will improve to keep the contract.
But Asha Choksi says OPMs are already working to make their systems better. And no one can predict what these programs or higher education will look like in the future.
She noted that the EDUCAUSE study mainly centers on the opinions of traditional students, meaning those between 18 and 24 years old. In her opinion, the study does not deal with the needs of non-traditional students who just do not have the time to enter traditional programs.
Although there is a debate, online higher education is here to stay, Choksi said.
I’m Anne Ball.
And I’m Pete Musto.View