Food companies and their misleading labels

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Food is for nutrition and to provide the body with energy and vital nutrients. Names of foods help us to know what the likely ingredients might be in it. But often, we notice that food names are misleading. They can fool a person into buying only to realize that it did not meet their expectations and imagination. For instance, take the example of samosa. An ideal samosa is refined wheat flour (maida) wrap with mashed potatoes and boiled peas inside. And when we say paneer samosa (cottage cheese stuffed fried dumplings), the picture that comes to our mind is of a wrap of refined wheat flour dough with paneer inside. But to your disappointment, you will find that these samosas are nothing but the normal samosas with mashed potatoes with or without boiled peas and just 1 small piece of cottage cheese at one corner!!! If we talk about rusks, most of these are made of refined wheat flour or maida which is not healthy. Maida is stripped of all the vital nutrients such as fiber, vitamins,
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The new fast-transmitting strain of the coronavirus is in the UK and South Africa! Has it reached the USA shores?

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New mutant strains of coronavirus are doing the rounds and spreading in Britain and South Africa. But there is no evidence as yet that it is more deadly than the previous strains. But has this virus reached the USA as well and is causing the infection to spread faster? Considering this, some nations of Europe have already implemented a stricter travel lockdown in order to prevent the spread of this new faster-transmitting virus strains.

501.V2-the new faster-spreading COVID-19 strain

There is a new variant of the coronavirus that has been detected in the UK and South Africa. It is causing a fast spread of the virus in the population. But luckily as yet it is not more deadly. Hence, new travel restrictions are in place in Europe in order to stop the spread of this newer variant of the virus. Besides, the USA has also made it mandatory for travelers from the UK to get a negative COVID-19 report before they board a plane to the USA.
501.V2 new mutant strain of coronavirus [Source: NDTV]

The US CDC has said that as yet the new variant has not been detected in the USA. They have been able to sequence only 51k of the 17 million infections in the USA. On the other hand, in the UK, there are 125k sequences done.

CDC’s take with the newer variant emergence

Taking note of the fact that the new variant is already spreading in the UK fast, CDC has taken immediate steps to curb its spread to the USA. America is already under great stress with the coronavirus infection. The Southern states are particularly affected by it. Hence CDC said:

“Ongoing travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the high prevalence of this variant among current UK infections, increase the likelihood of importation,” 

The fast-spreading strain of coronavirus is in [Source: FT]

Further, its statement read:

“Given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected.”

Additionally, the CDC has decided to take steps to early detect the variant in its population. It will be getting 10 samples from each state every week from January 2021 for sequencing and its further genetic analysis.

Will travel from areas with the new strain be halted temporarily?

A central Florida high health official was queried about whether there needs to be a ban applied temporarily for travel from areas where the new strain is detected. Dr Raul Pino, with the Florida Department of Health-Orange County replied:

“Although everyone is trying to stop how this new strain may spread across the world, it could be already across the world because it’s not a case that was identified yesterday ... so this had happened,” 

“So it’s safe to assume that it has spread to some places already.”

A high number of cases due to the mutant strain of coronavirus [Source: News 18]

Raul implied that the sequencing is done on viruses collected from patients in the past and hence by the time the results are in, the virus strain would have already spread more. But the good news is that the new vaccines approved in the USA would be taking care of all these variant strains of the virus:

“It’s also important to know that the vaccines that are in place will continue to be effective even against them,”

Despite the vaccines, CDC guidelines for covid-19 prevention should be continued and not stopped.

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