SWC’s Fast Five
There is other news. Fast Five had to scrounge for it but we found the good and the bad for you in hiring, new COVID vaccine technologies, how shopping continues to save the country, we’re taking our hot mess to space and, this just in, Florida Man isn’t always an idiot.
So, here’s this week’s Fast Five:
1 Job gains show U.S. economy slowly recovering
The nation has recovered about half of the 22 million jobs lost after the pandemic struck in March. The economy added almost 1.8 million jobs in July and 1.5 million in August, but the figure fell to 672,000 in September. The Labor Department said the number of long-term unemployed – those without work for 27 weeks or more – grew to 3.6 million in October, an increase of 1.2 million.
2 A nasal spray completely blocked COVID-19 in lab animals
If the spray, which the scientists described as nontoxic and stable, is proved to work in humans, it could provide a new way to fight the pandemic, with a daily spritz up the nose acting like a vaccine. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Columbia University Medical Center. The team would require additional funding to pursue clinical trials in humans.
3 Retail therapy surges with election-day shoppers spending nearly double what they spent in 2016
Consumer spending, which makes up about two-thirds of the country’s economy, has been slowly increasing over the last few months from its dive in the spring. Adobe Analytics data estimates that online holiday sales will total $189 billion this year, a 33 percent increase from last year.
4 U.S. Space Force leads training event for 200 people representing eight countries
The training event is designed to explore critical space issues to include investigating military utility of new space systems, identifying solutions to common challenges and advancing space support in air, land, sea, space and cyberspace doctrine.
5 Florida Man… invents robot to help elderly, disabled and anyone else insert and remove contact lenses
And you thought Fast Five was going to showcase just another nutty Florida Man antic. Not this time! This voice-activated robot is now undergoing clinical trials in Boston.
