Scientists started on Friday casting one of the largest telescope mirrors ever made on Earth for the Giant Magellan Telescope being built in Chile.
Why it matters: The huge telescope is designed to one day peer into the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets around far-off stars, learn more about early galaxies and study other objects of interest.
Now that COVID-19 vaccines are bringing hope to fighting the pandemic, there is some concern the U.S. and others will lose interest in improving the tools needed to confront emerging outbreaks.
The big picture: On top of the coronavirus pandemic, there are currently other smaller outbreaks around the globe — some with pandemic potential. These, and the threat of viruses emerging in the future, mean more permanent pandemic preparedness is needed, experts tell Axios.
Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) on Wednesday recommended extending the interval between first and second doses of COVID-19 to up to four months to boost inoculation numbers.
Why it matters: The panel said taking such action would allow about 80% of Canadians over 16 to receive a single dose by the end of June.
The U.S. has administered 80,540,474 COVID-19 doses as of Wednesday, CDC data shows.
Why it matters: That's 75% of the 107,028,890 doses delivered. It means some 1.9 million more doses have been reported administered since Tuesday, taking the seven-day average to over 2 million a day for the first time, CNN notes. Nearly 53 million people, or 16% of the U.S. population, have had at least one COVID shot and almost 27 million have had two, per the CDC.
