1 . It’s been well over a year since COVID-19 first appeared. Although the virus continues to be a problem in many parts of the world, things are starting to turn back in our favor with the help of vaccines (疫苗).

Vaccine development started in February 2020, when it became clear to scientists that a solution to the pandemic would need a global effort to vaccinate as many people as possible. Of course, this would take great effort, since vaccines typically take years to develop. However, COVID-19 needed faster development. The first COVID vaccine — the Pfizer vaccine — was approved by UK health authorities on Dee 2, 2020.

However, these vaccines must be stored at very low temperatures, which is not possible everywhere. In response, Chinese companies like Sinopharm and Sinovac have developed vaccines using dead viruses instead of spike proteins. These vaccines can be kept at regular temperatures.

As it stands now, vaccines are being rolled out all over the world, with millions of people being vaccinated every day. In China, as of May 4, 285 million vaccine doses (剂量) had been given so far. Meanwhile, the US has given out 247 million doses, according to Our World In Data. The UK now stands at 50 million doses.

Although there have been rumors about vaccines being unsafe, the majority of people seem to realize the importance of vaccination for building mass immunity (大规模免疫) in order to stop the virus from spreading.

Zhang Wenhong, China’s leading expert on infectious diseases, said it’s good that the world has come to understand that the vaccines will protect us. Zhang added that human beings belong to one family. Vaccines are a kind of medicine that we all must share in order to stay safe and healthy.

2 . The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play an important role in helping patients to get better.

As part of a nationwide effort in Britain to bring art out of the museums and into public places, some of the countries’ best artists have been called in to change older hospitals and to soften the hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2,500 Nation Health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have very valuable collections of present art in passages, waiting areas and treatment rooms.

These recent movements were first started by one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester hospital in Northern England during the early 1700s. He felt that artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.

A common hospital waiting room might have as many as 5,000 visitors each week. What a better place to hold a regular exhibition of art! Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the out-patients’ waiting area of the Manchester Royal Hospital in 1975. Believed to be Britain’s first hospital artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates.

The effect is striking. Now in the passages and waiting rooms, the visitor experiences a full view of fresh colours, playful images and restful courtyards. The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering from an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view onto garden needed half the number of strong pain killers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at.

3 . Close your eyes for a minute and imagine what life would be like if you had a hundred dollars less. Also imagine what it would be like spending the rest of your life with your eyes closed. Imagine having to read this page, not with your eyes but with your finger­tips.

With existing medical knowledge and skills, two thirds of the world’s 42 million blind should not have to suffer. Unfortunately, rich countries possess most of this knowledge, while developing countries do not.

ORBIS is an international non­profit organization which operates the world’s only flying teaching eye hospital. ORBIS intends to help fight blindness worldwide. Inside a DC­8 aircraft, there is a fully­equipped teaching hospital with television studio and classroom. Doctors are taught the latest techniques of bringing sight back to people there. Project ORBIS also aims at promoting peaceful cooperation (合作) among countries.

ORBIS tries to help developing countries by providing training during three-week medical programs. ORBIS has taught sight­saving techniques to over 35,000 doctors and nurses, who continue to cure tens of thousands of blind people every year. ORBIS has conducted 17 plane programs in China so far. For the seven to ten million blind in China ORBIS is planning to do more for them. At the moment an ORBIS is working on a long­term plan to develop a training center and to provide eye care service to Shanxi Province. ORBIS needs your help to continue their work and free people from blindness.

For just $ 38, you can help one person see; for $ 380 you can bring sight to 10 people; $ 1,300 helps teach a doctor new skills; and for $ 13,000 you can provide a training programme for a group of doctors who can make thousands of blind people see again. Your money can open their eyes to the world. Please help ORBIS improve the quality of life for so many people less fortunate than ourselves.

4 . Acupuncture (针灸) is a traditional Chinese medical practice of treating various physical and mental (心理的) conditions. It won respect and interest in the United States after New York Times reporter James Reston visited China with President Nixon and needed an operation. Chinese doctors used acupuncture on James after surgery (外科手术) to reduce his pain, and his recovery was quick. Curious about this, James was allowed to watch surgery on patients who received acupuncture for anesthesia (麻醉). Patients talked with their doctors during the operation and then walked back to their rooms on their own.

The effectiveness of acupuncture left James such a deep impression that he wrote a front- page article in New York Times about his operation upon returning to the United States. “A leading medical expert sent by Premier Chou En-lai removed my appendix (阑尾). I was awake in the whole process. ”

The National Institutes of Health began to organize some of their top doctors to visit China to investigate acupuncture and its possible functions in western medicine. With years going by, acupuncture has become popular across the world with magical effect.

6 . Roller coasters are fast and exciting. But passing a painful kidney (肾) stone is not. The process is painful and can take a long time. But American researchers have found that a roller coaster ride just might help those suffering from a kidney stone. They say such rides help patients pass the stones with a 70 percent success rate.

David Wartinger led the study. He found that where the person sits on the roller coaster can make a big difference. He said, “In the pilot study, sitting in the last car of the roller coaster showed about a 64 percent success rate, while sitting in the first few cars only had a 16 percent success rate.”

When it comes to passing kidney stones, not all roller coasters are equal. The researchers used 174 kidney stones of different shapes, sizes and weights to see if each model worked on the same ride and on two other roller coasters. They found that Big Thunder Mountain was the only one that worked. The other two roller coasters both failed the test. Wartinger said the other rides were too fast and too violent. The movement forced the stones against the side of the kidney. He said that the ideal roller coaster is rough and quick with some twists and turns.

It also mattered where the stones were located in the kidney. The researchers found that stones located in the upper part of the kidney model were passed 100 percent.

Wartinger thinks roller coaster rides could really be used as an effective measure. He said that a yearly ride on a roller coaster could even prevent stones from developing. “You need to pay attention to the warnings before going on a roller coaster,” he said, “If you have a kidney stone, but are otherwise healthy and meet the requirements of the ride, you can absolutely try it.”

He adds that it’s definitely a lower cost alternative to other treatments. And riding a roller coaster is definitely more interesting!

8 . Sunstroke is a condition that can quickly go from dangerous to deadly, especially if proper care isn’t given immediately.

Sunstroke, sometimes called heatstroke, is a result of the body temperature rising above the safe limit. This causes the body’s necessary functions to stop working.

It’s usually pretty easy to avoid sunstroke, as long as proper action is taken. In that case, you need to act as quickly as possible to return that person’s body to a safe temperature. Here are a few tips to help treat sunstroke.

Call for help

Call to get an ambulance as quickly as possible. This should be the first thing you do, especially if the sunstroke person has fainted (昏倒)。Also, call for help from anyone nearby if you’re in a public place. If there’s no one around, call someone nearby if they can get there sooner than an ambulance. Ask everyone to bring you as much water as possible, if there isn’t much nearby.

Get the person to a cooler area

If there’s a building nearby, aim for that. Anywhere with plenty of air conditioners and water is perfect. If a building isn’t available, bring the person to a well-shaded area.

Get the water flowing

If the person is still conscious, get him or her to drink water. If there’s a bathtub available, fill it with cool water and put the person in it.

If your water supply is limited, you have to save it. Dampen a towel or shirt and put it on the person’s body. Focus on the face, neck, and chest.

Fan the person

Getting moving air over the person cools him or her down. Use anything, a towel or sheet, a shirt, your hands, or a piece of board. This is where having many people around really helps, as they can combine to fan the entire body.

9 . A drug used to treat severe bleeding could save thousands of lives for mothers giving birth. A global trial of the drug found it reduced the risk of bleeding deaths during childbirth by nearby one-third. The study involved 20,000 women in 21 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. The trial was carried out by London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The drug is called tranexamic acid(氨甲环酸). It is low-cost and researchers said it does not cause serious side effects for mothers or babies.

The drug is used to treat mothers for severe bleeding during childbirth, also known as postpartum hemorrhage(产后出血). It is the leading cause of mother’s death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Haleema Shakur is the project director of the trial. She says despite medical advances in many countries, severe bleeding after childbirth remains a big problem in some parts of the world. “It’s one of the biggest killers of mothers. In Africa and Asia, about 10 percent of women will end up with severe bleeding.” The drug works by stopping blood clots(血凝块)from breaking down after a mother gives birth. The treatment can prevent the need for doctors to perform surgery to find the source of bleeding.

Shakur said the best results were reported when the drug was given to women as soon as possible after childbirth, “The earlier you give it—so within the first three hours of giving birth— the better the effect is.”

The next step will be to get the drug where it is needed and provide training for doctors and nurses on how to use it. During the trial, women were given the drug in a hospital. But researchers are looking for easier ways to administer the drug so it can be more widely used in small clinics and rural areas.

10 . A blocked airway can kill someone in three to four minutes, but it can take more than eight minutes for an ambulance to arrive. So a simple procedure such as opening someone’s airway can save their life while they’re waiting for emergency medical help. This means you’re more likely to give first aid to someone you know than a stranger.

There are many misconceptions surrounding first aid. Below are the “most popular” ones with details of what you should do.

Top four first aid misconceptions:

You should put butter or cream on a burn. The only thing you should put on a burn is cold water—keep the butter for cooking. Put the affected area under cold running water for at least ten minutes.

The best way to treat bleeding is to put the wound under a tap. If you put a bleeding wound under a tap, you wash away the body’s clotting agents (凝血剂) and make it bleed more. Instead, put pressure on the wound with whatever is available to stop or slow down the flow of blood. As soon as possible call 911. Keep pressure on the wound until help arrives.

Nosebleeds are best treated by putting the head back. If you put the head back during a nosebleed, all the blood goes down the back of the airway. Instead, advise them to tilt (倾斜) their head forwards and ask them to pinch (捏) the end of their nose and breathe through their mouth.

You need lots of training to do first aid. You don’t—what you mostly need is common sense. You can learn enough first aid knowledge in a few minutes to save someone’s life—whether it’s from reading a book, attending a course or watching videos online.

Remember that anyone can save a life.