The Ilocos Times

By Noralyn Dudt Now that a big chunk of the world population has had at least two doses of the coronavirus vaccine, scientists are focused   on designing a vaccine that is broadly protective and would last a long time. A tetanus-like shot is now the goal. The tetanus vaccine that my physician jabs into my arm every 10 years was designed to last 10 years. And now it's a scientist's dream to develop a vaccine for the Coronavirus that would last 10 years. The National Institutes of Health having taken that into account, awarded US$36 million to scientific teams last fall who were trying to answer basic questions that would lead to a breakthrough.   At a minimum, the world needs a truly variant-proof vaccines. Even better would be a vaccine that would stop a future pandemic—protection against a yet-unknown coronavirus. The first versions of coronavirus vaccines were powerful. From the virus that emerged in 2019, spiky proteins were taken from their surface and were tweaked to

By Noralyn O. Dudt GLOBALIZATION is not what one would associate with the 16 th and 17 th centuries   when ships with sails were the only means of transportation in crossing the great oceans and only horses and carriages in traversing the continents.   Jetting the globe on an airplane was still three centuries away. Globalization is what one may ascribe only to our modern era but the history of the   Galleon Trade between Manila and Acapulco tells otherwise. The Manila Galleons were the FEDEX of their time.   The Galleon Trade was the birth of what we now know as globalization. It was in 1565 when the Galleon Trade was first launched. Manila galleons as they were called were the Spanish Trading ships that linked the Spanish General of the Philippines with New Spain   (now Mexico) for 250 years. It made one or two round-trip voyages per year: one from Acapulco to Manila that took 120 days with some 500,000 pesos worth of goods—mostly silver from Spain's South American colonies

  By Noralyn O. Dudt THE OMICRON, we would like to think with a modicum of hope,   is the   pandemic's last act . As Omicron has behaved so brazenly chasing as many victims as it could, but not as potent as the Delta had been, the pandemic   ending is no longer a question of how but when.   So many cases of infections—serious and not too serious—have brought people to the hospitals that the light we thought we saw at the end of the tunnel suddenly looked dimmer.   However, these large numbers of infections had provided a "layer of immunity" to huge swathes of the world and may be moving us closer to an endemic stage as the virus is maxing out in its ability to make such big evolutionary jumps. For the first time since the spread of COVID-19 stunned the world in early 2020, many   epidemiologists are now willing to entertain the prospect that the virus might be making steps toward endemic status—the stage when COVID-19 is comparable to seasonal illnesses like the c

MMSU President Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis delivers her state of the university address at the Batac campus’ Teatro Ilocandia. (Photo by Marc Kevin Bituen & Roi Domingo) By Matthew C. Esmino & Jonie C. Luis  (Correspondents) City of Batac —As the leading university in the Ilocos Region, the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) has started taking bold steps to become a “University of the Future.” In her state of the university address (SOUA) during MMSU’s Convocation Program on Jan. 20, 2022, MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis bared the university’s goal of being “crisis-proof” by fully embracing the “Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe) or Industry 4.0”. “FIRe shall be the new norm in all university operations in order to stay relevant and responsive amid various crises,” Agrupis said. Agrupis added that the “MMSU 4.0 Framework and Road Map” has already gained the approval of the MMSU Board of Regents—ready to create policies, programs and funds for said purpose. It is a sys

By Noralyn O. Dudt IT WAS 1898 at the Parque de   Luneta—a huge 140 acre (58 hectares)—park   overlooking the Manila Bay. Kommandant Krueger monitored the placement of the large statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II, offset from Jose Rizal's. His aides were putting up new signs. It was going to be the "Kaiser Wilhelm und Jose Rizal Stadtgarten." It had taken several days to remove the "Paseo de Luneta and Paseo Maria Cristina" signs along the way and replaced them with "Kaiser Wilhelm PrachtStrasse." From what he could see, it would be difficult to properly teach these natives proper respect for the Kaiser and to ferret out their resistance. It pained him that there was so little enthusiasm for cooperation especially after completion of a German non-aggression treaty with Japan. He has been quite certain that the Philippines would have a brighter future as a German protectorate. Vice Admiral Otto von Diederichs That's a scenario that has been going on in

  Laoag City —In his first term, Rep. Eugenio Angelo Marcos-Barba—or popularly known as AMB—authored and co-authored 535 bills and resolutions. Barba’s legislative agenda focused on the promotion of agriculture, education, youth and sports, public health, service delivery, public order and safety, transportation, environmental protection, and local governance. Of the 535 legislative measures Cong. AMB principally authored and co-authored, 28 bills have been enacted into law.   Local measures For his constituents, Barba filed local measures that would improve service delivery in the province; the promotion of Ilocano culture and tradition, eco and local tourism, local sports development and sports tourism, and local agriculture development. House Bill No. 5950 is a measure seeking to establish a TESDA Training and Assessment Center in Ilocos Norte. By establishing a TESDA training and assessment center, students and residents from low-income families and out-of-school you

By Noralyn Onto Dudt The END of the pandemic is not yet upon us, and with variants making their rounds, it looks like it may never end.   However,   as   the latest research holds promise and has the scientific community looking up, we can greet the New Year in good spirits. The COVID-19 emergency has unleashed an unprecedented surge of innovation and collaboration in research. Just as the virus started spreading   around the globe about two years ago,   scientists around the world   became more adept at rapid response,   sharing genetic sequences and clinical data at the speed of light, enabling more discovery. Although the first wave of vaccines showed their   limitations, they have performed magnificently. Millions and millions of the world population are fully vaccinated, and an enormous amount of suffering and death has been averted. However, vaccine efficacy does wane, facilitating the need for boosters as one   variant after another threatens to upend any progress that has