Drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech said Monday that three low-dose injections (注射) of their COVID-19 vaccine (疫苗) have shown to be effective in protecting children under age five.

The companies made the announcement after carrying out new experiments, involving the youngest population group. The new trial was carried out during last winter’s spread of the Omicron version of COVID-19. They plan to provide information about the experiments, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, as soon as this week. Pfizer and BioNTech have said the amount of vaccine used in their shots for children under five is much less than the amount used in injections for adults.

In earlier trials, researchers for the companies said two shots did not seem quite strong enough to effectively protect young children. Thus, they decided to give a third shot to more than 1,600 individuals aged six months to four years. They said early data suggest the three-shot series is more than 80 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. However, they noted that those results were based on just 10 symptomatic cases. For the study to be complete, researchers need at least 21 cases to make a final declaration of effectiveness. The companies said the vaccine was generally well-received among trial subjects, with only mild side effects reported.

It remains unclear how many U.S. parents will vaccinate their children in the youngest age group. COVID-19 is generally milder in children than adults. And only about 29 percent of five to 11-year-olds in the country have received vaccinations.

The best advertisement for public transportation is seeing a bus whoosh past lines of cars stuck in traffic. When transit is convenient, comfortable, affordable and faster than driving, the service practically sells itself. That’s why a recent bus-lane boom in Los Angeles is so welcome.

Since 2019, Metro and the city’s Department of Transportation have rolled out nine new segments (路段) for a total of 40 miles of bus lanes on some of the most crowded streets with high bus ridership, such as La Brea Avenue, Venice Boulevard and Alvarado Street. The goal is to have 100 miles in place before the 2028 Olympics.

The result has been faster, more reliable service for passengers—and for drivers stuck in traffic, maybe even a little bus envy. Better bus service is essential to get people to jobs, schools and opportunities, and to entice drivers out of cars to help reduce planet warming emissions.

Great transformation has taken place since. Transit advocates have pressed Metro and elected officials to stop treating bus riders as an afterthought. Former Councilmember Mike Bonin, who also sat on Metro’s governing board, pushed for the creation of the Bus Speed and Reliability Working Group. With a clear goal—to speed up the buses—and a mandate (授权) from political leaders, staff at the two agencies were able to cut through bureaucratic barriers that often stymie (阻碍) public works projects.

Bus Rapid Transit, or busways, with dedicated lanes and special stops, have faced resistance from some residents and business owners, who worry about losing car lanes or parking. The compromise is that most bus riders get the benefit of bus lanes only during rush hours, from 7 to 10 a. m. and 4 to 7 p. m. These rush-hour lanes will demonstrate the benefits of giving people fast, convenient bus service, so L. A. ‘s political leaders will wholeheartedly support more dedicated busways and even 24-hour bus lanes.

A man called Jamaal Allan has revealed how his name has led to him being racially stereotyped (归类)throughout his life.

Jamaal, a high school teacher who grew up in southern Oregon of the USA, revealed that most people he meets are always surprised when they discover he's white. He said that one of the most common responses to his name is “I never would've guessed your name was Jamaal”. In a blog post he aired his thoughts on this, writing: "Really, are you frequently good at guessing people's names?” Another reaction to his name, he said, is '"you don't look like a Jamaal", to which he asked in response, "And how exactly does one look like a name?”

He wrote in the blog that some people, after meeting him, say “I thought you'd be…"and then pause with “a sudden realization they are on the verge of sounding racist", before finding a word such as “tailed or "older” to end the sentence with.

And his name once appeared to get him selected for a random security check on a trip to London in 2002, as the others picked out by officials were called Muhammad, Abdul and Tariq. He also explained that waitresses and waiters usually hand his credit card back to a black person at his table when he's dining out.

His name, which means “beauty" in Arabic, landed him his teaching job in Iowa, though. Jamaal said, “The principal who had hired me admitted that I was lucky to have gotten the job. They had not been planning to take another student-teacher when my application showed up. But, as they scanned through it and saw a Jamaal who plays basketball and counts Muhammad Ali among his heroes, they thought they 'could use a little diversity,'" said Jamaal.

Jamaal's dad was a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and he was just named after one of their players, Jamaal Wilkes.