Reuters Science News Summary

COVID-19 far more deadly than seasonal flu Russia vaccinates its cosmonauts against COVID-19 Russia began vaccinating its cosmonauts and staff on Friday at Star City, the closed town near Moscow that is home to the country's space programme, the Roscosmos space corporation said.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. 'World's ugliest orchid' among new species named in 2020

Orchids are not often called ugly, but that is how the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, described a new species of the normally vibrant and delicate flower discovered in the forests of Madagascar. Gastrodia agnicellus, one of 156 plants and fungal species named by Kew scientists and their partners around the world in 2020, has been crowned "the ugliest orchid in the world". Virus three times deadlier than flu, oximeters less reliable on Black patients

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. COVID-19 far more deadly than seasonal flu Russia vaccinates its cosmonauts against COVID-19

Russia began vaccinating its cosmonauts and staff on Friday at Star City, the closed town near Moscow that is home to the country's space programme, the Roscosmos space corporation said. Russia rolled out the Sputnik V jab to medics and other frontline workers in Moscow earlier this month, and more than 200,000 people have already been vaccinated. OneWeb resumes satellite launches with flight from Russian cosmodrome

OneWeb, the satellite firm rescued by the British government and India's Bharti Group, resumed flights on Friday in its push to provide global broadband coverage as 36 of its satellites blasted off into orbit from Russia's Far East. The launch carried out by Arianespace and its Starsem affiliate was the first fully commercial flight from Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome, Russia's Roscosmos space corporation said.