Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
The news posted last week for the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2), which produces COVID-19 disease, has been surveyed and some important articles are summarized here. The articles are more or less organized with general virus news and anecdotes first, then stories from around the US, followed by a few items from other countries around the globe. US new cases are down very slightly and deaths are up very slightly. New cases globally are rising at an accelerating rate. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
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Report: U.S. child COVID-19 cases surged 40% in last two weeks of July – The U.S. reported more than 97,000 child COVID-19 cases from July 16 to July 30, a 40-percent increase, according to a new report, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, based on publicly reported data from 49 states by the end of July. The age range for children varied by state, with most states defining children as those up to age of 19 and one state – Alabama – pushing the limit to 24. Cumulatively, 338,982 U.S. children tested positive for the coronavirus, accounting for 8.8 percent of the total confirmed cases in the country. That means 447 per 100,000 children were infected by the virus, the report showed. At least 86 children have died since May. Last week, a 7-year-old boy with no pre-existing conditions became the youngest coronavirus victim in Georgia. The report comes during back-to-school season, as health officials are trying to figure out how the virus affects children and how it’s spread among young people. Some schools have begun welcoming crowds back to class and others have had to readjust their reopening plan. Some U.S. leaders – including President Donald Trump – have said the virus doesn’t pose a large risk to children. In July, Trump has urged schools to reopen even as coronavirus cases spiked. But one recent study suggests teenagers can transmit the virus just as much as adults. Another study said children younger than five carry a higher viral load than adults, raising even more questions about their role in transmission.
COVID-19 Survivors Face Lifetime of Disability – The Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) vice-president Chris Moy says there is growing concern that COVID-19 may have long-term effects on internal organs. Heart disease, lung scarring, diabetes and damage to blood vessels are among the potential side-effects of COVID-19 that have been identified. Australia’s acting chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, also stresses that young people should be mindful that they are at risk from COVID-19 and could potentially suffer a long-term disability if they contract the virus. Doctors warn that 20% to 30% of people who contracted the virus in March and April are still experiencing symptoms:Scientists looking for a “signature” of COVID-19 in infected cases say it could reveal that even patients who have recovered develop disease risks they didn’t have before contracting the virus.The research suggests that abnormalities detected in blood samples of infected patients are linked to diabetes, liver dysfunction, abnormal levels of cholesterol and higher risk of coronary heart disease.The research, to be published shortly by the Australian National Phenome Centre, Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge in the UK and other agencies, may flag that COVID-19 infections could trigger a massive increase in the healthcare burden across the planet…“We don’t know yet whether these long-term effects are permanent, but certainly there is evidence of long-term issues with lung damage and damage of the blood vessels around the body including the heart,” Professor Kelly said.“This can be a very severe illness. Don’t take it lightly”…In Australia, young people aged 20 to 29 are the most likely age group to contract the virus… “We are very worried about the long-term effects of this coronavirus,” [Chris Moy] said. “The great fear in this is the unknown nature of this condition, which we haven’t really seen before. This is something that we could pay for later.” I hope the herd immunity followers and the ‘let it rip’ brigade take note. While the death rate from COVID-19 is relatively low, and mostly impacts the elderly, it’s the longer-term health impacts and costs on the community that are arguably of bigger concern. The below BBC documentary, Surviving the Virus, examines the lasting effects and damage that COVID-19 can do, and makes for sober viewing.
Long after a Covid-19 infection, mental and neurological effects smolder – Early on, patients with both mild and severe Covid-19 say they can’t breathe. Now, after recovering from the infection, some of them say they can’t think. Even people who were never sick enough to go to a hospital, much less lie in an ICU bed with a ventilator, report feeling something as ill-defined as “Covid fog” or as frightening as numbed limbs. They’re unable to carry on with their lives, exhausted by crossing the street, fumbling for words, or laid low by depression, anxiety, or PTSD. As many as 1 in 3 patients recovering from Covid-19 could experience neurological or psychological after-effects of their infections, experts told STAT, reflecting a growing consensus that the disease can have lasting impact on the brain. Beyond the fatigue felt by “long haulers” as they heal post-Covid, these neuropsychological problems range from headache, dizziness, and lingering loss of smell or taste to mood disorders and deeper cognitive impairment. Dating to early reports from China and Europe, clinicians have seen people suffer from depression and anxiety. Muscle weakness and nerve damage sometimes mean they can’t walk. Doctors have concerns that patients may also suffer lasting damage to their heart, kidneys, and liver from the inflammation and blood clotting the disease causes. No one can yet tell patients with neurological complications when, or if, they’ll get better, as doctors and scientists strive to learn more about this coronavirus with each passing day. Their guideposts are the experience they’ve gained treating other viruses and delirium after ICU stays, sparse results from brain autopsies, and interviews with patients who know something is just not right. “We would say that perhaps between 30% and 50% of people with an infection that has clinical manifestations are going to have some form of mental health issues,” . “That could be anxiety or depression but also nonspecific symptoms that include fatigue, sleep, and waking abnormalities, a general sense of not being at your best, not being fully recovered in terms of the abilities of performing academically, occupationally, potentially physically.”
Coronavirus: latest Hong Kong pets to test positive for Covid-19 are Scottish shorthair cat, Yorkshire terrier dog Two more family pets tested positive for Covid-19, pushing the total number of confirmed infections among Hong Kong animals to eight so far, the authorities reported on Wednesday. The latest cases were a Scottish shorthair cat and a Yorkshire terrier that lived in Tsuen Wan and Sham Shui Po, respectively. Their owners were close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 patients, according to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD). “When the owners were found to be close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases, the cat and the dog were sent for quarantine at the AFCD on July 31,” said the department in a statement. “Samples collected from the cat and the dog by the department tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. However, neither of the animals has shown any symptoms at present. The AFCD will continue to closely monitor them and conduct repeated testing.”Hong Kong reported the world’s first known case of Covid-19 infection in a pet in late February. The animal, which later died of seemingly unrelated causes, was a 17-year-old Pomeranian that belonged to a confirmed Covid-19 patient. Another four cats and one dog subsequently tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The AFCD recently opened a new animal quarantine site in Sha Tin after its facility at the Hong Kong Port at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge was flooded with pets amid the city’s third wave of infections.
Revealed: UK’s rapid Covid test not yet approved by regulators – One of two 90-minute rapid coronavirus tests bought by the UK government and announced on Monday has yet to be approved by regulators, while no data on the accuracy of either has been published, the Guardian has learned. The test, from Oxford Nanopore, a young biotech company spun off from Oxford University, has not yet gained a CE mark. Before Covid-19, Oxford Nanopore had been involved only in research, not tests for patients. About 80 other molecular tests had a CE mark as early as April. DnaNudge was granted an emergency exemption by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to be used without the CE mark. Oxford Nanopore and DnaNudge were first name-checked by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, in a Downing Street press conference on 1 May, the day he announced his target for reaching 100,000 tests per day in England had been met. As early as 22 April, Hancock’s department signed an initial contract with DnaNudge for £3.3m, followed by one for £161m on 1 July. It was not until 3 August that the government announced it was buying “millions of ground-breaking rapid coronavirus tests” from the two companies, which would be “rolled out to hospitals, care homes and labs across the UK to increase testing capacity ahead of winter”. They would also detect flu. “We’re using the most innovative technologies available to tackle coronavirus. Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on the spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly,” said Hancock. “I am hugely grateful for the excellent work done by DnaNudge and Oxford Nanopore to push forward these life-saving innovations in coronavirus testing.” Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics at Birmingham University who is conducting an evaluation of such tests, said he had not come across either of them when the government announcement was made. “It looks like a decision that was raced through. They are making decisions before anybody knows the results as to how well they work,” said Deeks. “They are not making clear comparisons with the alternatives, which means that British people might not get the best tests.”
Health Care Workers of Color Nearly Twice as Likely as Whites to Get COVID-19 – Health care workers of color were more likely to care for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, more likely to report using inadequate or reused protective gear, and nearly twice as likely as white colleagues to test positive for the coronavirus, a new study from Harvard Medical School researchers found.The study also showed that health care workers are at least three times more likely than the general public to report a positive COVID test, with risks rising for workers treating COVID patients.Dr. Andrew Chan, a senior author and an epidemiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, said the study further highlights the problem of structural racism, this time reflected in the front-line roles and personal protective equipment provided to people of color.“If you think to yourself, ‘Health care workers should be on equal footing in the workplace,’ our study really showed that’s definitely not the case,” said Chan, who is also a professor at Harvard Medical School.The study was based on data from more than 2 million COVID Symptom Study app users in the U.S. and the United Kingdom from March 24 through April 23. The study, done with researchers from King’s College London,was published in the journal The Lancet Public Health. Lost on the Frontline, a project by KHN and The Guardian, has published profiles of 164 health care workers who died of COVID-19 and identified more than 900 who reportedly fell victim to the disease. An analysis of the stories showed that 62% of the health care workers who died were people of color. They include Roger Liddell, 64, a Black hospital supply manager in Michigan, who sought but was denied an N95 respirator when his work required him to go into COVID-positive patients’ rooms, according to his labor union. Sandra Oldfield, 53, a Latina, worked at a California hospital where workers sought N95s as well. She was wearing a less-protective surgical mask when she cared for a COVID-positive patient before she got the virus and died.The study findings follow other research showing that minority health care workers are likely to care for minority patients in their own communities, often in facilities with fewer resources, said Dr. Utibe Essien, a physician and assistant professor of medicine with the University of Pittsburgh. Those workers may also see a higher share of sick patients, as federal data shows minority patients were disproportionately testing positive and being hospitalized with the virus, Essien said.
Racial Disparity in COVID-19 Deaths: Seeking Economic Roots in Census Data — Yves here. This article contains an important preliminary finding about Covid-19. Higher death rates don’t appear to be the result of disadvantaged access to health care, but to higher infection rates, due to working in crowded “essential” jobs and what the author calls “residential density”. That makes sense since doctors can’t do all that much if someone who contracts Covid-19 gets a severe case. The most effective remedy seems to be administering oxygen. Originally published at VoxEU: In the US, COVID-19 tends to magnify inequalities by disproportionately hitting minorities, particularly African Americans, who suffer from higher COVID-19 mortality rates. Higher rates of infection appear to be the cause rather than factors related to treatment. Using an indirect approach, this column uses census data to identify the socioeconomic factors that cause different racial groups to be differentially exposed to the virus. Very strong racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates are seen for African-American and First Nations populations. Occupation, income, poverty rates, or access to healthcare insurance appears to matter little. Pre-COVID-19 use of public transport, however, may be a significant factor.
Nursing homes grapple with a dual crisis: preparing for hurricane season amid the Covid-19 pandemic – Nursing homes face an impossible decision during hurricane season this year – whether or not to evacuate their residents amid the Covid-19 pandemic, risking the health and well-being of their patients and staff in the process.Even in normal times, evacuation decisions are tough: Research shows that moving frail residents can exacerbate already burdensome health conditions and increase hospitalizations. But failing to evacuate can leave residents vulnerable to power outages, flooding, and even death. This year, as the coronavirus pandemic rages across the Southeast in particular, that decision is even harder – hospitals are already overburdened and social distancing isn’t necessarily possible in evacuation vans or temporary shelters. Nursing home residents are also far more vulnerable to Covid-19 than the general population.Federal rules require nursing homes to develop emergency preparedness plans annually, and to train their staff on them – but both the thoroughness of the plans and the training behind them vary from facility to facility and year to year, experts told STAT. And given the extra burdens on nursing home staff during the last six months, at least one health workers union is concerned that some of the preparations so far aren’t enough to keep patients and staff safe. “We have been so entangled with all of the pandemic issues that the conversation never took place,” said Jude Derisme, the vice president of the health care union 1199 SEIU, which represents 400,000 working and retired health workers along the East Coast, including in Florida. “Where are they going to go? What is the process?”
Covid Chasers: The Nurses Fighting Coronavirus From Hot Spot to Hot Spot [Video] — Traveling nurses are offsetting staffing shortages in hospitals around the U.S. where Covid-19 is surging. Four nurses give viewers an intimate look into the mental and physical toll the work is having on them five months into the pandemic.
Eli Lilly Studies Experimental Covid-19 Drug in Nursing Homes – WSJ Eli Lilly & Co. has started a study exploring whether its experimental Covid-19 drug can prevent infections among vulnerable residents and staff at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.Indianapolis-based Lilly said Monday that it is testing its antibody-based drug in senior homes that have had a recently diagnosed case of Covid-19, putting residents and staff at high risk of exposure.The study, which aims to enroll up to 2,400 subjects, will track whether Lilly’s drug reduces the rate of infection and disease in the weeks after dosing. Lilly has been exploring whether the drug, code-named LY-CoV555, could treat other kinds of Covid-19 patients. Studies already under way aretesting whether the drug is safe for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, and whether it can clear viral loads and keep patients with milder disease out of the hospital.The company has said that if testing is successful, its drug could get government approval by the end of the year.Nursing homes and other senior-care facilities have been hit hard by the new coronavirus, accounting for a large percentage of deaths during the pandemic. In recent weeks, the resurgence of the virus in Sunbelt states, which initially spread among younger people, has shown signs of reaching the elderly in care homes.
Gates Foundation Teams Up With Vaccine Maker To Produce $3 Covid-19 Shots — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it is backing the world’s largest vaccine maker, Serum Institute of India, to churn out 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine for poorer countries and price them at less than $3. The move comes as governments around the world, including the U.S. and U.K., strike vaccine production deals with the manufacturers of a handful of promising, late-stage vaccine development projects.The Gates Foundation as well as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – an organization which helps negotiate and finance vaccines for poor countries – said they would back privately held Serum Institute, or SII, to speed up the manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccine doses for the developing countries once any are proven effective. SII is one of several contracted manufacturers already tapped by AstraZeneca AZN -0.05% PLC to make a vaccine in development at the University of Oxford. The Pune, India-based SII is the go-to vaccine supplier for the World Health Organization and others and produces 1.5 billion doses of other vaccines every year, making it the largest in the world by volume. The three organizations said the collaboration will help ensure that lower and middle-income countries won’t be forgotten if a coronavirus vaccine is found. “Researchers are making good progress on developing safe and effective vaccines for Covid-19,” said Bill Gates in a statement. “But making sure everyone has access to them, as soon as possible, will require tremendous manufacturing capacity and a global distribution network.” Indian drug giant SII is little-known outside the vaccine world. It had already announcedplans to make and distribute a billion doses of Oxford’s yet-to-be approved coronavirus vaccine. Oxford has previously agreed with AstraZeneca, the U.K. based pharmaceutical giant, to coordinate the global production of the vaccine. AstraZeneca, in turn, agreed that SII would be the main contract manufacturer for low- and middle-income countries if the vaccine proves safe and effective. With some vaccines in late-stage testing, drugmakers have been signaling how much they might charge initially, with prices spanning from several dollars a dose to more than $70 for a multiple-dose course. Oxford has specifically stipulated any successful vaccine it creates should be sold at cost during the pandemic.
Bill Gates: ‘We’d be lucky’ to have coronavirus vaccine before end of 2020 – Microsoft founder Bill Gates said in a new interview that the U.S. would be “lucky” to have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. The first vaccines, Gates told Bloomberg, “won’t be ideal in terms of its effectiveness against sickness and transmission. It may not have a long duration, and it will mainly be used in rich countries as a stopgap measure.” “We’d be lucky to have much before the end of the year. But then, in 2021, a number of other vaccines are very likely to get approved,” he added. “With so many companies working on it, we can afford quite a few failures and still have something with low cost and long duration.” Asked whether such a vaccine should be mandatory, Gates cautioned that imposing such a requirement “can often backfire.” However, he added, “you might say that if you’re going to work in an old-folks home or have any exposure to elderly people, it would be required.” Gates also expressed optimism that further therapeutic innovations would lead to a lower death rate even before a vaccine is finalized. However, he said, “the true end will come from the spread of natural infections and the vaccine giving us herd immunity. For rich countries, that will be sometime next year, ideally in the first half.” Asked by the publication whether “we’re going to be OK,” Gates responded: “Certainly.” “We’re lucky this one wasn’t a more fatal disease,” he added. Gates on Sunday told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that the U.S. response to the virus had been hamstrung by “testing insanity.” “It’s mind-blowing that you can’t get the government to improve the testing because they just want to say how great it is,” he said. “I’ve said to them, look, have a [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] website that prioritizes who gets tested. Don’t reimburse any test where the result goes back after three days. You’re paying billions of dollars in this very inequitable way to get the most worthless testing results in the world.”
CDC director warns of ‘worst fall’ in history if people don’t follow COVID-19 guidelines –If Americans don’t follow coronavirus prevention measures such as wearing masks and social distancing, the country could be in for its “worst fall” in history, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Thursday. During an interview with WebMD, CDC Director Robert Redfield said a virus surge, along with the upcoming flu season, could create the “worst fall” that “we’ve ever had.” Colder weather in the fall will likely drive more people indoors, where health experts say COVID-19 spreads more easily. Coinciding flu and COVID-19 outbreaks could overwhelm hospitals and drain resources, threatening lives and the response to the pandemic. Redfield said the CDC is urging people to get a flu shot, and the agency has purchased an extra 10 million doses of the vaccine – compared with the typical 500,000 – to make sure states have enough to cover uninsured adults. “I’m trying to tell the American public, please don’t leave this important accomplishment of American medicine on the shelf,” Redfield said. “We’re going to have COVID in the fall, we’re going to have flu in the fall,” he added, saying if people get vaccinated against the flu, they could potentially be freeing up a hospital bed for someone infected with COVID-19. Redfield said conditions will depend on whether people follow the guidelines: wearing face masks, staying six feet away from others, washing hands often with soap and warm water and avoiding large crowds, especially indoors. “I’m not asking some of America to do it – we all have to do it,” he said.
Facebook removed seven million posts in second quarter for false coronavirus information – – Facebook said on Tuesday it removed 7 million posts in the second quarter for sharing false information about the novel coronavirus, including content that promoted fake preventative measures and exaggerated cures. It released the data as part of its sixth Community Standards Enforcement Report, which it introduced in 2018 along with more stringent decorum rules in response to a backlash over its lax approach to policing content on its platforms. The world’s biggest social network said it would invite proposals from experts this week to audit the metrics used in the report, beginning in 2021. It committed to the audit during a July ad boycott over hate speech practices. The company removed about 22.5 million posts with hate speech on its flagship app in the second quarter, a dramatic increase from 9.6 million in the first quarter. It attributed the jump to improvements in detection technology. It also deleted 8.7 million posts connected to “terrorist” organizations, compared with 6.3 million in the prior period. It took down less material from “organized hate” groups: 4 million pieces of content, compared to 4.7 million in the first quarter. The company does not disclose changes in the prevalence of hateful content on its platforms, which civil rights groups say makes reports on its removal less meaningful.
Alyssa Milano hospitalized due to ‘long hauler’ symptoms of COVID-19 — Actress Alyssa Milano said Saturday that she was hospitalized for complications due to COVID-19 in April and that she still had symptoms of the disease months later. “I was acutely sick with Covid-19 in April. I still have many symptoms,” the actor and activist said in a tweet to her 3.7 million followers on Saturday. “I am what they call a ‘long hauler.’” “Last night, I had real heaviness in my chest. I went to the ER just to make sure it wasn’t a blood clot. Thankfully, it wasn’t,” she added. “This virus sucks. Please take it seriously.” Milano, 47, also said she’d lost some of her hair from having the coronavirus. “Thought I’d show you what #Covid19 does to your hair,” she wrote. “Please take this seriously.” The revelation comes as Milano wrote last week that “everything hurt” from the novel coronavirus after being sick for two weeks. “This was me on April 2nd after being sick for 2 weeks. I had never been this kind of sick,” Milano wrote. “Everything hurt. Loss of smell. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t keep food in me. I lost 9 pounds in 2 weeks. I was confused. Low grade fever. And the headaches were horrible. I basically had every Covid symptom.”
Coronavirus Found on Frozen Food Imported to China. Should You Be Worried? – Imported frozen food in three Chinese cities has tested positive for the new coronavirus, but public health experts say you still shouldn’t worry too much about catching the virus from food or packaging. In the last four days, the virus turned up on Brazilian chicken wings in Shenzhen, packaging for Ecuadorian shrimp in Wuhu and imported seafood packaging in Yantai, NBC News reported.”All the citizens should be cautious in buying imported frozen meat products and aquatic products in recent days,” the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission said Thursday when it announced its findings about the chicken wings. However, the commission traced and tested everyone who had come in contact with the chicken, and no one tested positively for COVID-19. And the World Health Organization (WHO) has advised people not to worry about catching the virus from their food.”People should not fear food, or food packaging or processing or delivery of food,” WHO head of emergencies programme Mike Ryan said in a briefing, as Reuters reported. “There is no evidence that food or the food chain is participating in transmission of this virus. And people should feel comfortable and safe.” Yale disease ecologist Brandon Ogbunu agreed. He pointed out that the packaging tests only detect virus genetic material, or RNA. “This is just detecting the signature that the virus has been there at some point,” he told The New York Times. To prove the virus on the packaging was still infectious, researchers would have to prove it could reproduce itself in a lab. It is also unlikely the virus would survive the freezing and thawing process in tact. This echoes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines about the virus and food. “Coronaviruses, like the one that causes COVID-19, are thought to spread mostly person-to-person through respiratory droplets when someone coughs, sneezes, or talks,” the CDC wrote July 25. “It is possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object, including food or food packaging, that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes. However, this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.” Still, New Zealand is now investigating whether frozen food packages could be the cause of a new outbreak in the country that broke a more than 100 day streak of no new cases, Newsweek reported. One of the cases was connected to a worker who handled imports at a frozen food storage plant.
America’s window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 is closing – The United States has a window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 before things get much, much worse.That window is rapidly closing. And the country seems unwilling or unable to seize the moment.Winter is coming. Winter means cold and flu season, which is all but sure to complicate the task of figuring out who is sick with Covid-19 and who is suffering from a less threatening respiratory tract infection. It also means that cherished outdoor freedoms that link us to pre-Covid life – pop-up restaurant patios, picnics in parks, trips to the beach – will soon be out of reach, at least in northern parts of the country.Unless Americans use the dwindling weeks between now and the onset of “indoor weather” to tamp down transmission in the country, this winter could be Dickensianly bleak, public health experts warn. It is possible, of course, that some vaccines could be approved by then, thanks tohistorically rapid scientific work. But there is little prospect that vast numbers of Americans will be vaccinated in time to forestall the grim winter Osterholm and others foresee. Human coronaviruses, the distant cold-causing cousins of the virus that causes Covid-19, circulate year-round. Now is typically the low season for transmission. But in this summer of America’s failed Covid-19 response, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is widespread across the country, and pandemic-weary Americans seem more interested in resuming pre-Covid lifestyles than in suppressing the virus to the point where schools can be reopened, and stay open, and restaurants, movie theaters, and gyms can function with some restrictions. “We seem to be choosing leisure activities now over children’s safety in a month’s time. And I cannot understand that tradeoff.” While many countries managed to suppress spread of SARS-CoV-2, the United States has failed miserably. Countries in Europe and Asia are worrying about a second wave. Here, the first wave rages on, engulfing rural as well as urban parts of the country. Though there’s been a slight decline in cases in the past couple of weeks, more than 50,000 Americans a day are being diagnosed with Covid-19. And those are just the confirmed cases. To put that in perspective, at this rate the U.S. is racking up more cases in a week than Britain has accumulated since the start of the pandemic.
Why is the US doing less and less COVID-19 testing? -On June 20, US President Donald Trump boasted of having told public health officials to reduce the number of tests for COVID-19, the disease that has infected 5.2 million Americans and killed over 166,000 since the start of the year. “I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down,” Trump declared.Three days later Trump added, “Cases are going up in the US because we are testing far more… With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!”Top US public health officials immediately sought to downplay Trump’s comments, declaring that the US policy was to expand, not decrease, the amount of testing. But without any serious explanation by the government, the number of tests being done every day in the United States has dropped significantly over the past two weeks. On July 24, the United States conducted 926,876 tests, according to the COVID Tracking Project. But that figure had dropped to just 668,546 last Saturday. The average number of daily tests conducted fell from 809,200 in the week ending July 26, to 712,112 last week, a decline of 12 percent. At the same time, tests are often taking over a week to return, making them all but useless in tracking down and isolating those that are infected before the pandemic spreads even further. According to internal data from Quest diagnostics obtained by CNN, “the total average turnaround time for results was 8.4 days.” Public health experts say the level of testing in the US is far too low to contain the disease. An analysis from Ashish Jha and his team at the Harvard Global Health Institute recently showed that it would take 1.2 million tests per day, with results back in time to act on them, to stop the number of daily new infections from increasing. It would take 4.3 million tests per day, according to Jha, to actually suppress the pandemic. This is more than six times the current level of testing and more than four times the proclaimed goal of the Trump administration, which had been to reach one million coronavirus tests per day. Amid this massive shortage, US officials have admitted they are prioritizing tests for “certain people.” In particular, the wealthy and well-connected are able to take tests and get results within a day, while for ordinary workers results can take up to a week or more, if they are able to get them.
‘This is unstoppable’: America’s Midwest braces itself for a Covid-19 surge – Three months ago, the Republican governor of Missouri chose not to wear a mask in a shop, because he said he wasn’t going to let the government tell him what to do. Mike Parson visited a hardware store to celebrate its reopening after he lifted Missouri’s coronavirus lockdown over the objections of health professionals and mayors of major cities.Parson said the worst of the pandemic was past and the economic impact of the shutdown was worse than the virus. As for masks, the governor dismissively claimed “there was a lot of information on both sides” over whether to wear one so he wasn’t going to require people to do so.Three months later, Covid-19 is surging in Missouri and in many other parts of the Midwest that imagined they had escaped the worst of the pandemic.Health specialists predict a sharp increase in deaths across the region in the coming weeks that will be made significantly worse in some states by the politicians who followed Donald Trump’s lead in undermining medical advice and in questioning the value of masks.Anthony Fauci, the president’s lead coronavirus expert, recently warned the Midwest’s political leaders to follow the science.“Some states are not doing that,” he said. “We would hope that they all now rethink what happens when you don’t adhere to that. We’ve seen it in plain sight in the southern states that surged.”Coronavirus deaths in the Midwest remain a fraction of the nearly 160,000 recorded during the pandemic across the US. But Missouri is second only to Oklahoma in the number of new positive tests for the virus over the past two weeks. The state has recorded more deaths than Japan and several European countries, and more new cases per day than Germany. Earlier this week, the White House coronavirus task force named Kansas City as a primary area of concern.
Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota rally to be blocked at tribal land checkpoints – Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota’s 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will not be allowed through Cheyenne River Sioux checkpoints, a spokesman for the Native American group said on Saturday.The decision to prevent access across tribal lands to the annual rally, which could attract as many as 250,000 bikers amid fears it could lead to a massive, regional coronavirus outbreak, comes as part of larger Covid-19 prevention policy. The policy has pitted seven tribes that make up the Great Sioux Nation against federal and state authorities, which both claim the checkpoints are illegal. A duty officer for the Cheyenne River Sioux told the Guardian on Saturday that only commercial and emergency vehicles will be let through the checkpoints onto reservation land. A number of bikers had tried to enter but had been turned back, they said. Other reservations in the region, including the Oglala Sioux, were also turning away bikers that had attempted routes to Sturgis that pass through sovereign land. Under Cheyenne River tribal guidelines non-residents driving non-commercial out-of-state vehicles are never allowed through the reservation. During the rally, non-commercial vehicles with South Dakota plates are also not allowed through.The clampdown comes as fears mount that mask-free bikers visiting Sturgis for the largest gathering of people since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic could spread the virus to tribal groups that are already experiencing a rise in cases.Oglala Sioux recorded 163 cases last week, while the Cheyenne River Sioux has seen cases rise to 79, according to the tribe’s website. The restrictions come as local law enforcement reported a convergence of bikers from all directions. According to reports, many bikers heading for Sturgis expressed defiance at rules and restrictions that have marked life during the coronavirus pandemic.
California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Angell announces resignation amid coronavirus pandemic – — California Department of Public Health Director and State Health Officer Dr. Sonia Angell announced her resignation effective immediately, state officials confirm. In an email to her staff Sunday night, Dr. Angell did not give a reason for her resignation.Angell’s departure comes a week after a glitch was discovered in the state’s data system that caused an under-reporting of new COVID-19 cases in the state. Sandra Shewry will be appointed as Acting California Department of Public Health Director and Dr. Erica Pan will assume the role of Acting State Public Health Officer, the governor’s office says.Angell was appointed the state health officer and California Department of Public Health Director in October 2019.
CA’s top health official: Glitch fixed but there’s a backlog of up to 300,000 records – California Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Friday the state’s coronavirus pandemic is improving and the downward trends are real, despite a technical glitch in the data-reporting system that caused a lag in collecting test information for days. Ghaly noted that hospitalizations and ICUs continue to drop, and these are independent of the broken computer reporting system. “We do feel confident in the trend and believe the trend has been stabilizing and coming down,” said the state’s top health official at a press briefing. “The hospital and death data is collected and reported in a different manner.” The data issue has been fixed, but created a backlog of 250,000 to 300,000 records that Ghaly said will be processed in the next 24 to 48 hours. “Those are test results,” he said. “We don’t know how many are positive or how many are negative.” He said some of those records could be from lab tests for other illnesses, though he suspects the majority are COVID-19 test results. What’s more, the records will go through a process to eliminate any duplicates. The state will be sorting records through the weekend and sharing new information with the public as it becomes available. “Addressing this has been our top priority over the last 72 hours,” said Ghaly.
Florida’s confirmed COVID-19 total surpasses 532,800 with 6,229 additional cases – Florida’s Department of Health on Sunday confirmed 6,229 additional cases of COVID-19, pushing the state’s known total to 532,806. There were also 77 Florida resident deaths announced, bringing the statewide resident death toll to 8,186. There were no new non-resident deaths announced, leaving the non-resident death toll at 129. Throughout the pandemic, the newly confirmed cases reported on Sundays have tended to be lower than the other days of the week because fewer people work in labs and enter data on the weekends.Sunday also saw the lowest number of newly confirmed deaths announced since Monday when 73 deaths were reported.
Florida Sheriff Bans Deputies From Wearing Masks as County Sets Daily Record for COVID-19 Deaths – A sheriff in Florida is under fire for deciding Tuesday to ban his deputies from wearing face masks while on the job – ignoring the advice of public health experts about the safety measures that everyone should take during the coronavirus pandemic as well as the rising Covid-19 death toll in his county and state.Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods’ email to his deputies announcing the mask ban was first reported by the local Ocala Star-Banner, which noted that the county “set a single-day record on Tuesday for the most deaths related to Covid-19, with 13 more deaths reported,” bringing the total to 102.Various outlets across the nation then picked up the story on Wednesday – including the Washington Post, which obtained a copy of Woods’ email and pointed out that Florida also set a record in deaths related to Covid-19 on Tuesday. At least 277 deaths were recorded statewide, according to the Post.The Post reported that Florida has seen over 542,000 cases and 8,600 deaths out of the nation’s total 5.15 million cases and 162,000 deaths. As infections in Florida have soared in recent weeks, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has been widely condemned for rushing to lift restrictions.Although some local and state leaders in other parts of the country have implored police officers to cover their faces while on duty during the crisis or even issued face mask requirements and punished law enforcement officials for refusing to comply, DeSantis has not mandated masks for anyone. But Woods, in his email, prohibited his officers from wearing masks, with limited exceptions for those who are in a local courthouse, hospital, jail, or public school, or otherwise directly interacting with people suspected of being infected with the virus. As the Star-Banner reported:
Coronavirus Grips Midwest Rural Areas That Had Been Spared – WSJ – The coronavirus hit Kati Finn and six girlfriends after they went to a winery in northwestern Ohio last month where they played a game called “Name That Tune” with about 90 other people. Within days, 71 people from the event tested positive for Covid-19. The event helped give rural Henry County, with 28,000 residents, the state’s highest rate of Covid-19 cases on a per capita basis in late July.As the number of new coronavirus cases has dropped nationally over the past week, the virus appears to be taking hold in some corners of Midwestern states that had largely escaped it. Cases are spreading more rapidly in some counties outside a metro area, compared with those in one. In Ohio, new cases dropped 14% over the past two weeks, but several mostly rural counties, including Champaign County, now have some of the highest rates of new infections recorded over the past few weeks. Unlike this spring, when the virus spread in hot spots such as meatpacking plants, nursing homes and prisons, this time much of the new cases in rural areas appear to be occurring through community contacts, and that is worrying to health officials because such transmission is harder to trace and contain.The new path of the virus suggests that complacency, shutdown fatigue and the lure of summer are combining to allow the virus to sweep through rural parts of the country that had previously been spared, health officials say.In Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois, the weekly change in Covid-19 cases, a measure of the increase in infection, has been higher in nonmetropolitan counties, compared with those in metro areas in recent weeks, according to an analysis of data tracked by Johns Hopkins University. In the past week, the weekly change in cases in Wisconsin metropolitan counties began to surpass nonmetropolitans, driven by such counties as Oconto and Pierce. For much of the spring, cases in those states had been rising faster in metropolitan areas.
COVID-19 Update: August 10th Edition –As of Friday, August 7, data from the Covid Tracking Project showed that the 7-day average (smoothed) number of new U.S. daily cases fell to 54,008, a 15% decrease relative to 63,240 the previous Friday. The smoothed percent of cases testing positive fell to 7.5% from 8.0% one week earlier. The smoothed number of deaths in the U.S. fell 5%, from 1113 one week earlier to 1053 last Friday. Here in Texas, the number of smoothed daily cases fell 2% between July 31 and August 7, while the smoothed number of daily deaths fell from 341 to 218. The smoothed percent of people testing positive rose from 10.3% on July 31st to 13.3% last Friday. More than 107 million American adults are obese, and researchers are worried that a COVID-19 vaccine will be less effective for obese people. Vaccines engineered to protect the public from influenza, hepatitis B, tetanus and rabies can be less effective in obese adults, who have weaker immune systems. Pakistan, with a population of 200 million, was down to 727 new cases on August 5th. Their success sharply contrasts with their neighbors Iran and India, which each are seeing 40,000 or 50,000 new cases each day and rising. The success is attributed to strong public health messaging. Health care workers of color were more likely to care for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, more likely to report using inadequate or reused protective gear, and nearly twice as likely as white colleagues to test positive for the coronavirus, a new study from Harvard Medical School researchers found. A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine found that asymptomatic Covid-19 patients in Korea had similar viral loads as symptomatic patients. This finding indicates that asymptomatic people are likely to be infectious to others, which previously was believed based on anecdotal evidence. Researchers believe Covid-19 is unlikely to cause birth defects. However, doctors are still closely watching pregnancies of mothers-to-be that tested positive, especially if a woman tested positive early in the pregnancy.
New Covid-19 Cases Fall Below 50,000 in U.S. for Second Straight Day – WSJ – The U.S. reported fewer than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row, even as the number of cases world-wide surpassed 20 million. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country registered the virus’s first vaccine, but the West and even some health and pharmaceutical officials in Russia have concerns over its safety. And New Zealand reported its first locally transmitted cases of the virus in more than 100 days, spurring the government to reinstate restrictions in the country’s largest city.The U.S. reported 49,536 new infections Monday, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The nation had more than 5.1 million total confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins data. Comparing the one- and two-week averages of new cases in the U.S. suggests that infections are broadly on the decline. As of Aug. 10, the seven-day average of new cases was about 54,409, below the two-week average of about 57,433, according to the Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data. The one-week average was lower than the two-week average of new cases in 37 states.In nearly half the states, however, the seven-day moving average of tests per 1,000 people is lower this week, according to Johns Hopkins.Deaths in the U.S. appear to be holding steady, with the seven-day average of deaths just over 1,051, compared with a two-week average of almost 1,049. But 17 states and Washington, D.C., have higher seven-day averages than 14-day averages, suggesting the death rate is continuing to climb in some places. The country’s death toll stood Tuesday at more than 164,500, while deaths world-wide topped 738,000, according to Johns Hopkins data.On Tuesday, Florida’s Department of Health reported 276 new coronavirus-related deaths, the highest number added over a single day during the pandemic thus far. Deaths reported on a single day don’t necessarily mean they occurred on that day. The state also reported 5,831 new coronavirus cases. The confirmed death toll in Los Angeles County, meanwhile, surpassed 5,000, as the Department of Public Health reported 63 new deaths.
Wisconsin Passes 1,000 Deaths From COVID-19 – Wisconsin has reported more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 as of Tuesday. The state Department of Health Services reported eight new deaths, bringing the total to 1,006.New reports of COVID-19 cases are ticking back up in Wisconsin after a dip over the weekend and on Monday, based on the latest data published by the DHS.DHS reported 724 new cases of the virus on Tuesday, bringing the average for the past seven days to 818 daily cases.One week ago, the average was 840 daily cases. The latest figures bring the overall total of positive cases in Wisconsin to 61,785, according to the DHS. According to DHS, 5.3 percent of all test results reported on Tuesday were positive for COVID-19, bringing the overall percentage of positive tests over the past seven days to 6.3 percent. That figure has been decreasing since Saturday, when it was 8.9 percent.The percentage of positive cases is often read by public health officials as a measure of overall testing levels. A high rate could indicate that testing in the state is limited, and skewed toward those already flagged as potentially having the virus. A lower rate could indicate testing is more widespread. Changes in the test positivity rate can also speak to a virus’ spread, if the size and makeup of the testing pool stays consistent. COVID-19 activity varies heavily from county to county. The latest coronavirus activity data from DHS, released once per week each Wednesday, showed that 66 counties had a “high level” of coronavirus activity. Activity level designations are based on “burden,” or the number of new cases per a county’s population over a 14-day period, as well as whether there’s an upward or downward trend in new cases.
Michigan reports 517 new COVID-19 cases, state total hits 89K ⋆ The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Wednesday that 89,271 total Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 6,273 have died from the virus – an additional 517 cases and nine deaths since Tuesday. DHHS also reports that an additional 9,418 Michiganders have been identified as “probable” cases for COVID-19, as well as 266 probable deaths. The department began tracking probable cases on April 5. Combining the state’s confirmed positive cases with probable cases brings the total up to 98,689 statewide cases and 6,539 deaths. The virus has been detected in all of Michigan’s 83 counties. The state’s COVID-19 fatality rate has fallen again slightly to 7%. The first two cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state on March 10. Whitmer declared a state of emergency that day. Johns Hopkins University reports that there are more than 20.4 million confirmed cases worldwide and 744,733 deaths. About one-quarter of those are in the United States, where more than 5.1 million confirmed cases and 165,328 deaths have been recorded.
August 13 COVID-19 Test Results – NOTE: North Carolina removed 220,000 tests from its cumulative total yesterday (a correction). I’ve added 220,000 to the total yesterday to make the percent positive correct.The US is now mostly reporting over 700,000 tests per day. Based on the experience of other countries, the percent positive needs to be well under 5% to really push down new infections, so the US still needs to increase the number of tests per day significantly (or take actions to push down the number of new infections).There were 880,729 test results reported over the last 24 hours.There were 51,705 positive tests. See the graph on US Daily Deaths here.This data is from the COVID Tracking Project. The percent positive over the last 24 hours was 5.9% (red line).For the status of contact tracing by state, check out testandtrace.com. And check out COVID Exit Strategy to see how each state is doing.
California megachurch draws thousands at in-person services defying state coronavirus orders – The pastor of a megachurch in Los Angeles defended the church’s decision to allow thousands in for services Sunday, defying California state orders amid the coronavirus outbreak. Grace Community Church held in-person services on Sunday, and Pastor John MacArthur told CNN that six or seven thousand people showed up. The crowd size defies a state order released at the end of July that limits indoor attendance at a place of worship to 25 percent of a building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower. Asked about his disregard of coronavirus restrictions, MacArthur dismissed the responsibility for him to follow such guidelines. “When we look inside of your church, it is indoors, as you said, there’s thousand of people, there is absolutely no social distancing, there [are] no masks. Why not get creative, so you can obey, as you put it ‘god’s law,’ but also obey public health regulations?” CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked the pastor. MacArthur responded that the church had been creative, putting a tent up in an overflow area and a screen in the middle of a large patio, but he said both areas filled up and people poured into the worship center. “We don’t orchestrate this, this is a church. We don’t ask people to make a reservation to come to church,” he said. Pressed on his decision to open the doors, he said he wasn’t going to have people “standing outside in a mob.” “We opened the doors because that’s what we are, we’re a church and we’re going to trust those people to make adult decisions about the reality of their physical and spiritual health and how that balance works for each one of them,” he said. “Nobody’s forcing anything, they’re here because they want to be here.”.
UAW announces COVID outbreak at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville with 32 new cases – The Ford Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP) in Louisville with nearly 9,000 workers has reported 32 new COVID-19 cases last Thursday. Workers at KTP assemble the Super Duty trucks, Lincoln Navigator, and Ford Expedition. The news was reported through the United Auto Workers union acting as the human resource department information portal for Ford. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, announced a record high 1,163 COVID-19 cases in the state Wednesday. Kentucky is on the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut tri-state list for a two-week mandatory quarantine requirement for travelers. Worker comments revealed that they were not surprised by the announcement of the thirty-two COVID-19 cases considering the lack of effective safety measures. One worker posted on the local union’s Facebook page, “Yeah, they really care about our health and safety.” A skilled trades worker at KTP spoke to the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter about the lack of information on coronavirus infections at the plant saying, “I have not heard anything from either management or UAW.” Adding, “I used to get emails about it, but not lately.” The widening scale of the COVID-19 crisis in manufacturing has also revealed itself at the nearby Louisville Assembly Plant, which produces the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair SUVs. It reported 25 new cases of COVID-19 at the plant that has over 4,000 employees. In comments to local media that reflect the UAW’s disregard for the lives of workers and their families, Local 862 president Todd Dunn callously attempted to shift the blame onto workers that were on vacations and traveling during the scheduled plant shutdowns for the outbreak stating, “I think just out of the sheer numbers and the travel. I mean, it was somewhat expected, I think, by everybody.” According to a Ford Labor Relation Bulletin posted on Facebook addressing all workers on the A-crew shift at KTP some will be forced work mandatory shifts of up to 11.5 hours beginning August 16, a Sunday. The company is placing the blame on “volume,” however, it is likely intended to make up for the lack of manpower due to the rising numbers of those out because of illness. Workers’ social media comments revealed their hostility to their being forced to work longer hours in unsafe conditions with one worker writing ironically, “Wonderful.”
White House warns of ‘widespread and expanding’ COVID-19 spread in Georgia – President Trump’s coronavirus task force warns that Georgia continues to see “widespread and expanding community viral spread” and that the state’s current policies aren’t enough to curtail COVID-19. The task force “strongly recommends” Georgia adopt a statewide mandate that citizens wear masks, joining a chorus of public health officials, Democrats and others who have warned that Gov. Brian Kemp’s refusal to order face coverings has plunged the state into deeper crisis and will prolong recovery. “Current mitigation efforts are not having a sufficient impact,” the report said. Businesses, such as nightclubs, bars and gyms, currently open with some restrictions in Georgia, should be closed in the highest risk counties, the report said. The task force recommends restricting indoor dining at restaurants, now limited only by the number of diners who can be safely distanced six feet apart, to less than one-quarter of dining room capacity. Social gatherings, now capped at 50 people in Georgia, should be limited to 10 or fewer people. Georgia also needs to ramp up testing and contact tracing statewide, the report said, and testing and infection control measures need to be expanded in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations for Georgia, dated Aug. 9, from a source. Dr. Melanie Thompson, principal investigator of the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta, said it is frustrating that the report is only seeing the light of day because of a leak. “These are public health data and they should be publicly available,” she said. Though Kemp has encouraged Georgians to wear masks, Georgia is one of 16 states without some form of statewide mask mandate. Kemp said he believes a statewide requirement is unnecessary and unenforceable. Kemp’s emergency orders explicitly bar cities from enacting mask mandates or enacting any measures stricter or less restrictive than his.
Analysis shows 54,000 “excess deaths” in US, pointing to coronavirus death toll of 200,700 — More than 165,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The US passed the grim statistic of 5 million cases of COVID-19 earlier this month. As horrifying as these figures are, a new analysis shows that the number of deaths from the coronavirus likely has been significantly undercounted. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed by the New York Times have revealed that 200,700 people died from March 15, when the pandemic took hold, to July 25. This is 54,000 higher than the confirmed death toll, averaged, for the same time period in the previous three years. Excess deaths in the analysis are rounded to the nearest hundred. These 54,000 “excess deaths” are defined by the CDC as “the difference between the observed numbers of deaths in specific time periods and expected numbers of deaths in the same time periods.” The analysis strongly indicates that these excess deaths have been caused by the virus itself or by conditions triggered by the upheaval resulting from the pandemic. The Times looked at CDC figures for deaths from all causes, adjusting current death records to account for typical reporting lags. This allows for comparisons that don’t rely on the availability of COVID-19 tests in a given place or on the accuracy of cause-of-death reporting. Epidemiologists generally agree that assessing excess deaths is the best way to assess the impact of the pandemic. Higher than normal death rates are widespread for the vast majority of US states. Only Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and West Virginia have death counts that look similar to recent years. Through July 25, the Times analysis shows that there were about 37 percent more excess deaths in the US than the official coronavirus fatality count. New York City, the early epicenter of the outbreak, has suffered the most dramatic increase in deaths. During the peak of the outbreak in the city, deaths surged to seven times the usual number. Overall, New York City had 27,200 excess deaths during the period analyzed. In addition to New York City, four states recorded deaths at least 10 percent higher than the normal level. New Jersey saw 18,000 deaths from May to July. New York State, excluding New York City, recorded 14,200 excess deaths. Texas had 13,500 excess deaths; California had 13,400. The Times analysis shows that the pandemic’s toll cannot be attributed simply to the virus killing vulnerable people who would have died anyway. Most of the excess deaths revealed by the analysis could be attributed to the virus itself, but it is also likely that deaths from other causes have also risen due to hospitals being overwhelmed by COVID patients. People suffering from conditions that should be survivable have not sought care out of fear of contracting the virus. Such conditions include heart attack and stroke. In addition, people who have died at home have had their cause of death listed as pneumonia or other conditions that were likely caused by COVID-19.
Fauci warns against herd immunity: “the death toll would be enormous”– Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), was interviewed yesterday by actor Matthew McConaughey (Free State of Jones) on the state of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. During the course of the interview, McConaughey asked, “If everyone in the world contracts the disease, what happens to it? Does it go away on its own?” Fauci definitively warned that, “If everyone contracted it … a lot of people are going to die.” The day before, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield similarly cautioned in an interview with WebMD that because “we’re going to have COVID in the fall, and we’re going to have flu in the fall,” the country could be hit with “the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we’ve ever had.” The combination is almost certain to “stress certain hospital systems” beyond what they are capable of handling. In his understated way, Fauci spelled out the imminent danger of any policy of “herd immunity” gained through letting the country or the world’s population become infected with the virus. The current low end estimates of COVID-19’s mortality rate given by the World Health Organization is 0.6 percent, and at least half of the population has to become immune to halt the spread of the disease in this manner. Taken together, this translates to a minimum of 23 million dead worldwide from the pandemic, including more than 993,000 in the US alone. As Fauci put it, “The death toll would be enormous and totally unacceptable.” The current death toll in the US is more than 171,000, along with 5.4 million cases, already a staggering figure. To achieve the minimum estimate of herd immunity would require a scale of death six times greater than the tally already taken. The interview between Fauci and McConaughey took place the same day the CDC released new estimates for the death toll in the United States, predicting there will be 200,000 reported deaths by the first week of September if the daily death rates in every state hold steady or decrease slightly. If the death rates begin to increase again, there could be as many as 225,000 deaths by Labor Day. The CDC’s estimate incorporates that of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which predicted last week that 295,000 people will die by December 1.
Coronavirus: Is the world winning the pandemic fight? –It is little more than six months since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the arrival of a new virus a global emergency. On that day, at the end of January, there had been almost 10,000 reported cases of coronavirus and more than 200 people had died. None of those deaths were outside of China. Since then the world, and our lives, have changed profoundly. So how are we faring in this battle between the human race and the coronavirus? If we take the planet as a whole, the picture is looking rough. Area chart showing the number of global cases is fast approaching 20 million There have been more than 19 million confirmed cases and 700,000 deaths. At the start of the pandemic it was taking weeks to clock up each 100,000 infections, now those milestones are measured in hours. “We’re still in the midst of an accelerating, intense and very serious pandemic,” Dr Margaret Harris, from the WHO, told me. “It’s there in every community in the world.” While this is a single pandemic, it is not one single story. The impact of Covid-19 is different around the world and it is easy to blind yourself to the reality beyond your own country. But one fact unites everyone, whether they make their home in the Amazon rainforest, the skyscrapers of Singapore or the late-summer streets of the UK: this is a virus that thrives on close human contact. The more we come together, the easier it will spread. That is as true today as when the virus first emerged in China. This central tenet explains the situation wherever you are in the world and dictates what the future will look like. It is driving the high volume of cases in Latin America – the current epicentre of the pandemic – and the surge in India. It explains why Hong Kong is keeping people inquarantine facilities or the South Korean authorities are monitoring people’s bank accounts and phones. It illustrates why Europe and Australia are struggling to balance lifting lockdowns and containing the disease. And why we are trying to find a “new normal” rather than the old one. “This is a virus circulating all over the planet. It affects every single one of us. It goes from human to human, and highlights that we are all connected,” . “It’s not just about travel, it’s speaking and spending time together – that’s what humans do.”Even the simple act of singing together spreads the virus.It has also proven to be an exceptionally tricky virus to track, causing mild or no symptoms for many, but deadly enough to others to overwhelm hospitals. “It’s the perfect pandemic virus of our time. We are now living in the time of coronavirus,”
Global COVID-19 Pandemic Surpasses 20 Million Confirmed Cases- Live Updates – As expected, Johns Hopkins has just confirmed that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 20 million since the start of the pandemic. Of those, more than 700,000 have died. It comes just days after the US, the world’s biggest outbreak, topped 5 million, and Brazil, the No. 2, topped 3 million.Meanwhile, Cali Governor Gavin Newsom said trends point to “encouraging signs” in California’s virus outbreak. Hospitalizations have dropped 19% in the last 14 days, while the number of people in intensive care fell 13% over the same period.Millions more cases are likely unconfirmed… The “Big Ten” just became the first major college football conference to cancel the upcoming season, despite insistence that the conference would do whatever it could to continue with play.The Big Ten became the first “Power Five” conference to cancel football for the upcoming season, forgoing a major revenue source as the pandemic upends college sports, the Detroit Free Press reported. School presidents voted Sunday to cancel fall sports and an official announcement is expected Tuesday, the newspaper said. The tally was 12-2, with only the University of Nebraska and the University of Iowa voting to play, Dan Patrick said Monday on his radio show. Over the weekend, the Mid-American Conference became the first in the FBS, or Football Bowl Subdivision, to scrap its 2020 season.It follows UConn’s decision to cancel college football last week. A preliminary reading on new US cases found they slowed again on Monday. California reported 7,751 new cases on Monday, slightly above yesterday’s total, though officials said that some of the cases might belong to prior days, as the state has only just finally fixed its lab reporting issues supposedly caused the state to undercount cases for weeks.
Chinese mainland reports 49 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths -The Chinese mainland registered 49 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday, with 35 cases from overseas and 14 domestically transmitted, Chinese health authority said Monday. All of the 14 domestically transmitted cases are in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. And among the cases from overseas, 18 are in Shanghai. Shanghai’s civil aviation department will strengthen the control measures for international flights and certain airlines will be halted as imported COVID-19 cases have been continuously reported on some inbound flights in Shanghai, according to local authorities on Monday. No deaths related to the disease were reported on Sunday, while 64 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals. The total confirmed cases in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:
Hong Kong: 4,079 (2,847 recoveries, 52 deaths)
Macao: 46 (46 recoveries)
Taiwan: 477 (441 recoveries, 7 deaths)
Two Chinese Patients Test Positive Months After Virus Recovery – Two patients in China that recovered from Covid-19 months ago tested positive for the coronavirus again, raising concern of the virus’s ability to linger and reappear in people who it previously infected. A 68-year-old woman in the central Chinese province of Hubei, where the novel coronavirus first surfaced in December, tested positive on Sunday, six months after she was diagnosed with Covid-19 and recovered. Another man found to have contracted the disease in April after returning from abroad tested positive in Shanghai on Monday but hasn’t shown any symptoms. None of the patients’ close contacts has tested positive for the virus, but they have been placed under quarantine, local authorities said. The two cases are the latest addition to a growing number of “virus reactivation” anecdotes found among patients believed to have recovered from the viral infection, which has sickened more than 20 million worldwide and killed 748,000. While it is rare for recovered patients to test positive again, the phenomenon raises questions over why some patients suffer from long-term symptoms, and whether any immunity to the disease might be too ephemeral to protect against re-infection. Some studies have shown the level of protective antibodies an infected person may build up to fight the virus quickly drop after only a few months, possibly making them susceptible to the same pathogen a second time. However, there is little evidence so far that re-infection has been occurring in this pandemic. Some experts have raised the possibility that other cells continue to provide immunity even after antibodies fade. Researchers in South Korea have suggested that the virus detected in patients months after recovery could be the vestiges of dead virus particles that are no longer infectious.
Chinese City Says Chicken Wings from Brazil Test Positive – Consumers in the Chinese city of Shenzhen have been urged to exercise caution when buying imported frozen food after a surface sample of chicken wings from Brazil tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement from the local government. The positive sample appears to have been taken from the surface of the meat, while previously reported positive cases from other Chinese cities have been from the surface of packaging on imported frozen seafood. The chicken came from an Aurora Alimentos plant in the southern state of Santa Catarina, according to a registration number given in the statement. Virus tests of people who have possibly come into contact with the product, and tests of related products, all came back negative, the statement said. Consumers should be cautious when buying imported frozen foods and aquatic products, the government added. The World Health Organization said that there had been no examples proving that the virus could be transmitted as food borne, if it was actually in food. “The viruses can be killed like other viruses as well, and can be killed if the meat is cooked,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the organization’s Covid-19 technical lead, at a press conference. Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry has asked Chinese authorities for information that could help clarify the alleged contamination of the product with Covid-19, it said in a statement. The ministry reiterated that there’s no scientific proof of Covid-19 transmission through food or frozen food packaging, citing the UN’S Food and Agriculture Organization and the WHO. It also reinforced the country’s strict safety protocols. Closely-held Aurora Alimentos said in a statement Thursday that it follows strict sanitary production protocols and it will provide information as soon it gets notification from national Chinese authorities. Three packaging samples of imported frozen seafood
Coronavirus: New Zealand marks 100 days without community spread – BBC News – New Zealand has gone 100 days without recording a locally transmitted Covid-19 case, a milestone that has both been welcomed and brought warnings against complacency. The last case of community transmission was detected on 1 May, days after the country started easing its lockdown. Sunday was the fourth day in a row that no new cases of Covid-19 were reported. The total number of active cases in the country remained at 23, all in managed isolation. New Zealand has fared better than other countries, recording 1,219 confirmed cases and 22 deaths since the virus arrived in late February. Praised internationally for its handling of the pandemic, the country’s government has lifted almost all of its lockdown restrictions, first imposed in March. An early lockdown, tough border restrictions, effective health messaging and an aggressive test-and-trace programme have all been credited with virtually eliminating the virus in the country.
No new Covid cases, 101 days without virus in community – There are no new Covid-19 cases today, the Ministry of Health says. It has been 101 days since the last case of Covid-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source, it said. Two additional cases are reported as having recovered, so there are now 21 active cases in managed isolation facilities. New Zealand’s total number of confirmed cases remains at 1,219. There is no-one currently requiring hospital-level care for Covid-19. Yesterday our laboratories processed 2,125 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 496,606. There were 1,134 swabs taken in managed isolation and quarantine facilities yesterday. The number of tests yesterday was encouraging for a Sunday, the Ministry said. “We’ve now passed 100 days without community transmission, but testing remains one of the best ways to ensure there’s no undetected community transmission in New Zealand. We need everyone to play their part in that. “While Covid-19 continues around the world, New Zealand cannot be complacent. “Our response to Covid-19 works on the basis that we should be prepared for a case of community transmission, and that that could happen at any time. “We have prepared for this eventuality by, among other things, scaling up our capacity in testing and contact tracing, and every New Zealander needs to be prepared for the virus to re-emerge.” Tracing contacts of cases of Covid-19 as quickly as possible would help stop the virus from spreading in our communities.
Russia Approves World’s First Coronavirus Vaccine -Russia’s Health Ministry has given regulatory approval for the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. “This morning, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was registered” in Russia, Putin said during a televised video conference call with government ministers.Putin added that the vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, has proven efficient during tests and promises to offer “sustainable immunity” against the coronavirus.“I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests,” Putin said. “The most important thing is to ensure full safety of using the vaccine and its efficiency.” The Russian leader also said that one of his daughters has already been inoculated and is feeling well. “One of my daughters got vaccinated, so in this sense, she took part in the testing,” Putin said.After the first vaccine shot, his daughter experienced a slight fever, 38 degrees Celsius (100.4°F). Her temperature came down to just slightly above normal the next day.”After the second shot, she had a slight fever again, and then everything was fine. She is feeling well and has a high antibody count,” Putin said.He didn’t specify which of his two daughters, Maria or Katerina, received the vaccine.Russian health authorities have said that medical workers, teachers and other risk groups will be the first to receive shots of the vaccine. Russia is the first country to register a COVID-19 vaccine. As countries worldwide race to produce the first vaccine, health experts warn that speed and national pride could compromise safety.Scientists in Russia and abroad have questioned Moscow’s decision to register the vaccine before Phase 3 trials that normally last for months and involve thousands of people, but Putin emphasized that the vaccine underwent the necessary trials and that vaccination will be voluntary. Russian officials have said that large-scale production of the vaccine will begin in September, and mass vaccination may start as early as October.
Putin hails new Sputnik moment as Russia is first to approve a COVID-19 vaccine – (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, a move Moscow likened to its success in the Cold War-era space race. The vaccine, which will be called “Sputnik V” in homage to the world’s first satellite launched by the Soviet Union, has however not yet completed its final trials. Moscow’s decision to grant approval before then has raised concerns among some experts. Only about 10% of clinical trials are successful and some scientists fear Moscow may be putting national prestige before safety. Putin and other officials have said it is completely safe. The president said one of his daughters had taken it as a volunteer and felt good afterwards. “I know that it works quite effectively, forms strong immunity, and I repeat, it has passed all the necessary checks,” Putin told a government meeting. The Russian business conglomerate Sistema has said it expects to put the vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, into mass production by the end of the year. Government officials have said it will be administered to medical personnel, and then to teachers, on a voluntary basis at the end of this month or in early September. Mass roll-out in Russia is expected to start in October. The vaccine is administered in two doses and consists of two serotypes of a human adenovirus, each carrying an S-antigen of the new coronavirus, which enter human cells and produce an immune response. The platform used for the vaccine was developed by Russian scientists over two decades and had formed the basis for several vaccines in the past, including those against Ebola. Authorities hope it will allow the Russian economy, which has been battered by fallout from the virus, to return to full capacity.
New Zealand considers freight as possible source of new coronavirus cluster – (Reuters) – New Zealand officials are investigating the possibility that its first COVID-19 cases in more than three months were imported by freight, as the country’s biggest city plunged back into lockdown on Wednesday. The discovery of four infected family members in Auckland led Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to swiftly reimpose tight restrictions in the city and social distancing measures across the entire country. The source of the outbreak has baffled health officials, who said they were confident there was no local transmission of the virus in New Zealand for 102 days. “We are working hard to put together pieces of the puzzle on how this family got infected,” said Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield. Investigations were zeroing in on the potential the virus was imported by freight. Bloomfield said surface testing was underway at an Auckland cool store where a man from the infected family worked. “We know the virus can survive within refrigerated environments for quite some time,” Bloomfield said during a televised media conference.
New outbreak of COVID-19 in New Zealand – Yesterday a “level three” lockdown was imposed in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, after four people in a family tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Thirteen other cases linked to the South Auckland family have since been found, including four children. COVID-19 testing stations in Auckland were overwhelmed yesterday, with some people waiting up to 12 hours for a test and others reportedly being turned away. About a quarter of Auckland’s workers are staying home and schools are closed, except for the children of essential workers. The restrictions were announced for three days, but are widely expected to be extended. They are not as stringent, however, as the “level four” nationwide lockdown imposed in March-April. Under level three, construction businesses, cafes and other shops can still operate, supposedly with social distancing protocols in place. The rest of the country is on alert level two, with people told to practice physical distancing, and gatherings of more than 100 people banned. Schools and businesses remain open. The new coronavirus cases are the first to be discovered in New Zealand in 102 days, apart from international travellers. More than 7,000 returned travellers are currently undergoing two weeks of quarantine in hotels controlled by the military. Of these, at least 23 have the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party-led government has been glorified by the world’s media for its response to the pandemic, including a relatively early and strict lockdown. The country has experienced just 22 deaths from the virus. The rediscovery of COVID-19 in the community, however, underscores that the pandemic cannot be defeated at a national level, but requires a coordinated and well-resourced international response that is incompatible with the capitalist nation-state system.
Brazilian teachers report 36 COVID-infected schools after one week of classes in Manaus – The first week of return to classes in public schools in Manaus, the first Brazilian capital to take the measure, was marked by disastrous episodes. The Secretariat of Education and Sports (Seduc) of the state of Amazonas reported that 123 state schools reopened in Manaus on Monday. About 110,000 students returned to classrooms under a “hybrid system,” alternating days of attendance. The Secretary of Education Lu’s Fabian Barbosa assured that the government was going to implement “a safe plan for resuming classroom activities, which included the participation of control agencies, unions representing the workforce, the students’ parents and the school community.” This statement was backed up by a committee of deputies from the Amazonas Legislative Assembly that visited schools “at random” and proved that “all the measures are being taken.” The commission was led by congressman Sinésio Campos, the state president of the Workers Party (PT), who said: “As a teacher I understand the concern of teachers. … But I also understand that students need to resume educational activities.” In contrast to the statements made by Seduc and the deputies, educators and students shared on social media images of crowded schools with extremely precarious infrastructure. The masks distributed by the government, unusable because of being oversized, became a meme among students.
Major Antibody Study Finds 3.4 Million in England Had Covid-19 Around 3.4 million people in England — 6% of the population — have contracted coronavirus, with infection rates twice as high in London, a major antibody study found. A mass survey of more than 100,000 people — which the government says is the biggest of its kind in the world — suggested the extent of the outbreak varied widely between different areas and population groups. In London, 13% of people had antibodies while in the South West of England it was less than 3%, according to the research, released by the Department of Health and Imperial College London. People from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups, care workers, and people living in larger households were among the most likely to have been infected. The research involved 100,000 people testing themselves at home for coronavirus antibodies between June 20 and July 13. The government said there is no firm evidence that antibodies provide immunity. But the findings are significant because they are likely to influence the decisions officials will make about what kind of lockdown restrictions are needed in the future, and which groups are at greatest risk. Boris Johnson’s government has been attacked for its handling of the pandemic, which left the U.K. with the highest death toll in Europe and facing the deepest recession of any comparable country. Heavy Burden There was no breakthrough on the quest for a home antibody test for general use among the public. Separate studies, also unveiled on Thursday, evaluated a range of finger-prick home antibody tests but found the results were not reliable enough to be given government approval for widespread use, officials said. The tests were still deemed to be suitable for surveillance studies such as the Imperial research. The burden of Covid-19 “has fallen particularly heavily on ethnic minority groups and key workers, particularly in care homes and healthcare,” said Professor Helen Ward, one of the researchers involved. “Those in deprived and densely populated areas are most likely to have been exposed to the virus, and we need to do far more to protect people from any future waves of infection.”
Andrew Kimbrell On The Origins of COVID-19 -What are the origins of the COVID-19 virus? Did it come from nature? Or did it leak from a lab in Wuhan, China? The International Center for Technology Assessment is placing its bets on a leak from a lab in Wuhan. “After considerable research, including a thorough review of the selected research materials and discussions with experts in the field, we have come to agree with the view that the virus causing COVID-19 did not evolve naturally but rather is the product of one of the high-security bio-medical laboratories in Wuhan, China,” the group said in a statement issued last month. “We believe that there is a preponderance of circumstantial and scientific evidence demonstrating that the ‘laboratory virus’ hypothesis is not only possible but probable. By contrast, recent refutation of the hypothesis that the virus originated at a Wuhan wet market and new findings that the virus has not been found in nature despite significant effort to do so, makes the view that the virus evolved naturally unlikely.” “No dispositive finding on the virus’ origin can be made without a full review of the records and logs of the Wuhan high security laboratories involved, which the current stance of the government of China makes improbable. Nevertheless, in coming to a conclusion as to the probability of its laboratory origin, ICTA understands that it is critical that any analysis of the origin of this catastrophic contagion be apolitical and constructive. ICTA’s work in this area is not intended to blame individual scientists or any country, but rather to help provide the insight, and encourage the action needed to spare humanity from a series of future man-made pandemics that could surpass the current one in transmissibility and lethality.” Let’s go through it. It is undisputed that this is a chimeric virus that has never been seen before. It’s a hybrid virus.“ “The bat coronaviruses that are closest to COVID-19 are lacking two incredibly important things that COVID-19 has that make it so dangerous. One is the proteins that spike the cell – the spike proteins. The spike proteins that are on COVID-19 are completely different than those on the bat coronaviruses that are closest to it otherwise. Then there is the furin cleavage site. This is something that allows the virus to get inside the cell and have the cell mechanism reproduce it. That does not exist in this group of bat coronaviruses.” “You have a basic bat coronavirus and you have two things that have been added to it. The spike protein is closest to an animal called the pangolin. We do know that somehow this bat virus was infected by at least two other animals and then went into a human host. And for that virus to be the way it is, it had to happen simultaneously.” “We have a hybrid virus never seen before in nature, it had to have been infected simultaneously with these other elements that make it more dangerous – make it more infective and more transmissible.” “There is no theory about how they got in there. They used to think it was the wet market. That has been completely debunked, including by the Chinese government. No one believes that anymore. That explanation was a smoke screen put up by the Chinese and Americans who want to support that idea.” What are the chances it happened naturally? “Someone will have to come up with a scenario. It sounds almost like a joke. A horseshoe bat, a pangolin and some other creature met in a bar in Wuhan and somehow simultaneously infected them.”
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