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 an increased number of items from other countries around the globe. Growth of new US cases has picked up again after a Thanksgiving reporting slowdown. Elsewhere, new cases continue rising globally, with the global death rate accelerating. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
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Summary:
New US Covid cases were at a record 247,737 on the Worldometer site I watch (graphic below). That should be nearly 40% of all the new infections reported worldwide on that day. However, the Johns Hopkins dashboard (see graphic below) is showing 1.489 million new infections on that date, more than double any previous one day total – I have to assume that’s in error, and my best guess would be that somehow the data was entered twice, and they’ll eventually correct it.
Regardless, whatever the actual numbers are, we’re still seeing increasing record infections in both the US and worldwide. Total US infections this week were more than 10% higher than the week before; the week over week increase worldwide is at about half that rate.
US Covid deaths also hit new records this week, either on Tuesday or Wednesday depending on who’s reporting it, and again on Friday. The 7-day count of US deaths was up 11.8% from a week earlier, a considerably more moderate rate than the 29.7% increase we saw last week. Johns Hopkins is reporting a record 12,921 covid deaths globally on Friday (see graphic below). While the global Covid death rate has doubled from mid-October, it’s been rising less than 5% weekly over the past couple weeks.
US covid hospitalizations again set records every day this week. That will obviously continue until such time as new cases start to fall, allowing hospital discharges to overtake the number of new patients being admitted.
The chart below from WorldoMeter shows the daily number of new cases for the US, updated through 12 December.
New cases globally continued to increase. (See Johns Hopkins graph below.) The growth rate has visibly slowed since the rapid acceleration in October. However, the advance is relentless with new records set every week. The new record 690,523 new cases was hit on Thursday and the second highest total on record (678,401) followed on Friday.
Also, Johns Hopkins has a graph for global deaths (below) that shows a record 12,921 covid deaths globally on Friday. Deaths globally were up about 10% week-over-week. It appears that the death rate has been accelerating since early November corresponding to the accelerating pattern for new cases in October.
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Calculated Risk tracks the daily testing rate and results. The 12 December graphic:
The count of testing has been quite eratic over the past couple of weeks, perhaps influenced by the holiday, while the percent positive has turned it’s slow downturn back up to a new high for the fall.
Of course, Steven Hansen summarizes and links the latest news related to the pandemic every day, 7 days a week, plus displays over a dozen important graphics updated at least daily. The most recent article at the time this is published: 12 December 2020 Coronavirus Charts and News: Pfizer – BioNTech Vaccine Now Authorized For Use. Kids Catch And Spread Coronavirus Half As Much As Adults.
This article leads the daily newsletter from Global Economic Intersection every day. Newsletter subscription is free.
Here are the rest of the articles for the past week reviewed and summarized:
COVID-19 becomes the leading cause of death in the US — Since the week ending November 22, the seven-day total number of deaths related to COVID-19 has exceeded 11,000 in the United States. This makes it the leading cause of death three weeks running, surpassing heart disease, which claims approximately 10,700 people each week. February 29, 2020 marked the first death in the US from COVID-19. On that date, a Washington state man in his 50s with underlying health conditions succumbed to the viral infection. Nine months later, the US death toll is rapidly approaching 290,000. According to current projections based on estimates by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the death toll will surpass half a million by March 1 – that is, by the one-year anniversary of the first reported death. This means the US will see another 215,000 people die from the virus in less than three months – an average rate of 17,900 deaths per week for the next 12 weeks. If the rolling out of vaccines is factored in, as of April 1 the projected death toll will have declined by only 10,000. In what is being described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a historic public health crisis, the vaccine is not the Hollywood scenario of the cavalry come to the rescue that it is being made out to be in the media. In fact, as the Washington Post reported Sunday: “Federal officials have slashed the amount of coronavirus vaccine they plan to ship to states in December because of constraints on supply. … Instead of the delivery of 300 million or so doses of vaccine immediately after emergency-use approval and before the end of 2020 as the Trump administration had originally promised, current plans call for availability of around a tenth of that, or 35 million doses.” Aside from apt comparisons to World War II and the Civil War, which took their toll over several years, only the annual deaths from heart disease and cancer, which in 2019 stood at 655,381 and 599,274, respectively, exceed death from COVID-19. However, unlike heart disease and cancer, COVID-19 deaths are easily preventable. The implementation of lockdowns and strict public health measures accompanied by full income protection for those workers affected, the allocation of vast resources to expand and improve the health care infrastructure and provide adequate personal protective equipment, and the provision of high-speed internet access to all students will immediately break the transmission chains and drive down the numbers to levels where contact tracing and isolation measures can be nationally instituted to bring the pandemic under
COVID-19: persistent symptoms in one third of cases –Since its appearance in early 2020, COVID-19 has been unpredictable for both physicians and affected individuals given the variety and duration of its symptoms. Notably, it appears to have the potential to cause an unusually long-lasting illness, and the term “long COVID” describes the disease in people who continue to report symptoms several weeks following the infection. To better understand this phenomenon, a team of physicians and epidemiologists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) and the General Health Directorate of the State of Geneva followed nearly 700 people who tested positive for SARS-COV2 but did not require hospitalisation. Six weeks after diagnosis, 33% of them still reported suffering from fatigue, loss of smell or taste, shortness of breath or cough. These results, which can be seen in the Annals of Internal Medicine, call for better communication, particularly with patients and with the physicians who follow them, and for ongoing messages to the general public, reminding them that SARS-CoV-2 infection is not trivial. Even if in just a few months medical and scientific knowledge about SARS-COV2 has considerably improved, several aspects of this disease remain unknown. In particular, many people are wondering about the evolution and long-term consequences of this novel virus. “As soon as the pandemic arrived in our country, we were confronted with these questions,” reports Professor Idris Guessous, Chief Physician of the Division of Primary Care at HUG, who directed this work. “In March, the COVICARE program was set up to offer remote monitoring to patients who can be followed on an outpatient basis, when this follow-up could not be carried out by the primary care physician. This has enabled us to better understand the evolution of the disease in people who generally suffer neither from specific risk factors nor from a serious form of the disease.”
Healthcare workers 7 times as likely to have severe COVID-19 as other workers –Healthcare workers are 7 times as likely to have severe COVID-19 infection as those with other types of ‘non-essential’ jobs, finds research focusing on the first UK-wide lockdown and published online in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine. And those with jobs in the social care and transport sectors are twice as likely to do so, emphasising the need to ensure that essential (key) workers are adequately protected against the infection, say the researchers. Few studies have looked at the differences in the risk of developing severe COVID-19 infection between different groups of workers. While it’s known that those working in healthcare roles are at heightened risk, it’s not clear what the risks might be for those working in other sectors. The researchers therefore compared the risk of developing severe COVID-19 infection in essential and non-essential workers, drawing on linked data from the UK Biobank study (2006-10), COVID-19 test results from Public Health England, and recorded deaths for the period 16 March to 26 July 2020. The UK Biobank is a long term study tracking the factors potentially influencing the development of disease in around half a million middle and older age adults. Severe infection was defined as a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, while in hospital, or death attributable to the virus. The study included 120,075 employees aged 49-64. Of these, 35,127 (29%) were classified as essential workers: healthcare (9%); social care and education (11%); ‘other’ to include police and those working in transport and food preparation (9%) Those of Black and Asian ethnicities comprised nearly 3% each of the total. They were more likely to be essential workers, as were women.
Comparison of coronavirus antibody tests revealed too optimistic claims –A study by University of Tartu researchers indicates that the sensitivity of tests used to detect viral antibodies in a blood sample may differ significantly. The combination of several tests may give the best result. At the onset of COVID-19 symptoms, first, the nasopharyngeal swab is taken to verify the presence of the virus. But if the aim is to determine whether an asymptomatic person has been in contact with the virus or, vice versa, to know which acute disease the person recently suffered from, a test detecting antibodies in a blood sample comes helpful. Antibodies are produced in the human body as a counteraction to viral proteins to prevent the virus from replicating and spreading in the body. Usually, it takes a couple of weeks after infection for the antibodies to emerge. Different parts of the virus induce the development of different antibodies. In the case of coronavirus, for instance, there can be antibodies against the spike protein of the virus, against the proteins of the receptor binding domains as well as against the nucleocapsid. Different types of antibodies are produced, but the IgG antibodies stay in the body for the longest. “When we ever suffer from a disease, usually the IgG antibodies are the ones to stay in our body,” explained Epp Sepp, Senior Research Fellow in Medical Microbiology at the University of Tartu, one of the authors of the article published in Plos One.
Pfizer says supply chain challenges contributed to slashed target for COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2020 (Reuters) – Challenges in Pfizer Inc’s supply chain for the raw materials used in its COVID-19 vaccine played a role in its decision to slash its 2020 production target, a Pfizer spokeswoman told Reuters. Pfizer has said in recent weeks that it anticipates producing 50 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this year. That is down from an earlier target of 100 million doses. Pfizer’s vaccine relies on a two dose regimen, meaning 50 million doses is enough to inoculate 25 million people. A company spokeswoman said the “scale-up of the raw material supply chain took longer than expected.” She also cited later-than-expected results from Pfizer’s clinical trial as a reason for the smaller number of doses expected to be produced by the end of 2020. The spokeswoman added that the modifications to Pfizer’s production lines are now complete and finished doses are being made at a rapid pace. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news. It reported that an unnamed person directly involved in the development of the Pfizer vaccine said “some early batches of the raw materials failed to meet the standards,” which caused production delays. Pfizer applied in November for emergency authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. regulators. U.S. officials said they expect its vaccine to get regulatory clearance this month. The U.S. government expects its first allocation of the vaccine to include 6.4 million doses, with more to follow. Regulators in the U.K. have already authorized Pfizer’s vaccine for use in that country.
Trump’s promised flood of vaccines not happening – – Federal officials have slashed the amount of coronavirus vaccine they plan to ship to states in December because of constraints on supply, sending local officials into a scramble to adjust vaccination plans and highlighting how early promises of a vast stockpile before the end of 2020 have fallen short. Instead of the delivery of 300 million or so doses of vaccine immediately after emergency-use approval and before the end of 2020 as the Trump administration had originally promised, current plans call for availability of around a tenth of that, or 35 to 40 million doses. Two vaccines, from manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna, which both use a novel form of mRNA to help trigger immune response, are on the verge of winning Food and Drug Administration clearance this month. Approval would cap an unprecedented sprint by government and drug companies to develop, test and manufacture a defense against the worst pandemic in a century – part of the Operation Warp Speed initiative that promised six companies advance purchase orders totaling $9.3 billion. As planning accelerated for distributing supplies, the government began to further lower expectations. To make sure supplies don’t run out and leave some people only partially immunized, the government said it would stagger deliveries to ensure that states have enough supply for the second shot, required 21 days later for the Pfizer vaccine, which is expected to be first to gain approval. Lower-than-anticipated allocations have caused widespread confusion and concern in states, which are beginning to grasp the level of vaccine scarcity they will confront in the early going of the massive vaccination campaign. “I come from a family of seven siblings, and best practice was always to have seven of everything being given out,” said Joe Sullivan, a senior health adviser in Oregon, which is expecting about 35,000 doses in the initial wave from Pfizer. Maine, meanwhile, saw its allotment fall from a previous estimate of 36,000 to just 12,675 doses, officials in the state said. “This is far less than what is needed for Maine and proportionally for other states as well,” Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said at a news conference this past week. The gap reflects the disconnect between President Trump’s campaign promises, as well as the optimistic estimates from some drug companies, and scientific and manufacturing realities. The drop-off is a product of manufacturing problems, bottlenecks in the supply of raw materials and other hurdles in ramping up clinical-trial production of 5 liters of protein-based vaccine at a time to commercial-scale fermentation of 2,000-liter batches, the companies and the Trump administration said. “There were a couple of our vaccine candidates that took significantly longer, in terms of failed batches, in terms of not having the purity we sought,”
First in line for Covid vaccine? Some US health care workers say no – They can move to front of the line for a COVID-19 vaccine if they want, but some US health care workers are skeptical about taking a vaccine that was developed in record time – even as the pandemic rages on. Some want more time, despite assurances from experts that they trust the vaccine vetting process carried out by the US Food and Drug Administration. “I think I would take the vaccine later on, but right now I am a little leery of it,” nurse Yolanda Dodson, 55, told AFP. Dodson works at the Montefiore Hospital in New York City and spent the spring in the heart of the deadly fight against the virus. Vaccine studies so far “look promising but I don’t think there is enough data yet,” Dodson said. “We have to be grateful to those who are willing to subject themselves to take that risk” to participate in the studies, she said. “It is a very personal decision.” Diana Torres is a nurse at a Manhattan hospital who saw several of her co-workers die of the novel coronavirus this spring. She is particularly suspicious of vaccines rushed for approval under the Trump administration, which she says has handled the entire pandemic like “some sort of joke.” “This is a vaccine that was developed in less than a year and approved under the same administration and government agencies that allowed the virus to spread like a wildfire,” Torres said. “They didn’t have enough time and people to study the vaccine,” she said. “This time around I will pass and watch how it unfolds.” Data from clinical trials have shown that two vaccines – one developed by Pfizer and BioNtech, the other by Moderna and the US National Institutes of Health – are about 95 percent effective. Normally the FDA requires six months of follow up, but if no adverse reactions appear in the first two months, it is rare to see anything in the next four – and the raging pandemic has altered the risk-benefit calculations. There were 44,000 volunteers in the Pfizer trial, and 30,000 in Moderna’s, and the data was firewalled from the companies and analyzed by experts free from political pressure. Fellow nurses commenting on Torres’s Facebook page seemed just as skeptical. “They failed miserably with PPE (personal protective equipment) and testing and now they want you to be guinea pigs for the vaccine,” one friend wrote. Such reservations are common among the 20 million health care workers in the United States – the country hardest hit by the pandemic with more than 272,000 deaths. “There are a lot of people who feel we don’t have enough data yet,” he said. And yet many of the same people are saying “‘I’m going to get this (vaccine), but I’m going to wait for a while.'” This reticence “could end up being a really big problem,” Plescia said, especially since hospitals will likely be unable to compel their employees to take the shots.
University Of Pittsburgh Medical Center Won’t Require Staff To Take COVID-19 Vaccine Due To ‘General Uncertainty’ – The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) won’t require its health care employees to take the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine, which the medical provider expects to begin offering as soon as this month, according to PennLive. The reason are several-fold, according to UPMC medical director of infection prevention and epidemiology, Dr. Graham Snyder. For starters, general uncertainty over the vaccine. And while the $21 billion nonprofit organization (which employs 89,000 people) has a mandatory flu vaccination policy, it’s “based on decades of experience with the influenza vaccine,” according to Snyder. But there’s no comparable data for a COVID-19 vaccine, or on whether a mandate is the best way to get large numbers of people to become vaccinated, Snyder said on Tuesday. The first COVID-19 vaccine, from Pfizer, is expected to soon receive emergency approval. A second vaccine, from Moderna, is also expected to soon receive emergency approval. Distribution of at least one vaccine is expected to begin this month. Snyder said UPMC is “very excited about the preliminary information we have about how safe the vaccine is and how it will work.” Still, he said UPMC will conduct its own review of the vaccines before injecting any of its employees. – PennLive “Until we learn more and build our own experience with this vaccine, plus, until we see the uptake of vaccine in our communities, and have an understanding about the role that vaccination has in ending this pandemic, it’s not the right thing to make it mandatory,” said Snyder – who added that UPMC’s independent review won’t slow down their plans to distribute the vaxx. On Tuesday, UPMC outlined their plans for receiving and distributing shots of the vaccine – while planning to launch an information campaign ‘to persuade the public to get vaccinated’ – despite their own hesitance over the jab. Perhaps it has something to do with several UPMC employees having participated in vaccine trials, only to report fever, fatigue or arm pain, with some needing to take a day or two off from work. According to Snyder, this is “a normal and healthy immune response.”Employees who are at the highest risk of exposure to the virus will be offered a vaccine first, along with high-risk residents of long term care facilities. After that, those over 65 years-old with comorbidities can get vaccinated. “We are optimistic we will be able to provide vaccines for frontline health care workers who wish to receive it before the end of January,” said Snyder.
Wall Street and finance workers could get COVID vaccines before most Americans –Frontline bank employees could get a shot in the arm in the coming months.Tellers and other consumer-facing bank workers could jump ahead of most Americans for coronavirus inoculations, after vaccines receive widely anticipated emergency-use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, potentially putting those financial-industry workers in line ahead of those 65 and older, other adults with medical issues and the rest of the U.S. population.The American Bankers Association, which represents community banks, said it has asked the CDC to designate a narrow slice of the financial-services industry as “essential workers,” mainly adhering to guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security. The ABA said it is specifically asking for vaccine prioritization of bank tellers and employees of rural banking branches. “From the start of the pandemic ABA members have prioritized the health and safety of their customers and employees. In our conversations with public health agencies, ABA has advocated that among bank employees already deemed ‘essential’ by the government, those that come in contact with the public every day, such as tellers, should be considered for the CDC’s Phase 1b along with essential workers in other industries. The CDC has already designated health-care workers and residents of long-term-care facilities for Phase 1a.” A vaccine will for several months remain a distant hope for millions, as major Western nations, including the U.S. and the countries of Europe and the European Union, have struck deals with drug manufacturers for COVID-19 vaccines, with initial supplies likely to be extremely limited at a time when cases of the deadly infection are spiking in many parts of the U.S.
‘Everyone’s going to get that’: Americans to be issued Covid-19 ‘VACCINE CARDS’ to track doses – As both Covid-19 vaccines waiting to be approved in the US require two doses, Americans will be given a ‘vaccine card’ to keep track of them, nonprofits working with the government on the program told reporters. “Everyone will be issued a written card that they can put in their wallet that will tell them what they had and when their next dose is due,” Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, told CNN on Thursday. Let’s do the simple, easy thing first. Everyone’s going to get that. The IAC is a nonprofit working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to promote vaccinations since 1994. Moore added that many places will ask patients to volunteer their cell phone number, so they can get a text when their next dose is due. Every vaccine administered will be reported to the state immunization registry, so the clinics can check in the database whether the patients have received their shots. They will also be reported to the CDC, according to Claire Hannan of the Association of Immunization Managers, another nonprofit working with the health authorities. The cards were part of the Covid-19 ‘vaccination kits’ depicted in photos released on Wednesday by the Pentagon, which has been tasked by the Trump administration with distributing the vaccines across the US. The existence of vaccination cards to be issued to everyone and databases to keep track of them has caused some unease among Americans, with some speculating that it is yet another step in the crackdown on civil liberties under the guise of fighting the pandemic. Others wondered why a vaccine card is fine but voter ID is not – or the other way around.
Race heats up for workers getting early access to COVID-19 vaccine – Business groups from various industries are ramping up efforts to get their workers near the front of the line for the COVID-19 vaccine now that distribution plans are taking shape. While there’s widespread agreement that health care and other front-line workers should be the first recipients, the competition for the second and third tiers has business leaders making their case to the state-level agencies that will largely be responsible for deciding who comes next. Manufacturers, airlines, banks and the food industry are all pushing for their workers to receive the vaccine sooner rather than later. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that health workers and residents of long-term care facilities should be the first recipients as part of “phase 1a” and has discussed making sure essential workers are prioritized in “phase 1b.” The list of essential workers published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during the pandemic included medical and health care, telecommunications, information technology systems, defense, food and agriculture, transportation and logistics, energy, water and wastewater, and law enforcement. Public health officials are optimistic that states won’t deviate much from the ACIP recommendations. Still, there is concern that some states could differ in terms of distribution. . Beyond health care and other front-line workers, states will likely vary in terms of which essential workers get the vaccine. For example, public transportation workers may be prioritized in New York but not Iowa, while food packing plant workers may be prioritized in South Dakota but not in Northeastern states. “You got to let data drive that. I’ve always argued that this has got to be a risk-based decision,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “I think if we use risk as a defining element, we can make some rational decisions around who gets it at what point. That coupled with the fact that tragically, we still have some vaccine hesitancy, I think we should be OK.” Consumer packaged goods manufacturers are included in CISA’s list of essential workers, and the industry’s advocacy group, the Consumer Brands Association, is pushing for its workers to be prioritized in phase 1b. “The industry needs state health departments to provide distribution clarity, consistent with federal guidance, to avoid hiccups and get essential workers vaccinated as quickly as possible. We’re already seeing a 10 percent absentee rate as a result of COVID, and to keep facilities running at maximum capacity, timely vaccination of our essential workers is paramount,” Airlines for America, which represents major U.S. carriers, is urging the Trump administration and states to prioritize front-line commercial aviation employees. “The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew has been – and continues to be – the top priority of U.S. airlines. Throughout this health crisis, U.S. airlines have provided essential services such as transporting medical personnel and shipping critical supplies, which will include vaccine distribution as soon as they receive approval,” a spokesman for the trade group said. The American Bankers Association (ABA), which advocates for banks like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, also has workers on the essential list and wants to see them prioritized by states. Health care workers are likely to receive the vaccine at their place of employment once it’s available. For other industries, it could get complicated to ensure someone receiving the vaccine is an essential worker. “For essential workers, they’re at work and will have to do the vaccination at the workplace, that’s one way to validate it. I think people will be innovative,” Plescia said states are likely to wait and see whether there’s a huge rush to be near the front of the line given how many Americans are still skeptical about taking the vaccine. “I suspect states will try to see how big of a problem that turns out to be,” he said. “I’m anticipating people are going to be a little reticent to begin with to get the vaccine and let other people go first.”
Demand for COVID Vaccines Expected to Get Heated – And Fast –Americans have made no secret of their skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines this year, with fears of political interference and a “warp speed” timeline blunting confidence in the shots. As recently as September, nearly half of U.S. adults said they didn’t intend to be inoculated. But with two promising vaccines primed for release, likely within weeks, experts in ethics and immunization behavior say they expect attitudes to shift quickly from widespread hesitancy to urgent, even heated demand. “People talk about the anti-vaccine people being able to kind of squelch uptake. I don’t see that happening,” Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccinologist with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told viewers of a recent JAMA Network webinar. “This, to me, is more like the Beanie Baby phenomenon. The attractiveness of a limited edition.” Reports that vaccines produced by drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna appear to be safe and effective, along with the deliberate emphasis on science-based guidance from the incoming Biden administration, are likely to reverse uncertainty in a big way, said Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University School of Medicine.“I think that’s going to flip the trust issue,” he said.The shift is already apparent. A new poll by the Pew Research Center found that by the end of November 60% of Americans said they would get a vaccine for the coronavirus. This month, even as a federal advisory group met to hash out guidelines for vaccine distribution, a long list of advocacy groups – from those representing home-based health workers and community health centers to patients with kidney disease – were lobbying state and federal officials in hopes their constituents would be prioritized for the first scarce doses. “As we get closer to the vaccine being a reality, there’s a lot of jockeying, to be sure,” said Katie Smith Sloan, chief executive of LeadingAge, a nonprofit organization pushing for staff and patients at long-term care centers to be included in the highest-priority category. “There will be people who will say, ‘I will wait a little bit more for safety data,” Limaye said.But those doubts likely will recede once the vaccines are approved for use and begin to circulate broadly, said Offit, who sits on the FDA advisory panel set to review the requests for emergency authorization Pfizer and Moderna have submitted.He predicted demand for the COVID vaccines could rival the clamor that occurred in 2004, when production problems caused a severe shortage of flu shots just as influenza season began. That led to long lines, rationed doses and ethical debates over distribution.
Jilani discusses Brazil and why some should be paid to get vaccine – Journalist Zaid Jilani discussed Brazil’s vaccination payment program on Monday and how a similar approach could influence more Americans to get inoculated against COVID-19. During an appearance on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” Jilani detailed Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program, in which poor families receive financial aid for participating in prosocial behavior like getting their children vaccinations or sending them to school. He commented on how this could help the U.S.’s upcoming COVID-19 vaccination effort to entice people to get immunized with money in order for the country to reach herd immunity. He noted that the current strategy of having former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush get vaccinated on camera is “fine.” “But we might need to go the extra step here and actually get people, particularly in a down economy, a financial incentive to do this as well,” he said. “We know that the more money you get into the hands of working class people, lower-income people, the more money they’re spending on basic goods and the better it is for the economy,” he added. “So it seems like a win-win here to do something similar here in the United States.”
Why Paying People To Get the Coronavirus Vaccine Won’t Work – The first COVID-19 vaccine to gain emergency use authorization in the U.S. could roll out within days, as Pfizer and BioNTech’s candidate was endorsed by an external advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 10. Two days earlier, an internal FDA panel endorsed the vaccine. These were the last required steps before the FDA authorizes the vaccine, which will soon be administered to health care workers across the country. But while health care workers, who will be first to receive the vaccine, appear eager to get the shot, others are not so convinced. In fact, recent studies indicate that many Americans do not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine, even if one is available at no cost. If levels of vaccination are not robust, it will take longer to reach herd immunity, or widespread protection within a population. In response to these concerns, several people have suggested that the government should provide a monetary incentive to COVID-19 vaccination. In summer and early fall of 2020, several surveys indicated that the number of Americans planning to get vaccinated against COVID-19 was lower than desirable. Experts estimate that achieving herd immunity require anywhere from 67% to 85% of Americans to be vaccinated. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center showed that only 60% of American were considering getting a COVID-19 vaccine. If vaccination rates are indeed low once vaccines become available on a large scale, it will take the U.S. longer to curb the pandemic. Moreover, many Americans expressing COVID-19 vaccine mistrust are part of are members of racial minorities, which are precisely among the groups hit the hardest by the pandemic. The idea of monetary incentives seems straightforward: Pay people to get vaccinated. One of the earliest proponents, economist Robert Litan, called the idea an “adult version of the doctor handing out candy to children.” Litan suggested that the government should pay US$1,000 to each person who receives a COVID-19 vaccine. His idea has since been endorsed by prominent commentators. These include economist Gregory Mankiw and politician John Delaney, who suggested that the incentive should be increased to $1,500. First, we have no actual behavioral studies in this area – as opposed to the case of smoking cessation rewards. Similarly, as the proponents of vaccination rewards admit, there is no data on how to set the appropriate reward.Second, the proposal might backfire. People who already do not trust vaccines may consider the mere availability of payment as confirmation that vaccination is especially risky or undesirable. And people or organizations interested in promoting disinformation about vaccines may portray payment originating from the government as “proof” of deep-state or hidden agendas associated with vaccination. If people perceive the monetary incentive in this way, that could contribute to increased vaccine hesitancy – precisely the opposite of what it is intended to do.Third, we worry about the socioeconomic underpinnings of this proposal. An amount close to $1,000 is supposed to prompt a person to change attitudes toward vaccination. In practice, this means that richer individuals, who might not be moved by $1,000, can just ignore the reward. Poorer people, however, are expected to change their behaviors in exchange for money. This is a paternalistic approach that does not help build trust in the government and public health authorities among poorer communities.
Pfizer chairman: We’re not sure if someone can transmit virus after vaccination — Pfizer chairman Albert Bourla told Dateline host Lester Holt that the pharmaceutical company was “not certain” if the vaccine prevented the coronavirus from being transmitted, saying, “This is something that needs to be examined.” In a prime-time special titled “Race for a Vaccine” set to air Thursday, Holt questioned Bourla and other individuals involved in the development and distribution of the medicine. In November, Pfizer announced that its vaccine candidate had been shown to be more than 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 and has applied for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The U.K. became the first country to approve Pfizer’s vaccine this week with the first round of immunizations expected to roll out next week. In a list of interview highlights released before the special, Holt asked Bourla, “Even though I’ve had the protection, am I still able to transmit it to other people?” “I think this is something that needs to be examined. We are not certain about that right now with what we know,” Bourla responded. Though Pfizer’s vaccine has shown promising results, challenges have surfaced when it comes to distributing and administering it. The vaccine must be delivered and stored in extreme sub-zero temperatures, which has heightened the demand for dry ice. Once the vaccine is kept at normal refrigeration temperatures, it must be used within four or five days or be discarded. The vaccine is administered in two doses spaced a few weeks apart. Government health officials have said that if the vaccine is approved, the first round of immunizations could be available for health care workers and high-risk individuals before the end of the year. Moderna and AstraZeneca have announced their own vaccine candidates to be highly effective at preventing the coronavirus as well with Moderna applying for emergency use authorization from the FDA.
Coronavirus live updates: CDC scientist says she was ordered to destroy email; Pfizer’s vaccine authorization could be imminent — Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine candidate stood poised to become the first to earn U.S. Food and Drug Administration emergency authorization, possibly as soon as today. The 17-member independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is meeting now to review and discuss data from Pfizer and German startup BioNTech on their vaccine, then vote on whether the FDA should authorize it.The companies are requesting an “emergency use authorization,” shy of a full approval. While they have compiled as much short-term safety and effectiveness data as is typical with any vaccine, the process has been compressed. But corners, FDA says, have not been cut.The U.S. reported more than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths for the first time Wednesday, a single-day toll worse than 9/11. The Johns Hopkins University data dashboard reported 3,124 deaths, breaking a record of 2,885 set just last week. New infections are also booming, and across the nation hospitals are running out of beds, promptingstay-at-home orders in some places and mask mandates in 38 states. Other news you need to know today:
- A CDC scientist told a House committee that she was ordered to destroy an email regarding attempts by political appointees to interfere with the publication of weekly CDC reports.
- The European Union agency responsible for approving vaccines said it has been the subject of a cyberattack. The European Medicines Agency said it “swiftly launched an investigation” but provided no details.
- The number of people applying for unemployment aid jumped last week to 853,000, the most since September. Before the coronavirus paralyzed the economy in March, weekly jobless claims typically numbered only about 225,000.
- Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has imposed an overnight curfew, starting at 12:01 a.m. Monday. The midnight-5 a.m. curfew will go into effect for everyone who is not commuting to and from work. Northam is calling it a “modified” stay-at-home order.
‘95% Effective’ May Not Mean What You Think It Means – –People in the United States, along with people in all of the rest of the world, are eager for a vaccine that provides immunity to the Covid-19 virus. Drug manufacturers, with a market of tens of billions of injections to sell into, are eager to roll one off the production line. Both groups are highly incentivized to get a vaccine into distribution quickly.Let’s look at the revenue side first. Here, for example, is what the three leading vaccine candidates are projected to cost in the UK according to a recent Sky News piece: In two years the earth is projected to hold 8 billion people, and most leading vaccine candidates require at least two doses. Let’s be conservative: If Moderna, say, sold its Covid vaccine to 1 billion people at ₤28 (about $37) per dose, the revenue stream from those sales would turn into real money fast – $74 billion in revenue at retail prices in less than two years.And that’s for capturing less than a sixth of the global market. A vaccine manufacturer that captures a third of that market would swim in wealth till the climate crisis took us all.For comparison, consider Moderna’s recent revenue profile. For the last few years, Moderna income has run between $60 and $200 million per year. Revenue for just the last quarter, however, jumped to $158 million. Moderna is clearly set for a windfall.Needless to say, something like $100 billion or more in revenue would more than cover the cost of Covid vaccine development, so why the high price retail prices? One can only guess. About effectiveness, much is claimed. From the same Sky News article:The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use.The government says the jab [vaccine], which has been given the green light by independent health regulator MHRA, will be rolled out across the UK from early next week.Studies have shown the jab is 95% effective and works in all age groups. [emphasis added]Moderna claims similar effectiveness – 94% – for its own vaccine candidate. But what does effectiveness mean?To a lay person, a phrase like “95% effective” means one of two things: either that she or he, upon exposure to the virus, is protected 95% of the time, or that 95% of the people who take the vaccine are protected 100% of the time.And this is where the mutual eagerness of the two highly motivated groups – the public; the profiteers – intersect. The public wants to hear “95% effectiveness” and think it knows what those words means. The drug companies want the same thing as the public; it wants the public to think it knows what those words mean.But in the world of drug advertising, the word “effective” does not mean what you think it means. The other way to look at effectiveness is this: Based on the numbers released from phase 3 trials, the Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective, but 1% of the time. In the same way, the Moderna vaccine is 94% effective, but 2% of the time.
POLL-More women than men in U.S. nervous about fast rollout of COVID vaccine, and that’s a problem (Reuters) – American women, who traditionally make most of the healthcare decisions in their families, are more wary than men of the new, rapidly developed COVID-19 vaccines, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, presenting a potential challenge to efforts to immunize the public. The Dec. 2-8 national opinion survey showed that 35% of women said they were “not very” or “not at all” interested in getting a vaccine, an increase of 9 points from a similar poll conducted in May when vaccines were still being developed. Some 55% of women said they were “very” or “somewhat” interested in getting vaccinated, a drop of about 6 percentage points in the same time span. Meanwhile, 68% of men said they would get vaccinated, which is unchanged from May. Overall, 61% of Americans said in December that they are open to getting vaccinated – a 4 point decline since the May poll. The latest survey also recorded a sharp drop in the number of parents willing to give their children the vaccine – 53% versus 62% in May. Convincing women to accept the vaccine will be critical for slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus because mothers tend to be the ones who make doctor’s appointments and keep up with immunizations, said Rupali Limaye, director of behavioral and implementation science at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Women just tend to be more careful. They tend to do a lot more reading,” Limaye said, so assuring them that no shortcuts were taken in the vaccine approval process will be crucial. Mothers make about 80 percent of health care decisions for their children and are more likely to be the caregivers when a child falls ill, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And a 2018 World Health Organization study found that by empowering Southeast Asian women and improving their access to medical information, child vaccine coverage and health outcomes improved. Among women who said in the Reuters/Ipsos survey they were not interested in the vaccine, 60% said they were “nervous about getting vaccinated right away with a new vaccine that has been approved so quickly.” And 48% of those disinterested women said “the risks of taking a new vaccine outweigh any benefits.” Another 38% said they were not interested in the vaccine because they do not trust the companies making them and 27% said they do not think a vaccine will adequately protect them.
Two in U.K. Suffer Allergic Reaction to Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine – WSJ – Two of the first people vaccinated in the U.K. on Tuesday with the Pfizer Inc. – BioNTech SE shot had an allergic reaction following the injection, the country’s medical regulator said, prompting it to issue new guidance warning those with a history of significant allergic reactions against having the inoculation. A third person was reported to have had a possible allergic reaction, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said Wednesday, adding that all of those affected recovered after treatment. It couldn’t be determined what they were allergic to or where they were located, but both those who suffered an allergic reaction or anaphylaxis carried adrenaline autoinjectors to deal with their allergies. It isn’t always the active agent in vaccines that triggers allergic reactions but inactive ingredients used, for example, to stabilize and preserve the vaccine. The two people who had the allergic reaction work for the National Health Service, the country’s state-run health system, and are part of the first tranche to receive the vaccine on Tuesday in line with front-line staff having initial access, including those with existing health conditions.The U.K. is the first Western country to authorize a Covid-19 vaccine and on Tuesday began its vaccination program with priority recipients including health-care staff, people over 80 years old and residents and staff in nursing homes. The NHS said thousands of people received the shot on the first day of the rollout.
UK issues anaphylaxis warning on Pfizer vaccine after adverse reactions | Reuters (Reuters) – Britain’s medicine regulator said anyone with a history of anaphylaxis to a medicine or food should not get the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, giving fuller guidance on an earlier allergy warning about the shot. Starting with the elderly and frontline workers, Britain began mass vaccinating its population on Tuesday, part of a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said there had been two reports of anaphylaxis and one report of a possible allergic reaction since rollout began. “Any person with a history of anaphylaxis to a vaccine, medicine or food should not receive the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine,” MHRA Chief Executive June Raine said in a statement. “Most people will not get anaphylaxis and the benefits in protecting people against COVID-19 outweigh the risks… You can be completely confident that this vaccine has met the MHRA’s robust standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.” Anaphylaxis is an overreaction of the body’s immune system, which the National Health Service describes as severe and sometimes life-threatening.
Once hospitalized, Black patients with COVID-19 have lower risk of death than white –While multiple research studies show that Black and Hispanic patients are more likely to test positive for COVID-19, a team of investigators at NYU Langone Health has found that once hospitalized, Black patients (after controlling for other serious health conditions and neighborhood income) were less likely to have severe illness, die, or be discharged to hospice compared to White patients. The study — recently published online in JAMA Network Open – is, according to its authors, one of the first to examine the impact of comorbid conditions and neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) on outcomes for Black, Hispanic and Asian patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Findings indicate that Black and Hispanic populations are not inherently more susceptible to poor COVID-19 outcomes compared to other groups, and that once hospitalized, their outcomes are equal to or better than their White counterparts. “We know that Black and Hispanic populations account for a disproportionate share of COVID-19-related deaths relative to their population size in New York and major cities across the country,” says Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH, Dr. Adolph and Margaret Berger Professor of Medicine and Population Health at NYU Langone Health, and the study’s lead author. “We were, however, surprised to find that Black and Hispanic patients were no more likely to be hospitalized across NYU Langone than White patients, which means we need to look at other structural factors at play that are negatively affecting outcomes in these communities. These factors include poor housing conditions, unequal access to health care, differential employment opportunities, and poverty–and they must be addressed,” says Ogedegbe, who is also director of NYU Langone’s Institute for Excellence in Health Equity.
COVID-19 may also invade the central nervous system, cause neurological illnesses – – COVID-19 is known primarily as a respiratory disease, with symptoms that include cough, shortness of breath, and, in severe cases, acute respiratory distress syndrome and pneumonia. Now, researchers from Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Biomedical Engineering note in a recent review that infection with the coronavirus may also affect the central nervous system and cause corresponding neurological disorders, including ischemic stroke, encephalitis, encephalopathy and epileptic seizures. According to the review–published in Cells and authored by Chaitali Ghosh, PhD, and Aneesha Achar–the symptoms of COVID-19-related neurological manifestations include dizziness, headache, a loss of consciousness and ataxia (loss of balance and muscle control). he coronavirus gains access to the body by attaching to a specific receptor most abundantly found on cells that line many organs and tissues throughout the respiratory system, called the ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) receptor. ACE2 can be found less abundantly on cells in other areas of the body–including the heart, esophagus, kidneys and bladder–which increases the chances of viral infection, including through the central nervous system. As reported in the review, the coronavirus may enter the central nervous system either through a porous bone in the nasal cavity (which causes the loss of smell and/or taste commonly experienced with COVID-19), or through the body’s circulatory system, subsequently crossing the blood-brain barrier. “Ordinarily, the blood-brain barrier allows nutrients to reach the brain while protecting it from circulating toxins or pathogens that could cause infections,” Dr. Ghosh said. “However, the exact mechanisms underlying COVID-19-associated neurological disorders remain unknown. Such viral infectivity could alter blood-brain barrier function, which may influence disease progression.”
Husband of Colorado governor taken to hospital for COVID-19 -The husband of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) was admitted to the hospital on Sunday after he and Polis both tested positive for COVID-19 late last month. The governor’s office said in a Monday statement that Colorado’s first gentleman Marlon Reis was “admitted to the hospital following shortness of breath and a worsening cough.” Reis “has normal oxygen saturation, is in good spirits, and looks forward to returning home soon,” according to the statement. He has not required supplemental oxygen, and he has received dexamethasone for inflammation, as well the drug remdesivir. Polis has continued to not experience any symptoms since the couple announced that they both tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 28. “The First Gentleman and Governor appreciate all of the kind words and support they have received during this time and continue to urge all Coloradans to do their part to slow the spread of this virus,” Polis’s office said. “That means wearing a mask in public, staying six feet from others, avoiding large gatherings, and washing your hands regularly.” Polis first shared on Sunday that he personally took his husband to the hospital.
102-year-old woman beats COVID-19 twice – A 102-year-old woman living in New York has contracted the coronavirus – and beaten it – twice. Angelina Friedman, who survived the 1918 Spanish Flu and cancer, first tested positive for COVID-19 in March. During her first bout with the disease she had a relatively mild experience. “She was never really symptomatic the first time around,” her daughter Joanne Merola told NBC. “The worst symptom she had was a fever that lasted maybe 10 days.” Upon contracting the virus a second time in October, shortly before her birthday, she got seriously ill. “She had a cough, she was lethargic, she had a fever again,” Merola said of her mother’s second diagnosis. “The first time you wouldn’t know she was sick.” The centenarian is now nearly deaf and has lost most of her vision, but is recovering well and feeling like her old self again, Merola said. “My mom has been through so much in her life,” Merola said of her mother’s experience. “You just can’t give up. You have to fight. My mother’s got the will to stay alive as I’ve never seen before.”
Coronavirus cases break records daily in California and L.A. – California and Los Angeles County continued to break COVID-19 pandemic records on a startling scale as much of the state was headed to a new stay-at-home order.The deterioration is even worse than some of the projections released this week.On Saturday, officials announced that Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley would join several counties in the San Francisco Bay Area in implementinga new stay-at-home order beginning Sunday night, with hospitals’ available intensive care unit capacity reaching critically low levels.L.A. County has broken single-day coronavirus case records in four of the last five days this week. On Saturday, at least 9,218 cases were reported, according to preliminary numbers compiled in The Times’ independent tally, exceeding a record set Friday, when 8,562 cases were reported. The single-day record was also broken Thursday, when 7,713 cases were reported.The numbers mean that coronavirus cases in L.A. County are increasing at a pace that’s even more dire than what officials had forecast earlier in the week. On Tuesday, The Times reported that L.A. County officials projected the region would be seeing 9,000 cases a day by the middle to end of the week of Dec. 7. The county crossed that threshold Saturday.L.A. County is now averaging nearly 7,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the last week – more than quadruple the pace from a month ago, when the county averaged about 1,500 new coronavirus cases a day in the week that ended Nov. 5. With at least 43 new COVID-19 deaths recorded in Saturday, L.A. County is now averaging 38 deaths a day, a pace not seen since late July, during the region’s previous peak.
The Latest: Virginia sees 2nd day of record COVID-19 cases – Virginia is reporting a record number of coronavirus cases in the state for the second straight day. Virginia reported 3,880 cases on Sunday morning. That compares to Saturday’s total of 3,793. Virginia has reported a total number of 255,053 virus cases. The state’s health department reports there have been 4,200 total deaths from the virus in Virginia. The state reported a 10.6% positivity rate, up from 10% on Saturday. The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association says there are 1,490 people hospitalized in the state with confirmed cases of the virus. Of them, 395 were in intensive care.
US Reports Record COVID Hospitalizations, 20K+ Patients In ICU- Live Updates – Not only did US hospitalizations reach yet another new record on Sunday, the number of patients across the US in the ICU has topped 20K for the first time. DHHS chief Alex Azar took to ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday to tell Americans that FDA emergency approval of a vaccine could arrive ‘within days’, while also moving up the timeline, saying any American who wants a COVID vaccine could get one by the start of the second quarter. Previously, federal public health officials and ‘Operation Warp Speed’ had targeted the beginning of Q3 as the time when the vast majority of Americans would at least have access to a vaccine. Let’s not forget: Pfizer has already sown doubts about these timelines and targets by slashing its 2021 year-end delivery target by 50%. A video of DoubleLine’s Jeff Gundlach expressing skepticism about the vaccine’s efficacy has been making the rounds on Twitter. But while severel “listen to the science” types took Gundlach to task for warning that the virus’s mutations could ultimately make it more difficult to eradicate, the NFL has just delivered an important reminder that there are different strains of the virus – and some are appreciably deadlier than others.In the US, the COVID-19 numbers are still rising as temperatures continue to fall; Winter looms in the Western hemisphere, and the US has been confirming new COVID-19 cases at a rate of more than 200k/day for the last four days. Hospitalizations climbed north of 101K, a new record, while the 7-day average for daily fatalities hit a new post-springtime high of 2,123, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
U.S. Breaks Record for Most Deaths in a Week – The United States has recorded its most coronavirus-related deaths over a weeklong period, as a brutal surge gathers speed across the country.With a seven-day average of 2,249 deaths, the country broke the previous mark of 2,232 set on April 17 in the early weeks of the pandemic. Seven-day averages can provide a more accurate picture of the virus’s progression than daily death counts, which can fluctuate and disguise the broader trend line.The United States is approaching 300,000 total deaths, with nearly 283,000 recorded, according to a New York Times database. The nation is averaging nearly 200,000 cases per day, an increase of 15 percent from the average two weeks earlier, and has recorded over than 15 million total cases.Much has changed since the previous peak in April. The coronavirus is no longer concentrated in big urban areas like New York City and now envelops much of the country, including rural areas that had avoided it for several months.Many of the hardest-hit counties on a per person basis are now in the Midwest. North Dakota, where one in every 10 residents has contracted the virus, has the highest total reported cases by population, followed closely by South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska.The latest wave to hit the United States has hospitalized record numbers. Each day since Dec. 2, more than 100,000 Covid-19 patients were in hospitals. That far surpasses the number of people hospitalized during the peaks spring and summer, which at their worst had nearly 60,000 Americans in the hospital daily.The new peak also comes as the nation prepares for holiday celebrations, and as colder temperatures may push people to congregate indoors. Infectious-disease experts have warned that trends in the United States, which reported a record 2,885 deaths on Wednesday, could continue to worsen over the next several weeks.Against the warnings of public health officials, millions of Americans traveled over the Thanksgiving holiday, stoking fears that another wave of travel could accompany this month’s celebrations even as the pandemic rages.And even without traveling far, gatherings between people from different households pose a risk.“These are going to be perfect scenarios for replication of the virus,”
CDC forecasts up to 19,500 deaths from COVID-19 in week ending Dec. 26 –The U.S. set yet another record for new cases and fatalities in a single day from the coronavirus illness COVID-19, and the nation’s leading public health agency said there could be up to 19,500 deaths in the week ended Dec. 26.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said forecasts for deaths over the next four weeks that it received from 37 modeling groups created a so-called national ensemble forecast that predicts 303,000 to 329,000 COVID-19 deaths in the four-week period. An ensemble forecast combines each of the independently developed forecasts into one aggregate forecast to improve prediction over the next four weeks.“The state- and territory-level ensemble forecasts predict that over the next 4 weeks, the number of newly reported deaths per week will likely increase in 23 jurisdictions,” the CDC said. President-elect Joe Biden said he plans to urge Americans to wear a face mask in public for 100 daysafter his inauguration in January. “On the first day I’m inaugurated, I’m going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days to mask – not forever, just 100 days. And I think we’ll see a significant reduction” in the virus, Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview. The moves mark a stark contrast to the pandemic approach of presidential incumbent Donald Trump, who has played down the gravity of the crisis throughout, pooh-poohed the wearing of face masks to the point that many of his supporters continue to refuse to do so, said the virus would just disappear, and belittled Fauci. The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 1 million passengers at airports on at least four days during the Thanksgiving period, the Associated Press reported. Vehicle travel was 20% lower than a year ago but peaked on Thanksgiving Day at just 5% less than in 2019, according to an analysis conducted by StreetLightData for the Associated Press.“People were less willing to change their behavior than any other day during the pandemic,” Laura Schewel, founder of StreetLight Data, told the AP.If only a small percentage of those travelers were asymptomatically infected, it could mean hundreds of thousands of additional infections moving from one community to another, Dr. Cindy Friedman, a CDC official, said this week in a press briefing.
Fauci: Christmas could be worse than Thanksgiving for COVID-19 spread –Top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci said Monday that Christmas could be worse than Thanksgiving for COVID-19 spread. “My concerns John [Berman] are the same thing of the concerns that I had about Thanksgiving, only this may be even more compounded because it’s a longer holiday,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.”Fauci noted that Thanksgiving celebrations tend to be shorter as people return to work the following week, but Christmas leads into New Year’s.“I think it can be even more of a challenge than what we saw with Thanksgiving,” Fauci said. “So I hope that people realize that and understand that as difficult as this is, nobody wants to modify, if not, essentially shut down, their holiday season.” “But we’re at a very critical time in this country right now,” he added. “We’ve got to not walk away from the facts and the data. This is tough going for all of us.”Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have spiked in the past week, withalmost 228,000 new COVID-19 cases being reported on Friday – the most in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. As of Sunday, 101,487 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized across the country, with 20,145 in the intensive care unit and 7,094 on ventilators, according toThe COVID Tracking Project. The first five days in December also each saw more than 2,000 coronavirus-related deaths and a combined more than 1 million new COVID-19 cases. Health experts warn that the current statistics do not include the expected spikes caused by Thanksgiving gatherings yet. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautioned a week before Thanksgiving for people not to travel or gather with people outside of their households. But still, millions traveled by plane on the days before and after the holiday, with the Sunday after seeing the most air travelersin the U.S. since March.
Agents raid home of ousted Florida health scientist who accused state of manipulating data –Florida state police raided a home on Monday belonging to a scientist who created the state’s COVID-19 data dashboard but was fired for what she says was her refusal to “manipulate data.” Agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) entered Rebekah Jones’s home with guns raised and confiscated computer equipment, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.Jones tweeted a video of the incident, writing, “At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech. They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH [Department of Health] filed a complaint. They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.” FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger told the newspaper that Jones ignored door knocks and verbal notifications to serve a legal search warrant. Jones’s husband and two children were in her home upstairs when the agents made their way in.”FDLE began an investigation November 10, 2020, after receiving a complaint from the Department of Health regarding unauthorized access to a Department of Health messaging system which is part of an emergency alert system, to be used for emergencies only,” said Plessinger in a statement confirming the seizure of Jones’s equipment.Jones stated that she has no knowledge of how to hack into computer systems.An unidentified subject reportedly accessed the system and sent out a group text that read, “It’s time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.” According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida has surpassed 19,000 deaths due to the coronavirus. Last week, Florida became the third state in the U.S. to surpass 1 million cases. An FDLE investigator said the source of the text was determined through an IP address associated with Jones’s Comcast account.In a another tweet, Jones said, “They took my phone and the computer I use every day to post the case numbers in Florida, and school cases for the entire country. They took evidence of corruption at the state level. They claimed it was about a security breach. This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo.”
December 7 COVID-19 Test Results; Record 7-Day Deaths, Record Hospitalizations – The US is now averaging over 1 million tests per day. Based on the experience of other countries, for adequate test-and-trace (and isolation) to reduce infections, the percent positive needs to be well under 5% (probably close to 1%), 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 1,566,574 test results reported over the last 24 hours. There were 180,193 positive tests. Over 15,000 US deaths have been reported so far in December. 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 11.5% (red line is 7 day average). The percent positive is calculated by dividing positive results by the sum of negative and positive results (I don’t include pending). And check out COVID Exit Strategy to see how each state is doing. The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported and daily hospitalizations. Note that there were very few tests available in March and April, and many cases were missed, so the hospitalizations was higher relative to the 7-day average of positive tests in July.
• Record Hospitalizations (Over 102,000)
• Record 7 Day Average Cases
• Record 7 Day Average Deaths
Texas judge dies of COVID-19 days before runoff election -A Texas woman who’d been a frontrunner for a municipal court judgeship has reportedly died Monday of coronavirus – five days before the runoff election that would have determined the winner. Lillian Blancas, a 47-year-old attorney and part-time magistrate judge in El Paso County, had been seeking a full-time municipal judgeship, the El Paso Times reported. Blancas had finished first in the Nov. 3 election, but a runoff was required because none of the three candidates surpassed 50 percent of the vote, according to the report. “I am just in shock,” one of her challengers, private defense attorney Enrique Holguin, told the newspaper. “She was my friend. She wasn’t my political opponent,” he said. Holguin said that members of the legal community held a prayer group for Blancas last week. “We in the legal community knew she was not doing well for a while,” said Holguin, who is also an associate judge. In addition to her part-time criminal law judgeship, Blancas had her own law firm. She was born in El Paso, went to the University of Texas at El Paso and received her law degree from Texas Tech University School of Law, the report said.
Arizona sets daily record with over 12K more coronavirus cases – – Arizona on Dec. 8 set a new daily record with over 12,300 additional known coronavirus cases as the number of hospitalized patients approached levels similar to the peak of last summer’s surge. The Department of Health Services reported 12,314 additional known cases, eclipsing the previous record of 10,322 cases set Dec. 1 when officials said that day’s report was inflated by delayed reporting over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.Arizona’s case total increased to 378,157. The state also reported 23 additional deaths, increasing that total to 6,973. “Arizona does not have control of this virus,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said on a Twitter post that included advice to review routines, stay home if possible and to wear a mask whenever out. Department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the record case report, but they previously warned that Thanksgiving gatherings of more than one household would increase the virus’ already strong spread during the fall surge. The state reported 1,567 additional known cases and no deaths on Monday, a day when reports typically are reduced due to weekend reporting delays, but the state reported over 5,000 additional known cases on five of the previous six days. The state’s seven-day rolling average continued to climb in the past two weeks as have the rolling averages for daily deaths and daily COVID-19 testing positivity, a measure of community transmission. The daily case average rose from 3,630 on Nov. 23 to 5,575 on Monday while the daily deaths average increased from 23.1 to 44.4 and the positivity average rose from 18.5% to 28.9%, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and The COVID Tracking Project. That is nearly six times the benchmark suggested by the World Health Organization of 5%.Arizona’s COVID-19-related hospitalizations as of Monday increased to 3,517, approaching the peak of approximately 3,500 in mid-July, according to the state’s coronavirus dashboard.
Ohio COVID-19 cases surpass 500K as state breaks more grim records = Ohio surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday – meaning one of every 23 Ohioans has contracted the virus – while setting a new high for confirmed daily infections. Ohio’s seven-day average positive rate on coronavirus tests also clicked up to 16% after standing at 2.7% in late September. More: December COVID-19 deaths on pace to eclipse November tally Clearing a weeks-long backlog of thousands of positive test results, Ohio health officials reported an artificially inflated total of 25,721 COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, to push the pandemic case total to 510,018. But excluding around 13,000 backdated tests added to the daily total, Ohio also appeared to set a new one-day record for confirmed and probable coronavirus infections of 12,000 or more. State health officials said they did not have an exact number. The state also added 81 fatalities to Ohio’s exploding death toll – now numbering 674 in December alone, with total deaths at 7,103 a day short of the pandemic hitting the nine-month mark in Ohio. The daily case number was inflated after the state decided to clear and count a backlog of about 13,000 positive results from less-reliable, rapid antigen tests dating to Nov. 1, state officials said. Subtracting that number from the 25,000 cases reported Tuesday means 12,000 or more cases were counted in the typical reporting, higher than the previous one-day record of confirmed and probable cases of 11,885 on Nov. 23. The total of confirmed infections on Tuesday totaled a record 11,728, with the number of probable cases attributed to Tuesday not broken out. In line with one-time federal recommendations, state and local health officials had been manually verifying positive antigen tests that were accompanied by either virus symptoms or known contact with an infected person. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped its recommendation to verify antigen positives in August. The state now has opted to follow that guideline due to an unmanageable workload accompanying increased use of antigen tests – with reported positives doubling to about 700 a day – amid the spike in COVID-19 cases. Ohio also reported around 557 hospitalizations on Tuesday to increase the current virus patients in hospitals statewide to 5,181, an increase of 40% over the past three weeks.
- US total infections: 14,949,299*
- US average last 7 days: 201,154
- US total deaths: 283,703
- US average last 7 days: 2,237
*I suspect that the real number is about 21 million, or about 6% of the total US population. Let’s start with the really bad news. The average daily rate of new infections in the US in the past week is the highest it has ever been, at 61 per 100,000 population, or roughly 1 in every 2,000 people in the US every single day. Average daily deaths also hit a new high at 0.7 per 100,000, or 1 in every 70,000 people daily: Because deaths lag confirmed infections by roughly 2 weeks, and infections now are almost 50% higher than they were 2 weeks ago, that means we should expect the death rate to climb to over 1 per 100,000 (or over 3,000 people) daily before Christmas. In the past two months, 25 States have seen their rates of infection increase by 40 per 100,000 (or an *increase* of 1 in every 2,500 people) per day. The 7 worst States, with infection rates of 80 per 100,000 people per day or worse, are shown in the graph below: In addition to those, AZ, AR, AL, CA, CT, DE, Fl, GA, KY, LA, MA, MS, NH, NJ, NY, PA, TN, and WV have all seen increases of 40 per 100,000 or more. In the closest there is to “good” news, it’s pretty clear that there is still a “pain threshold” where panic sets in, people change their behavior, and the infection rate goes down. Below are the graphs of the 13 States – most dramatically including North Dakota – where the past several weeks have seen significant downturns in infections: In North Dakota and Iowa, the rate of new infections has declined by 50%. There are also still 3 States – Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont – plus Puerto Rico, where the pandemic is still reasonably under control. I also show the Canadian province of Ontario for comparison: Finally, treatment outcomes appear to be continuing to improve. The below graph shows the rates of both infections (dimmed) and deaths (bold) for the early disaster of NY, the summer poster child for out-of-control spread AZ, and the recent calamity of ND:
Boise, Idaho health district meeting canceled by police after armed protesters threaten board members’ homes – At the insistence of the Boise, Idaho police chief and mayor, the Central District Health (CDH) board shut down its meeting Tuesday night before it could vote on a new public health order imposing limited COVID-19 restrictions. Roughly 600 anti-mask protesters had gathered outside the barricaded office building to oppose any measures to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, while separate groups of protesters, some carrying weapons, threatened the homes of board members.While it did not appear that anyone inside the building where the members were meeting was in physical danger – dozens of police had surrounded the building – police insisted that the meeting be called off in the interests of “public safety.” After it was announced that the meeting would be canceled, the crowd packing the parking lot erupted in cheers.The decision to cancel the meeting came shortly after Diana Lachiondo, the Ada County representative on the health board, informed her fellow board members and attending physicians that she had to leave because protesters outside her home were threatening her family.“My twelve-year-old son is home by himself right now and there are protesters banging outside the door,” an emotional Lachiondo said. “I’m going to go home and make sure he’s okay.”In a Twitter thread posted Wednesday morning, Lachiondo said that “armed protestors once again assembled outside my home: yelling, banging, firing air horns, amplifying sound clips from Scarface, accusing me of tyranny and cowering inside… And as many of you saw last night, my son called me in tears at the beginning of the meeting.”In addition to Lachiondo’s home, protesters descended on the homes of at least two other board members, including Dr. Ted Epperly. Dr. Epperly also reported that the protests were “not under control at my house.”On Wednesday morning, it was reported that less than seven miles from the CDH building, fascists vandalized an Anne Frank Memorial located at the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, defacing the memorial with Nazi stickers featuring swastikas and declaring, “We are everywhere.” The vandalism is believed to have occurred early Tuesday morning, the day of the canceled CDH meeting.
California Sees Record 30K+ New COVID Cases; Fauci Says US Won’t Return To Normal Until Mid-2021: Live Updates – After warning that normality might not return until the middle of next year, Dr. Fauci said Wednesday that people should continue to practice social distancing and mask-wearing well into next year, even as vaccines are rolled out. Though, in a slightly more pessimistic note, Dr. Fauci claimed that a large chunk of the population may never change its behavior – at least not without the cooperation of our political leaders. The good doctor added that states and cities can expect more guidance under a Biden regime. In other new, Chicago is expecting to provide thousands of coronavirus vax doses this month and is aiming to offer the vaccine free of charge to all adult residents in 2021, city officials said Wednesday, After Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. receive federal approvals and city gets guidance from an immunization advisory committee, Chicago can move forward with its vaccine rollout plan. California reported 30.85K new cases Wednesday, topping the record of 30,075 set over the weekend. The average rate of positive tests over 14 days reached 8.8%, the highest since the spring.China’s Sinopharm has finally received approval from the first international regulator in the UAE. A UAE analysis of interim trial data provided by Sinopharm prompted the agency to announce that the vaccine is 86% effective. Many African and South American countries have pinned their hopes on the Sinopharm vaccine, which China hopes to distribute widely in the developing as part of the WHO’s “Covax” program, and in keeping with President Xi’s promise to provide vaccines to badly hurt states, part of China’s work to “take responsibility” for what happened. However, at the same time, the CCP is spreading conspiracy theories about the virus’s origins, claiming it actually started outside China. Circling back to the UAE, the tiny gulf state’s health authorities said Sinopharm’s product is 86% effective. The analysis also shows “99% seroconversion rate of neutralizing antibody” and “100% effectiveness in preventing moderate and severe cases of the disease”, while showing “no safety concerns”.
New York State Assembly Introduces Bill Mandating COVID-19 Vaccine – New Yorkers will no longer have to decide if they will receive a COVID-19 vaccine if a bill calling for a mandatory vaccine gets approved. New York State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Democrat who represents New York’s 67th Assembly District, quietly introduced a bill on Dec. 4 that would require “COVID-19 vaccine to be administered in accordance with the department of health’s COVID-19 vaccination administration program and mandates vaccination in certain situations.” Every New Yorker, except those medically exempt, are required to receive the vaccine if the state’s vaccination efforts do not achieve “sufficient immunity from COVID-19.” Rosenthal told WGRZ-TV the bill was “a protective health measure” that would “ensure that our residents are safe and protected against further spread.” But in an event where not enough people get vaccinated to reach herd immunity, “the department of health of the state can then say that we need people to get the vaccination.” Rosenthal explained that an estimated 75 percent to 80 percent of the population would need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.
US sets new record with over 3,000 COVID deaths in a single day – The United States set a new record for coronavirus deaths in a single day on Wednesday, with more than 3,000 people dying from the virus, a daunting toll as its spread only worsens. The U.S. recorded 3,054 deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, according to The COVID Tracking Project, beating the previous record from the spring, which was 2,769 deaths on May 7. Deaths lag behind cases and hospitalizations, which have been spiking for weeks, and now the death toll is setting records too. The spread of the virus shows no signs of slowing down in the short term as winter weather sets in and more activity moves indoors, where the virus spreads more easily. There are more than 106,000 people in the hospital with the coronavirus, according to The COVID Tracking Project, also a record. The country is averaging a staggering total of more than 200,000 new cases every day. There is hope from vaccines on the horizon, but they likely will not be widely available until sometime in the spring, meaning there are still several brutal months of the pandemic to go. Health experts are urging the public to step up precautions for a few more months until people are vaccinated. Those precautions include wearing a mask, avoiding indoor gatherings and places such as bars where maskless people spread the virus, staying six feet away from others, and washing your hands. Still, COVID-19 fatigue has set in among some people after months of the virus. Many governors have not closed down indoor dining and bars despite the rampant spread of the virus across the country. Congress has been deadlocked for months on additional economic relief, which would ease the burden on businesses that have to close or limit activities and help slow the spread of the virus. Cases are still on a steep upward trajectory, meaning the situation is likely to only get worse. Travel and gatherings around the holidays can also fuel the spread of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising people that the safest option is not to travel.
Analysis: As Covid-19 deaths hit a numbing record, ‘our hearts and our minds block out the enormity of it’ – CNN -Imagine that 15 passenger jets full of Covid-19 patients crashed today, all across the United States, and killed everyone on board. Because that’s what happened minus the airplanes. 3,124 deaths from coronavirus were reported across the US on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins’ tally, making this the highest single day reporting of daily new deaths since the pandemic began.At this rate, the official death toll in the US will surpass 300,000 this weekend.”We’re living through the worst-case scenario for this pandemic,” said Alexis Madrigal, the co-founder of the Covid Tracking Project. “And we probably still do not know how bad it actually has been over the past couple weeks.” He noted that cases continue to rise and “hospitalizations remain extremely high.”Multiple news outlets noted that Wednesday’s coronavirus death toll surpassed the toll on 9/11. “The Rachel Maddow Show” led with this graphic, also factoring in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire: I feel it. You probably do, too. The numbness of these ever-increasing numbers. President-elect Joe Biden talked about this feeling on Tuesday. Every day is a slew of statistics, a barrage of broken records. “Our hearts and our minds block out the enormity of it,” grief expert David Kessler told me on last Sunday’s “Reliable Sources.” That’s how humans are wired — to cope, to adjust, to adapt. So it helps to acknowledge the numbness and talk about it. Talk about the consequences. As Bryan Walsh wrote last month for Axios, “the psychic numbing that sets in around mass death saps us of our empathy for victims and discourages us from making the sacrifices needed to control the pandemic.” He said it also “hampers our ability to prepare for other rare but potentially catastrophic risks down the road.”Kessler said that “grief must be witnessed,” but so many Covid-19 deaths are happening out of sight. And “even if you could see what we see,” in hospital wards, “I think it’s not psychologically possible for people to grasp the enormity of this,” Dr. Esther Choo said on the program. “And yet we need people to absorb enough of the tragedy that it actually drives their behavior so that we can get to the other end of the pandemic.”
Hospitals near capacity as U.S. sees record COVID-19 cases and deaths – Hospitals are filling up, coronavirus cases continue to break records, and the vaccine may be too late for too many. The White House Coronavirus Task Force now says the current supply of the vaccine “will not substantially reduce viral spread, hospitalizations, or fatalities” until “100 million Americans” are immunized, “which will take until the late spring.” Until then, they say behavior must change. According to Bloomberg, 80% of U.S. counties saw even more people traveling this Thanksgiving than last year. This is what the Thanksgiving surge looks like. “People are on ventilators, people dying. It doesn’t end, and there’s no way for health care workers to really decompress” said Dr. Scott Samlan, an emergency room doctor in Hammond, Indiana. Deaths are sharply increasing. Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County’s public health director, choked up as she said, “Over 8,000 people who were beloved members of their families are not coming back.” More than one-third of all Americans live near hospitals that are critically short of intensive care unit beds, according to the New York Times. California has more than 11,000 people hospitalized and over 30,000 new cases – both all-time records, the state reported. COVID-19 has also taken a disproportionate toll on Latinos due to jobs in agriculture, construction and meatpacking. In Los Angeles, their infection rate is double that of whites. “Latinos are overrepresented in essential industries, and so being in these occupations, we often have to go to work,” said Jeffrey Reynoso, executive director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California. Meanwhile, in Idaho, a meeting on mask mandates was canceled after one health official had this to say: “My 12-year-old son is home by himself right now, and there are protesters banging outside the door. I’m going to go home and make sure he’s OK,” said Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo. And in Florida, 41-year-old Rose Felipe finally left the hospital. Her own battle with the coronavirus lasted nine months.
December 9 COVID-19 Test Results; Record 7-Day Cases, Hospitalizations, Over 3,000 Deaths –The US is now averaging over 1 million tests per day. Based on the experience of other countries, for adequate test-and-trace (and isolation) to reduce infections, the percent positive needs to be well under 5% (probably close to 1%), 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 1,454,192 test results reported over the last 24 hours.There were 209,822 positive tests. Over 21,000 US deaths have been reported so far in December. 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 14.4% (red line is 7 day average). The percent positive is calculated by dividing positive results by the sum of negative and positive results (I don’t include pending).And check out COVID Exit Strategy to see how each state is doing. The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported and daily hospitalizations. Note that there were very few tests available in March and April, and many cases were missed, so the hospitalizations was higher relative to the 7-day average of positive tests in July.
• Record Hospitalizations (Over 106,000)
• Record 7 Day Average Cases
• Record 7 Day Average Deaths
Georgia sets new single-day record for COVID-19 with over 6k new cases – Georgia has hit another record high for daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 6,126 new cases on Thursday. The last single-day case record was 5,023 on Dec. 4. Before that, the record high was 4,782 on July 24.The 7-day moving average was 4,148.4. On Wednesday, Georgia health officials said confirmed cases have increase 62% in just the last seven days. The latest White House Coronavirus Task Force report was released Wednesday. Channel 2′s Richard Elliot learned from the report that Georgia is doing better than most states, but that doesn’t mean much. The report says the increase in positive cases indicates “ongoing, aggressive community spread” of the virus. It’s recommended that anyone over 65 stay at home, and those under 40 who attended a Thanksgiving gathering to assume they have the virus. Ninety-six counties in Georgia are currently in the “red zone” including Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, Cherokee, Clayton and Forsyth.
Record COVID-19 Cases Reported as Total Surpasses 100K – San Diego County News Center – A record 2,867 COVID-19 cases were reported Dec. 10, bringing the region’s overall total to 102,466, the County Health and Human Services Agency announced today. The new one-day total eclipses the previous record set on Dec. 4 when 2,287 cases were reported. “The extremely high number of cases shows that San Diegans are not following the guidance we’ve given. Protect yourself and others. The virus is everywhere,” said Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer. “Staying at home with people from your own household is a must. People should not be out in public unless it is absolutely necessary.” Wooten reiterated San Diegans should not be having gatherings of any size since they are prohibited by the Regional Stay Home Order and are contributing to the spread of the virus. If you’re out and about and notice that a business is not following the health guidance, report them by calling (858) 694-2900 or emailing[email protected].
L.A. County in ‘uncharted territory’ as COVID-19 cases explode to single-day record with more than 13,000 —Los Angeles County broke the record for COVID-19 cases reported in a single day once again on Friday with 13,815 new infections, the latest sign that the current surge of cases is not slowing down any time soon. The total number of cases reported in the county has now surpassed the 500,000-mark, hitting 501,635 infections on Friday. Less than two weeks into December, the county has already recorded more coronavirus cases than in any other month. The surge in cases is causing hospitals to become full and some intensive care units to reach capacity. As of Friday, there were 3,624 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the county – 23% of those patients are in intensive care units and 15% are on ventilators, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during Friday’s media briefing “This is alarming to all of us, given there are only around 2,100 ICU adult beds across all of our county hospitals,” she noted, “and many of those beds are essential for all of the patients that need care for other illnesses.” The number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations in L.A. County has doubled since Thanksgiving and quadrupled in the last month, when there were 942 coronavirus-infected patients in area hospitals. “We’re in uncharted territory at this point,” Ferrer said. “We’re seeing daily numbers of cases and hospitalizations that we’ve not experienced and, frankly, did not anticipate. Our intensive care unit bed capacity continues to drop. We’re on a very dangerous track.” The county also reported 50 additional coronavirus-related fatalities, bringing the county’s total number of deaths to 8,199. So far this month, the county has seen an average of 49 people die per day from COVID-19, beating July’s daily death of 42 fatalities per day. So unless L.A. County’s average daily deaths begins to drop, December is on track to become the county’s deadliest month of the pandemic. To illustrate the magnitude of the current surge, Ferrer said the number of average daily deaths a month ago was 18. Two weeks ago, it was 30, and this week, it was 51. Health officials predict the county could see an average of 80 deaths per day in two weeks’ time. They fear the situation will only get worse as more people who may have been infected during the Thanksgiving holiday become sick.
More US counties than ever are reporting record Covid-19 deaths – As the US breaks grim record after grim record, regularly hitting new highs for daily cases of Covid-19, it’s difficult to conceive of the scale of human loss. On Dec. 9, the country reported more than 3,000 deaths in a single day, surpassing the death toll of 9/11, as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield pointed out. The true toll of the pandemic can still feel curiously distant, especially for those who haven’t been directly impacted by a Covid-19 death. But that group is getting smaller. While the US epidemic was first concentrated in large cities, by now it has reached every nook and cranny of the nation – and more and more Americans are experiencing the loss of life first-hand. On Dec. 10, the US broke a record among records: 1,030 counties reported their highest-ever daily death toll, according to a Quartz analysis of data from The New York Times. That record has been broken weekly since the middle of October. Back then, about 500 of the country’s more than 3,000 counties set daily records for deaths. (That includes counties in territories like Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.) Since then, the figure has doubled. In other words, a third of the country’s locales are currently experiencing more death than at any other point in the pandemic. Covid-19’s effects are being felt in communities large and small. The peak on Dec. 10 includes Stonewall, Texas, with a population of 1,350, and Los Angeles, California with a population of 10 million. That could have implications for pandemic response, including the public’s willingness to get a Covid-19 vaccine. For Americans living in cities like New York, the reality of the pandemic has been obvious since March, when round-the-clock sirens and nightly cheers for healthcare workers made the virus’s impact tangible even for those who escaped infection. That first-hand experience may have made it easier for people there to accept public health measures like social distancing and mandatory masks. If seeing is believing, a lot more Americans are about to become believers.
Richard Hinch: New Hampshire’s House speaker dies from Covid-19 – New Hampshire Speaker of the House Richard “Dick” Hinch died from Covid-19, the state attorney general’s office announced. Attorney General Gordon MacDonald’s office said in a statement Thursday that the state’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Jennie V. Duval, had determined the Republican’s death Wednesday was due to the disease caused by the coronavirus. Hinch was 71. “During this difficult time, the family has requested that their privacy continue to be respected,” the statement read. The late Republican speaker had been elected to the post on December 2. He previously served as New Hampshire’s House Republican leader from 2018 to 2020 and as House majority leader from 2015 to 2018.
U.S. readies COVID-19 vaccine rollout as death toll climbs (Reuters) -Health authorities, shipping services and hospitals, expecting imminent federal regulatory approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, put final plans in place on Friday to launch a mass-inoculation campaign of unparalleled dimension. Last-minute preparations for the vaccine rollout came as the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic approached 300,000 to date, capping weeks of ominously surging infections and hospitalizations that have strained healthcare systems to their limits. Another 2,902 U.S. deaths were reported on Thursday, a day after a record 3,253, a pace projected to continue over the next two to three months even as distribution of available vaccine supplies ramps up. The process could start as soon as Monday. Moving with unprecedented speed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday was on the cusp of approving emergency use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc with its German partner BioNTech. “The FDA informed Pfizer that they do intend to proceed towards an authorization for their vaccine,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC News on Friday. “We will work with Pfizer to get that shipped out so we could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday or Tuesday,” Azar said.
South Carolina coronavirus cases reach daily record with more than 3,000 – One week ago, South Carolina announced its highest number of new cases of COVID-19. Friday, we eclipse that number by more than 700. A total of 3,217 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 were announced Friday and 47 additional South Carolinians have died because of this virus, DHEC reported. “South Carolina, like many other states, is currently experiencing a worsening of this pandemic,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC interim public health director. “While the arriving vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel, it will be months before there is enough vaccine available for everyone. It is incumbent upon all of us to continue to take actions aimed at saving lives.” COVID-19 in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia: Tracking cases, deaths and latest restrictions State public health officials are calling on all South Carolinians to continue to act to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by taking small steps that make a big difference, “No one else should have to die at the hands of this silent killer,” said Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist. “It is within all of our powers to stop COVID-19. As we each wait patiently for our turn to receive the COVID-19 vaccines, let’s keep doing our part by wearing our masks and practicing social distancing.” In addition to following public health safety precautions, DHEC continues to urge South Carolinians to answer the call. If DHEC calls, be open and honest with case investigators and contact monitors and follow their guidance. DHEC says the information provided through these calls helps the public health staff take actions to slow the spread of COVID-19 in communities.
NC reports record new covid cases in one day as curfew begins North Carolina’s health department reported 7,540 new coronavirus cases Friday, shattering the state’s previous record for daily cases of 6,495, which was reported on Wednesday. The surge in cases comes two weeks after Thanksgiving, illustrating the impact of holiday gatherings, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, in a statement. “Having more than 7,500 cases is staggering and alarming,” Cohen said. As cases and hospitalizations rise, Gov. Roy Cooper called for a new modified stay-at-home order that goes into effect Friday at 5 p.m. The order requires people to stay at home between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m unless they are traveling to or from work or traveling to obtain essential goods or services, such as food, fuel, medical care. Businesses are required to close by 10 p.m. unless they are selling those essential goods, and all on-site alcohol consumption sales is required to end by 9 p.m. The new order will last until at least Jan. 8. Also Friday, N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley ordered all in-person, non-essential court activity to stop for 30 days, according to a memorandum to courts statewide. Hospitalizations continued to climb, with the state reporting 2,514 people hospitalized, an increase of 70 from Thursday. NC DHHS reported 5,752 deaths, an increase of 38 from yesterday.
Coronavirus: US sets single-day record with more than 230,000 new Covid cases – as it happened –The US reported more than 230,000 coronavirus cases on Friday, a record for a single day, while hospitalisations reached another peak, at more than 108,000. States reported a further 232,105 infections, up from 215,669 on Thursday, according to Covid Tracking Project data. That soared past the previous one-day record of 224,878 on December 4. The US added 1.44m cases over the past week, a record for a seven-day period and averaging out at a rate of 206,443 new infections a day. California alone contributed 35,468 of those new positive cases, setting a daily record in the process. A further 2,749 deaths were attributed to coronavirus by states. That was down from 3,115 on Thursday and a record 3,206 on Wednesday, according to upwardly revised figures from Covid Tracking Project. Over the past week, states have attributed 16,653 deaths to coronavirus, a record for a seven-day period that works out to an average of 2,379 a day. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has tallied 287,058 fatalities. Covid Tracking Project said on Friday it had changed its source metric for deaths in Colorado that, alongside an adjustment to fatalities in Washington state, may have been among factors contributing to the recently revised numbers. The number of people currently in US hospitals with coronavirus rose to 108,044 from 107,258 on Thursday. As hospitalisations in the Midwest ease back from peaks, states in the south and west of the US are now reporting record levels of patients. California, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia were among those to set new highs on Friday.
US reaches record daily toll of 3,309 coronavirus deaths -The U.S. has reached a record 3,309 daily coronavirus deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.The deaths reported Friday exceeded by 6% the previous high of 3,124 deaths reported Wednesday.The U.S. also reached a record daily confirmed infections at 231,775, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. That’s nearly 4,000 more than the previous high on Dec. 4.The increases come as millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer start rolling into hospitals on Monday. The first vaccines will go to hospital staff and other health care professionals. The U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases at 15.9 million and deaths at more than 296,000. The coronavirus has caused more than 1.6 million global deaths.
Medical System Cracking: New Rochelle Nurses Strike Over Unsafe Staffing Levels; Washington State Warns of Potential for “Catastrophic Loss of Medical Care” -We’ve warned from early on in the Covid crisis that the driver of decisions to lock down or not would be driven by the level of distress in hospitals. While that call has been shown to be correct, officials have tended to be behind the curve on how quickly infections could accelerate and how that would in short order translate into near or actual crisis conditions in hospitals.So here we are, in December, with the Thanksgiving infection spike proving to be generally worse than anticipated (our IM Doc reports that in his rural area, the uptick hit early and has oddly abated but his hospital is severely overloaded) and worse sure to be on the way after the Christmas-New Year holidays.Let’s remember other boundary conditions:Better techniques mean as of now, mortality rates for Covid are lower than in the spring wave. That will become less and less true if hospitals are choked and patients are denied care or are treated on a suboptimal timetable. Recall that at the worst of the spring wave, much of Italy was engaging in triage, with elderly patients turned away. It’s pretty much baked in that hard hit areas, the aged and others with co-morbidities, like obesity or pre-existing pulmonary conditions, will not be treated. How long this lasts in over-stretched hospitals and how many people are affected is to be determined.And as readers know, overtaxed hospitals also mean that at-risk patients will put off all but unavoidable treatments (we’ve had cancer patients tell us they’ve been postponing visits) and in a worse-case scenario, emergency care will be compromised, as confirmed by the New Rochelle example we’ll get to soon. Recall that in the worst of the spring peak, many New York City hospitals had over 24 hour waits in ERs. Parallel infection peaks produce system-wide overload. In the spring, regions that suffered high infection levels could still tap extra capacity elsewhere, by hiring more traveling nurses and shuttling patients to other hospitals in state. Those pressure valves are no longer available. Visiting nurses are already getting $8000 a weeks. Extra beds are scarce and becoming scarcer. The US has only itself to blame. As the Kaiser Family Foundation reported in the spring The U.S. Has Fewer Physicians and Hospital Beds Per Capita Than Italy and Other Countries Overwhelmed by COVID-19: Compared to Italy and Spain, two countries in which hospitals have already been overwhelmed by an influx of COVID-19 patients, the U.S. has fewer practicing physicians per capita – 2.6 per 1,000 people, compared to 4.0 in Italy and 3.9 in Spain – but more licensed nurses. While the U.S. has a higher number of total hospital employees than most comparable countries, nearly half of that workforce is comprised of non-clinical staff who are not directly involved in delivering care. Germany has 8 hospital beds per 1000, and even the less wealthy Czech Republic has 6.6. Doctors and nurses are already withdrawing support due to exhaustion, health concerns, and opposition to poor patient care. We’re set to see more accounts like these in the coming months. Kaiser Health News has a story today about a Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, affiliated with the University of Washington. It has substantially reorganized its activities to combat Covid, such as offloading more non-care tasks to non-medical workers and restricting visitors to protect patients and employees, yet is contending with staff burnout due to duration of the crisis with no end in sight. Key sections:
US enters brutal stretch of pandemic, even with approaching vaccines – The United States is entering an even more brutal stretch of the pandemic, with deaths now exceeding 3,000 people every day, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel from a vaccine. The promise of a vaccine sets up a diverging reality, where in the short term the pandemic is getting even worse, but there is reassurance that it will not last forever. Public health experts are therefore urging the public to double down on precautions to get through the toughest phase for a few months until the vaccine is widely available. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield issued a stark warning about the coming weeks on Thursday. “We are in the timeframe now that probably for the next 60 to 90 days we’re going to have more deaths per day than we had at 9/11 or we had at Pearl Harbor,” Redfield said during an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. The U.S. is at record-breaking levels of more than 200,000 new cases every day and more than 100,000 people in the hospital. And the situation is only getting worse, especially as the surge from Thanksgiving gatherings starts to show up. Despite this worsening crisis, President Trump has been largely silent on the spread of the coronavirus, except to tout progress on a vaccine. He has not consistently urged the public to take precautions in the short term or announced major new steps to slow the spread until a vaccine is widely available. Governors have also had a fractured response, with some announcing new measures even as others largely resist restrictions amid the surge. Only 15 states have closed bars, for example, one of the main sources of spread of the virus, according to a tracker from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Congress has been deadlocked for months on additional economic aid, which could help these businesses financially while they close for public health reasons. Experts are urging the public to step up precautions like wearing a mask and avoiding indoor gatherings, even in private homes if people from multiple households are mixing together. The CDC is encouraging people not to travel for the holidays this month as well, given that travel is likely to lead to a further spike. “This is going to be, I think, a brutal time for us,” Redfield said. “As I said I think it will be the most challenging time in the history of our nation from a public health perspective. And I want the public to really understand that despite what I said, that’s not written in stone if people really would embrace the strategies that we’ve asked.” He added people should “not to let their guard down, just because they’re around family members who come to celebrate a holiday.”
COVID-19 infections spread rapidly as officials race to distribute vaccine – The number of coronavirus infections is spreading at an alarming rate across the nation as the U.S. government gears up to distribute its first rounds of an approved coronavirus vaccine. The United States added 1 million coronavirus infections in just four days, bringing the cumulative total of cases to over 16 million on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The country has recorded over 215,000 cases each day since Tuesday, Dec. 8. In addition, there were 3,309 new deaths on Friday alone, passing the previous record of 3,054 deaths set on Wednesday. Areas concentrated in Southern California, Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Rhode Island are just some of the states that have seen a substantial increase in coronavirus cases over a 14-day period and have remained elevated, according to The New York Times coronavirus heat map. Experts have long warned that cases would surge in the winter months as the colder weather forces people to spend more time indoors. The increase in cases comes a little over two weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday when, despite warnings from government health officials and local leaders, many Americans traveled before or on the day to attend gatherings. But amid surging infections, the federal government is racing to provide inoculation and slow the spread. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. The go-ahead was granted after federal panel of outside experts voted to move forward with Pfizer’s candidate. In an emergency session on Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to recommend the vaccine for people aged 16 and older. CDC Director Robert Redfield is expected to approve the recommendation later this weekend, the last step needed before shots can be administered. Following approval from Redfield, the first doses of the vaccine will be distributed starting early this week. Gen. Gustave Perna, the head of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed on Saturday said that the 145 distribution sites will receive doses on Monday, another 425 sites on Tuesday and 66 sites will get the vaccine on Wednesday. First in line for the vaccine are heath care workers, long-term care staff and residents and other priority groups. Yet even when the vaccine reaches the broader public, it will take some time for vaccinations to impact the spread of the virus.
December 12 COVID-19 Test Results; Record 7-Day Cases, Record Hospitalizations –The US is now averaging well over 1 million tests per day. Based on the experience of other countries, for adequate test-and-trace (and isolation) to reduce infections, the percent positive needs to be under 5% (probably close to 1%), so the US has far too many daily cases – and percent positive – to do effective test-and-trace.There were 1,497,861 test results reported over the last 24 hours.There were 223,365 positive tests.Almost 30,000 US deaths have been reported so far in December. 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 14.9% (red line is 7 day average). The percent positive is calculated by dividing positive results by the sum of negative and positive results (I don’t include pending).And check out COVID Exit Strategy to see how each state is doing. The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported and daily hospitalizations.Note that there were very few tests available in March and April, and many cases were missed, so the hospitalizations was higher relative to the 7-day average of positive tests in July.
• Record Hospitalizations (Over 108,000)
• Record 7 Day Average Cases
• Tied Yesterday for record 7 Day Average Deaths
VERIFY: Comparing total deaths from 2020 to 2019, 2018 – According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, more than 280,000 Americans have died due to COVID-19. But some people dispute whether those deaths were caused by COVID-19, or if those people might have died anyway, but happened to have it. Since the elderly and people with coexisting medical conditions are most likely to suffer severe symptoms from COVID-19 or die, viewers who ask the question often wonder if the deceased’s age or health was more to blame than the coronavirus. If the numbers of total deaths from 2020, 2019, and 2018 are similar, that would mean COVID-19 has not had as much of an impact as many scientists and politicians claim. If the number for 2020 is significantly higher, the difference would largely be explained by the coronavirus. Our source for this information is the Centers for Disease Control. In its weekly flu report, it includes a dataset that lists the number of deaths from all causes each week going back more than seven years. So far this year, the CDC reports that 2,877,601 people have died. At the same point in 2018, the number was 2,606,928, and in 2019, it was 2,614,950. The number of deaths to this point in 2020 is at least 260,000 greater than either of the past two years. But that number is an underestimate because the CDC publishes data based on the number of death certificates it has received. Since it can take a couple of weeks for all death certificates to be recorded, the numbers for the last two weeks, at least, will increase as time goes by. If the last two weeks produce a similar number of deaths as the weeks before, the margin to this point will actually be close to 310,000. Another way to see the effect of COVID-19 is that more people have died already this year than did in the entirety of either 2018 or 2019. There were 2,831,836 deaths in all of 2018 and 2,845,793 in all of 2019. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of the United States has increased by .48-.73 percent over the last five years. The increase in deaths to this point in 2020 is 10%, far outpacing population growth. Therefore, we can verify that the number of deaths from all causes is up in 2020 compared to years past.
COVID-19 outbreak at mink farm in Canada infects 8 people – Eight people have been infected by a COVID-19 outbreak on a mink farm in Canada, health officials said.The cluster was detected at the farm in Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver, Canadian outlet CBC reported.The infected farm operators and staffers are self-isolating along with their close contacts, according to the Fraser Health Authority.It’s unclear how the virus was transmitted, but some mink are being sent to the National Center for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg for testing, the outlet reported.The outbreak comes after some 17 million minks were slaughtered in Denmark over fears of COVID-19 transmission.The World Health Organization said the minks there contracted the illness after exposure to infected humans. “Minks can act as a reservoir of [COVID-19] passing the virus between them, and pose a risk for virus spill-over from mink to humans,” the agency said. In the US, there have also been reports of mink outbreaks, including in Utah, Wisconsin and Michigan. The US Department of Agriculture said mink farms in Utah had endured “deaths in numbers they’d never seen before” as a result of the virus, Science reported.
Snow Leopards Are the Latest Cats to Get the Coronavirus New York Times Snow leopards at the Louisville Zoo are the latest animals to be infected with the coronavirus.One female cat, NeeCee, has tested positive and two males, Kimti and Meru, are presumed positive, based on tests at a regional veterinary diagnostic center that must be confirmed at a national lab.The cats are all showing minor symptoms of coughing and wheezing, much like the tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo thattested positive back in April. The New York cats recovered without difficulty and the Kentucky zoo expects the snow leopards will do the same.Domestic cats, dogs and mink have also been infected with the virus, which causes Covid-19 in people. Domestic cats and mink can transmit it to other animals. Mink are the only animals so far known to get severely ill and are the only animals known to transmit the virus back to humans.Denmark ordered up to 17 million mink killed because of worries about mutations in the virus affecting potential vaccine efficacy. Those fears have not been substantiated, but numerous scientists have supported the move because a parallel pandemic in mink risks more mutation and more transmission back to humans and perhaps other animals.So far there are no documented cases of dogs or cats passing the virus to humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers recommendations for dealing with pets if owners become infected, and the Department of Agriculture has guidelines for mink farmers.The tests for the virus in animals are not the same as those done for humans and can only be done at specialized labs that do not test people. The Louisville zoo sent fecal samples to the University of Illinois Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, which did initial tests showing all three snow leopards to be positive. Samples were then forwarded to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, which confirmed the positive result for the female snow leopard. Confirmation was pending for the two male cats.
The Latest: U.K. gears up for huge vaccination plan watched by the world – – Shipments of the coronavirus vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech were delivered Sunday in the U.K. in super-cold containers, two days before it goes public in an immunization program that is being closely watched around the world. Around 800,000 doses of the vaccine were expected to be in place for the start of the immunization program on Tuesday, a day that Health Secretary Matt Hancock has reportedly dubbed as “V-Day,” a nod to triumphs in World War II. “To know that they are here, and we are amongst the first in the country to actually receive the vaccine and therefore the first in the world, is just amazing,” said Louise Coughlan, joint chief pharmacist at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, just south of London.“I’m so proud,” she said after the trust, which runs Croydon University Hospital, took delivery of the vaccine. Last week, the U.K. became the first country to authorize the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for emergency use. In trials, the vaccine was shown to have around 95 percent efficacy. Vaccinations will be administered starting Tuesday at around 50 hospital hubs in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also begin their vaccination rollouts the same day.
Ex-Pfizer Exec Demands EU Halt COVID-19 Vaccine Studies Over ‘Indefinite Infertility’ And Other Health Concerns — Former Pfizer vice president and scientific director Dr. Michael Yeadon and German lung specialist and parliamentarian Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg have filed an urgent application with the European Medicine Agency calling for the immediate suspension of all SARS-CoV-2 vaccine studies – particularly the BioNtech/Pfizer study on BNT162b (EudraCT number 2020-002641-42). Yeadon and Wodarg say the studies should be halted until a design study is available which addresses a host of serious safety concerns expressed by a growing body of renowned scientists who are skeptical of how quickly the vaccines are being developed, according to Germany’s 2020 News. On the one hand, the petitioners demand that, due to the known lack of accuracy of the PCR test in a serious study, a so-called Sanger sequencing must be used. This is the only way to make reliable statements on the effectiveness of a vaccine against Covid-19. On the basis of the many different PCR tests of highly varying quality, neither the risk of disease nor a possible vaccine benefit can be determined with the necessary certainty, which is why testing the vaccine on humans is unethical per se. –2020 News The pair also point to concerns raised in previous studies involving other coronaviruses – including (via 2020 News):
- The formation of so-called “non-neutralizing antibodies” can lead to an exaggerated immune reaction, especially when the test person is confronted with the real, “wild” virus after vaccination. This so-called antibody-dependent amplification, ADE, has long been known from experiments with corona vaccines in cats, for example. In the course of these studies all cats that initially tolerated the vaccination well died after catching the wild virus.
- The vaccinations are expected to produce antibodies against spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2. However, spike proteins also contain syncytin-homologous proteins, which are essential for the formation of the placenta in mammals such as humans. It must be absolutely ruled out that a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 could trigger an immune reaction against syncytin-1, as otherwise infertility of indefinite duration could result in vaccinated women.
- The mRNA vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer contain polyethylene glycol (PEG). 70% of people develop antibodies against this substance – this means that many people can develop allergic, potentially fatal reactions to the vaccination.
- The much too short duration of the study does not allow a realistic estimation of the late effects. As in the narcolepsy cases after the swine flu vaccination, millions of healthy people would be exposed to an unacceptable risk if an emergency approval were to be granted and the possibility of observing the late effects of the vaccination were to follow. Nevertheless, BioNTech/Pfizer apparently submitted an application for emergency approval on December 1, 2020.
Russia Warns Citizens Not To Drink Alcohol For Six Weeks After COVID-19 Vaccine -Russians are being asked to make the ultimate sacrifice; no drinking alcohol for six weeks after taking the country’s COVID-19 vaccine. In a statement to state-owned Tass, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that Russians will need to take heightened precautions during the 42 days that the ‘Sputnik V’ coronavirus vaccine requires to reach maximum effectiveness. “[Russians] will have to refrain from visiting crowded places, wear face masks, use sanitizers, minimize contacts and refrain from drinking alcohol or taking immunosuppressant drugs,” she said. And as the New York Post notes, the head of Russia’s consumer safety watchdog, Anna Popova, echoed Golikova’s statement in the Moscow Times – saying “It’s a strain on the body. If we want to stay healthy and have a strong immune response, don’t drink alcohol.” Russian health officials say the Sputnik V vaccine is over 90 percent effective, but reports say medical workers who have taken the shot have come down with COVID-19. Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly refused to take it. Western experts have expressed skepticism at the speed at which the purported vaccine was developed and Russia hasn’t provided any data to back up its claims for the shot. –New York Post Over 42,000 have died in Russia from COVID-19 out of a total recorded 2.4 million infections.
Japan Covid cases reach daily record as ‘third wave’ hits — Japan has reported a record daily number of coronavirus cases, prompting health experts to urge people not to travel in the run-up to the New Year holidays. The country reported 2,811 new infections on Wednesday, as well as a record 555 people with serious Covid symptoms, the Kyodo news agency said. Record daily case numbers were seen in six of the country’s 47 prefectures, including the popular tourist destinations of Kyoto and Kagoshima, a city in the far south-west. Japan’s Self-Defence Forces (SDF) sent nurses to Asahikawa, a city of 330,000 on the northern island of Hokkaido, where overstretched local health services are battling outbreaks at two hospitals and a facility for people with disabilities. Osaka prefecture, the second most-affected region after Tokyo, has also requested medical personnel from the armed forces. Tokyo reported 572 new infections on Wednesday – its second-highest daily figure since the pandemic began – following a record 584 infections on Saturday. The capital, the worst-hit region in Japan with a total of almost 45,000 cases, is due to host the Olympic Games in just over six months’ time, with test events scheduled to resume as early as the first week of March. The nationwide surge, which experts are describing as a third wave, has prompted calls for the government to suspend its Go To Travel programme, a heavily subsidised scheme to encourage tourism to support regional economies during the pandemic. While Sapporo – the biggest city in Hokkaido and host of the Olympic marathon events next summer – and Osaka have been withdrawn from the campaign, the government has resisted pressure to suspend it in other parts of the country. The potential for even bigger rises in daily cases number could increase towards the end of the year, when many Japanese return to their home towns to spend New Year with their families.
Canadian Health Ministry Exploring “Immunity Passports”, Vaccine “Tracking And Surveillance” – The Health Minister of Ontario in Canada has stoked controversy by suggesting that people who do not take the coronavirus vaccine will face restrictions on where they can travel and spend time. When asked by reporters about how the government intends to go about convincing people to get the vaccine, Health Minister Christine Elliott warned that those who refuse it will face difficulties reintegrating into society. “That’s their choice, this is not going to be a mandatory campaign. It will be voluntary,” Elliot said, but adding that “There may be some restrictions that may be placed on people that don’t have vaccines for travel purposes, to be able to go to theatres and other places.” When another reporter asked if the government would be introducing ‘immunity passports’, or proof of vaccination cards, Elliot said “Yes, because that’s going to be really important for people to have for travel purposes, perhaps for work purposes, for going to theatres or cinemas or any other places where people will be in closer physical contact.” Following up on Elliot’s comments, The Toronto Sun spoke to her press secretary, who confirmed that the government is exploring several options for vaccine “tracking and surveillance.”“This includes exploring developing tech-based solutions while also providing for alternative options to ensure equitable access to any potential ‘immunity passport,’” Alexandra Hilkene said.Sun reporter Brian Lilley notes “That phrase will set off alarm bells and it should, not just for anti-vaxxers, but for anyone who is concerned about Charter rights and governments running roughshod over them.”Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams has also said that a COVID-19 vaccine may be required for “freedom to move around”.
Anti-Chinese campaign casts doubt over vaccinations as second COVID-19 wave batters Brazil – Brazil is seeing a rapid surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths following the complete abandonment by federal and local governments of any restraint on economic activity. Even with summer approaching, the back-to-work drive has brought the average daily death toll to 600, a two-month high. Daily new infections stand at 40,000, and six Brazilian states are close to a health care system collapse, with more than 80 percent of COVID-19-dedicated ICUs occupied, and hospital beds filled with patients being treated for diseases that had been neglected and aggravated during eight months of the pandemic. At the same time, plans for mass vaccinations over the next year are being systematically undermined by the conflict that is gripping the Brazilian ruling class and drawing lines between the government of fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro and the Congressional opposition led by the Workers Party (PT) over Brazil’s attitude towards the US-led imperialist offensive against China. Since his presidential campaign in 2018, Bolsonaro has sought to exploit the impact of Chinese industrial imports and investments in Brazil to make a nationalist appeal epitomized by the slogan “China is not buying from Brazil, it is buying Brazil.” At the beginning of 2020, with barely a year in office, Bolsonaro solidarized himself with the reactionary anti-Chinese campaign of US President Donald Trump, who blamed the Chinese government for the pandemic and promoted fraudulent claims originating in far-right circles that the pandemic was part of a deliberate Chinese plan to undermine the US. Bolsonaro is now working to impede the use by federal and local authorities of the Chinese-developed CoronaVac vaccine which has just ended phase-three clinical trials conducted in Brazil by one of the country’s leading vaccine research facilities, the São Paulo-based Butantan Institute. The Butantan Institute is part of the São Paulo state Health Department and is one of the two main infectious diseases centers in the country, together with the federal Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), based in Rio de Janeiro. The institute produces 75 percent of the vaccines used by the Health Ministry in annual vaccination campaigns. As Brazil emerged as an epicenter of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Butantan partnered with the Beijing-based Sinovac Life Science biotechnology company to conduct clinical trials in Brazil and secure the rights and an initial capacity to produce 100 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine a year. Phase-two trials of the vaccine in Brazil have produced promising results, with 97 percent of participants developing antibodies. Emergency use of the vaccine for health care and other essential workers has already been carried out in China, with hundreds of thousands vaccinated. Chile, Turkey and Indonesia are also conducting trials of the vaccine. The CoronaVac vaccine has also already proved to be safe, although those results are hardly surprising, given the traditional approach taken by Sinovac. CoronaVac has nonetheless been vilified by Bolsonaro, solely because of its Chinese origin, with the president casting a shadow over the whole scientific community in China, as well as those involved in the Brazilian trials.
South Korea reports record 950 cases in COVID-19 ’emergency’ (Reuters) – South Korea reported a record 950 daily coronavirus cases on Saturday, exceeding the late February peak of 909, with the president calling the country’s third wave of COVID-19 an “emergency”. The South Korean authorities warned they may tighten social-distancing restrictions to their strictest level but held off for now. Of the Friday cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), 928 were locally transmitted and 22 were imported, bringing the total to 41,736 infections with 578 deaths. More than 70% the domestically transmitted cases were from Seoul and its neighbouring areas, where about half of the nation’s 52 million people live. “This is indeed an emergency situation,” said President Moon Jae-in, ordering the mobilisation of police, military personnel and public medical doctors in an effort to curb the further spread of the coronavirus, chiefly driven by small, widespread clusters..
Covid: Record deaths in Germany and Russia – BBC News – Germany is facing calls for a second lockdown before Christmas after recording 585 deaths and 29,875 new infections in one day – the highest numbers since the pandemic began. “We have to act urgently. We have to do more than was previously planned,” warned Economy Minister Peter Altmaier. Russia and Ukraine also reported record numbers of fatalities on Friday. However, the latest excess death statistics have cast doubt on the numbers announced in Russian updates. Germany has been under partial lockdown since early November, shutting bars, restaurants and entertainment venues, and a relaxation had been planned over Christmas. But the rise in infections has increasingly alarmed top officials, with Lothar Wieler, head of Germany’s public healthy body, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), describing the situation as “extremely fragile”. Chancellor Angela Merkel made an impassioned speech in the Bundestag (parliament) this week calling for tighter measures, saying that “500 deaths a day is unacceptable”. Russia’s pandemic task force says 613 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 45,893. Moscow and St Petersburg were worst hit. However, official data about “excess” deaths – those above expected levels – has called this total into question. There were nearly 50,000 more “excess” deaths in October 2020 than in the same month last year. Official health figures were less than a third of that, but only count deaths listed by a post mortem examination as having coronavirus as the main cause.
Australia to launch vaccines on its own timetable – Australia will launch Covid-19 vaccines on its own schedule next year as it has successfully contained the virus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, allowing it to monitor the rollout of programmes in the UK and US. Speaking after a national cabinet meeting, Mr Morrison said Australia’s successful suppression of the virus meant it had more time to assess the decision on the best science. “There’s a difference between what’s happening here in Australia and what’s happening overseas,” he said. “Overseas, vaccination is the only thing they’ve got… Because of the hard work done by Australians here… Australia is not in that situation.” Mr Morrison said data sharing from other countries on the vaccines will inform Australia’s next steps. “We want to ensure that Australians have full confidence, absolute full confidence that when it gets the tick, they can get the jab,” he said. Earlier on Friday, it was announced that Australia had purchased an extra 20m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, taking the total number of doses to 53.8m in 2021, enough to cover the entire population. It also secured a further 11m doses of the Novavax vaccine, taking the number of doses to 51m. The country has managed to contain outbreaks of coronavirus on its shores and strict quarantine regulations have limited the spread from arriving passengers. Mr Morrison reiterated that returning Australian citizens will be given priority for the limited quarantine quota. Almost 39,000 Australians are still trying to fly home as the pandemic situation remains grave in many countries, he said, adding that nearly 46,000 people have returned since September.
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