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. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
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Summary:
Sunday saw the lowest number of US Covid cases in over a year, and most states have rolled back the Covid related restrictions they once had in place, so it’s not surprising that disease related news is getting harder to come by. New US cases over the week ending May 29th were 22.4% lower than the prior week, and were only 8.1% of the new infection rate during the peak week of January. Furthermore, we’d have to go back to March 2020 to find a week with fewer new cases. US deaths attributed to Covid this week were down 9.1% from a week earlier, while the Covid death rate was still 15.1% of the January peak. This week’s Covid deaths were also still a bit higher than the week ending July 4th a year ago.
Globally, new cases during the week ending May 29th were 15.9% lower than during the week ending May 22nd, and down 38.6% from the late April peak; however, they’re still higher than any week of this February and the first three weeks of March. Global Covid deaths were down 8.1% week over week, and down 17.2% from the peak at the end of April.
Again, new cases are falling most everywhere except in a handful of South American and south Asian countries; of those, most notable this week was that with a 42% increase, new cases in Columbia were higher than those in the US (but still below those of Brazil and Argentina). Moreover, even though new cases in India were down 26% week over week, they still had more new cases this week than the next nine highest countries combined.
The chart below from WorldoMeter shows the daily number of new cases for the US, updated through 29 May.
The graphics presented by Johns Hopkins have been changed to a new format. Global new cases, global deaths, and global cummulative vaccinations now all appear in a consolidated chart.
According to Johns Hopkins (first graph below), new cases globally appear to have peaked. The same for global deaths (second graph below), while global vaccinations continue to increase (third graph below).
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Steven Hansen continues to summarize and link 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: 29 May 2021 Coronavirus Charts and News: Another mRNA Vaccine In the Pipeline Which May Be Cheaper. Some Fact Checking Headlines.
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:
Pandemic has fueled eating disorder surge in teens, adults – Many hospital beds are full. Waiting lists for outpatient treatment are bulging. And teens and adults seeking help for eating disorders are often finding it takes months to get an appointment. The pandemic created treacherous conditions for eating disorders, leading to a surge of new cases and relapses that is not abating as restrictions are loosened and COVID-19 cases subside in many places, doctors and other specialists say. “We are absolutely seeing massive increases,” said Jennifer Wildes, an associate psychiatry professor and director of an outpatient eating disorders program at the University of Chicago Medicine. Some patients are waiting four to five months to get treatment such as psychotherapy and sometimes medication. Waits usually lasted only a few weeks pre-pandemic, Wildes said. Her program is treating about 100 patients, a near doubling since before the pandemic, she said. The Emily Program, a University of Minnesota-affiliated eating disorders treatment program, is experiencing the same thing. Daily calls from people seeking treatment have doubled, from roughly 60 in 2019 to up to 130 since the pandemic began, said dietitian Jillian Lampert, the program’s chief strategy officer. ”We know that anxiety and isolation are typically very significant components of eating disorders,” she said. Some patients say ”my life feels out of control” because of the pandemic and they resort to binge eating as a coping mechanism, Lampert said. Others have taken the message ”don’t gain the pandemic 15” to the extreme, restricting their diets to the point of anorexia.
COVID testing’s value shrinks as vaccines beat back virus (AP) – Federal health officials’ new, more relaxed recommendations on masks have all but eclipsed another major change in guidance from the government: Fully vaccinated Americans can largely skip getting tested for the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that most people who have received the full course of shots and have no COVID-19 symptoms don’t need to be screened for the virus, even if exposed to someone infected. The change represents a new phase in the epidemic after nearly a year in which testing was the primary weapon against the virus. Vaccines are now central to the response and have driven down hospitalizations and deaths dramatically. Experts say the CDC guidance reflects a new reality in which nearly half of Americans have received at least one shot and close to 40% are fully vaccinated. “At this point we really should be asking ourselves whether the benefits of testing outweigh the costs – which are lots of disruptions, lots of confusion and very little clinical or public health benefit,” said Dr. A. David Paltiel of Yale’s School of Public Health, who championed widespread testing at colleges last year.While vaccinated people can still catch the virus, they face little risk of serious illness from it. And positive test results can lead to what many experts now say are unnecessary worry and interruptions at work, home and school, such as quarantines and shutdowns. Other health specialists say the CDC’s abrupt changes on the need for masks and testing have sent the message that COVID-19 is no longer a major threat, even as the U.S. reports daily case counts of nearly 30,000. “The average Joe Public is interpreting what the CDC is saying as ‘This is done. It’s over,'”
Covid: Sniffer dogs could bolster screening at airports – Sniffer dogs could contribute to efforts to prevent the spread of Covid as society reopens, according to scientists. As part of a trial, dogs were trained to recognise a distinctive odour produced by people with the virus, but undetectable to the human nose. This could come in useful for screening at airports or mass events. But the dogs’ findings would have to be confirmed by lab testing, the researchers said. Although the dogs correctly picked up 88% of coronavirus cases, they also incorrectly flagged 16% of people who didn’t have Covid as having the virus. Dogs can have up to 100,000 times the smelling ability of humans and have long been used to sniff out drugs and explosives. Recent research has shown dogs – particularly breeds like spaniels and retrievers – can detect the unique scents of diseases including cancer, Parkinson’s and malaria.As part of the current canine screening trial, six dogs were trained to recognise the smell produced by people with Covid-19 using worn socks, face masks and t-shirts of various materials. They were rewarded with treats when they correctly identified whether the sample was from an individual who had tested positive or negative. Some of the people in the negative group had common cold viruses, to make sure the dogs were able to distinguish Covid from other respiratory infections. The dogs were able to sniff out the disease even when it was caused by different variants, and when the person had no symptoms or only had very low levels of the virus in their system.
Controversial ivermectin added to University of Minnesota COVID-19 drug trial – The University of Minnesota is conducting the nation’s first randomized trial of a controversial anti-parasite drug that has a fervent U.S. following and is being used on the black market against COVID-19 across the globe. Ivermectin is being added to an ongoing trial in which U researchers hope to find a rare outpatient therapy that can prevent infection with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 from resulting in hospitalization, long-term complications or death. The research comes amid declining pandemic activity in Minnesota, where vaccinations have helped to cut the daily number of infections by half over the past two weeks and dropped the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations below 400 for the first time since late March. However, U researchers said treatments are needed in parts of the world where vaccine access is lacking and in pockets of the U.S. and Minnesota where refusal to get shots could result in localized outbreaks. “Not everybody has access to the vaccine, whereas these medications are existing generics, already FDA-approved, that are available in most pharmacies around the world,” said Dr. Carolyn Bramante, a U internal medicine specialist leading the national trial. “If we find evidence of benefit, [the drugs] could be used immediately anywhere.” U research already has shown possible benefits of metformin, usually used to manage diabetes, in reducing COVID-19 illness and death in women. But now researchers will compare its effectiveness against ivermectin as well as fluvoxamine, an antidepressant. The U started recruiting up to 1,100 patients 30 or older last week to receive one of the drugs, alone or in combination with metformin, or a non-medicating placebo for comparison. Effectiveness will primarily be measured by whether patients suffer hypoxia – severe oxygen deficiency. Proven medications against COVID-19 have been lacking, especially those that could be used on an outpatient basis to prevent severe illness. The U was among the first to test hydroxychloroquine – an antiviral championed last year by former President Donald Trump and his supporters – only to conclude that it didn’t substantially prevent infection or symptom onset. Ivermectin has been advocated by a handful of U.S. medical groups and believers, and by some in India, South Africa and other countries in the absence of vaccine. No large clinical trials have proved effectiveness, though, and manufacturer Merck issued a statement in February discouraging its clinical use against COVID-19. The FDA also discourages use of the drug outside of a study.
U.S. CDC looking into heart inflammation in some young vaccine recipients – Some teenagers and young adults who received Covid vaccines experienced heart inflammation, a US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention advisory group said, recommending further study of the rare condition. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices in a statement dated May 17 said it had looked into reports that a few young vaccine recipients – predominantly male, adolescents and young adults – developed myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. The condition often goes away without complications and can be caused by a variety of viruses, the CDC group said. CDC monitoring systems had not found more cases than would be expected in the population, but members of the committee on vaccinations felt that healthcare providers should be made aware of the reports of the “potential adverse event”, the committee said. It did not say how many people had been affected and recommended further investigation. Dr Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, said vaccines are known to cause myocarditis and it would be important to monitor to see if it is causally related to the vaccine. It is important to look at the risk-benefit ratio, he said: “Vaccines are going to unequivocally be much more beneficial outweighing this very low, if conclusively established, risk.” The CDC said the cases typically occurred within four days after receiving the mRNA vaccines. It did not specify which vaccines. The United States has given emergency authorisation to two mRNA vaccines, from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. Israel’s Health Ministry in April said it was examining a small number of cases of heart inflammation in people who had received Pfizer’s vaccine, although it had not yet drawn any conclusions. Most of the cases in Israel were reported among people up to age 30. Pfizer at the time said it had not observed a higher rate of the condition than would normally be the case in the general population and that a causal link to the vaccine had not been established. Pfizer and Moderna did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
COVID-19 increases rate of heart attacks in people at genetic risk for heart disease – Individuals with genetic high cholesterol, heart disease or both, who were infected with COVID-19 had more heart attacks according to new research by the FH Foundation. While previous studies have speculated about poorer outcomes if a person with genetic high cholesterol – called familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) contracts COVID-19, this study from the FH Foundation’s national healthcare database is the first to demonstrate higher heart attack rates in the real world. Published online in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the study also importantly confirms that COVID-19 increases heart attack rates in individuals with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). The FH Foundation performed an analysis of 55,412,462 individuals, separating groups into six matched cohorts including diagnosed FH, probable FH, and ASCVD, with and without COVID-19 infection (as identified by the U07.1 ICD-10 code). The researchers found that rates of heart attacks were highest in those with a COVID-19 diagnosis and the presence of diagnosed FH or probable FH with known ASCVD. “These results are significant because these data underscore the importance of understanding if individuals have underlying cardiovascular disease or genetic high cholesterol when treating for COVID-19 infection or considering vaccination,” said Kelly Myers, study author and chief technology officer of the FH Foundation. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a common genetic condition that increases an individual’s risk for cardiovascular disease by up to 20-fold due to lifelong elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. Today, only 10% of the 1.3 million Americans with FH are diagnosed, due to lack of awareness in the medical community and public.”Probable FH” individuals with pre-existing ASCVD who contracted COVID had heart attacks at a seven-times greater annual rate than their counterparts who did not contract the virus (AIDR 15.4% vs 2.1% p-value <0.002).” “The highest heart attack rates occurred in individuals infected with COVID-19 who had preexisting cardiovascular disease and were flagged by the FIND FH model as probable FH. We speculate that because these individuals have yet to receive an FH diagnosis, they may not be receiving appropriate lipid lowering treatment placing them at significantly higher risk,”
Caught Red-Handed: CDC Changes Test Thresholds To Virtually Eliminate New COVID Cases Among Vaxx’d -The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) is altering its practices of data logging and testing for “Covid19” in order to make it seem the experimental gene-therapy “vaccines” are effective at preventing the alleged disease.They made no secret of this, announcing the policy changes on their website in late April/early May, (though naturally without admitting the fairly obvious motivation behind the change).The trick is in their reporting of what they call “breakthrough infections” – that is people who are fully “vaccinated” against Sars-Cov-2 infection, but get infected anyway.Firstly, they are lowering their CT value when testing samples from suspected “breakthrough infections”.From the CDC’s instructions for state health authorities on handling “possible breakthrough infections” (uploaded to their website in late April):For cases with a known RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) value, submit only specimens with Ct value 28 to CDC for sequencing. (Sequencing is not feasible with higher Ct values.)Throughout the pandemic, CT values in excess of 35 have been the norm, with labs around the world going into the 40s.Essentially labs were running as many cycles as necessary to achieve a positive result, despite experts warning that this was pointless (even Fauci himself said anything over 35 cycles is meaningless).But NOW, and only for fully vaccinated people, the CDC will only accept samples achieved from 28 cycles or fewer. That can only be a deliberate decision in order to decrease the number of “breakthrough infections” being officially recorded.Secondly, asymptomatic or mild infections will no longer be recorded as “covid cases”. That’s right. Even if a sample collected at the low CT value of 28 can be sequenced into the virus alleged to cause Covid19, the CDC will no longer be keeping records of breakthrough infections that don’t result in hospitalisation or death.
Abandonment of health measures threatens US COVID-19 resurgence – On May 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed its guidance on mask-wearing, urging vaccinated people to stop wearing masks and socially distancing in crowded areas. The World Socialist Web Site, in line with the statements of leading epidemiologists, warned that these guidelines would trigger businesses, states and municipalities to remove all masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike. These warnings have been confirmed. Nearly every major retailer in the United States, including Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Walgreens, abandoned nationwide masking requirements within days of the CDC’s ruling, with no mechanism to verify whether those walking into their facilities are vaccinated or not. National Guard members assisting with processing COVID-19 deaths and placing them into temporary storage at LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner Office in Los Angeles, Jan. 12, 2021. (LA County Dept. of Medical Examiner-Coroner via AP) Epidemiologists and workplace safety experts have vocally condemned the CDC’s action. “It’s such a mess! So many of us are really upset. It is incredibly frustrating!” Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, told the World Socialist Web Site last week. “Inevitably, now state after state and business after business is saying you don’t need to wear your masks if you are vaccinated.” From the beginning of the pandemic, workplaces have been a central source of transmission and broader outbreaks. The removal of any restrictions, under conditions in which nearly two-thirds of the population is not fully vaccinated, will lead to an increase in cases and deaths. Over 500 people continue to die every single day from the disease in the United States. This translates to a death rate of 15,000 every month, or 182,500 every year. The fact that hundreds of people are dying every single day from a disease that could be stopped through aggressive public health measures is treated as a non-event in the media. When the official US death toll crossed 600,000, the media simply ignored the milestone, just like it downplayed last week’s report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that the real death toll in the country is actually closer to one million.
Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find – Important immune cells survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected with the virus or were inoculated against it, new research suggests. Immunity to the coronavirus lasts at least a year, possibly a lifetime, improving over time especially after vaccination, according to two new studies. The findings may help put to rest lingering fears that protection against the virus will be short-lived. Together, the studies suggest that most people who have recovered from Covid-19 and who were later immunized will not need boosters. Vaccinated people who were never infected most likely will need the shots, however, as will a minority who were infected but did not produce a robust immune response. Both reports looked at people who had been exposed to the coronavirus about a year earlier. Cells that retain a memory of the virus persist in the bone marrow and may churn out antibodies whenever needed, according to one of the studies, published on Monday in the journal Nature. The other study, posted online at BioRxiv, a site for biology research, found that these so-called memory B cells continue to mature and strengthen for at least 12 months after the initial infection. “The papers are consistent with the growing body of literature that suggests that immunity elicited by infection and vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 appears to be long-lived,” said Scott Hensley, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the research. The studies may soothe fears that immunity to the virus is transient, as is the case with coronaviruses that cause common colds. But those viruses change significantly every few years, Dr. Hensley said. “The reason we get infected with common coronaviruses repetitively throughout life might have much more to do with variation of these viruses rather than immunity,” he said. In fact, memory B cells produced in response to infection with SARS-CoV-2 and enhanced with vaccination are so potent that they thwart even variants of the virus, negating the need for boosters, according to Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York who led the study on memory maturation. “People who were infected and get vaccinated really have a terrific response, a terrific set of antibodies, because they continue to evolve their antibodies,” Dr. Nussenzweig said. “I expect that they will last for a long time.” The result may not apply to protection derived from vaccines alone, because immune memory is likely to be organized differently after immunization, compared with that following natural infection. That means people who have not had Covid-19 and have been immunized may eventually need a booster shot, Dr. Nussenzweig said. “That’s the kind of thing that we will know very, very soon,” he said.
Johns Hopkins Prof: Half Of Americans Have Natural Immunity; Dismissing It Is “Biggest Failure Of Medical Leadership” – A professor with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has said that there is a general dismissal of the fact that more than half of all Americans have developed natural immunity to the coronavirus and that it constitutes “one of the biggest failures of our current medical leadership.”Dr. Marty Makary made the comments during a recent interview, noting that “natural immunity works” and it is wrong to vilify those who don’t want the vaccine because they have already recovered from the virus.Makary criticised “the most slow, reactionary, political CDC in American history” for not clearly communicating the scientific facts about natural immunity compared to the kind of immunity developed through vaccines.“There is more data on natural immunity than there is on vaccinated immunity, because natural immunity has been around longer,” Makary emphasised.“We are not seeing reinfections, and when they do happen, they’re rare. Their symptoms are mild or are asymptomatic,” the professor added.“Please, ignore the CDC guidance,” he urged, adding “Live a normal life, unless you are unvaccinated and did not have the infection, in which case you need to be careful.”“We’ve got to start respecting people who choose not to get the vaccine instead of demonizing them,” Makary further asserted.
Moderna Warns New Waves of Covid-19 Are Coming | Barron’s – Moderna scientists and executives laid out their plans to combat new strains of the virus that causes Covid-19 at a virtual investor event on Thursday, saying that new waves of the epidemic are on their way.”As the virus spreads, it is rapidly mutating,” the company’s chief scientific officer, Melissa Moore, said on the call. “Some of these new viral strains appear to be even more transmissible than the original strain … We already know that some of these new strains are less susceptible to neutralization by our current vaccine.”
US Daily COVID Cases Dip To Lowest Level In Over A Year — The United States reported the lowest number of daily coronavirus cases in more than a year on Sunday. With 13541 new infections reporting in the last 24 hours, the total number of cases in the country has risen to 33,896,660, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. Such lower daily figures were reported at the beginning stages of the pandemic in the U.S. Likewise, 228 COVID-related deaths reported in the same period was the lowest in a year. It took the national total to 604,087. As usual, the lower COVID metrics at the weekend are attributed to lag in reporting from states. A total of 27,502,255 people have so far recovered from coronavirus infection in the country. These encouraging signs of COVID-19 metrics are directly related to the impact of vaccines, top health officials say. “Across the country, cases of Covid-19, serious illness and loss of life are all down dramatically,” White House senior Covid-19 adviser Andy Slavitt said during a briefing. He stressed the need of keeping up the pace of vaccinations to bring down the numbers even further and to mitigate the risk of a future pandemic wave.
COVID Cases, Deaths In US Comparatively Lower – The United States reported comparatively lower number of daily coronaviruscases and deaths on Monday.With 19866 new infections reporting in the last 24 hours, the total number of cases in the country has risen to 33,922,937, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.Such lower daily figures were reported at the beginning stages of the pandemic in the U.S.325 COVID-related deaths reported in the same period took the national total to 604,416.A total of 27,563,930 people have so far recovered from coronavirus infection in the country. Providing an update on the Biden administration’s wartime COVID-19 response, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the United States is averaging about 24,000 coronavirus cases per day, down from nearly 184,000 cases per day when President Joe Biden took office. And daily death rate has dropped nearly 85 percent since January 20.
Patterns from a Year of Covid Data – The Incidental Economist (video with Dr Aaron Carroll) Now that we’ve been dealing with Covid-19 for over a year, we have a lot of information to help us understand the kinds of patterns that have emerged.
May 24th COVID-19 New Cases, Vaccinations; Hospitalizations Finally Below Post-Summer Surge Low -According to the CDC, on Vaccinations. Total administered: 286,890,900, as of yesterday 285,720,586. Day: 1.17 million. (U.S. Capacity is around 4 million per day)
1) 61.5% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose (70% is the goal by July 4th).
2) 130.6 million Americans are fully vaccinated (160 million goal by July 4th)
And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing. Over 12,000 US deaths were reported so far in May due to COVID.This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported.This data is from the CDC. The 7-day average is 22,877, down from 23,834 yesterday, and down sharply from the recent peak of 69,881 on April 13, 2021. This is the lowest since June 14, 2020.The second graph shows the number of people hospitalized.This data is also from the CDC.The CDC cautions that due to reporting delays, the area in grey will probably increase. The current 7-day average is 22,744, down from 23,917 reported yesterday, and finally below the post-summer surge low of 23,000.
Less Than One Million Vaccinations Reported In Most Recent 24-Hour Period — May 25, 2021 —CDC data here. (see table) Column 6: number of vaccinations given in previous 24 hours, CDC data. Column 6 is derived from delta, column 3. Most recent 24-hour period, report dated Tuesday, May 25, 2021: only 897,972 doses administered.
Shuttered hospitals, soaring Covid-19 deaths: Rural Black communities lose a lifeline in the century’s worst health crisis -Latasha Taylor’s mom, 62, was the third member of her family to die of Covid-19; the virus also took her aunt and uncle. Friends tell Taylor she’s strong, but she doesn’t feel that way. “If you had to, you would do what I did,” she said. “Bury your whole family.”This tragedy was only made worse by institutional failings: All three relatives ended up in different, far-off hospitals across southwest Georgia. Early in the pandemic, the hospital nearest Taylor’s house stopped accepting Covid-19 patients, and then, in the middle of the worst public health crisis this century, it shut for good.A larger hospital managed by the same group, Phoebe Putney Health System,received $89.7 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provider relief fund during the pandemic. But the company said it was unable to develop a financial plan for its more rural location, which needed $10 million to upgrade and renovate the facility.Without a nearby hospital, several residents said their loved ones delayed getting care when they fell ill with what they thought might be Covid. They lacked an easy place to go for rapid tests, missing out on crucial early diagnoses. And, with the next closest hospital overwhelmed, many were forced to drive more than an hour to seek treatment. Taylor’s mother stayed at home for several days, questioning if her symptoms were bad enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. If there was good care nearby, said Taylor, she would have gone in sooner.While it’s not possible to draw a direct line from the closing of the hospital in Cuthbert to the Taylor family’s losses, this much is clear: In the two counties, Randolph and Terrell, that depended on the hospital, 1 in every 200 people has died from Covid-19, a death rate 2.8 times higher than in Georgia as a whole.The abrupt withdrawal of care that affected this rural corner of Georgia has played out across the United States. A record 19 rural hospitals closed in 2020, according to research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – more than in any other year. Communities close to these shuttered hospitals similarly experienced disproportionate fatalities, according to a STAT analysis: Covid-19 death rates in counties where hospitals closed were 37% higher than in their states overall.Looking at the most rural counties – those with fewer than 50,000 residents and at least 50 miles from a major city – the death rates were 66% higher than in their states. Seven of the eight hospital closures in counties where the fatality rate was at least 80% higher than their state’s were in such rural counties.
Woman Protests COVID-19 Vaccine By Speeding Car Through Vaccination Site – An east Tennessee woman has been charged with seven counts of felony reckless endangerment after allegedly driving her car through a COVID-19 vaccination site as an apparent protest against the vaccine.Members of the Blount County Sheriff’s Office arrested Virginia C. Brown on Monday morning after deputies working at the site saw her drive an SUV through a closed cone course and into an enclosed tent where several health department and national guard personnel were working, according to WSMV TV.Workers at the tent told officers that Brown’s vehicle almost hit seven people in the tent, according to the Blount County Daily Times.Witnesses said Brown yelled “no vaccine” during her ride, and several witnesses told deputies they thought that the driver was going to kill them, according to a sheriff’s report.A deputy who witnessed the incident eventually performed a traffic stop on Brown, WVLT TV reported. He arrested her and drove her to the Blount County Detention Facility. She continued making anti-vaccine statements on the way to the facility.Brown claimed she was only going five miles an hour. The sheriff’s office said she drove her car through the tent at a “high speed.”
Covid-19 Update — May 27, 2021 — CDC data here.Lowest number of vaccinations administered for a Thursday report, going back to February 18, 2021 (last column / column 6).It was reported that only 1.5 million vaccinations were give in the most recent Thursday, 24-hour report. That is the lowest since February 18, 2021. The highest for a Thursday was April 15, 3.5 million vaccinations given. After that, continued decrease. Note: the “JNJ pause” was announced April 13, 2021.
May 29 data: Four more Utahns killed by COVID-19 (KUTV) – Utah counted four more people killed by COVID-19 as three women and a man – none hospitalized – added to the state’s total of 2,301 fatalities from the coronavirus.One of those killed is a woman between 25 and 44 in Iron County, an age category that has the highest infection rate but suffered a .6 mortality rate per 1,000 cases. Utah reports 144,182 cases in the 25 to 44 age range and 87 deaths. Those in this age range often passed the virus to higher-risk patients, according to Utah health officials.Another woman was killed from the same Iron County, a resident taken by the disease who was between 64 and 84 who was a resident in a long-term care facility.Another woman of the same age group, 64 to 84 died in Utah County and a man between 45 and 54 was killed in Salt Lake County. Two of those killed died before May 1 but were not reported to be from COVID-19 while their deaths were investigated. The Utah Department of Health investigates deaths in the state, COVID-19 and otherwise.The state’s infection rates numbers have fallen but hospitalizations has remained relatively stable. A lagging statistic, hospitalizations and deaths follow infections by several weeks or even months. A full account of the day’s COVID-19 data is below in this story.Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, more U.S. cities and states are shrugging off lingering COVID-19 restrictions as vaccination rates rise and the number of infections falls. Europe is also seeing a drastic drop in infections, just in time for summer travel.In Utah’s fully vaccinated population, there has been one death from COVID- 19. At press time Utah counts 1,481,372 people with at least one COVID-19 vaccination with 2,582,400 administered.
Ohio coronavirus numbers: 585 new cases, 51 hospitalizations reported (WJW) – The Ohio Department of Health released the state’s latest coronavirusnumbers Saturday afternoon. There have been 1,101,557 total confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in the state since the pandemic began, which includes an addition of 585 cases reported Saturday, along with a total of 19,861 deaths (including zero additional fatalities reported Saturday).Death statistics are no longer being reported daily for accuracy purposes, ODH said. The total number of hospitalizations because of the virus since the pandemic began is now 59,144 people. There were 51 hospitalizations reported in the last 24 hours, and 4 people were reported admitted to the ICU during that time.About 1,062,897 people are presumed to have recovered from the illness in the state.Here are the Ohio counties with the most coronavirus cases:
- Franklin: 127,818
- Cuyahoga: 114,852
- Hamilton: 80,915
- Montgomery: 52,227
- Summit: 48,087
The number of people vaccinated in the state so far is 5,228,812 or about 45.25% of the population. That number includes people who have gotten one or two shots so far. In the last 24 hours, 21,420 people received a shot in the state. The first Vax-a-Million winners were announced Wednesday and the next winners will be announced June 2. You have until Sunday, May 30 at 11:59 p.m. to enter, if you haven’t yet done so.
Singapore Approves Covid Breath Test That Gives Immediate Result -A breath test designed to detect Covid-19 and give accurate results within one minute has been approved for use in Singapore, the National University of Singapore said in a statement. The test, developed by NUS spin-off startup Breathonix, works much like a standard breathalyzer test that police might use to see if an erratic driver is drunk. A person blows into a one-way valve mouthpiece, and compounds in the person’s breath — think of it as a breath signature — are compared by machine-learning software to the sort of breath signature expected from someone who’s Covid-positive.Accurate tests at that speed could be key to unlocking a travel sector that’s crucial for Singapore’s economy but has slowed to a crawl during the pandemic. Even as the U.S. and parts of Europe begin to reopen with higher viral caseloads, Singapore and other “Covid-Zero” countries in Asia have been hesitant to open borders and have cracked down harshly on any sign of flare-ups.
More than 30 countries could face oxygen crises similar to India amid COVID-19 surges -As COVID-19 cases surge in many countries, several could face oxygen shortages similar to India’s.The “key indicator” of a looming crisis is often not how much oxygen is needed at the moment, but how swiftly demand is rising, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports. The Bureau looked at Laos as an example. The southeast Asian nation’s current oxygen need is modest at 2,124 cubic meters per day, but that’s a “nearly 200-fold increase from mid-March.”All told, data collected by the Bureau shows that more than 30 countries, including Fiji, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Angola, and Kyrgyzstan, now need at least twice as much oxygen – one of the most crucial treatments for severe COVID-19 infections – as they did two months ago. Activists told the Bureau the trend could lead to the “total collapse of health systems” in lower- to middle-income countries. Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar could be particularly vulnerable because they rely on Indian-made oxygen and equipment. “You’d imagine if they start to see peaks [in infections] of the same degree [as India], then it could be even worse, because India needs all the [oxygen] supply,” said Zachary Katz, the vice president of essential medicines at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Read more at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
“We’re cannon fodder, that’s all”-Indian health care workers cry out for basic PPE as official deaths skyrocket past 300,000 – A nightmare scenario continues to unfold in India where, according to the official count, more than two people are dying from COVID-19 every minute. On Sunday, the world’s second most populous country hit the grim milestone of 300,000 official deaths, joining the United States and Brazil as the only countries to surpass this figure. Last week, on May 19, India reached another somber milestone, when it officially recorded 4,529 COVID-19 deaths, surpassing the 4,475 deaths reported in the US on January 12 and setting a new one-day global record. However, India’s actual death toll from the country’s devastating second wave, which has seen total cases rise by more than 14 million to 26.8 million since April 1, is estimated to be five to ten times higher than the official tally, meaning COVID-19 is currently killing tens of thousands of Indians each day. Family members return after performing last rites of a person who died of COVID-19 at a crematorium that uses compressed natural gas (CNG) in New Delhi, India, Monday, May 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Ishant Chauhan) As hospitals fill up, hundreds of thousands of very ill people have no access to beds, antiviral drugs, and medical oxygen. Overwhelmed and understaffed hospitals have allowed relatives of patients to fill in for nurses, where they try to find oxygen, and when conditions become worse, another hospital with an ICU bed or a ventilator. The cramped conditions this entails have made even the best hospitals in India vectors for the transmission of the virus. Doctors and junior trainee doctors are routinely faced with the grim task of determining which patients get access to IVS beds, oxygen, ventilators and life-saving drugs-determining, in effect, who gets a chance to live and who dies. Rohan Aggarwal, a 26 year-old unvaccinated junior doctor who has been drafted to treat patients at the Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi, described the harrowing ordeal faced by doctors: “We are not made for that-we are just humans. But at this point in time, we are being made to do this.” Health care workers are working in extremely crowded hospitals, where there may be two patients to a single bed, and the patients who are refused entry die outside in trolleys. Doctors and nurses have been crying out for personal protective equipment (PPE), an urgent necessity to prevent infection and death for both patients and themselves. Calls for basic, minimal protection for health care workers have gone unheeded by India’s far-right Narendra Modi-led government. Following an angry Twitter post declaring “raincoats are not adequate,” after his hospital provided raincoats instead of medical grade PPE, Dr. Indranil Khan, an oncologist in Kolkata was detained by authorities for more than a day, and only released after recanting his criticism.
Indian Covid-19 variant has spread to at least 53 territories worldwide, says WHO — The coronavirus variant first detected in India has now been officially recorded in 53 territories, a World Health Organization report showed Wednesday.Additionally, the WHO has received information from unofficial sources that the B.1.617 variant has been found in seven other territories, figures in the UN health agency’s weekly epidemiological update showed, taking the total to 60.The report said B.1.617 had shown increased transmissibility, while disease severity and risk of infection were under investigation.Globally over the past week, the number of new cases and deaths continued to decrease, with around 4.1 million new cases and 84,000 new deaths reported — a 14 percent and two percent decrease respectively compared to the previous week.The WHO’s European region reported the largest decline in new cases and deaths in the past seven days, followed by the southeast Asia region.The numbers of cases reported by the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, and the Western Pacific region were similar to those reported in the previous week.”Despite a declining global trend over the past four weeks, incidence of Covid-19 cases and deaths remain high, and substantial increases have been observed in many countries throughout the world,” the document said.The highest numbers of new cases in the past seven days were reported from India (1,846,055 — down 23 percent); Brazil (451,424 — up three percent); Argentina (213,046 — up 41 percent), the United States (188,410 — down 20 percent), and Colombia (107,590 — down seven percent).The update gave information on the four mutations classed as variants of concern: those first reported in Britain (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351), Brazil (P.1) and India (B.1.617).When counting up the total number of territories reporting each variant, the WHO added together those from which it had official and unofficial information.B.1.1.7 has now been reported in 149 territories; B.1.351 in 102 territories and P.1 in 59 territories.The WHO split up figures for the B.1.617 variant into three lineages (B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3).The first has been reported in a total of 41 territories, the second in 54 and the third in six: Britain, Canada, Germany, India, Russia and the United States.Together, lineages of the B.1.617 variant were officially recorded in 53 territories and unofficially in another seven.The update also listed six variants of interest that are being monitored.
HCQ to Ivermectin: Why India has got it wrong in Covid-19 treatment –On May 8, The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected medical journals, wrote a scathing editorial that tore into India’s vaccination strategy and the government for ignoring warnings of the second wave. It called for the implementation of a “public health response that has science at its heart”. The very same day, India’s regulator, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), green-lighted an emergency use authorisation for 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), a drug developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) in collaboration with Hyderabad-based pharma company Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.The drug “helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence,” said a statement by the Ministry of Defence, adding that 2-DG will be of “immense benefit” to people suffering from Covid-19. The drug was then jointly launched on May 17 by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who called the drug a potential game changer.Two days later on May 19, however, the drug was left out of the revised national treatment protocol for Covid-19 that was released by the health ministry and prepared by experts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The guidelines are divided into three parts based on the severity of the Covid-19 disease. 2-DG also did not feature in the clinical management protocols updated by the health ministry on May 24. Samiran Panda, head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR, told Forbes India that experts are still studying data and evidence for the drug and that “regulatory approval is different from practice”.By this time, however, there are several social media posts by patients requesting help to procure the drug as their doctors had prescribed it to them as part of their Covid-19 treatment. “Nobody knows why 2-DG was authorised,” says Dr Satyanarayana Mysore, HOD and consultant-pulmonology, lung transplant physician at Manipal Hospitals. “There are videos floating around on social media where the patient was administered 2-DG and recovered from Covid, which is an unbelievable claim and should be curbed.” Instead of this, he explains, what is needed is public scientific and peer-reviewed articles, or even preliminary studies, that provide evidence of the safety and efficacy of the drug.
Vietnam detects hybrid of Indian and UK COVID-19 variants (Reuters) -Authorities in Vietnam have detected a new coronavirus variant that is a combination of the Indian and UK COVID-19 variants and spreads quickly by air, the health minister said on Saturday. After successfully containing the virus for most of last year, Vietnam is grappling with a rise in infections since late April that accounts for more than half of the total 6,856 registered cases. So far, there have been 47 deaths. “Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the UK,” Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, describing it as a hybrid of the two known variants. “That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the UK variant is very dangerous,” he told a government meeting, a recording of which was obtained by Reuters. The Southeast Asian country had previously detected seven virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7 – known as the UK variant, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2 – the “Indian variant”. Long said Vietnam would soon publish genome data of the newly identified variant, which he said was more transmissible than the previously known types. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified four variants of SARS-CoV-2 of global concern. These include variants that emerged first in India, Britain, South Africa and Brazil. “At the present time, we have not yet made an assessment of the virus variant reported in Vietnam,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19, said in an emailed statement. “Our country office is working with the Ministry of Health in Vietnam and we expect more information soon.” From the WHO’s current understanding, the variant detected in Vietnam was the B.1.617.2 variant, more commonly known as the Indian variant, possibly with an additional mutation, she said. “However we will provide more information as soon as we receive it,” Van Kerkhove added.
‘Lions led by donkeys’: Johnson damned over COVID as unfit for office – Up to 8,700 patients died after catching Covid-19 while in hospital being treated for another medical problem, according to official NHS data obtained by the Guardian. The figures, which were provided by the hospitals themselves, were described as “horrifying” by relatives of those who died. Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, said that hospital-acquired Covid “remains one of the silent scandals of this pandemic, causing many thousands of avoidable deaths”. NHS leaders and senior doctors have long claimed hospitals have struggled to stop Covid spreading because of shortages of single rooms, a lack of personal protective equipment and an inability to test staff and patients early in the pandemic. Now, official figures supplied by NHS trusts in England show that 32,307 people have probably or definitely contracted the disease while in hospital since March 2020 – and 8,747 of them died. That means that almost three in 10 (27.1%) of those infected that way lost their lives within 28 days. “The NHS has done us all proud over the past year, but these new figures are devastating and pose challenging questions on whether the right hospital infection controls were in place”, said Hunt, who chairs the Commons health and social care select committee. The responses show that every trust had to grapple with what doctors callnosocomial or hospital-acquired infection. Many hospitals were unable to keep Covid-positive patients separate from those without the disease, which led to its lethal transmission. According to the FoI responses, University Hospitals Birmingham trust had the highest number of deaths (408), followed by Nottingham University Hospitals (279) and Frimley Health (259). Nine trusts had 200 or more deaths.
Up to 8,700 patients died after catching Covid in English hospitals -Tens of thousands of people died because of incompetence, indecision and neglect by Boris Johnson and his government, the Prime Minister’s former chief adviser has declared during evidence about Britain’s chaotic handling of the pandemic.Dominic Cummings – a key force behind Brexit and Johnson’s thumping 2019 election win – savaged his ex-boss during seven hours of damning testimony on Wednesday which sent Downing Street into damage control.”When the public needed us most, the government failed,” Cummings said. “Tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die.”Cummings confirmed a frustrated Johnson once said he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than order a second lockdown over winter – a remark the Prime Minister has repeatedly denied making.However, Johnson did not deny on Wednesday that he quipped COVID-19 was “only killing over 80s”. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings says the government “failed” the British people in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry into what went wrong during the initial outbreak in early 2020 and the second deadly wave over Christmas, Cummings also claimed:
- Johnson once thought coronavirus was like swine flu and suggested that he be injected live on television to prove COVID-19 wasn’t dangerous;
- as the pandemic took hold in Italy, the Prime Minister was distracted by negotiations over his divorce and plans by girlfriend Carrie Symonds to announce her pregnancy;
- the UK’s most senior civil servant urged the government to liken COVID-19 to chicken pox and floated the idea of mass infection parties to help build herd immunity; and
- Johnson expressed regret about ordering the first lockdown and told colleagues he wished he had instead behaved like the mayor in the filmJaws, who insisted the beaches remain open.
Nearly 130,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia lifts quarantine requirement for COVID vaccinated foreign visitors (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that foreign visitors arriving by air from most countries will no longer need to quarantine if they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Visitors from 20 other countries – including the United States, India, Britain, Germany, France and the United Arab Emirates – remain banned from entering the kingdom, however, under measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The civil aviation authority (GACA) said that from May 20 non-Saudi visitors arriving in the kingdom from eligible countries by air who are fully vaccinated, or have had COVID-19 and recovered, will no longer have to spend seven days in government-approved hotels as long as they provide an official vaccination certificate upon arrival. Currently, all travellers coming into the kingdom need to quarantine for a period of seven to 14 days depending on the countries where they are coming from, and provide negative PCR tests. Under the new rules, anyone over the age of eight years old who is not vaccinated must quarantine on arrival in Saudi Arabia for seven days at their own expense as of May 20 and provide a negative PCR test on the sixth day of their arrival, GACA said. They must also provide a valid health insurance policy to cover potential risks from COVID-19. They will also need to provide a negative PCR test taken no later than 72 hours before boarding their flight to the kingdom. Separately, the Saudi ministry of interior announced that Saudi citizens are still banned from travelling to 13 countries through direct or indirect flights without prior permission form authorities due to COVID-19 risks. The countries are: Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Belarus, and India.
Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before COVID-19 outbreak disclosed – WSJ (Reuters) – Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, a month before China reported the first cases of COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a U.S. intelligence report. The newspaper said the previously undisclosed report – which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits – may add weight to calls for a broader investigation into whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory. The Journal said current and former officials familiar with the intelligence expressed a range of views about the strength of the report’s supporting evidence, with one unnamed person saying it needed “further investigation and additional corroboration.” The first cases of what would eventually be known as COVID-19 were reported at the end of December 2019 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the advanced laboratory specialising in coronavirus research is located. Chinese scientists and officials have consistently rejected the lab leak hypothesis, saying SARS-CoV-2 could have been circulating in other regions before it hit Wuhan, and might have even entered China from another country via imported frozen food shipments or wildlife trading. China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said on Monday that it was “completely untrue” that three members of staff at WIV had fallen ill. “The United States continues to hype up the lab leak theory,” he said. “Does it care about traceability or is it just trying to distract attention?” The Journal report came on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization’s decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Asked about the report, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said via email that the organisation’s technical teams were now deciding on the next steps. He said further study was needed into the role of animal markets as well as the lab leak hypothesis. A U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the report but said the Biden administration continued to have “serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China.”
Explosive study claims to prove Chinese scientists created COVID –A bombshell new study claims to have proof that Chinese scientists created COVID-19in a lab and then tried to reverse-engineer versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sorensen wrote they’ve had primary evidence “of retro-engineering in China” since last year, but were ignored by academics and major medical journals, The Daily Mail reported Saturday, citing the soon-to-be-published study.The study concludes: “the likelihood of it being the result of natural processes is very small.” The virus is still killing 12,000 people a day around the world.Dalgleish is a London oncology professor known for breakthrough work on a vaccine for HIV. Sorensen is a virologist and chair of the pharmaceutical company Immunor, which developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate called Biovacc-19. Dalgleish also has a financial stake in that company.It was during their COVID-19 vaccine research that the pair came across “unique fingerprints” indicating the virus didn’t come from nature, they said. The telltale clue: a rare finding in the COVID-carrying virus of a row of four amino acids, which give off a positive charge and bond to negative human cells.”The laws of physics mean that you cannot have four positively charged amino acids in a row,” Dalgleish told the Daily Mail. “The only way you can get this is if you artificially manufacture it.”They also tracked published Chinese research, some done working with American universities, to show how the tools to create the virus were allegedly built. A good part of the work reviewed involved “gain of function” research, which involves manipulating natural viruses in a lab to make them more infectious, allowing scientists to study their potential effect on humans. The U.S. put a moratorium on such research in 2014. But it’s impossible to know if $600,000 funding for medical research in China was used for gain of function research, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress last week.
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