Written by Steven Hansen

The U.S. new cases 7-day rolling average are 11.7 % lower than the 7-day rolling average one week ago. U.S. deaths due to coronavirus are worse and are now 2.7 % above the rolling average one week ago. At the end of this post is a set of interactive graphs and tables for the world and individual states – as well as today’s headlines which include;

• ‘The food supply chain is breaking
• First COVID-19, Then Myasthenia Gravis: Coincidence or Causal?
• ‘AeroNabs’ Promise Powerful, Inhalable Protection Against COVID-19
• U.S. has reached deal with Moderna for 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine
• Coronavirus found on Ecuador shrimps in China
• ECMO Gets a Win in Severe COVID-19
• Child Coronavirus Cases Spiked by 90 Percent. It’s Likely Down to Two Key Reasons
• Many international headlines saying pandemic is worsening.

My continuing advice is to continue to wash your hands, wear masks, and maintain social distancing. No handwashing, mask, or social distancing will guarantee you do not get infected – but it sure as hell lowers the risk in all situations. In addition, certain activities are believed to carry higher risk – like being inside in air conditioning and removing your mask (such as restaurants, around your children/grandchildren, bars, and gyms). It is all about viral load.

The daily number of new cases in the U.S. is remaining stubbornly and embarrassedly high.

The following graphs show the 7-day rolling average for new coronavirus cases and deaths have been updated through 12 August 2020:

z coronavirus.png​

* as of 11 Aug 2020

** evidently several states included “probable” deaths today in the number

*** red color indicates record number

Coronavirus News You May Have Missed

‘The food supply chain is breaking’: How Tyson Foods has tried to survive coronavirus – CNBC

Americans typically consumed more than 180 pounds of beef, pork and poultry in 2018, 10% more than in 1970. Plant-based meat retail sales were $760 million last year — a fraction of total meat and poultry sales. Whether it’s at your favorite fast-food restaurant or in the grocery aisle, one company that carnivores turn to again and again is Tyson Foods.

Tyson Foods is one of the world’s largest food companies, producing about 20% of the beef, pork and chicken in the U.S. It services restaurants and schools and sells brands like Jimmy Dean and Sara Lee in supermarkets.

In the spring, the 85-year-old food giant faced the perfect storm — higher production costs, lower levels of productivity and softer demand. Restaurants were closed as governments enforced social distancing rules. And in April, thousands of Tyson workers were infected with the coronavirus at processing plants. Facilities were forced to shut down, and meat shortages sprang up at grocery stores across the country.

… ″Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses in the meat system that people have been talking about for years but that have never been exposed as they were now,” said Christopher Leonard, author of “The Meat Racket.” “Essentially what Covid-19 showed was the profound fragility that happens when you move all of your production into as few slaughterhouses as possible.”

First COVID-19, Then Myasthenia Gravis: Coincidence or Causal? – MedPage

Myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune neurologic disorder, was associated with COVID-19 in three patients in Italy.

Symptoms of myasthenia gravis (MG) appeared 5 to 7 days after fever onset in three patients who had no previous neurologic or autoimmune disorders, reported Domenico Restivo, MD, PhS, of Garibaldi Hospital in Catania, and colleagues, in a case report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“This finding is important because the association between COVID-19 infection and myasthenia gravis has not been reported before,” Restivo said.

“The knowledge of such a possible association may help doctors to an earlier diagnosis of myasthenia gravis in patients with COVID-19 infection,” he told MedPage Today. “Moreover, these findings further underline the role of autoimmunity in neurological disorders associated with COVID-19 infection.”

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease in which antibodies bind to acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) or to functionally related molecules in the postsynaptic membrane at the neuromuscular junction, blocking signals transmitted from nerves to muscles. It causes fluctuating muscle weakness that can affect the respiratory system and can be debilitating.

New Study Finds Potential Reason Why COVID-19 Occurs Less In Children – ZeroHedge

The reason COVID-19 occurs less frequently in children could be due to the lack of a certain enzyme, researchers have found.

This new study detailed in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on May 20, discovered that the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which grows in abundance as the individual grows, might be the reason that less than two percent of all individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease – are children.

Researchers had suspected that COVID-19 susceptibility could be linked to the amount of gene expression of ACE2 seen in the nasal cavity, given that the enzyme acts as a receptor to allow the SARS-CoV-2 virus to pass into the body.

‘AeroNabs’ Promise Powerful, Inhalable Protection Against COVID-19 – UCSF

As the world awaits vaccines to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control, UC San Francisco scientists have devised a novel approach to halting the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.

Led by UCSF graduate student Michael Schoof, a team of researchers engineered a completely synthetic, production-ready molecule that straitjackets the crucial SARS-CoV-2 machinery that allows the virus to infect our cells. As reported in a new paper, now available on the preprint server bioRxiv, experiments using live virus show that the molecule is among the most potent SARS-CoV-2 antivirals yet discovered.

In an aerosol formulation they tested, dubbed “AeroNabs” by the researchers, these molecules could be self-administered with a nasal spray or inhaler. Used once a day, AeroNabs could provide powerful, reliable protection against SARS-CoV-2 until a vaccine becomes available. The research team is in active discussions with commercial partners to ramp up manufacturing and clinical testing of AeroNabs. If these tests are successful, the scientists aim to make AeroNabs widely available as an inexpensive, over-the-counter medication to prevent and treat COVID-19.

“Far more effective than wearable forms of personal protective equipment, we think of AeroNabs as a molecular form of PPE that could serve as an important stopgap until vaccines provide a more permanent solution to COVID-19,” said AeroNabs co-inventor Peter Walter, PhD, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. For those who cannot access or don’t respond to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, Walter added, AeroNabs could be a more permanent line of defense against COVID-19.

U.S. has reached deal with Moderna for 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine – CNBC

• President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the U.S. government will purchase 100 million doses of Moderna’s experimental coronavirus vaccine.
• Moderna separately said the deal for its vaccine, mRNA-1273, is worth $1.53 billion and will give the federal government the option to purchase up to 400 million additional doses.
• The U.S. government’s deal with Moderna follows similar agreements it’s made with pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and other drug makers for their potential Covid-19 vaccines.

Previous vaccines and masks may hold down Covid-19, some researchers say – CNN

As US leaders work to control the spread of coronavirus, researchers across the globe are working to answer the mysteries that remain around infections.

One of those mysteries: why the experience can be so different from person to person. One expert says the answer may involve looking at previous vaccines individuals have had.

“When we looked in the setting of Covid disease, we found that people who had prior vaccinations with a variety of vaccines — for pneumococcus, influenza, hepatitis and others — appeared to have a lower risk of getting Covid disease,” Dr. Andrew Badley, an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night.

It’s what immunologists call immune training: how your immune system creates an effective response to fight off infections, Badley says.

“A good analogy is to think of your immune system as being a muscle,” he said. “The more you exercise that muscle, the stronger it will be when you need it.”

There’s been no definitive evidence of any other vaccines boosting immunity against Covid-19. But some researchers have suggested it’s possible.

In June, a team of researchers in the US proposed giving a booster dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to people to see if it helps prevent the most severe effects of coronavirus infections. And last month, researchers found that countries where many people have been given the tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) had less mortality from coronavirus, a finding that fits with other research suggesting the vaccine can boost people’s immunity in general.

Coronavirus found on Ecuador shrimps in China, state media says – Reuters

A city in China’s eastern Anhui province found the novel coronavirus on the packaging of shrimps from Ecuador, state media reported on Wednesday, in the latest instance of the virus being detected on imported products.

The coronavirus was found on the outer packaging of frozen shrimps bought by a restaurant in Wuhu city when local authorities carried out a routine inspection, CCTV, China’s state television, said.

The news broke a day after a port city in eastern Shandong province said it found the virus on the packaging of imported frozen seafood, although it did not say where it originated.

Since July, several other Chinese cities have also reported cases, including the port cities of Xiamen and Dalian, prompting China to suspend imports from three Ecuadorean shrimp producers.

ECMO Gets a Win in Severe COVID-19 – MedPage

A certain approach to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in COVID-19 patients showed a high success rate at two centers in Chicago, researchers reported.

Of 40 recipients, 29 (73%) were discharged from the hospital without any further need for oxygen, Antone J. Tatooles, MD, of Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, and colleagues reported in JAMA Surgery.

All went off ventilator support, and 80% were no longer on ECMO by July 17. Six of the patients died (15%).

“Complications have been minimal, with no ischemic strokes, inotropic support, or tracheostomies,” they noted.

Pooled analysis of early reports had suggested much poorer outcomes, with mortality averaging 94.1%, although not significantly lower for other COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome patients at 70.9%.

Child Coronavirus Cases Spiked by 90 Percent. It’s Likely Down to Two Key Reasons – Newsweek

Hundreds of thousands of children have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, according to a report. Of those, almost 200,000 were reported in the four weeks following July 9, marking a 90 percent increase in child cases.

A total of 380,174 child COVID-19 cases were reported between the start of the pandemic and August 6, making up 9.1 percent of all cases, or 501 per 100,000 children in the U.S., according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. The data came from 49 states, New York City, D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam. Between July 9 and August 6, 179,990 new cases were reported.

The authors of the report noted that the definition of a “child” varied by state, between 0 to 14 and 0 to 24 years old.

Mirroring the evidence that has accumulated since the start of the pandemic that children are more likely to have mild COVID-19, fatalities were relatively low, at 0 to 0.4 percent of all deaths, with 20 states reporting none. In those that did report deaths, 0 to 0.5 percent of cases resulted in death.

… Increased testing may play a part. Alvaro Moreira, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at UT Health, San Antonio, pointed out that children must provide proof they are coronavirus-free before they can attend some summer camps and daycare centers.

… Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, told Newsweek he believed most of the increase in July—”probably essentially all”—is due to children encountering the virus more.

The following are foreign headlines with hyperlinks to the posts

New Outbreak In New Zealand Leads To New Rules And Supermarket Runs

Lebanon COVID-19 Cases Jump By More Than A Third In Week After Beirut Blast

Europe in Critical Moment, COVID-19 Cases Rise in Spain, France, Germany

South Korea’s New Covid-19 Bus Stops Look Like Willy Wonka’s Elevator

Sweden’s Coronavirus Herd Immunity ‘Nowhere in Sight,’ Researchers Say

Fauci: ‘I seriously doubt’ Russia has proven its new vaccine is safe and effective.

Jordan to Close Border With Syria After Spike in COVID-19 Cases

Germany says Russian COVID-19 vaccine has not been sufficiently tested

Brazilian state to sign agreement with Russia for coronavirus vaccine

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he would volunteer for trials of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine

The following are additional national and state headlines with hyperlinks to the posts

Duke study finds some cotton cloth masks are about as effective as surgical masks, while thin polyester spandex gaiters may be worse than going maskless.

Without Federal Protections, Farm Workers Risk Coronavirus Infection to Harvest Crops

Alyssa Milano says she is losing her hair after long battle with COVID-19

Mask dispute leads to couple’s assault on teen Sesame Place worker, police say

Running Low on New N95s? Reach for These Alternatives

The White House-Kodak Controversy Has a New Angle: A Billionaire’s Huge Stock Gift to a Synagogue

Florida Sheriff Orders Deputies And Staff Not To Wear Face Masks

Penn State Students Must Sign COVID Waiver Discharging Liability

If Phone Sex Isn’t Enough, Wear a Mask and Avoid Face-to-Face Positions

As U.S. schools reopen, New Jersey and Florida are a study in contrasts.

Stein Mart files for bankruptcy and plans to close most, if not all, of its stores

NBA Reports Zero Positives In Latest COVID-19 Testing

Big 12 to move forward with plans for fall football season

Today’s Posts On Econintersect Showing Impact Of The Pandemic With Hyperlinks

Fed Wants Inflation But Their Actions Are Deflationary

We Need To Change Our COVID-19 Strategy

How To Use Ventilation And Air Filtration To Prevent The Spread Of Coronavirus Indoors

July 2020 CPI: Year-over-Year Inflation Rate Grows to 1.0%

Reconsidering The Phase One Trade Deal With China In The Midst Of The Pandemic

The Recent COVID-19 Spike And The U.S. Employment Slowdown

Coronavirus INTERACTIVE Charts

include($_SERVER[‘DOCUMENT_ROOT’].’/pages/coronavirus.htm’); ?>

include(“/home/aleta/public_html/files/ad_openx.htm”); ?>

Permanent link to most recent post on this topic