Written by Steven Hansen
The U.S. new cases 7-day rolling average are 21.4 % LOWER than the 7-day rolling average one week ago and U.S. deaths due to coronavirus are now 27.1 % LOWER than the rolling average one week ago. Today’s posts include:
- U.S. Coronavirus New Cases are 15,541
- U.S. Coronavirus deaths are at 469
- Why is the Delta variant so scary?
- CDC regulation of Florida cruises in question after judge sides with state, for now
- Unvaccinated passengers on initial Royal Caribbean cruises from Florida will face restrictions
- Protected them to death’: Elder-care COVID rules under fire
- Why Has “Ivermectin” Become a Dirty Word?
- Face to Face With Dr. Fauci – The Truth Is It’s Almost Over
- Expert: Variants Mean More in US Must Get Vaccine
- Canadian ambassador calls for close coordination in handling of US border
- To meet its global vaccines pledge, the U.S. seeks to replace the millions of AstraZeneca doses under review
- Third wave of Covid ‘definitely under way’ in UK, says expert
- The same mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines could help treat cancer
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Hospitalizations Are The Only Accurate Gauge
Hospitalizations historically appear to be little affected by weekends or holidays. The hospitalization growth rate trend continues to improve.
source: https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/covidnet/COVID19_3.html
Historically, hospitalization growth follows new case growth by one to two weeks.
As an analyst, I use the rate of growth to determine the trend. But, the size of the pandemic is growing in terms of real numbers – and if the rate of growth does not become negative – the pandemic will overwhelm all resources.
The graph below shows the rate of growth relative to the growth a week earlier updated through today [note that negative numbers mean the rolling averages are LOWER than the rolling averages one week ago]. As one can see, the rate of growth for new cases peaked in early December 2020 for Thanksgiving, and early January 2021 for end-of-year holidays – and it now shows that the coronavirus effect is improving.
In the scheme of things, new cases decline first, followed by hospitalizations, and then deaths. The potential fourth wave did not materialize likely due to immunizations.
Coronavirus and Recovery News You May Have Missed
Unvaccinated passengers on initial Royal Caribbean cruises from Florida will face restrictions – The Points Guy
Passengers on Royal Caribbean‘s first sailings from Florida who don’t show proof of a COVID-19 vaccine will face more restrictions than passengers who do.
… Among the restrictions that unvaccinated passengers will face:
- They will not be able to sign up for My Time Dining in the ship’s main dining room — the type of dining where passengers can arrive whenever they want and sit with whomever they want. They’ll be restricted to a fixed dining time and be assigned to a designated area specifically for unvaccinated passengers.
- They will not be able to participate in some activities.
- They will not be able to access all venues.
- They will not be able to attend certain performances of theater shows that will be restricted to vaccinated passengers only.
Unvaccinated passengers also will have to wear masks at all times when in interior areas of the ship. Vaccinated passengers will have to wear masks at some times in interior areas but will be able to take them off when in venues (bars, lounges, restaurants and entertainment areas) or at events designated for vaccinated guests only.
One exception to the above: Masks will not be required for any passengers who are actively eating or drinking.
… Royal Caribbean said the newly announced restrictions for unvaccinated passengers would apply both to passengers who are unvaccinated and those who are vaccinated but refuse to show proof of the vaccine.
CDC regulation of Florida cruises in question after judge sides with state, for now – USA Today
It’s possible that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s restrictions on Florida cruises could be invalidated, according to a Friday court ruling.
For now, Florida has been granted a preliminary injunction that could render restrictions on cruising to and from the state imposed by the CDC as optional guidance starting next month.
“This order finds that Florida is highly likely to prevail on the merits of the claim that CDC’s conditional sailing order and the implementing orders exceed the authority delegated to CDC,” the conclusion of the 124-page ruling issued by Judge Steven Merryday on Friday.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis called the ruling a win for Florida in a statement Friday.
“Today, we are securing this victory for Florida families, for the cruise industry, and for every state that wants to preserve its rights in the face of unprecedented federal overreach,” DeSantis said.
Why is the Delta variant so scary? – National Geographic
The key to Delta’s success is the collection of mutations the variant has accumulated in the spike protein, which covers SARS-CoV-2 and gives the virus its signature crown-like appearance. These mutations have changed the spike, and, as a result, some of the existing antibodies may not bind as tightly or as often, explains Markus Hoffmann, an infectious disease biologist at the Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Germany. Hoffman and others have shown that Delta and its closely related Kappa variant evade antibodies that were generated through previous infection and vaccination. Some synthetically produced antibody therapies, like Bamlanivimab, were unable to neutralize the Delta variant; but others such as Etesivimab, Casirivimab, and Imdevimab were still effective.
The Delta variant has mutations on the spike protein that alter how it interacts with the ACE2 receptor protein, which is found on the surface of lung and other human cells and is the portal to invade the cell. The mutation at location 452 of the spike protein, which is also present in some of the California variants, appears to make the virus more transmissible and helps it spread through the population, explains Mehul Suthar, an immunologist at the Emory Vaccine Center.
If a mutation gives a virus a fitness or reproductive advantage, that mutation tends to evolve independently around the world. Delta, its closely related variants, and the highly contagious Alpha variant all carry a mutation at position 681 of the spike protein, which is thought to be an evolutionary game changer that also makes it easier for SARS-CoV-2 to invade the host cell and spread. This mutation is fast becoming common in COVID-19 viruses around the globe.
… The data from India and the U.K. show that Delta has emerged as the dominant variant in those countries within four to six weeks. That indicates Delta is more transmissible and infectious than the previous variants. There is emerging evidence that it can also cause more severe disease. For example, in Scotland it caused about twice as many hospitalizations than the Alpha variant, which already caused more severe illness than the original SARS-CoV-2.
“This combination of high transmissibility, high severity, and escape from vaccines makes Delta a very, very dangerous variant,” says Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London. Once Delta enters a country, it is going to spread rapidly. “It’s going to be quite hard to contain, and very likely will become the dominant variant in a matter of weeks. It could change the trajectory of the global pandemic.
Why Has “Ivermectin” Become a Dirty Word? – TK News
… The suspensions and bans have triggered a dystopian chase game, in which ivermectin backers rush to take their case to media figures before the media figures themselves end up sitting next to them in the same Facebook or YouTube “jail.”
One of the most prominent examples involves Bret Weinstein, whose DarkHorse podcast is one of the faster-growing independent political shows online. In May, for instance, DarkHorse scored 4.9 million views on YouTube and generated over 43,000 new subscribers. This growth is due in significant part to the fact that Weinstein and wife Heather Heying made a conscious effort to provide a forum for discussions about Covid-19 that live outside the narrow realm of allowable debate on commercial media. Because that debate has become so constrained, independents like Weinstein have a virtual monopoly on content about a whole range of effectively banned topics.
On June 1, Weinstein did a show that included an interview with Kory called, “COVID, Ivermectin, and the Crime of the Century.” That was swiftly removed by YouTube, with a notice declaring, “Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our spam, deceptive practices and scams policy.” Another episode, “Why is Ivermectin not being used in other countries?” was removed with a similar warning. Two more videos were either taken down or marked with warnings, and another, with Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, was taken down during the writing of this article after 587,331 views, leaving Weinstein in a precarious position.
He and Heying have two YouTube channels. After four warnings and one official strike on each channel, they’re a couple of poorly received shows away from being out of business. Weinstein is particularly concerned about their more profitable “clips” channel, which seems to have attracted more of YouTube’s attention.
“If they give me a third strike,” says Weinstein, “that would represent more than half of our income.”
YouTube, in a statement, says the distinction in Weinstein’s case has to do with actively advocating for ivermectin’s use. “While we welcome content discussing possible treatments for COVID-19, our policies don’t allow videos that encourage people to use Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus and as a result we removed videos from Bret Weinstein’s channel,” they told TK. “We apply our policies consistently to all content on YouTube, regardless of speaker or political views.”
YouTube’s policy is elaborately thought out. At least in theory, it doesn’t simply zap anyone who mentions ivermectin. It does, however, require that any discussion in favor of the drug include disclaimers that either refutes those positive claims or outlines official guidelines on the subject. In essence, YouTube is making the FDA’s current position a mandatory element of any public discussion.
Not all the platforms have the same policy. A spokesperson for Twitter says the company refrains from yanking content unless it would be “immediately dangerous to someone reading and taking action based on a Tweet (e.g. ‘drink bleach to cure COVID’).” Twitter’s standard stresses the idea of “immediate” physical harm, not unlike actual speech laws. By contrast, YouTube and Facebook have much broader and tougher rules, and the appeals process is either glacial or nonexistent.
Ivermectin may never be proven effective as a Covid-19 treatment, but its story has already appeared as a powerful metaphor of the Internet’s transformation. Once envisioned as a vast democratizing tool, which would massively raise global knowledge levels by allowing instant cross-global communication between all people, it’s morphed instead into a giant unaccountable bureaucracy for suppressing dialogue, run by people with an authoritarian vision for information flow. Many ivermectin advocates believe discussion of the the drug is being suppressed because of its status as a threat to a billion-dollar vaccine business, but it’s just as likely that its reputation worldwide as a “populist” treatment, a medicine taken by people not waiting for official validation, has made it a target of censors and pundits alike.
“I think what happened is that at the outset of the pandemic, it was decided that all information must go in one direction, from the Gods of Science down,” says Kory. “But that’s not the way it works. Science happens on the ground. That’s where the little discoveries are made. They don’t happen at the top of the mountain.”
[editor’s note: this post deserves a full read]
Face to Face With Dr. Fauci | The Truth Is…”It’s Almost Over” – YouTube
This week I traveled to Washington DC to interview Dr. Anthony Fauci, physician, scientist, immunologist and Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases (NIAID), as well as chief medical advisor for the President of the United States. We discussed all-things COVID-19. I was lucky enough to speak to Dr. Fauci last year via Zoom at the beginning of the pandemic. This time around, I was so thrilled to sit face to face with the man, maskless, thanks to the fact that we are both fully vaccinated. We dove in deep on a bunch of subjects such as the effect of COVID and vaccines on children, herd immunity, natural immunity, some of his previous statements, and the future of masks. Do you part to end the pandemic and get back to normal life but getting your Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson vaccine ASAP!
Expert: Variants Mean More in US Must Get Vaccine – Medscape
More people need to get vaccinated if the United States wants to prevent the spread of deadly variants this winter, says a top vaccine expert.
“Vaccines are our only way out of this,” Paul Offit, MD, a member of the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, said on CNN. “Unless we vaccinate a significant percentage of the population before winter hits, you’re going to see more spread and the creation of more variants, which will only make this task more difficult.”
Offit, a professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine, acknowledged that deaths and infections have dropped since the start of the vaccination program in December. But with the number of people getting vaccinated on the decline, the summer lull could turn into another winter surge, he warned. For context, daily vaccinations have dropped from a peak of nearly 2.5 million people in mid-April to fewer than 400,000, The Hill reported.
Experts say it’s possible the U.S. will not reach President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of American adults partially vaccinated by July 4. Currently, the CDC says that 65% of Americans over the age of 18 are at least partially vaccinated, while 55.2% are fully vaccinated.
… “What do we do if a critical percentage of this population chooses not to get vaccinated and chooses to allow this virus to continue to spread, continue to hurt themselves and others, and continue to create variants which become all the more contagious and all the more difficult to contain,” he said.
At present, the most troubling variant is the highly transmissible delta variant, which now accounts for 10% of U.S. COVID cases. Earlier this week, the CDC officially classified it a “variant of concern.”. The variant, also known as B.1.617.2, led to a surge in cases in India, where it was first identified, and is also prevalent across the United Kingdom.
But on a positive note, Offit said the vaccines now being given in the U.S. appear to offer strong protection against the novel disease.
“Although immunity might fade for protection against mild disease or asymptomatic infection or low moderate disease, I think protection against critical disease will probably be relatively long-lasting, meaning for a few years,” he said. “The so-called cellular immune response induced by these vaccines appears to be excellent.”
Wuhan’s Bat Lady Found ‘All Genes’ Required To Genetically Engineer SARS-Like Coronavirus: 2017 Report – ZeroHedge
Yet another piece of the pandemic puzzle has fallen into place – after being hidden in plain sight until it was wiped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) website.
Unearthed by The National Pulse‘s Natalie Winters, a Nov. 2017 report titled (no really): “Bats in China carry all the ingredients to make a new SARS virus,” describes how researchers at the WIV had identified ‘all the genes to make a SARS coronavirus similar to the epidemic strain,’ among 11 new strains of viruses collected in horseshoe bats.
“After five years of surveying bats in a cave in southern China’s Yunnan Province, Zhengli Shi and colleagues discovered 11 new strains of SARS-related viruses in horseshoe bats (especially in Rhinolophus sinicus). Within the strains, the researchers found all the genes to make a SARS coronavirus similar to the epidemic strain, says Shi, a virologist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
These new strains are more similar to the human version of SARS than were previously identified bat viruses, says Matthew Frieman, a virologist at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. -PLOS Pathogens
The article, which was recently wiped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s website, also notes that Shi and her colleagues found that “several of the strains” could grow in human cells.
“By analyzing the new viruses’ complete genetic makeup, Shi and her colleagues retraced the steps that might have given rise to the original SARS virus. A few spots in the viruses’ DNA seem particularly prone to rearrangement, so remixing happens often. The study suggests that recombination between viruses has shaped the evolution of SARS, says Baric.
Several of the strains could already grow in human cells, Shi’s team found. That indicates “there’s a chance that the viruses that exist in these bats could jump to people,” Frieman says. “Whether they will or not is anybody’s guess.”
Also in 2017, a subagency of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci – resumed funding a controversial grant to genetically modify bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China without the approval of a government oversight body, according to the Daily Caller. This comes after a temporary suspension of federal funding in 2014 for gain-of-function research by which bat COVID was genetically manipulated to be more transmissible to humans. Four months prior to that decision, the NIH effectively shifted this research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) via a grant to nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance, headed by Peter Daszak.
Notably, the WIV “had openly participated in gain-of-function research in partnership with U.S. universities and institutions” for years under the leadership of Dr. Shi ‘Batwoman’ Zhengli, according to the Washington Post‘s Josh Rogin.
In 2017, however, the “Potential Pandemic Pathogens Control and Oversight (P3CO) Framework was formed within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),” which was tasked with evaluating the risks involved with enhancing dangerous pathogens, as well as whether proper safeguards are in place, before a grant into ‘gain-of-function’ or similarly risky research can be issued.
Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) – the subagency which funded EcoHealth – didn’t think the grant needed review, and resumed their relationship with Daszak without flagging it for the P3CO committee, an NIH spokesperson told the Caller.
Or – and just hear us out, a random bat infected a yet-to-be determined intermediary animal species, which nobody has been able to identify after 18 months of searching, which then infected humans in Wuhan – coincidentally home to the bat coronavirus lab, before anywhere else in the world.
Canadian ambassador calls for close coordination in handling of US border – The Hill
Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman on Friday urged careful coordination between Canada and the U.S. following the announced extension of restrictions on nonessential travel between the two countries for another month.
“The prime minister and the president agreed in February that we would stay in close consultation on how we address the border,” Hillman said in a sit-down interview with The Hill.
“It doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily do things exactly the same way, we may not. But it does mean that we will try to have clear information for both Canadians and Americans and coordinators moving forward.”
Hillman’s call for ongoing cooperation came in response to a question about demands from Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the recently elected chair of the House Republican Conference, that the Biden administration take unilateral steps to ease coronavirus restrictions for nonessential travel.
Stefanik, whose district in upstate New York abuts the Canadian border, said in a Friday statement that extending the border restrictions to July 21 is “absolutely unacceptable to the families, businesses, and communities along the northern border.”
To meet its global vaccines pledge, the U.S. seeks to replace the millions of AstraZeneca doses under review. – New York Times
With less than two weeks remaining to fulfill President Biden’s pledge to share 80 million doses of coronavirus vaccine with countries in need, production problems at an Emergent BioSolutions manufacturing plant are forcing the administration to revise its plan to send AstraZeneca doses overseas.
Officials are now working to replace tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that it had initially planned to include in the donation with others made by Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, according to people familiar with the discussions. Those three vaccines are authorized for emergency use in the United States; AstraZeneca’s is not.
A pattern of serious lapses at the plant, in Baltimore, has thrown into question the fate of more than 100 million doses of both the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines made there. The Food and Drug Administration is poring over records of virtually every batch that Emergent produced to determine if the doses are safe. The F.D.A. has so far ruled that about 25 million Johnson & Johnson doses made at the factory can be released but has made no decision on the AstraZeneca doses.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine is significantly cheaper than the other three vaccines: The federal government paid less than $4 per dose, compared to as much as $19.50 for Pfizer. An administration official said that if the AstraZeneca doses made by Emergent are declared safe, the supply will ultimately be shared with other nations.
Protected them to death’: Elder-care COVID rules under fire – AP
Pandemic restrictions are falling away almost everywhere — except inside many of America’s nursing homes. Rules designed to protect the nation’s most vulnerable from COVID-19 are still being enforced even though 75% of nursing home residents are now vaccinated and infections and deaths have plummeted.
Frustration has set in as families around the country visit their moms and, this Father’s Day weekend, their dads. Hugs and kisses are still discouraged or banned in some nursing homes. Residents are dining in relative isolation and playing bingo and doing crafts at a distance. Visits are limited and must be kept short, and are cut off entirely if someone tests positive for the coronavirus.
Family members and advocates question the need for such restrictions at this stage of the pandemic, when the risk is comparatively low. They say the measures are now just prolonging older people’s isolation and accelerating their mental and physical decline.
“They have protected them to death,” said Denise Gracely, whose 80-year-old mother, Marian Rauenzahn, lives in a nursing home in Topton, Pennsylvania.
Rauenzahn had COVID-19 and then lost part of a leg to gangrene, but Graceley said what she struggled with the most was enforced solitude, going from six-day-a-week visits to none at all.
Rauenzahn’s daughters eventually won the right to see her once a week, and the nursing home now says it plans to relax the rules on visits for all residents in late June. But it has not been not enough, as far as Graceley is concerned.
Third wave of Covid ‘definitely under way’ in UK, says expert – The Guardian
A government scientific adviser has said a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is “definitely under way” as the vaccine programme races to outpace the Delta variant’s spread across the UK.
It comes after Public Health England reported a 79% rise in the number of cases of the variant first identified in India in a week. Hospital admissions have almost doubled.
Experts say the sudden increase is being driven by infections among younger people. The vaccination programme was opened up to people aged 18 and over on Friday and surge testing is being rolled out in parts of south London and Cumbria.
Prof Adam Finn, who is a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s going up, perhaps we can be a little bit optimistic it’s not going up any faster, but nevertheless it’s going up, so this third wave is definitely under way.
“We can conclude that the race is firmly on between the vaccine programme, particularly getting older people’s second doses done, and the Delta variant third wave.”
The same mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines could help treat cancer – USA Today
Companies like Moderna and Pfizer’s partner BioNTech, whose names are familiar from COVID-19 vaccines, are using mRNA to spur cancer patients’ bodies to make vaccines that will – hopefully – prevent recurrences and treatments designed to fight off advanced tumors.
If they prove effective, which won’t be known for at least another year or two, they could be added to the arsenal of immune therapies designed to get the body to fight off its own tumors.
“We feel pretty good about enrolling patients on these trials and are hopeful that ultimately they can demonstrate improved outcomes,” said Dr. Ryan Sullivan, a melanoma expert at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Sullivan doesn’t expect mRNA to be a miracle.
“This is not the answer,” he said. “But, hopefully, it’s part of the answer.”
Doctors are remaining cautious because cancer vaccine development “has been littered with vaccines that haven’t hit the mark,” said Dr. Stephen Hahn, who had a career as an oncologist before running the Food and Drug Administration from 2019 until early this year.
He said he’s more optimistic this time because of how much researchers have learned about the role the immune system plays in cancer.
The following are foreign headlines with hyperlinks to the posts
As COVID funeral pyres burn, India’s rural economy goes up in smoke
Oxygen in short supply in Afghanistan as country battles third wave of COVID-19
U.S. Triples Vaccine Doses to Taiwan as China Denies Blocking Access
Virus cases surge again in Russia, many from the Delta variant.
Moscow records highest daily increase in Covid-19 cases
The following additional national and state headlines with hyperlinks to the posts
“We Got Caught Off Guard”: Winchester President Discusses Ammo Shortage And What’s To Come
Joe Biden Says ‘Unlikely’ Delta Variant Will Cause National Lockdown
Today’s Posts On Econintersect Showing Impact Of The Pandemic and Recovery With Hyperlinks
Cryptos: What The Bizarre World Of Non-Fungible Tokens May Be Signaling
Four Factors Behind The Metals Price Rally
U.S. Restaurant Sales Climb As Pre-Pandemic Life Returns
Warning to Readers
The amount of politically biased articles on the internet continues. And studies and opinions of the experts continue to contradict other studies and expert opinions. Honestly, it is difficult to believe anything anymore.
I assemble this coronavirus update daily – sifting through the posts on the internet. I try to avoid politically slanted posts (mostly from CNN, New York Times, and the Washington Post) and can usually find unslanted posts on that subject from other sources on the internet. I wait to publish posts on subjects that I cannot validate across several sources. But after all this extra work, I do not know if I have conveyed the REAL facts. It is my job to provide information so that you have the facts necessary – and then it is up to readers to draw conclusions.
Analyst Opinion of Coronavirus Data
There are several takeaways that need to be understood when viewing coronavirus statistical data:
- The global counts are suspect for a variety of reasons including political. Even the U.S. count has issues as it is possible that as much as half the population has had coronavirus and was asymptomatic. It would be a far better metric using a random sampling of the population weekly. In short, we do not understand the size of the error in the tracking numbers.
- Just because some of the methodology used in aggregating the data in the U.S. is flawed – as long as the flaw is uniformly applied – you establish a baseline. This is why it is dangerous to compare two countries as they likely use different methodologies to determine who has (and who died) from coronavirus.
- COVID-19 and the flu are different but can have similar symptoms. COVID-19 so far is much more deadly than the flu. [click here to compare symptoms]
- From an industrial engineering point of view, one can argue that it is best to flatten the curve only to the point that the health care system is barely able to cope. This solution only works if-and-only-if one can catch this coronavirus once and develops immunity. In the case of COVID-19, herd immunity may need to be in the 80% to 85% range. WHO warns that few have developed antibodies to COVID-19 when recovering from COVID-19. Herd immunity does not look like an option as the variants are continuing to look for ways around immunity.
- Older population countries will have a significantly higher death rate as there is relatively few hospitalizations and deaths in younger age groups..
- There are at least 8 strains of the coronavirus.
What we do or do not know about the coronavirus [actually there is little scientifically proven information]. Most of our knowledge is anecdotal, from studies with limited subjects, or from studies without peer review.
- How many people have been infected as many do not show symptoms?
- Masks do work. Unfortunately, early in the pandemic, many health experts — in the U.S. and around the world — decided that the public could not be trusted to hear the truth about masks. Instead, the experts spread a misleading message, discouraging the use of masks.
- Current thinking is that we develop at least 12 months of immunity from further COVID infection.
- The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have an effectiveness rate of about 95 percent after two doses. That is on par with the vaccines for chickenpox and measles. The 95 percent number understates the effectiveness as it counts anyone who came down with a mild case of Covid-19 as a failure.
- To what degree do people who never develop symptoms contribute to transmission? Research early in the pandemic suggested that the rate of asymptomatic infections could be as high as 81%. But a meta-analysis, which included 13 studies involving 21,708 people, calculated the rate of asymptomatic presentation to be 17%.
- The accuracy of rapid testing is questioned – and the more accurate test results are not being given in a timely manner.
- Can children widely spread coronavirus? [current thinking is that they are a minor source of the pandemic spread]
- Why have some places avoided big coronavirus outbreaks – and others hit hard?
- Air conditioning contributes to the pandemic spread.
- It appears that there is increased risk of infection and mortality for those living in larger occupancy households.
- Male patients have almost three times the odds of requiring intensive treatment unit (ITU) admission compared to females.
- Outdoor activities seem to be a lower risk than indoor activities.
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