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For COVID19 NEWS LINKS LOG coverage from January 24, 2020 through September 19, 2020 scroll to bottom of page and follow link.
7/8/21: "... Global COVID-19 deaths top 4 million...The number of lives lost around the world over the past year and a half is about equal to the population of Los Angeles or the nation of Georgia. It is three times the number of victims killed in traffic accidents around the globe per year.
By some estimates, it is roughly the number of people killed in battle in all of the world’s wars since 1982. Even then, the toll is widely believed to be an undercount because of overlooked cases or concealment. More than six months after vaccines became available, reported COVID-19 deaths worldwide have dropped to around 7,800 a day, after topping out at over 18,000 a day in January. The World Health Organization recorded just under 54,000 deaths last week, the lowest weekly total since last October. While vaccination campaigns in the U.S. and parts of Europe are ushering in a period of post-lockdown euphoria, and children there are being inoculated so that they can go back to summer camp and school, infection rates are still stubbornly high in many parts of South America and Southeast Asia. And multitudes in Africa remain unprotected because of severe vaccine shortages. Also, the highly contagious delta variant is spreading rapidly, setting off alarms, driving up case counts in places and turning the crisis increasingly into a race between the vaccine and the mutant version. ..."
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5/4/21: "... UPDATE: The WHO COVID-19 Dashboard reports 153 million cases and 3.2 million deaths worldwide as of 5:00am EDT on May 4. The global weekly incidence remained relatively consistent from the previous week at 5.7 million new cases, a decrease of 0.6%. Global weekly mortality increased for the seventh consecutive week, up to 93,253 deaths. This is the highest weekly total since late January 2021 and the fourth highest weekly total to date. The COVID-19 epidemic in India continues to worsen, setting new global records for total daily incidence. India is currently reporting an average of 378,092 new cases per day. On April 30, India became the first country to report more than 400,000 new cases in a single day, but this was followed by 3 consecutive days of decreasing reports. India has reported more than 300,000 cases for 13 consecutive days, and it is currently reporting nearly 6.5 times the daily incidence in any other country and 47% of the global daily incidence. Global Vaccination: The WHO reported 1.05 billion doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines administered globally, including 564 million individuals with at least 1 dose. The WHO dashboard does not yet include data for daily or weekly vaccinations or fully vaccinated individuals. ..."
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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4/18/21: “...It took around 10 months from the first known cases of the disease before one million deaths were confirmed in late September last year. The loss of another million lives was recorded on January 14, according to data from Johns Hopkins University...”
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3/31/21: #Covid19 “... infections are rising again. The U.S. has averaged 65,000 new cases a day over the past week — a 19 percent increase from two weeks ago. That puts the country close to last summer’s peak, though still far below January levels. ...”
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3/23/21: “... Protease inhibitors are used to treat other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C. "Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic requires both prevention via vaccine and targeted treatment for those who contract the virus," Pfizer's chief scientific officer, Mikael Dolsten, said in a press release. "Given the way that SARS-CoV-2 is mutating and the continued global impact of COVID-19, it appears likely that it will be critical to have access to therapeutic options both now and beyond the pandemic." The trial comes as Pfizer is also working on an intravenously administered protease inhibitor, known as PF-07304814. That drug is currently in a phase 1b clinical trial in patients hospitalized with Covid-19. ...”
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3/16/21: “... Moderna is doing the tests to see if the vaccine protects children from getting sick if they come into contact with coronavirus, according to the clinical trial's patient information website. "We are pleased to begin this Phase 2/3 study of mRNA-1273 in healthy children in the U.S. and Canada," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a press release. "This pediatric study will help us assess the potential safety and immunogenicity of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in this important younger age population." ...”
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3/15/21: #Covid19 lesson. “... Puerto Ricans in the U.S. territory avoided overwhelming their already fragile health care system during the pandemic, mainly because of extraordinary measures the local government put in place early on — and people’s willingness to comply with them. "In Puerto Rico, the pandemic was never politicized," said Daniel Colón-Ramos, professor of cellular neuroscience at Yale University and president of Puerto Rico's Scientific Coalition, a group of experts advising Gov. Pedro Pierluisi on the island's Covid-19 response. "People were really rowing in the same direction." ...”
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3/12/21: Change. #Covid19 “... This week was the anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaring a global pandemic, but also of something deeper: It has been a year since we had to unexpectedly and dramatically alter the way we live. ...”
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3/8/21: "... New study warns Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines could be far less effective against South Africa variant..."
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3/8/21: The new CDC guidelines will allow a real, if qualified, return of freedoms once taken for granted for millions. They could also encourage vaccine skeptics to help create herd immunity needed to stop Covid-19 from spreading. | Analysis by @StCollinson
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3/6/21: #Covid19 B.1.1.7. variant: “... "Let me just say we are in the eye of the hurricane right now. It appears that things are going very well," Osterholm said. "We've been through a terrible, terrible year. But what we know is about to come upon us is the situation with this B.1.1.7. variant. A virus that originated in the United Kingdom, that today is wreaking havoc in parts of Europe." Osterholm noted that several countries in Europe have recently resorted to 2-month lockdowns in order to contain the new variants. Early research has found that its possible variants such as those from Brazil and South Africa are capable of re-infecting those who have already recovered from a previous COVID-19 case. ...”
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3/6/21: “... LONG-TERM EFFECTS IN CHILDREN A report from Kaiser Health News (KHN) discusses increases in pediatric cases of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC)—commonly referred to as “long COVID-19.” Perhaps the most serious of these conditions is multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which has been reported in at least 2,060 children across the US, including 33 deaths (through March 1, 2021). Black and Hispanic/Latino children are disproportionately affected, representing 66% of the reported cases. Children’s hospitals across the country are struggling to treat pediatric PASC patients, because so much remains unknown about the condition, particularly in children. Several facilities—including the University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio—are establishing dedicated clinics to treat these patients and gather data to better characterize the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 in pediatric patients. KHN notes that disparities in US health coverage could potentially lead to large out-of-pocket costs specialize care, particularly because uncertainty surrounding the condition could necessitate a large number of tests and treatments. With no available vaccine for children under age 16, and many school systems resuming in-person classes, in the US and around the world, it will be important to study the lasting effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection among children, including those with mild or asymptomatic infection in children. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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3/6/21: “... US Vaccination — The US CDC surpassed 100 million vaccine doses distributed (109.9 million) and 80 million million doses administered (82.6 million) nationwide. In total, 54.0 million people (16.3% of the entire US population; 21.2% of the adult population) have received at least 1 dose of the vaccine, and 27.8 million (8.4%; 10.9%) have received both doses. The US set a new record high for daily doses administered, with 1.8 million doses per day*. The breakdown of doses by manufacturer remains relatively steady, with slightly more Pfizer-BioNTech doses (42.2 million) than Moderna (40.3) doses administered nationwide. No doses of the J&J-Janssen vaccine have been reported yet. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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3/6/21: “... A more contagious coronavirus variant first discovered in the U.K. is spreading fast in the U.S., even as the overall number of cases is leveling off there. One analysis suggests the possibly more lethal British variant, known as B.1.1.7, accounts for more than 20 percent of new U.S. cases as of this week. Still, experts note that the low total case counts in states with a high share of B.1.1.7 are an encouraging sign. Some state officials have continued to lift restrictions steadily, despite worry over variants and warnings from top federal health officials, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, that doing so could be premature. On Friday, he said that the country had plateaued at between 60,000 and 70,000 new cases per day, and he warned that the U.S. could be headed for yet another surge in cases. ...”
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3/5/21: #Covid19 weekly report: “... UNITED STATES — The US CDC reported 28.58 million total cases and 517,224 deaths. The decline in daily incidence and mortality that persisted for the past several weeks appears to have leveled off to some degree. Daily incidence has remained between approximately 63-67,000 new cases per day since February 20, and daily mortality has hovered between approximately 1,900 and 2,100 deaths per day since February 19. Some of this trend could be the result of states catching up on reporting after recovering from severe winter weather, but it could be an early sign that the steep decline is coming to an end. Notably, both the daily incidence and mortality remain elevated, on par with or higher than the first 2 peaks. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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3/3/21: “Is the press too pessimistic about the pandemic? ... bad news about the pandemic. As I wrote last week, case and death counts remain objectively very high—yesterday, they again topped fifty-four thousand and one thousand eight hundred, respectively—and optimism about a general decline in rates shouldn’t obscure that gutting human cost. Trump may be gone from the federal government, but state leaders continue to make foolish decisions: yesterday, the governors of Texas and Mississippi moved to roll back mask mandates and other restrictions, defying CDC guidance and offering every news show a fretful counterpoint to the hope of Biden’s vaccine speech. As Ellen Ruppel Shell, a professor of science journalism at Boston University, told me last month, much coverage, in seesawing between good and bad news, has felt “schizophrenic,” and induced whiplash. Yesterday, the Timeswrote, in an article on the reopenings, that many Americans “are wondering whether to follow the lure of optimism, or to heed the warnings of health officials who say it’s premature to lift restrictions.” ...”
READ COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW
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3/3/21: #Covid19 “... The question is which risks bring enough benefit to be worth taking. Does it make sense to give people permission to shed their masks? Or crowd into enclosed spaces where they will exchange droplets of breath? Most scientists say no — and say that the changes have increased the chances of avoidable infection, illness and death. ...”
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3/3/21: #Covid19 Variant case in point. “... But Brazil is battling a more contagious variant that has trampled one major city and is spreading to others, even as Brazilians toss away precautionary measures that could keep them safe. On Tuesday, Brazil recorded more than 1,700 Covid-19 deaths, the highest single-day toll of the pandemic. ...”
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3/3/21: #Covid19 new variants becoming dominant by end of March — prudence not recklessness should be our watchword. “... The pandemic is a long way from over. The number of confirmed new cases has stopped falling in the past two weeks, both in the U.S. and worldwide, perhaps because of the spread of highly contagious new virus variants. In the U.S., the average daily number of cases is higher than at almost any point last summer. Over the past week, more than 2,000 Americans have died each day on average — worse than any point last summer. ...”
READ NYT
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3/3/21: #Covid19 new variants becoming dominant by end of March — prudence not recklessness should be our watchword. “... The pandemic is a long way from over. The number of confirmed new cases has stopped falling in the past two weeks, both in the U.S. and worldwide, perhaps because of the spread of highly contagious new virus variants. In the U.S., the average daily number of cases is higher than at almost any point last summer. Over the past week, more than 2,000 Americans have died each day on average — worse than any point last summer. ...”
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3/2/21: “... Chinese vaccines sweep much of the world, despite concerns. “We’re seeing certainly real-time vaccine diplomacy start to play out, with China in the lead in terms of being able to manufacture vaccines within China and make them available to others,” said Krishna Udayakumar, founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University. “Some of them donated, some of them sold, and some of them sold with debt financing associated with it.” ...”
READ AP
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2/26/21: Ocular connection to infection: “... Remarkably, a year after the COVID-19 outbreak, we remain ineffectual against widespread community infection. Perhaps, something major is missing in our approach? The importance of aerosols versus droplets 1 is debated—most viral transmission appears to be via virus-laden droplets, with the greatest risk in crowded, inadequately ventilated environments. Proximity to those infected poses the greatest risk. Currently, the presumed major viral invasion modalities involve inhalation or hand contamination of mucosal surfaces, despite studies to the contrary from a century ago 2 showing the importance of eyes as an influenza infection route. Ocular surface droplet deposition is greatly underappreciated as a probable, frequent route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission. ..”
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2/23/21: “... In the coming months, Covid will probably recede, as a result of vaccinations and growing natural immunity. But it will not disappear. “Some people have gotten this idea that we’re going to get to ‘Covid zero,’” Dr. Amesh Adalja of Johns Hopkins University told me. “That’s not realistic. It’s a fantasy.” ..."
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2/23/21: “... AP PHOTOS: US pandemic toll: In 1 year, half a million lives
Just one year ago, America had no idea. ...”
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2/23/21: “... The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. topped 500,000 Monday, a staggering number that all but matches the number of Americans killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined. ..,”
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2/23/21: “... The C.D.C. based its new recommendations for school openings on a series of persuasive studies published in December that made the case for the safety of schools, provided that masking, social distancing, hand-washing, adequate ventilation and contact tracing were in place. Covid rates in counties where in-person education was available, the C.D.C. reported on Jan. 13, were similar to those in communities where children were learning entirely remotely, results derived from data on nearly three million young people in dozens of communities nationwide. ...”
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2/23/21: “... It involves “masking, social distancing, hand-washing, adequate ventilation and contact tracing,” as Susan Dominus wrote (in a fascinating Times Magazine story on how Rhode Island mostly kept its schools open). It also involves setting up virtual alternatives for some students and staff members who want them. When schools have followed this approach, it has typically worked, according to research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others. ...”
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1/21/21: Herd Mentality first — then Herd Immunity becomes possible. “... "My feeling is that we're going to need somewhere around the line of somewhere under that 80%," Dr. Rubin said. As for how long it will take to get whatever that herd immunity threshold is? Some experts have estimated the population could reach herd immunity as early as April, while others are still projecting that won't come until 2022. ...”
#covid19
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2//21: “... One particularly worrying strain, first identified in the U.K., is doubling its presence in the U.S. every 10 days, according to a study published earlier this month. The study bolstered modeling done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which predicted last month that the more contagious variant could be the dominant strain in the U.S. by March. The U.S. still has time to take steps to slow down the new virus strain, the researchers wrote, but they warned that without “decisive and immediate public health action” the variant “will likely have devastating consequences to COVID-19 mortality and morbidity in the U.S. in a few months.” ...”
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2/21/21: Safe practices. “... "It's possible that that's the case," Fauci said of wearing masks in 2022. "It depends on the level of dynamics of virus that's in the community. If you see the level coming down really, really very low, I want it to keep coming down to a baseline that's so low that...there's a minimal, minimal threat you'll be exposed to someone who's infected." ...”
#covid19
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2/19/21: “... familiar with the idea of vaccine alarmism. It goes something like this: The coronavirus vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective. Vaccinated people may still be contagious. And the virus variants may make everything worse. So don’t change your behavior even if you get a shot. Much of this message has some basis in truth, but it is fundamentally misleading. The evidence so farsuggests that a full dose of the vaccine — with the appropriate waiting period after the second shot — effectively eliminates the risk of Covid-19 death, nearly eliminates the risk of hospitalization and drastically reduces a person’s ability to infect somebody else. All of that is also true about the virus’s new variants. ....”
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2/18/21: “... As we enter the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 2 million confirmed deaths worldwide, 1 it is increasingly apparent that, as tragic and grim as this statistic is, it might be just the tip of the iceberg with respect to the collateral damage inflicted on the social, economic, psychological, and physical wellbeing of people around the world. Furthermore, many of these consequences will not only reverberate for months and years to come, but will also have unequal and profound effects on different societies and specific subgroups within societies. ...”
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2/17/21: “... The recent spikes in reported mortality make it difficult to get an accurate picture of the longer-term national trend. The mortality reported on February 11, however, could provide some insight. February 11 was the first day after the 7-day average window following February 4, and it was also the day prior to the largest report from Ohio. The average national daily mortality of 2,784 deaths per day on February 11 did include the first elevated report from Ohio, but it provides some indication that the true daily mortality is much lower than the current average of 3,136 deaths per day. This is the lowest daily mortality since January 6, prior to the estimated peak mortality in mid-to-late January, and it provides further evidence that daily mortality continues to decrease nationally. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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2/17/21: “... Life expectancy in the U.S. fell by a full year in early 2020, the largest drop since World War II and a sign of the pandemic’s toll. ...”
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2/17/21: “... An appropriate goal, experts say, is three million shots per day — probably by April. At that pace, half of adults would receive their first shot by April and all adults who wanted a shot could receive one by June, saving thousands of lives and allowing normal life to return by midsummer. ...”
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2/16/21: “... The Indian government has also partly attributed the dip in cases to mask-wearing, which is mandatory in public in India and violations draw hefty fines in some cities. But experts have noted the situation is more complicated since the decline is uniform even though mask compliance is flagging in some areas. It’s more than just an intriguing puzzle; determining what’s behind the drop in infections could help authorities control the virus in the country, which has reported nearly 11 million cases and over 155,000 deaths. Some 2.4 million people have died worldwide. ...”
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2/14/21: Think again. “... Nevertheless, health experts warned the country has a long way to go before celebrating a turning point in the pandemic. "We are still at around 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day. The cases are more than two-and-a-half-fold times what we saw over the summer," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Meet the Press. ... “...said, "But this is a really worrisome time to be doing that because we're so deeply worried about the potential spread of these variants." ...” #covid19
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2/14/21: “... More than 38 million Americans have so far received at least their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine -- but it's not the vaccinations that have driven Covid-19 numbers down across the US, one expert told CNN. "It's what we're doing right: staying apart, wearing masks, not traveling, not mixing with others indoors," Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday. ...”
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2/15/21: “... The rate of symptomatic Covid-19 -- meaning people who were infected with the coronavirus and felt sick -- decreased by 94% among people who received two doses of the vaccine, according to a press release from Clalit. The rate of serious illness decreased by 92%. ...”
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2/15/21: “... “The answer, ultimately, is going to be yes,” he said during the interview Thursday. However, that's if everyone in the group is fully vaccinated. Fauci urged more caution if only one party has received the vaccine, since people who have been vaccinated could potentially harbor virus in their nose and transmit it to others. “That's the reason why we say, until we have the overwhelming majority of people vaccinated, and the level of virus is very low, if you're vaccinated, it would be prudent to wear a mask,” Fauci said. While we don’t yet know the extent of how much the vaccine limits transmission, early data from Moderna and AstraZeneca suggests a modest protection against asymptomatic infection, and therefore a lower ability to spread the virus. ...”
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2/14/21: “... The document says that middle and high schools can safely operate in person at all but the highest level of transmission, which is defined in two ways: when 10 percent or more of the coronavirus tests in a community come back positive over a seven-day period; or when there are 100 or more virus cases per 100,000 people in the community over seven days. ...”
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2/11/21: #Covid19 “... Will we become complacent?
The first thing to watch in coming days is whether Super Bowl parties turned into superspreader events that have caused new outbreaks. The next question will be whether the recent decline causes Americans to become lax again, as happened both last summer and fall. New York, Massachusetts and other states have begun lifting some restrictions, and many public experts are worried that politicians will go too far in this direction. Doing so in coming weeks would be especially dangerous because of the growing spread of more contagious virus variants. ...”
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2/11/21: “... It’s been a long time since the virus news was as encouraging as it is right now. The overall situation is still bad. The virus is spreading more rapidly in the U.S. than in almost any other large country, and more than 2,500 Americans are dying daily. Newly contagious variants may create future outbreaks. For now, though, things are getting better — and a combination of vaccinations, mask wearing and social distancing has the potential to sustain the recent progress. ...”
READ NYT
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2/9/21: "... The WHO COVID-19 Dashboard reports 106.13 million cases and 2.32 million deaths as of 11am EST on February 9. The global weekly incidence decreased for the fourth consecutive week, down to 3.12 million new cases last week, the lowest weekly total since mid-October. This is a 17.7% decrease from the previous week and a 38.2% decrease from the peak in reported incidence in early January. After holding relatively steady for the last 2 weeks of January, global weekly mortality decreased for the first time since mid-October, a decline of 10% compared to the previous week. If this is indicative of a longer-term trend, it would correspond to approximately 3-4 weeks after the peak in global weekly incidence.
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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2/6/21: “... Why Opening Restaurants Is Exactly What the Coronavirus Wants Us to Do. Governors continue to open indoor dining and other activities before vaccinations become widespread. Experts warn this could create superspreading playgrounds for dangerous variants and squander our best shot at getting the pandemic under. To justify their reopening decisions, governors point to falling case counts. “We make decisions based on facts,” Cuomo said. “New York City numbers are down.” But epidemiologists and public health experts say a crucial factor is missing from these calculations: the threat of new viral variants. One coronavirus variant, which originated in the United Kingdom and is now spreading in the U.S., is believed to be 50% more transmissible. The more cases there are, the faster new variants can spread. Because the baseline of case counts in the U.S. is already so high — we’re still averaging about 130,000 new cases a day — and because the spread of the virus grows exponentially, cases could easily climb past the 300,000-per-day peak we reached in early January if we underestimate the variants, experts said. ..."
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2/4/21: “... But it was unclear whether the vaccines could also suppress transmission of the virus — that is, whether someone inoculated could still acquire the virus without getting sick and spread it to others. As a result, experts have been saying that even people who have been vaccinated should continue to wear masks and keep their distance from others. Volunteers in the British study underwent regular nasal swabs to check for the coronavirus, a proxy to try to answer the transmission question. The level of virus-positive swabs — combining volunteers who had asymptomatic infection with those who had symptoms — was 67% lower in the vaccinated group, the researchers reported. While not a direct measure, “that’s got to have a really beneficial effect on transmission,” Oxford lead researcher Sarah Gilbert told a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences Wednesday. ..."
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2/3/21: “... More Than 108 Million Shots Given: Covid-19 Tracker - In the U.S., 35 million doses have been administered; rollout goes global ...”
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2/3/21: “... AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford released data showing that none of the 12,408 people who had received a vaccine shot died from Covid symptoms or were hospitalized with them. That’s consistent with earlier results for that vaccine, as well as initial results for four other vaccines — from Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer. Researchers found that the AstraZeneca vaccine also slows the transmission of the virus, underscoring the importance of mass vaccination as a path out of the pandemic. A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet, a British medical journal, found that Russia’s vaccine, known as Sputnik V, also offered complete protection against serious Covid illnesses. Dr. Angela Rasmussen of Georgetown University called it “great news” and added, “We need more vaccines globally.” (Related: The New Yorker’s Joshua Yaffa and The Times’s Andrew Kramer, who are both based in Moscow, have written about why they got the Sputnik vaccine.) An important caveat: The vaccines’ protection doesn’t kick in immediately. It often takes at least a couple of weeks. The British government said that a variant of the virus first observed there had the potential to make the vaccines less effective. But that’s less alarming than it may sound. For now, the concern is hypothetical: No data shows the vaccines to be ineffective on the British variant. Even if they are less effective, other evidence suggests that modest levels of vaccine protection may almost always be enough to downgrade Covid to an ordinary flu. “Lately, when I talk to reporters, they expect me to be very worried about Covid variants. But I’m not,” Dr. Ellie Murray of the Boston University School of Public Health wrote on Twitter. “Why? Because we know what works to control Covid.” She is more worried about “the lack of action” to promote social distancing, encourage mask wearing and accelerate vaccination, she added. ...”
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2/2/21: “... UNITED STATES
The US CDC reported 26.03 million total cases and 439,955 deaths. The US is currently averaging 3,145 deaths per day, and it could surpass 450,000 cumulative deaths in the next 3-4 days. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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2/1/21: “... What do we care about? In the official language of research science, a vaccine is typically considered effective only if it prevents people from coming down with any degree of illness. With a disease that’s always or usually horrible, like ebola or rabies, that definition is also the most meaningful one.
But it’s not the most meaningful definition for most coronavirus infections. Whether you realize it or not, you have almost certainly had a coronavirus. Coronaviruses have been circulating for decades if not centuries, and they’re often mild. The common cold can be a coronavirus. The world isn’t going to eliminate coronaviruses — or this particular one, known as SARS-CoV-2 — anytime soon. Yet we don’t need to eliminate it for life to return to normal. We instead need to downgrade it from a deadly pandemic to a normal virus. Once that happens, adults can go back to work, and children back to school. Grandparents can nuzzle their grandchildren, and you can meet your friends at a restaurant. As Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told me this weekend: “I don’t actually care about infections. I care about hospitalizations and deaths and long-term complications.” ...”
READ NYT
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2/1/21: “... Here’s the key fact: All five vaccines with public results have eliminated Covid-19 deaths. They have also drastically reduced hospitalizations. “They’re all good trial results,” Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told me. “It’s great news.” ..."
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1/31/21: #Covid19 #Variants “... “It is a pivotal moment,” one virologist said. “It is a race with the new variants to get a large number of people vaccinated before those variants spread.” Maryland and South Carolina identified their first cases of the variant from South Africa. A variant from Brazil was detected in Minnesota this week, and one from Britain has been detected in at least 30 states. ..."
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1/30/21: #Covid19 — “... Yesterday, the US daily mortality returned to approximately 3,300 deaths per day. Overall, the daily mortality has remained relatively consistent for more than 2 weeks. Whether steady at approximately 3,300 or 3,100** deaths per day, the overall daily mortality has not fluctuated much from day to day since mid-January. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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1/30/21: #Covid19Vaccine — “... In contrast to the existing SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, the J&J/Janssen vaccine requires only a single dose, so while the efficacy is lower than for other products, it could provide benefit in terms of accelerating vaccination coverage. Additionally, it can be stored for up to 3 months at refrigerator temperature (ie, 35.6-46.4°F; 2-8°C). J&J intends to submit its application for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the US FDA in “early February” with the goal of having supply available to distribute immediately. Even without efficacy in the 90%+ range, the J&J/Janssen is expected to be another valuable tool in combating COVID-19. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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1/28/21: AARP Bulletin January/February 2021: “How to beat Covid this year” are points about the #Covid19vaccines. SEE CLIP SECTION “Once I’m fully vaccinated, can I go back to normal life?
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1/28/21: “... Two viruses found in the samples, taken from
horseshoe bats in northeastern Cambodia in 2010 and identified in research released on Tuesday, have a 92.6 per cent similarity to SARS-CoV-2 behind the Covid-19 pandemic. That makes them the closest relatives uncovered outside China and adds new information to the investigation into where the pathogen came from. The closest known relative to the virus that causes
Covid-19 is a bat virus found in southwest China’s Yunnan province, which has a 96.2 per cent similarity. ...”
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1/26/21: “... On January 25, Moderna announced preliminary resultsfrom a study assessing the current vaccine’s efficacy against emerging variants, including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351. Compared to reference strains, the vaccine did not exhibit any decrease in neutralizing antibody titers against the B.1.1.7 variant. Conversely, the vaccine exhibited a 6-fold reduction in neutralizing antibodies effective against the B.1.351 variant, which could indicate a lesser degree of protection or faster waning of immunity. A press release from the company indicated that while the immune response was lower, the vaccine did offer some protection. Considering that the immune response from the vaccine appears to be stronger than from natural infection, a moderate decrease in efficacy could still provide a meaningful degree of protection. In response to the concerning results, Moderna announced that it is in the process of developing a new booster that is tailored to provide increased protection against the B.1.351 variant. Additionally, Moderna is testing the effect of a second booster dose of the existing vaccine to determine any additional benefit in terms of protection against the B.1.351 variant. Considering that Moderna’s existing vaccine is already authorized for use in multiple countries, it is unclear what the regulatory review process would look like for a new booster or an additional booster dose. ..."
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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1/26/21: #UK mutation. “... mortality risk was significantly higher in individuals infected with the B.1.1.7 variant across multiple age groups, with increases ranging from 29% to 91% in multiple studies. ... the new variant may be associated with an increased risk of death, in addition to its increased transmissibility. He noted that the mortality risk could be on the order of 30-40% higher for some individuals, but he also said that further analysis is needed to better characterize this relationship. Analysis published by the UK’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) found that that mortality risk was significantly higher in individuals infected with the B.1.1.7 variant across multiple age groups, with increases ranging from 29% to 91% in multiple studies. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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1/28/21: #covid19 “... “I like the trends we are seeing, and I am personally hopeful that things are going to get better,” Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told me. “But there are a number of things that could also wrong.” ...”
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Today January 24, 2021 is one year from my first Covid-19 News Log post on Facebook :
First post from 1/24/20: (Worldwide) “...There are more than 1,000 confirmed cases of infection, and at least 41 people have died. A total of 8,420 people are reported to be under observation....” (read first post here - then click previous Comments to read further back) :
On January 23, 2021 THE UNITED STATES ALONE reported 25 MILLION CASES and the nation has SURPASSED 400,000 TOTAL DEATHS.
The situation is dire. If we are to ever move beyond this we need a national resolve.
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1/23/21: “The South African coronavirus mutation can infect multiple times, could hamper vaccine : A new study reveals that a large number of people with COVID-19 antibodies may not be protected from the new strain...mutant strain of the novel coronavirus discovered in South Africa appears to be able to ward off antibodies from individuals who had previously recovered from COVID-19 — meaning if the new strain becomes widespread, we may see more people getting infected multiple times. .."
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1/23/21: “... The UK government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance stressed that while he was "confident" that the new variant was more transmissible, the evidence remained "not yet strong" and "uncertain" that it was more deadly. However, he said the early signs that the new variant could be up to 30% more deadly. ...”
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1/23/21" "... The face mask that could end the pandemic : N95 masks are considered the gold standard in personal protective equipment because they block 95% of large and small particles utilizing a unique electrostatic filter. The filter works by trapping neutral particles like bacteria and viruses before they pass through the mask, protecting the wearer and those around them. It's similar to how socks might get stuck to a blanket in the dryer. The N95 mask, which costs roughly $5, also fits securely to the face, eliminating most of the leakage that may occur with a loose-fitting cloth or paper mask. Studies have shown that masks significantly decrease the chances of transmitting or contracting the coronavirus. But not all masks provide equal protection. Depending on the fabric and number of layers, homemade and simple cloth masks have a range of effectiveness that can be as low as 26%, which leaves the wearer vulnerable.
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1/22/21: “... “Twenty-five million cases is an incredible scale of tragedy,” said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who called the coronavirus pandemic one of the worst public health crises in history. ...”
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1/22/21: “... Biden Unveils National Strategy That Trump Resisted : President Biden, seeking to assert leadership over the coronavirus pandemic, signed a string of executive orders and presidential directives on Thursday aimed at creating the kind of centralized authority that the Trump administration had shied away from. The orders included new requirements for masks on interstate planes, trains and buses, the creation of a national testing board and mandatory quarantines for international travelers arriving in the United States. Mr. Biden predicted that the national death toll from Covid-19 would top 500,000 next month, refusing to play down the carnage that his predecessor was loath to acknowledge. The mask requirement for public transportation, coupled with the order Mr. Biden issued on Wednesday requiring mask-wearing in all federal facilities, edges the country toward the kind of comprehensive mask mandate that has dominated debate at the state and local level between public health advocates and those defending what they called individual liberty. Mr. Biden described his approach as a “full-scale wartime effort,” but his chief medical adviser for the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, made it clear how difficult the task would be. Appearing in the White House briefing room for the first time since November, Dr. Fauci said powerful treatments using manufactured antibodies, which were used on President Donald J. Trump, were not effective against more infectious variants of the virus circulating in South Africa and Brazil, which have not yet emerged in the United States. And while the current vaccines still work against the new variants, the immune response they induce might be slightly diminished, he said, adding even more urgency to quickly vaccinating people. The nation, he said, is “still in a very serious situation.”
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1/19/21: “... Researchers from the US CDC COVID-19 Response Team projected that the B.1.1.7 variant would contribute to a rapid growth in cases in the US early in 2021. The B.1.1.7 has been identified in 122 cases in 20 US states, including California and Florida with at least 40 reported cases each. CDC officials projected that the B.1.1.7 variant is likely to become the dominant variant in the US. In order to avoid uncontrolled spread of this variant, health experts encourage individuals to recommit to recommended control measures such as mask wearing, physical distancing, and enhanced hygiene. The CDC also indicated that rapid vaccination, at the level of 1 million doses administered per day, could dramatically decrease spread of COVID-19, including the B.1.1.7 variant. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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1/18/21: "... One in eight recovered COVID patients die from illness complications within 5 months: UK study: The research also found a higher risk of problems developing in various organs after people younger than 70 and ethnic minorities were discharged from the hospital,according to the Guardian. “People seem to be going home, getting long-term effects, coming back in and dying. We see nearly 30 percent have been readmitted, and that’s a lot of people. The numbers are so large,” study author Kamlesh Khunti said. “The message here is we really need to prepare for long COVID. It’s a mammoth task to follow up with these patients and the NHS is really pushed at the moment, but some sort of monitoring needs to be arranged,” added Khunti, a professor of primary care diabetes and vascular medicine at Leicester University. ..."
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1/18/21: "... Covid-19 Live Updates: Officials Around Globe Failed in Initial Response, W.H.O. Panel Says: Nearly one year after the virus was first detected in the U.S., the country surpassed 24 million coronavirus cases and Los Angeles County became the nation’s first to surpass one million recorded infections. The nation is also hurtling toward 400,000 total deaths. ..."
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1/15/21: “... On January 12 and 13, the US reported 4,131 and 4,096 deaths, respectively. These are the second and third highest daily totals to date*, and this is the first time since the onset of the pandemic that the US reported more than 4,000 deaths on consecutive days. The current average daily mortality (3,357 deaths per day) is 17.5% higher than the peak of the initial US surge in April, and the average mortality has remained higher than the initial peak for 6 consecutive days. The US reported 23,502 new COVID-19 deaths in the past week, which exceeds the estimated 22,000 seasonal influenza deaths for the entire US 2019-20 influenza season. If the US is, in fact, approaching a peak or plateau in terms of daily incidence, we can expect mortality to continue increasing for at least the next 2-3 weeks. ...” ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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1/12/21: #Covid19pandemic Updates: “... Although the variants do not seem to cause increased morbidity or mortality, #WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the continued emergence of highly transmissible variants is “highly problematic.” While these variants may each exhibit similar mutations and characteristics, it appears that they have all emerged independently. The wide geographic distribution of emerging variants is concerning for control efforts, because the emergence and evolution of the virus, including the effects on the virus’ characteristics, are unpredictable. Continued and renewed efforts in genomic surveillance are necessary in order to monitor the geographic spread of existing #variants and quickly identify the emergence of new ones. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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1/11/21: “... Bloomberg reported that Japanese officials said they do not yet know the infectiousness of the new variant and that it was found in four people arriving from Brazil. Experts say they have not yet seen evidence that new variants cause more severe disease or are resistant to vaccines, but they are still studying the issue, and an increased infectiousness poses an increased threat to hospitals. ...”
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1/10/21: “... The variant has already been found in about 45 countries. New York is one of eight states in the United States with the variant, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...”
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1/8/20: “... The researchers modeled various scenarios, with variables including vaccine supply, protection provided by the first dose and waning efficacy of the first dose if the second dose is delayed. Only in the unlikely worst-case scenario of a collapse in supply and minimal protection among individuals who have received the first dose would the model suggest that withholding 50% of available supply provides better protection. ...”
READ CNN
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1/6/20: #covid19 not going away any time soon — but getting worse. “...doctors face or brace for rising numbers of COVID-19 patients after end-of-year holiday gatherings, more and more countries are reporting cases of a new, more contagious variant that has already swept across Britain. January is going to be “a tough one,” said Dr. Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. “This idea that seems to be ‘Ah, we’re all sick of it. We want to look at something else. Oh, this doesn’t apply to me’ ... that’s got to go away. It really is all hands on deck.” ...”
READ AP
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1/4/20: “... England will go under a new strict national lockdown through mid-February in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a Monday address. This move is the country's latest attempt to curb the coronavirus, including a new and more contagious strain, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom. The variant has been sweeping through England, threatening to overwhelm an already strained health care system. ...”
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1/4/20: #covid19 B.1.1.7 Variant: “...The variants already seem to have spread around much of the world. More than 30 other countries, including the U.S., have diagnosed cases with the variant first detected in Britain, which is known as B.1.1.7. Scientists say that it could soon become the dominant form of the virus. The B.1.1.7 variant appears to be between 10 percent and 60 percent more transmissible than the original version. One possible reason: It may increase the amount of the virus that infected people carry in their noses and throats, which in turn would raise the likelihood that they infect others through breathing, talking, sneezing, coughing and so on. ...”
READ NYT
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1/3/20: “... The pedestrian pace of Covid-19 vaccinations in the US came under new scrutiny on Sunday, as the pandemic death toll passed 350,000and experts warned of another surge in infections and deaths arising from gatherings at Christmas and New Year. Leading public health expert Dr Anthony Fauci issued an implicit rebuke to Donald Trump, who claimed in tweets on Sunday morning that case numbers were being exaggerated and deaths wrongly attributed. “Go into the trenches,” Fauci told NBC’s Meet the Press. “Go into the hospitals, go into the intensive care units and see what is happening. Those are real numbers, real people and real deaths.” ...”
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12/31/20: “... The 2.1 million administered doses reported by the C.D.C. is an underestimate of the true number because of lags in reporting. And a C.D.C. official said in a separate news conference on Wednesday that 2.6 million people had received their first dose. Whatever the number, it falls far short of the goal that federal officials put forward as recently as this month to have 20 million people vaccinated by the end of this year. ...”
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12/30/20: “... The first patient had no known travel history, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Tuesday. In part because of that, there is a good chance the variant has been spreading within the community, William Haseltine, chair and president of the global health think tank ACCESS Health International, told CNN Wednesday. The variant emerged in the UK in September, and US health officials have said in recent days as it became prevalent in the United Kingdom that it is probably already in the United States. ...”
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12/8/20: “...the biggest factor that will determine how many more people die from the virus isn’t likely to be the precise effectiveness of the vaccines or even the speed of their rollout. The biggest factor is instead likely to be how much we reduce the spread of the virus over the next few months, through a combination of mask wearing, social distancing and expanded testing. Those efforts can cut caseloads — and, by extension, deaths — more rapidly than a mass vaccination campaign can. ...”
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12/29/20: “... “If you want to have enough vaccine to vaccinate all the people in the U.S. who you’d like to vaccinate — up to 85% or more of the population — you’re going to need more than two companies,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press on Monday. The coronavirus is blamed for about 1.8 million deaths worldwide, including more than 330,000 in the U.S. This has been the deadliest month of the outbreak in the U.S. yet, with about 65,000 deaths in December so far, according to the COVID Tracking Project. ...”
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12/28/20: “... He said: “Does it make someone more ill? Is it more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is, it doesn’t appear to be that way.” British officials are telling their U.S. colleagues it appears that the vaccines being rolled out will be strong enough to deal with the new variant but, Fauci said, “we’re going to be doing the studies ourselves. Fauci said the U.S. is at a critical phase of the pandemic, with the worst probably still ahead. He predicted the general population would be getting immunized widely by late March or early April — beyond the front-line workers, older people and certain other segments of the public given priority for the vaccines. ...”
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12/28/20: “...As the US prepares to grapple with potential holiday Covid-19 surges, hospitals across the country have reported more than 100,000 patients for the 26th day in a row. December has been a devastating month for coronavirus spread in the US. More than 63,000 Americans have died so far this month -- the most since the pandemic began -- bringing the total to more than 333,000 people lost to the virus in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. With a total of 19.1 million people infected, there are now 118,720 people currently hospitalized, the Covid Tracking project reported. ...”
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12/27/20: “... December has been the nation's deadliest month since the Covid-19 pandemic's start -- with more than 63,000 Americans lost to the virus in the past 26 days. In comparison, the entire month of November saw about 36,964 deaths. The grim death toll comes on the heels of several brutal months for the US, with Covid-19 ravaging communities from coast to coast, crippling hospital systems and prompting new widespread restrictions. The authorization of two Covid-19 vaccines earlier in December offered some hope of a light at the end of the tunnel -- but experts continue to warn that while the end is in sight, the pandemic is not over and another surge stemming from Christmas travel and gatherings could be on its way. ...”
READ CNN
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12/26/20: “... California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a video posted on Facebook and Twitter that the number of Californians hospitalized because of the coronavirus could double in 30 days if current trends continue. ...”
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12/25/20: “... "Testing 72 hours before a flight is going to miss a lot of people," said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine, who pointed out that the new variant appeared in the UK three months ago and is likely already in the United States. On the other hand, testing on the day of departure may be more effective, reducing the risk of transmission by 37 to 61%, according to the CDC scientists' November report, which is based on mathematical modeling and has not been peer reviewed. Health officials have been anxious to curtail the spread the UK variant, which appears to transmit more easily than other coronavirus strains. ...”
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12/25/20: “...Curfews, quarantines and even border closings complicated Christmas celebrations Friday for countless people around the globe, but ingenuity, determination and imagination helped keep the day special for many.”
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12/24/20: Spread = Mutations: “...this new variant, called B.1.1.7, the virus has acquired 17 mutations all at once that change the virus' proteins, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which affect four different viral proteins: the spike protein, ORF1ab, Orf8 and the N protein, the major nucleocapsid. ..."
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12/24/20: Paradox: “... with the 69-70del mutation we may be facing a medical paradox. In an effort to save the lives of the immuno-compromised who were infected with the virus, providers sometimes administered multiple rounds of antibody treatments to their patients. In some cases, patients would recover after one round of treatment only to fall ill again and require another dose. Even in a single patient, immune suppression over a period of weeks and sometimes months gives the virus a multitude of opportunities to learn our best defenses and to mutate to become more effective at evading our immune system. While administering antibody treatments may save one human life, a UK study hypothesized that it could also facilitate the creation of new strains of the virus. ...”
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12/23/20: “... In the biggest shopping month of the year, parking lots at malls and retail centers are packed. Such stores are among the few indoor operations allowed to stay open with stated capacity limits. Mobility data from Google suggests that Newsom's December stay-home orders have barely made a dent in keeping people home compared to previous months, though the baseline doesn't say whether it may have tamped down traffic compared to last December. Rutherford doesn’t think the general population fully grasps the seriousness of the current surge. “People think they can negotiate with the virus,” he said. “Here's a hint: They can’t.” ...”
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12/23/20: ”...Not until there’s enough data from studies in different age groups, which will stretch well into next year. The Pfizer vaccine authorized in the U.S. this month is for people 16 and older...”
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12/22/20: “... Sahin said that the proteins on the UK variant are 99% the same as on the prevailing strains, and therefore BioNTech has “scientific confidence” that its vaccine will be effective. “But we will know it only if the experiment is done and we will need about two weeks from now to get the data,” he said. “The likelihood that our vaccine works ... is relatively high.” ...”
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12/22/20: “... Vaccines are here, bringing hope of the pandemic’s end. But even when you get your dose, it won’t mean an immediate return to life as you knew it. Scientists cite several reasons for staying masked and cautious as you start your post-vaccine life. Vaccines don’t offer perfect protection; we don’t yet know whether vaccinated people can spread the virus; and coronavirus is likely to continue its rapid spread until a large majority of the population is vaccinated or has survived a natural infection. ...
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12/22/20: “...this variant known as B.1.1.7 ... Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, estimates that the variant has an increased transmission rate of 50 to 70 percent compared with other variants in the United Kingdom. ... Some scientists have raised the possibility that the increase in transmission is at least partly the result of how it infects children. Normally, children are less likely than teenagers or adults to get infected or pass on the virus. But the new strain may make children “as equally susceptible as adults,” said Wendy Barclay, government adviser and virologist at Imperial College London. ... “According to what we already know, it does not alter the effectiveness of social distancing, face masks, hand washing, hand sanitizers and ventilation,” Dr. Muge Cevik, an infectious disease specialist at the University of St. Andrews School of Medicine ...”
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12/21/20: ... “... The final chart may be the most alarming: Deaths in the U.S. are almost certain to rise in the coming weeks — probably to more than 3,000 a day, which would be by far the highest level yet. ... All of this points to the same conclusion. As encouraging as the vaccine news is, most Americans will not be vaccinated for at least another several months, leaving plenty of time for the virus to do damage. And absent a rapid change in the country’s approach, tens of thousands of more Americans will needlessly die. ...”
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12/20/20: “... "The longer this virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to change," she said. "So we really need to do everything we can right now to prevent spread, and minimizing that spread will reduce the chances of it changing." ...”
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12/20/20: “... “Can the virus found on cold chain packages infect people? How high does the concentration of the virus need to be to cause infection? How many days can the virus survive [outside the body]? These new questions require us to find patterns and study preventive measures,” Zhong said at the Jinyu Medical Academic Committee Symposium in Guangzhou in southern China. ...”
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12/19/20: “... The variant is up to 70 percent more transmissible than earlier versions, officials said, though some scientists are skeptical. People in southeast England, including London, were told to stay at home. ..”
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12/19/20: “... With intensive care units full and projections showing big increases in hospitalizations through New Year’s Day, Southern California’s medical system is faced with the prospect of not being able to provide critical medical care to everyone who needs it, which would significantly increase the chances of patients dying as they wait for help. ...”
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12/18/20: “... The United States has logged its second-worst day of the pandemic after shattering records just one day earlier. On Thursday, the U.S. recorded over 233,000 new infections and nearly 3,300 deaths. Intensive care units in Southern California and other parts of the state report they’ve run out of ICU beds. On average, two people are dying of COVID-19 each hour in Los Angeles. ...”
DEMOCRACY NOW
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12/17/20: “... The U.S. on Wednesday reported the highest number of new cases of the coronavirus and the most COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began. As of 1:30 a.m. Thursday, more than 3,600 Americans died Wednesday from complications of the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking coronavirus infection data. ...”
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12/15/20: “... The ambitious initiative known as COVAX created to ensure the entire world has access to COVID-19 vaccines has secured only a fraction of the 2 billion doses it hopes to buy over the next year, has yet to confirm any actual deals to ship out vaccines and is short on cash. The virus that has killed more than 1.6 million people has exposed vast inequities between countries, as fragile health systems and smaller economies were often hit harder. ...”
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12/15/20: ”...Britain's Lockdown: London and its surrounding locales will be placed under the highest level of restrictions beginning Wednesday as infections rise rapidly in the capital. The government said it must take swift action after seeing “very sharp, exponential rises” in cases, with some areas doubling the number of infections every seven days. Under Tier 3 restrictions, the most stringent level, people can’t socialize indoors, and bars, pubs and restaurants must close except for takeout. Sylvia Hui reports from London. ...”
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12/15/20: “... Covid-19 surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield said in public remarks last week, referring to a breakdown of deaths for a week in early December. Almost the same number of Americans are being lost to the disease each day as were killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks or the attack on Pearl Harbor. ... On the day that the vaccine put the end of the pandemic within sight, the confirmed death toll from the virus in the U.S. exceeded 300,000. ...”
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12/13/20: “... ”The U.S. now hopes to have about 40 million doses in 2020, down from a goal of 300 million. But only about 20 million people may get their first shots this month, because the leading vaccines require two doses.” ...”
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12/11/20: “... The US also reported 3,411 deaths yesterday, and the average daily mortality climbed to 2,319 deaths per day. On April 15 New York City reported more than 3,700 previously unreported probable deaths identified since the onset of its epidemic. The US COVID-19 epidemic is more deadly now than at any point to date, and it is still accelerating. At this rate, the US will reach a cumulative mortality of 300,000 deaths in the next 5 days. Additionally, the US could surpass 330,000 deaths—which corresponds to approximately 0.1% of the entire US population or 1 death for every 1,000 people—in the next 2.5 weeks. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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12/11/20: “... Russia and Germany reported record daily Covid-19 deaths on Friday, and October was Russia's deadliest month in a decade. Stockholm's intensive care units hit 99% capacity as Sweden proposed a spring "pandemic law" to potentially force closures of certain public spaces. And France said its lockdown would not be eased as planned on Tuesday after daily case numbers rose on Thursday compared with last week. ...
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12/10/20: “... Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine passed a critical milestone on Thursday when a panel of experts formally recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the vaccine. The agency is likely to do so within days, giving health care workers and nursing home residents first priority to begin receiving the first shots early next week. ...”
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12/9/20: “...The precautionary advice was given after the pair "responded adversely" following their shots on the first day of the mass vaccination rollout in the UK, National Health Service England said Wednesday. The two staff members -- who both carried an adrenaline auto injector and had a history of allergic reactions -- developed symptoms of anaphylactoid reaction after receiving the vaccine on Tuesday. Thousands overall were vaccinated in the UK on Tuesday. ...”
READ CNN
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12/9/20: “... On Tuesday, after having weathered each turn in Britain’s ravaging bout with the coronavirus, the doctor, Farbod Babolhavaeji, was given one of the world’s first shots of a clinically authorized, fully tested vaccine — a step in the long, painstaking campaign to knock back a disease that has killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide. ...”
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12/7/20: “... With a relentless, coast-to-coast surge of new infections, authorities are urging people anew to wear masks, practice social distancing and follow other basic prevention measures. Most of California went back into lockdown last night. The virus is blamed for over 282,000 deaths and more than 14.7 million confirmed infections in the U.S. New cases per day have rocketed to an all-time high of more than 190,000 on average. ...”
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12/7/20: “... The health minister says the Seoul metropolitan area is now a “COVID-19 war zone,” as the country reported another 615 new infections and the virus appears to be spreading faster. It has recorded more than 5,300 new infections in the past 10 days and today was the 30th day in a row of triple-digit daily jumps. Most of the new infections were detected in the Seoul area where health workers are struggling to stem clusters tied to restaurants, schools, hospitals and long-term care facilities. ...”
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12/7/20: “... Last week, the U.K. became the first country to authorize the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for emergency use. In trials, the vaccine was shown to have around 95% efficacy. Vaccinations will be administered starting Tuesday at around 50 hospital hubs in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also begin their vaccination rollouts the same day. ...”
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12/4/20: "... How 700 Epidemiologists Are Living Now, and What They Think Is Next. They are going to the grocery store again, but don’t see vaccines making life normal right away. ..."
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12/4/20: "... While most countries are reporting moderate or low CFR, several countries stand out as concerning. Most notably, Yemen is currently reporting a CFR of 28%, meaning more than 1 out of every 4 identified cases ultimately dies. Yemen’s health system has been devastated by years of civil war, including numerous attacks on hospitals and healthcare workers. Without a fully functioning healthcare and public health infrastructure, Yemen’s COVID-19 patients cannot receive the clinical care they need. Yemen does not report testing data, but considering the condition of the public health and healthcare sectors, it is likely that testing volume is extremely low, which would dramatically increase the calculated CFR. Mexico is reporting the second highest CFR globally (9.5%), and 9 other countries are reporting 5% or higher, including several in Africa, South and Central America, and the Eastern Mediterranean region as well as China. Fortunately, 8 of these 11 countries are reporting decreasing trends in CFR. Among this group, only Bolivia, Egypt, and Syria are reporting increasing trends. ..."
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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12/4/20: “...The nation’s unwillingness to tamp down on travel offered a warning in advance of Christmas and New Year’s as virus deaths and hospitalizations hit new highs a week after Thanksgiving. U.S. deaths from the outbreak eclipsed 3,100 on Thursday, obliterating the single-day record set last spring. ...”
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12/3/20: “... THE NUMBERS: The number of people hospitalized with the virus in the U.S. is approaching 100,000, more than doubling from one month earlier. The nation is averaging more than 160,000 cases and 1,500 deaths per day. ...”
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12/2/20: “... A panel of scientific advisers yesterday released its initial guidelines for who should receive the first coronavirus vaccines — recommendations that will influence states’ policies across the country. The obvious question on many people’s minds is: When can I expect to be vaccinated? While there is still a lot of uncertainty, it’s possible to lay out a rough expected timeline. I’ve done so below, with help from public health experts and colleagues who are covering the virus. ...”
READ NYT
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12/1/20: “... If the US epidemic follows a similar timeline after Thanksgiving, we could potentially start to see increasing daily incidence in the US the week of Christmas and surging mortality early in 2021. With that in mind, however, reporting over the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s are also expected to be inconsistent, so the effect of the holiday season on the US epidemic may not be apparent until well into January. ...”
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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11/26/20: “... The US enters Thanksgiving with coronavirus cases and deaths soaring and hospitalizations at record levels. And on a holiday weekend that lends itself to big gatherings, public health experts still were begging people to avoid them, fearing the pandemic is about to become much worse. ...”
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11/26/20: “... Over the past month, the number of coronavirus cases has increased tenfold in the upstate city of Buffalo and its surrounding suburbs. Hospitalizations already have surpassed the levels seen in the spring. And the Covid-19 hotline for Erie County, where Buffalo is situated, is getting “annihilated,” the health commissioner said, with 1,500 calls in one 24-hour period this week. “The second wave is here, and it is here with a vengeance,” Mark Poloncarz, the county executive, said at a news conference, urging residents to take the surge seriously. ...”
READ NYT
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11/25/20: “... The U.K. government and administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland struck a deal that will ease limits on travel and socializing over the festive period so that friends and families can get together. Over the five days between Dec. 23 and 27, up to three households can form a “Christmas bubble” and members can move freely between them. Those travelling to and from Northern Ireland will be permitted to travel for an additional day either side. People are currently barred from visiting members of other households in much of the U.K., and there are limits on travel to high-infection areas...”
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11/23/20: “... Keep the mask: A vaccine won't end the US crisis right away. Despite the expected arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in just a few weeks, it could take several months — probably well into 2021 — before things get back to something close to normal in the U.S. and Americans can once again go to the movies, cheer at an NBA game or give Grandma a hug. ..."
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11/21/20: “... Covid world map: Which countries have the most coronavirus cases and deaths ...”
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11/21/20: “... Friday's jump of nearly 200,000 cases brings the seven-day average of new cases up over 167,600, an increase of nearly 20% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The seven-day average of new cases are up by at least 5% week over week in 43 states and the District of Columbia, Hopkins data show. ...”
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11/20/20: “... More than 12 million unemployed workers will see their jobless benefits disappear by the end of the year as two federal programs created in March under the CARES Act are set to expire unless Congress extends them. It is a development that also threatens the larger economy. ...”
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11/20/20: “... The pandemic had been raging for months when the United States reported 100,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time on Nov. 4. It was a stunning number that showed a virus spreading out of control. Less than three weeks later, the country is edging closer to reporting 200,000 newly detected infections every day — at the very moment that cold weather is driving people indoors in many parts of the country and the holiday season beckons people to gather together. ...”
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11/18/20: "...Eight months after infection, most people who have recovered still have enough immune cells to fend off the virus and prevent illness, the new data show. A slow rate of decline in the short term suggests, happily, that these cells may persist in the body for a very, very long time to come. The research, published online, has not been peer-reviewed nor published in a scientific journal. But it is the most comprehensive and long-ranging study of immune memory to the coronavirus to date. “That amount of memory would likely prevent the vast majority of people from getting hospitalized disease, severe disease, for many years,” said Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology who co-led the new study. ..."
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11/17/20: “...The researchers tested blood samples from lung cancer screening tests in Italy and said they found antibodies specific to Sars-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19, in samples from patients all over the country in every month of a six-month trial that started in September 2019...”
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11/17/20: “... The WHO COVID-19 Dashboard reports 54.30 million cases and 1.31 million deaths as of 9am EST on November 16. The WHO reported a new record high for weekly COVID-19 incidence for the ninth consecutive week—3.98 million new cases, a 6.5% increase over the previous week. The WHO also reported a new record high for weekly mortality for the second consecutive week—59,860 deaths, an 11% increase over the previous week. ...”
READ WHO COVID-19 DASHBOARD
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11/16/20: “... BioNTech scientist says Pfizer vaccine could halve COVID-19 transmission. "If everything continues to go well, we will start to deliver the vaccine end of this year, beginning next year," Sahin said. "Our goal is to deliver more than 300 million of vaccine doses until April next year, which could allow us to already start to make an impact." "I'm very confident that transmission between people will be reduced by such a highly effective vaccine — maybe not 90% but maybe 50%," he said. ...”
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11/16/20: "... Covid-19 Is a Desperate Cry From the Suffering Natural World. “When diseases move from animals to humans, and vice versa, it is usually because we have reconfigured our shared ecosystems in ways that make the transition much more likely,” Ferris Jabr wrote in The New York Times Magazine back in June. “Deforestation, mining, intensive agriculture and urban sprawl destroy natural habitats, forcing wild creatures to venture into human communities. Excessive hunting, trade and consumption of wildlife significantly increase the probability of cross-species infection.” ..."
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11/15/20: “... Why the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is no cure for all coronavirus ills. Amid the excitement, questions remain over virus mutations, people refusing to take it and the problem of storing it at -80 degrees. ...given the general public may face a wait of up to year before getting a shot ...”
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11/14/20: “... It’s Traumatizing’: Coronavirus Deaths in the U.S. Are Climbing Again. But now, signs are shifting: More than 1,000 Americans are dying of the coronavirus every day on average, a 50 percent increase in the last month. Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, Tennessee and Wisconsin have recorded more deaths over the last seven days than in any other week of the pandemic. Twice this past week, there have been more than 1,400 deaths reported in a single day. ...”
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11/14/20: “... Virus Breaks Records Across U.S. ...”
READ NYT
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11/13/20: “... 'Breakthrough finding' reveals why certain Covid-19 patients die. Antibodies are usually the heroes of the immune system, defending the body against viruses and other threats. But sometimes, in a phenomenon known as autoimmune disease, the immune system appears confused and creates autoantibodies. This occurs in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, when antibodies attack the joints, and Type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. ...”
11/12/20: “... Fauci told "Good Morning America" on Thursday that "What we need to do is what we've been talking about for some time now, but really doubling down on it. There are certain fundamental, baseline things that you can do: universal and uniform wearing of masks; avoiding crowded, congregate situations; keeping physical distance." ...”
READ THE HILL
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11/11/20: "... Wear Masks To Protect Yourself From The Coronavirus, Not Only Others, CDC Stresses. Wearing a mask protects the wearer, and not just other people, from the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized in an updated scientific brief issued Tuesday. And the protective benefits of masks are stronger the more people wear masks consistently and correctly, the agency says. When the CDC first recommended that Americans wear cloth face coverings back in April, it cited evidence that the coronavirus could be transmitted by asymptomatic people who might not be aware of their infectiousness – a group estimated to account for more than 50% of transmissions. The agency said masks were intended to block virus-laden particles that might be emitted by an infected person. ..."
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11/9/20: “... Pfizer and BioNTech said the case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received a placebo indicated a vaccine efficacy rate of above 90% at seven days after the second dose. It means that protection from Covid-19 is achieved 28 days after the initial vaccination, which consists of a two-dose schedule. ...”
READ CNBC
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11/9/20: “... With 42 states reporting at least 10% more new Covid-19 cases this past week, according to JHU, an emergency physician at Brown University warns that the United States is "heading into the very worst of this pandemic." ...”
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11/9/20 “... Most efforts to combat the coronavirus have focused on public health measures and the race to develop a vaccine. However, a team from Columbia University, Cornell University, and others has developed something new: a nasal spray that attacks the virus directly. In a newly released study, the concoction was effective at deactivating the novel coronavirus before it could infect cells. ...”
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11/6/20: "... Northern Denmark In Lockdown Over Coronavirus Variant Outbreak In Minks. Denmark is putting over a quarter of a million of residents on lockdown after discovering coronavirus outbreaks among bred minks, including a mutated strain.The government announced a number of restrictions on parts of northern Denmark, the area hit hardest by the infections. Two days ago, officials ordered the mink population to be killed, totaling up to 17 million animals. Restaurants in these areas are closed to diners. Public transportation within the region are shut down. Gatherings are largely limited to 10 attendees. Colleges are instructed to switch to online classes with a few possible exceptions.The regional health authority said it was preparing to test the 280,000 residents in the affected areas for the coronavirus. The mutated strain has not been found to be more dangerous than the coronavirus, but Danish officials warn that it appears to have a weak reaction to antibodies. This could affect a future vaccine's effectiveness. ..."
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11/5/20: John Hopkins Situation Report November 4, 2020: "... In addition to COVID-19 incidence, the US is reporting increasing impact on hospitals and increasing COVID-19 mortality. Nationally, emergency department (ED) visits for COVID-19 have increased steadily over the past several weeks. The percentage of ED visits for COVID-19 coronavirus-like illness increased from approximately 2% in early September to nearly 3.5% in early November, a 65% increase. This trend is even more pronounced in some states, including Alaska (up from 2.5% to more than 6%), Connecticut (1% to nearly 4%), Idaho (2.5% to more than 7%), Illinois (2.5% to 6.5%), Montana (2% to 8%), Nebraska (1.5% to more than 6%), New Mexico (1.5% to 5%), North Dakota (3% to 11%), Utah (2.5% to 8%), and Wisconsin (1.5% to more than 5%). On a regional basis, Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin) increased from 1.7% to 5% and Region 8 (Colorado, Montana, North and South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) increased from 2% to more than 6%. ..."
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11/5/20: “... ”...a grim threshold even as the wave of infections engulfing the country shows no sign of receding.” ... The United States on Wednesday recorded over 100,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time since the pandemic began, bursting past a grim threshold even as the wave of infections engulfing the country shows no sign of receding. The total count of new infections was at least 107,000, according to a New York Times database. Twenty-three states have recorded more cases in the past week than in any other seven-day stretch. ...”
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11/4/20: "... COPENHAGEN - Denmark will cull its mink population of up to 17 million after a mutation of the coronavirus found in the animals spread to humans, the prime minister said on Wednesday. ... “We have been informed by Denmark of a number of persons infected with coronavirus from mink, with some genetic changes in the virus,” WHO said in a statement emailed to Reuters in Geneva. “The Danish authorities are investigating the epidemiological and virological significance of these findings.” Authorities in Denmark said five cases of the new virus strain had been recorded on mink farms and 12 cases in humans, and that there were between 15 million and 17 million mink in the country. ..."
READ REUTERS
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11/3/20: "... Study uncovers subset of COVID-19 patients who recover quickly and sustain antibodiesOne of the pressing questions about COVID-19 remains: How long does immunity last? One key indicator of immunity is the presence of virus-specific antibodies. Previous studies have provided conflicting accounts about whether people who have recovered from infection can sustain potentially-protective antibodies or not. A new study led by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital examined blood samples and cells from patients who had recovered from mild to moderate COVID-19 and found that while antibodies against the virus declined in most individuals after disease resolution, a subset of patients sustained anti-virus antibody production several months following infection. These antibody 'sustainers' had a shorter course of symptoms, suggesting that some individuals who recover from COVID-19 faster may be mounting a more effective and durable immune response to the virus. ..."
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11/2/20: "... The WHO COVID-19 Dashboard reports 46.17 million cases and 1.19 million deaths as of 08:40 am EST on October 26. The WHO reported a new record high for global weekly incidence for the sixth consecutive week. The global weekly total reached 3.33 million cases—an increase of more than 17% over the previous week, continuing a trend of rapid increase. ..."
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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11/1/20: "... Two days before the presidential election, the coronavirus is so widespread not even American health officials are able to keep up. The U.S. has recorded its worst week of known coronavirus infections with more than 500,000 new casesreported and a single-day record of 99,784 new cases on Friday, surpassing nine million total cases nationwide. At least 1,200 counties — a full third of the country — qualify as a virus hot spot. Above, medics respond to a Covid-19 patient in Glen Burnie, Md. Many people are coming to a frightening conclusion: They have no idea where the virus is spreading. As one public health expert put it: “It’s just kind of everywhere.” ..."
READ NYT
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10/29/20: “... Dr. Anthony Fauci has said the controversial approach of letting the coronavirus spread in order to achieve so-called herd immunity is an "unacceptable pathway" that will kill people. ...”
READ NEWSWEEK
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10/29/20: “... The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) held a regular briefing call on Thursday, shortly after reporting a record-high number of COVID-19 cases in a single day. MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the 2,872 new cases confirmed in the past day is on a testing volume of just under 27,800 tests. “Obviously this new case total eclipses the record that we just set last week,” ...”
READ KARE11
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10/29/20: "... Neither Germany nor Canada has escaped the fall wave of the virus, as you can see. But they are also both doing a lot less bad than their neighbors. How? For one thing, both countries have done a better job of avoiding wishful thinking than either the Trump administration or some European governments. Germany announced yesterday that it would close restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters and more for several weeks. “We must act, and act now, to prevent a national health crisis,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Compare that with the U.S., where the rate of confirmed new cases has been higher than Germany’s current rate for almost all of the past five months — yet almost nobody is talking about closing restaurants. Yesterday’s move isn’t the first aggressive one from Germany. It was also far ahead of the U.S. in developing widely available tests this spring and offers them to residents free. But Canada may be an even better example, given that its current rate of new cases is well below Germany’s. ... The four Canadian provinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and the combined Newfoundland and Labrador — were successful enough this spring that they were able to form a joint “bubble” this summer. Residents can travel among the four, even as they remain closed to the outside...."
READ NYT
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10/28/20: "... UPDATE The WHO COVID-19 Dashboard reports 43.5 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1.16 million COVID-19 deaths as of 8:30am EDT on October 28. The US CDC reported 8.68 million total cases, 225,084 total deaths, and 492,026 new cases in the past 7 days. The daily COVID-19 incidence continues to increase, now up to 63,589 new cases per day, compared to 59,699 new cases reported last Wednesday and almost as high as the peak incidence in late July. Following the previous peak (66,960 new cases per day on July 24), the US daily incidence fell by 48% to its most recent low (34,371 new cases per day on September 12). Since that time, however, the US has climbed about 94% of the way back to this previous peak. The 7 day moving average of mortality was 797 deaths for October 26, compared to increasing numbers of daily deaths in recent weeks, with most recently 815 deaths on October 25th. ..."
READ JOHN HOPKINS SITUATION REPORT
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10/24/20: “... The U.S. reported more than 83,700 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, passing the last record of roughly 77,300 cases seen in mid-July, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Amid the growing trend in cases, health experts are warning that the U.S. could be in for a difficult winter. The increase in cases in several states are leading to more hospitalizations and will ultimately lead to more deaths. ...”
READ CNBC
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10/21/20: "... Researchers from the Technical University of Munich in Germany and the University of Helsinki in Finland led a study that discovered a receptor called neuropilin-1 gives the novel coronavirus a leg-up in infecting our tissues. This particular protein is relatively abundant on cells lining the nasal cavity, making it a piece of cake for the virus to establish a home inside our bodies, raise a virus family, and then spread to a new host. Earlier this year it was discovered that a receptor called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) helps the coronavirus bind to the surface of cells, while an enzyme called Type II transmembrane serine protease (TMPRSS2) is crucial for it gaining entry. This kind of molecular lock-picking does a good job of explaining why both SARS coronaviruses wreak havoc throughout a range of tissues in our bodies, from the lining of our lungs to our digestive tract.
READ SCIENCE ALERT
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10/21/20: Excess deaths. “... "...estimated 299,028 excess deaths...from late January through October 3, 2020, with 198,081 (66%) excess deaths attributed to #COVID19 ...largest percentage increases were...adults aged 25–44 years and among Hispanic or Latinos persons.” ...”
READ CDC
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10/20/20: “... “All of a sudden it hit, and as it does, it just exploded,” said Dr. Tom Dean, one of just three doctors who work in the county. As the brunt of the virus has blown into the Upper Midwest and northern Plains, the severity of outbreaks in rural communities has come into focus. Doctors and health officials in small towns worry that infections may overwhelm communities with limited medical resources. And many say they are still running up against attitudes on wearing masks that have hardened along political lines and a false notion that rural areas are immune to widespread infections. ...”
READ AP
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10/18/20: “... At least 679 new coronavirus deaths and 52,774 new cases were reported in the United States on Oct. 17. Over the past week, there have been an average of 56,210 cases per day, an increase of 28 percent from the average two weeks earlier. As of Sunday morning, more than 8,143,300 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 219,100 have died, according to a New York Times database. ...”
READ NYT
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10/17/20: “... Italy registered 10,925 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, up from the previous record of 10,010 cases posted on Friday. There were also 47 COVID-related deaths on Saturday, down from 55 the day before, the ministry said, far fewer than at the height of the pandemic in Italy in March and April when daily fatalities peaked at more than 900. ...”
READ REUTERS
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10/16/20: “... China’s embassy in Italy has warned its citizens against “blind optimism” about the spread of the coronavirus after nearly 100 Chinese citizens contracted the pathogen in the country. Italy remains one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe as the continent enters its
second wave of coronavirus cases. ...”
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10/16/20: "... As coronavirus cases across the United States climb toward a third peak, the country surpassed a total of eight million total known cases on Thursday afternoon, according to a New York Times database. Epidemiologists warned of a new, worrisome phase as 17 states are seeing surges unlike anything they experienced earlier in the pandemic. States including Alaska, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin reported more new cases during the seven-day stretch that ended on Wednesday than in any other week since the virus arrived in the country. Reports of new cases are trending upward in 41 states over the last two weeks, while nine states are holding case numbers roughly steady. No state in the country is seeing a sustained decline. Many of the 17 states seeing more new cases than ever — located mostly in the Midwest or in the Mountain West — had relatively few cases until recently. But cases are now steadily climbing. Intensive care unit beds in hospitals are few and far between in some rural communities, experts said, raising concerns about crowded facilities.
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10/15/20: "... Many of his ideas carry echoes of Roosevelt’s New Deal vision of the robust role the U.S. government should play in helping the nation recover from a crisis. He would quickly appoint a national “supply chain commander” to coordinate the logistics of manufacturing and distributing protective gear and test kits, invoking the Defense Production Act more aggressively than Mr. Trump has to build up supplies. Mr. Biden wants to mobilize at least 100,000 Americans for a “public health jobs corps” of contact tracers to help track and curb outbreaks. And he has even called for a “Pandemic Testing Board” to swell the supply of #coronavirus tests — a play on Roosevelt’s War Production Board. “I’m kind of in a position that F.D.R. was,” Mr. #Biden told Evan Osnos of The New Yorker in a recent interview, speaking about the challenges of the pandemic and the broader problems it has brought on, though he quickly added he was not comparing himself to Roosevelt. “If you think about it, what in fact, F.D.R. did was not ideological, it was completely practical,” he added. ..."
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10/15/20: "... The surging virus. The autumn wave of the coronavirus has reached a dangerous new stage. The number of new daily cases has risen almost 50 percent in the U.S. over the past month. The situation is even worse in Europe. ..."
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10/15/20: "... Antibodies may actually help coronavirus invade cells in some cases, study suggests. Researchers say they’ve identified a high-risk molecule commonly found in Covid-19 patients that may assist the virus rather than neutralising it. They found that this problem tends to occur when there is a relatively low level of antibodies in the blood. Antibodies are produced by the immune system to fight foreign invaders like the corona virus, but a new study in China suggests they could make the infection worse in some cases. Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai found that some of the 222 patients in their study had specific antibodies that could actually help the coronavirus invade their immune cells. They were present in 8 per cent of those with mild symptoms, and 76 per cent of those who had recovered from severe illness. The problem is known as antibody-dependent enhancement, or ADE, and it has been seen before with infections caused by other viruses such as Zika, dengue fever and severe acute respiratory syndrome. It has also hampered drug and vaccine development for these viruses.
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10/14/20: “... A 25-year-old man living in Nevada is thought to be the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection in North America. The patient was infected with two variants of the virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, within a 48-day timeframe, according to details published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. In between both infections, he tested negative for the virus, according to his case report. When he caught COVID-19 again, his symptoms were more severe and he ended up in hospital needing oxygen support. There are two concerns raised by the case report. The first is that we now know a second infection can occur within a short timeframe and can be more severe. ...”
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10/14/20: “... After months of warnings, it appears that the fears of many medical experts are coming true: Fall and winter are bringing a new national surge of coronavirus cases with it. Now, as colder weather pushes more people indoors and Americans prepare to gather for the upcoming holidays, many are saying that conditions could get grim as the season wears on. In fact, one expert told CNN that a few months in particular could be the very worst of the pandemicwe've seen yet. "This winter—this November, December, January, February—could be the worst time in our epidemic," Peter Hotez, MD, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN on Oct. 13. "Get ready to hunker down." ...”
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10/14/20: “... Three new reports show coronavirus immunity can last for months -- and maybe even longer.
The findings suggest that many, if not most, people who recover from coronavirus infections are protected for at least a period of time. They also suggest that coronavirus vaccines may be able to protect people for more than just a few weeks.One study found that people produce antibodies that protect against infection and last for at least five to seven months. "We have one person that is seven months out. We have a handful of people that are five to seven months out," Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunobiologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, told CNN. ..."
READ CNN
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10/13/20: “... A government-sponsored clinical trial that is testing an antibody treatment for Covid-19 developed by the drugmaker Eli Lilly has been paused because of a “potential safety concern,” according to emails that government officials sent on Tuesday to researchers at testing sites. The company confirmed the pause. The news comes just a day after Johnson & Johnson announced the pause of its coronavirus vaccine trial because of a sick volunteer, and a month after AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial was halted over concerns about two participants who had fallen ill after getting the company’s vaccine. ...”
READ NYT
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10/13/20: "... Trying to reach herd immunity is ‘unethical’ and unprecedented, WHO head says. “Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a Monday media briefing. “It is scientifically and ethically problematic.”
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10/10/20: "... WILLIAM FOEGE, a legendary figure in public health who helped devise the strategy that curtailed smallpox in West and Central Africa in the late 1960s and who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, wrote a letter Sept. 23 to the current CDC director, Robert Redfield. The letter has now been disclosed by USA Today and should be read by everyone concerned by President Trump’s dreadful response to the coronavirus pandemic and his corrosive politicization of public health. Dr. Foege, an epidemiologist who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, said he wasn’t sure what he would do in Dr. Redfield’s shoes, but the first thing “would be to face the truth.” Despite spin from the White House, “this will go down as a colossal failure of the public health system of this country. The biggest challenge in a century and we let the country down.” In the future, public health textbooks “will use this as a lesson on how not to handle an infectious disease pandemic.” The cause, he said, has been “the incompetence and illogic” of the White House.
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10/8/20: "... Google News - COVID-19 vaccines for all Americans may be ready by March: HHS secretary. Enough coronavirus vaccine doses for every American who wants one could be manufactured as early as March next year, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday. “We project having enough for every American who wants a vaccine by March to April 2021,” he predicted at the virtual Goldman Sachs Healthcare Conference on COVID-19, according to CNBC. He also expects that up to 100 million doses could be available by the end of this year — enough “to cover especially vulnerable populations.” The US is manufacturing doses for all six vaccine candidates backed by the feds’ Operation Warp Speed, including those that are in late-stage testing from Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, according to Azar. He added that the US is also obtaining needles, syringes and bottles needed for the shots. President Trump has predicted that a vaccine could be authorized as early as October and that there’d be enough doses for every American by April. However, new FDA regulations will likely push any authorization past Election Day.
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10/8/20: "... A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecast that combines the data from dozens of independent models predicts US deaths from Covid-19 could reach 233,000 by the end of the month. "This week's national ensemble forecast indicates an uncertain trend in new COVID-19 deaths reported over the next four weeks and predicts that 2,800 to 6,800 new deaths will likely be reported during the week ending October 31," the CDC says on its website. ..."
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10/7/20: "... Researchers from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan found that the novel coronavirus can survive on human skin for approximately nine hours, which is significantly longer than the flu virus. The study, published in a journal of Oxford Academic in Clinical Infectious Diseases on Oct. 3, was a joint effort among the university’s Department of Infectious Diseases, Department of Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Department of Forensics Medicine aimed to highlight the importance of handwashing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since directly applying a highly contagious pathogen to the skin of a living human is dangerous, according to the study, human cadavers one day after death were used to conduct the test. According to the researchers, the flu virus can survive on human skin for 1.8 hours. ..."
READ FOX5DC
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10/5/20: "... The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization said Monday that its “best estimates” indicate roughly 1 in 10 people worldwide may have been infected by the coronavirus – more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases – and warned of a difficult period ahead. ..."
READ USATODAY
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10/6/20: "... Europe’s second coronavirus wave is spreading, and rising hospitalizations and deaths are prompting governments to impose more restrictions, from travel bans in Madrid to the closure of bars in Paris. Confirmed cases in France, Spain, and the U.K. are now higher on an average day than at the peak of this spring’s emergency, although the trend also reflects better detection of the virus. Infections also have accelerated in Italy and Germany in recent days ..."
READ WSJ
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10/5/20: "... Fauci breaks down Covid-19 timeline from exposure to symptoms ..."
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10/5/20: The Covid Economy Carves Deep Divide Between Haves and Have-Nots. Comeback since start of pandemic is kind to those who can work from home, to firms serving them and to regions hospitable to them. Many others are left behind.
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10/5/20: “... Three patients taking part in clinical trials for Moderna's (NASDAQ:MRNA)coronavirus vaccine candidate and two taking part in Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) study have experienced intense side effects, according to a report published by CNBC. Those effects included high fever, pounding headaches, intense chills, and exhaustion. ...”
READ MOTTLYFOOL
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10/4/20: “...As of Saturday night, new cases were down in Texas, Missouri and South Carolina, while 21 states reported a rise in cases and a little more than half held steady compared with the week before.From September 29 to October 3, there were an average of 46,500 cases per day -- the most cases in a five-day period since August 14-18 according to Johns Hopkins University. ...”
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10/3/20: “...Let’s not mince words: Washington has been plunged into a crisis of historic proportions, frozen by a disease it is both unwilling and unable to control.”
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10/2/20: "...Trump Tests Positive for the Coronavirus. The president’s result came after he spent months playing down the severity of the outbreak that has killed more than 207,000 in the United States and hours after insisting that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”
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10/1/20: “... A large new study in India found that children of all ages can spread the coronavirus. The study is not the last word in the debate, but it adds to the evidence that school openings are likely to lead to new outbreaks. ...”
READ NYT
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9/30/20: “... As US states sound alarm on Covid-19 trends, some communities loosen restrictions. Communities across the US are loosening restrictions meant to curb the spread of Covid-19 ahead of a fall and winter season experts warn could be especially challenging. Florida this week reported a spike in new cases just days after the governor cleared the way for bars and restaurants to fully reopen. In Nevada, the governor bumped the limit on public gatherings from 50 to 250 participants, still not to exceed 50% capacity of a venue. ...”
READ CNN
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9/29/20: “... Young adults are driving coronavirus infections in the U.S. and are likely spreading the virus to older, more vulnerable populations, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults were more likely to get infected, but when researchers analyzed cases from June to August, they found that people in their 20s accounted for the largest share of confirmed cases compared to other age groups. And public health experts say this is a worrying trend. ...”
READ NPR
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9/29/20: “... Fall was always going to be a difficult period of the pandemic. The season brings with it brisker air and shorter days, which drive people to spend more time inside -- where coronavirus is thought to transmit more easily. The pandemic also coincides with the onslaught of the flu and other respiratory infections that, when coupled with coronavirus, can overwhelm the healthcare system and our own immune systems. ...”
READ CNN
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9/29/20: “... In the last week, leading epidemiologists from respected institutions have, through different methods, reached the same conclusion: About 85 to 90 percent of the American population is still susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the current pandemic. The number is important because it means that “herd immunity” — the point at which a disease stops spreading because nearly everyone in a population has contracted it — is still very far off.
READ NYT
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9/29/20: “... The U.S., with 4 percent of the world’s population, has suffered more than 20 percent of deaths. Places like China, Germany, South Korea and New Zealand have shown that it is possible to slow the pandemic enough to limit infections and deaths while still reopening businesses and schools. But that requires a combination of elements that may be beyond the reach of poorer countries and that even ones like the United States have not been able to muster: wide-scale testing, contact tracing, quarantining, social distancing, mask wearing, providing protective gear, developing a clear and consistent strategy, and being willing to shut things down in a hurry when trouble arises. ...”
READ NYT
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9/28/20: “... 21 states are reporting increased Covid-19 cases as experts warn of fall surge. Almost half the US is reporting increased numbers of new Covid-19 cases as health experts warn of a potential coronavirus surge in the fall and winter. As of Sunday, the number of new coronavirus cases has increased by at least 10% or more compared to the week before in 21 states, most of them in the West, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. “...
READ MSN
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9/27/20: “... Australian biotech company Ena Respiratory said on Monday that a nasal spray it is developing to improve the human immune system to fight common cold and flu significantly reduced the growth of the coronavirus in a recent study on animals. A study on ferrets showed the product dubbed INNA-051, which could be used complementary to vaccines, lowered the levels of the virus that causes COVID-19 by up to 96%, the company said. The study was led by British government agency Public Health England. ...”
READ REUTERS
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9/27/20: "... He lost his brother to Covid-19. Twelve days later, he died, too. Nicholas, 65, had gone into the hospital after experiencing trouble breathing. Five days later, he went into the intensive care unit because his breathing got worse. It didn't take long for doctors to determine that Nicholas and his wife, Mary Jane, both had Covid-19. While hospitalized, he learned of his older brother's death, and 12 days later, Nicholas, too, succumbed to the virus. ..."
READ CNN
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9/26/20: Situation Report September 25, 2020: “... The Johns Hopkins CSSE dashboard reported 6.98 million US cases and 202,827 deaths as of 9:45am EDT on September 23. The US CDC reported 6.92 million total cases and 201,411 deaths as of 12 PM ET on September 24. The US is averaging 43,245 new cases and 732 deaths per day. The cumulative US COVID-19 mortality surpassed 200,000 deaths, representing more than 20% of the global total. After reaching a minimum of 34,371 new cases per day on September 12, following the Labor Day holiday weekend, the US has reported increasing incidence for nearly 2 weeks, surpassing its previous plateau and up to its highest average daily incidence since August 22. In total, 22 states (no change) are reporting more than 100,000 cases, including California and Texas with more than 700,000 cases; Florida with more than 600,000; New York with more than 400,000; Georgia with more than 300,000; and Arizona, Illinois, and New Jersey with more than 200,000.
READ FULL SITUATION REPORT JOHN HOPKINS DASHBOARD
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9/26/20: “... China Gives Unproven Covid-19 Vaccines to Thousands, With Risks Unknown. The world still lacks a proven coronavirus vaccine, but that has not stopped Chinese officials from trying to inoculate tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people outside the traditional testing process. Three vaccine candidates are being injected into workers whom the government considers essential, along with many others, including employees of the pharmaceutical firms themselves. Officials are laying out plans to give shots to even more people, citing emergency use, amounting to a big wager that the vaccines will eventually prove to be safe and effective. China’s rush has bewildered global experts. No other country has injected people with unproven vaccines outside the usual drug trial process to such a huge scale. ...”
READ NYT
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9/26/20: “... Tracking Covid at U.S. Colleges and Universities. Thousands of new coronavirus cases continue to emerge on college campuses. A New York Times survey of more than 1,600 American colleges and universities — including every four-year public institution and every private college that competes in N.C.A.A. sports — has revealed at least 130,000 cases and at least 70 deaths since the pandemic began. Most of the cases have been announced since students returned to campus for the fall term. Most of the deaths were reported in the spring and involved college employees, not students. ...”
READ NYT
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9/25/20: “... A new COVID-19 mutation appears to be even more contagious, according to a study — and experts say it could be a response by the virus to defeat masks and other social-distancing efforts. Scientists in a paper published Wednesday identified a new strain of the virus, which accounted for 99.9 percent of cases during the second wave in the Houston, Texas, area, the Washington Post reported. The paper, which has not been peer-reviewed, said people with the strain, known as the D614G mutation, had higher loads of virus — suggesting it is more contagious. ...”
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9/25/20: “... Child deaths from covid-19 remain remarkably low eight months into U.S. pandemic: As the United States’ covid-19 death toll moves relentlessly beyond 200,000, data shows that only about 100 children and teenagers have died of the disease, a fatality rate that is drawing wonder from clinicians and increasing interest among researchers hoping to understand why. Covid-19 has become the nation’s third-leading cause of death this year, but 18 states had not seen a single fatality among people under 20 as of Sept. 10, according to statistics compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. ...”
READ WP
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9/25/20: “... ’Tis the season for travel in China. But virus fears cast a shadow over festivities. Zuo Weiwei has been stuck since February in her hometown of Wuhan — yes, that Wuhan — and the problem now is that the city is overflowing with tourists. “The Yellow Crane Tower is exploding with people,” said Zuo, 32. “You can’t squeeze in. You can maybe take a photo outside, then leave.” Wuhan’s government, like many across China, has been offering free tickets to tourist attractions to try to salvage economic growth. For better or worse, it appears to be working, as China approaches its first major holiday season since tamping down the novel coronavirus. The “Golden Week” holiday is one of the largest annual human migrations, with upward of 700 million people on the move. This year, it will be a crucial test of China’s efforts to regain normalcy and prevent new coronavirus waves. The holiday season begins with China’s National Day on Oct. 1, marking 71 years of Communist Party rule. The period also coincides with this year’s Mid-autumn Festival, a one-day holiday that falls on the night of the fullest autumn moon. ...”
READ WP
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9/24/20: "... Cases Surge in Europe, Hospitalizations Lag. But for How Long? For now, countries are betting they can suppress hospital admissions and deaths without imposing more lockdowns, even as case numbers approach peak levels from last spring. Summer ended in Europe this week with a heavy thud amid ominous signs that a spike in coronavirus cases may send another wave of patients into hospitals. Officials across the continent fear a repeat of the harrowing scenes from last spring, when the virus swamped intensive care units in countries like Italy and Spain. Already in Spain, some hospitals are struggling with an influx of virus patients. “I’m sorry to say that, as in Spain and France and many other countries, we’ve reached a perilous turning point,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday, as he imposed new restrictions — including shutting pubs and restaurants at 10 p.m. — to prevent Britain’s National Health Service from becoming overwhelmed.
READ NYT
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9/24/20: “... China has almost eliminated Covid-19. What can the world learn? China went quick and hard – implementing lockdowns of various degrees of rigour in cities and regions across the country, resulting in about 760 million people being subject to restrictions. Every time an area showed a spike in cases, a lockdown followed. ...”
READ WIRED
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9/24/20: “... Boris Johnson warns ‘things will be tough’ as furlough scheme replaced ...less generous replacement for the coronavirus furlough scheme that has supported jobs throughout the pandemic. ...”
READ INDEPENDENT
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9/23/30: “... At least 942 new coronavirus deaths and 37,293 new cases were reported in the United States on Sept. 22. Over the past week, there have been an average of 41,490 cases per day, an increase of 13 percent from the average two weeks earlier. As of Wednesday morning, more than 6,917,900 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 200,700 have died, according to a New York Times database. ...”
READ NYT
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9/23/20: “... The COVID-19 School Response Dashboard, which NPR is reporting on exclusively, was created with the help of several national education organizations. Right now it shows an average of 230 cases per 100,000 students, and 490 per 100,000 staff members, in the first two weeks of September. The responses come from public, private and charter schools in 47 states, serving roughly 200,000 students both in person and online, as of Tuesday, Sept. 22. ...”
READ NPR
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9/22/20: "... At a campaign rally in Swanton, Ohio, President Donald Trump said Covid-19 affects "virtually nobody" as the US is set to reach 200,000 coronavirus deaths ..."
VIEW ON CNN
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9/22/20: "... A Covid-19 vaccine for children may not arrive before fall 2021. The pandemic has many parents asking two questions. First, when can I get a vaccine? And second, when can my kids get it? The answers are not the same: Adults may be able to get a vaccine by next summer, but their children will have to wait longer. Perhaps a lot longer. Thanks to the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed and other programs, a number of Covid-19 vaccines for adults are already in advanced clinical trials. But no trials have yet begun in the United States to determine whether these vaccines are safe and effective for children.
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9/21/20: “... more than a month after the first school districts welcomed students back for in-person instruction, it is nearly impossible to tally a precise figure of how many cases have been identified in schools. There is no federal effort to monitor coronavirus cases in schools, and reporting by school districts is uneven. One independent effort has counted more than 21,000 cases this school year. ...”
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9/21/20: “... The risk of heart damage may not be limited to older and middle-aged adults. For example, young adults with COVID-19, including athletes, can also suffer from myocarditis. ...”
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9/21/20: "... Coronavirus: second wave over winter ‘inevitable’ in China, infectious disease expert says - “In China, people have been asking if there will be a second wave of the pandemic in winter. Now that Europe is having a second wave, it is inevitable we will see a second wave of infections,” Zhang was quoted as saying in a speech at a forum in Shanghai on Sunday. He said a vaccine was the only way to contain the pandemic.
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9/21/20: "... ‘We May Be Surprised Again’: An Unpredictable Pandemic Takes a Terrible Toll - At least 73 countries are seeing surges in newly detected cases, and in regions where cold weather is approaching, worries are mounting. ... Deaths in the United States from the coronavirus rose above 199,300 as of Sunday afternoon, leaving families across the country grieving. It was only four months ago, in late May, that the nation’s death roll reached 100,000. Even the current tally may be a significant undercount of the toll in this country, analyses suggest, failing to include some people who die from Covid-19 as well as those who die from secondary causes that are also linked to the pandemic. ..."
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9/20/20: "... The decline in mortality related to COVID-19 varies month to month. At Emory it has been in the range of 20% to 50%. Coopersmith says there are lots of reasons for that. A big one is that, when the first wave of Covid-19 hit Atlanta's hospitals in April, doctors had no experience with the disease. Medical management of these patients is now, by comparison, routine. "There's certainly nothing routine about the pandemic," Coopersmith says, "but in terms of how we're managing it, once you have taken care of something for the tenth time, it is normal. Doctors can better handle common and serious complications like blood clots. They realized that patients do better if they aren't lying on their backs all the time. Patients in Emory hospitals are encouraged to spend some time lying on their stomachs. That simple effort sometimes is enough to keep them out of the intensive-care unit. ..."
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9/20/20: "... Britain is at a tipping point on COVID-19, health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday, warning that a second national lockdown could be imposed if people don’t follow government rules designed to stop the spread of the virus.
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From 9/10/20: "...CDC: People with COVID-19 twice as likely to have eaten out at a restaurant before getting sick: Dining out at a restaurant or drinking at a bar may heighten the risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 compared to other social activities, including shopping, visiting a salon or working at an office, according to a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report, published Thursday by the CDC, comes as many states have begun allowing some form of indoor dining with safety measures in place — such as wearing a mask, physical distancing and limited capacity. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that indoor dining at restaurants in the once hard-hit New York City could resume at 25% capacity beginning Sept. 30. ..."
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9/19/20: More than a dozen schools on the list. "... Some Connecticut school districts have sent students back home
soon after school resumed in-person after be alerted of cases of
COVID-19. This comes as the coronavirus positive test rate increased to
1.6 percent and hospitalizations reached a high that Connecticut hasn't
seen since July 10. Gov. Ned Lamont said this uptick is a trend and it is "something we are watching carefully." ..."
READ NBC CT
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9/19/20: "... Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said Friday he's tested positive for the coronavirus. Giammattei made the announcement to Sonora, a local radio station. ..."
READ NPR
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9/18/20: "...Coronavirus can spread on airline flights, two studies show: The young woman and her sister had traveled across Europe just as the coronavirus pandemic was taking off there, visiting Milan and Paris before heading to London. When the woman left London on March 1, she had a sore throat and cough as she boarded a flight home to Vietnam, but no one noticed. By the time she got off the flight in Hanoi 10 hours later, 15 other people who had been on the plane with her were infected, researchers reported Friday. This story is one of two published Friday demonstrating how coronavirus can spread on airline flights, and suggesting that simply spacing people out a little will not fully protect them. ..."
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9/18/20: “... Israel will return to a full lockdown on Friday in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus as the number of cases has continued to increase for months throughout the country. The three-week lockdown will begin at 2 p.m., closing many businesses and limiting public gatherings. The move comes just hours before the beginning of the Jewish High Holidays when people usually attend religious services and gather with family and friends. Under the order, people must remain within 1 kilometer, or 0.6 miles, from their home, except for when shopping for food and medicine, attending protests and going to work at a closed business, among others. ..."
READ THE HILL
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9/18/20: “... There is widespread growth of the epidemic across the country and the R number has risen to between 1.1 and 1.4, say the government's scientific advisers. Officials are warning of "far worse things to come" as cases are thought to exceed 6,000 a day in England. And the scientist behind the Covid Symptom Study app said it appeared to be "the start of a second wave". The developments come as new England-wide restrictions are being discussed . At least 13.5 million people, roughly one-in-five of the UK population, are facing some form of local restrictions. ...”
READ BBC
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NOTE: The #COVID19 News Log on Facebook that I have been posting comments to since January 24 that had hundreds of daily news links in the Comments has suddenly disappeared from my Facebook account. No word from Facebook as to why. I am upset to lose all this news history but not too surprised. So I begin this new post where I left off. I will post ALL NEW ITEMS here on my Forward blog site. Sorry Facebook I can’t trust you to keep my posts online and available as a historic record.
COVID19 NEWS LINKS LOG PRIOR TO SEPTEMBER 19, 2020
Looks like Facebook has RESTORED my Covid19 News Links Log at m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157724763093567&id=501158566&fs=0&focus_composer=0
This logo dated back to: First post from 1/25/20: “...There are more than 1,000 confirmed cases
of infection, and at least 41 people have died. A total of 8,420 people
are reported to be under observation....” (Washington Post)ORIGINAL POST WITH LINK NOW DEAD:
Read my COVID-19 LOG posts: To read my newest NEWS LINKS posts (click link below, then scroll down) https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157724763093567&id=501158566&fs=0
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First post from 1/25/20: “...There are more than 1,000 confirmed cases of infection, and at least 41 people have died. A total of 8,420 people are reported to be under observation....” (Washington Post)
Stay well. Stay informed.
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