When President Donald Trump began talking to the public about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in February and March, scientists were stunned at his seeming lack of understanding of the threat. We assumed that he either refused to listen to the White House briefings that must have been occurring or that he was being deliberately sheltered from information to create plausible deniability for federal inaction. Now, because famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward recorded him, we can hear Trump’s own voice saying that he understood precisely that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was deadly and spread through the air. As he was playing down the virus to the public, Trump was not confused or inadequately briefed: He flat-out lied, repeatedly, about science to the American people. These lies demoralized the scientific community and cost countless lives in the United States.
The United States voted against a COVID-19 resolution in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 11 that sought a “comprehensive and coordinated response” to the pandemic and also called for recognition of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) leadership role. The United States, which withdrew from the UN health body this July, along with Israel, voted against the resolution that was adopted by an overwhelming majority with 169 countries voting in favour of the text. Washington had accused WHO of mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic and also siding with China before officially withdrawing from the global health agency this summer.
Out of 193 nations, 169 voted in favour of the resolution, Ukraine and Hungary abstained from voting, while the United States and Israel voted against the text, that calls for international cooperation to contain and overcome the pandemic and its consequences.
A new study by American researchers, released on Thursday, suggests the deadly coronavirus may have already reached Los Angeles by late December, actively circulating in the area months before the first definitive cases in the United States were identified.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), evaluated more than 10 million patient and health records for UCLA Health outpatient, emergency department and hospital facilities, spanning Dec. 1, 2019, to Feb. 29, 2020, and compared those records with data from the same period over the previous five years.
They found a troubling trend. The outpatient clinic visits by UCLA patients seeking care for coughs increased by over 50 percent and exceeded the average number of visits for the same complaint over the prior five years by more than 1,000.
They also discovered a “significant” excess in the number of patients seen in emergency departments for reports of coughs and of patients hospitalized with acute respiratory failure during this time period.
These excesses remained even after accounting for changes in patient populations and seasonal variation, according to the study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research.
“For many diseases, data from the outpatient setting can provide an early warning to emergency departments and hospital intensive care units of what is to come,” said Joann Elmore, the study’s lead author and a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Researchers noted the unusually high number of visitors, patients and hospitalizations suggests community spread of SARS-CoV-2 prior to established clinical awareness and testing capabilities.
It may indicate that the coronavirus had silently arrived and begun establishing a foothold undetected on the West Coast around Christmas 2019. If true, that would shake up the current narrative of the virus’ origins in the country.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first U.S. COVID-19 case on Jan. 21, who was a man traveling from Wuhan, China to Washington state. And it was not until Feb. 26 that the CDC confirmed community spread of the coronavirus in the United States.
UCLA researchers did not conclude for certain that coronavirus was behind the trends laid out in their study, saying other factors could be responsible for some of this unexpected increase, such as the use of e-cigarettes, or flu.
The two new inactivated coronavirus vaccines developed by Sinopharm, a state-owned pharmaceutical firm, have been used on an emergency basis, and hundreds of thousands of people have been vaccinated, with no apparent adverse reactions and no one infected; among them, tens of thousands of people who went overseas to high-risk countries and regions after receiving the vaccine have so far achieved zero infection.
The Bengal BJP president made the sensational claim while addressing supporters at a rally in Hooghly on Wednesday. Visibly happy with the crowd that had gathered to hear him speak, Dilip Ghosh said, “Didi’s [CM Mamata Banerjee] brothers are feeling unwell seeing the crowd here…not due to fear of coronavirus but due to the fear of BJP! Corona is over! Didi is uselessly imposing a lockdown so that BJP cannot hold meetings and rallies.”
Four Chinese COVID-19 vaccine candidates have started international phase-3 clinical trials, according to the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19.
Some of the phase-3 trials are expected to complete the first round of vaccinations in early September, with preliminary data expected as early as November.
Phase-3 clinical trial usually involves thousands of people to verify the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, which is the key to their market approval.
As the epidemic has been under control in China, the country no longer has conditions for large-scale clinical trials, so all the phase-3 trials are being carried out overseas.
Two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines developed by the China National Biotec Group (CNBG) have been approved for phase-3 clinical trials in several countries in the Middle East and South America, involving more than 30,000 people, according to Yang Xiaoming, president of the CNBG.
An inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech Co., Ltd. is undergoing phase-3 clinical trials in some countries in South America and Southeast Asia, according to Yin Weidong, chairman and CEO of Sinovac.
A recombinant COVID-19 vaccine with the modified defective adenovirus as the vector is also undergoing phase-3 trials.
FosunPharma and its German partner BioNTech announced Thur the supply of 10 million doses of mRNA vaccine (BNT162b1) for COVID19 to Hong Kong and Macao, after clinical trials proved the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine and approval from the authorities is gained. None for the roaches.
A 33-year-old Hong Kong man was tested with novel coronavirus again after four months, becoming one of a few cases of COVID19 reinfection in the world. Dutch and Belgian patients get coronavirus re-infection after Hong Kong reports world’s first reinfection case. More testing needed on new patients to see two instances of virus differ slightly.
Jin Dongyan, a biomedical professor at the University of Hong Kong, told the Global Times on Tuesday that genetic sequencing of the man’s virus during his first infection was similar to the virus detected in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province, when he was first diagnosed with COVID-19 in March. This time, the sequencing was similar with the virus found in Europe.
Jin also ruled out the possibility that the virus from March had remained in his body, thus bringing a positive test result, due to the completely different genetic sequencing of the virus. Most of those who test positive due to the virus remaining in their bodies shortly after they are cured do not infect others, but in this case, the man, although a silent carrier, could infect other people, Jin said.
Microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung from the University of Hong Kong told the Global Times on Tuesday that the second infection has less symptoms or no symptoms in this case, but the viral load in the patient body is just as high as in any acute infection, meaning that the reinfected patient can be just as infectious as a patient who is infected the first time.
As the antibodies found in patients cured from the virus have a much better protective effect than COVID-19 vaccines in preventing them from being reinfected, the case showed that COVID-19 vaccines may fail to protect these recipients from being infected a second time, Jin said.
The case reminded people that vaccines are not a once-and-for-all solution, and they most likely can only protect them from getting serious symptoms, and scientists have to keep researching and properly respond to this issue, according to Jin.
8-28-20
An unnamed 25-year-old individual from Reno tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 on April 18, and had symptoms including a sore throat, headache, nausea, and diarrhea, according to a pre-print study. By April 27 the symptoms had resolved, and two coronavirus tests came back negative on May 9. On 31 May, the patient reported having a fever, headache, feeling dizzy, as well as a cough, nausea and diarrhea. Five days later, the patient was hospitalized after their condition worsened, and tested positive for the coronavirus again. Samples from the patient also showed they had antibodies against the coronavirus.
50 testing professionals from hospitals in South China’s Guangdong Province traveled to Hong Kong on Fri to help Hong Kong launch citywide testing.
HongKong will launch citywide COVID19 testing from Sep 1, which is expected to be completed within two weeks. The HK govt will be responsible for sample collection, delivering samples, and the central govt will provide testing personnel and lab services. Without support of the central govt, Hong Kong cannot conduct the citywide testing
