CDC wants states ready for vaccine distribution by Oct – report
https://youtu.be/2OT44xfBA7Y
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told states to prepare for a Covid-19 vaccine to be ready by Nov. 1 and asked them to remove obstacles that would prevent distribution sites from opening. The date suggests the federal government anticipates a vaccine will become available just days before President Donald Trump stands for reelection Nov. 3, an aggressive goal that would depend on shots being tested and reviewed by then. Trump’s political future hinges on the response to the virus that has killed almost 185,000 Americans. The CDC in early August told states to assume that “limited doses” of a vaccine could be available in fall. The new letter said the Department of Health and Human Services and CDC “are rapidly making preparations to implement large-scale distribution of Covid-19 vaccines in the fall of 2020,” according to a copy provided to Bloomberg. The CDC declined to comment on the letter, the contents of which were reported earlier by the news organization McClatchy. Trump has previously said that he thinks a vaccine will be ready by Election Day or soon before. He’s also accused staff at the Food and Drug Administration of slowing vaccine work to hurt him politically. The claims have raised questions about political interference in vaccine reviews; FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn has promised repeatedly that science will guide any decisions.
Hunger is surging in the heart of the breadbasket
If one place underscores just how dire America’s hunger problem has become during the pandemic, it is here—in the middle of the breadbasket that supplies food from coast to coast. The ranks of Americans fighting hunger are projected to swell some 45% this year to more than 50 million. . Hundreds of Minnesotans waited in line for hours.
“It’s been hard,” she said. “We’ve had to dramatically change how we eat.” About one-third of those relying on food shelves, large-scale and emergency food distributions now are doing so for the first time, according to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization. In parts of Minnesota, that number is closer to 70%. With the nation pitched in a fierce debate over entrenched and systemic inequalities, the most basic divide—who eats well and who goes hungry—is becoming more acute every day. Even before the pandemic, the U.S. already had the highest number of people who couldn’t afford a basic energy-efficient diet among the world’s 63 high-income countries. “We are no longer projecting a surge—we are experiencing a surge in food insecurity,” said Allison O’Toole, the chief executive officer of Second Harvest Heartland, provides truckloads of food to distributions like the one in Mankato. During the pandemic, about a 10th of American households reported they haven’t had enough food in a given week. That’s a shocking figure for the world’s richest country. It’s more than double pre-Covid figures and the highest since comparable government data starts in 1995. In contrast to the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression or the rationing of World War II, the crisis has nothing to do with food supplies. The U.S. is in a time of historic abundance, with plentiful grains, meat and dairy, so much so that farmers have been plowing over excess crops and dumping milk. But lockdowns have snarled supply chains, and food inflation is projected to rise at the fastest pace in almost a decade. Meanwhile, unemployment, low wages and reduced working hours are diminishing purchasing power—all of which are disproportionately impacting women and minorities, as is food insecurity. Demand at Minnesota’s food banks is up 65% this year, and groups like Second Harvest Heartland say the peak has yet to come. The federal government’s $600 weekly supplement to unemployment insurance, which helped millions weather job losses and pay household bills, came to an end last month,and Congress can’t agree on a replacement. Donald Trump issued a stopgap measure to provide $300 a week in federal support to most jobless-benefit recipients, but the funds are only slowing moving into Americans’ wallets. Americans are unlikely to be suffering from all-out starvation, which plagues parts of Asia and Africa. But many people in the U.S. cope with food insecurity by skipping meals, just not eating enough or eating the cheapest food available. That kind of diet can be calorie dense, but lead to malnutrition. For children, malnutrition can have lifelong consequences including stunted growth and even impaired cognitive development. That’s all playing out right in the middle of abundant food production, even despite government and private aid. In a pre-Covid world, it was among the most food-secure states. Now one in eight people in the state is projected to struggle with hunger. Minnesota is home to beef giant Cargill Inc., Cheerio-maker General Mills Inc. and Spam-producer Hormel Foods Corp. All three companies have been donating to food banks. And the Trump administration just dedicated an additional $1 billion to its program known as “Farmers to Families Food Box Program,” which is buying surplus supplies to deliver to food banks and other organizations. The emergency pop-up that Traxler attended was held in partnership with that program.
Covid Flares in New U.S. Hot Spots as Americans Let Guard Down
(Bloomberg) — The U.S. can’t put Covid-19 behind it. New case counts are declining in some recent hot spots. But they’re spiking in places like Iowa and South Dakota, signaling what may be a new phase in the country’s virus fight as progress in one state is repeatedly offset by infections in others, with little improvement overall. Politics plays a role, as do events like college reopenings and the Sturgis motorcycle rally. But it’s also a sign of fatigue, the frustration and exhaustion Americans feel after months of masks and hand sanitizer, social isolation, shuttered businesses and closed beaches. People are putting their guard down, experts agree, leaving room for the virus to continue spreading as the country seeks to reopen the economy. “It’s going to be kind of this rolling fire, with certain flare-ups that occur in different parts of the country at different times,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. “This is a virus that’s established itself into the population.” Overall, U.S. cases this week surpassed 6 million. In the Midwest, positivity rates have reached alarming levels. In Iowa, for instance, 10.3% of cases came back positive on Monday, slightly below the 14-day average of 11.1%, according to state data. Overall, the state, which currently has no state-wide mask mandate, has recorded 65,478 cases, with new cases rising 50% in the last two weeks. Iowa State University, in Ames, reported Monday that 28.8% of the students, faculty and staff tested in the most recent week had the virus, although school officials have focused their testing on people showing symptoms or those who have been exposed to someone with the virus. The University of Iowa has reported 922 cases within its campus population.
In Ohio, Covid-19 first started as an urban scourge in the cities of Cleveland and Columbus. But the spread is now making waves in rural regions spurred by social gatherings and the return to school, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Tuesday during a news conference in Cedarville.
“The virus is not going away,” DeWine, a Republican, said. “We think a significant part of this is caused by our colleges going back as well as our grade schools going back.”
College Reopenings
Colleges experiencing outbreaks didn’t necessarily reopen too soon, according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The problem, he said in an interview Tuesday, was that the schools did not have “the capability of dealing with students who got infected.”
Schools should have tested students before they returned and planned “intermittent surveillance” to watch for rising cases, as well as creating a way to isolate students when they “inevitably” get infected, he said.
On Tuesday, Ohio reported 1,453 cases—the most in more than a month—and the state isn’t seeing signs of th virus relenting. Despite mask mandates, a rule closing bars at 10 p.m., and myriad other health orders, the state’s 21-day average of new cases sits around 1,000.
Per-capita, nine of the top-10 counties for increasing cases are rural, DeWine said. A car-pool trip to a lake led to two businesses closing from an outbreak. A card-game resulted in all family members present contracting the virus, he said.
Social gatherings like this are creating “a real movement into our rural areas,” DeWine said.
Illinois Recurrence
Illinois, too, has seen a resurgence of the virus over the last two months, reversing the progress that had lowered counts in May and June. On Aug. 22, statewide daily cases hit the highest since May, and on Tuesday the death count reached the most since June 26.
“We do not want to be part, here in Chicago, of this surge that we’re seeing broadly across the Midwest,” Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said Tuesday.
She noted Iowa, which ranks first in per capita cases, is among the states on the city’s quarantine list and Indiana may be added next week given clusters developing in college towns.
“It is not the time to relax your guard,” she said.
But that seems to be happening in Chicago and across Illinois with more cases developing when people at weddings, reunions and other gatherings are not wearing masks, watching their distance or washing hands.
Testing, Tracing
Outbreaks are going to continue to crop up because many states still don’t have the ability to do widespread testing, tracing and isolating, Johns Hopkins’s Adalja said.
“Until they have that capacity, they’re going to always run the risk of these chains of transmission getting started,” he said. “Until we get to the point of being able to do the simple public-health measures in all 50 states, we’re going to have this risk occurring and I do think we will periodically have these flares that occur in different states at different times.”
Even within states, public health officials have struggled to make consistent progress across all of their cities and counties.
California’s Spike
California, for instance, managed to stifle outbreaks in the urban San Francisco and Los Angeles areas only to see cases spike in the rural Central Valley.
Mark Ghaly, secretary of the state Health and Human Services agency, said the outbreak appeared to have been driven in part by the valley’s big farms, which employ large numbers of migrant workers. Those workers, mostly Spanish speakers, weren’t hearing the state’s messages about wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, Ghaly said.
While California is now pouring resources into tamping down the valley outbreak, Ghaly said more may follow, even as the state’s overall virus numbers improve. The number of Californians hospitalized with Covid-19 has now dropped below 4,000, after peaking above 7,000 in July.
“We are continuing to learn how to address this broad geography,” Ghaly said. “I’m sure we’ll have some counties that experience increased transmission in the months to come. We feel we’re better prepared than we were in the summer and certainly in the spring.”
Face shield or face mask to stop the spread of COVID-19?
To increase public awareness about the effectiveness of face shields alone as well as face masks with exhalation valves, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science used qualitative visualizations to test how face shields and masks with valves perform in impeding the spread of aerosol-sized droplets. Widespread public use of these alternatives to regular masks could potentially have an adverse effect on mitigation efforts. For the study, just published in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers employed flow visualization in a laboratory setting using a laser light sheet and a mixture of distilled water and glycerin to generate the synthetic fog that made up the content of a cough-jet. They visualized droplets expelled from a mannequin’s mouth while simulating coughing and sneezing. By placing a plastic face shield and an N95-rated face mask they were able to map out the paths of droplets and demonstrate how they performed. Results of the study show that although face shields block the initial forward motion of the jet, the expelled droplets move around the visor with relative ease and spread out over a large area depending on light ambient disturbances. “From this latest study, we were able to observe that face shields are able to block the initial forward motion of the exhaled jet, however, aerosolized droplets expelled with the jet are able to move around the visor with relative ease,” said Manhar Dhanak, Ph.D., department chair, professor, and director of SeaTech, who co-authored the paper with Siddhartha Verma, Ph.D., lead author and an assistant professor; and John Frankenfeld, a technical professional, all within FAU’s Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering. “Over time, these droplets can disperse over a wide area in both lateral and longitudinal directions, albeit with decreasing droplet concentration. The N95-rated face mask used in this study had a small amount of exhaled droplets that escaped from the gap between the top of the mask and the bridge of the nose. Face shields have noticeable gaps along the bottom and the sides, “The research conducted by professors Dhanak and Verma on the importance of proper face coverings to stop the spread of COVID-19 has literally illuminated the world,” said Stella Batalama, Ph.D., dean of FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. “While broad acceptance regarding the need for face coverings has risen steadily, there is an increasing trend of people who are substituting regular cloth or surgical masks with clear plastic face shields.
Vaccine could be released early if trials are positive – Fauci
Watch a honest man corrupted. Dr Fauci said a vaccine early part 2021. Trump says vaccine before election Fauci changes his tune… SOLD OUT!
A COVID-19 vaccine could be available earlier than expected if ongoing clinical trials produce overwhelmingly positive results, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, in an interview Tuesday with KHN.
Although two ongoing clinical trials of 30,000 volunteers are expected to conclude by the end of the year, Fauci said an independent board has the authority to end the trials weeks early if interim results are overwhelmingly positive or negative.
The Data and Safety Monitoring Board could say, “‘The data is so good right now that you can say it’s safe and effective,’” Fauci said. In that case, researchers would have “a moral obligation” to end the trial early and make the active vaccine available to everyone in the study, including those who had been given placebos — and accelerate the process to give the vaccine to millions. Fauci’s comments come at a time of growing concern about whether political pressure from the Trump administration could influence federal regulators and scientists overseeing the nation’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and erode shaky public confidence in vaccines. Prominent vaccine experts have said they fear Trump is pushing for an early vaccine approval to help win reelection. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he trusts the independent members of the DSMB — who are not government employees — to hold vaccines to high standards without being politically influenced. Members of the board are typically experts in vaccine science and biostatistics who teach at major medical schools.
“If you are making a decision about the vaccine, you’d better be sure you have very good evidence that it is both safe and effective,” Fauci said. “I’m not concerned about political pressure.”
In trials of this size, researchers will know if a vaccine is effective after as few as 150 to 175 infections, said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a call with reporters Friday.
Although the safety board can recommend stopping a trial, the ultimate decision to halt a study is made by the scientists running the trial, Topol said. A vaccine manufacturer could then apply to the Food and Drug Administration for an emergency use authorization, which can be granted quickly, or continue through the regular drug approval process, which requires more time and evidence. Topol and other scientists have sharply criticized the FDA in recent weeks, accusing Commissioner Stephen Hahn of bowing to political pressure from the Trump administration, which has pushed the agency to approve COVID treatments faster. Stopping trials early poses a number of risks, such as making a vaccine look more effective than it really is, Topol said. “If you stop something early, you can get an exaggerated benefit that isn’t real,” because less positive evidence only emerges later, Topol said. Ending vaccine trials early also carries safety risks, said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine developer who serves on an NIH advisory panel on COVID vaccines and treatments. A smaller, shorter trial could fail to detect important vaccine side effects, which could become apparent only after millions of people have been immunized, said Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Mnuchin sees signs US economy is strengthening
Chairman Clyburn, Ranking Member Scalise, and members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to join you today to discuss the Department of the Treasury’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the last five months, Treasury has been working hard to provide fast and direct economic assistance to American workers and their families. We remain committed to making sure that every American gets back to work as quickly as possible.
Effects of the CARES Act
The bipartisan CARES Act is the biggest economic relief package in American history. Economic relief, totaling nearly $3 trillion, which is approximately 15% of GDP, is having a tremendous impact on the economy, leading to increases in jobs, retail sales, business activity and home sales. I also want to thank the Federal Reserve for its substantial work executing 13 unique 13(3) lending facilities.
For the third month in a row, the jobs report exceeded forecasts, with a gain of 1.8 million jobs in July. This brings our three-month total gain to more than 9 million jobs, meaning that over 41 percent of jobs lost due to the pandemic have been recovered. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey suggest the job market has continued to strengthen, with the ratio of unemployed persons to job openings in the economy dropping by nearly one-fourth in June.
We also see signs of a strengthening economic recovery across industries. Retail sales increased in July for the third consecutive month, signaling that consumer spending on goods has recovered from the spring’s economic shutdowns. The ISM Manufacturing survey indicated growth for the second consecutive month, and ISM’s similar survey for service-sector firms also reported a growth of new orders, both signifying increased business activities. The housing market has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, fueled by strong housing starts and existing home sales in July. Leisure and hospitality firms, among the businesses hardest hit by the pandemic, hired 592,000 workers in July, indicating confidence in the economic re-opening.
Phase Four / Executive Orders
While we continue to see signs of a strong economic recovery, we are sensitive to the fact that there is more work to be done, and certain areas of the economy require additional relief. When it became clear that previous negotiations were not moving forward, the President took executive action to provide critical relief to Americans through lost wages assistance and other important items.
We will continue to try to work with the Senate and the House on a bipartisan Phase IV relief package. I believe a bipartisan agreement still should be reached and would provide substantial funds for schools, testing, vaccines, PPP for small businesses, continued enhanced unemployment benefits, child care, nutrition, agriculture, and the U.S. Postal Service, along with liability protection for universities, schools, and businesses.
Transparency
We have released a significant amount of information on our website Treasury.gov and are providing information on the government-wide reporting site USAspending.gov. We also have provided regular updates to Congress, with this marking my fifth appearance before Congress for a CARES Act hearing. Additionally, we are cooperating with various oversight bodies, including three inspectors general, the new Congressional Oversight Commission, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service have made data and information regarding the millions of Economic Impact Payments available on their respective websites. The Department has disclosed all payroll support payments to airlines and other businesses on Treasury.gov.
Treasury has also posted extensive documentation related to Coronavirus Relief Fund payments to State, local, and tribal governments on its website. We also are pleased that the Federal Reserve has posted loan information on its website regarding its lending facilities.
We appreciate the Subcommittee’s interest in these issues and have devoted significant resources to responding to each of its inquiries. We remain committed to working with you to accommodate Congress’s legislative needs and to further our whole-of-government approach to defeating COVID-19.
Conclusion
I would like to thank the members of the Committee for working with us to provide vital economic relief to the American people. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
People Line Up In Record Numbers At Alameda Co. Food Bank In COVID-19 Economy
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) – The pandemic has pushed food insecurity to levels not see in decades and people are relying on food banks more than ever here in the Bay Area. Three times a week, hundreds of cars line up as thousands of pounds of food are all given away at the Alameda County Food Bank.“We’ve never seen anything like this in 35 years in business. Each one of these distribution is serving well over a thousand cars!” said the food bank’s Director Community Engagement Mike Altfest. It is one of four locations across Alameda County where folks are receiving much needed basic food for free. They are people who may have lost their jobs when their businesses were forced to shut down due to pandemic concerns. “They start lining up as early as seven in the morning and this will run for six straight hours” said Altfest. Hundreds of cars slowly snake their way through the parking lot across from the Acura dealership on Interstate 880. Folks from all walks of life driving everything from Toyota’s, BMW’s, to Mercedes, all coming to get food. Folks are grateful for the charity. “I really appreciate all the help! When we need it, they are there,” said one man in line. “Everybody needs it! It’s like, you know how it is in these COVID times, it’s like, we all need some help.” Onions, potatoes, vegetables, fresh fruit, bags and boxes loading up for families. Altfest says the amount of food being handed out is amazing. “Since the start of this pandemic, our food distribution has increased between 50 and 70 percent. So, while we were distributing 600 pounds of food a week before this, we’re now well over a millions pounds a week,” said Altfest. The Alameda County Food Bank is open to help folks find food for the table, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For more information, go to www.accfb.org.
New Trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy, worrying public health officials
One of President Trump’s top medical advisers is urging the White House to embrace a controversial “herd immunity” strategy to combat the pandemic, which would entail allowing the coronavirus to spread through most of the population to quickly build resistance to the virus, while taking steps to protect those in nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The administration has already begun to implement some policies along these lines, according to current and former officials as well as experts, particularly with regard to testing. The approach’s chief proponent is Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist from Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution, who joined the White House earlier this month as a pandemic adviser. He has advocated that the United States adopt the model Sweden has used to respond to the virus outbreak, according to these officials, which relies on lifting restrictions so the healthy can build up immunity to the disease rather than limiting social and business interactions to prevent the virus from spreading.
Sweden’s handling of the pandemic has been heavily criticized by public health officials and infectious-disease experts as reckless — the country has among the highest infection and death rates in the world. It also hasn’t escaped the deep economic problems resulting from the pandemic.
But Sweden’s approach has gained support among some conservatives who argue that social distancing restrictions are crushing the economy and infringing on people’s liberties.
That this approach is even being discussed inside the White House is drawing concern from experts inside and outside the government who note that a herd immunity strategy could lead to the country suffering hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lost lives. “The administration faces some pretty serious hurdles in making this argument. One is a lot of people will die, even if you can protect people in nursing homes,” said Paul Romer, a professor at New York University who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2018. “Once it’s out in the community, we’ve seen over and over again, it ends up spreading everywhere.” Atlas, who does not have a background in infectious diseases or epidemiology, has expanded his influence inside the White House by advocating policies that appeal to Trump’s desire to move past the pandemic and get the economy going, distressing health officials on the White House coronavirus task force and throughout the administration who worry that their advice is being followed less and less. Atlas, who does not have a background in infectious diseases or epidemiology, has expanded his influence inside the White House by advocating policies that appeal to Trump’s desire to move past the pandemic and get the economy going, distressing health officials on the White House coronavirus task force and throughout the administration who worry that their advice is being followed less and less. Atlas declined several interview requests in recent days. After the publication of this story, he released a statement through the White House: “There is no policy of the President or this administration of achieving herd immunity. There never has been any such policy recommended to the President or to anyone else from me.” Atlas has fashioned himself as the “anti-Dr. Fauci,” one senior administration official said, referring to Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease official, who has repeatedly been at odds with the president over his public comments about the threat posed by the virus. He has clashed with Fauci as well as Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, over the administration’s pandemic response. Atlas has argued both internally and in public that an increased case count will move the nation more quickly to herd immunity and won’t lead to more deaths if the vulnerable are protected. But infectious-disease experts strongly dispute that, noting that more than 25,000 people younger than 65 have died of the virus in the United States. In addition, the United States has a higher number of vulnerable people of all ages because of high rates of heart and lung disease and obesity, and millions of vulnerable people live outside nursing homes — many in the same households with children, whom Atlas believes should return to school. The discussions come as at least 5.9 million infections have been reported and at least 179,000 have died from the virus this year and as public opinion polls show that Trump’s biggest liability with voters in his contest against Democratic nominee Joe Biden is his handling of the pandemic. The United States leads the world in coronavirus cases and deaths, with far more casualties and infections than any other developed nation. The nations that have most successfully managed the coronavirus outbreak imposed stringent lockdown measures that a vast majority of the country abided by, quickly ramped up testing and contact tracing, and imposed mask mandates. Atlas meets with Trump almost every day, far more than any other health official, and inside the White House is viewed as aligned with the president and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on how to handle the outbreak, according to three senior administration officials.
Coronavirus: Cases on Tui flight from Zante to Cardiff
All passengers who were on a flight to Wales from a Greek island have been told to self-isolate after some on board tested positive for coronavirus. Health officials say seven people from three different parties on Tui flight 6215 from Zante to Cardiff on Tuesday have tested positive for Covid-19. It comes as a group of people from Plymouth tested positive for the virus after returning from Zante on Monday. “Cardiff and Vale test, trace, protect and Public Health Wales have identified at least seven confirmed cases of Covid-19 from three different parties who were infectious on Tui flight 6215 from Zante to Cardiff on 25 August,” said Giri Shankar of PHW. “As a result, we are advising that all passengers on this flight are considered close contacts and must self-isolate.””These passengers will be contacted shortly, but meanwhile, they must self-isolate at home as they may become infectious, even without developing symptoms.”
Dr Shankar, PHW’s Covid-19 incident director, said the 187 passengers and six crew on board the three-and-a-half hour flight from Zakynthos to Cardiff Airport on Tuesday that has symptoms “should book a test without delay”.
There were 1,715 new coronavirus cases – and one death – reported in the UK on Sunday – the highest number since 4 June.While no new deaths with coronavirus were reported in Wales on Sunday, 56 cases have been confirmed by PHW. The seven cases on board the Tui flight are included in the 12 new cases reported in the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board area. Tui said all passengers comply with Covid protocols “for the duration of their flight” including wearing face masks. The travel operator added their aircraft have “state-of-the-art, hospital standard air filtering system”, BULLFUCKIGSHIT! are deep cleaned after every flight and “fully disinfected at least once every 24 hours” in accordance with European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) guidelines. “The safety and well-being of passengers and crew is our highest priority and we operate in line with EASA guidelines,” said a Tui spokesperson. Cardiff Airport, which is owned by the Welsh Government, said it is working closely with airlines to “facilitate passenger travel throughout this challenging time for the industry”. “Tui is taking every necessary measure following today’s report, said Spencer Birns, Cardiff Airport’s interim chief executive.”Cardiff Airport is closely following guidelines set out by Public Health Wales, FCO and UK Government and has already taken a number of measures to ensure the safety and security of our team and customers, which is our number one priority.” Nick Note: Total bullssit! You fly you die!