Category: Breaking News

One of the great mysteries of the coronavirus is how quickly it rocketed around the world. It first flared in central China and, within three months, was on every continent but Antarctica, shutting down daily life for millions. Behind the rapid spread was something that initially caught scientists off guard, baffled health authorities and undermined early containment efforts — the virus could be spread by seemingly healthy people. As some workers return to offices, children prepare to return to schools and those desperate for normalcy again visit malls and restaurants, the emerging science points to a menacing reality: If people who appear healthy can transmit the illness, it may be impossible to contain.

“It can be a killer and then 40 percent of people don’t even know they have it,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute. “We have to get out of the denial mode, because it’s real.”

Researchers have exposed the frightening likelihood of silent spread of the virus by asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers. But how major a role seemingly healthy people play in swelling the ranks of those infected remains unanswered — and at the top of the scientific agenda. The small but mighty coronavirus can unlock a human cell, set up shop and mass produce tens of thousands of copies of itself in a single day. Virus levels skyrocket before the first cough, if one ever arrives. And astonishing to scientists, an estimated 4 in 10 infected people don’t ever have symptoms. “For control, to actually keep the virus from coming back, we’re going to have to deal with this issue,” said Rein Houben, a disease tracker at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The dire toll of more than 580,000 worldwide deaths from the coronavirus has faded to the background as cities lift restrictions. But the slyness of the virus remains on the minds of many scientists, who are watching societies reopen, wondering what happens if silent spreaders aren’t detected until it’s too late.

Travelers with no coughs can slip past airport screens. Workers without fevers won’t be caught by temperature checks. People who don’t feel tired and achy will attend business meetings.

And outbreaks could begin anew. As early as January, there were signs people could harbor the virus without showing symptoms. A 10-year-old boy in China who traveled to Wuhan had no symptoms but tested positive along with six others in his family who had coughs and fevers. More troubling was a report out of Germany: A business traveler from China spread the virus to colleagues in Munich, even though she appeared healthy. Still, many scientists remained unconvinced. Some questioned whether the Chinese businesswoman truly didn’t have symptoms. They suggested she might have had mild ones she attributed to jet lag. The concept of people unwittingly spreading disease has never been an easy one to grasp, from the polio epidemic of mid-century America to the spread of HIV decades later. At the turn of the 20th century, a seemingly healthy New York cook named Mary Mallon left a deadly trail of typhoid infections that captivated the public and led to her being forced into quarantine on an East River island. “Typhoid Mary” remains a haunting symbol of silent spread. As COVID-19 emerged, health officials believed it would be like other coronaviruses and that people were most infectious when showing symptoms like cough and fever, with transmission rare otherwise. “We were thinking this thing is going to look like SARS: a long incubation period and no transmission during the incubation period,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, a disease modeler at the University of Texas at Austin. At U.S. airports around the country, travelers returning from hot spots including China who didn’t have symptoms were allowed to go on their way. “We were reassuring ourselves and the public that contact with an asymptomatic person was not a risk,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin of King County, Washington, where the first major U.S. cluster of coronavirus cases broke out at the Life Care nursing home. Behind the scenes, scientists like Meyers were sharing their alarming finding with health officials. Meyers had assembled a team of students who scoured websites of Chinese health departments looking for dates of symptom onset in situations where there was enough information to figure out who infected whom. Between Jan. 21 and Feb. 8, they found several cases where the person who brought the virus home didn’t develop symptoms until after infecting a family member. For example, a woman in a Chinese city with few cases got sick after her husband returned from a trip to a city with a large outbreak. He didn’t get sick until later. “When we looked at the data, we said, ‘Oh no, this can’t be true,’” Meyers said. “It was shocking.” Finding more than 50 such cases, Meyers immediately shared the analysis with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — on Feb. 20 at precisely 1:18 a.m., according to her records. The agency responded a few hours later with questions. Meyers and the CDC exchanged extensive emails, going over what could be behind the numbers. Was the virus really spreading that fast and before people felt sick?

Continue reading “Silent spread of virus keeps scientists grasping for clues”

The resort closed a loophole some guests were using to remove their mandatory face masks

Be our guest — with some exceptions. That seems to be Disney World’s pandemic motto, as the beloved theme park struggles to keep visitors safe and socially-distanced while still providing a fun and memorable experience after partially reopening on July 11. Some restaurants and attractions remain closed in the Walt Disney Co.’s DIS, 0.33% Orlando, Fla. resort, for example, and guests can’t hug and take selfies with the costumed characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse anymore. Guests must also get their temperatures checked before entering the park, and face masks are required at all times — except when a guest is actively eating or drinking. Problem is, that dining exception has created a mask loophole: Some guests were seen strolling the reopened Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom with their masks off while they sipped drinks and noshed pretzels. So the park has updated its mask policy to specify that guests shouldn’t walk and eat or drink at the same time. “You may remove your face covering while actively eating or drinking, but you should be stationary and maintain appropriate physical distancing,” the revised guidelines read. What’s more, an EPCOT cast member told Walt Disney World News Today that “guests are now being asked to find a safe spot six feet from other guests before removing their masks to eat and drink.” The stricter social distancing rules have been met with mixed reactions on Twitter TWTR, -0.22% and the Facebook-owned FB, -0.81% Instagram. Some critics complain that the safety and sanitary measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have sapped the joy from visiting the Happiest Place on Earth. Others argue that this is an example of personal rights being violated. “Dictating to customers that they cannot walk and eat or drink is absurd,” wrote one reader. “Are we now ‘Nazi Germany?’ Have all our freedoms been taken away?” “No character meet ups. No fireworks. No parades. Can’t walk and eat and drink,” tweeted another, who then asked what is “the point” of even going? Others applauded the move, such as a Tampa Bay Times reporter who has noticed guests using refreshments as an excuse to pull down their masks in neighboring Florida theme parks Busch Gardens and SeaWorld. “Disney is on to you folks who take their mask off to eat and drink,” she tweeted. Some guests supporting the measure also said that the updated policy makes them feel safer, and also serves to better protect Disney park employees.

Americans are just days away from going over the economic cliff, and the president and Senate Republicans are attempting to sabotage any coronavirus relief package. Let’s start with the most indefensible position first. The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus surpassed 140,000 in the U.S. on Sunday morning according to Johns Hopkins data. The U.S. confirmed on Saturday more than 71,500 new cases in 24 hours — the second highest number to the record 75,600-plus set last Thursday. And yet, the Trump Death Cult is pushing to block new money for testing, tracing and CDC in upcoming coronavirus relief bill: The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday. The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic at home and abroad, the people said. The administration’s posture has angered some GOP senators, the officials said, and some lawmakers are trying to push back and ensure that the money stays in the bill. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential deliberations, cautioned that the talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux. [T]he conflict between Trump administration officials and Senate Republicans on money for testing and other priorities is creating a major complication even before bipartisan negotiations get under way. One person involved in the talks said Senate Republicans were seeking to allocate $25 billion for states to conduct testing and contact tracing, but that certain administration officials want to zero out the testing and tracing money entirely. Some White House officials believe they have already approved billions of dollars in assistance for testing and that some of that money remains unspent. Trump and other White House officials have been pushing for states to own more of the responsibility for testing and have objected to creating national standards, at times seeking to minimize the federal government’s role. We all know from where this batshit crazy policy comes. Trump believes that if we don’t test, we don’t have COVID-19 cases. Close your eyes and pretend to make it go away. What this really means is that we are flying blind in an unchecked pandemic that is overwhelming our hospitals. Trump has crossed the line from criminal negligence into willful manslaughter. The next sticking point is Trump’s insistence on a payroll tax cut which takes money from payroll deductions for social security and medicare. Trump demands payroll tax cut in next Covid relief bill. “President Donald Trump has signaled to Hill Republicans that he will not sign a new coronavirus stimulus package without the inclusion of a payroll tax cut, according to three sources close to the issue.” More than 32 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment benefits. Over 17 million continue to claim traditional unemployment benefits. This number has dropped from its peak at 25 million in early May, but it remains at depression levels. Another roughly 15 million are on the rolls of other unemployment programs, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. That’s 32 million unemployed Americans – which does not include many more Americans who have applied for unemployment but have not yet qualified – for whom a payroll tax deduction is meaningless. They are not receiving a paycheck. They need direct financial assistance to survive, to keep a roof over their head, and to feed their families. Most of the expansion of benefits — applies only to benefit weeks that end “on or before July 31.” July 31 is a Friday.

On July 25 or 26, and millions of workers will see their incomes plunge 60 percent or more just a few days from now.

A new plan from Senate Republicans to award businesses, schools, and universities sweeping exemptions from lawsuits arising from inadequate coronavirus safeguards is putting Republicans and Democrats at loggerheads as Congress reconvenes next week to negotiate another relief package. The liability proposal, drafted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and senior Republican John Cornyn of Texas, promises to shield employers when customers and workers are exposed to coronavirus by moving lawsuits to federal court and limiting legal liability to acts of “gross negligence or intentional misconduct,” according to a draft of the plan obtained by The Associated Press. McConnell has said for months that some form of liability shield will be in the next COVID response measure, telling an audience in Kentucky on Wednesday that he won’t send the next, and fifth, coronavirus response bill to the floor without it.

Continue reading “GOP House Leader Makes Dire Prediction For New Coronavirus Stimulus Bill”

University Of Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Promising Signs With Creation Of Antibodies

Trump Says U.S. Has Lowest Infection Rate And Death Rate In The World

I say, bullshit. This is an issue that we’re going to have to deal with and get it right because everything depends on this. I’ll do my job, you do yours.

If ‘stupid’ crowds and business owners continue to ignore social distancing rules despite hospitalizations reaching their lowest since March 18

• Bars and restaurants in New York City can service people on an outdoor basis
• But Cuomo said on Monday too many were ignoring social distancing rules
• Large crowds continue to gather at some bars, and the NYPD is refusing to intervene
• Cuomo said he’d roll back the reopening and close all bars if it continues
• The hospitality industry was crippled by the 14-week closure
• Many were put out of business entirely and others are open but can’t pay rent
• The infection rate among those tested in NYC is now 1.3% and Brooklyn and Manhattan have the lowest rates
• Hospitalizations are down to their lowest across NY state – 716 – since March 18

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has threatened to reverse New York City’s reopening plan and close all bars and restaurants because too many are allowing large groups to gather. The infection rate of people tested in New York City is now just 1.3 percent, with Brooklyn (0.9 percent) and Manhattan (1.1 percent) showing lower numbers than any other borough. Statewide, hospitalizations have fallen to their lowest since March 18 – 716 – and the three-day average of the number of people dying every day is now 11. Despite the encouraging numbers, Cuomo says there are still too many young people, particularly in the city, flouting social distancing rules. They are ‘reckless and stupid’, he said, but the bar and restaurant owners who are allowing them to gather and the cops who are turning a blind eye to them are also to blame. Bars and restaurants in New York City were finally allowed to offer outdoor service on June 22 after an excruciating, 14-week closure that crippled the economy and put many out of business. Indoor dining is indefinitely postponed, due in part to the huge surge in cases being seen in other states where it was allowed to resume. On Monday, Cuomo warned: ‘We cannot allow those congregations to continue. ‘If it happens… I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. ‘We will have to roll back the bar and restaurant opening if the congregations continue, if the local governments don’t stop it, that is what is going to happen. ‘One plus one still equals two,’ he said. He showed photos of crowds at bars in Astoria, Queens, and on the Lower East Side as examples, but large gatherings have been seen all over the city. Statewide: 1.05% positive of 49,342 people tested positive (519). Bars and restaurants were allowed to resume outdoor dining on June 22. Many had been offering take-out throughout the pandemic which created a problem of people gathering in streets with drinks. Last week, Cuomo tightened the rules.

#	Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths	New Deaths	Total Recovered	Active Cases	Serious, Critical	Tot Cases/ 1M pop	Deaths/ 1M pop	Total Tests	Tests/ 1M pop	Population
	World	14,745,026	+109,474	610,780	+2,211	8,792,897	5,341,349	59,701	1,892	78.4
1	USA	3,923,206	+24,656	143,486	+197	1,803,752	1,975,968	16,550	11,849	433	48,511,439	146,515	331,102,850
2	Brazil	2,102,559	+2,663	79,590	+57	1,371,229	651,740	8,318	9,888	374	4,911,063	23,096	212,636,496
3	India	1,153,359	+35,252	28,092	+589	724,494	400,773	8,944	835	20	14,047,908	10,175	1,380,678,271
4	Russia	777,486	+5,940	12,427	+85	553,602	211,457	2,300	5,328	85	25,251,614	173,030	145,937,857
5	South Africa	364,328		5,033		191,059	168,236	539	6,139	85	2,471,747	41,651	59,344,794
6	Peru	353,590		13,187		241,955	98,448	1,293	10,717	400	2,063,240	62,534	32,993,724
7	Mexico	344,224	+5,311	39,184	+296	217,423	87,617	378	2,668	304	821,922	6,372	128,999,581
8	Chile	333,029	+2,099	8,633	+130	303,992	20,404	1,764	17,414	451	1,420,390	74,271	19,124,453
9	Spain	307,335		28,420		N/A	N/A	617	6,573	608	6,026,446	128,892	46,755,761
10	UK	295,372	+580	45,312	+12	N/A	N/A	142	4,350	667	13,459,190	198,208	67,904,526
11	Iran	276,202	+2,414	14,405	+217	240,087	21,710	3,583	3,286	171	2,175,217	25,882	84,044,752
12	Pakistan	265,083	+1,587	5,599	+31	205,929	53,555	1,552	1,199	25	1,740,768	7,874	221,084,562
13	Saudi Arabia	253,349	+2,429	2,523	+37	203,259	47,567	2,196	7,272	72	2,728,424	78,315	34,839,236
14	Italy	244,624	+190	35,058	+13	197,162	12,404	47	4,046	580	6,262,302	103,583	60,456,923
15	Turkey	219,641		5,491		202,010	12,140	1,246	2,603	65	4,273,377	50,642	84,383,723
16	Bangladesh	207,453	+2,928	2,668	+50	113,556	91,229	1	1,259	16	1,041,661	6,322	164,770,770
17	Germany	203,334	+489	9,168	+5	187,800	6,366	249	2,426	109	6,884,614	82,157	83,798,119
18	Colombia	197,278		6,736		91,793	98,749	1,040	3,875	132	1,210,063	23,769	50,909,605
19	France	174,674		30,152		79,233	65,289	477	2,676	462	2,764,345	42,345	65,281,223
20	Argentina	126,755		2,281	+21	55,913	68,561	752	2,803	50	552,306	12,215	45,216,508
21	Canada	110,338		8,852		97,051	4,435	2,177	2,922	234	3,520,542	93,238	37,758,765
22	Qatar	107,037	+389	159	+2	103,782	3,096	126	38,121	57	446,036	158,856	2,807,805
23	Iraq	94,693	+2,163	3,869	+88	62,836	27,988	431	2,352

Six months after the coronavirus appeared in America, the nation has failed spectacularly to contain it. The country’s ineffective response has shocked observers around the planet. Many countries have rigorously driven infection rates nearly to zero. In the United States, coronavirus transmission is out of control. The national response is fragmented, shot through with political rancor and culture-war divisiveness. Testing shortcomings that revealed themselves in March have become acute in July, with week-long waits for results leaving the country blind to real-time virus spread and rendering contact tracing nearly irrelevant.

© Provided by The Washington Post

The United States may be heading toward a new spasm of wrenching economic shutdowns or to another massive spike in preventable deaths from covid-19 — or both.

How the world’s richest country got into this dismal situation is a complicated tale that exposes the flaws and fissures in a nation long proud of its ability to meet cataclysmic challenges. The fumbling of the virus was not a fluke: The American coronavirus fiasco has exposed the country’s incoherent leadership, self-defeating political polarization, a lack of investment in public health, and persistent socioeconomic and racial inequities that have left millions of people vulnerable to disease and death.In this big, sprawling, demographically and culturally diverse nation, the decentralized political structures gave birth to patchwork policies that don’t make sense when applied to a virus that ignores state boundaries and city limits.

While other countries endured some of the same setbacks, few have suffered from all of them simultaneously and catastrophically. If there was a mistake to be made in this pandemic, America has made it.

The single biggest miscalculation was rushing to reopen the economy while the virus was still spreading at high rates through much of the country, experts say. The only way to reopen safely, epidemiologists said as far back as early April, was to “crush the curve” — to drive down the rate of viral transmission to the point that new infections were few and far between. Many countries did just that. The United States did not follow the expert advice. Now, the curve is crushing America. “We didn’t have the stick-to-itiveness, the determination, to carry through what we started in March, April and May, and now the virus is taking advantage of that,” National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said. “If we’d had really strong guidance from local, state and national leaders, maybe we could have sustained the determination to get the curve all the way down to zero,” he said. “Now, we’re on the upswing, and I don’t quite see the top of the upswing yet.” Other countries have managed to avoid the kind of dramatic viral resurgence that is happening in America. Spain, Italy, Germany and France — all devastated by the virus months ago — drove coronavirus cases and deaths to relatively low levels. The United Kingdom has been an outlier in Europe, with one of the highest per capita death tolls in the world, but after suppressing transmission, it has not seen a major rebound. And in Asia, the picture is radically different. In Taiwan, baseball fans sit in the stands and watch their teams play. Japan has had fewer than 1,000 deaths from covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. South Korea has had fewer than 300. Vietnam has recorded no deaths from the virus. The death rate from covid-19 in the United States looks like that of countries with vastly lower wealth, health-care resources and technological infrastructure.

Rehab centers set up across Europe to treat long-term effects of coronavirus