The Pandemic Informer

The coronavirus pandemic will “fade away” even without a vaccine, but researchers are close to developing one anyhow, President Donald Trump said. “We’re very close to a vaccine and we’re very close to therapeutics, really good therapeutics,” Trump said Wednesday night in a television interview with Fox News. “But even without that, I don’t even like to talk about that, because it’s fading away, it’s going to fade away, but having a vaccine would be really nice and that’s going to happen.” President Donald Trump said that he believed the coronavirus pandemic would “go away without a vaccine,” contradicting countless warnings from the medical community and his own White House task force. “I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests. This is going to go away without a vaccine, it’s gonna go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time.” Trump added that while the U.S. may see “some flare-ups” of the virus, and while the virus could remain throughout the year, he believed states should lift restrictions and let Americans go back to work. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and member of the White House coronavirus task force, does not think COVID-19 will suddenly go away. “I don’t think there’s a chance that this virus is just going to disappear,” he said recently. “It’s going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.” He said he was “almost certain it will come back because the virus is so transmissible and it’s globally spread.”

China raised its emergency warning to its second-highest level and canceled more than 60% of the flights to Beijing on Wednesday amid a new coronavirus outbreak in the capital. It was a sharp pullback for the nation that declared victory over COVID-19 in March and a message to the rest of the world about how tenacious the virus really is. New infections spiked in India, Iran and U.S. states including Florida, Texas and Arizona as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the pandemic. European nations, which embarked on a wide-scale reopening this week, looked on with trepidation as the Americas struggled to contain the first wave of the pandemic and Asian nations like China and South Korea reported new outbreaks.

Chinese officials described the situation in Beijing as “extremely grave.” “This has truly rung an alarm bell for us,” Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijing’s Communist Party Standing Committee.

After a push that began June 14, the city expects to have tested 700,000 people by the end of the day, said Zhang Qiang, a Beijing party official. About half of them were workers from the city’s food markets, nearby residents and close contacts. The party’s Global Times said 1,255 flights to and from the capital’s two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of those scheduled. Since the virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8.1 million confirmed cases and at least 443,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll is much higher, due to the many who died without being tested and other factors. Continue reading “Beijing outbreak raises coronavirus fears for rest of the world”

The United States may be at a crucial point in the coronavirus pandemic, with cases rising again and officials deciding whether to stay the course on reopening. At least 19 states have seen new cases go up in the last two weeks and six states on Tuesday reported record increases, CBS News’ Manuel Bojorquez reports.

Florida reported 2,783 new cases. Texas reported 2,622, and Arizona reported a one-day jump of 2,392 new cases. Oklahoma, Oregon and Nevada also reported their highest single-day spikes in cases yet. Continue reading “6 states report record-high jumps in coronavirus cases as reopening plans weighed”

I’m Barking At Everybody

I’m really in a bad mood and pissed. And I realized that I’m really angry because the assholes have decided to let the pandemic spread so they can win an election. I thought leadership was supposed to lead and do what’s in the best interest of the country even in the difficult times when the masses don’t understand.

A Harvard health expert said he expects an additional 200,000 deaths in the US by September. Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the current data shows that somewhere between 800 to 1,000 Americans are dying from the virus daily, and even if that does not increase, the US is poised to cross 200,000 deaths sometime in September. “I think that is catastrophic. I think that is not something we have to be fated to live with,” Jha told CNN. “We can change the course. We can change course today.” Jha stressed that the numbers he’s predicted are only for the next several months.

“The pandemic won’t be over in September,” Jha said. “So, I’m really worried about where we’re going to be in the weeks and months ahead.”

The main model used by officials to estimate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States revised its death toll this week to 193,347 COVID-19 deaths by October 1. As of June 10, the number of US coronavirus infections was just shy of 2 million. More than 20 states have reported an increase in infections since lockdowns began to be lifted, and nine have seen their hospitalizations climb since Memorial Day, Business Insider previously reported.

“We’re really the only major country in the world that opened back up without really getting our cases as down low as we really needed to,” Jha told CNN.

He also said that the US is the only advanced country to not have a proper contact tracing system, and all of those obstacles made reopening riskier. Jha said people should continue to maintain social distancing, wear masks, and to “put pressure” on the government to advance testing and contact tracing efforts.

All movement in and out of the city will be ‘strictly controlled’ as dozens more test positive for Covid-19 amid fears of a second wave

China’s capital has raised its emergency level as dozens of new coronavirus cases emerged and residents were barred from any “unessential” travel outside Beijing following a new outbreak of the virus that is yet to be brought under control. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, schools suspended and all residential compounds ordered to reinstate strict screening after authorities raised the city’s four-tiered Covid emergency response level from three to two on Tuesday evening. All movement in and out of the city will be “strictly controlled”, officials said at the briefing. Authorities reported 31 new cases of the virus in Beijing as of Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections to 137 over the past six days. The new outbreak, linked to a sprawling wholesale food market in the south-eastern district of Fengtai, has spread to nine of the city’s 17 districts. On Tuesday, at least 1,255 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled, according to state media. Chen Bei, deputy secretary general of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government said: “Beijing faces serious danger of imported cases and spread in the city and the country.” Officials stopped short of ordering businesses and factories to shut under the new emergency level, which had been lowered just two weeks ago. Authorities called on employers to continue regular operations but encourage remote working and ask employees to stagger their arrivals at work.

All primary and secondary schools were ordered to stop attending classes on Tuesday, while kindergartens and universities were also suspended. Officials also ordered that traffic to parks as well as indoor public spaces like museums and libraries be limited. Continue reading “Beijing coronavirus outbreak: city raises emergency level and grounds hundreds of flights”

Experts voice concern over an uptick of Covid-19 cases in the southern part of the state where resources are scarce

The number of coronavirus deaths in California surpassed 5,000 over the weekend, even as malls, museums and movie theaters began to reopen across the state.

The rise in cases has left epidemiologists and healthcare providers uneasy about whether the Golden State – which until now has been considered a national leader in aggressively containing the pandemic – will start to regress.

California has now recorded about 153,500 Covid-19 cases, with cases increasing by more than 2,000 over the weekend. Much of that can be attributed to increased testing, health officials say. But the grim statistics also reflect an explosion of cases in Imperial county, which borders Mexico, as well as a spike in Los Angeles. “The continued growth of the epidemic in southern California is of huge concern,” said George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at UC San Francisco. “We can’t turn the corner of this epidemic until we turn a corner there.” In Los Angeles, coronavirus hospitalizations have slowed, but per a tracker developed by the Mercury News, Los Angeles county saw nearly 1,000 new cases by Sunday night, and 17 deaths – more than half of the daily total of reported deaths in the state.

As cases and deaths continued to rise in Imperial county, more than 1,600 residents signed a letter asking the California governor Gavin Newsom and state officials to intervene, even as local supervisors pushed to reopen more businesses despite the health crisis. Continue reading “States see Covid-19 surges as they reopen, need to intervene right now: Fmr. FDA chief”

It’s an outcome no one wants, but could become a “harsh reality”: a second wave of shutdowns.

But the pandemic is far from over. More than 115,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, and hundreds more are dying from the virus every day. “COVID’s not taking a summer vacation,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “It’s actually having new opportunities to spread.” Murray said the “biggest and most difficult choice” states could face in the coming months is managing a potential second shutdown. And the consequences of another shutdown would be wide-ranging, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “We can’t shut down the economy again,” Mnuchin told CNBC. “I think we’ve learned that if you shut down the economy, you’re going to create more damage. And not just economic damage, but … medical problems and everything else that get put on hold.” But the federal government hasn’t been in control of shutdowns and reopenings. Those have been at the discretion of each state. “If you run out of hospital beds, and you run out of ICU beds … (states would) have to shut down,” said Reiner.

(Bloomberg) — A lifting of the ban on travel to the U.S. from Great Britain could still be months away, and in a worst case may not come until a coronavirus vaccine is available, Dr. Anthony Fauci told a U.K. newspaper. The U.S. infectious diseases specialist made the comment in a wide-ranging interview with The Telegraph on Sunday, in which he also expressed hope that one or more of the vaccines now in development could be ready by the end of 2020 or early 2021. “It’s going to be really wait and see. I don’t think there’s going to be an immediate pullback for those kinds of [travel] restrictions,” Fauci said. “Looking at what’s going on with the infection rate, I think it’s more likely measured in months rather than weeks.” Close to 4 million people from the U.K. visit the U.S. in a typical year. The U.S. and U.K. rank one and three in the number of deaths attributed to the virus, and numbers one and five in the number of reported cases. The U.S., with some exceptions, banned travel from China, the U.K. and the European Union earlier in the year, and followed up with a ban in May on most travel from Brazil as Covid-19 cases spiked there. Many countries have their own restrictions on incoming travelers to tamp down outbreaks, including outright bans or enforced quarantines. Fauci, a member of the now mostly mothballed White House coronavirus task force, continued to warn against a second wave of Covid-19 infections in the U.S., even as many states are still facing their first full wave of illnesses. ”I would hope to get to some degree of real normality within a year or so. But I don’t think it’s this winter or fall,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the newspaper. The U.S. recently passed the 2-million mark for cases, although earlier epicenters like New York and New Jersey have seen the pandemic tail off after aggressive action to shut down economic activity. “It is not inevitable that you will have a so-called ‘second wave’ in the fall, or even a massive increase, if you approach it in the proper way,” Fauci said.

Beijing is going through an important test in its fight against COVID-19, and if it is not handled well, will cause a second wave of the outbreak, according to the chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Like the rest of the country, most of the population in Beijing is susceptible to COVID-19. Fortunately, Beijing found it early and moved fast,” Zeng Guang, the CDC epidemiologist, told Chinese media on Saturday, warning that the Beijing regional outbreak could bring a second wave. This test that Beijing is going through is the biggest one after the whole country experienced a calm period, Zeng noted. Zeng revealed that preliminary results from viral gene sequencing show that the virus strain in Beijing this time does not resemble the type widely circulating in the country. Two samples have already been tested, and more tests are needed to determine where the epidemic is headed, he noted. Chen Xi, an associate professor of public health at Yale University, also suggested making a comparison of types of viral gene sequencing from different countries, to determine whether the virus detected in Beijing is from the origin nations of salmon. The novel coronavirus was detected on a chopping board used by a seller of imported salmon at Xinfadi market. China imports about 80,000 tons of chilled and frozen salmon each year, mainly from Chile, Norway, Faroe Islands, Australia and Canada, according to news site Jiemian.com. A preliminary investigation showed those confirmed cases may have been in contact with the contaminated environment at the Xinfadi Market or had contact with people who were affected, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of Beijing municipal center for disease prevention and control, said at a press conference on Saturday.

She said the possibility of more COVID-19 infections cannot be ruled out.

Beijing reported 36 more confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, health authorities said on Sunday. Twenty-seven worked at the Xinfadi Market and nine others had a direct or indirect connection with the market. As of press time, Beijing had reported a total of 43 confirmed cases over three consecutive days. The Beijing Xinfadi Market became a new COVID-19 hot spot after confirmed cases reported in the capital city in the last three days were all traced back to the city’s largest vegetables wholesale market. Chen told the Global Times on Sunday that residents don’t have to worry about the outbreak in Beijing as present, as China has gained vast experience in fighting against COVID-19, first from Wuhan, then Shulan in Northeastern China. Beijing is capable of preventing the sporadic cases from spreading, Chen believed.