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Health

WHO races to include Ebola within the DRC because it confirms a 3rd case

WHO races to contain Ebola in the DRC as it confirms a third case

World Health Organization employees decontaminate the house of a pastor who just tested positive for Ebola on June 13, 2019 in Beni.

Sally Hayden | SOPA pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

The World Health Organization confirmed a third case of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Friday as health officials attempt to vaccinate residents and contain the possible outbreak.

Earlier this week, the global health agency confirmed that a woman has died of the disease in Butembo, a city in North Kivu province and the epicenter of a previous Ebola outbreak that was declared over in June. WHO has since confirmed two more cases, including one more person who has died, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, on Friday.

The number of people who may have been exposed to the virus rose from over 70 on Monday to 182 on Friday, Ryan said. He added that all but three of these people had been contacted and more than half of them had previously been vaccinated against Ebola in previous outbreaks.

“We’re seeing some benefits from previous vaccination, but of course we need to look at how long the vaccine protects,” he said.

He added that new vaccine shipments had arrived in Butembo this week. Ultra-cold chain storage equipment will be set up and staff trained in Butembo, Ryan said.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo also has other therapeutics, including anti-body monoclonal Ebola treatments, in its capital, Kinshasa, and another city, Mbandaka, Ryan said, adding that they will be flown to North Kivu over the weekend. Democratic Republic of the Congo has enough vaccine for 16,000 people in the country, Ryan said, but it’s not clear how much has gotten to Butembo.

WHO is “still unclear about the original community source” of the first Ebola case, Ryan said, adding that the National Institute for Biomedical Research of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is sequencing samples of the virus at its main laboratory in Kinshasa to see if the new cases are associated with the most recent butembo outbreak. Ryan said the results are expected over the weekend.

The Ebola outbreak, declared in June, lasted almost two years. It was the second largest in the world and at the time of its end there were a total of 3,481 cases and 2,299 deaths, according to the WHO.

WHO noted that efforts to respond to outbreaks in North Kivu province have been particularly difficult due to the ongoing violent conflict in the area, which is occupied by over 100 different armed groups, according to Human Rights Watch.

Ryan said WHO is working with non-governmental organizations, the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other United Nations agencies such as UNICEF to respond to the new Ebola cases.

In contrast to the highly infectious coronavirus, which can be transmitted by people without symptoms, it is believed that Ebola spreads mainly through people who are already visibly ill. The virus spreads through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of people who are sick or have died of the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ebola has an average death rate of 50% which, according to the WHO, can vary depending on the outbreak.

“Of course, two cases and now a third don’t seem like many, many cases given the global situation at Covid, but we’ve been waiting for Ebola to return in Eastern Congo and we will.” do everything in our power to assist the government in responding, “said Ryan.

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Politics

Impeachment Case Towards Trump Goals to Marshal Outrage of Capitol Assault

Impeachment Case Against Trump Aims to Marshal Outrage of Capitol Attack

“The story of the president’s actions is both exciting and terrifying,” Maryland Democrat Representative Jamie Raskin said in an interview. “We believe that every American should know what happened – that the reason he was charged by the House of Representatives and why he should be convicted and expelled from the future federal office is to make sure that such an attack on our democracy and constitution never happens again. “

In making Mr Trump the first American president to be charged twice, the Democrats have essentially given themselves an unprecedented overhaul. When California Democrat Adam B. Schiff was preparing to prosecute Mr. Trump for the first time for a printing campaign against Ukraine, he read and posted the 605-page record of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings from 1999 from start to finish many helpers than 20 broadcasts a day when trying to modernize a procedure that had only happened twice before.

This time around, a new group of nine Democratic managers only have to go back a year to learn the lessons of Mr Schiff’s prosecution: don’t piss off the Republicans, use lots and lots of videos, and most importantly, make concise arguments to support the weighing Don’t avoid jury of the legislature in boredom or distraction.

Trump’s attorneys have stated that they intend to re-establish a largely technical defense, claiming that the Senate “has no power” to judge a former president after he leaves office because the Constitution does not expressly do so prescribes. Although many legal scholars and a majority in the Senate disagree, Republicans have rallied in the argument to reject the case without incriminating Mr Trump’s behavior.

However, attorneys Bruce L. Castor Jr. and David Schoen also plan to deny that Mr. Trump instigated the violence in the first place or intended to disrupt the formalization of Mr. Biden’s victory by Congress, claiming that his unsubstantiated allegations support the Choices are “stolen” are protected by the first change. And Mr Castor told Fox News that he, too, would be relying on videos of possibly rioting in Democrat-led American cities.

Managers will try to refute them with constitutional arguments as well as with an overwhelming compendium of evidence. Mr. Raskin’s team spent dozens of hours weeding out a profound amount of videos captured by the crowd, Mr. Trump’s own unvarnished words, and criminal pleas from rioters who said they were acting at the orders of the former president.

The primary source material can replace live testimony. The attempt to call new witnesses has been the subject of an extensive debate among managers, whose evidence shows several loopholes that the White House or military officials could potentially fill. During the last trial, the Democrats put unsuccessful pressure on witnesses at the heart of their case, but this time around, many in the party say they are not necessary to prove the charges and would simply cost Mr. Biden valuable time setting up his agenda change without changing the result.

“It’s not that there shouldn’t be any witnesses; It’s just the practical reality of being with a former president, ”said Daniel S. Goldman, a former House attorney who helped out with Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial. “This is what we learned from the last trial: this is a political animal and these witnesses will not move the needle.”

Mr. Raskin and other managers declined to discuss strategy, but current and former officials, familiar with the confidential preparations, agreed to discuss it anonymously. The near-complete silence of the prosecutors leading up to the trial was another departure from the strategy of Mr. Trump’s first impeachment, when the Democrats built a sizable communications war room in the Capitol and saturated the cable television waves in an omnipotent. Fight Mr. Trump in Public Opinion Court.

They have left it largely to trusted allies like Mr Schiff and Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi to publicly discuss their case and withhold criticism of why the House is pushing its case even now that Mr Trump is out of office.

“If we didn’t look into that, we might as well remove any sentence from the impeachment constitution – just take it out,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters, who asked why Democrats would spend so much time in Congress with a former president .

Important questions about the scope and form of the experiment remain unanswered. The senators spent the weekend haggling over the exact structure and rules of the procedure. For the first time in American history, a former president will be tried.

Prosecutors and Mr Trump’s lawyers are expected to have at least 12 hours each to represent their case. Mr. Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, has trained his colleagues in daily sessions to aggressively crush their arguments, stick to the narrative if possible, and incorporate them into the visual aids they want to show on television in the Senate Chamber and on screens across the country.

Behind the scenes, Democrats rely on many of the same lawyers and advisors who helped put the 2020 case together, including Susanne Sachsman Grooms of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and Aaron Hiller, Arya Hariharan, Sarah Istel and Amy Rutkin of the Judiciary Committee . The House also temporarily called back Barry H. Berke, a veteran New York attorney, as chief attorney and Joshua Matz, a constitutional expert.

Mr Schiff said his team attempted to produce an “HBO miniseries” with clips of testimony to bring to life the esoteric conspiracy over Mr Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukraine. Mr. Raskins is more like a blockbuster action film.

“The more you document all of the tragic events that led up to that day, and the President’s wrongdoing that day and the President’s reaction while people were attacked that day, the harder it will be for any Senator to get behind those wrong ones Constitutions to hide fig leaves, ”said Mr Schiff, who advised the managers informally.

To put together the presentation, Mr. Raskin’s team turned to the same external company that helped put together Mr. Schiff’s multimedia display. But Mr Raskin works with far richer material to tell a month-long story of how he and his colleagues believe that Mr Trump sowed, gathered and provoked a mob to try to overcome his defeat.

There are clips and tweets from Mr. Trump last summer warning that he would only lose if the election against him were “rigged”; Clips and tweets of him gaining victory after losing; and clips and tweets from state officials who came to the White House to “stop the theft.” There is audio of a call in which Mr Trump pressured Georgia’s Secretary of State to find the voices needed to reverse Mr Biden’s victory there. as well as tweets and reports from the president from sympathetic lawmakers saying that, after those efforts failed, Mr. Trump turned his attention firmly to the January 6th session of Congress for a final stand.

The center shows footage of Mr. Trump speaking outside the White House hours before the mob overtook the police and invaded the Capitol. The executives’ pre-trial mandate suggests they plan to juxtapose footage of Mr. Trump urging his supporters to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol and confront Congress with videos showing the Posted by members of the crowd who can actually process his words in time.

“Even in this trial, in which the senators were witnesses, it’s very important to tell the full story,” said Schiff. “It’s not about a single day. It is about a behavior of a president to use his office to disturb the peaceful transfer of power. “

However, proximity can also lead to complications. Several people familiar with the preparations said managers were cautious about saying anything that could imply Republican lawmakers repeating or entertaining the president’s baseless allegations of electoral fraud. In order to have effective reasoning, the managers feel that it is necessary for managers to make it clear that Mr Trump is on trial, not his party.

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Health

The Case of the Serial Sperm Donor

The Case of the Serial Sperm Donor

In contrast to sperm banks in the Netherlands, which forbid anonymous donation, international sperm banks usually register donors under an alias or number. They also rely on customers to volunteer to report their child’s births when tracking the offspring of sperm donors, and this count is not always accurate. And there is no international register for sperm donors, so a recipient cannot easily know where else their donor has donated or how many half-siblings their children might have.

Ms. de Boer said she had contacted mothers who had children of Mr. Meijer in Australia, Italy, Serbia, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Romania, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico and the United States. Some were in contact with the two Dutch mothers who are friends with Ms van Ewijk and confirmed their reports with this reporter.

A German woman told The Times that she acquired Mr. Meijer’s semen through Cryos; Although he had donated under a pseudonym, she was able to find out his real name. In 2019 she received a letter from Cryos informing her that her donor “has donated in countries outside Denmark in breach of the contract that he signed with Cryos to donate exclusively to our sperm bank.”

The letter added, “This means that the donor allegedly had more pregnancies than the pregnancies registered in our system.” The company also informed the Danish health authorities, the letter said, and stopped distributing its semen.

In an email, Mr. Meijer said he did not remember being told he was not allowed to donate in other clinics: “Clinics have done intensive health and genetics screenings and interviews and I have passed them all but I don’t exactly remember this procedure to say anything about it. “In a second email he said,” Until recently there were no strict agreements among the sperm banks to check that donors were not donated elsewhere had.”

Peter Reeslev, the CEO of Cryos, insisted on comment, insisting that a Cryos donor could not have registered without knowing the exclusivity clause. “NO,” he wrote in an email. “Donors sign and undertake by contract not to donate to any tissue company other than Cryos beforehand and undertake not to donate sperm to other sperm banks / tissue centers in the future either.”

He added, “In general, Cryos distances itself from any form of serial sperm donation as it is important not to exceed national pregnancy rates in any country they send sperm to.”

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Health

Maryland confirms case of South African Covid variant that is extra infectious

Maryland confirms case of South African Covid variant that's more infectious

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan will hold a press conference on November 17th in Annapolis, MD to discuss COVID-19 concerns.

Bill O’Leary | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Maryland has reported a case of the new, highly transmittable variant of Covid-19, which was first found in South Africa. This is the third case discovered in the United States, Governor Larry Hogan announced on Saturday.

The case involves an adult resident who lives in the Baltimore area and has not taken any international travel in the past. Maryland health officials and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have confirmed this.

“We strongly encourage Marylanders to exercise particular caution to limit the additional risk of transmission associated with this variant,” said Hogan. “Please continue to practice normal health and safety precautions, including wearing masks, regular hand washing, and physical distancing.”

The first two U.S. cases of the South African variant, known as B.1.351, were identified in South Carolina on January 28. Other variants found in the US come from the UK and Brazil.

The variants do not appear to cause more serious illness or an increased risk of death, but are considered highly contagious. Health officials are particularly concerned about variant B.1.351 as preliminary research suggests that vaccines may be less effective at controlling it.

President Joe Biden signed a travel ban last week on most non-US citizens who recently entered South Africa and re-introduced travel restrictions on non-US citizens from the UK and Brazil.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the virus has infected more than 25.9 million people and killed at least 436,000 people in the United States since the pandemic began.

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Business

South Carolina detects first-known U.S. case

South Carolina detects first-known U.S. case

Health care workers at the Medical University of South Carolina will conduct free Covid-19 tests at a location in a parking lot between Edmund’s Oast and Butcher & Bee restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina, USA on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.

Micah Green | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The first US Covid-19 cases of a new, highly contagious strain of the virus, first found in South Africa, were discovered in South Carolina, the state’s Department of Health said Thursday.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said the strain known as B.1.351 was found in two adults who had not previously traveled or connected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told South Carolina health officials late Wednesday that a sample tested at LabCorp was variant B.1.351, the health department said Thursday.

The state health laboratory later identified “a separate case of the same variant” in a sample tested Monday, the South Carolina Department of Health said in a statement. While the burden appears to be highly transferable, it doesn’t appear to make people sick, the health department said.

“The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in our state is an important reminder for all South Carolinians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, the division’s interim director, in a statement.

Mutant strains of the coronavirus have migrated to the United States in the past few weeks. Minnesota health officials on Monday identified the first US case of a similar variant, first discovered in Brazil. The US has also identified more than 300 cases with another strain, first found in the UK and known as B.1.1.7, according to recent data from the CDC.

The appearance of these new strains did not surprise the scientists. The US is quickly trying to step up its surveillance efforts to track through genomic sequencing the new strains that may come from abroad or “may come from our own country,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the CDC, last week.

“CDC is early in its efforts to understand this variant and will continue to provide updates as we learn more,” the health department said in a statement. “The CDC’s recommendations to slow the spread – wearing masks, staying at least 3 meters away from others, avoiding crowds, ventilating indoor spaces, and washing hands frequently – also prevent this variant from spreading.”

Both strains of the virus found in the UK and South Africa have similar mutations, but experts say they evolved separately. While it’s no surprise that the virus is mutating, researchers are quick to figure out what the changes could mean for recently developed life-saving vaccines and treatments for the disease.

The B.1.351 strain appears to be more problematic than the variant found in the UK, said White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, on Wednesday. Fauci said during a press conference that the antibodies induced by the vaccine may be less effective in combating this strain, although “it still sits well in its protective cushion”.

Early results, which were published on the preprint server bioRxiv and have not yet been peer-reviewed, indicate that variant B.1.351 can evade the antibodies of some coronavirus treatments and reduce the effectiveness of the current range of available vaccines. On Monday, Moderna said his vaccine may be less effective against strain B.1.351 and that he was developing a so-called booster shot to protect this variant “out of caution”.

Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said in a CNN interview on Wednesday that the new mRNA technology used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines – the only two to have received emergency approval to date – this can be easy to tweak to target the variants.

These booster vaccinations would not have to go through the rigorous phase three clinical trials, which involved thousands of participants, he added.

“You don’t have to do a 30,000 person process or a 40,000 person process,” said Fauci. “You work with the FDA and can bridge information from one study to the next. The bottom line is that we’re already at it.”

“Fueling Africa’s Second Wave”

The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that more contagious variants of Covid-19 are “fueling the second wave of Africa” ​​and that the variant first identified in South Africa “prevails and delivers record numbers in South Africa and the sub-region”.

According to the WHO, the B.1.351 strain has now been identified in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, the French region of Mayotte, Zambia and 24 other non-African countries. As of Monday, coronavirus infections in the region have risen 50% since December 29, compared to the last four weeks, according to the WHO. The number of deaths from Covid-19 has also increased, roughly doubling over the same period.

WHO said it is working with the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to set up laboratories for surveillance efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

The United Nations Health Department said each country should send at least 20 samples to the labs to “reflect the rapidly evolving situation and best target responses at all levels”.

“The variant that was first discovered in South Africa has quickly spread beyond Africa. So what keeps me awake at night is that it is very likely to be around a number of African countries,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement.

– CNBC’s Will Feuer contributed to this report.

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World News

Alarm in U.Okay. Over Virus Variant Bolsters Case for Lockdown

Alarm in U.K. Over Virus Variant Bolsters Case for Lockdown

LONDON – The UK’s disclosure on Friday that a new variant of the virus could be more deadly than the original caused a stir over why such alarming information was released when the evidence was so inconclusive. However, its effects are little discussed: it has silenced those who have called for life to return to normal soon.

The UK government is expected to announce in the coming days that it will extend and tighten the nationwide lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson this month. Schools can remain closed until Easter, while overseas travelers may need to be quarantined in hotels for 10 days.

For Mr Johnson, who has faced relentless pressure from members of his own Conservative Party to relax restrictions, the warning of the variant made a strong case that Britain may be in the middle of a serious new phase of the pandemic – and that it does relaxed constraints now could be disastrous.

While scientists agree that the evidence of the variant’s greater lethality is tentative, inconclusive, and based on limited data, they said it was nonetheless served the government’s purposes in the lockdown debate that Mr Johnson, who spoke between Science and politics have often been drawn to have shown an aversion to tough steps.

“It is strange to make such an announcement, which has dire consequences and clearly affects the general public, without a full dataset and more thorough analysis,” said Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick Medical School. “I wonder if it was about reiterating the harsh message that the lockdown must be adhered to and increased border controls justified.”

Devi Sridhar, director of the global public health program at the University of Edinburgh, said, “These preliminary data show why waiver restrictions should be applied carefully and measuredly.”

The interests of scientists and government officials have not always been balanced in Britain’s fight against the pandemic. Tensions have increased when Mr Johnson reopened the economy as scientists warned of new infections.

During his briefing on Downing Street on Friday, Mr Johnson, as some noted, had no choice but to confirm concerns that the new variant beating Britain could not only be more contagious but also more deadly. Hours earlier, a well-known epidemiologist, Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, told a television journalist Robert Peston that a government scientific committee had concluded that there was a “realistic possibility” that the variant could be 30 percent more deadly than it is the original version of the coronavirus.

The Prime Minister’s initial announcement that the variant could be linked to higher death rates contained few details and did not make it clear how uncertain many experts were about the data. While government scientists later published a summary of studies setting out the possible effects of the variant, the number of deaths they analyzed was small and uncertainties about the data resulted in a wide range of estimates.

“We haven’t seen the evidence, which in itself is worrying,” said David King, a former chief scientific advisor to the government who was critical of Mr Johnson’s handling of the pandemic. “I would have simply welcomed the science with a preprint report.”

Dr. Ferguson himself has become something of a lightning rod during the pandemic. In March last year, his models predicted that the uncontrolled spread of the virus in the UK could cause up to 510,000 deaths. These numbers stunned Mr. Johnson and prompted him to impose the country’s first lockdown despite waiting a week to act.

At the time, some scientists criticized Dr. Ferguson on the grounds that he was too public and that his projections were exaggerated. They accused him of publishing inflated projections of death during previous epidemics. After pressing for repression, he was referred to by the British tabloids as “Professor Lockdown”.

Updated

Jan. 26, 2021, 4:31 p.m. ET

Dr. Ferguson later resigned from the government’s Emergency Scientific Advisory Group (SAGE) after admitting he breached lockdown rules by inviting a woman to his home.

As a member of a key SAGE committee, the Advisory Group on New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats, which released a report on the lethality of the variant on Friday evening, Dr. Ferguson played a leading role in alerting the new variant. And with the UK death toll nearing 100,000, its projections don’t look all that fantastic even after multiple lockdowns.

Government scientists defended the decision to publish the results in the interests of transparency. The disclosure reflected the rapidly changing thinking of infectious disease experts about the potential of mutations to change the path of the virus. Variants that were discovered earlier in the pandemic received little public attention.

Still, virologists said they were concerned about the lack of a strong theory about how or why the variant, first discovered in the UK, could lead to more people dying. Among other concerns about the new data – the small number of deaths on which the results were based, and the fact that harrowing conditions in hospitals themselves could lead to higher death rates – was the uncertainty about why this could be more dangerous waiting for more dates you said.

“You can see some mechanism by which the transmission rate would be a little higher,” said Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading. “But why that should lead to a higher death rate is not so easy to see.”

Mutations in the new variant make it easier to attach to human cells, which makes them even more contagious. Virologists said that the same trait could theoretically allow more cells to be infected than older variants, which could lead to wider infection, which in turn could produce a more aggressive and potentially dangerous immune response.

With no laboratory data to suggest this could happen, scientists said it was far too early to understand the models that point to higher death rates.

Even the most reputable methods of studying the effects of the variant yielded a wide range of additional risk estimates, ranging from having virtually no effect on mortality to increasing the risk of death by 65 percent.

Nonetheless, the fact that so many models evaluated by government scientists suggested higher mortality rates has alarmed scientists.

“For now, overall, I’d say it’s likely valid,” said Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia. “I can’t believe that all of these different groups would have drawn the same conclusions and made the same mistakes in controlling possible biases. But it’s not beyond the possibilities. “

Even so, scientists said the new variant would not only reinforce the government’s case for restrictions not yet relaxing, but would also require the same policy measures as previous versions of the virus.

“What more can we do just because we know this is more deadly?” Professor Hunter said. “The answer is probably nothing.”

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Business

Minnesota confirms first identified U.S. case of extra contagious Covid variant initially present in Brazil

Minnesota confirms first known U.S. case of more contagious Covid variant originally found in Brazil

The Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday that it had confirmed the first known U.S. case of a contagious variant of coronavirus originally found in Brazil.

The Brazilian strain was found by the Ministry of Health’s variant monitoring program, according to a press release. The department collects 50 random samples each week for genome sequencing.

The patient with the Brazil variant is a resident of the Twin Cities metropolitan area who recently traveled to Brazil, according to state health officials. The person fell ill the first week of January and the sample was collected on January 9, the state said.

“We are grateful that our testing program helped us find this case, and we thank all Minnesotans who seek tests when they feel sick or otherwise have reason to have a test,” said Jan Malcolm, Minnesota health commissioner , in a statement. “We know that like all viruses, the virus will continue to evolve even as we work hard to defeat COVID-19.”

Previously, President Joe Biden had expanded travel restrictions to Europe, the UK and Brazil to curb the spread of Covid-19, especially as new strains of the coronavirus are identified.

Health officials are concerned that the Covid-19 vaccines currently on the market may not be as effective against new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus. Moderna said Monday it was working on a booster shot to protect against another strain found in South Africa.

The Brazilian strain, designated P.1, was first identified in four travelers from Brazil who were tested during a routine screening in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It contains a number of additional mutations that the CDC says can affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies.

State health officials also said Monday they had found two more cases of the B.1.1.7 virus, commonly known as the British variant, through last week’s variant surveillance tests. Of the two new cases of the British variant discovered by the health department, both are residents of the Twin Cities metropolitan area and both reported recent trips to California.

“These cases illustrate why it is so important to limit travel as much as possible during a pandemic,” said epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield in a statement. “If you must travel, it is important to be on the lookout for symptoms of COVID-19, follow public health instructions to get tested before you travel, take careful protective measures and quarantine while you are traveling, and after Test trip. “

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Health

What we realized because the first U.S. case was confirmed

Democratic governors accuse Trump administration of misleading them about vaccine stockpile

Schwester Dawn Duran verabreicht Jeremy Coran während des Ausbruchs der Coronavirus-Krankheit (COVID-19) am 12. Januar 2021 in Pasadena, Kalifornien, USA, eine Dosis des COVID-19-Impfstoffs von Moderna.

Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

Heute vor genau einem Jahr bestätigten die Zentren für die Kontrolle und Prävention von Krankheiten den ersten Fall eines neuen Coronavirus auf US-amerikanischem Boden, den Wissenschaftler damals 2019-nCoV anriefen.

Seitdem hat das Land nach Angaben der Johns Hopkins University mehr als 24 Millionen Fälle und mehr als 400.000 Todesfälle verzeichnet. Ein neuer Präsident tritt sein Amt an und warnt davor, dass sich die Pandemie verschlimmern wird, bevor sie sich bessert.

Experten für öffentliche Gesundheit, Ärzte, Wissenschaftler und Führungskräfte aus Industrie und Regierung sagen jedoch, dass uns das vergangene Jahr viel über das Virus beigebracht hat – und wie diese Lehren angewendet werden können, um die Pandemie jetzt zu verlangsamen.

Ihre Erkenntnisse reichten von Erkenntnissen über das Virus selbst und dessen Ausbreitung – erinnern Sie sich, als wir alle unsere Lebensmittel mit Clorox abwischten? – Überlegungen zu unserem eigenen Verhalten und wie es uns zu immer höheren Infektionsraten verurteilt.

Einige, von dem ehemaligen Mitglied des Nationalen Sicherheitsrates, Dr. Luciana Borio, und dem Chef der Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, betonen, wie wichtig es ist, frühzeitig mit der Industrie zusammenzuarbeiten. Andere sagen, das vergangene Jahr beweise, dass das Versprechen unserer biomedizinischen Technologien schnell verwirklicht werden kann – wenn sie nur gut genug finanziert sind.

Hier sind ihre Gedanken.

Auf den Virus

“Es ist nicht das Winter-Atemwegsvirus, für das es in Rechnung gestellt wurde”, sagte Dr. Paul Offit vom Kinderkrankenhaus in Philadelphia. “Es ist weitaus weitreichender und schädlicher als das.”

Vorhersagen im Frühjahr über den Verlauf des Virus warnten davor, dass es den Mustern der Influenzapandemie von 1918 ähneln könnte: eine mildere erste Welle, gefolgt von einer viel tödlicheren zweiten im Herbst.

Der Herbst 2020 brachte letztendlich eine befürchtete größere Welle von Coronavirus-Fällen mit sich, aber es war nicht wie ursprünglich erwartet nach einem einheitlichen Tiefpunkt durch den Sommer. Mitte Juli erreichte ein Höhepunkt mit etwa 76.000 Fällen, als das Virus über Florida, Texas und Arizona verbreitet wurde.

Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatten Wissenschaftler bereits einen Überblick darüber, was dieses Virus so schädlich macht, sagten Experten, da sich die Erkenntnisse in den ersten Monaten rasant entwickelten.

“Anfang Januar letzten Jahres wurde uns mitgeteilt, dass es keine Übertragung von Mensch zu Mensch gibt”, sagte Dr. Megan Ranney von der Brown University. “Als wir merkten, dass es sich ausbreitete [person-to-person]Wir dachten, es würde sich wie eine Grippe ausbreiten … wir dachten, wir müssten uns Sorgen um Tröpfchen und Fomiten machen. “

Das hat sich geändert, sagte Ranney, “als wir diese erste schreckliche nordöstliche Welle überstanden haben.”

Die Tatsache, dass die Übertragung “mehr in der Luft ist als ursprünglich angenommen, weniger oberflächlich als ursprünglich angenommen”, hat wichtige “Auswirkungen auf Präventionsempfehlungen”, sagte Dr. Carlos del Rio von der Emory University. Daher: Masken und Vermeidung großer Versammlungen in Innenräumen.

Wissenschaftler haben aber auch gelernt, dass dieses Virus schwieriger ist als andere. Die Tatsache, dass es einige tödlich trifft, während andere stillschweigend infiziert werden, macht es tatsächlich so gefährlich, sagte Dr. Jeremy Faust vom Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“Asymptomatische Übertragung hat einerseits gute Nachrichten: Nicht jeder wird so krank, wie wir dachten”, sagte Faust. “Andererseits ist es so viel schwieriger zu kontrollieren, weil die Leute denken: ‘Wenn es mir gut geht, geht es mir gut. Ich darf keine Gefahr für mich selbst oder andere sein.'”

Dr. Leana Wen, ehemalige Gesundheitskommissarin von Baltimore, sagte, dass die Denkweise den größten Teil der Verbreitung ausmacht, wenn wir durchschnittlich fast 200.000 Fälle pro Tag aufzeichnen.

“Es gibt immer noch ein gewisses Maß an magischem Denken, wenn es um Menschen geht, die wir kennen und lieben und die nicht in unserem Haushalt sind”, sagte sie. “Wir denken, ‘Nun, diese Person sieht gut aus; ich kenne sie, ich vertraue ihnen, dass sie sich nicht auf risikoreiche Verhaltensweisen einlassen würden, also werde ich sie sehen.'”

Da Menschen ohne Symptome so viel Ausbreitung verursachen können – laut CDC mehr als die Hälfte -, ist es am besten, “jeden so zu betrachten, als ob er ein Coronavirus haben könnte”, sagte Wen.

Über menschliches Verhalten

“Wir haben das Gefühl einer sich verändernden Grundlinie entwickelt”, sagte Dr. Michael Osterholm von der University of Minnesota. Im April, sagte er, fühlte es sich an, als ob das “Haus in Flammen stand”, wobei jeden Tag 32.000 Fälle gemeldet wurden. Bis Mai waren es nur noch etwa 20.000. “Die Leute hatten das Gefühl, wir hätten die Kurve abgeflacht, wir waren fertig”, sagte er.

Bis Mitte Juli erreichte dieser Anstieg durch den Sonnengürtel einen bisher unergründlichen neuen Höchststand von mehr als 70.000 Fällen pro Tag. Anfang September fielen die Fälle auf 26.000 zurück, eine Zahl, die “fast so hoch war wie das Hoch im April, aber die Leute meinten:” Sehen Sie, das ist gut, es ist unter Kontrolle “, sagte Osterholm.

Im Oktober begann der obere Mittlere Westen mit einer Infektion zu leuchten, und “zu Thanksgiving hatten wir fast 200.000 Fälle pro Tag”, sagte er. Auf dem jüngsten Höhepunkt des Landes, dem 8. Januar, wurden an einem einzigen Tag mehr als 300.000 Fälle gemeldet.

“Denken Sie an 300.000 gegenüber 32.000”, sagte Osterholm. “In einem Zeitraum von April bis Januar wurden wir taub dafür. Jeder von ihnen ist eine sich verändernde Grundlinie, und plötzlich scheint das, was geschah, nicht mehr so ​​schlimm zu sein.”

Es sei Teil der menschlichen Verfassung, auf diese Weise zu reagieren, um “ein Gefühl des Überlebens zu entwickeln”. Aber es ist eine zentrale Herausforderung, das Blatt in der Pandemie zu wenden.

Auch, so Osterholm und Ranney, befassen sich mit den strukturellen Problemen, die die Hauptlast der Pandemie auf die Armen, Verletzlichen und Farbigen ausüben.

“Wenn wir Strategien für die öffentliche Gesundheit entwickeln oder umsetzen, um eine Epidemie zu bekämpfen, sei es struktureller Rassismus, wirtschaftliche Ungleichheit, Trennung zwischen Ländern mit hohem und niedrigem Einkommen, wenn wir nicht auf die Treiber des Verhaltens der Menschen achten, werden wir scheitern.” Sagte Ranney. “Auch mit guter Wissenschaft.”

Borio, der zusammen mit Osterholm als Covid-19-Berater für den Biden-Übergang fungierte, bezeichnete die Bedeutung der Führung als das wichtigste Lernen aus dem vergangenen Jahr.

“Es muss oben beginnen”, sagte sie. “Eine geteilte Nation kann eine Pandemie nicht bekämpfen. Unsere Regierung, riesig und komplex, verfügt über enorme Fähigkeiten, organisiert sich aber nicht selbst.”

Aber halten Sie die Politik so weit wie möglich davon ab, fügte Slaoui hinzu, der letzte Woche als Chefberater der Operation Warp Speed ​​zurückgetreten war, der Trump-Administration, die sich bemühte, Impfstoffe und Medikamente für Covid-19 zu entwickeln.

“Wir dürfen Fragen der öffentlichen Gesundheit nie wieder politisieren”, sagte Slaoui. “Ich bin sicher, das hat Zehntausende Menschenleben gekostet.”

Über Regierung und Industrie

Sowohl Slaoui als auch Borio sowie der frühere FDA-Kommissar Dr. Scott Gottlieb, der auch CNBC-Mitarbeiter und Vorstandsmitglied von Pfizer und Illumina ist, sagten, das erste Jahr der Pandemie habe gezeigt, wie wichtig öffentlich-private Partnerschaften sind und wie man auf sie einwirkt schnell.

“Die Weigerung von CDC, frühzeitig zu kommerziellen Labors und kommerziellen Testkits zu wechseln, hat uns für die frühe Verbreitung blind gemacht”, sagte Gottlieb.

Die Fähigkeit der USA, das Virus zu erkennen, wurde in den ersten Wochen durch einen Test der CDC beeinträchtigt, der sich als fehlerhaft herausstellte.

“Das Virus konnte tief in unseren Gemeinden verwurzelt werden”, fügte er hinzu. “Es war ein historischer Misserfolg.”

Borio wies auf die Bedeutung von Datensystemen hin, die von Palantir erstellt wurden, Gensequenzierungspartnerschaften mit Unternehmen wie Illumina, diagnostische Tests durch Quest und LabCorp sowie die Verteilung von Impfstoffen über CVS und Walgreens.

“Ein wirklich modernes öffentliches Gesundheitssystem erfordert eine öffentlich-private Partnerschaft”, sagte sie.

Borio betonte jedoch auch die Bedeutung der Strenge im Regulierungsprozess und die Gefahren einer “vorzeitigen Erteilung” der Genehmigung für den Notfall, “bevor Daten aus angemessenen und gut kontrollierten Studien vorliegen, wie sie für viele der Therapeutika aufgetreten sind”.

Insbesondere Hydroxychloroquin war ein blaues Auge für die Food and Drug Administration, die im Juni ihre Genehmigung zur Verwendung in Notfällen für Covid-19 widerrief, nachdem festgestellt wurde, dass es wahrscheinlich nicht wirksam ist.

Das, sagte Borio, “hilft den Patienten nicht.”

Slaoui, der die wissenschaftliche Entwicklung bei einer der größten öffentlich-privaten Partnerschaften in der Krankengeschichte durch Operation Warp Speed ​​beaufsichtigte, betonte auch die Notwendigkeit, bessere klinische Studien durchführen zu können. Er sagte an einigen Stellen im letzten Jahr, dass in den USA mehr als 400 Studien durchgeführt wurden, die meisten ohne Placebo-Kontrolle, was als Goldstandard für das Testen neuer Therapien gilt. Viele nahmen auch nur eine Handvoll Patienten auf.

“Das ist äußerst ineffizient und mit hohen Opportunitätskosten verbunden”, sagte Slaoui.

Auf Technologie

Was gut kontrollierte Studien jedoch bewiesen haben, war, dass “mRNA-Impfstoffe funktionieren”, sagte Ranney. “Die Tatsache, dass wir nicht nur einen, sondern zwei mRNA-Impfstoffe haben, die effektiv beim Menschen eingesetzt wurden und sowohl sicher als auch wirksam bei der Vorbeugung der Krankheit sind, ist einfach riesig.”

Laut Borio wären sie jedoch nicht möglich gewesen, “ohne frühzeitige Investitionen der US-Regierung vor vielen Jahren; die Entwicklung dieser Technologien dauert Jahre.”

Sie nannte sie die “aufregendste Innovation in der Impfstofftechnologie seit Jahrzehnten”.

Der Ausbruch bewies auch die Geschwindigkeit und Nützlichkeit einer zweiten Technologie, Impfstoffe, die harmlose Viren verwenden, um genetisches Material vom Coronavirus zu den Körperzellen zu befördern, um eine Immunantwort auszulösen, sagte Slaoui. “Es gibt mindestens zwei sehr schnelle Impfstoffplattformen, mit denen Impfstoffe in Monaten entwickelt werden können”, fügte er hinzu.

“Was wir vermisst haben”, sagte er, “sind Produktionskapazitäten und -fähigkeiten.”

Slaoui sagte, die Antwort sei etwas, das er als Biopräparationsorganisation bezeichnet habe, die neue Impfstoffe gegen neu auftretende Bedrohungen entwickeln und sofort Hilfe leisten könne, wenn diese Bedrohungen eintreten würden. Er brachte die Idee zum ersten Mal im Jahr 2016 auf, als er Vorsitzender der Impfstoffe bei GlaxoSmithKline war, und sagte, sie habe sich nicht durchgesetzt, “aber wir müssen sie jetzt wiederbeleben.”

Borio zitierte die Ernennung von Eric Lander zum besten Wissenschaftsberater von Biden in einer neu erhöhten Position auf Kabinettsebene als Signal für eine neue Ära, in der die Wissenschaft “ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des politischen Entscheidungsprozesses sein wird”.

Offit, ein Experte für Impfwissenschaft, drückte es ganz klar aus: “Wir haben es in uns, einen Impfstoff sehr schnell herzustellen und zu testen”, sagte er, “wenn wir bereit sind, das Geld auszugeben.”

Vorausschauen

Trotz der Lehren aus dem ersten Jahr der Covid-19-Pandemie warnten Experten des öffentlichen Gesundheitswesens vor einem schwierigen Weg nach vorne.

“Was mir am meisten auffällt, ist, wie viel wir noch nicht wissen”, sagte Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, Direktor der Abteilung für neu auftretende Infektionskrankheiten am Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Fragen wie: Wie verhält sich dieses Virus anders als andere Atemwegsviren? Wie entwickelt es sich? Warum verursacht es bei einigen so schwere Krankheiten, bei anderen jedoch asymptomatisch?

“In der Wissenschaft besteht der erste große Schritt zur Lösung eines der Rätsel der Natur darin, zu verstehen, wie groß das Rätsel ist und welche Fragen zu stellen sind”, sagte Modjarrad. “Wir erreichen diesen Punkt erst jetzt.”

Eine der dringendsten Herausforderungen besteht darin, dass eine als B.1.1.7 bekannte Variante, die als übertragbarer angesehen wird als frühere Formen des Coronavirus, wahrscheinlich “in den nächsten Wochen bis Monaten abheben wird”, sagte Osterholm. Das heißt: “Wir konnten die schlimmsten Tage der Pandemie vor uns sehen, selbst mit dem Impfstoff.”

Zu den dringendsten Aufgaben der Biden-Regierung gehört die Verwaltung der Verteilung von Coronavirus-Impfstoffen, für die ein Ziel von 100 Millionen Dosen festgelegt wurde, die in den ersten 100 Tagen verabreicht wurden.

Osterholm stellte jedoch fest, dass in diesem Tempo – selbst wenn ein zusätzlicher Impfstoff für die Verwendung freigegeben wird, für den nur eine Dosis erforderlich ist, wie Johnson & Johnson’s in den nächsten Monaten erwartet wird – nur etwa 14% der US-Bevölkerung vollständig von geimpft würden Ende April.

Zusammen mit geschätzten 30% der Bevölkerung, die bereits infiziert sind und möglicherweise Immunität haben, ist dies weniger als die Hälfte des Landes, das bis in den Mai hinein geschützt ist, “weit entfernt von jeglicher Herdenimmunität”, sagte Osterholm.

“Impfstoffe spielen keine Rolle, nur Impfungen”, fügte Modjarrad hinzu, Direktor der Abteilung für neu auftretende Infektionskrankheiten am Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. “Wir können uns nicht zu viel gratulieren oder zu früh den Sieg erklären.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, der landesweit führende Wissenschaftler für Infektionskrankheiten, sagte diese Woche, er erwarte, dass das Land 75 bis 80% seiner durch den Herbst geimpften Bevölkerung erreichen könne.

“Wenn wir das von April, Mai, Juni, Juli, August an effizient tun”, sagte er den Gastgebern eines Livestreams von Harvard Business Review, “sollten wir bis zum Beginn des Herbstes das Maß an Schutz haben, das wir haben.” Ich denke, wir können zu einer Form der Normalität zurückkehren. “

Categories
Business

New York Gov. Cuomo confirms state’s first case of latest Covid pressure initially present in UK

NY Gov. Cuomo briefs the press on Covid pandemic as state distributes vaccines

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wears a protective face mask as he approaches during a daily briefing following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Manhattan in New York City, New York, the United States, on July 13, 2020 Word comes.

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New York State confirmed its first case of a new, contagious variant of the coronavirus originally discovered in the United Kingdom, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

The strain, which has also been found in California, Florida, and Colorado, is believed to be communicable but doesn’t appear to make people sicker or increase the risk of death from Covid-19, experts have said.

The case was identified in a 60-year-old man from Saratoga County who had no travel history, Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters. The man, who is now recovering, worked in a jewelry store where three other people also tested positive for Covid-19. The state is investigating whether these cases were caused by the new strain.

Cuomo told reporters that the state had conducted about 5,000 tests looking for the new variant known as B.1.1.7. Cuomo said he believed it was “a lot more common” than people already know.

“If other states could test as much as we tested and tested on the British strain, as much as we tested, they would find them,” Cuomo said, adding that officials haven’t had any cases with the strain in the EU have established Downstate New York City area.

U.S. health officials have said the variant’s arrival in the nation comes as no surprise, although if it is allowed to spread uncontrollably it could make matters worse.

While the new variant doesn’t appear to cause more serious illness in infected people and current vaccines should still work against it, it could lead to more hospitalizations due to the increase in cases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week. The US is also on high alert for a second new, highly infectious strain first found in South Africa, similar to the one in the UK, CDC officials said.

“Increased infection is a problem, but increased hospitalization rates change the game because if hospital capacity in a region is threatened, that region would have to be closed,” Cuomo told reporters.

In California, Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state has now confirmed six cases of the new variant, all in the southern part of the state. One person was hospitalized in San Diego County, he said.

“We actually imagine that one should only expect others to be identified,” Newsom said during a press conference.

State officials are expected to provide an update by the end of Tuesday on the genome tests in California, which are being carried out to “understand more fully what this strain looks like and what it has done,” Newsom said. He said state health officials are conducting contact tracing efforts.

The CDC now requires all passengers traveling from the UK to the US to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 test, which was carried out no later than three days prior to departure, before boarding.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday a new national blocking order for England until at least mid-February, in hopes of slowing down the spread of the new variant. He said the best doctors in the country believe the burden is between 50% and 70% more transmissible compared to previous versions.

“With most of the country already facing extreme measures, it is clear that we must do more together to get this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out,” Johnson said on a television announcement.

– CNBC’s Riya Bhattacharjee contributed to this report.

Categories
Health

Colorado well being officers say are investigating a second suspected case

Colorado health officials say are investigating a second suspected case

Governor Jared Polis and officials announced that Denver and a number of other Colorado counties on Tuesday, November 17, at the Boettcher Mansion in Denver, Colorado, will be displaying “u2019” on a newly redesigned version of the COVID-19 color-coded dial Red stage will be moved in 2020.

Hyoung Chang | Denver Post | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Colorado health officials said Wednesday they are investigating a potential second case of a new and potentially more infectious strain of Covid-19.

“We still don’t know much about this variant,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis on Wednesday, advising Coloradans to keep to CDC guidelines in the new year.

On Tuesday, Colorado health officials confirmed the first case of the B.1.1.7 variant of coronavirus.

The infected person, a man in his twenties, has no travel history and is in isolation with mild symptoms, officials said Tuesday.

The confirmed case and the second patient are both members of the Colorado National Guard. Both people helped set up the Good Samaritan Society for assisted living in Simla, about an hour and a half south of Denver.

Officials said Wednesday that a total of six Colorado National Guard members worked at the facility.

“Both cases involve Colorado National Guard personnel deployed to support staff at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Simla,” said the state’s chief epidemiologist, Dr. Rachel Herlihy of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

She added that the people were tested in the state laboratory on Dec. 24, a routine measure for members of the National Guard who work in close proximity to Covid-19 patients or outbreak-prone areas.

“We are currently investigating two ways these people might have got their infections,” Herlihy said.

“With the discovery of the variant in Colorado, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have made it possible for us to temporarily suspend visits to nursing homes so that the population can be vaccinated quickly,” said Polis.

“Not only are older Coloradans feeling more of health risk, but social isolation is a difficult and emotional problem that so many nursing home residents face,” he said, adding that the move will protect the state’s elderly community.

Dr. Emily Travanty, director of laboratory services for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said officials are currently analyzing 24 suspicious samples that could contain mutations. She explained that there was not enough data to link the additional 24 samples to variant B.1.1.7.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Dr. Henry Walke from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the new variant appears to spread “more easily and faster than other strains”. Walke also said it doesn’t seem to lead to worse infections or an increased risk of death.

Walke said the person in Colorado infected with the new strain of the virus had no travel history, “suggesting that this variant was transmitted person-to-person in the United States.”

He added that given the spread of the variant in the UK, it was “expected” to arrive in the US.

Preliminary analysis of the new variant, first identified in the UK, suggests that in some cases it could be the culprit for the UK’s recent surge.

The CDC said in December that the new strain could already be in circulation in the US without notice. The CDC cited ongoing trips between the UK and the US as an explanation for the possible arrival of the new variant.

Continue reading: Britain will impose tighter restrictions on millions of people as Covid cases rise

The discovery of the pollution in the UK sparked border closings in European countries such as Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany, as well as in countries outside the continent.

Last week, the UK government confirmed that another infectious variant of the coronavirus identified in South Africa had also appeared in the UK. The tribe from South Africa has not yet been identified in the USA.