The inside story behind the pandemic, the CEO and a promising, unproven treatment.
In the middle of March, Pfizer chief Albert Bourla beamed into a WebEx video call with the leaders of the American pharmaceutical giants vaccine research and manufacturing groups.The two teams had worked late into the night on a robust development plan for Pfizers experimental Covid-19 vaccine and told Bourla that they aimed to make it available lightning-fast. It could be ready sometime in 2021.
Not good enough, Bourla said. The faces of the researchers tensed up, and conscious of the Herculean effort that had taken place, Bourla made sure to thank them. But he also kept pushing. He asked if people on the call thought the virus might come back in the fall, and what they expected would happen if a vaccine were not available when a new flu season hit at the same time, an issue the federal Centers for Disease Control raised weeks later.
Think in different terms, Bourla told them. Think you have an open checkbook, you dont need to worry about such things. Think that we will do things in parallel, not sequential. Think you need to build manufacturing of a vaccine before you know whats working. If it doesnt, let me worry about it and we will write it off and throw it out.
Says Mikael Dolsten, Pfizers chief scientific officer: He challenged the team to aim for a moon shotlike goalto have millions of doses of vaccine in the hands of vulnerable populations before the end of the year.
On the first Monday of May, Pfizer dosed the initial batch of healthy American volunteers in Baltimore with an experimental Covid-19 vaccine it developed with Germanys Bio-NTech. Bourla was informed immediately. The following day, in an interview from his home in suburban Scarsdale, New York, he pointed out that it normally takes years to accomplish what Pfizer had just done in weeks. How fast we moved is not something you could expect from the big, powerful pharma, he said. This is speed that you would envy in an entrepreneurial founder-based biotech.
A Greek veterinarian who worked his way up the Pfizer corporate ladder for 25 years before becoming CEO in 2019, Bourla says nothing in his career could have prepared him for this moment. But he does believe the massive corporate transformation he has ledsteering a behemoth conglomerate (2019 sales: $51.8 billion) deeper into the high-risk, high-reward game of developing new patented medicines and away from generic drugs and consumer products like Advil and Chapstickhas prepared Pfizer.
Shot of Hope. Volunteers receive injections of Pfizers experimental Covid-19 vaccine in early May at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
For Bourla, 58, the last four months have been a rollercoaster, an unending series of setbacks and victories. Pfizer is not alone in the race. Most of the worlds biggest pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, AstraZeneca and Roche, are throwing everything they can at Covid-19.
Some experts feel Bourlas timelinea viable vaccine in a matter of a few monthsis simply unrealistic. Undeterred, Bourla has tasked hundreds of researchers to scour Pfizers trove of experimental and existing medicines to look for potential therapies. Early on, he openly authorized having discussions and sharing proprietary information with rival firms, moves unheard of in the secretive world of big pharma. Bourla has made Pfizers manufacturing capabilities available to small biotech concerns and is in talks as well to make large quantities of other companies Covid-19 drug candidates.
Pfizers most prominent effort is its work with Mainz, Germanybased BioNTech, an innovative $120 million (2019 sales) outfit that is mostly known for making cancer medications. The resulting experimental Covid-19 vaccine works with messenger RNA, a bleeding-edge technology that has never resulted in a successful treatment. Pfizer is hoping to get emergency-use authorization from the U.S. government for the vaccine by October. Its unique strategy is to rapidly pit four different mRNA vaccine candidates against one another and double down on the most likely winner.
In preparation, the company is shifting production at four manufacturing plants to make 20 million vaccine doses by the end of the year and hundreds of millions more in 2021. Bourla says Pfizer is willing to spend $1 billion in 2020 to develop and manufacture the vaccine before they know if it will work: Speed is of paramount importance.
While the vaccine effort is getting most of the publics attention, Pfizer is also rushing to start a clinical trial this summer for a new antiviral drug to treat Covid-19. Additionally, its involved in a human study that seeks to repurpose Pfizers big arthritis drug, Xeljanz, for later-stage Covid-19 patients.
Being the CEO of a pharma company that can make a difference or not in a crisis like this is a very heavy weight, Bourla says. Even the way my daughter or son ask me, Do you have something or not? Every person who knows me does the same. You feel if you get it right, you can save the world. And if you dont get it right, you will not.
In January, Uur ahin, the brilliant immunologist who founded BioNTech, read an article about Covid-19 in The Lancet. ahin built BioNTech to hack human cells to go after diseases, particularly cancer, and he thought similar tech might work against the coronavirus. Soon after, ahin spoke to Thomas Strngmann, the German pharma billionaire who for years has backed ahin and his wife, immunologist zlem Treci, in their ventures. He said, This is a big disaster. He said the schools will be closed, that this will be a pandemic, Strngmann says, referring to ahin. He switched most of his team to the vaccine.
A New Reality. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla under lockdown in his suburban New York home, from which he has directed his troops to make the impossible possible.
In February, ahin (who is also now a billionaire, as BioNTechs stock has soared) called up Kathrin Jansen, who heads vaccine research and development for Pfizer. ahin told Jansen BioNTech had come up with vaccine candidates for Covid-19 and asked if Pfizer would be interested in working with him. Uur, you are asking? Jansen replied. Of course we are interested.
Over the last few years, scientists have become intrigued by the idea of using messenger RNA, the genetic molecule that gives cells protein-making instructions, to develop medicines for cancer, heart disease and even infectious viruses by transforming human cells into drug factories. Because SARS-CoV-2, as the coronavirus is formally known, is an RNA virus, researchers like ahin focused on the idea of giving mRNA the cellular machinery to make proteins that would create virus-protecting antibodies.
An mRNA vaccine has huge advantages over a traditional one. Because it can be made directly from the genetic code of the virus, it can be invented and entered into clinical trials in a matter of weeks, rather than months or years. But theres a big downside: No one has ever successfully made one.
BioNTech is not alone in pursuing an mRNA vaccine. Moderna Therapeutics, a biotech in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also got going in January and has launched a big human trial for its mRNA vaccine, backed by $483 million from the federal government. Moderna is likewise aiming to produce millions of doses per month by the end of the year.
Pfizer was already comfortable with BioNTech. Two years ago, the two companies inked a $425 million deal to develop an mRNA flu vaccine. Pfizer was intrigued by the potential of an mRNA approach to short-circuit the process of developing a vaccine for a new strain of the flu every year. That same flexibility and speed appealed to Bourla when it came to working with a partner on a potential vaccine for Covid-19.
On March 16, Bourla convened Pfizers top executives and informed them that return on investment would not play a role in the companys Covid-19 work. This is not business as usual, Bourla told them. Financial returns should not drive any decisions.
A billion dollars is not going to break us. And I dont plan to lose it. I plan to make sure we use this product.
Pfizer signed a letter of intent with BioNTech the next day. The contract they finalized in April makes no mention of commercialization. Pfizer is bringing its enormous manufacturing, regulatory and research capabilities to the effort. BioNTech is bringing the basic science.
At the same time, Bourla made the decision to spend $1 billion on the project, so if the vaccine works, it can be made available this autumn. Pfizer will also be on the hook to pay BioNTech an additional $563 million if everything goes according to plan. A billion dollars is not going to break us. And, by the way, I dont plan to lose it. I plan to make sure we use this product, Bourla says. You never know until you see the data. So yes, we are going to lose a billion if the vaccine doesnt work.
What makes Pfizers approach unique is that its testing four distinctive vaccinesdifferent mRNA platforms that are supposed to induce a safe immune response. The complex trial will start by testing different dosing levels of the four vaccines in 360 U.S. volunteers and 200 in Germany, eventually expanding to around 8,000 participants.
The U.S. trial was designed to evolve so the company could quickly stop testing any one of the vaccines if immunogenicity data show it is not producing enough antibodies to confer virus protection. The companies are making adjustments on the fly. BioNTech recently realized one of the vaccine candidates should be dosed at a lower level to be safean early fling of a monkey wrench into the plans.
There is considerable skepticism among experts that Pfizers goal of providing millions of doses to vulnerable populations by the fall is possible. Drew Weissmann, whose University of Pennsylvania laboratory has worked with BioNTech on mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases, recently told Forbes it is simply not known if an mRNA vaccine can prevent infectious disease.
First Time. Uur ahin, the Turkish-born CEO of BioNTech. The German outfit was founded 12 years ago, but despite considerable promise it has yet to bring an approved drug to market.
Jansen, Pfizers vaccine research chief, expects that Pfizer and BioNTech will have a better idea around the beginning of July as to which of the four vaccine candidates is the most promising and whether their hyper-accelerated timeframe is feasible. The company will likely move just one or two of the most promising vaccines to more advanced trials.
Its not easy. As a matter of fact, it has never been done beforeI cant give you a probability, Jansen says. An unprecedented crisis, such as the ongoing pandemic, requires unprecedented action. Albert was the first to see that and act on it, and to provide the support and the environment for us to think and act boldly.
W
hen Albert Bourla started his run at the top of Pfizer in January 2019, he removed the bulky brown table from the CEOs conference room and did not replace it, re-arranged the chairs in a circle and put up photographs of patients on the wall. The idea was to promote open discussion and remind people about the real purpose of a pharmaceutical company. Soon after, other Pfizer employees began to put pictures on their desks of patients they know or love.
The unorthodox way Bourla took to the pinnacle of corporate power started in Greeces second-biggest city, Thessaloniki, a northern port city on the Aegean Sea. He grew up middle-classhis father and uncle owned a liquor storeas part of a tiny Jewish minority that survived the German occupation and the Holocaust.
A love of animals and science drove Bourla to become a veterinarian. At Thessalonikis Aristotle University, he was known for playing the guitar and singing, and during the summers worked as a European tour guide. He joined Pfizers Greece office in 1993, working in its animal-health division, beginning an ascent that saw him move his family to eight cities in five countries, including Poland and Belgium.
By 2014, Bourla was a high-level executive at Pfizers Manhattan headquarters on 42nd Street, where, among other things, he ran Pfizers vaccine and cancer divisions. He brought a Mediterranean flair to the buttoned-up conglomerate. His group meetings were boisterous, echoing through the otherwise largely silent corridors. He forced company units to express their metrics in terms of how many patients they were helping, not merely in terms of dollars and cents.
Making It. Pfizer is stockpiling inventory of its existing vaccines and injectable drugs to free up manufacturing capacity to make a Covid-19 vaccine later this year.
Ian Read, Pfizers Scottish-born CEO at the time, had reversed the companys fortunes on Wall Street, where its stock had been badly underperforming, by repurchasing lots of shares and divesting businesses that sold baby formula and animal medicines. Less visibly, Read reinvigorated Pfizers drug pipeline in its core vaccine business and empowered Pfizers researchers to develop targeted therapies, particularly for cancer, as some of its mass-marketed drugs, like the cholesterol-lowering blockbuster Lipitor, went off-patent.
Bourlas last job before ascending to the C-suite was as head of Pfizers innovation group. He approached the position as though he was running a life-sciences venture capital firm. He forced each of his six business units, which included oncology, vaccines and rare diseases, to compete for financing. I was telling all of them, Im your boss, I am private equity, the one who has the better ideas will get the money, he says. A company that has the scale of Pfizer and the mindset of a small biotech was always my dream.
Albert has a sense of urgency, and that is coming out in the way he is marshaling the companys resources behind trying to develop a vaccine or treatment for Covid-19, says Read, his former boss. He is a charismatic people person, energizing groups of people to get the job done.
Bourlas urgency was evident after a difficult weekend in February when he realized that Covid-19 was not going to be just a problem for China. On a call the following Monday morning, Bourla fired off instructions to Pfizers top brass. He told the science executives to make sure the companys labs remained open, and that Pfizer needed to contribute to a medical solution to the pandemic. If not us, then who? Bourla said. He instructed the manufacturing group to make a list of Pfizers drugsincluding those that treat heart failure and opportunistic bacterial infectionsthat would be in high demand in a pandemic and make sure they wouldnt be hampered by production bottlenecks. He then officially informed the board that he was pivoting the company toward Covid-19.
The better ideas will get the money. A company with the scale of Pfizer and the mindset of a small Biotech was always my dream.
One day in the midst of this retooling, Pfizer director Scott Gottlieb, who used run the FDA, left the companys Manhattan headquarters, and within hours his fears were coming to pass: Reports were emerging from California indicating community spread in America. That evening Gottlieb posted a Twitter thread: A long fight could be ahead, one requiring shared sacrifice, he saidbut partly because of Bourlas efforts at Pfizer, he could also say that development of vaccines and therapeutics was already underway.
Albert laid out early why it was so important to put up the enormous resources of Pfizer without an eye toward the business bottom line, Gottlieb says. Coming up with a vaccine could change the course of human history. That is literally whats at stake, and big companies have the ability to scale up manufacturing and run big trials in a way not available to small product developers.
In the middle of March, Bourla decided to publicly release Pfizers plan to share data from its Covid-19 research with rival pharmaceutical companies. He promised to use any excess manufacturing capacity and even shift production at Pfizers facilities away from its own products to make Covid-19 treatments from other companies. You know the saying, Bourla says. Beware [of] what you wish for.
Since then, Pfizer has heard from 340 companies. It has already given technical support to some of them and is on the brink of signing large manufacturing agreements with others. It is also in discussions with additional firms that need financing for their own Covid-19 therapies.
Will my kids go to school next fall? Bourla wonders. Im also part of society. You cannot stay silent.
Quick Kill. Thats how Kathrin Jansen, Pfizers vaccine-research chief, describes its approach to its four vaccine candidates: Terminate any vaccine thats not showing it can produce sufficient neutralizing antibodies.
At a video meeting of Pfizers board of directors in late April, Bourla was asked what would happen if multiple vaccine makers were successful. That would be the best possible outcome, he replied, because enormous amounts of vaccine could be quickly produced.
Beyond the holy grail of a vaccine, Pfizer is also trying to come up with therapeutic solutions. The researchers tasked with combing through Pfizers molecular database became intrigued by several of its antiviral compounds that might attack the virus by stopping it from reproducing. After Pfi-zer got the DNA sequence of the coronavirus in January, researchers figured out which could work best.
Conducting preclinical work on the selected compounds, however, was difficult. Pfizer had trouble finding a lab that could perform the proper assays. The company had scaled down its antiviral research a decade ago and no longer owned a suitable biosafety lab to work with the live virus. At one point, Bourla feared the lack of a lab would delay the clinical-trial process. But a separate government medical agency helped Pfizer find a good one in the Netherlands.
There have been multiple moments of bad news coming to spoil the good news you had three hours earlier, Bourla says. Pfizers laboratory work has since shown one of its protease inhibitors, initially developed to battle SARS, to exhibit antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. Pfizer is now aiming to start a human trial for that antiviral, which is administered intravenously, by the end of the summer.
Another Pfizer drug getting attention is Xeljanz, a rheumatoid arthritis pill generating $2.2 billion annually. It is seen as a potential way to tamp down the massive immune response to Covid-19 that overwhelms some infected patients. Pfizer is supporting a Xeljanz trial in Italian Covid-19 patients, as well as another U.S. trial that will test a different arthritis medicine, an experimental drug that targets the Irak-4 protein, against the virus.
While all this is going on, of course, Bourla still needs to run the rest of Pfizer. He recently planned a symbolic visit to a Pfizer plantnone has closedbut after making the arrangements, he was informed that he would not be allowed to enter because he was not deemed essential.
I dont know if I was ever prepared for something like this, Bourla says. But you feel that you need to suck it up and rise to the occasion because thats what you have to do.
Following Moderna's solid Covid-19 vaccine trial, Dynavax says partner could start one of its own in July - San Francisco Business Times New York Business Journal
(For a live blog on European stocks, type LIVE/ in an Eikon news window)
May 20 (Reuters) - European shares headed lower on Wednesday after a downbeat session on Wall Street, as doubts over a potential COVID-19 vaccine reignited fears about the slow recovery from a looming global recession.
The pan-European STOXX 600 dropped 0.3% by 0708 GMT in its second day of fall, with banks, telecoms and travel & leisure sector stocks leading the decline.
Wall Street indexes fell more than 1% overnight after a media report questioned the validity of the results of U.S. drugmaker Modernas coronavirus vaccine trial that had sent stock markets soaring on Monday.
In a bright spot, shares of British retailer Marks & Spencer jumped 5.2% after saying that it would accelerate its latest turnaround programme as it dealt with the fallout from the coronavirus crisis and reported a 21% fall in annual profit. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Army Gen. Gustave Perna, the commander of Army Materiel Command, will co-lead an effort, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, to find a vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021.
Defense SecretaryMark Esper said the Defense Department is very excited and committed to partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services, across the government, and in the private sector to accomplish the mission. Winning matters, and we will deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the American people and our partners abroad,he said.
The goal is to produce about 300 million vaccines by January, said Jonathan Rath Hoffman, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, at a Pentagon press briefing on Friday.
Hoffman mentioned that its a goal involving a whole-of-government approach, not just the DOD.
Regarding DOD and the Pentagon, Hoffman said neither has been shut down and daily operations continue, albeit with mitigation steps that include social distancing, face masks, quarantine when necessaryand telework if the situation allows.
As for increasing the number of personnel at the Pentagon, Hoffman said it will be conditions-based and informed by medical experts. The Pentagon, he said, is in consultation with the governments of the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. Policy and decisions are currently under review and are expected to be released in a matter of weeks.
Regarding the hospital ships USNS Comfort and Mercy, Hoffman said they have completed their work in New York City and Los Angeles and are standing by if their services are needed elsewhere.
Written by Abantika Ghosh | New Delhi | Updated: May 20, 2020 6:50:07 pm A volunteer at trials, led by the University of Oxford, on the newly announced vaccine candidate against Covid-19. (Source: University of Oxford via AP/File)
Every time there has been news about a potential new vaccine against Covid-19, hopes have risen around the world. But some have also taken a realistic approach. Such as British PM Boris Johnson, a Covid-19 survivor himself, who has written in The Mail: There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruitionWe need to find new ways to control the virus.
A series of stages
Development of a vaccine is a long process that can falter at any step. There is also the issue of effectiveness how the vaccine performs in real-life conditions against efficacy, which is performance in ideal conditions during trials.
Once a candidate is identified, its safety and efficacy have to be tested over three phases, as per protocols. A fourth stage involves collection and analysis of post-marketing data.
For Covid-19, there are over 100 vaccines being developed across the world now, some from scratch, some from existing molecules developed for other diseases.
Oxford University
Last month, the University of Oxford announced it is ready to trial its vaccine candidate, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, developed from the common cold virus whose safety in humans is already established. ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is made from a virus (ChAdOx1), which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees, that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans. Genetic material has been added to the ChAdOx1 construct, that is used to make proteins from the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) called Spike glycoprotein (S), the University announced last month. This protein is found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2.
Last week, a paper, not yet peer-reviewed, gave out the results of the vaccine trial in macaques: We observed a significantly reduced viral load in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and respiratory tract tissue of vaccinated animals challenged with SARS-CoV-2 compared with control animals, and no pneumonia was observed in vaccinated rhesus macaques. In other words, the vaccine did not prevent infection but it did prevent pneumonia.
CanSino Biologics
Hong Kong-listed firm CanSino Biologics is testing a vaccine. It announced last week that Phase 1 trials have been cleared and the vaccine is moving into Phase 2 based on the preliminary safety data of the Phase I clinical trial. The results of that trial have not been made public. This too is an adenovirus-based vaccine. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 500 healthy patients will be done in association with researchers from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences Institute of Biotechnology.
The National Research Council of Canada has said it would work with the company for development of its vaccine, Ad5-nCoV, in Canada.
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Another company, Sinovac, backed by the Chinese government, is working on a vaccine, and plans to produce 100 million shots a year, news reports said.
Imperial College London
The UK government is funding a vaccine effort at Imperial College London. Professor Robin Shattock, Head of Mucosal Infection and Immunity in the UK Department of Medicine, and his team developed the vaccine within 14 days of getting the gene sequence of the virus from China. It is not being tested in animals. The researchers plan to move to human trials soon and Professor Shattock has been quoted as saying that the vaccine could be available some time next year.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals
US-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals is working on a DNA vaccine candidate, INO-4800, and has got a grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. In April it started Phase 1 clinical trials. It showed encouraging response in animal studies, the company has claimed.
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All 50 states have begun to reopen, but vast discrepancies remain.
In Connecticut, flags that had been lowered to half-staff during the somber peak of the pandemic were raised high again to signal the states return to business.
In Kentucky, gift shops opened their doors.
And across Alaska, restaurants, bars and gyms, which have already been seeing customers for weeks, were getting ready to rev back up to full capacity. It will all be open, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced, just like it was prior to the virus.
As of Wednesday, all 50 states had begun to reopen to some degree, two months after the outbreak thrust the country into lockdown. But vast variations remain in how states are deciding to open up, with some forging far ahead of others. Many began to reopen despite not meeting White House guidelines for progress against the virus, and newly reported cases have been increasing in some states, including Texas and Minnesota, that are moving to ease restrictions. Public health officials warn that moving too fast could risk more outbreaks.
The dynamic has left many business owners and customers to decide for themselves what they think is safe.
It is still a little scary, considering we dont exactly know what this is, said Ipakoi Grigoriadis, whose family owns Pops Family Restaurant in Milford, Conn., a diner that reopened its outdoor seating on Wednesday morning.
It is quite exciting to see our customers we havent seen in a while, she said. But it was not business as usual: Pops, like other Connecticut restaurants, now offers only outdoor seating and plans to gradually ramp up to 50 percent capacity. Servers are gloved and masked, and patrons are expected to wear masks as well, except when they are eating and drinking.
In New Jersey and many parts of New York State, the reopening has been more limited, with only curbside pickup at retail stores and allowances for certain industries.
Governors are increasingly facing intense pressure to reopen, as millions of Americans have lost their jobs and the unemployment rate reached a staggering 14.7 percent. But reopening in Texas, where businesses have been allowed to operate at 25 percent capacity for weeks, looks far different than it does in Illinois, where stores are still limited to curbside pickup.
States in the Northeast and on the West Coast, as well as Democratic-led states in the Midwest, have moved the most slowly toward reopening, with several governors taking a county-by-county approach. (In Washington, D.C., a stay-at-home order remains in effect until June.) By contrast, a number of states in the South opened earlier and more fully. Though social-distancing requirements were put in place, restaurants, salons, gyms and other businesses have been open in Georgia for several weeks.
In a medical research project nearly unrivaled in its ambition and scope, volunteers worldwide are rolling up their sleeves to receive experimental vaccines against the coronavirus only months after it was discovered.
Companies like Inovio and Pfizer have begun early tests of candidates in people to determine whether the vaccines are safe. Researchers at the University of Oxford in Britain say they could have a vaccine ready for emergency use as soon as September.
In labs around the world, there is now cautious optimism that a coronavirus vaccine, and perhaps more than one, will be ready sometime next year.
Scientists are exploring not just one approach to creating the vaccine, but at least four. So great is the urgency that they are combining trial phases and shortening a process that usually takes years, sometimes more than a decade.
What people dont realize is that normally vaccine development takes many years, sometimes decades, said Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. And so trying to compress the whole vaccine process into 12 to 18 months is really unheard-of.
If that happens, it will be the fastest vaccine development program ever in history.
More than one hundred research teams around the world are taking aim at the virus from multiple angles.
A prototype vaccine has protected monkeys from the virus, researchers reported on Wednesday, a finding that offers new hope for effective human vaccines.
Scientists are already testing virus vaccines in people, but the initial trials are designed to determine safety, not how well a vaccine works. The research published Wednesday offers insight into what a vaccine must do to be effective and how to measure that.
To me, this is convincing that a vaccine is possible, said Dr. Nelson Michael, the director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Scientists are engaged in a worldwide scramble to create a vaccine against the new virus. Over a hundred research projects have been launched; early safety trials in humans have been started or completed in nine of them.
Next to come are larger trials to determine whether these candidate vaccines are not just safe, but effective. But those results wont arrive for months.
In the meantime, Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and his colleagues have started a series of experiments on monkeys to get a broader look at how coronaviruses affect monkeys and whether vaccines could fight them. Their report was published in Science.
In one series of experiments, each monkey received pieces of DNA, which their cells turned into viral proteins designed to train the immune system to recognize the virus.
Most coronavirus vaccines are intended to coax the immune system to make antibodies that latch onto the spike protein and destroy the virus. Dr. Barouch and his colleagues tried out six variations.
Some of the vaccines provided only partial protection, but other vaccines worked better. The one that worked best trained the immune system to recognize and attack the entire spike protein of the coronavirus. In eight monkeys, the researchers couldnt detect the virus at all.
I think that overall this will be seen as very good news for the vaccine effort, said Dr. Barouch. This increases our optimism that a vaccine for Covid-19 will be possible.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly released more detailed guidance for schools, businesses, transit systems and other industries hoping to reopen safely amid the coronavirus pandemic after fear that the White House had shelved the guidelines.
The 60-page document, which a C.D.C. spokesman said was uploaded over the weekend, but which received little notice, adds great detail to six charts that the C.D.C. had released last week. The guidance provides specific instructions for different sectors to detect and trace the virus based on exposure and risk after the pandemic. Here are some key elements.
If a person in a school building tests positive, schools should evaluate the risk and consider a brief dismissal of about 2-5 days, to clean and disinfect the building, coordinate with local health officials and contact trace. The C.D.C. offers different measures based on the level of community spread.
As restrictions across the country on restaurants and bars ease, the C.D.C. recommends owners give workers at a higher risk of getting sick a job that limits the persons interaction with customers. The agency also suggests opening with limited seating initially to allow for social distancing. Once fully reopened, the C.D.C. recommends having a clear policy about when employees should stay home if sick and rules on hygiene, including at times wearing face coverings.
When mass transit resumes its full service, the agency recommends being prepared to adjust routes based on the different levels of virus spread and to coordinate with local health officials about prevention strategies, such as wearing a face covering.
For businesses that provide child care during the pandemic, the C.D.C. recommends having plans in place, for example, to have substitute workers if staff members are sick, and requiring staff and children older than two to wear face coverings.
The guidance describes the balance of slowing the viruss spread with the economic threat of shuttering most businesses, and largely mirrors a draft version that was previously shelved by the White House, but with some changes.
The document omits a section on communities of faith that had troubled Trump administration officials and also tones down the guidance in several instances. For example, language that initially directed schools to ensure social distancing became promote social distancing, and the phrase if possible was added in several sentences.
Severe flooding struck central Michigan on Wednesday after two dams were breached by rain-swollen waters, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents at a moment many had been wary of leaving their homes amid the pandemic.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer implored residents to take the threat seriously and evacuate immediately, but added that they should continue to observe precautions related to the virus, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing something she acknowledged would be difficult in the temporary shelters that had been set up.
To go through this in the midst of a global pandemic is almost unthinkable, she said. But we are here, and to the best of our ability we are going to navigate this together.
There have been at least 52,337 cases in Michigan, and at least 5,017 people have died.
The failures on Tuesday of the Edenville Dam and the Sanford Dam, about 140 miles northwest of Detroit, led the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood warning for areas near the Tittabawassee River. Residents in nearby towns, including Edenville, Sanford and Midland, were evacuated
As news of the disaster spread Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump took to Twitter and threatened to withhold federal funds to Michigan if the state proceeded to expand vote by mail efforts. (He made a similar threat against Nevada.) The president then followed up with a Tweet saying that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the military had been deployed to Michigan to assist with disaster response.
The president is scheduled to visit a Ford Motor Co. plant that is manufacturing ventilators in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Thursday. This is his first trip to the state since January, and comes at a time when his campaign advisers are increasingly concerned about his chances there.
President Trump on Wednesday escalated his assault against voting by mail, making false claims about recent steps taken by Michigan and threatening to withhold federal funds from both states if they continue to expand vote-by-mail efforts.
The presidents latest broadside, on Twitter, came as the pandemic has raised concerns around the nation about how people can vote safely.
The president inaccurately accused Michigan of mailing ballots to its residents. In fact, its secretary of state sent applications for mail ballots, as election officials have done in other states, including those led by Republicans. A few hours later he sent another tweet correcting the earlier one, noting that Michigan had sent absentee ballot applications, but repeating the threat to withhold funding. He also threatened to withhold funds from Nevada, where the Republican secretary of state declared the primary an all-mail election, and where ballots are being sent to voters.
As most states largely abandon in-person voting because of health concerns, Mr. Trump, along with many of his Republican allies, have launched a series of false attacks to demonize mail voting as fraught with fraud and delivering an inherent advantage to Democratic candidates despite there being scant evidence for either claim.
Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election, the president tweeted Wednesday morning. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!
His threat to withhold federal funding cam as the state was grappling with a devastating flood; soon after he announced that the federal government would help.
An hour later he made a similar threat against Nevada, saying the state had created a great Voter Fraud scenario and adding If they do, I think I can hold up funds to the State.
Mr. Trumps outbursts come as the White House and his re-election campaign are confronting polls showing the president trailing his Democratic rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., both nationally and in key swing states. The White House did not respond to requests for comment or elaboration.
Michigans secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, quickly clarified on Wednesday that the state is not mailing ballots to all Michigan voters. On Wednesday she began mailing ballot applications to all registered voters.
I think that even at this time of stress and when people are so anxious and so confused, I think those religious ceremonies can be very comforting, he said. But we need to find out how to do it, and do it safely and do it smartly.
It is particularly significant for Jewish congregations, where a minyan, defined as 10 people over the age of 13, is required for a worship service.
Mr. Cuomo also released the results of antibody testing in some of low-income New York City neighborhoods hit hardest by the virus.
In many of them, more than 1 in 3 residents tested positive for antibodies, a far higher rate than citywide rate of about 20 percent, he said. In two neighborhoods, Brownsville in Brooklyn and Morrisania in the Bronx, more than 40 percent of people tested had antibodies.
Another public health hazard has surfaced in New York City amid the pandemic: Vaccination rates for childhood disease whooping cough, measles, chickenpox have dropped precipitously, putting children at risk, the mayor said.
The Justice Department warned California this week that it believed the states restrictions to combat the virus discriminated against religious institutions.
In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, department officials complained that the states reopening plan allowed for restaurants and shopping malls to reopen before religious institutions could hold worship services. They also objected to the states current policy limiting how members of the clergy could be classified as essential workers.
Simply put, there is no pandemic exception to the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights, said the letter from the head of the departments Civil Rights Division and the four U.S. attorneys in California.
The officials also said that while the department does not seek to dictate to California, they insisted that any restrictions must treat secular and religious activities equally.
A spokesman for Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal judges previously declined to block Mr. Newsoms restrictions on religious gatherings. In one case, brought by a church in Lodi, a Federal District Court judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order and wrote that in unusual circumstances like a pandemic, the judiciary must afford more deference to officials informed efforts to advance public health even when those measures encroach on otherwise protected conduct.
The Justice Departments missive to Mr. Newsom was not connected to any specific case, but it represented another phase of its efforts to curb state and local restrictions especially around religious institutions during the pandemic. Last month, the department went to court in support of a Baptist church in Mississippi that had challenged local restrictions.
Less than a week after lawmakers approved a major rule change, Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday formally initiated the remote work period for the House, jump-starting a 45-day period when remote voting can be used in the chamber.
With the move, the House will now be able to use proxy voting, which allows lawmakers to give specific instructions on each vote to a colleague authorized to vote on their behalf. Votes are expected in the chamber next week, and several lawmakers had previously expressed frustration with the need to travel to Washington during the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement came after the Sergeant-at-arms, in consultation with Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Capitol physician, sent Ms. Pelosi a letter formally notifying her of an ongoing public health emergency due to a novel coronavirus.
In direct contrast, however, Senator Mitch McConnell, on Wednesday highlighted the Senates ongoing presence in Washington, outlining how over here in the United States Senate, the lights are on, the doors are open, and we are working for the American people.
Mr. McConnell, the majority leader, thanked Dr. Monahan a Navy doctor whose office is responsible for the care of both chambers and the Supreme Court for his continued guidance, saying that it has allowed the Senate to operate smartly and safely during the pandemic.
The shuttering of the American education system severed students from more than just classrooms, friends and extracurricular activities. It has also cut off an estimated 55 million children and teenagers from school faculty whose open doors and compassionate advice helped them build self-esteem, navigate the pressures of adolescence and cope with trauma.
But the challenges hard-wired into online learning present daunting obstacles for the remote guidance counselors office, particularly among students from low-income families who have lost jobs or lack internet access at home. And mental health experts worry about the psychological toll on a younger generation that was already experiencing soaring rates of depression, anxiety and suicide before the pandemic.
Not every kid can be online and have a confidential conversation about how things are going at home with parents in earshot, said Seth Pollak, director of the Child Emotion Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Desperate to safeguard students emotional well-being amid the isolation and financial turmoil, teachers are checking in during video classes, counselors are posting mindfulness videos on Facebook and school psychologists are holding therapy sessions over the phone.
Hospital executives and doctors, wary of what comes next, are asking whether this is a lull before a new wave of cases or a less chaotic slog. At hospitals, staff members are preparing for both possibilities.
Elmhurst is decontaminating rooms as managers try to persuade residents to come in now for emergencies and elective surgery as soon the governor lifts a ban imposed in March. Brooklyn Hospital Center is nervously waiting for those numbers to rise again.
At the same time, a new survey of nearly 23,000 nurses across the country shows continued concern over inadequate personal protective equipment as well as a lack of widespread testing among health care workers.
Many nurses remain fearful of becoming ill because they do not have the equipment they need to remain safe, according to the union that conducted the survey, National Nurses United, which has more than 150,000 members in the United States.
The survey, conducted from April 15 through May 10, includes responses from both union members and nonunion nurses in all 50 states. It found that a vast majority of nurses, 87 percent, reported having to reuse personal protective equipment, including respirators, a practice that the nurses said would not have been allowed before the pandemic.
More than 100 nurses have died of the disease, according to the union, and at least 500 of those surveyed said they had already tested positive. Eighty-four percent of those surveyed reported they had not yet been tested.
The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt is set to return to sea in the next day or so after its deployment to the western Pacific was derailed by the outbreak, military officials said.
The Roosevelt has been docked in Guam for nearly two months, with much of its crew isolated in hotels and on the U.S. naval on the island. About 1,100 sailors from the Roosevelt have been infected since the outbreak began in March.
It is unclear whether the Roosevelt will return to Guam after its initial stint at sea; it might continue with its deployment that is set to end in July, officials said. If Navy officials choose the latter, the sailors left on Guam to recover from the illness are likely to be sent back to the United States, leaving the crew of the nuclear-powered carrier with only about 3,300 of its more than 4,800 crew members.
Navy officials said on Sunday that more than a dozen sailors on the ship had retested positive after they seemed to have recovered. The virus has forced the crew to take extraordinary measures to combat its spread in their cramped quarters: Sailors can be punished for not wearing masks, areas are cleaned at least twice a day, and if a crew member shows any signs or symptoms, they are promptly whisked off the ship.
Specialists including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert say the jury is still out on whether the drug might help prevent infection or help patients avoid hospitalization. Mr. Trumps frequent pronouncements and misstatements he has praised the drug as a game changer and a miracle are only complicating matters, politicizing the drug and creating a frenzy in the news media that is impeding research.
The virus is not Democrat or Republican, and hydroxychloroquine is not Democrat or Republican, and Im just hopeful that people would allow us to finish our scientific work, said Dr. William ONeill, an interventional cardiologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, who is studying hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic in health care workers.
The worst thing in the world that would happen, he added, is that at the end of this epidemic, in late September, we dont have a cure or a preventive because we let politics interfere with the scientific process.
As he laid out his plans for the fall semester, the president of Purdue University, Mitch Daniels, said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that young people faced essentially zero lethal risk from Covid-19.
The remarks from Mr. Daniels, who served two terms as Indianas governor, drew criticism online, as there is still much that is unknown about how the virus affects younger populations and how they might unknowingly spread the virus.
In March, data from the C.D.C. showed that nearly 40 percent of patients sick enough to be hospitalized were between 20 and 54 years old. More recently, neurologists in New York, New Jersey, Detroit and elsewhere have reported a sudden increase in unexplained strokes among younger patients that may be linked to the virus.
Mr. Daniels said that Purdue, in West Lafayette, Ind., would carry out a new hybrid approach to teaching that would protect both its staff members and students during the fall semester.
Weve learned over the past two months where the real risk and danger reside. That will be our area of focus with everything we do from physical facilities to the way we teach, Mr. Daniels said. Were going to have to work as hard on the cultural aspects as the physical.
New measures include having fewer people in classrooms, requiring masks for all students, building plexiglass barriers for teachers to stand behind and having students take at least one course online.
Students will also be expected to maintain social distancing, practice good hygiene, have their temperature taken daily and self-quarantine if they experience symptoms. The university will also be conducting testing and tracing, he said.
But amid C.D.C. warnings that the United States can expect multiple waves of infections until the development of a vaccine, the nearly 500,000-student California State University system announced last week that it would keep all of its 23 campuses mostly closed in the fall, holding classes primarily online.
Hundreds of migrant children and teenagers have been swiftly deported by American authorities during the pandemic without the opportunity to speak to a social worker or plea for asylum from the violence in their home countries a reversal of years of established practice for dealing with young foreigners who arrive in the United States.
The Trump administration is justifying the new practices under a 1944 law that grants the president broad power to block foreigners from entering the country to prevent the serious threat of a dangerous disease. And on Tuesday, it extended the stepped-up border security that allows for young migrants to be expelled at the border, saying the policy would remain in place indefinitely and be reviewed every 30 days.
In March and April, 915 young migrants were expelled shortly after reaching the American border, and 60 were shipped home from the interior of the country.
During the same period, at least 166 young migrants were allowed into the United States and afforded the safeguards that were once customary. Customs and Border Protection has refused to disclose how the government was determining which legal standards to apply to which children.
The fact that nobody knows who these kids are and there are hundreds of them is really terrifying, said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Childrens Rights. Theres no telling if theyve been returned to smugglers or into harms way.
As lockdowns are lifted, bacteria that built up internally in stagnant water, especially in the plumbing, may cause health problems for returning workers if the problem is not properly addressed by facilities managers. Employees and guests at hotels, gyms and other kinds of buildings may also be at risk.
The UN health agency's annual oversight convention, held for the first time ever by teleconference from Geneva on 18-19 May, was focused intensely on defeating the novel coronavirus that has infected more than4.7 millionpeople worldwide, caused more than 316,100 deaths and thrown the futures of even the most robust economies into jeopardy.
The event was punctuated by the assertion from the White House that WHO did not act quickly enough in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak to contain its spread. In a letter sent via Twitter on Monday to the WHO chief, US President Donald Trump set a 30-day deadline for the UN health agency to make significant reforms or risk losing funding.
By the resolution, passed unanimously by the 194 WHO Member States, the Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was called on to rapidly identify and provide options for scaling up the development, manufacture and distribution capacities needed for providing access to COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, medicines and vaccines.
More broadly, international organizations were called on to work collaboratively to develop, test and scale-up production of safe, effective, quality, affordable diagnostics, therapeutics, medicines and vaccines for the COVID-19 response including in the licensing of patents to facilitate access to them.
In hisclosing remarks, Tedros said WHOs focus remains fighting the pandemic with every tool at its disposal. Our focus is on saving lives, he said.
He pledgedto initiate an evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment, welcoming any effort to strengthen global health security - and the agency itself. As always, WHO remains fully committed to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement, he assured. We want accountability more than anyone.
Neither he nor the Secretary-General responded on Tuesday directly to Mr. Trumps letter, with the UN Spokesperson referring journalists in New York toopening remarkson the work and value of the WHO amidst the pandemic,Antnio Guterresmade to the Assembly on Monday.
Dr. Tedros also thanked the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee for its continuous review of WHOs work in health emergencies, and in particular, its report on the COVID-19 response,published on Monday.Checking and learning our lessons is in WHOs DNA, Tedros said,noting that he was heartened at how countries had shared best practices during the Assembly.
For its part, WHO will continue to provide strategic leadership to coordinate the global response, he said, offering epidemiological information and analysis and keeping countries updated on ways to keep safe.
In addition, WHO will continue to ship diagnostics, personal protective equipment and medical supplies across the globe, convene experts to deliver technical advice based on the best science, and drive research to develop evidence about vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
COVID-19 has robbed us of people we love, he said, taken livelihoods and shaken the worlds very foundations. It has also offered a reminder of the opportunity to forge a common future.WHO will continueto work - day and night - to support the most vulnerable countries and populations. Well never, ever give up, Tedros pledged. Let our shared humanity be the antidote to our shared threat.
"On the basis of new research results from the ongoing research into Covid-19 infections at mink farms, it is plausible that an infection took place from mink to human," the Dutch government said in a statement late Tuesday night.
"It also appears from this research that minks can have Covid-19 without displaying symptoms."
The government said antibody testing of minks would be expanded to "all mink farms in the Netherlands and will become mandatory."
The government also said it believes cats may be playing a role in the spread of the virus between farms. "Ongoing research shows the viruses at two of the infected farms are very similar," the statement said. Covid-19 was found in three out of 11 cats at one mink farm, it said.
"In the course of this investigation, it is advised that infected mink farms ensure that cats cannot enter or leave the farm premises."
Weve seen many social media posts lately that falsely claim Bill Gates is responsible for, or will somehow profit from, COVID-19.
Most claims are focused on the coronavirus vaccine. The Gates Foundation has been financially supporting the development of a vaccine and posting articles explaining the projected vaccine timeline.
A recent Facebook post links to an article titled, "Bill Gates Explains That The COVID Vaccine Will Use Experimental Technology And Permanently Alter Your DNA."
The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The Waking Times blog post heavily quotes Bill Gates blog, specifically when he explains how RNA COVID-19 vaccines could be developed and how they would create antibodies.
RNA vaccines have been shown to create "a safe and long-lasting immune response in animal models and humans" in clinical and preclinical trials. However, licensed RNA vaccines have never been produced before.
The body creates proteins by translating mRNA, the messenger molecules from DNA. By introducing a new mRNA vaccine to a few cells in the human body, those cells will produce the proteins of "a disease-specific antigen," and the immune system can create an antigen-specific antibody. Basically, it creates only the parts of a pathogen that the body reacts to and creates antibodies to bond to. This way, the body can easily attack the disease when it recognizes its cells.
The second half of this claim, that these vaccines would "permanently alter your DNA" is incorrect. An article in Frontiers on Immunology analyzed new studies that found mRNA "cannot potentially integrate into the host genome and will be degraded naturally." Basically, after the messenger molecules create antigens for the body to react to, they will naturally stop being used and break down.
The Waking Times blog shared on Facebook asserts that a new COVID-19 RNA vaccine "will not be tested in any significant or standard capacity" and that readers should prepare to be "guinea pigs in the largest global health experiment ever."
But Gates makes it very clear throughout his own blog post that scientists are not just relying on RNA or DNA experiments to create the first worldwide COVID-19 vaccine. "As of April 9, there are 115 different COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the development pipeline," Gates writes. RNA and DNA vaccines are easier to produce and they are testing them right now, but "even if an RNA vaccine continues to show promise, we still must continue pursuing the other options."
Contrary to the explosive claim that the entire world would be treated as "guinea pigs" for a new RNA or DNA vaccine, Gates explains how any COVID-19 vaccine will go through a rigorous, but also shortened, testing period. The New England Journal of Medicine has projected that they can shorten the usual 5-year period of vaccine testing to three short testing trials over 18 months. Gates says later in his article that its a priority to "make sure we have good real-world evidence that the vaccine is completely safe to use."
RNA testing will be done on small groups before it reaches the entire world. The first round of clinical testing with an RNA vaccine for COVID-19 began on May 16th. The dosage test has only 105 subjects and is projected to take at least a year to complete.
Our Ruling
A blog post shared on social media reads "Bill Gates Explains That The COVID Vaccine Will Use Experimental Technology And Permanently Alter Your DNA."
This is inaccurate. Gates never said that the first licensed COVID-19 vaccine would use experimental technology or permanently alter DNA;he said specifically that "we dont know yet what the COVID-19 vaccine will look like." The most recent research also shows that RNA vaccines, which are being tested for COVID-19 right now, do degrade naturally and dont alter DNA permanently. We rate this claim False.
A Florida man who thought the coronavirus was "a fake crisis" has changed his mind after he and his wife contracted COVID-19.
Brian Hitchens, a rideshare driver who lives in Jupiter, downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus in Facebook posts in March and April.
"I'm honoring what our government says to do during this epidemic but I do not fear this virus because I know that my God is bigger than this Virus will ever be," he wrote in a post on April 2. "Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords."
In mid-April, Hitchens, 46, began documenting his and his wife's health on Facebook.
"Been home sick for over a week. Both my wife and I home sick," he wrote in a post on April 18. "I've got no energy and all I want to do is sleep."
A day later, Hitchens and his wife, Erin, were admitted to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, Hitchens said in a Facebook post.
Hitchens could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. The voicemail box for a number listed for him is full.
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There have been at least 46,442 cases of the coronavirus in Florida with 1,997 deaths reported as of Monday morning, according to state health data.
In a lengthy post on May 12, Hitchens said that he was once among those who thought the coronavirus "is a fake crisis" that was "blown out of proportion" and "wasn't that serious."
That changed when he started to feel sick in April and stopped working, he wrote.
Hitchens said he "had just enough energy" to drive himself and his wife to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center on April 19, where they both tested positive for the virus.
"They admitted us right away and we both went to ICU," he wrote. "I started feeling better within a few days but my wife got worse to the point where they sedated her and put her on the ventilator."
Hitchens said he never experienced terrible aches and pains but felt weak and exhausted. He said he felt better on May 12, at which point he had been in the hospital for three weeks, and that he still had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. He also said he had pneumonia in his lungs.
"As of today my wife is still sedated and on the ventilator with no signs of improving," Hitchens wrote. "There were a couple times were they tried to start weaning her off the ventilator but as soon as they've done that her oxygen level dropped and they had to put her back on the ventilator full time."
He said his wife of eight years has been sick "quite a few times" in the past and she always fought through. This time, he said, "I have come to accept that my wife may pass away."
Hitchens, who has seen his wife infrequently since they were hospitalized, said he was holding out hope she would recover.
"This thing is nothing to be messed with please listen to the authorities and heed the advice of the experts," he wrote. "We don't have to fear this and by heeding the advice doesn't mean that you fear it that means you're showing wisdom during this epidemic time."
The May 12 post, in which he implored people to "use wisdom," has been shared more than 500 times.
"Looking back I should have wore a mask in the beginning but I didn't and perhaps I'm paying the price for it now," he wrote. If he passed the virus on to his wife, he said, he knows that she and God forgive him.
"So just think about what I said and if you have to go out please use wisdom and don't be foolish like I was ... so the same thing won't happen to you like it happened to me and my wife," he wrote.
Hitchens had one thing to say in a Facebook post Monday to people who have sent him "nasty messages" saying he deserved to die: "'I AM NEGATIVE"! "PRAISE THE LORD!'"
Janelle Griffith is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.
