Four out of five merchants at a major fruit market in Peru have tested positive for coronavirus, revealing shocking levels of infection and prompting fears that Latin Americas traditional trading centres may have helped spread Covid-19 across the region.
Seventy-nine per cent of stall-holders in Limas wholesale fruit market tested positive for Covid-19, while spot tests at five other large fresh food markets in the city revealed at least half were carrying the virus.
The results came as local authorities from Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro struggle to enforce social distancing and sanitary measures at wholesale and retail markets, which are mainstays of local economies.
Latin America is wrestling with a surging death toll from the pandemic: Mexico and Brazil whose presidents have been accused of downplaying the epidemic both saw record single-day mortalities last week.
But Peru also reported a peak in coronavirus deaths and new infections even after two months of one the regions strictest lockdowns.
Perus president, Martn Vizcarra, said the infected merchants in Lima would be replaced, but stopped short of shutting down the fruit market, arguing that such a move could create food shortages. Soldiers and police officers were deployed at the market to take the temperature of all traders and clients.
Markets were probably the biggest vector of infection which is why Perus quarantine did not work as it should have, said Eduardo Zegarra, the principal investigator for Grade, a development thinktank in Lima.
These figures are a bombshell, he said, calling on the government to shut down the markets and declare a sanitary emergency.
Authorities in Lima have left most of the citys 1,200-plus markets open, carrying out spot tests and sending infected vendors most of whom were asymptomatic to self-isolate at home or at government facilities.
But Zegarra worried Limas huge wholesale markets were already enormous hubs of infection, particularly Santa Anita, Limas largest, where some 30,000 merchants, porters and suppliers distribute and sell around 8,000 tonnes of food per day.
Dozens of infections and at least one death have been reported among the markets porters and fears were growing that the virus could already have spread; not only to thousands of retailers and customers but also to lorry drivers traveling between the city and the country.
I fear that could trigger a second wave of the pandemic, said Zegarra, a former deputy mayor of Lima. The contagion among merchants is terribly high and we dont know how long theyve had it or how many people theyve passed it on to.
Coronavirus cases in Peru rose to more than 88,000 on Saturday, with a death toll of 2,572, according to official figures. Only Brazil has a higher infection rate in Latin America, surging to fourth place in the world with 233,511 confirmed cases and sixth place for coronavirus deaths with 15,662, according to Johns Hopkins University.
So Paulos CEAGESP wholesale market one of the largest on the continent has already seen innumerable cases and around 30 deaths from Covid-19, according to the president of the market suppliers union.
We are very sad about the deaths of these people but if you consider 40,000 people who come here every day, it is quite low, said Cludio Furquim.
Media reports have shown crowds of shoppers and workers at Brazilian markets, most them without masks. In a report by TV Record, Diego Hiplito said his uncle, a driver, went to the market daily and kept working when he fell sick with coronavirus symptoms before eventually dying. I think he could have passed it on, Hiplito said.
Markets still occupy an important place in Latin American culture and economies even as retail giants such as Walmart expand into the region. But that has also tied them closely to the spread of the disease.
Colombias largest wholesale market, Corabastos, sits in the hardscrabble Kennedy neighbourhood of the capital Bogot currently centre of the countrys outbreak.
Last week, the citys mayor, Claudia Lpez, said the vast market would be operate at just 35% of capacity after 30 cases were detected there.
The citys health minister, Alejandro Gmez, admitted that local government could have done better but also stressed the importance of food supplies. We cannot allow Corabastos to become a risk to the health of Bogot, but neither can we allow food shortages, he said.
Jorge Colmenares, an opposition city councilman, tweeted: Thanks to Bogotas carelessness, the coronavirus has hit the food supply of millions of citizens.
At Mexico Citys mammoth Central de Abasto, which receives merchandise from around the country and in turn supplies markets throughout the capital, at least 25 cases of Covid-19 and two deaths have been reported, although local media suggested the true figure was much higher.
Manuel Cornejo Carrillo owns a laundry in the Mercado Coyoacn, where he says 60% of the stalls have closed and sales are down 90% in his business. Cornejo lamented that the few customers still coming to the market were still failing to keep their distance or wear masks.
After a brief lockdown, Mexico has already announced plans to re-open its economy, but while Cornejo was sympathetic with the urge to get back to work, he feared that the worst was still to come from the coronavirus.
Economically, its time to restart. But on the health side, Im worried I dont think weve hit bottom, he said.
Ive lived through the H1N1 outbreak and earthquakes, but Ive never experienced anything like this.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has obliterated business for restaurants that already rely on slim margins to make ends meet. Reconfiguring operations to focus on takeout and delivery is difficult, expensive, and comes with diminishing returns. While the D.C. area hasnt seen a huge amount of restaurants announce permanent closures, its a safe bet that many more will be coming as bills pile up, federal stimulus loans run out, and governments gradually lift dine-in restrictions as part of phased reopening plans. Heres a running roundup of all the closures that have been reported so far:
Know of a D.C. restaurant that has closed permanently due to COVID-19? Send the details to dc@eater.com.
David Changs Momofuku CCDC closed after five years of business as part of a companywide overhaul. [EDC]
Wolfgang Pucks Asian restaurant the Source wrapped up its 13-year run inside the Newseum building in Penn Quarter. Pucks CUT steakhouse in Georgetown plans to reopen. [EDC]
The Lucky Strike bowling alley and bar in Chinatown appears to have closed for good, removing its Twitter account and its D.C. listing from the chains website. [Popville]
P.F. Changs pulled out of Montgomery County and permanently closed its Friendship Heights location, just over the D.C. line. [BM]
A pair of decades-old gay clubs closed in D.C.: Ziegfelds/Secrets near Nationals Park and leather bar DC Eagle in Northeast. [DCist]
Fado Irish Pub wont reopen after the novel coronavirus crisis is over. However, the 22-year-old essential Irish bar claims its demise is tied to lease issues, not the pandemic. [EDC]
NYC burger chain Bareburger permanently closed its sole D.C. location after four years in Dupont. [P]
Campono, the Italian restaurant inside the Watergate building, was told by its landlord to vacate by the end of April.
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Tens of thousands of cases of Covid-19 may have been missed because of delays in warning the public that loss of taste and smell is a key symptom that should lead to self-isolation or testing, experts say.
The four chief medical officers of the UK have finally made official what many scientists had been saying for weeks: that anosmia, or loss of smell, should be added to the other two main warning symptoms, a continuous cough and high temperature. Those who experience any of the three symptoms should isolate for seven days and their families for 14 days.
Prof Tim Spector from Kings College London and his team said data from 1.5 million people who downloaded their symptom-reporting app suggested 50,000 to 70,000 people in the UK had been missed. As early as 1 April, they warned that people with anosmia should self-isolate.
They were joined by ear, nose and throat surgeons, who said loss of taste and smell could be one of the few markers for people who were otherwise asymptomatic and potentially able to infect other people without realising they were a risk.
Their professional body, ENT-UK, said they had been calling for eight weeks for anosmia to be listed as a marker for asymptomatic carriers. It issued a joint statement with the British Rhinology Society (BRS) on 20 March, it said. We estimate that many hundreds of thousands of patients in the UK have developed anosmia as a result of Covid-19, said Prof Claire Hopkins, the BRS president.
Speaking on BBC radio hours before the announcement by the four CMOs of the change of guidance, Spector said the UK was out of step with other countries. He also said that anosmia was only one of 14 symptoms reported by the app users that could serve as warning signs.
[The app] tells us that weve got at least 100,000 cases at the moment of people who are infected and this is from our data, although the NHS would underestimate that because theyre not counting all the symptoms. We list about 14 symptoms which we know are related to having a positive swab test, and these are not being picked up by the NHS.
Between 24 and 29 March, data from the app showed that 59% of users who tested positive for Covid-19 experienced loss of smell and taste compared with 18% of those who tested negative. They were three times more likely to have contracted Covid-19 and should self-isolate to reduce the spread of disease, the team said on 1 April.
Spector said 17 other countries including the US had altered their list of symptoms, but not the UK. At the moment, people are being told to go back to work if theyre a care worker, and theyve got something like loss of smell or taste or severe muscle pains or fatigue things that we know and weve shown are related to being swabbed positive, he said.
This country is missing the ball in underestimated cases but also putting people at risk, and continuing the epidemic. So we really do need to tell Public Health England to get in line with the rest of the world, and make people more aware.
Someone has got to urgently ask this question of why were the only country in this crisis that isnt really widening our group of symptoms and get on with it and do something.
Other scientists agreed that the change of guidance was long overdue. The announcement that the CMOs have now recognised smell and taste disturbances is extremely welcome, albeit much later than other European counterparts and at least two weeks after the WHO added it to their list, said Carl Philpott, a professor of rhinology and olfactology at Norwich Medical School, UEA.
The World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on face masks has remained consistent during the coronavirus pandemic. It has stuck to the line that masks are for healthcare workers not the public.
Wearing a medical mask is one of the prevention measures that can limit the spread of certain respiratory viral diseases, including Covid-19. However, the use of a mask alone is insufficient to provide an adequate level of protection, and other measures should also be adopted, the WHO has stated.
Nevertheless, as some countries have eased lockdown conditions, they have been making it mandatory to wear face coverings outside, as a way of trying to inhibit spread of the virus. This is in the belief that the face covering will prevent people who cough and sneeze ejecting the virus any great distance.
There is no robust scientific evidence in the form of trials that ordinary masks block the virus from infecting people who wear them. There is also concerns the public will not understand how to use a mask properly, and may get infected if they come into contact with the virus when they take it off and then touch their faces.
Also underlying the WHOs concerns is the shortage of high-quality protective masks for frontline healthcare workers.
Nevertheless, masks do have a role when used by people who are already infected. It is accepted that they can block transmission to other people. Given that many people with Covid-19 do not show any symptoms for the first days after they are infected, masks clearly have a potential role to play, especially on crowded public transport as people return to work..
Sarah BoseleyHealth editor
This will hopefully now be another measure by which the pandemic can be contained, especially as in some people it may be the only symptom or may precede other symptoms. This is particularly pertinent in healthcare workers where reports of smell and taste disturbances have been commonplace, meaning the transfer of infection from colleagues to each other and to uninfected patients will have been happening unchecked.
Englands deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said the governments new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group (Nervtag) began looking at the data on 27 March.
Van-Tam said the data had been kept under regular review but there were questions as to how significant the symptom was. There are multiple occasions when Nervtag has concluded the data are very preliminary and not the basis for action, he said.
As soon as they felt they had a position, they put it to the chief medical officers group and action has been taken within a few days.
Van-Tam said they did not know how many people experienced this symptom, nor whether it was more common in some groups than others. We have seen some signalling in some of the literature that anosmia may be more frequent in females, he said. There are also suggestions of higher proportions of young people experiencing it.
Prof Spectors estimate was over 50%, but that is certainly not true of all the reports I have read, he said.
The timing of the announcement is significant. As lockdown restrictions in England ease it becomes increasingly important to detect infections as early as possible and track contacts.
Clearly we are moving into a period, thankfully, where we have much lower disease activity in the UK, said Van-Tam. At a time when disease activity is going to be lower, it is going to be even more important to keep it that way by picking up all the cases we can.
He acknowledged that the three symptoms were not the only ones, but said fatigue and muscle pains, for instance, were too common to be included as triggers for tests at this point.
A COVID-19 vaccine candidate has shown it can prompt an immune response in the human body, and was also found to be safe and well-tolerated in a small group of patients.
Moderna, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that manufactured the vaccine, announced the encouraging early results from its phase 1 clinical trial Monday morning. The drug is now being tested in larger studies.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
The phase 1 trial involved 45 people. Results on eight of those participants revealed they developed neutralizing antibodies which are believed to be key in providing protection from the virus at levels seen in patients who've recovered from COVID-19.
"We could not be happier about this interim data," Moderna CEO Stphane Bancel said during a conference call with investors Monday. He said the results indicate the vaccine has a "high probability to provide protection from COVID-19 disease in humans."
The goal of phase 1 trials is to evaluate the safety of a new drug in a small group of participants, not effectiveness. Phase 2 trials study whether a drug works.
In total, 45 study participants each received two doses of the vaccine, about a month apart. Participants were given one of three dosage levels: 25 micrograms, 100 micrograms and 250 micrograms.
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Moderna said those who received the two lower doses developed COVID-19 antibodies about two weeks after the second dose. Final information on the 250 microgram dosing was not available.
The only side effect, the company reported, was redness around the area where people got the shot.
Physicians not involved with the trials expressed optimism based on the study results, even though it's still relatively early in the clinical trial process.
"It's great news to see what appears to be a potentially effective vaccine has been created and appears safe," Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said. What's more, it's promising the antibodies the patients developed were "shown to be effective at limiting the virus's replication in the lab," he added.
Still, many questions remain about the level of protection those antibodies might offer, Dr. Michael Ison, a professor in the division of infectious disease and organ transplantation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said.
It will be important to continue to monitor patients in the study because Moderna is using a kind of vaccine approach, called messenger RNA, that's never been marketed in the United States, he said.
"Overall this looks pretty good," Ison said. "That being said, this is a new kind of vaccine platform, and some of the safety signals may take time to be recognized."
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In earlier mouse studies, the vaccine prevented the virus from reproducing in the animals' lungs.
Moderna, which has partnered with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the trials, is pushing forward with a larger phase 2 study. That phase will also look at the effectiveness of a 50 microgram dose.
The company expects to begin a phase 3 clinical trial as early as July. Phase 3 trials involve a much larger group of participants to confirm results of phases 1 and 2.
Other COVID-19 vaccine candidates are being studied at Oxford University in the United Kingdom and at a company called Inovio, headquartered in Pennsylvania.
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Erika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and "TODAY."
Many traders had a nice weekend as some normalcy crept back into their lives. The return of German soccer, Nascar, and golf provided many households with some fresh entertainment. The start of the trading week was supposed to have some optimism with the global economic recovery, but no one anticipated this Mondays start.
Risk appetite is running wild after Modernas experimental vaccine showed promising early signs to create an immune-system response might be able to fight off COVID-19. Global equities are roaring higher on vaccine hopes combined with continued major economies reopening, and as the Fed continues to promise more stimulus is coming when it is needed.
Tourists from Korea wearing protective masks walk with their belongings while waiting for a flight back to South Korea at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. On Thursday, Israel Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said researchers were developing a vaccine for COVID-19 that could be ready in 90 days.
Tourists from Korea wearing protective masks walk with their belongings while waiting for a flight back to South Korea at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. On Thursday,
Tourists from Korea wearing protective masks walk with their belongings while waiting for a flight back to South Korea at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. On Thursday, Israel Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said researchers were developing a vaccine for COVID-19 that could be ready in 90 days.
Tourists from Korea wearing protective masks walk with their belongings while waiting for a flight back to South Korea at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. On Thursday,
Israel says COVID-19 vaccine is only weeks away
Israel is only weeks away from developing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to its science and technology minister.
The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday that Minister Ofir Akunis said in a press release that the vaccine could be available to patients within 90 days. Akunis credited MIGAL (the Galilee Research Institute) for the breakthrough.
"I am confident there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat," he said.
Israel got a jump on the coronavirus crisis because researchers had already created a vaccine against avian coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV), which affects poultry, according to the Jewish Press. The IBV vaccine has already passed clinical trials at Israel's Veterinary Institute.
By "pure luck," the MIGAL team selected a poultry coronavirus to test their new vaccine technology, which doesn't target any specific virus, according to Dr. Chen Katz, biotechnology group leader at MIGAL. Katz told the Press and Post that after the current COVID-19 virus broke out in China, the researchers studied the new virus and realized it was genetically similar to IBV and that the infection mechanism was the same. They now are confident they can adjust the system to combat COVID-19.
"In a few weeks, if it all works, we would have a vaccine to prevent coronavirus," Katz said.
The new vaccine, which would be orally administered, faces pre-clinical trials and clinical trials before mass production begins. But MIGAL thinks development could be fast-tracked to receive safety approval in 90 days. Akunis reportedly has ordered his ministrys director-general to accelerate the process.
ALSO: UC Davis student shows signs of coronavirus, 2 others isolated
The World Health Organization reported 11 days ago that the earliest that a COVID-19 vaccine could be expected was in 18 months. If the Israeli researchers are successful in developing their vaccine, they would shave more than a year off that estimate.
For more coverage, visit our completecoronavirus section here.
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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate
Experts including the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell believe that a complete economic recovery is only possible once a vaccine against the mysterious and deadly novel coronavirus is discovered. Shares in Moderna (MRNA) are over 20% higher today after the biotech company announced positive data from a Phase 1 study of its COVID-19 vaccine. Two weeks after receiving two doses of 25 microgramsor 100 micrograms each, all participants had levels of binding antibodies at or exceeding that of convalescent sera (blood samples from people who have recovered from the disease).
Moderna's mRNA-1273 is one of six vaccine candidates that have both a reasonable likelihood of clinical success and can be manufactured at scale to be relevant, according to a new report from Morgan Stanley. Analysts looked closely at the 110 candidates that currently exist and decided that the following six organizations/collaborators have the best chance of winning the vaccine race :
Morgan Stanley also predicted timelines and production capacities for each candidate. Novavax (NVAX) is not on the brokerage's list but shares in the company have also been surging since it announced last week that Bill Gates' Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations(CEPI) is investing a total of $388 million to advance the clinical development of its vaccine candidate.
There are 7.7 billion people in the world and experts are hoping more than a single effective vaccine emerges so that demand can be met. "Based on current company commentary, we believe millions of doses of the vaccine could be available in the fall, 10-30M/month by YE20 and 100s of millions per month by mid-2021," said the note. However, bottlenecks, like shortages of medical glass, could slow delivery. AstraZeneca yesterday claimed it will manufacture 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford Uni. for the U.K. this year and 30 million of those by September.
Analysts believe the market for COVID-19 vaccines would be between $10-30 billion during the pandemic and $2-25 billion annually during the endemic phase when mutations, unvaccinated populations or new child birth will drive demand. For this calculation they assumed that 1.8 billion people would be served by Western companies, with India, China and Russia developing their own, and U.S. pricing at $10- 20/treatment, Western Europe at $5-15 and the remaining countries at $5-10.
Amid the American flags, Make America Great Again hats and freedom is essential posters appearing at recent protests against coronavirus lockdowns in Sacramento, Calif., another familiar slogan has materialized: We do not consent. Its long been a popular rallying cry among antivaccine activists, who claim without evidence that vaccines cause autism or other conditions. As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, those activists have become intertwined with demonstrators who want businesses to reopen despite public health experts warnings.
Offline, the anti-vaxxers have done little beyond appear at sparsely-attended but widely-publicized rallies. But online, well-known antivaccine activists like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Del Bigtree have been hard at work sowing doubt about the COVID-19 vaccinea vaccine that does not yet exist, and likely will not exist for many months, if not longer. Yet their efforts seem to be working: approximately one in five Americans have already expressed unwillingness to get an eventual COVID-19 vaccine, according to an April 15 survey undertaken by Matt Motta, an assistant professor of political science at Oklahoma State University, and Kristin Lunz Trujillo, a University of Minnesota graduate student.
If we only saw it at the level of anti-vaxxers online, in very engaged and small communities, but it didnt translate to the public, I would feel a little bit better, says Motta. But the fact that we see approximately one in five Americans expressing a lack of willingness to get the [COVID-19] vaccinethat to me is whats alarming.
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So far, the digital misinformation campaign around COVID-19 has relied upon the techniques of the anti-vaccine movement, including discrediting public health officials, raising concerns about vaccine safety, and making claims that vaccination is primarily profit-driven. Some recent content spreads unsubstantiated claims about public health officials, like longtime National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr. Anthony Fauci, and philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Other material celebrates those advocating for a reopening, or hails people challenging the truth of the virus origins. One notorious, widely-shared example: Plandemic, a slickly-produced pseudo-documentary alleging without evidence that the COVID-19 outbreak was orchestrated by global elites; a book written by a discredited scientist featured in the video now ranks among Amazons best-sellers.
There seems to have been the explicit intent to make it go viral on [digital] platforms, says David Broniatowski, an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at George Washington University. That both increases its reach, but also increases peoples perception that its somehow got some degree of legitimacy, because theyre hearing it from a lot of different sources.
Some U.S. officials are worried that foreign adversaries may be generating or amplifying COVID-19 misinformation, too. Russia, for instance, has been known to amplify local voices that push conspiracy theories, said Lea Gabrielle, special envoy and coordinator of the Global Engagement Center for the U.S. Department of State, during a press briefing on May 6. Theres a high probability that the Russian disinformation ecosystem will act to undermine faith in a COVID vaccine when it becomes available, she added. She has raised concerns about similar potential Chinese efforts as well.
Russia has denied spreading misinformation about COVID-19, according to Russian news agency TASS; China has also pushed back against misinformation accusations. It remains a possibility that foreign governments typically antagonistic towards Washington will decide that a vaccinated America is better for their own nations public health and economic growth.
The scientific community agrees that a vaccine is essential to resuming anything resembling normal life. But on a societal level, vaccines only work if theyre widely adopted. Experts say that 50% to 80% of the public will need immunity before COVID-19 is slowed enough to mostly resume our typical lives. Widespread vaccination can help communities reach that level without the suffering and death that would likely come with letting the virus run its course unabated. But public resistance to vaccination can result in clusters where a viral disease can rapidly spread, as the measles did in a handful of U.S. communities during a 2019 outbreak.
Even if people in certain areas of the country are highly vaccinated, if an infected individual goes to a population where there are more vaccine waivers, then they could easily start an outbreak, says Abram Wagner, a research assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan.
Researchers say that although the anti-vaxxer movement is small, it can have an outsize impact on social media discourse. A study published in Nature last week found that clusters of anti-vaccination tend to become more entwined with clusters of undecided clusters, while pro-vaccination clusters tend to be on the margins.
Wagner is also concerned that people may grow even less willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine in the time it takes for one to become available. During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, he says, people grew more reluctant to get vaccinated over time, possibly because their sense of danger from the outbreak decreased. Im worried that as we progress through this, people might get more and more fatigued, and acceptance [of a vaccine] will decrease, he says. And beyond that, I am also concerned that vaccine hesitancy in general will increase.
Of course, many Americans are anxiously awaiting a vaccine and will line up for one the second its available. President Trump and his administration have so far been working to assure the public that a vaccine will be available quickly (Trumps timeline is more generous than those of public health officials.) But counterintuitively, some experts are worried that the Administrations emphasis on speedy production including dubbing an effort to find vaccines Operation Warp Speed could have the perverse effect of making people more skeptical about the end result for fear the process was rushed, says Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.
The key part is to emphasize that theyre not sacrificing safety, things are not being rushed, that no shortcuts are being taken, and that even though things are accelerated, they built in elements to ensure the safety of the vaccines, says Hotez, whos working on two COVID-19 vaccines. The coronavirus task forces publicizing of unproven treatments, like hydroxychloroquine, may be making people more skeptical about their public health recommendations as well, Hotez adds.
If and when a COVID-19 vaccine is available, health officials will have to overcome whatever public skepticism is generated between now and then, says Brendan Nyhan, professor in the department of government at Dartmouth College. He suggests getting all corners of civil societyfrom religious leaders to politicians and beyondto speak up in support of vaccines. Its a strategy thats worked well in the past: Elvis famously had his picture taken for the papers while getting the polio shot in 1956, for example, and was credited with encouraging teenagers to vaccinate.
I think theres going to be a massive mobilization to encourage people to go get those vaccines, says Nyhan. And when those messages are coming from trusted sources in peoples community, or from groups that people trust or identify with, its going to be more powerful than what the media, or even the President or other public officials, can do alone.
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MN Legislative Session Ends, Special Session Set For JuneMinnesotas legislative session ended with no deal on a billion dollar bonding bill. That issue and other unfinished business will get a second chance in a special session on June 12, Esme Murphy reports ().WCCO 4 News at 5 May 18, 2020
New Safety Protocols Across The Country Amid COVID-19Nearly every state has now loosened restrictions or started reopening businesses. Elise Preston shows us the new safety protocols (2:02).WCCO 4 News at 5 May 18, 2020
Outbreak Of COVID-19 Reported At River Falls, Wis. Apartment ComplexHealth officials in Wisconsin say they've identified a COVID-19 Outbreak at an apartment complex in River Falls, Frank Vascellaro reports (0:21).WCCO 4 News at 5 May 18, 2020
Albany Bar Owner Backs Down On Reopening In Defiance Of Governors OrderSome businesses were allowed to reopen, but not bars and restaurants. And that isn't going over well with a chain of restaurants in Stearns County, Bill Hudson reports (2:10).WCCO 4 News at 5 May 18, 2020
Canterbury Park Owners Looking To Get Creative To Stay AfloatCurbside pre-race betting is one option, but hardly an answer, Mike Max reports (1:38). WCCO 4 News - May 18, 2020
WCCO Evening Digital Update: May 18, 2020Amelia Santaniello has your WCCO Evening Digital Update for May 18, 2020 (1:19).
World News:
Were more than half way through the month of May, and COVID-19 has now infected almost 5 million people worldwide and caused over 317,000 deaths. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has a foothold on 213 countries and territories and is present in all but one continent.
Outside of the US, the countries with the most confirmed cases are:
About 100 countries are backing a resolution at the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA), calling for an independent evaluation into Chinas handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, CNN reported. The European Union-backed resolution has met with an angry response from China, and was called a move that could disrupt international cooperation in fighting the pandemic and goes against peoples shared aspiration.
As Italy begins to reopen after months of being under lockdown, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that the next few months will be very hard. As of Monday, Italy reopened region bars, restaurants, retail stores, hairdressers, and museums after nearly 10 weeks of lockdown.
Conte commented that: We are facing the toughest test since the post-war period. The government is fully aware of this. We are doing everything we can to meet everyones needs even faster, Conte added, referring to the economic stimulus package on which the government is working on to support workers and companies affected by the coronavirus crisis.
Monday, May 18, 2020
There are now over 1.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and over 91,000 deaths to report. Despite the numbers and the fact that only 18 states show a downward trend of cases, virtually all US states have began phased reopenings of their economy. New York, the hardest hit state in the nation, reports 359,847 confirmed cases and 28,326 deaths. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that Western New York is expected to enter the first phase of the states reopening plan on Tuesday. During phase one, regions can reopen construction, retail (for curbside or in-store pickup or drop off), manufacturing, wholesale trade, and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting.
Gov. Cuomo added that New York sports teams should plan to reopen without fans. New York state will help thosemajor sports franchises to dojust that.Hockey, basketball, baseball,football, whoever can reopen.Were a ready, willing and ablepartner, the governor said.
Outside of New York, the US states with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases are:
The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in humans, developed by the company Moderna, is showing early safety and efficacy stimulating an immune response against the respiratory virus, the New York Times reports. The first eight people enrolled in the trial back in March, all healthy volunteers, produced antibodies that were tested on human cells in a lab, and were subsequently able to stop the virus from replicating. Moderna said that it working on an accelerated timetable, with phase two of testing to be begin soon. Phase two will comprise 600 people, while a third phase will be begin in July, and involve 1,000 healthy volunteers.
Apple will that both staff members and patrons wear masks when they reopen the more than 500 stores they closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. They will also require temperature checks at the door, and more frequent deep cleanings. We look at every available piece of data, including local cases, near and long-term trends, and guidance from national and local health officials, said Deirdre OBrien, Apples senior vice president of retail and people, in a statement. These are not decisions we rush into? and a store opening in no way means that we wont take the preventative step of closing it again should local conditions warrant.
Uber will cut another 3,000 jobs, the company said in an email to staffers. The ride-hailing giant initially cut around 3,700 full-time roles on May 2, or roughly 14% of its staff on its customer support and recruiting teams. The lay offs are the result of a reduced volume of ride requests due to the coronavirus pandemic. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also said the company is closing or consolidating around 45 office locations globally.
New York City has identified Almost 150 Children Possibly Suffering from multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday. Given the new federal definition of the syndrome the city expects to update those numbers later this week. Of the 145 affected children, one has died, and 67 have tested positive for COVID-19 or its antibodies.
Friday, May 15, 2020
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
A new model frequently used by the White House is now predicting 147,000 people in the US will die from COVID-19 by August. The prediction comes from the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE).
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Monday, May 11, 2020
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Saturday, May 9, 2020
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Wednesday, May 6, 2020
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Friday, May 1, 2020
The COVID-19 Pandemic: April Round-up
Heres a full wrap-up of COVID-19 happenings from the month of March.
The COVID-19 Pandemic March Round-up: Coronavirus Declared a Pandemic; People, Businesses and Economies Devastated
DocWire News will provide breaking updates on the COVID-19 pandemic as they become available.
