Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

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COVID-19 Daily Update 8-28-2020 – West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

August 29, 2020

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reportsas of 10:00 a.m., on August 28, 2020, there have been 419,401 total confirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 9,824 total cases and 202 deaths.

DHHRhas confirmed the deaths of a 93-year old female fromLogan County, an 82-year old female from Logan County, and a 77-year old malefrom Cabell County. We mourn with all families suffering theloss of loved ones during this horrible pandemic, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHRCabinet Secretary.

CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour(33), Berkeley (788), Boone (134), Braxton (9), Brooke (86), Cabell (509),Calhoun (9), Clay (20), Doddridge (6), Fayette (235), Gilmer (18), Grant (140),Greenbrier (103), Hampshire (91), Hancock (118), Hardy (71), Harrison (262),Jackson (200), Jefferson (347), Kanawha (1,338), Lewis (32), Lincoln (112),Logan (471), Marion (215), Marshall (133), Mason (102), McDowell (71), Mercer(290), Mineral (144), Mingo (229), Monongalia (1,083), Monroe (95), Morgan(37), Nicholas (47), Ohio (289), Pendleton (44), Pleasants (14), Pocahontas(42), Preston (138), Putnam (265), Raleigh (340), Randolph (221), Ritchie (5),Roane (26), Summers (19), Taylor (104), Tucker (11), Tyler (15), Upshur (43),Wayne (242), Webster (7), Wetzel (45), Wirt (7), Wood (305), Wyoming (64).

Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the localhealth department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain countymay not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual inquestion may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of WirtCounty in this report.

Pleasevisit the dashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 8-28-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28: Five things to know about covid-19 in Arkansas – Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

August 29, 2020

As our state deals with the spread of covid-19 in the midst of a global outbreak, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette will publish five things you need to know each week. Well be publishing these round-ups in English, Spanish and Marshallese. You can read our full coverage at nwaonline.com/coronavirus/. Coronavirus coverage pertaining to crucial public health information will be available for all readers.

Arkansas has confirmed 58,745 total cases of covid-19 since the pandemic began, according to data posted Aug. 28. State health officials also have reported 739 total deaths and 52,665 recoveries.

Despite a change in federal recommendations for testing, Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Aug. 26 encouraged Arkansans to get tested if they have been exposed to the virus, even if they dont have symptoms.

After school started for most districts Aug. 24, several reported they had to quarantine staff after exposure to the virus. Hutchinson announced Aug. 26 that the state is sending out 70,000 face shields to schools across the state one for every school employee.

The state on Aug. 22 reported a record number of deaths at 22. In recent days, officials have reported fewer new cases and reduced numbers of tests.

State officials said Aug. 21 that they had completed testing within Arkansas prison system. On Aug. 26, they announced that there were zero positive cases at the Cummins and Ouachita River Correctional units, where there had previously been significant outbreaks.

SPANISH: https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/aug/28/cinco-hechos-importantes-sobre/

Marshallese: https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/aug/28/lalem-men-ko-kwoj-aikuj-jela-kon-covid/

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 28: Five things to know about covid-19 in Arkansas - Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

York County has 37 additional cases linked to COVID-19, one new death – York Dispatch

August 29, 2020

In peak allergy season, sneezing and runny noses are widespread across the U.S. Fortunately, they're not common symptoms of COVID-19, the disease the coronavirus causes. Wochit

York County had 37 new cases of COVID-19 as of noon Friday, pushing the total to 3,269 since the outbreak began, the state Health Department reported.

There was one new death reported in the county, pushing the death toll to 118.

Statewide, there were 835 additional cases of COVID-19, increasing the total to 131,991. There were 20 new deaths in Pennsylvania and the toll now sits at 7,655. Of that, 5,175 have occurred in nursing homes or personal care facilities.

More: Northeastern confirms intermediate school staffer has COVID-19

More: South Western confirms COVID-19 case at high school

More: After first COVID-19 cases, school officials say opening was the right move

This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. (NIAID/TNS)(Photo: NIAID, TNS)

There have been 1,488,835 patients in the state who have tested negative for COVID-19, 45,835 of whom reside in York County.

Nearly 81% of all individuals who have tested positive have recovered, health officials said.

Most of the patients hospitalized are age 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older.

In nursing and personal care homes, there are 20,937 resident cases of COVID-19, and 4,458 cases among employees, for a total of 25,395. Approximately 9,526 of the total cases are in health care workers.

Ron Musselman can be reached at rmusselman@yorkdispatch.com or via Twitter at @ronmusselman8.

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York County has 37 additional cases linked to COVID-19, one new death - York Dispatch

Covid-19 vaccine tracker, Aug 25: China is already vaccinating its people, says report – The Indian Express

August 29, 2020

By: Explained Desk | Pune | Published: August 25, 2020 7:51:02 amResidents wearing masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus walk on a Beijing street on Monday, August 24. (AP Photo: Ng Han Guan)

Coronavirus vaccine tracker: While Russia is facing criticism for approving a novel Coronavirus vaccine without completing all the mandatory tests, it has now emerged that China has already begun injecting its people with a vaccine which is still under development. The vaccine in question, being developed by state-owned Sinopharm, is currently undergoing phase-3 trials in the United Arab Emirates. But senior Chinese health official revealed on state television that it was already being administered to people since July 22 under emergency use authorisation.

A report in The Washington Post said the head of Chinas Coronavirus vaccine development programme, Zheng Zongwei had acknowledged on state television that medical workers and some government workers were being given this vaccine since July 22, and that it was likely to be given to many more people in the coming months.

In order to prevent the disease spread in the fall and winter, we are considering a moderate expansion in the programme The purpose would be to first build and immunity barrier among special groups in the population, Zheng is reported to have said.

This vaccine is different from the one that has been approved for use only on the soldiers of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army. That vaccine, developed b CanSino Biologics in collaboration with Academy of Military Medical Sciences, was approved for limited use in the last week of June. There is no information on the number of people who have already been injected with that vaccine.

Sinopharm vaccine, therefore, is the first vaccine to be authorised for use on general public, though only on special groups right now.

AstraZeneca says no talks with US government for emergency use authorisation of its vaccine ahead of Presidential election

Pharma major AstraZeneca has said it had not held any talks with the United States government on emergency use authorisation for its novel Coronavirus vaccine before the Presidential elections on November 3.

A report in the Financial Times on Sunday had claimed that the Donald Trump administration had decided to grant emergency use authorisation to the AstraZeneca vaccine, being developed in collaboration with the Oxford University, ahead of the elections. Trump is seeking a re-election.

It would be premature to speculate on that possibility, the pharmaceutical company said in a statement, according to a news report in The Politico.

On Saturday, Trump had accused the deep state within the Food and Drug Administration, the drug regulator in the United States, for deliberately delaying the approval to a novel Coronavirus vaccine to sabotage his re-election chances. In the past, he has suggested that it was possible that a vaccine would become a reality before the elections.

Hunt for Coronavirus vaccine: The story so far

(As on August 20; source: WHO Coronavirus vaccine landscape of August 20, 2020)

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Covid-19 vaccine tracker, Aug 25: China is already vaccinating its people, says report - The Indian Express

Are these fast, cheap coronavirus tests the game-changer everyone is waiting for? – CNN

August 29, 2020

The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to another antigen test this week, bringing the total to four.

Compared to the most commonly used type of coronavirus test in the country -- molecular diagnostic tests, also called PCR tests -- antigen tests don't need complicated chemicals, viral transport media or RNA extraction kits. They don't necessarily require appointments at specialized labs, highly trained technicians, or certain machines. And they can provide an answer in minutes, rather than hours or days.

Problems with any one of these critical PCR test components have led to bottlenecks for the entire process since the start of the pandemic, frustrating patients, doctors and public health experts alike.

Antigen tests work a little differently. "The PCR molecular tests actually test for the virus' genetic material and the antigen test is testing for one of the viral proteins, so a piece of the virus," said Dr. Jonathan Quick, managing director for pandemic response, preparedness and prevention at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Dr. Robert Murphy, a professor of infectious diseases at Northwestern University and the executive director of the Institute for Global Health, is a fan.

"The antigen tests are not PCR and can never be as sensitive as one of those, however, they are much faster -- approximately 15 minutes -- and don't require the PCR supply-chain of reagents which is also problematic. The cost is lower because the test is much more simple," he explained.

And unlike the first three antigen tests approved, the newest antigen test to join their growing ranks, BinaxNOW, is "the first COVID-19 diagnostic test that a health care provider can perform without an analyzer, meaning that test results can be read directly from the testing card," according to the FDA.

Abbott, the manufacturer of the test, said in a news release the new test returns a result in 10 minutes. It's about the size of a credit card and will cost around $5. The company said it's planning to ship tens of millions of tests in September, ramping to 50 million tests a month at the beginning of October.

'A disruptive innovation'

When antigen tests finally arrive in great enough numbers on US shores -- which should happen within the next three months, according to the experts -- it could be a turning point in the pandemic for the country, a step on the road back to normalcy.

"Before people go back to work, before they go back to school, before they go to an event, they're going to be able to test themselves," said Murphy. "The tests are going to be cheap. You could do it every day... And it's going to be a game changer."

"We estimate that we need about 5 million tests a week for the continuing lab-based diagnostic [test] and about 25 million a week for asymptomatic surveillance testing. And so it's the antigen test, because they are a low cost, fast, and some of the recent ones highly accurate and convenient. So that combination really is what we need to get the scale we need, and the turnaround," he said.

A question of accuracy

While the antigen tests are not as accurate as the PCR tests, they are getting much better. "There are four on the market as of today," said Murphy, noting that they range in sensitivity -- their ability to identify true positive cases -- between 84% and almost 98% of the time, with three of the four hovering around a respectable 97%.

But to some, giving quick results more than makes up for any shortfall in sensitivity.

"If you wait a week [for your result], you almost might as well not have bothered to do it, because you've infected all these people. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of having the test done. Whereas if you could pick up 80% of the people in 15 minutes, and just keep testing and testing, that will have a bigger public health effect than some really super test that takes one or two weeks to get the results back," said Murphy.

Said Quick, "The first thing you want to do in any pandemic is to find the sick. The other thing you want to do is to keep the rest of the health system open. And when you don't have a fast test to separate who's got the virus and who doesn't, that's when you actually get transmission in health facilities."

He said he's "a little bit dumbfounded" that it has taken the country this long to get these rapid tests, which are in widespread use in countries like South Korea and India. "These recent tests have been game changers. And so we're seeing the power and the potential of innovation," he said, adding that part of pandemic preparation is having these tools ready "to go on the marching path."

Other experts aren't convinced the tradeoff between accuracy and speed is worth it.

"I'm very concerned about the hype over the last 24 hours about a new test from Abbott. It's come out that this particular test is cheap, it's quick and it's effective. Let me just be really clear about this: I would not want to use this test on someone with clinical disease," Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said on CNN Friday.

Osterholm compares it to the rapid flu test, which "achieves about 50 to 70% positivity among those with influenza" and which he doesn't recommend using. "I see no reason why this is going to be different. So, this new heralded testing is a little bit smoke and mirrors," he said. He also notes that only 102 people were sampled in the material Abbot submitted to the FDA to get the EUA.

Osterholm said he's concerned that the country will also see "a big drop in the number of positives" if the test only picks up 50-70% of cases, creating a false rate of infection. "So even that is a challenge this week in how it is being touted in the public," he said.

Ramping up testing

And just over a week ago, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced it was invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA) -- a Cold war-era law that gives the president the emergency authority to direct private companies to prioritize orders from the federal government -- to get fast coronavirus tests from two other suppliers, Becton Dickinson and Quidel, to roughly 14,000 certified nursing home in the US.

"It's about ramping up all the tests... And that's just the first seven of dozens. And so, we expect the testing capacity to increase radically by the end of the year... It's kind of like Operation Warp Speed with the vaccines. It's going like gangbusters," he said.

'Don't use the test to get complacent'

And testing has been trending down a bit. The rolling daily average actually dropped to 611,382 on August 23 from its peak of approximately 822,000 tests on July 29, according to the COVID Tracking project.

The change to the CDC guidelines was quickly denounced by public health experts, who say more, not less, testing is needed.

"As some of you know, the CDC posted on its website recommendations on quarantine, and on testing, that are frankly not scientifically supportable, and this was done apparently at the behest of people in Washington," former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said during a Thursday news briefing.

He called the changes "dangerous."

Quick agreed that surveillance testing is of utmost importance, and antigen testing as at the forefront of that effort. "It's absolutely vital because what it'll do is let us identify those who are carrying the virus -- about 20% are asymptomatic, 30, 40, 50 even in some cases -- so we can get them out of circulation, we can trace their contacts," he said.

Yet despite Quick's enthusiasm about antigen testing, he has one big caveat: "What's really important is that people don't use the test to get complacent, because the tests aren't going to do anything to change the virus," he said. "And so the personal protective habits need to keep up, in terms of masks and handwashing and distancing and avoiding crowded indoor places."

In other words, we may still have miles to go before we reach the land of normalcy.

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Are these fast, cheap coronavirus tests the game-changer everyone is waiting for? - CNN

Meet FDA’s Peter Marks, ‘the single most critical figure in the [Covid-19] vaccine decision’ – The Daily Briefing

August 26, 2020

Peter Marksdirector of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), and likely the most important person at the agency when it comes to approving a coronavirus vaccinelast week said he'll resign if FDA approves a vaccine that's not supported by research.

Radio Advisory episode: Ezekiel Emanuel on the path to a vaccine

According to the Washington Post, Marks started his career intending to become a research biochemist, but, while working part-time as a phlebotomist, he found that he enjoyed working with patients. Marks ended up going to medical school and also getting a PhD in cell and molecular biology.

Eventually, Marks landed at Brigham and Women's Hospital alongside Ned Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute and a former acting FDA commissioner. After leaving Brigham and Women's, Marks worked for Genzyme and Novartis before "return[ing] to academic medicine at" Yale University and becoming the CCO at the university's cancer hospital, the Post reports.

From there, Marks was hired by FDA in 2012 and, in 2016, he became director of CBER. During Marks' tenure at CBER, the center has approved several new treatments, including the first CAR T-cell therapy for advanced cancer and the first Ebola vaccine.

According to the Post, Marks in his current role is the highest-ranking career official involved in the approval of any potential vaccine candidateand if historical precedent holds true, that means Marks, rather than a political appointee, ultimately will be tasked with recommending for or against FDA approval of any potential coronavirus vaccine. (That said, Stephen Hahn, as FDA's current commissioner, typically holds the authority to issue an emergency use authorization for a vaccine, Reuters reports, and the HHS secretary technically could overrule any decision issued by FDA.)

According to Jason Schwartz, an expert on vaccine decision-making at the Yale School of Public Health, Marks' position essentially makes him "the single most critical figure in the [coronavirus] vaccine decision."

In April, Marks proposed what ultimately became known as Operation Warp Speed, which is the Trump administration's initiative to fast-track a vaccine against the new coronavirus. According to the Post, Marks initially was part of the effort, participating as a vaccine expert. However, he ultimately returned to his FDA job. The Post reports that Marks decided to leave his post with Operation Warp Speed after several other experts were recruited to the effort, and he determined that he would be most useful in his regulatory role at CBER.

In June, Marks laid out guidance for coronavirus vaccine developers that stated FDA would approve a coronavirus vaccine candidate only if a clinical study had proven that the candidate is safe and at least 50% more effective than a placebo at preventing coronavirus infection; Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus; or decreasing the severity of the disease. Under Marks' guidance, those requirements apply to full approval by FDA, as well as an emergency use authorization. In addition, FDA has added that officials will publicly consult the agency's expert advisory panel before approving a coronavirus vaccine.

And even after a vaccine is approved, Marks noted that FDA will require the vaccine's manufacturer to monitor for any related safety issues that arise. Further, Marks has cautioned that some questions regarding the vaccine's effectiveness won't be answered right away, such as whether people will need to receive the vaccine on an annual basis or whether the vaccine will remain effective if the novel coronavirus changes genetically.

Amid the ongoing process to develop and approve a coronavirus vaccine, some health experts have expressed concerns that FDA may be placed under political pressure to approve a vaccine as fast as possibleparticularly given the upcoming presidential election.

And Arthur Caplan, director of the medical ethics division at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, pointed out that even if Marks decides not to back a vaccine candidate, his superiors could overrule his decision. "This is not a hypothetical," Caplan said.

However, Hahn in a statement said that Marks and his team will "call the balls and strikes" on a coronavirus vaccine. "There are no circumstances under which the FDA would allow a vaccine to be released for use by the public if it is not shown to be safe," Hahn added.

Similarly, Michael Caputo, assistant secretary for public affairs at HHS, said although the government aims to identify a vaccine that's safe and effective by January 2021, speculation about whether FDA is being pressured to approve a vaccine "only undermines confidence in the public health system." He added, "I've never met one FDA regulator who wouldn't resign over improper pressure, and that's how America knows their seal of approval is the gold standard."

And former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he has confidence that Marks won't buckle to political pressure. "He'd do what he needed to do to secure our public health prerogatives," Gottlieb said.

For his part, Marks during a conference call last week with government officials, pharmaceutical executives, and academics who are part of a vaccine working group formed by NIH said he will resign if FDA approves a vaccine that hasn't been proven to be safe and effective.

Marks later confirmed those statements with Reuters, adding that he hasn't felt any political pressure yet. However, he noted that if that changed, he "could not stand by and see something that was unsafe or ineffective that was being put through."

"You have to decide where your red line is, and that's my red line," Marks said. "I would feel obligated [to resign] because in doing so, I would indicate to the American public that there's something wrong" (McGinley, Washington Post, 8/11; Levine/Taylor, Reuters, 8/20).

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Meet FDA's Peter Marks, 'the single most critical figure in the [Covid-19] vaccine decision' - The Daily Briefing

Covid-19 roundup: European vaccines lobby pushing for liability protection; VBI vaccines to prep human trials – Endpoints News

August 26, 2020

At first glance, you might not be too impressed with the data from Dermavants Phase IIIs for their psoriasis contender tapinarof. The results pale in comparison to the biologics that have been transforming the field.

But Dermavant, a brainchild of biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, isnt about to go toe-to-toe with the heavyweights. Their cream treatment has a distinct commercial plan in place that leaves the most severe cases to the biologics, while positioning itself in the front of the market and quite possibly in combination with some of those blockbusters that have been stealing all the headlines.

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Covid-19 roundup: European vaccines lobby pushing for liability protection; VBI vaccines to prep human trials - Endpoints News

This change in policy will kill: Experts troubled by CDC changes to COVID-19 testing guidelines – USA TODAY

August 26, 2020

At-home testing could transform the fight against the novel coronavirus. USA TODAY

Infectious disease experts are not only confusedbut also troubled by a change in testing guidelines made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said people without symptoms may not need a test even if theyve been exposed to the coronavirus.

Our work on the silent spread underscored the importance of testing people who have been exposed to COVID-19 regardless of symptoms, tweeted Alison Galvani,director for the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis at Yale School of Medicine. This change in policy will kill.

Before changes were made Monday, the CDC website said testing was recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The website now sayssomeone who was in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes but doesnt have symptoms does not necessarily need a test. The agency said exceptions are made for vulnerable individuals, or those who were recommended to take a test by a health care provider or public health official.

The CDC estimates in its COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios that 40% of infections are asymptomatic and 50% of transmissions occur before symptoms appear. Experts worry that failing to test asymptomatic carriers could not only result in more infections but also hinder contact tracing efforts.

If being in close personal contact with an infected person isnt sufficiently important enough to get tested, I dont see that theres any value in contact tracing, said Peter Pitts, president of the nonprofit Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.

A spokespersonat the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told CNN the change wouldnt undermine contact tracing or any other types of surveillance testing.

Rapid testing: Inaccurate results from rapid COVID-19 tests raise concerns about widespread screening

Coronavirus vaccine: Should employers force workers to get COVID-19 vaccine? Some experts say they should

Though Pitts said the change inCDC guidelinesis not permission to do away with testing, hes worried that some may take it that way. He said the agency should encourage more testing.

Dr. Brett Giroir, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, said during a news conference Wednesday that theguidance is meant to encourage more "appropriate testing, not less testing."

"There will be more asymptomatic testing in areas where it's needed and less where it's not needed," he said. "As (the virus)goes down dramatically in certain areas, the need for testing goes down."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised to investigate the change, calling the new guideline "scary and dangerous."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on coronavirus testing "scary and dangerous." (Aug. 26) AP Domestic

It really is very sad and just reinforces the lack of attention and understanding that we have to have in order to crush this virus," she said.

Scientists recommend more testing 3 million a day to identify, track and treat those who are infected, Pelosi said. The country has conducted about 80 million tests total since the pandemic began.

Giroir said the guidelines were reviewed by the Coronavirus Task Force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Stephen Hahn.

"There was no weight on the scale by the president or the vice president or Secretary (Alex) Azar," he said. The guidelines were the product of scientific and medical staff, he said, andthey were"discussed extensively at the task force and everyone approved it."

Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

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This change in policy will kill: Experts troubled by CDC changes to COVID-19 testing guidelines - USA TODAY

More COVID-19 Reinfections Are Being Reported. Here’s Why You Don’t Need to Freak Out – ScienceAlert

August 26, 2020

Just hours afterthe world's first confirmed coronavirus reinfection case was documented in Hong Kong on Monday, researchers reported a woman in Belgium had caught the virus a second time.

So, too, did Dutch virus experts, who announced an older person in the Netherlands as a third confirmed reinfection of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Experts used genetic testing, in which they compare versions of the virus present in the first and second infections, to confirm these reinfections were distinct second cases, and not just lingering effects of the people's first infections.

But just because a few COVID-19 reinfections have started to crop up among more than23.69 million documented coronavirus cases worldwidedoesn't mean that an initial coronavirus infection does nothing to protect people from future illnesses, or that a vaccine won't help stamp out this pandemic.

"I don't want people to be afraid," Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organisation's technical lead for COVID-19, said on Monday whenasked about the Hong Kong reinfection case.

"We need to ensure that people understand that when they are infected, even when they have a mild infection, that they do develop an immune response."

The reinfection case in the Netherlands, diagnosed in an elderly person with a weakened immune system, was confirmed to Business Insider on Tuesday by Erasmus MC, where virologist Marion Koopmans works. (Her data on the case has not been made public yet, and Erasmus cited Dutch privacy laws when asked for details.)

"Just because you've built up antibodies doesn't mean you're immune," Koopmans said, in an interview about the reinfection case with Dutch publicbroadcaster NOS.

But even if a person doesn't develop full immunity to a virus, and gets reinfected, the body seems to remember its previous illnesses. In addition to antibodies, T cells and other components of a person's immune system all work together to better fight back an active infection the second time around.

That seems to be what happened in Belgium, where a woman in her 50s who already had the coronavirus in March was reportedly diagnosed a second time in June.

Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst has not yet made public the data behind his claim either, but said the woman developed very few antibodies after her first infection, and surmised that that may be why she was susceptible to reinfection (though her second case wasmild).

"We would have preferred the time between two infections to have been longer," Van Ranst told Belgian public broadcasterVRT news. "The antibodies from the first time do not help enough to prevent the second infection."

He said more of these seemingly rare reinfection cases will likely continue to pop up in the coming months, as people's immunity to the coronavirus (from their previous infections) wanes.

"Maybe there will be more who will have it a second time after 6 months, or 9 months," he said.

The two European reinfection cases bring the official tally of coronavirus reinfection cases to three, among tens of millions.

Previous reports of 260 reinfections from South Korea in Aprilturned out to be lingering cases of the same infection.One other potential reinfection case was reported in the US in June, and another 3 were flagged in July in France.

But those cases have not been considered confirmed reinfections because less time elapsed between the positive tests, and scientists did not do a genetic sequence of the viruses.

Researchers fromHong Kong University announced Monday that"the world's first documentation of a patient who recovered from COVID-19 but got another episode of COVID-19, afterwards," is forthcoming in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

A 33-year-old, seemingly healthy man who had been sick in March wasdiagnosed with the novel coronavirus a second timeafter travelling back to Hong Kong from Spain earlier this month.

While he had a fever, cough, and headaches during his first COVID-19 illness, the man had no symptoms during his second infection.

Many epidemiologists have anticipated coronavirus reinfections like these could be possible.

"You can get repeatedly infected once your immunity goes down," Florian Krammer, avaccine scientist and virus expertat the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, previously told Business Insider, whenasked about coronavirus immunity.

These three cases, then, aren't a reason to panic. Instead, they show how previous infections can provide people with some decent protection from another coronavirus illness.

"That someone would pop up with a reinfection, it doesn't make me nervous," Koopmanstold Reuters. "We have to see whether it happens often."

Indeed, Krammer predicted (just as these reinfection cases suggest) that a patient's second tangle with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, will generally be less severe than their first: "It's very likely that if you did get reinfected after some time, it would be an attenuated disease," he said.

The same could be true of coronavirus vaccines, once they're developed: even if they don't protect people from infection at 100 percent, vaccines could help our immune systems battle this illness better.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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More COVID-19 Reinfections Are Being Reported. Here's Why You Don't Need to Freak Out - ScienceAlert

COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 26 August – World Economic Forum

August 26, 2020

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now reached more than 23.9 million globally, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of confirmed coronavirus deaths now stands at more than 819,000.

Myanmar has reported its biggest daily rise in new cases - 70. It has reported six deaths and 574 infections since March.

Researchers in Australia hope to launch trials of an antibody therapy early next year. A large-scale trial of a vaccine could start before the end of 2020.

US colleges are grappling with an increase in coronavirus cases as classes resume.

Global confirmed cases

Image: Our World in Data

Around 6% of residents of a German town that was an early COVID-19 hotspot, had antibodies to the virus.

Researchers from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases tested people in Bad Feilnbach, in the south of the country, between 23 June and 4 July. They found 2.6 times more infections that previously reported.

Of those who had antibodies, 14.5% had shown no symptoms. The highest prevalence of the virus was among 18-34 year-olds, at 8%.

The study is part of ongoing research of towns in Germany, and the Institute said it would wait for more results before drawing broader conclusions.

The first global pandemic in more than 100 years, COVID-19 has spread throughout the world at an unprecedented speed. At the time of writing, 4.5 million cases have been confirmed and more than 300,000 people have died due to the virus.

As countries seek to recover, some of the more long-term economic, business, environmental, societal and technological challenges and opportunities are just beginning to become visible.

To help all stakeholders communities, governments, businesses and individuals understand the emerging risks and follow-on effects generated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Marsh and McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group, has launched its COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications - a companion for decision-makers, building on the Forums annual Global Risks Report.

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3. Re-infections in Europe

Two patients - one in Belgium and one in the Netherlands - are confirmed to have been re-infected with coronavirus.

The cases follow a report of re-infection from Hong Kong. The Belgian case saw a woman first contract COVID-19 in March before contracting a different strain in June.

The Dutch case saw an elderly patient contract a different strain.

It is clear there has been a first and a second infection with a substantial quantity of virus. Enough to be able to determine the genetic code of the virus, that is what showed they were indeed different, said Marion Koopmans, a leading virologist in the Netherlands and a member of the World Health Organizations scientific advisory group.

But, she also cautioned that the patient had a weakened immune system, and that she didn't think re-infection was 'standard'.

The World Health Organization, in reference to the Hong Kong case, has also cautioned that more research is needed before conclusions can be drawn.

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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 26 August - World Economic Forum

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