Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

AUSTIN (KXAN) Mental health issues are rising among adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The Journal of the American Medicine says that the latest available data (2018) shows that suicide rates have been rising in the U.S. over the last two decades and that the most recent numbers show the highest age-adjusted suicide rate since 1941.

People who are facing a suicidal crisis or emotional distress can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255. More than 100 local crisis centers are a part of a national network working on this lifeline and are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

While safety measures like social distancing are proven to reduce spread, the CDC says the potential for adverse outcomes on suicide risk is high.

From June 24 to 30, the CDC reports that U.S. adults reported mental health conditions in higher numbers due to COVID-19.

The CDC report shows that 40.9% of adults say theyve had at least one mental health effect, including symptoms of anxiety or depression (30.9%), symptoms of trauma or stressor-related disorder (26.3%), and starting or increasing substance use to cope (13.3%).

Certain populations are more at risk for potential suicidal thoughts, the New England Journal of Medicine says.

These include people who have contracted COVID-19, those with preexisting conditions/immuno-compromised individuals, and those with histories of substances abuse.

Younger people, Latinx and Black populations are the most vulnerable right now, data shows.

The rates of those reported having seriously considered suicide in the 30 days before the June CDC survey are higher among those between ages 18-24 (25.5%), essential workers (21.7%), and minority racial/ethnic groups (18.6% Hispanic, 15.1% non-Hispanic Black).

Another population of concern are the elderly, many of whom find themselves in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities, nation and statewide.

That may not be so easy to pinpoint.

There are concerns around the fact that even before the pandemic, there was a surge in cases across the country, said Karen Ranus, Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. So while we dont have concrete data yet, were fairly confident that with all the added stress job loss, anxiety were likely to see that [increase].

Locally, Integral Care answers calls made to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline within Travis County. Calls are routed to their 24/7 Crisis Helpline. You can also find more information at Texas Suicide Prevention.

Ranus explained that suicide numbers are often delayed, making actual numbers hard to tack down for some time. In fact, the most recent complete numbers for the state of Texas are also from 2018.

As of 2018, Texas ranked 38th in suicide death rates, according to AFSP. On average, one person was reported as having died by suicide every two hours.

According to Health and Human Services in 2019, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Texans ages 15 to 34 and is also the fourth-leading cause of death for Texans ages 35 to 44.

An April study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Suicide Mortality and Coronavirus Disease 2019 A Perfect Storm? echoed Ranus statements about suicide rates being on the rise.

The studys authors, several psychiatric doctors, explain that many of the measures we currently use to protect ourselves from COVID-19 infection can easily contribute to an increase in depression and suicidal thoughts.

These factors include:

In Georgetown, Capt. Roland Waits says that while he cant say that there has been a surge in suicide calls specifically, there does seem to be surge in mental health calls overall.

It certainly feels theres an increase in mental health calls across the board, said Waits. Id be leery to call them suicide calls, but we do seem to be fielding more mental health ones.

Texas Suicide Prevention says knowing the signs can be the first step in saving someones life.

According to TSP, these are the 10 Warning Signs of Suicide:

Additionally, Texas Suicide Prevention says asking a friend or family directly if theyve ever thought of suicide lets them know you take their situation seriously and want to help.

If someone tells you they have contemplated suicide, you should evaluate the level of risk based on various circumstances, for instance whether theyve planned doing it, if theyve made previous attempts, availability of means of suicide, substance abuse history, and more.

If it seems likely that someone could act on their suicidal thoughts, you should stay with them and try to get them to agree to get help immediately. If danger is imminent, you should call 911 for a mental health deputy.

While only future data will be able to explain the correlation between the pandemic and possible suicide spikes, its clear that COVID-19 has adversely affected mental health for many worldwide. If you are facing a suicidal crisis or emotional distress, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255.

See the original post:

Are suicides on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic? - KTSM 9 News

President Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear that he thinks a Covid-19 vaccine would improve his electoral prospects, saying that a vaccine could be ready as soon as November 3 Election Day.

The Food and Drug Administration approving a vaccine by then would certainly be a monumental October surprise, one that could help speed the pandemics end and may give Trump a much-needed boost.

But as fast as vaccine development is proceeding, such a deadline is likely out of the question, according to researchers. Large-scale clinical trials for vaccines have only just started, and it will likely take months before they yield any useful information.

And although theres currently no evidence that the White House is meddling in vaccine research, some scientists still worry that the presidents public pronouncements about a vaccine especially ones so nakedly tied to his political prospects could undermine the fragile public confidence needed to deploy it successfully. If there is a perception that a Covid-19 vaccine was rushed, it could make people hesitant to get vaccinated.

[Trump has] created enough perception of political interference that there may not be deep trust in a vaccine, even if its a good product, said Nicole Lurie, who led emergency preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Barack Obama. There is incredible public skepticism of the FDA because of whats happened with prior emergency use authorizations, and because the president appears to continue to try to mess with the system.

In March, after the president repeatedly promoted the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for the medicine, despite scant evidence of its effectiveness. In June, the FDA revoked this authorization.

However, according to researchers, its unlikely the FDA would do something similar for a vaccine, given the vastly higher stakes. Even getting to the point of considering emergency use for a vaccine would require vastly more information than we have now, and gathering that data requires several critical and time-consuming steps. A Covid-19 vaccine may yet be ready in record time, but its chances of that happening before the November election are miniscule.

Prior to the coronavirus, the fastest a vaccine had ever been developed was four years (for the mumps). Most vaccines have taken a decade or longer.

But with the global Covid-19 pandemic, scientists and governments have poured an unprecedented amount of money and know-how into the vaccine effort. Thats led to rapid progress.

It took researchers just over two months between the time the viruss genome was sequenced to when Phase I human vaccine trials began. There are now 10 vaccine candidates in Phase III clinical trials, the final step before a vaccine gets the green light for widespread use.

Thats why some scientists are optimistic that a vaccine could gain approval by the end of the year or early 2021.

But Phase III trials are slow and tedious. Theres little that can be done to speed them up, and theyve only just begun. Although the Russian government recently said it has a Covid-19 vaccine ready to go, other researchers have warned that the vaccine, known as Sputnik V, didnt go through this critical step and was tested in only 76 people. And even if it is a viable vaccine, it would still need to gain FDA approval before it could be used in the US, which demands more data.

Jonathan Zenilman, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who has overseen clinical trials for vaccines, explained that Covid-19 Phase III trials are large, aiming to enroll 30,000 participants each. For example, Moderna, a company developing an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, is one of the teams thats furthest along. It was the first in the US to start enrolling participants for its Phase III trial, across 89 sites.

Phase III requires recruiting participants from more diverse backgrounds compared with those in earlier testing stages in order to better represent the population at large, including people with some preexisting health conditions. (Participants are screened to ensure that they dont have conditions like immune system disorders that could cause complications with a vaccine.)

These participants also have to consent to being tracked by scientists for the duration of the trial, which is typically two years. Theyre then randomly split into groups that receive either the actual vaccine or a placebo. In a double-blind trial, neither the recipients nor the people administering the vaccine know at the outset who received the actual vaccine. That ensures participants wont change their behavior in a way that could interfere with the trial (a person who knows they have a Covid-19 vaccine could end up taking more risks, for example).

Finding tens of thousands of people who meet all of these requirements for a Phase III trial is tedious. Simply enrolling enough people is a process that can take months.

Although some Covid-19 vaccine Phase III trials began in July, none have completed the enrollment process. Moderna said it expects to finish enrolling participants in September.

After getting consent from volunteers and enrolling them in the trial, you have to give them the vaccine. Many Covid-19 vaccine candidates require two doses spaced up to four weeks apart, so just getting someone the full vaccine dose can take around a month. For most of the vaccine candidates in Phase III trials, that would take them well into, if not past, October.

Then you have to wait for people to get Covid, and you cant do anything with the data until you have a certain number of Covid cases, Zenilman said. To get a statistically meaningful result, researchers typically wait until they see around 150 infections in their group. At that point, they can break the blind and see who got the vaccine and who got the placebo and compare the numbers to see whether its working.

Right now, many places in the US are still maintaining pandemic control measures such as social distancing and mask-wearing. Such tactics help control the spread of the virus, but for a vaccine trial, they also limit how quickly research teams can get the data necessary to draw conclusions of whether the vaccine is working. Thats why researchers are aiming to test their vaccines in rising Covid-19 hot spots.

Of course, there is no guarantee that any vaccine will clear clinical trials. And the first vaccine to gain approval would not be available for widespread use right away. Health officials have to contend with the logistics of manufacturing, distributing, and administering the millions of doses needed to control the Covid-19 pandemic, which could take years.

Its also likely that no single vaccine will be suited for everyone. Several vaccines will be needed to protect different demographics, including older people, those with weaker immune systems, or those with certain preexisting health conditions. So even after the first Covid-19 vaccine gets approved, some people will still have to wait for other clinical trials to conclude.

FDA regulators are adamant that a vaccine will not be approved until it is demonstrated to be safe and effective. According to FDA guidelines, a vaccine needs to provide protection against the coronavirus for at least 50 percent of the people who get it. The safety benchmarks are higher for vaccines than for other drugs because vaccines are given to vastly more people, which magnifies infrequent problems. And since vaccines are given to healthy people rather than those who are already sick, there is a lower tolerance for side effects.

But at the same time, the HHS launched the $10 billion Operation Warp Speed in June with the explicit aim of delivering 300 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine by January 2021.

In an August 7 editorial in JAMA, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn acknowledged the tension between the need for speed and the need to hew closely to established rules.

Hahn and his coauthors Anand Shah and Peter Marks wrote that the emphasis on speed has provoked public anxiety about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines developed on expedited timelines. Among the concerns are that the regulatory standards for approval will be lowered under political pressure for a vaccine.

However, Hahn and his coauthors also wrote that there is a line separating the governments efforts to focus resources and funding to scale vaccine development from FDAs review processes. In other words, the FDA says it will not compromise its standards for approving a vaccine, despite pressure for faster results.

But what about the emergency use authorization (EUA) process? Could the FDA create a limited exception for a vaccine like it did with hydroxychloroquine?

Peter Marks, the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA (the body that governs vaccine approval), said the agency could do that, in theory. But as with the agencys standard process, the rubric is stricter for a vaccine than for a drug, and regulators would still need to see data demonstrating that a vaccine meets the minimum benchmark of preventing infection in 50 percent of people who have been vaccinated.

I think as we think about EUA here, the calculus for a vaccine is going to be different than the calculus for therapeutic, Marks told reporters at the National Press Foundation on August 12. I think we ... optimally would like to see the data thats from a trial thats reached its efficacy endpoint.

That would come near the end of a Phase III trial, which, again, is unlikely to yield results for months. So there may not be enough evidence to warrant vaccine approval before the November election, even on an emergency basis.

And if there were political meddling to push out a vaccine before its ready, in spite of all these constraints, there would be strong opposition among the career scientists at the FDA. I think you would see a revolt at the agency, Zenilman said.

A vaccine cant end the Covid-19 pandemic on its own. It has to be given to enough people to achieve herd immunity, at which point a large enough percentage of a population is protected against the virus so that it cant easily spread.

Even in the most ideal scenario with a highly effective vaccine, getting to herd immunity would require immunizing millions of people. And already, many in the United States are saying they wouldnt get vaccinated. A Gallup poll conducted July 20 to August 7 found that one-third of Americans said they would not get an approved Covid-19 vaccine if it were ready immediately. A CNN poll conducted August 12-15 found that 56 percent of Americans said they would get a vaccine, a decline from 66 percent in May.

Whether due to general hesitancy around vaccines or swirling conspiracy theories, public health researchers are concerned that if enough people dont elect to get immunized, the Covid-19 pandemic will persist.

Thats why even the appearance that political considerations influenced vaccine approval could be dangerous.

The perception of political pressure and the perception of things being hurried really risks trust, said Jesse Goodman, a former chief scientist at the FDA whos now a professor of medicine at Georgetown University. Its not just trust in this Covid vaccine, but trust in the whole public health response to Covid and trust in vaccines in general.

Restoring that trust will take time. It will require transparency about the progress and results of clinical trials, as well as how decisions are made in federal agencies. It will also demand clear and coherent messaging.

But even that might not be enough.

Personally, I think it will take a new president and new leadership at the top of the FDA before were going to be at a point where the public can start to have more trust, said Lurie.

Which means that even with the urgency of thousands of people dying, taking the time to get a vaccine right is critical from the vaccine itself to how its tested, documented, communicated, and administered. Rushing will likely only cost us more time.

Will you become our 20,000th supporter? When the economy took a downturn in the spring and we started asking readers for financial contributions, we werent sure how it would go. Today, were humbled to say that nearly 20,000 people have chipped in. The reason is both lovely and surprising: Readers told us that they contribute both because they value explanation and because they value that other people can access it, too. We have always believed that explanatory journalism is vital for a functioning democracy. Thats never been more important than today, during a public health crisis, racial justice protests, a recession, and a presidential election. But our distinctive explanatory journalism is expensive, and advertising alone wont let us keep creating it at the quality and volume this moment requires. Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation, but it will help keep Vox free for all. Contribute today from as little as $3.

More here:

Coronavirus vaccine: Why its unlikely well have one before Election Day - Vox.com

You can work from home without feeling so isolated. Here are some great ways to stay connected with your team. USA TODAY

Florida, one of the hardest hit states from the coronavirus, just registered its 10,000th death due to COVID-19.

It came after the state recorded 174 new deaths Wednesday, giving it a total that's fifth highest among states around the country. It has recorded more than 584,000 cases of COVID-19 so far.

The virus, meanwhile, continues to play havoc with colleges' attempts to reopen classes.

A day after officials at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill decided to pivot to online classes afterat least four clusters of outbreaks in student living spaces, North Carolina State University reported its firstcluster of positive cases in off-campus housing.Also Tuesday, the University of Notre Dame said it was movingto online classes for two weeks in hopes that infections won't surge.

And sports fans who thought they could get a break from the coronavirus fallout can't catch a break: new NFL rules will keep mascots and cheerleaders -- as well as sideline reporters -- off the field.

Some significant developments:

Today's numbers:The U.S. has 5.4million confirmed infections and more than 171,000 deaths. Worldwide, there have been more than 781,000deaths and 22.1 million cases, according toJohn Hopkins University data.

What we're reading:Wearing a mask inpublic restrooms should be mandatory during thepandemic, researchers say, because there'sincreasing evidence that flushingtoilets and now urinals can release inhalable coronavirus particles into the air.

This file will be updated throughout the day. For updates in your inbox,subscribe to the Daily Briefing.

Tourists visiting The Strip could befueling the pandemic,according to a ProPublica investigation. An analysis of smartphone data during four days,a Friday to Monday in mid-July,revealed how most of theU.S.is connected to Las Vegas a likely hot spot of COVID-19 spread.

During that time frame, about 26,000 devices were identified on The Strip, according to data mined by the companiesX-ModeandTectonix. Some of those smartphones thentraveled to every state on the mainland except Maine.

Heres a look at where those devices ended up during thosesame four days, according to Propublica:

The cellphone analysis highlights a reason the virus keeps spreading and shows how travel to Las Vegas could be fueling the pandemic, according to health officials.

Ed Komenda, Reno Gazette Journal

Just 48 hours after saying a COVID-19 outbreak on campuswouldn't affect plans to play football this fall, the University of North Carolina has suspended all athletic activities through at least Thursday afternoon. In addition, all recreational facilities on the Chapel Hill campus willbe closed to students, coaches and staff.

"After consulting with our health experts and University leadership, we are taking this action to protect our students, coaches and staff,''UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham said. "We want to make sure we continue to do everything we can to ensure that that our teams, campus and community remain healthy.''

The school welcomed students back to campus for in-person classes last week, butafter at least four clusters of COVID-19 outbreaks,university officials reversed course and moved all classes online.

Steve Gardner

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defended his administrations handling of the coronavirus pandemic in fiery remarks Wednesday after a report from the White House coronavirus task force said Georgia led the nation last week in new cases per capita.

The White House report, dated Aug. 16, recommends several steps to curb the virus that Kemp has declined to take, including closing bars and issuing mask mandates in counties with 50 or more active cases.

Kemp was among the first governors to ease earlier restrictions this spring, and while infections declined for weeks afterwards, they began to rise in June and peaked in late July.

First reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the report says Georgias small gains are fragile and statewide progress will require continued, expanded, and stronger mitigation efforts, including in all open schools.

Kemp insisted Wednesday that other markers hes watching paint a different picture.

Associated Press

Puerto Ricos governor announced Wednesday that she will place the U.S. territory on a 24-hour lockdown every Sunday as part of stricter measures to fight a spike in coronavirus cases.

Gyms, theaters and bars will remain closed and only restaurants with outdoor areas will be allowed to seat people, but at 25% capacity. Gov. Wanda Vzquez said violators will be shut down for a month.

In addition, beaches will remain open only to those doing exercise such as runners and surfers, and businesses, malls and banks will be allowed to operate at only 25% capacity.

The new measures go into effect Saturday and will remain in place until Sept. 11. Face masks remain mandatory.

We have to adjust to living in a new reality, Vzquez said, blaming the jump in cases on careless people.

Associated Press

Cheerleaders and mascots will not be allowed to be on the field during NFL games this season.

The league-wide policy was part of new protocols unveiled Wednesday in conjunction with the NFL Players Association, a person familiar with the decision told USA TODAY Sports' Jarrett Bell. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Previously, some of these decisions were being left to individual teams.

Sideline reporters and pregame panelists also will not be allowed on the field level, per the agreement.

Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz

A new study casts doubt on whether a virus can be transmitted by breast milk.

The study found only one of 64 samples of breast milk from 18 women in the U.S. who had become infected with the virustested positive. Further tests found that the virus couldn't replicate, making it unable to potentially infect a breast-fed infant.

The study by was conducted jointly by researchers at the University of California campuses in San Diego and Los Angeles and the results were published Wednesday in the online edition of the medical journal JAMA.

We hope our results and future studies will give women the reassurance needed for them to breastfeed. Human milk provides invaluable benefits to mom and baby, said Dr. Grace Aldrovandi, co-principal investigator of the study and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UCLA Mattel Childrens Hospital.

Chinese government officials were involved in a coverup about the coronavirus, but not at the national level, says a U.S. intelligence report obtained by the New York Times.

Officials in the Wuhan and Hubei provinces in central China, where the virus first appeared, attempted to keep China's central leadership in Beijing from knowing key information about the early outbreak, concludes the report compiled by several U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA. Local officials feared reprisal from the central government.

The report, prepared in June with a mix of classified and unclassified data, backs the overall view that Communist Party officials hid important information from the World Heath Organization even as they sought to get details on the outbreak themselves from recalcitrant local officials.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused China of a coverup, alleging the virus could have been stopped much faster if it had been more forthcoming.

Deaths in Florida from the coronavirus surpassed 10,000, while teachers and state officials argued in court over whether in-person schools should reopen this month.

Florida reported 174 deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total confirmed deaths to at least 10,067 the fifth-highest death toll in the nation. The state reported an additional 4,115 confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 584,047. The positivity rate for coronavirus testing in Florida has averaged about 11.4% during the past week.

There were 5,351 patients being treated for the disease in Florida hospitals on Wednesday, down from peaks above 9,500 patients in late July.

Meanwhile, Floridas largest teachers union is seeking an injunction from a judge in Tallahassee to stop schools from reopening by this Friday.

Associated Press

Dreamed of actually snagging tickets to screenings at a major film festival? Because of the coronavirus pandemic, you make be able to see the films from your living room.

The festivals are where critics and insiders get early peeks at movies either slated for theaters or those hoping to receive the kind of breakout attention that will get them there. Because of the virus, the festivals have gone virtual streamed to living rooms.

The New York Film Festival is kicking off Sept. 25 with an opening night featuring Steve McQueens Lovers Rock, and will premiere two other of the Black filmmakers works, Mangrove and Red, White and Blue, part of the same anthology. Also on tap: Chloe Zhaos anticipated Nomadland with Frances McDormand, Sam Pollards documentary MLK/FBI, and the documentary Time, about a woman trying to get her husband released from his 60-year prison sentence.

Jeff Friday, founder of the American Black Film Festival, which runs through Aug. 30, has already seen the positives of making the move to virtual. Usually, 10,000 film fans show up for his annual June event in Miami; this year, he's predicting 200,000 people interested in streaming more than 90 films celebrating Black cinema, as well as panel discussions featuring Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins, Candyman director Nia DaCosta, Mary J. Blige, Lena Waithe and Gabrielle Union.

Brian Truitt

Bars that cater to members of the LGBTQ community are not just bars: they serve as community hubs and safe spaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer folks.So when they had to shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March, those spaces were lost. Fighting back, some have launched crowdfunding campaigns to stay afloat until they are full back in business.

The owner of Harlem's Alibi Lounge, one of the only Black-owned LGBTQ bars in New York City, unveiled a campaign in May that has raised more than $166,000 and counting.

Julius Bar part of the National Register of Historic Places, the oldest gay bar in New York City and one of the oldest continually operating bars in the city overall has raised more than $97,000 via a GoFundMe campaign since early July.Its Greenwich Village neighbor, the Stonewall Inn, has raised more than $320,000 on the platform.

When, all of a sudden, a pandemic like COVID-19 tells you that you have to isolate, that you have to stay home and if you go to a bar, you go to a restaurant, you could be at a high risk to be exposed to the virus, it makes people not even think twice," said Alibi Lounge owner Alexi Minko. "They decide, Well, in that case I am not going to a bar, Im not going to a restaurant until I know that its safer.

Alex Biese, Asbury Park Press

Many furloughed workers were not being immediately called to report back to duty, a new study finds.In an analysis of its small business clients, payroll service Gusto found that only 37% of workers who were initially furloughed in March and 47% of those who were furloughed in April had returned to their jobs by July. Furthermore, among those furloughed in March who were able to go back to work, nearly 25% had their wages reduced.

Furloughed workers are counted as unemployed when determining the jobless rate, which means the fate of those still in limbo could drive unemployment up or down in the coming months.

Since April, the jobless rate has slowly declined, but if a large number of furloughed workers are able to return to their employers, we could see those numbers drop even more. That would spell good news for an economy that's stuck in a recession. On the other hand, a large chunk of furloughed workers could be permanently laid off in the coming months, too.

Maurie Backman, The Motley Fool

Pharmacists in all 50 states are now allowed to give childhood vaccinations under a new directive aimed at preventing future outbreaks of measles and other preventable diseases.

Alex Azar, the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, took the step using emergency powers he has during the coronavirus epidemic, which was declared a public health emergency.The directive announced Wednesday will temporarily preempt restrictions in 22 states starting this fall.

The move is designed to help prevent vaccination rates from falling during the pandemic, Azar said.

Separately, Massachusetts officials announced Wednesday that they will require flu vaccinations for all students, from child care to college. The vaccinations are required by Dec.31. Home-schooled students and those who are studying entirely remotely are exempted.

Associated Press

The New York Police Department announced its created a task force specifically to deal with a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.

There have been 21 reported anti-Asian hate crimes leading to 17 arrests since March around the time the pandemic intensified in the United States, whichChief of Detectives Rodney Harrison told reporters is higher than normal Tuesday.

"Thisincrease was cultivated due to the anti-Asian rhetoric about the virus that was publicized and individuals began to attack Asian New Yorkers either verbal attack or physical assault," Harrison said. "We saw a spike in every borough throughout the city."

N'dea Yancey-Bragg

A patron who spent hours inside a bar during the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota, which ended last Sunday, has tested positive for COVID-19, health officials confirmed.

The person spent nearly six hours atOne-Eyed Jacks Saloon on Aug. 11. State officials are encouraging anyone at the bar to monitor themselves for any symptoms of the coronavirus.

The 2020 Rally drew more than 460,000 vehicles during the 10-day event, according to a count South Dakota transportation officials released Tuesday. The event was scaled down, but face coverings were not required during the event.

Michael Klinski, Sioux Falls Argus Leader

Pope Francis on Wednesday cautioned against prioritizing future coronavirus vaccines based on wealth. Deviating fromhis plannedweekly public address, he said that "we must come out better" from the COVID-19 pandemic.

How sad it would be if for the COVID-19 vaccine priority is given to the richest," he said. The pandemic has laid bare the difficult situation of the poor and the great inequality that reigns in the world."

The pontiff added that the vaccine should be "universal and for all," rather than "the property of this nation or another," not naming any countries in particular.

At least two dozen Maine residents tested positive for COVID-19 after a wedding reception in rural Maine the states first outbreak linked to a social gathering.

About 65 people attended theindoor event at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket, said Maine CDC spokesman Robert Long. About 18 people in attendance and around 10others who came into contact with attendees all tested positive, according to WABI-TV in Bangor, Maine.

The owner of the Big Moose Inn could face a $10,000 fine if the state's executive orders limiting group gatherings to 50 were violated, officials said.

R-0 may be the most important scientific term youve never heard of when it comes to stopping the coronavirus pandemic. USA TODAY

During the pandemic, people are talking a lot about children missing classes, graduations and proms. What has received far less attention, child development experts say, is the impact the pandemic is having on the youngest children: babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners.

Birth to age five is a critical time for child development, research shows, and new data from the Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development Early Childhood Household Survey Project (RAPID-EC Project) shows caregiver distress is cascading down to young children in ways science shows can be toxic in the short- and long-term.

The project has been conducting weekly surveys since April and has found caregivers of young children are experiencing distress, material hardship and loss of emotional supports. Since the project's data is sequential, it also is able to show a chain reaction. When a family is stressed about meeting basic needs, the next week they report more emotional distress, and the week after report increases in their child's emotional distress.

"if you can't buy food or you can't pay your rent, that you are experiencing the kind of stress that is going to be toxic to your children,"said RAPID project director Phil Fisher.

Alia E. Dastagir

Nearly 80 teachers in Utah's Salt Lake County have resigned or retired as in-person classes are set to resume at schools this year, the Salt Late Tribune reported.

The Tribune tallied 79 teachers who left their posts due to concerns about COVID-19. At least 16 of the resignations came in the last week, the newspaper reported.

Salt Lake County has the highest number of virus cases in the state, and teachers leaving the classroom told the newspaper that they'd rather resign or retire now than return in the fall, risking their own health or the health of their students.

Were just being told to jump in like nothing is wrong, Jan Roberts, a teacher of32 years who just retired, told the Tribune. Its not OK.

Health officials have identified a COVID-19 cluster at another North Carolina university.

A statement from North Carolina State University confirmed on Tuesday that Wake County health officials identified of COVID-19 cases at off-campus housing east of the Raleigh, North Carolina, campus.

The school said several people who have tested positive as part of this cluster have been identified, including some who are N.C. State students. Contact tracing has been initiated with direct communication to anyone known to have been in close contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the school.

The school said reports indicated a party or some type of gathering was hosted at the location on or around Aug. 6. The notice said it was not known how many people were at the gathering, but encouraged anyone who attended to visit their personal healthcare provider or Student Health Services.

Switching from in-person to online schooling has been hard on many families and on their budgets.

About one-quarter of parents say theyve gone into debt to pay for their kids at-home school expenses, and many blame the cost of their kids breakfasts and lunches when they switched to learning remotely from home.

A survey from Credit Karma examines how this school year could affect household finances. More than half of parents say they expect to spend slightly to significantly more on school supplies, the survey of more than 1,000 parents found.

The reasons for the debt are higher grocery prices and the sudden switch to at-home schooling in March.

Continue reading here:

Coronavirus updates: University of North Carolina temporarily suspends fall sports; Pope warns against the rich getting vaccine first - USA TODAY

Secured additional funding for Covid-19 testing and back-up drug discovery

LEIDEN, Netherlands, Aug. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hercules Pharmaceuticals, a Dutch biopharmaceutical company focusing on developing small molecule inhibitors of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) for treatment of cancer and viral infections, today announced the publication of promising preclinical in-vivo trial results, showing efficacy of its Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) inhibitor HP163 against Zika virus infection and potentially against Corona-virus infection. On top of this, the company secured new funding to test the efficacy of the compound against Covid-19 and to generate back-up AhR inhibitors.

A recent publication in Nature Neurosciencereported that Hercules' AhR inhibitor HP163 reduces viral replication in animals infected with Zika-virus and reduced microencephaly. In-vitro studies also showed efficacy of AhR inhibitors against Dengue, a related virus.

In addition, a pre-publication of an article onResearch Squareconcludes that AhR inhibition may also be effective against Covid-19 and other corona virus infections via a similar mechanism.

It was found that virus infection triggers AHR activation, limiting the production of type I interferons (IFN-I), involved in antiviral immunity. Moreover, AHR activation suppressed intrinsic anti-viral immunity driven by the promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein, resulting in increased viral replication. AHR inhibition with Hercules' HP163 blocked Zika virus replication and ameliorated newborn microcephaly in a murine model.

Successful development of AhR inhibitors could lead to oral treatment of patients with early stages of virus infection.

New funding by Pharma Connect Capital

Hercules will further investigate the potential of its AhR-inhibitors for treatment of Covid-19 infections and will generate additional novel AhR inhibitors for both anti-viral and cancer treatment. To fund this program, Hercules has received an investment from Groningen based Pharma Connect Capital and a grant from SNN (Samenwerkingsverband Noord Nederland). As part of the investment, Hercules will relocate to Groningen.

Bart Wuurman, CEO of Hercules Pharmaceuticals, comments:

"We are excited by the novel finding that the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor acts as a host factor for viral infections to allow viral replication. A remedy is urgently needed to treat zika and dengue infection, but mentioned studies also suggest that AhR inhibitors might be an effective oral treatment of patients with Covid-19, the virus which is holding our daily life hostage at this moment."

About Zika and Dengue

Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes and is related to dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile viruses. Zika can spread from a pregnant woman to her baby. This can result in microcephaly, severe brain malformations, and other birth defects.

Dengue fever is also a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash. In some cases, the disease develops into severe dengue, also known as dengue hemorrhagic fever, or into dengue shock syndrome. About 390million people are infected each year and approximately 40,000 die.

About Hercules Pharmaceuticals

Hercules Pharmaceuticals is a Dutch private biopharmaceutical company, focusing on developing small molecule inhibitors of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) for treatment of cancer and viral infections. AhR-inhibitors are known for enhancing anti-cancer immunity in the tumor microenvironment, and several AhR inhibitors are in clinical development for treatment of solid tumors. Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Hercules, Professor David Sherr is a key opinion leader in immunology related to the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor, based in Boston.

About Pharma Connect Capital

Pharma Connect Capital B.V. (www.pharmaconnectcapital.com) is an investment fund that finances early stage drug development. The fund is an initiative of Investerings Fonds Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen and the Noordelijke Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (NOM) and was launched in October 2017.

Contact:For more informationBart Wuurman, CEO bart.wuurman@hercules-pharma.nlGalileiweg 8, 3222BD Leiden, The NetherlandsMob: +31-64-66-23-735www.hercules-pharma.nl

LifeSpring Life Sciences Communication, Amsterdam, the NetherlandsLeon MelensT: +31-6-538-16-427E: lmelens@lifespring.nl

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hercules-ahr-inhibitor-hp163-blocks-viral-replication-in-zika-infection-and-potentially-in-covid-19-301115210.html

SOURCE Hercules Pharmaceuticals

Here is the original post:

Hercules' AhR inhibitor HP163 blocks viral replication in Zika infection and potentially in Covid-19 - Yahoo Finance

MADISON, Wis. (AP) With more positive coronavirus cases in Wisconsin linked to parties and other gatherings, state health officials on Wednesday released a new tool that people can use to measure risk levels of different activities.

Positive COVID-19 cases tied to mass gatherings grew from 7% of cases in May to 21% in June and 20% in July, the state Department of Health Services said. Overall, nearly 67,500 people have tested positive in Wisconsin with 1,060 deaths.

That death count is the 28th highest in the country overall and the 37th highest per capita at 18 deaths per 100,000 people. Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has decreased by 209, a decrease of 25%. There were 174 new cases per 100,000 people in Wisconsin over the past two weeks, which ranks 24th in the country for new cases per capita.

The tool unveiled Wednesday allows people to answer a series of questions to determine the risk of certain behaviors, like who will be gathering, where will people be getting together and how widespread is COVID-19 in the area.

The state health department also released guidelines for school districts to follow in preventing, investigation and controlling COVID-19 outbreaks. The guidelines include instructions for school staff in identifying cases and close contacts among students as well as best practices for isolation and quarantine of infected students and staff.

Like Loading...

Related

Continued here:

New COVID-19 guidance issued for Wisconsin schools, people - wausaupilotandreview.com

Last week, Russia became the first country in the world to license a coronavirus vaccine when President Vladimir Putin announced its approval. But the vaccine has not yet passed the advanced trials normally required to prove it works before being licensed, a major breach of scientific protocol.

Here is the original post:

Teachers could stay in classroom if exposed to COVID-19 - WMBF

What the immune response to COVID-19 says about the prospects for a vaccine.  Nature.com

See the rest here:

What the immune response to COVID-19 says about the prospects for a vaccine. - Nature.com

The West Virginia Department of Health andHuman Resources (DHHR) reportsas of 10:00 a.m., on August 17, 2020, there have been 360,669 total confirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 8,632 total cases and 160 deaths.

CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour (33), Berkeley (738), Boone(120), Braxton (8), Brooke (77), Cabell (459), Calhoun (7), Clay (18),Doddridge (6), Fayette (168), Gilmer (18), Grant (131), Greenbrier (96),Hampshire (89), Hancock (114), Hardy (63), Harrison (245), Jackson (168),Jefferson (305), Kanawha (1,095), Lewis (28), Lincoln (108), Logan (362),Marion (199), Marshall (130), Mason (74), McDowell (67), Mercer (243), Mineral(127), Mingo (202), Monongalia (992), Monroe (20), Morgan (33), Nicholas (40),Ohio (283), Pendleton (43), Pleasants (14), Pocahontas (42), Preston (130),Putnam (225), Raleigh (304), Randolph (213), Ritchie (3), Roane (20), Summers (19),Taylor (81), Tucker (11), Tyler (15), Upshur (39), Wayne (221), Webster (4),Wetzel (44), Wirt (7), Wood (283), Wyoming (48).

Ascase surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may revealthat those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, oreven the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state borderto be tested. Such is the case of Fayette, Harrison, Randolph, and Upshurcounties in this report.

Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. Data is published daily at 10 a.m. on thedashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov.

Continue reading here:

COVID-19 Daily Update 8-17-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

"I wish that when we went into lockdown (in March), we looked like Italy," Dr. Deborah Birx said Monday. "When Italy locked down, I mean, people weren't allowed out of their houses (without a pass). Americans don't react well to that kind of prohibition."

In Italy as the virus spread, residents were told to stay home and only leave for essential activities. Authorities would stop people and check to make sure they had documents that said where and why they were traveling.

In a roundtable discussion hosted by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Birx said she has learned what Americans are willing to do to combat the virus, and that officials must meet people where they are.

"People were interacting, people were out, but people, by just not doing those careful things, were able to drop the cases significantly, probably by more than 80%," Birx said.

That kind of behavioral change is something every American can do, she said.

"Tens of thousands of lives can be saved if we wear masks, and we don't have parties in our backyards ... taking those masks off," Birx said.

Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser, disagreed, saying President Donald Trump was "very forward-leaning" when he and the task force issued 15-day guidelines in mid-March.

"This was done at the time to make sure that we had enough hospital capacity and supplies, so that we didn't end up like Italy, where there were people dying on gurneys in waiting rooms," Kushner told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

He complimented the President on the administration's response to a ventilator shortage, repeating the White House line that no American who needed a ventilator didn't get one.

"So, I think we have done much better than Italy with regards to how we handled this initially," he said.

Kushner said the United States is in the middle phase of the pandemic and the administration is using what it has learned to protect the most vulnerable people. He said they were rushing resources to nursing homes.

Virus is No. 3 killer in the US

The virus, which didn't even exist a year ago, is now killing more Americans than Alzheimer's disease, accidents and diabetes.

Over the past three weeks, the US has averaged more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths per day.

"Covid is now the No. 3 cause of death in the US -- ahead of accidents, injuries, lung disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many, many other causes," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death in the US, according to the CDC.

The rate of deaths from Covid-19 is also much greater in the US than in many other countries, Frieden said.

"Last week, Americans were eight times more likely to get killed by Covid than were Europeans," he said.

Less testing = more infected people walking around

Just as more students head back to school, health experts are worried about a disturbing trend: decreasing testing combined with high test positivity rates.

In other words, Covid-19 is still spreading rampantly, but there's less testing to find and isolate cases.

Fifteen states conducted fewer tests this past week compared to the previous week: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

"The testing situation is not good in the United States. What we're not picking up is people who are contagious," said Dr. William Haseltine, chairman and president of Access Health International.

"We're probably missing 8 out of 10 people who are contagious. And any decrease in testing is worrisome because we're not already doing well. And if you don't pick people out of a crowd who are contagious, then the epidemic spreads. ... This epidemic is still spreading widely."

Why are some states testing less?

Medical experts say there could be several reasons.

"One of the reasons that testing is decreasing is that supplies aren't being shipped to places that can test. I think it's part of a strategy not to count how many people are infected," Haseltine said.

Florida governor touts success

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state has seen six consecutive weeks of decline in test positivity rates.

And the number of patients hospitalized with coronavirus has declined by nearly 40% since peaking July 22, he added. The number of ICU patients is down 30% since July 18.

DeSantis said he thinks the downward trends across the state are durable. "We're going to continue to work hard to be able to see these good trends."

One of the measures the state took to blunt the number of cases was closing bars in late June.

Halsey Beshears, Florida's top business regulator, is reviewing feedback and ideas from his meetings with bar and brewery owners from across the state, but no timeline for the reopening of bars has been set, according to Karen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

"While no time frame for reopening is certain, Secretary Beshears understands the urgency advocated by business owners in these recent meetings," Smith said.

Shortage of minority volunteers could delay vaccines

That's not nearly enough, as trial participants are supposed to reflect the population that's affected. Research shows more than half of US Covid-19 cases have been among Black and Latino people.

In the 1800s, Dr. J. Marion Sims experimented on slaves and performed surgeries without their consent and without anesthesia.

So far, phases 1 and 2 have shown the vaccine to be safe. Some volunteers experienced fever and muscle aches, but they felt better after a day or two.

A fast, inexpensive test just got emergency approval

There is some good news: A new saliva test could give Americans a quick way of learning if they have Covid-19 -- and if they need to isolate to help prevent the spread.

"If cheap alternatives like SalivaDirect can be implemented across the country, we may finally get a handle on this pandemic, even before a vaccine," said Nathan Grubaugh, a Yale assistant professor of epidemiology.

"We simplified the test so that it only costs a couple of dollars for reagents, and we expect that labs will only charge about $10 per sample," Grubaugh said.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, Rosa Flores, Carma Hassan, Madeline Holcombe, Jamiel Lynch, Denise Royal, Chandler Thornton and Dana Vigue contributed to this report.

Go here to see the original:

Birx says she wishes US lockdown had resembled the one in Italy - CNN

That's not nearly enough, as study subjects in trials are supposed to reflect the population that's affected. Research shows that more than half of US coronavirus cases have been among Black and Latino people.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, gave the Moderna trial, the first in Phase 3 in the United States, a "C" grade for recruiting minorities.

"From the first week I saw the numbers, and they were not as encouraging as I would have liked," Collins told CNN.

If not enough Black people and other minorities enroll, the panel of experts who monitor the trials could force a delay until they get the numbers they need.

"That's something that's been actively discussed," said Dr. Nelson Michael, coordinator of community engagement activities for Operation Warp Speed. "There's a lot of concern."

Black leaders agree that it's a challenge to recruit Black people into the vaccine trials, especially since it needs to happen very quickly -- the first two Phase 3 clinical trials started in late July and expect to finish enrollment in September.

"This is a very, very tall order," said Dr. James Powell, a Cincinnati physician who has been approached with requests to encourage Black participation in the vaccine trials.

"When we Black people hear 'clinical trials,' we think 'we're not going to be researched on,' and that's across economic status and across educational status, not just one sector," said Renee Mahaffey Harris, president of The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Cincinnati.

Moderna and Pfizer, the two US companies currently in Phase 3 trials, won't reveal how many of their participants are from minority groups. Each trial eventually expects to recruit 30,000 participants.

Moderna's 89 trial sites across the United States are "actively working within their local communities to reach a diverse population of volunteers," Ray Jordan, a company spokesman, wrote in an email. "We hope to achieve a shared goal that the participants in the (Covid-19 vaccine) study are representative of the communities at highest risk for COVID-19 and of our diverse society."

A Fourth of July Zoom call

At 10:20 p.m. on July 3, NIH's Collins sent an email to colleagues asking for a Zoom meeting the next day.

"I certainly ruined everybody's holiday," Collins remembers.

But he said the topic was "absolutely critical." He wanted to discuss how to recruit groups such as minorities and older people into the trials.

Collins says he told those at the July 4 meeting, including Michael and Dr. Anthony Fauci, that they had to make sure the trials "didn't go down the wrong path, because the default was clearly going to be that a lot of young white people would be likely to sign up, and we would have a trial that was scientifically way short of what it needed to be and would not engender anybody's confidence."

If an insufficient number of minorities sign up, the experts monitoring the trials might require additional recruitment.

"The Data Safety Monitoring Board could slow the trial down," Michael said. "If the demographics aren't right, they could tell the sponsor to slow enrollment down until you hit different numbers. They could say 'We do not want you to develop a vaccine tested for safety and efficacy basically on a single ethnic group.' "

There's another reason why researchers are trying to include minorities.

If everyone who volunteered for a coronavirus vaccine trial got their shot and then stayed home, at the end of the study they would likely all test negative for the virus, not necessarily because the vaccine worked, but because they never encountered the virus in the first place.

That's why in any vaccine study, including this one, researchers seek out study subjects who are most likely to come in contact with the virus in their daily lives.

That's health care workers, for example, and also minorities, who are more likely to have essential jobs that require in-person work, and more likely to live in multigenerational, multifamily households, among other factors.

After that Fourth of July meeting, the mission was clearer than ever: Engage minority communities to encourage them to join the clinical trials.

"There is a tremendous amount of pressure on this now. I've never seen community engagement get this level of play. Not even close. Ever," Michael said.

'I'm an old white guy'

Collins and Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have made it clear they they're not the ones to speak directly to minorities to increase trust in vaccines.

"You want to go into the African American community with people who look and think and act like the people you're trying to convince," he said.

That's Mahaffey Harris, who has been doing advocacy and development work with minority communities for 30 years.

On August 5, Mahaffey Harris received a call from a doctor asking her to recruit minorities into the Moderna vaccine trial.

She knows she didn't give him the answer he was looking for.

"I am always cautious when I'm being contacted by anyone involved in pharmaceutical research because I, as a Black woman, never want to be a part of engaging and recruiting people for research that ends up having any bias in it or any hint of impropriety, like what happened at Tuskegee," she said.

She told the coronavirus researcher she will meet with him later this month.

She has received these calls in the past for other clinical trials.

"They'll say, 'I need 100 people' and I say, 'I'm not just going to get you 100 people," she said.

None of this surprises Dawn Baker, the first person in the United States to receive a coronavirus vaccine as part of a Phase 3 clinical trial.

After getting her first shot, Baker, a Black TV news anchor in Savannah, Georgia, received much love and support from her community, but also disbelief.

"Dawn done lost her damn mind," one woman wrote on Facebook.

"i got 2 words...TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT," another wrote, referring to the infamous medical studies that abused Black men.

Two people just posted GIFs of Black people shaking their heads "no."

Baker received her shot three weeks ago, but said concerned Black people are still coming up to her, asking if she's feeling OK.

"I told them I've never felt better," said Baker, who doesn't know if she received the vaccine or the placebo. "But I can tell they're not sure if they believe me."

Government efforts to engage minorities

The NIH says it has "engagement efforts" with various groups, such as those that represent Black churches and Black doctors and nurses. Operation Warp Speed, a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, says it has engaged with minority organizations as well.

Collins noted that some of the Moderna sites are commercial and others are a part of NIH's network. He said when the trial began July 27, the commercial sites started up first, and the NIH sites have opened up more recently.

"The NIH funded sites are in a better position to be able to emphasize and do the community engagements, to try to reach out to minority communities," he said. "Watch this space -- we're going to see this improve I think fairly rapidly," he said.

He added he had a meeting with top Moderna executives on July 10.

"I heard from them that they were really committed to this kind of diversity in enrollment," Collins said. "I heard absolutely strong endorsement of that from Stephane Bancel, the CEO, and from Stephen Hoge, the president. I was not concerned that they were considering this just a nice thing to do; they were clearly very committed."

The NIH set up the Covid-19 Prevention Network to recruit participants into the trials. In the next week to 10 days, the network will be releasing materials, such as print and radio spots and videos for social media, targeted to specific groups, including minorities, according to Kublin, the network's executive director of operations.

"I wish it had started a month go," Kublin said. "We have, all of us, been working 24/7 to make this happen as quickly as possible."

Michele Andrasik, the director of community engagement for the network, said she recognizes the hurdle to recruiting minorities for trials, but is optimistic that progress can be made as her group works on outreach programs in partnership with community groups.

"I think there are ways we can address the challenges that are inherent at the pace of what we've all been asked to do," Andrasik said.

What's not working: warp speed

As the name Operation Warp Speed suggests, the government and pharmaceutical companies are working quickly to come up with a vaccine against Covid-19.

Moderna and Pfizer started their Phase 3 trials July 27 and plan to fully enroll them in September. That's a speed unheard of in the history of vaccine clinical trials.

But Black leaders interviewed for this story said mistrust of medical institutions and the government, based on centuries of abuse and injustices, can't be undone that fast.

"They're not going to get the numbers for next month that they want. You have to build that trust," added Dr. Doris Browne, the president of the NMA.

It's also the legacy of Dr. J. Marion Sims, considered the father of modern gynecology, who in the mid-1800s experimented on slaves in the South, performing surgeries without their consent and without the use of anesthesia before surgery.

And from the 1940s until the 1970s, in several studies, researchers exposed hundreds of study subjects, mostly Black people, to potentially fatal amounts of radiation, according to Harriet Washington, author of "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation from Colonial Times to the Present."

Injustices and disparities continue to this day.

"African-American people get treated differently. They have less access to doctors. When they describe their symptoms, they are not believed as often as Whites are. Medical technology is withheld from them. All of these things are a matter of record," said Washington, a lecturer in bioethics at Columbia University.

"Now we're approaching them with an experimental vaccine that we're offering as a benefit -- but asking people to trust that is asking a great deal," she added. "There's a risk to taking an experimental vaccine. There's just no way to sugar coat that."

Phase 1 and 2 trials of experimental coronavirus vaccines, with dozens or hundreds of study subjects each, have shown the vaccine to be safe. While some participants did experience symptoms such as fever and muscle aches, they felt better after a day or two.

Black leaders interviewed for this story said part of the problem is they were contacted by vaccine researchers just days or weeks ago, which didn't leave them much time.

"This has to be vetted through a process," he said. "At the Church of God in Christ we have a health advisory group that involves a dozen or so national experts and it takes time to walk through this and translate it to the 1,500 ministers and say what are we going to do for the six to eight million people who are in our church."

Daniels and other leaders wondered why they were contacted so recently when it's been known for many months that minorities would be needed in the trial.

"The researchers knew where they needed to be. Why did they wait until now?" said Powell of Project IMPACT.

The key for researchers to get what they want, he and others said, is to invest in long-term relationships with the Black community, and not call just at the beginning of a trial, asking Black people to roll up their sleeves and take the injections.

"Mistrust is always there when you don't invest in trustworthiness," he said.

Browne, the NMA president, said the vaccine researchers should have involved Black doctors from the start, as part of the planning and implementation of the trials.

"We are not in any way going to come in at the last minute to be utilized as an entre to get African-Americans or other people of color involved in a program where we don't have a clear understanding of every phase of it," she said.

What could work: relationships

Dr. Paul Bradley knew in advance that his office in Savannah would be the very first site in the United States to give someone an injection in a Phase 3 coronavirus clinical trial.

He knew that the first person he injected would get media attention. He thought about who that person should be, and Dawn Baker's name came immediately to mind.

Bradley has been Baker's family doctor for more than 30 years. He knows Baker is well-loved and has tremendous credibility in Savannah. Plus, he knew that, as a local TV anchor, she would handle interviews flawlessly.

And yes, she's Black -- that was a bonus, he said. He knew she'd inspire other Black people, and White people, too, to join the trial.

He asked her if she was interested, and she said yes.

"We've developed a great rapport. I go to events, and he's there. I've met his family. It's not just a medical relationship. I really do trust him," Baker said. "I knew Dr. Bradley wouldn't do anything to hurt me."

The next day, many of the people who came to Bradley's office to volunteer -- both Black and White -- cited Baker as the reason.

Baker said she knows there's resistance in her community to joining clinical trials, and she hopes she made a difference.

"Maybe since I was at least bold enough to come forward right now, that might change that -- that could eventually save their lives," she said. "I hope that maybe just seeing my face will help them to change their opinions about that."

Bradley's connections to the community helped in other ways, too.

"I don't take this lightly, to speak the truth and tell people to check it out and be a part of something," the mayor said. "If it wasn't for the people who stood up for the polio trials, we'd still have polio around."

Then Bradley spoke with Ricky Temple, pastor of Overcoming by Faith, one of the largest churches in Savannah with 3,000 members.

Ask any vaccine researcher about recruiting Black clinical trial participants, and they'll mention the power of churches. Their hope is that during a Sunday sermon, a preacher will encourage his or her flock to sign up.

Before he spoke with Bradley, CNN asked Temple if he'd ever consider speaking about the trials from his Sunday pulpit.

Temple laughed.

"You can't just have a preacher say, 'in our announcements today, trials are going to be held, and they're looking for Black people,'" Temple said. "The audience is going to be -- 'What they're going to come and put a germ in me?' They're going to be scared to death -- "you gonna put coronavirus in me?'"

After speaking with Bradley, Temple surveyed those close to him in the church, asking if he should bring the clinical trials up at a Sunday service.

"I met with my staff, and no one supported me doing it. They were 100% no, because of Tuskegee. I asked members, I asked families, and I got the same response. It was incredibly consistent. What I heard was fear," Temple said.

Temple's decision: to create a "courageous conversation" about the clinical trials with leaders in his church.

"We're big readers in our church, and I'll send out some documents. We have many medical professionals in our congregation, and I'll get them together, and we'll discuss this," he said.

He wonders why he has to put together documents that can address the fears about clinical trials. If the US government is so anxious to get minorities to enroll in the trials, why hasn't someone created a website, or even a pamphlet, with information?

Temple thinks that might make a difference in the eyes of his congregants.

"I'll create these courageous conversations, because this is something we should pray about, something we should care about," he said. "I think this could be an interesting education you can have if you open your heart to it."

Read the original:

Covid-19 vaccine trials have been slow to recruit Black and Latino people -- and that could delay a vaccine - CNN