Category: Corona Virus

Last Thursday, wildlife care specialists noticed the snow leopard had a cough and nasal discharge, the zoo said in new release. Preliminary tests confirmed the virus that causes Covid-19.The zoo said it doesn't know how the snow leopard got infected. According to the Snow Leopard Trust, there may be only about 4,000 to 6,000 snow leopards left in the world.In January, the zoo started vaccinating its animals with donated recombinant purified spike protein vaccines, which are not intended for human use. The zoo vaccinated several great apes after the zoo's gorillas tested positive for the virus. The gorillas fully recovered.

Veterinary teams at the zoo are focusing on wildlife most at risk of contracting the virus, including leopards, lions, tigers, cheetahs, jaguars, mountain lions and others, according to the zoo's news release.

The snow leopard appears to be doing well and is showing no addition symptoms, the zoo said.

The snow leopard shares his habitat with a female snow leopard and two Amur leopards. Those animals are being quarantined and monitored closely.

Testing at the zoo and at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System confirmed the positive test of the San Diego Zoo's snow leopard. Results are still pending from the US Department of Agriculture National Veterinary Services Laboratories.

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A rare snow leopard at the San Diego Zoo has tested positive for coronavirus - CNN

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After months of declining COVID-19 case counts, a highly contagious variant is responsible for rising cases and hospitalizations over the last few weeks nationwide including in Alaska.

Were continuing to address reader questions about hospital capacity, when you should get tested if youre vaccinated and how local health officials are responding to the latest surge. What do you want to know about COVID-19 in Alaska? Let us know in the form at the bottom of this story.

For the past few weeks, the states hospital status monitoring dashboard has been showing most of Anchorages hospitals labeled full or at capacity but that doesnt tell the whole story, and it doesnt mean that those hospitals arent able to accept patients, health officials say.

The state hospital dashboard has been used primarily by hospitals for years to communicate with one another about bed availability and each facilitys capacity to accept transfers, said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaskas chief medical officer, during a call with reporters this week.

So this (dashboard) is just a tool to make it easier and faster for clinicians on the frontline to be able to know kind of the capacity of different hospitals, she said.

Alaska's hospital status dashboard as of Saturday evening, July 24, 2021. (Screengrab from Alaska Department of Health and Social Services website)

Another consideration is that the hospital monitoring dashboard is not always up to date, said Esther Pitts, the Service Operations Center director at Providence Alaska Medical Center, who helps oversee transfers between hospitals. Thats why the dashboard is seen less as a precise measure and more as a way to take a broad look at hospital capacity, she said.

Its a good starting place, she said. She said she and others are continuing to follow this indicator closely as cases and hospitalizations continue to rise.

Over the last 10 days, as COVID-19 hospitalizations have started to climb again, spokespersons from Providence and the Alaska Native Medical Center said their hospitals have been running close to full capacity. But they also said thats typical for this time of year and the hospitals are managing, and are not yet at a critical point.

Thats because when all the hospitals in Anchorage start to fill up, they take turns accepting patients and are in regular communication with one another to make sure patients have a place to go.

We have what we call surge capacity that we can can turn on, and other things we can do to control the influx, said Dr. Michael Bernstein, Providences chief medical officer. We have these surge plans that we developed last year to open additional spaces in our facilities if we need to.

Hospitals busyness over the past few weeks is relatively typical for this time of year, said Anna Frick, an epidemiologist with the state health department who tracks infectious diseases and emergency room visits across the state.

In summer, our population gets bigger about our hospitals do not grow magically. And so we have more people who are here who need health care, and people outside doing things, getting into kayaking, accidents, et cetera, Frick said.

Hospital staffing problems have also exacerbated the strain hospitals are feeling right now, Zink added.

Alaska has a limited health care infrastructure, she said. And that has become very challenged and stressed during the pandemic for numerous reasons. ... I think this has been exhausting for all of us. And seeing a fourth wave is a little demoralizing, honestly. And I think were seeing a lot of health care workers making decisions on career choice, which is also impacting our capacity.

Regardless of vaccination status, anyone who has symptoms consistent with COVID-19, no matter how mild including a runny nose, low-grade fever or a sore throat should get tested, said Dr. Joe McLaughlin, Alaskas top epidemiologist.

If that result comes back positive, an isolation period of 10 days is recommended. And that includes people who are fully vaccinated, McLaughlin said.

A fully vaccinated person who has been exposed to someone with confirmed or possible COVID-19 doesnt need to test or quarantine as long as they dont have any symptoms, he added.

But if youre not vaccinated, and youve been exposed, you do need to quarantine, he said. Its still a 14-day quarantine. And we recommend getting tested at some point during your quarantine, so usually between about days five and seven after exposure.

In Juneau, city officials have responded to rising case counts by asking residents to mask up indoors, whether or not theyre vaccinated and are even requiring masks in city facilities. In Cordova, a recent outbreak among dozens of seafood workers and community members has resulted in a mask mandate for city workers.

Anchorage likely will not issue any further recommendations around mask-wearing, said David Morgan, the recently appointed director of the Anchorage Health Department. That decision will be left up to the individual, he said during an interview Thursday.

If you want to wear a mask, thats fine. If you dont want to wear a mask, thats fine, he said. Some people wear a tie and a suit to work, like I do, and some dont.

McLaughlin added that state health guidance hasnt changed with respect to what fully vaccinated people can do, despite the rise in cases and the more contagious delta variant now circulating.

It really comes down to the individual in their own risk tolerance, and maybe taking a look at their own underlying medical conditions and their age to help to help decide what is the best course of action for them with respect to masking, social distancing and avoiding crowds, McLaughlin said.

In a tweet, Zink encouraged Alaskans to be careful, noting that she was back to eating at outdoor restaurants only and masking up indoors, even though she is fully vaccinated.

The vaccine protects me well, but it is not 100%, she said.

The vast majority of Alaskas COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been among people who are unvaccinated.

See the rest here:

Coronavirus Q&A: How full are Anchorage hospitals? Should vaccinated Alaskans do anything differently as cases rise? - Anchorage Daily News

The Dutch Olympic team, shown here during the opening ceremony on Friday, has had three athletes test positive for coronavirus at the Games. David J. Phillip/AP hide caption

The Dutch Olympic team, shown here during the opening ceremony on Friday, has had three athletes test positive for coronavirus at the Games.

A Dutch rower has become the first athlete at the Tokyo Olympics to receive a positive coronavirus test after they competed in their event.

Finn Florijn, a 21-year-old vaccinated Dutch rower, tested positive after his Olympic debut in the men's single sculls race. He finished fourth in his heat and was scheduled to row again on Saturday, but now he's out of the competition and isolated for 10 days.

"I wasn't completely satisfied with my race yet. But I was hopeful to improve in the rematch. Now it's over in an instant," the athlete said in a statement.

Florijn is the son of a two-time gold medalist in crew and has said that he aspires to win more medals than his father, Ronald. Those dreams will now need to wait until a future Olympics, if he can qualify again.

Just one day after the official start of the Games, at least 12 athletes who came to Japan for the Olympics have tested positive for coronavirus, including U.S. beach volleyball player Taylor Crabb and U.S. gymnastics alternate Kara Eaker.

Dutch skateboarder Candy Jacobs, who had a positive coronavirus test prior to competition, has been posting on Instagram from isolation.

"I don't even know what to say. It's the weirdest situation I could possibly, possibly be in at the moment," she said. "All my friends being at the Olympic Village. It's so close, but I can't see them."

"I just want to let you know that I'm doing good," Jacobs added. "My heart still hurts, but I'll definitely get through it."

A third Dutch athlete and a staff member of the rowing team have also tested positive. A statement from Team Netherlands officials said they believe the infections may have originated on their flight. The head of the Dutch team expressed devastation in a statement, saying, "We have no words."

The positive tests have raised alarm among other athletes desperate to stay healthy and compete.

Read more:

Dutch Rower Tests Positive For Coronavirus After Competing : Live Updates: The Tokyo Olympics - NPR

In late December 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported cases of an unidentified viral pneumonia, which, along with other reports, alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to a potential new health threat that was identified as a coronavirus in January 2020 and was later named SARS-CoV-2.

But it has become clear that the virus emerged before late December 2019, possibly even months before. A joint WHO study by Chinese and international researchers identified 174 SARS-CoV-2 infections throughout December, with the earliest going back to Dec. 8. Though most researchers think the virus originated sometime during the fall or winter of 2019, an exact time is hard to pinpoint without more data. Finding out when SARS-CoV-2 began spreading among people could help prevent or address future epidemics and pandemics by providing insight into the kind of disease surveillance that would have been necessary to prevent this one, experts say.

By the time the virus was identified, it had already spread significantly and was harder to contain, said Sergei Pond, a professor of biology at Temple University in Philadelphia. "You don't want to wait eight weeks until you have a cluster of cases with unusual pneumonia," Pond said. "You kind of want to have a surveillance system where you pick it up very early."

Related: 7 facts about the origin of the novel coronavirus

The first case of COVID-19 that has been confirmed by a laboratory test was in a man who started to experience symptoms on Dec. 8, 2019, The Washington Post reported. Though there were earlier reports suggesting the first case could be traced back to Dec. 1 or Nov. 17, as Live Science previously reported, those reports were not confirmed by the WHO-China joint study, said Joel Wertheim, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Wertheim and his colleagues analyzed the virus's genetic information and conducted epidemiological computer simulations, which put the virus's origin date at between mid-October and mid-November 2019, they reported in April in the journal Science.

To draw this conclusion, the researchers analyzed genomes of SARS-CoV-2 from the first wave of the pandemic in China. Because viruses accumulate genetic changes over time, the researchers could identify a fixed rate of genetic mutation and then work backward until they found when the first person with a relatively unaltered form of the virus could have started to spread it among people. The researchers estimated that for SARS-CoV-2, that date was between Nov. 17 and Dec. 20, 2019.

But that's just when the virus likely started spreading among people. Because SARS-CoV-2 originated in an animal and was passed to humans, the animal coronavirus that originally infected the first person could have genetic differences from the current virus. That version might have taken a while to become genetically recognizable as SARS-CoV-2, meaning the virus may have started spreading even earlier, the researchers said.

To see how long it might have taken the virus to accumulate those kinds of changes, the researchers used a computer simulation of the virus's spread. They concluded that the process likely would have taken anywhere from zero to 41 days, although the most common result was eight days. This process, they said, might have pushed back the virus's initial spread to mid-October.

Wertheim emphasized that the goal of the study was to establish how far back the virus could have started to spread, not necessarily how early it did spread. "That's as far as you can make it go, and even then, that's a lot of assumptions to get that far back," he said.

Many researchers, including Pond, would agree with that based on current data, the timeframe that Wertheim and his colleagues proposed in the study is likely, said Pond, who co-authored a separate study examining the early evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2, published in May in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. In that study, Pond and his colleagues used a kind of genetic analysis originally developed to reconstruct the evolution of human cancer cells. They determined that the version of SARS-CoV-2 that spread in December 2019 would take six to eight weeks to evolve from the initial human strain of the virus. Although the method they used was different, that time frame would also push the origin back to around the same time as the other study October 2019.

But Pond said there are also ways of gaining new insight into when the virus emerged. For instance, many thought the virus emerged from an animal at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, but later analysis found cases that couldn't be linked to the market, Live Science previously reported. In contrast, Wertheim said the lack of confirmation from the China-WHO joint study for the Dec. 1 and Nov. 17 cases that his study used could affect the estimate. Frozen blood samples from early potential cases or genetic sequence records could also provide further insight, Pond said.

"You can easily imagine a scenario where you get five or 10 more sequences that are early, and they just change everything," he said. Regardless, Pond thinks it's unlikely that the virus emerged earlier than fall 2019 or, at the earliest, late summer 2019, because even events that could lead to the virus circulating undetected that early such as it starting to spread, going extinct and then being reintroduced are very unlikely and become increasingly so the further back you go.

Some research has suggested an origin date earlier than October, but the studies have not been peer-reviewed or published in scientific journals. In one such study, researchers at Harvard University analyzed internet searches in Wuhan, China, from 2019 and found an increase in searches for "diarrhea" in August 2019 that correlated with an increase in traffic in a Wuhan hospital parking lot the same month. Diarrhea is more common with COVID-19 than with the flu, so the researchers suggested the increase could point to the virus spreading in August.

In a commentary in response to that study, however, other researchers pointed out that the authors used an awkward Chinese translation for "diarrhea" and that the search term increased in use all over China, not just in Wuhan. Another study, which was published to the preprint server medRxiv and was not peer-reviewed, found traces of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater in Barcelona, Spain, in March 2019. However, the findings made little sense without any evidence of patients experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 in Barcelona at the time.

There are inherent problems with trying to find a more precise origin date. Wertheim's analyses showed that early on, case counts were likely to be so low that the virus went undetected. In fact, in the computer simulations from the study that modeled the spread of SARS-CoV-2 from a single human case, the virus went extinct the majority of the time, and when it didn't, sometimes it relied on a single person to spread it more widely again. Of course, in a large, densely-populated city like Wuhan, that scenario doesnt present a problem it would be easy for a single person to transmit the virus to many people. But it does make it likely that early on, few people had the virus. Amid a severe flu season, and since SARS-CoV-2 had a relatively low mortality rate compared with viruses like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Wertheim said it's no surprise the virus wasn't detected when it first started to spread.

Wertheim hopes systems that allow for earlier detection could help prevent or mitigate the effects of future pandemics.

"In an ideal world, we would have a sort of systematic and interconnected way to report all unexpected illness in a way that can be seen across borders," he said. "Something like that would have given us a leg up on this pandemic and potentially have been able to stop it in its tracks."

Originally published on Live Science.

Read the original here:

How early was the novel coronavirus circulating? - Livescience.com

Vaccinated people can still get infected, but the majority of cases will be mild or asymptomatic.

Coronavirus infections are rising throughout the US again (nearly 69,000 new casesin one day) due to the highly contagiousdelta variant, and the virus is particularly impacting areas with low vaccination rates.More caseshave started to be reported of fully vaccinated people contracting the virus. So, if you're fully vaccinated, should you be worried about getting COVID-19? Not necessarily, but don't throw away your face masks yet.

Currently,162 million peoplein the US have been fully vaccinated, nearly half of the country's total population. But across the globe only13.3% of peoplehave been fully vaccinated. That means more than 86% of the total global population has the potential to spread COVID-19, causing new variants like delta andlambdato emerge that can potentially infect everyone. Yet as troubling as they may appear, breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated are quite uncommon, and the likelihood of serious illness or hospitalization is still low.

Learn smart gadget and internet tips and tricks with CNET's How To newsletter.

We'll explain what a breakthrough coronavirus infection is, how it's possible for fully vaccinated people to become infected, and what it means. This information comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and other experts.

A breakthrough COVID-19 infection happens when a fully vaccinated person becomes infected with the coronavirus, experiences symptoms, is hospitalized or dies from the infection. While rare, a small percentage of fully vaccinated people can get COVID-19 if exposed to the virus, but they're much less likely to become sick, according to the CDC.

If someone's fully vaccinated and does test positive for coronavirus, it's likely they'll have mild symptoms (see below) or be asymptomatic, Dr. Clare Rock, a Johns Hopkins medical professor, told me on the phone.

It isn't yet clear what role vaccinated people with COVID-19 might play in spreading infections. If you do become ill, experts urge you to isolate yourself to prevent others from getting sick -- especially people with medical vulnerabilities.

Now playing: Watch this: What to do if you lose your vaccination card, and how...

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Someone can become infected with COVID-19 just before or right after they get the vaccination, as it takes roughly two weeks before the vaccine is most effective. However, even after the immunity builds up, there's still a chance they can become infected, according to the WHO, since the vaccines aren't silver bullets against any disease (Moderna and Pfizer are over 90% effective).

While there are still millions of unvaccinated people around the world, new variants will emerge, Rock says. For example, the delta variant currently circulating can still pose a threat to people who have received full vaccination -- especially those who have high risk medical conditions. This can potentially lead to hospitalization or even death (more below).

It's very rare for someone who's fully vaccinated to experience severe symptoms from COVID-19. People who have received both doses of the vaccine are less likely to be hospitalized or die than those who haven't been vaccinated,the CDC says. Vaccinated people typically see symptoms like a runny nose, which they mistake as a common cold, Rock said.

But that's not to say it can't happen. The CDC says some fully vaccinated people can still be hospitalized and die. This can include people who have medical conditions that make them immunocompromised, Rock said, including those with cancer and people who have had organ transplants -- in general, people who are more vulnerable.

It's rare but possible for a fully vaccinated person to become infected with COVID-19.

If you're fully vaccinated but worried about getting sick, you can take the following precautions.

At this time, there's not a clear answer. While some say a booster shot may be necessary in the future, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration don't agree -- at least not yet. Scientists are continuing to study the immunity of fully vaccinated people to get a better idea of how well the vaccines protect them.

However, Moderna is currently researching if and when a booster shot may be necessary. For instance, vulnerable people who don't have a robust immune system -- such as those with serious medical conditions -- may need an additional shot, Rock said.

Pfizer says it's working on a booster shot for its COVID-19 vaccine (PDF) to enhance immunity for those who have already received both doses. The UK is also prepping for booster shots, with vaccine experts in Britain saying a booster shot may be needed before winter.

The variant causing the most concern right now is thedelta variant, which is now thedominant strain in the USand other countries. This variant has caused an increase in COVID-19 cases, which is also impacting some people who are fully vaccinated.

In comparison to the alpha variant, researchers have found delta to be60% more transmissible, and hospitalization risks are much higher in unvaccinated people.

In most instances, the cases are happening in areas of low vaccination rates. For example, US states like Louisiana and Florida havelow vaccination ratesand their COVID-19 cases are surging again.

Wearing a mask can help protect yourself from COVID-19.

The breakthrough infections don't mean the vaccines aren't effective. "The effectiveness against severe disease is still substantial," Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a White House press briefing Thursday. "Get vaccinated. It offers good protection against disease."

The main reason for breakthrough cases is due to the number of people who still haven't been vaccinated. Once more people are fully vaccinated, it'll help reduce the spread of COVID-19 throughout the world because the virus won't be able to infect as many people.

Until then, the virus will continue to mutate and spread, creating new variants.

For more information, here's everything to know about the delta variant. Also, here are more details about a potential COVID-19 booster shot and the debate over whether fully vaccinated people should wear masks.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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What do COVID breakthrough infections mean for the fully vaccinated? We'll explain - CNET

Of the 39 percent of adults who are unvaccinated, about half say they are completely unwilling. But even within that group, some say they would comply if required to do so.

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

Some are hesitant and may come around with the right persuasion from people they trust, while still others plan to be inoculated but say they have just not had the chance.

Politics is a driver for only some of these people, noted Dr. Richard Besser, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In New Jersey, where he lives, the rates vary drastically because of socioeconomic factors. In mostly white Princeton, 75 percent of adults are immunized, versus 45 percent in Trenton, just 14 miles away, which is heavily Black and Latino.

Both are strong Democratic areas, so its really important to break things down and to address the issues that are impeding vaccination progress in each segment of the unvaccinated population, Dr. Besser said.

Still, there is no doubt that the political divide is playing a role in rising infection rates. From the start, vaccinations in counties that voted for Donald J. Trump lagged those in counties that voted for Joseph R. Biden, and the gap has only widened from two percentage points in April to nearly 12 points now, according to one recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Nationwide, 86 percent of Democrats have had at least one shot, compared with 52 percent of Republicans, according to another poll. Even the national goal of having 70 percent of adults vaccinated by July 4 somehow became Bidens goal, said Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research at Boston University.

All of a sudden, even getting out of pandemic became a left versus right issue.

Fewer than half of House Republicans are vaccinated as of May, compared with 100 percent of congressional Democrats. For months, some Republican lawmakers including Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and conservative news commentators like Tucker Carlson, have voiced their skepticism of vaccines, loudly and insistently.

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The Delta Variant Is the Symptom of a Bigger Threat: Vaccine Refusal - The New York Times

In the past week, you may have heard about Olympic athletes who are fully vaccinated getting positive Covid tests or people in Provincetown, Mass., or Texas Democrats or the New York Yankees. These are called breakthrough infections, and theyre causing a lot of anxiety about whether the vaccines hold up against the hyper-transmissible Delta variant.

But how concerning are they? And as cases are surging across the country, how much do they matter as a metric of the pandemic when we have a vaccine to protect against severe disease?

STAT spoke with Cline Gounder, a clinical assistant professor of medicine and infectious disease at NYUs Grossman School of Medicine, host of the EPIDEMIC podcast, member of the Biden-Harris Transition Covid-19 Advisory Board, and a member of the class of people we are calling pandemic celebrities.

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This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Dr. Gounder, how concerned are you about these instances of breakthrough infections in people who are fully vaccinated?

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I think we really need to better define what we mean by breakthrough infections. Thats really a catch-all for people who might have an infection with no, or very mild, symptoms, all the way to somebody who might end up in the ICU, or even dead. What concerns me is breakthrough disease people who have significant symptoms, who are struggling to breathe, who are ending up in the hospital, and we really havent seen breakthrough disease with the vaccines.

Weve seen a lot of criticism in recent weeks about the way the CDC is handling the release of data and tracking of these breakthrough infections. Do you think their actions have been sufficient or is there more information that you think we need to have from from federal regulators?

I really think we should be tracking breakthrough infections. And heres why. Those people who are still getting infected despite being vaccinated, they may not get sick, but it is possible that they could transmit the infection on to others. And so thats something we still dont really have a handle on. There is some evidence from the sports leagues, where they do a lot of testing, that some of these people may, in fact, be contagious. And so that is concerning.

The second reason that we really want to be tracking breakthrough infections is for what we call genomic surveillance, which is where we look at new variants that are starting to emerge and what do those look like? Youre more likely to find new emerging variants among people who have breakthrough infections. Were sort of flying blind with respect to that, because were not assessing those breakthrough infections.

All this talk about breakthrough infections or breakthrough disease has also raised the issue of boosters, whether Americans will be required to go back and get reinjected with Covid vaccine. What are your thoughts on that?

First of all, booster is really not the right terminology here. I think the problem with boosters is when people hear that word, theyre like, oh, well, its going to be like a flu shot. Im going to need to get a shot every year. The way I would frame this is much more like, say, a blood pressure medicine that your doctor prescribes you where you start at one dose and they might adjust the dose over time. Just because we are still figuring out the best dosage regimen for the Covid vaccine does not mean that the vaccines dont work, and does not mean youre going to need a yearly Covid shot.

Thats really interesting. Where do you fall on the J&J vaccine and the current information we have about it? Theres so much anxiety because its just one dose. There are people who got J&J who are feeling not fully vaccinated with one shot. What do you think?

So first of all, the CDC is looking at this. In fact, the CDCs ACIP, which is a group of people who advise the CDC on their vaccination guidelines, is meeting today as we speak to evaluate whether additional doses of vaccine should be given, specifically in this case for people who have immunosuppression. But I anticipate they will be looking at other categories of patients as well.

With respect to the J&J vaccine, I think its really important for people to understand that this is a very good vaccine. This is why we thought that one dose would be sufficient. Now, what were learning is that, particularly against some of these new variants, that one dose of J&J may not be enough. And I think what you will see over the next month or two are recommendations, at least for some subsets of people who got J&J, that they do get an additional dose of vaccine. The other thing that were seeing is when you mix and match different types of vaccine, so say J&J, which is very similar to the AstraZeneca vaccine. If you mix and match that with one of the many vaccines like Pfizer or Moderna, you actually get an even better immune response. So I do think youre going to see more mixing and matching in the future as well.

So sort of a separate matter: Weve seen cases on the rise across the United States. And as you mentioned, theres this important differentiation between what might be a positive test versus what might be symptomatic disease or something more serious. And we know that vaccines are effective at limiting severe disease. But at the same time, cases are going up. How should we look at this when we have a relatively high vaccination rate and a lot of available vaccine for anyone who might want it? How should we perceive these rising case counts? How worried should we be, you know, vis-a-vis last year when there were no vaccines?

We are seeing this decoupling between cases and hospitalizations and deaths. So what we mean by decoupling is were seeing the cases shoot up more steeply than we are seeing hospitalizations and deaths shoot up. That said, it remains to be seen whether that decoupling holds because were still early in our own surge with Delta. And unfortunately, there are parts of the country that really have very low vaccination rates. And we dont know how much some of these breakthrough infections among vaccinated people might then be contributing to onward transmission and circulation of the virus among unvaccinated people. So thats really a black box at this time.

It seems like the rise in case counts has also resurrected the whole mask debate and whether we need to be wearing masks. Do we need to think about going back to wearing them?

So this is a really good question. Many local municipalities are looking at this question right now. I was on a call with several New York City public officials yesterday where they were asking for my advice on this question. I think, unfortunately, with the rise of Delta, which is about a thousand times more infectious than the original strains of the virus, we really do need to think about layering protections. And so what are those layers? Vaccination. But some of the other layers that we should consider would be masking indoors when youre outside of your household bubble, optimizing ventilation in the home just opening your window works really well. It works even better than many of those units that you can buy to filter the air. I think people really underestimate the power of opening windows. And finally, socializing outdoors as much as possible to minimize your risk. Those would be the things that I think we do need to be thinking about. At the beginning of the pandemic, the CDC said that a close contact was somebody that youre indoors with unmasked for 15 minutes or more. The equivalent of that with the Delta variant is not 15 minutes, its one second.

Does the indoor/outdoor difference in protection still hold? Lets say, somebody is worried about their unvaccinated child playing in the playground. Is it OK if theyre not wearing a mask?

The way to think about your exposure is dose times time. So your dose is a reflection of how much virus the person is carrying, but its also diluted in the air around them. So if youre indoors, theres not a lot of air dilution unless youre opening up windows and doing that sort of thing. When youre outdoors, its almost infinitely diluted. And so outdoors, your risk is really low. I think the only places that would concern me outdoors is if youre packed in together with people, say, at an outdoor concert or in an outdoor sports sporting event. But in general, outdoors is really pretty safe.

That is reassuring. How are you looking at where the pandemic goes from here? There were a lot of stories a couple of months ago thinking about how does this pandemic end. But were in a fourth surge now. And of course, many countries dont have access to the vaccine yet. How much longer is this going to go on?

Well, remember, pandemic means around the world, so across multiple continents. So if youre asking, you know, when is the pandemic going to be over? Its going to be years before this is over. I think what really worries me as somebody who, for the better part of my career, worked in HIV and tuberculosis, those are pandemics. Youre looking at about 3 million or so people dying from TB a year. A similar number of people dying from HIV per year. And thats something thats been going on for decades. And so I think this is going to become another disease of the poor and marginalized as the pandemic continues to evolve.

To listen to the full interview, check out the latest episode of The Readout LOUD podcast.

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How concerned should we be about breakthrough coronavirus infections? - STAT

Coronavirus today and the open line: The case and hospital surges continue. Does the legislature care? - Arkansas Times

1,000 new cases on a Sunday? Five more deaths? 44 more people hospitalized? 173 people on ventilators?

Arkansas, we have a problem. And preventing mask rules and preventing local decisions on vaccination requirements which the unemployed, cattle farmers, slumlords and other outstanding legislators say are aground practice looks less and less like a sensible path for one of the worst states in the country for COvID-19.

It is time for the governor to demand action. And if the legislature refuses, at least the blame will be clearer than it already is.

The line is open.

The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping all aspects of life in Arkansas. We're interested in hearing from doctors, nurses and other health care workers; from patients and their families; from people in longterm care facilities and their families; from parents and students affected by the crisis; from people who have lost their job; from people with knowledge of workplaces or communities that aren't taking appropriate measures to slow the spread of the disease; and more.

More here:

Coronavirus today and the open line: The case and hospital surges continue. Does the legislature care? - Arkansas Times

Elected Republican officials in a conservative Michigan county who gave themselves bonuses totalling $65,000 with federal Covid-19 relief funds said they would return the money following days of criticism.

The Shiawassee county commissioners acted after a prosecutor said the payments were illegal, the Argus-Press reported.

The Michigan state constitution bars additional compensation for elected officials after services had already been rendered, prosecutor Scott Koerner said.

The commissioners voted on 15 July to award themselves $65,000 as part of a plan to give $557,000 to 250 county employees as hazard pay for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

The smallest amounts for recipients were $1,000 to $2,000. But the chairman of the county board, Jeremy Root, got $25,000. Two commissioners received $10,000 each, while four received $5,000 each.

The vote was 6-0 with one commissioner absent.

The commissioners awarded money to other elected officials, including the prosecutor, the sheriff and the county clerk all Republicans too. They also said they would give it back.

Since these payments were made, confusion about the nature of these funds has run rampant, a statement said.

[We] deeply regret that this gesture has been misinterpreted, and have unanimously decided to voluntarily return the funds to the county, pending additional guidance from the state of Michigan.

One commissioner, Marlene Webster, insisted she had no idea she had voted to pay herself. She returned the money last week, posting a copy of the check on Facebook. She criticized the latest statement, saying there was no misinterpretation.

Thats an insult to the citizens of Shiawassee county, Webster said.

Two Michigan congressmen, a Democrat and a Republican, said federal virus aid was not intended to reward elected officials.

A judge set a hearing for Monday in a lawsuit aimed at rescinding bonuses for the officials, filed before the latest action.

Read more from the original source:

Michigan Republicans will return Covid relief funds used to pay own bonuses - The Guardian

Whether a vaccinated person ever becomes infected may depend on how high antibodies spiked after vaccination, how potent those antibodies are against the variant, and whether the level of antibodies in the persons blood has waned since immunization.

In any case, immune defenses primed by the vaccines should recognize the virus soon after infection and destroy it before significant damage occurs.

That is what explains why people do get infected and why people dont get seriously ill, said Michel C. Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York. Its nearly unavoidable, unless youre going to give people very frequent boosters.

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Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

There is limited evidence beyond anecdotal reports to indicate whether breakthrough infections with the Delta variant are more common or more likely to fan out to other people. The C.D.C. has recorded about 5,500 hospitalizations and deaths in vaccinated people, but it is not tracking milder breakthrough infections.

Additional data is emerging from the Covid-19 Sports and Society Workgroup, a coalition of professional sports leagues that is working closely with the C.D.C. Sports teams in the group are testing more than 10,000 people at least daily and sequencing all infections, according to Dr. Robby Sikka, a physician who worked with the N.B.A.s Minnesota Timberwolves.

Breakthrough infections in the leagues seem to be more common with the Delta variant than with Alpha, the variant first identified in Britain, he said. As would be predicted, the vaccines cut down the severity and duration of illness significantly, with players returning less than two weeks after becoming infected, compared with nearly three weeks earlier in the pandemic.

But while they are infected, the players carry very high amounts of virus for seven to 10 days, compared with two or three days in those infected with Alpha, Dr. Sikka said. Infected players are required to quarantine, so the project has not been able to track whether they spread the virus to others but its likely that they would, he added.

More here:

Why Vaccinated People Are Getting Breakthrough Infections - The New York Times