Category: Corona Virus

As coronavirus vaccination rates rise and the United States opens up after a lengthy pandemic, one of the emerging flashpoints involves elite sports.

The questions sports teams and leagues are facing are the same types of questions that are puzzling businesses, schools, shops and restaurants as the United States continues to open back up. But with world class athletes young, healthy and, in some cases vaccinated should the rules be different or more relaxed?

In recent weeks, at least two prominent athletes playing in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus and were required, by league rules, to quarantine despite being involved in major events. Their vaccination status also became subject to debate.

In the National Basketball Association, Phoenix Suns star Chris Paul tested positive, sidelining him during the late stages of the playoffs. Paul has not discussed his vaccination status, but ESPN analyst Jalen Rose has reported that Paul has been vaccinated.

And Jon Rahm of the Professional Golfers Association was forced to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament, which he was easily leading, with just one round left. Rahm has said he was vaccinated, but not quite out of the two-week period after the final shot that marks full vaccination.

Rahm experienced no coronavirus symptoms, and only knew he tested positive because of PGA Tour rules that require testing for players not considered fully vaccinated.

"To all the people criticizing the PGA Tour, they shouldn't," Rahm said. "We are in a pandemic, and even though this virus has very different forms of attacking people, you never know what reaction you're going to get. So PGA Tour did what they had to do ... I've heard a lot of different theories: I should have played alone, I shouldn't have that's nonsense. The rules are there, and it's clear."

Meanwhile, outside the United States, the coronavirus has spread among players at the Copa America soccer tournament in Brazil. In addition, officials are grappling with how to control the virus at the Olympics in Japan in July, since infections passed among participants could spark infection "brush fires" in their home countries once they return after the Games are over.

Here, well take a closer look at the challenges that elite sports are trying to navigate at this point in the pandemic.

If youre an athlete who is vaccinated, what are the risks from the coronavirus?

Scientists say that for fully vaccinated people, the risk of COVID-19 is significantly reduced, but not zero.

"All the vaccines produce several levels of immunity a few antibodies that can block infection lead the way, followed by a range of antibodies and white blood cells that are very good at mopping up infections," said Benjamin Neuman, a virologist at Texas A&M University. "Those front-line, infection-blocking antibodies are trying to hit a very small and difficult target, and sometimes miss. So not every vaccinated person starts with the same protection."

However, even if a virus gets through and causes infection in a vaccinated person, "nearly everyone who has a normally functioning immune system will make enough other defenses to prevent serious illness," Neuman said. "And new research shows that if a vaccinated person does become infected, the virus stimulates whatever anti-COVID immunity a person already has, to make even higher amounts of protective immunity."

Athletes, given their younger ages and general state of health, should fare even better than the average in a "breakthrough infection" scenario, said Babak Javid, a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.

"Severe outcomes in this population, once they are immunized, should be vanishingly rare, Javid said. "High-quality data from the United Kingdom suggests that severe COVID-19 in fully immunized individuals is very rare, and even then, it is mostly confined to the elderly."

Should athletes get vaccinated?

Unless theres some known health reason not to, experts said they would strongly urge athletes, as well as almost anyone else, to get vaccinated.

"If anyone is going unvaccinated by choice into competitions where there will be close contact with other potentially unvaccinated people, that is a really bad idea," Neuman said. "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."

There may be some variation in risk depending on the type of sport being played, Neuman said. Basketball features lengthy, close-up, person-to-person action, while golf doesnt (and, in theory, could be made even more socially distanced through changes to the timing of play on the course).

Some experts go so far as to suggest that at least for competitions within the United States, where vaccines are widely available for free vaccinated athletes shouldnt be punished for testing positive just to protect opponents who have chosen not to be vaccinated.

"If someone has been vaccinated with the extraordinarily safe and effective vaccines available in the U.S., their risk of getting seriously sick is almost non-existent, said Rebecca Wurtz, the director of public health administration and policy at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. "So we dont need to protect someone who is vaccinated by testing them or the people around them."

To Wurtz, "it is unfair to disqualify someone from attending, playing, or participating if they have been vaccinated even if they are shedding virus according to a positive test."

How many precautions can safely be rolled back?

Some experts say that testing in elite sports may not be necessary any more.

"The CDC does not recommend asymptomatic testing after vaccination, since the chance for false positives or a low-level virus in the nose that cant transmit or cause infection is high," said Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco. "Unfortunately, many sports teams have still not adopted updated CDC guidance on testing protocols after vaccination and are seeing these test results of positivity that may lead to a player being out or a team not being able to play for concern of a positive test."

However, other experts urged caution before phasing out testing, at least for now.

"People lie about their vaccination status," said Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. "Some of them just got one shot, and one shot of a two-shot vaccine is not likely to work well against new variants."

Caplan, who has advised the National Collegiate Athletic Association on coronavirus control practices, said the second-best course if mandatory vaccinations for athletes is impossible is to insist on public transparency.

"I dont like it when someones waffling or saying its none of your business," Caplan said. "Vaccination status isnt personal in the middle of a pandemic. It may be for getting a shingles vaccine, because that doesnt affect other people. But in a full-blown pandemic thats already killed 600,000 Americans, you want to be transparent, not to mention that you want athletes to be role models."

Caplan said that for now, its also wise to continue basic infection controls such as hand-washing and mask-wearing when coming into contact with the general public.

"We have to realize that the threat of the virus is not just to the athlete its also (to) the support people, transportation workers and others," Caplan said.

Should athletes be required to be vaccinated?

In an ideal world, experts said, mandatory vaccination would be desirable. "Any policy short of requiring vaccination is going to be much less effective than blanket vaccination," Neuman said.

Theres also an imperative for the team owners and leagues: They have a lot of equity invested in the health of their players.

"If I were a team owner, I would protect my investment by requiring everyone to be vaccinated," Wurtz said.

In the real world, however, its not so easy.

Federal law does allow companies to require employees to provide confirmation of vaccination, although some states have enacted laws that prevent this.

However, in the sports world, players typically belong to labor unions, so requirements on vaccination would likely need to be negotiated. (Paul, as it happens, is president of the NBA Players Association.)

"Its important for a team owner to have a conversation with their players to get it right," Caplan said. "Its such a hot-wired issue."

Ultimately, given the misconceptions about vaccine safety that are currently floating around, its important to establish two-way communications between players and management, Caplan said.

Caplan said that in his research, hes found that vaccine hesitancy falls into several categories, each of which needs to be addressed on its own terms. Some female athletes are worried about the vaccines effect on fertility, he said, while other athletes are concerned about the long-term effects. Still others think they dont need a vaccine if theyve already become sick from the virus.

Through direct dialoguing, health professionals can address each of these concerns effectively, Caplan said.

"You want to address peoples fears," he said. "You want to see it linked to an education campaign. Mandates work better when people are willing to go along."

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How should top-tier sports be handling the coronavirus? - PolitiFact

Novavax says its vaccine is 100% effective against the original strain of the coronavirus and had 93% efficacy against more worrisome variants. Alastair Grant/AP hide caption

Novavax says its vaccine is 100% effective against the original strain of the coronavirus and had 93% efficacy against more worrisome variants.

The first results from a large efficacy study of a new kind of COVID-19 vaccine are now out, and they are good. Very good.

According to Novavax, the vaccine's manufacturer, it had a 100% efficacy against the original strain of the coronavirus and 93% efficacy against more worrisome variants that have subsequently appeared.

In addition to efficacy, the PREVENT-19 (the PRE-fusion protein subunit Vaccine Efficacy Novavax Trial COVID-19) trial showed the Novavax vaccine was safe for users. Like other COVID-19 vaccines, it caused headaches, chills and muscle aches after injection, but few of these side effects were considered serious or severe.

The study involved 29,960 volunteers in the United States and Mexico. In the study, two-thirds of the volunteers received two shots of the vaccine and one-third received two shots of a placebo.

A total of 77 cases of COVID-19 occurred during the study: 63 in the placebo group and 14 in the vaccine group. According to the Novavax statement describing the results, none of the cases of COVID-19 in the vaccine group were related to the original strain of the virus, hence the 100% efficacy against the original strain.

The breakthrough cases were all caused by the newer, more worrisome variants, and all of the breakthroughs in the vaccine group were mild. By contrast, 10 in the placebo group were considered moderate and four severe. Novavax's statement did not specify which variants in particular were prevented.

The company says it intends to file for authorization from regulators in the U.S., Europe and the United Kingdom later this summer. Novavax says it will be able to deliver 100 million doses per month by the end of September and 150 million doses per month by the end of the year.

The Novavax vaccine is what's known as a protein subunit vaccine. All COVID-19 vaccines are based on something called the coronavirus spike protein. That's the protein that prompts the immune system to make antibodies to the virus.

The vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech deliver the genetic instructions for the spike protein in the form of messenger-RNA, and the cells of the person receiving the vaccine make the spike protein. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine delivers those instructions using a viral vector, again relying on the vaccine recipient's cells to make the protein.

Novavax, on the other hand, makes the protein in cell cultures grown in giant bioreactors in manufacturing facilities and delivers the fully formed vaccine along with a substance for priming the immune system in its vaccine.

The Novavax vaccine was one of the vaccines chosen for development as part of Operation Warp Speed. The U.S. government is providing $1.75 billion to the company to support the vaccine's development.

It's not clear at this point whether the Food and Drug Administration is prepared to continue to grant emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA may require Novavax to go through the standard licensure process, which can take considerably longer than an EUA.

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Novavax Says Its COVID Vaccine Is Extremely Effective - NPR

While we may be looking forward to the end of thecoronavirus crisis, health experts warn there may be more pandemics ahead of us.

Within the last 20 years alone, we've"dodged five bullets" withSARS, MERS, Ebola, avian influenza and swine flu.

But despite the knowledge gained from those experiences, we were still largely unprepared for thecoronavirus crisis. And the speed of its spread highlightsthe dangers posed by a hyper globalised world in a pandemic.

With more signs that things are ramping up, senior health officials from the World Health Organization warned last year thatalthough the coronavirus pandemic has been "very severe,"it is "not necessarily the big one".

While many years ago, a disease might have emerged in one area of the world and then have "died out before it spread anywhere else having global trade and travel means that the disease finds new human hosts really quickly," says Victoria Brookes, a senior lecturer in population health at Charles Sturt University.

AP:Emilio Morenatti

Globalisation has also caused profound changes in the conditions that help shape infectious diseases, particularly those that originate in wildlife.

As our population increases, cities are encroaching further and further on wildlife habitats, disrupting living patternsand causing stress to animals.

As ecosystems are destroyed, animals are broughtintocloser contact with humans due to environmental degradation and deforestation, becoming a key driver of "spillover events".

These incidents occur when a virus mutates enough times to allow it to jump to another species and requires close contact between the host species and the species it's moving into. It is believed a spillover event is what sparked the coronavirus pandemic.

"One of the strongest drivers for the emergence of new diseases is the increased interaction between humans and animals,"Hassan Vally fromLa Trobe University'sDepartment of Public Health said, pointing to urbanisation, environmental degradation and deforestation as bringing animals in closer contact with humans.

"Climate change is another driver for the emergence of new diseases.

"These drivers combined with the fact that if a pathogen with pandemic potential does emerge, it can spread quickly due the highly mobile nature of people in the modern world, further exacerbates the risk these diseases pose."

It is estimated that more than 60 per cent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses.It's why researchers are particularly focused on the crossover between humans and wildlife.

"The populations that we expect to see these arising fromaremore likely to be species that live in large colonies, thattravel long distances," Dr Brookes said.

"They mix with other populations of the samespecies and also, because they fly, they have contact with lots of other species, [as well as] people."

Zoonosesare caused by the transmission of pathogens such as viruses, parasites, bacteria or fungi either by direct contact or indirect contact between animals and people. This can be through the environment with the help of vectors or carriers.

Reuters:Ueslei Marcelino

It's believed there are just over 250 known zoonotic virusesviruses that have previously spilled over from animals to humans and caused disease in people.

But while these viruses are of ongoing concern, it isthe yet to be identified viruses that "pose an equal if not more serious threat to humanitystudy" according the authors behind a research paper on ranking the risk of animal-to-human spillover for newly discovered viruses.

The WHO has even given this unknown threatits own classification:Disease X, and listed it alongside Ebola and SARS as a top priority for research.

We have no idea what it is or what it can do. But scientists argue without adequate surveillance and preparedness we are doomed to wait for Disease X to emerge.

Before COVID-19, there was the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-1) in 2003, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2013, and the Ebola virus disease in 2014.

Reuters: Zohra Bensemra

There have also been other, smaller outbreaks that havedemonstrated the risk that exists at the "interfaces" between human activity and wildlife. One example is Nipah virus disease which has been listed as one of the World Health Organization's top-10 priority diseases.

Dr Brookes said this was first observed in large numbers of pigs on farms in Malaysia.

"There were also bats living in that region as well. And then they plantedfruit trees around the pig farm and so thatencouraged bats to that pig farm inadvertently," she said.

While the bats were already carrying the virus, it wasn't causing the disease in them, so thefirst signs of the disease were actually identifiedin the pigs.

"And then that virus evolved in the pigs because there were many pigs sowhich gave the virusopportunityto multiply and from there it infected humans," she said.

Scientists have zeroed in on areas withhigh livestock density, wildlife encroachment and high human population density as posing ahigher risk of a crossover happening.

Dr Brookes says that's whySouth-East Asia has become an area of focus, "because it ticks those boxes".

But diseases can emerge anywhere.Mosquitoes in North America, camels in Africa, pigs in Europe and monkeys in South Americaalso have been identified as having potential pandemic pathogens.

Poultry too carries risks due to its linkto Influenza A viruses, according to Joerg Henning, an associate professor in veterinary epidemiology at the University of Queensland.

Denis Balibouse, file photo: Reuters

There have also been emerging infectious diseases closer to home in Australia. A 2013 review found at least 20 human diseases associated with disturbed natural environments in Australia alone between 1973 and 2010, including Hendra virus, West Nile virus and Australian bat lyssavirus.

"Australia has had an unusual number of emerging infectious diseases as well," Dr Brookes said.

"I think it might just be down to the fact that we have relatively good surveillance here."

Recent studies have suggested that infectious diseases are emerging a lot more quickly than before, with a reportpublished in 2005 finding that they were appearingin humans every eight months.

AP: Matilde Campodonico

"There is no doubt that there will be other pandemics ahead of us and, in fact, as far as most epidemiologists are concerned, this one was long predicted," Dr Vally said.

Just how devastating the next pandemic will be, however, remains unclear. It will depend on several factors, includingthe infectiousness and the severity of whatever disease is behind it.

"What we do know is that both the drivers for the emergence of new pathogens with pandemic potential are strong and getting stronger," Dr Vally said.

"And we also know that the characteristics of our modern world facilitate the rapid spread of these pathogens when they emerge."

Dr Henningalso said that outbreaks of animal-to-human transmissions have become "more frequent in the last decades", but added "the pandemic is multiplied by the absence of reliable early warning systems and weak public health systems".

The experiences of 2020 and 2021 have taught us ishow the world can better future-proof against other pandemics.

For example, thepandemic has exposed, in wealthy countries as well as poor, "gaps in disease surveillance and disease control,"Dr Vally said.

AP: Emilio Morenatti

Even now, more than a year later, many countries are still grappling with how to control the spread of the coronavirus, particularly in light of new variants.

Dr Brookes said that "as long as countries have massive spread events, we will keep seeing waves of infection".

This is why there's been such a focus on vaccinating populations such as Australia and other middle- to high-income countries.

But Dr Brookes has also raised an issue with this strategy: "We should actually be really thinking about low- to middle-income countries where they don't have the opportunity to quarantine and control the virus like high-income countries do. Vaccination of people in these countries is critical to prevent emergence of new variants."

To be prepared for possible future pandemics, Dr Vally says it is necessary to not only have systems in place ready to kick into action but also to work together across the globe to bring disease threats under control.

"The one shining light during the pandemic is the advances in vaccine development that have occurred and that will not only impact on our ability to combat future pandemics but should also have a significant impact on other diseases in future," he said.

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SARS, MERS, COVID-19 and Disease X? Another pandemic may still be ahead of us. But what could it be? - ABC News

The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness headed above 177 million on Thursday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, while deaths climbed above 3.8 million. The U.S. continues to lead the world in total cases at 33.49 million, while deaths total 600,653. The number of fully vaccinated Americans rose to 146.5 million, or 44% of the total population, according to the latest data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with the number of U.S. adults receiving at least one dose increasing to 64.7%. There was disappointing news on the CureVac CVAC, -41.77% vaccine when the company said it's only 47% effective at preventing COVID, well below the more than 90% efficacy of the vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc. PFE, +0.22% and BioNTech SE BNTX, +4.13% and Moderna Inc. MRNA, +1.57%, which also use mRNA technology. CureVac said that its "pivotal" study, conducted in 10 countries and involving about 40,000 people, showed the vaccine candidate's being a poor match against a "fast changing environment" of at least 29 COVID-19 variants, with the original coronavirus strain "almost completely absent." The news sent its stock down sharply premarket. On a global basis, India is second in total cases at 29.7 million and third by fatalities at 381,903, although those numbers are expected to be undercounted given a shortage of tests. Brazil has the third-highest caseload at 17.6 million, according to JHU data, and is second in deaths at 493,693. Mexico has fourth-highest death toll at 230,624 and 2.5 million cases. The U.K. has 128,190 fatalities and 4.6 million cases, the highest number of deaths in Europe and fifth-highest in the world.

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Coronavirus tally: Global cases of COVID-19 top 177 million and CureVac vaccine is just 47% effective - MarketWatch

LONDON Agnieszka Bleka has had to work hard in past years to find companies that need workers, spending much of her day reaching out to local businesses in the northern English city of Preston where she is based.

But now, Ms. Bleka, who owns Workforce Consultants, a company that finds jobs in Britain for mostly Eastern and Central Europeans, said that she was fielding several calls a day from companies looking for temporary staff, and that she cant keep up with the demand.

The fish pond is getting smaller, she said. And people are picking and choosing the jobs, or leaving as well, going to their home countries.

Free movement between Britain and Europe technically ended at the start of 2021 because of Brexit, but the effects were masked by strict pandemic travel restrictions. Only lately, as the economy picks up steam, is the new reality beginning to be fully felt.

Migration experts say there is not enough reliable data to determine whether perceived shortages of workers are the result of Brexit, the pandemic or some combination of the two. It is also unclear whether they are temporary or reflect a more enduring shift. But there is little question that many companies are having considerable trouble filling jobs.

Ms. Bleka described it as an employees market, particularly among the workers she typically places in jobs in industrial warehouses, construction, landscaping and other low-skilled jobs.

Its like 180 degrees, she said. Where we used to have lots of people and not so many vacancies to fill up, now its the other way around.

But others less tethered to Britain moved back to their home countries, even before the pandemic hit, particularly those from Eastern and Central Europe who filled those lower-skilled jobs that now seem so tough to fill. Brexit and the anti-immigrant sentiment that helped drive it made many feel unwelcome, while others were discouraged by the sharp drop in the pounds value after the vote to leave the European Union.

As a member of the Polish community whose children attend a Polish school in Preston, Ms. Bleka said the number of students had noticeably dropped since the pandemic began.

There must be something that is taking people back, and Covid definitely didnt help, she said, noting that some workers may be finding a better quality of life and stronger economies in their home countries now than when they left.

Post-Brexit immigration changes, which use a points-based system, were intended to restrict the movement of lower-skilled workers from Europe in favor of higher-skilled workers in specialist roles.

Nevertheless, Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, a research body at Oxford University, said it was difficult to draw a direct line between the changes in the countrys immigration system and the worker shortage. Lack of reliable migration data, the fact that some workers are still on furlough and the uncertainty of the pandemic have all made the true picture more opaque.

She has written about how the migration data collected in Britain during the pandemic offers an imperfect picture, and warned that estimates of Europeans leaving by the hundreds of thousands may be way off. The true figure, she said, is more likely to be closer to tens of thousands.

But that could still be significant, she added.

At the macro level, the impact of changing the system in this way is actually not expected to be very big, she said. But for individual employers, it can be absolutely huge.

Industries like food manufacturing and food processing, which have relied heavily on low-skilled European migrants, could find their growth hampered by a lack of workers, she noted.

Before Brexit, Ms. Sumption said, What we might expect to see is that as recruitment picks up again, new people would come into the U.K. using their free movement rights, or people who had previously left coming back. Now, that is no longer an option.

The hospitality industry in Britain has been one of the major employers of European migrants and is already suffering from an inability to recruit new arrivals.

When Englands first lockdown was lifted last summer, the Australian restaurateur Bill Granger said he had encountered no problem taking on staff for all four of his Granger & Co. locations in London.

But this time around, he said, it has been a trial.

After a number of prolonged shutdowns, and with the added complications of Brexit visa changes and broader travel restrictions, he said he had found that many of his former employees had moved on. Some, such as waiters and chefs from France, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Spain, as well as Australian baristas, had returned home. Others had moved out of hospitality work entirely.

We opened and closed, and opened again, and whats happened now is weve lost all those people, Mr. Granger said. Even with the added help of a newly contracted human resources team, the company is still struggling to fill positions.

And with a smaller number of people working longer shifts because of the vacancies, he said, his current staff were stretched. All our team are absolutely exhausted, he said.

While some hospitality workers have taken the chance for a career change, others are still on furlough because of the pandemic and not ready to apply for new jobs yet.

Mr. Grangers restaurants in London have in the past relied on an influx of young European and Australian recruits, who are no longer traveling in the numbers they once did because of tighter restrictions on movement.

Everyone is happy to be back, but also just with losing people, its really, really hard, Mr. Granger said.

Jack Kennedy, an economist at Indeed, a job search site, said the demand for hospitality workers was outpacing the number of available workers across the sector.

The job postings have been rising so fast and the supply of candidates just really hasnt been able to keep up with that, he said, adding that a reliance by some industries on foreign-born workers who may have left during the pandemic had probably been part of the problem.

But the dearth of employees is also driving up pay, he said, with hourly wages advertised for hospitality roles across the country increasing. That raises the question of whether other industries struggling to fill roles will follow suit, and how big of an impact on the economy the shortages will have.

Ms. Sumption, of the Migration Observatory, said she was surprised to see so many reports of shortages, because unemployment in Britain is actually quite high and is higher among residents who hail from the European Union than among those born in the country. But, she noted, in industries like food manufacturing and food processing, workers from European Union countries made up most of the staff, and those sectors could be feeling more of a crunch.

Some employers have a business model that has really relied on free movement, and for those employers, there are much harder questions about how they deal with it, she said. Are they able to adjust to a world without free movement, or will they just do less, or even go out of business?

She noted as an example that, after large numbers of Eastern European workers arrived after 2004, there was a large amount of growth in Britain in the production of soft fruit, which is labor-intensive, because the influx of workers made it more affordable.

One of the kind of long-term impacts that one should expect to see is a change, not necessarily in the total economic prosperity of the U.K., but in the composition of the economy, she said. So we could have less growth in labor-intensive sectors that have relied on free movement.

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After Coronavirus Pandemic and Brexit, UK Begins to See Worker Gaps - The New York Times

(WXYZ) Michiganders may be able to return to their normal pre-COVID interactions sooner rather than later, as Gov. Whitmer hinted Wednesday that restrictions may be rolled back before July 1 as initially expected.

The state has been moving toward getting at least 70 percent of the population vaccinated before taking a major step in lifting several COVID-19 restrictions, such as required face masks indoors for unvaccinated people and capacity limits at restaurants and bars.

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On Wednesday, during a news conference in Grand Rapids, Gov. Whitmer was asked by WOOD-TV reporter Rick Albin about the possibility of lifting restrictions prior to July 1. Whitmer responded saying, "I think it's very possible."

She added that although the state still has a goal of getting 70 percent of Michiganders vaccinated before moving forward with this next step in the "MI Vacc to Normal" plan, she says that she's also trying to "meet people where they are."

"Each of these changes requires a lot of preparation and a lot of legal work and so we are assessing," Gov. Whitmer told Albin of WOOD-TV. "We had a modeling call, which we have every Tuesday night, we had that last night (and it showed) the numbers are good, really good, Whitmer said. Of course, we wanted to be at 70% (of the population vaccinated) Our work is still continuing but were trying to meet people where they are. Thats not unique to Michigan. Its happening all across the country. But weve got all these factors going into that and I would anticipate, whether its MIOSHA or the next step in returning to normal, I would probably have something talk about in the coming days and make some announcements soon.

Back on May 10, Michigan hit the first milestone of its reopening plan after reaching 55 percent of vaccinated people in the state. Currently, the state is at 60.6 percent vaccinated, according to the COVID-19 vaccine dashboard.

And although the state is short of its 70 percent vaccination goal, COVID numbers have continued to drop over the last several weeks, showing a change in a positive direction toward moving back to some form of normalcy.

Additional Coronavirus information and resources:

View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.

See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.

Visit our The Rebound Detroit, a place where we are working to help people impacted financially from the coronavirus. We have all the information on everything available to help you through this crisis and how to access it.

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Gov. Whitmer hints at possibly lifting COVID restrictions before July 1 - WXYZ

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned European countries against becoming complacent in their efforts to put an end to the coronavirus pandemic.

Across the continent, governments have been increasingly easing pandemic-related restrictions as new case numbers in the region continue their downward trend. More social gatherings, sports events and travel across borders are also being permitted.

But concerns are growing that the appearance of the highly transmissible variant nicknamed "delta,"first detected in India, could contribute to a resurgence of the virus.

"The fact that there's a fast spread of the Delta variant means that the virus still has the upper hand," Hans Kluge, WHO's regional director for Europe, told DW on Thursday.

"So, we have to be very careful about large, mass gathering events, particularly if it's with people without masks, which still remains a hazard," he said.

For now, the situation in Europe had improved, he said, pointing to falling numbers of new infections, hospitalizations and deaths. "But we're not out of the woods," Kluge stressed.

"I do understand that no one wants to give up another summer, but we should not pay for it with another re-locked winter."

The Delta variant of the coronavirus, first detected in India, is classified asa "variant of concern" by the WHO owing to evidence of increased transmissibility.

Variants of concern are those considered more dangerous than the original form of the virus first seen in China in late 2019

Studies have showed that Delta is more transmissible and resistant to vaccines than other variants of SARS-CoV-2.

Nevertheless, there is also evidence vaccines retain important effectiveness against the variant after two doses.

With regard to opening up and lifting all restrictions, Kluge said doing it in an uncontrolled manner was never a good approach. Instead, he recommended a gradual and cautious opening up of economic and social activities, while putting in place effective public health measures to prevent another resurgence of the virus.

He also pointed out that appropriate measures needed to be put in place to ensure safe travel and prevent the spread of infections.

"Safe travel advisory measures remain very very important, particularly at the main points of entry. It doesn't mean people cannot travel, but travel safely. We know what helps, what needs to be done. What we need is that the vaccines are spreading faster than the mutants are spreading."

On May 19, restaurants, hotels, theaters, and sport facilities are set to reopen, admitting visitors who show proof of a negative COVID test. These reopening plans will coincide with the elimination of quarantine rules for arriving tourists, enabling vaccinated and tested visitors to enter the country, as well as those who have recovered from COVID-19.

In order to fly to Switzerland, you will need a negative test, but this does not apply to arrivals by land. Only visitors arriving from high-risk areas are required to self-quarantine. Hotels are open, as are museums, stores, theaters and amusement parks. Restaurants are allowed to serve guests outdoors. Maximum occupancy numbers, social-distancing and mask-wearing rules apply everywhere.

In Greece, the outside areas of restaurants are allowed to open again but are required to close by 10:45 p.m., and a curfew is in place starting at 11:00 p.m. Vacationers who want to enter the country are obligated to submit their personal data online and they must show proof of a negative PCR test or that they are fully vaccinated. They dont't need to self-quarantine.

Italy is gradually lifting its restrictions. In areas with lower incidence rates, restaurants are allowed to serve guests outdoors even in the evening, but a curfew is in place starting at 10:00 p.m. Museums and movie theaters in yellow zones are open again. Italy aims to officially start its summer season on June 2, but the applicable restrictions for visitors have yet to be drawn up.

France is gradually opening up. Residents are now allowed to go beyond ten kilometers from their homes without a valid reason, and trips within the country are permitted again. A curfew is in place starting at 7 p.m. but is set to be pushed back to 9 p.m. starting on the May 19. Restaurants will then be allowed to serve guests outdoors, and stores and cultural establishments will open again.

The situation in Spain has eased up considerably, with many restrictions already lifted, but several regions plan to maintain their curfews for the time being. Masks will also continue to be mandatory outdoors. Arrivals from EU and Schengen countries are allowed, but those coming from high-risk areas are still required to show a negative test.

After about five and half months, a state of emergency was lifted Portugal on May 1. Restaurants, cultural and recreational establishments are thus now allowed to stay open until 10:30 p.m. In addition, the border with Spain is open again. Tourists from countries with a 14-day incidence rate exceeding 150, however, are still barred from entering Portugal.

In Croatia, hotels are allowed to receive guests and restaurants can open for outdoor dining provided they adhere to certain conditions. In order to enter the country, visitors must show proof of a negative PCR or antibody test, confirmation that they have recovered from COVID-19, or proof that they have been fully vaccinated.

Stores have been reopened, but in order to dine indoors, guests are required to use an app to show they have tested negative, been fully vaccinated, or have recovered from COVID. Fully vaccinated arrivals from EU and Schengen countries are allowed to enter Denmark without a valid reason provided that their country is classified as "orange" or better, meaning with a lower COVID risk.

Hotels are allowed to welcome guests again at 50% capacity. Outdoor dining will be allowed as well starting on May 15 and indoor dining as of May 29. Visitors are required to self-quarantine for ten days upon arrival unless they show proof of a negative test. Fully vaccinated people and those who have recovered from COVID are likewise exempted from the quarantine requirement.

Author: Elisabeth Yorck von Wartenburg

On the issue of vaccinations, he said there was too much inequity in access to vaccines and that "no one is safe until everyone is safe."

"We need 11 billion doses in the next 12 months, which would cost $150 million a day, while the pandemic every day costs 100 times more. So, we need strong leadership and thank you to Germany for a very strong contribution to the COVAX facility," he said.

Asked about when things could return to normal, Kluge said "it's tricky to put a figure."

"But our experts in the European region have the benchmark of 80%. If you have 30% of your population vaccinated, you start to stabilize. If you have 60%, at that moment, you really protect, and at 80%, we can get out of it," he explained.

"So, it's very important for the people, it's your turn, please show up and take the two doses."

Excerpt from:

Coronavirus 'still has the upper hand,' warns WHO Europe head - DW (English)

Felix Marquardt, a former global schmoozer and current author of The New Nomads, explains why attempting to solve the worlds problems up a Magic Mountain in Switzerland over the course of a few short days, is a quick fix that does more harm than good.

A few weeks ago, the World Economic Forum (WEF) pulled the plug on its gathering in Singapore in August. The reasons invoked by the organisers for this third cancellation (plans for an alternative, exceptional meeting in Lucerne in May were also scrapped earlier this year) centred around health concerns and logistics.

The truth is more complex and the malaise runs deeper. The pandemic has exposed the contradictions of the WEF as a project and its terminal lack of legitimacy and credibility in the post-Covid era.

My inkling as an addict in recovery, is that the organisers are unable to come to terms with this because, just like others in the throes of active addiction, they are in denial.

I used to be a senior adviser to a number of global leaders and a Davos cheerleader. I also used to do a lot of drugs. I had my last drink and drug seven years ago.

At the height of my substance abuse, I thought I couldnt possibly be an alcoholic or an addict. Addicts were people shooting up on park benches or sucking on glass pipes in crack houses. I was flying around the world in business class, living in five star palaces, working for heads of state (including dictators), people running for office (including aspiring dictators) and CEOs of some of the worlds largest multinationals.

A few years into recovery, I came to a different realisation: I had flourished in Davos and in other global circles of power not in spite of my being an addict, but in no small part because I was one. The high which proximity with power, fame and wealth fuelled in me wasnt that different from the high I felt when I did drugs.

So what do my experiences say about others in the WEF circus?

The pandemic has sparked a global existential crisis in many of us, including pillars of the Davos establishment. It has been about recognising, belatedly, that weve been calling normal is a form of civilisational suicide.

Many of us are coming to terms with the fact that we dont know how to decorrelate greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth and that the phrase green growth is, for now and the foreseeable future, an oxymoron. In a world where about 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the 10 per cent wealthiest humans those of us who earned not millions but $38,000 or more in 2015 the climate crisis is fundamentally an inequality crisis.

Yet from its inception, the WEF has hence been engaged in an exercise of contortion to not have a meaningful conversation on growth. It has since then been paid hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars (governed by Swiss law, the finances of the WEF are frighteningly opaque) by entities whose shareholders are eager to avoid it.

If we have indeed become addicted to carbon, growth and extraction, the techno-utopian verbiage which has become the lingua franca of Davos has become a liability.

The author Lewis Hyde once wrote that the spread of alcoholism happens when a culture is dying. A healthy, functioning culture turns its children into grown-ups. Addicts in contrast are defined by Jungs characterisation of the puer aeternus.

That prism of addiction helps explain our cultures childish solutionism. Like addicts in recovery who get a daily reprieve but are never cured, what we are dealing with are predicaments not problems. Problems, like the equations schoolchildren are asked to solve, have solutions. In contrast, you can respond to predicaments in a more or less constructive and healthy way but they cannot be solved. You have to live with them.

The current, dominant, feelgood approach mirrors that of an addict, in recovery but secretly hoping that they will one day be able to manage their substance use. The Davos crowd seek quick fixes, takeaways, action points and deliverables, rather than dwelling on the thoroughly uncomfortable reality of our condition, for fear of going into depression or becoming paralysed by inertia. The sooner that is ditched, the better. The highest form of hope, the French author George Bernanos once wrote, is despair overcome. But to overcome it, you first need to go through the despair. You need to hit rock bottom.

I am convinced the WEF was founded with the best of intentions. The time has come to move on.

An encouraging number of business and political leaders worldwide are busy trying to figure out how to convince their respective audiences that their corporation, their institution, their political party or their government have understood that going back to normal is not an option. Its far from clear for many of them how they will prove that they have gotten the proverbial memo. But there is a very simple way to show that they havent. And that would be to go back to Davos.

In a world in which the most accurate predictor of the carbon footprint of an individual, household, company or country is how much money they spend, we have become a civilisation led by affluent smooth talkers. What we deserve is to be led by wise elders (and who possibly have made a vow of poverty), a kind of Jedi council of people chosen for their willingness to self-sacrifice, for their commitment to be of service to others and above all, for walking their talk.

Some will argue that such a council is bound to appear illegitimate, that you need to have skin in the game to be credible and audible. Yet we would be much better led and served by rotating committees of old-timers and trusted servants than by the present mix of plutocracy and kakistocracy of people-pleasers willing to say anything and to go to any length to stay in power.

Theres also the sense that Davos and other gatherings represent a quick fix. They last only a few days, producing an Inch Deep, Mile Wide approach with outcomes the equivalent of an Ayahuasca initiation consumed by non-indigenous folks without adequate preparation and follow-up: incredibly powerful, but with no lasting effect. Anyone who has felt the high and the renewed hope from taking part in a great conference and then wondered a week later where that feeling has gone knows what Im talking about.

What we require today is a Mile Deep, Inch Wide approach. Instead of meeting once a year in huge numbers at the top of the Magic Mountain, let us take part in ongoing, regular virtual processes in relatively small numbers over years, punctuated here and there with in-person gatherings down in the plains. Let us bring together people from all around the world and society with widely different Weltanschauungs but with a genuine commitment to the slow, painstaking process of getting well.

Read more:

Davos is dead, and the coronavirus killed it - Financial Times

The deafening roar will have been music to the ears of football fans around the world. Empty or only partly full stadiums have become the norm during the pandemic, often creating a sterile atmosphere for players and viewers alike.

But the Hungarian government has bucked the trend, allowing a full-capacity crowd at the newly built arena, at the behest of football-mad prime minister Viktor Orban.

The populist Orban, in power since 2010 but facing a unified opposition in tough elections next April, has relaxed social distancing regulations to allow fans to sit side-by-side.

Whatever the reasons, though, it made for a raucous atmosphere and gave a definite lift to the home side against their more fancied opponents, the reigning European champions.

Fans were able to gain entry to the stadium if they showed certification that they had been vaccinated against the virus, while entry times at the gates were staggered to try to keep large groups apart outside the venue.

Read more here:

Brazil records 2,468 new Covid deaths as it happened - The Guardian

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Last year, as the coronavirus killed hundreds inside Texas lockups and sickened tens of thousands more, prisoner rights advocates unsuccessfully pleaded for state officials to more quickly release the thousands of people in prison who had already been approved for parole.

Now, a new report shows delays in release have been deadly.

In the first year of the pandemic, 18 people who had already been granted parole died with COVID-19 before they could walk out of prison, according to a report released Thursday from the University of Texas at Austins Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. At least another two dozen parole grantees died in prison from reasons unrelated to the coronavirus in the same period, largely due to chronic health issues.

While COVID has dramatically exacerbated this problem, the data also tells us that this phenomenon is not unique to the pandemic era, the report stated.

At least 26 people died in prison in 2019 after having been granted parole, according to the report.

In April, about 10,800 people held in Texas prisons had already been approved for parole, according to data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, accounting for 9% of the state prison population. More than a quarter of them had been granted parole at least six months earlier, and nearly 900 people had been waiting for more than a year.

The large number of parole grantees in prison is not unusual. At any given time, thousands of people are held in Texas prisons despite having a parole approval in their hands. Thats in part because the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles requires most prisoners to first undergo additional educational or rehabilitative programming before their parole release, which can last from three to 18 months.

Some of the programs are specific to the persons conviction, like addiction and sex offender treatment programs. But many prisoners are assigned to complete a more generic life-skills program that lasts three months. In 2019, less than a quarter of those granted parole were approved for release without delay.

During the pandemic, those classes and the parolees releases were often pushed back. Before March 2020, a person granted parole remained in prison an average of three to four months before being released, according to the report. That average increased to six months in the pandemic, with a typical delay ranging from five to 11 months. Eleven people who died in prison during the pandemic had been approved for parole more than a year earlier, the report found.

One explanation for the delay is that those who required programming that wasnt available at their prisons had to wait months while transfers among units were stopped to limit the virus spread. And units confirmed to have active infections were locked down, sometimes for a month or more, restricting activity within and halting movement in and out of them. Rehabilitative programming shifted from in-person interactions in a classroom setting to filling out paper packets in the prisoners dorm or cell.

The threat of the coronavirus and the limited programming inside prompted family members and prisoner advocates to call for parolees to complete any necessary programming outside of prison walls after release. But the parole board said repeatedly it would not change its parole review process during the pandemic. Gov. Greg Abbott, who oversees the board, has maintained a strong message against increased release from lockups, stating in March 2020 that releasing dangerous criminals in the streets is not the solution to the virus threat inside prisons and jails.

For those who had been approved for release on parole, the UT Austin report suggested free-world programming, noting it is already often available in the community for people sentenced to probation. The report also recommended that TDCJ provide prisoners any necessary rehabilitative programming earlier in their sentences, so as not to postpone release once parole has been granted. Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the LBJ School and an author of the report, said such a change would require a significant shift in practices within the parole board and TDCJ.

Theres a concept that every expert will tell you, which is that reentry starts on the day of admission to prison, she said. To adhere to that concept, it makes sense to offer that programming at the start of someones time that theyre incarcerated.

In the Legislature, the Texas House passed a bill this year to require that any necessary prerelease programs be identified by the parole board and made available to prisoners by TDCJ before they become eligible for parole. The bill died, however, after never moving in the Senate.

A spokesperson for the parole board did not respond to questions Tuesday. TDCJ spokesperson Jeremy Desel said the agency provides programming that is mandated by the parole board, and acknowledged the pandemic absolutely presented challenges to parole releases. He added that the state has a low rate of people released from prison being reincarcerated within three years.

The parole system is built to give inmates the highest possible chance to succeed in their reintegration into society, he said. And the way our parole system works and has been working in Texas is a success story.

Aside from COVID-19, most deaths of those granted parole were due to chronic health conditions, according to the UT report. It says the state pays an estimated $744,722 each day the nearly 10,800 prisoners who were approved for parole in April stay locked up. And costs are much higher for those with chronic medical conditions, as an aging prison population continues to increase prison health care costs. The report recommends immediately releasing those granted parole who are chronically ill.

Its a problem that is not only a tremendous human toll, but its got an enormous cost attached to it, Deitch said.

For Kambri Crews, any of the recommended changes in the report could have let her see her father in person before he died in prison custody in July instead of saying goodbye on a hard-fought FaceTime call. Theodore Cigo Crews, 73, died in a prison hospital after a late cancer diagnosis, 30 days after hed been granted parole. He had served 18 years of a 20-year aggravated assault sentence.

We went through a whole roller coaster of emotions, Kambri Crews said, between learning he was approved for parole and his death. From elation and fear because of the COVID concerns, and also this crushing feeling of helplessness in knowing that we were going to be caught in the apathetic bureaucracy.

Her father was first required to take a drug and alcohol program, she said, but she didnt understand why he couldnt have taken classes any other time in his nearly two decades behind bars, or take them outside with her had he been released.

Hes a prime example of someone who needed therapy and [Alcoholics Anonymous] and domestic violence training before he got released, she acknowledged. But hed been in prison for 18 years, so what was that time for?

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Dozens who died in Texas prisons during the pandemic had been granted parole, new report shows - The Texas Tribune