Corona Virus – Page 652 – Vaccine And Virus Daily News

WHO says the coronavirus is killing about 50,000 people a week: ‘That is not where we want to be’ – CNBC

September 19, 2020

The World Health Organization warned Friday that the coronavirus is "not going away," noting that it's still killing about 50,000 people a week.

"That is not where we want to be," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies program, said of Covid-19 deaths during a news conference at the agency's Geneva headquarters. "It's not where the Northern Hemisphere wants to be going into the winter season. It's not where developing countries want to be with their health services under nine months of pressure."

Ryan said the virus still has a "long way to burn." WHO officials said they are beginning to see "worrying trends" in the number of Covid-19 cases, ICU admissions and hospitalizations in the Northern Hemisphere as it enters the colder seasons.

"It has not burned out, it is not burning out, it is not going away," Ryan said, "and especially for those countries entering their winter season in terms of people coming together more indoors. There's a lot of work to do in order to avoid amplification events, drive down transmission of this epidemic, protect the opening of schools, and protect the most vulnerable in our society from severe disease and death."

European health officialshave warned for weeksabout a rising number of Covid-19 cases. More than half of European countries have reported a 10% or greater increase in cases in the past two weeks and, of those, seven have seen newly reported cases increase more than twofold, the WHO's regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge, said Thursday in a news briefing.

In the U.S., health officials are reporting an average of about 39,000 new Covid-19 cases per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University data. Covid-19 cases were growing by 5% or more, based on a weekly average to smooth out daily reporting, in at least 34 states as well as Washington, D.C., as of Friday, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, an increase from eight states at the same time last week.

"The energy has not gone out of this pandemic. There's a lot of energy left in this spring and this can drive the pandemic forward," Ryan said.

U.S. health officials fear the outbreak could get worse as the nation enters the fall and winter seasons. Health officials have repeatedly warned that they are preparing to battle two bad viruses circulating later this year as the Covid-19 outbreak runs into flu season.Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci,thenation'sleadinginfectiousdiseaseexpert, said daily new cases were"unacceptably high"intheU.S. this close tothe fall.

"Once you get the level of infection down really, really low, it almost self-propagates itself to stay low, but you've got to get it low," Fauci told The Wall Street Journal's "The Journal" podcast published on Thursday.

"Once it's way up there it's tough to get it down," he said. Fauci said that number for the U.S. would be "hundreds of cases, thousands, but not 20, 30, 40 thousand cases a day."

Dr. Maria VanKerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on the Covid-19 pandemic, noted Friday that global health officials have "literally hundreds" of seroepidemiology studies ongoing that examine the extent of coronavirus infection in different populations. The studies indicate that "a majority of the world's population is susceptible to infection from this virus," she said.

"That means the virus has a long way to go," she said.

Van Kerkhove said it's "absolutely critical" for countries to have a strong plan for when outbreaks arise. She told CNN's "New Day" program earlier Friday that the rise in hospitalizations in some European countries, like the U.K. and France, are "worrying trends" because the Northern Hemisphere hasn't "even started to hit the flu season yet," which could add more strain to an already burdened health system.

"What's really important right now is for countries in their response is that they break down the problem, they break down the outbreak into the lowest administrative level as possible as the data will allow," she said."It's not just about case numbers. These are incredibly important and we need to be able to track these trends but we also need to look at hospitalizations, we need to look at ICU occupancy and how many people are being admitted into intensive care."

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WHO says the coronavirus is killing about 50,000 people a week: 'That is not where we want to be' - CNBC

What the Fall and Winter of the Pandemic Will Look Like – The New York Times

September 19, 2020

Lets set aside the wave analogy. Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, says that its far more accurate to think of the pandemic as a forest fire. We have suppressed it in some places, but we have not put it out completely. Its going to keep burning as long as it has wood, he says. In this case, wood is humans that are susceptible to infection.

Its safe to assume that case counts will rise in the coming months, as colder weather forces more people indoors (in the North, at least) and as more students and teachers return to in-person schooling. Colleges are already grappling with outbreaks, and infected students are already returning home to seed a further spread in their own communities.

Case counts could start spiking just a few weeks from now, Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, told me. The most rigorous predictions are that we head into November with 220,000 deaths. And if pandemic-fatigued families travel to spend the holidays together, it will get worse in late fall and winter.

Its tough to say whether the nation will reach or surpass the grim peaks of the summer, when we were seeing 65,000 to 70,000 new cases every day. Hopeful policymakers have speculated that fall outbreaks will be less severe, because many communities are at or approaching the herd immunity threshold the point at which enough people have become immune to the virus that it can no longer spread easily. But there are several problems with this hypothesis.

First, we dont really know how durable immunity to the virus might be. Most scientists think its likely that it lasts anywhere from several months to a year. But doctors have confirmed a few cases of repeat infection and, in at least one of them, the second infection proved more severe than the first.

Second, herd immunity is not a magical doorway that will take us back to the before-times. People think once we hit this number we can all go to the bar because now its over, Dr. Jha says. But it doesnt work like that. Its hard to know what the threshold even is (most experts put it at around 60 percent or higher, though some argue it could actually be much lower) and difficult to say when a population has crossed it. But even then, the virus would only slow down, not stop.

Third, most experts agree that, whatever the threshold proves to be, no country in the world is there yet. Even if some of the hardest hit communities in Corona, Queens, for example are partly protected, antibody tests indicate that, overall, just 10 percent to 12 percent of Americans have been infected with the virus to date. If SARS-CoV-2 is a forest fire, it still has a lot of wood to burn through.

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What the Fall and Winter of the Pandemic Will Look Like - The New York Times

This Week in Coronavirus: September 11 to September 17 | KFF – Kaiser Family Foundation

September 19, 2020

Heres our recap of thepast week inthe coronaviruspandemicfrom our tracking, policy analysis, polling, and journalism.

With U.S. coronavirus case and death cumulative totals continuing to lead the world, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman wrote a featured essay for The BMJ discussingtwo fundamental policy decisions made by the Trump Administration that set the U.S. on the controversial and highly criticized course it has taken on COVID-19. He writes, The US coronavirus failure was not inevitable and does not have to be permanent. But it is historically aberrant for our federal government to follow and not lead in a national crisis, and equally unusual for our country to divide rather than unify in a time of crisis. Additionally, KFF released an overview of President Trumps record on health care, which features a section on his COVID-19 response.

An analysis by Epic Health Research Network and KFF of 50 million patients records finds disparities for people of color across the spectrum of the COVID-19 pandemic, including higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death. Further, people of color are sicker when they test positive and the disparities in hospitalization and death remain when accounting for underlying health conditions and differences in sociodemographic factors.

As public health officials and policymakers prepare for an eventual COVID-19 vaccine, a Policy Watch post examines flu vaccination rates, highlighting the lower rates among adults of color. Insightsinto the potential barriers and issues that should be addressed as part of a vaccination strategy are discussed.

Global Cases and Deaths:Totalcases worldwide surpassed30 millionthis week withan increase ofapproximately1.9 million new confirmed cases in the past seven days.There wereapproximately35,400new confirmed deaths worldwide, bringing the total to nearly 945,000confirmed deaths.

U.S. Cases and Deaths:Total confirmed cases in the U.S. neared 6.7 million this week.Therewas anapproximateincrease of 278,000confirmed cases betweenSeptember 11 and September 17.Approximately 6,000confirmed deaths in the past week brought the total in the United States toapproximately197,600.

Extensions: GA, IA, MS, WY

Rollbacks: FL, IA, MI, MS, UT

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This Week in Coronavirus: September 11 to September 17 | KFF - Kaiser Family Foundation

When Will You Be Able to Get a Coronavirus Vaccine? – The New York Times

September 19, 2020

Americans are desperate to know when a coronavirus vaccine will be available to finally curb the pandemic that has already taken nearly 200,000 lives in the United States, and allow schools and the broader economy to reopen.

Scientists and vaccine makers have long said that a handful of vaccines could be available by the end of the year, if everything goes according to plan. But in recent weeks, President Trump has insisted that a vaccine will be ready before the presidential election on Nov. 3, raising fears that one could be rushed against the advice of scientists and regulators.

Testing and producing a vaccine is a complex process with a lot of uncertainties. But the best guess for now, experts say, is this: If every aspect of the vaccines development and distribution goes exactly as planned and history has shown that rarely happens certain people in high-risk groups could get vaccinated this year. Most other Americans, however, will quite likely have to wait until well into next year.

At a news conference on Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump doubled down on that unrealistic timeline, saying that a vaccine could be ready by mid-October and that it would then be made available immediately to the general public.

Were not looking to say, Gee, in six months, were going to start giving it to the general public, he said. No, we want to go immediately.

In doing so, he contradicted his own director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, who had testified to senators earlier in the day that a vaccine would most likely not be available until the middle of next year. Mr. Trumps statements also contrasted with comments made Wednesday morning by officials with Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to accelerate a vaccine, who said that supplies would be limited in the first months that a vaccine is available.

It was not the first time the president had pushed an accelerated timeline. Just the night before, at a town-hall meeting hosted by ABC News, he said one could be available in three to four weeks.

Dr. Redfields timeline is consistent with the best guess estimates from other vaccine experts, who say that the general public wont have access to the vaccine until February at the very earliest, and possibly more like July or August.

Of the three companies with vaccines in late-stage clinical trials in the United States, just one Pfizer has said that it could have initial results by the end of October. The other two companies, Moderna and AstraZeneca, have been more vague, saying only that they hope for results before the end of the year. If a coronavirus vaccine were to show results this year, it would shatter the previous record of four years for the development of a new vaccine.

Dr. Paul Offit, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Food and Drug Administrations vaccine advisory panel, was skeptical that Pfizer could be so sure of its timeline. I think its irresponsible they dont know, he said. I think the more responsible answer is, Hopefully, well know something by the beginning of next year. That would seem to me to be the most likely scenario.

Modernas top executives said in interviews this week that they could have initial results by November. But a trial blueprint the company released on Thursday indicated an even longer timeline, suggesting that the first analysis of the trial data may not be conducted until late December, and that there may not be enough information then to determine whether the vaccine works. Later analyses, projected for March and May, are more likely to provide an answer, the company said in its blueprint. (A company spokesman said the November estimate is an updated assessment of what was in the blueprint.)

AstraZenecas timeline is also in question after it halted global trials this month because of a participant who had developed severe neurological symptoms after receiving the experimental vaccine. The company has not released details about the medical condition of the person, nor has it said whether the reaction was because of the vaccine. The trials have since resumed in the United Kingdom and in Brazil, but not in the United States, where it has been paused since Sept. 6.

While clinical trials are underway, independent panels of experts periodically check in on the data. If the vaccine shows signs that it is extremely effective, the board could decide it would be unethical to continue the trial and keep giving some participants a placebo. This outside panel could also ask a company to stop a trial if it was not preventing Covid-19 cases, or if there were serious safety concerns.

Whether the vaccine is effective is determined by comparing how many people in each group the vaccine group and the placebo group develop the disease. If many more people in the placebo group get infected, that means the vaccine works. As a result, the trials speed is determined by how fast the virus is spreading in the communities where trials are underway. Organizers try to guess where infections are on the rise and set up trials there, but in a fast-moving pandemic, thats not always easy.

Trial pauses for safety reasons like the one recently announced by AstraZeneca could also slow down the timeline, even if the safety problems are ultimately found to be unrelated to the vaccine.

Once the results are available, the Food and Drug Administration will review the data and either issue an emergency authorization most likely for specific, high-risk groups of people like health care workers or a broader approval for commercial licensure. Either way, the agency has said that it will consult with an advisory board of experts before making a decision.

Companies have been in contact with F.D.A. officials all along the way, and many experts predict that the agency will be able to approve an emergency authorization within days, if the results are clear enough.

The best-guess range from scientists, investors and federal health officials is the first half of next year.

Even if one of the front-runners gets an answer about its vaccine this year, too few vaccines will have been produced to distribute them widely to the public. The head of Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, told NPR that he estimated about 20 to 30 million doses of a vaccine would be ready by the end of the year, far short of the 100 million doses that Mr. Trump said Wednesday. (The front-runner vaccines all require two doses, given several weeks apart, further complicating the process.)

Dr. Slaoui also recently said that Americans would most likely not be widely vaccinated until the middle of 2021, and that the chance of having a vaccine by October or November was extremely unlikely.

The first few months of a vaccines availability will limit access to high-risk groups like older people or health care workers and police officers.

Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former F.D.A. official, said he thought it was not unreasonable to expect that the first batches for high priority groups could be ready by February if everything lines up. And the lesson of drug development is that everything hardly ever all lines up.

Earlier this month, the C.D.C. told public health agencies that two million doses of a vaccine might be available by the end of October, with 10 to 20 million doses possibly available by November, and 20 to 30 million by the end of December.

In a briefing for reporters Wednesday, officials with Operation Warp Speed described the first few months of a vaccines availability as a constrained phase when it would be available only to high-priority groups.

Those groups alone include millions of people. At a recent meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the C.D.C., an agency official presented a slide showing that in the United States, there are as many as 20 million health care workers, up to 80 million essential workers and about 53 million people older than 65. Each of those people would need two doses of the vaccine for it to be effective.

For everyone else, the timing depends on the speed of manufacturing and distribution, and a willingness by the public to actually get vaccinated.

In the best-case scenario, additional vaccines could become available to the public early next year. Johnson & Johnson has said it expected to begin late-stage trials of its vaccine this month, and another company, Novavax, could begin its trial soon.

Stphane Bancel, the chief executive of Moderna, said in an interview Wednesday that he expected a global shortage of vaccines well into next year. In the first half of next year, at least maybe until Labor Day next year, I anticipate that the world is going to be massively supply-constrained, meaning not enough vaccine to vaccinate everybody, Mr. Bancel said.

And thats assuming that everyone wants to take a vaccine. Recent polls have shown that is not necessarily the case, especially if the vaccine is seen to have been rushed to market for political reasons.

Carl Zimmer contributed reporting.

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When Will You Be Able to Get a Coronavirus Vaccine? - The New York Times

California is beating back the coronavirus. Will it last? – Los Angeles Times

September 19, 2020

After months of bleak figures and forecasts, California now appears to be riding a wave of success beating back the coronavirus as officials express cautious optimism about what is next for the state.

Hospitals across the state are treating the fewest patients with COVID-19 since April. The percentage of tests coming back positive for the virus is lower than ever, proof that the state has reined in a massive surge that began this summer.

We are turning the corner, said Gov. Gavin Newsom in a news conference Wednesday as he listed multiple coronavirus metrics now lower than what weve seen in a number of months.

But these signs of progress also bring concerns that it could be erased. Many businesses are pushing for a faster reopening timeline, including Disneyland, Universal Studios and other theme parks, which wrote a letter to Newsom this week urging him to quickly issue guidelines so they can start allowing visitors again. Also this week, a group of nearly 300 fitness centers filed suit against the governor protesting their extended closure.

Experts fear that reopenings could coincide with flu season as well as with people becoming more complacent in their day-to-day lives, wearing masks less or choosing to attend gatherings likely to spread the virus. Such loosening happened before, in late May and June, and there is no reason it would play out differently this time, they say.

The virus is the same. These numbers we generate are markers of how efficiently were avoiding the virus, said UC San Francisco epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford. Were not doing anything to the virus except avoiding it.

Ideally, there is a delicate balance that can be struck, with eased restrictions that cause only a slight increase in case numbers that dont overwhelm the healthcare system or lead to hundreds of deaths. But California failed in its first attempt, so the question now is whether it can pull it off this time.

In recent weeks, as much of the states attention has turned to devastating wildfires, significant gains have been made against COVID-19. Daily case numbers have dropped from more than 10,000 a day a few months ago to fewer than 3,000. The number of people hospitalized with COVID has shrunk from a peak of 7,170 in late July to 2,821 on Tuesday, according to the California Department of Public Health.

This is all good news, said UCLA epidemiologist Dr. Timothy Brewer. Everything is moving in the right direction, so I would personally be positive.

Brewer attributed the progress to a combination of business closures, wearing masks, physical distancing, more testing and faster contact tracing. But he warned that if people socialized unsafely on Labor Day, the numbers could start heading in the opposite direction.

Both the Memorial Day and July Fourth holiday weekends proved to be breeding grounds for coronavirus as people used the time off to throw parties and share meals with friends and family. It will be a few weeks before the data show the complete picture of what happened during the holiday weekend, he said.

I think we have been, as a community, doing an excellent job, but fatigue does kick in, he said.

The trends could also change in the short term if evacuations from the wildfires have pushed people to stay with their friends or family, or in shelters where the virus could easily spread among people in close quarters.

Testing in some places, including Los Angeles County, has also been limited because of testing site closures because of extreme heat and hazardous air quality in recent days, which could also affect the numbers.

Assuming the numbers stay low, many counties could soon begin reopening businesses. State officials said Wednesday that they expect that several counties will get the green light next week to move into a less restrictive tier, which would allow more reopenings.

But it is reopenings that largely drove the surge earlier this summer, experts say. As cases skyrocketed in July, Newsom was forced to close bars, zoos and museums as well as indoor dining statewide to curb the spread. Some counties, including L.A. and Orange, were also forced to close gyms, houses of worship, hair salons and malls.

Though the standards for opening in May were smart and well-crafted, the shortcoming was not hard-wiring those or following them diligently, which allowed reopenings to happen too quickly, said USC epidemiologist Dr. Neha Nanda.

In early summer, counties were allowed to ask for exemptions to the criteria that had been set, and often opened multiple sectors at once. In a single week in May, L.A. County officials opened restaurants for indoor dining, barber shops and hair salons, places of worship, in-store shopping at retail stores and malls, drive-in movie theaters and flea markets.

Obviously, we learned a lesson, Nanda said.

Now Newsom is mandating that counties follow a step-by-step plan, spending at least three weeks in each tier. To move into a less restrictive tier, counties must meet the criteria for two weeks straight. If a county moves into a new tier but then fails to meet the criteria, it will be bumped back down, according to Newsoms plan.

On Wednesday, Dr. Mark Ghaly, California Health and Human Services secretary, said that San Diego County, one of a few counties in Southern California to move into a tier that allows indoor dining, movie theaters and gyms, appeared to be failing to meet the standard required to stay in that tier.

He said that if the numbers persist, the county could be forced to close those businesses until the numbers improve.

If thats what the data shows, thats what the state is going to expect, Ghaly said. Were reaching levels of transmission that are lower than weve seen in many months, but we still need to continue to keep our guard up.

Ghaly said hospitals need to keep their coronavirus numbers low to prepare for winter and the flu season, which could fill hospital beds. In the coming days, the state will provide an update about theme parks and other sectors looking to reopen, Newsom said.

The logic behind the reopenings is not that the threat of coronavirus has vanished, but that some things can be open because they become less risky as the spread of the virus falls. For example, if everyone has COVID-19 in a community, then going to a restaurant becomes very dangerous. If only one out of 1,000 people is infected with the virus, the risk drops.

Thats the balance that counties will be trying to achieve over the next months: keeping the numbers low enough so that the risk of doing activities doesnt skyrocket. No one yet knows exactly how to strike that balance, and the stakes are high, experts say.

As long as community transmission exists, as long as its higher than zero, it can come back, Brewer said.

Times staff writer Iris Lee contributed to this report.

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California is beating back the coronavirus. Will it last? - Los Angeles Times

Bill Gates on Coronavirus, Vaccines and Global Health – The New York Times

September 19, 2020

That will not happen soon, Mr. Gates conceded. The Trump administration has publicly refused to join the international collaborative agreement known as Covax, under which the World Health Organization; GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations have joined forces to make sure both rich and poor countries receive new coronavirus vaccines simultaneously.

Instead, Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's unilateral effort to fast-track vaccine development, has paid out $11 billion to six vaccine companies in return for ensuring that at least 100 million doses from each company, and options for millions more, are exclusively earmarked for the United States.

Although that position looks selfish, Mr. Gates said, he did not feel it was unjustified. Realistically, he said, Youre not going to succeed in getting the U.S. to treat itself as just a random 5 percent of the worlds population. American taxpayers, he noted, have paid two-thirds of the costs of the clinical trials and of manufacturing doses even before the trials end.

Absent that money, the only available vaccines would be those from Russia or China, which Mr. Gates considered untested and potentially weak. You cant call up Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca and say, Hey, heres a chance to lose $500 million.

If just three of the several vaccines that the United States is backing succeed, he said, the country would have more doses than it could use, and the rest could be shared with the world.

Also, Mr. Gates said he expected that by early next year, regardless of who wins the presidential election, the United States would come around to paying much of the estimated $4 billion needed to get vaccines to all the worlds poor.

He noted that Congress had repeatedly kept funds for AIDS, malaria and childhood vaccines in the foreign aid budget, despite numerous attempts by the White House over the past decade to slash those items; the programs are popular both with liberals and Christian conservatives.

Coronavirus in Wisconsin: Health department reports outbreaks at 16 schools in Washington and Ozaukee Counties – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

September 17, 2020

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Updates on the impact of COVID-19 in the Milwaukee area and around the state of Wisconsin.

BY THE NUMBERS: Tracking coronavirus cases in Wisconsin

FOLLOW THE MONEY: How coronavirus is impacting Wisconsin businessand unemployment

RELATED: Coronavirus cases in U.S. and around the world

UW-Madison on Wednesday said it had learned of one student hospitalized with complications of COVID-19.

Students and employees are not required to tell the university they are hospitalized.

The school alsoreported 47 new cases, including two employees.

On-campus sites reported11 of the positive cases out of 392 tests. The remaining 36 positive cases came from off-campus testing sites.

As of Wednesday morning, 486 students were in isolation or quarantine, in addition to all the residents of Witte and Sellery halls and several fraternityand sorority houses.

The seven-day average of new daily COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin climbed higher than ever Wednesday as the state reported more than 1,400 new cases.

The state Department of Health Services reported 1,408 new cases as well as 10,788 negative tests, for a positivity rate of 11.5%.

Wisconsin also reported eight additional deaths from the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,228.

The numbers Wednesday were on par with results reported Tuesday, and theycame as the state continued to see a surge of new coronavirus cases: DHShas reported more than 1,300 new cases onsix of the last seven days.

The consistently high new daily case counts have led to a rising seven-day new case average since the start of September. On Wednesday the seven-day average was ata new record of1,339.

Read the full story.

Sophie Carson

A student at St. Robert Catholic School in Shorewood, which saw a boost in enrollment this year because of its decision to hold in-person classes, has tested positive for the coronavirus, the school reported on its website.

According to the posting on its COVID-19 dashboard, St. Robert had a single active case involving a child as of Tuesday, and 15 other children had close contact with the child. No other information about the student, grade level oractions the school has taken were provided on the dashboard.

Efforts to reach the principal and communications director were not immediately successful Wednesday.

The site includes a letter from the North Shore Health Department saying students would need to be quarantined and attend school virtually 10 days for the infected child and 14 days for those exposed.

St. Robert added about 50 students this year, most from families in Shorewood, Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay who were looking for in-person instruction after their schools decided to start the school year online or with a hybrid online/in-person model

Annysa Johnson

According to a university release, the University of Wisconsin in Madison has adjusted academic and financial deadlines for families who still might back out of the school year because of COVID-19 concerns.

We understand these are difficult times for students and families as they evaluate rapidly changing circumstances during the pandemic,university registrar Scott Owczarek said int he release. To help reduce some pressure theyre feeling, weve provided some flexibility in the timeline for making important decisions about this semester.

For students negatively impacted by COVID-19 and who choose to completely withdraw from the semester, a full tuition refund will be possible for one additional week, to Friday, Sept. 18, an extra week from the initial Sept. 11 deadline.

Students are encouraged to contact theiracademic deans officeto discuss their situation if they are considering withdrawing or withdrew since Sept. 11.

The deadline for students to drop a fall term course and receive a 50 percent tuition refund on adjusted tuition remains Friday, Sept. 25.

Nearly 90% of University of Wisconsin-Madison students who have tested positive for COVID-19 have exhibited symptoms, according to public health officials.

According to Madison and Dane Countys combined health department, contact tracing has found that 88% of students who test positive have shown some level of illness.

"There are a lot of theories about what COVID-19 is and isn't, but the science and data from these cases on the UW-Madison campus shows most people who get it, get sick," Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said in a statement.

As of Tuesday, 2,160 UW-Madison students have tested positive, according to the local health department. At least 7% of the universitys undergraduate students are positive, the department said.

Patrick Marley

The Tommy Bartlett Show, a water ski showcase that opened in 1952 and has been a fixture in Wisconsin Dells for decades, announced Wednesday that it would be closing permanently, too deeply impacted by losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the Tommy Bartlett Show will not be able to make a comeback in 2021 as we had hoped," said Tom Diehl, the show's co-owner and president, in a statement.

"After 69 years, we are permanently shuttering the business. ... From May through September 6, we experienced a complete loss of revenue when we had to cancel our 2020 summer season on Lake Delton due to the pandemic. Each fall, we begin to plan for the next season, and with so much uncertainty surrounding the future of the pandemic and travel, we cannot undergo additional financial risk and investment to begin planning for summer 2021. While we are grateful that we have had almost seven decades of entertaining visitors in Wisconsin Dells, we have no choice but to close the Show.

The show closed down in May because of pandemic restrictions on large gatherings. The show usually runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day and had plans to return in 2021.

Read the full story from Sarah Hauer.

JR Radcliffe

The Washington-Ozaukee Public Health Department is investigating COVID-19 cases at 16 schools across Washington and Ozaukee counties, according to the department's COVID-19 dashboard.

The department defines a school investigation as one or more positive cases in a school setting that cause the quarantine of close contacts or additional positive cases.

According to the county health department, there are 27 children with active coronavirus cases within the West Bend School District boundaries. Twenty-one of those are between the ages of 15 and 18.

These cases are not necessarily all at public schools; the boundaries include public as well as private, parochial and homeschools.

As of last week, West Bend School District said 37 students and one staff member had been placed in quarantine after having close contact with three people who had tested positive for coronavirus.

The number of active cases within other school district boundaries are:

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Alec Johnson

People ages 18 to 24 largely have driven Wisconsin's recent surge in COVD-19 cases, according to state health officials.

The state on Tuesday reported 1,348 new cases as well as 10 new deaths as officials said young people needed to help stop the spread of the virus to older, more vulnerable people.

"We have outbreaks in younger folks. Now is the time we really need to pay attention to protecting older and vulnerable patients so that the transmission doesn't reach those who are at high risk of severe disease," said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer for the state Department of Health Services.

The state on Tuesday reported 10,918 negative tests as well, for a positivity rate of 11%, down from nearly 20% Monday.

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Sophie Carson

On Tuesday, as they hunkered down for their first full day under quarantine at Marquette University's Schroeder Hall, students took to their windows and posted messages.

"Is this hell?" read one sign made of multicolored Post-it notes.

More like a dose of reality, as Marquette like other colleges and universities around the state and nation deals with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Late Monday night,officials quarantined the Schroederresidence hallfor two weeks after a cluster of coronavirus cases was detected in the facility.

You cant see any friends at all,Sean Bishop said as he left the dorm Tuesday for home. That makes the decision really easy for me.

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Sarah Hauer and Bill Glauber

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Coronavirus in Wisconsin: Health department reports outbreaks at 16 schools in Washington and Ozaukee Counties - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Does Wearing Glasses Protect You From Coronavirus? – The New York Times

September 17, 2020

And Dr. Maragakis noted that any number of factors could confound the data, and it may be that wearing glasses is simply associated with another variable that affects risk for Covid-19. For example, it could be that people who wear glasses tend to be older, and more careful and more likely to stay home during a viral outbreak, than those who do not wear glasses. Or perhaps people who can afford glasses are less likely to contract the virus for other reasons, like having the means to live in less crowded spaces.

Its one study, Dr. Maragakis said. It does have some biological plausibility, given that in health care facilities, we use eye protection, such as face shields or goggles. But what remains to be investigated is whether eye protection in a public setting would add any protection over and above masks and physical distancing. I think its still unclear.

Health care workers wear protective equipment over their eyes to protect them from droplets that can fly from coughs and sneezes, as well as aerosolized particles that form when patients undergo medical procedures, such as intubation. But for the vast majority of people, that extra level of protection probably isnt needed if a person is wearing a mask and keeping physical distance in public spaces. Theres also the possibility of introducing risk by wearing glasses some people might touch their faces more when they put on glasses, rather than less, noted Dr. Maragakis.

That said, more study is needed to see if the trend holds up in other study populations, said Dr. Thomas Steinemann, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and professor of ophthalmology at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland.

I think its provocative, and its extremely interesting, Dr. Steinemann said.

But Dr. Steinemann noted that the study shouldnt cause worry among people who dont wear glasses. It probably cant hurt to wear glasses, but does everybody need to do that? Probably not, he said. I think you have to consider the practicality of wearing eye protection or a face shield. People in certain occupations, first responders, caregivers for someone who is ill, those are people who should maybe take special notice.

The findings also raise interesting questions about how often the eyes might be the entry portal for the virus. Its long been established that viruses and other germs can enter the body through facial mucous membranes in the eyes, nose and mouth. But the nose seems to be a main entry point for coronavirus, because it has a high number of receptors that create a friendly environment in which the virus can replicate and move down the respiratory tract.

But doctors are seeing a small percentage of patients with eye symptoms, including conjunctivitis or pink eye, which suggests the virus may also be entering the body through the eyes. Although eye symptoms are less common than other symptoms like cough or fever, various studies have reported that eye complaints can be a sign of Covid-19 infection.

Last month, researchers reported a study of 216 children hospitalized with Covid-19 in Wuhan. Among those patients, 49 children, or nearly 23 percent of the cases, had eye symptoms, including conjunctival discharge, eye rubbing and conjunctival congestion. In addition to pink eye, itchy eyes, excessive tearing, blurred vision and feeling like something is in the eye have all been described by patients with Covid-19.

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Does Wearing Glasses Protect You From Coronavirus? - The New York Times

Whistleblower Claiming China Created Covid-19 Coronavirus Has Ties To Steve Bannon – Forbes

September 17, 2020

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, who has been indicted for fraud, is connected to a ... [+] "whistleblower' claiming that the Covid-19 coronavirus was manufactured in China. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Being a real scientist would be easy if it werent for this needing evidence stuff, just like being a professional golfer would be simple if it werent for this having to put the ball in the hole thing.

Lack of real scientific evidence has been the big hole in ongoing conspiracy theories that claim that the Covid-19 coronavirus was actually manufactured by China. I covered these conspiracy theories back in March for Forbes, and mentioned how scientists and scientific studies have been debunking these claims and instead pointing to natural origins of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2).

But these days conspiracy theories, like the Covid-19 coronavirus, dont seem to just go away and disappear, regardless of whether there is a herd mentality or whatever. Now, a person named Li-Meng Yan, who was referred to as a whistleblower by Fox News, is claiming that she has the big e word. No, not eggplant Parmesan, but evidence supporting the China-made-the-virus conspiracy theory. But does she really? Who is she? And what might Steve Bannon have to do with all of this?

On Tuesday, Yan appeared the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight. As you can see in the following video, Carlson introduced Yan as a virologist who says that she has evidence of where this pandemic actually came from:

The trouble is they never quite got to the whats the evidence part of the conversation. During the segment, Yan made various general statements but Carlson didnt really push her to provide verifiable evidence to back her claims.

In fact, some of Yans statements took the conspiracy theory to another level. For example, she claimed that "the scientific world also keeps silent, works together with the Chinese Communist Party, they don't want people to know his truth. That's why I get suspended, I get suppressed, I am the target that Chinese Communist Party wants disappeared."

The entire scientific world works with the Chinese Communist Party? Really? Does the scientific world outside China know that? Was there a memo? Getting scientists to wear tops that match their bottoms or agree on a dinner order can be a challenge, let alone getting every scientist outside China to go along with the Chinese Communist Party. What exactly would be the incentive for a scientist in countries like Japan, Taiwan, the U.S., the U.K., or Germany to follow the Chinese Communist Partys bidding. Again Carlson never challenged Yan on such claims and threw enough softballs to start a league.

On his Fox News show, Tucker Carlson didn't really push the "whistleblower" to produce concrete ... [+] evidence to support her claims. Here Carlson is pictured the National Review Institute's Ideas Summit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel March 29, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

So who exactly is Yan? Carlson did not delve much into her qualifications, expertise, or experience when introducing her. He called her a virologist but thats far from an official title. A virologist is someone who studies viruses just like someone who studies mac-and-cheese could be considered a mac-and-cheese-ologist. Theres no virologist police that will apprehend you if you call yourself one. The only thing clear is that she is the lead author of a paper that has been posted on Zenodo and is entitled, Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route. That is a rather long and unusual title for a scientific research paper.

When Carlson said to her I know that youve published some of your research, is posting a paper Zenodo what he meant? Keep in mind that Zenodo is to peer-reviewed scientific journals what the local miniature golf course is to the PGA Tour. Practically anyone can post a paper on Zenodo. All you need is Internet access and, well, all you need is Internet access. Oh, you also have to know how to use an Internet browser and have written something.

Therefore, before calling it evidence, its important to read what the paper actually says. Currently, it actually reads more like an opinion piece than an original research paper. The paper made a number of unsupported claims such as it is noteworthy that scientific journals have clearly censored any dissenting opinions that suggest a non-natural origin of SARS-CoV-2. Clearly censored? In the words of Owen Wilson, wow.

The paper also didnt provide much concrete evidence supporting its claims that the virus was manufactured. Instead, it mentioned some observations and then jumped to conclusions. For example, finding that the genomic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 is similar to that of a bat coronavirus discovered by military laboratories does not in itself mean that the SARS-CoV-2 was bioengineered. Thats a bit like saying, oh you have a torso? So does Harry Styles. You must sing for One Direction.

Ultimately, before this paper can be taken seriously, it needs to go through formal scientific peer-review by reputable virologists, who can further dissect the evidence thats provided. During the peer-review process, reviewers may ask for more information and data to back the papers claims. If the authors cant provide the information, the paper would have about as much credibility as a Tinder profile. You can say that you are really interesting and have moves like Jagger, but ultimately you have to prove that your moves arent more like a vacuum bagger.

Even more interesting is that the four authors of the paper, Li-Meng Yan, Shu Kang, and Jie Guan, and Shanchang Hu, all have the Rule of Law Society and Rule of Law Foundation as their affiliation. That doesnt exactly sound like a virology lab or a scientific research center. Usually a virology lab will have the word virus or some other scientific term in its name.

So what exactly is this society or foundation? Well, if you go to the Rule of Law Society website, youll find a video of the Steve Bannon (as opposed to a Steve Bannon) announcing the formation of the Rules of Law Society and standing next to the founder. Bannon, as you may recall, was a strategist for U.S. President Donald Trump. The society lists as its mission: To expose corruption, obstruction, illegality, brutality, false imprisonment, excessive sentencing, harassment, and inhumanity pervasive in the political, legal, business and financial systems of China. Sounds like the society is not a fan of China.

Bannon hasnt exactly been lovey-dovey towards people of Asian-descent either. His comments about Asians and Asian-Americans have even prompted Maya Kosoff to write an article for The Atlantic entitled, Steve Bannons Racist Comments About Silicon Valley Are Also Wildly Inaccurate. Then there was the article by Frank H Wu, a law professor and President of Queens College, City University of New York, for The Guardian that bore the headline, Peter Thiel and Steve Bannon fuel a new Yellow Peril over Google and China. So it looks like anything about Asia or people of Asian-descent supported by Bannon could have a bit of a COI, which in this case means conflict of interest and not chicken on ice.

As the following tweet showed, scientists on Twitter soon picked up on the Bannon connection:

So why affiliate yourself with a Bannon-supported organization to then try to get evidence about China out there. Again if you have any real scientific evidence that the SARS-CoV2 did not emerge naturally, just submit it to real reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals for publication. If you believe that such scientific journals are censoring any dissenting opinions, then show everyone the rejection letters and the reviewer comments. Scientific journals can be quite competitive with each other, competing for articles and eyeballs. (Not literally, which would be gross, but figuratively.) So if you really do have a bombshell piece of evidence, theres a good chance that youll find at least one scientific journal to publish it.

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Whistleblower Claiming China Created Covid-19 Coronavirus Has Ties To Steve Bannon - Forbes