Category: Covid-19

A medical worker fills a syringe with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine as Japan launches its inoculation campaign, at Tokyo Medical Center in Tokyo, Japan February 17, 2021. Behrouz Mehri/Pool via REUTERS

Japan plans to start COVID-19 vaccination at workplaces and universities on June 21 to speed up the country's inoculation drive, a top government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) vaccines will be used for those areas, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a news conference.

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Japan to begin COVID-19 vaccinations at workplaces on June 21 - Reuters

Poor Wuhan. Once known as a megacity on the make, now it always will be known as the birthplace of COVID-19. And it may be that the deadly disease that has so far killed more than 3.5 million globally, with nearly 595,000 US deaths and counting, didnt even come from Wuhan, according to the most fulsome World Health Organization study on the subject. That said, a number of respected scientists have challenged the findings of the study, including the World Health Organizations own director.

President Biden just stirred the pot on that origin story by publicly directing the US intelligence community to examine the hypothesis that the virus came from a Chinese laboratory. There may be sufficient evidence in the classified reporting to warrant more analysis, or Biden may just be trying to pressure the Chinese government to be more cooperative. Either way, its not such an outlandish suggestion, once removed from a racist framing. While many scientists who have studied the genetic structure of the virus believe its a natural pathogen, that doesnt preclude an accidental release of a coronavirus sample collected elsewhere in China and brought to a Wuhan lab for study. Such accidents do happen, including in the United States.

We are unlikely to know the truth any time soon, and maybe not ever. But its worth considering what it would mean for China and the growing US-China rivalry if it does turn out to be a lab accident.

As the saying goes, its not the crime (or the accident), but the cover-up thats the problem. If this were a lab incident, the Chinese government either has known that all along and concealed the information or impeded that discovery by blocking international investigators from collecting information, as the World Health Organization directors March 30 statement suggests. China, it seems, has something to hide whether its about the origins of the virus or force of habit is hard to say.

An October Pew Research Center poll suggests that the pandemic has lowered global public opinion of the Chinese government, which was not especially well liked before (neither is the United States, for that matter). A confirmation of a cover-up will certainly make that worse, as will a bigger global economic crisis, especially with Chinas economy being relatively unscathed. Aid, trade, and investment may mitigate that dislike, or it may be that countries will continue to accept Chinese investment without changing public opinion. One terrible consequence is discrimination and violence toward Chinese nationals and the Asian diaspora, with attacks on Asians rising worldwide, including in the United States.

Countries that have been heavily affected by the virus and economic fallout are especially unlikely to forgive the deliberate withholding of crucial information. That is particularly true of India, which is now setting grim records every day for numbers of infections and deaths. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, previously unsinkable, is taking a hit for his mismanagement and mixed signals, and he may well be interested in shifting the blame. China would make a handy scapegoat, given the long history of enmity between the two nations, which spilled over in border clashes again last year and may again this year.

On some level, it will come as little surprise if the Chinese government withheld information and misled investigators. Its what authoritarian governments do. And while democratic governments also try to hide embarrassing or damning information, they tend to be more porous and not great at keeping secrets. Whether its a deliberate embrace of transparency or part of the messiness of democracy, it adds up to a trust gap. The United States, historically, is more reliable, especially when it comes to bad news.

Trust will be a valuable commodity in the 21st-century competition for influence, given the spreading miasma of high tech and government-sponsored misinformation and disinformation. Of course, its not really a commodity its an intangible quality, one easily lost and hard to gain. Presidents who lie, crackpot conspiracy theories, and systemic discrimination have all been undermining Americas reliability. Even if the United States continues to squander its comparative advantage, though, it will be hard for China to close the trust gap.

The Chinese government does have two things going for it: presence and the win-win nature of trust. Given a choice between a vaccine produced by an American company and Chinas state-owned company Sinopharm, most countries are going to want the former. But if Sinopharm is all they can get, thats what they will take especially when its more affordable or free.

That may help build global trust in China, but is unlikely to matter if it turns out the government did conceal the origins of the virus. It gives China a strong motive to continue to hide that information or to misdirect investigators and dont be surprised if the Chinese government finds proof that frozen meat from the United States was the source of this outbreak. Theyve been laying the groundwork for that false narrative for some time, and while its ridiculous on its face, it may well work for the Chinese public. With many Americans believing the Chinese government deliberately released the virus and many Chinese believing the same of the United States, the rivalry between the two nations could enter an unstable and dangerous phase.

On the other hand, trust is not zero sum. If China should choose to be more forthcoming, it would not necessarily be a loss for the USs strategic position, but it could well be a gain for all nations.

Sharon E. Burke is the director of resource security for New America.

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COVID-19, a Chinese laboratory investigation, and the future of US-China relations - The Boston Globe

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COVID-19 made telehealth essential in NC. Will it continue after the pandemic is over? - HealthLeaders Media

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) A growing number of North Carolinas counties didnt report any new cases of COVID-19 over the past week.

And public health experts point to one simple explanation.

Its a sign that our community has embraced being vaccinated overall, said Dr. Lisa Pickett, a trauma surgeon at Duke University Hospital.

From May 21-27, four counties Hyde, Pamlico, Mitchell and Swain each reported zero new cases. Another 15 averaged one or fewer new cases each day during that span.

Both numbers grew noticeably after the Memorial Day weekend, with the state Department of Health and Human Services update late Tuesday afternoon that spans May 25-31, showing seven counties including Granville and Northampton in the CBS 17 viewing area with no new cases.

And nearly a quarter of the states 100 counties now average one new case per day or fewer.

One of the things that tells us is that vaccination works, said Dr. Erica Pettigrew of the UNC Family Medicine Center and the medical director of the Orange County Health Department.

Vaccination doesnt tell us this whole story because our vaccination rates, as we stand now in the state, would not explain this type of decline. So were still trying to figure out exactly whats going on.

Almost 90 percent of counties reported fewer cases now than they did in mid-April. Of the ones with more, those increases are mostly modest with Watauga County the only one with more than 15.

Orange County, which has one of the states highest vaccination rates, showed just seven new cases in seven days from May 21-27, though it ticked up to nine cases after the latest update.

Its amazing when you think about it now, said county spokesman Todd McGee. But I think it just shows the effectiveness of the vaccines.

But its hard to ignore another potential explanation: Fewer tests.

A total of 20 counties including the four mountain counties reporting zero new cases didnt perform enough tests over the past two weeks for DHHS to calculate a reliable percent positive.

I think that can be a piece of it. I dont think thats the main driver of this, Pettigrew said. I do think that mostly this is good news. But theres an element of people letting their guard down in terms of testing.

Pickett says the number of COVID-19 patients at Dukes hospitals have dropped and the patients who do wind up there tend to have one thing in common: For one reason or another, they arent vaccinated.

And that really leda me to think that this is really, by and large, reflective of vaccination, Pickett said.

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Vaccination works: Growing number of NC counties report 0 new COVID-19 cases - WAVY.com

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APPLETON - After theFox Cities COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic closed last week, the health department will offer vaccines to those in need at a new location: The Appleton Public Library.

City health department staff members will administerwill offer both the two-dose Pfizer vaccineand the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine five days during the summer at the library, 225 N. Oneida St., according to a Tuesday news release. The Pfizer vaccine is approved for those 12 years and older.

First-dose Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccine appointments can be made for the following dates and times:

Second-dose Pfizer appointments will be scheduled at the time of check-in for the first shot for at least 3 weeks out, the release says.

Those eligible for vaccines can book appointments online at covid-19-appleton.hub.arcgis.com/pages/vaccine-site, or by calling the health department at 920-832-6499.

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Contact reporter Samantha West at 920-996-7207 or swest@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @BySamanthaWest.

Read or Share this story: https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/local/2021/06/01/covid-19-vaccines-available-appleton-public-library/7495781002/

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Appleton Health Department will offer COVID-19 vaccines at the library - Post-Crescent

COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, large gatherings officially lifted in southern Nevada  News3LV

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COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, large gatherings officially lifted in southern Nevada - News3LV

Breathless, fevered and without the extra oxygen that could help keep them alive, the new coronavirus patients at a hospital near Myanmar's border with India highlight the threat to a health system near collapse since February's coup.

To help her tend the seven COVID-19 patients at Cikha hospital, day and night, chief nurse Lun Za En has a lab technician and a pharmacist's assistant.

Mostly, they offer kind words and paracetamol.

"We don't have enough oxygen, enough medical equipment, enough electricity, enough doctors or enough ambulances," Lun Za En, 45, told Reuters from the town of just over 10,000. "We are operating with three staff instead of 11."

Myanmar's anti-COVID campaign foundered along with the rest of the health system after the military seized power on Feb. 1 and overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government had stepped up testing, quarantine and treatment.

Services at public hospitals collapsed after many doctors and nurses joined strikes in a Civil Disobedience Movement in the forefront of opposition to military rule - and sometimes on the frontline of protests that have been bloodily suppressed.

Thirteen medics have been killed, according to World Health Organisation data that shows 179 attacks on health workers, facilities and transport - nearly half of all such attacks recorded worldwide this year, said WHO Myanmar representative Stephan Paul Jost.

Some 150 health workers have been arrested. Hundreds more doctors and nurses are wanted on incitement charges.

Neither a junta spokesman nor the health ministry responded to requests for comment. The junta, which initially set fighting the pandemic as one of its priorities, has repeatedly urged medics to return to work. Few have responded.

TESTING COLLAPSED

A worker at one COVID-19 quarantine centre in Myanmar's commercial capital, Yangon, said all the specialist health workers there had joined the Civil Disobedience Movement.

"Then again, we don't receive new patients any more as COVID test centres don't have staff to test," said the worker, who declined to give his name for fear of retribution.

In the week before the coup, COVID-19 tests nationally averaged more than 17,000 a day. That had fallen below 1,200 a day in the seven days through Wednesday.

Myanmar has reported more than 3,200 COVID-19 deaths from over 140,000 cases, although the slump in testing has raised doubts over data that shows new cases and deaths have largely plateaued since the coup.

Now, a health system in crisis is raising concerns about the likely impact on the country from the wave of infections with variants that is sweeping through India, Thailand and other neighbours.

Patients with COVID-19 symptoms started showing up at Cikha hospital in mid-May. It is only 6 km (four miles) from India, and health workers fear the illness could be the highly infectious B.1.617.2 strain - though they lack the means to test for it.

"It's very concerning that COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccinations are extremely limited in Myanmar as more lives are at risk with new, more dangerous variants spreading," said Luis Sfeir-Younis, Myanmar COVID-19 operations manager for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

SURGE OF CASES

Twenty-four cases have been identified in Cikha, said Lun Za En. Seven were so serious they needed hospitalisation - a sign of how few cases had likely been detected.

Stay-at-home orders have now been declared in parts of Chin state, where Cikha is located, and neighbouring Sagaing region.

The WHO said it was trying to reach authorities and other groups in the area who could provide help, while recognising the difficulties in a health system that was precipitously reversing years of impressive gains.

"It is not clear how this will be resolved, unless there is a resolution at the political level addressing the political conflict," said Jost.

Lun Za En said her hospital was doing the best it could with nebulisers - machines that turn liquid to mist - to relieve breathlessness. Some patients have oxygen concentrators, but they only work for the two hours a day that the town gets electricity.

Refusing to abandon the sick, Lun Za En said she decided not to join the strikes.

"The junta will not take care of our patients," she said.

Across Myanmar, some striking doctors have set up underground clinics to help patients. When Myanmar Red Cross volunteers established three clinics in Yangon neighbourhoods, they quickly had dozens of patients.

At best, such options can provide basic care.

"Eighty percent of the hospitals are public health hospitals," said Marjan Besuijen, head of mission for the Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid group. "As MSF or others we can't step in, it's too big."

Although military hospitals have been opened to the public, many people fear them or refuse to go on principle - including for coronavirus vaccinations in a campaign the ousted government had launched days before the coup.

"I am very worried that these new infections will spread all over the country," said Lun Za En. "If the infection spreads to the crowded cities, it could be uncontrollable."

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Myanmar COVID-19 outbreak hits health system shattered after coup - Reuters

Non-pharmaceutical interventions were critical to the control of Covid-19 prior to the development ... [+] of vaccines.

Reasonable people disagree, but my opinion is that the Covid-19 epidemic in the US, which has taken at least 592,000 and possibly as many as 900,000 American lives to date, was avoidable.

It is inevitable that new infectious diseases will emerge. What will be essential in the future is to prevent them from becoming as widespread in the population as Covid-19 has become.

I was asked earlier today if I think the failure to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic in the US was a failure of policy or a failure of information.

The answer is neitherand both. The question implies a binary answer, but we need to stop thinking of infectious disease intelligence and mitigation this way.

Yes, the Covid-19 epidemic in the US was partly a failure of policy. There was a tremendous lack of coordination both in the US and internationally that could have been prevented. There was a 69-page pandemic playbook developed in 2016 by the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, but it wasnt used.

Perhaps part of the reason that our policy was ineffective was that we delayed taking action because we did not fully understand the virus we were up against. This could be viewed as a failure of information. Certainly, we did not have timely information during the early phases of transmission. But to say the fault lies here is mere finger-pointing. Complete information is never available during crises and if our society requires complete information to take action we will be routinely overwhelmed. The fog of war is just as real in epidemics as it is in wars against human adversaries.

What is needed is a paradigm for decision-making under uncertainty. Such frameworks are not unfamiliar. They already underlie national intelligence assessments and virtually all actuarial analysis. A plethora of conceptual frameworks exist for such decision making, including maximization of expected future value, robust optimization, info-gap decision theory, and adaptive management.

In addition to learning from Covid-19, we must learn from near misses as well. And there have been several.

In 2009, a new strain of influenza A originating in North America caused a worldwide pandemic. We were lucky that this particular strain wasnt nearly as lethal as some of the avian influenza viruses that are also considered to have pandemic potential.

In the introduction to an after action report titled 2009 H1N1 Influenza Improvement Plan, former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius

Kathleen Sebelius at the Aspen Institute on June 26, 2015

noted that preparedness is a process, not an end-state. The US experience with Covid-19 (and the experience of much of the rest of the world as well), seems to suggest that we have forgotten this fact.

The report goes on to say, euphemistically:

The real-world test of the 2009 H1N1 response provided valuable insight into the scope of previous planning and emphasized the need for continued planning and implementation efforts that focus on a broad range of scenarios, including differing severity levels.

Given the near complete failure to mitigate the 2009 flu pandemic, this statement translates we werent ready and wed better be much more prepared next time.

The 2009 experience is particularly pertinent because the transmission of influenza is very similar to that of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and the playbook of interventions is virtually identical.

Not all pandemics are respiratory illnesses, and we should not let our imaginations fail us just because flu and Covid-19 have been our primary experiences. The US probably only avoided widespread transmission of Zika virus because the mosquito species that is most competent to transmit Zika, the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti, is relatively rare in the continental US. Its only coincidence that its close relative, the much more common Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), is relatively less effective at transmission.

An Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. The species is capable of transmitting Zika virus, but is ... [+] not nearly as effective as its relative the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti.

Similarly, the introduction of Ebola into the US in 2014 showed that US hospitals werent prepared to widely implement the infection control procedures needed to combat an epidemic of that disease. If Ebola had been as transmissible and fast moving as Covid-19, those introductions would have been catastrophic.

Even though in a crisis decisions must be made under conditions of uncertainty, reducing that uncertainty is equally a critical task. This points to the value of information. Reducing uncertainty in a crisis requires real time data collection and real time research. Some critical questions that were still open early in the Covid-19 pandemic included

As we answered these questions we improved our ability to strategically intervene in the transmission process. But early lack of answers should not have delayed intervention as much as it did. In the future, answering questions like these quickly and unequivocally will be essential for rapid containment, but equally important will be the ability to act deliberately even when the intelligence is incomplete.

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Was Covid-19 A Failure Of Policy Or A Failure Of Information? - Forbes

As Maines COVID-19 cases plummet, state health officials are aiming to tamp down cases further by finding more ways to reach people who are willing to be vaccinated.

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that while Maine is among the leaders in the United States for its vaccination rate, there is still more work to be done.

We are urging folks to get vaccinated, Shah said. The vaccines are the prime reason for the decrease in cases.

The state reported 87 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday and no additional deaths, a continued decline in infections as Maines vaccination rate increases and the state continues to reopen.

With 59 percent of eligible Mainers fully vaccinated as of Sunday, high school sports and concerts are returning, and the state is looking forward to a busy tourist season. Maine is reporting the second-highest rate of people who are fully vaccinated in the United States, second only to Vermont, according to the Bloomberg News vaccine tracker.

By Sunday morning, Maine had given 715,582 people the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 698,959 had received a final dose.

But there are wide gaps in vaccinations by county. For instance, through Sunday 62.4 percent of residents of Cumberland County having received their final dose, while Piscataquis and Somerset counties reported about 20 percent lower vaccination rates, at 42.8 percent and 41.1 percent getting final doses. Six of Maines 16 counties Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Hancock and York counties have final dose immunization rates above 50 percent, while the remaining 10 counties are below 50 percent.

To try to boost vaccination in more rural areas and among populations less likely to get the vaccine, Maine health officials are working with employers to host small vaccine clinics at workplaces. Another strategy is to try to bring vaccine clinics to unconventional places, such as the MaineHealth clinic at Beckys Diner, where those who got a shot also received a $15 gift card to the diner on the Portland waterfront. Other places where clinics may crop up include breweries and concerts.

Dr. Ashish Jha, a Brown University epidemiologist, tweeted on Saturday that while it is tempting to look at vaccinations by state, theres a ton of variation within states.

Jha noted that within Massachusetts, Springfields population over age 20 had recorded 55 percent of its population receiving at least the first dose, compared to Newton, which is reporting 93 percent of its population over age 20 has gotten at least the first dose.

These are stunning differences, Jha said in a tweet. Within Massachusetts, we have communities with vaccination rates comparable to Oklahoma and communities that far exceed Vermont.

Jha noted that the differences (are) largely driven by education, income, race all related to access.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, a public health think tank, reported in a national survey on Friday that people who say they will refuse the COVID-19 vaccine under any circumstances represent 13 percent of the national population. Others may be hesitant or ambivalent about getting vaccinated, but under the right circumstances, such as easy access at the workplace, could be persuaded, health experts have said.

Maines cumulative COVID-19 cases rose to 67,738 on Sunday. Of those, 49,616 have been confirmed by testing and 18,122 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new daily cases was 108.4, while the 14-day case average was 144.5.

At the height of the pandemic in mid-January, Maine was routinely reporting daily cases above 600, while during a spring surge cases often exceeded 400 per day.

Eight hundred twenty-five people have died with COVID-19 in Maine since the pandemic began.

Youth athletes last week told the Portland Press Herald that the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions had produced an immediate psychological effect.

When the masks came off and we could see everyones faces, it was like I hadnt seen their faces in years, said Noah Dreifus, a South Portland High senior who plays as a baseball catcher. It lifted everyones spirits. Things are turning back to normal.

Along with youth sports, children can go to summer camp without masks a significant industry in Maine, which boasts over 125. And concert venues have booked events, including Thompsons Point in Portland and Rock Row in Westbrook.

County by county as of Sunday, there had been 8,265 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 1,861 in Aroostook, 17,100 in Cumberland, 1,338 in Franklin, 1,350 in Hancock, 6,480 in Kennebec, 1,130 in Knox, 1,060 in Lincoln, 3,569 in Oxford, 6,151 in Penobscot, 568 in Piscataquis, 1,459 in Sagadahoc, 2,181 in Somerset, 1,020 in Waldo, 895 in Washington and 13,311 in York.

By age, 18.8 percent of patients were under 20, while 18.3 percent were in their 20s, 15.1 percent were in their 30s, 13.5 percent were in their 40s, 14.5 percent were in their 50s, 10.3 percent were in their 60s, 5.3 percent were in their 70s, and 4.2 percent were 80 or older.

The Maine CDC did not provide updated hospitalization data on Sunday, but on Saturday there were 114 people with COVID-19 in Maine hospitals.

Around the world early Sunday evening, there were 170 million known cases of COVID-19 and 3.53 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 33.2 million cases and 594,414 deaths.

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Maine looking to boost vaccination rates to further reduce COVID-19 cases - pressherald.com

New viral variants of the Covid-19 coronavirus are on the way, claimedModerna scientists and executives in a Thursday virtual investor event, as reported by Barrons.

As the virus spreads, it is rapidly mutating, the companys chief scientific officer, Melissa Moore, said on the call. Some of these new viral strains appear to be even more transmissible than the original strain We already know that some of these new strains are less susceptible to neutralization by our current vaccine.

The company is constantly testing its vaccine against the new variants, she said. But that complex work lags their emergence.

The shortest time from the detection of a variant of concern to preclinical immunogenicity readout against a panel of pseudoviruses is approximately 2 to 3 months, said Guillaume Stewat-Jones, a Moderna scientist who works as associate director of antigen design and selection on their infectious disease team. And new viral variants are coming emerging constantly in real time.

While its generally acknowledged that most variants will not morph into something more fatal than the current virus, there are no guarantees.

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Moderna Scientists And Execs Warn That New Viral Variants Of Covid-19 Coming - Deadline